The Local Church vs The Culture | WRETCHED TV Episode 3396
Join Todd Friel as he sits down with three local pastors to discuss the things they deal with.
THE LOCAL CHURCH VS. THE CULTURE
THE LOCAL CHURCH VS. THE CULTURE
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Daily Archives: May 2, 2024
WATCH LIVE at 8 PM: National Day of Prayer Lifts God’s Word to Combat Darkness
This year’s theme for the 73rd National Day of Prayer is “Lift up the Word – Light Up the World” from the biblical passage in 2 Samuel chapter 22. It reads in part: “O Lord, you are my lamp. The Lord Lights up My Darkness.” It is a message that organizers say is needed now more than ever.
“It seemed all we were talking about was darkness,” Kathy Branzell, President of the National Day of Prayer Task Force told CBN’s Faith Nation. “‘Oh, America’s getting darker, our schools are getting darker, my neighborhood’s getting darker.'”
Branzell explained, “While that might feel true, the truth is darkness is the absence of light. This year by lifting up the Word, we know His Word in prayer won’t return void and we’re going to light up this world.”
WATCH: CBN hosts a LIVE broadcast for the National Day of Prayer on Thursday, May 2 at 8 pm EST on the CBN News Channel, the CBN News YouTube page, or here at CBNNews.com BELOW
The annual National Day of Prayer, which was established by Congress in 1952 and signed into law by President Harry S. Truman, is a call for Americans to humble themselves before Almighty God, to seek His guidance, wisdom, and blessing.
Branzell said events like the unrest and anti-semitic protests on college campuses should guide how Christians pray.
“We are praying God’s presence on those campuses. We are praying for the Holy Spirit to come in and for hatred to be diminished and for love to come in and to take over,” she said.
The hope is that the light already breaking through at some schools will spread to others.
Author and speaker Jennie Allen who has witnessed repentance, revival, and mass baptisms on several college campuses said many students are ready to hear the message of salvation.
“Gen Z is different,” Allen said in an interview on CBN News’ The PrayerLink. “They are open to God, and they want to confess their sin. They’re sick of the world and they want something different. Not all of them, but a lot of them.”
“And I think what the older church needs to hear and believe is that it’s possible,” added Allen. “God is doing it again. He is awakening his people. And so, to pray and to pull those kids into your life and your home and disciple them because they’re hungry.”
In a nation divided by politics, race, and hot-button social issues, organizers realize that only a unified church can pray with power. That is why the National Day of Prayer is partnering with the National Unity Weekend movement which brings churches together every June to teach on unity and serve their communities.
Bishop Derek Grier of Grace Church in Dumfries, Virginia is the founder of the group.
“If there was ever a time our nation needed unity it’s right now – particularly before we go into this election season,” Grier told CBN News. “And as the church unites around the things that we have in common, the things that we disagree over become minor. And with that, people in our various communities can run into the church as a place of refuge.”
A refuge of light that outshines the darkness.
May 4 – Just When You Thought Judges Couldn’t Get Any Worse … | VCY
TODAY’S BIBLE READING CHALLENGE:
Judges 19:1-20:48
John 3:22-4:3
Psalm 104:24-35
Proverbs 14:22-24
Judges 19:12 — It will not be until 2 Samuel 5:6-10 that David’s armies would capture Jerusalem, and it would become an Israelite city.
Judges 19:15 — No man would show him hospitality. We see hospitality encouraged in Isaiah 58:6-7, Matthew 25:35, Romans 12:13, Hebrews 13:2, 1 Timothy 3:2, 1 Timothy 5:9-10, Titus 1:8, and 1 Peter 4:9. While no command of the Torah mandates hospitality (only the New Testament does), the patriarch Job clearly practiced it (Job 31:32).
Judges 19:22 — These were Benjamites (Judges 19:16) speaking almost exactly what the Sodomites spoke to Lot (Genesis 19:5).
- Belial sons of Gibeah: “Bring forth the man that came into thine house, that we may know him.”
- Sodomites: “Bring them out unto us, that we may know them.”
Judges 19:24 — Lot offered his two daughters to the Sodomite mob (Genesis 19:8); the Ephraimite offers his daughter and the Levite’s concubine.
Judges 20:2 — Mizpeh is Jephthah’s hometown.
Judges 20:48 — 65,000 people died in this first Civil War of Israel. The wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23).
John 3:30 — Seven words that make a great life verse.
Psalm 104:34 — How often do you meditate on the LORD?
Proverbs 14:23 — As Patch the Pirate said, “Your walk talks, and your talk talks, but your walk talks louder than your talk talks!”
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.
The Lord Our Companion | VCY
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. (Psalm 23:4)
Sweet are these words in describing a deathbed assurance. How many have repeated them in their last hours with intense delight!
But the verse is equally applicable to agonies of spirit in the midst of life. Some of us, like Paul, die daily through a tendency to gloom of soul. Bunyan puts the Valley of the Shadow of Death far earlier in the pilgrimage than the river which rolls at the foot of the celestial hills. We have some of us traversed the dark and dreadful defile of “the shadow of death” several times, and we can bear witness that the Lord alone enabled us to bear up amid its wild thought, its mysterious horrors, its terrible depressions. The Lord has sustained us and kept us above all real fear of evil, even when our spirit has been overwhelmed. We have been pressed and oppressed, but yet we have lived, for we have felt the presence of the Great Shepherd and have been confident that His crook would prevent the foe from giving us any deadly wound.
Should the present time be one darkened by the raven wings of a great sorrow, let us glorify God by a peaceful trust in Him.
Day 3: Proclaiming Repentance as a Gift | The Daily Declaration
Focus for USA
We continue our 24 hours of continuous prayer for the USA on Zoom. This will conclude at 9 PM (AEST) tonight. Both the USA and Australia need revival, repentance and deliverance. See here for more details.
Intention
To attract souls for Christ by displaying fruits worthy of repentance.
Scripture
“Therefore, bear fruits worthy of repentance… I indeed baptise you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptise you with the Holy Spirit and fire.”
– Matthew 3:8, 11
Reflection
As recorded in Matthew 3, John the Baptist was standing in the Jordan River, preaching about the fruits worthy of repentance.
John the Baptist was speaking about the fruits the Apostle Paul urged Christians in Galatia to show in their lives. In Galatians 5:22–23 he writes, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such, there is no law.”
Instead of simply attending church as a tradition, as a cultural long-standing practice in your family, decide to seek for yourself the kingdom that Jesus first declared when He began preaching, “Repent, the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 4:17).
When you repent, turning your heart and mind to God, freely choosing to die to your old rebellious self and your agenda, believing Jesus rose from the dead and He is now Lord in heaven and on earth, He then gives you His ‘fire’ – His indwelling Holy Spirit.
Repentance is a gift, not a punishment. It brings life, not death.
Paul also writes that the first fruit of the Holy Spirit is love (Galatians 5:22). When we put love into practice with others, we are “bearing fruit worthy of repentance”.
Your family, friends, and neighbours will see the godly change in you. Your testimony of the gift of repentance changing you will be a powerful witness to win souls for Christ!
Video
Prayer
Heavenly Father, in Jesus’ Holy Name, open up hearts and minds to Your gift of repentance.
May there be a move of God that awakens the ‘ecclesia’ – Your Church – to proclaim repentance as a gift, not a punishment. May many see it as a way, Your way, to bring many into Your kingdom.
May the godly roots in this nation, and every nation, be restored with Your gift of repentance. Amen.
Author Bio
Pastor Jeffrey Daly is the Founder and Executive Director of National Day of Repentance, a ministry focusing solely on personal and national repentance. This ministry provides resources, including days of repentance in many nations, to encourage the Body of Christ in preparation for the Bridegroom’s return.
Prayer Points and Purpose for GO Month 2024
- To worship Jesus and give extravagant praise to God. 1 Chron 16:23–31.
- To pray for revival, repentance and deliverance for Australia and for millions to find Christ. Acts 2:1–41.
- To pray for five people by name to find Christ and share the gospel with those five in May. Matt 28:18–20.
We invite you to support this prayer campaign to multiply prayer in Australia for revival and see millions come to Christ. Every donation to the Canberra Declaration helps us promote prayer and make a stand for family, faith, freedom, life, and the good news of God’s love through Jesus Christ His Son.
Join us for our nightly Zoom prayer call:
DATES: Every night in May
TIME: 8 PM (AEST); 7:30 PM (ACST); 6 PM (AWST)
ZOOM URL LINK: https://zoom.us/j/776881184
Daily devotions are brought to you by the Canberra Declaration.
Image courtesy of Shutterstock.
The post Day 3: Proclaiming Repentance as a Gift appeared first on The Daily Declaration.
Who Does God Justify and Save? – Pastor Patrick Hines Podcast
Who Does God Justify and Save? – Pastor Patrick Hines Podcast
Romans 4:5-8
New American Standard Bible
5 But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness, 6 just as David also speaks of the blessing of the person to whom God credits righteousness apart from works:
7 “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds have been forgiven,
And whose sins have been covered.
8 Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will not take into account.”
Romans 5:6-9
New American Standard Bible
6 For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For one will hardly die for a righteous person; though perhaps for the good person someone would even dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him.
▶️Reformed Christian Podcast – Pastor Patrick Hines (Playlist)
https://studio.youtube.com/playlist/PLzOwqed_gET1N1JMQBXRoGgLeUHGpRW7o/edit
▶️Pastor Patrick Hines (Playlist)
https://studio.youtube.com/playlist/PLzOwqed_gET2vqbY_shSW0MfXtYGSoCnT/edit
▶️Pastor Patrick Hines Sermons (Playlist)
https://studio.youtube.com/playlist/PLzOwqed_gET2xjXtMVvfNhl3k_a8VjofT/edit
These Three books are also available on Amazon. All proceeds go directly to Pastor Hines:
▶️”Earth’s Foundational History – Part 1: Genesis Chapters 1 Through 5.” (Paperback – May 4, 2023) https://cutt.ly/16RCeZ0
▶️Am I Right With God?: The Gospel, Justification, Saving Faith, Repentance, Assurance, & The New Birth https://cutt.ly/S6RCbuM
▶️Redrawing the Battle Lines: 23 Sermons on Critical Issues Facing the Church https://cutt.ly/m6RCTi0
▶️Bridwell Heights Presbyterian Church http://www.bridwellheightschurch.org/
▶️Reformed Presbyterian Pulpit Supplemental (Pastor Hines’ YouTube Channel):
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClW5Qzh27Zx7HO2fKkCcR5g
From the church website:
We subscribe to the Westminster Standards as our doctrinal statement. It consists of the following documents:
The Westminster Confession of Faith
The Westminster Larger Catechism
The Westminster Shorter Catechism
We also believe that Christian Worship is to be regulated and defined by God’s Word, the Bible.
Our worship services are designed to please and honor the Triune God of the Bible. We place Scripture reading and the preaching of the word of God at the center of worship along with Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. These are God’s gifts to His church and ought to always be at the center of Christian worship. We are a congregation that loves to sing God’s praises, recite His Word back to Him, and actively engage in hearing and learning from God’s Word.
We embrace and promote a comprehensive Christian world and life view.
There is no area of life which is not under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. It is to God and His law which all people, including governments and civil rulers, will answer. The Word of God embraces and informs the way we view marriage, the family, children, education, politics, worship, law, government, war, the church, missions, evangelism, and worship. In the world today there is a battle of opposing worldviews. There are basically only two positions: God’s Word and man’s ideas. We stand positively for Biblical truth and negatively against man’s ideas which are opposed to Biblical truth.
