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
by Tim Challies; INFORMING THE REFORMING; MAY 7, 2018
Three little letters make a world of difference. Together i, s, and h distinguish Christian from Christianish and mark the difference between right and wrong, life and death, heaven and hell. There is nothing better for your spiritual wellbeing than to be in a Christian church. There is nothing worse for your spiritual wellbeing than to be in a Christianish church. Here are a few marks of each.
A Christian church teaches the Bible. It is committed to the inerrancy, sufficiency, clarity, and authority of the Word of God and therefore preaches it week by week with confidence and consistency. A Christianishchurch teaches about the Bible. It is committed to imparting life lessons and uses the scriptures as a starting point to teach people how to live lives of success and fulfillment.
A Christian church admits the deep depravity of human beings. It acknowledges that we are all deeply disordered so that not one of us has even the least righteousness to plead before God. A Christianish church proclaims the inherent goodness of humanity. It acknowledges that we aren’t what we could and should be, but encourages us to believe that with enough effort we can get there.
A Christian church makes its core declaration the finished work of Christ. The good news of grace frees us from the impossible task of earning our own salvation and instead simply receives what Christ has already accomplished. A Christianish church has its core declaration the unfinished work of humanity. The bad news of works becomes the brutal and impossible path to impressing God with deeds that will catch his eye and win his favor.
A Christian church proclaims the substitutionary death of Jesus Christ. Believing that our sin has provoked the just wrath of God, it declares in awe that the Son of God willingly took our sin upon himself and absorbed the full fury of the Father’s wrath. A Christianish church proclaims the wrathless love of God and the exemplary life of Jesus Christ, upholding Christ as the ultimate example of what a human being can and should be.
A Christian church preaches the gospel of justification by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. It calls people to repent of their sins and turn to Jesus Christ for forgiveness. A Christianish church preaches a gospel of social justice or personal prosperity. It calls people to right social wrongs or to claim financial enrichment, to repent only of insufficient action or insufficient faith.
A Christian church gathers each week to worship the God of the Bible according to the Bible. Knowing their desperate need for divine wisdom, they read the Bible, preach the Bible, pray the Bible, sing the Bible, and fellowship around the Bible. A Christianish church gathers each week for empowerment or entertainment. Their services are shaped more by pop culture or personal preference than by holy Scripture.
A Christian church preaches the exclusivity of Jesus Christ. It echoes scripture in saying Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life and that there is no other way to be reconciled to the Father but through him. A Christianish church insists Jesus Christ may be a way but not the way, and proclaims instead that all roads lead ultimately to the same destination.
A Christian church proclaims the existence of heaven and hell. It takes hold of the authority of the Bible to plead with people to turn to Christ and be saved from destruction. A Christianish church affirms an afterlife but denies the possibility of eternal punishment for those who have chosen to reject the free offer of the gospel.
There is nothing in all the world as precious as a truly Christian church. There is nothing in all the world as dangerous as one that is merely Christianish. Choose your church well.
A look at the evening news reveals that we are living in ominous days. From the Christian perspective, it’s clear that the end times are nearly upon us! So, when will Jesus return to gather His church? Dr. Robert Jeffress lists the signs that will precede the epic moment in prophecy known as the Rapture.
Our lives are filled with “but God” moments. Perhaps it was an addiction in which we were ensnared, but God delivered us. Maybe it was a place where we almost compromised our purity, but God restrained us. We may have thought a relationship was irreparable, but God restored it. Failures in parenting may have seemed unbearable, but God redeemed those moments and the gospel was magnified. But the greatest “but God” moment for the believer is when God brings us from death and darkness to life and light in Him. We should never cease to be amazed that the same power that raised Christ Jesus from the dead is also at work to raise the spiritually dead. One of the best places to learn about this amazing grace is in Ephesians 2:1-10.
The Depravity of Man
In the first chapter of Ephesians Paul emphasizes God’s immeasurable power toward His people, illustrating his point with the resurrection and exaltation of Christ (1:20-23). Then in Ephesians 2:1-3 he gives another powerful illustration—the resurrection of believers from spiritual death to life. Like the dry bones in Ezekiel’s vision that came to life by God’s power, Paul proclaims God raises His people from spiritual death to life. Before God saved us Paul states that we were happily walking in darkness, willingly following the course of this world, submissively bowing to the devil, readily indulging the passions of our flesh, and under God’s wrath. Since we “were dead in the trespasses and sins” (v. 1) there is nothing we can do to make ourselves alive. Sadly, many people don’t understand this truth and therefore do not have a proper view of God’s holiness and our need for His deliverance.
The Deliverance of God
The somber truths of Ephesians 2:1-3 makes the phrase, “but God” (v. 4), spectacular. The desperate plight of humankind highlights God’s gracious deliverance. The same power that raised Christ from the dead also raises sinners from spiritual death. The richness of God’s mercy flows from His redeeming love. Remember, He loved us when we were sinners, so His love is not based on our goodness, but on His grace.
Paul goes on to present a beautiful picture of our union with Christ. By His power God made us alive together with Christ (Eph. 2:5). We are no longer walking according to the course of this world, enslaved to the devil and the passions of our own flesh, and facing the wrath of God. Additionally, we have been raised up with Christ (v. 6). He is the firstfruits of our resurrection. Even now we have the power to walk in newness of life with the hope and assurance that our soul and body will be reunited at Christ’s return and we will live with Him for all eternity in the new heaven and the new earth. Finally, we have been seated with Christ in the heavenly places (v. 6). Although on this side of glory we still battle sin, because of our union with Christ we are victorious and share in His ruling power. The believer’s salvation glorifies God by displaying “the immeasurable riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus” (v. 7). We will be raised from the grave to the praise of His glorious grace!
Salvation is of the Lord, “the gift of God” (vv. 8-9). We have been saved from sin, so that we can accomplish good works for God’s glory (v. 10). He providentially and purposefully works in our lives so that we will accomplish what He prepared beforehand for us to do. This is tremendously encouraging! Our heavenly Father is orchestrating His plan for our lives. We don’t have to be afraid we’ll miss it or try to frantically find it. Consider your calling and gifts, as well as the opportunities before you. Then celebrate the work God has given you as you accomplish it by His power.
Ephesians 2:1-10 provides a beautiful summary of the doctrines of grace. First, humankind is dead in their trespasses and sins (vv. 1-3). Second, it is only by God’s favor, which we have not earned, that He saves any of us (vv. 4-5). Third, our salvation is not a possibility, but a certainty (vv. 6-7). Fourth, we cannot resist the saving grace of God (vv. 8-9). Finally, He preserves His workmanship and enables them to do good works for His glory (v. 10).
Be encouraged today, dear believer. God’s grace really is amazing! You share in Christ’s life, have received His power, and are the recipient of His great love. Our depravity is great but His deliverance is greater.
Sarah Ivill (ThM, Dallas Theological Seminary) is a Reformed author, wife, homeschooling mom, Bible study teacher, and conference speaker who lives in Matthews, North Carolina, and is a member of Christ Covenant Church (PCA). To learn more, please visit www.sarahivill.com.
John 6:14-15 — After which miracle did the crowd want to make Him King? Not His baptism (John 1:32), His identification as the Lamb of God (John 1:36), His cleansing of the temple (John 2:15), His dialogue on salvation with a leading Pharisee (John 3:36), His confronting the Samaritan woman (John 4:39), or His theological dialogue with the Jews in Jerusalem (John 5:19-47). They wanted to make Him king only after they had enjoyed a good meal (John 6:13). What did Jesus know about the crowd?
Psalm 106:13 — Just like the Israelites of old, “they soon forgot His works” (re-iterated in Psalm 106:21). Yes, the crowd that wanted to crown Him King would soon cry “Crucify!” (John 19:15)
Even in the greatest danger the good man loses not his trust in God. It is like Job’s word (if our reading is correct, Job 13:15), “Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him;” and the psalmist, “Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me” (Psalm 23:4). Thus the Christian martyrs went joyfully to the stake, and gentle women and little children smiled on the sword which sent them home
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And he saith unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man. (John 1:51)
Yes, to our faith this sight is plain even at this day. We do see heaven opened. Jesus Himself has opened that kingdom to all believers. We gaze into the place of mystery and glory, for He has revealed it to us. We shall enter it soon, for He is the way.
Now we see the explanation of Jacob’s ladder. Between earth and heaven there is a holy commerce; prayer ascends, and answers come down by the way of Jesus, the Mediator. We see this ladder when we see our Lord. In Him a stairway of light now furnishes a clear passage to the throne of the Most High. Let us use it and send up by it the messengers of our prayers. We shall live the angelic life ourselves if we run up to heaven in intercession, lay hold upon the blessings of the covenant, and then descend again to scatter those gifts among the sons of men.
This choice sight which Jacob only saw in a dream will turn into a bright reality. This very day we will be up and down the ladder each hour: climbing in communion and coming down in labor to save our fellowmen. This is Thy promise, O Lord Jesus; let us joyfully see it fulfilled.
Brian Thomas is the Founder of Blessings to Israel Ministries and God 1st Bible Fellowship. Brian also hosts “Discerning The Times” on The Truth Network.
For those who are rich and prosperous in the world, some of whom perhaps need prayers as much as those who request them.
Lord, keep those who are rich in this present age from being haughty and setting their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, and give them to trust in God, who richly provides everyone with everything to enjoy: That they may do good and be rich in good works, generous and ready to share; that they may store up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future. 1 Timothy 6:17-19(ESV)
Though it is hard for those who are rich to enter into the kingdom of heaven, Matthew 19:24(ESV) yet with you this is possible. Matthew 19:26(ESV)
For those who are poor and in affliction, for such we have always with us.
Lord, make those who are poor in the world rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, James 2:5(ESV) and give to them to receive the gospel.
O that the poor of the flock may wait upon you and may know the word of the LORD. Zechariah 11:11(ESV)
Many are the afflictions of the righteous; good Lord, deliver them out of them all. Psalm 34:19(ESV) And though for the moment all affliction seems painful rather than pleasant; nevertheless, later let it yield the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. Hebrews 12:11(ESV)
For our enemies and those who hate us.
Lord, give me to love my enemies, to bless those who curse me, and to pray for those who despitefully use me and persecute me. Matthew 5:44(ESV)
Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do; Luke 23:34(ESV) and do not hold their malice against them; Acts 7:60(ESV) and work in me a disposition to bear with others and forgive in love, Colossians 3:13(ESV) as you require I should whenever I pray. Mark 11:25(ESV)
And grant that my ways may so please the LORD, that even my enemies may be at peace with me. Proverbs 16:7(ESV)
Let the wolf dwell with the lamb, Isaiah 11:6(ESV) and let there be none to hurt or destroy in all your holy mountain; Isaiah 11:9(ESV) let Ephraim not be jealous of Judah, nor Judah harass Ephraim. Isaiah 11:13(ESV)
For our friends and those who love us.
And I wish for all those whom I love in truth, that all may go well with them and that they may be in good health; I especially pray that it may go well with their souls. 3 John 1:2(ESV)
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with their spirits. Philemon 1:25(ESV)
Severe thunderstorms, long-track tornadoes, and large hail target Oklahoma and Kansas starting May 6 A significant severe weather outbreak is forecast to impact millions across the Central United States, starting on Monday, May 6, 2024. Meteorological conditions indicate potential for long-track tornadoes, large hail, and hurricane-force wind gusts, posing increased risk to regions still recovering from recent extreme weather events.
