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
In the eyes of the world success is measured very differently than in the economy of God. To the world, words such as accomplishment, advancement, and accumulation are often the measuring sticks that man uses to measure success. Getting a promotion at work, having a big bank account, and graduating from a prestigious university are all marks of a successful individual.
However, in the kingdom of God, our heavenly Father uses a very different word to measure success – and that is the word faithful. Sadly, even in the church some ministries measure success by how many people attend Sunday services, and how many people did you lead to Christ. And yes, while these are important, they by no means should be the only way the body of Christ measures success.
In fact, oftentimes God measures success very differently than the world does. For example, accumulating wealth, while a worldly measure of achievement, can actually displease the Lord, who often wants us to use our finances to help others and build up the kingdom of God. Spending money on kingdom purposes may deplete your bank account but in the eyes of the Lord it will make you rich in heaven.
My friends we often strive to accomplish great personal achievements, not so much for the benefit of others and for the glory of God, but for our own prideful selves. Under this scenario getting the praises of men may come our way but not the approval of God. For if we use our gifts and talents for selfish gain, then God’s approval will always be withheld.
Society considers success and failure as opposites, but to God this isn’t necessarily so. To the world, and even the church sometimes, if we share the gospel and no one comes to Christ they count this as an unsuccessful mission. But to God just sharing the gospel is well pleasing in His eyes and all of heaven is applauding us. For you see God measures success and achievement in terms of our faithfulness and obedience to His calling. I love how Pastor John MacArthur talks about this when he shared: “Our responsibility is simply to make our witness faithful; it is God’s responsibility alone to make it effective.”1
When we are faithful and obedient to the will of God Jesus is well-pleased with us. Using our gifts, finances, talents, and time, to the best of our abilities to advance the kingdom of God and bring glory to the Lord, or in other words being faithful to the Lord, regardless of the results, will always please our Savior, and make us great in the kingdom of God.
Available, faithful, obedient, and prayerful, are the ways God measures a life well pleasing to Him. E.M. Bounds once remarked: “Men are God’s method. The church is looking for better methods; God is looking for better men. What the church needs today is not more machinery or better, not new organizations or more and novel methods, but men who the Holy Spirit can use – men of prayer, men mighty in prayer. The Holy Spirit does not come on machinery but on men. He does not anoint plans, but men – men of prayer.”2
So if you want to be a “better man” just be faithful and yes prayerful – for this combination is very well pleasing to the Lord!
“But Joash said to all who stood against him, “Would you plead for Baal? Would you save him? Let the one who would plead for him be put to death by morning! If he is a god, let him plead for himself, because his altar has been torn down!”” – Judges 6:31
This is a text full of surprises. To understand why, let’s see what’s going on. Joash is Gideon’s father but was an avowed idolater. This reminds us of Terah, father of Abram. God commanded Gideon to tear down his dad’s Baal altar and sacrifice one of dad’s young bulls to the True and Living God. Once Gideon did this the town leaders wanted Gideon dead. Keep in mind that Joash was THE leader of that clan! But when the other town leaders come for Gideon’s head, Joash stands up for his son and for the God of heaven and earth!
Was Joash converted? We’re not sure, but it sounds that way. In any case God used this former idolater to save Gideon from certain death. Gideon would go on to be a powerful Judge over Israel, used by the Lord to save the covenant people, but only after being saved himself. God surprised Gideon by using his dad. How has God surprised you?
We should be surprised that God has given us any grace at all. Receiving saving grace through Jesus Christ should stun us. But then we think of all the other ways God surprises us. He has promised that, along with Jesus Christ, He would also “…freely give us all things” (Romans 8:32). We are surely richly cared for by our God and today will be no different.
Suggestions for prayer
Ask the Lord to show you today some of the surprising ways He cares for you.
Rev. Harold Miller graduated from Mid-America Reformed Seminary in 2001 and has served churches in Wellsburg, Iowa and Kansas City, Missouri before arriving at Oak Lawn, Illinois in 2020. Get this devotional delivered directly to your phone each day via our RP App. It is also available in print, for purchase, at NTGDevotional.com.
Be not afraid of sudden fear, neither of the desolation of the wicked, when it cometh. For the Lord shall be thy confidence, and shall keep thy foot from being taken. (Proverbs 3:25-26)
When God is abroad in judgments, He would not have His people alarmed. He has not come forth to harm but to defend the righteous.
He would have them manifest courage. We who enjoy the presence of God ought to display presence of mind. Since the Lord Himself may suddenly come, we ought not to be surprised at anything sudden. Serenity under the rush and roar of unexpected evils is a precious gift of divine love.
The Lord would have His chosen display discrimination so that they may see that the desolation of the wicked is not a real calamity to the universe. Sin alone is evil; the punishment which follows thereupon is as a preserving salt to keep society from putrefying. We should be far more shocked at the sin which deserves hell than at the hell which comes out of sin.
So, too, should the Lord’s people exhibit great quietness of spirit. Satan and his serpent seed are full of all subtlety; but those who walk with God shall not be taken in their deceitful snares. Go on, believer in Jesus, and let the Lord be thy confidence.
“But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!” Galatians 5:22-23, NLT
Heartache and pain is part of life.
It can either bring us closer to the One who can transform the difficulties of life into fruit, or it can make us bitter, angry, and full of resentment. For a large portion of my life, I chose the latter. I had no peace in my heart, or patience, faithfulness and self-control, for that matter. I let the hurts of the world define who I was and what my heart would produce.
God changed all of that. I am a child of God. We are all sons and daughters of God because of what Jesus has done for us. He came as one of us, in the flesh, to die for our sins, shedding His own perfect blood as the sacrifice for all time. He has given us the right to be His children and heirs of His Kingdom. It is in His unfailing and unending Grace (undeserved, forever faithful love) that we find our true existence: forgiven, redeemed, and beloved.
Your identity now resides in His love—His perfect, unconditional, and forever faithful love. It is only through Christ Jesus that your hurts from this world can be transformed into fruit of His Spirit. It is through Him alone that you can know you’re loved and that you are able to love others.
Are you finding your identity in your relationship with God or in the things of this world?
Heavenly Father, we come before You today with a humble and repentant heart, seeking You and only You. Fill us with Your love so we may overflow with the fruit of Your Spirit. Let it transform our hearts and spill over on to all we interact with in. Amen.
Thought: Identify anything that is preventing you from truly receiving God’s love deeply and passing it on. Ask Him to remove any fear, bitterness, and pain you’ve been carrying and to instead give you His Spirit of truth so your life will become more fruitful.
“I have loved you with an everlasting love…” Jeremiah 31:3
Valentine’s Day, as celebrated in many Western countries, is supposed to be a day filled with gifts (usually candy and flowers), lovingly worded greeting cards, and special acts of kindness. Yet for many people—young and old—it is a day marked by an aching heart. The single mother weighed down by burdens of responsibilities almost too heavy to bear. A widowed man sitting quietly in his rocker with only tears of memory as his companion. The young single woman wonders why she alone, among so many of her friends, is without a fiance or husband. The married couple who merely co-exist without a spark of passion. The candy is consumed, the flowers fade and many of the special acts are unfortunately replaced with less loving gestures.
What happens on February 15th? Is there a love that helps us bear our burdens, wipes our tears, satisfies our longings? Madeleine L ’Engle writes:
“One of our children when he was two or three years old used to rush at me when he had been naughty, and beat against me, and what he wanted by this monstrous behavior was an affirmation of love. And I would put my arms around him and hold him very tight until the dragon was gone and the loving small boy had returned. So God does with me. I strike out at Him in pain and fear and He holds me under the shadow of His wings. Sometimes He appears to me to be so unreasonable that I think I cannot live with Him, but I know that I cannot live without Him.”
Thank you, Father, that your love doesn’t depend on my worth or my reactions, that you loved me from before the beginning of time, that your love can fill all the empty spaces of my heart.
