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
And they worshipped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy: and were continually in the temple, praising and blessing God. Amen.
LUKE 24:52, 53
One can only conclude that God’s professed children are bored with Him, for they must be wooed to meeting with a stick of striped candy in the form of religious movies, games and refreshments.
It is scarcely possible in most places to get anyone to attend a meeting where the only attraction is God!
So we have the strange anomaly of orthodoxy in creed and heterodoxy in practice. The striped-candy technique has been so fully integrated into our present religious thinking that it is simply taken for granted. Its victims never dream that it is not a part of the teachings of Christ and His apostles.
Any objection to the carryings-on of our present golden-calf Christianity is met with the triumphant reply, “But we are winning them!” And winning them to what? To true discipleship? To cross-carrying? To self-denial? To separation from the world? To crucifixion of the flesh? To holy living? To nobility of character? To a despising of the world’s treasures? To hard self-discipline? To love for God? To total committal to Christ?
Of course the answer to all these questions is NO!
We are paying a frightful price for our religious boredom. And that at the moment of the world’s mortal peril!1
My soul! I would have thee, this evening, take a view of thy Jesus in his own blood, under the special and particular act in which this scripture holds him forth; sanctifying the people by the application of it, as the great object and design for which he suffered. There is somewhat uncommonly interesting in this view, though not so commonly considered. That this is the only laver for sin, is unquestionable; and that it is infinitely meritorious, and of eternal efficacy, is also equally true. But when we consider, farther, the infinite purity of it, flowing, as it did, from a holy heart, in a nature that was altogether holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens; there is somewhat which, though too deeply founded in mystery to be perfectly apprehended by us, may yet serve to intimate the immense preciousness of it, and its immense importance and value. But we must not stop here. The union of the Godhead with the human nature, giving both dignity and validity to the sacrifice which Jesus once offered, that he might sanctify the people, here angels, as well as men, find their faculties unable to ascertain the extent of the wonderful subject; and, perhaps, through all eternity, none among the creation of God will fully be competent to explain it. But, my soul! though unable to explain, or unable to conceive the infinitely precious nature of thy Jesus’s blood, yet do thou gather this sweet and soul-reviving thought from the contemplation: it must be in itself so incalculable in value, and so infinitely powerful in its pardoning and cleansing properties, that no sin, no, not all the sin of finite creatures taken in the aggregate, can stand before it. O precious, precious Jesus! precious, precious blood of Jesus, which cleanseth from all sin! Oh! let me hear, and feel, and know my personal interest in that sweet promise of my God in Christ, and my happiness is made for ever: “I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you.” Amen! Amen! So be it.1
There are times in our spiritual experience when human counsel or sympathy, or religious ordinances, fail to comfort or help us. Why does our gracious God permit this? Perhaps it is because we have been living too much without him, and he therefore takes away everything upon which we have been in the habit of depending, that he may drive us to himself. It is a blessed thing to live at the fountain head. While our skin-bottles are full, we are content, like Hagar and Ishmael, to go into the wilderness; but when those are dry, nothing will serve us but “Thou God seest me.” We are like the prodigal, we love the swine-troughs and forget our Father’s house. Remember, we can make swine-troughs and husks even out of the forms of religion; they are blessed things, but we may put them in God’s place, and then they are of no value. Anything becomes an idol when it keeps us away from God: even the brazen serpent is to be despised as “Nehushtan,” if we worship it instead of God. The prodigal was never safer than when he was driven to his father’s bosom, because he could find sustenance nowhere else. Our Lord favours us with a famine in the land that it may make us seek after himself the more. The best position for a Christian is living wholly and directly on God’s grace—still abiding where he stood at first—“Having nothing, and yet possessing all things.” Let us never for a moment think that our standing is in our sanctification, our mortification, our graces, or our feelings, but know that because Christ offered a full atonement, therefore we are saved; for we are complete in him. Having nothing of our own to trust to, but resting upon the merits of Jesus—his passion and holy life furnish us with the only sure ground of confidence. Beloved, when we are brought to a thirsting condition, we are sure to turn to the fountain of life with eagerness.1
THE most wonderful description of our Lord’s sufferings on the cross itself is contained in the 22nd Psalm, from which we will now select portions for reading.
The Psalm opens with our Lord’s cry upon the cross, and it may be regarded throughout as his soliloquy while bleeding on the tree.
1 My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring? (He prayed until he almost lost the power of articulate utterance.)
2 O my God, I cry in the daytime, but thou hearest not; and in the night season, and am not silent.
3 But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel. (Whatever the Father may do, the Mediator will not murmur; he holds fast his faith in the holiness of God.)
11 Be not far from me; for trouble is near; for there is none to help. (None either could or would help him, he trod the wine-press alone; yet was it a sore trial to find that all his disciples had forsaken him, and lover and friend were put far from him.)
12 Many bulls have compassed me: strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round.
The mighty ones in the crowd are here marked by the tearful eye of their victim.
13 They gaped upon me with their mouths, as a ravening and a roaring lion. (Like hungry cannibals they opened their blasphemous mouths as if to swallow the man they abhorred.)
14 I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint: (As if distended upon a rack. Is it not most probable that the fastening of the hands and feet, and the jar occasioned by fixing the cross in the earth, may have dislocated the bones of the Crucified One? If this is not intended, we must refer the expression to that extreme weakness which would occasion relaxation of the muscles, and a general sense of parting asunder throughout the whole system) my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels. (Dr. Gill wisely observes: “If the heart of Christ, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, melted at it, what heart can endure, or hands be strong, when God deals with men in his wrath?”)
15 My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; and thou hast brought me into the dust of death.
16 For dogs have compassed me: (Here he marks the more ignoble crowd, who, while less strong than their brutal leaders, were not less ferocious, for they were howling and barking like unclean and hungry dogs) the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet.
17, 18 I may tell all my bones: they look and stare upon me. They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture.
19 But be not thou far from me, O Lord: O my strength, haste thee to help me.
20 Deliver my soul from the sword; my darling from the power of the dog.
Meaning his soul, his life, which is most dear to every man. The original is “My only one,” and therefore is our soul dear, because it is our only soul. Would that all men made their souls their darlings, but many treat them as if they were not worth so much as the mire of the streets.
21 Save me from the lion’s mouth: for thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorns.
22 I will declare thy name unto my brethren: in the midst of the congregation will I praise thee. (The transition is very marked; darkness passed away from the Redeemer’s soul and light broke in. The ruling passion, strong in death, led him to joyous thoughts of his beloved people.)
23 Ye that fear the Lord, praise him; all ye the seed of Jacob, glorify him; and fear him, all ye the seed of Israel.
24 For he hath not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted; neither hath he hid his face from him; but when he cried unto him, he heard.
27 All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord: and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee.
28 For the kingdom is the Lord’s: and he is the governor among the nations.
Jesus rejoiced in the glorious reign of the Lord over all nations of men.
