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
…Ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.
JOHN 16:24
There seems to be a chilling and paralyzing fear of holy enthusiasm among the people of God in our day. We try to tell how happy we are—but we remain so well controlled that there are very few waves of glory among us!
Some go to the ball game and come back whispering because they are hoarse from shouting and cheering. But no one in our day ever goes home from church with a voice hoarse from shouts brought about by a manifestation of the glory of God among us.
Actually, our apathy about praise in worship is like an inward chill in our beings. We are under a shadow and we are still wearing the grave clothes. You can sense this in much of our singing in the contemporary church. Perhaps you will agree that in most cases it is a kind of plodding along, without the inward lift of blessing and victory, resurrection joy and overcoming in Jesus’ name.
Why is this?
It is largely because we are looking at what we are, rather than responding to who Jesus Christ is!
We have often failed and have not been overcomers because our trying and striving have been in our own strength. This leaves us very little to sing about!
Brethren, human activity and human sweat and tears work not the victory of Christ! It took the sweat and tears and blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. It took the painful dying and the victorious resurrection and ascension to bring us the victory. Jesus Christ is our Overcomer!1
In Lydia’s conversion there are many points of interest. It was brought about by providential circumstances. She was a seller of purple, of the city of Thyatira, but just at the right time for hearing Paul we find her at Philippi; providence, which is the handmaid of grace, led her to the right spot. Again, grace was preparing her soul for the blessing—grace preparing for grace. She did not know the Saviour, but as a Jewess, she knew many truths which were excellent stepping-stones to a knowledge of Jesus. Her conversion took place in the use of the means. On the Sabbath she went when prayer was wont to be made, and there prayer was heard. Never neglect the means of grace; God may bless us when we are not in his house, but we have the greater reason to hope that he will when we are in communion with his saints. Observe the words, “Whose heart the Lord opened.” She did not open her own heart. Her prayers did not do it; Paul did not do it. The Lord himself must open the heart, to receive the things which make for our peace. He alone can put the key into the hole of the door and open it, and get admittance for himself. He is the heart’s master as he is the heart’s maker. The first outward evidence of the opened heart was obedience. As soon as Lydia had believed in Jesus, she was baptized. It is a sweet sign of a humble and broken heart, when the child of God is willing to obey a command which is not essential to his salvation, which is not forced upon him by a selfish fear of condemnation, but is a simple act of obedience and of communion with his Master. The next evidence was love, manifesting itself in acts of grateful kindness to the apostles. Love to the saints has ever been a mark of the true convert. Those who do nothing for Christ or his church, give but sorry evidence of an “opened” heart. Lord, evermore give me an opened heart.1
TITUS was another of Paul’s sons in the faith, and is spoken of by the apostle as “my partner and fellow-helper.” Paul wrote this epistle to give him instructions how to put in order the churches of Crete to which he had been sent.
Titus 1:1–9
1–4 Paul, a servant of God, and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God’s elect, and the acknowledging of the truth which is after godliness; In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began; But hath in due times manifested his word through preaching, which is committed unto me according to the commandment of God our Saviour; To Titus, mine own son after the common faith: Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ our Saviour.
5 For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting, and ordain elders in every city, as I had appointed thee: (The gospel had been preached in Crete, and converts made; but the churches needed to be properly constituted. Churches without elders are like an army without officers. Those err greatly who despise order.)
6 If any be blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful children not accused of riot or unruly. (So that the Church of Rome has no right to forbid ministers to marry.)
7–9 For a bishop (or overseer, described in the fifth verse as an elder) must be blameless, as the steward of God: not selfwilled, not soon angry, not given to wine, no striker, not given to filthy lucre; But a lover of hospitality, a lover of good men, sober, just, holy, temperate; Holding fast the faithful word as he hath been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers.
See what ministers ought to be, and pray that many such may be found for our churches.
Titus 2:1–14
BUT speak thou the things which become sound doctrine:
2 That the aged men be sober, grave, temperate, sound in faith, in charity, in patience.
Aged Christians are nearer heaven than others, and should be more heavenly-minded.
3–5 The aged women likewise, that they be in behaviour as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things; That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed. (The young woman’s first duty is at home.)
6–8 Young men likewise exhort to be sober minded. In all things shewing thyself a pattern of good works: in doctrine shewing uncorruptness, gravity, sincerity, Sound speech, that cannot be condemned; that he that is of the contrary part may be ashamed, having no evil thing to say of you.
9, 10 Exhort servants to be obedient unto their own masters, and to please them well in all things; not answering again; (not disputing, or using impertinent language.) Not purloining (or stealing little things, whether under the name of perquisites or otherwise), but showing all good fidelity; that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things.
11–14 For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. (We have heard much of “the peculiar people,” be it ours to be peculiarly holy.)
The Nativity, Bernardo Daddi, circa 1330. The Nativity is set in a stable whose wooden supports and thatched roof are visible, located in a rocky landscape. Mary is seated next to the manger, in which she gently lays the Christ Child, accompanied by the ox and the ass. Two hosts of angels, five on the right and five on the left, enter the picture, celebrating the birth of the Saviour.
Its the time of year when we regard the Nativity. The Babe’s miraculous conception, His soon arrival, and the lowly circumstances of his birth. During this time it is natural to center thoughts, sermons, devotionals, etc, on Mary, the Messiah’s mother. Her submission to the News, her Magnificat of praise, and her visitation with cousin Elizabeth- who has a miracle of her own to report- are crucial elements of the story.
There can be a tendency to exalt Mary’s role beyond its bounds. By the same token, a tendency to downplay her role as a reaction to not wanting to exalt her.
RC Sproul wrote in “The Messiah’s Mother,” over-exaltation of Mary can be blasphemous.
[A]nyone familiar with Roman Catholicism also knows that pleading for Mary to intercede on one’s behalf is central to Roman Catholic piety. By contrast, evangelicals laudably and unambiguously affirm the biblical truth that there is only “one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Tim. 2:5).
Sproul again,
In so doing, however, we often reduce Mary’s role to the extent that she is almost an afterthought in the Lord’s plan of salvation.
As with everything, let’s take a balanced and clear-eyed look at Mary. As Sproul noted, Mary IS “blessed among women” (Luke 1:42), and she is also a “favored one.” (Luke 1:28).
She is, as the Council of Chalcedon affirmed, the theotokos—”God-bearer” or “mother of God.” This title was not given to Mary to confer quasi-divine status upon her; rather, it was given to defend the truth of the deity of Christ. That is, the title is for Jesus’ sake. (Sproul).
Yet it is comments like this one below that display one’s interior restlessness and discontent with the facts of the Nativity as they are revealed in scripture:
The overwhelming male-ness of the nativity scene felt jarring. For millennia and across many cultures, including in the days of Jesus, birth was an exclusively female event: a laboring woman was attended by midwives and female family members. Only after the groans of productive agony had ceased and the blood and afterbirth were cleaned up were men permitted to enter. There is little reason to suppose Jesus’ birth was any different. (feminist ElleK “The Forgotten Women of the Nativity”).
Luke 2:7 sets the scene: “[Mary] gave birth to her firstborn son; and she wrapped Him in cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.”
