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
When is the Christian most liable to sleep? Is it not when his temporal circumstances are prosperous? Have you not found it so? When you had daily troubles to take to the throne of grace, were you not more wakeful than you are now? Easy roads make sleepy travellers. Another dangerous time is when all goes pleasantly in spiritual matters. Christian went not to sleep when lions were in the way, or when he was wading through the river, or when fighting with Apollyon, but when he had climbed half way up the Hill Difficulty, and came to a delightful arbour, he sat down, and forthwith fell asleep, to his great sorrow and loss. The enchanted ground is a place of balmy breezes, laden with fragrant odours and soft influences, all tending to lull pilgrims to sleep. Remember Bunyan’s description: “Then they came to an arbour, warm, and promising much refreshing to the weary pilgrims; for it was finely wrought above head, beautified with greens, and furnished with benches and settles. It had also in it a soft couch, where the weary might lean.” “The arbour was called the Slothful’s Friend, and was made on purpose to allure, if it might be, some of the pilgrims to take up their rest there when weary.” Depend upon it, it is in easy places that men shut their eyes and wander into the dreamy land of forgetfulness. Old Erskine wisely remarked, “I like a roaring devil better than a sleeping devil.” There is no temptation half so dangerous as not being tempted. The distressed soul does not sleep; it is after we enter into peaceful confidence and full assurance that we are in danger of slumbering. The disciples fell asleep after they had seen Jesus transfigured on the mountain top. Take heed, joyous Christian, good frames are near neighbours to temptations: be as happy as you will, only be watchful.1
Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed on us…therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.
1 JOHN 3:1
Every once in a while some churchman in an acute attack of conscience does penance in public for Christianity’s “failure” to furnish bold leadership for the world in this time of crisis.
Well, I am all for repentance if it is genuine, and I think the Church has failed, not by neglecting to provide leadership but by living too much like the world!
That, however, is not what the muddled churchman means when he bares his soul in public. Rather, he erroneously assumes that the Church of God has been left on earth to minister good hope and cheer to the world in such quantities that it can ignore God, reject Christ, glorify fallen human flesh and pursue its selfish ends in peace.
The Church has received no such commission from her Lord. Further, the world has never shown much disposition to listen to the Church when she speaks in her true prophetic voice. The attitude of the world toward the true child of God is precisely the same as that of the citizens of Vanity Fair toward Christian and his companion: “Therefore they took them and beat them, and besmeared them with dirt, and put them into the cage, that they might be made a spectacle to all men.” Christian’s duty was not to “provide leadership” for Vanity Fair but to keep clean from its pollution and get out of it as fast as possible. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear!1
This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.Acts 1:11
Many are celebrating our Lord’s first coming this day; let us turn our thoughts to the promise of His second coming. This is as sure as the first advent and derives a great measure of its certainty from it. He who came as a lowly man to serve will assuredly come to take the reward of His service. He who came to suffer will not be slow in coming to reign.
This is our glorious hope, for we shall share His joy. Today we are in our concealment and humiliation, even as He was while here below; but when He cometh it will be our manifestation, even as it will be His revelation. Dead saints shall live at His appearing. The slandered and despised shall shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Then shall the saints appear as kings and priests, and the days of their mourning shall be ended. The long rest and inconceivable splendor of the millennial reign will be an abundant recompense for the ages of witnessing and warring.
Oh, that the Lord would come! He is coming! He is on the road and traveling quickly. The sound of His approach should be as music to our hearts! Ring out, ye bells of hope!
1 John 3:4-10 In this week’s studies, we look at the first of three contrasts, which continue the themes of the earlier three tests.
Theme
Sin and Its Origins
In verse 4 the apostle defines sin as lawlessness and says that everyone who commits sin is guilty of it. This is not the most comprehensive definition of sin that might be given, but neither is it “somewhat superficial,” as one writer has indicated. By lawlessness John naturally recalls thoughts of God’s Old Testament law by which sin is revealed in its full sinfulness. As the Westminster Shorter Catechism states, “Sin is any want of conformity unto, or transgression of, the law of God.” So the law shows how far short men fall from God’s standards. On the other hand, what John says is actually more complete and therefore also more profound than this. For he does not say that sin is merely the breaking of a divinely revealed law. Rather, he indicates that sin is the spirit of lawlessness which lies behind the rebellion.
At this point John’s understanding is clearly one with that of the apostle Paul, who writes in Romans that “until the law sin was in the world (Rom. 5:13). The proof, as Paul indicates, is that death is sin’s consequence and that men and women died before the law was given.
This definition of sin means that sin is simply the desire to have my own way. It is this which causes me to transgress the law of God when the law is given. This desire expresses itself in the stubbornness of even the smallest child or in the rebellion of a young person in his teens. It is the disposition that causes some to break the speed limit when driving, cheat on income tax, use an employer’s time for personal affairs, attempt to get ahead at the expense of others, and so on. It is what Isaiah described when he declared, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way, and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isa. 53:6). This is what characterizes every man or woman apart from the transformations produced by God’s grace.
When a Sunday school teacher once asked a little boy to define sin, he answered, “I think it is anything you like to do.” He was not far wrong. At least he was right in the sense that in our natural state we all want to do that which, in part if not completely, is opposed to the holy will of God.
