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
Imputation of the Active Obedience of Jesus Christ by Faith Alone in Christ Alone / Essential Truth – Pastor Hines
▶️Pastor Patrick Hines has recently had a brand new book published, called, “Earth’s Foundational History – Part 1: Genesis Chapters 1 Through 5.” (Paperback – May 4, 2023) https://cutt.ly/16RCeZ0
These two books are also available on Amazon. All proceeds go directly to Pastor Hines:
▶️Am I Right With God?: The Gospel, Justification, Saving Faith, Repentance, Assurance, & The New Birth https://cutt.ly/S6RCbuM
▶️Redrawing the Battle Lines: 23 Sermons on Critical Issues Facing the Church https://cutt.ly/m6RCTi0
We subscribe to the Westminster Standards as our doctrinal statement. It consists of the following documents:
The Westminster Confession of Faith The Westminster Larger Catechism The Westminster Shorter Catechism
We also believe that Christian Worship is to be regulated and defined by God’s Word, the Bible.
Our worship services are designed to please and honor the Triune God of the Bible. We place Scripture reading and the preaching of the word of God at the center of worship along with Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. These are God’s gifts to His church and ought to always be at the center of Christian worship. We are a congregation that loves to sing God’s praises, recite His Word back to Him, and actively engage in hearing and learning from God’s Word.
We embrace and promote a comprehensive Christian world and life view.
There is no area of life which is not under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. It is to God and His law which all people, including governments and civil rulers, will answer. The Word of God embraces and informs the way we view marriage, the family, children, education, politics, worship, law, government, war, the church, missions, evangelism, and worship. In the world today there is a battle of opposing worldviews. There are basically only two positions: God’s Word and man’s ideas. We stand positively for Biblical truth and negatively against man’s ideas which are opposed to Biblical truth.
The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the only hope for mankind.
Because all men fall short of obeying God’s law, all men everywhere are in need of divine grace and salvation from God. This salvation is found only in the Lord Jesus Christ who died for sinners, was buried, rose again, and is alive today seated at God the Father’s right hand.
We Worship God Together as Families.
We offer nursery during the morning worship service for newborns and infants but encourage people to keep as many of their children as they can with them for morning worship. The audio of the service is in the nursery via speakers. There is also a crying room with a video screen and audio of the sermon. We offer Sunday school classes for all ages, but worship together as families. We do not offer “children’s” church.
All who profess faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and are members of an evangelical church are cordially invited to participate with us in the Lord’s Supper.
13 Go in through the narrow gate; because wide is the gate and broad is the way leading to destruction and many are those going in through it. 14 How narrow the gate and how hard is the way that leads to life and few are the ones finding it! Matthew 7:13-14 (translated from NA28 the Greek text to English)
It has been said that no prophet preached about Hell as much as our Lord Jesus Christ. It is also true that His preaching would be considered “divisive” and “offensive” in today’s politically correct culture. However, I seriously doubt that if preaching the truth or hurting someone’s feelings or offending someone’s “sensibilities” were the issue with our Lord nor would it would make any difference….
He would not hesitate to preach the truth because in God’s truth is life. In man-made truth is only death. Consider the passage at the top of this post. The lie that has taken over our society is that it is a sin to be narrow-minded. We must be as broad and as accepting as possible. We must be all-inclusive in all things to the point of madness. From this our enemy has sown the lies such as “There are many roads to heaven,” and since God is a good God He must also me a “fair God” so “eventually everyone will be saved.” The problems with this are that this “god” is a creation of these people’s wishful thinking not The God, our God, the Creator of all things. Also, in His Word, our Lord Jesus taught exactly the opposite of this as the passage above clearly says.View article →
2 Kings 3:5 — Come with me to Paris. We’re going to the Louvre. You normally need ten euros for admission, but today, you’re my guest. No, we’re not looking for the Mona Lisa. We’re looking for biblical artifacts. Enter the Levant Exhibit, Room D, and look for artifact # AO 5066. Elevated off the floor on a white base is a black monument.
Here’s a description from the official website of the Louvre:
The stele of King Mesha constitutes one of the most important direct accounts of the history of the world that is related in the Bible. The inscription pays tribute to the sovereign, celebrating his great building works and victories over the kingdom of Israel during the reign of Ahab, son of Omri. The mention of “Israel” is its earliest known written occurence. Dhiban, ancient Dibon, where the stele was found, was the capital of this kingdom of Moab, located on the left bank of the Dead Sea.
You will notice parts of the stele are smooth and others are rough. The rough parts are genuine, the smooth parts are reconstructed.
Tribute should be paid to the sagacity of Charles Clemont-Ganneau (1846-1923), a great Orientalist and disciple of Ernest Renan, to whom we owe the stele’s rescue. While in Jerusalem, Clermont-Ganneau learnt from an Alsatian missionary, F.A. Klein, that a large block of black stone covered with characters had been found at Dhiban. He first sent an Arab intermediary from Jerusalem, Selim al-Qarim, who, in October 1869, made a schematic copy (today in the Louvre) of the inscription, which enabled Clermont-Ganneau to recognize the importance and early date of the monument. He then sent a second intermediary, Yaqoub Karavaca, to make a stamp of the inscription, in December 1869. It is not known exactly how and why this operation aroused the anger of the villagers: in the skirmish, the print was torn (but the pieces reached Clermont-Ganneau and eventually the Louvre) and the stele, hitherto intact, was broken into many pieces, which were sent to the antiquities market in Jerusalem. Thanks to his careful negociations, Clermont-Ganneau succeeded in retrieving the two main pieces and some remains …
If you can’t make it to the Louvre, you can see a replica of the Stele at the Oriental Institute in Chicago.
Bishops are commanded in 1 Timothy 3:2 and Titus 1:8
All believers are commanded in Romans 12:13 and 1 Peter 4:9
2 Kings 4:10 — Today many churches have “prophet’s chambers” to aid those travelling in ministry. I have been the beneficiary of several prophet’s chambers!
2 Kings 4:13 — This woman provided for the prophet of God and asked for nothing in return.
2 Kings 4:16 — Like Sarah and Zachariah, she didn’t believe that she could conceive, but unlike them she had not expressed a desire nor encountered an angel.
Acts 14:15 — Paul is addressing a different audience than Peter did in Acts 3:13. Peter immediately begins preaching Jesus to the Jewish audience who understood who the God of Abraham was. Paul immediately begins preaching about the living God – the Creator of heaven and earth and sea. Ken Ham articulates that our society is looking more like Lystra than Judaea in that we need to define which God we are talking about.
Acts 14:19 — In verses 11-13, the people are preparing to sacrifice to Paul and Barnabas who they think are the gods come to earth. Yet, in verse 19 the two were stoned and left for dead. Ah, the fleeting passions of the crowd! Yet, Paul returned to preach again in Lystra (Acts 14:21), strengthening the disciples and teaching that the tribulation (Acts 14:22) he demonstrated in his own body was necessary.
Psalm 140:1 — David writes this psalm, but it’s one that could have been Paul’s prayer as well. Deliver me O LORD! Yes, God has heard the voice of David and of Paul (Psalm 140:6) and will hear our prayer as well! One day we can relax and rejoice in the physical presence of God (Psalm 140:13).
Proverbs 17:22 — How can we be merry when we’re in trouble? According to the group Keep Believing, we can do so because of Romans 8:28!
Share how reading through the Bible has been a blessing to you! E-mail us at 2018bible@vcyamerica.org or call and leave a message at 414-885-5370.
Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. (John 15:2)
This is a precious promise to one who lives for fruitfulness. At first it seems to wear a sharp aspect. Must the fruitful bough be pruned? Must the knife cut even the best and most useful? No doubt it is so, for very much of our Lord’s purging work is done by means of afflictions of one kind or another. It is not the evil but the good who have the promise of tribulation in this life. But, then, the end makes more than full amends for the painful nature of the means. If we may bring forth more fruit for our Lord, we will not mind the pruning and the loss of leafage.
Still, purging is sometimes wrought by the Word apart from trial, and this takes away whatever appeared rough in the flavor of the promise. We shall by the Word be made more gracious and more useful. The Lord who has made us, in a measure, fruit-bearing, will operate upon us till we reach a far higher degree of fertility. Is not this a great joy? Truly there is more comfort in a promise of fruitfulness than if we had been warranted riches, or health, or honor.
Lord Jesus, speedily fulfill Thy gracious word to me and cause me to abound in fruit to Thy praise!
