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
You’ve likely enjoyed good books that entertained you or maybe taught you something new. Well, the Bible is superior to any book you’ve ever read. In fact, it’s superior to all of them combined! Listen to Truth For Life with Alistair Begg to find out why.—————————————–
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God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.Psalm 46:1
A help that is not present when we need it is of small value. The anchor which is left at home is of no use to the seaman in the hour of storm; the money which he used to have is of no worth to the debtor when a writ is out against him. Very few earthly helps could be called “very present”: they are usually far in the seeking, far in the using, and farther still when once used. But as for the Lord our God, He is present when we seek Him, present when we need Him, and present when we have already enjoyed His aid.
He is more than “present,” He is very present. More present than the nearest friend can be, for He is in us in our trouble; more present than we are to ourselves, for sometimes we lack presence of mind. He is always present, effectually present, sympathetically present, altogether present. He is present now if this is a gloomy season. Let us rest ourselves upon Him. He is our refuge, let us hide in Him; He is our strength, let us array ourselves with Him; He is our help, let us lean upon Him; He is our very present help, let us repose in Him now. We need not have a moment’s care or an instant’s fear. “The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge.”
“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:6-7
In September 2014, I got the formal diagnosis I had been expecting: General Anxiety Disorder. Until then, I thought something was simply wrong with me. I felt ashamed of these feelings; I tried to keep them hidden inside. And then a barrage of stressors intersected in my life, and all of these feelings spilled out.
Philippians 4:6-7 had once brought me comfort. Now, the phrase, “do not be anxious about anything,” just rubbed salt in the wound. How was this possible? I felt anxious about everything!
As I recited these verses over and over, my focus shifted from what seemed impossible, to the next phrase in verse six, which says, “in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.”
I petitioned, yelled at, and cried out to God.
I looked for things I could be thankful of, in spite of how I felt: my supportive and loving husband; a Bible study that grounded me in God’s Word; family members who had walked the path of anxiety before me and who accepted me as I am; the Lord God, who loves me in spite of my brokenness.
I clung to this promise: “the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” In moments of panic or despair, I surrendered my feelings to God and pleaded for His peace.
And in His great mercy, in the moments I felt I couldn’t go on, God filled my heart with overwhelming peace. He also led me to the right doctor, counselor, and friends who helped me get the support I needed.
He even restored a difficult relationship through my diagnosis; our friendship will always remind me how God can take the difficult, ugly, and even shameful things in our lives and use them for our good and His glory when we trust in Him.
Lord, thank You for the ways You uphold us and care for us as we walk through times of difficulty. Thank You that You transform the pain in our lives into things of beauty, as we trust in You. Thank You that You love us in spite of our brokenness. Amen.
We all struggle with worry and anxiety at times. God promises that when we surrender our worry to Him, he will guard our hearts and minds and fill us with His peace. If you are struggling with worry right now, claim this promise. Recite this verse to yourself whenever you have anxious thoughts as a reminder that God will help you when you come to Him.
“… And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” Acts 2:38
Have you ever given a gift to someone, one that you poured your heart and soul into, only to discover it was never really used? How disappointing it feels to have someone treat so carelessly something that we put so much effort and love into making or searching to buy for them.
God has given those who follow Him a gift He poured His heart and soul into – the Holy Spirit! But do we use this gift or let it sit on a shelf collecting dust?
I read somewhere this thought: “When I get to heaven, I can’t wait to ask Moses what it was like to part the Red Sea. But what if he asks me, ‘What was it like for you to have the Holy Spirit dwelling inside of you ALL the time? I just experienced moments with Him, but you had Him ALL the time! What was that like?’ And I reply, ‘Well, it was all right, I guess.’” Can you imagine saying that?
So many of us are “trying” to live the Christian life in our own strength and then we wonder why we’re struggling, why it’s so hard. It’s as if we never realize that God has already given us everything we need to live this life in the gift of His Holy Spirit! We just need to enjoy and rely on this gift, every day.
Surrendering frees us from the bondage of “trying harder” and opens the door to the Holy Spirit’s incredible work in our lives. A gift freely given, but at such a great price — do we take that lightly? It’s time to take Him off the shelf, time to embrace this incredible gift, time to surrender our hearts completely over to Him.
Heavenly Father, thank you for the gift of your Holy Spirit! I don’t want Your Spirit on a shelf in my life. Your Holy Spirit, moving and breathing in me, is the most intimate part of my life, making me fit for you. I don’t want to take your gift for granted. Amen.
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” Matthew 11:28
It was an interesting scenario as I stood in the check-in line at the airport. A man ahead of us was told that his bag was too heavy. He decided to open it and rearrange things, as it looked like everything had been thrown in. After neatly folding everything, the suitcase shut more easily, but when he put it on the scales, there was no difference in weight of course.
The agent told him that he just couldn’t take it all without paying an additional fee. He opened the suitcase by a trashcan and began throwing away articles until he got to an acceptable weight. Finally under the limit, he checked the suitcase and proceeded to the gate.
Watching this unfold led me to a spiritual parallel. Most of us are overloaded with all sorts of things, most of which are in a state of disarray. Sometimes we think that we can reorganize more neatly and our burdens will go away. But, we find that we are still on overload, but in a more organized overload.
What we really need is to unload some of the junk, worries, cares and burdens from our life. The Bible tells us where to start.
“Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you.” I Peter 5:7
Notice this verse doesn’t say just enough to get under the weight limit. It says to give all of our worries and cares to God.
“Cast your cares on the LORD and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous be shaken.” Psalm 55:22
By John Grant Used by Permission John Grant is a former Florida State Senator and is a practicing attorney
Israeli Troops Fighting “In The Heart” Of Gaza City, Hamas Leader Surrounded In A Bunker Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant issued a Tuesday battlefield update announcing that for the first time Israeli troops are “in the heart” of Gaza City. He further said the IDF now has Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar surrounded in a bunker. He noted that fighting is happening in residential areas.
Israel: Almost 10,000 rockets fired from Gaza since Oct. 7 Palestinian terrorists in the Gaza Strip have fired more than 9,500 rockets at Israeli territory since Hamas launched its multi-pronged attack on the Jewish state one month ago, according to data published by the Israeli Foreign Ministry on Tuesday.
Terrorists who tried to escape into tunnel eliminated IDF fighters from the Nahal Brigade identified a terrorist squad hiding in a mosque and with the help of aerial support eliminated the terrorists as they ran from the mosque towards a tunnel. In addition, Hamas terrorists fired anti-tank missiles at the IDF force from several locations, including a local hospital.
Home struck by rocket in central Israel during massive barrage A home in Savyon in central Israel was struck by a rocket as the Hamas terrorist organization launched two large rocket barrages at the Tel Aviv area in a half-hour period Tuesday night. Red alert sirens were heard in Tel Aviv, Yaffo, Kafr Qasim, Rosh Ha’Ayin, Herzliya, Ashdod, Ramat Hasharon, Ra’anana, Petah Tikva, Elad, Gan Sorek, Palmachim, and more communities.
Montreal synagogue firebombed amid sharp rise in antisemitism Canadian police are investigating attempted firebombings of a synagogue and Jewish community center in the Montreal suburb of Dollard-Des Ormeaux, local media reported on Tuesday. The suspected arson attacks at Congregation Beth Tikvah and a nearby community center took place overnight on Tuesday, a police spokesperson told the Montreal Gazette.
IDF takes control of another Hamas compound in Gaza Israeli forces over the past 24 hours took control of another Hamas “military” compound in the northern Gaza Strip, according to a statement released by the Israel Defense Forces on Tuesday. Soldiers found anti-tank missiles and launchers, weapons and various intelligence material at the site, according to the IDF. In a separate incident, Israeli forces directed an airstrike on a group of terrorists that had barricaded themselves in a building adjacent to the al-Quds Hospital in Gaza’s Tel al-Hawa area.