The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the only hope for mankind.
Because all men fall short of obeying God’s law, all men everywhere are in need of divine grace and salvation from God. This salvation is found only in the Lord Jesus Christ who died for sinners, was buried, rose again, and is alive today seated at God the Father’s right hand.
We Worship God Together as Families.
We offer nursery during the morning worship service for newborns and infants but encourage people to keep as many of their children as they can with them for morning worship. The audio of the service is in the nursery via speakers. There is also a crying room with a video screen and audio of the sermon. We offer Sunday school classes for all ages, but worship together as families. We do not offer “children’s” church.
All who profess faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and are members of an evangelical church are cordially invited to participate with us in the Lord’s Supper.
2 May 2024 News Briefing
Aerial photos show devastation left by a deadly tornado in China
Aerial photos posted by Chinese state media on Sunday showed wide devastation in part of the southern city of Guangzhou after a tornado swept through the day before, killing five people, injuring dozens of others, and damaging more than 140 buildings.
Karnataka: Bengaluru reels under scorching heat, records second hottest day in 50 years
Amid the ongoing summer, Bengaluru is experiencing an unprecedented surge in temperature, breaking records of the last five decades. Sunday (April 28) saw the mercury soar to 38.5 degrees Celsius, marking the second-highest temperature recorded in the city during this period. This year is shaping up to be one of the hottest in recent history for the tech hub, according to the weather watchers.
Report: Global wine production worst in 62 years due to ‘extreme climate events’
Fires, droughts, and other conditions commonly associated with a changing global climate greatly contributed to making the world’s 2023 wine production the worst in 62 years, industry officials have reported.
Dr. Mercola: Expect an ‘avalanche’ of ‘contagious’ COVID-shot dementia
Dr. Joseph Mercola, an expert on natural health remedies and avowed critic of the government-mandated COVID shots that were imposed on the American public during the pandemic, now is warning about the evidence of a link between those mRNA shots and dementia.
CDC Concealed Evidence Linking Deaths to Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 Vaccines, Internal Documents Reveal
U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) officials found evidence that the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines caused multiple deaths before claiming that there was no evidence linking the vaccines to any deaths.
Netanyahu: ICC arrest warrants would be an ‘outrage of historic proportions,’ fuel worldwide antisemitism
“You have to hear this to believe this. The International Criminal Court in The Hague is contemplating issuing arrest warrants against senior Israeli government and military officials as war criminals,” began Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a strongly-worded video statement on Tuesday
Cops raise US flag, toss Palestinian banner after ending City College pro-terror protest
The American flag was re-raised at City College of New York after anti-Israel protesters removed it and replaced it with a Palestinian flag at the Harlem Heights campus.
The imaginary “climate crisis” is a product of climate activists and click-bait media
The UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (“IPCC”) reports don’t define what a “climate crisis” is. The crisis that supposedly requires society to achieve zero carbon emissions or, at least, “net zero.” On the contrary…corporate media’s opinion of climate change has moved away from a neutral position by adopting and promoting terms like “climate crisis,” “global heating” and “climate emergency.”
A big showdown is unfolding in India after AstraZeneca admits covid vaccines cause blood clots in court documents
AstraZeneca has admitted in court for the first time that its covid injection can cause deadly blood clotting. Within days of the news breaking in the UK, there was an uproar in India over India’s version of the Oxford-AstraZeneca injection.
All mRNA injections, including cancer vaccines, may accelerate the development of cancer
…On 23 April, a pre-print paper (not yet peer-reviewed) was published in the journal Authorea that reviewed oncogenesis and autoimmunity caused by mRNA injections. It found that repeated mRNA injections reduce immune surveillance for cancer while at the same time inducing autoimmunity.
US fertility rate fell in 2023 as fewer women have kids in their 20s
The fertility rate in the U.S. fell to the lowest level on record last year, with women in their 20s having fewer babies, researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Thursday.
Australian Leaders Demand Platforms Curb Online “Misinformation,” Float Online ID and AI-Assisted Content Surveillance Ideas
A number of Australian politicians, both those in government and opposition, are pressuring social media to demonstrate “more vigilance” when dealing with content related to the Sydney stabbing attacks.
Imminent Insect Demise Means Global Food Web Is On Verge Of Collapse
The newest report from the World Entomology Body (WEB) is absolutely frightening. Buried in the late Friday afternoon news cycle, the most recent annual assessment available of insect health indicates that loss of whole insect communities is imminent — which will have disastrous effects for the global food web.
Biden Terrifyingly Grows Ranks Of Government Spies
President Joe Biden circulated a memo that cast the Fourth Amendment right to privacy as a “threat to national security.” Biden National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and Attorney General Merrick Garland called members of Congress to ensure that they voted to give spy agencies renewed power.
Iraq bans homosexuality
Iraq’s parliament has passed a law banning same-sex relations and transgenderism. The measure was condemned by the US and UK, but the speaker of the parliament described it as “a necessary step to protect the value structure of society.”
NEW REPORT: ‘Over 98 percent’ of world’s central banks gearing up for new system of programmable, trackable ‘digital cash’ and 24 nations will have ‘live CBDCs’ by 2030
The era of cash money is nearing its end, and with it will come the end of privacy. The World Economic Forum claims, in a new report, that 98 percent of the world’s central banks have agreed to implement the globalists’ long-awaited dream of a cashless society.
Abortion activists want to reverse Honduras’ pro-life laws by overturning its sovereignty
In 2021, the Congress of Honduras responded to the abortion activism rearing its head across the continent by passing the “Shield Against Abortion in Honduras” law, enshrining its pro-life regime in the Honduran constitution. The bill states that “it is considered prohibited and illegal by the mother or a third party to practice any kind of interruption of a life that is about to be born.”
BREAKING: Biden Regime is Considering Flooding US with ‘Refugees’ From Gaza
Here we go. The Biden Regime is considering ‘welcoming’ so-called ‘refugees’ from Gaza into the United States. According to internal federal documents obtained by CBS News, the Biden Regime is considering resettling Palestinians who have family members in the US.
What Is It Like Living In a Police State?
What is the difference between Venezuela and America? The short answer is that there is no difference. America is well on its way to being a full-fledged police state. However, that is not the most disturbing thing. The most disturbing outgrowth of living in Police State America, is that we are passively accepting this abuse.
WHO’s International Health Regulations: The intent of the newly released draft remains unchanged
Less than a month before the intended vote, the proposed changes to the International Health Regulations and the draft Pandemic Agreement are still being negotiated. On 16 April, a new draft of the amended International Health Regulations (“IHR”) was released. The newly released draft now states it is non-binding, as is the current IHR, but otherwise, the intent of the draft is essentially unchanged. The intent is to further centralise control of public health within WHO and base response to disease outbreaks on commodities, such as vaccines.
JUST IN: Earthquake Rattles SoCal: Shaking Felt in Orange County, Los Angeles and Riverside
A magnitude 4.1 earthquake rattled Southern California on Wednesday afternoon. While a 4.1 earthquake is small by California standards, residents in Los Angeles, Riverside, and Orange County were rattled by the temblor.
The Strain Of The Bird Flu That Is Killing Cats In Texas Is Causing “Brain Hemorrhaging” And “Blindness”
The information that I am about to share with you is very alarming. According to the College of Veterinary Medicine at Cornell University, even though there are some minor differences, “feline lungs are structured just like human lungs, operate in the same way, and serve the same purpose.” So the fact that H5N1 has been able to spread into the “lungs, brains, hearts, and eyes” of more than 20 cats in Texas is not a good sign at all. According to the CDC, some of the cats that caught H5N1 at one farm in Texas ended up blind.
The Anti-Israel Protests Are Being Organized By Paid Professional Agitators And Are Being Funded By The Usual Suspects
If you actually believe that it is just a “coincidence” that anti-Israel protests have “spontaneously” erupted at dozens of colleges and universities all over the nation, you are just being delusional…these protests are being organized by paid professional agitators, and they are being funded by the same far left sources that have funded other radical protest movements in the past. But don’t just take my word for it. New York City Mayor Eric Adams is a far-left mayor in a far-left city, and even he is admitting that there were “professionals” involved in the chaos that we just witnessed at Columbia University
Lift Up America With Prayer
Tomorrow, May 2, 2024, will be the 73rd annual National Day of Prayer when Americans are encouraged to gather in towns, cities, and state capitals to specifically pray for the seven centers of influence in the nation which include government, military, media, business, education, church, and family.
Headlines – 5/2/2024
Iran’s Khamenei pooh-poohs Arabs normalizing with Israel
US defends veto of Palestinian membership in UN Security Council vote
US continues to oppose Israeli Rafah offensive without plan for civilians, says Blinken
Blinken meets with Netanyahu, hoping to stave off an Israeli assault on Rafah
Blinken Says US Cannot Support Rafah Assault Without Humanitarian Plan
Blinken Says Rafah Op Will Diminish Chances of Hostage Deal
Netanyahu tells Blinken he will not agree to end war on Hamas as part of hostage deal
Far-right minister: Hostage deal throws war goals in trash to save only 22-33 hostages
Report: Sinwar views latest hostage deal as trap, exiled Hamas leaders don’t represent terror group
Hamas promises answer to Israeli truce proposal ‘very soon’ amid intense mediation
Hamas indicates it will snub latest hostage deal offer, but says talks to continue
Families of Hostages Threaten to ‘Lay Siege’ to Israeli Leaders if Deal Falls Through
Israel under pressure to let more aid into Gaza as hostage talks continue
IDF to Establish Safe Zone for Rafah Evacuees in Central Gaza
Israeli settlers attacked Jordanian aid convoy heading to Gaza, Jordan Foreign Minister reports
Turkey to Join South Africa in Genocide Case Against Israel at World Court
Colombia to Sever Ties With Israel Over Gaza War
More war debris in Gaza than Ukraine: UN
8,000 Palestinians furtively employed in Israeli construction
Israel tells U.S. it will punish Palestinian Authority if ICC issues warrants
Trump blasts Biden for silence on campus Gaza Camps, encourages colleges to ‘vanquish the radicals’
Biden to discuss ‘scourge of antisemitism’ in Holocaust Remembrance Day speech
House passes divisive antisemitism bill as GOP denounces campus protests
Taylor Greene: Antisemitism bill rejects ‘Gospel’ that Jews handed Jesus to executioners
UCLA cancels Wednesday classes over student ‘distress’ caused by violent Gaza Camp clashes
Hundreds of Anti-Israel Protesters Flood Penn Station for Train to Columbia University
Caught On Camera: Wife of Known Terrorist Is Pictured Protesting at Columbia University Campus
Anti-Israel Protester Complains About Columbia NYPD Raid: ‘It’s Finals. Can I Go Home?’
