It’s not just President Trump. It’s also you.

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As President Trump has often said, “They’re not after me. They’re after you.”

Jack Smith has admitted to violating the same law used against 6 January 2021 defendants

The American Thinker points out how Jack Smith not only jacked with the evidence at the center of the classified documents case against President Trump — he also committed Brady violations in the cases against those charged on 6 January 2021.

Special Prosecutor Jack Smith has just admitted that he and other DOJ and FBI minions manipulated documentary evidence underlying the Mar-a-Lago case against Donald Trump. Everybody from Judge Aileen Cannon on down realizes this is bad. Still, I wonder how many people have noticed that Smith has admitted to doing what the J6 defendants are accused and have been convicted of doing: Violating 18 U.S.C. § 1512(c)(2). The statutory charges against the J6 defendants are a specious abuse of the law but they perfectly fit Smith’s admitted conduct.

One of the main tools in the DOJ arsenal against anyone near the Capitol on January 6, 2021, is § 1512(c)(2), which the DOJ claims means imprisonment for a person who “corruptly…obstructs, influences, or impedes any official proceeding…” That is what the DOJ claims happened when ordinary Americans (a) exercised their rights of free speech and (b) usually inadvertently, entered onto Capitol land after masked agitators had removed “no trespassing” signage and fencing and after the Capitol police had opened the building’s doors. The penalty is fines and/or imprisonment, with the latter potentially as long as 20 years.

The Supreme Court, though, is hearing Fischer v. United States, which sees one of the DOJ’s victims contesting the DOJ’s assertion about § 1512(c)(2)’s applicability to the J6. The argument is that § 1512(c)(2) manifestly applies to a very narrow fact set; namely, corruptly interfering with evidence in an official investigation. Heck, it’s in the statute’s title: “Tampering with a witness, victim, or an informant.” Every section of the statute manifestly deals solely with efforts to destroy or otherwise manipulate evidence in a matter intended to lead to a criminal indictment.

Nevertheless, to imprison ordinary Americans, the DOJ came down hard on subsection (c)(2) of the statute because it contains the phrase “official proceeding.”

(c) Whoever corruptly—
[snip]
(2) otherwise obstructs, influences, or impedes any official proceeding, or attempts to do so, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 20 years, or both.

But while the DOJ is focusing everyone’s attention on subsection (2), they’re ignoring subsection (1):

(c) Whoever corruptly—
(1) alters, destroys, mutilates, or conceals a record, document, or other object, or attempts to do so, with the intent to impair the object’s integrity or availability for use in an official proceeding…

Does that remind you of anything? It certainly does me.

It reminds me of Smith’s admission to Judge Aileen Cannon about his and his minions’ handling of the documents seized from Mar-a-Lago, documents that then served as the basis for his decision to indict Donald Trump. (Ignore, for now, the fact that Trump, as president of the United States, had plenary power to do as he would with national security information, unhindered either by prior Executive Orders, administrative regulations, or legislation. But back to Smith’s admission:

Prosecutors admitted in a court filing on Friday that “there are some boxes where the order of items within that box is not the same as in the associated scans.” The prosecutors had previously told the court that the documents were “in their original, intact form as seized.

As any litigator knows, maintaining documents in the order in which they’re seized or produced is enormously important. That’s because order itself provides important information about the chronology of events or a person’s intent or innocence. It’s also of particular concern in this case because these documents were apparently packed by the General Services Administration, which then told Trump to pick them up.

In addition, it’s now beyond question that the DOJ doctored the crime scene photos it publicized to the world to “prove” that Donald Trump had allegedly violated national security laws. (See my disclaimer above about Trump’s immunity from such a claim.)

Thus, we have two known instances in which the DOJ altered records, documents, and objects. Moreover, the staged Mar-a-Lago photo indicates that this was done to harm President Trump. That strongly implies both corruption and intention, two elements of a criminal cause of action.

(Read the closing argument at the American Thinker)

So, the same regime that will put a serial perjurer on the stand will also put a serial Brady violator in prosecution

Do you see a pattern here? Might this be a pattern of blatant disregard of the law?

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And it does not just involve accusing you of crimes

It also involves the way Joe has gone about minimizing the conservative voice

PJ Media explores something that has kept the proof of Joe Biden’s cheating out of the public conversation: both censorship the the Big Tech giants and additional censorship forced by Joe Biden.

When Presidentish Joe Biden took office — and I do mean “took” — more than three years ago, every reader here knew we were in for bad times.

It used to be when we lost an election, we had to suffer through four or (Lord help us) eight years of bad policy — inflation, overspending, overregulation, and maybe a small war or two. Now, we get four years or (seriously, Lord, we could use some help here) eight years of chipping away at the foundations of the Republic.

New details have emerged that the Biden administration planted dynamite in the hole created by Barack Obama.

Rep. Jim Jordan’s (R-Ohio) Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government released an 800-page report that reads like Ayn Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged.”

Take a look:

  • In March 2021, an Amazon employee emailed others within the company about the reason for the Amazon bookstore’s new content moderation policy change: “[T]he impetus for this request is criticism from the Biden Administration about sensitive books we’re giving prominent placement to.”
  • In March 2021, just one day prior to a scheduled call with the White House, an Amazon employee explained how changes to Amazon’s bookstore policies were being applied “due to criticism from the Biden people.”
  • In July 2021, when Facebook executive Nick Clegg asked a Facebook employee why the company censored the man-made theory of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, the employee responded: “Because we were under pressure from the [Biden] administration and others to do more. . . . We shouldn’t have done it.”

YouTube “shared with the Biden White House a new ‘policy proposal’ to censor more content criticizing the safety and efficacy of vaccines, asking for ‘any feedback’ the White House could provide before the policy had been finalized.” Someone at the Biden White House got back to YouTube with, “at first blush, seems like a great step.”

One Facebook executive’s email revealed that the company was brainstorming “additional policy levers we can pull to be more aggressive against . . . misinformation. This is stemming from the continued criticism of our approach from the [Biden] administration.”

Facebook’s internal communications also revealed that “The Surgeon General wants us to remove true information about [COVID vaccine] side effects,” and, of course, Facebook eventually complied. Mark Zuckerberg tried to resist at least at one point, emailing that “when we compromise our standards due to an administration in either direction, we’ll often regret it.”

But the White House applied more pressure, and Zuckerberg caved.

There’s a word for using government power to silence debate: censorship. And it’s as American as serfdom, haggis, seppuku.

When I started writing for PJ Media, it was with the hopes of addressing a wider audience. Unofficial censorship from Big Tech — now made into official censorship by the Biden administration — changed that. Instead of broadcasting to a wide audience, we increasingly rely on narrowcasting to a cadre of dedicated VIP subscribers.

(Read more at PJ Media)

In the past, every American had a voice. It wasn’t just the guy in the Oval Office and a few executives of royal seed in various board rooms.

In the past, we had something called the freedom of speech and the freedom of the press. However, that was before social media giants could decide who has a voice and who does not.

Of course, as the term “shadow banning” implies, this type of censorhsip can be done from the shadows and might go hardly noticed by those who get banned (unless they take some effort to see whether their voice has been minimized).

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Neither a barrier against the swamp nor a declared enemy: the swamp sets itself up in the background

The uniparty shows “rare unity” in killing the motion by Marjorie Taylor Green to oust Johnson

The Hill tries to hide its bias as it reports the failure of the motion by Marjorie Taylor Green.

The House voted overwhelmingly to protect Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) from a conservative coup Wednesday, torpedoing an effort by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) to oust the GOP leader from the top job for his willingness to cut deals with Democrats on weighty legislation.

The chamber voted 359-43-7 on a motion to table, or dismiss, Greene’s motion-to-vacate resolution, preventing the removal proposal from being considered.

In an extraordinary move in the deeply divided House, 163 Democrats — more than three-quarters of their caucus — voted to keep Johnson in power. And in a demonstration of the GOP’s support for Johnson, only 11 conservative Republicans voted to send Greene’s motion to the floor. The chamber erupted in boos on both sides of the aisle when Greene began reading her resolution.

(Read more at The Hill)

Why would Democrats come to the aid of Mike Johnson?

While I am no supporter or detractor of Mike Johnson, let me list the reasons why Democrats might support the current speakership of Mike Johnson:

  • As long as the speakership remains vacant, no spending bills (even continuing resolutions) can be passed in the House
  • As stated above, nothing gets through the House. Therefore, the recent tactic of passing a bill through the Senate and then rushing it through the House would not work.
  • With the House shut down, more focus would fall on the failings of the Senate and the President (both under Democrat control).
  • By saving Johnson now, a surprise turnover of the House as the November elections near would allow the Democrats and the allies in the press to conceal their actions.

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Eternal Rewards

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Actions that God rewards, Part 2

The following comes through the notes of Mark Ramsey.

  1. How faithfully we look for Christ’s return

    The second coming of Christ is mentioned more than 300 times in the 260 chapters of the New Testament. (I in every 30 verses)

    Looking for Christ’s return and preparing for it by living a godly life will bring reward to us. He is looking for people who are looking for Him.

    Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing. (‭2 Timothy 4:8 NIV‬)

    ‭“Be dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning, like servants waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet, so that when he comes and knocks they can immediately open the door for him. It will be good for those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes. Truly I tell you, he will dress himself to serve, will have them recline at the table and will come and wait on them. It will be good for those servants whose master finds them ready, even if he comes in the middle of the night or toward daybreak. (Luke 12:35-38 NIV‬)

    At some point every day, this thought should pass through our minds – “Perhaps today.”

    Living with the blessed hope burning in our hearts and minds will motivate us to live a godly life.

    Comments?

  2. How passionately we pray

    “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. (‭Matthew 6:5-6 NIV‬)

    “We are rewarded by the Person whose praise we seek”.

    How consistent and how passionate is your prayer life?

  3. How hospitable we are to strangers

    Then Jesus said to his host, “When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or sisters, your relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.” (Luke 14:12-14 NIV)

    Jesus isn’t saying we can’t invite our friends or family to our home. He is saying don’t invite them only. We need to reach out to the needy and disenfranchised as well.

    The most valuable kind of giving and entertaining is that which helps those who cannot respond to us in kind. Hospitality is something everyone can do.

    You send a message: “You matter to me and God.” Your guest hears: “I’m worth your effort.”

    How hospitable are you?

    Jesus promises to honor the hospitable.

  4. How faithful you are in your vocation

    Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything; and do it, not only when their eye is on you and to curry their favor, but with sincerity of heart and reverence for the Lord. Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. (‭Colossians 3:22-24 NIV‬)

    Your work carries spiritual and eternal consequences. How you do your work will be reviewed by the Lord.

  5. How humble we are

    Jesus said humility will be greatly rewarded.

    ‭Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 18:4 NIV‬)

    Humility is elusive.

    ‭Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up. (James 4:10 NIV‬)

    It is in the presence of God that we humble ourselves. Seeing who He is in creation and in the Bible gives us a proper view of who we are.

    Never stray too far from the foot of the cross. The cross reminds us that we have nothing in our hands to bring to Christ. We cling to Christ alone for salvation.

    We must humble ourselves every day in the presence of God and at the foot of the cross.

    ‭Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. (1 Peter 5:6 NIV‬)

  6. Doctrinal integrity

    I say this because many deceivers, who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh, have gone out into the world. Any such person is the deceiver and the antichrist. Watch out that you do not lose what we have worked for, but that you may be rewarded fully. Anyone who runs ahead and does not continue in the teaching of Christ does not have God; whoever continues in the teaching has both the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not take them into your house or welcome them. Anyone who welcomes them shares in their wicked work. (‭2 John 1:7-11 NIV‬)

    Those who refuse to guard the doctrine of the faith are liable to discipline and loss of reward. They may not lose their entire reward, but would lose their “full reward.” Sound doctrine will merit a more complete reward.

    Comments?

 

Never mind that the Biden regime was sued over censorship

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Never mind that the case still sits in the Supreme Court

CISA and the FBI resume talks with social media firms over “disinformation removal”

The government’s own mouthpiece Nextgov admits that the Biden regime (aka every Democrat) is pushing the censorship of American voices on social media.

Key federal agencies have resumed discussions with social media companies over removing disinformation on their sites as the November presidential election nears, a stark reversal after the Biden administration for months froze communications with social platforms amid a pending First Amendment case in the Supreme Court, a top senator said Monday.

Mark Warner, D-Va., who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee, told reporters in a briefing at RSA Conference that agencies restarted talks with social media companies as the Supreme Court heard arguments in Murthy v. Missouri, a case that first began in the Fifth Circuit appellate court last July. The case was fueled by allegations that federal agencies like the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency were coercing platforms to remove content related to vaccine safety and 2020 presidential election results.

The Supreme Court is expected to decide whether agencies are allowed to stay in touch with social media firms about potential disinformation. Missouri’s then-Attorney General Eric Schmitt filed the suit on the grounds that the Biden administration violated First Amendment rights pertaining to free speech online in a bid to suppress politically conservative voices.

According to Warner, communications between agencies and social platforms resumed roughly around the same time that multiple justices appeared to favor the executive branch’s stance on the issue, he said.

“There seemed to be a lot of sympathy that the government ought to have at least voluntary communications with [the companies],” he said, adding that, in the event of election interference attempts akin to Russia in 2016, the Biden administration should more forcefully call out nation-state entities that attempt to meddle in the U.S. election process.

Warner said his committee will convene a hearing on elections security in two weeks. The panel was supposed to hold the session with CISA Director Jen Easterly and Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines last month, but it was postponed amid GOP attempts to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

For around six months, agencies chilled their communications with social firms about election security and other disinformation flash points. Warner previously said that White House lawyers had been “too timid” in their legal interpretation of the case, especially given that the high court allowed the Biden administration to temporarily continue their talks until a ruling was made.

(Read more at Nextgov)

What do you expect from the guy who ignored Supreme Court rulings on
rent moratoriums (twice) and student loan forgivenesses (four times)

Still, it would be nice if Dementia Joe would stop punctuating his gaffes with calls to reinstate Roe versus Wade.

If he is going to ignore so many rulings of the Supreme Court, how can he run on reinstating one of their biggest screw-ups since the Dred Scott decision?

What has changed? Biden is trailing far behind in the polls.

Should you ask why the Biden regime has changed since six months ago, just look at the polls.

Otherwise, consider this comparison of how conservatives and liberals approach life.

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The Merchan clown show intensifies in New York

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Valid points about the “Stormy Daniels” testimony

There are a number of considerations that the main-stream press has ignored about the testimony given by Stephanie Gregory Clifford (aka “Stormy Daniels”) and the resulting actions of Judge Juan Merchan:

  • Her testimony has nothing to do with the charges levelled by Alvin Bragg.
  • The judge had no reason to allow the testimony.
  • The only reason that the judge would have included this testimony was to create a prejudice (as if it did not already exist within this jury of New York Democrats) against President Trump. Instead, Judge Merchan should have:
    • Called both legal teams to the bench.
    • Pointed out how close to the the legal line the testimony was getting.
    • Instructed the jury to disregard that portion of the testimony.
  • Instead, Judge Merchan sent the jury out while he repremanded the prosecution. Why not let the jury know that the prosecution had seriously overstepped its bounds?
  • Problem is, this testimony had nothing to do with how something was filed or how President Trump could have shown himself to be trying to break campaign finance law some 18 years ago.
  • Still, the jury was then instructed to “ignore the testimony of Stephanie Clifford (aka “Stormy Daniels”).
  • Next, the judge blames the defense lawyers for “not protesting enough” in regard to this testimony.

However, we also have to remember that this is the judge who:

  • Contributed to the campaigns of both Joe Biden and Kamala Harris
  • Has a daughter who makes millions by representing and writing communications for Adam Schiff and Maxine Waters
  • Could have allowed this to go to another New York judge
  • Allowed Alvin Bragg to keep his witness list secret from the defense (constituting a Brady violation)

Group of conservative judges vows to not hire Columbia University law students due to anti-Israel protests

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Thirteen conservative judges band together to tell Columbia University leaders the school has become “an incubator of bigotry”

Fox News informs us of the group of sane judges who have vowed not to hire graduates of Columbia law school due to being “an incubator of bigotry.”

A group of 13 U.S. federal judges appointed by former President Trump has vowed not to hire law school students and undergraduates from New York City-based Columbia University due to the school’s handling of the anti-Israel protests that ultimately led to an academic hall being occupied.

In a letter obtained by Reuters which was addressed to Columbia University President Minouche Shafik and Law Dean Gillian Lester, the 13 conservative judges said they lost confidence in the university as an institution of higher education, saying instead it has become “an incubator of bigotry.”

“Since the October 7 terrorist attacks by Hamas, Columbia University has become ground zero for the explosion of student disruptions, antisemitism, and hatred for diverse viewpoints on campuses across the nation. Disruptors have threatened violence, committed assaults, and destroyed property,” the letter reads. “As a result, Columbia has disqualified itself from educating the future leaders of our country.”

The judges offered the administrators guidance on how the university could reclaim its “once-distinguished” reputation, starting with punishing students and faculty with profound consequences for those who participated in campus disruptions and violated established rules regarding the use of university facilities and public spaces as well as threats against fellow members of the school community.

They explained that in the past, citizens were warned that trespassing on public spaces was enough to warrant incarceration, and the same conduct should warrant lesser measures like expulsion or termination.

“After all, elite universities purport to train not just law-abiding citizens but future leaders,” the letter reads. “Universities should also identify students who engage in such conduct so that future employers can avoid hiring them.”

The judges also offered their stance on free speech, saying the university should offer neutrality and nondiscrimination when protecting free speech and enforcing the rules of conduct on campus.

(Read more at Fox News)

So, Muffy, are you going to marry that Islamist and move to Tehran now that your law degree has become useless?

It looks like this action by conservative judges will put a conservative and sane spin on the conversation regarding the conflict that the Islamists on our shores are promoting. Hopefully, this might cause the still sane portion of the student population to step back and reassess the situation before they allow it to progress.

Still, there is also an alternative for those who cannot consider the situation as laid out by the judges.

As reported earlier at this blog, an Iranian university offered scholarships to students expelled due to their protests of the Israeli attacks on Gaza. Maybe this might cause a few more to take the university up on their offer.

Surely, though, with the current trends of Democrats letting felons free while those same Democrats baselessly charge conservatives with crimes, these law students might still find work with Democrats.

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Wouldn’t this normally be grounds for a mistrial?

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Case #1: the “classified documents” set-up

Special Counsel Jack Smith admits his prosecutors intentionally misled Judge in Trump case

NTD News reports that Jack Smith admitted how his team intentionally misled U.S. District Judge Cannon in the Trump documents case. (Bolding is mine — for emphasis.)

Special counsel Jack Smith’s team on May 3 acknowledged they misled U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon regarding the handling of evidence in one of the criminal cases against former President Donald Trump.

Prosecutors in a court filing said that in some of the boxes FBI agents seized from President Trump’s Florida resort, the order of papers has been changed from shortly after the seizure.

Prosecutors compared scans of the boxes done in 2022 under orders from Judge Cannon to the present state of the boxes and noticed that the order is not the same.

“There are some boxes where the order of items within that box is not the same as in the associated scans,” Mr. Smith’s team said.

In a footnote, prosecutors acknowledged that the update contrasts with what they told the judge less than one month ago, during a hearing in the case.

When Judge Cannon during the hearing asked whether the boxes were “in their original, intact form as seized,” a prosecutor on the team said, “they are, with one exception; and that is that the classified documents have been removed and placeholders have been put in the documents.”

Prosecutors were unable to confirm why the order of papers was changed but offered a theory.

“The boxes contain items smaller than standard paper such as index cards, books, and stationary, which shift easily when the boxes are carried, especially because many of the boxes are not full,” they said.

The disclosure was made in a filing responding to a request from Walt Nauta, one of President Trump’s co-defendants, for an extension of a deadline to file papers under the Classified Information Procedure Act (CIPA).

(Read more at NTD News)

From this reporting, we see that Jack Smith had no idea of what ended in those boxes.

Because the order of the boxes was rearranged and no record was provided of who was within the supposed “classified” boxes in the interim between taking them from the guarded and locked residence of President Trump, it seems Jack Smith has jack.

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Prosecutors admit key evidence in President Trump’s classified document case has been the subject of tampering.

Just The News lays it out this way: Jack Smith’s team has admitted that key evidence against President Trump has been altered or manipulated. (Bolding is mine — for emphasis.)

In a stunning admission, Special Counsel Jack Smith’s team is admitting that key evidence in former President Donald Trump’s classified documents criminal case was altered or manipulated since it was seized by the FBI, and that prosecutors misled the court about it for a period of time.

Legal experts told Just the News the revelation could prove to be a serious problem for prosecutors and a violation of court rules to preserve evidence in the state it was seized.

In a new filing Friday, Smith’s team said that the order of documents in some of the boxes of memos that were seized by the FBI from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate was altered or jumbled, leaving two different chronologies: one that was digitally scanned and another the physical order in the boxes.

“Since the boxes were seized and stored, appropriate personnel have had access to the boxes for several reasons, including to comply with orders issued by this Court in the civil proceedings noted above, for investigative purposes, and to facilitate the defendants’ review of the boxes,” Smith’s team wrote in a new court filing to U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon.

“There are some boxes where the order of items within that box is not the same as in the associated scans,” the prosecutors wrote.

Smith’s team in a footnote also conceded it had misled the court about the problem by previously declaring that the evidence had remained in the exact state it had been seized.

“The Government acknowledges that this is inconsistent with what Government counsel previously understood and represented to the Court,” the footnote said.

(Read more at Just The News)

If Jack Smith lied to the court on the essence of the evidence, what does he have?

Since it seems that he lied about the handling of this evidence, it would seem that this evidence would need to be excluded from the trial. Therefore, it seems that Jack has jack.

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Case #2: the non-disclosure agreement twisted to seem like some federal case

Biden’s kangaroo court in New York still refuses to disclose the witness list

Politico somewhat reveals how the prosecution has violated President Trump’s right to face his accusers by refusing to provide a witness list for the trial.

Justice Juan Merchan said again this afternoon that he would not require prosecutors to turn over their witness list to Trump’s legal team. Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass said he would tell Trump’s counsel the name of their first witness on Sunday, but if the identity of the witness is revealed on social media before Monday, “that will be the last time.”

(Read the other two paragraphs at Politico)

What will come of this? Either we will shift to a Gestapo court system or the judge will retire soon

Something tells me that there will be a number of changes to Brady violations due to the things that the judge is pulling in this case (or this will be thrown out and the judge and all involved will spend the rest of their lives touring liberal venues).

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Judge Merchan finds Trump in contempt again and threatens jail time

New York Times almost gleefully notes how the Judge whose daughter earns millions from the speach of Democrats like Maxine Waters and Adam Schiff and who contributed to the campaigns of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris has threatened jail time for President Trump should he exercise his free speech rights.

The judge overseeing Donald J. Trump’s criminal trial in Manhattan rebuked the former president on Monday for mounting “a direct attack on the rule of law,” holding him in contempt of court for a second time and threatening to jail him if he continued to break a gag order that bars him from attacking jurors.

In a moment of remarkable courtroom drama, the judge, Juan M. Merchan, addressed Mr. Trump personally from the bench, saying that if there were further violations, he might bypass financial penalties and place the former president behind bars.

Justice Merchan acknowledged that jailing Mr. Trump was “the last thing” he wanted to do, but explained that it was his responsibility to “protect the dignity of the justice system.”