Israeli Arab Bedouins seek revenge on Hamas “We will take revenge on the terrorists and their families, even if it takes 50 years. Revenge will come and it will be cruel.” Hamas made a tactical mistake with the Bedouin tribe Abu Issa. They brutally abused and ultimately murdered one of their sons from Tel Sheva. And when Bedouins seek revenge, they find it. “We will take revenge on the terrorists and their families. This is a blood feud,” said the desert tribe of Abu Issa, one of the most dangerous and best-armed Bedouin tribes in the south.
Israel’s Historic Leap in Defense: Intercepting Threats Beyond the Atmosphere In an unprecedented triumph for global defense technology, Israel has marked its name in the annals of history by successfully intercepting a rocket beyond Earth’s atmosphere. This milestone in space defense showcases Israel’s dedication to the safety and security of its people against emerging threats.
Hamas claims responsibility for rocket barrage from Lebanon “Approximately 30 launches were identified from Lebanon towards northern Israel over the last hour. The IDF is responding with artillery fire towards the origin of the launches,” the Israel Defense Forces said. The military intercepted several rockets. Most of the projectiles fell into the Mediterranean Sea.
“IDF: ‘We are working on one tunnel after another, demolishing them’continuing Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari stated on Monday, adding that the growing number of Hamas terrorists and field commanders being eliminated is creating pressure on the terrorist army that rules the enclave. Addressing IDF efforts to demolish the underground terror tunnel network dubbed “the metro,” Hagari said that Hamas, which deliberately places tunnel shafts under hospitals, mosques, schools and humanitarian sites, is systematically losing its underground access.
Smotrich calls for security zones in Judea and Samaria In a letter sent to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Sunday, the head of the Religious Zionism Party, who is also a minister in the Defense Ministry, demanded that they convene an urgent session of the Political-Security Cabinet to discuss the insecurity” of the residents of Judea and Samaria.
UN secretary-general says Gaza Strip is a ‘graveyard for children’; Israel calls for his resignation Israel has called for the resignation of UN Sec.-Gen. António Guterres, who has continued to make inflammatory false statements about the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. On Monday, Guterres claimed that Gaza was becoming a “graveyard for children,” as he accused Israel of meting out “collective punishment” in the Strip.
Cameroon archbishop: Marriage is between a man and a woman, anything else is ‘witchcraft’ Cameroon Archbishop Andrew Nkea Fuanya of Bemenda, one of bishops on the ordinary council overseeing the process for the Synod on Synodality, said the African bishops who took part in the Synod last month in Rome insisted strongly on the Church’s teaching on marriage as “a union between a man and a woman.” The archbishop condemned anything that departs from that teaching as “witchcraft.”
Rapid crustal uplift at Mt. Þorbjörn, Iceland The Icelandic Met Office (IMO) has reported a considerable upsurge in seismic activity on the Reykjanes Peninsula, with over 18 500 earthquakes recorded since the swarm began on October 25, just north of Grindavík.
Bill Gates ‘Digital IDS’ Will Be Mandatory To Participate in Society Tomorrow, November 8th 2023, a virtual launch event is to take place for what is termed the “50-in-5” agenda. The United Nations, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and partners of the Rockefeller Foundation are launching a campaign to accelerate digital ID, digital payments, and data sharing rollouts in 50 countries under the umbrella of digital public infrastructure (DPI) by 2028.
British atheistic group Humanists UK wants to replace Christian education with LGBT indoctrination Humanists UK, an atheist organization, has been in the news quite a lot lately. They recently intervened in a high-profile case at the Belfast Court of Appeal in Northern Ireland after the Department of Education appealed a 2022 High Court ruling stating that “exclusively Christian RE [religious education] and worship” in schools was discrimination against non-Christian children, another judicial move to root out Christian heritage.
Will Hezbollah And Iran Step Back And Watch As Their Terror Ally, Hamas, Is Wiped Out By Israel? Earlier today, Hezbollah, presumably along with Hamas and other Palestinian jihadist factions in southern Lebanon, launched a barrage of 30 rockets in the span of one hour into Northern Israel. This was the largest barrage since October 7th, when Israel’s war with Hamas broke out. To my mind, this is a major escalation to the north.
King Charles Has “No Pretence of Neutrality”, He Supports Israel King Charles issued a statement on the 11th of October through a Buckingham Palace spokesperson stating: “This is a situation His Majesty is extremely concerned about, and he has asked to be kept actively updated.” “His thoughts and prayers are with all of those suffering, particularly those who have lost loved ones, but also those actively involved. […]His Majesty is appalled by and condemns the barbaric acts of terrorism in Israel.” However, according to Kit Klarenburg, “the mask has fallen” he says “One of the most extraordinary – yet unremarked upon – developments since Israel’s genocidal assault on Gaza began has been the British monarchy’s brazen jettisoning of any pretense of “political neutrality.”
“Double Jab” – COVID-19 and Flu Vaccines in One Visit –Re-Branding of Failed Pharmaceutical Products …“Nobody wants to speak about Covid.” A solution seems to be tying the COVID-19 vaccines to flu vaccines is an attempt to quickly increase COVID-19 booster uptake from 7% to 52%. Yet there are no safety studies looking at taking COVID-19 mRNA Vaccine and the flu Vaccine at the same time. “We are in the midst of a heavily funded INTERNATIONAL re-branding campaign to resurrect demand for failed, toxic pharmaceutical products,” according to Dr William Makis.
“An elective despotism was not the government we fought for; but one in which the powers of government should be so divided and balanced among the several bodies of magistracy as that no one could transcend their legal limits without being effectually checked and restrained by the others.” —James Madison (1788)
Fellow Patriots, we have more presidential election history today. On this day in 1932, Franklin D. Roosevelt won the first of four elections, and in 1960, John F. Kennedy won the White House. And back in 1892, Grover Cleveland became the first president to win nonconsecutive terms. Donald Trump aims to become the second. —Mark Alexander
Recapping election results in Kentucky, Virginia, and Ohio, it’s clear the Republican Party struggled.
Nate Jackson
Republicans have a problem connecting with voters on some big cultural issues. Most conservatives see major problems running rampant in our society, and we see that one party is disproportionately responsible. So why does that party keep winning?
Abortion kills perhaps as many as a million American children each year — wildly more than any other cause, including the Democrat bugaboo of “gun violence.” Yet Democrats demand abortion policies as permissive as those of only a few socialist/communist countries in the world, and they won at the ballot box yesterday.
Democrat Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear is going to get a lot of attention from the national party as a rising national star after winning reelection in his deep-red state. He won primarily by being a left-winger who convinced voters he’s not certifiably insane. He distanced himself from Joe Biden and he focused on state issues — most of which exhibited that he actually is far more competent and likable than Biden. The state is growing economically, even as voters struggle with the inflation Beshear’s party caused. Voters approved of the way the governor handled natural disasters like floods and tornadoes, and even when it came to not-so-natural ones like COVID, voters at least declined to punish Beshear for typical Democrat tyranny.
Arguably, Beshear’s key to victory was using abortion to his advantage, painting his opponent, state Attorney General Daniel Cameron, as an “extremist” and himself as a protector of limited government. Yet Beshear is the social extremist, having vetoed a GOP bill banning so-called “gender-affirming care” for children.
It shouldn’t go without mentioning that Cameron was repeatedly cast as the “protégé” of Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell, who bears the distinction of being the least popular politician in America. Clearly, McConnell should be thinking about retiring, not picking the next generation of leaders.
Then again, Cameron’s closing argument was that he was endorsed by Donald Trump, who boasted that Cameron is his guy, “not really ‘a McConnell guy.’”
For what it’s worth, McConnell last won in 2020 with nearly 58% of the vote. Trump won Kentucky in 2020 with 62%.