MSNBC’s Brzezinski: Columbia Campus ‘Looked Exactly Like January 6’
Jack Dorsey Backs Columbia Protestors, Slams Cops, Trump and Biden Over ‘Fascistic’ Crackdowns
Colombia to sever ties after months of panning Israel as ‘genocidal’
Rep. Omar Faces GOP Censure for ‘Pro-Genocide’ Comment
Police Begin Clearing Anti-Israel Encampment from University of Wisconsin
Police remove pro-Palestine protestors from UT Dallas encampment, 20 arrests made so far
Iran Offers Scholarships to Pro-Hamas American College Students, Jobs to Professors
UNC Fraternity Brothers Rescue Fallen American Flag From Pro-Hamas Mob – Then Sing National Anthem
Stephen Colbert Defends Anti-Israel Campus Protesters After Trump Praises NYPD Response
College Democrats: ‘We Commend the Bravery’ of Anti-Israel Protesters
Sen. Ron Johnson: What Americans Are Seeing on College Campuses Is ‘Radical Leftism’
Ted Cruz: Anti-Israel Protests a ‘Result of Cultural Marxism’
President Trump: Joe Biden Seems to Be Determined for an October 7 Style Event Here in America
Suspect Detained After Polish Synagogue Escapes Major Damage in Firebomb Attack
Government tells court Haredi enlistment plan being drawn up, but more time needed
IDF chief warns Israel ‘preparing offensive in north,’ as Hezbollah attacks persist
Hezbollah has destroyed South Lebanon, BBC report says
Lebanese Christian leader: Hezbollah’s fighting with Israel harming Lebanon
RFK Jr. Running Mate Blames US for Deaths in Ukraine, Gaza
Soaring US munitions demand strains support for Israel, Ukraine, Taiwan
BlackRock Backed China Companies Linked to Nuclear Arms
US imposes sanctions on more than a dozen companies in China for support of Russia’s war in Ukraine
Russia Ramps Up Arms Production as US Boosts Ukraine Aid
Russia Says Carried Out Strike on Ukraine’s Southern Command Center
Russia may not start an all-out war with NATO, but already has plans to destroy it from within
Russia accused of meddling in the GPS systems of Baltic Sea countries
Ukraine Unveils AI-generated Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman
Marjorie Taylor Greene Mocks Mike Johnson with ‘Make Ukraine Great Again’ Hat
One-Vote Rule to Vacate Chair Likely Changed by Year’s End
Trump Lawyer Jesse Binnall: Gag Order ‘Biggest Assault on First Amendment’ in at Least 50 Years
FBI cites increase in number of scams targeting seniors
Tweets or ‘terrorism’?: Saudi’s jailed online activists
Supercomputer predicts humans will face a ‘triple whammy’ extinction event
Mysterious Underwater Anomaly Resurfaces off Antarctica
Sun unleashes near X-class solar flare: M9.5 eruption sparks radio blackouts across the Pacific
5.9 magnitude earthquake hits near Kimbe, Papua New Guinea
5.1 magnitude earthquake hits near Chinchaypujio, Peru
5.0 magnitude earthquake hits near Isangel, Vanuatu
5.0 magnitude earthquake hits the South Shetland Islands
4.1-magnitude earthquake shakes Orange County, Riverside County
Scientists closely monitoring eruption ‘potential’ amid spike in quakes at Kilauea
Hawaii Volcanoes National Park Closes Popular Areas After Earthquakes, Volcanic Eruption Fears
Sabancaya volcano in Peru erupts to 24,000ft
Ruiz volcano in Colombia erupts to 22,000ft
Sangay volcano in Ecuador erupts to 21,000ft
Fuego volcano in Guatemala erupts to 16,000ft
Reventador volcano in Ecuador erupts to 15,000ft
Santa Maria volcano in Guatemala erupts to 14,000ft
Semeru volcano in Indonesia erupts to 14,000ft
Tornado with 165 mph wind sucks brothers from Nebraska home: ‘I was just screaming his name’
Heavy rains kill at least 10 in southern Brazil, governor warns of historic disaster
Brazil floods: Residents stranded on rooftops in Rio Grande do Sul
At Least 24 Dead After Highway Collapses In Flood-Hit Southern China
Report: New Jersey’s energy plan to go green built on ‘magical thinking’
House passes bill overturning DOI rule blocking oil and gas on 13 million acres in Alaska
Trudeau’s tax agency to audit Saskatchewan for unpaid carbon taxes: Premier Scott Moe
Pierre Poilievre ejected from House of Commons for calling Trudeau ‘wacko’ and ‘extremist’
In India’s election, a flash drive, sex abuse videos – and a missing MP
Haiti Gets Its First President Since 2021 Assassination
U.N. Says Venezuela Rapidly Disappearing Dissidents Ahead of Sham Election
Mills signs Maine gun control measures into law
Gunman ‘Neutralized’ Outside Wisconsin Middle School: Cops
AG: Gunman shot dead outside Mount Horeb Middle School was a district student
J.D. Vance Probes DOJ for Favoring Foreigners over Americans in Job Discrimination Cases
Sen. Roger Marshall Issues Plan to Stop D.C. from Allowing Illegal Aliens to Vote
Oklahoma Joins Multi-State Push to Squeeze Out Illegals
Sanctuary City of Chicago Arrests Over 1K Illegals from Venezuela In First Three Months of 2024
Cost of the migrant crisis: Denver hospitals buckle under volume of patients
Biden, Mexican president eye ‘significantly’ reducing border crossings
Globalist Magazine Admits Joe Biden’s Migration Spikes Inflation
Biden’s historic marijuana shift is his latest election year move for young voters
Harvey Weinstein to be retried in New York after rape conviction invalidated
A police youth program is plagued by sexual abuse allegations across the U.S.
United Methodist Church lifts 40-year ban on LGBTQ clergy
United Methodist Church lifts bans on LGBTQ clergy and same-sex weddings
Transgender Athlete to Compete in National Women’s Water Polo Championship
Dem lawmaker teams up with Planned Parenthood to host ‘deceptive’ drag story hour in Arizona Capitol
Arizona Senate passes repeal of 1864 abortion ban, sending it to governor’s desk
In Florida, Harris Looks to Make Trump the Face of the State’s Abortion Ban
DeSantis Signs Ban on Lab-Grown Meat
FDA says multistate E. coli outbreak tied to walnuts
Alarming superbug from deadly eyedrop outbreak has spread to dogs
USDA: Avoid Raw Milk to Cut Risk of Bird Flu
CDC Says Over a Dozen Cats Died After Drinking Raw Milk from Cows Infected with Bird Flu
Biden campaign hits Trump for saying he would close pandemic preparedness office
NIH provides ‘heavily redacted’ docs on U.S. grant to Wuhan lab through EcoHealth: Report
Emails show Biden White House pressure to suppress COVID-19 lab leak information on social media
Mid-Day Snapshot · May 2, 2024
“From The Patriot Post (patriotpost.us)”.
THE FOUNDATION
“Every man who loves peace, every man who loves his country, every man who loves liberty ought to have it ever before his eyes that he may cherish in his heart a due attachment to the Union of America and be able to set a due value on the means of preserving it.” —James Madison (1788)
| Fellow Patriots, on this day in 1863, Confederate General Stonewall Jackson was accidentally shot by his own men while on patrol at night near Chancellorsville, Virginia. His arm was amputated, but he died eight days later. Before his death, almost prophetically, Robert E. Lee remarked, “He has lost his left arm, but I have lost my right.” Jackson’s death arguably turned the tide of the war. —Mark Alexander |
IN TODAY’S DIGEST
- American Spirit on College Campuses
- Executive News Summary
- What Would Trump Do?
- America’s Historically Low Birthrate Is a Problem
- Middle School Girls Banned for Taking a Stand
- Speech-Squelching Woke Scottish Leader Resigns
- DAILY FEATURES: Reader Comments, Videos, Best of Right Opinion, Short Cuts, Memes, and Cartoons.
ON THE WEB
- Scarlen Valderaz: Political Engagement Is a Necessity
- In Brief: Coddled Kids Become Depressed, Anti-Social College Students
- Faith & Family: National Day of Prayer
FEATURED ANALYSIS
American Spirit on College Campuses
Amidst the vile hatred displayed by pro-Hamas protesters, there are bright spots of patriotism.
Nate Jackson
Who would’ve ever thought the American flag needed protection on American soil? Well, with leftist haters like those overrunning American college campuses, it does. Fortunately, as I noted yesterday, all hope is not lost, which some Patriots on those campuses readily displayed.
Anti-American and anti-Israel protests escalated this week, and police arrested criminal yahoos on campuses around the country. In response to arrests at the University of North Carolina, protesters there broke down barriers and took down the American flag to replace it with a Palestinian flag.
In stepped interim Chancellor Lee Roberts, who led a contingent of police into the midst of the angry, profanity-screaming mob to personally raise the American flag on a flagpole at the center of the university’s Chapel Hill campus while counter-protesters chanted “USA” and sang the national anthem. After Roberts left for a press conference, however, protesters again started lowering the flag when it was saved by — who else? — a bunch of white frat boys.
The fraternity brothers lifted Old Glory off the ground and stood guard around it while protesters hurled vulgar insults and threw water bottles at them. (No wonder they’re complaining about being hungry and thirsty.)
In response, a GoFundMe page was set up for these young men to “throw ‘em a rager” (i.e., “to throw this frat the party they deserve”), and as of this writing, it’s approaching $400,000 raised. We’re all grateful for these young men’s actions, though I question whether funding a replay of “Animal House” is really the best idea.
A similar episode played out at a City College of New York campus, where New York police officers took down a Palestinian flag, which a security guard then threw on the ground. Officers replaced it with the American flag. It’s not hard to understand this sentiment for the men and women who take oaths to support and defend the Constitution and the flag representing it.
“That’s our flag, folks,” said New York Mayor Eric Adams, a former police officer and a Democrat. “Who would take over our buildings and put another flag up? It may be fine to other people but not to me. My uncle died defending this country. These men and women put their lives on the line. It’s despicable that schools will allow another country’s flag to fly in our country.” He added: “So blame me for being proud to be an American. And I thank Commissioner Daughtry for putting our flag back up. We are not surrendering our way of life to anyone.”
It’s nice to see even a Democrat mayor get it.
Meanwhile, there are plenty of campuses around the country where no hateful protests happened in the first place. At the University of Florida, it’s because school President Ben Sasse, former Nebraska senator, isn’t messing around. Setting up one of these protests will be met with “a 3-year trespass and suspension” for students and termination for employees.
At Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia, students gathered for prayer and worship in a pro-America, pro-Israel display. Fox News took note:
Instead of chanting “We are Hamas,” Liberty students sang out: “Great are you Lord.”
Instead of repeating “From the River to the Sea,” Liberty students belted out: “I’ll praise you in the valley, I’ll praise you on the mountain.”
“While so many campuses are erupting in anger, hatred, and violence,” said Liberty University Chancellor Jonathan Falwell, “it is refreshing to see the students at Liberty University reflecting the love of Christ as we are commanded to do by Scripture.”
Unfortunately, young Americans are often taught in American taxpayer-funded public schools, colleges, and universities to hate America. Call me crazy, but that sounds counterintuitive.
Joe “Unity” Biden, who’s been trying to buy the votes of young people by transferring their student loans to taxpayers and calling it “debt forgiveness,” has largely been silent about the protests. He’s let a couple of surrogates express mild rebuke, but he didn’t say much himself until shuffling out this morning to extol the virtue of protests while kind of condemning breaking the law but also saying nothing has really changed his mind on policy. What clarity.
Things were clear at the University of Alabama, though, where people waving Palestinian flags united with people waving Donald Trump flags to chant, er, “Let’s Go Brandon!”
Speaking of Biden, NBC News, which effectively functions as a Biden surrogate, ran this unintentionally hilarious headline after Donald Trump’s rally yesterday: “Trump tries to paint college campus anti-Israel protests as a Biden political liability.” Um, it is Biden’s liability. That’s why he’s being quiet. The protests are also practically campaign commercials for Trump.
Again, though, the good news is that these protesters may be loud and obnoxious, but they don’t represent all young people. There is hope for the next generation — especially, perhaps, as they see contrasting examples of behavior regarding the American flag.
Executive News Summary
Illegals are invading by plane, states sue Biden over gun regs, BlackRock underwrites ChiCom nukes, and more.