(Read all the liberal blather you want at the )

This is much too late to protect any dignity of what might have been a “justice” system

Since is obvious to anyone but a stoned liberal that Mr. Merchan (who does not deserve the honorific of “Judge”) has soiled the court system too deeply to hope for being able to do any protection, let me ask a few questions:

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Biden tactics go against the rest of us

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Federal agencies working with Left-wing GMO’s to implement “Bidenbucks”

Just The News tells us how federal agencies have been turned via one of Joe’s initial executive orders into “get out the vote” organizations for Democrats.

The federal government is working with left-wing organizations to implement “Bidenbucks,” which is President Biden’s executive order to turn as many federal agencies as possible into get-out-the-vote (GOTV) centers across all states.

The Department of Justice worked with left-wing organizations to determine how to implement Biden’s executive order to use the federal government to register voters, which began after one of those groups aided the Biden administration with creating the executive order.

In March 2021, Biden signed Executive Order 14019, often referred to by critics as “Bidenbucks,” which alludes to “Zuckerbucks,” the approximately $400 million from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg widely alleged to have been funneled through left-leaning nonprofits to turn out the Democratic vote in the 2020 presidential election.

According to the Executive Order, “The head of each agency shall evaluate ways in which the agency can, as appropriate and consistent with applicable law, promote voter registration and voter participation,” including “soliciting and facilitating approved, nonpartisan third-party organizations and State officials to provide voter registration services on agency premises.”

Similar to “Bidenbucks,” “Zuckerbucks” came to notice when the Center for Tech and Civic Life (CTCL) poured about $350 million into local elections offices managing the 2020 election, with most of the funds donated to the nonprofit by Zuckerberg. The nonprofit has claimed its 2020 election grants — colloquially known as “Zuckerbucks” — were allocated without partisan preference to make voting safer amid the pandemic.

However, a House Republican investigation found that less than 1% of the funds were spent on personal protective equipment. Most of the funds were focused on get-out-the-vote efforts and registrations in areas heavily leaning towards Democratic candidates.

(Read more at Just The News)

With Zuckerbucks being outlawed in many states, Joe felt he had to do something

Since 28 states have outlawed the tactics used by Mark Zuckerberg in his “Zuckerbucks” scheme, it looks like Joe felt he had to do something.

Well, this seemingly lawless act by an out-of-control Oval Office resident who does not see the criticism of the main stream press seems now to have done something.

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Red state taxpayers are at risk of being the latest victims of Joe’s electric vehicle gambles</h3

The Daily Caller illustrates how Joe has rigged it so that Republican states will end up paying for his electric car gambles.

Taxpayers could be on the hook if electric vehicle (EV) manufacturer Rivian fails to resume progress on its multi-billion dollar Georgia plant.

Rivian announced on March 7 that it would be pausing construction on its $5 billion manufacturing plant that is supposed to be built just east of Atlanta, Georgia, worrying lawmakers and taxpayers in the state that the plant may never be built. However, local authorities had given the company up to $1.5 billion in subsidies and tax incentives with the expectation that Rivian would bring in jobs and tax revenue.

Despite the pause, Rivian has ensured Georgia officials that it is not abandoning the project and that it remains committed to complying with both environmental regulations and the contractual agreements that were previously agreed to. Since the announcement of the pause, Georgia officials have questioned Rivian about how it will solve current issues at the vacant site, including security, stabilizing graded land with vegetation and stormwater drainage on the lot, according to AJC News.

The state claims that no taxpayer dollars have gone to Rivian directly, but instead, taxpayer funds have gone to developing the site of the project, which is still owned by the state but leased to Rivian, a Georgia spokesperson told the DCNF.

Rivian lost over $2 billion in 2023 and more than $3.1 billion in 2022, according to the company’s fourth quarter results. Rivian has had to lay off large portions of its staff in recent months, cutting around 10% of its workforce in February and another 1% in April.

Moreover, the EV maker was approved for up to $15 billion in taxable bonds from a municipal agency last November, backed by rental payments for the site’s land, according to Bloomberg. The $15 billion in bonds allotted by the state to Rivian are commonly called phantom bonds because they aren’t a direct payment and instead act as a way for the state to administer tax breaks by renting out the land of the site to the company, with the EV maker’s tax obligation going toward paying the rent, according to Bloomberg.

“Rivian has restated its commitment to Georgia, and the State and JDA are in steady communication with Rivian regarding its manufacturing plans at Stanton Springs North,” the Georgia Department of Economic Development and Joint Development Authority of Jasper, Morgan, Newton and Walton counties told the DCNF.

(Read more on the Georgia Rivian plant at the Daily Caller)

For those who remember the tax schedule before the Trump tax cuts, this is no surprise

This is just an extension of the Democrat state give-aways from years ago. Take from the middle class and poor to give to the rich Democrat donor class who will put a layer of salve on their guilt by buying a “carbon neutral” car.

…

Arizona rancher charged with murder of illegal crossing his ranch

Newsmax reports on the Arizona rancher charged with murder for shooting and killing one out of a group of illegal aliens who had tresspassed onto his ranch.

An Arizona rancher went on trial Friday in the fatal shooting of an illegal immigrant on his property near Mexico as the national debate over border security heats up ahead of this year’s presidential election.

George Alan Kelly, 75, has been charged with second-degree murder in the killing of a man he encountered on his property outside Nogales, Arizona. The jury trial in Santa Cruz County Superior Court is expected to last up to a month.

Kelly had rejected a plea deal that would have reduced the charge to one count of negligent homicide if he pleaded guilty.

He was arrested and charged last year in the Jan. 30, 2023, fatal shooting of 48-year-old Gabriel Cuen-Buitimea of Nogales, Mexico, just south of the border.

(Read more at Newsmax)

Nobody wins from the situation that Joe Biden created by opening the border (except for the cartels)

The landowners, business owners, and legal residents in America do not gain significantly from Joe Biden’s promotion of trans agenda, lawlessness, and high inflation. They don’t gain significantly from the out-of-control immigration or the promotion of wars.

Except for the Chinese companies creating the components of fentanyl and the Mexican cartels supplying drugs and passage for illegal aliens, there are not too many winners in Joe Biden’s America.

As the video below the article points out, the rancher was acquitted by a jury. So, he gets to go back to his ranch. However, surely this experience is not a good one.

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Eternal Rewards

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Actions that God rewards

The following comes through the notes of Mark Ramsey and the responses of the class.

The actions that Christ will be looking for have common characteristics — a willingness to sacrifice, a joyous faith, a commitment to persevere and, at the root, is a love for God.

  1. How we treat other believers

    ‭God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them. (Hebrews 6:10 NIV‬)

    How we treat other people here on earth, especially our fellow believers, is important to our Lord. He will never forget how we treat His people.

    We need to minister to the needs of God’s people in a genuine and loving way. The Lord will never forget our labor of love.

  2. How generous we are with the money in which we have been entrusted

    Every person on earth is a steward of God’s blessings. Everything we have belongs to Him. How we mange what He has entrusted to us will follow us to heaven.

    But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. (Matthew 6:20-21 NIV‬)

    Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life. (‭1 Timothy 6:17-19 NIV‬)

    One class member noted that we are rich at the present (both in material and spiritual gifts from God).

    ‭“Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. “So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. (Matthew 6:1-4 NIV‬)

    One class member noted that, while we must not seek the Holy things just for the recognition of our peers, we also must not avoid seeking to affirm God. Additionally, we cannot avoid instances to affirm eachother. A second class member noted that we must applaud other Christians; however, we cannot make the seeking of that applause the motive of our service.

    Where is your treasure?

    How much do you have in your account in heaven?

  3. How we support others in ministry

    “Anyone who welcomes you welcomes me, and anyone who welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. Whoever welcomes a prophet as a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and whoever welcomes a righteous person as a righteous person will receive a righteous person’s reward. And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones who is my disciple, truly I tell you, that person will certainly not lose their reward.” (‭Matthew 10:40-42 NIV‬)

    We are called to support ministries that are bearing fruit for the Kingdom.

  4. How well we accept mistreatment or injustice

    ‭“Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. (Matthew 5:11-12 NIV‬)

    Suffering or standing up for the truth brings reward.

    You will be hated by everyone because of me, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved. (‭Matthew 10:22 NIV‬)

    “But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. (‭Luke 6:27-28 NIV‬)

    But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. (Luke 6:35 NIV‬)

    It is easy to get irritated and angry with the persecution, mocking and threats because of our faith, but we need to be more agonizing for the lost and deceived.

  5. How we endure suffering and trials

    One class member noted that (in America) Christians endure mocking as their suffering and trials. In other nations, Christians are killed. Another class member noted that she had her phone stolen and her car scratched due to her Christian witness.

    ‭Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. (Matthew 5:10-12 NIV‬)

    ‭Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him. (James 1:12 NIV‬)

    Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you, and you will suffer persecution for ten days. Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you life as your victor’s crown. (‭Revelation 2:10 NIV‬)

    How we patiently endure and persevere in the dark valleys of life will bring the Lord’s praise someday when we stand before Him.

  6. How we spend our time

    Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom. (‭Psalm 90:12 NIV‬)

    ‭making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. (Ephesians 5:16 NIV‬)

    How are you making the most of every moment the Lord gives you?

  7. How we run the race that God has given us

    We each have our own race to run. Our responsibility is to run our race with endurance and perseverance. Hebrews 12:1 tells us that we have a “race marked for us.”

    ‭Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. (1 Corinthians 9:24 NIV‬)

    ‭I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:14 NIV‬)

    ‭‬Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, (Hebrews 12:1 NIV)

    Are you running the race or have you stopped, given up or climbed up into the stands? Are you running the race in such a way to win and bring glory to the Lord?

  8. How effectively we control our body

    This addresses the temptations of the flesh.

    ‭Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air. No, I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize. (1 Corinthians 9:24-27 NIV‬)

    How is your self-control and self-discipline when it comes to sins of the flesh?

    The choice we make is clear – discipline now or disqualification in the future. There are no other options.

  9. How many souls we witness to and win for Christ

    Every believer is called to be a faithful witness for Jesus Christ.

    ‭We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. (2 Corinthians 5:20 NIV‬)

    Sharing the Gospel with others and leading them to faith in Jesus brings us reward.

    ‭For what is our hope, our joy, or the crown in which we will glory in the presence of our Lord Jesus when he comes? Is it not you? Indeed, you are our glory and joy. (1 Thessalonians 2:19-20 NIV‬)

    We need to pray earnestly for opportunities and boldness to share the good news with lost people. Our responsibility is to proclaim the Gospel and it is the Holy Spirit who does the work of convincing and winning unbelievers. Only He can open a human heart.

    We each have a story of redemption as believers in Jesus Christ. Our job is simply to tell others about the good news and to tell it simply.

 

Biden breaks our trust in the judicial system by lies, part 3

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House GOP probes links between Biden DOJ and top Bragg prosecutor in Trump trial

NTD News follows the evidence presented by House Republicans showing the connections between the Biden Department of “Justice” and Alvin Bragg’s persecution of President Trump.

The House Judiciary Committee is investigating a top prosecutor on Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s case against former President Trump for his past work as a senior Department of Justice (DOJ) official during the Biden administration, amid allegations that the Trump prosecution is politically driven.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) said in an April 30 letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland that, as part of the committee’s oversight of “politically motivated prosecutions,” it is concerned that former senior DOJ official Matthew Colangelo is now leading Mr. Bragg’s “politicized” prosecution against the former president.

“That a former senior Biden Justice Department official is now leading the prosecution of President Biden’s chief political rival only adds to the perception that the Biden Justice Department is politicized and weaponized,” Mr. Jordan wrote in the letter.

Mr. Colangelo, who delivered the opening statement in President Trump’s so-called “hush money” trial in New York last week, joined Mr. Bragg’s office in December 2022.

For a period of time, Mr. Colangelo also worked as Chief Counsel for Federal Initiatives at the office of New York Attorney General Letitia James, who led a separate case against President Trump that accused him of inflating asset values to get better loan terms and that ended in a $464 million judgment against the former president.

During his time at the office of Ms. James, who has also been accused of political motivations in her prosecution of the former president, Mr. Colangelo was involved in the investigation into the Trump Organization.

In his letter, Mr. Jordan is demanding that Mr. Garland provide various records related to Mr. Colangelo’s work in the Justice Department, as well as any communication between Mr. Bragg’s office and the DOJ related to President Trump or any of his businesses.

“Given the perception that the Justice Department is assisting in Bragg’s politicized prosecution, we write to request information and documents related to Mr. Colangelo’s employment,” Mr. Jordan wrote, while alleging that Mr. Colangelo’s recent employment history “demonstrates his obsession with investigating a person rather than prosecuting a crime.”

(Read more at NTD News)

Since Bragg likely could have presented opening arguments as convincingly, why did Mr. Colangelo provide these opening arguments?

Did Mr. Colangelo present the opeing arguments to just rub into the face of his opposition that there was a connection between the Biden White House and Bragg’s office of District Attorney (and there was nothing that the opposition could do about it)?

Did Mr. Colangelo provide those opening arguments because, deep down, Biden is still a racist who associates non-Whites with “the jungle” and expects low standards to be met by them?

…

Is this a hostile takeover?

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One mom sees the commonality in changes to our flags and explains it

A prominent symbol of Islam, the eight-point star, suddenly appears on flags and banners of this nation

Jacqueline Toboroff at Supermoms Activated points out how flags of states and banners for a number of cities have recently started excluding the traditional five-point star common to American flags and including the eight-point star formerly used by the Ottoman Empire (and many current Islamic nations).

A symbol of Islam is suddenly appearing on flags all across America.

The traditional five-point American star is being erased and replaced with the eight-point Islamic symbol in what some people believe is a threat to national security and a cultural coup d’etat.

“Because of my background in the military, these are the indicators we are trained to look for,” said Donna Bergstrom, Deputy Chair of the Republican party of Minnesota.

The state will unveil its new flag, bearing an 8-point star much like those displayed on flags across the Islamic world, on May 11, the anniversary of Minnesota statehood.

“I was commissioned in the US Marine Corps and served as a signals intelligence /electronic warfare officer and as a general intelligence officer,” said Bergstrom.

“When we have aspects of our national security – and what we are going to stand for as Americans degraded and or changed, this must be factored. Especially in this moment of time, changing the state’s flag is not a good idea.”

Flags in the United States historically display only five-point stars, a tradition dating back to the Betsy Ross flag of 1776.

The American flag, with its 50 five-point stars, is ranked number one as the most recognizable in the world. The Star-Spangled-Banner isn’t merely a symbol of American courage and indefatigable spirit, it is what America represents— freedom. The flag’s 50 stars represent the 50 states and 13 stripes represent the original thirteen colonies that rebelled against the British crown and became the first states in the Union.

Minnesota will become the first US state displaying anything but the five-point stars treasured in American heritage.

Eight-point stars hold equal meaning in Islamic culture, tracing its importance first to Babylonian culture and then to scripture.

Per the Quran, verse 69:17, on the Day of Judgement: “On that Day eight ˹mighty angels˺ will bear the Throne of your Lord above them.”

For this reason, eight is critical to Islamic history, culture, and art. The eight-point star is one of the most prominent symbols in Islam.

It appears on the flags of Iranian military intelligence, the city of Tehran, th Islamic nation of Azerbaijan, the Organization of Turkic States, and a traditional flag of the Ottoman Empire, among many others in Islamic culture.

American cities and states have suddenly approved flags with the eight-point Islamic star in recent years. The same symbol appears on proposed flags in other cities and states across the country.

States which approved new flags with the eight point Islamic symbol are:

  • Minnesota
  • Utah (approved a new flag but due to outcry, reverted)

Cities flying new flags right now with the eight-point Islamic symbol are:

The eight point star is also prominent on proposed new flags for:

What is the probability that all these cities and states ended up with an Islamic eight-point star symbol? It’s statistically next to impossible. Let’s just take Minnesota and Utah, which respectively had approximately 2,000 and 8,000 flag designs submitted.

Both states appeared committed beyond probability to making sure this Islamic-style symbol appeared on their new flags.

(Read about the Minnesota debate over the flag and see the various flags shown at Jacqueline Toboroff)

In related matters, masked figures appear blocking entrances to universities across America

In the years after the Civil War, the militant arm of the Democrat party wore hoods and robes to hide their identity from the officials in the Army that would enforce the law and protect minorities.

Now, faculty members and protesters wear masks to hide their identities as they harrass Jews.

Mr. Biden, remember how President Eisenhower had to call out the military to protect the Black students going to the newly integrated classes?

Mr. Biden, you could have acted in a presidential manner by protecting the Jewish students being harrassed at various campuses across America. However, you chose to side with Hamas.

Rather than acting in a presidential manner and following the example of President Eisenhower (who you, Senator Helms, and a large set of Dixiecrats worked to block), you have hidden yourself. You have either gone on another vacation to bury your head in the sand or have found a nook in the White House in which to hide.

Still, considering how your friend (Alvin Bragg) has let out criminals while prosecuting political enemies, we should not be surprised at this choice to stand with murderers rather than with law-abiding citizens.

…

However, excuses and denials abound from various points

In Wheeling, the city leaders call the criticism of their change “ludicrous”

The Intelligencer tries to deny the connection by introducing a protest to the evidence by Steve Bannon.

The city of Wheeling’s official flag symbolizes a number of elements related to the city’s rich history, but a brow-raising conversation about the style of stars appearing on many state and municipal flags — including the Friendly City’s flag — has some believing that a cultural upheaval is covertly being woven into the fabric of America.

Meanwhile, city officials and community leaders said nothing of the sort is happening with Wheeling’s flag.

The city flag was adopted in 2018 as part of the Wheeling 250 celebration. It features navy blue horizontal bars or stripes on the top and bottom, representing the Ohio River and other waterways. There are three total bars representing three major modes of transportation — river, road and rail. A white bar in the middle features five gold stars — each containing eight points.

While the eight-point star is intended to resemble a navigation star, the growing conspiracy theory targeting Wheeling’s flag and others across the country contends that “a prominent symbol of Islam is suddenly flying across the nation.”

A watch list of state and municipal flags observed as containing images of “Islamic-style” eight-point stars is being shared among the alarmists. Included on the list are not only the new Minnesota state flag and the Wheeling city flag, but also recent redesigns of flags for Hutchinson, Kansas; Aberdeen, South Dakota; Kent, Ohio; Norman, Oklahoma; Springfield, Missouri; Reno, Nevada; and Pocatello, Idaho.

Conservative political figure Steve Bannon — former Breitbart News executive chairman and former Trump White House chief strategist — speaking recently on the assertions about the new prevalence of eight-point stars described the list of cities with these flags as being “about as MAGA as you can get.” He had on his show Jacqueline Toboroff, who published the original story on her Substack.

Wheeling Mayor Glenn Elliott, when asked about it, could hardly believe such a misinterpretation or blatant mischaracterization of the symbolism on the city flag could be taken seriously.

“It’s absolutely ludicrous to assert that anything about Wheeling’s flag symbolizes anything beyond the history of Wheeling,” Elliott said, adding that it was “disappointing to see such an effort to drag” divisive narratives into what is intended to be a unifying symbol of pride.

(Read more at The Intelligencer)

Maybe this is nothing. Still, when a significant minority of

Why make this change in the first place if there is no meaning behind it? Why waste the cloth involved in creating such a symbol unless it means something to maybe the population of Muslims that are populating the area?

And if this is being done to make the 2% of Muslims that are moving in feel better, what about the 98% that already reside here?

…

Biden breaks our trust in the judicial system by lies, part 2

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Textual evidence emerges suggesting that President Trump was set up in the Classified Documents case

PJ Media provides a paper trail that suggests corruption on the part of the Biden regime when it comes to the prosecution of the classified documents case.

This week in Florida, Judge Aileen Cannon unsealed a trove of new documents that Jack Smith fought to keep hidden. And you’ll soon find out why. Among the documents unsealed were extensive exhibits, motions, and other filings shedding light on the intricate web of communication between the Biden White House and the National Archives and Records Administration in the lead-up to Trump’s indictment.

Investigative journalist Julie Kelly found something interesting in the documents that could change everything. The first things is testimony from an FBI agent who testified that the General Services Administration (GSA) had been in possession of Trump’s boxes in Virginia before ordering Trump’s team to come get them.

“So an entire pallet full of boxes that had been held by GSA somewhere outside of DC is dumped at Mar-a-Lago,” Kelly notes. “Apparently these are the boxes that ended up containing papers with ‘classified markings.'”

“I will double check indictment but I don’t recall this event in the timeline,” she added.

So, it appears that the Biden administration may have been responsible for shipping classified information to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home in Florida. This development is significant because Trump has previously blamed the GSA for packing the boxes that contained the classified documents, only to later accuse Trump of essentially stealing them and using that as pretext for sending the  FBI to raid his Mar-a-Lago home in August 2022.

“It was a set-up from the get-go,” remarked Tom Fitton, the founder of Judicial Watch.

Meanwhile, Joe Biden had classified information that he was never entitled to have stored in boxes in his garage for years, but was not charged. Biden blamed staffers for packing the classified information.

While this may not prove the Biden administration set up Trump in the classified documents case, considering the way the Biden administration has abused the legal system against Trump, no one can confidently say they wouldn’t.

(Read more at PJ Media)

By this point in the Biden regime, maybe they are just getting better at covering their tracks.

Never mind that Joe and Kamala contributed to the bail funds for Black Lives Matter murderers, the important thing in the Biden regime is to jail people who rioted on 6 January 2021 and to tie President Trump up either in court or in jail.

…

Bragg’s prosecution of President Trump violates New York state’s Constitution

National Review lays out how Biden ally Alvin Bragg has violated the state consitution.

I have argued that former president Donald Trump’s prosecution in the so-called hush-money case brought by Manhattan’s elected progressive Democratic district attorney Alvin Bragg is offensive in various ways.

Bragg, an election denier, is trying to convict Trump of a crime that is not charged in the indictment — to wit, conspiracy to steal the 2016 election by suppressing negative information in violation of federal campaign law. This violates the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which requires a felony charge to be spelled out in an indictment whose criminal elements have been established by probable cause to the satisfaction of a grand jury. Here, the problem is not just that there is no indication the grand jury was presented with an election-theft conspiracy offense; there is no such conspiracy crime in New York penal law. As a state prosecutor, moreover, Bragg has no jurisdiction to enforce federal law — as to which Congress vested “exclusive” criminal- and civil-enforcement authority, respectively, in the Justice Department and the Federal Election Commission.

(Read more at the National Review)

Beside the points brought out in these few paragraphs, there are Fifth Amendment concerns central to this case

If Bragg were forced to remove the portion of this case where President Trump’s purported breaking of a New York law on financial disclosure (which was newly revised for this case), he would have no case. This case depends on the exclusion of a non-disclosure agreement. In other words, this case depends on the elimination of the Fifth Amendment (since, obviously, removal of that non-disclosure agreement would force President Trump to purportedly testify against himself or commit what the court has deemed to be perjury.

…

Biden breaks our trust in the judicial system by lies

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The U.S. Solicitor General omits facts when arguing before the Supreme Court

Declassified, Live with Julie Kelly details how Biden’s appointed Solicitor General, Elizabeth Prelogar, downplayed the sentences of those convicted of roles in the 6 January 2021 riot at the Capitol. The problem is that she lied in doing so.