When we begin to speak of sin in the areas of personal desires, however, the immediate impulse is to begin to defend those desires, pointing out that they do not necessarily hurt anybody and that much that we desire is good and not wrong. But that is just what we must not do; for if we do, we are actually minimizing sin and placing ourselves wrongly within the camp of those who, as we think, do not need a Savior. Moreover, John will not allow this chain of reasoning; for in his second discussion of sin, in verse 8, he shows that all sin is of the devil, however mild or seemingly harmless, and he shows the fundamental connection between the devil and the one sinning. Sin may be mild in any particular case. But it is in the devil’s way and leads to more transgressions. On the other hand, righteousness is God’s way, and it alone reveals the godlike character of the one is practicing it.
As we read this section we detect what must be a further reference to the tendency of the Gnostic teachers to underestimate sin or excuse it. Perhaps the Gnostics excused sin as being essentially negative in nature; that is, as being connected with what is finite. Again, they may have related it only to their bodies and not to their minds, which they may well have said were above any dispositions to sin. But John will not have this. Sin is not merely negative. It is willful rebellion. Moreover, it involves the mind as that in which rebellion originates. It is only when we see this that we begin to abhor sin and turn from it to seek a Savior.
Application: In what areas do you struggle with lawlessness in wanting your own way?
Key Point: Sin is not merely negative. It is willful rebellion. Moreover, it involves the mind as that in which rebellion originates. It is only when we see this that we begin to abhor sin and turn from it to seek a Savior.
For Further Study: Download and listen for free to Donald Barnhouse’s message, “Exhortation of Christian Living.” (Discount will be applied at checkout.)
1 John 3:4-10 In this week’s studies, we look at the first of three contrasts, which continue the themes of the earlier three tests.
Theme
The Work of Christ
John has reminded his readers that it is characteristic of the devil to sin. Now he also reminds them that it is a characteristic of Christ to work to take away sin. He states this in two forms, corresponding to the parallel structure of these verses. First, Jesus appeared to take away the sins of His people; second, Jesus appeared to destroy the works of the devil.
But how can He do this? Obviously, He did it by dying in place of the sinner, becoming a propitiation for his sin, as John said earlier. In the earlier reference, 1 John 2:2, John had the breadth of Christ’s sacrifice uppermost in his mind, stressing that Jesus died for the Gentile world as well as for the Jews. Here he seems to be thinking specifically. For the Greek reads literally, “the sins”; that is, the individual sins of the particular people for whom He died. It is not by works that a man is saved, still less by any minimizing of sin or by wishful thinking. A person is saved by faith in Jesus Christ. And this is made possible by the fact that He who was sinless and who therefore did not need to die for His own sin, took our sin upon Himself and died for it, the just for the unjust, so that the God of the universe, who must do right, saw sin punished and therefore opens the gates of heaven for those who believe on Jesus.
In itself this act does not destroy the works of the devil, which are many. But it is the first step. Indeed, it is as Christians come to Christ and are united to Him by faith that they receive power to turn from sin and the devil’s works and thus begin to live a holy life before God. The devil’s works are not yet totally destroyed. But Christ’s appearance was the first step in their complete destruction. Now the Christian can live in that knowledge and can escape from sin’s tyranny.
If the coming of Christ the first time was to put away sin and destroy the works of the devil, it follows that the one who is united to Christ by faith must not sin but rather must live a holy life. If he does not, he is obviously working against Christ. John writes: “Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not; whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither known him… Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him, and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.”
The point that John makes is inescapable, for it is made strongly: sin has no place in the Christian life. However, the very fact that he makes it strongly produces a problem. John says that the one who abides in Christ does not sin. But is that really true? Can we really say that? Or again, since John has already written earlier, “If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us” (1:10), can we even believe that John is consistent? Ought we not rather simply to discount his words on sin entirely? The difficulty in dealing with these and similar questions has produced a wide variety of interpretations of these verses by commentators.
1. The first interpretation goes back to the days of the early church and is reflected by some Reformation theologians. It restricts the “sin” in this passage to particularly heinous sins—murder, and the like. In Catholic theology the distinction is expressed as that between mortal and venial sins. It is enough to answer in reply to this interpretation that, in addition to the fact that John is obviously not making any such distinctions in the passage, Christians do on occasion commit heinous sins. Besides, in the Bible’s evaluation sins such as murder are not necessarily more evil than sins of the spirit such as pride, of which all are guilty.
Study Questions
In what way does Christ take away our sins and destroy the works of the devil?
How do we, through Christ, show that the devil is a defeated foe because of Jesus’ death and resurrection?
Read 1 John 3:6-9. What is the first interpretation of these verses? What difficulties exist with this view?
Application
Reflection: When you think about your need to put sin to death and to live a holy life, do you ever consider that what you do either frustrates the devil’s intentions for your life, or that it pleases him?
Key Point: Indeed, it is as Christians come to Christ and are united to Him by faith that they receive power to turn from sin and the devil’s works and thus begin to live a holy life before God.
For Further Study: Download and listen for free to Donald Barnhouse’s message, “Exhortation of Christian Living.” (Discount will be applied at checkout.)
You have proclaimed your name: The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin. Exodus 34:6-7(ESV) And this, your name, is my strong tower. Proverbs 18:10(ESV)
You are good and do good, Psalm 119:68(ESV) good to all; and your mercy is over all that you have made. Psalm 73:1(ESV) But truly God is in a special manner good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart. Psalm 73:1(ESV)
O that you would make all your goodness pass before me, Exodus 33:19(ESV) that I may taste and see that the Lord is good, Psalm 34:8(ESV) and your steadfast love may be always before my eyes. Psalm 26:3(ESV)
Lastly, that when we have said all we can of the glorious perfections of the Divine nature, we fall infinitely short of the merit of the subject.