Douglas Andrews, Thomas Gallatin, & Jordan Candler
Cross-Examination
- Arizona just helped Donald Trump: Given that the 2020 election was decided not by seven million votes, as Joe Biden claims it was, but by roughly 43,000 votes across three states — Arizona, Georgia, and Wisconsin — it’s reasonable to assume that those states will help decide the 2024 election. And yesterday, a couple of Arizona State Senate Republicans helped their Democrat counterparts overturn the Grand Canyon State’s near-total ban on abortions, and in doing so, likely helped Donald Trump’s chances of reclaiming the state’s 11 crucial electoral votes. As The Wall Street Journal reports: “Two Republicans joined with Democrats in the Arizona Senate to roll back the state’s nearly total ban on abortions, as some in the GOP look to reverse a significant political liability for the party ahead of the November elections. The move Wednesday comes a week after the Arizona state House also voted to repeal the ban. Three Republicans joined with all Democrats in that vote.” If political positions, however desirable in certain cases, are considered “extreme,” it tends to galvanize political opposition. And nowhere is this truism in greater evidence right now than on the issue of abortion. The Democrats have increasingly become a single-issue party, and this moderating move in Arizona effectively blunts the issue. Here, the American people should remember that the difference between the parties on abortion is that the Republicans are willing to find a middle ground. The Democrats, on the other hand, have a party platform committed to abortion on demand no matter what. Thus, when it comes to abortion, the Democrats are the real extremists.
- Illegals are invading our nation by plane: One of the hallmarks of the modern Democrat Party is its willingness to ignore both the will of the people and the judgment of the courts in order to enact its radical agenda. Remember Barack Obama’s pen-and-phone strategy for subverting the will and the constitutional authority of the legislative branch? Joe Biden’s handlers are nothing if not students of subversive behavior, and this is plain to see in the way the Open Borders Administration is collecting illegals who are ineligible for asylum and distributing them all across the country under the laughable terms of what they call their “migrant parole program.” As Fox News’s intrepid Bill Melugin — one of the only network journos covering Biden’s intentional 10 million-and-counting border invasion — grimly reports: “During an eight-month period from January through August 2023, roughly 200,000 migrants flew into the U.S. via the program. Of those, 80% of them, (161,562) arrived in the state of Florida in four cities: Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, Orlando and Tampa Bay, according to DHS data obtained via a subpoena by the House Homeland Security Committee and provided to Fox News. The policy was first announced for Venezuelans in October 2022, which allowed a limited number to fly or travel directly into the U.S. as long as they had not entered illegally, had a sponsor in the U.S. already, and passed certain biometric and biographical vetting. The program does not itself facilitate flights, and migrants are responsible for their own travel.” Melugin adds, “By the end of February 2024, more than 400,000 nationals have arrived under the parole program, according to Customs and Border Protection data.” Imagine that. Illegals don’t even have to make the perilous trek to our southern border anymore. They can simply bypass our immigration laws and invade our country by plane.
- Biden insults Japan: In an apparent effort to defend his disastrous open border and record numbers of migrants illegally entering the U.S., Joe Biden blamed the recent economic struggles of China, Russia, and Japan on racism. At a campaign fundraiser, in a nod to the start of Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, Biden boasted that the U.S. economy was so robust “because we welcome immigrants.” He continued: “Think about it. Why is China stalling so bad economically? Why is Japan having trouble? Why is Russia?” He then answered: “Because they’re xenophobic. They don’t want immigrants.” Earth to Biden: This is not 1941. Why lump Japan, one of America’s most important allies in Asia, with two of our biggest geopolitical foes? Furthermore, why insult them by basically accusing them of being raging racists? The fact of the matter is that Japan’s main problem is that its population is contracting due to years of sustained low birth rates. While adopting a more liberal immigration policy may help solve some of the problems, it also comes with obvious cultural impacts and concerns for the Japanese. Furthermore, unlike Russia and China, which are two of the largest nations based upon sheer land area and natural resources, Japan is an island nation with much less land area and fewer resources. And despite these limitations, Japan still boasts the fourth-largest economy in the world. Meanwhile, Americans are struggling under a lackluster economy thanks to Biden’s bad economic policy decisions.
- States sue Biden over gun regulations: Twenty-six Republican-led states have filed three separate lawsuits against the Biden administration over the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives’ newly released regulation of the buying and selling of private firearms. The ATF changed the definition of a gun dealer to anyone who sells a firearm for a profit to anyone, irrespective of the number of firearms sold. In its lawsuit, Kansas notes: “Until now, those who repetitively purchased and sold firearms as a regular course of business had to become a licensee. This rule would put innocent firearm sales between law-abiding friends and family members within reach of federal regulation.” The court filing adds, “Such innocent sales between friends and family would constitute a felony if the seller did not in fact obtain a federal firearms license and perform a background check.” Similarly, Florida states: “The challenged rule, in fact, goes far beyond the plain text of the [Bipartisan Safer Communities Act]. It purports to force thousands of law-abiding gun owners to register as federal firearms dealers and navigate a federal bureaucracy as a precondition to engaging in constitutionally protected activity.” NRA-ILA Executive Director Randy Kozuch praised the states for raising the lawsuits, observing: “Undeterred by having three of its most recent Rules restricting gun rights invalidated by federal courts, the ATF’s new Rule restricts Americans’ rights to sell even a single firearm. The ATF has exceeded its authority once again, and we expect that this new Rule will be invalidated as well.”
- BlackRock underwrites ChiCom nukes: No one ever accused Wall Street’s leading globalist money-grubbers of putting American interests first, but it’d be nice if they didn’t put our nation’s interests last. Sadly, that’s precisely the case with BlackRock, whose $10 trillion in assets under management make it the world’s largest asset manager. BlackRock “is investing millions of dollars in an estimated 30 Chinese military-linked companies sanctioned by the U.S. government, according to a think tank report prepared for Congress,” The Washington Times reports. “Additionally, BlackRock, which manages retirement assets for millions of Americans, has invested in companies working on China’s large-scale nuclear weapons buildup, said the Coalition for a Prosperous America.” BlackRock, of course, denies any wrongdoing, claiming that it “does not do business with companies in China producing nuclear arms.” But as the report inconveniently concludes: “The reality is that BlackRock holds stock in Chinese companies pursuing an aggressive buildup of nuclear warheads meant to hold United States territory at risk. China’s nuclear expansion has been called a ‘breakout’ and the largest buildup of nuclear weapons since the Cold War.” Nothing to see here, folks. Just BlackRock and its rotten CEO, Larry Fink, working to help Communist China supplant the U.S. as the world’s first among nations.
- The United Methodist Church is self-destructing: Jesus warned that if Christians lose their “saltiness,” they have effectively become useless and good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet. Sadly, that indictment applies to today’s United Methodist Church (UMC). Over the last several decades, as the UMC has steadily embraced worldly values over and against biblical values, the protestant denomination that once boasted a membership of 11 million in the U.S. alone has dwindled to fewer than 5.5 million U.S. members today. And things will only get worse for the UMC after delegates at its General Conference on Wednesday voted to lift its ban on LGBT-identifying individuals serving in the clergy. The church had previously prohibited ordaining “self-avowed practicing homosexuals” to serve as ministers. Revealing just how far from biblical faithfulness the UMC has strayed, the delegate vote for lifting the LGBT clergy ban was 692-51. One of the few Methodists opposed to lifting the ban, Rob Renfroe, predicted, “As the church becomes more and more liberal, and if a social agenda becomes its driving force, that’s not going to grow the church.” The UMC has lost its saltiness and, therefore, has become largely irrelevant. This should serve as a warning to other Christian denominations that are tempted to think that embracing the world’s values will somehow make them more relevant. The opposite is the case.
- RFK Jr. proposes a “No Spoiler Pledge”: It’s no secret that Joe Biden’s team is really frustrated with Robert F. Kennedy Jr.‘s run for the presidency. They have labeled him as nothing but a spoiler candidate who is in cahoots with Donald Trump. While there is no evidence to prove such claims, Team Biden has remained adamant that RFK Jr. has absolutely no chance of winning and, therefore, his continued presence in the race serves as a threat to Biden and thus constitutes a “threat to democracy.” With Kennedy now officially on the ballot in three states, the latest being California, and well on his way to making the ballot in a dozen others, he has doggedly refused to back down. Furthermore, in a clear effort to blunt Team Biden’s labeling of him as merely a spoiler candidate, Kennedy on Wednesday offered a challenge to Biden. Calling it the “No Spoiler Pledge,” Kennedy made an offer to Biden: Come mid-October, a 30,000-plus poll with each of the two candidates against Trump, and between them whoever fared worse in a head-to-head matchup against Trump would drop out of the race. Kennedy argued: “We only have one chance to beat Donald Trump, and we need a nominee who can get the job done. And that would be me.” Of course, Biden would never agree to this pledge, but it is a savvy move by Kennedy to refute the “spoiler” label. As one Kennedy supporter stated: “I’m always talking to people on Instagram, and they say ‘he’s a spoiler,’ and they say ‘a vote for Kennedy is a vote for Trump. I’m excited. I’m going to definitely use this.”
- Patriotic chant unites opponents in Alabama: In our increasingly polarized nation, common political ground has become as scarce as an intelligible utterance from Joe Biden. Indeed, we see the battle between the decent and law-abiding Right and the filthy and lawless Left playing out on college campuses across the country. But didn’t Joe Biden promise to unite us? Didn’t he give us his word that he’d “marshal the ingenuity of goodwill of this nation to turn division into unity and bring us together”? (You could look it up.) And yet, hope of a rapprochement springs eternal, as an incident at the University of Alabama illustrates. As Townhall’s Matt Vespa reports: “On an issue where no common ground could be found, the pro-Hamas and pro-Israel camps had found one. The one thing they agreed on is that Joe Biden sucks. The editor-in-chief of the Crimson Herald, Maven Navarro, caught both camps chanting ‘F*ck Joe Biden.’” Ah, nothing beats the sweet strains of a patriotic melody. But, as Vespa reports, “The best part is that each side waited for the other to complete their excoriation of the president.” Lo and behold! Joe Biden has unified the country. Against him.
Headlines
- Republicans dismissive of Greene’s plan to oust House speaker (Washington Post)
- Democrat Tim Kennedy wins New York special election for House seat (Washington Post)
- GOP senator launches push to shut down noncitizen voting in DC elections (Fox News)
- Biden’s education secretary defends biological males in girls’ bathrooms (Washington Times)
- Police and pro-Palestinian demonstrators clash in tense scene at UCLA encampment (AP) | UCLA encampment requests vegan, gluten-free food; “no bananas,” “no nuts” (Breitbart)
- Nearly half of anti-Israel protesters arrested at Columbia, City College weren’t students (NY Post)
- Florida’s six-week abortion ban takes effect (NBC News)
- Another Boeing whistleblower dies, succumbs to “sudden illness” (PM)
- Macron vows to send troops to Ukraine if Putin’s forces break through front lines and Zelensky asks for reinforcements (Daily Mail)
- Humor: AOC announces she was killed during NYPD raid at Columbia and is dead again (Babylon Bee)
For the Executive Summary archive, click here.
What Would Trump Do?
A lengthy Time magazine piece tries to put the scare into the American people.
Douglas Andrews
2016 is the Flight 93 election: charge the cockpit or you die. You may die anyway. You — or the leader of your party — may make it into the cockpit and not know how to fly or land the plane. There are no guarantees. Except one: if you don’t try, death is certain. To compound the metaphor: a Hillary Clinton presidency is Russian Roulette with a semi-auto. With Trump, at least you can spin the cylinder and take your chances.