Historic floods hit Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil A powerful atmospheric river began affecting Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil on April 29, 2024, resulting in massive flooding across the region. By early May 6, 2024, the storm affected 334 of the state’s 496 cities, including the capital Porto Alegre, claimed at least 75 lives, left over 100 people missing, and impacted more than 1 million residents. This severe weather event is described as the most disastrous in the state since 1941, surpassing previous records in terms of both scope and damage.
Canada introduces blood-curdling new ‘thought police’ law that would make even Stalin blush… Canada has fallen. It’s become the North Korea of the West, and it’s getting worse every single day. This new bill they’ve introduced is the cherry on their tyrannical sundae. It’s called the Online Harms Bill C-63, and it would make even Stalin blush. As a matter of fact, tyrannical dictator Kim Jong-Un would look at this bill and feel an instant rush of communist inadequacy. With this new bill, Justin Trudeau is fueling those online rumors that his real father is actually communist dirtbag Fidel Castro.
Congress demands FBI explain why it’s dumbing down the bureau The U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary is demanding an explanation from FBI chief Christopher Wray about why the bureau is going stupid. Specifically, why the organization no longer is hiring the “best and brightest” applicants available.
Australia’s Digital ID Push Is Undermined by Data Leak Disaster The Australian government’s decision to institute a pilot program testing an online age verification system digital ID system was overshadowed by a privacy scandal concerning a legal requirement for bars and clubs in the region.
IDF says its fighter jets have shot down a drone heading to Israel from the east Israeli fighter jets during the night shot down a drone that was heading toward Israel from “the eastern direction,” the military says. The IDF says the aircraft had been tracked throughout the incident, and there was no threat to civilians. It does not elaborate on where the drone was shot down.
Christian group kicked off campus for requiring its leaders to be Christian Another student-led group is suing a university because the school kicked the group off campus for requiring student leaders to agree with their faith tenets. The University of Iowa told InterVarsity Christian Fellowship they weren’t allowed to hold their meetings on campus because they require their members to hold to specific faith standards and kicked them out — in response, InterVarsity sued.
Holocaust Remembrance Day — Don’t Just Remember, Pay Attention! Every year, in an sober display of respect, the whole country of Israel pauses for two minutes at 10:00 AM on the 27th of Nisan. People pause wherever they are, including some stopping their cars on the highway, getting out, and joining the national moment of silence to remember the six million victims of the greatest tragedy in Jewish history. The day is known as Yom HaShoah or Yom HaZikaron laShoah ve-laG’vurah (Holocaust and Heroism Remembrance Day.) It started in 1951 and became an official observance as a law passed by the Knesset in 1959.
The War on Cash: Who’s behind it and why are they doing it? …A benefit of eliminating cash and moving to a digital economy, they claim, is combating crime. However, cash isn’t all that convenient for illicit transactions. It has the disadvantage for criminals of being small-scale. For large amounts of illicit transactions, you need to go digital.
Fake meat: It’s all part of a plan to control the entire food supply What do Harvard University, internet vegans and the World Economic Forum all have in common? A religious desire for the world to go vegan. But why? Is it an effort to stop global warming? Is it an earnest attempt at making everyone healthier? Is it a desperate plea to end animal cruelty? The answers may surprise you.
Urgent Message: It’ll be too late to fight this threat when you are dead The euthanasia programme is going global and is out of control. Euthanasia is a crucial part of the plan to kill billions of us legally, cheaply and quickly. Doctors and politicians are planning to kill the disabled, the children and the poor. The anxious and the depressed will be killed too. In some countries, it is already happening.
“In the formation of our constitution the wisdom of all ages is collected — the legislators are antiquity are consulted, as well as the opinions and interests of the millions who are concerned. It short, it is an empire of reason.” —Noah Webster (1787)
Fellow Patriots, on this day in 1915, a German U-boat provoked U.S. entry into World War I by sinking the British Lusitania, killing 128 Americans and more than a thousand others. It’s somewhat ironic that 30 years later — on this day in 1945 — the Germans surrendered to Allied Forces, ending World War II in the European Theater. —Mark Alexander
At the University of Michigan’s commencement ceremony on Saturday, a handful of pro-Hamas graduates tried to ruin the day for everyone else.
Douglas Andrews
The first thing that told me this wouldn’t be just any graduation ceremony was the plane circling above our heads before we even got through the gates. You know the type: the single-seater that flies over football stadiums on gameday, pulling a giant banner and promoting a business.
Or a cause, in this case. The banner read, “WE STAND WITH ISRAEL,” which was followed by a big red heart, which was followed by a clever swipe at every social justice warrior in the stadium below: “JEWISH LIVES MATTER.”
It could’ve been worse, I suppose. After all, the filthy leftist Jew-hating rabble could’ve caused the event to be canceled — like at Columbia, or at Southern Cal. Instead, though, I was treated to the pomp of a graduation ceremony at the University of Michigan’s storied 107,601-seat football stadium, treated to what I imagine was the proudest day of thousands of young people’s lives — including the life of a particular young lady who’s much smarter and harder-working than her old man ever was.
It was no surprise that Michigan’s spring commencement would be singled out by The Mob. Michigan’s student body is approximately 15% Jewish and therefore is a target-rich environment for the pro-Hamas hordes that had long since set up a protest camp in the center of the campus, there on the diag, there to intimidate Jewish students and to denounce the tiny Middle East parcel of Jewish homeland and all those Jews and non-Jews who believe in its right to exist.
The graduation ceremony itself started smoothly enough, but then, during Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro’s presentation of ROTC grads, what seemed like 30-or-so pro-Hamas graduates, decked in their kaffiyehs and sporting their Palestinian flags, stood up en masse and formed up in the center aisle amid their fellow graduates and began to shout: “Regents, regents, you can’t hide! You are funding genocide!”
They rotated other sophomoric chants into their presentation, and they yelled “Intifada!” and called for the university to divest itself from Israel. But some in the crowd felt emboldened enough to exercise their own First Amendment rights (language warning).
There’s no telling how long the mob would’ve stayed right there, right in the midst of everything, chanting and shouting and disrupting and eliciting jeers and boos and the occasional obscenity from their fellow graduates. But then they overplayed their hand and started moving toward the stage. That’s when they were intercepted by the Michigan State Police, an action that brought a roar from the crowd. The cops then escorted The Mob to the very back, to the far endzone on the opposite end of the stage, where they stayed for the duration of the ceremony. And I’ll say this about these Jew-hating true believers: They were energetic. There wasn’t a moment during the entire ceremony when they weren’t chanting and shouting and gesticulating.
As it turned out, they had an uphill struggle. The Big House was full of folks who weren’t much interested in their protest, and there was a distinctly Jewish flavor within the commencement agenda itself. This included remarks by U of M Regent Mark Bernstein and an outstanding commencement address from a friend of Bernstein’s and a fellow U of M graduate, author Brad Meltzer, whom Bernstein called “a real mensch through and through,” or some such.
The ceremony also included remarks from Tom Braun, a faculty representative who spoke about his graduating daughter’s bat mitzvah and the Old Testament’s Tower of Babel story. Take that, rabble.
It was around this time that I noticed another plane circling above, but this one had a different message: “DIVEST FROM ISRAEL NOW! FREE PALESTINE!” Its pilot must’ve overslept because his pro-Jewish counterpart had been circling the stadium long before the ceremonies had started. Now, the two of them circled the stadium on opposite sides of a giant loop. One young man who couldn’t have cared less about Middle East politics had the same weird thought as me, though: What if those two planes dueled it out up there?
In the end, the protesters lost, and the graduates and their friends and families won. Try as they might, The Mob didn’t sufficiently disrupt the ceremonies, and I don’t think their classless behavior won them any friends or influenced any people.
But, in a way, the University of Michigan also lost. The administration had plenty of time to prepare for and counteract the disruption but instead chose a more cowardly and accommodating course: to let the tyranny of the few disrupt the otherwise memorable moment of the many. And in that sad sense, they were anything but Victors Valiant.
Trump threatened with jail, pro-Palestinian agitators at Auschwitz, Maxine Waters’s fearmongering, and more.
Douglas Andrews, Thomas Gallatin, & Jordan Candler
Cross-Examination
Entitlements are going bankru…zzzzzz: What would we do without trustees? Yesterday, they sounded the sleep-inducing entitlement alarm to tell us that, according to a new report, the combined Social Security “trust” fund will be tapped out in 2035, and the Medicare “trust” fund will follow it in 2036. That is unless Congress can agree to make some much-needed reforms to these two gargantuan programs or, far more likely, print some more money. As the Washington Examiner tells it: “The report illustrates the long-term problems facing the entitlement programs, on which tens of millions of people rely. Nevertheless, it contained good news in that the deadlines have been moved back a bit from last year’s projections. The extended timeline gives a bit more breathing room to Congress, where the looming depletion of the trust fund has become a top political issue. Both President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump have vowed not to cut the popular entitlement benefits for seniors.” Former Maryland Democrat Governor and current Social Security Commissioner Martin O’Malley calls the report “a measure of good news,” just as, we suppose, it’s good news when a car doesn’t burst into flames after crashing into a brick wall. When we were young and stupid, we thought all these Great Society programs were engineered to last forever. But a funny thing happened on the way to Al Gore’s lockbox: People started to live longer — a lot longer. “Eliminating the shortfall,” said a sanguine O’Malley, whose life in government and whose taxpayer-funded retirement plan ensures that he’ll never have to worry about such things, “will bring peace of mind to Social Security’s 70 million-plus beneficiaries, the 180 million workers and their families who contribute to Social Security, and the entire nation.” Meantime, we’ll just keep kicking these arguably unconstitutional entitlement cans down the road.
Talkative Trump threatened with jail: Once and perhaps future President Donald Trump has continued to exercise his First Amendment rights — much to the chagrin of Judge Juan Merchan and all the other Trump-haters with a stake in his trumped-up Manhattan show trial. As Fox News reports, the trial picked up again this morning after the ungaggable Trump “was again held in contempt of court, fined, threatened with jail time for future gag order violations, and told he’ll be required to sit in the Manhattan courtroom for at least another two weeks.” We guess the floggings will continue until Trump’s morale improves. But we wouldn’t count on the latter. As Judge Merchan warned him: “The last thing I want to consider is jail. You are [the] former president and possibly the next president.” He’s certainly right about that. And he likely also knows that a trip to the hoosegow for Trump would be yet another PR win and polling boost for the presumptive Republican nominee. Trump called the proceedings “election interference,” and, speaking to reporters, he said he’d like to answer their questions, “but I can’t talk about it because this judge is giving me a gag order and says you’ll go to jail if you violate it.” He added: “And frankly, you know what? Our Constitution is much more important than jail. It’s not even close. I’ll do that sacrifice any day.” Another day, another win for Trump, and another faceplant for his Democrat persecutors.