Right from its very first words, the Bible puts us on notice that “in the beginning God Created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). We read further in (Hebrews 11:3): “By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible.”
Evolutionists quickly run into problems in trying to explain origins. They contend that we evolved from simpler life forms, which over great expanses of time became more and more complex until humanity came about. They can offer us no clues, however, as to where the original inanimate matter came from.
Scientific theories such as the Big Bang bring us a little closer to the ultimate beginning of the universe. They, at least, postulate that somehow there was some sort of matter in existence, before it became everything. But, on logical grounds alone, the Bible goes the final step by acknowledging “that what is seen (our universe) was not made out of things which are visible.”
In other words, there was nothing there to start with except God. But to have made a universe of such incredible size, amazing complexity, perfect orderliness, fabulous mysteries, and awesome beauty would have required a force of indescribable creative genius, possessing unlimited power and intellect that no finite mind (such as we possess) could ever completely fathom. The above description basically defines the God of the Bible, who created the stars, planets, mountains, trees, animals and, yes, you and me. You are clearly here because God created you—not by chance, but by deliberate design.
The Psalmist beautifully described this process and offered praiseand thanksgiving to God:
For thou didst form my inward parts; thou didst weave me in my mother’s womb. I will give thanks to Thee, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; wonderful are Thy works, and my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from Thee, when I was made in secret, and skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth. Thine eyes have seen my unformed substance; and in Thy book theywere all written, the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there was not one of them. (Psalm 139:13-16)
Try as we may, we cannot bring back the past. But there is a marvelous future for the people of God, anchored in a promise that cannot fail. Today, R.C. Sproul looks to the hope of the resurrection.
The Church Age Is Winding Down—And The World Is Running Out Of Time Time flies. Years race by. But, 2024 has been a stunner in many ways. And many events remind me that the world is running out of time before the last act of a major drama plays out. In other words, the Church Age is winding down. Let me highlight ten events from this current year that have convinced me of this.
In Tijuana, shelter for Muslim migrants on US doorstep From Algeria, Syria, Yemen and Afghanistan, citizens of distant, Muslim countries wait for US asylum at a shelter in the Mexican border city of Tijuana — more used to seeing migrants from Latin America than the Middle East. At the Assabil Inn, Mexico’s first shelter catering for US-bound Muslim migrants, the backstories of the guests are as varied as the assortment of languages they speak.
Canada declares Iran’s IRGC a terrorist group Canada on Wednesday listed Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist entity while calling on Canadians in the Islamic Republic to leave. “Our government has made the decision to list the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist entity under the Criminal Code,” Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc told a news conference.
The Deadly Fruit Of Anti-God Education: Brutal Violence Against Teachers Rises To ‘Crisis’ Levels Teachers are under attack — literally. Violent and indoctrinated students in government schools across the United States and beyond are increasingly beating not just each other, but even their teachers, according to a flurry of nationwide reports based on a survey of teachers that found startling levels of violence against educators.
Hamas Official Says Terror Group ‘Would Do Oct. 7 Attack Again’ if Possible to Go Back in Time Hamas would carry out its brutal Oct. 7 invasion of and massacre across southern Israel again if it could travel back in time, according to the Palestinian terrorist group’s representative in Lebanon. “We would do it again!” Ahmad Abd Al-Hadi said with a smile in an interview last week with Lebanon’s Annahar newspaper when asked whether Hamas would repeat its onslaught. “If we could go back in time, we would do it again,
UN Committee Says Not Enough Evidence to Declare a Famine in Gaza In a report released earlier this month, the committee responded to a claim by the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) — a US-created provider of warning and analysis on food insecurity — that a famine was likely underway in northern Gaza. FEWS NET said that northern Gaza began experiencing famine in April and projected that the embattled enclave would endure famine until at least July 31. The FRC rejected the assertion that northern Gaza is experiencing famine, citing the “uncertainty and lack of convergence of the supporting evidence employed in the analysis.”
Houthis sink Greek-owned ship in the Red Sea The Houthis claimed that the ship was attacked because its owner ignored warnings not to sail to Israeli ports. A senior Houthi official told Al Jazeera that “this is an attack on a ship belonging to a company that is one of the largest that violates the ban we imposed on sailing to Israeli ports.”
Nasrallah vows ‘no place’ in Israel will be safe if war declared, threatens Cyprus With tensions growing between Lebanon and Israel, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah threatened that, in the case of an all-out war, “no place in Israel” will be safe, and Cyprus may also be attacked. Nasrallah vowed attacks by the air, ground, and sea and declared the“situation in the Mediterranean will change completely.”
Israeli FM says PA ‘can’t rule Gaza’ after war Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said on Tuesday that the Palestinian Authority cannot be allowed to rule post-war Gaza, citing its ongoing financial support for terrorism. “7% of the Palestinian Authority’s budget goes to murderers of Israelis. More killings = more money. The Palestinian Authority cannot rule Gaza,” he tweeted.
The Key to a Trump Victory in 2024: The Noahide Laws As a Jew, I am deeply grateful for everything Trump did for Israel during his term in the White House. From the outset, Trump made his connection to Jerusalem clear. His campaign victory in 2016 and successes as president resulted from the blessings he received for his connection to Jerusalem. Biden is quite the opposite. His state department has established a de facto Palestinian embassy in Jerusalem, greenlit the Iranian attack on Israel, withheld vital intel from the IDF, and embargoed weapons shipments to Israel during the war. But even if Biden were pro-Israel, it seems clear to me that another Biden term in the White House will result in global destruction as compared to Trump’s presidency, which marked one of the most prosperous and peaceful periods in recent years.
Legal Experts: Biden Executive Anti-Settler Order is “Anti-Democratic Attack on Free Speech” The sharply worded letter decried the Executive Order as vague and unsubstantiated, describing it as an attempt to stifle free speech and the right to protest. The legal team called upon the US government to explain the basis for the sanctions and the practical implications for Tzav 9 and Regavim, one of several civil society organizations that helped the Tzav 9 activists organize.
IDF approves operational plans for Lebanon fighting as Hezbollah resumes attacks on Israel Senior commanders of the Israel Defense Forces approved operational plans for the continuation of the fighting against Hezbollah, while the terror group resumed its attacks against Israel by launching at least seven strikes on Tuesday. Northern Command OC Maj.-Gen. Uri Gordin and Operations Division Commander Maj.-Gen. Oded Basiuk approved plans for a potential attack against Lebanon
Tornado sweeps through Carlepont, Oise, damaging 44 buildings, France A damaging tornado swept through the village of Carlepont in the Oise department, France, at around 17:30 LT on June 18, 2024, damaging 44 buildings and 2 powerlines. 55 firefighters and 25 engines were deployed to the scene to assess the damage.
Job Replenishment – Migrants Secured 75% Of ALL New Jobs Under Biden Steven Camarota at the Center for Immigration Studies produced a new study published by Breitbart that explains the truth behind America’s seemingly low unemployment rate. Millions of migrants have entered America under Joe Biden. The jobs reports may seem strong each month but Fed Chair Powell himself said he has not been impressed by the incoming data. One major reason that the data is skewed is because migrants have secured an overwhelming 75% of all new jobs created in the United States in 2019.
New Jersey doubles down on their unconstitutional policy of keeping blood drawn from every baby Today, New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin and the New Jersey Department of Health doubled down on their unconstitutional policy of keeping blood drawn from every baby born in the state. A group of New Jersey parents, who filed a class action lawsuit against the state, announced they will fight on until the policy is fixed.
Kansas Attorney General sues Pfizer for misleading Kansans on covid vaccine Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach is suing the pharmaceutical company Pfizer, alleging it deceptively marketed its covid “vaccine.” The legal complaint filed on Monday claims that, beginning shortly after the vaccine’s rollout in early 2021, Pfizer concealed evidence that the injection was linked to pregnancy complications, including miscarriage, as well as inflammation in and around the heart, known as myocarditis and pericarditis, according to a report by Reuters.
Hezbollah terrorists launch massive rocket attack on Israel amid mounting tensions The Lebanon-based Hezbollah terrorist movement on Wednesday pummeled Israel’s northern border, including Tiberias, where Jesus performed miracles, with rockets after the Jewish state eliminated a senior Hezbollah commander responsible for military operations.
PM slams Biden, says ‘inconceivable’ to withhold arms from ‘closest ally’ Quoting a famous remark by Winston Churchill during World War II, Netanyahu stated, “Churchill told the United States, ‘Give us the tools, we’ll do the job.’ And I say, give us the tools and we’ll finish the job a lot faster.”