Behold, these are but the outskirts of his ways, and how small a whisper do I hear of God! But the thunder of his power who can understand? Job 26:14(ESV)
The Almighty – I cannot find him; he is great in power, in justice and abundant righteousness; Job 37:23(ESV) he is exalted far above all blessing and praise. Nehemiah 9:5(ESV)
We must give to God the praise of that splendor and glory wherein he is pleased to manifest himself in the upper world.
You have established your throne in the heavens, Psalm 103:19(ESV) and it is a throne of glory, high and lifted up; and before you the seraphim cover their faces. Isaiah 6:1-2(ESV) And it is in compassion to your people that you hold back the face of that throne and spread a cloud over it. Job 26:9(ESV)
You make your messengers winds, and your ministers a flaming fire. Psalm 104:4(ESV) Thousands of thousands of them minister to you, and myriads of myriads stand before you, to do your pleasure. Revelation 5:11(ESV) They are mighty ones who obey the voice of your word. Psalm 103:20-21(ESV) And I have come by faith and hope and holy love into a spiritual communion with that innumerable company of angels in festal gathering and the spirits of the righteous made perfect, even to the assembly of the firstborn, in the heavenly Jerusalem. Hebrews 12:22-23(ESV)
5 reported dead after widespread floods hit Bengaluru, India Five people were confirmed dead in Bengaluru on Tuesday, October 22, 2024, following three days of intense rainfall that led to widespread flooding across the city, prompting a Yellow Warning for several districts.
Xi, Putin Hail Ties As Advancing ‘Fair World Order’ Amid ‘Chaos’ Sown By Western Hegemony Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping have discussed the Ukraine war and other global issues at a meeting on the sidelines of the 16th annual BRICS Summit being held in the Russian city of Kaza, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has confirmed. Peskov hailed the bilateral meeting as “very open” and “constructive.”
Terry McMahon: One word sums up what the controlling class is doing to Ireland – Treason Without words, we lose sight of the fact that the truth of a single word declared clearly and unambiguously can still cut through all the ideological noise and divisive smoke screens and sum up precisely what these banks and politicians and controlling class psychopaths are doing to our country. “And that word is treason.”
McDonald’s Quarter Pounder hamburgers linked to deadly E. coli outbreak, CDC says McDonald’s Quarter Pounder hamburgers are being linked to an outbreak of E. coli that has sickened nearly 50 people in 10 states, killing one person. Most of the illnesses occurred in Colorado and Nebraska, with 26 sickened in the former and nine stricken in the latter, the CDC stated. Of the 26 who fell ill in Colorado, an older adult died.
Massive Surge in Chinese Immigrant Encounters at Border The number of Chinese migrants apprehended at the U.S.-Mexico border has increased significantly over the past two years, prompting concern from some lawmakers over national security and border policy.
Douglas Andrews, Thomas Gallatin, & Jordan Candler
Politics
Democrats regret their coup: With election polls showing a toss-up victory for Kamala Harris at best or a landslide win for Donald Trump at worst, panicking Democrats have begun to question whether the ouster of Joe Biden was the wrong move. The Leftmedia fanfare and “good vibes” when Harris first took over are gone, as she has failed to deliver despite a mountain of positive press singing her praises while simultaneously vilifying Trump as a “threat to democracy.” Hence, there seems to be growing remorse and a belief that Biden, despite his clearly diminished state, is the better politician with broader support. Indeed, Bob Woodward delves into Biden’s record as president in his new book, War, wherein he argues that Joe’s diminishment was physical and not mental. Meanwhile, despite no concerns regarding her age or physical ability, Harris clearly lacks the political dexterity to get her message across in an easily understandable and winsome manner. The more Americans have gotten to know her, the more she has turned them off.
Harris claims she was “honest with the American people” about Biden’s mental acuity (Fox News)
James Carville calls for insurrection: You can feel the panic among leftists as they feel a presidential election slipping away. And desperate times call for desperate and unhinged rhetoric — including talk of insurrection. Take former Clinton strategist James Carville, for example. In a recent chat with MSNBC’s Ari Melber, Corporal Cueball reflected on the political environment just prior to the two bloodiest conflicts in the history of the Republic: the Civil War and World War II. “When the Republic was threatened,” said Carville, “people picked up arms and answered the call. Or, you know, in 1965, in the middle of the Civil Rights movement, I think people decided they were gonna take matters into their own hands and create a better country, and that’s what I hope we do here in the next few weeks.” So, where’s the outrage? Where are the denunciations from Carville’s fellow Democrats about this dangerous rhetoric, this call to arms, this naked threat to “the peaceful transfer of power” that they’re constantly chirping about?
Obama mystified by division: “I don’t understand how we got so toxic and just so divided and so bitter,” Barack Obama marveled at a campaign rally for Kamala Harris in Wisconsin on Tuesday. Well, Obama might find the answer to that question by taking a hard look in the mirror. After all, there’s a reason why he was dubbed the “divider-in-chief.” To borrow a phrase from his pastor, Jeremiah Wright, Barack’s “chickens are coming home to roost.” In 2008, Obama smeared Republican voters as “bitter” for how they “cling to guns or religion.” In 2014, he called racism “something that’s deeply rooted in our society, deeply rooted in our history.” He infamously and repeatedly lectured and scolded Americans who didn’t share his political views as “backward” and “on the wrong side of history.” And he now bullies black men into voting for Harris. While Obama claimed to want to unite America, his clear expectation was for everyone to get in line with his political vision. No wonder we’re more divided than before he came onto the scene.