Shallow M6.0 earthquake hits State of Yap, Federated States of Micronesia A strong and shallow earthquake registered by the USGS as M6.0 hit the State of Yap, Federated States of Micronesia at 11:40 UTC on February 14, 2024. The agency is reporting a depth of 10 km (6.2 miles). EMSC is reporting the same magnitude and depth.
Shallow M6.0 earthquake hits near the coast of Atacama, Chile A strong and shallow earthquake registered by the USGS as M6.0 hit near the coast of Atacama, Chile at 01:31 UTC on February 14, 2024. The agency is reporting a depth of 22 km (13.7 miles). EMSC is reporting the same magnitude and depth.
Idaho Moves Forward With Plan to Execute Pedophiles Idaho is moving forward with legislation that would allow the execution of child rapists. The Idaho Capital Sun reports that the legislation, introduced by Republican lawmakers, will target those who have committed the most serious offenses against children as well as repeat offenders. The bill passed the Idaho House by a 57-11 vote.
Israel’s National Security Minister Ominously Delcares “This Is War” After Hezbollah Unleashes A Barrage Of Missiles The countdown to a cataclysmic conflict between Israel and Hezbollah is rapidly picking up momentum. On Wednesday, a missile barrage that was unleashed by Hezbollah fighters in southern Lebanon hit multiple targets in northern Israel. If Hezbollah really wants peace like they claim that they do, they have a really strange way of showing it. It is being reported that this missile barrage “appeared to be the fiercest attacks from Lebanon since the confrontation began.”
Listening Devices Are Being Installed In UK School Bathrooms As part of an attempt to curb vaping, bullying, and unruly behavior in school restrooms, some educational institutions in the UK are turning to new technology — sensors capable of snooping on student conversations and detecting certain keywords in speech.
Watch: Lab-altered Mosquitoes: ‘Coming to Your Town Next?’ Tina Lia, president and founder of Hawaii Unites, joined “The Defender In-Depth” podcast this week to discuss the plan in Hawaii to release up to 775,992,000 lab-altered, bacteria-infected mosquitoes on Maui every week for the next 20 years.
Over 100 Chinese Websites Pose As Local News Outlets In 30 Countries At least 123 Chinese websites are disguised as local news outlets in 30 countries to disseminate pro-Beijing disinformation, according to a recent report from Citizen Lab, a digital watchdog at Canada’s University of Toronto.
As WHO Pandemic Treaty Nears Completion, Critics Raise Red Flags for US Freedoms As the May deadline approaches for finalizing negotiations between the World Health Organization (WHO) and its 194 member nations over how much authority they will cede to the WHO once it declares a global health emergency, many health and policy experts are urging the Biden administration not to sign the United States up to the agreement.
73,000,000 Abortions Happen Worldwide Each Year It is almost midnight, but at this stage most of the population doesn’t even care about the endless procession of babies that are having their lives snuffed out at our abortion mills. Terms such as “massacre”, “slaughter’ and “genocide” are not nearly strong enough to describe what is taking place on a daily basis, and the vast majority of us seem to think that there will never be any serious consequences for what we are doing. But the truth is that we shall surely reap what we have sown.
The World Economic Forum’s “Frankensteinization” of the Entire World. Hollywood’s “Predictive Movies” According to Peter Koenig who is a geopolitical analyst and a former Senior Economist at the World Bank and the World Health Organization (WHO), the “dark cult” must warn and inform us of their plans. Koenig, explains that this is “predictive programming” and is used to destabilize society, which instills fear into the masses, thus making us all suitably vulnerable.
Neuroweapons and the Worldwide “Battle” to Control of Human Brains. Must be Stopped Immediately Mojmir Babacek has been striving to help to achieve the international ban of remote control of the activity of the human nervous system and human minds with the use of neurotechnology since the 1990s. He has recently stated that “it is necessary that world governments sign an international agreement banning the use of neurotechnologies and artificial intelligence to control the activity of human brains.” The use of neuroweapons according to Mojmir Babacek, is an American project that is being implemented to gain global control.
UK Council unlawfully incarcerates elderly couple to take their land Danny Beach bought his farm, Padd Farm, in 1985. It was a 32-acre plot in Virginia Water, a village in the borough of Runnymede, Surrey, England. Farming was in decline but the Beach’s did their best. After a few years, they realised they would have to diversify and decided to rent some of the farm buildings out to others. Runnymede Borough Council made life very difficult. Initially, he didn’t understand why. “It was only years later that I realized they wanted my farm,” Danny Beach told LSB Film Productions. As he found out, the Council wanted their farm for residential development.
Sandi Adams: Farming is being destroyed and it’s being destroyed by design Recently, Colchester Council Watch interviewed Sandi Adams to discuss how the UN agenda is affecting farmers globally and the protests around the EU. This is an important video if you’re someone who likes eating food and if you’re a farmer who’s unsure if they should be joining the protests. “We’ve got to get farmers to understand where this is going and that farming will die if we don’t do something now,” Adams warned.
“Nothing is more certain than that a general profligacy and corruption of manners make a people ripe for destruction.” —John Witherspoon (1776)
Fellow Patriots, on this day in 1820, Susan B. Anthony was born. She became the leading face of the women’s suffrage movement, even casting an illegal protest vote in 1872 — for incumbent Republican Ulysses S. Grant. She never paid the $100 fine. Fourteen years after her death in 1906, the 19th Amendment was ratified, granting women the right to vote. —Mark Alexander
Joe Biden jumped out to blame firearms and opponents of his gun control measures, but Democrat crime policies are the real culprit.
Nate Jackson
Joe Biden couldn’t be bothered with the traditional fluff interview during Sunday’s Super Bowl, but he sure wasn’t going to sit on the sidelines after a shooting broke out at the conclusion of the Kansas City Chiefs victory parade Wednesday.
Not long after 22 people were shot and one killed as the parade festivities were winding down, Biden put out a statement. It began well enough:
The Super Bowl is the most unifying event in America. Nothing brings more of us together. And the celebration of a Super Bowl win is a moment that brings a joy that can’t be matched to the winning team and their supporters. For this joy to be turned to tragedy today in Kansas City cuts deep in the American soul.
Today’s events should move us, shock us, shame us into acting. What are we waiting for? What else do we need to see? How many more families need to be torn apart?
We couldn’t agree more. But then he went into the predictable leftist agenda that puts all the blame on guns and magazines (that weren’t even used in Kansas City), places most of the onus on law-abiding gun owners, and would do next to nothing to reduce violence while jeopardizing Fourth Amendment due process rights.
It is time to act. That’s where I stand. And I ask the country to stand with me. To make your voice heard in Congress so we finally act to ban assault weapons, to limit high-capacity magazines, strengthen background checks, keep guns out of the hands of those who have no business owning them or handling them.
Biden brought up the Parkland shooting, which happened six years ago yesterday, as well as a couple of other assaults, including the three DC police officers shot Wednesday. That was a setup for this dubious assertion: “We’ve now had more mass shootings in 2024 than there have been days in the year.” The problem, he said once again, is “the epidemic of gun violence.”
Lisa Lopez-Galvan, a 44-year-old Hispanic mother of two and popular radio DJ in Kansas City, was killed yesterday. The Kansas City Star reports, “Nine children, ages 6 to 15, were among those shot.” In total, 22 parade-goers were shot, and eight of them sustained what authorities said were “life-threatening” injuries. One mom described being with her teen daughter: “All I did was wrap my arms around her because if something was going to happen, it was going to happen to me, not her.” Several fans bravely tackled and disarmed one suspect while police apprehended the others.
Biden is right — this sort of thing should shock us, and it should never happen.
But Biden and his entire party do nothing to slow or stop — and arguably much to create — the kind of violence that shattered Wednesday’s joyous celebration.
Three or four suspects (it’s unclear) have been taken into custody, and all of them are black. Was this gang-related? Regardless, this is yet another story about violence in Democrat-controlled urban centers, unfortunately and primarily among blacks. Other than throwing out some eye-popping statistics about “gun deaths,” Democrats don’t talk much about the fact that their constituents keep murdering each other, and they certainly avoid discussing why.