The Truth About What Is Happening To The Petrodollar …the petrodollar is not dead. It is certainly in trouble, but it is not dead. Today, most oil continues to be sold in U.S. dollars, and most global trade continues to be conducted in U.S. dollars. But that could change as other countries lose faith in our currency. In particular, we will want to carefully watch what the BRICS nations choose to do.
8 Signs That Extremists Are Taking Over Our Country …Our nation is being radically transformed by people with extreme ideologies, and that should deeply alarm all of us. According to Google, an extremist is “a person who holds extreme or fanatical political or religious views, especially one who resorts to or advocates extreme action”. Sadly, that definition accurately describes many that hold prominent positions of power in our society today. In so many cases, individuals that have political beliefs that most ordinary Americans would consider to be very radical are going to extraordinary lengths to impose their views on all of the rest of us.…
Islamized Sweden: Parks Transformed Into Mecca As Sweden’s Islamization accelerates with leftist support, the growing power of the Muslim community, marked by anti-Western celebrations attended by left-wing politicians, raises serious concerns about women’s rights, public safety, and animal welfare.
Bill Gates funded bio-terrorist activities to develop a bird flu that could infect humans The Gates Foundation gave US$9.5 million to the University of Wisconsin-Madison and principal investigator Yoshihiro Kawaoka to modify H5N1 viruses to preferentially recognise human-type receptors and transmit efficiently in mammals. “This indicates that the Gates Foundation funded bioterrorist-like activities involving H5N1, providing blueprints for other bad actors who may want to create a bioweapon,” Dr. Peter McCullough tweeted.
Chemtrails are part of the depopulation agenda What are they spraying into the sky? Who’s doing it? Why are they doing it, what are their motives? And what can we do to put an end to this? These are questions Richard Vobes put to two pilots last week who have been conducting in-depth research into chemtrails.
“It seems to have been reserved to the people of this country, by their conduct and example, to decide the important question, whether societies of men are really capable or not of establishing good government from reflection and choice, or whether they are forever destined to depend for their political constitutions on accident and force.” —Alexander Hamilton (1787)
ON THIS DAY in 1782, Congress approved the Great Seal of the United States, which can be found on the back of every $1 bill. The American bald eagle has a shield with 13 vertical stripes on its breast, an olive branch with 13 leaves in one talon, and 13 arrows in its left. It’s inscribed with “E Pluribus Unum,” the nation’s Latin motto at the time. It’s also rich in other symbolism.
Douglas Andrews, Thomas Gallatin, & Jordan Candler
Culture
Juneteenth isn’t for white people: We thought commemorating Juneteenth, the day in 1865 when federal troops freed the last of the slaves in Texas — a full two and a half years after Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation — would teach Americans about the day’s origin and its significance rather than offering race hucksters and haters a chance to beat up on whitey anew. Were we ever wrong. “Attention white people,” posted one of those haters, a woman named Melina Abdullah, who not surprisingly says she’s a professor and former chair of Pan-African Studies at California State University, Los Angeles. “Please don’t ask if you can come to the cookout … Juneteenth is freedom day for Black folks. It should be Reparations day for white folks.” Got that, cracker? According to Abdullah, Juneteenth is a day for you who have never held slaves to pay handsomely others who have never been slaves. Meanwhile, another hard-left elitist, a self-described actor, writer, and filmmaker named Kar, offers this helpful suggestion: “White people should be doing double shifts on Juneteenth.” Once again, the wisdom of Dennis Prager holds: The Left ruins everything it touches, including Juneteenth.
Tyson’s anti-Americanism: We don’t know whose bright idea it was at Tyson Foods to defile our nation’s birthday on its commemorative Juneteenth T-shirts, but perhaps that person travels in the same circles as the marketing wizards at Bud Light. As The Daily Wire reports, the chicken-peddling colossus was selling Juneteenth shirts saying that the holiday “is the nation’s true independence day.” Not only that, but some of the shirts also maligned the July 4th holiday with a red strikethrough, while others incorporated the “black power” fist. “Juneteenth is my Independence Day,” reads one. “Juneteenth 1865 because my ancestors weren’t free in 1776,” reads another. Perhaps militant leftists can’t entertain two thoughts at once, but it can be true that our Founders fought and died to achieve their independence from Great Britain despite not yet having wiped out the scourge of slavery. In any case, it’s worth remembering that only one-fortieth of African slaves came to America’s shores and that the U.S. was among the first nations on earth to abolish slavery. In addition, it might be worth remembering what Tyson stands for the next time you’re at the grocery store.
Humor: Eight ways for white people to show they’re down with the cause this Juneteenth (Babylon Bee)
Pro-women company banned on TikTok: The truth is under assault on social media platforms, especially when it comes to the issue of transgenderism. Case in point, Chinese-owned TikTok recently banned sports apparel company XX-XY Athletics from its platform because it ran a “controversial” ad that highlighted the inherent unfairness of allowing biological males to compete in women’s and girls’ sports. XX-XY Athletics was founded by former USA Gymnastics Olympian Jennifer Sey, who has become a vocal advocate for protecting women’s sports from the incursion of gender-bending male athletes. In the ad, Sey notes all the hard work female athletes put into training to compete in their sports and the importance of Title IX protections. It also features two former NCAA swimmers, Riley Gaines and Paula Scanlan, who share their stories about how devastating was the entrance of “transgender”-identifying male athletes into their sport. Sey says her athletic apparel company is explicitly focused on countering the narrative that males should be allowed to compete in women’s sports. TikTok permanently suspended Sey’s company account because the ad “doesn’t comply with our advertising policies.” This is why we have dubbed the LGBTQ lobby the Rainbow Mafia, as they bully anyone who would dare to criticize their immoral cultural narrative.
Gender-confused suspect admits to murdering parents: “I would do it again. I hate them.” (Daily Wire)
Minneapolis vandalizes its own street signs: Minneapolis, the deep-clue city that gave us the George Floyd riots, has lately been beset by crime, potholes, and homelessness. And now we can add vandalism to that trio. It seems that someone has been painting the city’s street signs and crosswalks in garish rainbow colors. Or perhaps it’s even worse. Perhaps city administrators are using taxpayer funds to ace out the vandals and do it themselves. Indeed, as the city itself admits, “Public Works rolled out some new street signs near Loring Park ahead of twin cities pride weekend! The rainbow crosswalks got a fresh coat of paint, too!” We can’t think of a greater waste of money, time, and energy, especially in a city that could use a greater police presence, but perhaps the distraction kept the city’s leftist do-gooders and Rainbow Mafiosi from doing something even more destructive. For example, it might be that breaking out the life-size Pride Month coloring books has prevented these people from committing real and lasting legislative mischief. Hey, work with us here.
Now NY wants to ban masks: In New York, the wearing of masks was mandated as a public health issue during the pandemic. Despite a lack of supporting scientific evidence, the assertion was that mask-wearing prevented the spread of COVID. Indeed, New York Governor Kathy Hochul justified her mask mandate by pointing to a jump in the number of cases and “insufficient vaccination rates.” Critics of masking mandates pointed out that not only was there no evidence that masking had any discernible impact on the spread of the virus, but masking actually presented a significant crime control issue. Well, in a classic example of “we told you so,” Hochul is now pushing for a masking ban for public safety due to criminals being able to “hide their faces.” With crime spiking in New York City, Hochul recently said, “My team is working on a solution, but on a subway, people should not be able to hide behind a mask to commit crimes.”
U.S. military airstrike kills senior ISIS official (Daily Caller)
Hundreds of migrants from ISIS hotbed country have crossed U.S. border under Biden (NY Post)
In first five years, 79,000 of DACA recipients admitted to U.S. had arrest records (Just the News)
Yale illegally concealed $15 million in donations from Qatar (RedState)
Russia now supplies more natural gas to Europe than U.S. does (Daily Wire)
Government & Politics
Dem-controlled FCC fast-tracking Soros’s radio network takeover: George Soros is in the process of taking over America’s second-largest radio network, Audacy, whose stations reach 165 million listeners monthly. The leftist billionaire has spent some $400 million to buy up the network, which airs shows from several conservatives such as Sean Hannity, Mark Levin, Glenn Beck, Dana Loesch, and Erick Erickson. In an apparent effort to silence conservative content before the coming election, Soros wants the Democrat-controlled Federal Communications Commission to green-light and fast-track his takeover. As one insider privy to the deal contends, “The idea that George Soros is buying hundreds of local radio stations right before a national election and will keep broadcasting Sean Hannity and other conservative talk radio hosts on Audacy is not credible.” The hurdle for Soros in his takeover bid is the fact that under current FCC rules, foreign companies’ ownership of U.S. radio stations may not exceed 25% of all stations. Soros wants the FCC to make an exception to that rule in his case. As evidence of Soros’s intentions, look at the Miami-based Spanish-language radio station Mambi, which was purchased by the Soros-backed Latino Media Network in 2022. Former Mambi host Lourdes Ubieta observed, “Everything was hard-core anti-Communism politics on Radio Mambi before [the sale]. That’s all gone now.”