The U.S. Supreme Court acted as a bit of a party crasher this week just as Democrats and the corporate media were celebrating the start of Donald Trump’s first criminal trial in New York City.

While jury selection got underway in Judge Juan Merchan’s Manhattan courtroom, oral arguments began Tuesday morning at SCOTUS in Joseph Fischer vs. USA related to the Department of Justice’s use of 18 U.S.C. § 1512(c)(2)—obstruction of an official proceeding—in its ongoing criminal prosecution of January 6 protesters. Fischer is one of roughly 350 J6 defendants charged with the post-Enron records-destroying statute weaponized by Joe Biden’s DOJ to punish Americans who protested Biden’s election that day.

The law also represents half of Special Counsel Jack Smith’s four-count indictment against the former president related to the events of January 6.

Some of the same commentators popping champagne corks at the thought of Trump being sent to Rikers Island openly fretted that J6ers could go free after a majority of justices expressed skeptism at the government’s position during the hearing. Wondering aloud how Fischer even made it to the Supreme Court—never a Constitution handy on the CNN set when you need one—Dana Bash fearfully asked one legal expert about J6ers ensnared in 1512(c)(2) convictions, “could they be let out of jail?”

After more than three years, the DOJ’s unprecedented use of the corporate fraud statute to prosecute political protesters received overdue scrutiny by the highest court. The April 16 hearing got off to a somewhat rocky start for Jeffrey Green, the attorney representing Fischer, as justices peppered him with questions about the connection between two subsections of the statute.

U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar, who represented the government, didn’t fare much better. A former law clerk for both Attorney General Merrick Garland and Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan, Prelogar did little to ease concerns over the government’s broad interpretation of 1512(c)(2) while admitting the statute has been and will continue to be selectively used against Jan 6 protesters and not other demonstrators who engage in similar conduct—particularly those aligned with Democratic Party interests.

But in her zeal to downplay harsh prison sentences often associated with a 1512(c)(2) conviction in Jan 6 cases—a few justices questioned her about the severity of a 20-year maximum sentence for interrupting a government function—Prelogar might have fatally damaged the credibility of her case; she misrepresented, or at the very least misstated, the government’s handling of prison sentences for J6ers convicted of 1512(c)(2).

(Read at Declassified, Live to find the specific lies)

Shady dealings around the Jack Smith case cause one to wonder

Law and Crime exposes some purported shenanigans with the Jack Smith/Joe Biden coordinated persecution of President Trump.

Following a Monday unsealing order by the judge in the Mar-a-Lago case, a series of documents shed light on the origins of Donald Trump’s claims that a top prosecutor on special counsel Jack Smith’s staff offered a “JUDGESHIP” to a lawyer representing his valet co-defendant during an August 2022 meeting.

More than anything else, the documents reveal that Trump’s judgeship offer allegation against Jay Bratt, the Justice Department’s chief for Counterintelligence and Export Control Section of the National Security Division who joined Smith’s team, bears little resemblance to what was actually being argued in court filings on “allegations of potential misconduct” that U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon has unsealed.

On June 8, 2023, the Guardian reported that Stanley Woodward, then a new attorney for Trump valet Walt Nauta, was taken aback that Bratt mentioned Woodward’s pending judicial application to the D.C. Superior Court in almost the same breath as he urged Nauta to cooperate with the government in the face of criminal exposure. The report said the meeting happened around November of 2022, but documents said the meeting took place on Aug. 24, 2022.

As it turns out, one unsealed filing shows, on June 5, 2023 — just three days before the Guardian report, which dropped on the eve of the Mar-a-Lago indictment’s unsealing — Trump was secretly litigating in D.C. to get his hands on grand jury transcripts of witness interviews, including Nauta’s and that of Mar-a-Lago property manager and co-defendant Carlos De Oliveira.

Weeks after the Espionage Act indictment, Trump withdrew the motion for disclosure and it was denied as moot, but the specter of the claims against Bratt remained. Trump had ramped up the allegations to the extreme on Truth Social on June 8, 2023 — again, the eve of his indictment’s unsealing.

He accused Bratt, without naming him, of trying to “BRIBE & INTIMIDATE A LAWYER REPRESENTING SOMEONE BEING TARGETED & HARASSED TO FALSELY ACCUSE & FABRICATE A STORY ABOUT PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP & A CRIME THAT DOESN’T EXIST.” The defense lawyer was Woodward and the client was Nauta, though the post did not name either of them.

Trump went so far as to claim that Bratt had “offered” Woodward a judgeship “IN THE BIDEN ADMINISTRATION” (Note: the president appoints the judges of the D.C. Superior Court, but it is distinct from the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia).

Filings from the special counsel and Woodward show the reality of the situation was drastically different than a straight-up offer of a judgeship to Woodward in exchange for Nauta’s cooperation.

Just days before Trump’s then attorneys John Rowley and Jim Trusty exited the case, they filed the motion for disclosure claiming that Bratt’s remarks in the meeting “suggested a quid pro quo or even a threat intended to cause Mr. Woodward to persuade his clients to cooperate with Mr. Bratt.”

“In other words, ‘play ball or you have no chance of becoming a judge,’” as Rowley and Trusty characterized Bratt’s words in their motion.

(Go to Law and Crime for more allegations and more screen shots of court documents)

On a related note, these observations were made by a lawyer observant of the case.

There seems to be shady dealings by Obama affiliates within the National Archives when it comes to the classified documents charges against President Trump

The Left would have us believe that it was just a random act of protesting

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Chaotic Scene Unfolds Between Authorities, Pro-Palestine Protesters

The Daily Caller comments on the chaos created by imported provocateurs arriving on buses, wearing dish towels, and setting up identical (new) tents.

Tensions escalated between police and pro-Palestine protesters Monday at the University of Texas at Austin, resulting in protestors being pepper sprayed, video shows.

Chaotic scenes between protesters and authorities at the Texas campus, where protestors have been demonstrating since last week, were shown in videos online and on CNN. A CNN reporter live on scene described the “standoff” between authorities and protestors and said police fired pepper spray into the crowd.

“They’re trying to get people to disperse,” the reporter said. “So that just happened. Those officers firing pepper spray, it appears or some sort of spray at the protesters gathered here. Just moments ago, Erin, in this area, there had been a bus that was taking some of the people who had been arrested earlier.”

“Medic! Medic! Medic!” a protester yelled as the camera panned to an activist apparently hit by the spray.

One of the protesters sat on the ground with his eyes closed while two others poured water on his face. Additional protestors attempted to wave a medic down to aid the man on the floor, while the CNN journalist continued to describe the scene.

(Read more at the Daily Caller)

These tents, buses, and people don’t come cheap.

Although a majority of the protesters can easily blend in with the student population and while the University of Texas does offer quite a liberal set of students and professors, there is evidence that a large portion of the protest has been both bought and paid for by outside agitators. These evidences include:

  • Identical tents provided to the protesters
  • Protesters arriving in buses

The press uses this to create a new object of sympathy (but fails with me).

Additionally, even the Austin NPR affiliate WAMU admits (after spending 3/4 of its article building up the murderer-supporting Hamas protesters) that both threats of violence and acts of violence have increased against the Jewish community with these protests.

Jewish students at several universities have reported feeling unsafe. A group of Jewish students at the University of Minnesota say they have seen “violent and hateful messages” on campus and no longer feel safe. Jewish student groups at other schools on Friday demanded that campus officials take stronger measures to ensure their safety.

(Read more at WAMU)

If liberal NPR admits this much, who knows what violence actually has happened against the currently-disfavored communities?

Have you noticed how the COVID masks have become the new symbol of the Left?

I can’t decide whether they are ultra paranoid of catching a cold that they think will kill the world or if they are just thugs hiding behind their masks. Chances are that the latter is the case.

…

Reasons that Democrats may have a problem with anti-semitism

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Democrats may have a problems with anti-semitism (a form of racism) since they have promoted racism as negative racism

Loyola Law School anti-racism fellow goes on one racist rant

PJ Media comments on the Loyola Law School fellow (who, as a teacher of the law and one who centers his teachings on anti-racism, should know the boundaries of the forum) who went on a racist rant.

You might think that Loyola law student Grace Obi-Azuike would know better than to address some of her fellow students as “all you ugly ass little Jewish people,” while ordering them to “get the f*** out of here” during a public meeting.

That’s just basic good sense in this age of smartphones and video surveillance pretty much everywhere, even for foul-mouthed bigots. But in Obi-Azuike’s case, it’s worse.

Obi-Azuike, who is black, is also a Loyola Law School Anti-Racism Fellow where students say, “We embrace our moral and professional duty to engage, confront and dismantle individualized and structural racism, and we strive to integrate the values of anti-racism, equity and inclusion throughout our curriculum, programs and the law school community.”

Fellows are selected “based on a combination of factors including academic achievement, leadership potential, experience in social and racial justice work, and community service,” and receive “mentorship from LARC faculty and serve as a research assistant for a LARC project or initiative and a summer stipend.”

So here’s a charming little video of Obi-Azuike doing and saying exactly what I just told you she had done and said.

(Read more at PJ Media)

I have heard of conservatives being baited into an argument and then expelled shortly before graduation.

It would seem that even this liberal institution might want to at least investigate this outburst.

…

Democrats may have a problem with anti-semitism because they have taken on the “submit or die” culture of Islam

Columbia University bans student who said “Zionists don’t deserve to live”

Breitbart reports on the suspension of a Columbia student leader of the pro-Palestinian protests over his claim that “Zionists don’t deserve to live.”

Columbia University banned a student protest leader who made remarks in a video that “Zionists don’t deserve to live,” a spokesperson from the university said, according to Fox News.

Khymani James, a junior at the university and one of the leaders of the anti-Israel encampment, issued an apology in a post on X early Friday morning in which he expressed that he had “misspoke in the heat of the moment.”

“I am frustrated that words I said in an Instagram Live video have become a distraction from the movement for Palestinian liberation,” James said. “I misspoke in the heat of the moment, for which I apologize.”

(Read more at Breitbart)

If this student can apologize out of this without consequence,

Admittedly, none of us know what the consequences of this suspension will be until some time elapses. However, if this student is allowed to just rejoin the student population (without having to lay out a semester or pay any other price), then that stands as an injustice for the Jewish students who had to hide while people like this beat on the doors.  In light of our nation’s having rejected separate “Colored” and “White” drinking fountains, the separate-but-equal notion of Jewish students having to both take classes and tests from home does not seem American.

Therefore, there had better be more than just an apology in this student leader’s cost of threatening genocide.

…

Democrats may have an anti-semitism problem (and overall racism problem) because they don’t apply rules evenly

California university lecturer says “whites are psychopaths”

Just The News informs us of a California university lecturer who built a course on the racist claim that “whites are psychopaths” while being able to deliver his special 8-week, high-dollar course.

As part of Black History Month event, author Dante King delivered a lecture sharing a title with his upcoming $1,295, 8-week course, “Diagnosing Whiteness and Anti-Blackness: White Psychopathology, Collective Psychosis and Trauma in America.”

In his lecture, he also claimed that white “behavior represents an underlying, biologically transmitted proclivity with roots deep in their evolutionary history.”

A video of the lecture reposted on X went viral, rapidly accumulating 2.2 million views, with pundits calling the lecturer “racist” and “bigoted” for his remarks.

King’s speech comes as universities across the country are enacting a flurry of speech rules aimed at preventing perceived psychological harm to students, especially in the aftermath of the ongoing Israel-Palestine conflict. Free speech experts, meanwhile, maintain that free speech — even uncomfortable speech — is fundamental to free inquiry and learning.

“What we saw UCSF do recently is what we want all colleges to do in controversies around protected speech: be neutral. Universities should get comfortable again playing host to even the most divisive debates and discussions. That’s the purpose of a college campus,” said Alex Morey, Director of Campus Rights Advocacy at the free-speech civil rights group Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, to The Center Square.”

“Too many colleges in recent times have strayed and find themselves constantly wading into political debates or taking sides against scholars or students,” continued Morey. “That sets these administrators up for disaster, particularly when situations like Israel/Palestine arise and campuses are sharply divided.”

According to FIRE, California is home to some of the nation’s worst censors in higher education. While FIRE did not analyze UC SF, the other schools in the University of California system ranged from “average” to “poor” in its free speech rankings, with flagship UC Berkeley and UC Los Angeles universities coming in as “slightly below average.”

(Read the whole article at Just The News)

This seems like another case of liberal “rules for thee, not for me”

Odd that the state and university system most likely to exclude conservative thought from its campus will now start alternately pointing toward either “free speech” or “speech rules.” It almost seems that the liberals cannot decide the best way to stifle dissent while pushing their viewpoints. It would be nice, however, if they would decide on a single standard and apply that to all parties involved.

…

Democrats deny the fact party has antisemitism problem

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Democrats disagree on whether party has antisemitism problem

Fox News shines a small light on the anti-semitism problem boiling in the Democrat party since they decided to replace blacks with other imported minorities.

Democrats are not seeing eye to eye on whether the party has a problem with antisemitism ahead of the November general election.

“It’s easy to call out people with Tiki torches saying ‘Jews will not replace us’ or the former president saying ‘very fine people on both sides,'” Rep. Jared Moskowitz, D-Fla., said in a statement to Fox News Digital, referencing a rally with White supremacists in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017.

“However, when Democrats look inward and see ‘go back to Poland’ or ‘kill the Zionists,’ they pretend the antisemitic rhetoric on the left isn’t happening, or they are silent,” he added. “And as it turns out, the left and the right have something in common.”

As the war between Israel and terrorist group Hamas has gone on, initially spurred by the latter’s surprise attack on innocent civilians on Oct. 7, acts of antisemitism have been observed more often in the U.S.

The Anti-Defamation League reported that U.S. antisemitic assaults in the three months following the October attack in Israel shot up, surpassing the totals for entire years in the past.

The ADL said 3,291 assaults happened between Oct. 7 and Jan. 7. In 2022, 3,697 assaults occurred over the course of the entire year. The totals for each of the last 10 years, except for 2022, were less than that three-month period following the beginning of Israel’s war with Hamas.

This month, anti-Israel and antisemitic demonstrations rapidly expanded at top-tier universities, with a Gaza solidarity encampment that is persisting at Columbia University inspiring many of its higher education counterparts to take over their respective campuses, disrupt school activity, and intimidate Jewish students.

(Read more at Fox News)

This seems a lot like the six decades of denial following the Dixiecrat issue

This has more to do with Democrats not having a prayer of retaining their seats in the House, Senate, or (possibly) the Oval Office than anything else. Much like the surge that Biden’s early years saw toward appeasing the Dixiecrat voters who did not want their children in schools with minorities, this is a play toward a set of voters.

However, the problem with this play for votes is that it carries with it an implicit endorsement. During the early 1960’s, the Democrat party playing to the demands of the Dixiecrats implicitly endorsed suppression of minorities.

Now, this implicit endorsement seems to be one of favoring Islam (or at least diminishing the Jewish presence among us).

…

Squad Representative Jamaal Bowman accuses the pro-Israel group backing opponent of both being racist and while he claims to read minds: “They want to call me the N-word.”

The New York Post quotes Jamaal Bowman in his assertion that he knows what his opponents think when he says: “They want to call me the N-word.”

“Squad” Rep. Jamaal Bowman claimed a pro-Israeli group backing his Democratic primary opponent is racist.

“That is why AIPAC’s [ American Israel Public Affairs Committee] is coming after us, coming after us with hate, coming after us with bullying, intimidation, and fear. You should see what they’re doing in my district,” Bowman said during a virtual town hall meeting on Monday.

After he claimed AIPAC members are lying about his record and calling him antisemitic, Bowman said, “They don’t like my style, I’m a little too radical, I’m a member of the ‘Squad.’ They want to call me the N-word, but they know they can’t get away with that, so they say everything else.”

(Read more at the New York Post)

Isn’t this, like most cases of claimed racism by Democrats, an instance of projected racism?

Is it that all the other accusations are actually true and this is the only way that Mr. Bowman could interject racism into the mix?

The problem is that (since the press only reports on things favorable to Democrats) we will likely never hear through the main stream press of any allegation made against Mr. Bowman. Therefore, it will be impossible to know if any or all of those allegations were in themselves substantive.

…

Let’s look at the current leader of the Democrats: Joe Biden

Biden’s history of getting away with racist remarks

The Heritage Foundation uses a 7 July 2021 article to give us a short overview of the racist remarks made by Joe Biden.

Joe Biden has a decades-long habit of making overtly racist remarks, taking discriminatory positions and cavorting with known racists—things that would get anyone to his political right tossed out of polite society. But being on the left must make it okay.

Just a few days ago, while lamenting the difficulty in convincing many Latinos and blacks to take the COVID vaccine, he committed a series of racially charged blunders that barely registered in the corporate media’s consciousness.

Biden white-splained that Latinos in America resist vaccinations because “they’re worried that they’ll be vaccinated and deported.”

This statement makes the insane assumption that all Latinos present in this country are illegal aliens subject to expulsion. It never occurred to Biden that more than 60 million Latinos are actually American citizens, according to recent census figures.

(continued)

In the same breath as his “Latinx” comment, Biden lectured about the fears that blacks may have of the vaccine, attempting to point to historically shameful episodes when they were subjected to inhumane medical experiments.

“They are used to being experimented on—the Tuskegee Airmen and others,” Biden said.

In this, he confused legendary World War II fighter pilots with a long, notorious governmental study of syphilis among black men—the Tuskegee Experiment.

(continued)

Examples dating back to his campaign for president (and earlier) abound.

On Charlamagne Tha God’s popular morning radio show in May 2020, Biden infamously asserted to the largely black audience that if they were unsure of whether to vote for him or Trump, then “you ain’t black!”

Then in August 2020, Biden told a gathering of black and Hispanic journalists that “unlike the African American community, with notable exceptions, the Latino community is an incredibly diverse community with incredibly different attitudes about different things.”

Taken together, these statements clearly suggest that Biden believes all black people think alike.

(continued)

Put these words into Mitch McConnell’s mouth and try to envision how long he’d be allowed to remain in the Senate, let alone in a leadership position.

But Biden has been getting away with this for years.

In 2010, he warmly eulogized Sen. Robert Byrd, a former Exalted Cyclops in the Ku Klux Klan, saying he was “one of my mentors” and that “the Senate is a lesser place for his going.”

In 2007, he referred to Barack Obama as “the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean.”

In 2006, he said, “You cannot go to a 7-Eleven or a Dunkin’ Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent.”

Way back in 1977, he said that forced busing to desegregate schools would cause his children to “grow up in a racial jungle.”

Of course, he infamously worked with segregationist senators to oppose that mandatory busing, which decades later led to the strongest moment in Kamala Harris’s campaign for president, when she blasted him as having personally impacted her as a young girl.

And over the course of his entire career, he had kind words to say about staunchly segregationist senators.

(Read more at the Heritage Foundation)

Overall, this points out the benefit of being a leftist.

These statements, along with numerous others, point to how the press will ignore the shortcomings of a leftist who says these things while they will make up quotes and apply them to conservatives.

…

Joe Biden didn’t just compromise with segregationists. He fought for their cause in schools.

Even NBC News couldn’t deny the history Joe Biden had built with segregationists in his early years as a senator.

Biden’s role in fighting student busing more than four decades ago has received renewed attention after the 76-year-old presidential candidate touted his ability to compromise with segregationists during his long Senate career. Biden said he disagreed strongly with these Southerners’ views but needed to work with them to get things done. Biden’s comments set off a firestorm among his political rivals and some political analysts, who described his language as offensive and anachronistic.

But political experts and education policy researchers say Biden, a supporter of civil rights in other arenas, did not simply compromise with segregationists — he also led the charge on an issue that kept black students away from the classrooms of white students. His legislative work against school integration advanced a more palatable version of the “separate but equal” doctrine and undermined the nation’s short-lived effort at educational equality, legislative and education history experts say.

“Biden, who I think has been good overall on civil rights, was a leader on anti-busing,” Rucker Johnson, author of the book “Children of the Dream: Why School Integration Works,” said. “A leader on giving America the language to oppose it despite it being the most effective means of school integration at that time.”

(Read more at NBC News)

Maybe this is the reason that Biden is dumping the Black vote for the Muslim vote.

Maybe even Joe figures that the maximum number of double-crosses has been reached for the Black community.

…

Eternal Rewards

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A wake up call

The following comes through the notes of Mark Ramsey and the responses of the class.

  1. The parable of the pounds

    Before the class started, one class member commented that, regarding wake up calls, our time is short. Then he quoted James 4:14.

    ‭Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. (James 4:14 NIV‬)

    The main point of this parable is that we must trust the Master and faithfully invest what He gives us to maximize the return because we will all be called to account someday when Jesus returns.

    Do you believe the Lord has given you anything to invest to maximize His return? If so, what is it?

    One class member noted that he had been faithful with an audience of students. A second class member noted that she had followed the commands to love, comfort, and share the gospel. A third class member noted that salvation was a gift. Therefore, to do things that will please the Messiah who gave the gift should come as second nature.

    While they were listening to this, he went on to tell them a parable, because he was near Jerusalem and the people thought that the kingdom of God was going to appear at once. He said: “A man of noble birth went to a distant country to have himself appointed king and then to return. So he called ten of his servants and gave them ten minas. ‘Put this money to work,’ he said, ‘until I come back.’ “But his subjects hated him and sent a delegation after him to say, ‘We don’t want this man to be our king.’ “He was made king, however, and returned home. Then he sent for the servants to whom he had given the money, in order to find out what they had gained with it. “The first one came and said, ‘Sir, your mina has earned ten more.’ “ ‘Well done, my good servant!’ his master replied. ‘Because you have been trustworthy in a very small matter, take charge of ten cities.’ “The second came and said, ‘Sir, your mina has earned five more.’ “His master answered, ‘You take charge of five cities.’ “Then another servant came and said, ‘Sir, here is your mina; I have kept it laid away in a piece of cloth. I was afraid of you, because you are a hard man. You take out what you did not put in and reap what you did not sow.’ “His master replied, ‘I will judge you by your own words, you wicked servant! You knew, did you, that I am a hard man, taking out what I did not put in, and reaping what I did not sow? Why then didn’t you put my money on deposit, so that when I came back, I could have collected it with interest?’ “Then he said to those standing by, ‘Take his mina away from him and give it to the one who has ten minas.’ “ ‘Sir,’ they said, ‘he already has ten!’ “He replied, ‘I tell you that to everyone who has, more will be given, but as for the one who has nothing, even what they have will be taken away. But those enemies of mine who did not want me to be king over them—bring them here and kill them in front of me.’ ” (‭Luke 19:11-27 NIV‬)

  2. The setting

    Just out of curiosity, is your Kingdom anticipation running high? Explain.

    In response, one class member noted that he wanted to stand before the glassy sea and present his crowns to Christ. He also felt a burden toward the people around him. A second class member noted the world events show the nearness of Christ, but too many reject that nearness.

    While they were listening to this, he went on to tell them a parable, because he was near Jerusalem and the people thought that the kingdom of God was going to appear at once. (Luke 19:11 NIV)

    Jesus told this parable to allay people’s incorrect expectations about the arrival of the kingdom. He wanted them to know how they should live between His going away and coming again.

  3. The story

    Jesus used the familiar story of Archelaus as the backdrop for this parable. He pictured Himself as a nobleman going away to receive a kingdom and His followers as His servants whom He had left behind to do business with His resources while they awaited His return.

    Every believer has a mina.