In fact, Democrats generally slander those who point out such facts and reasons as racists. On Wednesday in Chicago, Mayor Brandon Johnson announced that he won’t renew the city’s $49 million contract with ShotSpotter, a surveillance system intended to help reduce violence. Why? Racism. Johnson’s office claims the system unfairly targets communities of color.
We’re sure that has nothing to do with the frequency of shootings and other crimes in those communities. According to the University of Chicago, in 2021, “the homicide rate for Black residents was 40x that for white residents.” Forty times. But sure, the problem is guns.
Notably, the Windy City will continue to use ShotSpotter until September — after the Democratic National Convention is held there in August.
The Left’s answer to crime seems to be to get even softer on enforcement. In honor of Black History Month, MSNBC has released a new special called “Black Men In America: The Road to 2024.” The big takeaway is that we could reduce crime by … calling fewer things crimes.
That’s straight out of Joe Biden’s immigration policy handbook.
Biden’s policy is racist, of course, because it favors minorities illegally crossing our border. MSNBC’s suggestion is racist, too, because the reasoning — if it can be called that — is that laws just mean “criminalizing black culture.” We should be changing black culture, then, not our laws.
Like most other American cities controlled by Democrats, Kansas City suffers from urban violent crime. We just saw that yesterday. The real answer to this is to consistently and justly punish criminals while empowering law-abiding citizens to more effectively defend themselves.
The statistics bear that out. As more states expand concealed-carry laws and now even permitless carry, crime rates are falling. Just not in urban centers chock-full of violent Democrat constituents.
“What are we waiting for?” Biden asked. Indeed, the clear answers are right in front of us, but Democrats remain as blind as the worst NFL referee.
What this “serious national security threat” is all about, Biden’s bogus Beau claims, TikTok is the new illegal immigration app, and more.
Douglas Andrews, Thomas Gallatin, & Jordan Candler
Cross-Examination
What’s this “serious national security threat” all about? National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan will be on Capitol Hill today to brief lawmakers on a national security threat from Russia. The threat is said to involve the use of nukes in space, ostensibly to disable our nation’s satellite system. That it’s Jake Sullivan who’ll be briefing Congress — that same scheming Hillary Clinton stooge from Crossfire Hurricane infamy — should be a hint and a half for lawmakers to wear their waders today. This isn’t to say that the Russia threat isn’t real. As Fox News national security analyst Dan Hoffman noted this morning: “Russia does a lot of things really poorly, but one of the things they do well is nuclear weapons, ballistic missiles, space technology. … I have no doubt that this is true, and it would represent a threat to civilian communications as well as military command and control if Russia were to put a nuclear weapon in space. It’s obviously a violation of the Outer Space Treaty, which Russia signed, but I don’t think that’s something that would cause Vladimir Putin any concern.” As for Congressman Mike Turner, who sounded the initial alarm yesterday and made Congress look kind of foolish in the process: He chairs the House Intelligence Committee, he just returned from his third visit to Ukraine, and he’s a big proponent of continued U.S. funding of that country in its war with Putin’s Russian invaders. He also understands the crucial nature of the debate currently raging about the $85 billion Senate foreign aid bill, $60 billion of which would go toward Ukraine — this on top of the $113 billion in taxpayer funds we’ve already spent there. “I am requesting that President Biden declassify all information relating to this threat so that Congress, the Administration, and our allies can openly discuss the actions necessary to respond to this threat,” Turner said in a statement yesterday about the Russian space threat. To which a clearly perturbed House Speaker Mike Johnson responded: “We are going to work together to address this matter as we do all sensitive matters that are classified. And beyond that, I’m not at liberty to disclose classified information … but we just want to assure everyone, steady hands are at the wheel. We’re working on it. There’s no need for alarm.”
Biden’s bogus Beau claims: Special Counsel Robert Hur’s assessment in his report on Joe Biden’s mishandling of classified documents is that the state of Biden’s memory is “significantly limited.” Biden’s fiery press conference response afterward only reinforced that conclusion. Biden blasted Hur for questioning him about his eldest son Beau Biden’s death, stating: “How in the hell dare he raise that? It wasn’t any of their damn business.” Of course, it’s Biden who has repeatedly referenced Beau’s death, often erroneously claiming he died in Iraq. Beau died of brain cancer in Bethesda, Maryland, in 2015. The trouble is, Hur did not question Biden about his son’s death. Rather, Biden himself brought up the subject during the five-hour interview with the special counsel last October. Hur and his team simply observed that while Biden accurately recalled the date of Beau’s death, May 30th, Biden could not remember the year of his death. The remaining question is this: Does Biden actually believe that it was Hur and not himself who raised Beau’s death?
Tlaib refuses to condemn sexual violence as a “weapon of war”: Radical leftist Squad member Representative Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) simply voted “present” on a bipartisan House resolution that condemned the use of rape and sexual violence as “weapons of war.” Tlaib was the only House member not to vote in favor of the resolution that was introduced by Democrat Florida Representative Lois Frankel and passed 418-0 on Wednesday. Following the vote, Tlaib posted on X her rationale for not supporting the resolution: “We all have a responsibility to denounce sexual violence in all forms, regardless of who is responsible. War crimes cannot justify more war crimes. This resolution falls well short of also acknowledging the sexual abuse of Palestinians.” The trouble for Tlaib is that Hamas was guilty of using sexual violence as a weapon of war, not Israel, a fact that was shockingly demonstrated and broadcast by Hamas with its October 7 attack on innocent Israeli civilians. As Frankel stated on the House floor, “Shockingly and alarmingly, Hamas’s violence has been met with a shrug from many corners in the world, and many deny it.”
Why Dems welcome illegal immigration: Joe Biden’s illegal immigration crisis is of his own doing, irrespective of his administration’s disingenuous and politically calculated claim that Republicans are actually the ones to blame for their refusal to pass a bad immigration bill. Biden’s border policy from day one of his presidency has been one of a de facto open border. And the reasoning behind this policy has everything to do with building Democrat political power. With millions of illegal aliens now living across the U.S., the communities in which they live naturally raise the population numbers of those locations. According to a new report from the Center for Immigration Studies, this influx of illegals could increase the total number of Democrat seats in the House by up to 22. While these illegal aliens may never gain citizenship and voting rights, their mere presence boosts the representation level for those regions within the country where they reside. And those regions, in many instances, appear to be Democrat-run cities, which thousands of Americans have moved away from due to their being so poorly run. Effectively, illegal immigration is being used to artificially juice Democrats’ numbers in order to increase their representation in the House.
TikTok is the new illegal immigration app: As if TikTok weren’t already a pernicious and mind-rotting Chinese Communist spyware, we’re now learning that it’s helping illegal aliens to effectively invade our country. According to a recent “60 Minutes” episode, many illegals are crossing into the U.S. after having watched step-by-step videos on the ChiCom-owned social media platform that show how to find gaps in the border wall and how to hire human traffickers to help them on their journey. “TikTok, TikTok,” a translator says on behalf of a female Chinese immigrant who’d been asked how she learned about one particular gap in the border wall. As Hot Air’s Jazz Shaw sardonically quips: “Is there nothing TikTok can’t do? Most of us are probably familiar with the typical uses of the app. You can watch crazy dances and Tide Pod challenges. You can learn the locations of conservatives or Jews you’d like to dox. Or you can just open up your own data to be consumed by the Chinese Communist Party. It’s all in good fun.” And now we learn it helps exacerbate our southern border disaster. Is this a great app or what?
NY judge sets March trial date for Trump: New York City Judge Juan Merchan rejected Donald Trump’s request to dismiss charges brought against him by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg regarding alleged hush-money payments made to porn actress Stormy Daniels back in 2016. Merchan scheduled jury selection for the trial to begin on March 25. This will be the first of four criminal cases that Trump is facing. Entering the courthouse prior to the judge’s decision, Trump blasted the charges as politically motivated. “I’m here for something that’s not a crime. It’s election interference, and it’s being run by Joe Biden’s White House.” He added: “This is just a way of hurting me and the election because I’m leading by a lot. … If I hadn’t run, they would have been extremely happy.”