Hamas ceasefire? Hamas has accepted a Gaza ceasefire proposal devised by Egypt and Qatar. Israel, which is currently involved in its Rafah operation, has agreed to send a delegation to Cairo, Egypt, to hear and negotiate the potential ceasefire deal. However, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office explained, “The war cabinet decided Israel will continue its operation in Rafah, in order to apply military pressure on Hamas so as to advance the release of our hostages and achieve the other objectives of the war.” Netanyahu’s office added, “While the Hamas proposal is far from meeting Israel’s core demands, Israel will dispatch a ranking delegation to Egypt in an effort to maximize the possibility of reaching an agreement on terms acceptable to Israel.” Joe Biden’s National Security Advisor John Kirby confirmed that Hamas had accepted the proposal for a ceasefire and noted that CIA Director William Burns is “talking to the Israelis about it, and we’ll see where this goes.” The trouble is that the deal that Hamas has agreed to is said to be a watered-down version of a previous one proposed by Egypt, which Hamas rejected. Israel is skeptical that this new proposal will meet its demands, especially that of Hamas returning all remaining hostages. As one Israeli official commented, “This would appear to be a ruse intended to make Israel look like the side refusing a deal.”
Pro-Palestinian protesters at Auschwitz: During the annual “March of the Living” at Auschwitz in Poland, where Jewish survivors of the Holocaust gather to honor those who perished, a group of pro-Hamas “protesters” showed up to mock the event. The agitators shouted anti-Semitic slogans and floated Palestinian flags attached to balloons over the event. Of course, the anti-Semites claimed they were there simply to express Palestinian concerns against “Zionism” and not hatred of Jews. Given their choice of a memorial ceremony at a concentration camp as their venue, that’s about as believable as the schoolyard bully demanding your lunch money so he can buy you lunch. Ironically, they only served to underscore why modern-day Israel was established in the first place. Far from exposing Zionism, these anti-Semitic agitators demonstrate why it exists.
Mad Maxine’s freaky fearmongering: It would’ve been nice if Joe Biden had awarded California Democrat Congresswoman Maxine Waters the Presidential Freedom of Medal Presidential Medal of Freedom on Friday. Heck, he awarded that lifetime leftist participation trophy to most every other aging “progressive” we can think of, including San Fran Nan Pelosi. If he’d simply included Mad Maxine, maybe then she’d have gotten the hint that it’s long past time to hang ‘em up. But no. There she was on Sunday, on MSNBC host Jonathan Capehart’s little-watched “The Sunday Show,” warning of Evil Trumpers “training up in the hills somewhere” and plotting which communities they’re “going to attack” if he, ahem, loses another rigged presidential election to Joe Biden. As The Daily Wire reports, “Waters joined to discuss Trump’s recent interview for TIME Magazine, and she said that her plan was to ask President Joe Biden and the Justice Department how they planned to prepare for violence from ‘right-wing organizations.’” Because, you know, left-wing pols and left-wing mobs and left-wing pressure groupsnever incite their followers or resort to political violence.
Biden’s bid to buy Michigan’s votes: It was another sleazy, scummy vote-buying effort from an administration that finds itself increasingly more desperate by the day and by the poll. Nonetheless, as the White House website shamelessly set forth, “As part of her Economic Opportunity Tour, Vice President Harris will join Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm, Acting Secretary of Labor Julie Su, Deputy Secretary of Commerce Don Graves, Small Business Administration Deputy Administrator Dilawar Syed, and Michigan Lieutenant Governor Garlin Gilchrist II in Detroit, Michigan to announce new funding and resources for small- and medium-sized auto manufacturers and autoworkers.” For those of you keeping score at home, that’s a $100 million taxpayer gift to auto workers and small auto suppliers. Michigan, of course, is one of the swing states Donald Trump narrowly won in 2016 and Joe Biden somehow snatched back in 2020, and it’s again likely to be the center of attention between now and November 5. Thus, Team Biden’s naked attempt to use taxpayer funds to buy the Great Lakes State’s electoral votes. As The Daily Wire notes: “Of the last 11 polls taken in Michigan, eight showed former President Trump leading, one showed a tie, and two had President Biden leading. Michigan’s 15 electoral votes could prove pivotal in the close race expected between Biden and Trump.”
No-show Joe: Joe Biden has given fewer media interviews than any president in the last 40 years, and it appears that the mainstream media is tiring of his avoidance act. Of course, the primary reason Biden is avoiding the press is his advanced age and evident cognitive decline. For the most part, the MSM has played along, rarely focusing on Biden’s apparent and increasingly age-addled state. However, one can get away with only so much avoiding the press. Last month, The New York Times called Biden out, writing, “For anyone who understands the role of the free press in a democracy, it should be troubling that President Biden has so actively and effectively avoided questions from independent journalists during his term.” Politico reported that tension has developed between the Times and the Biden administration due to a lack of access to Biden. Meanwhile, the recent interviews that Biden has done have been little other than puff-piece propaganda sessions like his sit-down with Howard Stern. CNN spun it as “a larger Biden strategy” after Biden ditched the traditional Super Bowl interview: “The president is leaning far less than his predecessors on the traditional media apparatus to get his message out, opting instead for alternative mediums to address the American people.” That’s one way to put it.
MIT axes DEI hiring policy: The Massachusetts Institute of Technology recently announced that it’s ditching “diversity, equity, and inclusion” allegiance pledges for prospective faculty and staff hires. The reason for this seemingly sudden woke policy reversal, according to MIT President Sally Kornbluth, is because DEI pledges don’t work. “My goals are to tap into the full scope of human talent, to bring the very best to MIT, and to make sure they thrive once here,” Kornbluth explained. “We can build an inclusive environment in many ways, but compelled statements impinge on freedom of expression, and they don’t work.” The fact is that DEI allegiance pledges for new hires have done the opposite of promoting actual diversity of thought and have instead created an increasingly radical leftist echo chamber among school faculty. And now that DEI has been exposed to the broader public as little other than Marxism repackaged, the views of it have become increasingly negative. So much so that schools and businesses are looking for ways to rebrand DEI. Hopefully, Kornbuth’s decision on DEI is genuinely jettisoning bad policy borne of lousy ideology. Still, one can’t help but wonder if concerns over donors pulling funding played a significant role in this decision.
Headlines
Republicans to hold Garland in contempt over audio of Biden interview with Hur (Washington Examiner)
Ex-top Biden DOJ official now prosecuting Trump was once paid by DNC for “political consulting” (Fox News)
FAA launches new investigation into Boeing after company may have missed some 787 Dreamliner inspections (Fox Business) | Ten more Boeing whistleblowers (Hot Air)
Rep. Henry Cuellar and wife indicted on bribery schemes (Roll Call)
Sen. Bernie Sanders to seek reelection to fourth term (Washington Post)
George Washington University students hold “trial,” sentence administrators to death (Hot Air)
DNC prepares for violent pro-Hamas protests (Townhall)
Pro-Palestinian protesters are backed by Biden’s biggest donors (Politico)
Thirteen federal judges pledge not to hire from Columbia, call it an “incubator of bigotry” (National Review)
IDF takes over Palestinian side of Rafah crossing (Jerusalem Post)
Humor: Nation cheers as protesters announce plan to stay confined on campus indefinitely (Babylon Bee)
Fortunately, the solution to this social, economic, and political problem is a simple one.
Nate Jackson
American society has a problem, and it can be boiled down to what’s missing: millions of men aren’t in the workforce.
Two recent reports highlighted this reality. First was last Friday’s jobs report, which showed slowing job growth and yet an unchanged labor force participation rate of 62.7%. That rate is very close to the historical average rate (62.84%) going all the way back to 1948. There were just 8.5 million job openings in March, but that number isn’t finite. Jobs often create jobs.
Second was a Wall Street Journal report about job satisfaction, specifically this tidbit: “When asked how they feel overall about their jobs, most U.S. workers are positive, with 62.7% saying they are satisfied.” What are the odds that participation and satisfaction numbers would precisely match?
That match is not really the point, of course, though another data point in the Journal’s report is reason for intrigue: “Nearly 65% of men say they are happy with their jobs compared with 60% of women.”
God created people to work, and we’re happier when we do. Of course, after the Fall in the Garden of Eden, God cursed Adam in part by making work harder. That’s the fundamental reason for so many people being dissatisfied with their jobs. The good news is that capitalism gives us innumerable choices. Quitting and doing something else is often an option.
Nearly 14 million men are forgoing the workplace entirely, often without disability or other good reason.
“Using a broad definition of working age (16 to 64), the share of U.S.-born men in the labor force was 77.5 percent in April 2023, nearly the same as in 2019, pre-Covid,” reported the Center for Immigration Studies last August. “But this is significantly lower than the 83.1 percent in April 2000 and the 88.7 percent in 1960.” To put that in perspective, “If the same share of U.S.-born men (16 to 64) were in the labor force in 2023 as in 1960 there would be 9.5 million more U.S.-born men in the labor force.”
In February, the Bipartisan Policy Center came up with even starker figures for a slightly different age cohort over a slightly different period of time: “For men aged 25-54 in particular, BLS data shows that the participation rate has declined from a high of 98% in September 1954 to 89% in January 2024.”
The Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco provided further context last October, seeing a clear change between generations: “About 14% of millennial males at age 25 are not in the labor force, compared with 7% of baby boomer males when they were that age.” Fed researchers “attribute this gap at younger ages to millennials’ prolonged investments in formal education relative to earlier generations.” Yet men make up a smaller percentage of students at institutions of (ahem) higher learning than ever.
Somehow, this all seems connected to the measure of job satisfaction for both men and women. If more women are the “breadwinners,” they perhaps feel more stressed and less satisfied. If more men are layabouts or work with dissatisfied women, they, too, will feel less fulfilled.
That has huge implications for family, culture, economy, and politics.
Mike Rowe became famous for his “Dirty Jobs” show, which aimed to show the dignity of working even the most mundane and, well, dirty jobs. His mission is to convey that work has intrinsic value, perhaps particularly for men.
Back in 2018, he argued that our problem in America is simple: “We have identified work as the proximate cause of our dissatisfaction.” He added, “As a society, we’ve made the case that the enemy of your happiness is your damn job.”
The truth is just the opposite. Without work, “your soul slips out of you,” he says. “You become disengaged, you become emasculated … you become resentful.”
The Apostle Paul had sterner words for men who wouldn’t work, writing, “If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat.”
In America, of course, much of what the federal government does is to provide a “safety net” that helps people avoid work and punishes those who do work.
The great news is that the solution is simple, if also easier said than done.
Dear American men, get a job, get married, and raise a family. Doing so would yield fewer abortions, fewer angry feminists who feel abandoned and oppressed, fewer fatherless kids “growing up” to protest on college campuses or commit crimes, and far fewer people voting Democrat because they’re dependent on government handouts.
It all starts with the most straightforward task, God-given at the moment of creation — work itself. It’s almost like humans were designed with that pattern in mind.
Companies are using different language to hide their detrimental DEI/ESG policies.
Emmy Griffin
Diversity, equity, and inclusion (collectively known as DEI) sound like positive attributes. However, like critical race theory (CRT) and affirmative action (AA), DEI masks an agenda that is anything but positive. DEI comes from the perspective that minorities should get preferential treatment when it comes to jobs, grants, academic reforms, and even disciplinary policies. In the business world, DEI is a way to add to a company’s environmental, social, and governance (ESG) score — yet another leftist effort at rigging the system.
However, the term “DEI” is fading from the corporate lexicon. As The Washington Post notes: “Amid growing legal, social and political backlash, American businesses, industry groups and employment professionals are quietly scrubbing DEI from public view — though not necessarily abandoning its practice. As they rebrand programs and hot-button acronyms, they’re reassessing decades-old anti-discrimination strategies and rewriting policies that once emphasized race and gender to prioritize inclusion for all.”