That verse is explicitly concerned with a lonely birth. There were no midwives, no assistance to Mary at all. The Bible doesn’t even mention that Joseph was present. Perhaps he was, but if he was typical of first-time fathers, he would have been of little help to Mary. She was basically on her own.
Mary brought forth the child; she wrapped Him in swaddling cloths; and she laid Him in a manger. Where usually a midwife would clean the baby and wrap Him, there was no one. Mary did it herself. And where usually there would have been a cradle or basket for the baby, there was none. Mary had to put Him in an animal’s feeding trough.
When Christ entered the world, He came to a place that had some of the smelliest, filthiest, and most uncomfortable conditions. But that is part of the wonder of divine grace, isn’t it? When the Son of God came down from heaven, He came all the way down. He did not hang on to His equality with God; rather, He set it aside for a time and completely humbled Himself (Philippians 2:5-8).
The feminist writer above asserts that women are “written out” or “forgotten” in recorded histories. Laying aside the fact that the scriptures are perfect in their original languages because they are inspired by the Holy Spirit, it is a shame that the official record recorded that Mary was favored by God and chosen to bear and raise the Messiah. Sad that this is not enough for some.
But for us who know the miracle of a God who loves, who saves, who chose to depart glory and be born, live, and die in humiliating circumstances, it is MORE than enough! The wonder of the Nativity is multi-faceted, like a diamond among the straw. A jewel among the animals. A miracle of love. What more can we ask or even think of a God who would send His Son to do this? Who sends angels to bring Good News, to comfort, protect, and warn? Of a God who chose His people before the foundation of the world knowing we would hate Him until He touched our heart with the gift of repentance?
Praise Him for all His ways. He is the inscrutable God, who chose to reveal Himself in His son, who as we view him this month, as a baby!
And the Lord said unto Abraham, after that Lot was separated from him, Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward, for all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever.Genesis 13:14-15
A special blessing for a memorable occasion. Abram had settled a family dispute. He had said, “Let there be no strife, I pray thee, between thee and me, for we be brethren”; and hence he received the blessing which belongs to peacemakers. The Lord and giver of peace delights to manifest His grace to those who seek peace and pursue it. If we desire closer communion with God, we must keep closer to the ways of peace.
Abram had behaved very generously to his kinsman, giving him his choice of the land. If we deny ourselves for peace’s sake, the Lord will more than make it up to us. As far as the patriarch can see, he can claim, and we may do the like by faith. Abram had to wait for the actual possession, but the Lord entailed the land upon him and his posterity. Boundless blessings belong to us by covenant gift. All things are ours. When we please the Lord, He makes us to look everywhere and see all things our own, whether things present or things to come, all are ours, and we are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.
How do you convince non-Christians that homosexuality is wrong without using the Bible? Does human flourishing replace the need for God and the moral argument? And why does God create people that He knows will end up in Hell? In this week’s solo podcast episode, Frank tackles three BIG questions that were recently sent in from our listening audience. During this discussion, Frank shares some practical advice on how to address these sensitive topics along with questions like:
Should Christians be concerned about what people do privately?
How does natural marriage contribute to spiritual maturity?
Are morals biologically determined?
Does the existence of Hell prove that God is unjust?
What thought-provoking questions can you ask people who are in support of homosexuality?
Why doesn’t atheism solve the problem of evil?
What does the Bible say about divine justice?
How can pain and suffering possibly result in GOOD?
“System Update” host Glenn Greenwald talks about the rebranding of al-Qaeda terrorist Mohammed al-Jolani into a “blazer-wearing moderate” set to lead the new government in Syria (full episode below this segment of transcript):
GLENN GREENWALD: This incredible transformation of how Al Jolani is talked about and how his group is talked about. It just shows you how flexible and empty this phrase “terrorist” is.
I mean, the United States, famously or notoriously supported the predecessor of Al Qaeda in Afghanistan, the Mujahideen, in the 1980s under Ronald Reagan because we wanted to arm them, bring them from Saudi Arabia, to fight against the Russian invaders. And we did.
We brought them to the U.S., we brought them to the Oval Office, and we heralded them as freedom fighters, the same people who became Al Qaeda shortly thereafter. And now, when they turn against the United States, they suddenly become terrorists.
Now that’s happening in reverse. Now that we need these Al Qaeda and ISIS militants, this terrorist who’s leading the rebellion against Assad, we need to turn him into a glamorous or at least an acceptable figure, even though he’s on the terrorist list as well.
Here’s CNN doing its job, as always, helping the government. From December 6th on Friday:
Ahmed al-Shara, an Islamist militant in his late twenties, moved back to Syria from Iraq in 2011 with six men and a monthly stipend of $50,000 from Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who would go on to become the world’s most wanted terrorist as the head of ISIS. His mission was to establish Al Qaeda’s Syrian affiliate, Jabhat al-Nusra.
He’s better known by his nom de guerre, the war name “Abu Mohammed al-Jolani.” Born in the Saudi capital of Riyadh to Syrian parents from the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and raised in Damascus, Jolani said in an interview with PBS in 2021 that he was galvanized by the Second Palestinian Intifada against Israel in the early 2000s and went on to become a jihadist in Iraq after the 2003 U.S. invasion.
His deep knowledge of Syria caught the attention of his commanders in Iraq as they were looking to expand their foothold in Syria during the country’s uprising. Over the years, his influence grew despite his identity being kept under wraps. During television interviews, he never faced the camera directly and always covered his face in public appearances. His public debut was in a 2016 video where he announced a split from Al Qaeda to create what he said was a Syria-focused anti-regime front and other local factions. Originally, it was the Front for the Conquest of the Levant and then changed its name to HTS, or the Organization for the Liberation of the Levant.
“This new formation has no relation to any external party,” he stated at the time. In the years that followed, Jolani replaced his Islamist camouflage attire with a Western-style blazer and shirt, established a semi-technocratic government, which his group held control over, and promoted himself as a viable partner in regional and Western efforts to curb Iran’s influence in the Middle East. He conducted operations against ISIS, including the 2023 high-profile killing of an ISIS leader.
“I believe that everyone in life goes through phases and experiences. As you grow, you learn, and you continue to learn until the very last day of your life,” he said when CNN asked about his transformation.
The transformation from an Al Qaeda and ISIS militant, the leader of Al Qaeda in Syria, to a blazer-wearing moderate who loves plurality and the right of dissent and who has been obviously trained to appeal to a Western audience, speaking to Western media.
Already the wheels are in motion to transform him officially.
“The Syrian rebel group HTS could be removed from the U.K.’s banned terrorist organization list. It is currently considered an alternative name for Al Qaeda under the U.K.’s list of proscribed terrorist organizations, but its leader has sought to distance itself from the Islamist militants.”
Right on the State Department page, you can go and look right now. They have a page, a section of their website for rewards for wanted terrorists, where they say if you give us any nonpublic information that leads to his discovery, we will give you, in this case, up to a $10 million reward. And there you see it: Mohammed al-Jolani in the Near East. Who knows where he is? North Africa and the Middle East. You can call the U.S. government if you know where he is and get a $10 million reward.
I think everyone now knows where he is because he’s now going to be the key Western partner governing Syria, and that’s why he’s been transformed — from a camouflage-wearing ISIS militant into a blazer-wearing moderate who promises to reform, who promises to love Israel, who doesn’t speak up when Israel invades Syrian territory.