Harris’s history of plagiarizing: The New York Times and the rest of the mainstream media have largely given Kamala Harris a pass for her plagiarism of at least a dozen sections of her criminal-justice book. Now we know that her penchant for plagiarism goes way back. Seventeen years ago, when Harris was the district attorney of San Francisco, she was on Capitol Hill to testify on behalf of a piece of legislation that would’ve helped state and local prosecutors repay their student loans. But in doing so, she stole the words of another DA. The Washington Free Beacon reports, “Virtually her entire testimony about the bill was taken from that of another district attorney, Paul Logli of Winnebago County, Illinois, who had testified in support of the legislation two months earlier before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Both statements cite the same surveys, use the same language, and make the same points in the same order, with a paragraph added here or there. They even contain the same typos, such as missing punctuation or mistaken plurals.” We can understand why Harris would resort to plagiarism, given how much difficulty she has in forming coherent thoughts of her own.
Joe Rogan will soon experience Donald Trump: The political media winds are shifting away from the Big Three networks and toward other media outlets, and Donald Trump gets it. Much like Ronald Reagan talked over the top of the networks and directly to the American people, Trump is taking his message to audiences that might not otherwise hear it. On Friday, for example, Trump will head to Austin, Texas, to do an interview with Joe Rogan, whose podcast boasts 14 million followers on Spotify. Rogan has been critical of Trump in the past, even blurting out the leftist idiocy that he is “an existential threat to democracy.” But, as Politico notes, “Rogan has more recently been complimentary of Trump, saying last month that the economy under Trump ‘did really well and he really did try to cut some of the [crap] down that’s going on in this country.’”
LA Times owner blocks Harris endorsement: The Los Angeles Times published its typical state of the presidential election race last week but with a significant difference. Back in 2008, the LA Times resurrected the practice of endorsing a presidential candidate when it endorsed Barack Obama. Ever since, the paper has faithfully supported the Democrat candidate. The editorial board was on its way to doing that again, even writing that it’s “no exaggeration to say this may be the most consequential election in a generation,” yet no endorsement was given. Why the sudden change? According to individuals familiar with the situation, LA Times Executive Editor Terry Tang told the editorial board that the paper would not be making an endorsement this election cycle because the paper’s owner, Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, decided there was not to be one. This is not a new move for Soon-Shiong, who purchased the paper in 2018. During the 2020 Democrat primary, he nixed the board’s plan to endorse Elizabeth Warren.
Trump now leads Harris by 11 points among Hispanics: A recent USA Today/Suffolk poll showed a tight race between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, but it’s hard to see how they have it so tight, given Harris’s continued hemorrhage of core Democrat constituencies. For example, buried beneath the top-line news from that poll is a stunning stat about the voting preference of the nation’s largest minority: “The new poll showed Latino voters backing Trump with 49% to Harris’ 38%.” What this shows is that Trump continues to expand the Republican tent. As Fox News reports, he continued to make his case to Hispanics during a roundtable with Latino leaders in Miami yesterday. So much for the Democrats’ cynical belief that a browner America is a more “Democratic” America.
Security
A group of 2,000 migrants in southern Mexico depart for the U.S. weeks before election (NY Post)
Family wants federal investigation after Marine veteran murdered in Mexico (Washington Examiner)
Iranian general charged in alleged plot to kill New York-based journalist (ABC News)
Israel says it killed a Hezbollah official expected to become the group’s next leader (AP)
Culture
Female pro golfers object to trans inclusion: The Ladies Professional Golf Association is facing backlash from women golfers for allowing “transgender”-identifying male Haily Davidson to compete for a spot on the LPGA Tour. More than 275 pro women golfers signed a letter to the LPGA from the Independent Women’s Forum calling on the LPGA to reinstate its previous policy of only allowing women born “female at birth” to be allowed in the league. The letter notes that the “LPGA policy does not explicitly state eligibility based on sex. It is essential for the integrity and fairness of women’s golf to have a clear and consistent participation policy in place based on a player’s immutable sex.” Back in 2010, in response to a lawsuit, the LPGA removed its female-at-birth restriction and recently promised to provide an updated gender policy ahead of the 2025 season. Activist Riley Gaines responded to the LPGA, writing, “It really is remarkable how little the LADIES Professional Golf Association cares about ladies.” Thankfully, more female athletes are standing up against the push to allow men into women’s sports.
Misc.
Kamala Harris once suggested it “would be great” to ban all gun ownership (Washington Free Beacon)
Georgia Supreme Court rejects bid to hand count ballots for November election (Just the News)
Tulsi Gabbard announces she is officially joining the Republican Party (Just the News)
Rudy Giuliani must give up luxury items and Manhattan apartment to Georgia election workers (Just the News
IRS sets higher standard deduction, new tax brackets for 2025 (USA Today)
Meta pulls the plug on accounts tracking celebrity private jets (NY Post)
We had four years to see Donald Trump’s “fascist dictatorship” in action. And what we saw from 2017 into 2021 was, well, not a fascist dictatorship. In fact, Trump reduced federal interference in various spheres of American life. Another critical point is that the number of political opponents he locked up was ZERO, even when Black Lives Matter rioters were burning down American cities in a fit of racist anarchy.
Trump speaks with New York bravado, of course, which opponents love to interpret as literally as possible. There will be an economic bloodbath if he loses, he said. There will be a literal bloodbath, leftists reimagined him saying. He recently mused about using the military to quell BLM-level civil unrest by “sick people, radical-left lunatics.” Leftists tell you he means deploying the Army against run-of-the-mill political opponents.