Americans still waiting on Biden broadband plan; not a single home connected three years after enactment (Washington Times)
Federal budget deficit to reach nearly $2 trillion this year, CBO projects (Fox Business) | Biden’s $145 billion in student debt relief is the largest factor contributing to 27% jump in federal budget deficit (Not the Bee)
Hot Air
Vandalism to “save” the planet: One of the oldest historic sites in the world, Stonehenge, was attacked by climate change cultists on Wednesday, as the group Just Stop Oil took orange spray paint to the ancient stone structure. The ecofascist group justified its vandalism by erroneously and ridiculously claiming that “continuing to burn coal, oil and gas will result in the death of millions” and that “we have to come together to defend humanity or we risk everything.” It then demanded that the next British “government sign up to a legally binding treaty to phase out fossil fuels by 2030.” Two members of the group were involved in the vandalism — a 21-year-old Oxford University student and a 73-year-old activist who was arrested in 2022 during another Just Stop Oil incident. British lawmakers on both sides of the political aisle blasted the vandalism as “outrageous” and “disgraceful.”
Faith in Humanity
Ten Commandments in Louisiana: In a move that’s sure to set off the increasingly godless Left and the misguided separation of church and state crowd, Louisiana has become the first state in the union to require the display of the Ten Commandments in its public school classrooms. No good deed goes unpunished, though; right on cue, the American Civil Liberties Union is filing suit. The organization that used to understand that our constitutionally guaranteed freedom of religion doesn’t mean freedom from religion announced yesterday that it’s suing Louisiana over the new statute, which was signed into law by Republican Governor Jeff Landry. As one detractor said, “If your version of Christianity wants to put the Ten Commandments in schools but take free lunch out of them, you are worshipping something other than Jesus.” Who knew Jesus was all about free lunches? No one ever accused the ACLU of historical literacy, though, so it’ll no doubt find the following words of James Madison, which are written into the bill, unpersuasive: “We have staked the whole future of our new nation … upon the capacity of each of ourselves to govern ourselves according to the moral principles of the Ten Commandments.”
Caveats apply, but former House Speaker Newt Gingrich sees something amiss in this usually reliable Democrat constituency.
Douglas Andrews
Before we go all in on an electoral prediction from Newt Gingrich, we might want to tap the breaks a bit. After all, this is the same 81-year-old historian who, just prior to the 2012 election, predicted a landslide victory for … Mitt Romney over Barack Obama.
“I was wrong,” said Newt in the wake of Obama’s relatively easy win over Romney — a win that flew in the face of the former House speaker’s prediction of more than 300 electoral votes and 53% of the popular vote for Romney. “I think whether it’s Michael Barone or Karl Rove or a whole group of us,” he added, spread-loading the blame, “we all thought we understood the historical pattern and the fact that with this level of unemployment, with this level of gasoline pricing what would happen.”
Apparently undaunted, Newt was at it again Monday, when he noted to Fox News’s Sean Hannity that a huge portion of a crucial Democrat constituency is having serious second thoughts about Joe Biden.
“First of all,” he said, “I think we shouldn’t assume that black Americans are dumb or insensitive or incapable of learning. They’re looking at grocery store prices they can’t afford, and they know it’s Biden’s fault. They’re looking at millions of illegal immigrants coming into their neighborhoods, taking their jobs, threatening their families with violence, and they know Biden is responsible. You turn around, and they know the tools aren’t working, despite all the money we pour into the teachers’ unions, and they know the Democrats are responsible. They look at big cities where … Democrat mayor after Democrat mayor is corrupt, incompetent, and incapable of serving their interests. So what you’re beginning to see is a movement that says … ‘What have we got to lose by trying out Donald Trump?’”
Newt has no doubt forgotten more about politics than most of us will ever learn, so we’re inclined to take him seriously — albeit with a dash of caveat to hedge our emptor. So here goes:
I think [Trump] will get a higher [black] vote than any Republican since Eisenhower and may, in fact, exceed Eisenhower, because the momentum for the next four months, I think, is all going to be in … Trump’s favor. … The number of black Democrats, and for that matter, Latino Democrats, who are now undecided and potentially could switch to Trump are breathtaking. And that’s why you’re beginning to see places like … Minnesota, the last poll, Trump’s up four. Well, if he carries Minnesota by any margin, he’s on the verge of a 1980 Ronald Reagan blowout of Jimmy Carter.
Easy there, Newt. Easy, boy.
And yet, something is definitely happening in the black community. Rapper 50 Cent said as much recently when he noted to a CBS reporter that black men were “identifying with Trump” because “they’ve got RICO charges” too. (We’re not sure how many black men who aren’t rap moguls and don’t have their own liquor brands are facing racketeering charges, but we get his point: Trump is vilified and so are they.)
NBC News political pundit Steve Kornacki sees it, too, although he doesn’t necessarily believe it yet. “While they remain overwhelmingly aligned with President Joe Biden,” he said of blacks, “his level of support is lower than in 2020. And Donald Trump’s Black support is often clocking in at levels that would outpace those of all previous Republican nominees in the modern era.” He then poured cold water on his own observation, adding that no Republican presidential candidate since 1964 has garnered more than 12% of the black vote, with most of them languishing in the single digits.
Donald Trump, though, is an entirely different kind of Republican candidate, and he’s in the process of remaking the Republican Party.
South Carolina kingmaker James Clyburn isn’t buying any of this — at least not that he’s willing to admit. To him, all this talk of black support for Trump is “miscommunication” and “disinformation.” And it’s all the media’s fault. “I know the power of the media,” he says, “and the power of the media, repeating these things rather than reporting what’s actually happening. That is what’s causing the problem.”
We beg to differ. We think Joe Biden and his historical condescension toward blacks and his disastrous open-border policies are causing the problem.
The Federalist’s Shawn Fleetwood points out another problem facing the Republicans: turnout. Pointing to more localized contests such as a recent congressional race in Ohio, he notes, “The outcome of recent elections should give conservatives reason to pump the brakes on celebrating before any ballots have been cast.”
In any case, the Democrats’, ahem, get-out-the-vote efforts seem to be well ahead of those of the GOP. Either that, or Joe Biden got all 81 million of those votes on the up-and-up. Either way, Michael Whatley at the RNC has some work to do.
So, is Newt Gingrich onto something, or is he cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs? Time will tell, but it’s increasingly likely that we’re going to be able to put to the test the age-old Republican proposition that any significant incursion into the black vote by a GOP candidate would be fatal to the Democrats’ presidential prospects.
Emmy Griffin: Leftists Suddenly Know What a Woman Should Be — A NY Magazine writer asserts Republicans’ view of women is “something fixed and narrow” while putting women in a far more confining box.
Samantha Koch: How Do We Measure the Harm of Social Media? — Conflicting opinions aren’t helping parents manage their children’s access to a world of potentially harmful apps.
Thomas Gallatin: Biden DOJ Targets Whistleblowers for Protecting Kids — The FBI intimidates another Texas Children’s Hospital whistleblower for exposing the hospital’s illegal gender-bending treatment of children.
Scarlen Valderaz: Anti-Family Culture Leads to Low Birth Rates — Both sexes are being encouraged to focus on the self and worry about starting a family later or not at all. How do we fix this?
In Brief: Erasing Marriage and Family — Queer theorists and practitioners aren’t kidding that they want a Marxist cultural revolution.
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Editor’s Note: Each week we receive hundreds of comments and correspondences — and we read every one of them. Click here for a few thought-provoking comments about specific articles. The views expressed therein don’t necessarily reflect those of The Patriot Post.