30 A seed shall serve him; it shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation.
31 They shall come, and shall declare his righteousness unto a people that shall be born, that he hath done this. (Or “It is finished.” Salvation’s glorious work is done.)1
Jeremiah 31:31-34 — This is the longest quoted passage from the Old Testament in the New Testament (Hebrews 8:8-11), per Olufemi Adeyemi. Jesus used the phrase “new covenant” when He instituted the Lord’s Supper (Luke 2:20). From John MacArthur:
I want you to notice two things in the New Covenant. The first is at the end of verse 34, and it has to do with the forgiveness of sin. The New Covenant carries with it the forgiveness of sin. The second is in verse 33, putting God’s Law in the heart. The New Covenant also carries an internal power to cause obedience to the Law of God. So what Jeremiah is saying is, “There will come a New Covenant. It will provide forgiveness of sin and a new divine enabling to keep the Law of God.”
Jeremiah 31:37 — The deepest mankind has dug is 7.6 miles. Only 3,951.4 more miles to go until we reach the center of the earth! We’ve estimated the universe to be approximately 880,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 miles across. Voyager 1 is 14,813,669,200 miles away from earth, travelling at 38,000 mph. Even at that speed, Voyager 1 is still 40,000 years away from hitting one of our closest celestial neighbors! It will take a while before we can measure the heavens!
Jeremiah 31:38-40 talks about the return of Jerusalem to the Jewish people, which was partially fulfilled on the date, June 7, 1967. I say partially because the city of Jerusalem will be a center of controversy until the Messiah, Jesus Christ, sets up His kingdom. Jesus Christ will reign over His kingdom from Jerusalem for 1,000 years.
Jeremiah 32:8 — A prophet that prophesies destruction (Jeremiah 32:2) doesn’t usually buy land in the land being destroyed. But Jeremiah did so because God had declared that it would be possessed again (Jeremiah 32:15)!
Jeremiah 32:17 — The song, “Ah, Lord God” is based on this verse.
1 Timothy 3:2 — Even if you’re not a bishop/pastor, or a deacon, this is a good list of character traits to pursue. Especially in our alcohol-focused culture (15 million have an “Alcohol Use Disorder”, and 88,000 die from alcohol-related causes annually), Paul says that should not be a characteristic of a Christian leader.
1 Timothy 3:15 — No, this verse isn’t talking about running in church! Nor is it saying that a specific church is the God-ordained perfect teacher of truth. From GotQuestions.org:
Judging by the context of 1 Timothy, as well as the rest of Scripture, certainly not that “the church” has an infallible grasp of truth. In this case, Paul seems to be saying that the ekklesia — the body of believers – “the church” — is the structure that holds up and holds forth the gospel to the world. For that reason, the conduct of the body and its selection of leaders are critically important.
This interpretation is strongly supported by Paul’s use of two Greek words, stulos and hedraioma, translated as “pillar” and “foundation.” Stulos means “pillar, column, prop, or support” and is found in the New Testament only here, in Revelation 3:12, and in Revelation 10:1. Hedraioma means “prop or support” and is found only in this verse. Both words come from Greek root words that imply something that stiffens, stabilizes, steadies, or holds. These are completely different words than what are used for other occurrences of “foundation” in English Bibles. For instance, Paul’s reference to Christ as our “foundation” in 1 Corinthians 3:11 uses the word themelios, which means “foundation of a building” or “initial and founding principles of an idea.”
Psalm 88:1 — Ever sit back and notice the intensity of the Psalmist’s prayers? Sometimes we just say a “Now I lay me down to sleep” or a “Bless this food” kind of prayer without truly needing the LORD.
Proverbs 25:22 — Paul quotes this in Romans 12:20. From Wuest:
In Bible times an oriental needed to keep his hearth fire going all the time in order to insure fire for cooking and warmth. If it went out, he had to go to a neighbour for some live coals of fire. These he would carry on his head in a container, oriental fashion, back to his home. The person who would give him some live coals would be meeting his desperate need and showing him an outstanding kindness. If he would heap the container with coals, the man would be sure of getting some home still burning. The one injured would be returning kindness for injury.
So shall we ever be with the Lord.1 Thessalonians 4:17
While we are here the Lord is with us, and when we are called away we are with Him. There is no dividing the saint from His Savior. They are one, and they always must be one: Jesus cannot be without His own people, for He would be a Head without a body. Whether caught up into the air, or resting in paradise, or sojourning here, we are with Jesus; and who shall separate us from Him?
What a joy is this! Our supreme honor, rest, comfort, delight, is to be with the Lord. We cannot conceive of anything which can surpass or even equal this divine society. By holy fellowship we must be with Him in His humiliation, rejection, and travail, and then we shall be with Him in His glory. Before long we shall be with Him in His rest and in His royalty, in His expectation and in His manifestation. We shall fare as He fares and triumph as He triumphs.
O my Lord, if I am to be forever with Thee, I have a destiny incomparable. I will not envy an archangel. To be forever with the Lord is my idea of heaven at its best. Not the harps of gold, nor the crowns unfading, nor the light unclouded is glory to me; but Jesus, Jesus Himself, and myself forever with Him in nearest and dearest fellowship.
As birds flying, so will the Lord of hosts defend Jerusalem.Isaiah 31:5
With hurrying wing the mother bird hastens up to the protection of her young. She wastes no time upon the road when coming to supply them with food or guard them from danger. Thus as on eagle’s wings will the Lord come for the defense of His chosen; yea, He will ride upon the wings of the wind.
With outspread wing the mother covers her little ones in the nest. She hides them away by interposing her own body. The hen yields her own warmth to her chicks and makes her wings a house, in which they dwell at home. Thus doth Jehovah Himself become the protection of His elect. He Himself is their refuge, their abode, their all.
As birds flying and birds covering (for the word means both), so will the Lord be unto us: and this He will be repeatedly and successfully. We shall be defended and preserved from all evil: the Lord who likens Himself to birds will not be like them in their feebleness, for He is Jehovah of hosts. Let this be our comfort, that almighty love will be swift to succor and sure to cover. The wing of God is more quick and more tender than the wing of a bird, and we will put our trust under its shadow henceforth and forever.
Bereaved father to Gallant: ‘You’re leading us to Oslo 2’ Yoav Gallant said today (Tuesday) in a conversation with the leadership of the Hagvura Forum (Heroism Forum) that the State of Israel will not control the Gaza Strip the day after the war with Hamas. Itzik Buntzel, the father of Amit Buntzel, an IDF soldier who fell in combat in northern Gaza, strongly criticized Gallant’s remarks. “You are leading us to Oslo 2, di our children fall in vain? We will again sacrifice our grandchildren in Gaza in 20 years when you arm the Palestinians again with weapons. Have we learned nothing from the past?
Hezbollah Anti-Tank Commander Behind Fatal Rocket Strikes Killed by IDF Israeli forces have successfully eliminated Muhammad Kamel Naeem, Hezbollah’s anti-tank missile commander, just days after his brigade launched a deadly rocket attack on northern Israel. The recent attack killed two civilians in Kiryat Shmona, marking the first fatalities in the region since tensions escalated last month.
