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
But so shall it not be among you: but whosoever will be great among you shall be your minister.
MARK 10:43
From the words of Jesus to His disciples, we may properly conclude that there is nothing wrong with the desire to be great provided: (1) we seek the right kind of greatness; (2) we allow God to decide what greatness is; (3) we are willing to pay the full price that greatness demands, and (4) we are content to wait for the judgment of God to settle the whole matter at last!
It is vitally important, however, that we know what Christ meant when He used the word great in relation to men, and His meaning cannot be found in the lexicon or dictionary. Only when viewed in its broad theological setting is it understood aright. No one whose heart has had a vision of God, however brief or imperfect that vision may have been, will ever consent to think of himself as being great.
All this being true, still God Himself applies the word great to men, as when the angel tells Zacharias that the son who is to be born “shall be great in the sight of the Lord.”
Obviously, there are two kinds of greatness recognized in the Scriptures: an absolute, uncreated greatness belonging to God alone, and a relative and finite greatness achieved by or bestowed upon certain friends of God and sons of faith, who by obedience and self-denial sought to become as much like God as possible.
It is obvious that Jesus was not impressed with the idea of greatness inherent in the political power and dominion held by “the princes of the Gentiles.”
“It shall not be so among you!” He told his followers.1
My soul! there is always a set time to favour Zion. It may not be so early as we could wish; it may not come at the time we look for it; yea, it may be deferred until our impatience hath given over the very expectation of it; nevertheless, “it will surely come; it will not tarry.” We are like children, who wish to gather the fruit before it is ripe; but there is no haste with God. He stops until the mercy, intended to be given us, is fully prepared, and our souls as ready to receive it. And what endears the mercy (be it what it may) yet more, is, that from everlasting it hath been appointed. “The vision is for an appointed time.” So that, however tedious it may seem in coming, it will neither go a moment beyond the appointment, nor come a moment before: and when it arrives, it will explain wherefore it came not sooner, by showing how suited and seasonable it is now in its coming. My soul! let this sweet scripture be ever uppermost in thy recollection, to help thee on in seasons of exercise. God’s appointments are sure: never shall his people be disappointed in them, nor of them; come they will, and at the very hour. Israel was to be a certain time in Egypt; when that time was accomplished we are told, “the self-same night the Lord brought them out, with their armies.” Exactly the same in Babylon, and exactly the same deliverance. So, my soul! in all thine exercises, the hour is marked: “the vision is for an appointed time.” Though it tarry much beyond thy expectations, it cannot tarry beyond the Lord’s appointment. Oh! for grace, upon every occasion, to follow the advice of David: “Wait on the Lord, be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord.” (Psalm 27:14.)1
Reader, this is an important question. Listen to the Christian’s answer, and see if it is yours. “On whom dost thou trust?” “I trust,” says the Christian, “in a triune God. I trust the Father, believing that he has chosen me from before the foundations of the world; I trust him to provide for me in providence, to teach me, to guide me, to correct me if need be, and to bring me home to his own house where the many mansions are. I trust the Son. Very God of very God is he—the man Christ Jesus. I trust in him to take away all my sins by his own sacrifice, and to adorn me with his perfect righteousness. I trust him to be my Intercessor, to present my prayers and desires before his Father’s throne, and I trust him to be my Advocate at the last great day, to plead my cause, and to justify me. I trust him for what he is, for what he has done, and for what he has promised yet to do. And I trust the Holy Spirit—he has begun to save me from my inbred sins; I trust him to drive them all out; I trust him to curb my temper, to subdue my will, to enlighten my understanding, to check my passions, to comfort my despondency, to help my weakness, to illuminate my darkness; I trust him to dwell in me as my life, to reign in me as my King, to sanctify me wholly, spirit, soul, and body, and then to take me up to dwell with the saints in light for ever.”
Oh, blessed trust! To trust him whose power will never be exhausted, whose love will never wane, whose kindness will never change, whose faithfulness will never fail, whose wisdom will never be nonplussed, and whose perfect goodness can never know a diminution! Happy art thou, reader, if this trust is thine! So trusting, thou shalt enjoy sweet peace now, and glory hereafter, and the foundation of thy trust shall never be removed.1
THEREFORE when Judas was gone out, Jesus said, Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in him. (In spirit he had already triumphed. At the sight of Judas he had suffered pangs unutterable, but his soul had overcome the trial, and had gained an earnest of complete victory in the battle which lay before him. The traitor also was driven out of his church, and he saw in this a prophecy of the overthrow of Antichrist.)
32 If God be glorified in him, God shall also glorify him in himself, and shall straightway glorify him. (His eye is on the glory as he enters upon his passion; “for the joy that was set before him he endured the cross, despising the shame.”)
33 Little children, yet a little while I am with you. Ye shall seek me: and as I said unto the Jews, Whither I go, ye cannot come; so now I say to you. (Now that Judas is gone, he unbosoms his heart, and speaks to the eleven under the tender term of “little children.” He tells them that just now they are not to die with him and for a while they cannot follow him into heaven, but must tarry below; and he teaches them how to behave to one another in his absence, and leaves them the law of love as one of his last words.)
34 A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.
35 By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.
36 Simon Peter said unto him, Lord, whither goest thou? Jesus answered him, Whither I go, thou canst not follow me now; but thou shalt follow me afterwards. (Peter would one day die a martyr’s death, but not just then. This ought to have satisfied and silenced him, but his loving heart outran his judgment.)
37 Peter said unto him, Lord, why cannot I follow thee now? I will lay down my life for thy sake.
Luke 22:31–38
AND the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren. (This solemn warning and gracious declaration were meant to set the bold disciple on his guard, but he was self-confident, and again declared his strength of purpose.)
33 And he said unto him, Lord, I am ready to go with thee, both into prison, and to death.
34 And he said, I tell thee, Peter, the cock shall not crow this day, before that thou shalt thrice deny that thou knowest me. (Never was man more hearty and sincere, but the Lord knew he would waver. Let none of us talk of what we will do, but pray for grace to do it.)
35 And he said unto them, When I sent you without purse, and scrip, and shoes, lacked ye any thing? And they said, Nothing.
36 Then said he unto then, But now, he that hath a purse, let him take it, and likewise his scrip: and he that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one. (Now all was changed, no one would entertain them, every one would harm them, and they would be as men needing defence against deadly foes. He did not, however, mean that they should fight with carnal weapons, as we shall see immediately. It was only an intimation that they were now to be assailed by force.)
37 For I say unto you, that this that is written must yet be accomplished in me, And he was reckoned amongst the transgressors: for the things concerning me have an end.
38 And they said, Lord, behold, here are two swords. And he said unto them, It is enough. (If they were literally to fight, two swords were not enough, but they were enough to express the Saviour’s idea. They were now to go out as warriors to conquer the world, and the swords represented their militant condition. One sword was rashly used by Peter, and his Lord bade him put it away, to show that armed force is not to be employed; there was another sword not then wielded, which typified the Word of God, with which nations are subdued.)