We were told for 15 years that Al Qaeda and ISIS were the greatest threats in our history, the greatest existential threats, that we had to fundamentally transform our government, our foreign policy, dismantle our civil liberties in the name of combating them.
And yet there we are in Syria for a decade or longer, fighting alongside those very groups in an effort to achieve our shared goal of removing Bashar al-Assad. And now we’re about to embrace and formally validate one of those people who we were told was the greatest threat to our country because now he’s useful to us — just like the neo-Nazis in Ukraine were, and now they’re the Azov heroes.
You can go through the list. All of this is crucial to understanding the discourse in the United States about how propaganda works, about how the term “terrorist” is such a manipulated, empty term of propaganda that can mean or apply to any one person one day and not the next — not depending on whether they’ve changed, but based simply on who is useful to the United States and who isn’t.
Most of all, it is vital when talking about U.S. policy, and Western policy at least, and how we understand foreign countries to resist what very well may be propaganda based in truth. But it is nonetheless propaganda that constantly tries to stir our better emotions by showing us things they know we will respond to emotionally, keeping everything else away from us that prevents us from thinking clearly but instead reacting emotionally in exactly the way they want.
And then, once we start realizing that we’ve been misled again and deceived again into another war, into another conflict, by then, when our rational faculties return, as happened for most people with Ukraine and Russia—or with Iraq—it’s too late. The war is already underway. There’s no reversing it. They don’t need your public support anymore.
The narrative, the videos, everything we’re being shown in the wake of what happened in Syria is identical to what we were shown in the wake of Iraq, Syria, Libya, Afghanistan, and Ukraine. People who now understand what was done then should have no problem applying those lessons to what’s taking place now.
Chances are, most of us have a tree—either real or fake—featured prominently in our homes this Christmas season. But have you ever wondered where that tradition came from?
After all, it’s kind of strange if you stop and think about it.
Turns out, people started putting up Christmas trees (or some derivation thereof) centuries before the very first Christmas, and understanding how that ancient practice came to be a featured part of our holiday experience has an important lesson to teach us about how we see and share our traditions today.
The origins of the Christmas tree
The first Christmas trees date all the way back to the ancient Egyptians, who believed that winter came because the sun god, Ra, got sick and weak during the cold months of the year.
The winter solstice—which always falls around December 25—marked the moment the days began to grow longer, which they took to coincide with their god starting to get healthy again. To celebrate, they would fill their homes with green palm rushes to symbolize the triumph of life over death.
The Romans had a similar tradition around the feast of Saturnalia. Saturn was the god of agriculture, so the winter solstice meant that the worst of the cold months had passed and their farms and orchards would soon start to flourish again. As part of the feast, they decorated their homes and temples with the boughs of evergreen trees.
However, the druids in Northern Europe are perhaps the most important for explaining the origins of our traditions today.
The druids were the priests of the ancient Celts and, like the Romans and Egyptians, they also decorated their temples with evergreen boughs as a symbol of everlasting life. When the Vikings invaded, they adopted the tradition and came to associate the evergreen tree with their sun god, Balder.
This association kept the evergreen tree as an important symbol of life throughout much of Europe during the middle ages, which brings us to Martin Luther, Germany, and the origins of our Christmas trees today.
From “heathen traditions” to a symbol of hope
Germany gets credit for starting the Christmas tree tradition in the 1500s when they began bringing the full trees, rather than just the branches, into their homes and decorating them. The practice hailed from a popular medieval play about Adam and Eve that used a “paradise tree” hung with apples. The play was performed every Christmas Eve—Adam and Eve’s feast day according to the Catholic calendar. Interestingly, this play is also where we get the idea that the fruit Adam and Eve ate in the garden was an apple.
Traditionally, Martin Luther is credited with being the first to add candles to the trees, which eventually morphed into the Christmas lights we use now. It’s said that, while preparing a sermon on his way home one night, he saw the stars shining through the forest of evergreens and wanted to replicate the scene at home. The candles eventually took on the added dimension of symbolizing Jesus as the Light of the World.
Later, German settlers brought the tradition to America, but it took a while for it to catch on. The Puritans, aware of the ancient origins of the Christmas tree, had rejected them as “pagan symbols” and “heathen traditions” that had no rightful place in the celebration of Christ’s birth. Eventually, though, the influx of German and Irish immigrants in the 1800s was large enough to outweigh the residual hesitations from Puritan times.
The turning point in the trees’ popularity, however, didn’t come until Queen Victoria and her German Prince, Albert, were sketched with their children around their family Christmas tree. Because people in Britain and along the eastern coast of America were big fans of the English monarch, they quickly adopted the practice as well, with the biggest difference being that American Christmas trees tended to be about twice as large as their British counterparts.
The most famous Christmas tree today is arguably found each year in Rockefeller Center. The first one was placed there in 1931 by construction crews at the site. The Great Depression was still going on, and the building had employed so many people who needed a job that the tree came to serve as a symbol of hope for the workers.
A Christmas call to prayer
While the traditions around Christmas trees have evolved quite a bit since the time of the ancient Egyptians, it’s interesting that themes like hope and the triumph of life over death remain prominent in our celebrations of the holiday. And the pagan origins of the Christmas tree remind us that those themes are important to all people rather than just Christians.
So what can we do to help people recognize Jesus as the ultimate fulfillment of that search for life and hope today? Who do you know that might be in need of those blessings?
As Christmas draws near, let your Christmas tree serve as a daily reminder to pray for the people who came to mind as you reflected on those questions. Every time you pass by it, take a moment to ask God to help you be a source of hope and a messenger of life in their lives.
And when the holiday ends and the trees go back up for another year, ask the Lord to help you remember those faces and to use you to help them come to know the Lord in the new year.
Christmas trees may have a pagan origin, but God can still use them to be a symbol of hope and life for the lost today.
Will yours serve that purpose this Christmas season?
Douglas Andrews, Thomas Gallatin, & Jordan Candler
Immigration
Homan issues a new warning to sanctuary city mayors: Until now, Donald Trump’s nominee for border czar, Tom Homan, has been warning the mayors of so-called sanctuary cities to stay out of his way as he endeavors to deport the criminal illegals in our midst. But this weekend, instead of threatening to lock up meddlesome mayors, he appealed to the safety of their citizenry, telling Fox News’s Maria Bartiromo, “I want to send them a clear message: If you let us in the jail, we can arrest the bad guy in the jail, in the safety and security of a jail. One officer could do that. But when you release a public safety threat back in the community, you put that community at risk. You put my officers at risk. You put the alien at risk. Because here’s what’s going to happen: You’re going to release that guy into the community; I’m going to send an entire team to go look for the guy in your community.” Homan went on to note that where there’s one illegal, there are likely to be others, and low-priority targets will likely be swept up and deported with the high-priority criminal targets if these mayors try to protect the criminal illegals. “So let us in the jail,” he added. “It’s safer for everybody.”