    Jesus wants us to know what we are supposed to do in his absence. We are to be actively doing business for Him with what He has entrusted to us.

    Ask yourself, “what is my mina?” and “what am I doing with the mina entrusted to me?”

    When Jesus, the true King, returns, there will be an accounting or day of reckoning. Every servant will be required to give an account for what they have done. Whatever you did with your mina will be fully revealed.

    “The first one came and said, ‘Sir, your mina has earned ten more.’ (Luke 19:16 NIV‬)

    One class member noted that the servent replied in three ways: Sir (or Master), “your mina,” and “your mina earned ten times more.”

    ‭“ ‘Well done, my good servant!’ his master replied. ‘Because you have been trustworthy in a very small matter, take charge of ten cities.’ (Luke 19:17 NIV‬)

    One class member, pointing back to Luke 19:16, observed that all is owned by God.

    We see that the greater the faithfulness in this life, the greater the reward and responsibility in the next.

    ‭“His master answered, ‘You take charge of five cities.’ “Then another servant came and said, ‘Sir, here is your mina; I have kept it laid away in a piece of cloth. I was afraid of you, because you are a hard man. You take out what you did not put in and reap what you did not sow.’ (Luke 19:19-21 NIV‬)

    One class member noted that his study Bible said that verse 19 was about “hetero” (another of a different kind rather than another of the same kind).

    Another class member noted that their commentary said that this servant may have buried the money with intent of keeping it. He did not believe that the master would come back. Putting it in the bank would create a record of the master’s ownership of the money.

    Was the third servant a true believer who loses his reward or a person who professes to know Christ but has no relationship with Him?

    I am inclined to believe he is a false follower.

    ‭Then another servant came and said, ‘Sir, here is your mina; I have kept it laid away in a piece of cloth. (Luke 19:20 NIV‬)

    ‭“His master replied, ‘I will judge you by your own words, you wicked servant! You knew, did you, that I am a hard man, taking out what I did not put in, and reaping what I did not sow? (Luke 19:22 NIV‬)

    Why did he hide the mina?

    Why didn’t the third slave invest the mina?

    The first two servants were faithful; the third was not.

    Here is a sobering truth: What we do with the mina ultimately reveals what we think of the Savior. What each servant thought of the nobleman was revealed by what he did with the mina.

    What does the investment of the entrustment of the mina to you as a follower of Jesus say about what you think of Jesus?

    ‭But those enemies of mine who did not want me to be king over them—bring them here and kill them in front of me.’ ” (Luke 19:27 NIV‬)

    We see that there are three groups of people who will be called to account:

    • Rewards for the faithful
    • Rejections for the false servants
    • Retribution for the enemies

    This embraces all humanity. Are you confident about which group are you in? Do you know anyone in groups #2 and #3? If so, are you investing anything into those groups with the truth that has been entrusted to you?

  4. The significance
    • The King is coming. His return is certain.
    • While we are waiting for His return, are we investing the mina that the Lord has entrusted to us? Are we investing in things that will last? What we do with the mina entrusted to us will define our life for eternity.
    • Christ expects a spiritual return on His investment. Maximize it. He doesn’t intend on saying, “well intended” or “well thought” or “well planned.”

 

Some minor observations regarding the case against President Trump by D.A. Bragg

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In Trump trial, Manhattan DA Bragg’s hocus-pocus case exposed on first day

Fox News comments on the flimsy nature of the accusations against President Trump made by Biden ally and New York District Attorney Alvin Bragg.

Hocus-pocus is a meaningless distraction or illusion that is intended to fool. That neatly summarizes District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s case against Donald Trump. The DA hopes to snooker a Manhattan jury into convicting the former president with a bag of legal tricks.

In most courtrooms, the chicanery would never work. But in this Trump-hating venue the defendant’s jury of purported peers are likely predisposed to accept magic for magic’s sake. They may want to believe there’s no white rabbit behind Bragg’s back, despite the pink ears peaking around his coat.

The first sleight of hand happened the moment the lead prosecutor addressed jurors during opening statements on Monday. Assistant DA Matthew Colangelo (formerly Joe Biden’s number three official at the Justice Department) told the panel, “This case is about a criminal conspiracy.”  Really?

Why, then, is Trump not charged with that? Even though Colangelo repeatedly accused the defendant of participating in a criminal conspiracy, the word “conspiracy” can be found nowhere in Bragg’s indictment. It’s not there because there was no criminal conspiracy. But that didn’t stop the prosecutor from deceiving the jury by arguing about an uncharged crime. Like a skilled magician, he hopes his pretense will fool them.

Not content with one canard, Colangelo slipped another one from his sleeve. More than once, he accused Trump of “election fraud,” conveniently ignoring the fact that the Federal Election Commission examined Trump’s payments to porn star Stormy Daniels and determined there was no fraud because the money conferred did not qualify as a campaign donation. Federal prosecutors who investigated reached the same conclusion. So did Bragg’s predecessor. There was no crime.

Undeterred, Colangelo used pejorative terms to portray the Daniels cash as a nefarious scheme without bothering to mention that such non-disclosure agreements are perfectly legal and routine. Also, lawful and quite common was the alleged “catch and kill” device used by the tabloid, National Enquirer. On Trump’s behalf, it bought the rights to Daniels’ story about her supposed relationship with him but declined to publish it. Contractually, it had every right to do that.

(Read more at Fox News)

Let me include my unschooled and possibly ignorant questions here.

I have these questions:

  • What authority does a District Attorney from New York City have to prosecute a crime that depends on the violation of a federal election law?
  • How can an infraction that depends on bookkeeping that has passed the statute of limitations be upgraded to a felony just because it supposedly breaks some federal election law that the FEC did not take up? Would that not throw a red flag to this being a political prosecution?
  • Is Joe Biden so senile that he is blind to the effects of his political prosecutions?
  • Since Hillary Clinton claimed in court (in fact, she used as an excuse when questioned on the Steele Dossier) that the monies spent to investigate then candidate Trump were “legal expenses,” why wasn’t she prosecuted for this same infraction?

…

A serial perjurer (Cohen) will try to prove an old misdemeanor against Trump in an embarrassment for the New York legal system

The New York Post makes a point far into its article on this flimsy case that has a number of similarities to the way Hillary paid for the Steele Dossier.

Once again, the contrast to other controversies is telling. Before the 2016 election, Hillary Clinton’s campaign denied that it had funded the infamous Steele dossier behind the debunked Russian collusion claims.

The funding was hidden as legal expenses by then-Clinton campaign general counsel Marc Elias (the FEC later sanctioned the campaign over its hiding of the funding).

When a reporter tried to report the story, he said Elias “pushed back vigorously, saying ‘You (or your sources) are wrong.’” Times reporter Maggie Haberman declared, “Folks involved in funding this lied about it, and with sanctimony, for a year.”

Likewise, John Podesta, Clinton’s campaign chairman, was called before congressional investigators and denied categorically any contractual agreement with Fusion GPS. Sitting beside him was Elias, who reportedly said nothing to correct the misleading information given to Congress.

Yet, there were no charges stemming from the hiding of the funding, though it was all part of the campaign budget.

(Read more at the New York Post)

Are there any records of Hillary passing through a conservative jurisdiction with her Steele Dossier records and funds?

I am just asking for a friend. It’s not that we, unlike rabid liberals, would hunt down and prosecute the former Secretary of State for crimes that normal citizens spent decades in prison after being convicted for committing those crimes. No, never.

Still, I have two more questions

I have two more questions for those who support the prosecution of this case:

  • If this is not just an exercise in theatrics, why do all of the references in this case to the state’s side include mention of “porn star Stormy Daniels?” Such is an illicit application of terms for the following reasons:
    • “Stormy Daniels” is not the legal name of the woman involved.
    • “Porn star,” while pejorative, also elicits undue notoriety and prestige on that woman.
  • Furthermore, why do most of the references to the case center on “hush money” rather than the “non-disclosure agreements” which are common to business if this is not meant to be salatious?

…

We must defund the centers of indoctrination

Featured

Harvard suspends the Palestine Solidarity Committee

Townhall comments on how Harvard had to suspend the Palestine Solidarity Committee.

Harvard College suspended the Palestine Solidarity Committee for the remainder of the Spring semester and threatened permanent expulsion if they fail to “cease all organizational activities,” The Harvard Crimson reports.

The move comes as pro-terrorist demonstrations have overtaken parts of campuses at Columbia and Yale Universities.

PSC, which has been on probation since March, was notified via email of the temporary suspension for failing to register a protest and violating use-of-space guidelines.

The PSC was one of several student organizations, including some unrecognized student organizations, to stage a rally in Harvard Yard on Friday in solidarity with student activists at Columbia, more than 100 of whom were arrested on Thursday by the New York City Police Department.

During the rally, attendees marched and chanted outside the offices of administrators in the Yard, concluding on the steps of Widener Library.

The group also found itself at the center of controversy in the immediate aftermath of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel, when the PSC published a statement co-signed by more than 30 other student groups that stated it held “the Israeli regime entirely responsible for all unfolding violence” from Hamas’ attack. (The Harvard Crimson)

“The organization will not be recognized and will not have access to university benefits and services during this time, including but not limited to use of campus space and appropriate use of the Harvard name,” the email reads. “If the organization continues to operate and commits additional violations during this suspension, the organization risks permanent expulsion, as provided in the Resource Guide.”

(Read more at Townhall)

Thankfully, Harvard administrators may have started to wake up from wokeness

While there is no guarantee of liberation from liberalism in the Ivy League, it may be that the people in charge of receiving funds and hearing from alumni may have started to return to sanity. Maybe.

…

UH students on the student council use deceptive means to silence a Jewish voice, and then report themselves as “freedom fighters”

The Daily Cougar of the University of Houston tells how their student council voted to support the “Palestinian cause.”

On Thursday afternoon, Students for Justice in Palestine HTX held a protest at UH in support of Palestine.

SJP, along with other student supporters, called for divestment on campus and demanded UH get rid of companies which they say are complicit in genocide.

The protest took place on the North Lawn of Student Center North and the protestors chanted slogans like, “Renu Khator you will see, Palestine will be free” and “while you’re learning, Gaza’s burning.”

(Read more leftist repetition of talking points at The Daily Cougar)

Not mentioned by the little leftists was the exclusion of the opposition

iHeart Media’s KTRH news radio reports that the debate over the pro-Palestine measure was held by the University of Houston student council at a time that Jewish students on the council could not attend.

Last night, the University of Houston student government association debated a resolution condemning Israel, an antisemitic resolution on the evening of the holiday of Passover, when none of the Jewish students would be able to speak out against the antisemitic resolution” Rabbi Weiss told KTRH, “That type of behavior is just unconscionable, and inexcusable.”

But apparently acceptable on college campuses all across the country.

“There is a time, place, and manner for protests on college campuses” noted Weiss, “But this is neither the time, the place, nor the manner in which to have these types of protests.”

(Read more at KTRH)

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Not the “peaceful protest” mentioned by Democrats AOC and Biden: NYU students bash NYPD officers as over a hundred are arrested

The National Review notes the tone set by NYU students as NYPD officers broke up their protest (and it wasn’t the “peaceful protest” referred to by AOC and Joe Biden).

New York University students slammed New York Police Department (NYPD) officers in a rally in Washington Square Park on Tuesday, a day after police cleared out an anti-Israel encampment in an outdoor campus plaza.

The students, who staged a “walk-out” and congregated in the park, directed their ire toward the NYPD officers who arrested 133 students, faculty members, and outside agitators Monday.

“It is right to rebel,” the protesters chanted, “NYPD, go to hell.”

(Read more at the National Review)

If AOC, Sanders, and Biden can claim this to be peaceful, why isn’t the same latitude given to President Trump

Despite the evidence of students taking over the campuses of Berkley, Harvard, Columbia, and many other institutions of leftist indoctrination, AOC is quoted in the Daily Mail as claiming the protests which center around chants of “from the river to the sea” (meaning the extermination of Jews) to be “peaceful.” (Bolding is mine for emphasis)

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is backing ‘nonviolent’ pro-Palestinian demonstrators who have disrupted Columbia University by setting up an encampment on the campus grounds in protest of U.S. support for Israel in the war in Gaza.

The New York progressive denounced Columbia President Minouche Shafik for allegedly threatening to call in the National Guard to disperse the group of demonstrators who call themselves the Gaza Solidarity Encampment.

‘Calling in police enforcement on nonviolent demonstrations of young students on campus is an escalatory, reckless, and dangerous act,’ AOC wrote on X.

She added: ‘It represents a heinous failure of leadership that puts people’s lives at risk. I condemn it in the strongest possible terms.’

Shafik gave up on her midnight deadline after the group ignored the demand to break up and extended it for another 48 hours after they reportedly pledged to remove a ‘significant’ number of tents and non-students from the demonstration.

AOC (D-N.Y.) says the Manhattan Ivy League school is wrong to try and stop the demonstrators from besieging the campus.

It isn’t the first time AOC has praised protesters who oppose Israel’s right to defend itself against Hamas terrorists in Palestinian enclave of Gaza.

The squad member applauded pro-Palestinian protesters when opening for President Joe Biden at an Earth Day event in Virginia on Monday.

Alongside fellow progressive Sens. Bernie Sanders and Ed Markey, AOC told the crowd: ‘It is especially important that we remember the power of young people shaping this country today, of all days, as we once again witness the leadership of those peaceful student-led protests on campuses like Columbia and Yale and Berkeley and many others.’

(Read more at the Daily Mail)

Never mind that

Still, we are supposed to believe that (since Democrats are supporting this) it is all peaceful — just like the “summer of peace” with BLM.

…

Some U.S. senators issue a warning to chaos-backing universities

Townhall points out how some senators have gone to the campuses (just as a few went to the border) and now the senators seem willing to take action on the state of the campuses.

Now, more than 25 members of the United States Senate led by Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) are demanding that schools allowing, tolerating, or encouraging such shocking and often unlawful displays of anti-Jew and anti-Israel hate face accountability and a loss of taxpayer funds. The letter was also signed by Senators Lindsey Graham (R-SC), John Barrasso (R-WY), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Katie Boyd Britt (R-AL), Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), John Cornyn (R-TX), Kevin Cramer (R-ND), Mike Crapo (R-ID), Ted Cruz (R-TX), Steve Daines (R-MT), Joni Ernst (R-IA), Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Josh Hawley (R-MO), John Hoeven (R-ND), Ron Johnson (R-WI), John Kennedy (R-LA), James Lankford (R-OK), Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Jerry Moran (R-KS), Pete Ricketts (R-NE), Jim Risch (R-ID), Marco Rubio (R-FL), Rick Scott (R-FL), Dan Sullivan (R-AK), John Thune (R-SD), and Thom Tillis (R-NC).

In their letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland and Education Secretary Miguel Cardona, the cadre of upper chamber lawmakers demand action in response to the “outbreak of anti-Semitic, pro-terrorist mobs on college campuses” that have “effectively shut down college campuses and have literally chased Jewish students away from our schools.”

(Read more and see the letter at Townhall)

I am glad to see this action; however, don’t forget how we got here.

Least we forget how we got here, we :

  • Opened our borders within the George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and (to a lesser degree) Donald Trump years to a stream of immigrants whose foundation does not center on “do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”
  • Likewise have turned from the 1950’s forward to a more socialistic model. Initialy, SSI was meant to take care of widows and orphans. Then it became a resource for both men and women in their final years. Then the government got involved in providing medical benefits to the poor and aged. Now we have Obamacare, Medicare, Medicaid, and numerous other programs the government has no business in being so meddlesome.
  • Therefore, we (the citizens) have our hands out. And, adding to that, Democrats have decided to buy votes by importing some 12 million and counting illegal aliens (who they have handed debit cards).
  • Have become the target of regimes like Iran (and, to a degree, their allies like Biden and Obama) who would love to take us down.
  • Have a main stream press that only reports items beneficial to Joe Biden and the most liberal of Democrats.

…

Two points where Biden’s early failures get remembered

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Joe Biden works to top his Afghanistan debacle of handing over Bagram to the Taliban and China

Joe hands U.S. base in Niger over to the Niger junta, who turns the base over to Russia

The American Thinker steps through the process of Joe surrendering another American military base to another unfriendly foreign power (this time, Russia).

With no Fox News cameras around and nobody paying much attention to what was going on in Niger, a disgraceful, utterly humiliating exit of the U.S. military from that benighted country now led by a military junta, has dealt the U.S. another strategic blow, and entirely preventably. The crummy little tinpot junta now running Niger has managed to kick Uncle Sam around, much as the Taliban and Iran did, creating an accumulating pattern of lost U.S. influence. And sure enough, they got us good, because Joe Biden let them.

According to the New York Times:

More than 1,000 American military personnel will leave Niger in the coming months, Biden administration officials said on Friday, upending U.S. counterterrorism and security policy in the tumultuous Sahel region of Africa.

In the second of two meetings this week in Washington, Deputy Secretary of State Kurt M. Campbell told Niger’s prime minister, Ali Lamine Zeine, that the United States disagreed with the country’s turn toward Russia for security and Iran for a possible deal on its uranium reserves, and the failure of Niger’s military government to map out a path to return to democracy, according to a senior State Department official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss diplomatic talks.

The decision was not a particular surprise. Niger said last month that it was revoking its military cooperation deal with the United States following a highly contentious set of meetings in Niger’s capital, Niamey, with a high-level American diplomatic and military delegation.

The base was a critical node in the U.S. war on al-Qaida, ISIS, and all their evil little allies operating terrorist operations from the northern African region. Niger had been the U.S.’s bigfoot footprint in that region and its value was incalculable.

With that the baseline reality, some of the self-righteous karens at the State Department decided that now was just the time to lecture and hector Niger’s mirrored-sunglass coup leaders about ‘democracy,’ as if that place ever had any idea about the concept.

The coup leaders didn’t take it well, and ordered the U.S. out. To make matters worse, they held 1,000 U.S. servicemen hostage in the desert without water or food for weeks, as the U.S. attempted to hold on, until this past week when the U.S. agreed to fork over the brand-new state-of-art U.S. $110 million military base there just so we could get our servicemembers out. And to make it worse, they decided to hand it over to Russia.

The Times also notes that on Niger’s famous yellowcake front, they’ve decided to give access to that to Iran, which has lots of money from President Obama’s and Joe Biden’s release of impounded Iranian cash along with big nuclear ambitions. Niger’s coup leaders would probably like a slice of that for themselves, and the uranium they exchange it for will supply the missing magic to advance Iran’s evil plans.

(Read more at the American Thinker)

So, not only does Joe hand over a base to the Russians, he reduces our access to uranium.

Since Joe has eliminated American capabilities to mine numerous metals within our own borders (especially toxic metals like uranium, nickel, silica, and the rare earth minerals needed for “green” projects), this is significant.

Additionally, since Joe has enriched Iran by lifting sanctions (see the article below), Iran has new monies to spend buying yellow cake uranium that can be used in all sorts of weapons against America and its allies.

…

In the middle of a war and decades of threats against America, Joe Biden again lifts sanctions against Iran

Biden’s sanctions waiver will award billions to Iran

Iran International opines on the 13 March 2024 lifting of sanctions by the Biden regime.

Republican lawmakers are outraged by President Joe Biden’s decision to renew a US sanctions waiver that benefits Iran, despite the regime’s continued attacks on US interests.

The waiver, signed and transmitted to the US Congress late Wednesday, allows Iraq to purchase electricity from Iran for billions of dollars and pay for it by transferring hard currencies to accounts in third countries such as Oman and Qatar.

While exempting Iraq from Iran sanctions for importing energy is not a new policy, the permission for Baghdad to pay in hard currency is part of the waiver. This was allowed for the first time by the Biden administration last year.

Iran International has information confirming that the waiver will allow Iraq once again to pay for its energy imports with hard currencies via accounts in third countries. The Biden administration claims that money going into these accounts can only be used to purchase non-sanctionable good, but so far there has been no accounting for the $10 billion that Iraq transferred to Oman last year.

Critics say the waiver should not have been renewed, not least because Iran continues to fund armed groups that are hellbent on harming Americans and forcing the United States to pull out from the region.

“Why is Biden granting sanctions relief to Iran while its proxies aim to kill US personnel,” asked Rep. Pat Fallon on his X account. “Does Biden want to fund terrorism or does it want to protect our troops abroad? Another chapter in the Biden foreign policy legacy of disgrace!”

Such strong feelings towards Joe Biden’s Iran policy are not new. The difference this time is that many in Washington see the regime in Tehran as not just an adversary but an enemy in a proxy war that has killed and wounded Americans.

“President Biden just renewed a sanctions waiver to allow Iran access to $10 billion,” Rep. Bryan Steil posted on X. “Meanwhile, Iran is enriching uranium closer to nuclear level and its proxies are shooting missiles at our service-members, killing 3.”

(Read at Iran International how Biden claims these lifted sanctions will be used for “hmanitarian purposes)

Oddly, I have not heard this on the news.

I have not heard of this action by Biden to enrich those who shout “Death to America” and were instrumental in the planning of the 7 October 2023 attacks on Israel that killed both Israelis and Americans.

Considering that we have so many people wrapping themselves in Palestinian flags and wearing Hamas headbands, it stands as an oddity that I don’t hear more on the news about Joe funding Iran.

One time in March, Biden had to defend his opening these floodgates. Then, he nonsensically said that the monies would be used “for humanitarian purposes” (as if money is not fungible).

After that, the “press” has not pressed him.

Neither have I heard the following clip of Joe “condemning both sides” of the Israel/Palestine issue.

Unlike the statement that was concocted by the press and attributed to President Trump where they claimed him to have said “there are good people on both sides,” here we have President Biden blaming the victims of anti-Semetic violence on numerous American centers of indoctrination (formerly known as “universities” and “colleges”). Why won’t the left-wing press (for example, the New York Times, the L. A. Times, or even a worthless little rag like the Houston Chronicle) pick this up?

…

How our opposition defines conservatives, part 2

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Former attorney for President Trump de-banked

“Rather despicable:” John Eastman speaks out after the Bank of America and USAA shut down his accounts

The Daily Caller provides one more article on the theme started yesterday: liberal corporations targeting conservatives and Christians and violating anti-discrimination laws in the name of “equity.”

One of the left’s biggest political targets recently found himself “de-banked” with no warning and little avenue for recourse, the Daily Caller has learned.

John Eastman, once an attorney for former President Donald Trump, was de-banked twice in the span of several months by two prominent financial institutions, Bank of America and USAA, he told the Daily Caller. His accounts were closed as he faced substantial backlash for his work advising Trump around the time of the 2020 election.

Eastman said he had switched most of his banking from Bank of America to USAA, a company that provides financial services exclusively to military veterans as well as their families, due to the former’s “wokeness.” Both corporations are federally insured, and Bank of America was bailed out with billions of dollars in taxpayer funds during the global financial crisis.

Bank of America alerted Eastman in September of 2023 that it would be closing his accounts, a letter obtained by the Daily Caller shows. Shortly thereafter, USAA notified Eastman in November that his two bank accounts with the company would be closed, a separate letter shows.

“And then two months later, we get a similar letter from USAA saying that they’ve decided that they’re going to close your account and they did like three weeks later,” Eastman told the Daily Caller. “And so that was where all of our automatic payments were coming out of, all our automatic deposits. So it was a real pain to shift everything. We had to get a new bank account opened and shift everything over.”