Why is the CDC still recommending COVID shots for kids? Even casual observers of the COVID-19 pandemic have known since its earliest days that children and young people without underlying health conditions have an infinitesimally small risk of death. We saw the data when COVID hit Italy in early 2020 and decimated the elderly while leaving children living in the same home untouched. But when the coronavirus came to the U.S., our health policy leadership failed to apply this knowledge. As Joel Zinberg writes in City Journal: “The CDC recommended the bivalent mRNA Covid-19 vaccine … for persons aged 12 or older on September 1, 2022, and for children aged five to 11 on October 12, 2022. The bivalent vaccine was superseded last fall by a univalent vaccine against a subsequent Omicron variant.” And yet, according to a new CDC study, that Fall 2022 version of the vaccine was about 50% effective in blocking infection over a two-month post-vax period in children and teens aged five to 17. And, as Zinberg points out, “This limited and transitory benefit does not justify the agency’s official recommendation that everyone in this low-risk age group be vaccinated against Covid-19.” Whatever happened to “science”? And why on earth is the CDC still pushing the vaccine on our children?
BRIC nations aim to take the U.S. down via global currency: As the story goes, when Fred Smith was pursuing an economics degree at Yale University in the early 1960s, he wrote a paper outlining the idea for an overnight delivery service. Apparently, he got a “C” on that paper. This, of course, says as much about Smith as it does an Ivy League education, but the point here is that when a visionary like Smith speaks, we might want to listen. And he warned earlier this week about the designs of the so-called BRIC countries — Brazil, Russia, India, and China — plotting to unseat the U.S. dollar as the world’s reserve currency. If they succeed, the result wouldn’t be pleasant for the standard of living we Americans have come to enjoy. Smith, a 79-year-old patriot, served two tours in Vietnam after graduating from Yale and earned the Silver Star for his valor. He began by noting that overall inflation was up 17.9% since Joe Biden took office. “We’re the wealthiest nation in the world because of all these wonderful inventions since the end of World War II,” he said. “But we’re also prosperous because we led the world in opening markets for trade and protected those trade flows with the American military and our alliances. And then third, and probably equally important, we’re the reserve currency of the world. The dollar is the medium of exchange, and our financial institutions control the movement of money around the world. … And then on top of that, our financial capabilities to print money at will is dependent on the dollar remaining the reserve currency. And the so-called BRICs alliance … have set out on a deliberate course to dethrone the dollar. If that happens, and we can’t sell our bonds, I can assure you the living standards that we all enjoy today are going to be a thing of the past.” Smith is speaking some harsh truths. The question is: Is anyone in the Beltway listening?
Headlines
Another top Republican announces retirement: Congress “broken beyond most means of repair” (Daily Wire)
Jim Clyburn to step down from leadership role as Democrats usher in new generation (Washington Examiner)
White House thrashed for Valentine meme attacking Mike Johnson over border deal (Daily Wire)
Biden gets Putin’s endorsement in potential rematch with Trump (New York Post)
Suspect surrenders to DC police, ends barricade that started with shooting of three officers (Washington Times)
Bomb-sniffing dog was at DNC on January 6, raising further questions about undetected pipe bomb (Daily Wire)
Biden admin pours $1 million into studies aimed at denying there are only two genders (Daily Wire)
Trans athlete wins girls’ state title for high jump (Not the Bee)
Disney decided to enter political fray after January 6 (Hot Air)
Rachel Dolezal fired from elementary school after OnlyFans surfaces (Daily Wire)
Yet another Harvard University official accused of plagiarism (Daily Caller)
Humor: Devout Catholic Joe Biden gives up cognitive tests for lent (Babylon Bee)
According to a new study by The Heartland Institute, it most certainly was.
Douglas Andrews
The truth about the 2020 presidential election continues to dribble out, slowly and inexorably, and none of it is favorable to the Democrats and their corporate media organs.
Nor is the truth favorable to Joe Biden, the gaffe-prone, basement-bound, then-77-year-old Democrat who ran the most listless and least inspiring presidential campaign in our lifetimes and still hauled in more votes — a lot more votes — than any candidate in history. We were forbidden from even asking questions about that election — an election that the mainstream media quickly and shamefully proclaimed to be “the most secure in American history.”
Vindication has come much too slowly for the tens of millions of Americans who just knew in their gut that something wasn’t right about that election, but vindication has come nonetheless. It has come over time with the irrefutable evidence that Big Tech and the deep state colluded to interfere in the election on behalf of Joe Biden and against Donald Trump by suppressing the Hunter Biden laptop bombshell.
And now it has come in a new 36-page policy brief from The Heartland Institute. That document, titled “Who Really Won the 2020 Election: Measuring the Effect of Mail-in Ballot Fraud in the Trump-Biden Race for the White House,” concludes as follows: “Had the 2020 election been conducted like every national election has been over the past two centuries, wherein the vast majority of voters cast ballots in-person rather than by mail, Donald Trump would have almost certainly been re-elected.”
No, as we’ve written before, it wasn’t those Dominion voting machines. That theory was a bright, shiny, unfortunate distraction.
Instead, it was a well-orchestrated and magnificently funded takeover of the voting operations in the urban areas of the key swing states, much of it due to the scare of the COVID-19 pandemic and the unconstitutional bulk-mail balloting scheme that ensued. Three of those swing states — Arizona, Georgia, and Wisconsin — went to Joe Biden by just 43,000 votes. In an election of more than 155 million total votes, that’s one vote for every 3,600 cast.
This new paper stems from a collaborative poll conducted late last year by Heartland and Rasmussen Reports. That poll “attempted to assess the degree of fraudulent voting that took place in the 2020 election.” The results of the survey found that “a massive number of voters who cast ballots by mail admitted to committing at least one form of voter fraud in the 2020 election.” Specifically:
21% of mail-in voters admitted that in 2020 they voted in a state where they are “no longer a permanent resident”
21% of mail-in voters admitted that they filled out a ballot for a friend or family member
17% of mail-in voters said they signed a ballot for a friend or family member “with or without his or her permission”
19% of mail-in voters said that a friend or family member filled out their ballot, in part or in full, on their behalf
Having analyzed the raw survey data, the report’s authors concluded that 28.2% of respondents who voted by mail admitted to committing at least one kind of voter fraud — which means that more than one-fourth of the ballots cast by mail in 2020 shouldn’t have been counted. But they were counted, and they benefited Biden in a huge way.
The authors write: “Because Joe Biden received significantly more mail-in votes than Donald Trump, we conclude that the 2020 election outcome would have been different in the key swing states that Donald Trump lost by razor thin margins in 2020 — Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin — under the 28.2 percent scenario. We also analyzed the electoral results for those six swing states under every integer from 27 percent fraud down to 1 percent fraud, allowing readers to see the impact that fraudulent mail-in ballots might have produced under each scenario.”
As the authors conclude:
Ultimately, our study shows that of the 29 different scenarios presented in the paper, Trump would have won the 2020 election in all but three (when mail-in ballot fraud is limited to 1–3 percent of the ballots counted). Hence, even if the level of fraud detected in our survey (28.2 percent of all mail-in ballots) substantially overstates the actual level of fraud that occurred, Trump would likely have won the 2020 election anyway. We have no reason to believe that our survey overstated voter fraud by more than 25 percentage points, and thus, we must conclude that the best available evidence suggests that mail-in ballot fraud significantly impacted the 2020 presidential election, in favor of Joe Biden. In other words, had the 2020 election been conducted like every national election has been over the past two centuries, wherein the vast majority of voters cast ballots in-person rather than by mail, Donald Trump would have almost certainly been re-elected.
It’s difficult to say what can be done legally at this point. After all, we’re in uncharted territory where American presidential elections are concerned. Free, fair, and secure elections, though, are the sign of a healthy republic. And if our most recent presidential election is any indication, we’re a sick society indeed.
