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
Leviticus 13 — I came across a sermon transcript, “Why is this in the Bible?” from First Presbyterian, Jackson, Mississippi. In summary:
The ceremonial ritual uncleanness of this passage ultimately points to … what? The problem of sin. And thus moral uncleanness and cleanness is being illustrated in ritual or ceremonial cleanness or uncleanness. And you remember what the psalmist says in Psalm 24:3: “Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? or who shall stand in his holy place? He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully …”
What is that passage talking about? It’s talking about our own state of sanctification and the enjoyment of the presence of God, and that principle from Psalm 27 is illustrated in the ceremonial code. Those who are covered in sin, who are contaminated by the fall, cannot enjoy unhindered fellowship with God.
Mark 6:3 — “… the son of Mary …” – Jesus was in His own country (Nazareth), teaching in His synagogue, and the neighbors still implied that He was illegitimate, not the son of Joseph.
Mark 6:26 — Herod was sorry he ‘had’ to execute John the Baptist, similar to Pilate’s ‘sorrow’ over ‘having’ to execute Jesus (Matthew 27:24).
Psalm 39:5 — ”Every man at his best state is altogether vanity. Think on this.”
Proverbs 10:10 — Haven’t heard the word ‘prating’ before? Vocabulary.com not only gives you a definition, but shows you usage examples in current literature.
Share how reading through the Bible has been a blessing to you! E-mail us at 2018bible@vcyamerica.org or call and leave a message at 414-885-5370.
And all people of the earth shall see that thou art called by the name of the Lord; and they shall be afraid of thee. (Deuteronomy 28:10)
Then we can have no reason to be afraid of them. This would show a mean spirit and be a token of unbelief rather than of faith. God can make us so like Himself that men shall be forced to see that we rightly bear His name and truly belong to the holy Jehovah. Oh, that we may obtain this grace which the Lord waits to bestow!
Be assured that ungodly men have a fear of true saints. They hate them, but they also fear them. Haman trembled because of Mordecai, even when he sought the good man’s destruction. In fact, their hate often arises out of a dread which they are too proud to confess. Let us pursue the path of truth and uprightness without the slightest tremor. Fear is not for us but for those who do ill and fight against the Lord of hosts. If indeed the name of the eternal God is named upon us, we are secure; for, as of old, a Roman had but to say Romanus sum, I am a Roman, and he could claim the protection of all the legions of the vast empire; so every one who is a man of God has omnipotence as his guardian, and God will sooner empty heaven of angels than leave a saint without defense. Be braver than lions for the right, for God is with you.
“Look at me. I stand at the door. I knock. If you hear me call and open the door, I’ll come right in and sit down to supper with you…” Revelation 3:20 (The Message)
We attend a downtown church that has been in place 140 years. We have wonderful programs for the people of the “church family,” as well as many activities for all segments of the community. Children eagerly run in on Tuesday evenings to meet with their tutors who have prepared specific lessons for their academic growth. On Thursdays and Fridays young moms with infants in arms and toddlers in hand come for mornings of fun, practical advice and spiritual encouragements while their children are lovingly cared for. Each weekend a variety of worship services are offered.
While the church now owns several buildings fit for almost any use, faithful people sacrificially erected the current “sanctuary building” in the late 1800’s. But years later a growing congregation sacrificed in another way. When they realized that the space they loved was no longer sufficient for growth, they unanimously voted to “implode” the stone building with its beautiful steeple. When the new and larger building was complete, huge and beautiful oak doors led from the street into the sanctuary.
But today those same oak doors—designed for welcome—often become a barrier instead of an entrance. Street people with their backpacks and homeless teens roam the streets regularly pass those doors. One young girl said to a friendly parishioner when he invited her to come in, “Oh, I could never come through those doors. That building looks like it’s for good people.”
We are people committed to being faithful followers of Jesus.
We extend ourselves to people of all backgrounds and stations of life. And yet there are those big oak doors. I wonder if there are “oak doors” in my life? Attitudes or actions that keep people at arm’s length from me? I don’t know if the oak doors will be—or need to be—removed in our church building, but I am responsible to make sure my heart’s doors remain open for conversation and relationship.
“For God had far better things in mind for us that would also benefit them, for they can’t receive the prize at the end of the race until we finish the race.” Hebrews 11:40 (NLT)
This is the way Hebrews 11 ends – that great chapter on faith that includes the faith-driven, God-pleasing exploits of Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Rahab, Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and all the prophets, along with all the martyrs who were tortured, whipped, chained in dungeons, stoned, sawed in half, killed with the sword, or went about in sheep and goat skins, hungry, oppressed and mistreated, wandering over deserts and mountains, hiding in caves and holes in the ground. These are those who now make up that great “cloud of witnesses” in Chapter 12: 1. And they are not just politely cheering us on; they have a stake in our faith.
I’ve been wrong about these witnesses. I used to think they were there as spectators cheering from the grandstands of heaven – as if to say, “We did it, so can you,” which would be a great encouragement indeed were that the case, but it’s more than that. They are more than witnesses; they are teammates. They are the first runners in the relay race down on the field, all huddled around the finish line ready to receive us because they want to win, but they can’t win without us. They are the rest of the baseball team surrounding home plate waiting for us to touch home with the game-winning run. They are the first three swimmers on the relay team screaming at us from the side of the pool to give it all we’ve got.
So the next time you feel like slacking; the next time you contemplate that little sin that’s not going to hurt anyone but you; the next time you discover yourself thinking your life doesn’t really make that much difference; the next time you start thinking your most significant days of faith are behind you; the next time you think you’re just waiting for eternity to get here, well… think again, because the likes of Noah, Abraham and Paul, himself, are counting on you. You’ve got the baton now, and they can’t receive the prize they fought so hard for until you finish. So get off your butt, John, and let’s go!
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily hinders our progress. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us.” (Hebrews 12:1)
Former Canadian PM Harper defends Israel in op-ed, says: ‘Hamas must be eliminated or surrender’ Former Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper strongly backed Israel’s right of self-defense against the Hamas terrorist organization, in an op-ed published on Sunday in the Canadian National Post. The former Canadian premier emphasized the genocidal nature of the Oct. 7 massacres of more than 1,200 Israeli Jewish men, women and children. “These were acts of extermination — the killing of no mere enemy, but of those who, in the killers’ eyes, were less than human, whose very existence was to be viewed as a scourge. It was, in short, the urge to commit genocide at its most evil.
IDF Patches Reveal the True Purpose of the War…and Hamas is worried “And one day, our true leader will come and we will be united as a whole Jewish nation,” he said, displaying a patch that had a crown and the word ‘Moshiach’ (Messiah). “So that we can rebuild the Beit Hamikdash (the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem),” he said, displaying a patch with an image of the Temple.
Poll: Widespread support for Smotrich’s position on the war following the interview with Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, asked the participants whether they agree with Smotrich’s remarks that the most important goal right now is to defeat Hamas. More than 1,600 respondents supported Minister Smotrich’s opinion and answered “yes, victory is more important”. Only 353 supported the answer “no, the most important thing is the return of the hostages”. Those who call for a deal at any cost will lead to Israel’s defeat in the war
Again wielding veto, US strikes down UN ceasefire resolution The United States again used its veto power at the U.N. Security Council to thwart a call for the imposition of a ceasefire on Israel. Washington stood alone on Tuesday in voting down an Algeria-drafted resolution that demands an immediate humanitarian halt to hostilities in Israel’s war against Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip,
South African Christians to hold nationwide prayer for Israel Hundreds of South African Christians are expected to gather in significant towns nationwide next Sunday to offer prayers for both South Africa and Israel. They intend to show solidarity with the Jewish state and to disassociate themselves from what they perceive as South Africa’s unfounded accusation of genocide against Israel.
Erdan: Not condemning Hamas is a UN tradition Israel’s UN Amb. reacts to latest failed attempt to pass a Security Council resolution demanding Israel end its military operation against Hamas. ‘In Gaza, Hamas is the UN, and the UN is Hamas!’