Hamas HQ in Turkey ordered failed suicide bombing in Tel Aviv in August, police reveals The failed suicide bombing in Tel Aviv in August was ordered and directed by the Hamas headquarters in Turkey, the Israel Police and Shin Bet security agency announced on Tuesday, following the end of an investigation. On Aug. 18, a powerful explosion shook southern Tel Aviv, killing the would-be terrorist and wounding a man riding an electric scooter nearby.
Biden and Harris teams at each other’s throats as Election Day approaches Many of the president’s aides are still hurt by Biden’s forced exit from the race and are struggling to adjust to a supportive role, … “The White House is lacking someone in the room thinking first and foremost about how things would affect the campaign,” one person involved with Harris’s campaign
Iran threatens US: ‘Don’t defend Israel, we have no red lines’ As Iran girds for an expected Israeli retaliatory strike following Tehran’s unprecedented launch of some 200 ballistic missiles at the Jewish state, an Iranian official warned Washington against helping defend Israel. “The US has been delivering record amount of arms to Israel. It is now also putting lives of its troops at risk by deploying them to operate US missile systems in Israel,” … Iran’s leadership are “extremely nervous” about the Israeli retaliation, which could also potentially see the assassinations of senior officials, such as the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khameini.
Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan: ‘Israel existential threat’ the Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan, calls on the government in a press conference in Amman, saying that the change in the policy of the Jordanian government requires taking practical steps to recruit an internal, military and social front and avoiding putting any obstacles on the protests against the “Zionist aggression in Gaza and Lebanon.”
PM Netanyahu, French President Macron, on collision course over Lebanon war Netanyahu told Macron that he opposes a unilateral ceasefire in Lebanon which would not change the security situation in the north, his office said in a statement. The prime minister emphasized that Israel is operating against the Hezbollah terrorist organization with the aim of preventing it from threatening Israel’s citizens on the northern border so as to enable them to return to their homes safely. “Israel would not agree to any arrangement that does not provide this
Chief of Staff: ‘Hezbollah hiding dead bodies; sign of distress’ “Hezbollah is hiding its dead, while, on the other hand, dreaming about our dead. This shows that the terrorist organization is in a difficult situation.” Halevi insists that, “We need to continue increasing this disparity, protecting our people, harming the members of their terrorist organization and, above all, understand that Hezbollah is in trouble. We must increase pressure, push harder,” Halevi said.
Amazon Deletes Promo Video of Executive Wearing Necklace Featuring Palestinian Flag Over Israel Dr. Ruba Borno is the vice president of global specialists and partner organizations for Amazon Web Services (AWS) and was hired by the company in November 2021. She wore the controversial necklace in a promotional clip for the upcoming AWS re:Invent conference in Las Vegas. Borno has not responded to Amazon’s decision to delete the video.
Gallant: Israel to strike back at Iran ‘soon’ The retaliatory action will be “precise and deadly,” Israel’s defense minister vowed. The Israeli strike would be carried out before the Nov. 5 U.S. presidential election,
Israel’s demining near Golan signals wider front against Hezbollah, sources say In a sign Israel may expand its ground operations against Hezbollah while bolstering its own defenses, its troops have cleared landmines and established new barriers on the frontier between the Golan Heights and a demilitarized strip bordering Syria, security sources … said.
Top House committee launches probe into Biden admin ‘priorities’ on FEMA hurricane relief, migrant spending Republicans on the House Homeland Security Committee are investigating the Department of Homeland Security’s “priorities” for its request for funding from Congress, amid an ongoing controversy over spending on illegal migrants and disaster relief. “The Committee on Homeland Security…is investigating [DHS’] prioritization of its ability to adequately respond to natural disasters,” lawmakers on the committee said in a letter to DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
Floods in Sahara could profoundly alter weather forecasts in the future Heavy rainfall on September 6 and 7, 2024, brought more than a year’s worth of precipitation to parts of Morocco, resulting in 11 deaths and 9 missing persons. While the influx of water provided temporary relief by replenishing lakebeds and aquifers, Morocco’s meteorology chief noted that the presence of water in the Sahara could significantly impact future weather forecasts.
Macron Says Israel PM ‘Mustn’t Forget His Country Created By UN Decision’ Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should not forget his country was created as a result of a resolution adopted by the United Nations, French President Emmanuel Macron told cabinet on Tuesday, urging Israel to abide by UN decisions.
10 Signs That The Economy Is A Giant Mess As The Election Approaches The health of the economy has been a major determining factor in many past presidential elections, and the health of the economy is certainly going to have an enormous influence on the outcome of the upcoming presidential election. In fact, according to a poll that was just released by Rasmussen the economy is the number one issue by a wide margin for voters in the ultra-important swing state of Pennsylvania. Unfortunately for the Democrats, most Americans are not pleased with how the economy is performing, and it appears that conditions are now taking another turn for the worse. The following are 10 signs that the economy is a giant mess as the election approaches…
Alliance Of The End?: The President Of Turkey Asks Russia, Syria And Iran To Unite Against Israel War is in the air, and we are seeing some very interesting alliances form. As you will see below, the Russians and the Chinese continue to strengthen ties with one another, and this is something that I have been anticipating for many years. Meanwhile, the president of Turkey is calling for a very alarming alliance of military powers in the Middle East. On Saturday, he told the press that he is urging “Russia, Iran and Syria” to form a united front to protect “Syria’s territorial integrity”…
Scottish government plans to “build, back, better” with its National Adaptation Plan The Scottish National Adaptation Plan 2024-2029 is a comprehensive strategy to address the impacts of climate change in Scotland. It builds on its predecessor, ‘Climate Ready Scotland: Second Scottish Climate Change Adaptation Programme 2019-2024’, and sets out the actions that the Scottish Government and partners will take to respond to climate change from 2024 to 2029.
Florida bans sale of lab-grown “meat” Chief U.S. District Judge Mark Walker denied a request by California-based UPSIDE Foods, Inc. to block a new state law that bans the sale and manufacturing of “cultivated” meat. In May, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed a legislative package that included a ban on the sale of lab-grown meat, making Florida the only state in the US where cultivated meat cannot be sold.
“The name of American, which belongs to you, in your national capacity, must always exalt the just pride of Patriotism, more than any appellation derived from local discriminations.” —George Washington (1796)
Undemocratic Pelosi decided Trump would never be president again: One day, probably in the not-too-distant future, we won’t have 84-year-old Nancy Pelosi to kick around anymore. But until then, we’ll continue to point out her treachery and hypocrisy. Pelosi recently admitted that she hasn’t spoken to Joe Biden since she forced him out of the presidential race. “Not since then, no,” she said when asked. “But I’m prayerful about it.” Pelosi explained that she shivved him to protect his legacy: “I have the greatest respect for him. I think he’s one of the great consequential presidents of our country,” she lied. “I think his legacy had to be protected. I didn’t see that happening in the course that … the election was on.” But here’s the really interesting part: Pelosi, that self-styled Protector of American Democracy, apparently thinks her vote outweighs those of the nearly 14 million Americans who voted for Joe Biden in the Democrat primaries earlier this year: “Elections are decisions,” she said. “You decide to win. I decided a while ago that Donald Trump will never set foot in the White House again as president of the United States or in any other capacity.” Remind us again who the “existential threat to our democracy is.”