What is wrong with DEI? The same thing that’s wrong with CRT, AA, and ESG — it emphasizes superficial attributes such as race, gender, or sexual orientation and ignores the more significant and important attributes such as good character, qualifications, and merit. It’s a communistic idea that classifies people based on superficial attributes and grants them a certain amount of “oppressed status.”
Dan Lennington of the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty points out that even just providing DEI based on “minorities” is flawed because there is no universal definition of what constitutes a minority. Some African-Americans are considered “white.” Not everyone from South America is considered Hispanic since that refers to Spanish-speaking people. Brazilians, for instance, speak Portuguese.
However, leftists aren’t going to be bogged down by defining terms. They are much more interested in pushing forward with their agenda and winning. In this case, leftists are using their favorite method — simply rebranding. DEI is now “People and Planet Metrics” or some other term conjured up by a company’s legal team or human resources department. In other words, they aren’t changing course, they’re just hiding it better.
DEI, in any form it decides to take, is discriminatory in a negative way. It cripples some it wrongly deems unworthy and elevates others based on characteristics that are arbitrary or politically chic. As Jenin Younes and Christopher Rufo aptly state: “The only constitutional and moral approach is to establish a single, color-blind standard applicable to all individuals, regardless of their background. Any policies which, by definition, subordinate the individual to the group and suppress our speech will harm our nation in the long run and exacerbate, rather than resolve, racial and ethnic prejudice.”
Until the fruits of the poisoned tree of intersectional hierarchy are rooted out, there will never be true justice or equality, and the people who are ultimately hurt the most are the people leftists purport to help.
By trying to find moral equivalence where none exists, Joe Biden is prolonging the conflict between Hamas and Israel.
Michael Swartz
When Joe Biden gave his State of the Union address this year, he bragged, “No one has a stronger record with Israel than I do.”
The strength of that record, though, may depend on your perspective. While Biden reportedly considers Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu another word for the south end of a northward-traveling donkey who needed a “come-to-Jesus meeting,” most Americans still support Israel’s fight to defend itself. This is a fight that yesterday opened another front, as Israeli forces ordered civilians to evacuate a portion of the city of Rafah, which is believed to be the last holdout of Hamas fighters, and soon seized the Gaza side.
Hamas is supposedly (but not believably) eager for a ceasefire brokered by Egypt and Qatar, and the Israelis are working on both military and diplomatic solutions. Meanwhile, Biden has made a tic-tac-toe board of red lines over the last few months as the world awaited the all-but-inevitable Rafah invasion. At the same time, he’s dealing with his own unrest back home, as college campuses have erupted in protests seldom seen since the Vietnam War.
While the unhinged Left is trying to paint Biden as “pumping unending military aid into the Israeli war machine” and whining about his pro-Israel stance, the far-left People’s World complained that Biden was criticizing tuition-paying debt-ridden students but “has said nothing about the trespassing carried out by Israeli settlers in the West Bank and elsewhere.” But the real “scoop” last week was about how, according to Israeli officials, Biden has put a hold on a promised American ammunition shipment to the Israelis.
Some, such as Scott Johnson at Power Line, see this as a signal of Biden’s tacit support of Hamas — support that is alleged to have come with a price. Yet it’s probable that Biden is only delaying the inevitable. The editors of The Wall Street Journal would like to see this conflict end with the cleaning out of Rafah, and they had this to say about Biden’s equivocation:
Mr. Biden’s strategy of pressuring Israel to make concessions that its government and citizens are united against hasn’t worked. It hasn’t won concessions from Hamas and its allies in Iran and Lebanon. And it hasn’t tamed the anti-Israel protests in the U.S. that threaten his re-election.
Mr. Biden was in a stronger position, politically and strategically, when he spoke with moral clarity about Hamas and in support of Israel after Oct. 7. The fastest way to end the war is with an Israeli victory, and withholding weapons is exactly the wrong message to send an ally under siege.
Thousands of unruly college students have been buffeted by pro-Gaza propaganda, including inflated body counts, and they are becoming the best campaign commercial Donald Trump doesn’t have to buy. After all, “from the river to the sea” means eliminating Israel from the map, no matter how the Left tries to spin it otherwise.
The tightrope Joe Biden is walking in trying to appease both Hamas and the Israelis is getting more and more frayed, just like the nerves of those folks trying to make their way around college campuses without stumbling upon the squalor of pop-up tent cities. We like the way columnist Josh Hammer described this: “The doddering dolt from Delaware has been on a monthslong crusade to mollycoddle Hamas, a U.S. State Department-recognized foreign terrorist organization that slaughtered dozens of American citizens last October and still holds many hostage today in Gaza. The senile octogenarian, a mere puppet of his addlebrained ventriloquists, is now all in for Hamas.”
That may win Joe Biden a few votes from the Soros-backed agitators helping to create chaos on college campuses, but there are a lot more of us who would prefer the crackdown start now and finish up before another long, hot summer plagues the presidential campaign season.
Ultimately, we suspect that when the competing foreign policy records of Joe Biden and Donald Trump are weighed and measured, Biden will be found lacking.
His plan would raise taxes on everyone and would serve only to hamstring the economy.
Thomas Gallatin
Joe Biden wants to tax as many dollars and cents out of the American public as he can get away with confiscating. That is the practical takeaway from his recently published 2025 budget plan.
Couched in the Democrats’ tired and disingenuous rationale of making sure the rich “pay their fair share,” Biden wants to massively increase the capital gains tax. Currently, the maximum tax on capital gains is 20%. Biden’s plan is to raise it to 45%.
Of course, the Biden administration claims this will only affect the wealthy. The fact that the American economy is a capitalistic free market quickly belies this dishonest oversimplification.
Capital gains result from people’s investments. The more people invest, the more businesses grow, the economy expands, and industry develops. Therefore, the more money people have to invest freely, the greater the overall capital or fuel for powering the economy.
But taxing capital gains acts as an investment inhibitor, which throttles the economy. When the government increases capital gains taxes, it removes the incentive of those with wealth to invest — and everyone, not just the wealthy, loses.
What is so maddening about Democrats when it comes to taxes is their apparent abject inability to understand basic economics. They assume that taxing people more will result in more revenue for the government, but that is a shortsighted approach to generating temporary revenue growth for the government’s coffers that only serves to slow economic growth. They do this for political purposes, of course, not economic ones.
The great irony is that in the long run, the government would actually gain tax revenue by lowering tax rates, especially for the wealthy and corporations, who already pay the overwhelming majority of the tax burden. With the federal government spending money like a drunken sailor and sending the national debt over the $34 trillion mark, one would think that generating greater revenue to pay down the dangerous level of debt would be a priority — but apparently not for the Biden administration.
Raising the capital gains tax to astronomical levels, though, is only part of Biden’s budget plan. He also intends to make sure the Trump-era tax cuts expire, which would raise tax rates on everyone, not just the wealthy as Biden claims.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was asked whether her boss still supports that expiration without anything else in place. She responded by dodging the question and then rambling about Biden’s bogus talking point: “So, look, the — as you said, the president is going to allow — is going to — is — is going to let the Trump tax cut expire. And he was very clear. But he will not raise taxes on anyone making less than $400,000 a year. That is — that is part of the budget that you saw come out. And it’s going to expire for the wealthy. So, [he’s] been very clear about that.” She added, “You know, look, this is a president that’s going to make sure that we protect and not raise taxes for — for people making $400,000 and less a year.”
Jean-Pierre was pressed again by her questioner: “But still, the president can’t pick and choose which part of the law sunsets. The entire law will sunset. And the — the Tax Foundation says that someone who’s married, two kids, making $85,000 would pay $1,700 more in taxes. That’s somebody under $400,000 who would…”
She interrupted to repeat the same nonsensical talking point about how Biden would “protect working- — working- and middle-class Americans making less than $400,000 a year. He’s been very clear on th- — about that.”
Is KJP ever clear about anything?
The relevant question is this: How exactly would Biden be keeping his promise not to raise taxes on Americans making less than $400,000 a year if he does away with the Trump tax cuts? The answer amounted to, He will, but we can’t tell you how.
Once again, do these people even know how money works? Apparently not, given a recent viral video clip from one of Biden’s top economic advisers, Jared Bernstein. In an interview for a documentary called “Finding the Money,” he was asked why, since the government prints money, it doesn’t just borrow money. The presented idea is known as Modern Monetary Theory, or what might best be described as the economics of crackpots. In other words, it’s the economic equivalent of claiming that money does grow on trees.
Bernstein, who has no degree in economics, responded by offering a muddled non-answer: “The U.S. government can’t go bankrupt, because we can print our own money. Like you said, they print the dollar, so why does the government even borrow? Again, some of this stuff gets — some of the language and concepts are just confusing. The government definitely prints money, and it definitely lends that money by selling bonds. Is that what they do? They sell bonds, yeah, they sell bonds. Right? Since they sell bonds, and people buy the bonds and lend them the money.”
After more rambling, Bernstein concluded: “I guess I’m just, I can’t really, I don’t get it, I don’t know what they’re talking about. … It’s like, the government clearly prints money, it does it all the time, and it clearly borrows. Otherwise, you wouldn’t be having this debt and deficit conversation. So I don’t think there’s anything confusing there.”
Wow, that was clear as mud. Bernstein’s incoherence exemplifies Team Biden’s utter lack of business experience and sense. That’s one reason why Biden’s fiscal policy has been so disastrous. Biden saddled Americans with sustained high inflation with no seeming end in sight. Furthermore, Biden’s proposed budget plan contains nothing that would turn the country away from its current negative economic course.
The biggest reason Biden is polling so badly is his poor economic leadership. Americans are hurting, and they want a change. Indeed, they want a return to Donald Trump’s boom years. While journalists always had their hair on fire over the mere sight of him in the White House, the rest of the country enjoyed seeing their economic prospects grow.
Editor’s Note: Each week we receive hundreds of comments and correspondences — and we read every one of them. Click here for a few thought-provoking comments about specific articles. The views expressed therein don’t necessarily reflect those of The Patriot Post.
Universities Are Safe Spaces for Intifadas — Different universities are dealing with pro-Hamas demonstrations in different ways … mostly by caving to every single radical demand while ensuring that no one’s feelings are hurt.
Hung Jury for AZ Rancher — The trial for an Arizona rancher accused of shooting an illegal immigrant on his border property has ended in a hung jury, and the state has announced it will not retry the case.
How to Stop the Border Crisis — Todd Bensman has spent the last 20 years dealing with the issue of immigration. He’d pretty much seen it all — that is, until policy changes in 2021 launched an unparalleled crisis on America’s borders.
Satire: Woke Jesus — Want proof that Jesus was a woke socialist? Look no further than these classic quotes straight from the Bible.