Going forward, the Heartland paper’s authors have some suggestions at the state level, which they’ve broken down into two groups: proactive policies and preventive policies.
Among the proactive suggestions are updating and verifying election registration rolls annually, requiring a valid ID to vote, encouraging in-person voting, requiring a witness or notary signature on all mail-in ballots, and minimizing mail-in voting by requiring a valid excuse for doing so.
Among the preventive suggestions are outlawing ballot harvesting, forbidding unattended and unsecured election drop boxes, requiring signature verification for mail-in voting, establishing agencies to investigate claims of election law violations, and passing state and federal laws that impose harsh penalties for voter fraud.
It’s our admittedly cynical sense that Republican-controlled states will take these suggestions to heart and try to implement them, while Democrat-controlled states will ignore them. After all, the easier it is to vote, the easier it is to cheat.
Former Hunter Biden business associate Tony Bobulinski claims that selling access to Joe Biden was the family business.
Thomas Gallatin
“For nearly four years, I have tried to tell the American people the truth about serious corruption at the very top of their government,” said Tony Bobulinski, Hunter Biden’s former business associate, in the opening statement of his recent closed-door testimony before the House Oversight and Judiciary Committees. “It is clear to me that Joe Biden was ‘the Brand’ being sold by the Biden family.”
It’s not only that Biden was aware of his son Hunter’s foreign business dealings; according to Bobulinski, “The Biden family business was Joe Biden, period.”
The question of how Joe Biden made his millions after a career in politics is becoming clearer. Influence peddling was his bread and butter, and the more he advanced up the political ladder, the greater the financial gains.
Bobulinski’s recent testimony has helped to confirm and expose the nature of the Biden family’s foreign influence-peddling racket. As he testified: “His family’s foreign influence peddling operation — from China to Ukraine and elsewhere — sold out to foreign actors who were seeking to gain influence and access to Joe Biden and the United States government. Joe Biden was more than a participant in and beneficiary of his family’s business; he was an enabler, despite being buffered by a complex scheme to maintain plausible deniability.”
Furthermore, it explains how a wreck of a character like Hunter Biden was able to make business deals that raked in millions. “The only reason any of these international business transactions took place — with tens of millions of dollars flowing directly to the Biden family — was because Joe Biden was in high office,” Bobulinski stated.
According to a memo from House Republicans last September, from 2014 through 2019, the Biden family and business associates pulled in more than $24 million, with the elder Bidens getting a $15 million cut from that sum.
Bobulinski claimed to have met with Joe Biden back in 2017 regarding business dealings in connection to his ultimately failed “SinoHawk” venture, an attempted deal with the Chinese energy conglomerate CEFC. “The Chinese Communist Party through its surrogate, China Energy Company Limited, or ‘CEFC’ — a CCP-linked Chinese energy conglomerate — successfully sought to infiltrate and compromise Joe Biden and the Obama-Biden White House,” he testified. “Joe Biden was aware of the CEFC transaction, enabled it, and had a constitutional responsibility and obligation to the American people to shut it down before it began.”
Appearing to corroborate Bobulinski’s CEFC claims was testimony from another Hunter Biden business associate, Rob Walker. When he was asked last month whether Joe Biden had ever been in attendance at any location or meeting with CEFC officials, he replied, “Yes.” When asked if CEFC Chairman Ye Jianming and other associates were at the meeting, Walker answered: “I don’t know if Zang was there, but I believe that Ye was there. I’m certain of it.”
Walker noted that the meeting lasted for roughly 90 minutes and that Joe Biden was present for roughly 10 minutes of it. A new code name for Joe Biden was also uncovered from Walker’s testimony when he stated, “When [Hunter] said his ‘chairman,’ he was talking about his dad, and I think your dismissal of it may have offended him a bit, but you didn’t know what he was talking about.”
Following Walker’s testimony, House Republicans stated, “The committee can now confirm Joe Biden met with nearly every foreign national who funneled money to his son.”
The picture of the Biden family’s corruption is becoming clearer. The great irony is that Democrats and their media cohorts were incensed over a hoax about Donald Trump colluding with Russia, even though there was never any evidence supporting it. Yet as the evidence of Biden’s foreign influence peddling continues to mount, the Democrats ridiculously insist that there is no there there, and the mainstream media remains mum.
Just like many predicted, Harvard’s anti-Semitism doesn’t stop just because Claudine Gay is no longer president.
Emmy Griffin
Just because Harvard was forced by a plagiarism scandal to oust Claudine Gay from the title of president (she still works at the school and earns a $900,000 presidential paycheck, so no real punishment there) doesn’t mean that the intrinsic culture of anti-Jew, anti-Israel hatred isn’t alive and well on campus.
On this week’s episode of “Harvard Is an Anti-Semitic Hellhole,” the school decided to double down on not protecting its Jewish students from anti-Semitic attacks. Instead, it invited the disgraced Francesca Albanese, the UN’s Special Rapporteur on the Palestinian territories, to give a talk.
During Albanese’s discourse, her position on the Israel/Hamas war became very clear. Below are some of her more egregious statements.
On Hamas’s motivation:
“Saying that the motivation was anti-Semitism is wrong and dangerous. I’m not saying that people in Hamas are absolutely not anti-Semitic. This was not the argument. But the argument is that this attack was launched as a way to break the occupation against the apartheid.”
On Israel calling the attack anti-Semitic:
“I understand why Israel is using this argument of anti-Semitism because by saying ‘We were attacked because we are Jews,’ it’s bringing the existential threat that many Jews fear. The real threat is the apartheid that Israel imposes on the Palestinians, which is a threat to both Palestinians and Israeli Jews.”
And on Israel’s right to defend itself:
“Israel had to act under the framework of international humanitarian law in terms of law enforcement because this is the powers that it has as an occupying power. It didn’t have the right to act in self-defense, meaning waging a war, because it couldn’t wage a war against the people it maintains under occupation. What Israel had to do was to repel the attack on its own territory, arrest and detain and treat humanely the people who had been arrested, and ensure justice. You could have used justice, used its own justice system, go to International Criminal Court … instead of taking revenge against the entire population.”
Either Albanese is incompetently stupid, or she’s dishonest. Either way, her stance is downright evil when dissected to its core. She is saying that Hamas was provoked, that Israel has no right to defend itself, and that playing the victim (i.e., calling the attack anti-Semitic) is only an attempt to garner sympathy. For a so-called expert on Israel and Palestine, it’s important to note the utter lack of factual backing vis-à-vis her statements. Hamas itself has made its motivations clear.
It’s also worth noting that Albanese was banned from Israel for her extensive history of anti-Semitic stances dating back to 2014.
Meanwhile, Harvard students continue their anti-Israel string of protests. On Monday, they did a “die-in” on the Widener Library steps to represent the “genocide” against the Palestinian people. They then chanted, “From the water to the water, Palestine is Arab.” They learned how to say it in Arabic, and it essentially means the same thing as “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” I.e., the eradication of Israel. Tell us again how that’s not anti-Semitic and anti-Jew?
Another protest was documented in the Harvard Crimson, the school newspaper. This protest occurred last Friday and was dubbed a “hunger strike.” There were 30 participants from Harvard, and they were doing their “hunger strike” in solidarity with Brown students who were trying to get their university to divest itself from business entities that support human rights violations in “Palestine.” The 200 Brown students fasted for 32 hours, so just shy of a day and a half. Harvard participants went 12 hours without food. Neither one is impressive, and neither one should bear the moniker of a “hunger strike,” but Harvard’s protesters achieved what most people would call skipping lunch. Ridiculous.
It is important to continue to document what a travesty Harvard has become. It’s no longer the storied academy that produces the brightest minds. It’s a collection of spoiled Marxist, anti-Semitic elites who have taken over the university (bodysnatcher-style) and pitch tantrums, all while claiming they aren’t racist at all.
What’s behind the growing trend of Millennials and Gen Zers breaking off all contact with their parents?