“Forgiveness doesn’t make the other person right, it makes you free.” – Stormie Omartian1
“Forgiveness is the key that unlocks the door of resentment and the handcuffs of hatred. It is a power that breaks the chains of bitterness and the shackles of selfishness.” – Corrie Ten Boom
“To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you.” – C. S. Lewis
“I firmly believe a great many prayers are not answered because we are not willing to forgive someone.” – Dwight L. Moody
“I know for me, going back to the person I’ve bad-mouthed or lied to is absolutely humiliating! But isn’t it interesting that ‘humiliating’ has the same root word as ‘humility”? Part of humility is taking responsibility for my sin and asking forgiveness even when it doesn’t feel good. God wants to heal and restore your relationships, but it’s not easy.” – Chip Ingram
“Forgiveness is not that stripe which says, ‘I will forgive, but not forget.’ It is not to bury the hatchet with the handle sticking out of the ground, so you can grasp it the minute you want it.” – Dwight L. Moody
“After grief for sin there should be joy for forgiveness.” – A. W. Pink
“Forgiveness is an act of the will, and the will can function regardless of the temperature of the heart.” – Corrie Ten Boom
“If Jesus Christ was who He claimed to be, and He did die on a cross at a point of time in history, then, for all history past and all history future it is relevant because that is the very focal point for forgiveness and redemption.” – Josh McDowell
“Forgiveness is God’s command.” – Martin Luther
“God forgets your confessed sins; so should you.” – Woodrow Kroll
“You are nothing better than deceitful hypocrites if you harbor in your minds a single unforgiving thought. There are some sins which may be in the heart, and yet you may be saved. But you cannot be saved unless you are forgiving. If we do not choose to forgive, we choose to be damned.” – Charles Spurgeon
“Forgiveness is one of the most beautiful words in the human vocabulary. How much pain and unhappy consequences could be avoided if we all learned the meaning of this word.” – Billy Graham
“A life lived without forgiveness is a prison.” – William Arthur Ward
“I can forgive, but I cannot forget, is only another way of saying, I will not forgive. Forgiveness ought to be like a cancelled note – torn in two, and burned up, so that it never can be shown against one.” – Henry Ward Beecher
“Strength of character means the ability to overcome resentment against others, to hide hurt feelings, and to forgive quickly.” – Lawrence G. Lovasik
“True forgiveness is a self-healing process which starts with you and gradually extends to everyone else.” – Robert Holden
“A happy marriage is the union of two good forgivers.” – Ruth Graham
“Forgiveness is almost a selfish act because of its immense benefits to the one who forgives.” – Lawana Blackwell
“Forgiveness unleashes joy. It brings peace. It washes the slate clean. It sets all the highest values of love in motion.” – George MacDonald
“The most miserable prison in the world is the prison we make for ourselves when we refuse to show mercy. Our thoughts become shackled, our emotions are chained, the will is almost paralyzed. But when we show mercy, all of these bonds are broken, and we enter into a joyful liberty that frees us to share God’s love with others.” – Warren W. Wiersbe
1All of these quotes are from the following websites:
Jeremiah 12:1 — This is a continual question of the Old Testament. We’ve seen this with Asaph in Psalm 73.
Jeremiah 12:12 — This is the 5th time the phrase “Sword of the LORD” is found in the Bible. David saw three days of the sword in 1 Chronicles 21:12, and seventy thousand men died in those three days.
Jeremiah 12:16 — Obedience, the universal call of God. Yes, God’s mercy extends even unto pagan nations (Jonah 1:2).
Jeremiah 13:9 — This object lesson is a vivid portrayal of how God marred the pride of Judah. God would later tell how long this judgment would be. Both Jeremiah 25:11-12 and Jeremiah 29:10 show the seventy years of judgment that Daniel read about (Daniel 9:2).
Jeremiah 14:8 — The Savior stands as a stranger in the land, waiting at the door (Revelation 3:20). The hymn “Abide With Me” is based on this passage. It’s all about inviting the Savior to come in. Oscar Eliason also wrote another song based on this verse:
Why should He stand as a stranger Close to your heart’s bolted door? Graciously, tenderly, pleading, Gently He knocks o’er and o’er
Why should He stand as a stranger, He Who can save you from sin? Peace to your heart Jesus waits to impart The moment that you let Him in.
Oscar Eliason
1 Thessalonians 1:1 — Welcome to a new epistle! No, the epistles were not the wives of the apostles! From J. Vernon McGee on 1 Thessalonians:
This wonderful epistle is almost at the end of Paul’s epistles as far as their arrangement in the New Testament is concerned. However, it was actually the first epistle that Paul wrote. It was written by Paul in A.D. 52 or 53.
Thessalonica was a Roman colony. Rome had a somewhat different policy with their captured people from what many other nations have had. For example, it seems that we try to Americanize all the people throughout the world, as if that would be the ideal. Rome was much wiser than that. She did not attempt to directly change the culture, the habits, the customs, or the language of the people whom she conquered. Instead, she would set up colonies which were arranged geographically in strategic spots throughout the empire. A city which was a Roman colony would gradually adopt Roman laws and customs and ways. In the local department stores you would see the latest things they were wearing in Rome itself. Thus these colonies were very much like a little Rome. Thessalonica was such a Roman colony, and it was an important city in the life of the Roman Empire.
1 Thessalonians 1:3 — We encounter again the “virtue trinity” of faith, hope, and love. Paul highlighted this in 1 Corinthians 13:13, referred to this in Colossians 1:4-5, and will reiterate this in 1 Thessalonians 5:8.
1 Thessalonians 1:9 — Paul commended the Thessalonians for turning from idols to the living and true God, while the Jews turned from the living and true God to swearing by Baal (Jeremiah 12:16).
1 Thessalonians 2:2 — Sometimes it’s difficult to continue sharing the gospel when you get shut down. Paul suffered in Philippi but kept preaching in Thessalonica.
1 Thessalonians 2:5-6 — Paul lived his life for “an audience of one.” He liked quoting Jeremiah; glory in the Lord (Jeremiah 9:24 … see also 1 Corinthians 1:31 and 2 Corinthians 10:17)!
Psalm 79 is titled, A Psalm of Asaph, though it was clearly written after the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonian armies. This event was so traumatic and important in the scope of Jewish history that it is described four times in the Hebrew Scriptures: 2 Kings 25, 2 Chronicles 36:11-21, Jeremiah 39:1-14, and Jeremiah 52. Since the Asaph most prominent in the Old Testament lived and served during the reigns of King David and King Solomon, this is likely a later Asaph.
Boice (writing regarding Psalm 74) explains the concept of a later Asaph: “Either this is a later Asaph, which is not unlikely since the name might have been perpetuated among the temple musicians, or, more likely, the name was affixed to many psalms produced by this body of musicians. We know that the ‘descendants of Asaph’ were functioning as late as the reign of Josiah (2 Chronicles 35:15).”
Psalm 79:13 — The Psalmist echoes Psalm 100:3, “Know ye that the LORD he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.”
Proverbs 24:34 — Patch the Pirate has a great song for this: “Rise and Shine!“
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.
If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be: if any man serve me, him will my Father honor.John 12:26
The highest service is imitation. If I would be Christ’s servant I must be His follower. To do as Jesus did is the surest way of bringing honor to His name. Let me mind this every day.
If I imitate Jesus I shall have His company: if I am like Him I shall be with Him. In due time He will take me up to dwell with Him above, if, meanwhile, I have striven to follow Him here below. After His suffering our Lord came to His throne, and even so, after we have suffered a while with Him here below, we also shall arrive in glory. The issue of our Lord’s life shall be the issue of ours: if we are with Him in His humiliation we shall be with Him in His glory. Come, my soul, pluck up courage and put down thy feet in the blood-marked footprints which thy Lord has left thee.
Let me not fail to note that the Father will honor those who follow His Son. If He sees me true to Jesus, He will put marks of favor and honor upon me for His Son’s sake. No honor can be like this. Princes and emperors bestow the mere shadows of honor; the substance of glory comes from the Father. Wherefore, my soul, cling thou to thy Lord Jesus more closely than ever.
Todd Friel heads to Georgia Tech, asking students tough questions like, “If you could ask God one question, what would it be?”, “Why do bad things happen?” and “Can all religions be true?”.
Segment 1
• Todd speaks with Greg, a freshman who questions God’s control over good and bad events.
Segment 2
• Todd challenges Greg on whether all religions can be true, uncovering Greg’s uncertainty about Jesus and Protestantism.