That setup brings us to two men with Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS): Joe Biden and John Kelly.
“Our democracy is at stake,” Biden said for the zillionth time. “I know this sounds bizarre. It sounds like if I said this five years ago, you’d lock me up. We gotta lock him up.” Though the audience immediately applauded, Biden caught himself and quickly added, “Politically lock him up. Lock him out.” This was after Biden had said the Supreme Court’s immunity ruling meant Trump could “eliminate, physically eliminate, shoot, kill” his political opponents. What ridiculous hyperbole.
I look forward to the Leftmedia hysterics akin to the “bloodbath” comment or the “lock her up” tease Trump threw out there about Hillary Clinton, who actually committed serious crimes.
Back here in reality, the only administration locking up political opponents — literally, not politically, whatever that means — is Joe Biden’s administration. January 6 protesters and pro-life activists have found themselves in jail for political actions. Not one but four trumped-up criminal cases against Trump are at various points in the court system, and that’s not counting the defamation cases. Biden’s Justice Department, through its cutout Jack Smith, is trying to lock up Trump literally, not “politically.”
Locking up political opponents is what fascists do.
Fascists are national socialists — creatures of the radical left. NAZI was a German acronym for National Socialist Workers Party. Fascists aim for totalitarian government control, with a focus on nationalism instead of internationalism or globalism, which differentiates them from Marxist socialists, or communists. Nazis and communists hated each other not because of ideological differences but essentially because of turf disputes. The common thread between national socialism and Marxist socialism is tyranny.
Leftists act like nationalism and racism are what make modern American conservatives fascists, but this is revisionist fiction. Conservatives advocate for Liberty and limited government, emphasizing merit, not race. Fascism is almost by definition antithetical to anything on the Right, and the idea of a right-wing fascist is something of an oxymoron.
Sidebar: Back before Jonah Goldberg went off the rails with his own case of TDS, he wrote a fantastic book explaining this truth. We dumped Goldberg’s syndicated column years ago, but the Patriot Post Shop still has one copy of his book. Act now!
This brings me to John Kelly, a retired Marine Corps general who served as Trump’s homeland security secretary and then chief of staff. In a three-part interview with The New York Times published yesterday, Kelly admitted that he was, as the Times falsely framed it, “deeply bothered by Mr. Trump’s recent comments about employing the military against his domestic opponents.”
The Times asked Kelly if he thinks Trump is a fascist. First, Kelly located an online definition of fascism: “It’s a far-right authoritarian, ultranationalist political ideology and movement characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hierarchy.” As I already said, remove the term “far-right,” and that’s not far off. But it describes today’s Democrat Party, not the Republican Party or Trump.
Nevertheless, after suffering a serious case of TDS, Kelly sees Trump. “Certainly, the former president is in the far-right area,” he said. “He’s certainly an authoritarian, admires people who are dictators — he has said that. So he certainly falls into the general definition of fascist, for sure.”
Admittedly, Trump does have an odious penchant for heaping praise on foreign dictators, and he can sound rather authoritarian when opining about what he’d ideally like to do. He is not a dyed-in-the-wool ideological conservative. He’s a get-things-done CEO, which even Kelly acknowledged. “I think he’d love to be just like he was in business,” Kelly said. “He could tell people to do things, and they would do it and not really bother too much about whether what the legalities were and whatnot.”
The constitutional system of checks and balances works, as we saw clearly during Trump’s first term. Maybe Kelly forgot that.
A couple of years ago, Kelly supposedly confirmed the lie that Trump called American soldiers “suckers” and “losers.” The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg — the same guy who wrote that bogus “suckers” story — reported Tuesday that Trump said “I need the kind of generals that Hitler had” because “they were totally loyal to him.” Goldberg says Kelly told him of numerous similar instances.
Trump has undoubtedly made careless comments about the military and many other things, and it’s obvious why someone with Kelly’s pedigree and decorum would chafe. Trump’s random and sometimes bizarre comments are often indefensible, and they make defending him more generally all that much more difficult.
Moreover, our Mark Alexander wrote a Profile of Valor on Kelly last year. The general served his country admirably in his own right, and he endured the loss of his son, Robert, in combat in Afghanistan. Yet even honorable men aren’t always right.
Trump kept America strong and out of foreign wars — even righteous ones like the one in which Robert Kelly made the ultimate sacrifice. With all due respect to John Kelly, the general would do well to remember that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris disgracefully ended that war with a surrender and retreat, demeaning the sacrifice of his son and thousands of others. They’re also presiding over the kinds of social experimentation on the military that are devastating to morale and recruitment.
Trashing Trump over differences in style and rhetoric is helping them, not America or her Armed Forces.
Thomas Gallatin: Harris’s Bad Medicare Expansion Plan — Kamala wants to expand Medicare coverage to include long-term home-based healthcare, but she’s underestimating the real cost.
Emmy Griffin: Desperate Kamala’s Vote-Buying Reparations Scheme — Polls indicate that a sizable portion of black voters can’t be bought, which explains Harris’s “Opportunity Agenda for Black Men” ruse.
Douglas Andrews: Michigan Dems Set the Stage for a Steal — The remarks this past weekend from Michigan’s partisan secretary of state were particularly troubling.
Running From the Cross — The Harris campaign’s woes continue to multiply. First, her support among black males has utterly crumbled. Second, she was a no-show at a large church rally held to help her get out the religious vote.