Overall, many of the same dynamics played out in neighboring Virginia, where Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin suffered a setback by not only failing to help his party take the state Senate but by losing the state House the GOP had won back in 2021. That said, it wasn’t a disaster, either. Virginia Republicans lost three House seats and sit at a 49-51 minority, all while gaining a seat in the Senate.
Youngkin has been floated by some GOPers desperate for a viable challenger to Trump for the presidential nomination as a late-entering savior. Yesterday’s results will likely put that idea to rest. Virginia voters like Youngkin and he may still have a national future, but a state that is dominated by the suburbs of Washington, DC, declined to give him and his party unified control in Richmond. That will hamper his agenda for the next two years and likely lower his profile unless he can effectively govern with a bipartisan coalition. Moreover, given that Virginia also often serves as a bellwether a year ahead of national elections, yesterday’s results bode ill for the GOP in 2024.
A side note about Virginia state races. Democrat Susanna Gibson became famous by soliciting donations for live-streaming sex with her husband and then having the chutzpah to decry the publicity as “an illegal invasion of my privacy designed to humiliate me.” She is currently trailing her Republican opponent in a race for a state House seat, which at least would be a minor defeat for pornography and a victory for those who want to keep her bedroom out of government.
Finally, back to abortion, Ohio voters overwhelmingly passed Issue 1, a constitutional amendment codifying the “right” to abortion, and the result wasn’t even close. Ohio backed Trump by eight points, and the abortion amendment succeeded by 12 points yesterday. Democrats successfully turned their extremist position into one of limited government, and Ohio voters went for it, just as voters have in similar ballot issues in six other states after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last year.
The ugly reality in Ohio is that the language of Issue 1 endangers all children, not just those in the womb. It establishes “an individual right to one’s own reproductive medical treatment, including but not limited to abortion.” That opens the door for medical mutilation on the gender front. And because it’s now enshrined in the state constitution, legislators will have little wiggle room in the future.
Planned Parenthood’s butchers are rejoicing at the newly secured revenue streams, which is why the company and numerous other out-of-state actors spent so heavily to win.
Voters in Ohio also approved Issue 2, which legalizes pot in the state and — sarcasm alert — should really help the mental capacity of voters in the future.
What connects all the dots here? Democrats are master manipulators of voter emotions. Democrats want to kill children in the womb and groom and mutilate them once out of it. Yet these members of the Party of Big Government are successfully framing both issues as keeping government out of decisions made at home. They are casting Republicans as power-hungry prudes who want to take control of people’s intimate decisions. The emotional appeal — especially to women voters — is incredibly strong.
Exit question: Where’s “keep the government out of my bedroom” during Pride Month?
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Jim Jordan drops a censorship bombshell, media downplays the killing of a Jew in California, and more.
Douglas Andrews, Thomas Gallatin, & Jordan Candler
Cross-Examination
Jordan drops a censorship bombshell: In a 103-page interim report, the House Judiciary Committee, chaired by Representative Jim Jordan, revealed that the Department of Homeland Security helped create a “disinformation” group at the University of Stanford prior to the 2020 election. The group, laughably dubbed the Election Integrity Partnership (EIP), colluded with DHS’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and Big Tech companies to suppress and censor online speech. The report contains a number of correspondences between members of the EIP and CISA, showing how “the federal government and universities pressured social media companies to censor true information, jokes, and political opinions.” The report described the EIP as a “consortium of ‘disinformation’ academics led by Stanford University’s Stanford Internet Observatory (SIO) that worked directly with the Department of Homeland Security and the Global Engagement Center, a multi-agency entity housed within the State Department, to monitor and censor Americans’ online speech in advance of the 2020 presidential election.” What this latest bombshell report demonstrates is the degree to which Washington has been involved in censoring and controlling Americans’ online speech. That’s a blatant violation of their First Amendment rights.
Media downplays the killing of a Jew in California: Perhaps Joe Biden and his fellow Democrats were too busy rooting out “Islamic-phobia” to notice, but a 69-year-old Jewish man was pogromed to death following an “altercation” with a pro-Palestinian thug at a Sunday afternoon rally in the LA suburb of Thousand Oaks. As Fox News reports, Kessler got into a “physical altercation” during which he “fell backwards and struck his head on the ground,” the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department said in a statement that added the medical examiner’s office “determined the cause of death to be blunt force head injury and the manner of death homicide.” Homicide indeed. But get a load of this mealy-mouth, passive-voice, politically correct headline from NBC News: “Man dies after hitting head during Israel and Palestinian rallies in California, officials say.” What would we do without “officials”? Did Kessler hit himself in the head? Did he bump into a light pole? The headline doesn’t say. As it turns out, he was smashed in the head with a megaphone by an as-yet unnamed 50-year-old assailant. And we wonder: Had the roles been reversed and a pro-Israel protester had offed a pro-Palestine protester, would the media be hiding the identity of the killer? We suspect not.
House censures Tlaib: Who says there’s no bipartisanship in DC these days? By a vote of 234-188, with four members voting present, the House of Representatives voted to censurepro-Hamas Detroit Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, she of the teary-eyed claim that her reckless and hate-filled anti-Israel rhetoric “has always been of the Israeli government and [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu’s actions.” The members weren’t buying it. “When she chants ‘From the river to the sea,’ she believes it! She believes Israel should be eradicated!” thundered New York Republican Mike Lawler, referring to the vile language that comes straight out of the Hamas charter. “Anyone who supports this or refuses to condemn it has no place in the United States Congress,” said New Jersey Republican (and former Democrat) Jeff Van Drew. But while we appreciate the congressman’s sentiment, we’d remind him that there’s an important matter of free speech at stake here that ought not be steamrolled. Free speech, after all, isn’t about being able to say the things that are popular; it’s about being able to say the things that are idiotic or offensive. In a free country, people should be free to make fools of themselves, and free to out themselves as bigots. That’s what free speech is really about. And that’s why rock-ribbed Kentucky conservative Thomas Massie and a tiny handful of Republicans voted against censuring this Jew hater.
KJP refuses to condemn tearing down of hostage posters: “Look, I — I’ve sorta, kinda seen the reporting here and there. I think it was from last week. … I’m just not going to go into specifics on that particular thing.” So stammered Joe Biden’s dumb and disgraceful press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, who became paralyzed when one of her press-pool trucklings decided to ask her a good question yesterday: “A lot of videos of individuals who have been tearing down signs,” began NBC News’s Peter Alexander, “many of these taking place in New York City, of Israelis presently being held hostage in Gaza. There have been some tense confrontations that have taken place there. Is the White House’s view that these actions should be condemned, the pulling of the pulling down of them, or that that’s a form of peaceful protest?” It’s a simple question, really, and the answer should’ve been equally simple: You condemn the tearing down of those posters not only as an affront to free speech but as an assault on fundamental decency. Alas, shortly afterward, KJP was told to clean up her own mess via X. “As a result of the Hamas terrorist attacks,” she posted, “communities and families are grieving. For the past month, the families of those who have been taken hostage have lived in agony. Tearing down pictures of their loved ones — who are being held hostage by Hamas — is wrong and hurtful.” What would Democrats do without do-overs?
Antarctic cooling: This past summer, much of the mainstream media promoted climate alarmism with headlines like The Washington Post’s “This was the world’s hottest summer on record ‘by a large margin.’” Furthermore, climate alarmists have been constantly warning of an apocalyptic catastrophe if the global temperature warms by another 1ºC or 2ºC. Yet time and again, climate data fails to affirm and often debunks the climate model-generated projections. Case in point, a recent study of temperature data collected from Antarctica found that from 1999 to 2018, the continent’s annual mean surface temperature has cooled by over 1.8ºC. This data runs directly counter to 28 of the Climate Model Intercomparison Project 6 (CMIP6) models, none of which had captured a cooling trend. So, how is it that Antarctica has been cooling despite the fact that global carbon emissions have increased over that same time span? Could it be that man-caused carbon emissions aren’t the primary driver of global temperatures?