Georgia judge halts mandatory hand-counting of ballots on election night (Washington Examiner)
Noncitizens will vote in November; the only question is how many? (Issues & Insights)
Kamala’s legion of lying liars: As desperation has set in with Kamala Harris’s campaign, she has changed both her tone and her tactics. On one front, she’s gotten nastier toward Donald Trump. “It makes you wonder,” Harris sneered at a rally on Sunday in North Carolina: “Why does his staff want him to hide away? … Are they afraid that people will see that he is too weak and unstable to lead America?” To claim that Trump is “weak and unstable” doesn’t pass the giggle test, as anyone who merely observes him in action can tell. But then there’s the lying. “On Monday,” as PJ Media’s Matt Margolis writes, “the Harris-Walz campaign shared a deceptively edited video purporting to show Trump frozen and confused on stage at a town hall event, which they claimed caused people to ‘pour out’ of the event early.” It was nothing of the sort. Even ABC News and Axios debunked this claim. The truth? “Former President Trump resorted to having songs played for over half an hour at his Pennsylvania town hall after two separate medical emergencies interrupted the event, which was cut short on Monday night.”
Trust in mass media is at a new low: poll (Daily Wire)
Butler shooting victims break their silence: Democrats and their media brethren have tried mightily to normalize the attempted assassinations of Donald Trump, but there’s no normalizing the death of a heroic 50-year-old father and husband named Corey Comperatore, nor the nearly fatal wounds suffered during the Butler, Pennsylvania, assassination attempt by 57-year-old David Dutch and 74-year-old James Copenhaver. “I was more mad about it than anything,” said Dutch. “I was in the service, went through a war, didn’t even get a scratch. And yet, go to a rally, and you get shot at in the crowd.” As for Copenhaver, he says he realized something was wrong when “I saw part of my sleeve go away and heard [gunshot noises].” As Fox News reports: “Copenhaver was shot twice: one bullet tore into his tricep [sic], while the other is still lodged in his body, leaving him with nerve damage — something likened to somebody ‘taking a cigarette and burning right’ in his leg. The bullet that struck Dutch split his liver. He compared it to getting hit with a ‘sledgehammer right in the chest.’” Asked if he thought the Secret Service failed, Dutch was rightly unequivocal: “Oh yes, big time.”
Trump promises ‘readjustments’ to make taxes ‘fair to everybody’ in town hall focused on women (Washington Examiner)
Biden’s economy: 7-Eleven to close almost 450 locations in North America (PJ Media)
Ted Cruz and Colin Allred clash over abortion, trans athletes and Jan. 6 in feisty Texas Senate debate (NBC News)
North Carolina governor candidate Mark Robinson sues CNN over report about posts on porn site (Associated Press)
National Insecurity
Child sex-trafficking reports have tripled under Biden/Harris: America’s fastest growing criminal enterprise is sex-trafficking, fueled by the Biden-Harris de facto open border policies. Children are the biggest victims of this border malfeasance. The irony is that the Biden-Harris administration justifies its border policies based upon concern for the downtrodden, people who are supposedly fleeing terrible living situations in their own countries. The truth is that the open border has become an industry of exploitation. Traffickers are usually Mexican or Salvadoran gang members. They work to entice women and girls into migrating to the U.S. under the promise of better-paying jobs. They then extort them by loaning them funding to get into the U.S., only to force them into prostitution upon arrival in order to pay off their debt. One undercover informant who runs a nonprofit dedicated to bringing down sex-trafficking rings, Shepherd’s Watch, explained just how bad the situation is, stating, “If I wanted to, I could order a girl within 15 minutes. It’s that easy.” Far from helping migrants, sanctuary city policies have only protected these criminal sex-trafficking outfits, ensuring that the real victims continue to be victimized.
Mysterious drones swarm U.S. military bases: It’s been more than 18 months since a red zeppelin made its way across American airspace, picking up valuable intelligence from directly above some of our most sensitive military sites. But the Biden-Harris administration doesn’t seem to have learned any lessons from its disastrous projection of weakness toward the Communist Chinese. As Fox News reports: “A mysterious fleet of drones entered restricted airspace and swarmed a U.S. military base along the Virginia coast for 17 days late last year, stumping the Pentagon. … For several nights last December, U.S. military personnel reported witnessing a fleet of unknown unmanned aircraft breach restricted airspace over a stretch of land at Langley Air Force Base along Virginia’s shore, the Wall Street Journal first reported. The drones would start to arrive about 45 minutes to an hour after sunset each night.” One would think a series of such incursions would spur our nation into action, if only to identify the culprits. One would think. Despite White House meetings, however, we still know next to nothing about this squadron of drones and who’s piloting them.
Politics
Battle of the R&D weather idiots: After Hurricane Helene ravaged western North Carolina and parts of other states, Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene offered this assessment: “Climate change is the new Covid. Ask your government if the weather is manipulated or controlled. Did you ever give permission to them to do it? Are you paying for it? Of course you are.” A week later, MTG doubled down: “Yes they can control the weather. It’s ridiculous for anyone to lie and say it can’t be done.” But according to Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Helene was because of “climate change,” the Left’s now- ubiquitous but dubious assertion that all climate disasters are man-made — which has as much credibility as MTG’s government-made claim. AOC insisted: “The hurricane ‘machine’ is climate change. Cooler ocean temperatures slow hurricane development. As temps rise, more hurricanes grow. The Gulf of Mexico is a major location for warming water.” That may be accurate, but then she concluded, “The people who bear responsibility are fossil fuel companies and the politicians they buy.” Uh, no. Both MTG and AOC have yet to explain how the rains that caused the 1916 Asheville flood, which was equally devastating, was either government-made or man-made. Waiting…
NYT falls for ridiculous Jew-hating hoax: In an effort to paint the Israel Defense Forces as inhumane killers and victimizers of Palestinian children, The New York Times published an op-ed titled, “65 Doctor, Nurses, and Paramedics: What We Saw in Gaza,” which details claims from medical professionals of children with various gunshot wounds received at the hands of the IDF. “I saw many children,” one doctor claimed. “In my experience, the gunshot wound was often to the head. Many had non-curable, permanent brain damage. It was almost a daily occurrence to have children arrive at the hospital with gunshot wounds to the head.” The piece includes three X-ray images of children’s heads to back up these claims, but these X-rays are the stuff of hoaxes. They purport to show a child’s head with a rifle bullet lodged inside, but what becomes quickly evident is both the lack of obvious trauma to the head from the entry of the bullet as well as the lack of any deformation of the bullet itself. If the evidence provided is a clear hoax, then what does that say about the overarching claim of the IDF targeting and shooting Palestinian children?
