There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn’t true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true. —Soren Kierkegaard. "…truth is true even if nobody believes it, and falsehood is false even if everybody believes it. That is why truth does not yield to opinion, fashion, numbers, office, or sincerity–it is simply true and that is the end of it" – Os Guinness, Time for Truth, pg.39. “He that takes truth for his guide, and duty for his end, may safely trust to God’s providence to lead him aright.” – Blaise Pascal. "There is but one straight course, and that is to seek truth and pursue it steadily" – George Washington letter to Edmund Randolph — 1795. We live in a “post-truth” world. According to the dictionary, “post-truth” means, “relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.” Simply put, we now live in a culture that seems to value experience and emotion more than truth. Truth will never go away no matter how hard one might wish. Going beyond the MSM idealogical opinion/bias and their low information tabloid reality show news with a distractional superficial focus on entertainment, sensationalism, emotionalism and activist reporting – this blogs goal is to, in some small way, put a plug in the broken dam of truth and save as many as possible from the consequences—temporal and eternal. "The further a society drifts from truth, the more it will hate those who speak it." – George Orwell “There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn’t true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true.” ― Soren Kierkegaard
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12:28 offer to God acceptable worship. Gratitude derives from knowing that our names are written in heaven (Luke 10:20) and from our experience of God’s “inexpressible gift”—Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 9:15). Reverence and awe come from an appreciation of who God is (v. 29). Acceptable worship combines these motives.[1]
12:28serve God acceptably Christ’s sacrifice allows believers to acceptably serve God (see 8:5; 9:9, 14; 10:2; 13:10). God is pleased when believers do good to each other and share what they have (13:16).[2]
12:28 kingdom. God will create “a new heaven and a new earth … the holy city, new Jerusalem” (Rev 21:1, 2), which will be eternal and immovable. let us show gratitude.See note on 4:16.with reverence and awe.See note on 11:7 (cf. 5:7). The second word has to do with the apprehension felt due to being in God’s presence.[3]
12:28 — Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear.
Divine grace never encourages us to live in ungodly ways, but instead motivates us to fear and obey God in a healthy and reverent way. Grace enables us to serve, not to sin.[4]
12:28 Those who were occupied with the tangible, visible ritualism of Judaism were clinging to things that could be shaken. True believers have a kingdom which cannot be shaken. This should inspire the most fervent worship and adoration. We should unceasingly praise Him with reverence and godly fear.[5]
28. Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe.
What a statement! “We are receiving a kingdom.” If there is a kingdom, there is also a king. And a king makes his rule known to his subjects, for they are part of the kingdom. We are receiving the governing rule, the administration, so to speak, of Jesus Christ. The writer of Hebrews already mentioned that we have come “to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant” (12:24). That covenant relation becomes reality when we receive the kingdom, the rule of Christ. As a trustworthy saying has it, “If we endure, we will also reign” with Christ (2 Tim. 2:12). That is not at all surprising, for both the Old Testament and the New reveal that “the saints of the Most High will receive the kingdom and will possess it forever” (Dan. 7:18; see also Rev. 1:6; 5:10). Jesus confers a kingdom on us and grants us the honor of sitting on thrones (Luke 22:29–30; Rev. 20:4–6).
The kingdom we receive is unshakable; it remains forever; it is eternal (Dan. 7:14). Those in the kingdom, then, cannot be shaken, remain forever, and partake of eternity. The privileges Christ grants his people are unbelievably rich. God told the Israelites at Mount Sinai that if they kept his covenant, they would be for him “a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Exod. 19:5–6). That kingdom, however, came to an end because it was temporary. How different for us, the New Testament believers, who are in the new covenant! We receive “a kingdom that cannot be shaken.”
Moreover, we are in the process of receiving an unshakable kingdom. Jesus taught us to pray for the coming of his kingdom (Matt. 6:10; Luke 11:2). His kingdom is here; at the same time we admit that it has not yet come. Hence we pray the well-known petition of the Lord’s Prayer, “your kingdom come.”
Because of the royal recognition we receive, we are exhorted to give thanks—“let us be thankful.” The literal translation of this clause is, “let us have grace.” However, usage indicates that the words have grace form an idiomatic expression that means “give thanks.” Luke uses this idiom in relating the parable of the farmer and his servant (Luke 17:9), and Paul employs it in his pastoral Epistles (1 Tim. 1:12; 2 Tim. 1:3).
Let us live a life of thankfulness, says the author of Hebrews, and by doing so let us worship God. Giving thanks in word and deed and worshiping God are two sides of the same coin. Worship is not limited to a formal worship service on Sunday. Horatius Bonar understood this when he wrote,
So shall no part of day or night
From sacredness be free,
But all my life, in every step,
Be fellowship with Thee.
How do we worship God acceptably? The writer reminds us of Enoch who walked with God, pleased him, and was commended for his faith (11:5; also see 13:21). Our worship must be pleasing to God on the one hand, and on the other we must approach him with reverence and awe (5:7). And the reason for serving God with reverence and fear is expressed in the concluding verse of this chapter.[6]
[2] Barry, J. D., Mangum, D., Brown, D. R., Heiser, M. S., Custis, M., Ritzema, E., Whitehead, M. M., Grigoni, M. R., & Bomar, D. (2012, 2016). Faithlife Study Bible (Heb 12:28). Lexham Press.
Judges 21:19 — Depending on how we read into the word “annual”, this could be problematic. Deuteronomy 16:16 requires that three times a year all the men must come to the feasts. Are they down to just one feast a year?
Ruth 1:1 — More sin. Deuteronomy 28:15 warns that disobedience results in curses, including the ground (Deuteronomy 28:18). The answer to judgment is not fleeing (does Jonah come to mind?). Elimelech died and God declared that death was a punishment for sin (Deuteronomy 28:26). Mahlon and Chilion took wives of the people (general prohibition against intermarriage in Deuteronomy 7:3; specific prohibition against it in Deuteronomy 23:3).
Ruth 1:9 — Ever notice how people living in open sin can still tell you, “God bless you?” While Naomi wanted to wish them Godspeed as they returned to idolatry, that is not permitted (2 John 9-11). While Naomi had an emotional affinity with her daughters-in-law, she should care about not just their next 50 years, but their next 5 million years!
Ruth 1:16 — Naomi realizes the LORD is chastening her (Ruth 1:21). Naomi knew better than to go to Moab, but she still went and lost all that were close to her. Ruth, on the other hand, is responding to what little light she was given, willing to repay the kindness of her mother-in-law with lifelong loyalty, and she was willing to learn about this deity that her mother-in-law had been disobeying. Will the LORD God of Israel Who has declared Himself to be against the family of Ruth (Deuteronomy 23:3) exercise His judgment or will He show mercy? Stay tuned!
John 4:7 — Speaking of women with non-traditional backgrounds, the LORD Jesus had a divine appointment (John 4:4) with a woman who didn’t just have a sinful pedigree, she also had a sinful personal history (John 4:18).
John 4:26 — Similar to His conversation with Nicodemus, Jesus did not tell large groups that He was the Messiah, but only revealed Himself to select individuals. Jewish legal code required there be multiple witnesses to each event. Thus, Nicodemus and this woman could not form the two witnesses because they were testifying to separate events.
John 4:35 — It’s harvest time! Who can you share Jesus with today?
Psalm 105:9-11 — Some people say God is done with Israel. But God made an everlasting covenant to give them the land of Canaan. Today, we are but a few decades into the fulfillment of that promise, a promise that sat unfulfilled for almost two thousand years.
The Lord shall sell Sisera into the hand of a woman. (Judges 4:9)
Rather an unusual text, but there may be souls in the world that may have faith enough to grasp it. Barak, the man, though called to the war, had little stomach for the fight unless Deborah would go with him, and so the Lord determined to make it a woman’s war. By this means He rebuked the slackness of the man, gained for Himself the more renown, and cast the more shame upon the enemies of His people.
The Lord can still use feeble instrumentalities. Why not me? He may use persons who are not commonly called to great public engagements. Why not you? The woman who slew the enemy of Israel was no Amazon but a wife who tarried in her tent. She was no orator but a woman who milked the cows and made butter. May not the Lord use any one of us to accomplish His purpose? Somebody may come to the house today, even as Sisera came to Jael’s tent. Be it ours not to slay him, but to save him. Let us receive him with great kindness and then bring forth the blessed truth of salvation by the Lord Jesus, our great Substitute, and press home the command “Believe and live.” Who knoweth but some stout-hearted sinner may be slain by the gospel today!
The seven churches of revelation are lessons to us today. They contain praises and warnings. What can we learn from them?
The seven churches of Revelation are found in Asia Minor. They were located along known travel routes. Jesus communicated to these seven churches both good and bad about their spiritual condition. The following analysis is very brief. Many books have been written on the seven Churches of Revelation. But in this article we offer a very brief synopsis of each of the church’s concerns. There are plenty of applications for us today. Please consider what Jesus had to say to the seven Churches of Revelation.
1. Ephesus (Revelation 2:1–7) The city was large and known for trade and commerce.
“To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: The One who holds the seven stars in His right hand, the One who walks among the seven golden lampstands, says this: 2 ‘I know your deeds and your toil and perseverance, and that you cannot tolerate evil men, and you put to the test those who call themselves apostles, and they are not, and you found them to be false; 3 and you have perseverance and have endured for My name’s sake, and have not grown weary. 4 ‘But I have this against you, that you have left your first love. 5 ‘Therefore remember from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place—unless you repent. 6 ‘Yet this you do have, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. 7 ‘He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will grant to eat of the tree of life which is in the Paradise of God.’blueletterbible.org
Positive:Its deeds, toil, and perseverance were good. It did not tolerate evil. It tested those who called themselves apostles but were not. It hated the deeds of the Nicolaitans, perhaps related to the false apostles.
Negative:The people in Ephesus had left their first love – devotion to Christ. The Lord called them to repentance and to do the deeds they did at first. He was coming to them to judge them.
Application:It is good to be doctrinally aware and examine people’s teachings. But that is not enough. Devotion to Christ is more important. Make sure that you are developing your prayer life, study life, and relationship with Christ. After all, “God is faithful, through whom you were called into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord” (1 Cor. 1:9).
2. Smyrna (Revelation 2:8–11) The city was known for the presence of many Jews
“And to the angel of the church in Smyrna write: The first and the last, who was dead, and has come to life, says this: 9 ‘I know your tribulation and your poverty (but you are rich), and the blasphemy by those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan. 10 ‘Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to cast some of you into prison, so that you will be tested, and you will have tribulation for ten days. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life. 11 ‘He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He who overcomes will not be hurt by the second death.’”blueletterbible.org
Positive:They endured tribulation and poverty and resisted the blasphemy of the false Jews in the area.
Negative:The devil is going to persecute them. Be faithful even to death.
Application: We are to endure the suffering that comes to us (Phil. 1:29). We have an eternal reward for our enduring difficulties, whether they be physical or spiritual. Our hope is in Christ and the eternal salvation He has purchased for us. God says, “…“I WILL NEVER DESERT YOU, NOR WILL I EVER FORSAKE YOU…” (Heb. 13:5).
3. Pergamum (Revelation 2:12–17) The city was known for paganism
“And to the angel of the church in Pergamum write: The One who has the sharp two-edged sword says this: 13 ‘I know where you dwell, where Satan’s throne is; and you hold fast My name, and did not deny My faith even in the days of Antipas, My witness, My faithful one, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells. 14 ‘But I have a few things against you, because you have there some who hold the teaching of Balaam, who kept teaching Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols and to commit acts of immorality. 15 ‘So you also have some who in the same way hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans. 16 ‘Therefore repent; or else I am coming to you quickly, and I will make war against them with the sword of My mouth. 17 ‘He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, to him I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, and a new name written on the stone which no one knows but he who receives it.’”blueletterbible.org/
Positive:They did not deny their faith during persecution.
Negative:They suffered from moral compromise. They held to the teaching of Balaam, who stumbled Israel and promoted idolatry. Jesus called them to repentance.
Application:This tough message deals with avoiding moral compromise and the need for repentance. If we do not turn from our apathy and focus on things other than God, He may very well discipline us. “For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His holiness” (Heb. 12:10).
4. Thyatira (Revelation 2:18–29) The was city known for its wealth
“And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write: The Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and His feet are like burnished bronze, says this: 19 ‘I know your deeds, and your love and faith and service and perseverance, and that your deeds of late are greater than at first. 20 ‘But I have this against you, that you tolerate the woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, and she teaches and leads My bond-servants astray so that they commit acts of immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols. 21 ‘I gave her time to repent, and she does not want to repent of her immorality. 22 ‘Behold, I will throw her on a bed of sickness, and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of her deeds. 23 ‘And I will kill her children with pestilence, and all the churches will know that I am He who searches the minds and hearts; and I will give to each one of you according to your deeds. 24 ‘But I say to you, the rest who are in Thyatira, who do not hold this teaching, who have not known the deep things of Satan, as they call them—I place no other burden on you. 25 ‘Nevertheless what you have, hold fast until I come. 26 ‘He who overcomes, and he who keeps My deeds until the end, TO HIM I WILL GIVE AUTHORITY OVER THE NATIONS; 27 AND HE SHALL RULE THEM WITH A ROD OF IRON, AS THE VESSELS OF THE POTTER ARE BROKEN TO PIECES, as I also have received authority from My Father; 28 and I will give him the morning star. 29 ‘He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’”blueletterbible.org
Positive:They have good deeds, love, faith, service, and perseverance. They have increased in good deeds.
Negative:It tolerates the woman Jezebel, the false prophetess, who leads them to immorality (porneia), false gods. Will be judged with pestilence, unless they repent.
Application: Good deeds are what God wants from us, among other things. But, we are not to compromise. We are to avoid sexual immorality (adultery, fornication, pornography, etc.) God requires our holiness before Him. “You shall be holy, for I am holy” (1 Pet. 1:16).