The Red Cross betrayed the Israeli hostages The Red Cross has once again failed the Jewish people by choosing to appease its enemies rather than help those in need. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), in its mission statement, claims to be “an impartial, neutral, and independent organization
Illinois public defender sues to display photo with gun, Israeli flag in office An assistant public defender in Cook County, Ill., is suing her employer for the right to display a photo of herself with a gun standing in front of an Israeli flag. Debra Gassman, who has been a lawyer assigned to defendants who need representation for some 27 years, has displayed the 11-inch photo of herself, during volunteer Israel Defense Forces service, in her office for nearly two decades, per the complaint.
Hungary reportedly blocks EU statement against Israel’s military operation in Rafah The Jerusalem Post reported on Monday that the nation of Hungary, on two occasions, blocked attempts by the European Union to make a consensus statement against the anticipated Israeli military operation against Hamas in the southern Gaza town of Rafah,
GOP senators propose bill to protect aborted babies from gruesome medical experimentation Republican members of the U.S. Senate introduced a bill to end federal taxpayer support for research involving human fetal tissue obtained from abortions and to close loopholes in the law that have allowed the trafficking of the body parts of aborted children to continue. Senate bill S.3713
Netanyahu’s Strategic Appeal for the Release of Israeli Hostages In a significant move, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called upon US Jewish leaders to leverage their influence on Qatar, emphasizing its unique position to persuade Hamas towards the release of Israeli hostages. During his address to the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations in Jerusalem, Netanyahu underscored the pivotal role Qatar plays due to its financial and hosting ties with Hamas leaders.
Burnsville suspect was denied gun rights in 2020, reportedly wanted for sex crime Shannon Cortez Gooden, 38, opened fire on multiple first responders after they were called to respond to a domestic abuse incident at a Burnsville home, the sources said. The subsequent gunfight left two Burnsville police officers and a fire medic dead. Gooden died from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, although several officers returned fire during the incident. According to records with the Minnesota court system, Gooden had a rap-sheet going back to 2004 In 2008, Gooden was convicted of second-degree assault with a deadly weapon and was subsequently sentenced to multiple years of probation. After this conviction, Gooden lost his right to possess firearms.
Lockbit cybercrime gang faces global takedown with indictments and arrests An international law enforcement operation led by Britain’s National Crime Agency and the FBI has arrested and indicted members of the Lockbit ransomware gang, in an unprecedented police operation that has struck one of the world’s most notorious cybercrime gangs. The United States unsealed an indictment on Tuesday charging two Russian nationals with deploying Lockbit ransomware against companies and groups around the world, the Department of Justice announced. “We have taken control of their infrastructure, seized their source code and obtained keys that will help victims decrypt their systems,” Graeme Biggar, director general of the National Crime Agency, told journalists.
Call him Harry Sussex: British prince drops family name Britain’s Duke of Sussex, Prince Harry, and his wife, Meghan Markle, have changed their last names and those of their children to Sussex, as they launched their new website last week.
Why surrendering in Gaza on Nasrallah’s terms will lead to war with Lebanon A total victory in Gaza is not an empty slogan, but the only way to ensure that October 7 will never be repeated and lead to real peace in the Middle East. One of the most important lessons we learned after October 7, was that Israel must never place its security in the hands of others. Nor should it ever submit to irrelevant pressure by elements who only aspire to promote their own interests at the expense of Israel’s vital security needs.
Severe sandstorms hit parts of NW China Severe sandstorms hit Ruoqiang County in China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region on the morning of February 17, 2024, reducing visibility to less than 100 m (330 feet) and prompting authorities to implement traffic control measures on many roads. In Turpan, local rescue teams were deployed to assist those stranded by the sandstorms.
Xinjiang records lowest temperature in history at -52.3 °C (-62.1 °F), China Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region has set a new record for low temperatures, reaching -52.3 °C (-62.14 °F) in Fuyun County, leading to the death of numerous birds and surpassing a cold record held since 1960. Amidst the Chinese Lunar New Year’s return, this severe cold has resulted in extensive traffic disruptions and emergency responses across the region.
Tropical Storm “Eleanor” forms over the southern Indian Ocean Tropical Storm “Eleanor” formed over the southern Indian Ocean on February 19, 2024, as the 6th named storm of the 2023/24 South-West Indian Ocean cyclone season. The cyclone is strengthening as it turns southward toward Saint Brandon and Mauritius. The current forecast track takes its center very close to Mauritius on February 23.
State Supreme Court Rules Embryos ARE Children! ‘Constitutional provision tilts the scales of the law in favor of protecting the unborn’ A ruling from the Supreme Court in the state of Alabama has released a stunning verdict: That embryos are “children” under state law and protected by the same laws that apply who children already born.
CBP Data: 30K Chinese “Migrants” Encountered at Border in Fiscal 2024 Border agents have encountered almost 30,000 Chinese “migrants” so far this fiscal year. If that pace through four months continues to year’s end, the final figure will dwarf the massive influx of the possible spies and sleeper military personnel who crossed the border since the beginning of fiscal 2021.
COVID Vaccine Shedding Is ‘Real,’ FDA and Pfizer Documents Are Proof: Clinicians The topic of COVID-19 vaccine shedding has long been controversial, but now, some doctors say even the authorities know about it. “Shedding is unfortunately real,” said Dr. Pierre Kory at the Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance (FLCCC) conference in Phoenix, Arizona, in early February. “The FDA (U.S. Food and Drug Administration) knows that.”
UN’s Next Goals: End National Militaries, Establish Global Military, Disarm You The United Nations Summit of the Future is being held this September in New York City. The summit is supposed to be the biggest UN event in years, maybe even since its founding way back in 1945. Although in recent years the world organization has focused on selling the global public the climate-change bill of goods, it now appears to be bringing back an old agenda: establishing a monopoly on force.
It’s time we all demand answers to the real-world costs of “renewables” Why do climate catastrophists use fear as their main tactic for browbeating an unwilling public into accepting their grotesque bans on natural gas, petroleum, and even nuclear energy (not to mention coal)? Because fear pays. But even fear as a weapon has its limits when people begin to see clearly through the fog.
Censoring information deemed to be “misinformation” originates with UNESCO When the World Economic Forum called “misinformation” the single largest identified risk in early 2024, it was the latest call of many, with an express, not-so-carefully-hidden objective. The idea of censorship in the name of “misinformation” began with the United Nations in 1945, specifically with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (“UNESCO”).
MEP Rob Roos: If you control CO2, you control people’s lives Speaking at an ECR Group event in Poland, Dutch Member of the European Parliament (“MEP”) Rob Roos exposed the various ways unelected globalist technocrats at the European Union (“EU”) are attempting to seize complete totalitarian control – including the fabricated “climate crisis”, digital ID, CBDCs and the war on farmers.
“Justice is the end of government. It is the end of civil society. It ever has been and ever will be pursued until it be obtained, or until liberty be lost in the pursuit.” —James Madison (1788)
Fellow Patriots, on this day in 1885, the Washington Monument was dedicated — one day before our greatest president’s birthday. First begun in 1848 as a private venture, the 555-foot marble obelisk was the tallest building in the world when it was completed in 1884, having become a public work. It’s a lasting tribute to a great man. —Mark Alexander
The former president has to pay the massive New York fine before he can appeal, and victory is not assured.
Nate Jackson
Donald Trump may be rich, but forking out more than $500 million hurts even him. Aside from the ridiculously massive $83 million second defamation settlement awarded to E. Jean Carroll recently, Trump was hit Friday by New York Judge Democrat hack Arthur Engoron with an utterly disproportionate fine of $355 million plus perhaps $100 million in interest for “defrauding” banks and real estate companies in New York City real estate deals. And he must pay that fine before he can appeal to the New York Court of Appeals, even though he may and should win that appeal.
Trump’s Truth Social post was simple and to the point: “Eighth Amendment: Excessive bail shall not be required, no excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.”
Obviously, this is an excessive fine because, as we said Friday, though he falsely inflated the value of his real estate holdings, sometimes flagrantly, this is a “crime” with no victim. Banks gave him loans after due review and revaluation. He repaid the loans. No one lost any money. If any fine at all was in order, it should have been a tiny fraction of the one Engoron imposed. On top of that, however, he barred Trump from related business and loan applications in New York for three years and his sons for two years.
Remember, this case began because when Letitia James ran for New York attorney general, she campaigned in part on a promise to get Trump for something. She’d fill in the details later, finally settling on a civil suit over a victimless crime.