Federal judge temporarily blocks Dreamers from accessing ObamaCare (Just the News)
Government & Politics
Senator Ernst says she supports Hegseth “through this process” of being confirmed (Daily Wire)
Taylor Lorenz is too toxic for Vox: Leftist “journalist” Taylor Lorenz is apparently a bridge too far for Leftmedia outlet Vox as the two will be parting ways. This move continues Lorenz’s fall from being a “respected” journalist since she was dumped by The Washington Post after labeling Joe Biden a war criminal and then lying about it. Her latest antics, which appear to be what motivated Vox’s decision to cut ties with Lorenz, was an X post in which she expressed sympathy for the assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. Her post linked to a news report of Blue Cross Blue Shield’s (soon reversed) announcement that it would no longer pay for anesthesia for the full length of surgery. “And people wonder why we want these [healthcare] executives dead,” she wrote. For its part, Vox Media claimed that its agreement with Lorenz had only been on a short-term basis. Clearly, even Vox wants nothing to do with her toxic takes.
Current Congress to end as least productive in the modern era: With just a few weeks left, the 118th Congress is likely to go down as one of the least productive in the modern era. Out of the more than 19,000 bills that have been introduced over the last two years, just 137 have been passed, a passage rate of less than 1%. In all of 2023, Congress passed just 34 bills. The factors that played into this lack of productivity are the House Republicans’ protracted fight over the speakership as well as the divided Congress, with the Senate being held by Democrats and the House in GOP hands. Passing bills isn’t always good, but with the 119th Congress in Republican control and Donald Trump entering the Oval Office, Americans can expect much more positive productivity from the legislative branch.
Musk supports KOSA; CA wants social media warning: One piece of legislation that may make it to the finish line before the 118th Congress ends its run is the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA). Lawmakers have sparred over the legislation that aims to protect children from online predators, social media manipulation, and access to porn sites. Free speech concerns have hampered the effort. However, Elon Musk, the owner of X and a leading free speech advocate, recently threw his support behind KOSA: “Protecting kids should always be priority #1. We can protect free speech and our kids at the same time from Big Tech. It’s time for House Republicans to pass the Kids Online Safety Act ASAP.” Meanwhile, California looks to become the first state to require a mental health warning message on all social media platforms. Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan, who coauthored the bill, explained, “The promise of social media, although real, has turned into a situation where they’re turning our children’s attention into a commodity. The attention economy is using our children and their well-being to make money for these California companies.”
More Americans say healthcare is government responsibility (The Hill)
Culture
Black Lives Matter activist threatens Daniel Penny, calls for violence after acquittal (Washington Free Beacon)
Satire: Nation’s violent psychos protest Penny acquittal by refusing to ride NYC subway (Babylon Bee)
Team Biden-Harris is focused on the important things: In case you missed it, Sunday was [checks notes] Pansexual and Panromantic Pride Day, and in a nation beset by obesity and chronic illness, the activists within the Biden administration’s Health and Human Services Department wanted the American people to know precisely where their priorities were. “Today on Pansexual and Panromantic Pride Day,” they posted, “everyone deserves to feel seen, respected and supported — no matter who they love. Create a world where everyone feels proud to be themselves!” (For the uninitiated, pansexuality is the state of being sexually attracted to everyone.) Pansexuality is a condition that “most people hadn’t heard of until recently,” as one average Joe put it. “Now it’s plastered everywhere, with federal agencies pushing the narrative. Why? This isn’t about ‘love’ or ‘respect.’ It’s about control.” Celebrate us our else! they explained.
NJ Dem governor signs law banning “book bans”: On Monday, New Jersey Democrat Governor Phil Murphy signed a bill dubiously dubbed the Freedom to Read Act, touting it as “the antithesis of all these book-banning states that you see.” The law bars public school libraries from “banning” books based on the authors’ origin, background, or views. Tellingly, none of those were the reason for states like Florida keeping sexually explicit and age-inappropriate books and materials out of school libraries and classrooms. Furthermore, the Freedom to Read Act also includes restrictions against “developmentally inappropriate material.” However, the legislation protects librarians and library staff from criminal and civil charges filed by individuals who may object to books that they make available. In the end, this bill attempts to reinforce the false narrative that red states are on a book-banning crusade based solely on ideological grounds. It’s a leftist virtue signal that will expose kids to a lot of vices.
Golden Globes nominates a tranny for best actress: Like we always say here in our humble shop, Anything a woman can do, a man masquerading as a woman can do better. But that tongue-in-cheek axiom, which until now had been mainly limited to athletic endeavors, now applies to the performing arts. Hollywood’s Golden Globe awards made history yesterday by nominating the first man who identifies as a woman for best, er, actress. As The Washington Times reports, “Karla Sofia Gascon was nominated Monday for Best Performance by a Female Actor in a Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy, for playing a Mexican drug lord who undergoes a gender transition in the 2024 film ‘Emilia Perez.’” The Golden Globes had last year gone a step further in the television category by honoring a man named Michaela Jae Rodriguez with its award for Best Performance by an Actress [sic] in a Television Series. “It’s a problem any time an honor or award meant for a woman goes to a man,” said Kara Dansky, author of the 2023 book The Reckoning: How the Democrats and the Left Betrayed Women and Girls. “This is yet another example of erasing the female sex.”
Female boxer wins title after Olympics gender controversy (Daily Wire)
Education
College enrollment is down 5%: Ya hate to see young Americans beginning to question the wisdom of taking on six figures of debt to subsidize a nationwide archipelago of leftist indoctrination camps. But here we are. “Fewer 18-Year-Olds Enrolled in College This Fall,” reads the grim headline from Inside Higher Ed. Perhaps more telling, though, is the subhead: “Some higher ed experts say last year’s botched FAFSA rollout is at least partly to blame.” Yes, of course, the ivory tower types must be saying. It must be FAFSA because it couldn’t possibly be our overpriced and underperforming product. FAFSA refers to the Department of Education’s Free Application for Federal Student Aid program, and this seems an odd place to affix the blame. As Inside Higher Ed reports: “This year’s steep drop in 18-year-old freshman enrollment contrasts sharply with the 3 percent enrollment bump the group experienced from 2022 to 2023. Enrollment fell for this demographic in 46 states this fall, with an average drop of 7.1 percent.” It’s hard to know whether this is an anomaly or the start of a more serious correction, but it’s nice to know that the academy isn’t impervious to Adam Smith’s Invisible Hand.
Security
Days after Trump’s victory, Biden-Harris admin granted Iran $10 billion in sanctions relief (Washington Free Beacon)
Putin’s closest ally says more than a dozen nuclear weapons in Belarus (Newsweek)
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As Aesop once wrote, “A man is known by the company he keeps.” The Apostle Paul said the same thing to the church in Corinth: “Do not be deceived: ‘Bad company ruins good morals.’” That may end up being the case with Luigi Mangione, 26, who was arrested and charged with the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson last Wednesday in New York City.
The leftist Jacobins celebrating Thompson’s murder are certainly of a similar ideological bent. According to their logic, Thompson was a wealthy CEO of a health insurance company that didn’t pay for every single medical procedure or pill; ergo, he was a villain and either deserved to die or at least wouldn’t be missed.
After several days on the lam, Mangione was recognized by an alert McDonald’s employee in Altoona, Pennsylvania, where police arrested him within minutes. New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said, “He was in possession of a ghost gun that had the capability of firing a 9mm round and a suppressor,” as well as four fake IDs and a “manifesto.” He’s been charged with murder, firearms, and forgery offenses, and it certainly seems as if he’s guilty.