NYC Mayor Adams fallout: The Justice Department’s screws are tightening on New York City Mayor Eric Adams following him being charged with bribery and fraud last month. While Adams has remained defiant, claiming that he is innocent and that he is a victim of politically motivated lawfare for his criticism of the Biden-Harris administration’s migrant crisis, members of his staff are clearly less convinced. On Tuesday, Deputy Mayor Phillip Banks III became the latest to announce his resignation. According to Adams, “He stated he wants to transition, do some other things with his life and he doesn’t want this to be a constant burden on the work that we’re doing in this city. I wish my good friend well.” Banks joins a list of other members of Adams’s office to jump ship, which includes his chief counsel, city schools chancellor, the police commissioner, and a senior advisor.
World
Ukraine’s defense industry is booming: As the Ukraine war grinds on toward its third year since Russia’s invasion, the war-ravaged country has put up a fight few thought possible. It has been a costly war for both sides, with Russia suffering the most military casualties it has seen since World War II. Given the war and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky repeatedly running with hat in hand to NATO and the U.S. begging for more military aid to continue to fight to save his country from Vladimir Putin, one might be shocked to learn of an industry in Ukraine that is booming. That industry happens to be Ukraine’s defense industry. Ukraine’s weapons factories have massively ramped up production numbers, especially for ammunition. During the first half of 2024, Ukraine produced 25 times more artillery and mortar shells than it did in all of 2022. This year, Ukraine is on track to produce four million drones. Much of the reason behind Ukraine’s ability to ratchet up its defense industry is its history during the Soviet era of being a major weapons production region for the Soviet Union. The war has served to reverse the decline in that industry, and once again, Ukraine is pumping out war weapons.
Misc.
243 dead, 92 people still missing in North Carolina after Hurricane Helene (NBC)
Biden-Harris admin paves way for bureaucrats to take gender-confused kids from “non-affirming” parents (Daily Caller)
California moves to provide surrogates to gay male couples in the name of ‘fertility equality’ (Post Millennial)
What does it say about Kamala Harris’s campaign that she’s spending time on a popular black podcast with the clear aim of shoring up the black vote? It says she’s in trouble.
Hillary Clinton won 92% of the black vote in 2016. Joe Biden won 90% in 2020. Harris is currently polling at 78%, so yes, those are alarm bells you hear in the distance.
On Tuesday, Harris sat for an interview with radio host Charlamagne tha God to tell blacks why they should vote for her. “We have done the work in the last four years,” she said.
It’s part of the regular Democrat strategy of ensuring that blacks don’t leave their ideological plantation. Barack Obama did this last week when he chided black men who “just aren’t feeling the idea of having a woman as president.” It’s “not acceptable,” he said, to not support Harris. Joe Biden did it four years ago, saying on Charlamagne’s program, “If you have a problem figuring out whether you’re for me or Trump, then you ain’t black.”
In recent days, Harris made a big splash over her various proposals geared toward helping blacks, specifically men. On Monday, she released an “Opportunity Agenda for Black Men.” Here’s the bulleted list from her campaign website:
Provide 1 million forgivable loans up to $20,000 to Black entrepreneurs and others who have a good idea but don’t have the resources, connections, or access to capital to get their business off the ground
Launch a National Health Equity Initiative focused on Black men
Legalize marijuana at the federal level to break down unjust legal barriers that hold Black men and other Americans back
Lower costs by enacting the first-ever federal ban on corporate price-gouging for food and groceries
Lower rent and provide down payment assistance to triple the number of new first-time Black homeowners
A federal loan program based on skin color is blatantly unconstitutional. Arguably, so are her health and rent/home-buying initiatives. The loans are also an expansion of the Sugar Daddy State, which pays off student loans with taxpayer money confiscated from people who didn’t take out the loans. The key word is “forgivable,” not “loan.”
Harris doesn’t explain why legalizing dope will help black men — especially given that pot is like, bad, man. Its negative health effects are increasingly evident. Not only that, but take a look at the cultural damage done in inner cities by fatherless black boys involved with gangs and drugs.
Speaking of crime, as San Francisco district attorney, Harris The Prosecutor jailed nearly 2,000 people, many of them black, for marijuana-related offenses alone. Joe Biden’s pandering pot pardons two years ago undid some of her work (and his own from the 1990s). You might say Harris is turning over a new leaf, now routinely saying, “Nobody should have to go to jail for smoking weed.”
In any case, Harris’s agenda was a topic of conversation with Charlamagne tha God. She also went after Trump more personally, though, clearly attempting to challenge his manhood among black men. “The man is really quite weak,” she mocked. Yet she gave a contradictory message when she affirmed Charlamagne’s assertion that this is also “about fascism.” Fascism is generally left-wing, for the record, and accurately describes a good bit of the Democrat agenda. Many other words could be used to describe it, but “weak” isn’t one of them.
“On the point of reparations,” Harris said, “it has to be studied. There’s no question about that. And I’ve been very clear about that position.” She’s very clear that she doesn’t really have a position. Reparations should be an easy “no,” given the likely multi-trillion-dollar cost and unconstitutionality of implementation.
The stickiness of reparations is evident in Harris’s own genealogy, which leads me to some final observations about why she struggles with blacks.
Trump caught a lot of grief in the debate when he responded to a question on his previous comments about whether Harris really is black. But there’s no question some blacks don’t view her as one of them. Instead, perhaps they see her as our Douglas Andrews eloquently puts it: “a Bay Area progressive of Jamaican-Indian descent who grew up in Canada and whose ancestors were slaveowners.” That’s right — her Marxist economist father, Donald Harris, was a descendant of Irish slaveowners in Jamaica.
Would she pay reparations to herself?
Trump also sent white leftists into hysterics when he said that the lawfare being waged by Democrats against him helps blacks identify with him. But don’t underestimate the real sentiment he’s tapping into. It seems to me that a demographic that is routinely told — by Democrats — that the system is rigged against them would have some sympathy when the system is clearly rigged — by Democrats — against Trump.
The third major factor here is illegal immigration. As Biden’s border czar, Harris has presided over an invasion of at least 10 million illegals who are generally low-skilled workers competing for jobs and housing with American citizens, many of whom are black. Charlamagne even hit her for doing “a lot of things wrong with the border.” Blacks who support Harris, Trump sometimes jokes, need to get “your head examined because they are really screwing you.” Put another way, most blacks know life was far better under Trump’s administration.
I’ll give the final word to Detroit Pastor Lorenzo Sewell: “Black men are not political infants. We know exactly what’s happening with the Democratic Party. We know that they’ve exploited us for over six decades, and we are saying, just like Moses said to Pharaoh, ‘Let my people go.’”
Thomas Gallatin: Trump’s Working-Class Tax Breaks — The proposals sound great, but with the government’s massive spending problem, will they simply balloon the national debt?