So began “The Flight 93 Election,” one of the most trenchant and insightful political essays in recent years. Its author, Hillsdale College lecturer and Claremont Institute senior fellow Michael Anton, followed up with a 2020 book, The Stakes: America at the Point of No Return, which delivered more hard and grim truths: No, a single Trump term hasn’t vanquished the Left. The barbarians are still at the gates, and things aren’t going back to “normal” anytime soon.
Each election cycle, a predictable crew of pundits will breathlessly tell us that this coming election will be — wait for it! — “the most important one of our lifetimes.” Perhaps the only presidential election in the past 20 years that hasn’t carried that billing was the 2008 contest between Barack Obama and John McCain — and that contest, ironically, may indeed have been the most important election of our lifetimes. Two terms of Barack Obama put our nation on a ruinous course, but Donald Trump’s stunning victory in 2016 proved that the American people could still pull themselves back from the abyss, if only by the slimmest of margins.
2020 ushered in a new era of elections — one in which a woefully old, inept, and unpopular backslapper could be dragged across the presidential finish line through the miracles of bulk-mail balloting and multi-institutional election-rigging.
Which brings us to the 2024 contest — a contest that affords a historically unique view of how both candidates will behave as president. Trump’s record was, as our Nate Jackson put it a week after he left the White House, one of political impact and putting America first. He concluded: “Donald Trump permanently changed the course and makeup of the GOP, and perhaps Democrats too. But if Republicans don’t take a lesson from Trump about how to fight the Left, then they may as well fold up the tents and go home.”
And here we are today, with three and a half years of the Biden presidency in our rearview mirrors. And what a smoldering mess it is. Trump, though, is once again on the ballot, and he once again heralds a Flight 93 moment. What might another Trump term bring? We wrote on that topic recently, and one need only check the Agenda47 page of Trump’s 2024 campaign website to get the details. But a lengthy new Time magazine profile by Eric Cortellessa ponders this question from a Trump-hating Democrat’s perspective, and he leads off with a predictably ominous marker: “Donald Trump thinks he’s identified a crucial mistake of his first term: He was too nice.”
“Six months from the 2024 presidential election,” writes Cortellessa, “Trump is better positioned to win the White House than at any point in either of his previous campaigns. He leads Joe Biden by slim margins in most polls, including in several of the seven swing states likely to determine the outcome.” So what will Trump do if he wins? Why, he’ll embark on an “imperial presidency,” the likes of which will “reshape America and its role in the world.” Here’s how Cortellessa describes it:
To carry out a deportation operation designed to remove more than 11 million people from the country, Trump told me, he would be willing to build migrant detention camps and deploy the U.S. military, both at the border and inland. He would let red states monitor women’s pregnancies and prosecute those who violate abortion bans. He would, at his personal discretion, withhold funds appropriated by Congress, according to top advisers. He would be willing to fire a U.S. Attorney who doesn’t carry out his order to prosecute someone, breaking with a tradition of independent law enforcement that dates from America’s founding. He is weighing pardons for every one of his supporters accused of attacking the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, more than 800 of whom have pleaded guilty or been convicted by a jury. He might not come to the aid of an attacked ally in Europe or Asia if he felt that country wasn’t paying enough for its own defense. He would gut the U.S. civil service, deploy the National Guard to American cities as he sees fit, close the White House pandemic-preparedness office, and staff his Administration with acolytes who back his false assertion that the 2020 election was stolen.
I know what you’re thinking: What’s not to like?
Not surprisingly, Cortellessa tried to bait Trump into some racially inflammatory bulletin board material on behalf of the Democrats. “Trump’s preoccupation with crime is a racial dog whistle,” he says falsely. In fact, Trump’s “preoccupation” with crime stems from a belief that law and order are fundamental to the American experiment. It has nothing to do with race.
When he asked Trump whether he believes, as many Americans do, that anti-white racism now represents a greater problem in the U.S. than anti-black racism, Trump said this: “Oh, I think that there is a lot to be said about that. If you look at the Biden Administration, they’re sort of against anybody depending on certain views. They’re against Catholics. … But no, I think there is a definite anti-white feeling in this country and that can’t be allowed either.” Cortellessa then laments that a second Trump term would see the rescission of Biden’s executive orders “designed to boost diversity and racial equity.” This is another good thing since diversity, equity, and inclusion are, like affirmative action, mere euphemisms for race-based discrimination.
Execution was a sticking point in Trump’s first term, and this time he has a team focused on getting things done right out of the gate. “The President never had a policy process that was designed to give him what he actually wanted and campaigned on,” says Trump’s former OMB director, Russell Vought, who adds that he and others are “sorting through the legal authorities, the mechanics, and providing the momentum for a future Administration.”
As Cortellessa warns, “That includes a litany of boundary-pushing right-wing policies, including slashing Department of Justice funding and cutting climate and environmental regulations.”
Again, we ask: What’s not to like?
America’s Historically Low Birthrate Is a Problem
But it’s not insurmountable, so long as we extol the virtues and benefits of family.
Samantha Koch
In a day when so much instability exists and a constant state of upheaval seems to be the norm, one thing remains consistent: hitting new lows.
In the vein of troublesome statistics demonstrating just how dire almost every aspect of American life has become, several recent articles have sounded the alarm on our country’s unprecedented record of low fertility rates. National Review paints a startling picture: “The total fertility rate recorded by the CDC is the lowest since the U.S. government began tracking it nearly a century ago. … There were 3,591,328 total births in the U.S. last year, the fewest babies born in the U.S. for any year on record since 1979.”
By age group, the drop in numbers has been led primarily by women ages 15-39 (which, as a side note, flies directly in the face of the false Democrat narrative that the overturning of Roe v. Wade and the subsequent increased restrictions on abortions would lead to more “forced births” in this same demographic of women, so there’s that). Meanwhile, for women ages 40-49, the rate of having children has remained unchanged.
The question is, what’s behind this significant drop in young adults pursuing the family life that used to be a leading priority in American society?
“People are making rather reasoned decisions about whether or not to have a child at all,” says Karen Benjamin Guzzo, director of the Carolina Population Center at the University of North Carolina. “More often than not, I think what they’re deciding is ‘Yes, I’d like to have children, but not yet.’”
No one would argue that an unstable economy, fewer job opportunities (at least to those who were led to take on thousands of dollars in debt for a degree in gender studies or lesbian poetry that Joe Biden hasn’t yet paid off), and the increased cost of living are all factors that might influence the upcoming generations to wait to start their own families.
It is also understandable to postpone the challenge of putting food on the table and a roof over the heads of a spouse and children until you can establish a steady income and set up a path cleared of as many potential roadblocks as possible.
However, what Guzzo refers to as “reasoned decisions,” others (like me, for example) might call “selfishness,” fueled by a slew of ideologies — from feminism to toxic masculinity to self-love to focusing inward first.
It is also likely that anyone who welcomes these concepts at face value accepts them as movements of liberation and empowerment, drawing enthusiasm from their direct opposition to conservative ideas, as many of our young people have been indoctrinated to be afraid of traditional values.
However, as with pretty much everything pushed by today’s radical leftist politicians and media personalities, this might be another intentional nail in the coffin of pro-American values — an effort to replace freedom-loving Americans with immigrants less willing to impart our Founding Principles into their offspring, as these had never been part of their own upbringing. Though pure speculation, it is a thought that can’t be ignored. Democrats push for importing people from around the world because we’re not making enough of our own.
Whatever the reasons behind the choice that younger Americans are making to either postpone family life or forgo it altogether, a warning from X CEO Elon Musk should force all of us to consider what’s at stake: “Any nation with a birth rate below replacement will eventually cease to exist.”
China’s experience with this problem serves as a real-time forewarning of the consequences of turning entire generations away from procreating. The Heritage Foundation describes how, based on fear of overpopulation, the Chinese Communist Party imposed its infamous “one-child policy” in the 1980s. After seeing the disastrous impact of the lack of population growth, the CCP eventually lifted the restrictions and encouraged families to have more children. Naively, the CCP believed that this step alone would naturally result in a baby boom.
As it turns out, a change in laws did not erase the influence that growing up in a society that values neither families nor parental rights would have on the ones they were now expecting to start reproducing. Even offering financial incentives to parents and removing penalties on couples or individuals for having children out of wedlock has not been enough to change the small-family or no-family mindset that had been ingrained for so long.
The future is not hopeless, however. We can turn the fertility train around.
Our Emmy Griffin recently cited a Gallup poll that showed a desire by those interested in having children to have more of them. As almost 50% of those surveyed indicated that having three or more children is the “ideal” family size, perhaps there is at least a chance to slow down the decrease in population and give others a chance to see that the family train is the best one to be on.
Middle School Girls Banned for Taking a Stand
Those intent on pushing the radical leftist gender-bending ideology can’t take it when people object and refuse to go along.
Thomas Gallatin
The woke Left loves protesters who do so in favor of opinions and ideologies with which they agree. However, as has become patently clear over the last several years, the Left has a double standard when it comes to the right to protest. Indeed, the Left has a double standard when it comes to most civil rights.
Recently, we observed the story of five brave girls from Lincoln Middle School in West Virginia. These five girls, who are on their school’s track and field team, engaged in a silent protest over having to compete against a boy who identifies as a girl.
Their protest occurred during the shot put competition, with each stepping into the thrower’s circle at their turn and then stepping away without an attempt, thereby registering an intentional scratch. It was their way of expressing their objection to the boy’s presence in the girls’ competition. To no one’s surprise, the gender-bending boy won the competition, but the girls’ protest was caught on video and spread on social media.
Unfortunately, the girls’ protest was not well received by the Harrison County Board of Education, which proceeded to ban them from any future competition. One of the girls’ parents also said the track coach informed them that she had been barred from meets because her job was to “score points for the track team.”
Four of the girls’ parents have since filed a lawsuit against the board of education, alleging that its decision to ban the girls amounted to punishing them for “exercising their rights to freedom of speech and expression under the Constitution of West Virginia.”
West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey is joining the parents in the lawsuit. The girls’ actions “were not disruptive or aggrandizing,” he noted. “They were the quiet demonstration of the student-athletes’ evident unhappiness with the competitive consequences of a federal appellate court’s decision.”
Morrisey added: “The only thing this decision does is teach these children to keep their mouths shut and not disagree with what they saw as unfairness. That is outrageous and it tramples these students’ rights to freedom of speech and expression.”
Former SEC champion swimmer and women’s rights activist Riley Gaines has also registered her support, posting on social media: “These girls stood up for what they believed and their coach barred them from competing. Insane.”
The girls’ objective is simply fair play in girls’ sports, and Morrisey seems willing to take the issue to the Supreme Court if necessary. “I will do everything in my power to defend these brave young girls,” he promised. “This is just wrong. We must stand for what’s right and oppose these radical trans policies.”
Indeed. Thankfully, we are seeing more of these types of protests. Fighting for what’s right is not always easy or comfortable, which is why we need to encourage everyone who dares to do so.
Speech-Squelching Woke Scottish Leader Resigns
He planted the seeds of his own demise with an attack on free speech that splendidly backfired.
Emmy Griffin
Humza Yousaf, formerly the first minister and the leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP), resigned on Monday. Like his predecessor, Nicola Sturgeon, he became a victim of his own woke policies and was eventually eaten by his own.
According to The Daily Wire, Yousaf and his SNP aligned themselves with the ultra-left Green Party. As a result, “One policy platform became more wildly unhinged than the next — from chilling conversations around the family dinner table about gender; to forbidding parents from objecting to their child cross-dressing.”