CBS News reports, “Luigi is related to the Mangiones, a family in Maryland that owns several country clubs, including Haysfield Country Club in Hunt Valley, as well as health care facilities and real estate companies in the Baltimore area [emphasis added].”
He graduated in 2016 as valedictorian of the elite, all-boys Gilman School in Baltimore before attending the University of Pennsylvania and earning both a bachelor’s and master’s degree in 2020. According to those who knew him, he was a hard worker and a nice kid who got along with others and was well-liked. He was a wrestler who attended dances and the like, so he wasn’t an outcast. But he also seems to exhibit sociopathy, an evil cool and calm with his actions, and investigators will likely determine there is a cadre of socialist influence around him. He’s not a loner like other assailants in the past — including “Unabomber” Ted Kaczynski, whose rantings about the healthcare system seem to have inspired Mangione based on his online activity.
Except he was a loner lately. His family reported him missing last month after he cut off communication with them.
In any case, perhaps he was radicalized by others while suffering physically himself. The New York Post reports that he was having difficulty recovering from a traumatic back injury and surgery. Yet, at age 26 — the upper limit for “children” under ObamaCare — he may have paid only a few insurance premiums on his own.
Shell cases recovered at the scene of Thompson’s murder were inscribed with the words “deny,” “depose,” and “defend,” inspired by the title of a book that denounces the health insurance industry.
“Officers recovered a handwritten document that speaks to both his motivation and mindset,” said Commissioner Tisch. The New York Times was more specific, reporting that the “handwritten manifesto … criticized health care companies for putting profits above care.” NYPD Chief of Detectives Joe Kenny added, “It does seem that he had some ill will toward corporate America.”
Socialists do harbor sometimes violent ill will toward capitalists.
Indeed, he sent a loud message to thousands of other socialist whackos that this is their “final solution” to fight capitalism. That’s especially true for the leaders of insurance companies because there are always cases of someone being or feeling mistreated. Assuming he’s the killer, Mangione likely sees himself as some “savior” of the common man and already has been iconized as such by the Left. That means the demand for corporate security contractors just got much higher.
Thompson leaves behind a wife and two sons, while Maglione has “shocked and devastated” his own family. This murder didn’t solve a single thing wrong with the health insurance industry, and it already has fueled the increasing radicalization of anti-capitalist Jacobins on the Left, who may soon be out for more blood.
Now, Mangione’s fate is in the hands of corrupt Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg, best known for his politicized persecution of Donald Trump and Daniel Penny and for letting actual criminals walk free.
Douglas Andrews: A Manhattan Jury Gets It Right — Much to the chagrin of woke DA Alvin Bragg, the Daniel Penny jury saw through the state’s naked effort to make a racial example of him.
Jack DeVine: Those Good Old Days — Are we better off or worse off than we were six decades ago?
Mike Rhinehart: Going Home — Good ole southern comfort food was needed.
Reader Comments
Editor’s Note: Each week we receive hundreds of comments and correspondences — and we read every one of them. Click here for a few thought-provoking comments about specific articles. The views expressed therein don’t necessarily reflect those of The Patriot Post.
How Couples Meet — The timeline of trends in how couples first met and got to know one another from 1930 to 2024. The internet has dramatically changed social culture.
“Daniel Penny, the veteran who used a chokehold on subway rider Jordan Neely, has been acquitted in Neely’s death.” —Associated Press (It wasn’t a chokehold but a carotid restraint, and Neely was not just a “subway rider”; other than that, the story was accurate.)
Circling the Wagons
“When the president said that he would not pardon his son, wouldn’t grant clemency, the facts on the ground were completely different. It’s the middle of a presidential campaign. He was the candidate for president, didn’t want to be viewed as interfering. … Biden was hoping that Vice President Harris would win and that this would not be an issue.” —Washington Post associate editor Jonathan Capehart
Political Futures
“For all of Joe Biden’s talk of duty and honor and integrity, he’s effectively checked out of his day job — ‘quiet quitting’ was the hot term a couple years ago.” —Jim Geraghty
“Trump is already looming much larger than the incumbent president who, with the exception of the pardon of his son, has nearly disappeared.” —Rich Lowry
“Even Clinton pollster James Carville has called Biden ‘The most tragic figure in American politics in my lifetime.’ If William Shakespeare were alive no better topic for a tragedy could be found than this president. History won’t be able to grant him a pardon.” —Cal Thomas
“I expect our Republican Senate is going to confirm all of President Trump’s nominees.” —Senator Tom Cotton
Lack of Self-Awareness Award
“We were pledging to be inclusive. We were pledging to bring people in. Donald Trump has said that that isn’t what he wants. … I thought that [Americans] were going to probably move towards a more positive message.” —Tim Walz
For the Record
“I find it utterly laughable, complete and total hypocrisy, when the progressive socialist leftists ramble on about weaponizing the government … something they have perfected going back to the Obama administration and the IRS.” —Allen West
“At a time when governments and politicians worldwide have been unable to reduce the size and cost of the state, [Javier] Milei ‘has shown that the continual expansion of the state is not inevitable,’ marveled The Economist.” —Jeff Jacoby
“If cultural institutions are captured, then political losses, though they may be a setback, aren’t ultimately devastating to the movement.” —Jared Bridges
Outside the Law
“We need some black vigilantes. People wanna jump up and choke us and kill us for being loud? How about we do the same?” —New York BLM founder Hank Newsome
Outside the Box
“Pennsylvania should refuse to extradite Luigi Mangione to Alvin Bragg — although the suspect IS white, so Bragg might not immediately release him.” —Ann Coulter
And Last…
“We already know more about this Mangione fellow than we do about either of the two people who tried to kill Donald Trump. Why is that?” —Sean Davis
“From hiring presidents to catching assassins, it’s been a big year for McDonald’s in Pennsylvania.” —Vince Coglianese
“The real criminals were the people prosecuting Daniel Penny.” —Tim Young
“Biggest loser of 2024: the Ivy League brand reputation.” —Austin Rief
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu highlights Israel’s role in the fall of the Syrian government, and says Israel is “dismantling the Iranian axis piece by piece” as he warns those who would attack Israel; concerns that Islamic rebel forces in Syria may fight each other; & Netanyahu faces corruption charges in court; Chris Mitchell talks about how the developments in the Middle East have been catastrophic for Iran, the potential threat from Iran’s nuclear program, Israel’s bombing campaign in Syria, deadly attacks by Turkish forces, and Netanyahu’s trial; during this Christmas season, how people are turning to technology to help them find God – including using artificial intelligence; Gold Star families who have lost loved ones take a leap of faith – through skydiving – to help them find hope, connection and healing; and the Gospel continues to spread around the world: Franklin Graham preaches to thousands in Vietnam, with many coming to Christ.
Just because it’s animated doesn’t mean it’s innocent.
Netflix’s latest offering, an animated Christmas movie geared toward families, makes a mockery of the nativity story in one scene garnering a lot of attention.