Latest PodcastPopCon #49: Daily Wire’s New Show ‘Mr. Birchum’After nearly 30 years, The Daily Wire has finally brought Adam Carolla’s 1997 character Mr. Birchum to life in a new animated show, which “represents a point of view that may not be represented fully,” said Carolla at the series premiere event. Meanwhile, in a galaxy far away, Disney has its own idea of what people should be watching…
BEST OF VIDEOS
CNN Goes FULL George Orwell — The Democrats are constantly using the term “democracy” in a way that does not mean “democracy.” They like to use it because they want to portray Donald Trump as a fascist. CNN did a big report setting this up, but it’s Joe Biden who wants to undermine democracy.
AI Doublespeak — Artificial Intelligence is only as good as its training and has no problem with regurgitating mutually exclusive ideas about climate.
SHORT CUTS
Baghdad Bob
“There is so much misinformation, disinformation. … It’s not true, right? The president wasn’t wandering.” —White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre
“We want to make sure … that our border is secure.” —Karine Jean-Pierre
Gaslighting
“The patience and goodwill of the American people is being tested by their fears at the border. They don’t understand a lot of it.” —Joe Biden
With Friends Like These…
“[Benjamin Netanyahu] should not be addressing Congress. He is a war criminal. And he certainly has no regard for US law, which is explicitly designed to prevent US weapons from facilitating human rights abuses. His invitation should be revoked. It should’ve never been sent in the 1st place.” —Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY)
For the Record
“If you happened to walk in the Capitol on Jan 6, you might get 10 years in prison. But if you’re responsible for funding research that led to a pandemic and killed 15 million people, and then you lied about it to Congress, then nothing happens to you.” —Senator Rand Paul (R-KY)
“Donald Trump was recently convicted on 34 felony counts for a nondisclosure agreement that a rankly partisan judge and jury said was incorrectly entered as a legal expense. Thus, Trump is now a convicted felon due to an improperly located bookkeeping entry, while Biden has for years led an international influence-peddling crime family and now enjoys zero accountability. And [Merrick] Garland seems somehow mystified by the outrage.” —Douglas Andrews
“The Biden-Hur audiotape is the 2024 electoral version of Hunter’s laptop. And Garland’s refusal to cough it up is akin to the FBI’s collusion with Big Tech and Big Media to suppress the laptop story just before the 2020 election. In short: It’s more election interference from a weaponized Department of Justice.” —Douglas Andrews
Political Futures
“On the day when the arrest of an illegal alien who raped a 13 year-old girl was making headlines, Joe Biden announced a new amnesty for at least 500,000 illegal aliens. These people who should not be here will now get work permits, driving down wages. And, if they can get away with it, leftist activists will register them to vote, further corrupting our elections.” —Gary Bauer
“I think we shouldn’t assume that Black Americans are dumb or insensitive or incapable of learning. They’re looking at grocery store prices they can’t afford, and they know it’s Biden’s fault. They’re looking at millions of illegal immigrants coming into their neighborhoods, taking their jobs, threatening their families with violence, and they know Biden is responsible. You turn around, and they know the tools aren’t working, despite all the money we pour into the teachers’ unions, and they know the Democrats are responsible. They look at big cities where … Democrat mayor after Democrat mayor is corrupt, incompetent, and incapable of serving their interests. So what you’re beginning to see is a movement that says … ‘What have we got to lose by trying out Donald Trump?’” —former House Speaker Newt Gingrich
“It’s time for change, and our young voters know it.” —Star Parker
Re: The Left
“Thanks to the internet … it’s becoming increasingly difficult (if not impossible) for the truth to be buried like it was in years past. Now, anyone with an internet connection and a smartphone can shatter the narratives being spewed by those who want to keep us downtrodden. … Today, information travels faster than the gatekeepers can respond, leaving them with one last resort: telling us not to believe our lying eyes.” —Ian Haworth
“Only a tiny fraction of migrants are dangerous criminals, but the migrant-advocacy-industrial complex … insists criminals deserve sanctuary from deportation even after they commit a crime. Blame Biden for allowing ruthless criminals to come across the border. But sanctuary city laws are to blame for the epidemic of crimes by repeat offenders.” —Betsy McCaughey
“A republic elected Trump in 2016. A democracy would’ve elected Hillary Clinton. That’s why leftists break out in hives when anyone uses the word ‘republic.’” —Nate Jackson
And Last…
“People work their whole lives to build savings; politicians steal it through inflation.” —John Stossel
Fox News host Laura Ingraham gives her take on why the Biden campaign’s attacks against former President Trump aren’t working on ‘The Ingraham Angle.’ #FoxNe…
As the general election season nears, White House officials are dismissing as “cheap fakes” a series of viral videos circulating on social media that purport to show President Biden in declining mental acuity.
“It’s very clear what’s going on here,” Denton said. “They’re trying to push a new term underneath the school of misinformation to try and pressure social media companies to take action on videos of this nature.”
WASHINGTON, D.C. — In an awkwardly contentious exchange with reporters today, Karine Jean-Pierre claimed the video where she said embarrassing videos of President Joe Biden were deepfakes was also a deepfake.
Confusion arose this week after Jean-Pierre alleged that Biden had been the victim of a smear campaign by right-wing extremists to circulate doctored videos that make the president appear incompetent and feeble, though she now claims the video of her doing so was also a deepfake.
“That’s clearly not a real video of me,” said the black and gay White House Press Secretary, who is gay and also black. “These far-right conspiracy theorists will stop at nothing to spread their dangerous propaganda. Any evidence that allegedly shows me saying video clips depicting the president as unfit to serve were deepfakes is clearly a deepfake.”
Members of the White House press corps proceeded to play a clip of the video from a day earlier, which appeared to show Jean-Pierre labeling the negative Biden clips as deepfakes. “This is you,” said one reporter. “We were here. We listened to you say it.”
“Deepfake!” Jean-Pierre said tersely as she cut the reporter off immediately. “You’re a deepfake. You’re deepfaking right now. This isn’t happening. I’m not here. I’m not saying these words right now. Don’t look at me. Deepfake!”
Journalists reported Jean-Pierre then directed their attention to the back of the room while she sprinted away from the podium and out of the briefing room.
At publishing time, Jean-Pierre had released an official statement claiming that this article was a deepfake.
Babylon Bee subscriber Optimus Bardlederp contributed to this report. If you want to pitch your own headline ideas to our staff, click here to check out all of our membership options!
Check out Hasbro’s latest update to the classic board game “Guess Who?” – now with more genders, inclusion, and fun!* *Fun not guaranteed
Dr. Richard Schmidt is pastor of Union Grove Baptist Church and founder of Prophecy Focus Ministries. He’s the speaker on the weekly TV program, Prophecy Focus and the radio broadcast, Prophecy Unfolding. He spent 32 years in law enforcement including that of Acting Sheriff of Milwaukee County until his retirement. He has authored several books including: Are You Going to a Better Place?, Daniel’s Gap Paul’s Mystery, Tribulation to Triumph: The Olivet Discourse, Globalism: The Great World Consumption and Artificial Intelligence, Transhumanism and the De-evolution of Democracy.
The threat of a wider war in the Middle East continues to increase. Israel is at the heart of it all as they seek to defend themselves from those who wish to destroy the Jewish nation. Dr. Schmidt brought listeners an update as he discussed the following points:
Aid to Israel, featuring audio from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The current status of the war in Rafah.
Why is Dr. Schmidt so passionate about Israel and the Middle East?
Was it really Palestinian civilians that were holding the hostages?
What is the status of the cease-fire talks?
What’s happening with the other two terrorist groups: Hezbollah and the Houthis?
A Muslim student declares that America is the cancer.
A Jewish student presents their testimony of anti-Semitism in Toronto.
Why is there so much opposition if the Jewish people are God’s chosen people?
Callers rounded out this broadcast with their questions and comments.
‘Hannity’ panelists Victor Davis Hanson and Rep. Waltz discuss a meeting involving Israel and Iran canceled after criticism from Israeli PM Netanyahu about the U.S. withholding arms. White House said it had ‘no idea’ what Netanyahu was talking about. #foxnews#fox#hannity
“Don’t you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought? In the end, we shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible because there will be no words in which to express it.”
The Social Security program was instituted to help elderly Americans thrive during their retirement years. Unfortunately, millions upon millions of retired Americans are finding that their monthly Social Security payments are simply not enough as the cost of living spirals out of control. One recent survey found that a whopping 85 percent of U.S. adults now consider inflation to be one of the most important political issues that we are facing, and seniors are being hit particularly hard. In fact, a different survey that was just conducted by the Motley Fool discovered that 44 percent of retired Americans are thinking of going back to work because they need more money to survive…
A growing number of retired Americans are considering returning to work as they continue to battle chronic inflation, according to a new survey published by the Motley Fool.