Segment 3
• Todd asks Greg if he considers himself a good person, diving into sin, lying, stealing, and lust, and how these impact his standing before God.
Segment 4
• Todd shares the Gospel with Greg, urging him to repent and trust in Christ for salvation.
Israeli Hostage Confirmed Dead, 26,000 attacks against Israel, and Hamas hit hard Since the attack by Hamas on October 7, 2023, more than 26,000 rockets, missiles, and drones have been fired at Israel by Iran and its allied militant groups, as reported by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). This data was released on the first anniversary of the attack, revealing that 13,200 launches originated from Gaza, 12,400 from Lebanon, 400 from Iran, 180 from Yemen, and 60 from Syria, as of October 2, 2024.
More than 10,000 antisemitic incidents recorded in the U.S. since Oct. 7, the highest yearly total on record, ADL finds More than 10,000 anti-Semitic incidents have been recorded in the United States in the year following Hamas’s Oct. 7 terror attack on Israel, marking the highest yearly total recorded, according to Anti-Defamation League data released Sunday. Of those incidents, at least 1,200 occurred on U.S. college campuses, a 500 percent increase from the year prior.
Netanyahu to troops in north: ‘You are the generation of victory. The world is astonished’ “A year ago, we took a terrible blow. In the 12 months since then, we have changed the reality across the board. The entire world is astonished by the blows you are landing on our enemies. I salute you and tell you: You are the generation of victory. Together we will fight and together we will win – with G-d’s help,”
Senior Qatari diplomat to ‘Post’: We never communicated with Sinwar – exclusive Speaking exclusively to The Jerusalem Post, the diplomat clarified that all mediation efforts are conducted exclusively through representatives from Hamas’s political office in Doha. “Khalil Al-Hayah has been leading negotiations on behalf of Hamas since day one,” the diplomat stated, emphasizing that Sinwar has never been involved in direct talks.
Iran’s Oil Minister Visits Oil Export Terminal as Israeli Strike Feared Iran’s oil minister landed on Kharg Island, home to the country’s main export terminal, and held talks with a naval commander on Sunday, the oil ministry’s news website Shana reported, amid concern Israel could attack energy facilities. An Israeli military spokesman said on Saturday that Israel would retaliate in response to last week’s missile attack by Tehran “when the time is right.”
US States Order Flags at Half-Staff to Mark Oct. 7 Anniversary Multiple US states will lower their flags to half-mast during the day on Monday to mark the one-year anniversary of Hamas’s Oct. 7 terror attack in southern Israel. “The hearts of Iowans go out to the innocent Israeli families and American citizens killed by Hamas,” stated Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, a Republican, who ordered flags lowered at the state Capitol building and on all public grounds and sites in the state. (She encouraged individuals, businesses, schools and others to do the same.)
NY, MN shuls threatened on Rosh Hashanah, Michigan rabbi robbed in his home at gunpoint Police departments in Minneapolis and New York City responded over Rosh Hashanah to threats against Jews worshipping in synagogues. Minneapolis officers arrested a man on Friday after he allegedly stood outside Temple Israel with a gun on Thursday. Tim Walz, the Democratic Party’s vice presidential nominee, did not comment on the threat to Minneapolis Jews
Israeli strikes batter Beirut in heaviest bombardment so far, Israeli air attacks battered Beirut’s southern suburbs overnight and early on Sunday in the most intense bombardment of the Lebanese capital since Israel sharply escalated its campaign against Iran-backed group Hezbollah last month.
In rare appearance, Khamenei says Iran ‘won’t back down’ as Israel strikes in Beirut Speaking in both Farsi and Arabic during Friday Prayers in central Tehran on October 4, Khamenei said Iran and the regional proxies it supports won’t back down from Israel as fears of a wider regional conflict in the Middle East grow amid a wave of multiple massive air strikes and a land incursion by Israel into Lebanon.
As Empire Of Lies Crumbles, Hillary Clinton Warns: “We’ll Lose Total Control” If Social Media Stops Censoring Content About nine months ago, the WSJ Editor-in-Chief admitted to Davos elites that legacy media outlets no longer had a monopoly on information and narratives. In other words, misinformation and disinformation campaigns to brainwash the masses were no longer working. This is why the fake news media is attacking Elon and the X platform. They have lost control of the narrative they once had. “We owned the news. We were the gatekeepers, and we very much owned the facts as well”.
Rio Negro falls to record levels amid the Amazon drought Ongoing drought and reduced rainfall in the Amazon Basin caused the water levels of the Rio Negro River to fall to 12.66 m (41.5 feet) on Friday, October 4, 2024, the lowest on record since 1902 when records began.
Florida state of emergency issued ahead of major Hurricane Milton Florida is preparing for what will likely be the largest evacuation the state has seen since 2017 as forecasters continue to monitor Tropical Storm Milton, which is expected to become a major hurricane and bring a life-threatening storm surge, damaging winds and flooding rain to the state this week.
Left-Wing Host Slammed for Using Bible to Justify Abortion, Saying Hurricane May Be Punishment for Red States What does Hurricane Helene have to do with abortion? Absolutely nothing unless you’re Young Turks Founder and CEO Cenk Uygur. While Helene should unite Americans to rise above partisanship and all of its usual squabbles, Uygur took to X on Friday to make sure everyone stays in the muck by suggesting Helene is punishment from God against states where abortion is outlawed.
IDF vows ‘no relief or respite’ for Hezbollah; 440 terror operatives killed in ground op The Israel Defense Forces continued its campaign to degrade Hezbollah in Lebanon on Saturday as it targeted command centers, weapons caches, tunnels and more, and as the military said it believed it had killed at least 440 Hezbollah operatives since the start of ground operations on Monday.
Report: Residents in North Carolina Town Fend for Themselves In an interview with the New York Post, several residents from the town of Bat Cave, located near the village of Chimney Rock, explained that they have seen no signs of FEMA or other “government agencies” in the aftermath of the hurricane.
Trump Returns to Massive Crowd in Butler, Pa.; Musk: If Harris Wins, No More Elections; Vance Blames Harris, Dems, for Violent Rhetoric Donald Trump returned to the scene of the attempted assassination in Butler, Pa., to a crowd of an estimated 100,000 supporters. Speaking for about six minutes, Elon Musk warned that a Trump loss in November would mean the end of free speech and elections. “The true test of someone’s character is how they behave under fire,” Musk said. “And we had one president who couldn’t climb a flight of stairs, and another who was fist pumping after getting shot. Fight, fight, fight! Blood coming down the face.”
“Stability in government is essential to national character and to the advantages annexed to it, as well as to that repose and confidence in the minds of the people, which are among the chief blessings of civil society.” —James Madison (1788)
Douglas Andrews, Thomas Gallatin, & Jordan Candler
Hurricane Watches posted in Florida as Milton continues to rapidly intensify in Gulf (Fox Weather)
Government & Politics
FEMA head: It’s “dangerous” to criticize us: Folks all across the Southeast are continuing to suffer terribly in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, and the death toll is now more than 230. Not only was Joe Biden’s Federal Emergency Management Agency late to show up to the disaster, but it appears that the agency has also spent so much money caring for illegal immigrants that it has no funds left. Criticism of the agency has been fierce, and rightly so. But yesterday, in an interview on ABC’s “This Week,” FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell said public outcry over the agency’s response is both unfounded and — get this — dangerous. “It has a tremendous impact on the comfort level of our own employees to be able to go out there,” Criswell said, “but it’s also demoralizing to all of the first responders … FEMA staff, volunteers.” She added, “I need to make sure I can get the resources to where they are needed, and when you have this dangerous rhetoric like you’re hearing, it creates fear in our own employees.” Unfortunately, victims of the disaster could not be reached for comment about their own “comfort level” and “fear.”