GOP AGs sue FDA vis-à-vis abortion pills: State attorneys general from Idaho, Kansas, and Missouri on Monday filed a joint lawsuit against the Food and Drug Administration alleging that the agency never had the legal right to approve abortion pills back in 2000. The abortion drugs in question are mifepristone and misoprostol. Furthermore, the suit challenges the FDA’s 2016 decision to downgrade safety restrictions for the drugs, its 2019 approval of a generic version of the drugs, and its 2021 decision to allow the drugs to be dispensed through the mail. The lawsuit observes that “sex traffickers and sexual abusers [often] force their victims to get abortions,” and they haven taken advantage of the FDA’s actions. Noting that the primary responsibility of the FDA is “to protect the health, safety, and welfare of all Americans by rejecting or limiting the use of drugs dangerous to the public,” the AGs contend that the agency “has failed in this responsibility.” They add: “Specifically, it failed America’s women and girls when it chose politics over science and approved risky, untested chemical abortion drugs for use in the United States. And it has continued to fail them by turning a blind eye to these harms and repeatedly removing even the most basic precautionary requirements associated with the use of these risking drugs.”
Military personnel data at risk: As if serving in Joe Biden’s woke military weren’t depressing enough, it turns out that our warriors are also at risk of having their identities stolen. As MIT Technology Review reports, “For as little as $0.12 per record, data brokers in the US are selling sensitive private data about active-duty military members and veterans, including their names, home addresses, geolocation, net worth, and religion, and information about their children and health conditions.” Researchers at Duke University, where the study was conducted, “approached 12 data brokers in the US and asked what would be necessary to buy this kind of information.” The answer: Not much of anything. “They ultimately purchased thousands of records about American service members, finding that many brokers offered to sell the data with minimal vetting and were willing to deal with buyers using email domains based in both the US and Asia.” If we want to address our military’s unreadiness under Joe Biden, and the national security risk of our stubborn recruiting shortfall, we might start with such fundamental assurances that their personal information won’t be sold by money-grubbing data brokers.
Covenant School killer’s leaked writings authenticated: The leaked “manifesto” of the perpetrator who attacked and murdered three children and three staff at The Covenant School in Nashville earlier this year has been authenticated. On Tuesday, Nashville Police Chief John Drake confirmed that the images of documents leaked to conservative commentator Steven Crowder were genuine. Controversy has surrounded the female perpetrator’s so-called manifesto after law enforcement and governmental authorities took the unusual step of refusing to release its content to the public. That all erupted again following the leak, as its contents not only revealed the perpetrator’s racist anti-white motivations, but more so because of the government authorities’ response to its leak, as Drake announced an investigation into finding who was responsible for leaking to the media. While many had surmised that the perpetrator’s self-expressed “transgender” identity was the motive behind her murderous actions, her publicized writings contain no such reference.
The payment was a smallish $40,000, but what it signifies is something much larger.
Douglas Andrews
Joe Biden has been breathing easier of late, with the Israel-Hamas war having captured Washington’s attention and thus distracted it from the Biden Crime Family’s influence-peddling schemes.
That month-long respite, though, might be coming to an end.
Last week, a collective yawn went up when House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer claimed that Joe Biden took in $40,000 in “laundered China money” via a personal check from the bank account of his brother and sister-in-law. The transaction, which took place in 2017, seemed almost pathetic in its sum. These are the Bidens, after all, and 40 grand is practically a rounding error amid the tens of millions that this crew has allegedly grifted. It was significant, though, because, as the New York Post’s Steven Nelson notes, it would be “the first proven instance of the commander-in-chief getting a piece of his family’s foreign income.” Indeed, it’s the closest thing yet to Chinese cash finding its way into Joe Biden’s pocket. And, as Chairman Comer reminded, this isn’t just about the money; it’s about what the money enables. It’s about how the American president has “exposed himself to future blackmail” from the Communist Chinese.
Comer laid out his findings in a video. It’s worth watching, if only to see how Comer traces the step-by-step journey of Chinese cash into Biden family coffers. “Remember when Joe Biden told the American people that his son didn’t make money in China?” Comer asks. “Well, not only did he lie about his son Hunter making money in China, but it also turns out that $40,000 in laundered China money landed in Joe Biden’s bank account in the form of a personal check. And the Oversight Committee has it.”
For Comer, it’s been a long, hard slog to accumulate evidence and build a case. As Fox News reports, “The findings come after Comer subpoenaed personal and business bank records belonging to both James Biden and Hunter Biden as part of his investigation into the Biden family’s business dealings and whether the president was involved.”
As the Post adds, “Bank records released this year by Comer show that CEFC — a since-defunct reputed cog in Beijing’s ‘Belt and Road’ foreign influence campaign — paid Hunter and James Biden at least $6.1 million in 2017 and 2018 — about $1 million in March 2017 shortly after Biden left office as vice president and the remainder within 10 days of Hunter’s threat invoking his dad.”
You remember that threat — the one that came by way of a July 30, 2017, WhatsApp text from Hunter to a Chinese business associate: “I’m sitting here with my father,” says Hunter, “and we would like to understand why the commitment made has not been fulfilled. … I will make certain that between the man sitting next to me and every person he knows, and my ability to forever hold a grudge, that you will regret not following my direction. I am sitting here waiting for the call with my father.”
The money in question ended up in the Big Guy’s bank account a few weeks later, on September 3, 2017, via a check from his sister-in-law labeled “loan repayment,” after it had been laundered through a couple of intermediary accounts.
So much for Hunter being a dopey, drug-addled kid. “This was a very organized criminal enterprise by the Biden family,” said Comer. “This wasn’t just some drug addict doing concoctions and making wild transactions. This was very organized.”
White House hatchet man spokesman Ian Sams isn’t impressed by all this. Or if he is, he’s not letting on. A week ago, he said, “Comer’s lies and conspiracy theories are getting more desperate by the day,” adding that the bank records in question show that the $40,000 “was a short-term loan from Joe to James that was repaid in less than two months.”
Well then. Now we’re getting somewhere. If it was a simple loan, then there’s a bank record somewhere that proves it, right? And the Bidens would be more than happy to provide that record, so as to clear up their good name, right? Joe’s word as a Biden, right?
Wrong. As the Washington Examiner reports, “White House officials will not provide evidence to support President Joe Biden’s claim that a pair of large payments he received from his brother represented paybacks for loans, according to a letter from the White House to the House Oversight Committee.”
So, what’s next for James Comer? “We’re waiting on a few more documents to come in that we’ve successfully subpoenaed,” he told Fox News’s Maria Bartiromo on Sunday, “but it’s taking forever. … Once all those come in, I think you’re gonna see swift action on the Bidens, and I would predict somewhere around two dozen subpoenas in the very near future.”
And then what? If Comer makes a compelling case, Speaker Mike Johnson will have a decision to make — a decision on impeachment. “I do believe that very soon we are coming to a point of decision on it,” Johnson said Thursday. “We’ve not predetermined the outcome of this. We’ve not prejudged it. But I think everyone can see how it is unfolding.”
Indeed, we can. But time is ticking away on Joe Biden’s one-and-only term.
They distract from life, they contribute to poor mental health outcomes, and they hurt academics.
Emmy Griffin
Jonathan Haidt is on a mission to understand what has gone wrong with our school-age children. As a noted psychology professor at New York University’s Stern School of Business, Haidt noticed a change in students both socially and academically starting in 2012. Students are lonelier, not as intellectually engaged, and developing mental health problems at an alarming rate.
What happened in 2012? Well, that was when smartphones really took off in the mainstream and flip phones went the way of the rotary dial. Also, that was when Instagram started to garner popularity among young women especially, giving birth to the selfie culture and all the toxicity that comes with the curated social media life. Haidt started researching and studying this phenomenon in an attempt to help these poor kids who were (and are) really suffering.