5. Sardis (Revelation 3:1–6)
“To the angel of the church in Sardis write: He who has the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars, says this: ‘I know your deeds, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead. 2 ‘Wake up, and strengthen the things that remain, which were about to die; for I have not found your deeds completed in the sight of My God. 3 ‘So remember what you have received and heard; and keep it, and repent. Therefore if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come to you. 4 ‘But you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their garments; and they will walk with Me in white, for they are worthy. 5 ‘He who overcomes will thus be clothed in white garments; and I will not erase his name from the book of life, and I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels. 6 ‘He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’”blueletterbible.org
Positive:A few in that church have not soiled their garments, they will walk with Christ.
Negative:They are dead spiritually. Strengthen the things that remain. They were ignoring the first things they had learned. They were worldly.
Application:We must be constantly alert so as not to be deceived by the devil or our flesh. We should strengthen what remains in us spiritually. “Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. 9 But resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world” (1 Pet. 5:8-9).
6. Philadelphia (Revelation 3:7–13)
“And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: He who is holy, who is true, who has the key of David, who opens and no one will shut, and who shuts and no one opens, says this: 8 ‘I know your deeds. Behold, I have put before you an open door which no one can shut, because you have a little power, and have kept My word, and have not denied My name. 9 ‘Behold, I will cause those of the synagogue of Satan, who say that they are Jews and are not, but lie—I will make them come and bow down at your feet, and make them know that I have loved you. 10 ‘Because you have kept the word of My perseverance, I also will keep you from the hour of testing, that hour which is about to come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth. 11 ‘I am coming quickly; hold fast what you have, so that no one will take your crown. 12 ‘He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he will not go out from it anymore; and I will write on him the name of My God, and the name of the city of My God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God, and My new name. 13 ‘He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’”blueletterbible.org
Positive:They kept Jesus’ word and did not deny His name. Those who claim to be Jews but are not will bow at their feet. He will keep them from the hour of testing.
Negative:None
Application: We should learn from the faithfulness of the Philadelphia church to God. He rewarded them, and He will reward you, too, as you remain faithful to Him. It may not be easy, but it is always good. “In the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day; and not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing” (2 Timothy 4:8).
7. Laodicea (Revelation 3:14–22)
“To the angel of the church in Laodicea write: The Amen, the faithful and true Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God, says this: 15 ‘I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I wish that you were cold or hot. 16 ‘So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth. 17 ‘Because you say, “I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing,” and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked, 18 I advise you to buy from Me gold refined by fire so that you may become rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself, and that the shame of your nakedness will not be revealed; and eye salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see. 19 ‘Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline; therefore be zealous and repent. 20 ‘Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me. 21 ‘He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne. 22 ‘He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’ ””blueletterbible.org
Positive:None.
Negative:They were neither hot nor cold. They were Lukewarm. Jesus warned that He would spit them out of His mouth. They boasted of their riches but were wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked. He warned them to seek Him and called them to repent.
Application:We are to be dedicated to God through Christ. We ought not to be ambivalent in our attitude and dedication to Jesus. Live for Him, or don’t! Do not use God’s word to justify seeking the prosperity and comfort of the world. “And He was saying to them all,‘If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me’” (Luke 9:23).
Q. 17. Into what estate did the fall bring mankind?
A. The fall brought mankind into an estate of sin and misery.
Q. 18. Wherein consists the sinfulness of that estate whereinto man fell?
A. The sinfulness of that estate whereinto man fell, consists in the guilt of Adam’s first sin,
the want of original righteousness, and the corruption of his whole nature, which is
commonly called original sin; together with all actual transgressions which proceed from it.
Q. 19. What is the misery of that estate whereinto man fell?
A. All mankind by their fall lost communion with God, are under his wrath and curse,
and so made liable to all the miseries of this life, to death itself, and to the pains of hell
forever.
Q. 20. Did God leave all mankind to perish in the estate of sin and misery?
A. God, having out of his mere good pleasure, from all eternity, elected some to everlasting
life, did enter into a covenant of grace to deliver them out of the estate of sin and misery,
and to bring them into an estate of salvation by a Redeemer.
Q. 21. Who is the Redeemer of God’s elect?
A. The only Redeemer of God’s elect is the Lord Jesus Christ, who, being the eternal Son of
God, became man, and so was, and continueth to be, God and man in two distinct natures,
and one person, forever.
Q. 22. How did Christ, being the Son of God, become man?
A. Christ, the Son of God, became man, by taking to himself a true body, and a reasonable
soul, being conceived by the power of the Holy Ghost, in the womb of the virgin Mary, and
born of her, yet without sin.
Q. 23. What offices doth Christ execute as our Redeemer?
A. Christ, as our Redeemer, executeth the offices of a prophet, of a priest, and of a king,
both in his estate of humiliation and exaltation.
Q. 24. How doth Christ execute the office of a prophet?
A. Christ executeth the office of a prophet, in revealing to us, by his Word and Spirit, the
will of God for our salvation.
“In Christ Alone” is a popular modern Christian song written by Keith Getty and Stuart Townend, both songwriters of Christian hymns and contemporary worship music in the United Kingdom. The song, with a strong Irish melody, is the first hymn they penned together. The music was by Getty and the original lyrics by Townend. It was composed in 2001.
“In Christ Alone” is considered a Christian credal song for belief in Jesus Christ. The theme of the song is the life, death and resurrection of Christ, and that he is God whom even death cannot hold.
The song is commonly known as “In Christ Alone (My Hope Is Found)” and “In Christ Alone (I Stand)” taking verses from the song. It has become very popular and has been the subject of many cover versions and many language translations.
▶️Reformed Christian Podcast – Pastor Patrick Hines (Playlist)
CIA, Mike Pompeo exposed for allegedly hiding info from Trump: Report A new undercover report by the O’Keefe Media Group claims that leaders of the intelligence community, including former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and former CIA Director Gina Haspel, withheld information from former President Donald Trump throughout his administration. “This footage contains evidence that American intelligence agencies withheld intelligence from President Donald Trump before and during his presidency and used Foreign Intelligence Act (FISA) authorities to spy on President Trump and may be doing so today,” Gaetz wrote Wednesday in a letter to Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio).
Israeli Warplanes Strike Damascus As Iran Tensions Still On Edge Israeli aircraft have reportedly attacked a location on the outskirts of the Syrian capital of Damascus late Thursday (local), a security source told Reuters. Widely circulating images have emerged on social media showing plumes of smoke rising high over buildings which were struck. The fresh Israeli aggression could be another targeted assassination operation against Iranian generals or IRGC officers, and certainly would also be intended to signal Israel remains undeterred by Iran’s April 13th attack,
THE DEMOCRAT PLOT TO STEAL 2024 UNCOVERED The Democrats and their globalist friends got exactly what they wanted as we swing into election season: skyrocketing levels of H5N1 Bird Flu in the wastewater supply. Like clockwork, news arrives of gain-of-function research underway here in American labs at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Funded by the USDA and Chinese Academy of Science, researchers have been working for two years to create a H5N1 vaccine using mRNA technology. There’s no such thing as coincidence: gain-of-function research is culminating at the same time as our major H5N1 outbreak.
Pushed To Suicide: The Callous Regard For Human Life In The Canadian Health System I was greatly saddened to see the lack of compassion and the callous regard for human life in the Canadian health system. On March 29, Normand Meunier, a 66-year-old quadriplegic man, was euthanized at home after developing bed sores and a major pressure ulcer on his backside. The ulcer and bed sores, resulting from a lack of specialized care (and a lack of common decency) at the hospital in Saint-Jérôme, Quebec, were so severe that muscle and bone were exposed and visible. While we certainly don’t condone suicide, it is easy to see that the almost deliberate sadistic attitudes and actions of the hospital pushed Munier to that decision. in 2022, 13,241 Canadians died by MAiD lethal injection.
Report: US senators discussed Israel arrest warrants with ICC officials US senators held a virtual meeting on Wednesday with senior officials at the International Criminal Court (ICC) to express their concern about possible arrest warrants being issued for Israeli leaders over the war in Gaza, Axios reported on Thursday, citing three sources who were in the meeting or briefed about it.
‘Over my dead body’: North Carolina student recounts defending US flag from anti-Israel protesters At one point, the protesters removed the American flag and replaced it with a Palestinian flag. That was when Dan Stompel along with his Pi Kappa Phi fraternity brothers sprang into action. Only a few dozen students faced hundreds and held onto the American flag, protecting it from clutching hands of demonstrators as they waited for the police to arrive on the scene. For an hour, Stompel and his friends were cursed, had hard objects, including rocks and bottles, thrown at them while they clutched the flag to protect it until police arrived to restore the peace so the flag could be flown once again.
Israel thwarts Islamic Jihad bomb plot Israeli security forces thwarted a Palestinian terror cell operating under the direction of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad headquarters in Lebanon and planning bomb attacks against soldiers in Samaria, the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) announced on Thursday.
Israel’s Best Kept Secret: Biblical Migdal (aka Magdala) During the Second Temple period, Migdal was an important city and the unique findings we will see here more than substantiate this! The wealth of its inhabitants is evident in the mansions that were found here, and the well-designed marketplace where each store (due to the abundance of water) had their own technologically advanced plumbing system, connecting the shops with access to fresh water. Amazingly this system is in such good shape, that it’s still functional today!
Shin Bet to protest leaders: Do not escalate the protests Shin Bet representatives urge anti-government protest leaders to refrain from escalating the protests in order “to reduce risks and prevent accidental harm to the demonstrators.”
Aggression against Palestine’: Turkey suspends export and import operations with Israel Turkey on Thursday suspended all export and import operations with Israel due to what it described as its “aggression against Palestine in violation of international law and human rights,” the Turkish Trade Ministry announced, according to the Anadolu news agency.
United Methodists strike down ban on ordination of gay clergy With a simple vote call and without debate, delegates to the General Conference removed the ban on the ordination of ‘self-avowed practicing homosexuals’ — a prohibition that dates to 1984.
Hamas sources: Haniyeh to remain in Turkey for undefined period Asharq Al-Awsat reported Thursday morning that Haniyeh’s stay in the country raises questions regarding whether Hamas leadership has temporarily moved to Turkey. According to reports, Haniyeh arrived in Turkey leading a delegation of senior officials on April 19. One day later, he met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Istanbul. But Haniyeh remained in the country for over a week after the meeting.
Trump backs down from two-state solution Former President and 2024 presidential candidate Donald Trump says he has changed his mind regarding a two-state solution for the Israel-Palestinian conflict. “There was a time when I thought two states could work. Now I think two states is going to be very, very tough. I think it’s going to be much tougher to get. I also think you have fewer people that liked the idea.
Extreme rainfall triggers deadly highway collapse in Guangdong, China, killing 48 A large landslide destroyed a significant portion of the Meizhou-Dabu Expressway in Meizhou City, Guangdong Province, China, at around 02:10 local time on May 1, 2024. The collapse caused 23 vehicles to plummet down a steep slope, igniting some in flames and resulting in 48 fatalities and 30 injuries as of May 2, 2024.
Catastrophic floods hit Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, leaving at least 10 dead, over 20 missing A powerful atmospheric river has caused destructive flooding across Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil since Monday, April 29, 2024, leading to the deaths of at least ten people, with 21 others missing. The state governor described the situation as the worst disaster in the state’s history.
Israeli Warplanes Strike Damascus As Iran Tensions Still On Edge Israeli aircraft have reportedly attacked a location on the outskirts of the Syrian capital of Damascus late Thursday (local), a security source told Reuters. Widely circulating images have emerged on social media showing plumes of smoke rising high over buildings which were struck. Syrian state media subsequently said that eight army soldiers were injured in the attack.
Vietnam’s new biometric ID cards raise fears of privacy violations, data breaches Communist Vietnam’s amended 2023 Law on Identification, which comes into effect on July 1, will mandate iris scans, fingerprints, and facial images as biometric data to be collected and stored for the registration of Vietnamese identity cards.
Palestinian man visits Auschwitz, tells Jews to return there A video was posted on X earlier this week that showed footage of a Palestinian man visiting the Auschwitz-Birkenau Holocaust Memorial Museum, where he called on Jews to return to the site of the extermination camp, a place he claimed where they belonged.
Signs Of The Times: War, Famine, Pestilences And Natural Disasters …We are in the midst of a “perfect storm”, but most people in the general population don’t seem to realize this. While the mainstream media is endlessly focused on political drama, our world is being deeply troubled by war, economic problems, food shortages, nightmarish pestilences and terrifying natural disasters. But as bad as things are at this moment, I am entirely convinced that they are about to get a whole lot worse.
Russia is manipulated by the same elite financial interests that control the West Many are well-versed in the machinations of the central banking cabal and its grip on the US and Europe. Yet, some inexplicably refuse to entertain the notion that global bankers are also pulling the strings in Russia, playing both sides of the escalating economic war.
Emmanuel Macron has said he would be prepared to send troops to Ukraine if Vladimir Putin’s forces break through the front lines – further raising the risk of NATO forces clashing with Russia’s armies.
“When all government, domestic and foreign, in little as in great things, shall be drawn to Washington as the center of all power, it will render powerless the checks provided of one government on another.” —Thomas Jefferson (1821)
Fellow Patriots, on this day in 1802, the swamp officially became a city as Washington, DC, was incorporated. Congress authorized President George Washington to select a site along the Potomac River to establish the U.S. capital, and he chose what is now DC, just a few miles north of his home at Mount Vernon, Virginia. To plan the city inside the federal district, Washington hired French engineer Pierre L’Enfant. District commissioners named it “Washington” in 1791, and the federal government officially moved there in 1800, though incorporation waited until 1802. In recent decades, the city has once again become a swamp. —Mark Alexander
Combatting bigotry is a great idea, but the best way to do that is with more, not less, free speech.