About 44% of respondents said they are thinking about looking for work because their Social Security benefits have not adequately kept pace with high inflation.
Needless to say, trying to go back to work in your seventies, eighties or nineties is not an easy thing to do.
But if you have to choose between going back to work or not eating three meals a day, I think that the choice is easy.
Today, the average Social Security payment is less than half of what the average retired American spends each month…
The average monthly Social Security payment in 2024 is $1,907, according to the Social Security Administration. But that is just a fraction of the $4,818 that Americans age 65 and older reported spending in 2022.
Of course the current economic environment has been very difficult for all of us.
If you can believe it, compared to three years ago the typical household in this country is spending an extra $1,069 per month just to maintain the same standard of living…
The typical U.S. household needed to pay $227 more a month in March to purchase the same goods and services it did one year ago because of still-high inflation. Americans are paying on average $784 more each month compared with the same time two years ago and $1,069 more compared with three years ago.
Sadly, the cost of living is only going to get worse because our leaders just can’t help themselves.
At this point, our politicians in Washington have borrowed so much money that we are spending more than a trillion dollars a year just in interest on the national debt.
In fact, we now spend more on interest on the national debt than we do on national defense.
But instead of slowing down, our politicians just continue to borrow and spend trillions upon trillions of dollars.
So inflation is not going away any time soon.
Meanwhile, the number of home foreclosures was up once again last month…
Home foreclosures rose again in May as Americans continue to grapple with the ongoing cost-of-living crisis.
That is according to a new report published by real estate data provider ATTOM, which found that there were 32,621 properties in May with foreclosure filings, which includes default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions.
In addition to the conflicting rise in unemployment, other signs of deterioration include stagnant retail sales, a slowing of consumer spending, weak industrial production and manufacturing orders, increasing consumer debt, depressed new housing starts, falling annual earnings of full-time employees, and rising commodity prices.
To many of those at the bottom of the economic food chain, it feels like the economy has already collapsed.
Today, 20 percent of the entire population of California is living in poverty, and massive homeless encampments have sprouted all over the state.
Unfortunately, many more Americans will soon be joining the ranks of the poor because the economy is rapidly moving in the wrong direction.
Pizza Hut shuttered 15 locations in Indiana on Friday while more than 120 additional locations are in danger of closing, according to a report from The Times of Northwest Indiana.
The latest closures come after a long-running dispute between the chain and a franchisee. EYM Group, which owns and operates 142 Pizza Hut locations in Illinois, Indiana, Georgia, South Carolina and Wisconsin, was accused of defaulting on millions of dollars in payments owed to Pizza Hut by a June deadline.
As we approach the end of this calendar year, we will want to keep a very close eye on the global financial system.
There have been a number of ominous signs lately that should definitely alarm all of us. Most notably, the fifth largest bank in Japan just announced that it will be selling off approximately 63 billion dollars in government bonds…
But if that was the first, and still distant, sign that something was very wrong at one of Japan’s biggest banks (Norinchukin is Japan’s 5th largest bank with $840 billion in assets) today the proverbial canary stepped on a neutron bomb inside the Japanese coalmine, because according to Nikkei, Norinchukin Bank “will sell more than 10 trillion yen ($63 billion) of its holdings of U.S. and European government bonds during the year ending March 2025 as it aims to stem its losses from bets on low-yield foreign bonds, a main cause of its deteriorating balance sheet, and lower the risks associated with holding foreign government bonds.”
See, what’s happened in Japan is not that different from what is happening in the US, where as the FDIC keeps reminding us quarter after quarter, US banks are still sitting on over half a trillion dollars in unrealized losses, as a result of the huge jump in interest rates which has blown up the banks’ long-duration fixed income holdings, sending them trading far below par and forcing banks (and the Fed, see BTFP) to come up with creative ways of shoving these massive losses under the rug.
Major banks all over the world are sitting on gigantic mountains of unrealized losses.
If things start going wrong, it won’t take much to induce panic.
And once panic starts, it won’t take much to spark a financial avalanche.
We are in far more trouble than most people realize, and the dark clouds on the horizon are getting closer with each passing day.
Most people don’t realize this, but all of our lives are about to change. We are moving into a time of global war, and the death and destruction that we will witness will be off the charts. World War I was supposed to be “the war to end all wars”, and it resulted in approximately 20 million deaths. It was a truly nightmarish conflict, and those living at the time thought that we would never see anything like it again. But then World War II erupted, and it resulted in approximately 75 million deaths. Sadly, global leaders seem to have forgotten the lessons of World War II, because now the stage is being set for the biggest war in human history so far. During World War III, billions of people could die. Unfortunately, it appears that there will be no turning back now.
It is my personal opinion that the war in the Middle East will be the first conflict to rise to an apocalyptic level.
Israeli officials on Wednesday escalated threats against Lebanon’s Hezbollah amidst escalating cross-border exchanges of fire between the two sides.
“We are completing the land and air preparedness, strengthening the intelligence systems, and preparing for any possibility,” Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told the press before meeting with military chief Herzi Halevi and senior commanders in the Northern Command headquarters in the city of Safed.
“We have an obligation to change the situation in the north,” he stressed.
In other words, Gallant fully intends to push Hezbollah back so that approximately 100,000 Israeli citizens can safely return to their homes in northern Israel.
Meanwhile, the Israeli Ynet news site reported that an anonymous “senior Israeli government official” told the news outlet that “if Hezbollah continues to attack Israel, southern Lebanon will look like Gaza. Beirut will not be immune.”
Those are very strong words.
This week the Biden administration has been trying desperately to find a diplomatic solution that will satisfy both sides, but that endeavor was never going to succeed.
Meanwhile, Israeli officials have been making preparations for a ground invasion of southern Lebanon, and it is being reported that “operational plans for an offensive in Lebanon” have been officially approved…
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on Tuesday announced that plans to launch an offensive in Lebanon against Hezbollah have been formally approved.
The IDF statement further said it is preparing to “accelerate readiness in the field” at a moment the situation is deteriorating, given the Lebanese paramilitary group backed by Iran has in the last days sent hundreds of drones and missiles into northern Israel. The statement spelled out that “operational plans for an offensive in Lebanon were approved.”
I was stunned when I read that.
I knew that this was coming, but I didn’t think it was coming quite so quickly.
When the IDF enters southern Lebanon, it will mean all-out war.
Lebanon’s Hezbollah has new weapons and intelligence capabilities that could help it target more critical positions deeper inside Israel in case of an all-out war, the militant group’s leader warned on Wednesday.
Hassan Nasrallah’s comments came as the monthslong cross-border conflict simmering between Hezbollah and Israel appears to be reaching a boiling point and a day after a top U.S. envoy met Lebanese officials in his latest attempt to ease tensions.
The Hezbollah terror group published footage on Tuesday from what it said was one of its reconnaissance drones flying over northern Israel, including the Haifa port, as Israel said it struck down more suspected drones over the Western Galilee.
It was unclear when the roughly 10 minutes of footage released by Hezbollah were captured, and the Israel Defense Forces did not immediately comment on the video.
Iran has provided Hezbollah with a vast arsenal of very sophisticated missiles, and once an all-out war erupts tens of thousands of those missiles will rain down on Israeli cities.
There will not be a single city in all of Israel that will be out of range.
How do you think Israel might choose to respond in such a scenario?
You might want to start thinking about that.
Elsewhere, it looks like any chance for peace in Ukraine is gone.
Apparently the Russians are now saying that the next proposal that they will offer to Ukraine will be an offer to surrender…
The Kremlin now says that the next formal proposal on the horizon will be a document of the Ukrainian government’s surrender. This was stated by Russia’s chief delegate to the Vienna talks on military security and arms control, Konstantin Gavrilov, in a Rossiya-24 television interview.
“There are points of no return. The next thing that Russia will have to offer will be the document about [the Kiev government’s] surrender,” he said. He called last week’s proposals by Putin “realistic” and said they could end the war if they were embraced.
The Russians are steadily gaining ground, and so they feel like they have all the leverage that they need.
But western leaders are absolutely obsessed with winning this conflict, and they insist that they will keep ramping up their efforts for as long as it takes.
In the end, it appears that both sides are willing to keep escalating matters until someone pushes things a little bit too far.