Douglas Andrews: Trump Wows the Economic Club of Chicago — The former president yesterday demonstrated definitively why he and not Kamala Harris can return the American economy to prosperity.
Michael Swartz: Crime Without Punishment — To address the crime epidemic in our country, we must get rid of the twisted belief that some criminals are more equal than others.
Caleb Nunes: Make America Great Again — America was viewed as an extended family, bound not just by laws and borders but by shared values and experiences.
Youngkin on DOJ Lawsuit Against VA Voter Roll Cleanup — Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin addresses questions regarding Donald Trump’s rhetoric on illegal immigration and the Biden-Harris DOJ’s lawsuit against his state over its legal requirement to remove noncitizens from its voter rolls.
Street Gang Lawyer Orders Hit — A lawyer who represented numerous members of a street gang gets caught ordering a prison hit on her ex-boyfriend.
Speaker Johnson Exposes CBS’s Deceptive Editing — House Speaker Mike Johnson secretly filmed his interview with CBS News’s Margaret Brennan and exposed how CBS edited his answers to her questions.
Trump Speaks at the Economic Club of Chicago — Donald Trump clashed with the editor-in-chief of Bloomberg News during an economic forum in Chicago on Tuesday over the GOP nominee’s insistence that tariffs would not have negative consequences in a possible second term.
SHORT CUTS
For the Record
“She’s more dangerous than him, but he’s actually smarter than her.” —Donald Trump comparing Kamala Harris to Joe Biden
“[Kamala] Harris isn’t ‘vague’ or ‘careful’ or disinclined to ‘delineate her stance.’ She’s wildly, catastrophically, incontestably out of her depth. She’s not ‘light’; she’s dull. She’s not a ‘dodger’; she’s a fool. She’s not ‘joyful’; she’s imbecilic.” —Charles C.W. Cooke
“[Kamala Harris] is simply not a very good candidate. She lacks confidence and is seemingly terrified to take any unrehearsed or unvetted policy questions.” —former Bush staffer Douglas MacKinnon
“The bottom line is when you’re talking about the base of the Democratic Party, you would think that Kamala Harris would do very well among black women, based upon history. And of course, she would be the first black woman president, but she’s actually doing the worst for a Democratic candidate among black women since 1960, if this holds.” —Harry Enten, CNN’s polling analyst
Keen Sense of the Obvious
“You got a case in Georgia not very long ago, didn’t you — they made an ad about it. A young woman who had been killed by an immigrant. Yeah, well, if they’d all been properly vetted, that probably wouldn’t have happened.” —Bill Clinton, who is ostensibly trying to help Kamala Harris, referencing the murder of Laken Riley
From the Desperation Files
“Tim Walz is headlining a voter engagement event with black men. And who better to connect with young black men than Tim Walz.” —Bill Maher
“I think she’s in a very difficult position because she was [Biden’s] vice president. And you know, I’m still old-fashioned. I think loyalty does matter.” —Michigan Democrat Congresswoman Debbie Dingell on Kamala Harris
Re: The Left
“Kristen, Kristen, Kristen, listen to your question. The American people don’t care about the cholesterol level of Donald Trump. They care about the cost of living and the fact that they cannot pay for groceries.” —House Speaker Mike Johnson correcting Meet the Press’s Kristen Welker by taking a page out of JD Vance’s book
Be Pro-Life
“The pro-life case is philosophical, scientific, and religious, sure — but it’s also emotional. Anybody who has seen an ultrasound knows they are looking at a living human individual. Anybody who has heard a pregnant woman speak or be spoken of outside of the context of an abortion debate knows that we customarily recognize that she is carrying a baby, a real person. We will never advance the cause if we are afraid to say why we care about it.” —Dan McLaughlin
Election Integrity
“With less than 30 days until the election, the Biden-Harris Department of Justice is filing an unprecedented lawsuit against me and the Commonwealth of Virginia for appropriately enforcing a 2006 law signed by Democrat [Senator] Tim Kaine that requires Virginia to remove noncitizens from the voter rolls, a process that starts with someone declaring themselves a noncitizen and then registering to vote.” —VA Governor Glenn Youngkin
And Last
“There are so many fakes and parodies on the Internet that I had to approach ‘Man Enough,’ an ad ostensibly targeting male voters for the Kamala Harris/Tim Walz campaign, on mental tiptoe. I heard the premise before watching and was certain it had to be a meta prank of the Andy Kaufman school. Nobody could be that stupid.” —Matt Taibbi
As the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) carries out widely-criticized responses to Hurricanes Helene and Milton, officials say the agency’s Disaster Recovery Fund is incapable of handling a third major storm. While some are circulating false accusations that disaster funds have been diverted to immigrants or poured into the proxy war in Ukraine, a review of the agency’s 2024 outlays reveals a different, ongoing drain on FEMA’s coffers: Long after the end of the declared Covid-19 emergency, FEMA is still pumping out billions of dollars to pay for pandemic expenses — including, believe it or not, up to $9,000 each for funerals.
Under Administrator Deanne Criswell, FEMA is still paying out billions of dollars in Covid-19-era reimbursements (screenshot from ABC News)
As previously detailed here at Stark Realities, governments’ response to the Covid-19 pandemic was disastrous on many fronts. While the Pandora’s box of collateral damage included widespread harm to the physical and mental health of individuals, it also dealt a blow to the nation’s fiscal well-being, as the federal government recklessly showered trillions of dollars it didn’t have on people, businesses and state and local governments — with much of that money intended to offset the effects of government’s own tyrannical and counterproductive policies.
While all but the most diehard Branch Covidians have moved on from that dark chapter, the federal government has a distinct version of “long Covid.” Though it’s not clear where all the money is going, FEMA is paying up to $9,000 each to reimburse funeral expenses for those who die from Covid.
That’s an especially odd example of government picking winners and losers. As Stanford University School of Medicine professor and prominent Covid-regime critic Jay Bhattacharya said in a social media post that drew my attention to this giveaway program and its hyper-longevity, “There are apparently more and less worthy ways to die in the US.”
Indeed: Why is the family of someone who dies from Covid more deserving of a government-paid funeral than the family of someone who dies from cancer, cardiac arrest or a car accident? It bears emphasis that this question was every bit as relevant in 2020 as it is today.
The favoring of one cause of death over another isn’t the only winners-and-losers dimension of the funeral program: There’s no reimbursement for those who’d planned ahead via pre-paid funerals. Echoing the grievances of people who saved up to pay for college only to see their neighbor’s student loans forgiven by vote-buying politicians, some families say they feel like they’re being punished for having planned for the future.
It wasn’t rational in 2020, but even in 2024, FEMA is paying $9,000 in funeral costs for deaths caused by Covid-19 — or those that merely “may have” been caused by it (Pavel Danilyuk via Pexels)
This isn’t FEMA’s first funereal foray, but it’s the largest by orders of magnitude. In the 10 years before the pandemic, FEMA received about 6,000 applications for funeral assistance for various natural disasters. As of Jan. 1, 2024, FEMA had approved more than 300,000 for Covid-19, shelling out $3.15 billionto cover an expense that, whether caused by a pandemic or something else, is universally inevitable.