Insurance crisis: Hurricane Helene caused a trail of devastation across swaths of Georgia, Tennessee, South Carolina, and especially North Carolina, leaving many residents with damaged or destroyed homes. The losses won’t be easily restored. Massive flooding was the main means of this destruction and, unfortunately, few people have flood insurance — in fact, it may be less than 1% of those in the region. It’s hard to blame folks living in a mountainous area. As Boone, North Carolina, fire chief Jimmy Isaacs observed, “People never thought they would have a problem with flooding.” Flood insurance is not typically part of homeowners insurance. Only 4.6 million homes and businesses are covered by FEMA’s National Flood Insurance Program. For many victims of Helene, not only have they lost their homes, but along with it, their financial equity.
Is Scranton Joe sticking it to Kamala? We’ve been getting some contradictory signals from Kamala Harris lately. Was she the “last person in the room” with Joe Biden when he moved forward with his disastrous retreat and surrender in Afghanistan? Or is she trying to distance herself from her boss, promising to chart “a new way forward”? At an impromptu appearance at the White House press briefing on Friday, the wildly unpopular Biden strongly suggested it’s the former: “I’m in constant contact with her,” said the Frenemy-in-Chief. “She’s aware we’re all singing from the same song sheet. She, she helped pass all the laws that are being employed now. She was a major player in everything we’ve done.” Rarely are Biden and the Trump campaign as tightly aligned as they are here. “This is 100% accurate,” said Donald Trump Jr. when he saw the clip. “When Kamala finally put up her policy page most of it was cut and pasted from Joe Biden’s page.” Clearly, Team Trump approves of Joe Biden’s message.
Walz tries to downplay laws he signed granting benefits to illegals in Minnesota (Fox News) | Walz: “I don’t think people care whether” I’ve lied repeatedly (Daily Wire)
PA’s Hispanics are moving toward Trump: It’s no secret that Donald Trump has remade the Republican Party and expanded its appeal to traditionally Democrat voting blocs. He did so in 2020, but the extent to which he’s doing so this cycle caught the attention of NBC’s political guru, Steve Kornacki. Yesterday, Kornacki revealed some voter registration data and demographic trending in Pennsylvania that should give the Harris campaign cause for concern. “Some people call this the Latino belt of Pennsylvania,” he said, pointing to his map. “These are counties that have some small to mid-sized cities with rapidly growing Latino populations. And we’ve been talking about Trump improving, relative to 2020 and 2016, among Hispanic voters. … Reading, Pennsylvania, is 70% Latino. It was overwhelmingly Democratic in 2020; Joe Biden won by 45 points. But look, that’s down almost 20 points from 2012. Hazelton, Pennsylvania, is more than 60% Hispanic. In 2012, Democrats won it narrowly, it’s now a double-digit Trump place. Allentown has come down 10 points in its margin for Democrats.” Caveats apply, of course. Polling, after all, isn’t voting. But still, these are big shifts. If Trump wins Pennsylvania, it’ll be in large part because of the Hispanic vote.
Humor: Thousands of migrant farmworkers head north in preparation for the Democrat ballot harvest (Babylon Bee)
Hillary demands gov’t control over speech: In a CNN interview Friday, Hillary Clinton exposed her complete lack of concern for adhering to and upholding the First Amendment’s protection of free speech. Clinton called for repealing Section 230, which she interpreted as giving “platforms on the internet immunity because they were thought to be just pass-throughs, that they shouldn’t be judged for the content that is posted.” She elaborated, “If [social media platforms] don’t moderate and monitor the content, we lose total control, and it’s not just the social and psychological effect, it’s real harm.” It’s rather rich for Clinton, whose 2016 campaign intentionally seeded and peddled the Trump/Russia conspiracy hoax, to be expressing concern over the spread of “misinformation” via social media. As Tulsi Gabbard observed, “People like Hillary Clinton and Kamala Harris do not believe in the First Amendment because they see it as an obstacle to achieving their real goal: ‘total control.’”
Stephanopoulos insists only Republican rhetoric is dangerous: During his interview with House Speaker Mike Johnson over the weekend, ABC News’s George Stephanopoulos complained that Donald Trump and his family have been claiming “Democrats are behind the effort to assassinate him,” and he took umbrage when Johnson rejected that framing. The speaker also observed how the Democrats’ rhetoric, including that of Kamala Harris, about Trump being a “threat to democracy” has incited “dangerous people to do dangerous things.” A clearly incensed Stephanopoulos suggested that Johnson was claiming that the Democrat Party was directly responsible for the assassination attempts against Trump. Johnson responded that Democrats have been engaged in character assassination against Trump “since the day he came down that golden escalator in 2015.” Moreover, “The lawfare is unprecedented. They have attacked him in every single way. They try to malign his character every single day. And the people have had enough of it. That’s why you have these massive turnouts at the rallies.”
Federal judge issues new pause on Biden administration’s latest student loan forgiveness plan (Just the News)
Security
War rages on multiple fronts as Israel marks a year since Hamas’s October 7 attack (AP)
Kamala Harris sidesteps question on whether Israel’s Netanyahu is a good U.S. ally (NY Post)
Macron calls for end to funding for Israeli arms (Hot Air)
China is upping information attacks against U.S. via AI tools: One great difference between the two presidential candidates is their posture toward Communist China. Whether the topic is trade or national security, Donald Trump seems to understand the ChiCom threat, while the Biden-Harris administration would rather ignore it and hope it somehow goes away. Good luck with that. As The Washington Times reports, “China’s military and the ruling Communist Party have turned to artificial intelligence to boost the impact of propaganda and influence operations through American social media platforms, according to a new study of Beijing’s covert operations.” According to the Rand Corporation, these operations include the use of AI tools and social media that the Chinese had once feared but are now warming up to. “China’s leaders are now embracing the use of Facebook and X as key tools for influencing foreign public opinion,” the think tank reported in its 183-page study. With its newfound command over these tools, we can expect the ChiComs to seek to influence our elections, protect their own regime, and improve their military prowess. Especially under a Harris-Walz regime.
U.S. wiretap systems targeted in China-linked hack (WSJ)
License plate readers collect data: A system that ostensibly was set up to help police enforce traffic laws by capturing images of license plates combined with a date stamp of their location is capturing much more than license plate numbers. Certain AI-powered cameras that have been mounted on vehicles with the intention of capturing license plates are also capturing images of bumper stickers, campaign signs in people’s yards, and even the T-shirts that individuals are wearing. The photograph system produced by DRN Data is used by everything from private investigators to repossession agents to insurance companies. It is building a trove of billions of date- and location-stamped photos. This database effectively allows for people’s political views and their homes to be queried. In other words, it’s a vast surveillance system. What could go wrong?
Misc.
Biden-Harris have lost over 320,000 migrant children. A journalist tracked some down and what he found was horrific. (Not the Bee)
Supreme Court lets stand a decision barring emergency abortions that violate Texas ban (AP)
The biggest cases on the Supreme Court’s new docket (Daily Signal)
As Hurricane Milton, now a Cat 4 storm, barrels toward a Florida landfall expected late Wednesday, it’s hard to know where to start with an assessment of FEMA’s response and recovery fails this past week. But DHS Sec. Alejandro Mayorkas’s comments about FEMA readiness and Joe Biden’s remarks about the Hurricane Helene recovery effort seem like a good entry point.
According to Mayorkas in July: “FEMA is tremendously prepared. This is what we do.” That did not age well. According to Mayorkas now: “FEMA does not have the funds to make it through the season.”
As for Biden, he interrupted his beach nap in Delaware for a hurricane photo-op stop, Helene now accounting for the highest death toll since Katrina. After that visit, Biden was asked by a reporter what the storm victims needed. He responded, “They’re getting everything they need, and they’re very happy across the board.”