The legal outrage is apparent to non-Democrats, but again, the problem is that Trump is going to be out a lot of money just to make his appeal, and he can’t use campaign money to pay the bill.
“Basically, in the two relevant jurisdictions, a defendant who has been found guilty has 30 days to appeal,” explains legal expert Andrew McCarthy. “But unlike in the criminal system, there is no automatic right to appeal civilly. Rather, a defendant has to post the amount of the judgment, plus interest, in order to assure the court that the appeal is not simply for purposes of delay, and that the defendant will pay up if he loses.”
Constitutional scholar Jonathan Turley concurs: “In order to file an appeal, the courts require a deposit for the full amount of the damages or a bond covering the full amount. … It can be challenging enough for many companies drained from years of litigation. For Donald Trump, the demand for $355 million plus $100 million in interest could force a fire sale on properties to pony up just the deposit.”
Turley adds, “By making the fine so large, Engoron not only makes an appeal difficult, but could guarantee that Trump will lose tens of millions even if his judgment is dramatically reduced or tossed out.”
While this harsh penalty is solely because the defendant’s last name is Trump, other businesses considering investments in New York may decide not to take that chance. Costs, taxes, regulations, and crime are all lower elsewhere already, and if there’s now a risk of being mugged by the legal system, why come to the Big Apple?
New York Governor Kathy Hochul is aware of this, telling other businesses this week that there’s “nothing to worry about” because other people and businesses are “very different than Donald Trump.”
The process is the punishment here, and if Trump somehow loses on appeal, then all the better. It seems clear that Engoron deliberately inflated the judgment not because the case merited it but so as to make the process all that much more painful.
Trump has about a little more than three weeks to decide on an appeal. Will Team Trump appeal at the federal level on Eighth Amendment grounds? And would a federal court even take that up? That remains to be seen.
As for a New York appeal, that’s also a crapshoot. Part of Engoron’s judgment was a conclusion of fact that Trump defrauded banks and real estate companies. That is unlikely to be overturned. It’s also unlikely that a higher court would toss the case on grounds of selective prosecution, even though everyone knows that’s exactly what happened. Thus, any appeal would largely end up being the two sides haggling over the price of the fine.
There’s no question that Trump is up against a rigged and two-tiered “justice” system run by deranged Democrats. But here’s the worse news: Rigged or not, the defamation and real estate cases, combined with battles to remove him from state ballots and four felony indictments for 91 counts, put Trump in very real fiscal and legal peril.
Biden buys more votes, two charged with murder in Super Bowl parade shooting, three-quarters of big cities near insolvency, and more.
Douglas Andrews, Thomas Gallatin, & Jordan Candler
Cross-Examination
Biden buys more votes: In what appears to be little other than a campaign move to garner more votes for Joe Biden from recent college graduates, the Biden administration announced that it will cancel another $1.2 billion in student loan debt for some 153,000 borrowers who have enrolled in the Saving on Valuable Education (SAVE) plan. Using this plan, the Biden administration will effectively transfer to taxpayers the remaining balance of student loans from borrowers who have been paying down their debt for a decade or longer and whose original loan was no greater than $12,000. As Education Secretary Miguel Cardona ridiculously stated, “With today’s announcement, we are once again sending a clear message to borrowers who had low balances: if you’ve been paying for a decade, you’ve done your part, and you deserve relief.” So, when can responsible Americans who have either fully repaid their student loans or never took out any in the first place say the same? They’ve been paying their taxes, they’ve done their part, they deserve relief.
WH teases new Russia sanctions: Following the sudden and untimely death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny in a Siberian penal colony last Friday, the Biden administration is promising to follow through on a warning it gave Vladimir Putin back in 2021 that Russia would face “devastating” consequences should Navalny die in custody after he had been arrested on dubious charges. “We will be announcing a major sanctions package on Friday of this week to hold Russia accountable for what happened to Mr. Navalny and, quite frankly, for all its actions over the course of this vicious and brutal war that has now raged on for two years,” stated National Security Council Coordinator John Kirby on Tuesday. There was no hint as to what exactly would be included in this “major sanctions package,” but is it intended for Putin, or as a means of pressuring House Republicans into taking up the Senate’s $95 billion foreign aid package bill that includes over $60 billion in additional military aid to Ukraine?
Two finally charged with murder in Super Bowl parade shooting: It’s been nearly a week since a group of thugs decided to settle their verbal dispute with firearms rather than fisticuffs after the Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl parade. In doing so, they left one bystander, a mother of two, dead and 22 others hospitalized. (One of those hospitalized, alleged shooter Lyndell Mays, has nine bullet holes and had a GoFundMe page to help get him through this “tragic time,” during which he was “just being stupid.”) Prosecutors have finally charged two of the thugs, but it sure took them long enough. So, too, did it take them long enough to identify the assailants, but we already know how this works: If the shooter is a white male, the mainstream media will report his name immediately, but if the shooters are members of one of the privileged classes — in this case, young black males, although they could also have been jihadists — then we’re left clueless about the identity of the perps. This past Friday on HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher,” the host tried to play dumb about the identity of the assailants. “I mean, we don’t know who did this shooting, by the way,” he said. To which one of his guests, Ann Coulter, said: “We have some idea. … If it were a white man shooting, we’d know.” Maher responded dumbly, “Well, we don’t know. I mean, they haven’t—” to which Coulter elaborated, “That’s how we know it’s not a white man.” Maher lamely reiterated his “official” claim that we have no idea who the perps are, then closed by attributing “special powers” to Coulter. Of course, Coulter’s “special power” isn’t so special at all. It’s called observation.
The mainstream media ignores a wave of church attacks: We tend to hear a lot of reporting on those rare instances when one of the favored constituencies of Joe Biden and his fellow Democrats is attacked, but we mostly get crickets and tumbleweeds when the institutions being targeted fall outside the protective umbrella of leftist special interests. Did you know, for example, that attacks on U.S. churches more than doubled last year? Neither did we. But, as The Washington Times reports, “Incidents of arson, vandalism, and other hostile acts against U.S. churches rose to at least 436 last year, more than double the number recorded in 2022.” This seems newsworthy, no? The Times continues: “In releasing its sixth ‘Hostility Against Churches’ report during the 2024 National Religious Broadcasters International Christian Media Convention here, the family values advocacy group said the figure is more than eight times the number of incidents recorded in 2018, when it began tracking such incidents.” As for the mainstream media news embargo, it’s almost as if they hate organized religion in general and Christianity in particular; almost as if they view it as a threat to the supremacy of the state.
Three-quarters of big cities near insolvency: No one has ever accused government of fiscal responsibility, and that’s especially true of our big cities. After all, they’re run almost exclusively by Democrats, and if they run into financial difficulty, they can always petition their friends in the federal government for a bailout. Perhaps this helps explain why, according to a Truth in Accounting analysis of the latest financial reports, 53 out of 75 of our nation’s largest cities didn’t have enough money to pay their bills in 2022. As The Daily Fetched reports: “TIA found that the 75 largest cities in the U.S. had $307.4 billion worth of assets available to pay bills, but their debt totaled $595.3 billion. The analysis also noted that Pensions and healthcare accounted for the majority of the debt.” As The Center Square adds: “All 75 cities are required by law to have balanced budgets. … Instead, they used ‘accounting tricks,’ including ‘inflating revenue assumptions, counting borrowed money as income, understating the true costs of government, and delaying the payment of current bills until the start of the next fiscal year so they aren’t included in the budget calculations.’” Nice scam if you can carry it off.
Noncitizen appointed to San Francisco Elections Commission: Demonstrating that Democrat leaders in California are committed to elevating globalism over and against national sovereignty, a noncitizen Chinese national was sworn in as a member of San Francisco’s Elections Commission. Last Wednesday, the Hong Kong-born Kelly Wong became “the first noncitizen appointed to the commission,” as reported by KQED public news. Wong, who came to the U.S. in 2019 seeking a graduate degree, is an immigrant rights advocate. Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin further exposed the globalist goal of these California leftists, as he praised Wong, stating, “I’m very impressed by her commitment to enfranchising people who rarely vote, to educating people about the voting process, and to bring in noncitizens and get them the tools they need as they become citizens.” Back in 2020, San Francisco voted to remove citizenship requirements for commissioners. How is this not seen as an obvious wide-open back door for Beijing to step in and directly impact the outcome of elections not only in California but the rest of the country?