Of course, the magnitude of that inevitable expense isn’t fixed, and the mere presence of a government subsidy reliably results in higher costs. Knowing they can spend up to of $9,000 of other people’s money on their Covid-19 funeral, it’s safe to assume many affected families have made more expensive choices than they otherwise would — bolstering the profits of funeral homes, casket producers and other associated businesses.
Unsurprisingly, the National Funeral Directors Association (NFDA), a trade group and principal lobbyist for the industry, hailed the passage of the COVID 19 Relief Package/Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2020. The legislation not only funded Covid funeral reimbursements, NFDA enthused, but also funeral payments “for any subsequent major disaster declared by the President,” an expansion the group had been lobbying for.
To qualify for reimbursement under the funeral assistance program, the death certificate must either indicate the death was caused by Covid-19 — or that it merely may have been caused by Covid-19 or “Covid-19-like symptoms.”
As is increasingly the case with government handouts, there’s no requirement of US citizenship, for either the decedent or the person paying the funeral expenses. A family’s ability to pay for the funeral is likewise irrelevant — there are no income or wealth criteria.
There’s more to the cost of this program than the reimbursements themselves — there’s also significant overhead. Pressed to implement the program as soon as possible, FEMA opted against creating a website to receive applications for reimbursement, choosing to instead require that all claims be submitted via 20-minute phone conversations, necessitating the creation of a huge call center operation staffed by 5,000 phone agents, all of whom would require training and support.
While you might think word-of-mouth would be sufficient to encourage widespread use of a handout program, still more money was spent on advertising. In a 2022 report lamenting that many eligible people hadn’t cashed in yet, NPR’s Blake Farmer — blissfully oblivious to the federal government’s relentless march to insolvency — cheerfully said “FEMA is launching an outreach campaign to promote the program, since there’s plenty of money left.”
In a video posted to Facebook, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez promoted FEMA’s Covid-19 funeral reimbursement scheme
Fittingly, NPR found the national leader in funeral reimbursement claims at the time was Washington DC, with applications amounting to 77% of Covid-19 fatalities.
Whether a government handout program takes the form of cash reimbursement, tax credit or subsidy, it inevitably has another cost dimension: so-called “improper payments,” a term encompassing both fraud and errors made by applicants and administrators.
On that score, FEMA’s Covid-19 funeral-funding program has come under repeated criticism from government watchdogs. In 2022, the General Accountability Office (GAO) identified “several gaps in FEMA’s internal controls meant to prevent improper or fraudulent payments” — such as double-payments when two different parties applied for reimbursement for the same funeral, or payments made to applicants who didn’t meet program requirements.
That same year, the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) sent an “urgent” alert to FEMA, saying its audit found the agency “regularly reimburses applicants for expenses expressly excluded from funeral assistance” by the agency’s own policy guide that serves as its interpretation of regulations.
Reimbursable expenses include funeral services, cremation, caskets, urns burial plots, ceremony costs, headstones and clergy compensation. Among the unauthorized expenses are catering, gratuities, flowers and transportation. The OIG learned that, rather than directing claims processors to scrutinize claims to ferret out unauthorized expenses, FEMA told them to “accept for reimbursement all verifiable funeral expenses…listed on expense documents from a funeral home.” Thus, if flowers, for example, were listed on a funeral home bill, reimbursement was approved regardless of FEMA’s standing rule against covering that cost.
The OIG found that 59% of approved applications included ineligible expenses. In one case, FEMA’s loose approach led to an improper reimbursement for $3,760 for transportation that included “two lead escort vehicles, a limousine, and a horse and carriage.”
FEMA admitted its lawyers hadn’t even reviewed its Covid operating procedures. Worse, FEMA resisted the OIG’s post-inquiry recommendations, exasperatingly arguing that if the agency started applying the rules correctly, it “would create inequalities to the detriment of future applicants, who would qualify for less assistance for fewer eligible expenses.” GAO rightly countered that FEMA was itself creating inequalities — by reimbursing funeral expenses that it hadn’t reimbursed for previous disasters and shouldn’t reimburse for future ones.
While it serves as a vivid illustration of irrational, wasteful and persistent spending that accompanies both bona fide and contrived crises, the funeral reimbursement program represents just a small share of ongoing Covid-related government outlays: In the fiscal year that ended September 30, FEMA tallied $15 billion in Covid-19 commitments, accounting for a startling 39% of all FEMA disaster relief obligations.
Not coincidentally, FEMA’s Disaster Relief Fund is repeatedly running on empty, prompting additional, multi-billion-dollar infusions from Congress. Seeking still more money Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas earlier this month told reporters that “FEMA does not have the funds to make it through [hurricane] season.”
His warning prompted a false narrative to erupt along the American right — specifically, that the Disaster Relief Fund has been depleted by $650 million spent on migrants in the 2024 fiscal year. While one can challenge the propriety and constitutionality of that spending, the $650 million didn’t come from the Disaster Relief Fund, but from a separate, congressionally-appropriated program and account.
Rather than parroting false narratives, conservatives should be asking why the Disaster Relief Fund (DRF) is still being hammered by Covid payouts to state, local and tribal governments, hospitals, non-profits and others. At least one federal legislator is already on the case — on Friday, Texas Rep. Chip Roy sent a letter to FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell, spotlighting the troubling state of affairs:
“The depletion of the DRF is of particular concern considering the sheer amount of funding that has gone to COVID-19 projects nearly a year and a half after the COVID-19 emergency – which should have been terminated much earlier – was terminated.
According to a FEMA document, as of October 4, 2024, nearly $4 billion – or 45% – of the DRF funding that was delayed … was for COVID-19 projects. About $1.2 billion of that COVID-19 funding would go to the state of California alone.”
In addition to requesting a full accounting of Covid and non-Covid spending, Roy asked Criswell to explain how her agency would prevent Covid-19 projects from continuing to “jeopardize FEMA’s ability to use the DRF in the future to respond to disasters, absent a massive increase in congressional appropriations.”
Barring an extension, FEMA will finally stop accepting Covid-funeral reimbursement applications on September 30, 2025. However, as of now, the agency plans on tapping its disaster fund for other Covid-19 outlays for four more years—to the tune of another $22.2 billion between now and September 2028.
That’s assuming FEMA’s estimate is accurate, but cost estimations are another recurring weakness of the organization. Indeed, FEMA originally estimated $17.6 billion in total Covid-19 outlays over the duration of the emergency. By March of this year, its estimate had soared to $171.6 billion.
* * *
Stark Realities undermines official narratives, demolishes conventional wisdom and exposes fundamental myths across the political spectrum. Read more and subscribe at starkrealities.substack.com
Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ZeroHedge.