“I congratulate the Presidential Freedom of Medal recipients.” —Joe Biden
“Let’s give one more round of applause for this year’s Presidential Freedom recipients.” —Joe Biden
Swampthink
“The [tree of] liberty is watered with the blood of patriots — I mean, that’s a bunch of crap.” —Joe Biden
Fearmongering
“I’m going to ask the Justice Department and I’m going to ask the president to tell us what they’re going to do to protect this country against violence if [Trump] loses. I want to know about all of those right-wing organizations that he’s connected with who are training up in the hills somewhere and targeting, you know, what communities they’re going to attack.” —Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA)
Moral Equivalence
“There’s no place for anti-Semitism. There’s no place for Islamophobia.” —Biden campaign co-chair Mitch Landrieu
For the Record
“What we’re seeing is raw Jew-hatred. Period. End of story. It’s Jewish students who are being verbally harassed and physically assaulted. But the sad reality is that Joe Biden is so terrified of losing Muslim votes in Michigan and Minnesota that he cannot directly condemn anti-Semitism without giving equal time to Islamophobia, even though much of the anti-Semitism is the result of Islamic supremacism.” —Gary Bauer
“We should add college students who promote terrorism on behalf of Hamas to the TSA No Fly List.” —Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN)
Non Compos Mentis
“The U.S. government can’t go bankrupt because we can print our own money.” —Council of Economic Advisers Chair Jared Bernstein
“The government definitely prints money, and then it lends that money by selling bonds. Uh, is that what they do? They, they, um. They, yeah. They, they, um, they sell bonds — yeah, they sell bonds. … There is no question that the government prints money and then it uses that money to, um, uh, uh, uh. So, um.” —Jared Bernstein
Non Sequitur
“Well I think that people have been through a lot since the pandemic, and you certainly saw President Biden take office and make sure that things really turned around pretty quickly.” —Jared Bernstein when asked: “More voters from Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin believe the economy was better under Donald Trump than it is now. Why do you think that is?”
Spin Doctor
“Wages are rising faster than prices, incomes are higher than before the pandemic, and unemployment has remained below 4% for the longest stretch in 50 years. We have more to do to lower costs for hardworking families, but we’re making real progress.” —Joe Biden
Who’s Ready for More Taxes?
“The president … is going to let the Trump tax cut expire.” —White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre
Lack of Self-Awareness Award
“There’s still more work to be done, including what we intend to do … in a second term, which includes affordable housing and making housing more affordable.” —Kamala Harris, whose administration made housing unaffordable in the first place
Belly Laughs of the Day
“In President Biden and our administration, you see competence. You see a steady hand. You see someone who cares about the American people. And we have gone about solving problems.” —Kamala Harris
“This is an administration that is committed to fixing the broken immigration system.” —Karine Jean-Pierre
A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing
“There’s nothing good about Biden issuing his [National Day of Prayer] proclamation in the wake of his constant promoting of abortion on demand and forcing our daughters to share bathrooms with boys. This is a president who has declared war on men and women who love Jesus and who love America. Applauding this proclamation is like applauding an enemy for his effective use of camouflage.” —Gary Bauer
Political Futures
“[Biden] pledged a restoration of national unity and global tranquility if he became president. Not only has he failed to achieve his goals. His very policies put them out of reach. We were promised competence. We got chaos.” —Matthew Continetti
“In a contest between chaos presidents, Trump has a double advantage. Not only is he a challenger whose record is viewed more favorably than Biden’s. He is also associated, rightly or wrongly, with authority, with law and order, with the police and the military and the working-class elements in American society.” —Matthew Continetti
Historically, the leaders of Israel have consistently failed to rely solely on God for their deliverance regarding enemies. Instead, Israel often chose to pursue a treaty with other nations; often nations that God wanted eradicated because of their abominations. Those treaties would outwardly provide Israel with the needed support to wage war against another enemy. Unfortunately for Israel, this type of treaty was something that God usually disproved of and because of it, brought remonstrance on Israel itself. In fact, there are many examples of this occurring throughout the Hebrew Scriptures and it continues to this very day.
A case in point is seen during the reign of King Asa in 2 Chronicles. He started off well as we learn in chapter 14:2-6. The actions of King Asa highlighted there are stark compared to the actions of most other kings of both Israel and Judah. It is clear Asa wanted to do what was right in God’s eyes and he did it. These things pleased the Lord and because of this, God gave King Asa rest from wars. This would have been a good template for all kings to have done but many simply did not do these things. In fact, most kings deliberately turned the hearts of the people of Israel/Judah against God and paid the terrible price for it.
King Asa was different than most of the other kings. Later in 2 Chronicles 14, we read where an enemy came out against King Asa and we also read of Asa’s prayer to God (v 11).
And Asa cried out to the Lord his God, and said, “Lord, it is nothing for You to help, whether with many or with those who have no power; help us, O Lord our God, for we rest on You, and in Your name we go against this multitude. O Lord, You are our God; do not let man prevail against You!”
So God did prevail because King Asa turned to God and depended on Him and Him alone for victory. 2 Chronicles 15 tells us of the actual reforms King Asa made in Judah, even deposing his own mother who had made an abominable image of an Asherah (v 16). God blessed King Asa with rest from war until the 35th year of his reign (v 19).
Then what happened? The answer is clearly given to us in 2 Chronicles 16:1-3.
1 In the thirty-sixth year of the reign of Asa, Baasha king of Israel came up against Judah and built Ramah, that he might let none go out or come in to Asa king of Judah. 2 Then Asa brought silver and gold from the treasuries of the house of the Lord and of the king’s house, and sent to Ben-Hadad king of Syria, who dwelt in Damascus, saying, 3 “Let there be a treaty between you and me, as there was between my father and your father. See, I have sent you silver and gold; come, break your treaty with Baasha king of Israel, so that he will withdraw from me.”
So King Asa was concerned that King Baasha of Israel was coming against him (Judah). So instead of doing what he had done previously by relying directly and only on the LORD, King Asa went to the king of Syria – Ben-Hadad – and enticed him to break his treaty with Baasha and unite with him (King Asa) against Israel. Because of this lapse, God sent Hanani the seer to King Asa to tell him God’s heart in the matter (vv 7-9) and warn him that there would be wars from now on.
God decided that because of King Asa’s reliance on other human beings and not God Himself, King Asa would finish out his years as king fighting wars. Up until that time, there had been rest because of Asa’s trust in the LORD.
By the way, any of us can do the same thing. If we are not forever mindful of how easily we will stray from Him, we will stray from Him. We will go off on our own, even if we’ve been living a life of service to Him for decades. It doesn’t take much because our sin nature is always looking for opportunities to ditch God. The fact that King Asa continued with God for 34 years is a marvel in itself.
So why am I relating these things? Certainly not to judge King Asa or Israel for that matter. It is to point out the fact that Israel has never completely and finally learned this same lesson and to this very day, has still not learned it. There seems a bit less reliance on other nations as evidenced by the fact that PM Netanyahu continues to push on to eradicate Hamas and has now undertaken the military invasion of Rafah. This is being done in spite of the fact that the US now wants a six-week cease fire even though Hamas/Iran/proxies will likely break that ceasefire if entered into.
The USA has some nerve here to decide how Israel (or any nation), should determine its own welfare and future. It appears as though Israel is ignoring the wants of US leaders and is doing what Israel should do to ensure its own safety and future survival. Still, much of the world stands against Israel and it seems clear that the USA is also standing against Israel as well by massive attempts to block Israel’s efforts against Hamas and Iran. Our leaders say one thing – “We support Israel’s right to defend itself!” – all the while demanding that Israel does things the way US leaders say things should be done.
Can you imagine a neighbor telling you that you should not do everything you could to make your own household safe and if a thief or group of thieves breaks in, you should just “let it go” if they ended up not harming you or your family? That would be absurd. If someone breaks into your home there is a duty to defend your homestead, family and animals against that threat and may include lethal force.
So, while Israel is starting to show signs that it is learning to rely on itself (and will eventually and ultimately come to rely on God alone), more headway needs to be made clearly. In essence, it seems clear that God’s plan is to put Israel on one side of the aisle completely alone and ultimately vulnerable, while all other nations actively stand against Israel (or don’t care and won’t help Israel). Why? Because it will force Israel to come to her knees before God, to learn to depend solely and only on God Almighty, the very Creator of Israel.
I want to be clear in my support for Israel and I’ve said that many times before. I support what God is ultimately going to accomplish in Israel. He will one day gather a final remnant from all of Israel (Romans 9-11). That final remnant will survive the coming Tribulation and will enter into the Millennial Kingdom as the final nation of Israel, over which Jesus, Israel’s One and Only Messiah, will rule. That remnant nation will then fully enjoy all aspects of every promise originally given to Abraham, Moses, the prophets et al regarding Israel. In order for this to happen though, Israel must come to the end of self-reliance. Israel is not yet there as they still rely on themselves and other nations (for supplies, military equipment and money).
I also support Israel by not standing in Israel’s way. I cannot help but notice an increase in evangelicals who support Mike Johnson because he ostensibly supports Israel. The problems with Mike Johnson are manifold and frankly, if the USA would simply get out of Israel’s way, that would be support enough. While Johnson claims to support Israel, his actual support for USA is negligible as seen in the fact that more Democrats (including Pelosi), are fighting to keep him in as Speaker of the House.[1] What does that tell you? Seems it’s lost on the evangelicals who blindly support Johnson, all because of his alleged support for Israel, but I digress.
Consider Ezekiel 38-39 (aka the Northern Invasion), where we see Israel is out of the blue attacked by Gog and his troops and proxies. During that attack (presumably to take spoil), the world sits by and does nothing except to ask the question, “What are you doing, Gog?”
But what is fascinating about this attack is how God Himself thwarts it, first by generating a tremendously huge earthquake that will be felt throughout the world and will destroy much. Then the God of Israel turns Gog’s troops on each other for major destruction (Ezekiel 38:18-23). So, between the earthquake, the fire and brimstone God rains down and the pestilence and bloodshed God sends, little is left standing. I personally believe this particular response by God will begin to open Israel’s eyes far wider than what they are now having to deal with in the Middle East, even after Iran’s recent rocket, UAV attack against Israel.
During the Northern Invasion War of Ezekiel 38-39, the destruction will be so complete that it will take Israel seven months to bury all the bodies of troops who came against Israel (Ezekiel 39:11-16). Stop to consider that please.
Right now, Israel is waging a war against terrorists who lie for their own advantage and are backed by Iran, her proxies and several other nations, even including clueless college students throughout America. These people seek the death of Israel by any means necessary and they don’t even understand why. It’s like listening to someone trying to explain why they think Donald J. Trump is a “racist.” He may be many things, but he’s not a racist. Yet, these people firmly believe he is a racist and they do their best to try to explain it although when all is said and done, they don’t even sound as coherent as two year-olds in their responses. Just maddening.
The question of course can be asked, why is Israel so hated? I’ve answered that question before but let me address it again. Israel is the nation that God created in order to, among other things, bring Israel’s Messiah and the Gentile’s Savior into this world for salvation to anyone who would come to Him. Satan wanted desperately to stop it but failed. Even after Jesus was born, through Herod, Satan tried to eradicate Jesus and again failed. Satan failed repeatedly to stop Jesus at every turn (Revelation 12).
Because of Satan’s continued failures where Israel (and God), is concerned, his only recourse is to attempt to utterly destroy the nation of Israel and all Jewish people. This, believe it or not, is Satan’s goal and he knows that if he is able to secure it, he will be victorious over God. So to that end, Satan works, using any means at his disposal to incite this nation or that one or this group of people or that one against God’s chosen Israel. Hatred of Jewish people and Israel is once again, ramping up (Matthew 24).