The film, “That Christmas,” marks Hollywood director Richard Curtis’ first foray into holiday movies since “Love Actually.” Just like the 2003 romantic comedy, Curtis wrote and directed this newest film and there’s one sequence in particular causing a stir among viewers.
According to the brief Netflix synopsis, the new movie chronicles “an unforgettable Christmas” for the people of Wellington-on-Sea, a fictional seaside British town, where “the worst snowstorm in history alters everyone’s plans — including Santa’s.”
The movie centers on a ragtag group of kids, all led by a rebellious teenager named Bernadette. At one point in the film, the children come together to put on a school Christmas production written by a couple students who feel the biblical nativity story is too antiquated for modern culture.
When Bernadette introduces the program, she describes Jesus as “a cool dude” with a beard and long hair and “into woodwork,” calling him “a hipster basically.”
“He wouldn’t have wanted us to do the same boring Christmas story year after year, right, parents?” she asks rhetorically to the crowd gathered in the school’s auditorium. “He’d want a strictly vegetarian, multi-cultural fun fest with lots of pop songs and stuff about climate change.”
As the program unfolds, viewers see the shepherds herding vegetables rather than sheep, and the wise men from the scriptural narrative are replaced with three wise women.
The most egregious part of the production, though, comes when the young girl playing the role of Mary, Jesus’ mother, sings, “Papa Don’t Preach,” a 1986 Madonna song about deciding whether to have an abortion. The girl sings as she’s hoisting a watermelon with a face carved into it, intended to represent baby Jesus. At one point, another student accidentally knocks the watermelon out of the girl’s hands and it falls to the ground, splattering onto the audience.
When Bernadette asks some adults for their thoughts on the program post-show, they agree it was not very good. One adult tells the teen, “I don’t think Jesus and jokes go together, dear.”
You can watch the scene in question in the video above.
I know that at least some of my American readers had concerned about the leadership that we got during the Covid pandemic. Different people had concerns about mask mandates, vaccination mandates, pharmaceutical company liability, church closures, loss of employment for dissenters, etc. Let’s take a look at what the House of Representatives found, then see Trump’s nominee for NIH.
Several allegations made during the early stages of the 2020 coronavirus pandemic that were dismissed as conspiracy theories might have been factually accurate, contends a new report from congressional Republicans.
Released by the Republican-led U.S. House of Representatives Committee On Oversight and Accountability’s Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, the “After Action Review of the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Lessons Learned and a Path Forward” report covers the federal government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, highlighting both successes and failures.
The report presents several findings focusing on the origins of the virus, the management of public health measures and the long-term consequences of the pandemic response.
Here are the 5 points:
NIH funded gain-of-function research in Wuhan
Health officials falsely characterized lab leak theory as a ‘conspiracy theory’
China, US agencies, scientists ‘sought to cover up’ pandemic facts
Pandemic-era school closures had long-term adverse impacts
Lockdowns in US cities were ‘worse than the disease’
I think the ones that are the most important going forward are numbers 4 and 5.
School closure effects:
The subcommittee emphasized that the long-term educational, social, and mental health impacts on students must be considered in any future response to public health crises.
The report is also critical of the American Federation of Teachers’ influence on the Biden administration and transition team in 2021.
“AFT is not a scientific organization — it does not employ epidemiologists or immunologists. Instead, it is a political union — committed to activism on behalf of its 1.7 million members — that donated $2.4 million dollars to Democrat candidates during the 2020 election cycle,” the report reads. “The extent of the AFT’s political influence is reflected in the fact that the Biden administration reached out to AFT for advice on school reopening rather than the AFT reaching out to the Biden administration.”
“While AFT … [has] attempted to rewrite history by arguing that they were always trying to reopen the schools, this simply is not true,” the report concludes. “AFT continually pushed for school closures throughout the pandemic. Restricting in-person schooling was always the default — not the alternative — mitigation measure underlying AFT’s positions.”
Lockdowns in US Cities:
The report contends that the strict “stay-at-home” orders imposed by states and local governments to curb the spread of the virus often did more harm than good and points to the widespread economic, psychological and social consequences of these measures.
The fallout from so-called “stay at home” health mandates in California and other states led to outcomes such as increased unemployment, mental health issues and educational disruption, and was disproportionately high compared to the health benefits, according to the panel.
President-elect Donald Trump’s nomination of Dr. Jay Bhattacharya to lead the National Institutes of Health has drawn strong reactions as he has advocated for overhauling the agency.
Bhattacharya, the director of Stanford University’s Center for Demography and Economics of Health and Aging and a research associate at the National Bureau of Economics Research, first emerged on the national stage as a prominent critic of lockdowns implemented to stop the spread of COVID-19.
The president-elect expressed confidence in Bhattacharya’s ability to lead the $50 billion agency and “restore the NIH to a Gold Standard of Medical Research” and “Make America Healthy Again.”
They have 6 points in their article:
Emerged as a prominent critic of Dr. Anthony Fauci
Censored by Twitter
Would ‘restructure’ the NIH
Published by several reputable academic journals
Operates a Substack titled ‘Science From The Fringe’
Founding fellow at Hillsdale College’s Academy for Science and Freedom
Let’s take a look at #1 and #3.
Criticism of Fauci:
In 2020, Bhattacharya co-authored The Great Barrington Declaration. Signed by hundreds of thousands of concerned citizens, doctors and medical and public health scientists, the document warned that the lockdown policies implemented to stop the spread of the coronavirus were “producing devastating effects on short and long-term public health.”
Examples of the negative consequences of the COVID-19 lockdowns listed include “lower childhood vaccination rates, worsening cardiovascular disease outcomes, fewer cancer screenings and deteriorating mental health,” predicting “greater excess mortality in years to come” as a result with “the working class and younger members of society carrying the heaviest burden.” The document also condemned “keeping students out of school” during the pandemic as a “grave injustice.”
[…]The declaration seemingly drew the ire of then-NIH Director Francis Collins, who privately called the document “fringe” and called for a published “take down.”
[…]Bhattacharya’s positions on lockdowns put him on a collision course with Dr. Anthony Fauci, the former head of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases, an agency of NIH, who emerged as the strongest advocate for stringent COVID-19 lockdowns.
In 2023, when Fauci proclaimed that he had such strong “personal ethics” that his Catholic faith was something he did not “really need to do,” Bhattacharya responded by saying, “Hard to say which is worse — his theology or his science.”
He has plans to restructure the corrupt NIH:
Bhattacharya emerged as a top candidate to lead the NIH earlier this month after meeting with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump’s nominee to head the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and discussed ideas on how to overhaul the NIH, sources close to the matter told The Washington Post.
The professor has long called for changes at NIH and said in an interview earlier this year he lost “almost all confidence” in the American public health establishment.
[…]”I would restructure the NIH to allow there to be many more centers of power, so that you couldn’t have a small number of scientific bureaucrats, dominating a field for a very long time,” Bhattacharya told The Post in a January 2024 interview.
I say that the NIH is corrupt in part because of their past actions on DEI, which Desert Rose and I talked about in episode #44 of the Knight and Rose Show. And if you don’t recall why the current leader of the NIH is corrupt, you can read my previous post about it.
He argued that Silicon Valley leaders, including Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, should face “consequences” for years of censoring conservative voices.