I dare ya — read that again without wondering what planet this guy is on.
The day after Helene hit, Biden insisted nobody should politicize a catastrophe and then added, “Nobody can deny the impact of the climate crisis anymore. … They must be brain-dead if they do.” Beyond the irony of Biden accusing those who question “The Science” of being “brain-dead,” he and all those well-paid profiteers and promoters of “climate change” expect you to assume it’s all anthropogenic (man-made).
As CNN declared while the body count was mounting, “[Hurricane Helene’s] intensity was fueled by warm waters due to fossil fuel use.” For the record, despite all the assertions to the contrary, that “science” is far from settled. Yet no doubt Biden will be back in Florida by Friday politicizing the results of Hurricane Milton.
Biden’s “happy across the board” assertion was almost as offensive as Kamala Harris taking a break from West Coast celebrity fundraisers to assure those in the most devastated areas that they could apply for a $750 handout to help them be “unburdened by what has been.” (No word on FEMA’s hurricane rumors page clarifying if that is a grant or loan.)
Of course, FEMA and other government agencies will, over the long term, be pouring billions of dollars into Helene recovery efforts, which may ultimately have a reconstruction and economic impact cost in excess of $34 billion. Of course, one of FEMA’s top goals is to ensure Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion among those delivering and receiving its distributions, and anyone of any “gender identity” is eligible.
Circling back to the Mayorkas assertion about the depletion of FEMA funds, our Nate Jackson wrote last week that one reason is “because FEMA has diverted more than $1.4 billion over the last two years dealing with the crisis consequences of ‘Border Czar’ Harris’s disastrous open border policies.”
With that as a backdrop, FEMA, of course, is under fire in its latest hurricane response in the six states that were impacted, particularly in North Carolina.
Before commenting on that, first, the good news — mostly motivated by the Good News.
In Tennessee and North Carolina, like other Southern states, neighbors (and by “neighbors,” I mean those who may live a hundred miles from a victim they have never met) don’t wait on “the government” to fix it. We start taking care of our own immediately. That accounts for the response by thousands of folks now being documented on mainstream and social media platforms. These are individuals, churches, and organizations that have collected millions of pounds of the most needed relief items at their own expense — a response that FEMA could never muster from its reserves. These folks are arriving in caravans, some with tractor-trailer loads, some with small rental trailers.
And pilots, all those civilian helicopter owners not only from the region but from many states away, have shown up at their expense to undertake search and rescue operations and deliver goods to those who can’t be reached by road. These flights supplement the substantial military rescue and resupply efforts, and combined, these efforts have met countless critical needs.
The civilian response reflects the best in us, what is good and right about America!
North Carolina Sen. Ted Budd summed up those services: “God bless groups like Samaritan’s Purse … and others that are stepping up and bringing in the military discipline and the speed and the generosity … serving in the name of Jesus Christ to make things better for the people of Western North Carolina. … It’s the private citizens that are stepping up right now.”
On the other hand, there is the FEMA disconnect and many reports of FEMA malfeasance.
Our publishing operations are located in East Tennessee, and to answer the many inquiries we have had about our well-being, the heavy winds and rain in our area did little damage. However, we have many friends in the Tennessee/North Carolina border regions hardest hit, both residents impacted and those providing relief goods and services. Thus, we have received many firsthand accounts from those on the ground regarding obstacles to service and material delivery.
Those accounts largely corroborate countless social media reports about FEMA authorities obstructing aid to North Carolina residents, particularly in the hardest-hit area of Asheville and surrounding counties. Those areas may ultimately account for almost half the deceased victims, and there are still hundreds whose whereabouts are unknown.
Among the myriad social media posts documenting impeded recovery efforts was this from Elon Musk, which received a lot of attention: “Just received this note from a SpaceX engineer helping on the ground in North Carolina. FEMA is not merely failing to adequately help people in trouble, but is actively blocking citizens who try to help!”
According to that engineer, “The big issue is FEMA is actively blocking shipments and seizing goods and services locally and locking them away. … It’s very real and scary how much they have taken control to stop people helping.”
Most of these reports are the result of the acute disconnect between government bureaucrats and citizens pulling together to support relief efforts, the latter being first in with the most needed provisions. Having been involved in a few massive rescue and recovery operations, it is difficult for me to convey just how staggering that disconnect really is.
A big part of this discordance is simply the bureaucratic “sick think” that infects too many of those in the bowels of government agencies. If you think these bureaucrats have any reference point for what we in the private sector consider “accountability,” please raise your dominant hand, then slap yourself with it.
As for criticism of the agency, FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell complains, “It has a tremendous impact on the comfort level of our own employees,” adding, “when you have this dangerous rhetoric like you’re hearing, it creates fear in our own employees.” And that was a fine example of how tone-deaf bureaucrats can be.
That being said, for those on the frontlines of rescue and recovery efforts, both citizens and first responders, it is exhausting for all involved. Tempers flare, which can exacerbate misinterpretation of rationale and process.
That exhaustion, combined with the untempered “disaster authority complex” that too often emerges under such circumstances, is the reason a private helicopter pilot was told — after landing in a recovery area to drop off a victim and then preparing to return to bring her husband to safety — that he would be arrested if he did so. That threat defied any modicum of common sense.
But sometimes, if that “disaster authority complex” comes in direct contact with a citizen responder who exhibits a “disaster expert complex,” disputes can blow up. That is a factor in some reports about FEMA and other officials blocking the delivery of services and “seizing” relief materials.
Here is what’s important to understand about citizen response in a widespread disaster area — which, fortunately, most self-deploying citizens do understand.
First, every person who enters a disaster area potentially puts a strain on already severely limited food, shelter, and medical resources. This is especially true of people motivated by a heartfelt desire to help others but who have limited experience and proficiency in providing that help. First responders must not only seek to protect those impacted by disaster but protect those responding to disaster. Most citizen responders know and respect this balance.
Second, organized disaster response groups like those Sen. Budd mentioned and individuals who understand the process always endeavor to coordinate with state and local command centers in order to get the supplies they are bringing to the best delivery and distribution staging areas. The most effective triage to ensure people get the emergency assistance they need is to create distribution points so that there can be an organized approach to service and material delivery, ensuring the greatest number of people get their essential needs met. If you are bringing a trailer load of provisions, please identify a predetermined drop point.
To be clear, that does not mean all victims will get help, and in the early stages of every disaster, it is local folks who have the skills and capabilities who form the frontline of disaster relief — those who cut trees to open roads, who use ATVs to deliver material where roads have been destroyed, and who know where residents might be trapped and can direct and assist with their rescue.
That being said, the most effective disaster assistance is coordinated by state and local officials, organizations, and volunteers. Too often, the FEMA bureaucratic beast conflicts with the heartfelt extension of support from regional and local volunteers, and the result is ugly.
Finally, to all those who have joined together for the Helene rescue phase and those who will endure the recovery phase for a long time to come, God bless each and every one. Likewise, we pray for the safety of all those in the path of Milton.
Veep Thoughts With Kamala Harris (Vol. 25) — She had a friendly interview with the hosts of the “All the Smoke” podcast, during which she cheerfully informed listeners that her favorite snack is Doritos.