Watchdog cries foul over Biden admin’s “Indigenous Knowledge”:We followed the science and the native shaman. That is effectively the argument Interior Secretary Deb Haaland gave last September when she announced the cancellation of seven oil and gas leases in the U.S. Arctic Ocean granted by the Trump administration, as well as banning any future leases across the entire region. Haaland justified her anti-fossil fuel decision by citing climate change and “the Indigenous Knowledge of the original stewards of this area, to safeguard our public lands for future generations.” Well, thanks to Haaland’s dubious “Indigenous Knowledge” claim, a watchdog group called Protect the Public’s Trust has raised an official complaint with the Department of Interior’s Office of Inspector General for Haaland’s use of “subjective beliefs over and above evidence derived from the application of the scientific method.” The complaint further states, “The American public can rightly hold serious concerns that the Biden administration’s decision making, through the use of Indigenous Knowledge, is susceptible to manipulation without even the pretense of adhering to scientific principles.”
DEI infects the IRS: It’d be one thing if the Internal Revenue Service had a sterling reputation for decency and evenhandedness. But no. The IRS has earned its reputation as an utterly reviled organization — and especially among conservatives, whose political organizations were systematically targeted by Barack Obama and director Lois Lerner, and then stonewalled from justice by smarmy commissioner John Koskinen. Never forget. And now we learn that the diversity, equity, and inclusion training being forced upon the agency’s criminal investigators features content from a transgender professor who called for “the death of whiteness” in an academic journal. We can’t make this stuff up. As The Daily Wire reports: “The DEI training, obtained by Judicial Watch, was part of a mandatory continuing education program at the IRS, and began with a section by Dafina Lazarus Stewart titled, ‘Cultural Inclusion Is About Justice.’ Stewart, a transgender-identifying woman, chairs a department at the University of Denver and has focused much of her academic work on ‘whiteness,’ even calling on other academics to ‘commit to the death of whiteness.’” We’re not sure what “whiteness” has to do with the fair and impartial enforcement of our tax laws, but we think we’re on good ground when we say it has no place in a properly functioning IRS.
Headlines
Fani Willis’s father on her having cash at home: “It’s a black thing” (Newsweek) | Willis’s father backs up DA’s timeline of relationship with Trump prosecutor, contradicting ex-coworker’s testimony (National Review)
Biden under pressure to take cognitive test amid dementia concerns (Washington Times)
Supreme Court declines to undo sanctions on pro-Trump 2020 campaign lawyers (The Hill)
Government-backed censors who rigged the 2020 election are now stealing 2024 (The Federalist)
FBI source indicted for discredited Biden bribery allegations tied to Russian intelligence officials, prosecutors say (National Review)
Russia arrests U.S. citizen on “treason” charges for donating $50 to Ukrainian charity (Daily Wire)
Biden “releasing everyone” at border in latest secret move (Washington Examiner)
Biden pushes to block Israel’s invasion of Rafah at the UN (Hot Air) | Netanyahu declares that Israel “outright rejects” possibility of Palestinian statehood after Hamas war (National Review)
Antony Blinken scolded staffers over “problematic” language like “manpower” (PM)
Emissions dropped in 2023 for first time since pandemic (Washington Examiner)
Democrats blast “dangerous” Capital One-Discover merger (The Hill)
Ben Crump says ending crime in U.S. as easy as changing “definition of crime” (Fox News)
Satire: Another Democrat attempts to purchase a black man (Babylon Bee)
The Leftmedia continues to fearmonger over a possible Trump win in 2024, erroneously warning that his election would be a threat to democracy.
Thomas Gallatin
What is democracy? Given their fixation with Donald Trump’s supposed threat to that institution, it would seem that the Leftmedia would take the time to actually either educate itself or define the term before running stories that claim democracy is in danger.
Never mind that ours is a republic and not a democracy, yet there is NBC News with another article piling on this latest hot-button Leftmedia topic, seeking to stoke fears of democracy in decline as America progresses toward another presidential election.
The article written by Alexander Smith is titled: “This year will see more elections than ever. But don’t call it a win for democracy.” But it’s the teaser that really leans into the Left’s “get worried” messaging, as it reads: “Democracy in the world has been in decline since 2016. Watchdogs say that just 43 of the 76 elections held this year across the globe will be free and fair.”
So, democracy has been in decline since 2016? Interesting. Of course, that coincides with Donald Trump’s election victory, which Democrat lawmakers and their Leftmedia cohorts falsely claimed was due to Russian election interference, as they incessantly pushed the bogus Trump-Russia collusion hoax.
Is this what Smith is talking about when he tags 2016 as the beginning of the decline in democracy globally? Nope. Rather, he completely avoids that glaring elephant in the room where Washington elites sought to undermine the choice of the American people.
Instead, Smith cites selected “experts” and, in this case, the Economist Intelligence Unit, a research division of the left-leaning Economist Group, which he describes as “a London research group whose yearly ranking system has become a gold standard.” Smith then quotes from a 2022 report from Sweden’s University of Gothenburg that “shows global levels of democracy sliding back and advances made over the past 35 years diminishing.”
Smith presents the claim that of the 76 elections across the globe in 2024, “just 43 will be free and fair.” And then comes the big pivot, as Smith writes, “Arguably, the most pivotal race will come in the U.S.” Really? Why?
His answer boils down to a raging case of Trump Derangement Syndrome. Since Trump refused to acknowledge that he lost the 2020 election, and because of “his culpability for the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection,” if he wins the election in 2024, it is a threat to democracy!
Trump has “vowed to root out opponents like ‘vermin,’ saying they should be ‘crushed,’” Smith worries. “And he’s suggested he could use the Justice Department and the FBI to pursue political rivals.”
It’s almost humorous how the Left fails to see the irony of the projection of its own side’s actions. So, when Joe Biden gives multiple speeches over the course of several years in which he labels “MAGA Republicans” as “extremists” that “fan the flames of political violence” — one of them a national primetime address while in front of a Nazi-esque backdrop — this is A-OK. Yet it is the Biden administration that has used the DOJ and the FBI to target political opponents. It began with January 6 defendants but expanded to persecute parents objecting to their schools pushing woke ideology onto their kids or pro-life activists — the latter while at the same time ignoring the litany of pro-abortion activists’ hate crimes.
Furthermore, Smith warns of Trump supposedly being a threat to democracy because he has spoken glowingly of some dictators and wants to use his presidency to “reclaim our democracy from Washington corruption.” Did Trump not achieve some important foreign policy success? Is Washington not corrupt?
As with the way the Left talks of illegal immigration by conflating it with legal immigration and refusing to distinguish the significant difference so as to label conservatives as “anti-immigration,” so too the Left conflates the democratic electoral process with leftist and Democrat Party policies.
How could Americans freely voting for the candidate of their choice be a “threat to democracy”? Well, it isn’t a threat to America’s democratic election process, but it is a threat to the Democrat Party’s hold on power and the furtherance of the Left’s political agenda. This is why Leftmedia outlets like NBC News are intentionally and disingenuously construing an election that would allow Trump or nearly any Republican candidate to win as a threat to democracy.
The irony is that it is democracy that actually threatens the Democrat Party’s aspirations of increasing Washington’s power over Americans.
Several psychologists aren’t conforming to the transgender ideology — and for the VA, that’s a problem.
Emmy Griffin
How do you know that the rot of transgender politicking goes incredibly deep? Because seasoned Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) psychologists faced major backlash from their superiors for pointing out the obvious in an effort to protect their female patients.
The VA is seeking to enforce a 2018 policy that allows men who identify as women to use women’s bathrooms and medical exam spaces. In the treatment of female veterans who are undergoing psychological care, men are allowed to share rooms with them if they are part of a residential recovery program, have men in their group therapy settings, or are present at “women”-only specialty clinics.
This is patently problematic. Many of the women who undergo needed psychological care as veterans are in that position due to sexual trauma. Most sexual-based trauma is inflicted on women by men.