Samantha Koch
A new silent epidemic is rapidly spreading through what most would classify as strong and loving homes — and even the parents who believe they’ve done everything right are not safe from its devastation.
An article in The Daily Wire shone light on the rising trend of Millennials and Gen Zers going “no contact” with their parents, and in many cases, their entire immediate family. The popularity of this movement is brought into focus with a couple of statistics: “On TikTok, the hashtag #ToxicFamily has 1.9 billion views. The hashtag #NoContact has 1.4 billion views.”
This issue of adult children cutting their parents out of their lives is not new. Many would agree that there are sometimes good reasons for grown children to distance themselves from a parent. Examples would include physical abuse, drug use, alcoholism, neglect, abandonment, and other forms of treatment where the parent failed to protect their child from harm, created a dangerous environment at home, or did not provide for their basic needs, such as food, clothing, and shelter. However, those are not the scenarios in question, and they do not seem to be among the reasons that most adult children today cite when making such a drastic decision.
That is, if you can get them to cite a reason at all.
An alarmingly common thread among what’s already a disturbing trend is how many parents have said that they have not only been ghosted by their adult child but that they have never been given an explanation as to why.
In July 2023, one mom of two middle-aged sons wrote of her personal experience with unexplained estrangement initiated by her adult children: “Nothing I’ve tried has worked, including asking my sons what I’ve done to hurt or make them angry and offering to pay a psychotherapist to mediate, only to be met by painful rejection. I’m at a loss to understand why.”
Other parents who are currently dealing with the same challenge might be lucky enough to get some semblance of an explanation, though these reasons often make little sense to those on the receiving end.
A YouTube creator, Diane, has dedicated her channel to offering peer support to parents facing this unimaginable trial. Within the opening seconds of her first video, she describes how prior to her daughter going “no contact,” she did receive a letter, which, in her mind, detailed a list of valid reasons for no longer maintaining a relationship with her mother. As Diane recounts that painful moment, she says, “Ninety percent of the letter was about politics, and how we couldn’t be in her life if we supported ‘that guy.’”
Yes, we are only getting one side of the story. However, considering the unfortunate reality of how contentious political differences have become in recent years, and that far too many relationships seem to have been severed due to a difference in views on today’s issues, it is not a far reach to believe that one’s political affiliation could be potent enough to drive a wedge between a child and a parent.
There are also several other elements to consider.
As the previously mentioned Daily Wire article points out, there are quite a number of prominent LGBTQ TikTok influencers who regularly give their target audience of young, confused teenagers advice on how to separate themselves from their family.
There is also the widely known fact that countless school districts across the country are dedicating hours of precious class time to teaching children about gender ideology — including policies that allow students to keep their classroom lessons and their identity hidden from their parents. In turn, students are being trained at a young age to view the relationship with their biological family as disposable and unimportant.
Queer theory, which serves as the basis for introducing children to the sexualized material that accompanies their lessons on gender, heavily emphasizes the objective of having students abandon those who brought them into this world — in exchange for the community.
It has also been alleged that there are woke therapists who will instruct their young adult patients to distance themselves from anyone who they feel is “toxic” in their lives, even if that person is a parent or loved one. This goes along nicely with the therapists who will willingly lead young children down a path toward mutilation of their anatomy or doctors who ignore the weight problems of their obese patients in the name of “positivity.”
Lastly, we have seen the immeasurable influence that social media has had on the critical thinking, analytical, and consequential thought processes of these next generations, as they use apps like Instagram and TikTok like oxygen. TikTok trends have persuaded young people to do irreversible harm to their own minds and bodies — whether it be to eat a Tide Pod, starve themselves, or participate in other dangerous challenges.
No, there is not a “no contact” challenge on TikTok. However, if young children who are trying to navigate their relationship with a parent who does not see eye-to-eye with them on every issue search for relatable TikTok stories under the “no contact” hashtag, they might find themselves immersed in a narrative that could distort the reality of their own childhood and experiences. After being pulled into the “no contact” algorithm and hearing numerous stories of others who have ghosted their parents for even the most trivial reasons, they could very well end up believing that isolating themselves from their primary support system suddenly makes sense.
Whatever the cause, there’s a rapidly growing surge in Gen Zers, and now Gen Alpha, choosing to close the door to the ones who sacrificed everything to love and raise them. If you are a parent who is facing this situation, know that you are not alone. Know that there is no shame in sharing your story and finding your own community to get you through the grief.
Based on today’s trajectory and the ideas being imposed on kids of all ages and at every turn, that support system might be needed sooner than anyone thinks.
Latest PodcastPopCon #31: Adaptations. Blasphemy, or Praise?Hollywood has a long-standing history of remaking and adapting films. Movie-making technology improves each year, offering the chance to recapture time-honored stories in better ways. But as the movie industry seems to lean more heavily on remakes, we have to question Hollywood’s motives. Join us as we explore several examples of “done right” or “done left” movie remakes and adaptations.
Editor’s Note: Each week we receive hundreds of comments and correspondences — and we read every one of them. Click here for a few thought-provoking comments about specific articles. The views expressed therein don’t necessarily reflect those of The Patriot Post.
Fani Willis Lied to Court. Disqualification Coming? — A disqualification hearing for Willis and her boyfriend Nathan Wade is set for Thursday in Atlanta, as a Trump co-defendant discovers their lies in sworn statements.
Climate Cultists Deface U.S. Constitution — A couple of climate activists dumped pink powder on the United States Constitution at the National Archives in Washington, DC.
Iger Made Disney Woke — Back in 2021, then-Disney Chairman Bob Iger called for the company to “take a stand” and not shy away from pushing DEI politics.
“The Super Bowl is the most unifying event in America. … For this joy to be turned to tragedy [yesterday] in Kansas City cuts deep in the American soul. [Yesterday’s] events should move us, shock us, shame us into acting. What are we waiting for? What else do we need to see? How many more families need to be torn apart? … We know what we have to do, we just need the courage to do it.” —Joe Biden
The BIG Lies
“History will not look kindly on House Republicans for their blatant act of unconstitutional partisanship that has targeted an honorable public servant in order to play petty political games. … [DHS Security Alejandro Mayorkas] has upheld the rule of law faithfully and has demonstrated a deep commitment to the values that make our nation great.” —Joe Biden
“This sham impeachment effort is another embarrassment for House Republicans. … House Republicans failed to produce any evidence that Secretary Mayorkas has committed any crime. House Republicans failed to show he has violated the Constitution. House Republicans failed to present any evidence of anything resembling an impeachable offense. This is a new low for House Republicans.” —Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY)
“We did a foolish thing, and that is to pass an impeachment of a very qualified and effective secretary of homeland security.” —Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX)
“We will continue pursuing real solutions to the challenges Americans face, and House Republicans have to decide whether to join us to solve the problem or keep playing politics with the border.” —Joe Biden
“Congress needs to act to give me, Secretary Mayorkas, and my administration the tools and resources needed to address the situation at the border.” —Joe Biden
“[The] situation at the border … can only be addressed by legislation, not by executive action.” —Congressman Dan Goldman (D-NY)
For the Record
“The Constitution doesn’t give the president power to forgive student loans, mandate vaccines or electric cars, change contracts between landlords and tenants, or a host of other things that Biden and other modern presidents do with their phones and pens. It does task the president to ‘take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed.’ Yet Biden and Mayorkas have, as a matter of policy, refused to do that with immigration laws.” —Nate Jackson
Theater of the Absurd
“Governor Abbott is an embarrassment and a human trafficker.” —House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY)
“House Republicans are still at it right now, siding with Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, and Tehran against our defense industrial base, against NATO, against Ukraine, against our interests in the Indo-Pacific.” —White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre
“If Donald Trump is elected president of the United States, we do not know if there will be a verifiable next election that has integrity.” —Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY)
Re: The Left
“If Trump says something outrageous from the podium, the news organizations will drop their bans and play that portion of the speech for the purpose of fact-checking and denouncing it. They then hold panel discussions on how terrible Trump is. If, on the other hand, Trump does not say something sufficiently outrageous — crickets. So the way for Trump to win coverage, indeed, to dominate coverage on the networks that have blacked him out is to say something outrageous enough for them to put him on the air.” —Byron York
“Reporters overwhelmingly lean Democrat. A survey by The American Journalist found that for every Republican in a newsroom, there are 10 Democrats. The reporters claim to be objective. They aren’t.” —John Stossel
Belly Laugh of the Day
“[Biden is] one of the most successful presidents in modern American history.” —Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
And Last…
“A man too incapable of being held accountable for mishandling classified information is certainly unfit for the Oval Office.” —House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA)
Rep. Ronny Jackson, R-Texas, discusses the White House saying President Biden’s physical exam will not include a cognitive test on ‘The Ingraham Angle.’ #foxnews #fox #theingrahamangle
During his “My Take” on Wednesday, “Varney & Co.” host Stuart Varney discussed the controversy surrounding White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre’s job performance, arguing identity politics played a big role in her appointment and that now President Biden is dealing with the consequences.