FOX Business anchor David Asman explains the big differences between former President Trump and Vice President Harris’ economic plans on ‘The Story.’ #foxnews #thestory
JERUSALEM, Israel – Just ahead of the biblical Sukkot holiday, as Israel fights an existential threat on multiple fronts, Israel’s best ally, the U.S., is threatening to cut off military aid if the humanitarian situation in Gaza doesn’t improve in a month. This comes as Israel fast-tracks solutions to defend against killer drones.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin sent a letter to top Israelis, warning them they have 30 days to seriously improve Gaza’s humanitarian aid crisis or Israel could face a U.S. arms embargo.
The State Department suggests the letter is necessary.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — FBI Director Christopher Wray testified before Congress Wednesday, confirming what many have known for months: the crime rate is not down, it’s up.
In his opening remarks, Director Wray said, “Oops, we meant to say up. Crime is up. It is not, as previously stated, down. It’s possible we have been holding the chart upside down for the past several months. Our bad.”
The director’s remarks lasted almost five minutes. Congressional Democrats appeared flustered, even ill, as Wray spoke while many Republicans rolled their eyes in annoyance.
“In conclusion: up,” Director Wray said, concluding his remarks. “Crime is, in fact, up. Honest mistake, fellas.”
According to sources, Representative Alexandria Occasio-Cortez, who appeared livid throughout the hearing, seemed to soften upon hearing Wray’s humble admission. “It could happen to anyone,” Ocasio-Cortez said, remembering the many times she herself had looked at charts and graphs upside down. “I move we dismiss the director and conclude this hearing.”
Representative Thomas Massie was seen burying his head in his hands. Witnesses claim to have heard him muttering, “I’m surrounded by idiots.”
At publishing time, Congress ruled the FBI should continue to operate without any oversight despite their inability to perform even the simplest tasks.
BIG NEWS: We made a movie, and you can watch the trailer NOW:
More unethical backroom bull has been revealed around Nancy Pelosi’s hyperpartisan Jan. 6 hearings — this time involving current Dem fave ex-Rep. Liz Cheney Cassidy Hutchinson.
When a sophisticated Chinese spy balloon floated over America in early 2023, lawmakers and the public were outraged at the Biden-Harris administration’s passivity and initial inclination to keep it quiet – only acknowledging the balloon after two civilian photographers forced their hand.
Now, the Wall Street Journal has broken news on an even more stupendous U.S. national security breach, reporting that drones flew over a sensitive nuclear weapons testing facility for three days last October and then, two months later, flew over Langley Air Force Base in Virginia for 17 straight nights while the Biden White House, and the military officers it promoted, dawdled and argued over what to do about it.
The swarms started on Dec. 7, 2023. Drones, some as large as 20 feet long, flew at night over the Air Combat Command headquarters with its squadrons of advanced F-22 Raptor fighters.
As shown almost daily in Ukraine and Russia, those drones might have destroyed years’ worth of combat aircraft production. The drones also came close to the world’s largest naval port in Norfolk, and other key national security installations, including Navy SEAL Team Six’s base.
But, instead of acting against the drones that violated U.S. military airspace, the military and civilian chain of command was frozen in indecision.
The base commander had the authority to disrupt or destroy the drones under Department of Defense directives and classified rules of engagement, which grant the commander the necessary authority to act swiftly without needing approval from external agencies when an imminent threat is posed.
Instead, in the zero-defect, zero-risk bureaucracy much of our military brass has settled into, the drone swarm was reported to the National Military Command Center. Then a report went to the White House Situation Room. President Biden heard about it in his daily briefing. This likely happened by Friday, Dec. 8. The drones operated unimpeded for 15 more nights – and then they stopped.
But, instead of ordering the military to protect its sensitive airspace and exercise the authority it already has, Homeland Security adviser Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall convened brainstorming sessions in the White House. Every suggestion – jamming, directed energy weapons or using nets – were all shot down as too risky or not being an authorized use of force.
In the Oct. 12 Wall Street Journal piece exposing the drone fiasco, this excuse for inaction was proffered, “Federal law prohibits the military from shooting down drones near military bases in the U.S. unless they pose an imminent threat. Aerial snooping doesn’t qualify, though some lawmakers hope to give the military greater leeway.”
But the law cited, the Preventing Emerging Threats Act of 2018, doesn’t apply to military bases – and certainly, no military commander would look outside his chain of command to seek approval from the secretary of Homeland Security, the attorney general or Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg’s FAA.
The blame-casting and responsibility-shirking reveal a dangerous pattern of hesitation and risk-averse decision-making. The military must be expected to defend its installations on American soil. Americans expect their military leaders to have a warrior mindset, not a bureaucratic outlook.
The inaction contrasts sharply with historical examples of decisive military responses. For instance, in the early hours of Dec. 7, 1941, the commander of the USS Ward, a destroyer operating outside of Pearl Harbor, didn’t hesitate when it detected a Japanese midget submarine approaching the naval base.
The Ward fired at and depth-charged the Japanese submarine, sinking it an hour before Japan’s surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. (The Ward was sunk exactly three years to the day later by a Japanese kamikaze.) This pre-emptive action reflects a different military ethos – today, such an action would be met with endless meetings in the White House and arguments over legal authority to do anything about it.
The recurring drone incidents at Langley betray a military increasingly entangled in bureaucratic caution. Despite possessing overwhelming technological superiority, the military’s passivity points to a deeper issue: a culture where making the “wrong” decision is worse than inaction.
The “zero-defect mentality” discourages initiative, with leaders fearing the career consequences of engaging a target over restricted airspace that may turn out to be non-hostile.
With drone swarms capable of causing devastating damage to aircraft, infrastructure or personnel within minutes, the military’s paralysis in responding represents a failure to adapt to evolving aerial threats – and a deeper cultural problem.
Should former President Trump return to office in January, one of his first priorities should be to clear up any confusion about the military’s ability to defend American airspace and to respond to threats. And for any senior officers unwilling or incapable of such action, immediately and systematically replacing them with those who will act.
Biden Administration sends letter to Israel saying it must improve humanitarian aid to Gaza or face a possible US arms embargo, why terrorist groups use human shields to pressure the US to cut military support off from Israel, which is also developing its own weapons, and Israel preparing to strike back against Iran, as an Iranian general says they “can obliterate all the Zionists;” Chris Mitchell talks about Israel’s plans for hitting Iran, and just how serious of a threat Iran does (or does not) pose to Israel, the Biden Administration warning to Israel about Gaza, Israel’s progress against Hezbollah, and the beginning of this year’s Feast of Tabernacles; Donald Trump and Kamala Harris focus on the swing states in the final weeks of the campaign, Tim Walz backs away from his comment about eliminating the Electoral College, and Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin blasts Justice Department for suing his state for updating voter rolls to remove non-citizens; and our Studio 5 conversation with Preston Perry, author of “How to Tell the Truth: The God Story of How God Saved me to Win Hearts- Not Just Arguments.”
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Transportation Security Administration are set to begin enforcing their controversial Real ID program in May 2025, albeit with a transition period, after a deadline for public comment passed.
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