Then, several chickens came home to roost for Yousaf.
First, he allowed a 2021 law known as the Hate Crime Act to come into effect on — no joke — April 1. This blatant violation of free speech and of the rights of women to protest men in their spaces sparked a flurry of protests. Scottish police were overrun with “hate crime” complaints, some even against Yousaf himself. Most famously, Scottish native J.K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter series, spoke out vehemently against the new law. In fact, she even dared the police to arrest her for stating the truth that men are not women. Yousaf’s passing of this law was a betrayal of the Scottish people.
Then, Yousaf allowed the Scottish National Health Service to follow England’s lead and put a ban on giving vulnerable and confused children puberty blockers. Puberty blockers are the gateway drug to the rabbit hole that is “transgender medical care,” which ultimately ends in gender mutilation. The Green Party saw this apathy to the transgender agenda as a betrayal of Yousaf’s political ideals.
The final nail in Yousaf’s coffin was telling his constituents that he would no longer pursue trying to slash carbon emissions by 75% by 2030. This was an unrealistic goal to begin with, as it was hiking energy prices to astronomical levels. However, this issue caused the Green Party to defect and call for a vote of no confidence.
Yousaf chose to resign instead of being unceremoniously ousted. In his resignation speech, he congratulated everyone on being so multicultural in their choosing of leadership and said he was proud to represent Scotland as a Scots Asian man. This is par for the course for a man who is most famous for a speech that is widely considered chock-full of anti-white racism. Yes, the intersectional coalition is alive and well in Scotland, too.
The Scottish National Party has to appoint a new first minister, and there is at least one candidate who is sane in that party. National Review’s Madeleine Kearns opines, “If the Scottish National Party had any sense, it would choose Kate Forbes, the party’s former finance secretary, as Yousaf’s successor since she is by far the most qualified and capable.” That is, however, unlikely; Forbes is a socially conservative Christian.
Though Scotland is the birthplace of Presbyterianism and the Scottish Enlightenment, its rich church roots have been replaced by secular progressivism. Here would be a good place to pose a question to the Scottish people: What have you got to lose? The past two secular progressive leaders have eradicated your country’s free speech rights and protections for women. Perhaps a conservative Christian is just the ticket needed to guide the Scots back to reality and normality.
As with all leadership turnovers, one can hope for the best and brace for the worst. Let’s pray for Scotland’s sake that a more sane leader takes the reins and helps curb the excesses of woke progressivism.
| Latest PodcastPopCon #42: Taylor Swift and ‘The Tortured Poets Department’“The Tortured Poets Department” is Taylor Swift’s newest album, and it has some wondering about the dark turn Taylor has made. Join Thomas and Andrew as they dive into this and the unsettling trends the music industry seems to be embracing. |
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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.
VIDEOS
- ‘Get Out of My Face’ — This was the response of an anti-Israel protester when asked about Hamas’s attack on October 7.
- This Is Joe Biden’s America — The campus chaos around the country is thanks to the president and his policies.
- James Carville Blasts Young Voters — The longtime Democrat election strategist goes on an expletive-laced tirade over the youth vote not lining up to support Joe Biden.
- Afroman — ‘Hunter Got High’ — A parody song depicting Hunter Biden’s penchant for getting high.
- The True Horrors of the Soviet Union — Bill Whittle discusses his new series, “What We Saw: An Empire of Terror,” which delves into the history of Soviet atrocities throughout the 20th century.
- Lying in Honor Ceremony for COL Ralph Puckett Jr. — “He feared no man, he feared no situation and he feared no enemy.”
BEST OF RIGHT OPINION
- BEN SHAPIROWill the Students Globalize the Intifada?
- LAURA HOLLISProtests and Policy as Porn
- CAL THOMASDemeaning, Diminishing, Destroying
- ARMSTRONG WILLIAMSThe Decay of Education
- HANS VON SPAKOVSKYTrump’s NY Prosecution Is a Bogus Case by a Bogus Prosecutor
For more of today’s columns, visit Right Opinion.
SHORT CUTS
Useful Idiots
“Glory to all our martyrs.” —Columbia University’s Jew-hating protesters (“Martyrs”? Like the 9/11 terrorists who flew planes into buildings down the street from Columbia U?)
Dumb & Dumber
“No other president has spoken about anti-Semitism [more] than this president.” —White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre
“The protestors are gonna do what they got to do. For me, it needs to just remain nonviolent, make sure no person is harmed in the process. I’m concerned about the heavy-handed repressive response from Columbia’s president, New York City’s mayor, and from states across the country.” —Congressman Jamaal Bowman (D-NY)
Credit Where It’s Due
“Smashing windows with hammers and taking over university buildings is not free speech. It is lawlessness and those who did it should promptly face the consequences.” —Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY)
Upright
“This is not complicated: The University of Florida is not a daycare, and we do not treat protesters like children — they knew the rules, they broke the rules, and they’ll face the consequences.” —UF spokesman Steve Orlando
For the Record
“Aimless, privileged, value-free young people seek revolution. They always have. … Bored middle- to upper-class kids have been privileged by a system that has handed them everything but given no mission by their parents other than to ‘find themselves.’ Then they meet fellow revolutionaries — and revolutionary professors — who inform them that the system that has given them their privilege is corrupt and evil. They feel guilty, and the only way to alleviate that guilt is to join the revolution. To cosplay oppression.” —Ben Shapiro
“Anti-Semitism is a virus — and because the administration and woke university presidents aren’t stepping in, we’re seeing it spread.” —House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA)
“These ‘Little Gazas’ are disgusting cesspools of anti-Semitic hate full of pro-Hamas sympathizers, fanatics, and freaks. … The terrorist sympathizers in these Little Gazas aren’t ‘peacefully protesting’ Israel’s conduct of the war. They’re violently and illegally demanding death for Israel, just like their ideological twins, the ayatollahs in Iran.” —Senator Tim Cotton (R-AR)
“Today’s occupiers … are not anti-war protesters. If Hamas was winning the war with Israel, none of these students would be demonstrating for an end to the fighting. They would be cheering the deaths of Israeli Jews. Just as they would have cheered if Iran’s missiles had found their targets two weeks ago.” —Gary Bauer
“It should not go unnoticed that President Biden has the ability to stop all of this on a dime. All he’s got to do is call the college presidents and say, look, if you don’t get control of your campuses, I’m going to withhold your federal money. The president hasn’t done that.” —Senator John Kennedy (R-LA)
“When will the president himself, not his mouthpieces, condemn these hate-filled Little Gazas? … Joe Biden is putting more pressure on Israel these days than he is on Hamas itself. … Another four years for Joe Biden means another four years of Little Gazas all across America.” —Sen. Tom Cotton
Double Standards
“In his own voice, [Joe Biden] regularly calls MAGA supporters ‘haters,’ ‘semi-fascist,’ ‘a threat to the country,’ etc., etc. If black students or LGBTQ students were facing this much hatred and threats of genocide on dozens of college campuses across the country, Biden would be delivering televised addresses to the nation every day and calling out the National Guard.” —Gary Bauer
Déjà Vu
“Law and order was a key theme that drove the 1968 election, which resulted in Richard Nixon’s victory over Hubert Humphrey. Another key event that came to symbolize 1968 and Humphrey’s defeat was the utter chaos at the Democrat National Convention, which was held in Chicago. Well, guess where Democrats are holding their national convention this year? That’s right — Chicago.” —Gary Bauer
Insight
“Liberty without learning is always in peril, and learning without liberty is always in vain.” —President John F. Kennedy (1917-1963)
TODAY’S MEME
For more of today’s memes, visit the Memesters Union.
TODAY’S CARTOON
For more of today’s cartoons, visit the Cartoons archive.
“From The Patriot Post (patriotpost.us)”.
LIVE: National Day of Prayer | CBN News – YouTube
This year’s theme for the 73rd National Day of Prayer is “Lift up the Word – Light Up the World” from the biblical passage in 2 Samuel chapter 22. It reads in part: “O Lord, you are my lamp. The Lord Lights up My Darkness.” It is a message that organizers say is needed now more than ever.
“It seemed all we were talking about was darkness,” Kathy Branzell, President of the National Day of Prayer Task Force told CBN’s Faith Nation. “‘Oh, America’s getting darker, our schools are getting darker, my neighborhood’s getting darker.'”
Branzell explained, “While that might feel true, the truth is darkness is the absence of light. This year by lifting up the Word, we know His Word in prayer won’t return void and we’re going to light up this world.”
CBN News. Because Truth Matters™
— Read on www.youtube.com/watch
Poll: More Than 8 In 10 Americans Don’t Trust Corporate Media To Report Facts | Conservative Review
Overwhelming majorities of Americans have lost their trust in the media to accurately report the news, according to a new poll out Wednesday.
Covid Shot Revelations & Pandemic Treaty | VCY
Date: May 5, 2024
Host: Jim Schneider
Guest: Barbara Loe Fisher
MP3 | Order
https://embed.sermonaudio.com/player/a/5124212081631/
Barbara Loe Fisher is president of the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC), a non-profit charity she co-founded with parents of DPT vaccine injured children in 1982. NVIC is a national, grassroots movement and public information campaign to institute vaccine safety reforms and informed consent protections in the public health system. She has researched, analyzed and publicly articulated the major issues involving the science, policy, law, ethics and politics of vaccination to become one of the world’s leading non-medical, consumer advocacy experts on the subject.
Our nation continues to reel from the COVID shot that in numerous aspects has remained veiled under a cloak of secrecy and non-disclosure. However, information is coming out about previously hidden reports from the CDC concerning adverse effects from the shot that were known prior to or shortly after the rollout. In spite of this, the shots continue to be pushed and even mandated in some instances.
This program began with discussion concerning the HPV vaccine known as Gardasil, then moved to Ron Johnson’s vaccine roundtable discussion, the WHO pandemic treaty, important COVID shot multiple death news that the Epoch Times has exposed, bird flu and the stockpiling of vaccines, a minor consent bill in Alabama (HB-165) and more, including input from listeners.
More Information
An Absolutely Enormous Economic Shift Of Historic Proportions Is Now Taking Place Right In Front Of Our Eyes | The Economic Collapse
Can you feel it too? Over the past few weeks, I have heard from so many readers that are deeply troubled about economic conditions where they live. In some cases, sales are way down. In other cases, it seems almost impossible to find a decent job. It is almost as if a tremendous chill descended upon the U.S. economy as the second quarter of 2024 began. Yes, economic conditions have certainly not been good for a few years, but it appears that an absolutely enormous economic shift of historic proportions is now taking place right in front of our eyes. Other than the early stages of the pandemic, we haven’t seen anything like this since 2008 and 2009.
Let me give you an example that will illustrate what I am talking about. A reader that lives near Seattle recently wrote me about the horrible downturn that she is witnessing in the tech industry, and she said that I could share this information with all of you…
I live in the tech corridor outside of Seattle and practically no one can find a job in tech. Apparently the costs of AI processors and servers are so expensive that large tech companies are laying off workers to accommodate for the increased infrastructure costs. I would estimate that 50 percent of the people I know in tech are unemployed including myself and my spouse. In addition they are laying off both FTEs and contractors and not backfilling the positions. The problem is exacerbated if you’re over 40 because they don’t want to compensate for experience. In fact experience seems to be working against people. Not to mention AI taking over roles like technical writing and marketing communications. It’s getting really bad out there and the large companies play along with the media. I’ve met with several ex colleagues who have had their entire teams laid off and former FTEs who have had to take major pay cuts as contractors. I’ve also heard of more rounds of layoffs coming up. I went over to Microsoft the other morning to have coffee with an ex colleague and it’s a ghost town. No one in conference rooms or offices. Maybe people are working from home but it sure felt very different.