That is why three VA psychologists — Catherine Novotny, Edward Waldrep, and Nina Silander — all spoke out against these changes. All three contributed to a January opinion article for The Hill detailing their concerns and urging the reinstallation of care dictated by biological sex. For Waldrep and Silander, the retaliation for their bravery was swift and decisive.
Waldrep, who had already gotten into hot water with his peers for questioning DEI policies within the VA, was stripped of his training position for up-and-coming students. The VA is apparently afraid that his reasonable objections might infect the new stock of psychologists charged with helping hurting veterans. Silander was removed from her position, put under investigation, and eventually reassigned and demoted.
These psychologists didn’t break any VA rules by their public objections, but they aren’t conforming to the ideology blob — and for the VA, that’s a problem. As Waldrep told National Review: “The environment of ideological conformity is palpable. People are afraid to speak up. This is not only bad because I don’t like DEI, but this is also bad because this has a potential negative impact for health care.”
They were not saying in their op-ed that all of the males who identify as female are bad actors. They were saying that the VA policy as it currently stands provides a prime opportunity for bad male actors to take advantage and infiltrate vulnerable female spaces. If healing and protecting female veterans is the primary objective, then keeping men and women separated based on biology makes sense.
These three experienced psychologists are seeing the same patterns of negative behaviors by the medical establishment and the governing political bodies that the rest of the world has been noticing for years now. Apart from the crux of their complaint — the failure of protection for their female veteran patients — they observed that when it comes to gender dysphoria, the rigorous standards for questioning and probing for other underlying comorbidities cease. When it comes to any other psychological disorder, psychologists are meant to do their due diligence and dig a little deeper because many of these disorders have similar symptoms. When it comes to gender dysphoria, however, the diagnosis is one and done, and down the transgender medical dependency hole they send these vulnerable vets.
In other words, not only is this pushing of males into female spaces bad for women, but the abject refusal to get to the bottom of the male’s underlying distress is bad for him as well.
As the VA psychologists put it: “Humans are a sexually dimorphic species, and this has medical consequences irrelevant to the metaphysical concept of gender identity. Sex is an immutable biological trait, carrying with it biological and medical consequences that doctors cannot overlook.”
Not only are humans dimorphic, but — wait for it — our brains work entirely differently based on our sex. According to the New York Post, “A group of researchers from Stanford University demonstrated the differences between the brains of men and women by using artificial intelligence, which was more than 90% accurate in differentiating between sexes based on ‘hotspots’ shown in brain scans.”
In fact, the Post adds, one of the scientists who worked on this study noted that “‘overlooking sex difference in brain organization’ could hinder the treatment and diagnosis of neuropsychiatric conditions.”
Biological sex matters. It is absolute and defining from physique to DNA to brain architecture.
As the evidence continues to mount scientifically for what most of us already understand with our common sense, the real question is this: When will this transgender madness finally end? There is no upside to continuing to foster this ideology through political strong-arming.
A recent decision by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled strongly in favor of property rights and against unlawful government confiscation.
Douglas Andrews
If you don’t have private property rights, you aren’t a free people.
This is a fundamental precept of Liberty and of Western civilization, but it sometimes gets lost amid the more topical and visceral struggle to keep the state from encroaching on our First and Second Amendment rights. And yet we seem to remember it being written down somewhere that the right of the American people “to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated.”
Perhaps, having recently been taken to the woodshed by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, the FBI’s corrupt and irresolute leadership — looking at you, Chris Wray — will get this lesson through its thick collective skull.
At issue is a 2021 raid by the bureau on a Beverly Hills business, U.S. Private Vaults, that it suspected of money laundering. Seems the same folks who zealously conducted hundreds of heavily armed pre-dawn raids on an array of January 6 protesters — some of them rioters but the overwhelming majority of them tourists — also swooped in and seized the contents of some 1,400 safe deposit boxes belonging to private citizens. In doing so, the bureau seized more than $86 million in cash and valuables from people who had not even been accused of wrongdoing. Their boxes were then opened and their contents catalogued without individual criminal warrants for each.
Talk about casting a wide net.
As it turns out, the FBI had no right to do so — at least not according to our Constitution’s Fourth Amendment. Never mind that the FBI was right to suspect the company in question, U.S. Private Vaults, which ultimately shut down and pleaded guilty to conspiracy to launder drug money. As Fox News reports, “Unsealed court documents showed neither the FBI nor the U.S. Attorney’s Office told the judge in their warrant request that agents planned to confiscate the contents of every box containing at least $5,000 in cash or belongings.”
And that’s where the FBI lost its way — and it’s where the second half of the Fourth Amendment comes into play: “And no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”
As Fox News continues: “The warrant only authorized authorities to seize business computers, money counters and surveillance equipment. The judge also allowed them to seize safety deposit boxes and keys, but specifically wrote that agents should only ‘inspect the contents of the boxes in an effort to identify their owners … so that they can claim their property,’ and that the warrant ‘does not authorize a criminal search or seizure of the contents of the safety deposit boxes.’”
One of the many victims of the FBI’s raid, Jeni Pearsons, became a plaintiff in the class-action lawsuit. She and her husband had $20,000 in silver and $2,000 in cash seized from their safe deposit box during the raid. Apparently, the FBI had lost the $2,000 when she went to reclaim it.
“Hearing these judges just knock them down a peg and talk through the situation, this extraordinary overreach and an actual breaking of civil rights … it was just really, really gratifying,” Pearsons said.
“This was a resounding victory, not just for our clients, but for the hundreds of people who’ve been stuck in a nightmare for years because of what the FBI did,” said senior attorney Rob Frommer of the Institute for Justice, which represented several plaintiffs in the case.
Ninth Circuit Judge Milan Smith Jr., writing for a three-judge panel, compared the bureau’s overreach to the “limitless searches of an individual’s personal belongings” like those seen in colonial America. “It was those very abuses of power, after all, that led to adoption of the Fourth Amendment in the first place,” he wrote.
And bully for Smith and his Ninth Circuit colleagues. Time was when that particular plank in the federal bench, headquartered in San Francisco, was derisively known as the Ninth Circus, so reliably and awfully anti-constitutional were its rulings. Times have changed, though, and the court of last local appeal for the states of Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington was opportunistically remade under Donald Trump, who during his single term in office placed 10 judges on the Ninth Circuit bench, four of whom replaced judges appointed by Democrats. This pro-Liberty ruling was clearly the fruit of those appointments.
Professional expertise on aging is not required; the voters know what they see.
Jack DeVine
Here’s an idea. Instead of hanging on every word from young whippersnapper political pundits about whether or not Joe Biden’s age-related deterioration is a disqualifier for another presidential term, why not ask some real octogenarians — folks who have actually been there?
I’m one. Granted, I’ve been in that category for only a month now — but I’ve been rehearsing for quite a while. On this topic, I know what I’m talking about.
The following are my personal observations from years of friendships and family relationships with the 80-plus crowd, along with my own experiences on that same life conveyor belt.
1.) There are vast differences from person to person. Last year, I played tennis almost daily (and often lost) with an 86-year-old friend. His attitude about age was: “Who cares? Let’s play.” And I’ve seen many younger friends for whom that level of physical activity is completely out of the question.
In some cases, there are obvious reasons for the differences — medical history, past injuries, weight, etc. In other cases, it’s a complete mystery. I consider myself extraordinarily fortunate for being born with the right set of genes and for modern medical advances that have upgraded my body with new knees and a new shoulder, along with a repaired heart valve and pacemaker. But it’s largely good luck.
So, we can agree that the number (“age”) doesn’t matter. It’s the person.
2.) Don’t worry about momentary forgetfulness — the name, word, or date that doesn’t come to mind when he needs it. We all have that problem. It gets worse with age but is inconsequential, and there’s no need to hide it. Among fellow old folks, I’ve learned to avoid embarrassment simply by starting a conversation with, “Sorry, senior moment here, I’ve forgotten your name — mine is Jack DeVine.” That breaks the ice; more often than not, the other person has the same problem.
I suspect that those mental slips are much more likely when facing a microphone or a TV camera than in personal conversation. On that one, too, we should cut Biden some slack.