Nate Jackson
Leftists have been relentlessly assaulting free speech for several years now. In fact, the attack on the First Amendment might be the gravest threat to American Liberty today. So, what did House Republicans do? Pass a bill that stands on shaky ground when it comes to the First Amendment.
Yesterday, the House passed the Antisemitism Awareness Act by a vote of 320-91. Introduced in October by New York Republican Mike Lawler and Florida Democrat Jared Moskowitz, the bill adopts the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) definition of anti-Semitism for the purpose of enforcing federal laws. Anti-Semitism is “a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews,” says the IHRA. “Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.” The State Department also adopted this definition in 2016.
Anti-Semitism is reprehensible, and Jews have greater reason than most people groups for fearing the escalation of such bigotry.
After the genocidal assault perpetrated by Iran-backed Hamas on Israel on October 7, the response on the American Left was often to link rhetorical arms with Hamas, not Israel. This has divided Democrats, and party pooh-bahs are increasingly alarmed by the radical campus protests roiling the nation — protests that are the hate-filled effluent of Marxist indoctrination Democrats ensure fills the nation’s schools. It’s not without reason that many see parallels with 1930s Germany, and it’s easy to see why some folks think there oughtta be a law.
That said, short of taking violent or otherwise criminal action against someone, saying racist or bigoted things is legal in America, as is the counter-speech necessary to fight it.
Even though the stated intent is now to help deal with campus protests, free speech is why the House legislation is problematic. While there are limits to what Americans can say and where we can say it — your employer is not obliged to let you publicly represent the company however you please, and colleges are not required to allow students to occupy, trash, and vandalize property — Congress’s role in restricting speech is and should be very limited.
Especially concerning for at least some of the 21 Republicans who opposed the bill is that the IHRA’s list of “contemporary examples” of anti-Semitism includes “using the symbols and images associated with classic antisemitism (e.g., claims of Jews killing Jesus or blood libel) to characterize Israel or Israelis.” Several of those 21 specifically said anti-Semitism is wrong, but they worry that this bill would open the door to prosecuting Christians for preaching the Gospel because of relevant details about the death of Jesus.
I’m not going to get into the debate over who killed Jesus other than to say that many of the people arguing about it are missing the point of the Gospel. I’ll add that Jesus was Jewish and spent a good bit of his ministry criticizing other Jews.
“We’re not interested in messing with the Gospel, nor does this language do that,” insisted Lawler, who is Catholic. “It’s absurd on its face,” he added, to claim that the bill would criminalize the Gospel. “It’s inflammatory and it’s irrational.”
Actually, with administrations like Joe Biden’s, it’s totally reasonable to fear expansive and terrible interpretations of federal law so as to enable the persecution of political opponents. It’s also a good idea to jealously guard free speech.
As an aside, if criticizing the Israeli government ends up being classified as anti-Semitism, the people most guilty of that are Joe Biden, Chuck Schumer, and a whole heap of other Democrats.
Wyoming Representative Harriet Hageman voted against the bill because it “provides no actual relief for terrorized Jewish students and infringes on the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.” Specifically, she added, “By using the definition of anti-Semitism from a foreign non-governmental organization, the bill attempts to criminalize what someone’s ‘perception’ of another person might be, which is a clear violation of the First Amendment.” Anti-Semitism is “offensive,” she said, but it’s also “constitutionally protected speech.”
We’ve been slower than some to assail House Speaker Mike Johnson, knowing that he has a history of rock-solid conservatism and a tiny and fractious majority with which to work against a Democrat Senate and White House. Our Emmy Griffin tackled Marjorie Taylor Greene’s coup today, and I analyzed Johnson and the GOP herd of cats last week.
But I must say the House bill is perplexing, and Johnson has some explaining to do. “What’s happening on college campuses right now is wrong,” he said Tuesday. “It is un-American.” So is restricting free speech.
The First Amendment considerations are paramount, but there are also political reasons this was a bad idea. It comes as Democrats are tearing themselves apart and panicking that these college protests are helping Donald Trump. The least Republicans could have done would be nothing. Instead, it seems like they grabbed the rope and hung themselves.
Marjorie Taylor Greene is giving the Republicans the weekend to think it over.
Emmy Griffin
The Republicans in the House of Representatives are a fractious lot. They ousted former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (CA) seven months ago, and after a series of moves by the current speaker, Mike Johnson (LA), some Republicans are ready to oust him, too.
This latest endeavor is being led by Marjorie Taylor Greene (GA), who called for a vote to vacate in late March but had yet to pull the trigger. She has been vocally upset after a series of broken promises by Speaker Johnson pushed her to the edge. She isn’t alone. Republicans are frustrated because Johnson has made promises but seems to have underdelivered.
As The Federalist’s Sean Davis opines, perhaps somewhat unfairly: “Mike Johnson responded to FBI corruption by giving them a new HQ, to Biden lawfare by fully funding DOJ, to border insanity by spending billions on migration assistance, to Hamas’s attack on Israel by giving them a $9 billion earmark, and to college communism by enacting speech codes. He is the single most incompetent politician I have ever seen.”
Most of these points hit home. However, it’s also true that Mike Johnson has the challenge of trying to herd a fractious party with only a one-vote majority, and that means wheeling and dealing must be done.
Greene and her Republican supporters Thomas Massie (KY) and Paul Gosar (AZ) are the only ones who have publicly supported an ouster. On Wednesday, Greene and Massie gave a press conference in which they expressed their disappointment in how the speaker is running business. Greene accused Johnson of being the leader of the “uniparty” and sharing the gavel with Democrat Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (NY). That apparently was demonstrated by Johnson putting forth a foreign aid bill in support of Ukraine.
On the flip side, let’s be frank: Greene is a firebrand but also a lawmaker à la AOC that few take seriously. This is partially because she tends to be very theatrical in her presentations and seems only interested in “The MTG Show.” She doesn’t necessarily act in the best interests of conservatives.
Greene and Massie ended their press conference by saying they’d give Republicans the weekend to decide how they were going to vote because Greene is going to push the motion to vacate next week. In the meantime, she encouraged Johnson to resign.
For their part, House Democrats released a statement saying that if the motion to vacate came to the floor, they would join with Republicans to table it and essentially block the effort. Since many Republicans would understandably prefer not to be plunged back into the chaos of having to choose yet another speaker, it’s likely that this intervention by the Democrats will save Johnson, at least for now. Unfortunately, that means Johnson will have to continue relying on Democrats to pass legislation, and they will extract a price for their cooperation.
Johnson responded to the Greene press conference by saying: “I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about her. I got to do my job, and we do the right thing, and we let the chips fall where they may. That is my philosophy. That is how we are governing. … We are going to keep the train on the tracks and show the American people not just what we are against, but what we are for. That there is a conservative agenda that is necessary to get the country back on the right track, and the way for us to do that is to keep and grow the House majority.”
We shall see where the chips fall next week. The chaos and embarrassment of ousting another speaker and stopping the work of the House to elect a new one doesn’t seem like it’s in the best interest of the microscopic Republican majority or the American people, but neither does advancing the Democrats’ agenda without more of a fight.
Biden continues to cement his sorry legacy, Pelosi to get Presidential Medal of Freedom, ObamaCare for Dreamers, and more.
Douglas Andrews, Thomas Gallatin, & Jordan Candler
Cross-Examination
Biden and his fellow BSers: Joe Biden continued to cement his sorry legacy yesterday when he finally got around to saying something about the smelly Jew-hating leftists who have overtaken so many of our, ahem, elite universities and in so doing are damaging the Democrats’ brand — if that’s still possible. “We are not an authoritarian nation where we silence people or squash dissent,” said The Decrepit One from the safety of the White House. “The American people are heard. In fact, peaceful protest is in the best tradition of how Americans respond to consequential issues. But neither are we a lawless country. We’re a civil society and order must prevail.” Order, eh? Like the order that should’ve kept his Red Guards from defiling with Hamas paraphernalia the famous statue of George Washington at his namesake university just a few blocks away? Hey, who needs the National Guard anyway? Certainly not a president desperate to undo the stunning 55-point swing of voters under 30 away from him and toward Donald Trump. Demonstrating that he can ladle BS twice in a single day, Biden also powered through some prepared remarks on our National Day of Prayer. “This year,” he read, “my prayer for our Nation is that we keep faith that our best days are ahead of us and continue to believe in honesty, decency, dignity, and respect.” You first, Mr. President. But Biden wasn’t the only incompetent boob doing damage control. Karine “The Binder” Jean-Pierre was dusting off and trotting out that long-ago-debunked Charlottesville lie as she was fending off questions about leftist anti-Semitism at yesterday’s press briefing: “Let’s not forget in 2017,” she said. “He was very clear what we saw — the anti-Semitic vile that we saw in Charlottesville — on the streets of Charlottesville.” That this administration continues to peddle such a bald-faced lie speaks volumes about its degree of desperation. It’ll say anything because it knows that its low-information voters will believe anything.
Pelosi to get Presidential Medal of Freedom: When Barack Obama “won” his Nobel Peace Prize in 2009 just 11 days before he took office, he hadn’t done a thing to earn it, and it rightly became a running joke. So we’ll say this about the White House ceremony tomorrow at which Joe Biden will give the nation’s highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, to Nancy Pelosi and 18 fellow recipients: At least San Fran Nan earned it. At least she presided over the speakership and wielded that gavel with an iron fist. And at least she kept her fellow Democrats in line for all those ruinous House votes. As The Washington Post reminds us: “The congresswoman from California led House Democrats for two decades and became the first woman elected House Speaker, a position she stepped away from in 2023. Pelosi continues to serve in Congress, where she’s represented a San Francisco-area district for more than 30 years.” Other unworthy honorees include Global Warmist Al Gore, Biden Kingmaker James Clyburn, and Vietnam Fabulist John Kerry. All of this leads us to wonder whether it won’t be long before the Presidential Medal of Freedom is looked upon with the same sort of derision as the Nobel Peace Prize.
ObamaCare for Dreamers: Healthcare is not a right in America because asserting so effectively condones a right to slavery — someone must provide your healthcare — a notion the U.S. officially dispelled over 150 years ago. Yet that hasn’t stopped Democrat politicians, those original defenders of slavery, from conflating the freedom of Americans to seek healthcare with a right to receive healthcare. However, since the disastrous passage of ObamaCare, the Democrats have successively sought to expand this usurpation of Americans’ freedom by playing up the false notion of a “right to healthcare.” On Thursday, the Biden administration announced it was pushing the Liberty-infringing ObamaCare even further, expanding it to include noncitizens. Now, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients, also known as Dreamers, will be eligible to enroll in ObamaCare. Biden’s Domestic Policy Council Director Neera Tanden explained, “This final rule also reflects the president’s belief that health care is a right not a privilege for all Americans, that it should extend to DACA recipients just like the rest of us.” This move is an effort to make it even harder to get rid of DACA, as the U.S. Supreme Court will likely weigh in on its legality. By tying in ObamaCare, which only survived SCOTUS thanks to Chief Justice John Roberts dubiously turning it into a tax law, the Biden administration is banking on protecting DACA from elimination.
Now they tell us: 13 vulnerable House Dems join GOP to condemn Biden: It’s funny, not funny, the lengths to which members of Congress will go to hang onto power. When they see an election looming, and they see that red career-dissipation light a-flashing, they tend to resort to all manner of truth-telling at the expense of their own party. A case in point came this week, as The Daily Caller tells us: “A slate of House Democrats in mostly competitive districts have signed their names onto a resolution that explicitly condemns the Biden administration’s immigration agenda. Thirteen House Democrats joined with Republicans in backing H. Res. 1112, a resolution that denounces President Joe Biden’s and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas’ immigration policies. The resolution passed the House chamber on Wednesday by a vote of 223-191, highlighting the growing bipartisan concern over the border crisis.” The language of the admittedly toothless resolution didn’t mince words: “Whereas President Joe Biden and Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas have created the worst border security crisis in the Nation’s history,” the resolution reads. “Whereas President Biden, beginning on day one of his administration, systematically dismantled effective border security measures and interior immigration enforcement.” Hey, who can disagree with that assessment? Certainly not a Democrat up for reelection in a narrowly divided district.
Iranian college offers free tuition to anti-Semitic protesters: Impressed with the anti-Israel protesters rabble-rousing on university campuses across the U.S., Shiraz University in Iran has an offer for these anti-Semitic students — free tuition. The head of the Iranian university, Mohammad Moazzeni, recently said, “Students and even professors who have been expelled or threatened with expulsion can continue their studies at Shiraz University, and I think that other universities in Shiraz, as well as Fars province, are also prepared [to provide the conditions].” A professor at the University of Tehran, Foad Izadi, was excited by the anti-Israel protests and expressed similar sentiments, calling protesters “our people.” He added, “And if tensions between America and Iran rise tomorrow or the day after, these are the people who will have to take to the streets to support Iran.” He also claimed, “Our Hezbollah-style groups in America are much larger than what we have in Lebanon.”
California’s EV-only future imposes big grid cost: A recently released study from the University of California, Berkeley has concluded that it would cost upwards of $20 billion for California to upgrade its electrical grid to meet its goal of an all-electric vehicle future by 2045. This study only focused on the state’s mass adaptation of EVs and the resulting increased demand on the grid. It did not take into consideration California’s other electrification rules aimed at making all household appliances electric as well. In other words, this study just focused on the grid cost for EVs in every driveway. Currently, only residents in Hawaii pay more for their electric bill than Californians, but that will likely change with the Golden State’s push for an all-electric future. Is it any wonder people are fleeing the state?