TAYLOR RIGGS: First, Mark Zuckerberg is eager to work with the incoming Trump administration on shaping tech policy.
But can we say the irony? Facebook and Instagram have a reputation for overmoderating content, even issuing multiple suspensions to then-President Trump. Chris, what do you make of the about-face from Big Tech and Silicon Valley?
CHRIS PAVLOVSKI: They kind of move whatever way the wind blows when it comes to actually holding values especially around the First Amendment. There are none. If we can all remember four years ago it was the Hunter Biden laptop story where all these platforms started censoring factual information and, in my opinion, really helped sway the election in a major way. And I feel that there has to be consequences for things like that. We can’t let that escape. They did real damage with the censorship they’ve done in the last four years, and that’s something that Rumble has been fighting since 2020. And we’ve been fighting fiercely. We’re the first platform out there to platform President Trump in 2021, and, you know, it wasn’t until about 2022 where Elon Musk entered the market with X and also helped on the free speech front.
So it’s really important that there’s consequences for this mass censorship that’s happened over the last four years around COVID, around the elections. And if there’s no consequences, then companies like Meta and Google will continue to abuse their powers and continue to sway elections in ways that shouldn’t be happening. I’m very for some type of consequence in this scenario, and, you know, it’s obviously ultimately up, it’s in the Trump administration’s hands to see what they’ll do, but I think it’s really important that they, for what they’ve done in the past, there are consequences.
Queen Elizabeth believed Israelis were ‘terrorists,’ reveals former president
She refused to accept any Israeli official into Buckingham Palace, apart from international occasions.
By Vered Weiss, World Israel News
Israeli President Reuven Rivlin told attendees of a Technion gala event in London that the relationship between Israel and the late Queen Elizabeth II was “difficult.”
“The relationship between us and Queen Elizabeth was a little bit difficult because she believed that every one of us was either a terrorist or a son of a terrorist,” Rivlin said at the gala according to British Jewish News.
“She refused to accept any Israeli official into [Buckingham] Palace, apart from international occasions,” Rivlin added.
However, Rivlin said that King Charles III was always “So friendly” to Israeli officials.
Although Queen Elizabeth had cordial ties with Jewish leaders and Israeli ministers, she never visited Israel in her lifetime.
By contrast, when he was King Charles was Prince of Wales, he made unofficial visits to Israel in 1995 and 2016 to attend the funerals of Yitzchak Rabin and Simon Peres respectively.
He made his first official visit to Israel in 2020 when he represented the United Kingdom in the World Holocaust Forum in Jerusalem.
In 2009, British historian Andrew Roberts said the Queen’s unofficial policy of boycotting Israel is a result of “Arabists” within the UK’s Foreign Office:
“The true reason, of course, is that the FO [Foreign Office] has a ban on official royal visits to Israel, which is even more powerful for its being unwritten and unacknowledged.”
“As an act of delegitimization of Israel, this effective boycott is quite as serious as other similar acts, such as the academic boycott, and is the direct fault of the FO Arabists,” Roberts added.
In 2018, Prince William, the Queen’s grandson and future heir to the throne, broke with tradition by becoming the first British royal to visit Israel on an official trip. During his tour of Israel and Jordan, he also met with representatives from the Palestinian Authority.
He also paid his respects at the Jerusalem tomb of his grandmother, Princess Alice, who is honored as one of the Righteous Among the Nations for sheltering Jews during the Holocaust.
She was buried at the Russian Orthodox Church of St. Mary Magdalene, located just outside the Old City.
He cautioned people to temper their excitement over the fall of Assad.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) warned this week that those who are cheering on the downfall of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad should realize that those who conquered might be even worse than he was.
Cruz made the remarks on his “Verdict” podcast with co-host Ben Ferguson when talking about the stunning collapse of the regime after terrorists launched a campaign that lasted just a little over a week.
“His falling is a major loss for Russia. It’s a major loss for Iran. It’s a major loss for Hezbollah, all were allies,” Cruz said. “All are seriously hurt by his falling, but the rebels who have toppled him may well be even worse. It is radical Islamists who have been fighting against him. Many of them are remnants of Al-Qaeda, remnants of the Islamic State, and the people of Syria and Israel and America may soon find that the new leadership is even worse than the old.”
Cruz noted that the world is a dangerous place and there are evil dictators who lead countries, but that does not mean toppling those regimes will lead to a better outcome.
“We’ve seen a pattern for the past 20 years of Americans supporting people toppling dictators who are fighting terrorists, only to have the terrorists take over and start fighting Americans instead,” he said. “And my perspective on this is, is this good for America or not? I would say at best, it is too soon to tell.””
He acknowledged that Assad was “a cruel and horrible dictator” and “a monster”, but that this moment felt a lot like other dictators who were toppled, like Saddam Hussein.
“They also celebrated the Cuban revolution in 1959, and we have seen many, many times that revolutions of one oppressive dictator can far too often, be replaced by an even worse regime,” he said. “And so, I think this is an exceptionally dangerous time right now and it is going to be important to do everything we can to prevent chemical weapons from falling into the hands of Al-Qaeda terrorists who would use them against Americans.”
President Trump put out a strong response to the chaos in Syria.
This is a dangerous time right now, and I am grateful that President Trump will bring clear-eyed leadership and stabilize the chaos that Joe Biden’s weakness allowed to unfold.https://t.co/ZU7UaWJeQXpic.twitter.com/yTE2FulnUY
Israel pounded Syrian army bases on Tuesday in strikes it says aim to keep weapons from falling into hostile hands, but denied its forces had advanced into Syria beyond a buffer zone at the border.
Over the weekend, rebels forces toppled the Assad government in Syria by driving power out and seizing control of capital city Damascus. On our Podcast yesterday, we introduced you to their new leader, Abu Mohammad Al-Jolani. Israel for their part wasted no time in responding to all that, and as the sun rose this morning in the Middle East, all that was left of the entire Syrian military was smoldering in ruins. Abu Mohammad Al-Jolani may have just taken Syrian, but Israel just took away his ability to wage war against them in stunning fashion.
“And your eyes shall see, and ye shall say, The LORD will be magnified from the border of Israel .” Malachi 1:5 (KJB)
Ever since the exploding pagers that wreaked such havoc throughout all Hezbollah, Israel and the IDF have been on a wonderful offensive streak that their enemies simply have no response to. Buoyed by the knowledge that the Biden regime has effectively ended and the incoming Trump administration that supports Israel is almost in place, Israel is acting without reservation to protect their borders. Over the past 24 hours, the IDF has neutralized chemical weapons factories, military installations, aircraft and ships, and entire stockpiles of missiles so that Abu Mohammad Al-Jolani has almost nothing to work with. Pray for the Jews, pray for Israel and pray for the peace of Jerusalem. Am Yisrael Chai.
Israel pounds Syrian military sites; regional sources claim ‘nothing left’ of army assets
FROM THE TIMES OF ISRAEL: Regional security sources and officers within the now-fallen Syrian army who spoke to Reuters described Tuesday morning’s airstrikes as the heaviest yet, hitting military installations and airbases across Syria, destroying dozens of helicopters and jets, as well as Republican Guard assets in and around Damascus.
The rough tally of 200 raids overnight had left nothing of the Syrian army’s assets, said the sources.