Frankly, his concern is one that many who are teachers share. My own experience with the modern student and smart devices has had more negative connotations than good. Some firsthand experiences: children as young as fourth grade watching porn during school hours; first graders with smartwatches calling their parents when they got in trouble at school; middle school girls changing drastically from happy, well-adjusted kids to making all the wrong life choices because TikTok and Instagram told them it was cool; and high schoolers being mute during lunch, mindlessly scrolling instead of hanging out with their friends. Most schools do little to nothing to regulate students’ smartphone use even after the obvious downsides and limited upsides.
Smartphones, the Internet, and specifically social media are not good for the prefrontal cortex. Just as a reminder, the prefrontal cortex (which is concerned with decision-making and long-term planning and consequences) isn’t fully developed in humans until the age of 25. These kids simply do not have a developed-enough brain to resist the temptation and constant distraction these cell phones supply and quickly get addicted to the dopamine hits that their brains have been trained to crave.
In Haidt’s conversations with schools, the consensus was that smartphones were the bane of students’ learning and teachers being able to be effective in communicating their lessons. Incorporating technology into lessons seemed to be a good solution along with teaching students how to academically use the smart device. However, any use of smartphones in this capacity isn’t really a good solution either since even having the device out is too great a temptation for kids to get distracted.
This academic decline that Haidt and others noticed is an international phenomenon. In the U.S., based on the nation’s report card’s (NAEP) long-term assessment scores, 2012 marked the highest scores in reading and math. Since then, those scores have drastically sunk. There are many factors that have gone into that steep decline, but smartphones are certainly part of it.
Haidt proposes that schools outright ban smartphones from school property. While this would be an excellent solution to at least give these kids a six- to eight-hour detox from their phones, some parents would have a very hard time with this. Many parents want to be able to reach their child at any moment of the school day. In this day and age, it’s hard to blame them. However, parents not able or willing to police their children’s device use or prevent them from having access to social media is also a huge part of the problem. Even then, that situation probably has more to do with parents being naïve about the significant increase in online dangers. Moreover, technology is changing faster than many parents can keep up with.
Haidt has many ideas to help guide both parents and government bodies in regulating the use of smartphones and social media for kids. First, he suggests that parents not given their child a phone until they are 14 and not let them have access to social media until they are 16. Considering how predators are able to circumvent the “protections” that social media has put in place, 16 still seems too young.
Haidt also proposes that government entities pilot his ideas on top of providing security to prevent children from accessing their phones during school hours. His ideas would continue to give parents the freedoms to parent their children with their devices while also giving the school authority to ban the distracting phones and ultimately help these kids both academically and socially.
Frankly, even if some of these ideas are gradually implemented and prove to help turn the tide for kids, it’s too little, too late for the majority of Gen Z. They are already too addicted and are suffering the grievous consequences of a smartphone-induced dopamine coma. As our Thomas Gallatin recently wrote: “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.”
Loneliness, lack of skills to cope with social interactions, and lack of academic rigor are plaguing Gen Z.
Smartphones and social media are probably just the tip of the iceberg of what is ailing our students. It would be interesting and very likely good for them to have an opportunity to unplug from their smartphones, as Haidt suggested. It is giving them the gift of social interaction, a change to enjoy learning without distractions, and a chance to be kids.
A woman attacked a school when she misidentified it as Jewish.
Thomas Gallatin
This story would almost be funny if it wasn’t true. A woman apparently holding anti-Semitic views used her car to attack a building of a religious sect that expressly espouses … anti-Semitic beliefs.
The incident took place in Indianapolis, and when police arrived at the scene and had taken the woman into custody, she explained to them that she had deliberately driven her car into the building because it was an “Israel school.” The woman said she was motivated by images of Israel’s war against Hamas, and she referenced her “people back in Palestine.”
The building she had attacked did indeed bear the name “Israel,” but the full name was the “Israelite School of Universal and Practical Knowledge.” It is a group connected with the racist religious sect known as the Black Hebrew Israelites, which has been recognized by the Anti-Defamation League as an anti-Semitic group.
This group last made national news back in 2019, when members were present at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC, and had been taunting a group of students from Covington Catholic High School prior to the infamous incident in which a Native American activist got in the face of student Nick Sandmann while banging on a drum. The Leftmedia smeared the Covington students as racist when in fact the real individuals expressing racist sentiments that day were the Black Hebrew Israelites.
Back to the Indianapolis incident. Law enforcement officers called it a “hate crime” and referred to the woman of apparent Arab decent as a “terrorist.” This could be categorized as a case of mistaken identity, but it clearly demonstrates the insidious and absolutely ridiculous nature of racism and identity politics.
The woman admitted that she was moved to want to hurt others whom she did not know, all because she had erroneously connected them with Jews and Israel. There were several young children in the building at the time of the attack, though fortunately no one was injured. However, this woman’s hatred of Jews clouded any concern for innocent people and our shared common humanity.
She told law enforcement, “Yes, I did it on purpose,” and she acknowledged that she was motivated by hate. She had even driven past the building several times before she finally decided to ram it with her car.
This is what happens when disturbed people are motivated by racial identity politics. (See the racist Nashville manifesto for another, far worse example.) This is exactly why we have repeatedly condemned critical race theory — because it breeds racism rather than opposes it. CRT teaches people to judge others based upon their immutable characteristics rather than as unique individuals as expressed by their behavior.
Blaming the innocent for the actions of others simply because they share some genetic and cultural history is not justice. But it’s even worse to side with the perpetrators of crimes against the innocent and then turn and blame the innocent for the actions of the perpetrators.
The Christian ethic is founded on love, which breaks down hostility between people. All hatred does is break things and people. Hate brings no health, no justice, and no trust. And all racism is hatred.
But the only thing that is shocking is their shock.
Dennis Prager
New York Times headline: “On Israel, Progressive Jews Feel Abandoned by Their Left-Wing Allies.”
NBC News: “The left faces a reckoning as Israel divides Democrats.”
Time Magazine: “How the Activist Left Turned on Israel.”
Los Angeles Times: “‘The left has really let us down.’ Why many American Jews feel abandoned”
Financial Times: “Left’s take on Hamas stuns American Jews — and threatens Democratic party split.”
You get the point.
Left-wing American Jews feel betrayed by the Left. A Left that remains anti-Israel even after the greatest single-day massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, and even though most Palestinians and their supporters explicitly call for the destruction of the Jewish state: “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”
Progressive American Jews are shocked by their fellow progressives. But the only thing that is shocking is their shock.
The Left wing has been calling for an economic boycott of Israel for decades and has labeled Israel an “apartheid” state.
The Left labels America, the most tolerant, multiethnic society in history, “systemically racist.”
The Left called for “defunding the police,” supports attorneys general who abolish bail for violent criminals, and praised demonstrations against America — including many that included vandalism and violence — for more than half a year.
The Left supports all-black dorms and all-black graduations on college campuses. The Left has almost destroyed every liberal ideal regarding race. The University of California, among many other left-wing institutions, has labeled “racist” the liberal ideal of being color-blind, and labeled “racist” the beautiful anti-racist sentiment, “there is only one race, the human race.”
The Left — specifically schools of education and teachers unions — has ruined elementary schools and high schools. And it has destroyed universities as institutions that allow open dialogue.
The Left affirms the lie that men can become women and women can become men, and it works to crush the life and career of anyone who denies that people can become the other sex. The Left supports the demise of women’s sports by fighting to allow any man who says he is a woman to compete in women’s sports. The Left supports putting children who say they are the other sex on hormone-blocking drugs, and supports allowing girls under the age of 21 (and sometimes under 18) who say they are boys to have their breasts surgically removed.
The Left has been waging the most successful war against free speech in American history. As a result, almost half of America’s young people say they believe in free speech but not for “hate speech,” which, of course, means they do not believe in free speech.