Eastman was notified of his USAA accounts being closed on Nov. 20, 2023. A few weeks prior, a California judge made a preliminary decision saying that Eastman was culpable of ethics violations in a state bar disciplinary case, CNN reported.

USAA claimed in its letter that it was “exercising its right to no longer do banking business” with Eastman per its “Depository Agreement.”

(Read more at the Daily Caller)

This is no longer just against gun shops and gun manufacturers; however, it still forces the object out of the system.

These instances of removing Eastman from his insurance and banking removes him from the system of prepared protection and, short of his stuffing his matress with cash, removes his ability to participate in the market. Further, it ignores signed agreements between Eastman and these companies and uses the flimsiest of excuses to void those agreements.

Therefore, for these instances of de-banking to stand, they must be accepted by the community at large. If the largest part of our society stands on its hind legs and refuses to go along, then this will fall back on these liberal companies. Otherwise, they will succeed at their ploy to rob Eastman of the agreed services due just to his political stand.

And, if that happens — especially on a larger scale, America may be beyond recovery from Joe Biden and liberalism.

…

How our opposition defines conservatives

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For the politically conservative, it seems that we are under the gun of Joe Biden

Supreme Court exposes Biden’s selective prosecution of political opponents

The Washington Examiner digs into one aspect of the selective prosecution that Joe Biden has exacted on his political opponents.

During oral arguments on Tuesday, Supreme Court Justices Neil Gorsuch and Samuel Alito exposed the Biden administration’s inexcusable practice of selective prosecution of protesters and rioters.

The case, Fischer v. United States, involved the contention by Pennsylvanian Joseph Fischer that the charges of “obstruct[ion of] … any official proceeding,” based on 18 U.S.C. § 1512(c), should not apply to his actions during the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. Fischer, who also was charged with assaulting police officers, is hardly a sympathetic figure. His claims that he wasn’t trying to obstruct or “impede” official (and important) congressional business, in the ordinary (nonlegal) sense of those words, are specious, but Gorsuch and Alito were interested in a point broader than Fischer’s particular circumstances.

More than 300, of nearly 1,400 total, other Jan. 6 defendants also have been charged with violating 18 U.S.C. § 1512(c). The two justices were puzzled by inconsistencies with which President Joe Biden’s appointees apply the law and with the wide scope they claim for it against disfavored defendants. Contrarily, when people on the Left, even including members of Congress, disrupt government proceedings, including by use of force, Biden and his officials look the other way.

“Would a sit-in that disrupts a trial or access to a federal courthouse qualify [as illegal obstruction]?” Gorsuch asked Biden’s solicitor general, Elizabeth Prelogar. “Would a heckler at today’s audience qualify or a heckler at the State of the Union address? Would pulling a fire alarm before a vote qualify for 20 years in federal prison?”

Progressive Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) used the fire alarm stunt before a key spending vote last Sept. 30 and pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge carrying negligible penalties, but he bragged about not being charged for obstructing House proceedings even though that’s what he had obviously done when the alarm forced an evacuation. That mandatory mass exit interrupted attempts to ward off a government shutdown.

When Prelogar’s attempt to draw distinctions sounded weak and confusing, Gorsuch pressed further. Using the catchphrase favored by liberal news media and others about urban riots, even ones where police were injured, cars were burned, and federal courthouses were significantly damaged, resulting in trial relocations or delays, Gorsuch somewhat mockingly asked why “a mostly peaceful protest … that actually obstructs and impedes an official proceeding for an indefinite period would not be covered.”

Prelogar stumbled throughout the questioning, including when Alito picked up on similar themes. At one point, she said that for a criminal charge under the statute at issue, “we would have to have the evidence of intent.” Yet it is clear that at least a significant subset of the Jan. 6 rioters, while knowing they should not be in the Capitol, and thus being criminally liable for trespassing or disorderly conduct, were clueless about the congressional proceedings rather than intentionally trying to interfere with them. Yet this administration is throwing the book at scores of them.

The point isn’t that the Capitol rioters should avoid all penalties but that the Biden administration is choosing for ideological reasons when and how to apply laws against illicit protests.

(Read more at the Washington Examiner)

This will come as no surprise to the Nashville pro-life protesters or President Trump

When we see Joe Biden’s Department of “Justice” recommending no jail time for someone who vandalized a church and attacked church personnel while they recommend 11 year in prison for Nashville pro-life protesters praying outside of an abortion clinic, we have an out-of-control, dictatorial ruler over our “justice.”

Likewise, when the the White House legal counsel and Vice president met with Nathan Wade and Fani Willis; Alvin Bragg; and Jack Smith — what are we supposed to deduce but a centrally-controlled persecution of the chief political rival of Joe Biden?

…

For Christians, is seems that many have come under the gun of elitist corporations

As reported by Fox Business, Indiana AG blasts Bank of America’s alleged discriminatory behavior: “You can’t just pick and choose”

Fox Business reports on how the Attorney General of Indiana has informed Bank of America that it cannot discriminate against Christians.

U.S. attorneys general are calling out Bank of America’s alleged “discriminatory behavior” in a penned letter that condemns the de-banking efforts targeting customers for their religious and political beliefs.

Indiana’s Todd Rokita, one of 15 U.S. attorneys general who signed the letter obtained by Fox News Digital, criticized the discriminatory “pattern” taking corporate America by storm.

“It’s this idea that their own political views, they’re going to foist on the rest of us, or they’re simply cowards and can’t stand up to the socialist pressure that’s being put on them,” Rokita expressed during his appearance on “FOX & Friends First” on Wednesday.

“You can’t just pick and choose. It’s kind of also some of the basis of our discrimination laws,” he continued.

Timothy of Two Project International founder Steve Curtis detailed the experience that his organization had with Bank of America.

The organization, which requires international travel, focuses on training pastors who may not have access to formal education.

Curtis told “FOX & Friends First” co-host Todd Piro that the organization received a letter in 2020 from the bank that said their account would be restricted in 21 days, and completely closed in 30 days.

(Read more at Fox Business)

America has pulled the religion that holds in its surahs commands to kill Christians and Jews

When George W. Bush and later presidents made alliences that ended by our bringing multiple thousands of Islamists into our borders, we should have expected that politicians would start dancing to an Islamic tune. Likewise, there will be the corporate elites that go along with the political elites. Therefore, to have Joe Biden and his corporate cadre lining up against Christians should not come as a surprise.

…

NTD News likewise reports how 15 State Officials Warn Bank of America About “De-banking” of Christians

NTD News reports on the mixture of 15 auditors and treasurers from 12 states who informed Bank of America that it cannot discriminate against Christians.

A group of 15 financial officials from 13 states sent a notice to Bank of America, raising concerns about the institution’s “de-banking” of Christians.

“We write to express our concerns over Bank of America’s troubling track record of politicized de-banking. Bank of America’s de-banking policies and practices threaten the company’s financial health, its reputation with customers, our nation’s economy, and the civil liberties of everyday Americans,” the officials wrote in an April 18 letter to Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan.

“We are especially troubled by Bank of America’s track record of discriminating against religious ministries. Notable examples include Memphis-based charity Indigenous Advance Ministries, the Timothy Two Project, and Christian author and speaker Lance Wallnau.”

In April 2023, Bank of America shut down the account of Indigenous Advance Ministries, which partners with groups in the African nation of Uganda to provide care and education for orphaned and at-risk children. The bank closed accounts of a Memphis church which donated to the organization.

Bank of America provided “vague reasons” for the closure of these accounts, claiming the organization’s activities exceeded the institution’s “risk tolerance” and that it no longer wanted to serve its “business type.”

“Months later—after being confronted by an international media organization—the bank then claimed that it closed the accounts because the for-profit business engaged in ‘debt collection.’ Neither Indigenous Advance Ministries nor the church collect debts, nor was the bank able to point to any policy prohibiting account holders from engaging in such activities,” the letter said.

“In other words that rationale was a ruse, and even if legitimate, would only apply to one of the closed accounts.”

In 2020, the bank closed the account of Timothy Two Project International, which trains pastors in more than 65 nations. In a letter to the group, the bank claimed the closure was due to Timothy Two operating “a business type we have chosen not to service.”

The financial institution also froze the accounts of author Mr. Wallnau, alleging he was suspected of money laundering. However, the bank failed to provide any evidence supporting such accusations.

(Read more at NTD News)

America has existed on a Christian moral of equal standing and “do unto others as you would have them do unto you” for over 200 years. Will it withstand Islam?

Islam is built on a foundation of tyrants. Its founding prophet, Mohammed, beheaded people (unlike Christ, who gave his life on a cross as a ransom for the sin of all who will accept Him as Messiah).

With this contrast of foundations, can America stand to have its base changed from one based on equality of all to one where there is a ruling caste of Muslims over a caste of non-Muslims who pay tribute for the privilege of existing?

Considering the contrast between tolerance as expressed in America between 1950 and the present and the tolerance of Christians, gays or other sexually deviant groups, and other minorities during recent years, the liberals in America should think long about this before committing to a course.

…

Eternal Rewards

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The nature of heavenly rewards

The following comes through the notes of Mark Ramsey.

  1. Basic elements of heavenly rewards
    • Praise — Commendation

      ‭Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait until the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of the heart. At that time each will receive their praise from God. (1 Corinthians 4:5 NIV‬)

      ‭“His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’

      “His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’ (Matthew 25:21, 23 NIV‬)

      What things do you think Christ-followers will be commended for by Jesus?

    • Position — co-ruling with Christ

      Do you realize that ruling with Christ will be the culmination of God’s original creation?

      Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.” (‭Genesis 1:26-28 NIV‬)


      ‭Now is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out. (John 12:31 NIV‬)

      ‭The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. (2 Corinthians 4:4 NIV‬)


      And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” (‭Genesis 3:15 NIV‬)


      ‭We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. (Romans 8:22 NIV‬)

      Ask me, and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession. (‭Psalms 2:8 NIV‬)

      The seventh angel sounded his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, which said: “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Messiah, and he will reign for ever and ever.” (‭Revelation 11:15 NIV‬)

      Coming out of his mouth is a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. “He will rule them with an iron scepter.” He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty. [16] On his robe and on his thigh he has this name written: king of kings and lord of lords. (‭Revelation 19:15-16 NIV‬)

      if we endure, we will also reign with him. If we disown him, he will also disown us; (‭2 Timothy 2:12 NIV‬)

      ‭To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I was victorious and sat down with my Father on his throne. (Revelation 3:21 NIV‬)

      ‭You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth.” (Revelation 5:10 NIV‬)

      ‭There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever. (Revelation 22:5 NIV‬)

      These positions of authority will be given based on how we live now. Our stewardship of time, the opportunities, the obedience, the humility and faithfulness will determine the degree of our authority.

    • Crowns and honors
      • The imperishable crown

        Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air. No, I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize. (‭1 Corinthians 9:24-27 NIV‬)

        What do you consider temptations of the flesh?

        What is the focus of your attention and efforts?

        How do you spend your time, money and talents?

      • The crown of righteousness

        ‬I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing. (‭2 Timothy 4:7-8 NIV)

        Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure. (‭1 John 3:2-3 NIV‬)

        Do you believe that you are fighting the good fight?

        How do you describe your love for Jesus?

        Are you yearning for Christ’s coming or yawning? Do you long for His appearing?

        Is the anticipation of His coming motivating you to live a righteous life?

      • The crown of life

        ‭‬Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him. (James 1:12 NIV)

        Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you, and you will suffer persecution for ten days. Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you life as your victor’s crown. (‭Revelation 2:10 NIV‬)

        Do you believe that you are faithful during the hardships of life?

      • The crown of rejoicing

        The soul-winner’s crown will be given to those who win people for Christ.

        ‭For what is our hope, our joy, or the crown in which we will glory in the presence of our Lord Jesus when he comes? Is it not you? Indeed, you are our glory and joy. (1 Thessalonians 2:19-20 NIV‬)

        ‭Therefore, my brothers and sisters, you whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord in this way, dear friends! (Philippians 4:1 NIV‬)


        ‭Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. (2 Corinthians 5:17-20 NIV‬)

        What does this tell us?

        We have been given the message of reconciliation because we have been reconciled with God through Jesus Christ. We are Christ’s ambassadors.

        What should we do with this truth?

      • The crown of glory

        To the elders among you, I appeal as a fellow elder and a witness of Christ’s sufferings who also will share in the glory to be revealed: Be shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care, watching over them—not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be; not pursuing dishonest gain, but eager to serve; not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock. And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that will never fade away. (‭1 Peter 5:1-4 NIV‬)

      • What do we do with these crowns?

        ‭the twenty-four elders fall down before him who sits on the throne and worship him who lives for ever and ever. They lay their crowns before the throne and say: “You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being.” (Revelation 4:10-11 NIV‬)

 

A case of Democrat corruption being reflected and reported against a conservative

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President Trump’s “impeachment whistleblower” was involved in the Biden/Ukraine affairs

Paul Sperry of RealClearInvestigations has dug into a number of open documents and found improprieties just waiting for an honest journalist to expose.

The ‘whistleblower’ who sparked Donald Trump’s first impeachment was deeply involved in the political maneuverings behind Biden-family business schemes in Ukraine that Trump wanted probed, newly obtained emails from former Vice President Joe Biden’s office reveal.

In 2019, then-National Intelligence Council analyst Eric Ciaramella touched off a political firestorm when he anonymously accused Trump of linking military aid for Ukraine to a demand for an investigation into alleged Biden corruption in that country.

But four years earlier, while working as a national security analyst attached to then-Vice President Joe Biden’s office, Ciaramella was a close adviser when Biden threatened to cut off U.S. aid to Ukraine unless it fired its top prosecutor, Viktor Shokin, who was investigating Ukraine-based Burisma Holdings. At the time, the corruption-riddled energy giant was paying Biden’s son Hunter millions of dollars.

(continued)

Ciaramella’s role – including high-level discussions with top Biden aides and Ukrainian prosecutors – is only now coming to light thanks to the recent release of White House emails and photos from the National Archives.

The emails show Ciaramella expressed shock – “Yikes” is what he wrote – at Biden’s move to withhold the $1 billion in aid from Kyiv, which represented a sudden shift in U.S. policy. They also show he was drawn into White House communications over how to control adverse publicity from Hunter taking a lucrative seat on Burisma’s board.

(continued)

Ciaramella worked under CIA Director John Brennan when President Obama made Biden his point man on Ukraine in 2014, the same year Burisma hired Hunter. The next year, the CIA detailed Ciaramella, a longtime advocate for aid to Ukraine, to the White House, where he worked closely with Biden and his staff as a top adviser on key Ukrainian policies. After Biden left office, he stayed on at the GOP White House until mid-2017 even though he’s a Democrat, working as a Ukrainian and Russian analyst on Trump’s National Security Council. Co-workers there accused him of trying to sabotage Trump, including allegedly leaking sensitive information to the press.

(continued)

White House visitor logs confirm Ciaramella escorted Shokin’s deputy prosecutor, David Sakvarelidze, into the White House for a January 2016 meeting. A White House agenda for the meeting lists Ciaramella as “point of contact” for the Ukrainian delegation. He also checked in Andriy Telizhenko, the Ukrainian Embassy official who says they discussed Burisma and Hunter Biden during the meeting and struggled to understand why his U.S. counterparts were suddenly hostile to Shokin after praising him in earlier talks.

(continued)

On Jan. 21, U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt emailed Ciaramella and other White House aides an article from the Ukrainian press – “U.S. loan guarantee conditional on Shokin’s dismissal.”

“Yikes. I don’t recall this coming up in our meeting with them,” Ciaramella replied, referring to the White House meeting he hosted with top Ukrainian prosecutors.

(Read the entire and worthwhile article at RealClearInvestigations)

Blogging is just a hobby to me; however, I still want to ask a few questions about this.

Unlike professional journalists, my daily time as a blogger gets limited to a hour or so before my workday (and maybe a half-hour or little more during my lunch and precious little time in the evening).

Nonetheless, when I look at this article, a set of questions come to mind:

  • If someone accusing the current president worked hand-in-glove with the opposition party’s vice president, might that not cause most to take that person’s otherwise unsubstantiated testimony with a grain of salt?
  • How is it that every Democrat “whistleblower” starts out by citing disprovable allegations against conservatives, but those allegations are built on kernels of truth that lead back to Democrats? For example, Ciaramella “blew the whistle” on a purported phone call between President Trump and the Ukrainian president where Ciaramella accused Trump of asking that Biden be investigated. Since Ciaramella had worked as a national security analyst to Joe Biden, surely he knew of Biden’s threat to cut of U.S. aid to Ukraine unless the Ukrainians fired their top prosecutor (who was investigating Burisma Holdings, employer of Hunter Biden to the tune of millions of dollars).
  • If not for the power of Joe Biden’s control over what aid went to Ukraine, why did both the Obama administration and the Ukrainian government turn on Shokin after Joe Biden’s threat to cut off U.S. aid?
  • Since Ciaramella has a history with the CIA (which Chuck Schumer noted as being advisaries who “have six ways from Sunday at getting back at you”), could this be an extension of the “Russia collusion hoax” (which, although primariy implemented through the FBI, had some CIA and foreign intelligence elements)?
  • Why was Ciaramella so surprised by the action of Joe Biden as to respond with “Yikes?”

…

Are the “Vote for Biden” fliers in a Mexican porta-potty the reason Democrats deep-sixed all impeachments?

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In 2020, the press hid and lied about the Hunter laptop. Will this story involving Mayorkas, his former supporting organizations, and some fliers be the 2024 scandal to be ignored?

After the discovery of “Vote for Biden” flyers in a Mexican porta-potty, Mayorkas can’t say how to stop illegal aliens from voting

The Daily Signal exposes the first edge of a multifaceted story involving the encouragement of potential illegal aliens to commit voter fraud (among many other issues).

After the revelation of flyers at a Mexican shelter reminding unlawful border crossers “to vote for President Biden,” Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas couldn’t tell Congress on Tuesday how his department could safeguard U.S. elections from illegal voting by foreigners.

“We do not oversee the election enrollment process,” Mayorkas told the House Homeland Security Committee. “What we do is enforce our borders.”

The House voted to impeach Mayorkas in February for failure to enforce border laws. House members delivered the two articles of impeachment Tuesday to the Senate, where the Democrat majority wasn’t expected to hold a trial.

Late Monday, The Heritage Foundation’s Oversight Project posted the content of the flyers using video of copies displayed by a nongovernmental organization called Resource Center Matamoros in Tamaulipas, Mexico, and discovered by the news outlet Muckraker. (The Daily Signal is Heritage’s news and commentary outlet.)

(Read more at the Daily Signal)

We know Mayorkas has maintained contacts with HIAS and RCM

Although Mayorkas had to leave his board position on the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society and Resource Center Matamoros, he did not leave his connections when it came to the various flyers distributed those organizations.

Really, the flyers constitute a minor issue when it comes to the invasion, the fentanyl crisis, the human trafficking, and the international crime that this regime has built up. Those should be the issues sufficient to impeach both Mayorkas and Biden.

…

With the above point ignored, the Senate likewise ignores their duty to hold trial on an impeached cabinet member

For the first time (but probably not the last), the Senate dismisses the points found by the House

In a manner that is not as shrill as will occur when the next conservative or Republican president gets impeached by the House and then those impeachment papers get deep-sixed, The Hill provides a left-leaning assessment of the dismissal of charges against Mr. Mayorkas and whoever else got caught up in his machinations.

Senators quickly decided Wednesday not to hold a trial on the two articles of impeachment against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

The Senate voted to dismiss the charges by sustaining two points of order raised by Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) asserting that they did not rise “to the level of a high crime or misdemeanor” as required by the Constitution.

The House sent the articles of impeachment to the Senate Tuesday — about two months after they passed the House is a narrow vote.

(Read more at The Hill, if you must)

The reason that Roe versus Wade went into the dust bin of history can be attributed to the killing of the “nuclear option” in the Senate. Now they do this?

The reason that we have Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Coney Barrett is that Harry Reid pushed used the “nuclear option” for court nominations. As a result, when Roe versus Wade subsequently came up, it got overturned. That would not have happened with a more moderate Senate vote that would have come with the normal 60-vote requirement. Nonetheless, Harry Reid used the nuclear option, Republicans followed their example, and now we have “no mo’ Roe.”

While I do not pretend to be a prophet, unless the Democrats are now willing to just come out of their shells and show themselves as the full fascists they have been ramping up to, they may come to regret this decision to not hold this trial.

There may soon be a Democrat House facing a conservative or Republican president and Senate. If that does happen, Democrats will likely do what they did baselessly to President Trump three times. However, unlike the three times that President Trump had to stand and defend himself in the Senate, the precident will now be that the leader of the Senate can say “Nothing to see” and vote it away without a trial.

I look forward to hearing the Democrat screams from each of those missed trials.

…

According to the NYTwits, it’s not Biden’s economy or observed inequity in the law that helps President Trump

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According to the NYTwits, it is nostalgia that helps President Trump

The New York Times ignores a lot of the obvious negative contributions by the Biden regime has thrown onto the electoral fire and tries to heap the positives going for President Trump into a “nostalgia” heap.

A new poll by The New York Times and Siena College finds that voters think highly of the former president’s record on the economy, but memories of his divisiveness largely remain intact.

The poll’s findings underscore how a segment of voters now recall the Trump years as a time of economic prosperity and strong national security.

Views of Donald J. Trump’s presidency have become more positive since he left office, bolstering his case for election and posing a risk to President Biden’s strategy of casting his opponent as unfit for the presidency, according to a new poll by The New York Times and Siena College.

While the memories of Mr. Trump’s tumultuous and chaotic administration have not significantly faded, many voters now have a rosier picture of his handling of the economy, immigration and maintaining law and order. Ahead of the 2020 election, only 39 percent of voters said that the country was better off after Mr. Trump took office. Now, looking back, nearly half say that he improved things during his time as president.

The poll’s findings underscore the way in which a segment of voters have changed their minds about the Trump era, recalling those years as a time of economic prosperity and strong national security. The shift in views about his administration comes even as Mr. Trump faces dozens of felony counts and will appear in a New York courtroom on Monday for jury selection in one of his four criminal trials.

(Read more at the New York Times)

If prosperity and security are not reasons enough to vote for a guy, why not look beyond that to the other reasons?

While prosperity and security are driving reasons, why not also consider the fact that President Trump did not have transexuals on the White House lawn baring their breasts?

Alternately, why not consider the chaos that Joe Biden has promoted in his transgender policy?

On the international front, why not consider the weakness that this hardly-animated corpse has projected for the rest of America?

…

I have a question for the Biden apologists: Are the continual one-word messages of “Don’t” proof of Biden’s dementia?

In 2022, Biden issues a short “warning” to Putin over the possibility of his use of chemical or nuclear weapons: “Don’t”

The Moscow Times picked up a 17 September 2022 article by the Agence France-Presse covering Biden’s first monosyllabic “warning” to entities actually in control of their faculties.

U.S. President Joe Biden is warning his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin against using chemical or tactical nuclear weapons in the wake of serious losses in his war in Ukraine.

“Don’t. Don’t. Don’t,” Biden said, in an excerpt from an interview with CBS’ “60 Minutes” aired Friday evening.

Biden was responding to an interviewer’s question about the possibility of Putin, whose army is incurring heavy losses in the Ukraine counteroffensive this month, resorting to chemical or tactical nuclear weapons.