“We’re singing from the same song sheet. She helped pass all the laws that are being employed now. She was a major player in everything we’ve done.” —Joe Biden regarding Kamala “New Way Forward” Harris
The BIG Lies
“I was in Hong Kong on June 4, 1989, when, of course, Tiananmen Square happened.” —Tim Walz, 2019
“They’re getting everything they need. And they’re very happy across the board.” —Joe Biden upon being asked about the needs of the states battered by Hurricane Helene
FUBAR FEMA
“FEMA is tremendously prepared. This is what we do.” —Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas in July
“FEMA does not have the funds to make it through the season.” —Mayorkas last week
Lack of Self-Awareness Award
“[The Trump administration] will use the mechanisms of the Department of Justice to go after people who are their political foes. This is something that has never really happened in the history of this republic.” — former Obama Attorney General Eric Holder
Upright
“We don’t rely on FEMA to do any of that type of [rescue] activity. We rely on FEMA to basically be a bank account. … We take matters into our own hands for the preparation and the rescue and the response.” —Florida Governor Ron DeSantis
For the Record
“When Joe Biden became president, the Middle East was calm. Now it is in the midst of a multifront war.” —Victor Davis Hanson
Political Futures
“Walz is more than a knucklehead. He’s a liability. Why? Because vice presidential nominees take an electoral version of the Hippocratic Oath: Do no harm to the top of the ticket … Walz is a walking reminder that Harris’s judgment is questionable at best..” —Matthew Continetti
“[Josh] Shapiro’s identity as a pro-Israel Jew might have outraged the Democrats’ progressive anti-Israel base. And Shapiro came into his job interview with demands, asking for guarantees and a seat at the high table. How dare he. Shapiro’s ‘baggage’ was his ethnicity and his religion and his interest in recognition and authority. All this was too much for Harris, who opted for the progressive agent of organized labor who governs a state that hasn’t voted for a Republican for president in half a century and who says that Rep. Ilhan Omar’s presence in Congress brightens his day. Harris made the wrong decision. A bad decision. How many more will she make if she becomes president?” —Matthew Continetti
“The Christian voter’s choice … is not between one candidate of bad character, Trump, and another of bad policy, Harris. It is a choice between one candidate with poor character and another candidate with both poor character and deadly policies.” —Kylee Griswold
On today’s NEWSMAX Daily podcast:
[4:31] -Spirits and emotions run high as Trump speaks in Butler and remembers the victims of the July rally shooting. [Newsmax Breaking]
[11:09] -Elon Musk at Trump rally: “This election is a must-win situation.” [Newsmax Breaking]
[16:29] -Former FEMA Director Michael Brown: “Alejandro Mayorkas is nowhere to be found.” [Chris Salcedo Show]
[21:03] -Newsmax CEO Chris Ruddy talks about the election, the recent Smartmatic court ruling, and the Newsmax IPO. [Newsmax 2]
[25:38] -Today is the one-year anniversary of the October 7th terrorist attack on Israel that killed more than 1,100 people including women, children and members of the military.
During his “My Take,” Monday, “Varney & Co.” host Stuart Varney discussed Kamala Harris’ upcoming media blitz, arguing the vice president’s campaign is trying to run out the clock with “feel-good” interviews by a “compliant” media to impress voters.
STUART VARNEY: Kamala Harris is bending, a little, to the demands she answers the media’s questions.
It starts tonight when she appears in a “60 minutes” election special. Just by appearing, she may win some points, because Donald Trump has refused to appear.
He was on the show in 2020 when correspondent Leslie Stahl insisted that the now famous “laptop from hell” was from Russia. It was not. It was Hunter Biden’s.
It was an example of election interference. It’s the kind of media harassment that will never happen to Kamala Harris.
Later this week, Harris will go on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.” That’s about as friendly an audience as you can get.
So is “The View.” She’ll go on that too, and also with Howard Stern. She’s already done the podcast, “Call Her Daddy.”
Don’t expect serious questions about the border, defund the police, gender affirmation surgery for prisoners, free health care for migrants, the Afghan debacle, inflation or any other failure.
This is image polishing week for the vice president, and the media will go along with it.
The New York Times has already published an article questioning Trump’s age and cognitive ability. Where are the questions about Harris’ failures?
The campaign is running out the clock. Do a couple of feel-good interviews with the friendliest of media supporters, and hope that keeps the sharks at bay.
You know what? It just may work. It’s less than four weeks to go.
No matter how obvious her pre-scripted non-answers are, most people will see only those short, favorable, clips that pour into your news feed.
Guest post by Tom Renz at JoeHoft.com – republished with permission.
I want to open this article by asking people to pray for those impacted by the hurricane.
While FEMA and Harris may be leaving these people behind, God will not.
The situation in the North Carolina area impacted by the Hurricane is dire.
There are numerous credible reports of death counts likely exceeding a thousand people and almost the final tallies will almost certainly exceed those of Hurricane Katrina of New Orleans fame.
The difference between Helene and Katrina couldn’t be more stark.
Both were devastating but Bush was sending aid immediately and being excoriated by the media (I’m no fan of Bush but facts are facts) while Harris/Biden are on the beach or having parties while FEMA is reportedly BLOCKING aid and the mainstream is ignoring it.
I wanted to share some facts and other info on this national tragedy.
Tom Renz’s Newsletter is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
First of all, let’s be clear about what is happening with FEMA.
First they claimed there was no money for hurricane season. Once the American public literally hit the roof over the fact that FEMA is absolutely funding illegals but doesn’t have money for Americans the fact checkers got moving.
Now – regarding Mayorkas – FEMA is absolutely helping fund illegal immigrants. As you can see below the Shelter and Services program is a FEMA program done in partnership with Border Patrol.
This funding was allocated and ultimately, regardless of how it was allocated, it was money spent out of the pockets of the American taxpayer that is funding people here illegally instead of American citizens. No amount of fact-checking can change that.
While all of this is nauseating, it actually gets worse. I ran a few numbers and posted them to X. Here’s the post:
That’s right, at present the average amount approved per individual/household is $894. That’s it. Compare that to Ukraine. Ukraine has a total population of 38 million and we’ve allocated $175 billion to them for about $4605 per person – not per household.
Why is it that we are spending roughly 5 times more on Ukrainians than Americans? You can see my tweet here to get a good view of the pics:
BREAKING: Harris has approved about $894 per HOUSEHOLD for North Carolinians to rebuild their lives. Ukrainians have received about $4605 PER PERSON!
Don’t worry North Carolina – Kamal Harris really cares about you. As you can see 19,102 people applied for help from FEMA and… pic.twitter.com/dOxGXrVA2U
This might be a good time to remind everyone of my previous article published right here on Substack about the last Ukraine funding bill. In that article I broke down the last Ukraine funding bill and showed that just under $500 million was budgeted without restriction for “refugee resettlement.”
The unrestricted part means it could also be used to fund illegals from anywhere and probably is being used for just that.
You may be asking about the legality of all this. Well, it’s questionable but basically the law is a bit ambiguous as to the DHS’s authority to do this and the spending bills are written so poorly by Congress that there are loopholes.
The loopholes can be demonstrated the fact that Biden and Harris have promoted executive order after executive order requiring that all federal agencies, including FEMA, focus their efforts on social justice programs.
This is just one of many documents that constitute the Harris/Biden push to ensure federal agencies like FEMA are more worried about equity than results.
The level of corruption, incompetence and damage that this administration is doing to America is staggering but they are not doing it alone. I would be remiss to end this article without sharing a bit about the money that is being spent on illegals is going.
First when you look at the grants to resettle immigrants (presumably to steal the election) there is a ton of money going to places where illegals being registered to vote would have a big impact. Top on the list is Maricopa County, AZ (yes that county) and Texas in general.
Texas seems to be a MAJOR target for Biden/Harris to turn blue with election fraud and there’s a ton of money going there to get it done.
The second thing I saw is the number of NGOs and a TON of Catholic Charities branches. The Catholic Church (I’m Catholic) seems to be hell bent on bringing in as many illegals as possible without any respect for our laws. This is not new but easy to see here and shocking nonetheless.
Ultimately the inexorable conclusion is that Harris is simply far more concerned with stealing an election than she is with helping Americans.
She seems to have made peace with the fact that she is incredibly unlikable, totally devoid of any coherent thought, and that there is no one else to give her a Willie Brown boost to the next level.