That email resonated with me so strongly, because she is right.
Vast hordes of tech workers have already been laid off, and more will be hitting the bricks soon.
But the tech industry is supposed to be one of our economic bright spots.
If things are this bad for the tech industry, what does this say about the economy as a whole?
Most of the jobs that are still available at this point pay very little. Jobs that actually pay enough to support a middle class lifestyle have been disappearing, and millions of white collar workers find themselves on the outside looking in. The following comes from a Business Insider article entitled “Welcome to the white-collar recession”…
Over the past year or so, pretty much everyone who’s looked for a job has told me the same thing: The job market is brutal right now. They’ve applied to dozens if not hundreds of openings, only to get one or two callbacks. No one’s hiring, they tell me. I’ve never seen it this bad.
Yes.
I have heard the same things over and over again too.
And it is getting worse with each passing day.
On Wednesday, we learned about even more layoffs at Google…
Google fired approximately 200 employees and relocated some of the jobs overseas – the latest sign of a long-running effort by the Big Tech firm to cut costs and restructure itself.
The job cuts — announced internally on the eve of Google’s blowout first-quarter earnings report — targeted members of Google’s “core” team, which works on the “technical foundation behind the company’s flagship products” as well as the online safety of users and its global IT infrastructure, according to its website.
At least 50 of the roles were based at Google’s headquarters in Sunnyvale, Calif. Google is expected to hire replacement workers for the roles in Mexico and India, CNBC reported, citing a review of internal documents.
Large companies all over America are looking to “trim the fat”, and that often means giving the axe to expensive older workers.
There is very little loyalty in the corporate world today. You may have given 20 years of your life to a company, but the moment you become expendable they will dump you like a hot potato.
Millions of small businesses are really struggling right now too.
During the month of April, 43 percent of all small business renters in the United States were not able to pay their rent in full. The last time we witnessed anything like this was during the lockdowns that were instituted during the early stages of the pandemic…
A significant number of small businesses across the nation are struggling to pay rent due to skyrocketing costs, a recent study by business networking platform Alignable found.
The company’s latest Small Business Rent report, published on Friday, found that 43 percent of small business renters in the U.S. were unable to pay their rent in full and on time in the month of April. Such a high delinquency rate hasn’t been reported in the U.S. since March 2021, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, when it reached 49 percent.
The delinquency rate was also four percentage points higher than in March, making it the largest month-over-month surge in over a year, according to data analyzed by Alignable.
We don’t have a disease to blame this time around.
Sadly, conditions are only going to get tougher for small businesses in the months ahead as sales dry up.
Meanwhile, the total number of retail stores in the U.S. closed so far in 2024 is up to nearly 2,600…
US retailers confirmed another 169 closures last week – bringing the total so far this year up to almost 2,600.
Stores that announced the shuttering of locations included Express, Outfox Hospitality, Shop ‘n Save, Urban Outfitters and Walmart.
We are in the midst of another retail apocalypse.
Why aren’t we hearing more about this?
On top of everything else, Chicago PMI is dropping at the fastest pace that we have seen since the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008….
After miraculously surging to two years highs in Nov 2023, Chicago PMI has plunged for five straight months, with the last four months seeing the MoM declines accelerating. Against expectations of a rise to 45.0 (from March’s 41.4), April’s PMI data printed 37.9
That is the worst five-month collapse since Lehman…
With everything that is going on, how in the world can anyone possibly claim that the economy “is in good shape”?
Economic activity is slowing down, mass layoffs are happening all over the country, and the cost of living is absolutely crushing the middle class.
More people are falling out of the middle class every day, and at this point there are tens of millions of Americans that are either considered to be either living in poverty or among the ranks of the “working poor”….
Over time, higher costs and sluggish wage growth have left more Americans financially vulnerable, with many known as “ALICEs.”
Nearly 40 million families, or 29% of the population, fall in the category of ALICE — Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed — according to United Way’s United for ALICE program, which first coined the term to refer to households earning above the poverty line but less than what’s needed to get by.
That figure doesn’t include the 37.9 million Americans who live in poverty, comprising 11.5% of the total population, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau.
Collectively, the two categories discussed above now comprise more than 40 percent of the total population.
And if you think that things are bad now, just wait until you see the suffering that will happen during the tremendous chaos that is dead ahead of us.
It took decades of very foolish decisions to get us here, and now we are at a historic tipping point.
Our economy is literally breaking down right in front of our eyes, and the path before us is going to be filled with so much pain.
Michael’s new book entitled “Chaos” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can check out his new Substack newsletter right here.
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”. 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.
The post An Absolutely Enormous Economic Shift Of Historic Proportions Is Now Taking Place Right In Front Of Our Eyes appeared first on The Economic Collapse.
Will Hamas Reject Israel’s Deal? | CBN NewsWatch – May 2, 2024 – YouTube
Amid indications Hamas will say no, Israel awaits a reply on a potential ceasefire and hostage deal, which the US pushes Hamas to accept, with the US Secretary of State saying the terror group’s answer will reveal if it truly cares about Gaza’s civilians or not, while the Israeli Defense Secretary says they will take any action to get their hostages home; and in the US, authorities have been cracking down on anti-Israel college protests – where outside agitators have been getting involved; Chris Mitchell talks about what will happen if Hamas accepts – or rejects- Israel’s proposal, what the Israeli public thinks about a hostage deal as opposed to finishing off Hamas in Rafah, Saudi Arabia’s interest in seeing Hamas defeated, and more; Columbia University student Jonas Du of Young Voices talks to CBN’s The Global Lane about the events at the school, and what the arrests of more than 100 pro-Palestinian protesters mean for the university; Christians are praying for America and its leaders today, on the annual National Day of Prayer, where this year’s theme is “Lift Up the Word- Light Up the World;” and how a microchip helped find a lost cat – over 600 miles away.
CBN News. Because Truth Matters™
— Read on www.youtube.com/watch
Arab Unofficial Reports: Hamas to Reject Ceasefire Deal as Israel Readies Rafah Forces | CBN News
Israel and the U.S. say the ball is in Hamas’ court as the world watches and waits for a response to Israel’s ceasefire offer. Arab media reports suggest Hamas will refuse the hostage-release deal, though no official answer has been given.
The Anti-Israel Protests Are Being Organized By Paid Professional Agitators And Are Being Funded By The Usual Suspects | End Of The American Dream
If you actually believe that it is just a “coincidence” that anti-Israel protests have “spontaneously” erupted at dozens of colleges and universities all over the nation, you are just being delusional. As you will see below, these protests are being organized by paid professional agitators, and they are being funded by the same far left sources that have funded other radical protest movements in the past. But don’t just take my word for it. New York City Mayor Eric Adams is a far left mayor in a far left city, and even he is admitting that there were “professionals” involved in the chaos that we just witnessed at Columbia University…
“There were individuals on the campus who should not have been there. They were people who are professionals and we saw evidence of training,” Adams said.
“I know that there are those who attempting to say, ‘Well, the majority of people may have been students.’ You don’t have to be the majority to influence and co-op an operation. That is what this about.
“This is a global problem that young people are being influenced by those who are professionals at radicalizing our children and I’m not going to allow that to happen as the mayor of the city of New York.”
Mayor Adams says that Lisa Fithian, who is considered to be “the nation’s best-known protest consultant”, was directly involved with what was going on at Columbia…
A video shown by the mayor shows Lisa Fithian, an infamous agitator at US protests for over half a century, showing protesters how to occupy a building.
Adams called Fithian ‘the nation’s best-known protest consultant’, noting she gets paid as much as $300 a day to run demonstrations and teach how to take over streets during protests.
In addition, it is being reported that three groups that are heavily funded by George Soros “set up the tent city on Columbia’s lawn”…
The cash from Soros and his acolytes has been critical to the Columbia protests that set off the national copycat demonstrations.
Three groups set up the tent city on Columbia’s lawn last Wednesday: Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and Within Our Lifetime.
At the “Gaza Solidarity Encampment,” students sleep in tents apparently ordered from Amazon and enjoy delivery pizza, coffee from Dunkin’, free sandwiches worth $12.50 from Pret a Manger, organic tortilla chips and $10 rotisserie chickens.
An analysis by The Post shows that all three got cash from groups linked to Soros. The Rockefeller Brothers Fund also gave cash to JVP.
This wasn’t just a group of college students that suddenly decided to get radical.
This was an operation that was well planned and well funded.
And the SJP has had a hand in initiating similar operations at other colleges and universities all over the United States…
Copycat tent cities have been set up at colleges including Harvard, Yale, Berkeley in California, the Ohio State University and Emory in Georgia — all of them organized by branches of the Soros-funded Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) — and at some, students have clashed with police.
The SJP parent organization has been funded by a network of nonprofits ultimately funded by, among others, Soros, the billionaire left-wing investor.
At three colleges, the protests are being encouraged by paid radicals who are “fellows” of a Soros-funded group called the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR).
An organization known as “The People’s Forum” was also very heavily involved in the chaos that erupted at Columbia.
In fact, the Manhattan headquarters of the group appears to have been a primary base of operations for the protesters…
The People’s Forum, a tax-exempt advocacy group who often hosts propaganda events for the regimes of countries like Venezuela and Cuba, has been accused of being behind the Columbia protests.
The Washington Free Beacon reports the group, which has received $12 million from Goldman Sachs, may have provided materials for the so-called occupation of Hamilton Hall.
Over 100 masked activists met at the group’s Manhattan headquarters, a base for all kinds of leftist activism, to plan their moves on Monday, participating in breakout sessions that taught ‘resistance’ methods.
Last year, the New York Times reported that “The People’s Forum” has received funding from the Chinese Community Party.
Needless to say, that is a very alarming connection.
For now, the protest at Columbia has been crushed, but we continue to see chaos at colleges and universities all over the country. Here are some of the highlights…
- Violent clashes between pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli protesters erupted Tuesday night at the University of California, Los Angeles, leading school officials to cancel classes on Wednesday.
- Protesters entered an undergraduate admissions building at Emory University on Wednesday.
- New York police arrested protesters who were occupying the lobby of a building at Fordham University Wednesday afternoon. They also cleared away a tent encampment.
- Students at Portland State University continued to barricade themselves inside the school’s library, escalating a two-day standoff with officials, who canceled classes Wednesday.
The violence at UCLA is particularly disturbing.
Last night, a number of individuals were seriously hurt, and one person actually had to be sent to the hospital…
The clashes at UCLA took place around a tent encampment built by pro-Palestinian protesters, who erected barricades and plywood for protection — while counter-protesters tried to pull them down. Video showed fireworks exploding over and in the encampment. People threw chairs and at one point a group piled on a person who lay on the ground, kicking and beating them with sticks until others pulled them out of the scrum.
A UCLA spokesperson on Wednesday said there were “a reported 15 injuries, including one hospitalization.”
It appears that the person that was hospitalized was a Jewish girl that was “surrounded by five people wearing keffiyehs and bludgeoned in the head while they stomped on her Israeli flag”…
According to That Korean Jew on Instagram the girl was surrounded by five people wearing keffiyehs and bludgeoned in the head while they stomped on her Israeli flag.
The girl reportedly lost consciousness and her body went limp. She was carried away and sent to the Emergency Room.
This actually happened at UCLA in 2024.
What in the world is happening to our country?
You can view some footage of the violence at UCLA right here…
At UCLA, the protesters are not just “occupying” one particular area.