The Left asserts that the human fetus at any stage of development is, literally, worthless, certainly worth less than a dog, if the woman carrying it wants an abortion.
The Left has essentially destroyed mainstream journalism. Mainstream media no longer hold truth as an ideal. They promoted the lie for nearly two years that Russia colluded with the Trump presidential campaign in 2016 (many still do). They continue to promote the lie that having to present an ID when voting is “racist.”
The Left has poisoned American medicine. The American Medical Association has announced that birth certificates should no longer list the sex of a child. Medical boards threaten to suspend or even revoke the medical licenses of physicians who question the efficacy of the mRNA COVID-19 vaccine or prescribe hydroxychloroquine or ivermectin to patients in the early stages of COVID-19.
The Left has enthusiastically supported the America-hating and Israel-hating Black Lives Matter organization and the flag-defaming athletes who refused to stand for the national anthem.
The Left has promulgated the racist doctrine in most American schools and businesses that all whites are racist.
The Left teaches school children that they should be ashamed of their past and that their future is awful (due to carbon emissions); that capitalism is bad and socialism good.
The Left, in short, hates the West, the most decent civilization ever created, and hates America, the most decent country ever created.
The Left, for decades, has declared Zionism racist — meaning that Israel’s existence is inherently immoral — and has charged Israel with “genocide” against the Palestinians.
Yet now Jews on the Left are simply shocked that the people who hold all these contemptible positions either morally equate Hamas with Israel or actually support those who chant “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” which is in fact a call to genocide. Genocide of the Jews.
Unlike the liberal Jew, the left-wing Jew — the professor, the columnist, the teacher — is a destructive fool. But the liberal Jew is inexcusably naive about the Left, nearly all of whose positions have nothing in common with liberalism, not to mention with the Torah.
The Next Snow White Is… — The Daily Wire released its new platform for kids’ entertainment, Bentkey. Along with this announcement came the news of its first live-action film, “Snow White and The Evil Queen,” featuring Brett Cooper as Snow White.
Addiction Is Not a Disease, and Fame Doesn’t Fix Anything — Matthew Perry, the beloved “Friends” actor, has tragically passed away after a lifelong battle with addiction. Though he steadfastly claimed that addiction is a disease, he privately understood that such a diagnosis is a means of avoiding the shame associated with the failure to rise to the overwhelmingly difficult and painful challenge of living.
Armed Robbery for TikTok Views — Two young men face up to 99 years in prison for trying to go viral on TikTok by filming themselves assaulting innocent joggers.
A Crazed Leftist Voter — In Virginia, a leftist voter demonstrates that he’s been indoctrinated by the Leftmedia’s anti-Republican propaganda as he berates a GOP poll greeter.
“We have to crush the culture of guns in the United States. The instant access to guns, the ability of anybody to buy a gun, is absolutely foolish. It’s an absolutely foolish thing.” —former Congressman David Jolly (FL)
“The extreme MAGA Republican agenda has nothing to do with the American people. They want to default on our debt, shut down the government, crash the economy, censure Democrats, and avoid holding their own members accountable. This is who they are.” —House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY)
“There is no candidate that has ever run on the popularity of issues that Joe Biden has or the record of accomplishments.” —Deputy Biden Campaign Manager Quentin Fulks
“No matter how much we are seeing the job growth and all of that, people are still struggling with affordability, and that’s an issue we need to hold the Republican Party accountable for.” —Congressman Jamaal Bowman (D-NY)
“We need to figure out how we need to improve our messaging. Because I do think we have a messaging issue.” —Congressman Jared Moskowitz (D-FL)
“Just because an economic system generates wealth and innovation doesn’t mean it guarantees a good society. Because from the outset, it turns out market-based systems have been compatible with slavery, caste systems, colonialization, war, exploitation, corruption, fraud, autocracy, the poisoning of our natural environment.” —former President Barack Obama
Useful Idiots
“Israel has a right to defend itself. I don’t think anyone disagrees with that. But what they are doing now in an indiscriminate way — bombing refugee camps, bombing ambulances, killing thousands of innocent men, women, and children, in violation of international law — is simply not acceptable. It has got to stop. … If they’re going to take our money … they have got to recognize that they cannot offend American values.” —Senator Bernie Sanders (VT)
“It’s one thing to support Israel, which the U.S. has always done and will continue to do. It’s another thing to never hold Israel accountable for their behavior, whether it’s related to the occupation, the open-air prison that is Gaza, or the war crimes that are taking place right now during this siege. … In terms of collective punishment, that’s what’s happening right now.” —Jamaal Bowman
“Criticism should not go without an attempt to understand [Rashida Tlaib’s] point of view, her position, where she comes from, the fact that she is Palestinian, the fact that she has seen injustice and inequity on her side.” —Congressman André Carson (D-IN)
For the Record
“Progressive American Jews are shocked by their fellow progressives. But the only thing that is shocking is their shock. The Left wing has been calling for an economic boycott of Israel for decades and has labeled Israel an ‘apartheid’ state.” —Dennis Prager
“I realized that we had entered a very dark period when, instead of crying out in horror that infants were massacred, supporters of Palestine were quibbling about whether the children had been decapitated, thrown in ovens or simply shot. That was the hill the defenders of Hamas were willing to die upon.” —Christine Flowers
“The censorship-industrial complex was bigger than we thought. It wasn’t just Big Government working with Big Tech to limit your tweets and posts. It was Big Government, Big University, and Big Tech all working together to limit speech, and it was disproportionately targeting conservatives.” —Congressman Jim Jordan (R-OH)
Insight
“The moral tragedy that has befallen Americans is our belief that it is okay for government to forcibly use one American to serve the purposes of another — that in my book is a working definition of slavery.” —Walter Williams (1936-2020)
After Hamas massacred 1,400 men, women and children in Israel last month, FBI Director Christopher Wray warned that the terror group “and its allies” could inspire attacks on Americans “here on our own soil.” He also told the Senate that the FBI is conducting “multiple, ongoing investigations” into people affiliated with the U.S.-designated terrorist group.
What Wray didn’t say is that the FBI has been investigating Hamas’ biggest ally in America for the past 30 years – without filing any charges. Launched in 1994 as a secret front organization to support Hamas, according to declassified FBI wiretap transcripts and FBI testimony, the Council on American-Islamic Relations has, in the decades since, become an accepted member of Washington’s lobbying community. The New York Times and other influential newspapers routinely describe CAIR as a “Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization.”
Although it has not repudiated its support for Hamas – which is committed to the destruction of Israel and the Jewish people – CAIR was enlisted by the Biden administration in May to take part in a White House initiative to fight antisemitism.
On Oct. 7, the day Hamas terrorists butchered 1,400 Jews, including 33 Americans – raping many and abducting some 240 others to Gaza from southern Israel – CAIR’s national executive director, Nihad Awad, delivered an anti-Israel message in Arabic which seemed to justify what Hamas did. Translated into English, it read: “All Arab peoples must go out on Sunday, Oct. 8 – and every day – in demonstrations in support of the Palestinians and in rejection of normalization with the occupier and the apartheid regime [Israel].”
On Saturday afternoon, CAIR helped rally more than 100,000 Muslims in D.C. to instead condemn Israel for supposedly carrying out “genocide” in Gaza in response to the Oct. 7 attacks. Multiple speakers called for the destruction of Israel – and, by implication, the Jewish people there – by demanding Palestinians take all the lands “from the [Jordan] river to the [Mediterranean] sea.”
Awad was front and center, delivering a fiery speech bashing Israel and President Biden for not calling on Israel to stop bombing Hamas targets inside Gaza, which he called “genocidal attacks.” He threatened to hurt Biden at the ballot box in 2024 if he does not urge a ceasefire.
“We have discovered the language that President Biden understands: ‘No ceasefire, no votes,’” Awad bellowed to the crowd, which erupted into a chant repeating his words. “No votes in Michigan, no votes anywhere if you do not call for a ceasefire now. He then led a chant: “Free, free Palestine!”