Instead, she apparently has made peace with the fact that if she wants to win this election she’ll have to do it the Democratic way – by cheating.
Please check subscribe, donate and shop at http://www.TomRenz.com. Your support allows me to keep fighting in the media, with political officials, and in the courtroom. Also please consider making a monthly donation to http://www.GiveSendGo.com/RenzLaw.
The tides have shifted in MAGA world – and those reverberations are being felt not only in politics, but across all of American society.
Many commentators on X noted in the aftermath of Saturday’s historic rally to Butler, Pennsylvania, the sight where Donald Trump was nearly slain some three months ago, how Lazarean the whole event was — with one insightful commentator noting how if one had the ability to time travel back to 2014 and explain to someone back then that “by 2024, Donald Trump, who had been president, was waging his third presidential campaign – and, exactly a month before election day, had made a pilgrimage to the location in which a bullet had nearly struck him down during the campaign – where he was joined by Tesla and X (formerly Twitter) CEO, Elon Musk, on stage, who was jubilantly jumping for joy, onstage, before a crowd size of one hundred thousand people” that person might have looked at you like a lunatic who had escaped the asylum!
But reality, as they say, is stranger than fiction. The timeline of events this election cycle, not to say the last ten years, has been truly surreal.
Our reality, in 2024 America, is one where the forces of good are seemingly making a comeback against the forces of evil, where the divide between the two sides could not be any clearer (or more stark) – and where the outcome of this race, now less than a month away from November 5th, will truly be the most consequential of any presidential election – certainly in living memory, perhaps in history.
Dovetailing with that reality does appear to be a genuine shift in momentum, particularly in recent weeks – since the debate and second attempt on President Trump’s life.
At Butler 2.0, Kamala Harris’ media-manufactured “honeymoon” over the summer is but a distant memory. Everything about the event – from the optics down to the choice of music (which included stirring live performances from Lee Greenwood, who belted out an emotive “God Bless the U.S.A.” – and beautiful renditions of “Ave Maria” and “How Great Thou Art” (among other melodies) by Tenor Chris Macchio, which added a layer of solemnity – and gravitas, even – to end a most remarkable night.
There are only a handful of presidents in American history who survived assassination attempts. Virtually every one of those attempts (Teddy Roosevelt, Ronald Reagan, now Donald Trump) has been immortalized in American history, only enhancing the legend of their targets, creating a sense of destiny to their life’s work and mission.
The attempts on Donald Trump’s life stands, astonishingly, apart from the others, historically significant though they are, as the attempts on the former are a manifestation of the Left’s attempt to destroy the Republic itself.
In part, because, they reify and make blood-and-flesh reality of the extraordinary political stakes of this particular election cycle – stakes, which President Trump has been incessantly reminding audiences on the campaign trail in speech for the last two years.
As Elon Musk explained in his short, but impactful, remarks at Butler, nothing short of free speech – the First Amendment – and by extension, the very fabric of our society – the Constitution, which is the law of land – is on the line.
The importance of this election, in short, derives not so much from conventional disagreements in policy – be it inflation, the border crisis, or even the looming threat of world war, which are themselves monumental issues that can, depending on who is elected, result in outcomes that make, or break American society.
But going more deeply, the very foundations of our way of life, the principles enshrined in the Constitution, Declaration of Independence, and Bill of Rights, and epitomized in our governmental institutions, are on the chopping block in a way unlike any other time in American history: more so than the divisions that nearly tore America at the seams at the apex of the countercultural revolution of the 1960s; more so, even, than the deep-seated divisions that separated North and South, and catapulted this nation into civil war, in the lead-up to that most fateful 1860 presidential contest.
This is because at no other point in American history has one political party (the Democrats) been hijacked and fully overtaken by a virus – as much ideological and spiritual as it is political – as the modern Left has done to Kamala Harris’ Democratic Party.
What Kamala represents bears no relationship to anything seen in any political movement heretofore in our country’s history.
And it is not just her policies which are radical and proto-Marxist, from her advocacy of “ending price gouging” to curb inflation, to her support for taxing unrealized capital gains, a death knell to capitalism, to overcome budget deficits.
Those are bad policies – existentially so – in and of themselves. But their danger pales in comparison to the dangers of her movement’s ideological fixations, which have made clear their desire to overthrow America’s Constitution, the rule of law, due process, the presumption of innocence, and the morals and ethical substrate woven throughout Western societies across every age since the dawn of Greco-Roman civilization, institutionalized by the Church and Christian and Biblical morality, which Kamala’s Democrats seek to excise root and branch.
It might seem anodyne, even banal, to the desensitized ear to hear Kamala or her beclowned running mate to inveigh against “hate speech” and call for laws clamping down on “misinformation” on the campaign trail and in political debate.
Indeed, large swathes of the population might not even bat an eye to Kamala, et al. calling for decades-long sentences for the majority of January 6th demonstrators, vilifying them in the most dehumanizing of terms, denying their presumption of innocence (among other sacred tenets of Anglo-American law), despite the fact that the worst culprits committed misdemeanors – at worst.
And yet, the ease with which Kamala and the institutions supporting and her propping her up speak about political persecutions should ring alarm bells – as loud as the arias of Macchio’s rousing performance in Butler – because that raging drive to weaponized justice as a cudgel to silence political dissent — a still ongoing problem in our society — is anathema to American identity at its core.
It is hence in her rhetoric where Kamala’s extremism is most palpable. Her words signal either ignorance or callous disregard for fundamental American principles that should never, under any circumstances, be compromised, for reasons that any student of history should immediately recognize: 1) they are venerable parts of our national tradition; and 2) that they are – objectively – true.
We allow free thoughts and free speech (and peaceful demonstrations) because those things are woven into the fabric of American democracy – they are essential prerequisites to not only understanding, but making politically workable our governmental institutions, like Congress, the judiciary, and the Presidency itself.
What is more, an electorate sufficiently marinated in these principles is also essential – and indeed, a matter of civic responsibility – to ensure the perpetuation of “equal justice under law,” that seminal motto inscribed atop the Supreme Court building, remains in place for future generations.
Whereby those requirements that make our liberty sacrosanct, that most cherished and distinctly American fruit of our political civilization since 1776 (and for those reasons, an object of envy, scorn, and deranged hatred of so many other peoples and parties the world over) possible cannot exist without, in turn, a collective respect for the meanings of such things as due process of law, innocence until proven guilty, separation of powers, constitutional governance, republicanism, and, yes, democracy (in its true and not distorted meaning).
Respect and appreciation for these concepts, which incubate the values of American civic life, can only be obtained, in their fullest capacity, by an immersive study of their histories – and over the course of that study by extrapolating, through deductive logic, their origins.
On average, President Trump leads in most of the seven key designated battleground states this election cycle. Where his margins are less (or behind) are likely weighed down by Democrat-skewed pollsters, who are over-correcting in Harris’ favor out of non-empirical or ideological biases toward a particular candidate.
It is also noteworthy to mention that many polls deemed “too Republican” or partial to President Trump, despite stellar reputations, are excluded. Despite these countervailing factors, President Trump still leads — and is now leading in betting markets, like Polymarket, as well.
Only then can a society begin to understand why the dangers of speaking about these ideas with such brazen disregard, as Kamala Harris does on a daily basis, is not only idiotic, but existentially perilous.
With understanding (what the Founding generation called “Enlightenment”) comes then a deeper appreciation for our values, and a deference that mirrors the awesome solemnity – bordering on fear – with which a true believer worships at God’s altar, and therewith, the hope for civilizational renewal.
That renewal does not end with Donald Trump’s political movement – but it is his movement, a dynamic almost miraculous by-product of our political situation, a sort of uniquely American, ingrained survival instinct that kicked-in at the moment of greatest crisis — and only his movement, which makes the revival possible.