NJ Nissan workers decertify the UAW: Just over a week ago, the president of the United Auto Workers, Shawn Fain, was celebrating a unionization victory at the Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The Leftmedia treated it as big news and a potential bellwether of unionization spreading across the Deep South. However, up in Somerset, New Jersey, workers at the Nissan facility were preparing to cast their vote in response to a petition to decertify from the UAW. That vote happened last week and the result wasn’t even close, as 37 of the facility’s 60 employees voted to leave the union with just 17 votes to remain. While the scale of the loss isn’t nearly as large as the UAW’s win in Chattanooga, it does represent a continuing losing trend for unions across the country. Last year alone, unions lost 110 decertification elections to 65 wins. In an effort to stop the union bleeding, the Biden administration has sought to eliminate the secret ballot in decertification elections, a move that gives union bosses the names of workers who oppose them.
That’s the Spirit: Ole Miss students drown out filthy leftist rabble: Let’s end another Bidenesque week of “America Held Hostage” with some good ol’ American Spirit, shall we? Nearly all of the campus tumult in the past two weeks has taken place north of the Mason-Dixon Line. But that doesn’t mean that the southern campus of the University of Mississippi was safe from the Soros-funded, Jew-hating, pro-Hamas hooligans who’ve been running roughshod over our nation’s institutions of lower learning. Sure enough, there they were, a handful of protesters carrying large Palestinian flags and shouting anti-Israel and pro-Hamas ditties. And sure enough, a group of far more decent and patriotic students launched a counterprotest, complete with a high-volume singing of our national anthem. “I am aware of today’s scheduled protest on the campus of Ole Miss,” said Republican Governor Tate Reeves. “Mississippi law enforcement is also aware. And they are prepared,” he added. “Campus police, City, County, and State assets are being deployed and coordinated. We will offer a unified response with one mission: Peaceful protests are allowed and protected — no matter how outrageous those protesters’ views may seem to some of us. But unlawful behavior will not be tolerated. It will be dealt with accordingly. Law and order will be maintained!” Let that be a lesson to ‘em.
Headlines
U.S. job growth totaled 175,000 in April, much less than expected, while unemployment rose to 3.9% (CNBC)
Biden again pledges gun control in second term and calls idea “tree of liberty is watered with the blood of patriots and tyrants” a “bunch of crap” (TTAG)
DOJ official Kristen Clarke comes clean after falsely testifying to Senate that she had never been arrested (NY Post)
Newly released emails show that a Biden administration government agency shipped pallets of documents to Mar-a-Lago a year before it was raided.
Douglas Andrews
It’s hard to know whether there’s any there there, but it doesn’t do anything to convince fair-minded Americans that the Biden administration has been an innocent bystander in the prosecutorial targeting of Donald Trump.
We’re referring to new revelations that the federal government’s General Services Administration worked with Trump’s transition team to ship two pallets of boxed documents accumulated during Trump’s term in office to his Mar-a-Lago home a year before Special Persecutor Jack Smith raided the residence in his search for classified documents with which to indict Trump.
Show us the man and you’ll show us the crime, right Jack?
“So an entire pallet full of boxes that had been held by GSA somewhere outside of DC is dumped at Mar-a-Lago. Apparently these are the boxes that ended up containing papers with ‘classified markings.’” So said the intrepid Julie Kelly, who ever since January 6, 2021, has boldly gone where no other journalist has dared. “WELL WELL WELL,” she added with more than a hint of snark, “I am pretty sure we never heard this part of the ‘classified documents/box’ story! … I am sure NOTHING hanky happened there.”
Kelly has since laid out what we now know about the documents in a RealClearInvestigations piece. She writes, “Top Biden administration officials worked with the National Archives to develop Special Counsel Jack Smith’s case against Donald Trump involving the former president’s alleged mishandling of classified material, according to recently unsealed court documents in the case pending in southern Florida.”
The heretofore hidden revelation came earlier this week in Florida, where, as PJ Media’s Matt Margolis reports, “Judge Aileen Cannon unsealed a trove of new documents that Jack Smith fought to keep hidden.”
Perhaps we’re being unfair to Smith. After all, it’s not like he has a history of deeply troubling and unscrupulous prosecutorial behavior. Oh, wait. Apparently, the unsealed items included lots of exhibits, motions, and other filings that show the communication collusion between Joe Biden’s White House and the National Archives prior to the raid on Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate and his subsequent indictment.
“I understand that we are ready to ship,” reads an email sent on August 26, 2021, by Kathy Geisler, the director of the Office of Portfolio Management and Real Estate’s Program Execution Division. One of the recipients of that email was Beau Harrison, a Trump aide. “I know that originally we had 3 pallets going to the storage unit — that is now 4 pallets going to the storage unit. 2 Pallets will go to Mar-a-Lago.”
What’s unclear is how long these pallets were in storage in the Virginia facility or how secure they were. Were the documents tightly guarded, or might just anyone have had access to them?
The Federalist asked the National Archives and Records Administration the obvious question: whether these particular pallets included the documents that were later confiscated by Smith and his team of Mar-a-Lago raiders. The agency said it had “no awareness about the contents of the materials on the pallets and had no involvement in the move project that is referenced in the GSA emails.”
But, as Kelly added, NARA “was harassing Trump throughout 2021 for what they insisted were government records apparently WITHOUT contacting GSA to search dozens of boxes in their possession.”
Of course, this revelation doesn’t deal a mortal blow to the prosecution’s case — at least not yet. Nor is this to say that Team Brandon planted evidence at Mar-a-Lago. But would any sentient being be slack-jawed and gobsmacked to learn that they did? In any case, we suspect that at least one potential Florida juror will have taken note of it.
The Washington Post’s Philip Bump dutifully came to Joe Biden’s defense, attacking Julie Kelly and telling everyone to movealongnothingtoseehere: “There’s no smoking gun related to the material shipped from Trump’s Crystal City office to Mar-a-Lago. It’s just another unverified rumor that coursed through the right-wing narrative universe before reality could catch up.”
Kelly never claimed these new revelations were “a smoking gun.” All she did was help raise awareness of the heretofore unreported shipment of a massive trove of documents from a Biden-controlled government agency to Donald Trump’s private residence.
Bump whines about an “unverified rumor,” but he acts as if there’s no precedent for illegal behavior on behalf of the government in order to target Donald Trump. Perhaps Bump never read the devastating Durham Report. And perhaps he’s just blissfully ignorant about the mainstream media’s role in spreading fake news on behalf of the Obama and Biden administrations.
As we’ve noted before, of the 91 felony charges heaped upon Trump, the documents charges are the most perilous legal threat he faces. Which is precisely why the chain of custody, and all the other elements of this case, deserve our scrutiny.
Thoughtful and fair-minded Americans have every right to be suspicious of the government when we learn about its lack of transparency. When it comes to Donald Trump, they haven’t exactly earned the benefit of the doubt.
In any case, the goings-on in the Trump classified documents case — and, indeed, all the lesser “ham sandwich” offenses he’s being charged with elsewhere — continue to highlight the two-tiered difference between how Joe Biden has been treated and how Trump is being treated.
And they might lend themselves to a campaign bumper sticker: Trump 2024: At least he’s competent to stand trial.
As birth rates across the West are declining, conservatives know there’s a simple solution.
Brian Mark Weber
From rampant inflation to campus riots to yet another trial for Donald Trump, there’s no lack of news headlines these days. While the 24/7 news cycle captures just about everything happening in major cities and small towns alike, some of the biggest stories are ignored.
One of these stories is the declining birth rate in the West.
It’s as though an asteroid were moving toward Earth but isn’t expected to hit for another 50 or 100 years. If it doesn’t affect people in the here and now, it’s just not our concern, right?
But this one threatens the very existence of our civilization. Some even call it a public health emergency.
“The really extraordinary thing about the field of public health isn’t the epidemics they fixate on,” The Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh writes. “It’s the ones they ignore. In particular, there is one ongoing public health crisis that these experts really don’t want to talk about — even though, if it continues for much longer, it will quite literally bring about the end of humanity.”
Birth rates are not something we regularly think about. In fact, public schools teach that there are too many people in the world. And when we look around, society seems to be thriving. But we’re closer to the brink than we might realize. Walsh adds, “Right now, Russia, China, Hungary, Poland, Turkey, Ireland, Switzerland, Greece, Denmark, Australia, Canada, Qatar, the UAE, South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Singapore, the UK, Germany, and the United States — and many others — have birth rates that are well below replacement level.”
It seems to be a cycle throughout world history. As societies become more prosperous and creature comforts more accessible, people are more interested in having fun than passing on the gift of life to the next generation. Consequently, millions of young couples today have decided against starting a family, while others abort babies who might get in the way of their backpacking trip across Europe or who are otherwise just too expensive or inconvenient.
Some progressives like to pretend they’re mothers and fathers, though. Those who have pets call themselves cat dads or dog moms. And while raising a pet is a fine endeavor, it’s nothing like the hard work and incredible joy that having real children brings — not to mention many other benefits.
And like everything else these days, having kids is now being politicized. As part of its anti-family, anti-child agenda, the Left wants you to think the desire to have children is — wait for it! — racist.
In response to the recent Natal Conference held in Texas, Gaby Del Valle of Politico sounded the alarm with an article titled, “The Far Right’s Campaign to Explode the Population.”
“The mission is to build an army of like-minded people, starting with their own children, who will reject a whole host of changes wrought by liberal democracy and who, perhaps one day, will amount to a population large enough to effect more lasting change,” Del Valle writes. “This conference suggests there’s a simple way around the problem of majority rule: breeding a new majority — one that looks and sounds just like them.”
In other words, if you’re conservative and want to have kids, your real agenda is to create a supermajority in the future. Welcome to identity politics. These are some of the same people who’ve been bragging about non-whites becoming a minority in just a few years.
We know journalism has hit a new low when an article that seems like an Onion piece is published on a so-called mainstream news website.
As Peter Heck writes: “It’s tough to avoid commenting every day on just how terrible the media in this country has become. Obviously, over the course of the last week, we’ve all seen in real time what so many of our ‘institutions of higher learning’ have become — woke cesspools of shallow thinking and morally stunted, impassioned activism. So maybe it comes as no surprise what those fool factories are producing from their journalism departments.”
There is no lack of readers interested in these articles. For decades, we’ve inculcated our young people with the idea that for reasons ranging from the environment to warfare to famine, we need to end the human threat to the planet. There’s even a movement dedicated to voluntary human extinction.
In 2022, an ABC News/Ipsos poll revealed that nearly a quarter of young Americans are reconsidering having children because they fear it could increase the impact of climate change. Meanwhile, Third World countries are populating at a fast clip, and many of their people are pouring into developed countries — like ours. Some of them may not know the luxury of running water, but they know that having children is the only way to grow a civilization. The problem is that their kids may see the end of this one.
Perhaps it’s too late to stave off the fall of the West, but we can and should keep working to change our culture to one that values life, teaches our young people the joys and necessities of family life in a thriving society, and ends this nonsensical notion that having kids is a right-wing attempt to take over the world.
It may not be all that unfortunate that much of higher education is going the way of malls, movie theaters, and CDs.
Victor Davis Hanson
Elite higher education in America — long unquestioned as globally preeminent — is facing a perfect storm.
Fewer applicants, higher costs, impoverished students, collapsing standards, and increasingly politicized and mediocre faculty reflect a collapse of the university system.
The country is waking up to the reality that a bachelor’s degree no longer equates with graduates being broadly educated and analytical. Just as often, they are stereotyped as pampered, largely ignorant, and gratuitously opinionated.
No wonder polls show a drastic loss of public respect for higher education and, specifically, a growing lack of confidence in the professoriate.
Each year, there are far fewer students entering college. Despite a U.S. population 40 million larger than 20 years ago, fertility rates have fallen in two decades by some 500,000 births per year.
Meanwhile, from 1980 to 2020, room, board, and tuition increased by 170 percent.
Skyrocketing costs cannot be explained by inflation alone, given that campuses have lightened faculty teaching loads while expanding administrative staff. At Stanford, there is nearly one staffer or administrative position for every student on campus.
At the same time, to vie for a shrinking number of students, colleges began offering costly in loco parentis counseling, Club Med-style dorms and accommodations, and extracurricular activities.
As applicants grew scarcer and expenses went up, universities began offering “full-service” student-aid packages, heavily reliant on government-subsidized student loans. The collective indebtedness of over 40 million student borrowers is nearing $2 trillion.
Worse still, an entire new array of therapeutic majors and minors appeared in the social sciences. Most of these gender/race/environmental courses did not emphasize analytical, mathematical, or oral and written skills. Such course work did not impress employers.
Faculty hiring had become increasingly non-meritocratic based on diversity/equity/inclusion criteria. New faculty hires have sought to institutionalize self-serving DEI and recalibrate higher education to prepare a new generation for self-perpetuating radical ideologies.
At the more elite campuses, racial quotas vastly curtailed the number of Asian and white students. But that racialist social engineering project required dropping the SAT requirement and comparative ranking of high school grade point averages.
As less well-prepared students entered college, faculty either inflated grades (80% are A/A- now at Yale), watered down their course requirements, or added new soft-ball classes. To do otherwise while attempting to retain old standards earned targeted faculty charges of racism and worse.
Another way to square the circle of rising costs and fewer and poorer students was to attract foreign students. They pay the full costs of college, especially those on generous stipends from the Middle East and China. Nearly a million foreign nationals, the majority from illiberal regimes, are now here on full scholarships.
While here, many see their newfound freedoms as invitations to attack America. Once here, they too often romanticize the very autocratic governments and illiberal values of their homelands that they seemingly sought to escape by coming to America.
Most foreign students assume they are exempt from the consequences of violating campus rules or laws in general. After all, they pay the full cost of their education and thus partially subsidize those who do not.
Almost half of all those enrolled in college never graduate. Those who do, on average, require six years to do so.