STUART VARNEY:With Karine Jean-Pierre, theWhite Housecould check three boxes.
The White House press secretary is Black, female and gay.
Bombshell new report says the US government is hiding documents that incriminate the deep state for spying on Trump and election interference, sources tell @mtaibbi and @shellenbergerpic.twitter.com/qKBMNcDiei
That’s basically how most Americans react to much of what they see going on around them every single day.
From the Biden administration’s enthusiastic support for amputating body parts of troubled children, to its obsession with bringing as many millions of illegal aliens as possible into America, to its recent demand that U.S. airlines employ more people, including pilots, with “severe intellectual” and “psychiatric” problems, it’s increasingly clear that many of America’s current leaders are, to put it plainly, stark raving mad.
But making this statement is not an exercise in calling one’s political opponents nasty names, as happens so often today.
Rather, it’s about taking a serious look at the reality that America’s current leaders are indeed genuinely insane – in a clinically diagnosable way. We’re talking about rampant sociopathy, psychopathy, Borderline Personality Disorder, Narcissistic Personality Disorder and other scary-sounding conditions whose clinical symptom-pictures perfectly match many of today’s leaders.
Of course, many cases of what the secular psychiatric world labels serious “mental illness” ultimately boil down to individuals who, one way or another, willingly or unwillingly, have fallen into the grip of dark spiritual forces.
Yet it’s illuminating to briefly explore how current research in psychiatry – a field ironically dominated largely by the left – nevertheless has concluded that leftist radicals and leaders are, more often than not, “way out there” on the spectrum of serious mental illness.
For example, in a groundbreaking peer-reviewed study published in March 2023, titled “Understanding left-wing authoritarianism: Relations to the dark personality traits, altruism, and social justice commitment,” authors Dr. Ann Krispenz and Dr. Alexander Bertrams found that left-wing extremism is closely associated with “psychopathic tendencies.”
“Narcissistic individuals and those with psychopathic tendencies are more likely to strongly endorse left-wing antihierarchical aggression,” summarized the widely cited PsyPost website, which reports the latest research on human behavior.
“Individuals with dark personalities – such as high narcissistic and psychopathic traits – are attracted to certain forms of political and social activism which they can use as a vehicle to satisfy their own ego-focused needs instead of actually aiming at social justice and equality,” the authors explain.
Stated simply, left-wing psychopaths pretend to care about “social justice and equality,” but in reality are just feeding their massive “ego-focused” lust for power, glory and revenge.
Likewise, retired psychiatrist Brad Lyles, M.D., explains that “one way of understanding the increasingly outlandish beliefs and behaviors of the left is through the lens of Borderline Personality Disorder. The Borderline diagnosis,” he notes, “is among the most infamous diagnoses in psychiatry. It is the diagnosis that keeps therapists up at night, covered in sweat, fearful of every encounter with this sort of patient.” Lyles writes:
Understanding the long-researched processes driving Borderline Personality Disorder provides unique insights into the processes driving the more extreme politics of the left. The Borderline model explains not only the often inexplicable behaviors of the left – but also why the left is so legitimately dangerous.
The most dangerous feature of the Borderline model – and the process most dangerous in our politics – is “psychological” projection, as distinct from the “political” variety.
Psychological projection hardens a patient’s mere belief or suspicion that the OTHER (person, organization) is bad into a CONVICTION the other person is bad. …
On the contrary, political projection – “accusing the other guy of what you are doing” – is merely a strategy. A prominent – and execrable – example would include the three years Democrats accused President Trump of “colluding with the Russians” while they themselves were in fact colluding with the Russians.
Psychological projection is not a strategy. It is a threat.
With psychological projection there are no gray areas in the belief structure: The other person is ALL BAD. There is no circumstance in which a person (or political party) is understood to possess a combination of both good and bad features.
This “ALL BAD” belief structure is what the late Pulitzer-winning columnist and psychiatrist Charles Krauthammer was getting at when he famously wrote, “To understand the workings of American politics, you have to understand this fundamental law: Conservatives think liberals are stupid. Liberals think conservatives are evil.”
It’s this same “conservatives are evil” belief that underlies the left’s epically deranged comparison of President Donald Trump with Adolf Hitler – hands-down the most reviled, genocidal mass murderer in world history. Yet top Democrat politicians, including Joe Biden, as well as the “mainstream” (i.e., irredeemably left-wing and dishonest) media, have continually likened Trump to Hitler since before he was elected president in 2016 and continuing today, eight years later.
Yet if Trump really is another Hitler, where exactly are all of his Hitler-like policies and actions? After all, the man was president of the United States and leader of the free world for four extremely important years. What justifies such a comparison?
In reality, of course, Trump’s policies were totally in line with the values and sensibilities of the great, center-right American middle class that has long constituted this nation’s moral, economic and spiritual backbone. America’s economy was stable and strong under Trump, unemployment at historic lows, perverse trade agreements replaced with fair, pro-American ones. Border enforcement was a priority, America’s military was being rebuilt, and the world was blessedly free of major wars, due to Trump’s personal strength and leadership.
But hold on. Can it really be true that many of America’s top Democrat leaders are ruthless psychopaths?
Let’s rewind a few years and briefly focus on Barack Obama, since 1) much of today’s societal madness began or accelerated because of him, 2) a great many people believe Obama is calling the shots in Washington, D.C. today, and 3) his wife Michelle is increasingly considered a top contender for becoming the Democrats’ presidential candidate later this year.
Many Americans believe, and some widely respected voices have said publicly, that Barack Obama is a “sociopath” or “psychopath.” (For the record, though numerous psychology articles attempt to differentiate between “sociopathy” and “psychopathy,” in the end the analysis always boils down to the two being essentially the same, with “psychopaths” just being a little worse than “sociopaths.”) In 2016, Dr. Ben Carson referred to Obama on camera as a “psychopath.” The aforementioned columnist-author Charles Krauthammer, a psychiatrist by training, repeatedly pointed to Obama’s “extreme narcissism.” Pulitzer prize-winning columnist George Will wrote in the Washington Post about “Barack Obama’s intellectual sociopathy.” And so on.
Consider a typical description of sociopathy: “Sociopaths are often well-liked because of their charm and high charisma, but they do not usually care about other people. They think mainly of themselves and often blame others for the things that they do. They have a complete disregard for rules and lie constantly. They seldom feel guilt or learn from punishments.” Remind you of anyone?
Fast-forward back to today: From President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris to the presidential Cabinet – including in particular Attorney General Merrick Garland, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra – all of these people “have a complete disregard for rules and lie constantly.” It’s literally what they do for a living. And to all appearances, they do so easily, reflexively and without conflict or conscience.
Democrats twice as likely as Republicans to be mentally ill
Interestingly, it’s not just the left’s leaders who are “mentally ill.” Gallup pollsters conducted an extensive study involving more than 4,000 interviews conducted over the course of four years, which concluded that Republicans had “significantly” better mental health than Democrats. Likewise, a SurveyMonkey study found that Democrats suffered significantly more mental illness than Republicans. In fact, Democrats were found to be twice as likely to have been diagnosed with a mental disorder as Republicans in almost every category, from anxiety, depression and PTSD to bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and narcissistic personality disorder.