(Read more at the Moscow Times)

In 2023, Biden tells Hezbollah and its backer, Iran (who he funds with pallets of cash) “Don’t”

Britian’s alternative news Sky News provides a stark view of the impaired leader’s warning as it quotes Joe’s empty words to Iran.

The US president said his message to Iran, which has threatened to take military action against Israel, was simply ‘don’t’. He added, ‘we will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed.’

(See the video version of this weak warning at Sky News)

Rather than issuing these weak warnings, why doesn’t the regime take measures to withhold money from Iran?

The Biden regime has enriched Iran by allowing China and other nations to trade with Iran for its oil without suffering sanctions from America or its allies.

Additionally, Joe Biden has unfrozen $6 billion in one instance and another $10 billion to Qatari banks.
Furthermore, as the tweet below illustrates, the people in the Biden regime have taken no interest in tracking how Iran spends the money that Biden sends it.

…

Two proofs that what Democrats charge others of crimes that they commit

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So Democrats wanna make a big deal of the NDA Trump had with Stormy Daniels?

Axios used a 12 April 2024 article to expose the hypocrisy of Democrats decrying non-disclosure agreements when it was the Democrat National Committee that covered Joe’s legal bills in a special counsel probe.

Why it matters: The payments, made through the Democratic National Committee, are at odds with the Biden campaign’s recent attacks on Donald Trump for spending his campaign funds on legal fees.

Driving the news: The DNC — which has been collecting the biggest donations to Biden’s re-election effort — paid more than $1.5 million to lawyers or firms representing Biden during the probe, according to the committee’s financial filings.

  • In January 2023, special counsel Robert Hur began investigating Biden’s handling of classified documents after papers from Biden’s vice presidency were found at his office and home.
  • From July 2023 to February 2024, the DNC paid $1.05 million to Bob Bauer PLLC — the professional limited liability company for Biden’s lead attorney, Bob Bauer.
  • Those payments were largely for handling the special counsel probe, including bringing on veteran lawyer David Laufman. He’s a former Justice Department official who previously oversaw the politically fraught probes into Hillary Clinton’s email server and Russian interference in the 2016 election.

Starting last July, the DNC increased its monthly payments to law firm Hemenway & Barnes from $15,000 to $100,000.

  • Special counsel Hur’s final report, released in February, identified Jennifer Miller — who works at Hemenway & Barnes — as one of Biden’s attorneys.
  • It’s unclear how much of the increased payments were for Miller and her work on Biden’s case, and the expanded role the firm was taking in DNC work.
  • The DNC declined to say exactly how much money it spent on legal work related to Hur’s probe.
  • Hur ultimately declined to pursue charges against Biden.

Zoom in: The Biden team increasingly has attacked Trump for using campaign donations to pay for his myriad legal fights.

  • Last weekend, the Biden campaign’s finance chair said on MSNBC that “every single time you give to the campaign, we’re going straight to talk to voters…We are not spending money on legal bills or hawking gold sneakers,” a reference to Trump.
  • A deputy campaign manager for Biden called a recent glitzy fundraiser for Trump “a handful of billionaires figuring out how to pay his legal bills.”
  • Asked about Biden’s use of the DNC to pay his legal bills, DNC spokesperson Alex Floyd told Axios: “There is no comparison — the DNC does not spend a single penny of grassroots donors’ money on legal bills — unlike Donald Trump, who actively solicits legal fees from his supporters and has drawn down every bank account he can get his hands on, like a personal piggy bank.”

Reality check: Trump almost certainly has spent many times more of his campaign money on legal fees, in response to the criminal and civil investigations into his actions on Jan. 6, an alleged sexual assault, his real estate businesses and his own handling of classified documents.

  • Trump has faced $100 million in legal bills since he left office, according to a recent tally by The New York Times.

(Read of the intrigue and the election interference at Axios)

This, like the article that follows, would not have happened without the press providing cover

The DNC would not be able to carry the full load of the Biden campaign were it not for the umbrella of the press.

If the press dug into the connections between:

  • The Biden regime and the political persecution of President Trump as illustrated by the White House meetings between the White House special counsel and Alvin Bragg; Fani Willis and Nathan Wade; and Jack Smith.
  • The money trails between Joe, Hunter, James, Ukraine, Russia, and China.

…

Least we forget, Joe Biden has been accused of sexual assault

Fox News provided a 30 April 2020 article on how Dementia Joe dodged questions on his assault of Tara Reade (a former senatorial aide) during his basement presidential campaign.

Former Vice President Joe Biden had gone over a month without addressing the explosive sexual assault allegation made by his former Senate staffer Tara Reade, but he had quite a different tune during one of the Democratic debates earlier this year.

(continued)

Biden has been criticized for lack of transparency. The presumptive Democratic nominee is set to break his silence on Friday.

There have also been growing calls for him to unseal his Senate records that are being held at the University of Delaware, where Reade believes her sexual harassment complaint she filed to the Senate personnel office is being held and further corroborate her claims.

However, the university says the records will remain sealed until at least two years after Biden leaves public life.

(Think of how this might be fodder for lawsuits and read more at Fox News)

If a misdemeanor that has gone beyond its statute of limitations and been converted to a felony for President Trump, why can’t we do the same for Joe?

If the press can take a non-disclosure agreement (something most of us have to sign to be hired by a company which invents things) and turn that into a felony, why don’t they take a felony and harp on that?

Why not focus on something that likely can be proven by Dementia Joe’s own “sealed records?”

On the other hand, think of how we might have been spared the current round of inflation/open borders/misgovernance had the press been honest about Joe’s past (and Hunter’s past and Joe’s involvement with the family business).

…

Eternal Rewards

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Overcomers

The following comes through the notes of Mark Ramsey and the responses of the class.

  1. Overcomers

    Do you believe that all Christ-followers are “overcomers”? What is the basis for your answer?

    One class member noted that he considered Christians overcomers by the blood (and, therefore, the power) of Christ. A second class member went to quote the New Internation Version of 1 John 5:5, where she put voice to:

    Who is it that overcomes the world? Only the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.

    A third class member quoted the NIV of Ephesians 2:13:

    But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

    A fourth member noted how she had brought the truth to her homosexual son and had been cut from his life.

    Scholars disagree on the title of “overcomers” bestowed on Christians. Some believe it applies to all Christians while others believe it only applies to those who have special privileges.

    • Rewards for Overcomers

      • ‭Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God. (Revelation 2:7 NIV‬)

        One class member noted the phrase “whoever has ears,” since many churches refuse to hear sound doctrine.

      • ‭Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you, and you will suffer persecution for ten days. Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you life as your victor’s crown. Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The one who is victorious will not be hurt at all by the second death. (Revelation 2:10-11 NIV‬)

        One class member noted that, while there would be suffering, the believer fights from victory (and does not fight toward victory).

      • ‭Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who is victorious, I will give some of the hidden manna. I will also give that person a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to the one who receives it. (Revelation 2:17 NIV‬)

      • To the one who is victorious and does my will to the end, I will give authority over the nations— (‭Revelation 2:26 NIV‬)

      • I will also give that one the morning star. (‭Revelation 2:28 NIV‬)

      • The one who is victorious will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out the name of that person from the book of life, but will acknowledge that name before my Father and his angels. (‭Revelation 3:5 NIV‬)

        One classmate noted that believers would be dressed in white (and, therefore, would be dressed in the robes signifying a salvation given to us).

      • The one who is victorious I will make a pillar in the temple of my God. Never again will they leave it. I will write on them the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which is coming down out of heaven from my God; and I will also write on them my new name. (‭Revelation 3:12 NIV‬)

      • To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I was victorious and sat down with my Father on his throne. (‭Revelation 3:21 NIV‬)

    • Special privileges limited to “overcomers,” a special class?

      ‭There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever. (Revelation 22:5 NIV‬)

      To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I was victorious and sat down with my Father on his throne. (‭Revelation 3:21 NIV‬)

      Those who rule with Christ are “overcomers” as they have successfully conquered the challenges of this life. They have willfully suffered for His name. They have resisted the seductions of pleasure, possessions and power. They are the ones who genuinely believe 1 JOHN 2:17, which reads:

      The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever. (1 John 2:17 NIV‬)

      “Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. [38] Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me. (‭Matthew 10:37-38 NIV‬)

      Ruling with Christ should not be taken as a forgone conclusion for all believers. Almost every time reigning with Christ is mentioned, it is always conditional.

      At this point, do you think the title of “overcomers” is limited to a special class of believers?

    • Every believer is an “overcomer”

      Several of the promises to the “overcomers” in Revelation 2 and 3 are clearly offered to every Christian and not just some.

      • ‭Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God. (Revelation 2:7 NIV‬)

        Teacher Mark Ramsey noted that every believer will have access to the tree of life.

      • Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The one who is victorious will not be hurt at all by the second death. (‭Revelation 2:11 NIV‬)

        The teacher then noted this was the promise to every believer that we would not be hurt in the second death.

      • The one who is victorious will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out the name of that person from the book of life, but will acknowledge that name before my Father and his angels. (‭Revelation 3:5 NIV‬)

        This is a strong word of assurance to all who trust in Christ. As overcomers by faith, our names can never be erased from God’s book of life.

      • “Whoever acknowledges me before others, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven. (‭Matthew 10:32 NIV‬)

        The promise of having your name confessed before the Father and His angels is true for every believer.

        Additionally, John defines an overcomer as a believer in Jesus Christ in I JOHN 5:4-5.

        What do you think based on the arguments and Scripture?

        Here is the important point: We have the power to live life as an “overcomer” by the grace, mercy and power of the Lord God Almighty, by trusting in and depending on the Holy Spirit and by relying on the sacrifice and intercession of Jesus Christ. We can literally be “doers of the Word and not merely hearers who delude ourselves.”

        Here is the question: Do you want to be known as an “overcomer” who is faithful, humble, obedient and reverent to the Lord?

        ‭if we endure, we will also reign with him. If we disown him, he will also disown us; (2 Timothy 2:12 NIV‬)

        ‭You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth.” (Revelation 5:10 NIV‬)

        We are seen as overcomers by the Lord and by the power of the Holy Spirit and because of everything Christ has done for us, don’t we want to live out our lives for Him that reveals our gratitude and thankfulness through obedience to His Word with whatever time we have left on this earth?

 

Do you remember Joe Biden’s promises on the IRS and taxes?

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Promise #1 broken: people making less than $400K would not see a tax increase

IRS has been targeting the middle class for audits after the $80 billion cash infusion

Reason outlines how Biden’s IRS has targeted the middle class taxpayer to bring in money for a regime with a spending problem.

Liar, liar: Back in August 2022, when some of us were fresh-faced and naive, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) assured us that their $80 billion infusion of cash (over the course of a decade, so they could hire some 87,000 new workers, including but not limited to men with guns) would actually be a means of targeting millionaire and billionaire scofflaws, not ordinary middle-class earners.

At the time, I voiced skepticism: Correspondence audits and other audits on low- and middle-income earners are simply the easiest to conduct. The IRS has historically spent an awful lot of time targeting these groups, not monied tax dodgers who can hire teams of accountants, so why would this time be different?

Vindicated: “The Internal Revenue Service got an audit of its own in time for Tax Day, and two irregularities jump out,” reports The Wall Street Journal, having labored through the latest Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) reports. “President Biden’s plan to hire a new army of tax collectors is falling flat, and the agents already at work are targeting the middle class.”

“As of last summer, 63% of new audits targeted taxpayers with income of less than $200,000,” reports the Journal. “Only a small overall share reached the very highest earners, while 80% of audits covered filers earning less than $1 million.”

Compare these real-world outcomes with the assurances of the IRS, given less than two years ago.

Empty assurances: “These resources are absolutely not about increasing audit scrutiny on small businesses or middle-income Americans. As we’ve been planning, our investment of these enforcement resources is designed around the Department of the Treasury’s directive that audit rates will not rise relative to recent years for households making under $400,000,” wrote IRS commissioner Charles Rettig in an August 2022 letter to concerned senators.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen was a bit sassier. “Contrary to the misinformation from opponents of this legislation, small business or households earning $400,000 per year or less will not see an increase in the chances that they are audited,” she wrote in a letter to Rettig.

It’s almost like they didn’t tell us the truth the first time around. But that’s not even the most embarrassing thing in the report: The IRS had set a goal of hiring 3,700 new agents in the first year of boosted funding. Instead, in the first six months, they’d hired 34.

(Read more at Reason)

Just by introducing the tax of inflation, Joe broke that promise.

In addition to his introducing the tax of inflation by distributing more money in the COVID relief (his cover for shutting us down in response to the Chinese-created COVID crisis that really only targeted a small portion of our population), Joe overblew his jump into a green state through anti-oil and anti-car executive orders. Thence, with these and a myriad of other bad decisions, he developed an exacerbated spending problem (not a income problem, as he maintains).

…

Promise #2 broken: that Joe would “make the rich pay their fair share”

Sixty-three percent of new audits last year were aimed at middle-class filers

The Wall Street Journal laid out in great detail how the overwhelming majority of Joe Biden’s IRS audits have gone after middle class taxpayers.

The Internal Revenue Service got an audit of its own in time for Tax Day, and two irregularities jump out. President Biden’s plan to hire a new army of tax collectors is falling flat, and the agents already at work are targeting the middle class.

Those are two findings of the IRS’s watchdog, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (Tigta). The report examines IRS progress on mandates from the Biden Administration backed by tens of billions in new funding. The first supposed goal was to audit more ultrawealthy and fewer middle-class filers, but it’s not going so well.

By last December the IRS decided that it wouldn’t begin tracking its progress until later this year. That’s because the agency has been slow to shift its focus to high-income taxpayers, who make up a small share of total filings. Its April 2023 strategic plan pledged that future audits would disproportionately target individuals making at least $400,000, but “did not include specifics on how the IRS was going to ensure it met this commitment,” says Tigta.

The most recent data suggests the IRS is still focused on the middle class. As of last summer, 63% of new audits targeted taxpayers with income of less than $200,000. Only a small overall share reached the very highest earners, while 80% of audits covered filers earning less than $1 million. Don’t forget to save those charitable-giving receipts.

(Read more at the Wall Street Journal)

Joe’s IRS went to the middle class for the same reason that Dillinger robbed banks

“That’s where the money is.”

…

Promise #3 broken: that the greater funds to the IRS would build up the service to the people

Houston taxpayers in need of last-minute assistance turned away by IRS office as office closes for the day

Houston CBS affiliate KHOU tells us how the office on South Gessner Drive was overwhelmed with people seeking tax help, the IRS office was shut down, police were called for crowd control, and the people were told to go home without receiving their desired help.

Houston taxpayers looking to take advantage of free IRS help were turned away from a southwest Houston office Saturday.

The sudden closure of the IRS office on South Gessner Drive near the Southwest Freeway left many residents frustrated.

This office, along with 70 taxpayer assistance centers across the US, were offering special Saturday hours to help last-minute filers.

Although the office was supposed to close at 4 p.m., people waiting for assistance were told just before 11 a.m. the office would be closed.

“The doors were supposed to open at nine and they came out and they said we’re not serving nobody today. I been out here with my elderly mom since 6:30 this morning, people literally were here at 12 o’clock last night,” said resident Calvetta Brandyberg.

When KHOU 11 News reached out to the IRS, they sent a statement acknowledging the delays and said in part they occurred “due to overwhelming taxpayer demand for assistance.”

(Read more at KHOU)

Let’s just take the last word out of the of the “Internal Revenue Service”

There is no more service there.

On a drive-time radio show, an interview of Adam Andrzejewski of Open the Books claimed that people have turned to calling members of Congress because the IRS has become so unresponsive.

…

The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act from multiple angles

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The problem exists not only on the side of our enemies

Mike Johnson’s FISA flip-flop looks even worse now that he’s opened his mouth about it

Townhall uses a 12 April 2023 article to spotlight the flip-flop that Speaker Mike Johnson performed on the FISA high beam.

It’s another case of the good, the bad, and the ugly on Capitol Hill, the fallout of which will put another dent in the House Republican majority concerning their inability to trip over themselves. Speaker Mike Johnson let us down. In this fight, however, I’m willing to take the sting of the bad press because FISA needs to be overhauled.

On Wednesday, the procedural vote for FISA’s re-authorization got torpedoed by House conservatives. On paper, yes, it’s a blow to the Republican majority. Still, one of Johnson’s own doing—the House Speaker also opposed this reauthorization earlier (via Associated Press):

A bill that would reauthorize a crucial national security surveillance program was blocked Wednesday by a conservative revolt, pushing the prospects of final passage into uncertainty amid a looming deadline. The legislative impasse follows an edict earlier in the day from former President Donald Trump to “kill” the measure.

The breakdown comes months after a similar process to reform and reauthorize the surveillance program fell apart before it even reached the House floor. Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has called the program “critically important” but has struggled to find a path forward on the issue, which has been plagued by partisan bickering for years. The procedural vote to bring up the bill Wednesday failed 193-228, with nearly 20 Republicans voting no.

It marks the latest blow to Johnson’s leadership as he faces being ousted from his job in the same stunning fashion as his predecessor. Hours before the vote, the Republican leader made a final push urging for passage, saying Congress must “address these abuses” without cutting off the surveillance program entirely.

These spy warrants, which have been abused and weaponized by the FBI to go after the enemies of the Democratic Party, were lambasted by Mike Johnson in the past. Why did he change course? Well, the FBI sat him down for a classified briefing, and like magic, he changed his mind. Talk about ‘the swamp’ in action here:

(Read at Townhall to see the other incriminating tweet)

If we don’t keep on their backs, then this stuff will slip by.

Issues like this emphasizes the need for the electorate to be in contact with their represtatives. For this to be a working representative republic, we don’t need to sit back and complain. We need to be in contact with our representatives and thus having our voices heard.

…

Wray calls for restoration of Section 702 of FISA

Maybe he sees the poll numbers of President Trump or the inflation numbers of Biden

The Daily Wire employs an 11 April 2024 article to tell us how the FBI director who first oversaw the illegal spying on the Trump campaign in 2016 and then accomplished the surveillence of a president now wants to renew the law he twisted to perform this action.

FBI Director Christopher Wray called for the restoration of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which permits the federal government to gather communications from non-Americans overseas on U.S.-based platforms, but which has also been abused in the past to monitor American citizens.

The much-scrutinized law is up for renewal but failed to pass a key hurdle Wednesday amid internal debate among Republicans about adding adequate protections against future abuse of the law.

Wray, speaking to Congress, cited his “immediate concern” being “individuals or small groups [who] will draw twisted inspiration from the events in the Middle East to carry out attacks here at home.”

(Read more at the Daily Wire)

With Joe’s border policy, what is the point of FISA or gun restrictions?

Still, if the occupier of the Oval Office is going to release known Afghan terrorists into our heartland, what is the point of our surrendering our privacy?

Since we know that the case of the released Afghan terrorist is not an isolated case, why should we release our means of self-protection?

For those who point to the insane murders at Sandy Hook or Uvalde, why don’t you also point to the insane murders in Nashville? And if you do, do the sum of these insane murders require that we all pay a penalty for something we never did?

…

Biden can almost taste the re-implementation of FISA

Biden backs FISA Bill as Speaker Mike Johnson moves again to renew spy powers authority

The Breitbart lays out a case in an 11 April 2024 article to tell us how Dementia Joe backs the implementation of FISA (since nobody will spy on him) all while Speaker Johnson works to renew the Spy Powers Authority.

President Joe Biden backed a bill House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) hopes to pass on Friday that would reauthorize a controversial surveillance bill.

President Joe Biden’s administration announced its support for H.R. 7888, the Reforming Intelligence and Securing America Act (RISAA), a bill to reauthorize Section 702 of the Communications Decency Act. Section 702 is a law that is meant to target foreign adversaries but often surveils Americans’ private communications without a warrant.

House Republicans on Wednesday killed the rule that would have allowed the vote on RISAA; Johnson vowed to try again on Friday.

The Biden administration also came out against Rep. Andy Biggs’ (R-AZ) amendment that would require a warrant for searching Americans’ communications.

“Our intelligence, defense, and public safety communities are united: the extensive harms of this proposal simply cannot be mitigated. Therefore, the Administration strongly opposes the amendment.”

Biggs said in response to the White House statement, “Of course Joe doesn’t support a warrant requirement. His weaponized federal police apparatus wouldn’t be able to spy on American citizens anymore. GET A WARRANT.”

(See more of this response at Breitbart)

There is no part of the DOJ or other weaponized branch that will go after Joe, so he supports this.

Even Dementia Joe could explain this (were his handlers to let him onto a stage and allow him to talk).

…

There is a resistence

Trump allies defy Speaker Mike Johnson and tank reauthorization of controversial spy tool

The Daily Mail reports on 10 April 2023 how conservatives and allies to President Trump blocked the reauthorization of FISA.

A key vote to advance reauthorization of a controversial spying tool failed on the House floor Wednesday after Donald Trump urged his allies to ‘kill’ it.

Nineteen far-right Republicans banded together to tank the vote, dealing another blow to Speaker Mike Johnson who had called on his conference to move the bill forward.

Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) has been credited for helping intelligence officers thwart terror attacks on U.S. soil, but has also been prone to abuse with spying on U.S. citizens.

The so-called ‘compromise’ bill included new guardrails for the FBI‘s ‘spy tool’ -Section 702 that expires next week – but hardliners said did not go far enough.

Another part of the law that is not up for reauthorization – Title 1 – was used to spy on Trump campaign adviser Carter Page in 2016 when he was suspected of communications with the Russians.

‘KILL FISA, IT WAS ILLEGALLY USED AGAINST ME, AND MANY OTHERS. THEY SPIED ON MY CAMPAIGN!!! DJT’ Trump posted on Truth Social Wednesday morning.

Section 702 specifically allows the U.S. government to surveil foreign nationals with suspected terror ties who are not on U.S. soil, even if the party on the other side of such communications is a U.S. national in America.

All Democrats voted ‘no’ on the rule and typically always do so, even if they support the bill, bringing to the total vote to 193-228.

It was the seventh rule vote to fail this Congress, fourth under Speaker Mike Johnson.

A rule hadn’t failed in over 20 years before this Congress as the majority party usually didn’t resort to such tactics to paralyze House business.

It was also the speaker’s third attempt to renew and reform FISA that has failed.

Johnson shot back to Trump’s message ahead of the vote: ‘Trump used the intel from this program to kill terrorists.’

The speaker claimed the bill as it stands now ‘kills the abuses’ that took place under FISA in the past.

He’s warned that if the compromise bill fails, the Senate will ‘jam’ the House with a clean reauthorization without oversight reforms before FISA’s expiration on April 19.

House Republicans will huddle behind closed doors to discuss the path forward on FISA at 4 p.m. Wednesday.

(Read more at the Daily Mail)

Let the Senate jam a clean bill. It can sit.

As many have previously said “Less government is better government.”

…

We are seeing Biden’s destruction of America

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Eleven ways Biden and his handlers are hell-bent on destroying America

The following article at Fox News posted by Victor Davis Hanson outlines the eleven fronts of desctruction accomplished by the Biden regime against America.  I take up the first six.

Why are those controlling President Biden using him to advance so much of a destructive agenda that it will likely end America as we know it?

If someone wished to destroy America, could he do anything more catastrophic than what we currently see and hear each day?

What would an existential enemy do that we have not already done to ourselves?