All these realities explain why teenagers increasingly opt for trade schools, vocational education, and community colleges. They prefer to enter the work force largely debt-free and in demand as skilled, sought-after tradespeople.
Most feel that if the old general education curriculum has been destroyed at weaponized universities, then there is no great loss in skipping the traditional BA degree. A far better selection of demanding and well-taught classes can be found online at a lower cost.
The result is a disaster for both higher education and a wake-up call for the country at large.
Entire generations are now suffering from prolonged adolescence as they drag out college to consume their early and mid-twenties. The unfortunate result for the country is a radical delay in marriage, childbearing, and home ownership — all the time-honored catalysts for adulthood and the responsibilities that come with it.
Politicized faculty, infantilized students, and mediocre classes have combined to erode the prestige of college degrees, even at once elite colleges. A degree from Columbia no longer guarantees either maturity or preeminent knowledge but is just as likely a warning to employers of a noisy, poorly educated graduate more eager to complain to Human Resources than to enhance a company’s productivity.
Yet it may not be all that unfortunate that much of higher education is going the way of malls, movie theaters, and CDs. The country needs far more skilled physical labor and less prolonged adolescence and debt.
STEM courses, professional schools, and traditional campuses are better insulated from mediocrity and should survive. Otherwise, millions more starting adulthood at 18 debt-free and fewer encumbered, ignorant, and entitled at 25 is not a bad thing for the country.
DA Chased by Police, Refuses to Stop and Flashes Badge — An upstate New York district attorney refused to stop when she was caught speeding and instead drove back to her house and called the police chief to complain about the “a—hole” officer who pursued her.
‘Did I Read That Correctly?’ — Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) clashes with witness Dr. Geoffrey Supran about his past tweets related to a radical climate alarmist group.
‘It’s a Great Thing It’s Burning to the Ground’ — Dr. Peter Boghossian, a philosopher and former professor, addresses what’s going on with protests taking over universities, how we got here, and what can be done to bring education back from its abysmal state.
“I think Republicans are trying to weaponize anti-Semitism.” —Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal (D-WA)
“People understand that ‘occupying buildings on campus’ is, like, one of the most common forms of studen[t] protest for decades and not some devious new ploy devised by professional anarchist plotters, right?” —MSNBC’s Chris Hayes
Blind Squirrels Find a Nut
“I’ll echo the horror that this does look like January 6th. What a terrible example for our students.” —MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski
“How do the Democrats, how do all of us on that side, say January 6th was wrong if you can have the same pictures going on on college campuses? You lose the moral high ground.” —MSNBC’s Al Sharpton
“They’ve become the cause. It’s about them. It is not about pushing the cause.” —Al Sharpton
“Who would take over our buildings and put another flag up? That may be fine to other people but it’s not to me. My uncle died defending this country. And these men and women put their lives on the line. And it’s despicable that schools will allow another country’s flag to fly in our country.” —New York City Mayor Eric Adams
For the Record
“This is not complicated. Hamas committed the worst attack against Jews since the Holocaust. Hamas still has hostages, including five Americans. For defending itself and for going after an enemy that imbeds itself with civilians, Israel stands accused of ‘genocide.’” —Larry Elder
“The FBI director said that he worries about the Right. Don’t worry about the Right. The Right’s fine. Worry about the Left, because this is a movement from the Left. These are radical-left lunatics, and they’ve got to be stopped now, because it’s going to go on and on, and it’s going to get worse and worse.” —Donald Trump
“People who won’t condemn a terror group or the horrific pogrom it carried out on Oct. 7, who never demand that Hamas release its hostages, who single out for condemnation a democratic society beset by profoundly illiberal forces all around it, are presuming to lecture everyone else about ‘complicity.’ To the extent that they really are engaged in a great moral struggle, they are on the wrong side.” —Rich Lowry
“I will pay for any gay or trans anti-Israel protesters on campus to travel to Gaza and march for gay and trans rights there. I’ll rent out a plane, fly there and accompany you on a bus to the border of Gaza. I’m sure your arguments for tolerance will be well received there.” —Clay Travis
“Here’s an idea: Let’s exchange 50 pro-Hamas students for every Israeli hostage. Everybody wins. It will get the hostages out, it will be good for Israel, and it will be very educational for the students. What’s not to like?” —Gary Bauer
Can’t Fix Stupid
“CBS News reports that the Biden administration is putting together a plan to bring 150,000 Gazans as ‘refugees’ into our country. … The people of Gaza voted for Hamas, and they still overwhelmingly support Hamas, which is one reason why no Arab country will take them. They don’t want any more terrorist sympathizers. In addition, there is no reliable way to ‘vet’ people coming from Gaza. But Joe Biden and Kamala Harris think this is a really good idea. They are out of their minds!” —Gary Bauer
The BIG Lie
“I will always defend free speech. And I will always be just as strong in standing up for the rule of law.” —Joe Biden
With Friends Like These…
“Why is Japan having trouble? … Because they’re xenophobic. They don’t want immigrants.” —Joe Biden
And Last…
“We desperately need a new birth of education. … Self-government without education and critical thinking is a fantasy.” —Armstrong Williams
Elite higher education in America — long unquestioned as globally preeminent — is facing a perfect storm.
Fewer applicants, higher costs, impoverished students, collapsing standards and increasingly politicized and mediocre faculty reflect a collapse of the university system.
The country is waking up to the reality that a bachelor’s degree no longer equates with graduates being broadly educated and analytical. Just as often, they are stereotyped as pampered, largely ignorant and gratuitously opinionated.
No wonder polls show a drastic loss of public respect for higher education and, specifically, a growing lack of confidence in the professoriate.
Each year, there are far fewer students entering college. Despite a U.S. population 40 million larger than 20 years ago, fertility rates have fallen in two decades by some 500,000 births per year.
Meanwhile, from 1980 to 2020, room, board and tuition increased by 170 percent.
Skyrocketing costs cannot be explained by inflation alone, given that campuses have lightened faculty teaching loads while expanding administrative staff. At Stanford, there is nearly one staffer or administrative position for every student on campus.
At the same time, to vie for a shrinking number of students, colleges began offering costly in loco parentis counseling, Club Med-style dorms and accommodations and extracurricular activities.
As applicants grew scarcer and expenses went up, universities began offering “full-service” student-aid packages, heavily reliant on government-subsidized student loans. The collective indebtedness of over 40 million student borrowers is nearing $2 trillion.
Worse still, an entire new array of therapeutic majors and minors appeared in the social sciences. Most of these gender/race/environmental courses did not emphasize analytical, mathematical or oral and written skills. Such course work did not impress employers.
Faculty hiring had become increasingly non-meritocratic based on diversity/equity/inclusion criteria. New faculty hires have sought to institutionalize self-serving DEI and recalibrate higher education to prepare a new generation for self-perpetuating radical ideologies.
At the more elite campuses, racial quotas vastly curtailed the number of Asian and white students. But that racialist social engineering project required dropping the SAT requirement and comparative ranking of high school grade point averages.
As less well-prepared students entered college, faculty either inflated grades (80% are A/A- now at Yale), watered down their course requirements or added new soft-ball classes. To do otherwise while attempting to retain old standards earned targeted faculty charges of racism and worse.
Another way to square the circle of rising costs and fewer and poorer students was to attract foreign students. They pay the full costs of college, especially those on generous stipends from the Middle East and China. Nearly a million foreign nationals, the majority from illiberal regimes, are now here on full scholarships.
While here, many see their newfound freedoms as invitations to attack America. Once here, they too often romanticize the very autocratic governments and illiberal values of their homelands that they seemingly sought to escape by coming to America.
Most foreign students assume they are exempt from the consequences of violating campus rules or laws in general. After all, they pay the full cost of their education and thus partially subsidize those who do not.
Almost half of all those enrolled in college never graduate. Those who do, on average, require six years to do so.
All these realities explain why teenagers increasingly opt for trade schools, vocational education and community colleges. They prefer to enter the work force largely debt-free and in demand as skilled, sought-after tradespeople.
Most feel that if the old general education curriculum has been destroyed at weaponized universities, then there is no great loss in skipping the traditional BA degree. A far better selection of demanding and well-taught classes can be found online at a lower cost.
The result is a disaster for both higher education and a wake-up call for the country at large.
Entire generations are now suffering from prolonged adolescence as they drag out college to consume their early and mid-twenties. The unfortunate result for the country is a radical delay in marriage, childbearing and home ownership — all the time-honored catalysts for adulthood and the responsibilities that come with it.
Politicized faculty, infantilized students and mediocre classes have combined to erode the prestige of college degrees, even at once elite colleges. A degree from Columbia no longer guarantees either maturity or preeminent knowledge but is just as likely a warning to employers of a noisy, poorly educated graduate more eager to complain to Human Resources than to enhance a company’s productivity.
Yet it may not be all that unfortunate that much of higher education is going the way of malls, movie theaters and CDs. The country needs far more skilled physical labor and less prolonged adolescence and debt.
STEM courses, professional schools and traditional campuses are better insulated from mediocrity and should survive. Otherwise, millions more starting adulthood at 18 debt-free and fewer encumbered, ignorant and entitled at 25 is not a bad thing for the country.
Victor Davis Hanson is a distinguished fellow of the Center for American Greatness. He is a classicist and historian at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, and the author of “The Second World Wars: How the First Global Conflict Was Fought and Won,” from Basic Books. You can reach him by e-mailing authorvdh@gmail.com.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller.
Ukrainian military losses since the beginning of the year have surpassed 111,000 troops, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said on Friday, as he shared Moscow’s latest estimates from the conflict.
Russian forces“continue to break up”Ukrainian defensive positions along the entire front line, the senior official reported during a ministerial meeting. Russia’s territorial gains this year have amounted to 547 sq km, he added.
Shoigu accused the US and its allies of pressuring Kiev into disregarding the cost of continued fighting. As a result, Ukraine suffered 1,000 casualties daily throughout April, the minister claimed.
Kiev has ramped up its mobilization efforts due to high attrition, Shoigu added, claiming that Ukrainians unwilling to fight“are being forced to the front line” and certain death. The Russian defense chief accused the leadership in Kiev of sacrificing citizens for the sake of continued Western financial and military assistance.
In addition to inflicting significant casualties, Russian forces have also destroyed some 21,000 heavy weapons operated by Ukrainian forces, Shoigu stated.
In April, Shoigu estimated Ukrainian casualties as approaching 500,000 since the hostilities with Russia started in February 2022.
Earlier this year, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky signed into law a radical reform of military service, which includes harsher punishments for draft dodgers and facilitates the work of conscription officers.
The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry has since suspended consular services for military-age men residing in foreign countries, stating that anyone avoiding mobilization does not deserve them. Kiev is also seeking assistance from Western nations in its attempts to force potential conscripts to return.
The country’s border service said last month that since February 2022, some 30 Ukrainian citizens have died while trying to illegally flee to other nations.
Joe Rogan recently had Tulsi Gabbard on his podcast and part of their discussion was about the madness we are seeing on college campuses today.
Rogan pointed out that many colleges and universities have become little more than progressive indoctrination centers and referred to them as ‘cult camps.’
He also pointed out that the ideology these students are getting from these schools is spreading out and infiltrating nearly every aspect of our lives.
JOE ROGAN: With the open borders, you have all these people funneling into the country and then you have an erosion of confidence in our entire system because people are very aware of that. The more people are let out of jail after committing violent crimes, the more people who are aware of that. If you look at the whole picture that is in play now, particularly with the open borders and giving people plane tickets and flying them to all these different cities.
If I was going to try to destroy the country, that’s how I would do it. If I was going to try to destroy the country, I would radicalize the kids, give them the stupidest ideas, and run them in their head. Boys can be girls. Girls can be boys. Boys can compete against girls in sports if they think they are a girl. “Queers for Palestine.” Death to the Jews. Yell it out, unironically on campuses.
Have the presidents of those colleges and universities defend it, which was wild, with cameras on them!…
It shows how they live in a bubble and don’t interact with the real world, and when they did thew shock was probably horrifying to realize how most people feel about what they said. “It’s not harassment unless it’s actionable?” Like, what are you saying? You’re saying you have to kill Jews and then it is harassment? Isn’t that a little late?…
I think we are sending our kids to cult camps. They get indoctrinated into this… That’s supposed to be Harvard? That’s supposed to be the smartest people amongst us?
Watch the video below:
🚨NEW: Joe Rogan says if he wanted to destroy America, he would open the border, indoctrinate children into woke ideologies on college campuses, and promote radical gender ideologies.
"With the open borders and giving these people plane tickets and flying them to all these… pic.twitter.com/haEKp22bsg
In this irregular series on resistance theory, I now turn to the French/Swiss reformer John Calvin (1509-1564). Resistance theory has to do with political, ecclesiastical and theological questions about whether resistance to the state is ever justified. Calvin dealt with this matter in various ways, as did most of the Reformers.
Timeline
1509 Born in France. 1523 Calvin goes to Paris to study. 1527 Conversion to reformed thought. 1536 Settles in Geneva. 1536 First edition of the Institutes. 1538-1541 Away from Geneva. 1955 Calvin fully leads the church in Geneva. 1559 Final edition of Institutes is published. 1564 Dies in Geneva, just 54 years old.
Calvin deals with these matters in some of his sermons and commentaries of his later years, but a main place to begin of course is with his Institutes of the Christian Religion. The short final chapter (chapter 20 of the last of his 4 books) deals with civil government. In 27 pages he lays out his position on the purposes of civil government, on conducting war, and if and when resistance can occur.
In section 1 he says this: “[O]n the one hand, frantic and barbarous men are furiously endeavouring to overturn the order established by God, and, on the other, the flatterers of princes, extolling their power without measure, hesitate not to oppose it to the government of God. Unless we meet both extremes, the purity of the faith will perish.”