3.) The very real issue with age-related deterioration is fatigue, both physical and mental. Both come into play. The presidency is a 24/7 job — crises can crop up any time, night or day, and they are rarely over quickly. The president must be able to summon his A-game on demand and sustain it for as long as needed.
From my own executive experience, I know how mentally taxing it can be to stay engaged on the full range of important details of a knotty technical or operational problem — and it gets more difficult as the hours drag on and exhaustion sets in. The temptation is often to step back and say, “You guys handle it; keep me posted.”
That’s a cop-out driven by fatigue. We need a chief executive with the physical and mental stamina to stay with the problem, ask the probing questions, drill down for the key answers, and make informed decisions. That’s leadership.
We have no way of evaluating Biden’s mental intensity in times of crisis. But for the guy who needs guidance to get off the stage or who has to ask his staff what reporters he can take questions from, it’s hard to imagine Biden taking firm command of the team when the situation gets dicey.
4.) The most telling way to gauge anyone’s mental or physical decline is simply to observe the person over time. Since Biden has been in the public eye for five decades, that’s easy to do. We would expect that the changes over a long career would be significant, but in Biden’s case, the changes in recent years have been precipitous and obvious to all.
The differences between the Biden captured on video during the 2020 campaign and the one we see today are stunning. Biden was once quick-witted, animated, and energetic — now he is a different person. Watch his posture and his gait (now stiff and halting); watch his eyes and his gaze (now inclined to wander, as if searching for something); listen to him try painfully to get a simple point across (his difficulty is not vocabulary, it’s the train of thought).
The daunting fact is that Joe Biden’s decline over just three years has been nothing short of astonishing. His current condition is marginal at best, and anyone who votes for him is betting on it not slipping much further in five long, hard years.
There are “experts” weighing in on all sides of that dilemma. But it’s the voters who will decide, not the experts, based on their own experience of living in the real world.
In my view, it’s an easy call. Like him or not, Joe Biden is not fit for another term.
FBI Investigating ‘Super Mayor’ — After two years of reports on the absurd levels of abuse coming from Dolton, Illinois Mayor Tiffany Henyard, the FBI is finally looking into the scandal.
“Yes, it’s true that in nominal terms stocks are at record highs. But one of the first rules of investing is that you need to pay attention to your after-inflation profits. … The real (inflation-adjusted) rate of return in the S&P 500 after three years of Biden is … only 8%. This is fairly anemic and well below the average annual real rate of return since the New York Stock Exchange opened its doors, which is a three-year average of more than 20%.” —Stephen Moore
Observations
“So many descriptions of human behavior have been modified or changed to gloss over their real meaning. In part, I think, it is to avoid judgment which can lead to a change in behavior that benefits individuals and the wider culture. Failing to identify certain behavior for what it is can have the effect of legitimizing that behavior in the eyes of people who are engaging in it and in the wider culture that refuses to accept a standard defining right and wrong.” —Cal Thomas
“Two of the Ten Commandments prohibit adultery and bearing false witness. Those two forms of behavior are increasingly allowed in our ‘non-judgmental’ culture. We see daily the corrosion violating these commands have caused.” —Cal Thomas
“At the start of the 20th century, a new form of moral confusion was introduced. While there were always those who called good evil and evil good, shortly after Einstein discovered relativity in the natural order, Western civilization applied relativity to the moral order. … Instead of good and evil, we now have a set of other ‘moral’ categories: rich and poor, white and black, colonizers and colonized, strong and weak, oppressors and oppressed.” —Dennis Prager
“For the American Left, the concept of Christian nationalism is simply a tool which they can use to draw lines against political action by those who oppose their agenda. In that way, it’s not unlike Putin’s use of a religion that he himself doesn’t believe in for purposes of achieving his own political stability. Putin celebrates it out loud while quietly shutting it down. The American Left lampoons it out loud to the same end: that faith would stay put in the heart of the individual. But a faith that stays put in the heart is a faith with blocked arteries. A heart that can’t pump its lifeblood outward will end in cardiac arrest.” —Jared Bridges
Non Compos Mentis
“They come up with things to profile us for. I believe this with everything in my heart — we can get rid of all the crime in America overnight, just like that, and people ask, ‘How, Attorney Crump?’ Change the definition of ‘crime.’ … They made the laws to criminalize our culture, black culture.” —civil rights attorney Ben Crump
“Now it’s time to organize formally and bring into the halls of Congress the power and the transformative nature of hip-hop culture. … Our goal is to make sure the hip-hop community has a seat at the table as we work on federal policy.” —Congressman Jamaal Bowman (D-NY)
Useful Idiot
“[Biden] is not going to be public with everything he says to Netanyahu. But I know this: He feels about the way I feel when it comes to Netanyahu. [H]is leadership has not been good for Israel.” —Congressman Jim Clyburn (D-SC)
Belly Laugh of the Day
“The president has done an incredible job of bringing this country back from the brink and then protecting us on the national and international stage as well.” —Biden senior adviser Mitch Landrieu
For the longest time, anyone – including medical professionals and scientists – who dared to challenge the effectiveness of the COVID vaccine was censored, silenced, and banished to the realm of crazy anti-vaxxers.
However, now the tides are turning as more and more evidence surfaces about the reality of the rapidly developed COVID vaccine. The same companies that once shoved the vaccine down our throats, swearing that it was 100% safe and effective, are now backtracking.
“Last week we talked about the Pfizer scientists admitting the heart disease coming from the vaccine. This week the biggest study so far ever done on the global safety of the vaccine has just been released, and [the CDC] too is now admitting to severe illness, death, and lingering long symptoms,” says Pat Gray.
No longer can these companies deny that the vaccine is “causing problems neurologically … blood problems, and heart-related conditions.”
“I’ve got a chart here that’s going to blow your mind, Pat,” says Keith Malinak before displaying the following data from VAERS (Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System), managed by the CDC and the FDA.
“These are VAERS’ reported deaths by vaccine between the years 1988 and 2021 … over thirty years of data,” says Keith. “All of the deaths from vaccines (not the COVID one) are on the left,” while the COVID vaccine “accounts for half the deaths” even though by 2021, it had only been in circulation for one year.
What’s perhaps most upsetting is that despite this data, the CDC continues to tell people “to go get it,” says Pat.
To hear more, watch the clip below.
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Fox News contributor Jonathan Turley discusses Trump’s use of the 8th Amendment to argue against the $355 million fine against him and James Biden’s upcoming deposition in the impeachment inquiry against President Joe Biden. #FoxNews
Sometimes less says more. The Border Patrol Union proved it Monday with a social media post on X.
The union shared a very concise letter to President Joe Biden.
Fewer than 50 words, the message was short but sweet and to the point.
“Dear Joe, You OWN this catastrophic disaster at the border – lock, stock and barrel,” the union wrote on the National Border Patrol Council account. “You created it. You nursed it along. You encouraged it. You facilitated it. It’s all yours. Don’t run from it now like a coward. Signed, The BP agents you’ve thrown under the bus.”
Dear Joe,
You OWN this catastrophic disaster at the border – lock, stock and barrel. You created it. You nursed it along. You encouraged it. You facilitated it. It's all yours.
I guess there is no arguing who owns this issue in the eyes of the Border Patrol agents. It can’t be passed off as former President Donald Trump’s by the current administration anymore.
Nor should it be. The Biden administration unleashed the kraken on the United States, with almost 9 million illegal immigrants infiltrating this nation since Biden’s inauguration.
Biden has welcomed the invasion with open arms, fanning the flames every step of the way. He’s done everything he could to assist in drowning our nation under the weight of this invasion. Illegals are receiving free everything while Americans look on in disgust. The evidence is clear.
Illegals are receiving free food, free healthcare, free lodgings, free medical care, free diapers, free relocation travel, and free money. The list continues. Whatever they need, it all comes free. He’s forced Americans to pay for all of it while they are barely getting by. And then those same illegal immigrants threaten Americans with words of pure hatred, warning us of what is to come. It worsens by the day.
And now that Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has refused to allow the invasion to continue in his neck of the woods, the cartels have figured out how to carry on smuggling illegal immigrants through southern California and Arizona. The influx is simply changing course but not lessening.
According to a Fox News report from Feb. 1, over 71 percent of illegal entries are now happening through California and Arizona rather than Texas.