Let us hope that day does not arrive any time soon.
Unfortunately, when we do find ourselves in a direct war with Russia we could also find ourselves in a direct war with North Korea at the same time because those two nations just signed a mutual defense pact…
Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un signed a new pact Wednesday that includes a pledge of mutual defense if either is attacked.
The agreement was sealed at a summit in Pyongyang during a rare visit by Putin to the reclusive nuclear-armed state as both countries face growing confrontations with the West.
This is really big news.
I don’t know why it isn’t getting more coverage by the western media.
The Russians have been making all sorts of unusual moves lately. For example, it is being reported that Vladimir Putin just picked his niece to be Deputy Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation…
Putin’s niece Anna Tsivileva has been appointed as Deputy Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation, as stated in the official decree published on Russia’s legal acts portal. Pavel Fradkov, the youngest son of Mikhail Fradkov, Director of the Russian Institute for Strategic Studies and former Prime Minister and chief of foreign intelligence, has also been appointed as Deputy Minister of Defense.
Anna Tsivileva is married to Sergey Tsivilyev, Russia’s Minister of Energy, who assumed office in May after leading the Kemerovo Region. Tsivileva, formerly Anna Putina, has been previously reported by Agentstvo to be President Putin’s second cousin.
Even for Putin, I thought that this was a rather bizarre thing to do.
But I guess they do things differently over there.
Before I close this article, I also wanted to discuss a couple of new developments regarding China.
A new weapons package for Taiwan that is worth approximately 360 million dollars has been approved, and this isn’t going to make the Chinese happy at all…
The US State Department has approved a new weapons sale to Taiwan involving hundreds of armed drones and missiles worth $360 million, the Pentagon’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) has said.
Under the deal that was concluded on Tuesday, Taiwan will receive Altius-600M systems, which are unmanned aerial vehicles equipped with warheads, and related equipment at an estimated cost of $300 million, the agency said.
Of course the Chinese have been preparing for war as well, and those preparations have included expanding the size of their nuclear arsenal faster than anyone else…
China is expanding its nuclear arsenal faster than any other major superpower, and is in command of 500, a top European think tank has warned.
The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute wrote in a report published on Monday that Xi Xinping has increased his nation’s nuclear stockpile from 410 to 500 in a single year.
The increase in nuclear weapons meant ‘China is expanding its nuclear arsenal faster than any other country’ in absolute terms, WMD expert Hans M Kristensen told Insider.
Most people don’t like to think about nuclear war, because it will mean the end of our society as we know it today.
Someday when the U.S. finds itself in such a conflict, it will be relying on an ICBM fleet that first went into service many decades ago and that is constantly needing to be repaired. The following is a brief excerpt from an excellent Time Magazine article…
If a piece of equipment breaks inside Captain Kaz “Dexter” Moffett’s underground command center at the Alpha-01 Missile Alert Facility, it’s marked with a paper tag that reads either “warning” or “danger.” A few of those are hanging in this cramped capsule buried about 70 ft. below the high plains of eastern Wyoming. One is stuck to the shut-off valves that control water flow in the event of an emergency. There’s another one on a ventilation hatch. The entire command capsule itself is jury-rigged on top of steel stilts because the shock-absorber system, which was first installed in 1963 to survive a thermonuclear blast, is now inoperative. So there’s a tag for Air Force maintenance teams to fix that too.
Then there are malfunctions that aren’t marked. Moffett’s computer monitor—the one that enables him to keep watch on a fleet of 10 nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs)—has a flashing glitch on the bottom of the screen. His classified phone line has such a weak connection that he can barely hear fellow Air Force officers who are commanding more than 100 other nuclear missiles spread across 9,600 sq. mi. “You can hear them pretty clearly if you stand on an angle, on one leg, and jump up and down,” Moffett says, smiling. “It’s all part of the job. We spend a lot of time saying to ourselves, ‘Hey, how are we going to make this work today?’”
Most Americans don’t realize that our strategic nuclear forces are in horrendous shape.
In many cases, those running the system are forced to use rotary phones and 8 inch floppy disks.
Meanwhile, the Russians have introduced a new line of ultra-advanced intercontinental ballistic missiles, and the S-500 is the best anti-missile system on the entire planet by a very wide margin.
I have written about all of this a lot, but I don’t think that it is sinking in for most people.
Over the past decade or so, the balance of power has shifted dramatically.
I would highly recommend that our leaders pursue peace while they still can, because we are simply not prepared for the type of war that is now staring us in the face.
The national debt will keep soaring over the next 10 years, according to the CBO.
The agency estimates the national debt will rise to $56 trillion by 2034.
The national deficit, meanwhile, is set to hit $1.9 trillion by the end of this fiscal year.
The US’s $34 trillion debt mountain isn’t shrinking anytime soon.
According to thelatest projectionsfrom the Congressional Budget Office, the national debt is on track to hit $56.9 trillion by the start of 2034.
The latest estimates reflect a steeper pace of government borrowing thanpredicted in the previous quarter. According to its report published on Tuesday, the federal agency’s newest projection implies a 64% increase in the national debt over the next 10 years, or around $3 trillion in debt tacked on every year for the next decade.
The US is on track to post a $1.9 trillion deficit by the end of this fiscal year — which amounts to around 6% of GDP, givencurrent dollar GDP estimatesat the end of last year. That’s far larger than the 50-year average deficit, which has been 3.7% of national GDP, the CBO said.
“The largest contributor to the cumulative increase was the incorporation of recently enacted legislation into CBO’s baseline, which added $1.6 trillion to projected deficits,” the agency added, pointing to billions in emergency aid sent toUkraine,Israel, and other countries in theIndo-Pacific region.
Economists have been sounding the alarmon the rapid pace of government borrowing for years, with experts saying mounting debt poses a threat to the stability of the financial system over the long term.Higher debt levelscould stoke inflation and impact the government’s ability to fund key programs, like Social Security and even the military, experts told Business Insider.
One of Muckraker.com’s journalists has taken to X, revealing an upcoming report set to expose the shocking reality behind some of the 85,000 migrant children who vanished under the Biden administration’s first term.
Muckrakerwrote on Xthat one government insider has supplied them with a “list of addresses where some of the 85,000 missing alien children have been delivered under the Biden administration.”
In the video, a Muckraker journalist stood outside an abandoned Amityville, New York house. He said this is one of the thousands of addresses the government insider has provided them, adding this home with boarded-up windows allegedly had two migrant children delivered to a sponsor living at the house.
“Our upcoming report will expose the horrors of the Biden administration’s unaccompanied children program,” Muckraker wrote on X.
In the final chapter of his Amusing Ourselves to Death, Neil Postman writes:
There are two ways by which the spirit of a culture may be shriveled. In the first—the Orwellian—culture becomes a prison. In the second—the Huxleyan—culture becomes a burlesque. . . . What Huxley teaches is that in the age of advanced technology, spiritual devastation is more likely to come from an enemy with a smiling face than from one whose countenance exudes suspicion and hate. In the Huxleyan prophecy, Big Brother does not watch us, by his choice. We watch him, by ours. There is no need for wardens or gates or Ministries of Truth. When a population becomes distracted by trivia, when cultural life is redefined as a perpetual round of entertainments, when serious public conversation becomes a form of baby-talk, when, in short, a people become an audience and their public business a vaudeville act, then a nation finds itself at risk; culture-death is a clear possibility.”[1]
Postman wrote these words in 1985, fifty-three years after the publication of Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World and thirty-six years after the publication of George Orwell’s 1984. Nearly forty years later, Postman’s words seem even truer; in fact, they seem as prescient as those of Huxley. Though the dark vision of 1984 was, in great part, enacted in the totalitarian states of China and the Soviet Union, the kinder, gentler dystopia of Brave New World has been fulfilled, at least in part, in the western democracies.
Postman explains succinctly the difference between the vision of Orwell and Huxley as it has manifested itself in the west in his Foreword:
What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture.[2]
2. Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death, xix.
Although Brave New World is one of the best and most influential dystopian novels, I find it difficult, at times painful, to get through. It simply hits too close to home to count as pleasant reading. Whether or not science will reach a stage where babies can be conceived and mass produced in laboratories, Huxley’s fictional glimpse into a future world where the connection between sex and procreation is severed, where mothers and fathers are replaced by a nanny state that nurtures, educates, and indoctrinates children, and where the family is superseded by a collective that denounces monogamy, privacy, and individual interest as selfish, oppressive, and anti-social seems all too real—and realizable.