And the very last sections (31 and 32) speak to this more fully. Like other reformers, he thought that private citizens should not be taking up arms in resistance to ungodly rulers, but other magistrates could. He states:
We are subject to the men who rule over us, but subject only in the Lord. If they command anything against Him let us not pay the least regard to it, nor be moved by all the dignity which they possess as magistrates – a dignity to which no injury is done when it is subordinated to the special and truly supreme power of God. On this ground Daniel denies that he had sinned in any respect against the king when he refused to obey his impious decree (Dan. vi. 22), because the king had exceeded his limits, and not only been injurious to men, but, by raising his horn against God, had virtually abrogated his own power. On the other hand, the Israelites are condemned for having too readily obeyed the impious edict of the king. For, when Jeroboam made the golden calf, they forsook the temple of God, and, in submissiveness to him, revolted to the new superstitions (1 Kings xii. 28). With the same facility posterity had bowed before the decrees of their kings. For this they are severely upbraided by the Prophet (Hosea v. 11). So far is the praise of modesty from being due to that pretence by which flattering courtiers cloak themselves, and deceive the simple, when they deny the lawfulness of declining anything imposed by their kings, as if the Lord had resigned his own rights to mortals by appointing them to rule over their fellows, or as if earthly power were diminished when it is subjected to its author, before whom even the principalities of heaven tremble as suppliants. I know the imminent peril to which subjects expose themselves by this firmness, kings being most indignant when they are contemned. As Solomon says, “The wrath of a king is as messengers of death” (Prov. xvi. 14). But since Peter, one of heaven’s heralds, has published the edict “We ought to obey God rather than men” (Acts v. 29), let us console ourselves with the thought, that we are rendering the obedience which the Lord requires, when we endure anything rather than turn aside from piety. And that our courage may not fail, Paul stimulates us by the additional consideration (1 Cor. vii. 23), that we were redeemed by Christ at the great price which our redemption cost him, in order that we might not yield a slavish obedience to the depraved wishes of men, far less do homage to their impiety.
In this he does not sound much different than Luther and others. But as mentioned, he does speak more to this elsewhere. Part of the backdrop to Calvin’s thinking on these matters had to do with the oppression of Protestants (the Huguenots) that was taking place in France. He wrote to them offering counsel and comfort. When his Institutes were translated into French in 1541, that helped to consolidate the thinking and activities of the Protestants there. So too did his lectures on Daniel, published in 1561.
On this matter of the Huguenots, let me offer some commentary by Alister McGrath:
Throughout the 1550s, as Calvinist influence in France grew steadily more significant, French Calvinist political agitation increasingly focused on religious toleration. There was, it was suggested, no fundamental contradiction between being a Calvinist and being French; to be a Frenchman and a Calvinist (or a Huguenot, for the terms are more or less interchangeable) implied no disloyalty to the French crown. The logic and persuasiveness of this position, which commended it to Calvin among others, were shattered in May 1560 through the Conspiracy of Amboise, in which an attempt was made, apparently aided and abetted by a number of Calvinist pastors (to Calvin’s irritation), to kidnap Francis II. It was, however, the St Bartholomew’s Day massacre (1572) that precipitated a radical shift in French Calvinist political thinking.
The emergence of monarchomachs — people who wished to place severe restrictions upon the rights of kings and to uphold the duty (not merely the right) of the people to resist tyrannical monarchs ~ was a direct response to the atmosphere of shock which persisted in the aftermath of the 1572 massacre. In 1559, Calvin — perhaps beginning to recognize the practical and political importance of the question ~ had conceded that rulers might exceed the bounds of their authority by setting themselves against God; by doing this, he suggested, they had abrogated their own power. (1988, pp. 261-262)
Calvin’s Political Theology and the Public Engagement of the Church: Christ’s Two Kingdoms (Law and Christianity) by Tuininga, Matthew J. (Author)
Calvin’s fuller influence after he died, not only in France but in other countries will have to be the stuff of future articles. But here I can offer some further expert commentary on Calvin’s thought in this area. Let me begin with Matthew Tuininga’s important work, Calvin’s Political Theology and the Public Engagement of the Church: Christ’s Two Kingdoms. I offer a few snippets from his section on “Theories of Resistance”. He writes:
Calvin is not saying … as some scholars have claimed, that magistrates who rise up against God forfeit their office entirely. He is not saying that usurpation of God’s throne is a legitimate cause for full scale rebellion. The point, rather, is that with respect to the case at hand the magistrate has laid aside his authority and may justly be defied.
In such circumstances, subjects are implicated in the impiety of their magistrates if they do not disobey them. In his commentary on Hosea, Calvin explains that the Israelites could not shift the blame for their idolatry to the rulers who had led them in it. “The people might indeed have appeared to be excusable since religion had not been changed by their voice, or by public consent, or by any contrivance of the many, but by the tyrannical will of the king alone,” but “the prophet shows that all were implicated in the same guilt before God because the people adopted with alacrity the impious forms of worship which the king had commanded.” The Protestants in France faced a similar temptation….
Calvin believed subjects have the obligation to criticize and disobey their magistrates when they violate justice, not only when they violate piety. For example, he praises the midwives who defied Pharaoh’s decrees to kill the male Hebrew children. While Calvin does not believe the midwives should have lied, he endorses their refusal to cooperate with injustice….
When a person acts unjustly, it is not a valid excuse that the unjust action has been commanded by a magistrate. Obedience to such unjust laws is “criminal obedience. These are pregnant words and potentially inflammatory in a revolutionary setting, but it is crucial to interpret them within the parameters of Calvin’s broader political theology. All people are called to disobey and resist unjust laws, but each person is to do so in a way appropriate to her vocation. (pp. 348-349)
He continues:
Here the two kingdoms distinction explicitly informs Calvin’s approach to the question of violence. Christians are called to take up their cross and follow Christ, but just as Christian liberty does not destroy the legitimate authority of the political order, so the call to bear the cross does not nullify the legitimate vocational and civil prerogatives of the political order. It always remains within the prerogative of political officials to resist tyranny to the extent permitted by their vocations (4.20.31).
Calvin did not claim that resistance on the part of lesser magistrates could only take place when God’s law is at stake rather than constitutional or secular concerns. On the contrary, he justified the Huguenot cause in the first war of religion on definitively constitutional grounds. Furthermore, he praised constitutional structures that make rulers accountable to their subjects, and his very emphasis on the magisterial vocation implies a reliance on constitutional considerations. Nor did Calvin forbid lesser magistrates from practicing active resistance to tyranny, as his defense of the Huguenot cause demonstrates. Most scholars agree that Calvin affirmed a right of passive resistance on the part of private individuals and a right of active resistance on the part of lesser magistrates. This is true even though Calvin’s theory of active resistance was much less defined and his personal proclivities were much more restrained than were the theories of later Calvinist writers. (pp. 350-351)
Another quite important book on all this is by John Witte: The Reformation of Rights:Law, Religion, and Human Rights in Early Modern Calvinism (Cambridge University Press, 2007). It is an invaluable historical and theological look at things like resistance theory and how it has led to our modern notions of religious freedom and the like. For example, he compares Calvin with Luther on the place of the state:
Calvin charted a course between the Erastianism of Lutherans that subordinated the church to the state, and the asceticism of Anabaptists that withdrew the church from the state and society. Like Lutherans, Calvin and his followers insisted that each local polity be an overtly Christian commonwealth that adhered to the general principles of natural law and that translated them into detailed positive laws of religious worship, Sabbath observance, public morality, marriage and family life, social welfare, public education, and more. Like Anabaptists, Calvin and his followers insisted on the basic separation of the offices and operations of church and state, leaving the church to govern its own doctrine and liturgy, polity and property, without interference from the state. But, unlike both groups, Calvin insisted that both church and state officials were to play complementary legal roles in the creation of the local Christian commonwealth and in the cultivation of the Christian citizen. Calvin emphasized the uses of the law in the Christian commonwealth, and the collaboration of church and state in achieving the same…. (p. 78)
Much more needs to be said, but this introductory piece, plus the reading list below, should help take those interested in the right direction of a much further consideration of this.
References and further reading
Beeke, Joel, David Hall and Michael Haykin, Theology Made Practical: New Studies on John Calvin and His Legacy. Reformation Heritage Books, 2017. Calvin, John, Institutes of the Christians Religion, Beveridge translation. Eerdmans, 1973. Hall, David, Calvin in the Public Square. P&R, 2009. Larson, Mark, Calvin’s Doctrine of the State. Wipf and Stock, 2009. McGrath, Alister, A Life of John Calvin. Blackwell, 1990. McGrath, Alister, Reformation Thought: An Introduction, 4th ed. Wiley-Blackwell, 1988, 2012. Ryrie, Alec, Protestants. William Collins, 2017, 2018. Skinner, Quentin, The Foundations of Modern Political Thought, vol. 2: The Age of Reformation. CUP, 1978, 2013. Tuininga, Matthew, Calvin’s Political Theology and the Public Engagement of the Church: Christ’s Two Kingdoms. CUP, 2017, 2018. Witte, John, The Reformation of Rights. CUP, 2002, 2010, esp. pp. 106-114.
Israel’s military is poised to enter into Rafah, the last major stronghold of Hamas even without a deal for the release of the hostages. Police have arrested nearly 2,200 people during Pro-Palestinian protests in recent weeks.
Four years after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in the Chinese city of Wuhan, what do we know about the origin of the SARS-CoV-2 virus?
We were presented at the outset with two competing theories: natural-origin spillover from animals to humans and accidental lab leak. And at the outset, a cadre of elite scientists passionately argued that the evidence overwhelmingly favored a natural origin. With comparable fervor, they dismissed the possibility that SARS-CoV-2 leaked from a lab as a “conspiracy theory.”
With a few notableexceptions, mainstream media outlets and the larger scientific community vehemently nodded in agreement. NPR said the lab-leak theory was “debunked”; Vanity Fair called it a “right-wing coronavirus conspiracy”; and Facebook banned posts suggesting the virus may have been manufactured in a lab.
Four years later, that narrative has begun to crack—and rightly so.
It was always a lie—one of the most consequential lies of the 21st century. Like all great lies, it perfectly inverted the truth: The evidence supporting natural spillover has always been thin. Conversely, the evidence pointing to a lab leak has always been compelling and has grown substantially more persuasive with time.
A coalition of elite scientists and complicit media outlets have proven remarkably effective in suppressing the truth for this long. But in recent months, as congressional investigations have intensified, honest scientists and journalists have begun challenging the false consensus with greater alacrity as new revelations have tipped the scales toward lab leak even further.
🚨BREAKING🚨
EcoHealth Alliance President Dr. Peter Daszak will testify at a public hearing on May 1, 2024.
Dr. Daszak must answer questions about COVID-19 origins, dangerous gain-of-function research, and his relationship with the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China. pic.twitter.com/CyTGoEBvDr
— Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic (@COVIDSelect) April 4, 2024
The clique of elite scientists propagating the natural-spillover theory have always had several problems on their hands. Despite an exhaustive four-year search, no intermediate animal host has ever been found. The closest natural relatives to SARS-CoV-2 are found in bats in Laos and in Yunnan province over 600 miles away.
Two of the more popular arguments advanced by spillover partisans—that pandemic began at the Huanan wet market in Wuhan and that it jumped to humans from raccoon dogs and pangolins—have withered under scrutiny. The academic papers supporting both arguments have been hollowed out by fatal challenges to the underlying data, methods, or conclusions.
To date, a natural-spillover explanation for the COVID-19 pandemic remains little more than a distant theoretical possibility.
The Lab-Leak Theory
The most obvious piece of incriminating evidence for the lab-leak theory has always been the existence of a biolab in Wuhan just miles away from the initial outbreak. This wasn’t just any old biolab—the Wuhan Institute of Virology was an advanced research facility studying coronaviruses that “collaborated on publications and secret projects with China’s military.” And this wasn’t just any old coronavirus research—the Wuhan Institute of Virology was conducting the riskiest viral research in the world.
Gain-of-function research of concern—which can make viruses more transmissible to humans, ostensibly in order to create vaccines—was so risky, and the chance of causing an accidental pandemic was so great, that the U.S. government banned funding for this research in 2014. Nevertheless, U.S. agencies continued funding this dangerous research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, even before the moratorium was officially lifted in December 2017.
This was a spectacularly irresponsible decision. U.S. authorities had visited the institute and found it to have wildly inadequate safety protocols. In a truly Strangelovian twist, we later learned that the institute was conducting virus research that theoretically could end human civilization in BSL-2 conditions—roughly the equivalent of a dentist’s office safety protocols.
“That’s screwed up,” responded Dr. Ian Lipkin, an early proponent of natural spillover, after learning of the Wuhan Institute of Virology’s safety protocols. “People should not be looking at bat viruses in BSL-2 labs. My view has changed.”
As well it should have. Mere miles from ground zero of the coronavirus pandemic, in chronically unsafe conditions, a government lab collaborating with the Chinese military was doing extremely risky research on coronaviruses—including the closest known relatives of SARS-CoV-2.
Brace yourself, there’s more.
The Chinese Cover-Up
If the COVID-19 pandemic wasn’t the product of a lab leak, one might reasonably expect the Chinese government to provide a degree of cooperation with the international community, if for no other reason than to clear its name.
China, of course, did the exact opposite. It swiftly arrested doctors and whistleblowers. It ordered labs to transfer or destroy any related viral samples and “not to publish any information related to the unknown disease.” And shirking its obligations to international health regulations, it refused to provide key data to international investigators.
When the World Health Organization requested to do an audit of the Wuhan Institute of Virology and the wet market, China again refused. It also refused to turn over vital pieces of evidence, such as the blood samples of the lab workers or the animals at the wet market.
Adding to the mystery, a few months before the acknowledged outbreak in December 2019, “several researchers inside the [institute] became sick.” The Wuhan Institute of Virology changed its security protocols, ordered an expensive new air incinerator and ventilation system, and—in the middle of the night—mysteriously took down an online database of 22,000 bat virus samples.