Also, Awad promised to provide legal support to Muslim Americans who protest in support of Palestine. “We are with you,” he said. “The people of Gaza rely on your voices and activism.”
Protesters later marched on the White House, where they defaced the white brick gate of the Executive Mansion with red paint symbolizing the blood of Gazans who have died from the Israel army’s counterstrikes. Awad is on record declaring his support for Hamas. At Barry University in 1994, for example, he said: “I am in support of the Hamas movement.”
CAIR did not respond to requests for comment, but without addressing specifics, it has previously argued it “is not a ‘front group for Hamas.’” The FBI and White House declined to comment.
While CAIR is now a mainstay of American politics – headquartered just three blocks from the U.S. Capitol, with 35 offices across the country – its history reveals its close connections with terror groups such as Hamas, as detailed in the 2009 book this reporter co-authored with counterterrorism expert P. David Gaubatz, “Muslim Mafia: Inside the Secret Underworld that’s Conspiring to Islamize America.”
The story began in the Palestinian refugee camp in Jordan in the 1960s, where Awad and a co-founder of CAIR, Omar Ahmad, were born. Both men eventually came to the United States for university studies. By 1992, Awad was a key member of the so-called Palestine Committee in America, which helped finance Hamas. According to a 1992 letter from the Gaza Strip, Hamas asked the Committee for money to buy “weapons, weapons, our brothers.” The letter continued: “The meaning of killing a Jew for the liberation of Palestine cannot be compared to any jihad on earth.”
Around the same time, the FBI was eavesdropping on several Hamas leaders in connection with terrorist activities, which produced tapes documenting the incarnation of CAIR in 1993. At a secret meeting that October, Omar Ahmad called to order the Hamas summit in Philly at a Courtyard by Marriott hotel in Philadelphia to discuss the formation of a new front organization to support their “movement” in America. Awad also attended the meeting.
According to court testimony by FBI agent Lara Burns, who runs a major counterterrorism program for the bureau, Ahmad, Awad, and the other leaders who gathered there hatched a scheme to disguise overseas payments to Hamas terrorists and their families as charity. FBI wiretaps also recorded them stating the need to deceive Americans about the true aims of their planned American front group as Hamas launched a campaign of terror attacks on Israel known as the “Intifada.”
They compared the deception to the “head fake” in basketball, where a shooter tricks an opponent guarding him into moving in a different direction. The group, according to the wiretap transcripts, envisioned an “alternative” organization whose pro-Palestinian stripes were “not very conspicuous.” Burns testified CAIR was what they had in mind. During the talks, they tried to mislead any authorities who might be listening in by referring to Hamas as “Samah” – Hamas spelled backward.
Ahmad would co-found CAIR in 1994, hiring Awad as executive director that same year. Both men have expressed hatred toward Israel and resentment toward their adopted country for helping fund and arm the Jewish nation.
Burns testified during the 2008 terrorism trial of a charitable front for Hamas known as the Holy Land Foundation. It was the largest terror funding case in U.S. history. As part of the court filings, the Justice Department included CAIR on a list of co-conspirators underwriting Hamas terrorism – though CAIR and its founders were never indicted in the case. The HLF, busted up as the main fundraising arm of Hamas in America, commingled funds, assets, and personnel with CAIR, according to tax records and court documents.
“CAIR has been identified by the government as a participant in an ongoing and ultimately unlawful conspiracy to support a designated terrorist organization [Hamas] – a conspiracy from which CAIR never withdrew,” said former Assistant U.S. Attorney James Jacks, who was the lead prosecutor in the case.
A federal judge agreed. “The government has produced ample evidence to establish the associations of CAIR with Hamas,” then-U.S. District Judge Jorge Solis wrote in a July 2009 ruling.
A number of FBI counterterrorism agents were frustrated that CAIR’s national office and executives were never charged in the conspiracy, although the founder of CAIR’s Texas chapter was sentenced to prison. They said politics intervened. After 9/11, they said FBI headquarters viewed CAIR as a link to the Muslim community through which they might obtain tips about terror threats to the homeland. Brass even invited CAIR officials up to the executive suites located on the 7th floor of the Hoover building to discuss outreach policy.
“We said, ‘These are the bad guys, this is Hamas. What are you doing?’” former FBI Special Agent John Guandolo said, describing how he and other agents protested the special treatment afforded CAIR.
After CAIR was named an unindicted co-conspirator in the HLF’s criminal scheme to funnel more than $12 million to Hamas terrorists, the FBI finally disengaged from the group. The agency stopped conducting formal outreach with CAIR’s national office until, it said, it could resolve issues with Awad and other worrisome leaders.
“Until we can resolve whether there continues to be a connection between CAIR or its executives and Hamas, the FBI does not view CAIR as an appropriate liaison partner,” then-Assistant FBI director Richard Powers said in a 2009 letter to the Senate.
But some investigators say the FBI should have shut down the group, not just the outreach program, issuing search warrants and conducting more intrusive surveillance, which they say would have allowed the government to run the Hamas front out of business.
“CAIR is the leading Hamas entity inside the United States, and the FBI has taken no action to prosecute them,” said Guandolo, who helped lead several major counterterrorism probes at the Washington field office after 9/11. He explained that “politically correct” FBI leadership is hesitant to go after a minority religious group and is overly sensitive to charges of “Islamophobia” often leveled by CAIR against its critics.
The FBI’s reluctance to roll up the Hamas front has pushed private investigators to take matters into their own hands. In 2008, a counterterrorism specialist led a team of investigators in a daring undercover operation of CAIR that included infiltrating its national headquarters located on New Jersey Avenue in Washington, D.C., near the Capitol Building. Working as interns, the investigators, who posed as recent converts to Islam wearing traditional Muslim garb, secretly video-recorded conversations with CAIR officials. During the six-month operation, they also intercepted more than 12,000 pages of documents CAIR intended to shred as trash. The evidence, which was turned over to the FBI, is documented in “Muslim Mafia,” which also features an appendix with several key internal CAIR documents reprinted.
Among other things, the book revealed that CAIR employed violent Islamic terrorists, and then supported the terrorists behind the scenes even after they were convicted. It also uncovered an influence operation against members of key homeland security committees in Congress that included planting CAIR operatives in congressional offices. Internal CAIR documents laid out a plan to elect dozens of pro-Hamas Muslims to Congress. CAIR even started holding Muslim prayer sessions each Friday in the basement of the Capitol.
“Muslim Mafia” also traced the deeper roots of Hamas back to the secretive Muslim Brotherhood, the pro-jihad group founded in Egypt that built a sophisticated network of Islamic nonprofits inside the U.S. several decades ago. The book documented how Muslim Brotherhood leaders wrote a secret blueprint for “destroying [America] from within … so that it is eliminated and Allah’s religion is made victorious over all other religions.” FBI investigators discovered the manifesto stashed in a sub-basement of a Brotherhood leader’s home in Annandale, Va., after raiding his residence as part of a terrorism probe.
Several alarmed Republican members of Congress held a press conference about the book’s findings, warning a Hamas terror front group was infiltrating Congress.
Besides exposing Hamas’ political arm in America, the book exposed the inner workings of the broader anti-Israel lobby, which includes several leftwing groups aligned with CAIR. This lobby is now revealing itself in the wake of Israel’s own 9/11.
“The seeds for 9/11 were planted in 1948,” according to a draft of a “Proposed Muslim Platform” found at CAIR’s headquarters. “A resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict needs to be based on recognizing and correcting the harm that was done to the Palestinians since 1948,” when the United Nations partitioned land for Israel.
Guandolo said Hamas proved just how dangerous it is on Oct. 7. He warned that the terrorist group has already penetrated American society, and CAIR is the tip of the spear.