Zero Hedge is reporting that radicals have actually put up barriers all around the campus and are keeping out any students that do not agree with the protests…
It’s like the Seattle CHAZ encampment all over again. Far-left activists have declared the UCLA campus a “liberated zone” and are refusing entry for many students not affiliated with the pro-Gaza protests. They have erected barriers and placed guards, creating makeshift checkpoints which require a special wrist band in order to gain passage.
In other words, if you aren’t an “ally” then you don’t get to attend classes, or, if you’re lucky you are allowed to take a longer route around the barricades. Keep in mind, this is not a protected form of protest or free speech, which explains why many college campuses have chosen to have protesters removed by police. UCLA so far appears to be supporting the activists and has allowed them to take control.
This is complete and utter lawlessness.
And if they get away with it there, paid agitators will try the same thing at other colleges and universities.
Of course these far left radicals at UCLA need to eat just like the rest of us, and they are specifically asking people to bring them “vegan and gluten-free food”…
The pro-Palestine encampment at UCLA sent out demands for vegan and gluten-free food as they rebuild their barricades after a night of violent clashes with counter-protesters and authorities.
The list of requested items, first reported by Fox News, included ‘urgent’ demands for ‘wood for barrier’, ‘knee and elbow pads’ and ‘gas masks.’
Under a list of food requirements to be delivered to the camp the protesters requested ‘vegan food’, ‘gluten free food’ and ‘hot food for lunch’.
A list of banned foods include anything packaged, coffee, bagels, bananas and nuts.
Colleges and universities are perfect locations for far left protests, because there are lots of wide open public spaces and there are lots of deeply confused young people that are sympathetic to leftist causes.
So I fully expect that colleges and universities will continue to be targeted by professional agitators and the organizations that fund them during this election season and the chaos that will extend into 2025 and beyond.
One of the primary goals of these protests is to get attention, and the mainstream media has been giving them plenty of it.
Unfortunately, I believe that this is just the beginning.
I am entirely convinced that global events will soon spiral completely out of control, and that will provide plenty of fuel for more nationwide protests.
Michael’s new book entitled “Chaos” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can check out his new Substack newsletter right here.
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”. 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 find Michael on social media 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.
The post The Anti-Israel Protests Are Being Organized By Paid Professional Agitators And Are Being Funded By The Usual Suspects appeared first on End Of The American Dream.
Expert: US Campus Protests Fueled by Major Foreign Funding, also Backed by Iran, Hamas | CBN News
Within just a few weeks, anti-Israel protests have expanded to occupy U.S.
campuses coast to coast. Given the overall coordination, officials are questioning whether these demonstrations go beyond a spontaneous student movement to a more well-funded outside operation.
Moments From Victory Against Democrats, Republicans Decide To Start Attacking First Amendment | Babylon Bee
WASHINGTON, D.C. — With Democrats across the country embroiled in vicious infighting, antisemitism, and takeovers of college campuses, Republicans have decided to remedy their impending victory by attacking the First Amendment.
“We realized that things were going well for us, so we took corrective action immediately,” said Mike Johnson, while at the bank cashing his latest check from a Ukrainian lobbyist. “We thought: ‘What can we do that will immediately enrage our most loyal voters while simultaneously preventing the self-destruction of the Democrat Party?’ Of course, the most obvious choice was to pass a law against free speech. Mission accomplished!”
Sources say the new antisemitism bill passed by the House will soon be struck down by federal courts, but should still do the job of necessarily injuring the Republican Party in an election year.
“This is the decisive leadership our party needs,” said Congressman Crenshaw while adjusting his brand-new clown nose. “Hey check out how loud my clown nose can honk! HONK HONK!”
At publishing time, Republicans had announced next week’s plans to also attack the Second Amendment.
YUGE NEWS! There’s a new Donald Trump Version of the Bible, and we’ve got the exclusive clip of Trump reciting his favorite verses.
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WATCH: J.D. Vance Schools and Shuts Down CNN’s Kaitlan Collins When She Asks Gotcha Questions About Trump’s Garbage Criminal Prosecutions | The Gateway Pundit
Senator J.D. Vance schooled and shut down CNN leftist Kaitlan Collins after she tried to ambush him with gotcha questions on the garbage criminal prosecutions of President Trump.
On Wednesday evening, Vance was a guest on Collins’s eponymous show, The Source with Kaitlan Collins, to discuss various topics, including the pro-Hamas protests on college campuses across America and whether he would serve as Trump’s vice president. However, things got heated when the subject turned to Trump’s political prosecutions.
After one leading question from Collins, Vance unloaded on Biden’s Department of Injustice. He pointed out how “unusual” it was for the DOJ to collude with communist Manhattan DA Alkving Bragg’s office to bring a nonsense case against a political opponent. Moreover, Vance railed against corrupt Judge Juan Merchan while pointing out his donations to Biden.
He then warned how damaging the prosecutions of Trump are to America’s judicial system. Collins could only sit there in silence after thinking about interrupting him toward the end.
“This is a real threat to Americans’ trust in the legal system,” Vance said. “We are destroying the American system of law and order to bring down Joe Biden’s political opponent.”
WATCH:
Undeterred, Collins asked another misleading question regarding whether Trump could order the military to stage a coup. Trump previously claimed he was immune from prosecution for official acts as president.
Liberal Justice Elena Kagan previously posed this hypothetical question to Trump lawyer D. John Sauer during arguments in the immunity hearing last month. Sauer said it depended on the circumstances, but impeachment and conviction must occur before any criminal prosecution.
Vance pointed out this fact during his response to Collins. Then he posed a pointed question to illustrate the slippery slope the Biden regime is embarking on: Should Barack Obama be prosecuted for killing an American citizen via a drone strike?” He then pointed out that if the Regime got its way, the next president would find it impossible to enforce the laws of this country.
After Collins tried to interrupt Vance toward the end, he completely shut her down.
COLLINS: What circumstances warrant the President (Trump) ordering the military to stage a coup?
VANCE: First of all, he (Sauer) said it depends on the circumstances (immunity from prosecution)…But more importantly, Kaitlin, he’s just saying that would count as an official act…
COLLINS: But, but, is that an official act in your view too
VANCE: Can I finish, Kaitlin? In an official act, there are a number of checks and balances in our system. There’s the impeachment process, there’s the budgeting authority…There are a number of ways Congress has check and balance control over the president.
All he is saying is the criminal liability procedures that exist in this country do not cover the president’s official acts…Should Barack Obama be prosecuted for killing an American citizen via a drone strike?”
There are a number of examples in American history where if you apply the lawfare standard of the Biden Administration against Donald Trump, it would make the Presidency impossible to execute the law.
COLLINS: Yeah, I know that’s the argument that…
VANCE (shutting her down): In the name of taking down their political opponent, Kaitlin, these guys are pushing a legal theory that I think would really destroy the presidency whether a Democrat or Republican was in charge.
The post WATCH: J.D. Vance Schools and Shuts Down CNN’s Kaitlan Collins When She Asks Gotcha Questions About Trump’s Garbage Criminal Prosecutions appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.
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America’s campus meltdown | The Log College
This is what happens when the ideological left controls higher education
by Dr. Albert Mohler; WORLD MAGAZINE
A sign stands at the protest encampment at Columbia University in New York on April 22.Associated Press/Photo by Stefan Jeremiah
The chaos engulfing elite college campuses across America should surprise no one. The sight of privileged university students chanting “from the river to the sea” and calling for an end to American support of Israel was absolutely predictable. This is exactly what happens when the ideological left is in the driver’s seat and leftist students are all too ready to go along for the ride. Americans of a certain age might be tempted to say this is 1968 all over again. But, in the case of the campus protesters, the current situation is actually far worse.
Just look at New York’s famed Columbia University, founded as a college by the Church of England and later the historic school of American patriots. In 1968 Columbia was the scene of campus protests and a surging ideological Left, with students directing their ire at the U.S. government and the war in Vietnam. Like many elite institutions, it has a long history of anti-Semitism. Fast forward to 2024 and the same scenes now flood back, with students protesting and leftism ascendant. This time the anger is directed at the State of Israel and the students have styled themselves as liberationist allies of the Palestinians, who they present as victims of Israel’s “settler colonialism.” They demand an immediate divestment of any university funds connected to Israel. But listen carefully and some are demanding an end to Israel itself.
None of this is by accident. Decades ago, Columbia, along with other elite universities, started hiring a cadre of young professors who were products of the New Left or other ideologically progressive forms of thought. Whether influenced by the Frankfort School with its updated neo-Marxism, Gramscian political theory, or French deconstructionism, these young faculty were the vanguard of a new army of political progressives. They included literary theorists, legal scholars, and a host of others, but the energies were saturated with the ideologies of the left, including the mandatory dynamic of oppressor and the oppressed.
Higher education was turning into a laboratory for social engineering and intellectual revolution. Specialties such as “post-colonial studies” percolated with promises of liberation, often translated into nationalist movements and identity politics. Edward Said, for example, taught literature at Columbia from 1963-2003. But Said’s significance has mostly to do with his arguments that Western cultures had been condescending and imperialistic toward Eastern and Near-Eastern cultures, approaching them through the false lenses of “orientalism.” Said also identified with the Arabs in Palestine, seeing Israel, the Jewish state, as an illegitimate project driven by what was labeled “settler colonialism.”
It goes on. The current Edward Said Professor of Modern Arab Studies is Rashid Khalidi, who has extended Said’s criticism of Israel and the indictment of Israel as the product of “settler colonialism.” Khalidi, we should note, had earlier been politically involved with the Palestinian cause in Beirut. At the time, some sources identified him as a spokesman for the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO). His exact involvement is unclear.
Your local college is almost certainly doing its best to look like Columbia University.
What is not unclear is that the students now condemning Israel are the products of an elite American academic industry that offers leftist ideologies as its main product and, brace yourselves, the younger professors on many campuses are much further to left in both ideology and politics. The old liberals are scared to death of the young leftists.
Furthermore, the young professors are scared to death of the students, many of whom have been coddled in privilege and even more of whom have been marinated in a brine of radical ideologies. They have been indoctrinated by DEI offices and recruited into social activism. In recent days, they hit the protest button. It’s back to the barricades for the young leftists. The media lap it all up.
The protests have spread coast to coast, and no one should be surprised. We know exactly where this comes from. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson went to the Columbia campus to speak sense, and was predictably shouted down. He called for Columbia University president Nemat Shafik to restore order to the campus or resign. She is now under attack from the right for allowing chaos to happen and from the left for having some student protesters arrested. She might well lose her job, but her successor is almost certain to be even more progressive. The reason is simple, the leftist ideological takeover of the elite American college campus is nearly complete.
Here is even worse news: Your local college is almost certainly doing its best to look like Columbia University. This is exactly how higher education has been lost in America. When you send your children and grandchildren to these schools, and brag about Junior’s admission to the elite university, just understand what you are celebrating.
I know you think your kid would not be one of the students with the zip ties tying her wrists behind her back at the protest. Maybe not. But there are a scores of American parents who are finding out too late that their offspring think that Israel—and the United States—are illegitimate settler colonial states. Many of America’s most elite universities are now experiencing a campus meltdown. Shame on anyone who claims this comes as a surprise.
Albert Mohler is president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and Boyce College and editor of WORLD Opinions. He is also the host of The Briefing and Thinking in Public. He is the author of several books, including The Gathering Storm: Secularism, Culture, and the Church. He is the seminary’s Centennial Professor of Christian Thought and a minister, having served as pastor and staff minister of several Southern Baptist churches.
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