And let’s not overlook the fact that Beijing was inexplicably able to produce a vaccine in record time, with a patent filed in February 2020. Most scientists believe the timeline to create a vaccine implausibly short—unless someone in China had access to SARS-CoV-2 before December 2019.
Notably, this mystery vaccine was created by a Chinese military scientist. Rather than being hailed as a hero for creating a vaccine with improbable speed, Zhou Yusen suspiciously died months later and was virtually scrubbed from the record by the Chinese Communist Party. At least one report claimed he “fell” to his death from the rooftop of the Wuhan institute.
In sum, rather than providing any semblance of cooperation or transparency on the origins of the deadliest event of the 21st century, China acted pretty much exactly as you would expect from a paranoid communist country trying to cover up a lab leak.
Brace yourself, there’s more.
The Smoking Gun
This list of giant red flags grew even longer with the discovery and examination of the “DEFUSE” proposal, submitted to the Pentagon in 2018 by a group of organizations led by Peter Daszak and his EcoHealth Alliance.
Under lab examination, SARS-CoV-2 was always a bit of a mystery, adorned with some peculiar characteristics. The virus appeared better designed to target humans than animals, “fully optimized for interaction with the human ACE2 receptor” and “consistent with a laboratory optimized coronavirus, which entered the human population fully evolved.”
An even more consequential peculiarity was the presence of a Furin Cleavage Site (FCS), which has the unfortunate property of enhancing a virus’s transmissibility. The presence of an FCS was particularly puzzling because none of the more than 1,500 known sarbecoviruses (the subgenus of SARS-CoV-2) has ever been found in nature with an FCS. On the other hand, it’s not uncommon for virologists to insert an FCS while doing gain-of-function experiments in a lab.
Out of 1535 known sarbecoviruses only 1 has a furin cleavage site and it showed up the year after scientists first proposed putting a fcs into a sarbecovirus for the first time and in one of the two labs that were party to that proposal. https://t.co/lW4d9hvUG6
For a while, it looked like the presence of an FCS in SARS-CoV-2, located at the S1/S2 boundary, would remain a vexing, unsolved mystery. Then we learned the details of the $14 million DEFUSE proposal.
One year before the pandemic, Daszak and his collaborators requested funding from the Pentagon to conduct gain-of-function research at the Wuhan institute. Specifically, they proposed inserting an FCS into a coronavirus at the S1/S2 boundary—precisely the never-before-seen characteristics present in SARS-CoV-2 that aided the virus’ rapid transmission.
The Pentagon wisely declined to fund the DEFUSE proposal, but a growing pile of evidence suggests this research went ahead in some form anyway—or was already being conducted—and likely escaped from the Wuhan lab and started the COVID-19 pandemic.
“If you study hundreds of different bat viruses at BSL-2 [safety protocols], your luck may eventually run out,” admits one of the godfathers of gain-of-function research and a frequent Wuhan institute collaborator, Dr. Ralph Baric.
Of the two possible theories of COVID-19’s origins, only one stands atop a mountain of increasingly persuasive evidence. Natural-spillover proponents have nevertheless sought to dismiss this damning indictment as merely a chain of misinterpreted coincidences. The proximity of the Wuhan institute, the gain-of-function research, the dead People’s Liberation Army scientists, the mysterious vaccines, the dentist office security protocols, the Furin Cleavage Site, the deleted databases, the silenced doctors, the DEFUSE proposal, the lack of an animal host are all just … coincidences.
Any one of them would have been a legitimate cause for inquiry and concern. A dozen of them, by the laws of probability and basic common sense, constitute a smoking gun.
The Real Conspiracy
This all raises a final question: How could this group of elite scientists have gotten this paramount question so horribly wrong?
The inevitable answer is: They didn’t. They weren’t wrong. They were lying.
We know from leaked internal communications that some of the same scientists most ardently dismissing the lab-leak theory took one look at SARS-CoV-2 and concluded it was, in the words of biologist Kristian Andersen, “so friggin’ likely” the virus escaped from a Wuhan lab “because they were already doing this type of work and the molecular data is fully consistent with that scenario.”
The virus seemed “pre-adapted from the get-go,” observed virologist Edward Holmes. The presence of an unprecedented Furin Cleavage Site in SARS-CoV-2 kept scientist Bob Garry “up all night.” The SARS-CoV-2 genome was “inconsistent with evolutionary theory,” concluded Andersen on Jan. 31, 2020.
One day later, some of the same scientists held a phone call with National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases head Dr. Anthony Fauci and rapidly did an about-face, condemning the lab-leak theory as a “crackpot” conspiracy and viciously attacking anyone questioning their fabricated consensus. A larger network of scientists and science journalists quickly fell in line. The cover-up had begun.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, then-director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, gives the thumbs up after receiving his first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine on Dec. 22, 2020, in Bethesda, Maryland. Fauci months earlier had given thumbs up to efforts to discredit the lab-leak theory of COVID-19’s origin. But the preponderance of evidence since has discredited his preferred explanation of a natural origin for the virus. (Photo: Patrick Semansky/Getty Images)
The Cover-Up
A tight network of elite scientists soon engaged in a remarkably effective effort to deceive the world. They collectively briefed the U.S. government, the World Health Organization, and any media outlets that would listen: The science was settled; this wasn’t a lab leak. Some of them went on to publish the now-infamous “Proximal Origins” paper in March 2020 in Nature Medicine, ranked as the most impactful science article of that year. “We do not believe that any type of laboratory-based scenario is plausible,” the paper’s authors asserted.
Their efforts to discredit the lab-leak theory were aided substantially by Daszak, the EcoHealth Alliance president. He had been involved in multiple collaborations with the Wuhan Institute of Virology, including the now-infamous DEFUSE proposal which included a veritable blueprint for creating SARS-CoV-2. The experiments were so dangerous, and the Wuhan Institute’s safety protocols so poor, Daszak intentionally sought to deceive the Pentagon by suggesting the research would be conducted in the U.S.—not in China.
(Shockingly, Daszak and EcoHealth Alliance are still receiving tens of millions of dollars in U.S. government research grants, including a seven-figure grant awarded in December 2022.)
EcoHealth Alliance currently is receiving $50+ million in Department of Defense and NIH grants, despite having defrauded the Department of Defense, having double-billed NIH and USAID, and likely having caused a pandemic that killed 20 million and cost $25 trillion. pic.twitter.com/QTKjAKzS7g
After the pandemic outbreak, Daszak conveniently avoided disclosing his personal connections to risky coronavirus research at the Wuhan Institute as he organized and co-drafted a letter in The Lancet to “strongly condemn conspiracy theories suggesting that COVID-19 does not have a natural origin.”
“The idea that this virus escaped from a lab is just pure baloney. It’s simply not true,” Daszak proclaimed in an April 2020 interview.
Daszak also managed to get himself appointed to join the World Health Organization’s investigation into COVID-19’s origins. The investigation produced a March 2021 report that concluded it was “extremely unlikely” SARS-CoV-2 leaked from a lab. (Under growing scrutiny, the second phase of the WHO investigation was “quietly shelved.”)
Daszak also positioned himself to lead The Lancet’s “COVID-19 Commission.” The following year, chairman Dr. Jeffrey Sachs disbanded the commission over “concerns about the conflicts of interest of one its members and his ties … to the Wuhan Institute of Virology.” Sachs later lamented how Dazsak was “not telling me the truth” and was “filled with misdirection,” admitting “it’s time to ‘fess up [SARS-CoV-2] might have come out of a lab.”
“We don’t have definitive evidence of either hypothesis,” Sachs posited. “But what we do have is definitive evidence that officialdom has tried to keep our eyes away from the lab leak.”
Fauci was also working overtime to deflect attention from the lab-leak theory. In multiple bouts of congressional testimony, Fauci engaged in semantic games to insist the U.S. wasn’t involved in funding dangerous gain-of-function research at the Wuhan institute. (It was.) On several occasions, Fauci publicly argued the evidence “very, very strongly” leans toward natural origin. (It doesn’t.) Those challenging Fauci on these questions, he famously told CBS’ “Face the Nation,” were “really criticizing science, because I represent science.”
Fauci also tried to explain away China’s stunning lack of cooperation with the international community and elaborate cover-up that cost the world countless lives by blaming the Trump administration’s “accusatory nature” for China’s deadly obfuscation.
Anthony Fauci says "the anti-China approach that clearly the Trump administration had right from the very beginning" is why the Chinese Communist Party still has not been honest about COVID's origin. pic.twitter.com/9rxxI8aFze
Fauci also led an effort to brief other U.S. government agencies on COVID-19’s origins, reportedly leaning on the intelligence community, the White House, and State Department to conclude a lab leak was unlikely. One whistleblower later claimed Fauci’s “opinion substantially altered the conclusions that were subsequently drawn.”
Oddly, U.S. intelligence agencies proved largely split and indecisive in their conclusions, with nearly all submitting “low confidence” assessments it was either a lab leak, natural origin, or the evidence was inconclusive. Only one agency had a “medium confidence” assessment in either theory: The FBI is convinced SARS-CoV-2 is the product of a lab leak. So, too, is former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe, who explained in 2023 that “a lab leak is the only explanation credibly supported by our intelligence, by science and by common sense.”
The Conspiracy
This was the real conspiracy. Many of the elite scientists seeking to discredit the lab-leak theory knew all along it was the most credible explanation. Not only did they intentionally deceive the world, they slandered any scientist or journalist who challenged them. For daring to question this fraudulent consensus, scientist Alina Chan was viciously attacked as an “intellectually dishonest, manipulative conspiracist with very little subject matter expertise who has … compensated for her mediocrity by pursuing personal profit.”
So, why did the scientific establishment act with such disgrace and deception? Their motivations were multi-causal.
First, some of these scientists were direct collaborators with the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Dr. Peter Hotez had channeled U.S. government funds to five coronavirus research projects conducted by the Chinese Academy of Military Medical Sciences and the Wuhan Institute between 2016 and 2019. Daszak’s DEFUSE proposal included a veritable blueprint for SARS-CoV-2. They were rightly concerned they could be held personally accountable.
Hotez channelled NIH funds, through subcontracts on NIH grant AI098775, to at least five 2016-2019 coronavirus projects with Academy of Military Medical Sciences researcher Zhou Yusen and at least one 2016-2019 coronavirus project with WIV researcher Shi Zhengli. pic.twitter.com/IdtzGCaz8q
Second, some of these scientists had for years been quietly waging a behind-the-scenes battle to defend risky gain-of-function research over the considerable objections of other virologists. If the pandemic was, in fact, the product of a lab leak, it might deal a fatal blow to their crusade to preserve this controversial research. Even worse, from their perspective, it would mark the death knell for scientific cooperation with China.
Third, some of these scientists had strong financial and reputational incentives to suppress the lab-leak theory, especially after Fauci weighed in. Andersen, for example, had a roughly $9 million grant pending with Fauci’s government agency at the time—a grant that was approved two months after he co-authored the seminal academic paper supporting natural spillover, “Proximal Origins.”
“There were people that did not talk about [the lab leak], because they feared for their careers,” Dr. Filippa Lentzos of King’s College in London later admitted. “They feared for their grants.”
Fourth and finally, the lab-leak debate was hyperpoliticized from the outset. Once President Donald Trump suggested the Wuhan lab might be responsible, scientists felt compelled to pick a side. Supporting with the lab-leak theory was “siding with President Trump” and nothing—not science, honesty, morality, credibility, or public health—was more important than opposing the “racist” conspiracy theory adopted by Trump, even if it was likely to be true.
The Conclusion
Presented the evidence objectively, the American people can now decide for themselves whether the natural origin theory of COVID-19 represents the most implausible string of coincidences imaginable or the lie of the century.
People keep acting as if we are living in “normal” times, but the truth is that these are not “normal” times at all. We are in the midst of a “perfect storm”, but most people in the general population don’t seem to realize this. While the mainstream media is endlessly focused on political drama, our world is being deeply troubled by war, economic problems, food shortages, nightmarish pestilences and terrifying natural disasters. But as bad as things are at this moment, I am entirely convinced that they are about to get a whole lot worse.
I would like to start by talking about war. The IDF is preparing to conduct an operation in Rafah, and that could cause the entire Middle East to erupt in flames. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is pledging that his forces will eventually move in no matter how negotiations for a temporary ceasefire with Hamas go. Meanwhile, we just learned that Israel has just conducted airstrikes on the outskirts of Damascus…
Israeli aircraft have reportedlyattacked a location on the outskirts of the Syrian capital of Damascus late Thursday (local), a security source told Reuters.
While there has been no immediate confirmation via Syrian state media, widely circulating images have emerged on social media showing plumes of smoke rising high over buildings which were struck.
It is just a matter of time before all-out war erupts in the region.
Emmanuel Macron has said he would be prepared to send troops to Ukraine if Vladimir Putin’s forces break through the front lines – further raising the risk of NATO forces clashing with Russia’s armies.
In an interview published today, the French president said the issue of sending troops would ‘legitimately’ arise if Kyiv and president Volodymyr Zelensky made such a request.
The Economist said Macron gave the interview after delivering a keynote speech last week where he declared that Europe is ‘mortal’ and could ‘die’ partly due to the threat posed by Russian aggression after its February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
Those that have been following the war closely know that the Russians are already breaking through the front lines in several areas along the eastern front.
So will Macron make good on his threat?
If so, that will put us literally one step away from nuclear conflict.
All throughout history, large scale wars have been accompanied by famine.
For now, we still have plenty of food to eat in the western world, but it is a far different story in the poorest areas of the planet.
For example, the famine in Sudan has become so severe that some people are literally eating dirt…
There is so little food in some areas of Sudan that people are taking extreme measures to survive.