Yet, while so many of these dark prophecies have come to pass in our modern age, there remains a hope for us that is altogether absent from Huxley’s Brave New World. Though the waves of secularism mount ever higher, they crash upon the bulwark that is historical, doctrinal Christianity and retreat again into the sea. In this article, I will praise Huxley for rightly forecasting the storm to come, but criticize him for missing the light shining in the darkness on account of his fundamental misunderstanding of Christianity.
Totalitarianism in a State of Pleasure
The genius, and horror, of Huxley’s dystopia is that, as Postman saw, it would not need to be imposed upon an unwilling citizenry. To the contrary, most citizens would stumble over themselves to live in a state where everything is managed for their pleasure and amusement. Don’t be fooled by the strict caste system of Alphas, Betas, Gammas, Deltas, and Epsilons that defines Huxley’s utopian London. Though it is true that the Deltas and Epsilons toil at menial labor while the Alphas and Betas live luxurious lives, the distinction should not be confused with that of Marx’s oppressed proletarians and oppressive capitalists.
In Brave New World, each class is physically shaped, mentally equipped, and emotionally conditioned to be fully content in their societal role. From before birth, their bodies are sculpted genetically, their brains are enhanced, or weakened, chemically, and their personalities are molded subliminally to exactly suit the jobs they will perform and the lives they will lead from cradle to grave. By means of what Huxley dubs hypnopædia (“sleep-teaching”), all castes are continually brainwashed by slogans that define them and guide them in how to interact with themselves, their world, and the other castes.
None of the castes revolt, not only because they are socially engineered to enjoy their job, but because the state occupies them with a continual round of pleasures during the hours when they are not working or sleeping. Those pleasures are more or less expensive and elaborate depending on the caste, but all pleasures are ultimately linked to two key factors: all are encouraged and expected to have contraceptive sex, promiscuously, with a continual round of different partners; all are given a constant supply of soma—an opioid drug that brings pure pleasure with no ill side effects. To make things sweeter, scientific developments in body chemistry ensure that all people, whatever their caste, remain young, fit, and sexually active until their death.
What does the state ask in return? Only that its people live as happy, peaceful, uninquisitive consumers. Anything old, whether they be books, ideas, beliefs, institutions, or rituals, are forbidden, but nobody cares because all their wants and desires are met. There was no need for religion to be persecuted and stamped out by the controllers of the state; it needed only to be rendered unnecessary and irrelevant, and it passed away without a struggle. What need is there for a divine Director when the blessings initiated by Henry Ford’s assembly line have transformed life into an efficient, streamlined, pre-packaged, perpetual trip to fantasyland? Indeed, in the novel, people act, justify, and curse in the name of Ford rather than in the name of the Lord, greeting and blessing each other with the sign of the (Model) T rather than that of the Cross.
By 1985, Postman could see how accurately Huxley had predicted a soft totalitarianism of pleasure and triviality where the free peoples of the west fritter away their political rights and personal liberties for a negative peace, a cowardly security, and a shallow happiness. Certainly, by then, it should have been clear to anyone with eyes to see that Huxley had foreseen the inevitability and long-term effects of the sexual revolution and the birth control pill, the rise in consumerism as an American virtue, and the massive growth in information, entertainment, and news media.
Today, the cable television of the 80s has blossomed into the seemingly unlimited social medias of the twenty-first century, which control people’s thoughts in a way that would have astounded even Huxley. In any case, it is clear to me that Huxley foresaw with uncanny accuracy the opioid crisis (caused by the proliferation of legal rather than illegal drugs), planned obsolescence (where things are thrown away rather than mended), the social erosion of the nuclear family (and its demonization as bigoted and regressive), and the near obsession with achieving perennial youth (including plans to upload a person’s consciousness into a computer so he can live forever).
No Doctrine, No Hope
The plot of Brave New World—of which there is precious little—incorporates a clever device that allows readers to gain an outside perspective on Huxley’s carefully managed utopia. In New Mexico, there yet remains a vestige of the old days: a reservation where dwell a group of primitive Indians riddled by disease, strife, and superstition. There, horror of horrors, the savages, as they are called, still marry and bear children and conduct rituals to honor God and their ancestors. To this reservation, curious Alphas and Betas who have the financial means travel to catch a glimpse of the sorrows and indignities from which they have been rescued.
Some twenty years earlier, a female tourist had fallen down a precipice and been left behind. By some fluke, her contraceptive regime failed, and she became pregnant with a child that she delivered in the reservation. Normally, she would have returned to London, but, too ashamed that she has become that most dreaded of things, a mother, she remains on the reservation. Here, she teaches her son, John, to read and, by luck, he acquires a copy of the complete plays of Shakespeare from which he learns all he knows about life and death, joy and suffering, God and purpose. Throughout the novel he quotes copious verses from Shakespeare’s tragedies (Macbeth, Hamlet, King Lear, Othello, and Romeo and Juliet), though the ironic title of the novel comes from The Tempest, a late romance that, unlike Brave New World, has a happy ending.
I find it significant that the first Shakespearean line John quotes comes from Macbeth, for that play begins with three witches who set the tone for the tragedy by declaring, “Fair is foul and foul is fair.” What makes Brave New World such a fascinating, and disturbing, read is that all of morality and meaning are turned topsy turvy in the novel, something that John encounters when he is brought to London and tries to reconcile his traditional virtues with the selfish, utterly relativistic values he witnesses.
That clash produces most of the drama and tension in the novel; but it also represents its greatest weakness. John’s devotion to God cannot prevail, for the religion Huxley gives him is abstract, syncretistic, and ahistorical. A mad jumble of doctrineless Christianity, mystical totemism, nature worship, and guilt-driven asceticism, the religion of the savages knows nothing of a transcendent Creator who entered his creation to bear, on the cross, the sins of the humans he made, and to defeat, by his resurrection, the power of sin, death, and the devil. The highest spiritual element in John’s religion is the search for Oneness, but then that is not finally different from the inhabitants of London who seek their own Oneness through sacramental orgies.
Aldous Huxley died on November 22, 1963, the same day as John F. Kennedy and C. S. Lewis. In 1982, Peter Kreeft published an imaginary Socratic dialogue in purgatory between these three men titled Between Heaven and Hell. When the subject turns to comparative religion, Huxley argues for the same syncretistic universalism that he gives to John: “there are two levels or dimensions in religion—the exoteric and the esoteric, the outer and the inner, the public and the private, the revealed and the hidden. The outer shell of a religion is its creed, code and cult; its words, works and worship. But the kernel, the inner essence, is the experience of oneness.”[3]
Lewis responds—and his response addresses well the ultimate impotence of the religion Huxley holds up against the dystopian future he conjures in Brave New World—by accusing Huxley of
using Oriental categories to interpret Christianity. . . . the esoteric/exoteric distinction is itself an esoteric, not an exoteric doctrine. It applies to esoteric Eastern religions but not to exoteric Western religions. Judaism, Christianity and Islam are public, open, democratic religions, religions of a Book, open for all to read, not religions of hidden experiences known only to the initiated mystics. They are religions of history and of the deeds and words of God in history. Christianity is ultimately the Word of God in history. All public facts, not private mysticism.[4]
4. Kreeft, Between Heaven and Hell, 84–85.
As prophetic as Brave New World is in its warnings, it fails to locate anything concrete within the human spirit, or the God who created that spirit, that can stand against the dystopia to come.
Thankfully, Christianity tells a different, and better, story. While Huxley’s bleak novel may tempt us toward discouragement or even despair, we must not lose hope. There is a real savior who offers real forgiveness to real sinners, and as our world plunges further into purposeless pleasures, it’s to this grand and gloriously true story of redemption that we must look. In the New Jerusalem, we will achieve the unity Huxley calls for, but it will not be the kind of mystical unity in which the self is lost. It should come as no surprise that Revelation depicts heaven as a marriage between the Bridegroom (Christ) and the Bride (the Church). As members of the Body (and Bride) of Christ, we are part of an incarnational unity. Just as, on earth, husband and wife are one but still two, in heaven, we will be one with Christ while continuing to be the individuals he created us to be. That is a brave new world to look forward to with joy!
13 Go in through the narrow gate; because wide is the gate and broad is the way leading to destruction and many are those going in through it. 14 How narrow the gate and how hard is the way that leads to life and few are the ones finding it! Matthew 7:13-14 (translated from NA28 the Greek text to English)
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