Here are 11 now familiar steps to civilizational destruction:

  1. Wipe out a 2,000-mile border.

Allow 10 million foreign nationals to enter unlawfully. Have no audit of any; nullify all federal immigration laws. Let in toxic drugs that kill 100,000 Americans a year. Give free support to those millions who broke the law. Smear any objectors as racists and xenophobes.

  1. Run up $35 trillion in national debt.

Keep adding $1 trillion to it each 100 days. Defame anyone wishing to cut wild spending as cruel and inhumane.

  1. Appease or subsidize enemies like Iran and China.

Demonize allies like Israel. Allow terrorists to attack Americans without adequate response. See Islam as either similar or superior to Christianity. Make amends to leftist governments for supposedly past toxic American international behavior. Follow the lead of international agencies like the U.N., ICC and WHO to atone for past American neocolonial and imperialist behavior. Recede to second-tier international status, befitting American decline.

  1. In a multiracial democracy, redefine identity only as one’s tribal affiliation.

Ensure each identity group rivals the other for victimhood and the state spoils it confers. Reboot all political issues by race and sex oppressors and oppressed. Destroy all meritocratic standards of admission, retention, promotion and commendation.

  1. Recalibrate violent crime as understandable, cry-of-the-heart expressions of social justice.

Ensure no bail and same-day release for arrested, repeat violent felons. Empathize with the violent killer and rapist; ignore their victims, especially if they are slain police officers.

  1. Emasculate the military by using non-meritocratic standards of race, gender, and sexual orientation to determine promotion and commendation.

Deliberately impugn as racists and insurrectionists the largest demographic in the military who in recent wars died at twice their numbers in the population — so that they leave or never join the military. Encourage retired high officers to slander their commander-in-chief. Cut the defense budget. Stop producing sufficient weapons, but leave billions of dollars’ worth of arms to terrorists.

(Read the final five points at Fox News)

The thing is that this is not only seen from the vantage point of America. One Brazilian also sees it.

Oddly, at least as allowed by Google searches, nobody reported on the words of a young Brazilian politician Nikolas Ferreira who expressed his concerns of the influence of liberal trends in Brazil and the United States before the United Nations. Following is my transcription of the first half of his speech:

I was born in a poor neighborhood in my city, Bizon, Brazil. I am married. I am Christian. And we are expecting a daughter, Aura, who will be born in three months.

I became the most voted federal congressman in Brazil and I am here to warn you about what is happening in my country.

I apologize if I make any mistakes in my speech. I am still learning English.

The Left returned to power in the presidencies of Brazil ths year, but it has had the power of the universities, media, and culture for decades.

America is like a body and its health is like a tripod: patriotism, morality, and spirituality. If someone undermines these three areas, America will collapse from within. Stalin said this. They have known the secret for a long time and have used all possible means to achieve their goal of the destruction of the family. But you may wonder “Wouldn’t that be too radical of an idea? Does anyone really want to do this? And, after all, how would they do that?”

First, they destroy the sense of reality. There is no wrong. There is no right and wrong, no good or bad. Everything is relative. Why then, say that men exist? Why say women aren’t? Concepts get abolished.

Then they move to stage number two: the destruction of identity. If you are nothing, then everything can be everything. Therefore, they will destroy your identity as a person. Young people no longer know what or who they are and are carried away by any wind of doctrine and cling to what is fashionable. They tell you to dress like this and use this type of language and, finally, live like this. It is the generation most lacking in good references that have ever existed. (After all, the Left replaced Jesus with a Black Lives Matter activist and exchanged the Cross — which represents injustice against an innocent — for symbols that represent nothing other than the selfishness of activism itself.)

By the way, the rainbow is not yours, but ours. Read the Bible and you will find out.

Also, beauty no longer exists. The focus is on shocking — whether in fashion, music, films, and TV series — the important thing is to sell a culture that delivers everything you want (except meaning of life).

Slaves to their own will, a generation that cannot handle pain or confrontation (much less being told what is wrong), who exchange their parents advices for teachers who never carried them in their arms (who commit the strange actions of those who are dominating them) — these are too foolish to know they are being used and who uses them. Like those who campaign for abortion, but ignore that (75 years ago) the universal Declaration of Human Rights was published — which, in its third article states “everyone has the right to life.”

(Holding up a two-inch model of a unborn human.) This is a 12-week-old baby. His or her heart is already beating. It has a fingerprint. There is no one in the world like this baby.

…

We are additionally seeingthis destruction through the stories not reported by the main stream press

Michigan Democrats fail to condemn “Death to America” chants in their borders

The Daily Caller points out both the silence of the press along with the silence of Governor Gretchen “the Wretch” Whitmer and Representative Rashida Tlaib.

A number of Democratic elected officials in Michigan failed to condemn “Death to America” chants made at an Al Quds Day Rally in Dearborn, Michigan, late last week.

An activist named Tarek Bazzi spoke to the crowd at the rally calling for “all of” the crowd’s chants and shouts to be directed at America. The protesters can be heard chanting, “Death to America” in a video posted on social media.

“The death to Israel is the most logical chant heard across the world, today,” said Bazzi in the video. After Bazir’s remarks, Michigan Imam Usama Abdhulagani said to the crowd, “Israel is an evil settler-colonial State.”

“Israel is ISIS,” continued Abdhulagani.

The Daily Caller contacted Democrats from Michigan’s Congressional delegation, along with Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, to ask if they condemned the chant. A number of them responded with condemnations, but several did not, including Whitmer and Rep. Rashida Tlaib.

(Read more at the Daily Caller)

We will see ice storms in July for Houston, Texas before Joe Biden, Gretchen Whitmer, or Rashida Tlaib criticizes an Islamic extremist

There are a number of hot places that would first freeze over before that set (Joe Biden, Gretchen Whitmer, or Rashida Tlaib) would chance say something against Islam.

…

When on the road in Michigan, Biden said “The most dangerous terrorist threat to our homeland is white supremacy.”

Michigan CBS affiliate WWMT reported in a 15 March 2023 article how Joe Biden estimated White supremacy to be the greatest threat to America.

President Joe Biden over the weekend addressed what he calls the biggest threat to the United States: white supremacy.

So, how worried is the government about that threat and what, if anything, does it mean in the 2024 race for the White House?

“The most dangerous terrorist threat to our homeland is white supremacy.,” Biden said while addressing a graduation ceremony at Howard University. “I’m not saying this because I’m at a black HBCU. I say it wherever I go.”
President Joe Biden over the weekend addressed what he calls the biggest threat to the United States: white supremacy.

So, how worried is the government about that threat and what, if anything, does it mean in the 2024 race for the White House?

“The most dangerous terrorist threat to our homeland is white supremacy.,” Biden said while addressing a graduation ceremony at Howard University. “I’m not saying this because I’m at a black HBCU. I say it wherever I go.”

(Read more at CBS)

Just as Joe maintains President Trump threatens democracy, he also has not stepped back from calling “White supremacy” a threat to America

In fact, just this week, Biden called Trump the “primary threat to freedom and democracy at home” (all while Joe’s White House has met with every prosecutor working cases against President Trump).

…

Teen arrested by the FBI for allegedly plotting to attack churches in name of ISIS

CBS News reports in a 9 April 2024 article on the arrest of 18-year-old Alexander Mercurio who planned to kill churchgoers in his town in the name of ISIS.

An 18-year-old from Idaho was arrested Saturday and accused of plotting to kill churchgoers in his town in the name of ISIS, according to court documents unsealed Monday.

Alexander Mercurio was charged in a criminal complaint with providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization. He remains in custody and has not entered a plea, according to court records.

Investigators alleged Mercurio was about to attack at least one church in his area on April 7 — a Sunday — with guns, knives, and flammable chemicals, but they said they foiled his plans before he could carry out his plan.

Mercurio is accused of writing to an unnamed FBI source that he was set to “stop close by the church, equip the weapon(s) and storm the temple, killing as many people as possible.” His goal, according to investigators, was to carry out an act of martyrdom before the end of Ramadan — the holy month observed peacefully by Islam practitioners across the globe that emphasizes prayer and fasting — and pledge his allegiance to the leader of ISIS.

“I am going to perform a martyrdom operation very soon,” he allegedly wrote in one recent message. “The targets will be the various churches in my town.”

In the newly-released court documents, prosecutors described an evolution of beliefs beginning in 2022 when messages and posts allegedly revealed the teenager’s interest in ISIS and his parents’ apparent dissatisfaction with his religious beliefs. He stored media on his electronic devices including a jihadi chant, investigators said, and posted pro-ISIS material online.

Court documents revealed Mercurio also allegedly told members of a terror-affiliated group chat that he had previously been in contact with an individual who was later arrested for providing financial support to the terrorist group.

(Read more at CBS News)

Luckily, the FBI caught this guy before he joined Black Lives Matter or Antifa

If Mercurio had joined either BLM or Antifa, the FBI likely would never had caught him. Instead, the Biden staff would have contributed to his cause.

…

Will Chuck Schumer hear the warning of Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana?

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Will Chuck lead the Democrats to do something that they will later warn Republicans against following?

Or will he follow in the steps of Harry Reid?

Do you remember how Harry Reid broke Senate tradition in 2013 and changed the approval of judicial nominees from cloture at 60 votes to a simple majority vote?

Do you also remember how Chuck Schumer warned Republicans against using the new tradition that his party started? Somehow, I think that there will soon be regrets among Democrats for actions they will soon take.

Kennedy warns Senate Democrats against burying Mayorkas impeachment: “They’ll regret it”

If we go to the public announcements of Louisiana’s Senator Kennedy, it seems that we might have a foretaste of the bitter pill that Democrats will be sampling soon.

Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) today urged his colleagues not to break centuries of Senate precedent by burying the articles of impeachment against Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas without a trial.

Kennedy encouraged his colleagues to adopt his resolution, S. Res. 623, which would establish fair and efficient trial procedures for this impeachment according to longstanding Senate precedent.

Key excerpts from Kennedy’s speech are below:

“I fear, though, that Senate Democrats are going to try to take the articles of impeachment that our colleagues in the United States House of Representatives thoughtfully crafted and passed with a majority vote and toss them into the trash without hearing from either side.

“They don’t want to let the House impeachment managers make their case. They don’t want to let Secretary Mayorkas make his case. They just want to ignore the House’s evidence summarily, sweep it under the rug and move on. And that is wrong.

“The Senate has never in its history tabled an impeachment. Never. In the more than 200 years that this body has existed, the House of Representatives has impeached an official 21 times, and we have never once tabled the impeachment. Not once.

“Now, Senator Schumer may also try to dismiss these charges instead of tabling them, but that’s never been done before either. If the Senate dismisses these charges without a trial, it will be the first time in the Senate’s long history that it has dismissed impeachment charges against an official it has jurisdiction over without that official first resigning—and that’s a fact.”

(continued)

“Americans need to hear what I’m about to say, even if my Democrat colleagues won’t listen. Let me say it again: A majority of the duly elected members of the United States House of Representatives—who represent all the different communities across America—spent months investigating the allegations against Secretary Mayorkas. They spent months crafting the articles of impeachment, and a majority of the House then voted ‘yes’ to bring two very serious charges. The Senate Democrats are now treating those charges—those articles of impeachment—like spam that landed in their inbox.

“Americans, however, are not nearly so sanguine about the border crisis that has brought death, drugs, violence, chaos, criminals and mayhem into their neighborhoods. The Biden administration’s border crisis is as unprecedented as the majority leader’s move to bury the evidence of who could be to blame here.

“I, for one, want to hear the House’s evidence, and so do the American people.”

(continued)

“I’m going to have a resolution—if I’m allowed to present it, Madam President—that will give us the procedures we need to conduct this trial fairly and efficiently . . . It’ll be efficient. It’ll be fair. It’ll be honest. It won’t uproot the longstanding precedent we have to give articles of impeachment in the past.

“If the majority leader and my Democratic colleagues table or dismiss these charges and destroy Senate precedent, a precedent we’ve established to conduct full and fair impeachment trials, they will regret it. They will regret it. Senate Democrats, if they do that, will show the world that their proclamations about protecting democracy and upholding the rule of law are just tools of their own political expedience and arrogance.

“Senate Democrats will let people, the American people, know that they endorse the lawlessness and misery the Biden administration’s broken border has brought to this country.”

Read Kennedy’s impeachment resolution here.

Why is it that the Democrats fear debate now? Are their defenses of the Biden border policy so weak that they would fall?

Are Democrats avoiding this debate for fear of having the voters see what they stand behind? If so, then what do Democrats stand behind? Is it merely death (abortion, euthanasia, drug use) and corruption? Or are there other facets of this gem I have not considered?

On the other hand, do Democrats fear what they are pushing us toward? Are they afraid that we (and, possibly, the hordes they brought in) might see the socialism they push us toward? Do they fear Americans seeing the uniparty push toward insolvency and the “new comers” seeing a greater poverty here than in their land of origin?

Could Democrats fear that this hearing might expose their complicity in the drug epidemic? What exactily pushes a politician to silence?

…

Let’s get back to America first when it comes to our ranking

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The old claim that “Illegals do the jobs Americans won’t do” has proven false.

Although I admit I got the bulk of this post from the Daily Caller‘s Mark Meckler, I am sure we have seen the proofs that both Mr. Meckler and the Heritage Foundation found. Still, to quote Mr. Meckler:

 I am weary of hearing the trope that we need more illegal aliens because “Americans won’t work those jobs.” My bet is that most Americans share this sentiment as well.

Amidst a myriad of concerns about illegal immigration, one prominent worry among Americans is the potential adverse effects on the U.S. workforce. There is apprehension that undocumented migrants could potentially displace native-born workers, leading to job loss and further exacerbating the nation’s tax burden. The media and the left love to dismiss such considerations as fearful, xenophobic, and bigoted, arguing instead that alien workers fill a vital gap in the American workforce. But these concerns, nevertheless, are valid.

To argue that the American people refuse to work jobs that must alternatively be filled by undocumented workers is nothing less than a slanderous attack against the natives of this country. Americans will work these jobs… when the pay rates go to market rates and are not depressed by illegal-alien rates.

In 2016, the year that President Donald Trump took office, the Heritage Foundation published a study showing that, “other than [a] small number of scientifically educated immigrants, immigration produces little or no overall economic gain for non-immigrants but may cause a substantial shift in income from workers to business and capital owners. Also, immigrants overall produce a fiscal deficit due to the very large inflow of legal and illegal immigrants with low education levels in recent decades.”

The argument, according to Heritage, contends that “a disproportionate inflow of immigrant laborers at a particular education or skill level will reduce the wage of workers in that group relative to others. For example, adult immigrants are almost four times as likely as non-immigrants to lack a high school diploma. This will result in persistently lower relative wages for less skilled workers, whether immigrant or not.”

Put differently, the issue isn’t that Americans are unwilling to take on these jobs; rather, it’s that employers prefer to hire undocumented immigrants who are willing to accept lower wages. While this might not pose a significant problem with minimal illegal immigration (as there wouldn’t be a substantial migrant population to impact the job market), the situation changes drastically when millions of undocumented individuals enter the country unlawfully within a few short years.

Repeatedly, businesses and policymakers have forsaken their responsibilities to the American populace and the principles of “America first” by favoring easy profits or lax immigration policies. Between actions such as offshoring factories, saturating the market with inexpensive labor, and subsidizing Americans’ failure to work through overly generous welfare programs, American society appears to favor foreigners over its own citizens, contradicting the government’s primary allegiance to “We the People.”

(Read the closing paragraphs at the Daily Caller)

As a nation, we need to honor God

Honoring the God of the Bible will involve some sacrifice on our parts; however, those sacrifices are to be directed by God and made by us. To rephrase that, free Americans seeking to honor God need to be unencumbered by a government who would force the world on them.

And it seems that forcing the world on us is the aim of Joe Biden. Correct me where I have strayed from the truth on this if you can find a point where Joe is doing something else.

Don’t get me wrong. Many of the people who Joe Biden has brought in might be usually moral people. However, the first thing they did upon entering this nation was to break our immigration laws.

I look forward to your responses.

…

If Biden is creating the liberal utopia, why all the subterfuge (continued)

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Biden ties support for Israel to civilian protection in Gaza

The Wall Street Journal shines a light on the strings that Joe Biden has tied to his support of Israel.

President Biden warned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday that future U.S. support hinges on protecting civilians and aid workers in Gaza, signaling for the first time that the White House would reassess backing Israel’s war in the enclave.

In a phone call, Biden demanded an immediate cease-fire in Gaza and urged Netanyahu to empower his negotiators to conclude a deal to bring Israeli hostages home, according to a White House statement. The call came days after Israel killed seven aid workers from World Central Kitchen in what Netanyahu has described as a tragic mistake.

(Read at more at the Wall Street Journal)

If this works for Joe, I remember someone who pulled out of Afghanistan, causing a cascading series of deaths

When Joe pulled out of Afghanistan, leaving the people who had worked with the U.S. during the decades-old war to get out on their own, he started a cascading series of deaths in the area.

Of course, the one that the people of America will likely remember is that of the 13 soldier’s lost lives due to the suicide bombing at the Kabul airport. When we look at incident, we could ask “Why did we abandon a military airport in the country for a civilian airport in the city?” However, that would be as fruitless as climbing on the outside of an air transport.

Speaking of which, the largly symbolic “evacuation” of Kabul removed only a miniscule fraction of those who had worked closely with the Western allies against the Taliban. The numbers who perished in this (along with the numbers slaughtered by the Taliban) will likely never be known.

Additionally, after pulling out, Joe sent a drone strike against a car that turned out to be a family fleeing

Since Joe seems so intent on minimizing deaths among the Islamic population abroad right now, he didn’t seem to take the time to consider the effect of his own actions when he killed an Afghan family of 10 in a drone strike as he tried to retailiate for the suicide bombing at the Kabul airport.

If the killing of civilians by the army commanded by Benjamin Netanyahu is reason enough to call for the removal of Netanyahu, why hasn’t anyone called for the removal of Joe Biden three times over as demonstrated by the paragraphs above?

…

Eternal Rewards

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Frequently asked questions

The following comes through the notes of Mark Ramsey and the responses of the class.

  1. What will happen immediately after the Judgement Seat?

    Before class started, a class member noted that the Planet Fitness bathroom policy would create a number of opportunities for our witness to the world. Jesus cannot let us overlook these issues. Another classmate noted that Christians would be clothed in fine garments (made clean by the blood of the Lamb), would attend the wedding feast, and would return to reign (all in the time that the world started to see the tribulation).

    ‭Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready. Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear.” (Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of God’s holy people.) Then the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!” And he added, “These are the true words of God.” At this I fell at his feet to worship him. But he said to me, “Don’t do that! I am a fellow servant with you and with your brothers and sisters who hold to the testimony of Jesus. Worship God! For it is the Spirit of prophecy who bears testimony to Jesus.” (Revelation 19:7-10 NIV‬)

    Is it your desire to make sure that you are adorned in a pleasing way to the Lord on that day? Can you do anything now, in this life, to make it more certain that you will be dressed in a way that is pleasing to the Lord? If so, what? Have you ever considered this?

    One class member responded that they had considered the Bema seat and had worked to be obedient. He witnessed for Christ and set his unchangeable hope in being clothed in a white robe that he did not deserve.

  2. Can rewards be lost?

    To this question, the entire class responded with a “Yes.”

    ‭Watch out that you do not lose what we have worked for, but that you may be rewarded fully. (2 John 1:8 NIV‬)

    Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. Anyone who does wrong will be repaid for their wrongs, and there is no favoritism. (‭Colossians 3:23-25 NIV‬)

    One class member noted how she worked as to the Lord.

    ‭My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” (John 10:27-30 NIV‬)

    To this verse, the class responded with an acknowledgement of the assurance of their salvation.

    According to Scripture, rewards can be lost in three main ways:

    • Shirking our responsibility or defaulting to someone else

      ‭I am coming soon. Hold on to what you have, so that no one will take your crown. (Revelation 3:11 NIV‬)

      One class member noted how this might be seen as failing to honor Christ.

      If we fail to seize the opportunity presented to us, we can lose that heavenly reward.

      What do you think about this?

      One class member noted that they would pray for an opportunity and act on it.

    • Our service is defective or our motives are wrong

      If we choose what is expedient or easy over quality, we will forfeit our Lord’s approval. Also, remember that God cares about the “why” behind our service and if our motives are insincere or self-promoting, we will forfeit any reward associated with that service.

      Does this have any impact on you? Explain.

      One class member noted that wrong motives and what seems expedient can be a temptation for all of us. Sometimes it takes the encouragment of believers to obey the Lord and not just to follow what pleases other men.

    • Disqualification

      Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. (‭1 Corinthians 9:24 NIV‬)

      ‭Similarly, anyone who competes as an athlete does not receive the victor’s crown except by competing according to the rules. (2 Timothy 2:5 NIV‬)

      One class member emphasized how the victor’s crown went to those following the rules of the Bema Judge (the Judge in whom we will have to have trusted to get there and then he will judge our works — therefore, all chances were given).

      What are some ways that we can be disqualified?

      ‭So even if I boast somewhat freely about the authority the Lord gave us for building you up rather than tearing you down, I will not be ashamed of it. I do not want to seem to be trying to frighten you with my letters. For some say, “His letters are weighty and forceful, but in person he is unimpressive and his speaking amounts to nothing.” Such people should realize that what we are in our letters when we are absent, we will be in our actions when we are present. (2 Corinthians 10:8-11 NIV‬)

      A laundry list of things that will cause us to lose rewards were produced: idolatry (money, power, and more), sexual sins, testing God, and grumbling (ingratitude) being chief among them.

    In summary, disqualification results from idolatry, sexual immorality, challenging the Lord and grumbling.

    Grumbling? What does grumbling reveal?

    These are unrepentant sins and ones that continued to be part of your life after your salvation.

    Are there any questions about these four categories?

    One class member responded that the questions revealed a faulty view of God and the place of self (who should be exalting God).

  3. Will every believer receive a reward?

    One class member noted that some believers will not have built with the gold or prescious stones, but will make it through as someone escaping a fire.

    Another class member mentioned the parable of the workers: some came early in the day and worked through the day. Others worked at the last moments of the day.

    ‭If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s work. If what has been built survives, the builder will receive a reward. If it is burned up, the builder will suffer loss but yet will be saved—even though only as one escaping through the flames. (1 Corinthians 3:12-15 NIV‬)

    Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait until the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of the heart. At that time each will receive their praise from God. (‭1 Corinthians 4:5 NIV‬)

    One class member noted that this verse seems to suggest that each believer will receive some sort of reward.

    This verse seems to imply that each man’s praise will come to him from God which indicates every believer will receive some kind of reward. Jesus will find something to reward to every one of us. Any reward we get will be purely due to the grace of God.

    Does this have any influence on you? Explain.

  4. Will we feel remorse at the judgement seat of Chris?

    ‭And now, dear children, continue in him, so that when he appears we may be confident and unashamed before him at his coming. (1 John 2:28 NIV‬)

    ‭If it is burned up, the builder will suffer loss but yet will be saved—even though only as one escaping through the flames. (1 Corinthians 3:15 NIV‬)

    No, I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize. (‭1 Corinthians 9:27 NIV‬)

    ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” (‭Revelation 21:4 NIV‬)

    Peter replied, “Man, I don’t know what you’re talking about!” Just as he was speaking, the rooster crowed. The Lord turned and looked straight at Peter. Then Peter remembered the word the Lord had spoken to him: “Before the rooster crows today, you will disown me three times.” And he went outside and wept bitterly. (‭Luke 22:60-62 NIV‬)

    ‭To him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy— to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen. (Jude 1:24-25 NIV‬)

    The day we stand before the Lord will be the most consequential moment of our lives. Nothing will come close to it. Live today to do all you can to reduce your regret and increase your joy.