The utter stupidity of Satan’s endeavor is glaring. We’ve all heard the expression that stupidity means doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. This is Satan. He has lost, will lose and ultimately, will be forever lost himself. There is zero chance of him winning against God. Yet, Satan tries and can at least console himself throughout eternity with the knowledge that for every Jewish person he gets killed who does not know Jesus as Messiah, he has “gained” something against God.
The problem of course, is that God will not lose and never has. Israel will succeed and become exactly what God intended them to be in the end. Jewish people who are part of the final remnant will come to acknowledge their need for Jesus and gain salvation because of it. They will become a nation wholly sold out to God in Christ, always persevering in His will for His glory. Israel is clearly not there yet and that is because God is not done with Israel. However, it is clear that things are building to a climax in the Middle East.
So what should Christians do? Continue to pray, to praise and to trust that God is going to do what He promised He will do, not just where Israel is concerned, but with respect to all aspects of His future will that is yet to be unrolled. This is the best way Christians can actually support Israel; through prayer and praise for God’s perfect will that will come to fruition in His appointed time and in His chosen way. We also need to seriously get out of Israel’s way and let Israel make their own mistakes as they become increasingly conformed to God’s will. By getting out of Israel’s way, we will be supporting Israel by letting God do His work in that nation. God will turn them around.
God has given us two choices where Israel is concerned: to bless or curse. Blessing Israel means, not necessarily giving them ample supplies of money or military equipment. It means to allow them to find their own way where God is concerned, to not dictate to Israel. Cursing Israel means to deliberately stand in their way, to keep them from exercising autonomy as a nation, to force them to continue their reliance on other nations (including the USA), instead of God Himself.
By all means, let’s bless Israel by taking our hands off, by giving that nation to God for His keeping and to trust Him to bring victory out of chaos in His way and in His time.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) has launched an investigation into Special Counsel Jack Smith following recent admission that some of the evidence in President Trump’s ‘classified’ documents case was altered or manipulated after being seized by the FBI during its raid on Mar-a-Lago.
The Gateway Pundit reported that Jack Smith’s admission came in response to Trump’s co-defendant, Walt Nauta’s, legal team’s concerns about discrepancies in the evidence’s organization.
Walt Nauta, a former White House valet and Navy veteran who later served as a personal staffer at Mar-a-Lago and was indicted alongside Trump last year, claimed through his attorney that the order of items in the seized boxes did not match their scans provided during discovery.
In a late Friday filing, Smith conceded that the FBI had indeed moved documents around within the boxes that contained ‘classified’ information. This directly contradicts earlier Department of Justice (DOJ) assurances to the court that the contents’ arrangement had been preserved intact.
According to a footnote in the motion reviewed by The Gateway Pundit, the FBI messed with the boxes containing the ‘classified’ documents they seized from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate.
Footnote 3: The Government acknowledges that this is inconsistent with what Government counsel previously understood and represented to the Court. See, e.g., 4/12/24 Hearing Tr. at 65 (Government responding to the Court’s question of whether the boxes were “in their original, intact form as seized” by stating “[t]hey are, with one exception; and that is that the classified documents have been removed and placeholders have been put in the documents.”
In August 2022, the DOJ lied to the Court by asserting that the red, blue, and yellow sheets displayed in the widely circulated photo of the ‘classified’ documents indicated their classification status. It turns out they were “slip sheets” the FBI used to replace the so-called classified documents.
The DOJ lied, claiming, “Evidence, thirteen boxes or containers contained documents with classification markings, and in all, over one hundred unique documents with classification markings-that is, more than twice the amount produced on June 3, 2022, in response to the grand jury subpoena were seized. Certain of the documents had colored cover sheets indicating their classification status. See, e.g., Attachment F (redacted FBI photograph of certain documents and classified cover sheets recovered from a container in the “45 office”). The classification levels ranged from CONFIDENTIAL to TOP SECRET information, and certain documents included additional sensitive compartments that signify very limited distribution.”
The FBI admitted they messed with Trump’s documents! The FBI used cover sheets as placeholders for the classified documents.
“After the boxes were brought to WFO, the FBI created an index to correlate the documents with classification markings to codes (e.g., document “bb”) and labeled the classified cover sheets in the boxes with the codes for the seized documents. The FBI also generally replaced the handwritten sheets with classified cover sheets annotated with the index code, but regardless, any handwritten sheets that currently remain in the boxes do not represent additional classified documents—they were just not removed when the classified cover sheets with the index code were added. In many but not all instances, the FBI was able to determine which document with classification markings corresponded to a particular placeholder sheet.”
Jack Smith also claimed the FBI found so many classified documents that they ran out of ‘slip sheets.’
“The investigative team used classified cover sheets for that purpose, until the FBI ran out because there were so many classified documents, at which point the team began using blank sheets with handwritten notes indicating the classification level of the document(s) seized,” Jack Smith laughably claimed.
In response to these revelations, President Trump took to Truth Social, calling for the arrest of Jack Smith, labeling the prosecution a “sham.”
“ARREST DERANGED JACK SMITH. HE IS A CRIMINAL!” Trump said in a Truth Social post this weekend.
Chairman Jim Jordan expressed grave concern about the justice system’s impartiality and adherence to professional standards within the DOJ.
In a letter addressed to Jeffrey Ragsdale, Counsel of the Department of Justice’s Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR), Jordan stated, “This acknowledgment presents grave concerns about the Department’s commitment to impartial justice, whether the Special Counsel’s Office misled a federal court, and whether the Special Counsel’s Office strenuously upheld the highest professional standards of the Department of Justice.”
Jordan demanded that the OPR investigate Jack Smith, Jay Bratt (a senior member of Smith’s office), and other attorneys involved, citing serious ethical lapses in the prosecution.
The House Judiciary Committee has demanded to produce the following documents and information:
All documents and communications referring or relating to any allegation of ethical impropriety or any OPR investigation concerning the conduct of Jack Smith, Jay Bratt, or any other attorney assigned to work with the Office of Special Counsel Jack Smith;
All documents and communications referring or relating to the manipulation of documents seized from President Trump’s residence at Mar-a-Lago; and
All documents and communications referring or relating to Jay Bratt interactions with Walt Nauta’s defense counsel, including allegations that Bratt attempted to coerce Mr. Nauta’s cooperation with the government by leveraging the prosect of a judgeship for his counsel.
The deadline set for the DOJ to respond to the Committee’s demands for information and a briefing is 5:00 p.m. on May 20, 2024.
#NEWS: @Jim_Jordan investigates Jack Smith’s acknowledgment that some of the evidence in President Trump’s classified documents case was altered or manipulated after it was seized by the FBI in its raid on Mar-a-Lago. pic.twitter.com/9Qn6h9D3h5
Hanson studied four historical examples of wartime extinction that he features in the book. Then he applies those lessons to contemporary society to examine our own vulnerabilities. The book is on sale today, and Hanson spoke with The Daily Signal to share his observations along with some advice about what’s at stake for the United States in the short term.
Rob Bluey: Could you share with our listeners your motivation for doing this book?
Victor Davis Hanson: I’ve written a lot of books on military history and I’ve come across cases where the defeated didn’t just become occupied or surrender unconditionally or have change of governments or suffer grievous losses, but they were completely wiped out.
And by that I mean, it wasn’t just their physical space, their populations—of course, in the ancient world, they enslaved anybody, they didn’t kill—but their language, their culture, their civilization, their religion disappeared within a generation. So, for today, we don’t know much about Punic culture in North Africa or the Aztecs in Mexico.
It didn’t happen frequently, but what were the conditions under which it occurred? And then, I have a long epilogue trying to speculate if that could still happen given that the agents of annihilation—nuclear, bio, chemical, [artificial intelligence]—are much easier to use than muscular labor of the past.
Bluey: In what ways are we today vulnerable to the threat of extinction?
Hanson: I tried to look at a pattern—if there was a pattern. In all these cases, these societies did not realize they were in decline. They did not realize that, in the past, when they had wars, there were usually negotiations between the victor and the defeated, they had no idea who Cortés was, who Scipio was, who Mehmed II was, or Alexander, that these were killers, and they were different sorts than they had encountered before.
They also had this kind of naive egocentric idea that allies would come to their rescue—the Spartans will come and save us, the Venetians will come to Constantinople, the Macedonians will attack the Romans from the rear. And they didn’t really understand that all allies are self-interested.
And then, finally, they didn’t understand that these killers, the destroyers, were not like Genghis Khan or Tamerlane, they were men of education. Alexander was tutored by Aristotle. Scipio Aemilianus had Polybius, had his side, the great Roman historian, when he destroyed the city. Mehmed had the largest library in the Islamic world. Cortes was a man of letters.
So, they didn’t realize that they had thought deeply about how to destroy. They didn’t just come in, kill, rape women, and leave. They really had an existential plan to erase these cities.
And when you look at today, there’s the same idea that no one would ever do that, it couldn’t happen here, this is in the past.
So, I went through in the epilogue and looked at all the threats of extinction that we have seen in, say, the last 15 years. I was shocked.
It wasn’t just Kim Jong Un saying that he wanted to wipe out South Korea, and he would, but it was people like Erdogan, [Turkish President] Recep Erdogan, he has threatened, he said not too long ago, about eight months ago, that the Athenians, the modern Athenians, would wake up one morning and there would be a barrage of rockets to wipe them out. That was anger over his attempt to take back islands that are Greek off the coast of Turkey.
He said to the Armenians at Nagorno-Karabakh—a year ago, they ethnically cleansed every Armenian out of Azerbaijan. And they had been there for a thousand years. And he said, “We are going to deal with Armenia itself in the way that our grandfathers did.” And that was, of course, the destruction of Armenian culture in Turkey.
Victor Davis Hanson, a bestselling author, columnist, and scholar and historian at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, speaks with Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts in April 2024. (Photo courtesy of The Heritage Foundation)
We know what the Iranians have said. There was a very controversial statement by [Former Iran President Akbar Hashemi] Rafsanjani, about 20 years ago, but more, that’s been reiterated lately, in a variety of contexts, that the idea of Israel is the home of devout Jews is actually a gift to Iran because it concentrates devout Jews in one place.
Half the world’s Jewry is now in Israel, but more importantly, these are the observant Jews, and they are at what Rafsanjani called a one-bomb state, that one nuclear weapon could erase Jewish civilization itself.
[Russian President Vladimir] Putin, of course, says that Ukraine is an aberration that doesn’t really exist, it was a province of the Soviet Union, and the language should be obliterated, it should be reincorporated into Russia. I’ve counted about 16 statements in the press that Russian generals, Russian media, or Russian government officials have said if the war were to continue, they would use nuclear weapons.
In the case of China, they have threatened to wipe out Taiwan and destroy the bastard idea of a Taiwanese civilization, they say it doesn’t exist. And they’ve threatened to nuke, as well, Japan if it aids Taiwan.
I only mentioned that because I’ve had pretty good luck with Chinese publishers buying books on military history. I wrote a book on World War II they purchased, but they sent a letter to my publisher and basically said if I didn’t take that sentence out of the book, then they were going to cancel the publication agreement. And, of course, I couldn’t take it out. Instead, I sent back, not just one threat of Taiwan, I found about 15 others, and I said, “This is ridiculous, you’ve done this more than—” And so, they’ve canceled the Chinese translation. But it’s pretty prevalent.
And also, the denial. People on the walls of Constantinople said, “We can work with a sultan. He won’t kill everybody.” And people said, “Alexander the Great is a philosopher, he won’t obliterate us like Philip did,” … or something like that.