Our Military Deserves Better — This country was built on the backs of soldiers, but in recent years, their sacrifices have been mocked or ignored by politicians, activists, and the media.
“The president has done the work and will continue to do the work to try and deal with … the deficit that we’re seeing. … Meanwhile, Republicans are doing the opposite. They want to continue to give these tax cuts to billionaires and corporations. They want to make it harder for middle-class families.” —White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre
The BIG Lie
“I’m pro-life, and I have been very troubled, deeply troubled by what I have watched happen in so many states since Dobbs. I have been troubled by the extent to which you have women who … in some cases have died — who can’t get medical treatment that they need because providers are worried about criminal liability.” —former Republican Congresswoman Liz Cheney
Lack of Self-Awareness Award
“If you wouldn’t hire somebody to babysit your kids, you shouldn’t make that guy the president of the United States.” —Liz Cheney (“She said this while sharing a stage with two prominent women whose husbands — Doug Emhoff and Arnold Schwarzenegger — had affairs and conceived children with the nanny.” —Nate Jackson)
Belly Laugh of the Day
“The most conservative of all conservative principles is being faithful to the Constitution. And you have to choose in this race between someone who has been faithful to the Constitution, who will be faithful, and Donald Trump.” —Liz Cheney
Non Compos Mentis
“What I cannot understand is why anybody would think that Donald Trump will shake things up in a way that is good for you. Because there’s absolutely no evidence that this man thinks about anybody but himself.” —Barack Obama on the guy who wants to make America great again, assassination attempts be damned
“Trump Is Speaking Like Hitler, Stalin, and Mussolini.” —The Atlantic’s Anne Applebaum
“Were you better off four years ago or you gonna be better off in a penitentiary four years from now?” —Democrat strategist James Carville
For the Record
“Abortion will not end the attacks on human life. Already we are reading about pods that have been created to help people commit suicide. As people live longer the pressure on the elderly to ‘die and get out of the way’ will grow. If life’s value is determined by government and not ‘endowed by our Creator,’ there can be no constraints on humans to do whatever they wish to other humans. Today’s horrors become normal in a short space of time. It’s just a matter of conditioning.” —Cal Thomas
And Last…
“I wouldn’t have to, because [Xi Jinping] respects me, and he knows I’m [freaking] crazy.” —Donald Trump on whether he’d use military force against China if it blockaded Taiwan
“You don’t have to go to dinner with him. You just have to like the country that you live in.” —retired NASCAR driver Danica Patrick with a message to other women who say they can’t vote for Donald Trump
“[Harris] wanted to run on vibes, but now they’ve all turned bad — and Trump, after surviving two assassination attempts, has become the more joyful campaigner.” —Daniel McCarthy
On today’s NEWSMAX Daily podcast:
[1:21] -President Biden after talking about dangerous rhetoric and bipartisanship says Trump will shoot and kill people and “We need to lock him up.”
[3:41] -GOP Rep. Gimenez reacts to latest hit-piece on Trump. [Rob Schmitt Tonight]
[7:18] -Trump trolls Harris for taking a break from the campaign trail yesterday.
[10:12] -Lara Trump says people are showing up because Trump’s campaign is fun and exciting. [Newsline]
[13:51] -Newsmax’s Rob Finnerty says the MSM is working overtime to cover up their previous lies. [Finnerty]
[20:44] -Former Hawaii Rep and former democrat Tulsi Gabbard officially joins the GOP. [Newsmax Breaking]
Secretary of State of Blinken in Israel again pushing for a ceasefire- with Israel considering some possibilities, Israel continues to plan to strike Iran, Israel confirms it eliminated the upcoming leader of Hezbollah- Hashem Safieddine, and Israel still taking out Hezbollah targets in Lebanon; Chris Mitchell talks about the importance of Israeli taking out another enemy leader – Safieddine, the ongoing strikes between Israel & Hezbollah, the possibilities of a ceasefire, the frayed relationship between Israel and the Biden Administration, and the mood of the Israeli public amid warfare during the Feast of Tabernacles; Donald Trump & Kamala Harris focusing on swing states like Wisconsin, which has historically been very close, as more voters going to the polls early; Operation Blessing has been helping people in Asheville, North Carolina, get back to work after the catastrophic impact of Hurricane Helene; and the new movie, “Exhibiting Forgiveness,” tells the story of an artist coming face to face with his estranged father, and the challenge to forgive.
Conservative watchdog, The American Accountability Foundation, has unveiled a list of “radical leftist” officials working in or with the Department of Homeland Security.
Biden told a small crowd “We gotta lock him up” during a screed on his nemesis Donald Trump, according to several reports.
The President had restrained himself from publicly endorsing jailing Trump for years.
Biden later collected himself and attempted to clean up the mess he created.
“Lock up him politically,” Biden said, reports Stephen Michael. “Lock him out, that’s what we have to do.”
Biden has denied White House involvement in the lawfare against Trump, which has continued after Biden was deposed atop the ticket for his Vice President Kamala Harris.
But in November 2022, after reports surfaced Trump would seek a return to the White House, Biden pledged to pursue measures beyond the ballot box to prevent Trump’s reelection.
During a November 9, 2022 press conference, Biden, when asked about the prospects of Trump running against him in 2024, said, “We just have to demonstrate that he will not take power, if he does run, making sure he, under legitimate efforts of our Constitution, does not become the next president again [sic].”
That sensational pledge preceded an eruption of extraordinary legal assaults on Trump, most vividly represented by a trio of events on a single date – November 18, 2022.