The Israeli Air Force has carried out over 300 airstrikes in Syria since the collapse of the regime, destroying advanced weapons and other capabilities. Strikes reportedly carried out by Israel in Damascus’s Barzeh area completely destroyed a defense ministry research center, AFP correspondents reported on Tuesday. Western countries including the United States struck the facility in 2018, saying it was related to Syria’s “chemical weapons infrastructure.”
The IDF had yet to comment broadly on the strikes, but military sources said that the Navy had carried out a large-scale operation Monday night to destroy the former regime’s naval fleet, amid a wave of operations to take out military assets lest they fall into hostile hands.
The Israeli operations in Syria came in the wake of a lightning offensive by rebel forces there, which on Sunday toppled the regime of Bashar al-Assad in a dramatic two-week chapter of a civil war that began in 2011, and which had been locked in a stalemate for years. Following the regime’s fall, Israel moved to destroy regime weapons sites before they could fall into the hands of forces hostile to Israel, amid the chaotic takeover by rebel groups, many of whom were originally associated with al-Qaeda and other jihadist groups.
Numerous Syrian navy vessels armed with sea-to-sea missiles were destroyed in strikes carried out by Israeli Navy missile boats Monday night at the Minet el-Beida bay and Latakia port on the Syrian coast, according to military sources. READ MORE
Israel bombards Syria as opposition seeks to form a new government
Multiple explosions from Israel have hit Syria’s capital, a day after opposition fighters forced the collapse of the Assad regime. There’ve been about a hundred Israeli air strikes on Damascus and other parts of the country as people look to rebuild after 13 years of civil war.
Pope Francis Unveils Baby Jesus in a Keffiyeh On Saturday, Pope Francis attended a nativity scene crafted in Bethlehem, Israel, by Johny Andonia and Faten Nastas Mitwasi and presented by Palestinian officials in Pope Paul VI Hall in Vatican City. The display depicting the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem featured Baby Jesus lying on a Keffiyeh, a traditional Arab head covering for men that PLO leader Yasser Arafat appropriated as a symbol of Palestinian terrorism.
‘Zero tolerance to antisemites’ – 32,000 march in London against antisemitism after show of support for Hamas at Oxford University Thirty-two thousand people marched against antisemitism on the streets of London on Sunday, after it was reported that police were investigating vocal support for Hamas in a recent speech at Oxford University. Organized by the Campaign Against Antisemitism, the participants of the march called on the British government to give “zero tolerance to antisemites” and to “act against hate before it’s too late.”
Good news during troublesome times There is good news from the Middle Earth region of so much troubling news: Yeshua/Jesus/Yasua reigns from on high, and oversees events here on the ground, intervening in the affairs of man and governments — each making their own decisions on what seems ‘best’ to them — to bring about the final solution to the “sin problem” — the rebellion — in this world and in this creation.Praise the LORD! The Assad family rule in Syria has fallen after 53 brutal years,
Netanyahu: Axis of evil is crumbling, ‘didn’t happen by accident’ “We want to see change in Syria, both for our own benefit and for the well-being of the Syrian people,” Netanyahu said. “We are dismantling the axis of evil. This didn’t happen by accident or on its own. As I said to municipal leaders in southern Israel, we are determined to change the face of the Middle East.”
IRGC leaders ‘at war with themselves’ over fall of Assad IRGC commanders are pointing fingers at one another “in angry terms” for the collapse of Assad’s regime. Some are calling for the dismissal of Quds Force commander Esmail Qaani. “No one ever imagined seeing Assad fleeing, as the focus for 10 years had been only on keeping him in power.
Defense Minister meets bereaved families: Goal of eliminating Hamas remains unchanged Minister Katz declared that there would be no complete cessation of the war until Hamas is decisively defeated and all hostages—both alive and deceased—are returned. Regarding the northern border, the Defense Minister stated that there would be a response to any threat or violation of the ceasefire.
Luigi Mangione arrested for fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. The suspect is an anti-capitalist Ivy League grad who liked online quotes from “Unabomber’’ Ted Kaczynski — and seethed in a manifesto, “These parasites simply had it coming.” Tech whiz Luigi Mangione, 26, originally from Towson, Md., apparently hated the medical community because of how it treated his sick relative. The suspect also may have held a grudge because of his own interactions with the industry, sources said — noting an X-ray photo on his X account showing four pins in a spine.
Fall of Syria’s Bashar Assad is strategic blow to Iran and Russia, experts say Russia’s involvement in Syria was part of securing a foothold in the Middle East. With Assad now gone, Russia’s assets in Syria are at risk. For Iran, Assad’s fall deals a devastating blow to its long-term regional strategy. Syria was a crucial link in Tehran’s “Axis of Resistance,” connecting Iran to Hezbollah in Lebanon and enabling the smuggling of weapons across the region via a corridor stretching from Iran through Iraq and Syria into Lebanon.
Israel deploys paratroopers to Syria in ‘defense activities’ after fall of Assad The IDF said the deployment was meant to “proactively ensure the defense of Golan” amid the instability in Syria. Footage and images show paratroopers and heavily armored tanks deploying to the buffer zone. The move comes as both the U.S. and Israel have struck multiple targets within Syria following Assad’s ouster.
Katz orders IDF to complete seizure of Syrian buffer zone, continue destroying Assad’s ‘strategic weapons’ Israel’s Defense Minister ordered the IDF to complete control over the buffer zone between Israel and Syria after the IDF began its deployment there yesterday. Katz says he also ordered the military to create a “security zone free of heavy strategic weapons and terror infrastructure” in southern Syria, including beyond the buffer zone, that could pose a threat to Israel. Alongside that, Katz instructed the military to establish contacts with the Druze community and other populations in southern Syria.
Philippine volcano eruption sends villagers fleeing for safety as homes are blanketed in ash A plume of hot ash and gases up to 3 kilometers (1.8 miles) high forced residents to seek shelter after a volcano in the Philippines erupted on Monday. There were no immediate reports of casualties in the latest explosion of Mount Kanlaon, but authorities shut schools and imposed a nighttime curfew after ash falling in several villages clouded the visibility of motorists and sparked health concerns.
Over 50,000 still powerless as Storm Darragh leaves a trail of destruction Storm Darragh unleashed devastating winds of up to 96 mph, leaving a trail of destruction across the UK and Ireland. The storm tragically claimed two lives: a well-known football coach from Lancashire died when a tree fell on his van, and another man lost his life in Erdington, Birmingham, under similar circumstances.
Feds Investigate HelloFresh for Allegedly Employing Migrant Children Late last week, ABC News confirmed that the Labor Department opened a child labor investigation into HelloFresh as well as Midway Staffing — the agency that hired the alleged migrant children who were given jobs at the Illinois facility.
Biden’s Paranoid Pardons & The Morass of Leftists Morality He “pardoned” his own son Hunter and did so in a way no president has rarely, if ever, pardoned anyone. And he contemplates issuing pardons to a variety of controversial cronies, bureaucrats, and officers—even though none of them have yet been indicted or even are under federal investigation. Worse, Biden completed his shameless trifecta by breaking his serial pledge, voiced at least six times, and most prominently as a 2024 campaign plug, unequivocally not to pardon Hunter Biden.
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