And when you see the same denial, people get very angry when you mention Putin’s threats, they say, “Oh, he’s just bluster. He would never do that.” And, “Kim Jong Un would never do that.” And, “I’m not sure that’s true.” History says that the odds are they won’t, but it’s happened and there’s no second chances when that happens.
Bluey: What role do you think technology is playing in either facilitating or even exasperating the potential for these actors to destroy other societies?
Hanson: I think we learned with COVID gain-of-function research that the technology was accelerating much more rapidly than the social, political, economic, cultural analysis of how to handle it. And there were people who were freelancing, like EcoHealth, for example, that was giving expertise to the Wuhan lab. I think the same thing is true of AI.
Unfortunately, I work at Stanford right next to Silicon Valley, so when I go out and eat dinner at night, I often listen to conversations of techies and I know people who give to Stanford, etc. I have very little confidence on their moral sense. I have a great deal of confidence that they’re very adept in high-tech research like AI.
So my point is that when we see things like the FBI hiring Twitter contractors to suppress news about a laptop in the last election, these are the same people, the same mentalities that will be in charge of AI.
And there was, I mentioned in the book, a Pentagon simulation in which they used a computer launch completely directed by an AI program. And so, they sent a missile on a computer and they programmed every defense mechanism in it possible. So as it went into the computer, they launched computer simulations of air attacks from aircraft, from anti-ballistic missile systems, weather problems, etc. And then, when it was almost over, they had the computer kill the launch because it was over.
Well, the launch didn’t kill, it turned around and went back at the launch person because it had been programmed to think spontaneously about a threat. So the person who launched the missile had never thought that the missile would attack him.
And so, they shut down the entire experiment because they realized that they didn’t have the capability in the real world of ensuring that an AI couldn’t reason or analyze a threat, including the person who launched the missile, which would be the greatest threat of all if he canceled the missile and aborted it.
So things like that are pretty scary, just like the COVID and the biochemical, etc.
And I think if you look at what these people said in the past, I was just shocked about the denial.
Montezuma said, “We’re going to be here forever.” He had visions of the Cortes were some type of deities maybe, but he thought he could appease them.
And the same thing was true of the Carthaginians, they said, “You know what? We will give up our elephant. We’ll do everything. The Romans won’t do this.” And they had no intention of doing anything else other than destroying them.
So I do think there’s people—like the Chinese Communist government, like the government in South Korea, like the government in Turkey, like the government in Iran—who are in a whole different moral universe than what we think they’re in.
Bluey: Do you think that some of that denial exists here in the United States today?
Hanson: Absolutely.
I don’t think the average American understands that the Chinese are producing four ships per year to our one ship. Or that if you took any of our $15 billion carriers and you put them in the straits between Taiwan and China, they wouldn’t last more than an hour given the Chinese have developed missile batteries where they could launch 5,000 or 6,000 small missiles that would go about 6 inches above the water and hit the waterline at night. And you couldn’t stop that.
They are building nuclear weapons at a phenomenal rate. They’re working on anti-missile defense. They’re back up to probably 250,000 students in the United States, if 1% are engaged in espionage—and the FBI says it’s more than that—you’ve got thousands of people who are appropriating technology.
I don’t think anybody understands that it’s going to take us six years to replenish Javelin stocks and maybe we can’t. North Korea is producing more 155 mm shells than we are. At least they sent 2 million of them to the Russians.
So, we are not armed and yet, our strategic responsibilities, our strategic confidence, our arrogance has not lessened commensurately with our reduced defense capacity.
We’re 40,000 recruits short now in the military, never happened before. And when you analyze who is not joining the military, it’s not blacks, it’s not Latinos, it’s not gays, it’s not women, it’s not trans people, all of those numbers are the same, it’s the largest group are white males from the lower and middle classes whose families fought in Vietnam, first Gulf War, Afghanistan, but this third and fourth generation are not joining up.
And unfortunately, for the military, if you look at the casualty or the fatality rates in Afghanistan and Iraq, that demographic dies at twice their demographics—72% to 74% of all the dead in Afghanistan, in Iraq are white males from the middle and lower classes.
And yet, this is the very demographic that [retired Gen.] Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and [Defense Secretary] Lloyd Austin, in testimonies, have suggested suffer from white rage or white privilege. And the Pentagon was investigating just those kind of slanders about that demographic and they found, of course, in December, they quietly issued a report, there was no cabal of white supremacists.
But the point is, you can’t really have a successful military when you’re 40,000 recruits short in just a year.
Bluey: What do you suggest that societies today, including the United States, learn from those historical examples you gave us earlier in the interview to maybe mitigate some of the risks that we might find ourselves in in the future?
Hanson: I would not put much confidence in international bodies or even in so-called close allies. The Spartans came all the way up to the Thebans and they heard the Macedonians, they turned right back. On the last day of the existence of Constantinople, they were looking out at the walls at the Hellespont thinking that Venetian galleys en masse would come up and save them.
So don’t.
I support NATO. I don’t really think the [United Nations] is of much value. The only thing that will say the United States is a deterrent military, and we don’t have that now, an overwhelmingly large, successful, smart military. And if we don’t have that, we’re going to see more of what we saw in Afghanistan, what we saw with the Chinese balloon, what we see in Gaza.
And I think Americans don’t realize that we’re on a back of a tiger and we can’t get off because we set up the postwar world, and we had the pretensions of saying to the world, “You can go in the Red Sea, you can go in the Black Sea, you can go in the Strait of Hormuz, you can do all that and you won’t be injured.” That was a wonderful thing to do. But if you’re going to have those pretensions that you’re going to have a postwar order, you have to have a military that, from time to time, takes care of the Houthis or gets rid of Soleimani.
And it doesn’t mean you’re going to be a neocon interventionist, but I think under [former President Donald] Trump and [former State Secretary Mike] Pompeo, they had a, I guess you would call it a Jacksonian idea that there would be no better friend than United States and no worse enemy. And we did not want to get involved in optional military adventures, but we would be very, very tough on our enemies. And then, the tougher we were, the less we would have to do it once we reestablished deterrence.
So, we’ve lost deterrence, and that can be achieved militarily, economically, politically, but we’ve lost it in every category and it’s going to be very, very dangerous to reestablish it.
Bluey: How much is at stake this year as it pertains to the future of this great country?
Hanson: Everybody says each election is the most important, but I can tell you that this election is more important than 2016 and 2020 because, in my lifetime, we’ve never seen the Democratic Party—they always say the Republican Party was taken over MAGA, but you look at 90% of the MAGA agenda, and it’s traditionally low taxes, small government, strong defense, closed borders.
But the Democratic Party, as we’re seeing with Columbia [University] and all these student protests, they are a revolutionary party. It’s not that they believe in a porous border, they believe in no border. It’s not that they believe in light sentencing, they don’t want to sentence anybody. They don’t want to have bail. They don’t believe that there is such a thing as deterrence, the way we got out of Afghanistan. They believe in radical climate change. You can show them data, you can show them all sorts, they don’t care, they want to ban combustible engines, they don’t want fossil.
So, this is a group of people, as we’re seeing in this split screen with Donald Trump charged with these ridiculous misdemeanors bootstrapped onto felonies. At the same time, people are entering with violence into a Columbia building. And as one of them said the other night, “They will be out in 24 hours.” I don’t think they’re even in jail as we speak, they’re already out.
I guess what I’m saying is we’re in a revolutionary Jacobin period, kind of a Reign of Terror. And I don’t see it stopping unless—I don’t think the election of Donald Trump will be enough. You’ll have to elect the Senate, Donald Trump, and enlarge the House majority. And then, they’re going to have to act very quickly to stop it, to restore the border, to restore deterrence, to restore deterrence against criminals, to get back our preeminent position economically, to stop this $1 trillion borrowing every 100 days.
We’re in bad shape in every category. And I think, whether we like it, I know there’s a lot of Never-Trumpers out there, but whatever problem they have with Trump’s temperament, it just pales in comparison with the ideological revolutionaries that are in there now … .
If [President Joe] Biden is reelected, what we saw the first term will be nothing, it’ll be enhanced to a magnitude, it’ll be so much greater. So, I’m really worried about this election, especially the integrity of the balloting and turnout and all of those other issues.
If you are like most Americans, the cost of living has been going up much faster than your income has been. Right now, millions of Americans that were once prospering are now deeply struggling. When I was growing up, most of the population could afford to live “the American Dream”, but now that is no longer true. At this point, the basics of a middle class lifestyle are out of reach for most Americans. Poverty and homelessness are steadily rising, and the economy has become the number one issue during this election cycle. Most of us just want things to go back to the way that they once were, but thanks to the very foolish decisions of our leaders that simply is not possible.
According to a brand new report that was just released, it now takes over $100,000 a year for the typical family to live “the American Dream” in all 50 states, and in 29 of those states it actually takes over $150,000 a year…
A household would have to spend more than $150,000 a year to live the dream in 29 of the 50 states, according to an analysis published in April by the personal finance site GOBankingRates.
According to the report, the optimal American lifestyle would cost $137,842 a year in Ohio, $147,535 in Texas, $159,932 in Florida, $194,067 in New York and $245,723 in California.
I had no idea that the cost of living “the American Dream” had gotten that high.
Illinois was ranked 26th on that list, and so it provides a pretty good snapshot of what the average U.S. household is facing right now…
Median home price: $255,278
Annual childcare costs: $24,174
Annual mortgage costs: $21,401
Car costs: $8,709
Grocery costs: $8,143
Healthcare costs: $7,021
Utilities costs: $5,278
Education costs: $2,475
Pet costs: $1,170
Total annual costs: $78,369
Full cost of the American Dream: $156,739
Did your household bring in at least $150,000 last year?
If not, living “the American Dream” would not be possible for you in most states.
Needless to say, the vast majority of U.S. households are not bringing in that kind of income.
Last December, Investopedia issued a report that concluded that it now takes 3.4 million dollars to live “the American Dream” for an entire lifetime…
Another report, released in December by the financial media site Investopedia, estimates what the American Dream costs across an entire lifetime: $3.4 million.
That is a staggering sum, Investopedia observes, considering what the average American earns in a lifetime: about $2.3 million.
Housing costs are the number one reason why “the American Dream” is now out of reach for most of the U.S. population.
The median sale price for an existing home rose more than 40% between early 2020 and mid-2022, topping out at a seasonal peak just over $400,000, according to the National Association of Realtors.
Meanwhile, mortgage rates have risen to very painful levels.
The average rate on a 30 year fixed mortgage was sitting at just over 3 percent at the beginning of 2022.
Mortgage rates climbed again this week, exacerbating the home affordability crisis that is stifling the housing market.
Freddie Mac’s latest Primary Mortgage Market Survey, released Thursday, showed that the average rate on the benchmark 30-year fixed mortgage jumped to 7.22% this week from 7.17% last week. The average rate on a 30-year loan was 6.39% a year ago.
The monthly payment on a 30 year fixed mortgage at 7.2 percent for a $400,000 home would be $2,715 a month.
Who can afford that?
Some people can.
But most of the population cannot.
That helps to explain why the percentage of renters that believe that they will someday be able to afford to purchase a home has dropped to an all-time low…
The dream of home ownership has gotten even further away for renters, with higher housing costs and elevated interest rates standing in the way of the American housing dream, according to a New York Federal Reserve survey released Monday.