Thus, the pomp and circumstance of Butler – which was followed by another entrancing rally in Juneau, Wisconsin, on Sunday (one that Steven Cheung, a Trump Campaign advisor declaimed as “legitimately one of the loudest crowds I’ve ever heard”) – is emblematic of a much broader, deeper cultural shift in American society.
In Donald Trump’s third bid for this nation’s highest office, there are numerically more Trump supporters than ever before. If the 2016 campaign was the great awakening, 2024 demarcates the great conversion.
And it’s not simply a matter of public sentiment shifting to become more outspoken about their support for the 45th President, either (though there is undoubtedly an element of that).
But it is also a reflection of the maturation of the Trump movement, which is not a traditional political movement per se, but a battle for the heart and soul of American civilization (and, by proxy, the West overall), where, in the 2024 campaign, it has reached its fruition.
MAGA has become recognizable in a way that it is no longer seen as an enigmatic political subculture of American society; it is now being recognized by an increasing lot of our countrymen as an essential ingredient of America itself; in short, MAGA has gone mainstream — in a way that probably Donald Trump himself could not have anticipated.
Elon Musk, a former Democrat and probably someone who would still consider himself a political liberal (classical, if not modern), is far from the first individual to switch teams from Obama or Biden voter to Trump.
Musk instead represents a legion of disenchanted American citizens, both famous and unknown, who have undergone a similar conversion over the last four or eight years.
The conversion is in reality better described as a realization; the realization is not that Donald Trump and MAGA are one of two co-equal political alternatives, each one, however distinct, nevertheless being intrinsically American.
Nay, Donald Trump’s MAGA Movement is the prophylactic to Kamala’s cancer that has eviscerated our society in a way that threatens to wipe government of the people from the face of the earth.
MAGA is about restoring American civilization, at its root. Policies are important, but when one ideological faction that masquerades as a legitimate political movement works relentlessly to undermine the Country’s Law of the Land, the United States Constitution, that movement forfeits any claim to the mantle of a legitimate political party.
You can wage a political campaign under the pretense of undermining the Constitution of the United States all you want, but you can never claim to be an upholder of American institutions if you contaminate the lifeblood of its very existence.
That, ultimately, explains the shift in the electorate; that explains the message Elon Musk conveyed on Saturday; it crystallizes the swing in the polling momentum; and, yes, it defines the sense of inevitability setting in among so many Americans that Donald Trump will be elected as President of the United States for yet a third time.
residents of the small North Carolina town of Bat Cave are left to fend for themselves in the wake of Hurricane Helene (Screenshot: New York Post)
Commentary
The FEMA Spokesperson, Jaclyn Rothenberg, may have locked down her “X” account temporarily as was reported; in fairness though it was open when I checked. However, of the top 11 “X”s for Jaclyn Rotheberg, six the 11 (55%) were re-“X’s” of attacks on Donald J. Trump, lessons on dis-information, and accusatory reports of dis-information. As a former press officer, I would suggest that the FEMA Spokesperson focus on success stories of what the U.S. Government is accomplishing and the next steps of the response and recovery effort. Spending the majority of social media time on shutting down others does not reflect well on U.S. Government efforts to save American lives and properties.
On the 12th “X” from Jaclyn Rothenberg, I had to a little math. The “X” was a good news story on aid to South Carolina. There is nothing wrong with this – the story presented hard metrics on effective delivery of Federal Government Services. It said, “In South Carolina, FEMA has delivered over $4.7 million to over 5,700 households”; sounds impressive, but that is only $824 per household. This is where the Harris response and recovery story falls apart. $824 is not much for a household that was just wiped out or damaged. Many Americans are outraged at the crazed give away of pre-paid debit cards to illegal aliens. The New York Times wants to quibble and argue that the cards for illegals are not $10,000 debit cards, but the reality is that in New York City, the cards are being loaded at $350 a week which is $18,200 a year. This is on top of many other perks and benefits. If FEMA was delivering equal support for U.S. Citizens, they might not have to spend 55% of their “X” time attacking and silencing others.
Hurricane Helene
Helene has become Kamala’s Hurricane Katrina and Rita. Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans on August 29, 2005, and on September 24, 2005, Hurricane Rita came ashore from Eastern Texas to Western Florida. President Bush and FEMA were excoriated for the disaster response effort. The vilification and unhinged histrionics over Katrina’s impact on New Orleans did not garner any charges of “dis-information”. In a more balanced hindsight view, there were a number of corrupt and inept officials like former Mayor Ray Nagin (convicted of bribery in 2013), U.S. Rep. Bill “Cold Cash” Jefferson convicted for bribery and other matters in 2009, and others who were significant contributing villains in lack of preparedness and poor response to Hurricane Katrina and Rita.
With the on-going disaster response to Helene, we have a Federal Government that tries to silence others and gives out miserly amounts of cash to American citizens. Secretary Mayorkas spent $1.4 Billion on illegal aliens, but then said he was out of funds to help Americans hurt by Helene. There are multiple reports of helpers being threatened with arrest for showing initiative and helping. Absent Federal helicopters, local helicopter pilot Jordan Seidhom tried to fly missions but was told to stand down and stop flying missions. Democrat strategist David Axelrod continued the gleeful tone deaf-ism by surmising the “upscale” voters of the Blue enclave of Ashville will figure out a way to vote. Translating this dog whistle message, what Axelrod meant was that the Blue voters are smarter and wealthier, the town of Ashville has already readied the Kamala marked ballots, and the stupid Trump voters are too busy trying to survive outside the city.
Maui
We still do not know truth on what happened in Maui in 2023. In the Maui fires, FEMA seemed to again prioritize counter-disinformation over transparency and delivery of services. Lack of transparency, honesty, and previous attempts to silence those on social media is the self-created cycle of dis-information that Democrats complain about while doing their best to create the disaster. Like New Orleans, there were local officials in Maui that were perhaps not fully qualified to perform their emergency management leadership duties. Over 100 died in the Maui fires with little accountability or explanation.
The oddity of the Chinese Daqi-1 Satellite over Hawaii shooting lasers into the skies of Hawaii has never been explained. The Daqi-1 is publicly stated as an, “atmospheric environment monitoring satellite”. NASA doesn’t list the launch mass of the Daqi-1, but the Long March 4C can reasonably lift 6,000 pounds into orbit. That’s a lot – and plenty of weight for any secret mischievous equipment. The U.S. Government will put China first and approve their laser experiment – but has never inspected the Daqi-1 so the U.S. Government likely has no idea of what is really on the Daqi-1. But anyone who questions this is accused of dis-information.
East Palestine, Ohio
In September, there was a Class Action Suit Settlement for $600 million dollars for those affected by the East Palestine, Ohio train disaster in February of 2023. The train derailment included five railcars of vinyl chloride which were released in the accident and subsequent, controversial controlled burn, which created a large smoke and soot cloud in the area. The response to the crash was slow and confusing between different Federal agencies and left a very negative feeling about the U.S. Governments competence and concern with disaster response.
Like western North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee for Hurricane Helene, East Palestine, Ohio is strong Trump territory which made the lack of media coverage and visitation by Federal officials look like political punishment. Like Maui and Hurricane Helene, former President Trump was outspoken, made prompt appearances in East Palestine and Helene affected areas, and showed far more leadership than the Harris-Biden Team. Secretary of Transportation, Pete Buttigieg showed up in East Palestine almost three weeks after the major transportation disaster and was unimpressive, receiving criticism from all sides. Three points make a trendline and with East Palestine, Maui, and Helene, Kamala’s Team has established that the Government is uncaring, unprepared, or politicized, or all three when it comes to disaster response.
All viewpoints are personal and do not reflect the viewpoints of any organization
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