“Currently, CAIR is directing efforts at the ground level across the United States with organizations known for violent extremism,” he added in a recent interview with RealClearInvestigations. “Again, the FBI is doing nothing to adhere to their oaths of office and protect the American people.”
This article was originally published by RealClearInvestigations and made available via RealClearWire.
The latest controversy at the United Nations over comments by the Secretary-General is a reminder of how many times the UN has taken an anti-Israel stance. Senator Ted Cruz believes the Secretary-General should resign and adds that “many aspects of the UN, like the Human Rights Council and UNRWA are either antisemitic or give cover for terrorism or both.”
While there may be some debate about the recent comments, they come after decades of false accusations against Jews in general and Israel in particular. For example, the 1975 UN resolution passed by a majority of UN member states equated Zionism (the founding philosophy of the state of Israel) with racism. The resolution eventually was overturned but was used to justify actions against Israel.
Back in the 1980s, New York Mayor Ed Koch referred to the UN as a cesspool. That was when the UN passed an anti-Israel resolution because the country occupied the Golan Heights to prevent rockets from being launched into northern Israel.
The late Israeli Ambassador to the UN, Abba Eban once joked, “If Algeria introduced a UN resolution declaring that the earth was flat and that Israel flattened it, it would pass by a vote of 164 to 13 with 26 abstentions.”
As I mentioned in my booklet on antisemitism, always blaming Israel is irrational. “Israel is about the size of New Jersey and is surrounded by Arab countries with more than 500 times the land area.”
Israel realized long ago that it could not depend upon the United Nations to defend it. This latest controversy with the UN is just another reminder of that fact.
As Israeli forces push ahead into the Hamas stronghold of Gaza City, the Israeli Defense Minister says “the entire city is one big terror base,” – but despite the threats, Prime Minister Netanyahu calls the operation a phenomenal success, while President Biden asks Netanyahu for a three-day pause so hostages can be released; CBN’s Chris Mitchell talks about what Israeli forces are facing in Gaza City, how Hamas uses civilians as shields, and more; Israeli hunts for Yahya Sinwar, the man who orchestrated the October 7th Hamas attacks on Israel, who is number one on Israel’s most wanted terrorist list; CBN’s George Thomas talks about where Sinwar might be located, and the Israeli efforts to demolish the Hamas network of tunnels; our Studio 5 conversation with author Andrew Lawler about his new book, “Under Jerusalem,” and the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem.
Rashida Tlaib became the 26th member of the US Congress to be censured since the nation’s founding in a vote of 234-188. 24 Democrats voted to censure Tlaib.
This was after she tweeted out for the Jews in Israel to be pushed into the sea by Palestinians.
Nothing to see here folks, just a U.S. congressional representative calling for Jewish genocide and mass murder. https://t.co/1k3BncKRmv
After the vote several members of the Jew-hating branch of the Democrat Party rallied around Tlaib on the House floor.
Several socialist squad members and others formed a circle with Rashida Tlaib and raised their hands in a sign of unity and defiance.
The watered down resolution spares Rashida Tlaib from an official censure on the House floor where she would be rebuked by the Speaker. Congress spared her from that embarassment.
House now voting to censure Tlaib. Under the resolution, she will not have to appear in the well of the House and be rebuked by the Speaker, as is often the case with most censures
‘Has systematically infected nearly all aspects of our foreign policy apparatus’
The U.S. government, under Joe Biden, has handed out some $4.1 billion in taxpayer money to promote the LGBT ideology and lifestyle choices around the globe in just three fiscal years, according to a new report.
The Epoch Times said its investigation of federal spending, mostly under Joe Biden, revealed that the U.S. as awarded more than 1,100 grants “to fund LGBT-promoting projects round the world.”
For example, the LGBT Life Center in Norfolk, Virginia, was handed $1.8 million for a “safe space.”
And in Serbia, LGBT activists got $500,000 for a plan to smooth the path to “economic empowerment and opportunity for LGBTQI+ people,” the investigation showed.
In Armenia, $1 million U.S. tax dollars went to the Pink Human Rights Defender activists.
The Epoch Times said, “The federal spending website can be filtered to show entries that include specific keywords. A list of payouts filtered by using the keyword ‘LGBT’ included 1,181 grants, 31 loans, and nine direct payments during the past three fiscal years.”
Grants including the keyword “LGBT” that involved more than $1 million in individual payouts combined to cost taxpayers $3.7 billion, with many smaller grants uncounted. And those payouts based on the “transgender” keyword totaled some $478 million, the report said.
he report cites documentation from a researcher whose identity was not revealed by the report.
He works at a “politically left-wing” company and told the publication his superiors likely would object to his results.
“I could write for 20 years about just the money that’s already been spent over the past three or four years,” he explained, after sharing his findings on social media.
Taxpayers should be stunned by the spending, the report suggested.
“A Department of Education search revealed an ongoing grant paid to Emory University for researchers to study ‘the rectal mucosal effects of cross-sex hormone therapy among U.S. and Thai transgender women,’” the report said.
And one funded scheme just this year got $350,000 from the National Endowment for the Humanities to translate the “Homosaurus,” which is a list of LGBT terms, into Spanish.
“Another grant pays for a ‘social biography of same-sex desire in postcolonial Ireland,’” the report said.
Moms for Liberty co-founder Tiffany Justice explained in the report the federal government’s profligacy actually is using “the grant process to change the culture and climate in America’s public schools.”
“The grants go to ‘community partners,’ and ‘community partners’ then go in, and they work to change the procedure in the schools” to favor and teach LGBT activist worldviews, she explained.
A report in the Washington Stand ticked off the problems facing America, “an ongoing war in the Middle East, open borders flooding in millions of illegal immigrants, a worsening drug crisis, and increased risk of terrorist attacks in the U.S.,” and compared it to Biden’s “priorities,” which are promoting the LGBT beliefs.
“In June, Family Research Council published a report that tracked the Biden administration’s foreign policy LGBT priorities. Written by Arielle Del Turco, director of the Center for Religious Liberty, and Chris Gacek, senior fellow for Regulatory Affairs, it revealed data similar to the Epoch Times’s investigation. FRC’s report also pointed out that the Biden administration’s ‘ideological colonialism’ often ‘strains our relationships with other countries and diverts U.S. attention from focusing on other human rights issues,’” the report said.
Del Turco said, “Sadly, the Biden administration has systematically infected nearly all aspects of our foreign policy apparatus to push LGBT ideology across the globe.
“Under Biden, Pride Month is celebrated at embassies, LGBT issues are included in the State Department’s annual Human Rights reports, the government observes LGBT commemoration days, and the State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development fund LGBT activism abroad. This type of international activism is alienating to many American allies in the developing world that have more conservative or traditional value systems.”
(Worthy News) -The renowned 1979 “Jesus” movie has now been translated into its 2,100th language, the Washington Times reports. Based on the Gospel of Luke, the movie is a hugely popular American-made drama about the life of Christ.
The newest language into which the Jesus movie has been translated is Waorani, the Times said. Waorani is spoken by approximately 3,000 indigenous people of Ecuador’s Amazon region.
“The most dignifying thing we can do as followers of Jesus is to share about Jesus in the ‘heart language’ that people speak,” Josh Newell, executive director of the Jesus Film Project, said in a statement.
The Jesus Film Project team hopes to use Artificial Intelligence technology to translate the film into around 200 more languages by 2025, the Times reports.
“The AI applications that we’re looking at when it comes to translation are in step with the Bible translation community organizations such as Wycliffe Bible Translators and others,” Newell said. “We also have some other emerging AI developments that we’re looking at to match the lip-sync much better, so when the actors on the screen pronounce Mandarin, they’ll look more like a native speaker than they do currently,” Newell added.
You’ve likely enjoyed good books that entertained you or maybe taught you something new. Well, the Bible is superior to any book you’ve ever read. In fact, it’s superior to all of them combined! Listen to Truth For Life with Alistair Begg to find out why.—————————————–
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