The share of renters as of February who possess hopes of “residential mobility,” or the belief from renters that they one day will be able to afford a home, fell to a record low 13.4% in the central bank’s annual housing survey for 2024.
That’s down from 15% in 2023 and well off the 20.8% series high back in 2014.
If they work hard and do the right things, most Americans just want to be able to provide a nice life for themselves and their families.
But during the Biden years that has become increasingly difficult to do.
As a result, the amount of confidence that the American people have in Joe Biden has plummeted…
In a Gallup poll published on Monday, only 38% of Americans said they still had confidence in Biden to lead the country and do the right thing for America’s economy. This figure is among the lowest Gallup has measured for any president since George W. Bush took office in 2001, Gallup reported.
“With Americans less optimistic about the state of the U.S. economy than they have been in recent months and concern about inflation persisting, their confidence in President Joe Biden to recommend or do the right thing for the economy is among the lowest Gallup has measured for any president since 2001,” Gallup reported.
The current low for Biden continues a substantial fall from when he first took office. As recently as 2022, the same poll found Biden’s confidence ratings were at 57%. It swiftly fell to 40% and has remained below that mark since.
I believe that this is going to be a very tumultuous election season.
And I am convinced that we will see even more chaos after the election than we will before it.
The American people desperately want change.
But instead, things just continue to get even worse month after month.
Decades of very foolish decisions have brought us to this point, and trying to turn this ship around is not going to be easy.
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.
As the U.S. economy slows down, those at the bottom of the economic food chain are being hit the hardest. Homelessness is surging, the number of Americans living in poverty is rising, and more Americans are considered to be among “the working poor” than ever before. Unfortunately, we are witnessing a historic economic shift right now, and economic conditions are only going to get even more harsh during the months ahead. Needless to say, that is really bad news for all of us.
According to a report from Harvard University, approximately 650,000 Americans were homeless at some point last year. That represented an increase of nearly 50 percent from 2015…
A January 25 report from Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies estimated that over 650,000 Americans experienced homelessness in 2023—up almost 50% from 2015. Costs of renting and home ownership have skyrocketed while wages largely stagnate. The Harvard report found that half of U.S. households are “cost-burdened” (meaning that 30-50% of monthly income goes to housing), and 12 million people are “severely cost-burdened.” These Americans stand one accident, health setback, or employment disruption away from eviction.
During the past several years, scores of tent cities have sprouted like mushrooms in and around U.S. cities from coast to coast.
One 32-year-old woman named Brandy that is living in a tent city near Winterhaven, Florida says that she has been living there for five years and literally has nowhere else to go…
Deep in the woods outside of Winterhaven, Florida, are a cluster of tents and tarps. There are 46 people that live in this homeless encampment, including Brandy C., who has been there for five years.
“I just made a mistake and I’ve been stuck here since. I’m trying to fix it and I can’t,” Brandy told Scripps News Tampa.
The 32-year-old said the homeless camp is not the safest environment, but it is somewhere she can lay her head at night. However, it could soon be taken away.
“They tell us, ‘y’all know y’all fixing to have to leave,’” Brandy said. “We’re like, ‘so where do we go?’”
These are the forgotten people that our politicians don’t like to talk about.
And their ranks are growing with each passing day.
In Denver, officials have spent 274 million dollars to fight their homelessness crisis, but the area has still “added more homeless individuals than any other metro region in the country since 2018″…
Metro Denver’s homeless crisis has worsened and become among the most acute in the nation despite the city of Denver contracting for at least $274 million from 2021 through 2024 to keep people off the streets.
The Denver metro region has added more homeless individuals than any other metro region in the country since 2018, according to key metrics collected by the federal government.
Like we are seeing in so many other cities, mass migration has been playing a major role in Denver’s homelessness crisis.
We can’t even come close to taking care of the hundreds of thousands of Americans that are already homeless, and more deeply impoverished people are constantly being allowed to pour over our borders.
Meanwhile, the number of Americans that are living in poverty and the number of Americans that are considered to be among “the working poor” both continue to increase.
Over time, higher costs and sluggish wage growth have left more Americans financially vulnerable, with many known as “ALICEs.”
Nearly 40 million families, or 29% of the population, fall in the category of ALICE — Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed — according to United Way’s United for ALICE program, which first coined the term to refer to households earning above the poverty line but less than what’s needed to get by.
That figure doesn’t include the 37.9 million Americans who live in poverty, comprising 11.5% of the total population, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau.
Do you understand what this means?
More than 40 percent of the U.S. population is either homeless, living in poverty or among the ranks of the “working poor”.
That is staggering.
The middle class is being absolutely eviscerated, and a lot more pain is on the way.
Former Merrill Lynch chief economist David Rosenberg accurately predicted the recession that hit us in 2008, and he is now warning that things are about to get really bad in this country.
In fact, even though the Biden administration is telling us that the economy added “175,000 jobs” last month, he is convinced that the economy is actually bleeding jobs…
The US economy added 175,000 jobs last month, shy of economists’ forecasts for 238,000. In notes to clients Friday, the former Merrill Lynch chief economist explained why he views the numbers as a cause for concern.
He said the data is inconsistent with numbers coming from the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages and Business Employment Dynamics datasets, both of which stated the economy actually lost jobs in the third quarter.
Given the disparity, Rosenberg said the data is likely ‘overstated – by historical proportions.’
I agree with Rosenberg.
Large companies all over America have been conducting mass layoffs, and the numbers that we are getting from sources that are not controlled by the Biden administration clearly indicate that the economy is losing jobs.
But I am also convinced that our economic problems will accelerate significantly as we head toward the end of this year.
A “perfect storm” of factors is hurting economic performance all over the world, and I anticipate that global turmoil is only going to become more intense as the months roll along.
So what is the bottom line?
The bottom line is that more Americans will soon be homeless, more Americans will soon be living in poverty, and more Americans will soon be among the ranks of the “working poor”.
Our standard of living is steadily declining, and if you want someone to blame you can blame those that are currently running the show in Washington.
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.
Professor Dershowitz Joins Rose to discuss his new book: “Get Trump: The Threat to Civil Liberties, Due Process, and Our Constitutional Rule of Law”
Dershowitz weighed in on the pro-Hamas, violent protests erupting at campuses across the country.
Alan Dershowitz also thanked Evangelical Christians for their support of both the Jewish people and Israel.
AUDIO:
In Get Trump: The Threat to Civil Liberties, Due Process, and Our Constitutional Rule of Law, Alan Dershowitz—#1 New York Times bestselling author and one of America’s most respected legal scholars—analyses the unremitting efforts by political opponents of Donald Trump to “get” him—to stop him from running in 2024—at any cost.
Alan Dershowitz has been called “one of the most prominent and consistent defenders of civil liberties in America” by Politico and “the nation’s most peripatetic civil liberties lawyer and one of its most distinguished defenders of individual rights” by Newsweek.
Get Trump makes clear that unconstitutional efforts to stop Trump from retaking the presidency challenge the very foundations of our liberty: due process, right to counsel, and free speech. Those who justify these dangerous departures from the rule of law argue that the threat posed by a second Trump presidency is “different” and “immediate,” while the departures from constitutional norms are longer term and more abstract.
Please follow Rose Unplugged on Rumble by clicking here.
Today’s 20-min top headline news brief includes:
[1:55] S. Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem explains her dog story and defends her book. [Eric Bolling The Balance]
[8:43] John Kirby briefs reporters as Israeli forces move into Rafah.
[10:01] Mike Huckabee: Biden honestly believes Hamas is a trustworthy partner. [American Agenda]
[12:49] Newsmax’s Rob Schmitt: All of this is planned, none of it is organic. [Rob Schmitt Tonight]
[15:55] Greg Kelly breaks down key facts in Trump trial. [Greg Kelly Reports]
[22:44] Russian President Putin sworn in for another six year term.
An Israeli tank brigade took control of the Gaza Strip side of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt this morning. However, the overnight incursion appears to be short of the full-fledged offensive Israel has planned into Rafah.
It comes after Hamas announced yesterday that it had accepted a cease-fire proposal to halt the war. Prime Minister Netanyahu’s office responded that the truce proposal fell short of Israel’s demands, but Israel will send a delegation to meet with negotiators to try to reach an agreement.
If you support Israel as I do, you’re hopeful that negotiations lead to long-term peace for the Jewish state. But you’re concerned that if Hamas survives in Gaza, it will make good on its promise to invade Israel again with the same brutality it unleashed on October 7.
Also, if you’re like me, you didn’t reflect immediately on what today’s news could mean for the 1.4 million Palestinian civilians in Rafah. You know that God loves Arabs as much as he loves Jews (Galatians 3:28), but it is human nature to respond most deeply to news that affects us most personally.
And as followers of a Jewish Savior, we tend to view the Middle East through the lens of the Jewish people.
“A handle for what is nearest”
This personal filter is essential for navigating the deluge of news in our digital culture. If we became viscerally involved with every story, the cognitive and emotional overload would be debilitating.
You likely care about these stories to the degree that they do or do not affect you personally. You’re not alone: in The Crisis of Narration, philosopher Byung-Chul Han quotes the cultural critic Walter Benjamin: “What gets the readiest hearing is no longer intelligence coming from afar, but the information which supplies a handle for what is nearest.”
While personalizing the world is understandable, there’s a better way.
“When you know how much God is in love with you”
Paul had “great sorrow and unceasing anguish” in his heart for Jews who had not yet accepted their Messiah (Romans 9:2). Given his previous life as a Pharisee trained by Gamaliel, such passion is to be expected.
However, the apostle was deeply concerned for Gentiles as well, most of whom he had not yet met but all of whom he sought to bring to Christ (Romans 15:15–21). He risked and ultimately gave his life to reach them. The reason was simple: Paul had experienced the transforming love of Christ and now, he testified, “the love of Christ compels us” to share that love with the world (2 Corinthians 5:14; NKJV).
Mother Teresa was right:
“When you know how much God is in love with you, then you can only live your life radiating that love.”
It’s been said that a true test of a person’s character is how they treat people they don’t have to treat well. Similarly, we can measure the depth of our love for our Lord by our compassion for those whom our circumstances would not compel us to love.
When we love such people, we offer the world something it can find nowhere else. We demonstrate the power and relevance of the faith we profess. Such unconditional love answers our skeptics (1 Peter 3:16) and changes our culture, one person at a time.
These facts apply to this morning’s news and to every person you meet today.
“This grace is for all the world”
Julian of Norwich (1342–c. 1416), whose deeply personal encounters with the love of Christ have inspired generations, wrote:
God protects us as tenderly and as sweetly when we are in greatest need; he raises us in spirit and turns everything to glory and joy without ending. God is the ground and the substance, the very essence of nature; God is the true father and mother of natures. We are all bound to God by nature, and we are all bound to God by grace. And this grace is for all the world (my emphasis).
Former President Trump’s legal spokeswoman Alina Habba discusses a judge threatening former President Trump with jail time if he continues violating his gag order on ‘Hannity.’
Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, says the country ‘sees through’ what Special Counsel Jack Smith, Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg and Fulton County DA Fani Willis are doing to former President Trump on ‘Hannity.’ #foxnews#fox#hannity
The president of a nonprofit Christian persecution watchdog that monitors hostility to faith and freedom abroad warned that too few Christians inAmerica
and the West seem aware of how such trends are manifesting at home.
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