Yet, it is the left that continually accuses Donald Trump and his supporters of being deranged, delusional, racist, anti-science and mentally ill. That’s projection.
And speaking of projection, recently a “gender-affirming” psychologist gave a prize-winning demonstration of the ubiquitous left-wing tactic: At the World Professional Association for Transgender Health’s 27th annual training symposium in Montreal, Canada, Dr. Harriette Wimms, who is the clinical director for the Village Family Support Center in Baltimore, Maryland, said regarding parents who oppose cutting the breasts and/or sex organs off of their own precious children – wait for it – those parents have a “mental illness.”
If you’re in the habit of watching White House news briefings — and I know there are some of you masochists out there — you might be confused whether Karine Jean-Pierre or John Kirby is the one in charge in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
You’re not the only one, and this confusion apparently extends to both KJP and Kirby.
Not only that, but according to a new report, President Joe Biden may have set the stage by undermining Jean-Pierre with a comment he made to her before she became the first black LGBT woman to have the title of press secretary — implying, probably accidentally, that Kirby would be providing oversight for the much younger, less-experienced KJP.
The extent of the toxic behind-the-scenes relationship between Jean-Pierre and Kirby, a retired admiral and the coordinator of strategic communications for the National Security Council, was a bit of an open Beltway secret when Axios’ Alex Thompson made it a very open secret with a Jan. 5 report.
“They share a podium — and a mutual frustration. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and the National Security Council’s John Kirby frequently split the podium at media briefings, but behind the scenes their relationship is fraught with tension, White House sources tell Axios,” Thompson wrote.
“Some of the tension stems from how much time each gets at the podium each day,” he added. “Kirby — a Biden favorite who has become the public face of the administration’s response to the Israel-Hamas war — has told people he’d like to be White House press secretary one day.
“Jean-Pierre has told people she plans to stay in the job through the election and beyond if Biden wants her — and that he has asked her not to leave.”
The conflict hasn’t been resolved over the last month and a half. On Tuesday, The New York Times noted the problematic two-person act at the media briefing podium in an article titled: “Who Speaks for the President? Depends on Whom You Ask.”
The gist of Michael M. Grynbaum’s report was that while Jean-Pierre checked all of the boxes when she was named to replace Jen Psaki in 2022 — young, black, LGBT, female — “Americans are seeing less of her lately” because the geopolitical situation got a lot more serious after the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack on Israel and Kirby, who has both more experience in Washington and with the military, is a more effective mouthpiece for the administration despite the fact he’s an old, straight, white male.
Should Karine Jean-Pierre be White House press secretary?Yes No
Completing this poll entitles you to The Western Journal news updates free of charge via email. You may opt out at anytime. You also agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
“Mr. Kirby, 60, a retired Navy admiral who previously worked at the Pentagon and the State Department, is better versed in foreign affairs at a time of war in Ukraine and the Middle East. He evinces a clarity and comfort at the lectern that can sometimes elude Ms. Jean-Pierre, 49, a more rote public speaker with less experience tussling with an adversarial press,” Grynbaum wrote.
Leaving aside how much of a smile Grynbaum had to stifle while typing the words “adversarial press” on his MacBook — apparently, an “adversarial press” consists of several dozen establishment media drones who wish they could be KJP and the exception to that archetype, Fox News’ Peter Doocy — Jean-Pierre has oft looked like a deer in the headlights trying to walk the Biden administration tightrope of not outright supporting the anti-Israel (and, to be blunt, anti-Semitic) faction of the Democratic Party while not alienating that group in an election year, either.
This has worked every bit as swimmingly as you might expect:
“What is [Biden’s] level of concern right now about a potential rise of antisemitism?”
White House @PressSec Karine Jean-Pierre answers by spreading disinfo that it is Muslims who are suffering a “disproportionate number of hate-fueled attacks” in US: pic.twitter.com/jh8KmwnW9w
KARINE JEAN-PIERRE on Biden’s criticism that Israel’s fight against Hamas is “over the top”: “He made it very clear in his comment he was obviously talking about Israel’s conduct in Gaza” pic.twitter.com/mlNcgZVlfo
Now, the fact remains that Jean-Pierre is responsible for the idiocies that come out of her mouth and the “rote” manner in which they escape that mouth. However, in his Tuesday piece, Grynbaum argued that the president might not have helped matters any by undermining her confidence from the beginning.
In the piece, he called the decision to elevate KJP to press secretary a “situation [that] was awkward from the start” and said that when Biden “chose Ms. Jean-Pierre to succeed Jen Psaki, his first press secretary, he did so despite the misgivings of some senior aides who believed she needed more seasoning for the job, according to three people with knowledge of the dynamics inside the West Wing.”
But don’t worry, Uncle Joe reportedly told her as she was about to step into the role: Everything is gonna work out fine. Because, you know, John Kirby will be there.
“At a May 2022 reception on the Truman Balcony, held in honor of Ms. Psaki’s departure, Mr. Biden was speaking with a group of aides when he tried to reassure Ms. Jean-Pierre not to worry about filling Ms. Psaki’s shoes, according to two people with direct knowledge of their exchange,” Grynbaum wrote.
“After all, Mr. Biden told her, ‘you’ll have an admiral looking over your shoulder.’” As in, Kirby.
“The president’s tone suggested he wanted to be encouraging, the people said, but the comment landed with a thud,” the article said. Gosh, I wonder why.
It’s worth noting that Grynbaum reported that a “White House spokesman said the president did not make that remark.” However, leaving aside that this is The New York Times, 1) Grynbaum has two sources with “direct knowledge of their exchange” and 2) does anybody trust the president’s memory of what he said 30 seconds ago, much less in May 2022?
And, beyond that, this is possibly the most Joe Biden thing Joe Biden could have possibly done.
First, hire someone to fill a position who can be billed as the “first [insert intersectionally oppressed group here]” to fill an important role.
Then, tell that person right before she fills that role to not worry, there’s a capable white guy backing her up? (Remember some of Biden’s greatest hits on race, after all: “If you have a problem figuring out whether you’re for me or Trump then you ain’t black,” or maybe, “Poor kids are just as bright and just as talented as white kids.” All that good stuff.)
And when things really hit the fan and the person Biden undermined isn’t exactly filling the role with the brio that’s needed, in comes John Kirby to save the day.
But don’t worry, the Biden administration wants you to think, this is just temporary.
“The White House attributes Mr. Kirby’s larger role to the flurry of international news and says he will brief less often once the Middle East crisis ebbs,” Grynbaum wrote.
“But the perception in Washington that President Biden has allowed Mr. Kirby, who is white, to upstage a Black woman as the face of his White House has turned their double act into a third-rail subject.”
If true, it wouldn’t be the first time Biden has turned matters of race, competency and confidence in his staff into a third-rail subject through the machinations of his own blundering — and it sure as heck won’t be the last.
Free speech is America’s lifeblood, the very essence of its freedom. But with Michael Mann’s victory, the message is clear: Don’t challenge leftist ideology.
This is The Briefing, a daily analysis of news and events from a Christian worldview.
PART I (15:27 – 15:27) Let’s Talk About Polyamory: The Moral Revolution Presses on to Normalize Polyamorous Relationships
PART II (21:17 – 21:17) The Battle Against Creation Shows Up at the Bathroom Door: Utah’s New Bathroom Bill Re-ignites the Fight Over Regulating Restrooms
PART III (27:13 – 27:13) The Biden Campaign At Odds with His Administration’s Policy: The Complications of TikTok and the Lure of Technology
The Federalist editor-in-chief Mollie Hemingway discusses how top Democrats are reportedly silencing fellow liberals when there is talk of President Biden’s age on ‘The Evening Edit.’
Truth2Freedom's Blog 