Where the Border Patrol’s Del Rio Sector, which covers part of the Texas border with Mexico (including hard-hit Eagle Pass), was averaging 3,000-4,000 illegal migrants invading our nation at their border per day in December, that number has reduced to 200, Fox reported.
It shows that effective policing of the border can provide huge results. But as the cartels are not only persistent but also rather well-versed in the best possible ways to get around these impediments, they are coming up with their own solutions.
It’s like watching water find its way through the cracks. This water, however, is tainted with violence, crime, perversion, and death.
More than 8.9 million illegal immigrants have arrived into the United States since Biden took office. This number is larger than the population of Arizona.
The fact that the Border Patrol Union stood up and called Biden out is a very good sign for the United States in the face of this atrocity. It’s a sign of how strong resistance remains to the Biden administration’s rampant lawlessness.
The union — which endorsed Trump in both 2016 and 2020 — has locked horns with Biden many times over the course of his benighted administration. In 2021 it was blasting Biden’s approach to border security as a crisis, and that was when the invasion was in its infancy.
That was the same year the Border Patrol was the subject of an attack that included Biden himself over a hoax story about agents on horseback using whips against illegal immigrants from Haiti.
Now, with the 2024 election approaching, it seems that Border Patrol agents are drawing their own line in the sand, sending a powerful message that they stand on the right side of the Constitution. They see how wrong and corrupt the current president and his administration is.
I liken it to them saying, “Don’t count on us to be complicit without speaking our truth. That ship has sailed.” It is a wake-up call to anyone who might have had any doubt left in his head of how intentional Biden’s actions have been.
The Border Patrol agents are required to do a job but that doesn’t mean that they agree with what is happening.
Frankly, we don’t know what will come of this situation after the fact — so much depends on American voters righting the country’s course when November’s elections roll around.
At a minimum, however, it emphasized which side the Border Patrol union and agents are on.
It’s the side of the law, of history and of the American people. And the country can’t ask for more than that.
Critics of the US president are increasingly questioning his physical and mental acuity
US President Joe Biden tripped twice on Tuesday as he boarded Air Force One for a flight to California. Although the White House has insisted he is in excellent health, the 81-year-old Democrat has persistently refused to take a cognitive test during his annual health exams.
Cameras at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland captured Biden stumbling while going up the steps to the presidential jet, barely avoiding a fall. The latest incident comes as the president faces public demands to have his mental acuity checked.
Biden “should come out and debate and to show the American public that he has the cognitive capacity to do this very, very difficult job,” his former challenger for the Democratic nomination Robert F. Kennedy Jr., now an independent candidate, said last week.
Meanwhile, 84 House Republicans wrote an open letter demanding that the commander-in-chief submit to a cognitive test, or face being replaced under the 25th Amendment.
“If you are too mentally impaired to stand trial, as your own Department of Justice claims, then we are concerned that your mental state is not at a competent level to serve as the leader of the free world,” said the letter, written by former White House physician Ronny Jackson, who treated presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump before becoming a congressman from Texas.
The letter came after special counsel Robert Hur, who was investigating Biden’s improper handling of classified documents, concluded that the president should not be charged because it would be difficult to persuade a jury that an “elderly man with a poor memory” could have committed a serious felony.
Biden is due for his annual physical, though the White House has not revealed the date of the examination. Following his last physical, in mid-February 2023, Dr. Kevin O’Connor declared Biden “healthy, vigorous” and “fit to successfully execute the duties of the presidency.”
Biden had two brain surgeries in 1988, to deal with life-threatening aneurysms. Dr. O’Connor’s report said that “an extremely detailed neurologic exam” found no indication of stroke, multiple sclerosis or Parkinson’s disease, but noted that the president did not take a cognitive test.
Under the 2011 Affordable Care Act – passed when Biden was Barack Obama’s vice president – Americans 65 and older who are on Medicare are required to take a “cognitive assessment” as part of their annual “wellness visit.”
Presidential historian Douglas Brinkley explains why Joe Biden, 81, is running for reelection even though most Americans, including most Democrats, want him to step aside. “Jill Biden…likes power. She wants to stay. She wants some sense of revenge.” From: Washington Free Beacon
Were the number of illegal immigrants who entered the United States under President Biden gathered together to found a city, it would be the second-largest city in America after New York.
On Wednesday’s “Wake Up America,” Pennsylvania Rep. Dan Meuser says James Biden scammed now defunct hospital operator Americore, and Joe Biden walked away with $200K for it. Watch NEWSMAX, an independent news network with a conservative perspective, available in 100M+ U.S. homes.
Fox News co-host Kayleigh McEnany and Vivek Ramaswamy react to former President Trump’s ‘The Ingraham Angle’ town hall in Greenville, South Carolina. #foxnews #fox #Trump
The radicals that run most of our major cities thought that going soft on crime was the way to go. So they reduced police budgets, they legalized a lot of things that used to be serious crimes, they decided to stop prosecuting numerous low level offenses, and many hardcore criminals found themselves getting sent back into the streets time after time after getting arrested by the police. For example, even though the city of Chicago is experiencing a massive crime wave, the jail population in Cook County is “at the lowest level in 40 years” thanks to policies that are extremely soft on crime…
One thing Chicagoans can’t help but notice when scrolling through news feeds: the number of violent crimes committed by defendants while they were out either on parole, probation or awaiting trial.
That’s not surprising given the long-term decarceration trend in Cook County that’s left the county’s jail population at the lowest level in 40 years. Cook County Chief Judge Tim Evans started a no bail/low cash bail policy in 2017, resulting in a growing number of pretrial defendants out on bond who are then charged with new crimes, as we reported here. The state’s new SAFE-T Act has taken that policy even further. In September 2023, Illinois became the first state in the country to eliminate cash bail altogether, while the law also reduced the types of crimes for which defendants could be detained before their trial.
So how is that working out?
Has putting violent criminals back into the streets made things safer?
January 2 – A 21-year-old man shot another man in the face while on bail for one gun case and on probation for another. According to CWB, he was the “30th person accused of shooting, killing, or trying to shoot or kill someone in Chicago in 2023 while awaiting trial for a felony.”
January 7 – A 31-year-old man and former CVS employee robbed a CVS while on probation for robbing and burglarizing a CVS.
January 14 – A 19-year-old gang member shot and critically injured another man in Little Village just three months after getting probation for head-butting a Chicago cop. Prosecutors also dropped a felony gun case on the day he pleaded guilty to the battery.
January 18 – A 19-year-old man killed his girlfriend while on probation for a gun charge.
January 27 – An 18-year-old man with gang ties gunned down an airport employee while on juvenile probation for gun possession.
February 4 – A 56-year-old man killed ex-girlfriend while on parole for strangling his previous partner.
February 6 – A 32-year-old man and previous 8-time felon burglarized a restaurant while on probation for burglarizing a nail salon.
February 6 – A 16-year-old male allegedly stabbed and killed a man while on parole for attempted murder. Earlier, he was found in possession of a stolen motor vehicle while on that same parole. That case was dropped.
February 7 – A 20 year-old man was charged with ‘brutal attack’ of a woman at Chicago Union Station after being released on similar charges under cashless bail law.
February 12 – A 33-year-old tow truck driver with two counts of attempted murder after he opened fire on two competitors over a job, while on felony pretrial release.
February 13 – A 19-year-old man was caught carrying three guns on CTA less than a month after being placed on “first-time weapon offender probation” for another felony gun case.
February 14 – An 18-year-old man killed an Uber driver while on juvenile probation for robbery. He also previously served time in the juvenile justice center for carjacking in 2021.
Unless something changes, the future of Chicago is extremely bleak.
There has been a mass exodus out of the city, and businesses are shutting down at a staggering rate.
For example, we just learned that three KFC locations in Chicago are being permanently closed.
KFC abandons Chicago.
3 KFC locations join other businesses leaving due to rampant crime.
This is what happens when leftist policies destroy a state.
It is really hard to run a profitable business in an environment of complete and utter lawlessness.
Of course similar things are happening all over the nation.
It is being projected that retail theft will be well above the 100 billion dollar mark this year, and organized gangs of thieves are especially having a good time in areas that are soft on crime.