On that day, just over a week after Biden’s pledge and Trump subsequently entering the race, three events, two which took place behind closed doors, occurred – suggesting White House coordination.
Necessarily out in the open, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Special Counsel Jack Smith to investigate Trump on November 18.
But two other important developments took place that day behind the scenes. Matthew Colangelo – the former third-highest ranking official at the U.S. Department of Justice – resigned to take a position in the Manhattan prosecutor’s office. And Nathan Wade – the former Special Prosecutor for Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis – met on official business for eight hours with the White House counsel’s office.
NEW: @KamalaHarris took the day off from campaigning. Instead, she spent the day preparing for a taped NBC interview, which she failed epically. She proved she’s a liar and said the American dream is dead. The party of “joy” is officially the party of anger and bitterness. And if… pic.twitter.com/LDW3EjaIVy
Have you ever wondered why so many of the most powerful men in our society turn out to be sexual predators? As you will see below, another extremely powerful man was just arrested on Tuesday. This happens over and over again, but we aren’t supposed to see a pattern. Every time another big name is exposed, we are told that it is just an isolated case. But everyone can see what is happening. There are sexual predators in the highest levels of government, there are sexual predators in the highest levels of the business world, and there are sexual predators in the highest levels of the entertainment industry.
While he was CEO of Abercrombie & Fitch, Mike Jeffries turned it into a global fashion powerhouse.
Former Abercrombie & Fitch CEO Mike Jeffries and two others were arrested Tuesday as part of a criminal investigation into the alleged sex trafficking of more than a dozen victims, according to the FBI and federal prosecutors.
Jeffries; his partner, Matt Smith; and a third man, Jim Jacobson, are accused of operating an international sex trafficking and prostitution business that recruited young men for parties in the U.S. and abroad, according to a 16-count indictment.
It is being reported that Jeffries used his position to “lure young men into sex by suggesting they could become models” for Abercrombie & Fitch.
For years, these very young men were the star attraction at massive sex parties that were held all over the world.
The former retail executive and Smith relied on their vast financial resources, Jeffries’ power as the CEO of Abercrombie, and numerous people, including Jacobson and a network of employees, contractors and security professionals, to run a business “that was dedicated to fulfilling their sexual desires and ensuring that their international sex trafficking and prostitution business was kept secret,” the indictment alleges.
Federal prosecutors said the trio allegedly paid dozens of men to travel around the world to engage in sex acts over at least a seven-year period, starting in late 2008. The indictment mentions 15 alleged victims, identified as John Does #1-#15. Jeffries allegedly recruited, hired and paid a slate of household staff to “facilitate and supervise the Sex Events.”
Abercrombie & Fitch is a household name.
In recent years, many of the biggest names in the entertainment industry worked as models for Abercrombie & Fitch…
Over the years, big stars modeled for the brand, often before they made it big. Celebrity A&F models included Jennifer Lawrence, Karlie Kloss, Lindsay Lohan, Sienna Miller, Penn Badgley, Ashton Kutcher, Jamie Dornan, Taylor Swift, Channing Tatum, January Jones, and Olivia Wilde.
If it wasn’t for some daring reporters that were willing to do some digging, Jeffries may have totally gotten away with his crimes.
Jeffries became CEO of the company in 1992, and left in 2014 with a reported retirement package of over $25 million, according to the lawsuit. Abercrombie & Fitch said it had no comment on the arrest.
Of course these revelations about Jeffries have come out at a time when allegations about Sean “Diddy” Combs have been shocking the entire globe.
Diddy was once one of the hottest names in the entire entertainment industry, but now we are learning what was really going on behind the scenes.
Sean “Diddy” Combs has been accused of allegedly drugging and raping a 13-year-old girl as two celebrities joined in at a VMAs afterparty in New York two decades ago, according to a new wave of lawsuits.
The disturbing allegations were laid bare in a slew of civil lawsuits filed against the fallen music mogul in the Southern District of New York late Sunday.
The recently released study, Beyond the Porn Phenomenon, conducted by the Barna Group in partnership with Pure Desire Ministries, found pornography use is prevalent among all demographics and the gap between Christians and non-Christians is shrinking significantly.
Around 54% of Christians and 68% of non-Christians reported viewing pornography. And among Christians, 75% of Christian men and 40% of Christian women use pornography to some degree.
In the old days, most people at least understood that what they were doing was wrong, but now much of the population is quite comfortable with their use of pornography…
Perhaps because of the ubiquity of pornography, some 62% of the Barna survey respondents expressed some level of comfortability with their use of the explicit material, with 49% of practicing Christians saying they were comfortable with their use of pornography (compared to 73% of non-Christians). Across the board, 16% admitted having some reservations about it, but said they found moderate use acceptable. Only 14% expressed a desire to eliminate pornography from their lives altogether.
This epidemic is a major national crisis, but it gets very little attention.
If you are trapped by addiction, I would urge you to get right with God and get free while you still can.
We like to think of ourselves as a shining example for the rest of the world, but the truth is that we are a very wicked generation.
If we do not find a way to reverse course and start doing what is right, a day will come when we shall certainly reap what we have been sowing all these years.
Back in 2022, former Hawaii Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard announced that she was leaving the Democrat party, calling Democrats the party of warmongers and wokeness. You can watch her announcement below.
I can no longer remain in today’s Democratic Party that is now under the complete control of an elitist cabal of warmongers driven by cowardly wokeness, who divide us by racializing every issue & stoke anti-white racism, actively work to undermine our God-given freedoms, are… pic.twitter.com/oAuTnxZldf
Welp, it looks like CBS is out here covering for Border Czar Kamala. This time, they’re saying immigration is caused by, you guessed it, climate change.