In the Al Lait refugee camp, they are eating dirt.
I was stunned when I read that.
If you were hungry enough, would you fill your stomach with dirt?
Akok, 41, reached Al Lait in December, but has no work and can’t feed the family. At times, they go two or three days without eating. When that happens, Akok said, he watches helplessly as his wife and children dig holes in the ground with a stick, slide their hands in and grab some soil. Then they roll the soil into a ball, put it in their mouths and swallow it with water.
“I keep telling them not to do it, but it’s hunger,” he said. “There is nothing I can do.”
In my latest book I have an entire chapter about the emerging global famine. What we are witnessing now is just the tip of the iceberg compared to what is eventually coming.
I have also been warning that frightening pestilences will break out all over the globe, and right now we are witnessing an unprecedented outbreak of dengue fever in South America.
At this point, more than four million cases of dengue fever have been registered in Brazil alone so far this year…
Brazil surpassed 4 million cases of dengue fever registered this year, according to an update from the Ministry of Health’s Arbovirus Monitoring Panel this Monday. In total, 4,127,571 probable cases of the disease were reported across the country in the first four months of 2024.
As for dengue deaths, 1,937 have been confirmed and 2,345 are under investigation. The incidence rate of the disease in the country is 2,032.7 cases for each group of 100,000 population.
And Peru has just declared a nationwide health emergency because cases of dengue fever are rising so rapidly in that nation…
The Peruvian government’s cabinet approved the motion to declare a health emergency on Monday, Vasquez told journalists, hours after he said a dengue outbreak was “imminent.”
“There are 20 regions (out of 25) that will be declared in a health emergency due to dengue,” Vasquez said in an earlier interview on local radio station RPP.
Here in North America, H5N1 has been killing cows, cats, chickens and turkeys.
Lastly, I would like to talk about the unusual natural disasters that we have been experiencing lately.
In 2024, southern California has been getting shaken on a regular basis. Yesterday, it was hit by a magnitude 4.1 earthquake…
An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 4.1 has struck near Corona in Riverside County, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
The USGS says the quake struck at 1:49 p.m. just 5.3 miles from Corona. It was originally reported as a 4.5 magnitude but was ultimately reduced to a 4.1.
Overall, there have been 748 earthquakes in California and Nevada within the past seven days.
It is just a matter of time before “the Big One” strikes, but at this stage most of those living in the region have stopped listening to such warnings.
The east coast has also been experiencing unusual seismic activity.
A magnitude 2.6 aftershock has rattled New Jersey on the first day of May after a dramatic earthquake shook parts of the east coast in early April.
The Garden State has been rocked by more than 150 aftershocks since the initial 4.8 magnitude earthquake which centered near Lebanon on the morning of April 5.
More than 42 million people from New York to Connecticut and Philadelphia felt the first quake, and New Jersey residents have been plagued by tremors ever since.
Normally, the east coast if very, very quiet.
So what we are seeing right now is definitely quite unusual.
The middle of the nation has not been left out either.
In recent days we have seen tornado after tornado rock the center of the country.
For example, one area of Nebraska was just hit by a tornado that had wind speeds of up to 165 miles per hour…
Nebraska brothers tell a terrifying tale of feeling a tornado pull their home apart, sucking them out and tossing them with debris.
“Ok, I’m cool to leave for work,” Roger Slatten thought to himself Saturday afternoon after Elkhorn, Nebraska’s tornado sirens went silent. But they sounded again. A strong EF-3 tornado was bearing down on the Omaha suburb with 165 mph winds.
His friend called him in the car and said, “Get back home, It’s going crazy.” Roger called his brother Royce and told him to rush home. They planned to get the two dogs and all shelter in the basement.
When will people finally start waking up?
What we are experiencing is not even close to normal.
It seems like almost every new day brings us yet another new crisis or disaster to deal with, and I have a feeling that the pace of events is only going to escalate as this year continues to roll along.
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.
Over the past several decades, America’s culture has been transformed at a pace that is absolutely breathtaking. When I was growing up, I was convinced that I believed in a shared set of national values that most other Americans also embraced. But in our day and age those values have been discarded and now people that see the world the way that I do are clearly not in the majority any longer. I know that a lot of people out there may not want to hear that our national values have been turned upside down, but it is the truth. Those that sought to “fundamentally transform” this country have succeeded, and at this point “American values” are vastly different from the “American values” that I cherished as a young boy. The following are 7 numbers that clearly reveal the direction that America has chosen…
#1 There is more political chaos in our nation than there has ever been in my entire lifetime, and more than 40 percent of U.S. voters actually believe that a “second civil war” is likely within the next five years…
More than four-in-ten US voters say the country is likely to get ripped apart in a second civil war within five years, a shocking new survey reveals.
The Rasmussen Reports poll shows that 41 percent eye a civil conflict, compared to 49 percent who say it’s not likely. Another 10 percent said they were not sure.
That amounts to 106 million US adults saying civil war is on the horizon.
The survey comes against a backdrop of mounting violence on US college campuses, where pro-Palestine protestors clash with law enforcers, conservatives, some Jewish students and others.
#2 According to a recent Gallup survey, only 36 percent of Americans approve of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza…
After narrowly backing Israel’s military action in Gaza in November, Americans now oppose the campaign by a solid margin. Fifty-five percent currently disapprove of Israel’s actions, while 36% approve.
The latest results are from a March 1-20 survey. The Israel-Hamas war has continued for five months and has resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of Palestinians and over 1,000 Israelis. Major parts of Gaza have been destroyed, complicating efforts to deliver humanitarian aid to Palestinian civilians still living there. The United Nations and international community, including the Biden administration, have called for a cease-fire, but the two warring sides have been unable to agree.
#365 percent of Americans do not approve of the Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe v. Wade…
About two-thirds (65%) oppose the 2022 Supreme Court decision, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, and 34% approve, numbers that have remained effectively unchanged in CNN’s polling across the nearly two years since the ruling. Those who strongly disapprove of the decision continue to outnumber those who strongly approve by a more than 2-to-1 margin.
A 69% majority who disapprove of overturning Roe, including 82% of those who strongly disapprove, say that federal politicians should work to pass laws ensuring national abortion access. Those who support the ruling largely say federal politicians shouldn’t take action on the issue: 59% say laws on abortion should be left up to the states, with 29% in favor of further restrictions to abortion access nationwide. New national restrictions are supported by just about one-quarter of Republicans, White Evangelical Christians and those who describe themselves as conservative.
#4 More than 20 percent of Generation Z adults (22.3 percent to be specific) now identify as LGBTQ+…
Overall, each younger generation is about twice as likely as the generation that preceded it to identify as LGBTQ+. More than one in five Gen Z adults, ranging in age from 18 to 26 in 2023, identify as LGBTQ+, as do nearly one in 10 millennials (aged 27 to 42). The percentage drops to less than 5% of Generation X, 2% of baby boomers and 1% of the Silent Generation.
Bisexuality is the most common LGBTQ+ status among Generation Z, millennials and Generation X. Fifteen percent of all Generation Z adults — representing more than two-thirds of those with an LGBTQ+ identification — are bisexual.
#5 According to the Daily Mail, the number of transgender troops in the U.S. Army has doubled since 2020…
The Pentagon has spent more than $26million treating transgender troops since 2020, official records show.
The number of US army staff with gender dysphoria has doubled in that time — from around 1,800 to 3,700, according to DoD data seen by DailyMail.com.
In the past three years, $17.5m in taxpayer money was spent on psychotherapy for trans service people and $1.5m went towards hormone drugs.
A further $7.6m funded gender-affirming surgeries, including facial tweaks to make a recruit more masculine or feminine, and the removal or creation of breasts and genitals.
#6 By a vote of 692 to 51, the United Methodist Church has voted to approve LGBTQ clergy and same sex weddings in their churches…
The United Methodist Church, one of the largest Protestant denominations in the U.S., has voted to repeal its ban on LGBTQ clergy as well as prohibitions on its ministers from officiating at same-sex weddings.
Delegates overwhelmingly approved the changes, 692 to 51, during the United Methodist Church’s General Conference.
The meeting is taking place this week in Charlotte, N.C. after the pandemic delayed the 2020 General Conference where these decisions had been slated to take place.
#7Only 3.6 million babies were born in the U.S. last year, and the birth rate is now at the lowest level ever recorded…
The birth rate in the US has declined to a new low, according to data published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The figures show that fewer than 3.6 million babies were born in the US last year, the lowest amount since 1979 and equating to the lowest fertility rate EVER recorded.
The CDC analysed the 2023 data and found that the birth rate is down 2 percent on the previous year.
If you go back to 1960, the average U.S. woman gave birth to 3.65 children during her lifetime.
Today, that number has fallen all the way down to 1.6.
But we need a birth rate of at least 2.1 just to keep replacing ourselves.
If we didn’t have so much immigration going on, our population would be steadily falling.
In my latest book entitled “Chaos”, I have an entire chapter about the population collapse that is happening in wealthy nations all over the industrialized world.
It is often said that children are the future of our society, but we have greatly devalued marriage and parenthood.
Meanwhile, birth rates are still very high in many nations in the Middle East and elsewhere.
Given enough time, those that are willing to multiply would become increasingly powerful and those that are not willing to multiply would become less powerful.
But the fact that we aren’t reproducing ourselves is just one of the existential problems that we are facing.
At this point we live in an upside down society that has rejected the values that this nation was founded upon.
If we stay on this path, there isn’t going to be a future for America, and that is the truth.
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.
“Is Ephraim my dear son? Indeed, as often as I have spoken against him, I certainly still remember him. Therefore my heart yearns for him; I will certainly have mercy on him, declares the Lord” (Jeremiah 31:20).
“How often I would have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings, and you would not. Behold, your house is left unto you desolate” (Matthew 23:37-38).
Almost daily, I hear of churches firing their preachers, engaged in lawsuits, and struggling with inner conflict. I know churches that were strong a generation ago but are fighting to survive now.
These are difficult days for churches, which makes these challenging days for church leaders.
Believers who are not grieving for the Lord’s church these days must not be paying attention.
Let us care for what is happening and pray for the Lord’s people…
Grievances for Today’s Church
1. I grieve for the trendy church which is drawing people in from the smaller surrounding congregations and bursting at the seams, but leaving the smaller ones to shrivel and die. The huge church may convince its members that they are doing big things for the kingdom since they deal with such large numbers. Churches can be so self-centered. Pray your church will be loving toward other congregations.
2. I grieve for the church, which is having mind-staggering growth but becomes secretive about what it does with the millions of dollars it takes in, protective about the pay it gives its leaders, and dismissive about the questionable personal lives of its leadership. Churches can be carnal. Pray your church will be led by men and women of integrity.
3. I grieve for the smaller church, which turns an envious eye toward the growing congregations in its community and, desiring to be like the others, dismisses its faithful pastor and worship leaders because “we have to stay current with modern trends.” Churches can be wrong-headed. Pray your church will look to Jesus for affirmation and not at their neighbors.
4. I grieve for the church which keeps pastors no more than three or four years, then manufactures crises to justify sending them packing so they can bring in another who is destined to become a victim himself in due time. Churches can be cruel. Pray your church will be Christlike.
5. I grieve for the church, which fears allowing musical instruments other than pianos and organ into their worship because accepting guitars, keyboards, and drums feels like they are succumbing to the world. Churches can be cowards. Pray your church will be courageous and obedient.
6. I grieve for the church that thinks installing guitars and drums will solve all their problems. Churches can be caught up in tomfoolery. Pray your church will be wise.
7. I grieve for the church, which replaces monthly business meetings with an elder-led system allowing a few people to make all the important decisions for the congregation and to keep the church members in the dark. Churches can betray their calling. Pray your church will be responsible.
8. I grieve for the church led by a preacher who refuses to do the pastoring work of a shepherd, but expects to build a great church by his brilliant preaching. The word pastor means shepherd. Committees in search of a pastor should find out if their candidates actually minister to the hurting and the lost. Bringing in a preacher simply because he is a great pulpiteer may be the worst decision they will ever make. Churches can be caught up in the world’s way, too. Pray for your church to be godly.
9. I grieve for the church, which is spending more and more of its income on itself and giving less and less to the community, to missions, and to other ministries dependent on them. Churches can be greedy. Pray for your church to be generous.
10. I grieve for the church whose pastor will not be open and forthcoming with the congregation, will not be transparent regarding his actions and motives, leaving people to feel he must be hiding something. In many cases, he is indeed. (See John 18:20 for Jesus’ transparency.) Churches can be victimized. Pray for pastors of integrity and lay leaders of courage.
11. I grieve even more for that church whose pastor is betraying the congregation but no one will stand up and hold him accountable. Churches can be betrayed by their membership, too. Pray for your church to be led by men and women of courage and boldness.
Pray for the Lord’s Church, Friend
If you are a follower of Jesus Christ, take notice of all the churches in your community which honor Him. Pray for them and encourage their people. Do not compete with them but rejoice with the victories of each.
If you are a disciple of Jesus, join a church in your community and be faithful. Be present each time it meets for worship. Encourage your ministers and leaders. Get into a Sunday School class. Bring an offering. Volunteer.
If you are a leader of your church, ask God for wisdom in choices and programs, courage to ask the right questions and take the right actions, and integrity in everything. Speak the truth and love everyone.
If you are not a leader of your church, stay informed. Ask the right questions. Don’t be afraid to speak up. Brag on leaders who do well.
Pray for the Lord’s church, my friends.
So much depends on the Lord’s churches being healthy, vibrant, and faithful.
Photo Credit: Robin Spielmann/Unsplash
Joe McKeever has been a disciple of Jesus Christ more than 65 years, been preaching the gospel more than 55 years, and has been writing and cartooning for Christian publications more than 45 years. He blogs at www.joemckeever.com.
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