In the Big Apple, a gang of thieves just robbed a Gucci store and were able to run off with $51,000 worth of goods in broad daylight…
Dramatic footage shows the heist unfolding in a matter of minutes at the store in the city’s ritzy Meatpacking District on Monday. Video shows one of the three thieves walk in and point a gun towards a security guard before ransacking the shelves.
The group helped themselves to the designer suitcases and bags, before stuffing them into a stack.
One of the thieves is so over encumbered he trips and falls whilst trying to make his exit.
Many Americans are choosing to avoid the stores altogether, but theft is also a major problem for those who prefer to shop online.
NYC has the highest number of package deliveries in the country. With the rise of online shopping, the number of stolen packages in the city has increased significantly. Over 90,000 packages are stolen or go missing daily, causing frustration and anger among customers. This highlights the urgent need for effective measures to combat package theft.
Package theft has become rampant in New York City, with thieves commonly called “porch pirates” targeting unattended deliveries left outside homes and apartment buildings. These criminals strike quickly, snatching packages within seconds of delivery and leaving unsuspecting residents empty-handed.
Because package thefts are not considered to be “violent crimes”, doing something about the problem is not considered to be a priority.
But somehow the NYPD is able to find the resources to promote their dance team.
The other day, a performance by that dance team on local television station PIX11 created quite an uproar…
The New York City Police Department (NYPD) is under fire for promoting its dance team as residents raise concerns over a wave of migrant-involved crime.
The NYPD dance team performed on local television station PIX11 Thursday. The team, formed in 2022, describes itself as a group “staying mentally and physically well through dance” on social media.
The team has performed at various city events and schools, according to photos shared to its Instagram page. Both community members and lawmakers criticized the team following its Thursday performance, arguing it represents misplaced priorities.
Why are they spending so much time prancing around when they should be fighting the horrible crime wave that is plaguing the city?
If you have not seen them perform yet, you can watch them right here. But I must warn you, once you have seen this video you will never be able to unsee it.
I have seen a lot of cringeworthy videos in my time, but that definitely has to be near the top of the list.
Most of us don’t want law enforcement officers to dance.
We just want them to do their jobs.
Unfortunately, there are some out there that seem to believe that we haven’t gone far enough in getting soft on crime.
In fact, during an appearance on MSNBC lawyer Ben Crump actually suggested that we should just go ahead and basically legalize all crime…
The most insane thing you have ever heard from@MSNBC
Celebrity Black activist lawyer @BenCrumpLaw says that criminal behavior in America is just Black culture. Demands the legalization of crime.@TheRevAl and other Black racial activists all express agreement. pic.twitter.com/bfEQr0b7AU
About the Author: Michael Snyder’s extremely controversial new book entitled “Chaos” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com. He has also written seven other books that are available on Amazon.com including “End Times”, “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”. (#CommissionsEarned) When you purchase any of Michael’s books you help to support the work that he is doing. You can also get his articles by email as soon as he publishes them by subscribing to his Substack newsletter. Michael has published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and he always freely and happily allows others to republish those articles on their own websites. You can connect with Michael on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, and sharing his articles on your own social media accounts is definitely a great help. These are such troubled times, and people need hope. John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” If you have not already done so, we strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today.
Many look at Generation Z and wonder how things could have gone so horribly wrong, but it isn’t a mystery at all. The truth is that the young adults of today are the product of the western world’s dying culture. We have often been warned that the liberal elite will fundamentally transform our culture, but in reality they have already fundamentally transformed it. They dominate education, they dominate the media, they dominate the entertainment industry, they dominate the corporate world, they dominate at all levels of government and they even dominate most of our major religious institutions. They have imposed a culture on us that is completely foreign to the culture that was once dominant in the western world, and the consequences have been nothing short of dramatic.
Let me give you an example of what I am talking about.
Once upon a time, those living in the western world were known for their work ethic.
If you made a commitment you were expected to follow through.
And if you gave your word on something, that was considered to be as good as gold.
But now the western world is filled with young people that are extremely lazy and that will break their word at the drop of a hat.
Employment website Indeed surveyed 1,500 businesses and 1,500 working people in the U.K. and found that job ghosting is rife, with 75% of workers saying they’ve ignored a prospective employer in the past year.
But the youngest generation of workers are by far the worst offenders.
A whopping 93% of Gen Zers told the global recruitment platform that they’ve flaked out of an interview.
Worse still, a staggering 87% managed to charm their way through interviews, secure the job, and sign the contract, only to leave their new boss stranded on the very first day.
I was stunned when I saw those numbers.
Of course things are very similar on this side of the Atlantic.
In fact, a recent survey found that 31 percent of all hiring managers in the U.S. purposely try to avoid hiring young people that belong to Generation Z….
According to the survey, 31 percent of hiring managers say they avoid hiring Gen Zers in favor of older workers. Hiring managers claim that Gen Zers ask for too much money, act entitled, and lack communication skills during the hiring process. Likewise, among the 94 percent of hiring managers who say they have interviewed Gen Zers, 58 percent say the Gen Z candidate wasn’t dressed appropriately, 57 percent say they struggled with eye contact, and 47 percent say they asked for unreasonable compensation.
It is easy to blame Generation Z for their behavior.
But I believe that more of the blame belongs to the system that produced them.
Our system of education is supposed to be preparing our young people to face the real world, but it is failing badly.
The most recent results of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) highlight a concerning trend for U.S. students in the field of math.
In comparison to their counterparts in other industrialized nations, American students are falling behind. The rather sobering results revealed a 13-point decline for U.S. students when compared to the 2018 exam.
We live in a culture that simply does not value academic achievement, and that is especially true when it comes to mathematics.
But things are completely different in Asian countries such as Japan, China and South Korea.
Given enough time, they would run circles around us.
Many would argue that they already are.
A lot of liberal politicians worry about the 5 percent of U.S. students that are homeschooled, but year after year students that are homeschooled perform far better on standardized tests than students in our public schools do…
In the meantime, homeschooled students are excelling, scoring 12 and 22 percentile points higher than private and public-school students respectively on standardized academic achievement tests. This is the case across race and income demographics. A 2015 study showed black homeschool students scoring 23 to 42 percentile points above black public school students.
These results should not be surprising. Traditional schooling, with its rigid one-size-fits-all approach, is oppressive to the intellect and especially harmful to gifted children, who must stifle their natural drive in favor of group conformity.
Our system of education is doing a horrible job of teaching students to read, write, speak and work with numbers.
But it is doing a great job of sexualizing our young people.
In the name of “sex education”, some of the most horrible things that you can imagine are being taught in our classrooms.
New “values” that would have made previous generations of Americans vomit are being relentlessly promoted, and materials that are not appropriate to read in front of our lawmakers are being made available to our children.
UNREAL. At a hearing in NH, State Rep Glenn Cordelli attempted to read from inappropriate books in school libraries. He gets shut down because it’s too graphic. The Democrats freak out and then all vote to not let him continue speaking.
Needless to say, the results of all of this indoctrination have been dramatic…
Twenty-eight percent of Gen Z adults — which the survey’s researchers specify as those ages 18 to 25 — identify as LGBTQ, according to a report released this week by the Public Religion Research Institute, or PRRI. That compares with 10% of all adults, 16% of millennials, 7% of Generation X, 4% of baby boomers and 4% of the Silent Generation, the institute found.
“With respect to LGBTQ identity, it’s very clear that Gen Z adults look different than older Americans,” said Melissa Deckman, PRRI’s chief executive.
Among Gen Z voters, only 21 percent identify as Republicans but 28 percent identify as LGBTQ.
Those numbers have enormous implications for the future of our society.
About the Author: Michael Snyder’s extremely controversial new book entitled “Chaos” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com. He has also written seven other books that are available on Amazon.com including “End Times”, “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”. (#CommissionsEarned) When you purchase any of Michael’s books you help to support the work that he is doing. You can also get his articles by email as soon as he publishes them by subscribing to his Substack newsletter. Michael has published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and he always freely and happily allows others to republish those articles on their own websites. You can connect with Michael on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, and sharing his articles on your own social media accounts is definitely a great help. These are such troubled times, and people need hope. John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” If you have not already done so, we strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today.
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