There are many issues on the ballot, directly or indirectly, that should be important to us all, but Dr. Jerry Newcombe looks at 3 issues that should be of particular importance to Christians. #2024Election #VoteYourFaith #ChristiansAndPolitics #ForGodAndCountry #CoralRidgeMinistries
While campaigning for Kamala Harris in Wisconsin on Tuesday, former President Barack Obama told the crowd that he doesn’t understand how the people of America became so divided, toxic and bitter. Has he met Barack Obama?
Oh, where to begin?
Could it have been when Obama accused his fellow Americans of being bitter clingers back in 2008? Or perhaps the time he huffed to Republicans that ‘he won’ and they should just do what he wants?
How about the time in 2008 when Obama told his supporters that he wanted them to argue with their neighbors and get in people’s faces? Or the time he told his supporters to vote for revenge? Does he remember any of these moments?
It’s just amazing that he had the nerve to say this.
FORMER PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: Look, I do not watch cable news. I really don’t. There are times where I just, I don’t understand how we got so toxic and just so divided and so bitter.
And I get why sometimes people just don’t want to pay attention to it. And we all have friends like that. We have family members who are just like, ah, you know, it’s all a circus out there.
I get that. But elections really do matter. Who you vote for matters.
Not because it’s going to change every problem we got. No president, no vice president, no senator, no governor is going to solve every problem. We’re not going to eliminate poverty overnight.
Here’s the video:
Barack Obama: “I don’t understand how we got so toxic and just so divided and so bitter.” pic.twitter.com/OWj3uicQ1o
Former President Barack Obama stumped for Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris in Detroit on Tuesday, where he asserted that her Republican rival, former President Trump, failed to address the immigration “problem.”
Immigration consistently polls as a top issue for voters in the 2024 election. The Biden-Harris administration has come under withering attack from Trump for reversing his border policies and permitting record high numbers of migrants to cross the southern border unlawfully.
At a rally for the Harris-Walz ticket, Obama acknowledged that “immigration is a real issue at our borders.” But he pushed back on criticism of Harris for neglecting to address rampant illegal immigration in her four years as vice president and claimed that Trump’s promise to start “the largest mass deportation in the history of our country” isn’t a real plan.
“Wasn’t Donald Trump president for four years?” Obama said. “Wasn’t he in charge before you? If rounding up and deporting millions of desperate people, many of them who are women and children, if that’s the answer to everything, why is it that the number of undocumented immigrants basically stayed the same when he left office?”
“When [Trump] took office, he did not solve the problem,” he added.
The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Obama’s claim that the number of illegal immigrants “basically stayed the same” when Trump left office is not true.
During Trump’s first term, the highest number of illegal border crossings occurred in 2019, when 851,508 people were apprehended or found inadmissible at the southern border, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. That number dropped to 400,651 in 2020, when Trump invoked authority under Title 42 to expedite deportations because of public health concerns amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
When President Biden took office in 2021, he immediately set about reversing Trump’s immigration policies. On his first day, his administration paused most ICE arrests and deportations from the interior U.S. – a move that was blocked by a federal judge following a lawsuit from Texas.
Later, the Biden administration rolled out new guidelines to ICE in 2021, prioritizing national security threats, violent criminals and recent border crossers for deportation. Biden also halted construction of Trump’s border wall and ended his “Remain in Mexico” policy, which required asylum seekers to wait outside the country for their claims to be processed.
Following these actions, illegal border crossings soared to 1.6 million in fiscal year 2021. They hit a record high of 2.2 million the next year, before falling slightly to just over 2 million in FY 2023.
Most recently, border crossings have steeply declined after the Biden administration announced tighter restrictions on immigration over the summer. The president issued an executive order that suspended the entry of migrants across the border once it reached a certain level. The policy has led to a more than 50% drop in border encounters.
Looking forward, Trump has vowed, if elected, to relocate military troops to the U.S.-Mexico border and authorize ICE to raid workplaces and round up criminal illegal aliens for deportation.
Harris, on the other hand, has not articulated a specific plan for immigration. She has instead criticized Trump for lobbying Republicans against a bipartisan border security bill that failed to advance in the Senate. The bill would have increased funding for border agents, detention facilities and fentanyl detection technology. It also would have restricted entries to the U.S. when border encounters reached a certain level.
Conservatives opposed the legislation, arguing that it set a floor for high levels of illegal immigration. Some liberals also objected to the emergency border authority contained in the legislation.
Harris has said that any solution to the illegal immigration problem must come from Congress.
“I was just down at the border talking with border agents, and they will tell you… we need more judges. We need to process those cases faster. We need this support for those cases that should be prosecuted. They need more resources, and Congress, ultimately, is the only place that that’s going to get fixed,” Harris said last week.
“We worked on supporting what was a bipartisan effort, including some of the most conservative members of the United States Congress, to actually strengthen the border. That border bill would have put 1500 more border agents at the border, which is why I believe the Border Patrol agents supported the bill,” she continued. “It would have allowed us to stem the flow of fentanyl coming into the United States, which is a scourge affecting people of every background, every geographic location in our country, killing people. It would have allowed us to put more resources into prosecuting transnational criminal organizations, which I have done as the former attorney general of a border state.”
“Donald Trump learned about that bill and told them to kill it because he preferred to run on a problem instead of fixing a problem.”
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