  5. Will the judgement seat be public or private?

    So then, each of us will give an account of ourselves to God. (‭Romans 14:12 NIV‬)

    A class member noted this implies a private review.

    “Then he said to those standing by, ‘Take his mina away from him and give it to the one who has ten minas.’ (‭Luke 19:24 NIV‬)

    Another classmate noted that this implies a public judgement.

 

If Biden is creating the liberal utopia, why all the subterfuge

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Revealed: Biden is flying 320K illegal aliens to Texas, Florida, and California

The U.S. cities Biden is flying hundreds of thousands of migrants in controversial program that sparked national security fears

Britian’s Daily Mail lays open the program by Biden to fly illegals From Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela directly into Republican states or into states losing significant population due to Democrat policies.

The vast majority of migrant flights President Joe Biden‘s White House is transporting directly from foreign countries to U.S. airports to bypass the southern border are landing in Florida.

A new analysis from the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) reveals that 326,000 migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela arrived in Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis‘ state since the program started in January 2023.

Lawyers for Biden’s immigration agencies refused to disclose through a FOIA request data on which airports were receiving the undocumented migrants, claiming it would compromise safety and create national security ‘vulnerabilities.’

While the latest analysis reveals the eight cities with the highest number of arrivals, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) revealed last month that the flights landed in at least 43 different American airports from January through December 2023.

Texas already bears a large brunt of the migration crisis with thousands of illegal immigrants entering through the southern border every day. But the Lone Star State is also receiving the second-highest number of migrants through Biden’s flight program.

Through February, 21,964 undocumented migrants were flown to Houston since January last year. Nearly 13,000 were flown to California through the airports in either Los Angeles or San Francisco.

The remainder of the almost 15,000 other migrants who gained entry into the U.S. through this program during the time period arrived at airports in Boston, Massachusetts; Atlanta, Georgia; Baltimore, Maryland; and Chicago, Illinois.

The New York Field Office, which includes JFK and LaGuardia airports, logged 33,408 OFO encounters with inadmissible aliens from the chosen nationalities from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela, Todd Bensman’s analysis notes.

(Read at the Daily Mail how Biden claims the CHNV program is not a cover-up, but doesn’t give details)

This program claims to have flown over 320K directly from Venezuela, Cuba, Haiti, and Nicaragua into our cities, but it does not turn over its books to anyone else

It has long been said that sunlight is the best disinfectant. So, why not put this out into the daylight for all of us to see?

It would be interesting to see why Biden’s staff chose to send illegals from Cuba to Houston and Miami. Were they attempting to start a socialist cell in those red states?

Why did they send the numbers that they did to Los Angeles, Boston, and San Francisco? Were those bastions of liberalism losing so many conservatives that they might lose a representative or presidential elector?

…

Despite the claims of Joe Biden that Republicans are plotting the end of Medicare, his acts have crippled it.

Biden is destroying Medicare Advantage.

The National Review lays out the distructive acts of Joe Biden against the Medicare Advantage program.

In his State of the Union address, President Joe Biden exclaimed, “If anyone here tries to cut Social Security or Medicare or raise the retirement age, I will stop them!”

He failed to mention that there is a caveat: It doesn’t apply to Medicare Advantage.

Medicare Advantage (MA) is the program via which beneficiaries choose a private insurance plan to provide their Medicare benefits.

By April 1, the Biden administration will finalize what, on paper, looks like a 2.4 percent increase in funding for MA for 2025. But that increase won’t keep up with rising costs. Health care inflation is sure to grow this year, and the Medicare trustees project a 6 percent increase in Medicare costs for 2025. Thus, the payment for the MA will, in effect, amount to a 0.16 percent cut. That comes on top of a 1.12 percent cut for 2024.

It will be the MA beneficiaries who will suffer.

(Read more at the National Review)

The Democrats have gone all-out on abortion and been allowed to commit a self-inflicted genocide on the Black community with that program. Maybe those Democrats should call this selective abortion of the old.

The Democrats seem pretty good at packaging death and selling it to a willing population. Maybe they should try selling this.

…

Both political sides seem to be having all sorts of nightmares regarding elections.

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The “Squad” seems to be having nightmares now.

Squad’s anti-Israel rhetoric spurs tough primary challenges.

The Washington Times points out the problem that the far-left “Squad” has made for themselves: they now have strong challenges that may might knock them out of their blue seats.

Members of Congress’ far-left “Squad” who have championed Palestinians in the Middle East conflict are in danger of losing their seats in Democratic primaries.

The efforts to remove Reps. Cori Bush of Missouri and Jamaal Bowman of New York have gained momentum with an influx of money from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and its political arm, the United Democracy Project.

AIPAC-connected organizations are expected to spend up to $100 million this election cycle, mainly on House races. That is four times the $26 million the United Democracy Project spent in the 2022 election cycle.

(Read more at the Washington Times)

Too bad for the conservative side that these challenges to the “Squad” don’t fall on the Republican side.

In a perfect world, the Squad would be replaced with conservative members of Congress that would never go to an enforced border to cry at an empty parking lot.

In that perfect world, there would be no Squad member advocating genocide and then trying to stupidly convince us that the call for genocide is peaceful.

It would not require a perfect world for Congress to act against a Squad member who tweets “It’s all about the Benjamins,” and then deletes the tweet.

And, as you know, this could go on for many paragraphs.

…

This is why they want RFK out of the race.

By using the allocation of electors allowed by Nebraska’s election law, a 269-269 split could go to the House.

Newsweek reports on why the swampiest of the RINO’s have retired in a period where they cannot be replaced: this might throw the House to the Democrats without a special election (and prior to November 2024 — where the Democrats could really deny an election).

Nebraska, a state Republican state, could cost former president Donald Trump the 2024 election against President Joe Biden, according to a conservative.

On March 12, Biden and Trump each won a series of primary elections to become their party’s presumptive presidential nominees. This focused attention on how the likely presidential election between the two rivals would play out.

While Biden’s approval rating and policies related to inflation, crime, immigration and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in Gaza have drawn consistent scrutiny from conservatives, the incumbent president has had a surge in recent polls. Eight separate polls published in March showed promising numbers for Biden, including leads or stalemates in consequential battleground states including Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan.

The polls give Biden a slight lead on a national basis ranging from one to three points, though it isn’t clear if it would give him an overall victory due to the Electoral College.

(Read more at Newsweek)

On the Democrat side, this does not work if there is a third-party candidate like RFK.

If RFK pulls several percentage points from Joe, this does not work.

Nonetheless, this is why the RINO’s are jumping ship at a time that their electorate cannot hold a special election and replace them. Representative Buck and Gallagher obviously have a plan to hand the House and the gavel over to Hakeem Jeffries so that he can perform real election denial.

Additionally, this is the reason that Joe is flooding the nation with now 12 million illegal aliens (who may or may not be allowed to vote, but will soon be counted in the census to determine representation in Congress).

When considering President Trump’s campaign, this does not work if conservatives sit at home.

If we do not get every last conservative voter out to vote (even if it involves going to the rest homes and dorms to get both ends of the conservative spectrum into the voting booth), we will be sunk.

…

Answer me this: why can’t the WH respond to Biden now using “bloodbath”

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On one hand, it seems that the White House doesn’t want to draw attention to the extremity of Joe Biden’s hyperbole

Karine Jean-Pierre pushes back on Peter Doocy’s question as he presses her on Joe Biden useing the term “bloodbath”

The Daily Caller shines the spotlight on the Democrat hypocrisy demonstrated when Joe Biden used “bloodbath” (a word that the press took from a quote of President Trump’s on the auto industry and applied to the general election).

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre accused Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy of being “disingenuous” for asking about President Joe Biden’s use of the term “bloodbath.”

Former President Donald Trump came under intense scrutiny by the corporate media after he warned rally attendees in Ohio of a potential “bloodbath” in the auto industry if Biden wins re-election in 2024. Members of the media twisted his words by attempting to link them to the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot.

“So when Donald Trump is talking about a bloodbath, it is violent rhetoric,” Doocy began during Tuesday’s briefing. “What was it when Joe Biden said in 2020, ‘what we can’t let happen is this primary become a negative bloodbath?’”

“So I’m gonna be really mindful and careful about Donald Trump, but if you read — because he is a candidate — we’re talking about the 2024 election — you should read what he said in its context. So you gotta read what he said in context —” Jean-Pierre began.

“I understand. Bloodbath is an ugly word when Trump used it. What is it when Biden uses it?” Doocy interjected.

(Read at the Daily Caller to see how KJP dances like a drunken sailor around Joe’s words)

So, in the case of Trump, the press took his words and created a verbally violent scene he never uttered.

In the case of President Trump, the press took his words on how the auto industry would be decimated by the continuance of Joe Biden’s green policies. Anyone who cannot think of buying a new car will back me up on the proposition that Joe Biden has done much to cripple America (and especially the auto industry).

In the case of Biden, he wanted to imply coming violence against him from a group when that group did no no provable violence

If we read Joe’s words “What we can’t let happen is let this primary become a negative bloodbath,” then the demented old guy could be talking about physical violence or just the verbal hashing out of differences. Nonetheless, since the press and Democrats throughout the nation took President Trump’s referral to a “bloodbath” to be a letting of blood between opposing sides, maybe we should apply that standard here.

Maybe every time Joe suggests a “bloodbath,” we should grab our bulletproof vests and treat him accordingly.

…

The White House staff sensitivity to the term “bloodbath” might be a response to murders tied to Joe’s border policy

Trump says he would “love” to see family of Ruby Garcia, 25-year-old allegedly killed by illegal migrant, at Michigan rally

One of the sad results of Joe’s open borders is that there are too many murders for a part time blogger to cover.

In addition to the murder of Laken Riley and too many other young Americans, the New York Post reports on the willingness of President Trump to meet with the family of Ruby Garcia, murdered by an illegal alien.

Former President Donald Trump said Monday he would “love” to see the family of Ruby Garcia — the 25-year-old allegedly killed by her illegal immigrant boyfriend in Michigan — at his Tuesday rally in the Mitten State.

“I’d love to have her family there if they’d like to be there,” Trump said in an interview with Detroit radio host Justin Barclay.

Garcia, of Grand Rapids, was found dead along a highway with multiple gunshot wounds to her head on March 22. Brandon Ortiz-Vite, 25, later confessed to shooting Garcia in her car, turning himself in to police with blood on his clothes, according to local reports.

Ortiz-Vite said he shot Garcia after they had an argument, and he subsequently moved her body out of the car and drove away, according to local reports citing court documents.

(Read more at the New York Post)

If this does not constitute a “bloodbath,” then please correct me.

Hardly a day goes by without an article in the alternative press recording the death of an American (usually a child or young person).

I would say that “If this were done under the purview of Trump, this would be all over the front pages;” however, that might depend on whether the Chamber of Commerce were driving the open border policy.

…

A contrast between Joe Biden’s Easter tweet and what the newest controversy the Left has imposed on President Trump

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This is a president who insults and attacks Christians on every turn

On Easter Sunday, Joe Biden proclaims the day to be Transgender Day of Visibility in a tweet

The New York Post reports on how the White House now is painting anyone critical of Joe proclaiming Easter to be Transgender Day of Visibility as being “hateful and dishonest.”

As President Biden faces heated backlash over marking March 31 as “Transgender Day of Visibility,” which falls on Easter Sunday this year, the White House has issued a response standing by the president’s remarks.

White House spokesman Andrew Bates released a statement saying those critical of Biden’s inclusiveness message are trying to further divide the country.

“As a Christian who celebrates Easter with family, President Biden stands for bringing people together and upholding the dignity and freedoms of every American,” Bates said in a statement. “Sadly, it’s unsurprising politicians are seeking to divide and weaken our country with cruel, hateful and dishonest rhetoric. President Biden will never abuse his faith for political purposes or for profit.”

While March 31 has been designated to honor the transgender movement internationally since 2009, this year it falls on Easter Sunday, one of the most important days for Christians celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

“On Transgender Day of Visibility, we honor the extraordinary courage and contributions of transgender Americans and reaffirm our Nation’s commitment to forming a more perfect Union — where all people are created equal and treated equally throughout their lives,” a statement released by the White House Saturday said.

“Today, we send a message to all transgender Americans: You are loved. You are heard. You are understood. You belong. You are America, and my entire Administration and I have your back,” it added. “Now, therefore, I, Joseph R. Biden Jr., President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim March 31, 2024, as Transgender Day of Visibility.”

(Read more at the New York Post)

So Biden, on one of Christianity’s most holy days, proclaims the honoring of transgenderism

Tell me what other interpretation can be pulled from the following tweet:

Hey, Joe! What have you said about the transgender who murdered three Christian children and three Christian adults in Nashville, Tennessee?

Oddly, when it comes to things that transgender people have really done, Joe Biden has not come out to comment on these events:

For the record, Joe Biden has been one to persecute Christians

Take note that Joe Biden has been in office when:

Furthermore, don’t forget that Joe could not condemn the Nashville shooter (and would not honor the three children and three adults shot at that Christian school).

Of course, we know of how Joe banned religious-themed designs from White House Easter egg art contest.

The New York Post digs into how Joe not only promoted the “Transgender Day of Visibility,” but also silenced any Christian voices at the Easter egg art contest.

Children of the National Guard are prohibited from submitting religious Easter egg designs for the 2024 “Celebrating National Guard Families” art event at the White House.

The art contest is part of the White House’s Easter traditions, which include the annual Easter Egg Roll.

The flyer for the contest states that an Easter egg design submission “must not include any questionable content, religious symbols, overtly religious themes, or partisan political statements.”

“As part of the White House Easter traditions, America’s Egg Farmers – for nearly 50 years – have proudly presented an intricately decorated Commemorative Easter Egg to the First Lady of the United States. In 2021, the White House expanded on this longstanding tradition by displaying youth-designed Easter eggs in the White House East Colonnade,” the flyer explains.

“On behalf of First Lady Jill Biden, The Adjutants General of the National Guard are asking youth from National Guard families across the United States and all U.S. territories to submit artwork inspired by the theme ‘Celebrating our Military Families,’” the flyer continues.

Children are asked to design eggs with images based on their own lives.

“Selected designs representing the unique experience and stories of National Guard children will be brought to life on real hen eggs by talented egg artists from across the country and displayed at the White House this Easter and Passover season,” the flyer says.

Children also can’t promote material that promotes “bigotry, racism, hatred or harm against any group or individual or promotes discrimination based on race, gender, religion, nationality, disability, sexual orientation or age” in their designs.

Selected designs will be painted by artists on real eggs and displayed at the White House.

The White House announced Thursday that the annual Easter Egg Roll would follow an “EGGucation” theme as it has in years past.

(Read more at the New York Post)

Despite the claims by Joe, transgenders do not see persecution in America

…

In contrast, President Trump gets roasted for promoting patriotism and a Bible

CNN (who could not be accused of supporting the Christian point of view) reports on its suggestion that “some Christians” (which could be possible in this large and sometimes deluded country) are offended by President Trump selling a King James Bible that includes the words to God Bless the USA and the text of The Declaration of Independence, the Pledge of Allegiance, and other historic American documents.

Former President Donald Trump is officially selling a patriotic copy of the Christian Bible themed to Lee Greenwood’s famous song, “God Bless the USA.”

“Happy Holy Week!” Trump announced on social media Tuesday, during the most solemn period of the Christian calendar, the last week of the Lenten season marking the suffering and death of Jesus. “As we lead into Good Friday and Easter, I encourage you to get a copy of the God Bless The USA Bible.”

The concept of a Bible covered in the American flag, as well as a former president’s endorsement of a text Christians consider to be sacred, has raised concern among religious circles. It’s also raised questions about Trump’s motivations, as the former president finds himself in the middle of several expensive legal battles.

(Read more at CNN)

Although President Trump cannot be accused of being a preacher, I do believe that the Left has gone full force at trying to nullify the effects of the Church. Furthermore, I also believe that, despite the protestations of the Left, America was largely built on the pillars of Judeo/Christian ethics and would do well to return to those pillars.

Promoting a Bible that includes the words of the Declaration of Independence would show the links between our founding and the faith of those who founded this nation. Additionally, considering the words of that Book of Books would do better than doing nobody harm.

Can you imagine what might happen would everyone in the nation read the Book of John and start living by the directions in that book?

Since it is my bet that the Christian leaders who might protest the most might also not have a problem with gay clergy, I don’t put too much weight in the sources cited by CNN

If the people at CNN were not so likely to promote gay clergy, drag queen story times at church, and similar events, I might give them a little more credence.

There is another quote that applies here (never mind the things President Trump does)

so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. (‭Isaiah 55:11 NIV‬)

…

There is something else in the works…

So, when you remember the acts of Joe, also remember that these politicians are the enemies who have identified as once being within Republican circles. They should not be allowed to return.

These politicians should not make it through another Republican primary.

These are the Democrats in Republican clothing who would put on a show for certain Republican values, but voted primarily with Democrats and left the Republican party at a time where it helped Democrats:

These politicians should not be allowed to join Republican politics again.

They seem more than willing to just hand over the reigns to Hakeem Jeffries (and then you will see real election denialism).

…

Guess who the thin Blue Line has had enough of (hint: not President Trump)

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President Donald Trump attends wake of slain New York officer and calls for “law and order” as a contrast to Joe Biden’s policies

The Associated Press provided a partial picture of the event that happened as a result of Democrat policies where felons get released and police get defunded: Officer Jonathan Diller of the NYPD was murdered by a repeat offender. In the wake of this event, the family of the slain officer had a unique way of communicating their feelings on Democrat policies (but the AP did not report that).

Donald Trump attended Thursday’s wake of a New York City police officer gunned down in the line of duty and called for “law and order,” as part of the presumptive Republican presidential nominee’s attempt to show a contrast with President Joe Biden and focus on crime as part of his third White House campaign.

The visitation for Officer Jonathan Diller, who was fatally shot during a traffic stop on Monday, was held in suburban Massapequa on Long Island. Police said the 31-year-old Diller was shot below his bulletproof vest while approaching an illegally parked car in Queens.

Diller, who was married and had a 1-year-old son, was rushed to a hospital, where he died.

Trump’s visit came as Biden was also in New York for a previously scheduled fundraiser with Democratic ex-presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. Trump has accused Biden of lacking toughness and his campaign sought to contrast his visit with Biden’s fundraiser.

Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung, in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, noted Trump’s visit and said, “Meanwhile, the Three Stooges — Biden, Obama, and Clinton — will be at a glitzy fundraiser in the city with their elitist, out-of-touch celebrity benefactors.”

(Read more at the Associated Press, starting with the lies of KJP)

There is a list of politicians who just showed up to the funeral and were asked to leave

There were a number of politicians whose policies contributed to having repeat felons on the streets where they could murder policemen like Jonathan Diller. These politicians would include some who showed up to get their faces associated with being supportive of the police. These politicians specifically were:

  • New York Governor Kathy Hochul

  • Mayor Adams
  • District Attorney Bragg
  • New York Attorney General Letecia James

Furthermore, according to one tweet quoting Jesse Watters:

Both Governor Hochul and Attorney General Leticia James asked the family if they could speak at Officer Diller’s funeral Sunday. The family refused.

When President Trump arrived, Officer Diller’s grandmother asked him for a hug, and he happily obliged.

…

Joe Biden seems to try to give Democrats reasons to not vote for him

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Obama and Clinton look to boost Biden without overshadowing him

The Washington Examiner points out how Biden’s use of the more popular presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton may backfire on the current (yet addled) president.

President Joe Biden is hoping the star power of his Democratic predecessors, former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, will shine a light on his campaign against another former president, Donald Trump, during a high-profile New York City fundraiser.

But although his last State of the Union before November’s general election addressed concerns about his age, his campaign is under pressure to make sure Biden is not overshadowed, particularly by his younger, more popular former boss.

The Biden campaign dismisses the idea that the president has an enthusiasm problem, citing expectations Thursday night’s fundraiser could raise more than $25 million, with 5,000-plus attendees anticipated to be at Radio City Hall.

“Democrats are unified and energized behind President Biden’s reelection campaign, and that will be on full display this Thursday in New York City,” Biden campaign spokesman Kevin Munoz told the Washington Examiner. “Donald Trump has no juice heading into the general: Huge chunks of Republican primary voters have made clear they have no interest in voting for him this November, Republican leaders like his own vice president are openly opposing him, and even if Trump wanted to reach them (he does not!), he has no cash or energy to do so.”

“Elections are won by putting in the work to assemble a broad, diverse coalition, and Joe Biden is doing just that,” Munoz said.

Simultaneously, Republican strategist and former chief of staff to Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) Cesar Conda contended Biden’s support in black, Hispanic, and Asian communities is “hemorrhaging.”

“President Trump has made significant gains with minority voters, which is why I think we will [see] Barack Obama earlier and often on the campaign trail compared to 2020,” Conda told the Washington Examiner. “But I don’t think Obama’s appeal will transfer to Biden because blacks and Hispanics have been battered by rising gas prices, grocery bills, and housing costs caused by Biden’s policies. They know that they were much better off financially during the Trump-era economy.”

Meanwhile, the Trump campaign is claiming “Crooked Hillary,” in addition to “Barack Hussein Obama,” is “coming out of the bullpen to help Joe Biden shuffle over the finish line because Democrats know Biden is weak, unpopular, and incompetent.”

“Their reinforcement efforts will fail when President Trump defeats them on Nov. 5,” Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said.

(Read more at the Washington Examiner)

Even if Democrats do not hear the opposition, they remember the past

Surely these Democrats remember the better economy coming out of Trump’s term. They might even remember the more centrist views of Barack during his first term and Bill during his whole two terms.

If they are Baby Boomers or Generation X, they might remember the hardships of the last socialist-leaning president (the peanut farmer). Therefore, they might remember how many years it took of Reagan to get out of the Carter malaise.

So, pointing us to better times likely will not motivate voters to the polls.

…

Biden White House quietly intervening in international labor dispute despite objections he may be breaking the law

Fox News looks into how Joe Biden has decided to take up the cause of Mexican labor despite warnings from others telling him he may be breaking the law.

The White House is escalating a labor dispute at a major mine in central Mexico, an action backed by powerful labor unions, but it could have a devastating effect on workers and the economy.

The United States Trade Representative (USTR), which is housed in the White House, is pursuing the case by leveraging a little-used tool in the 2020 United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).

The Rapid Response Labor Mechanism (RRM), is a provision that allows the government to take enforcement action against factories if they fail to comply with domestic freedom of association and collective bargaining laws. As part of its effort, the USTR successfully convened the first-ever RRM tribunal to review concerns brought by labor officials in the U.S. and Mexico.

“This announcement upholds the Biden-Harris administration’s commitment to creating a more level playing field for workers to feel empowered and using every enforcement tool at our disposal to safeguard workers’ rights,” U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai said after her office filed its initial motion to convene the RRM tribunal.

However, the process has faced considerable pushback from the Mexican government, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the owner of the mine, Grupo Mexico, which has argued the U.S. government doesn’t have jurisdiction in the dispute. Critics have also warned the process, which is expected to conclude with a ruling as early as Friday, has lacked transparency.

The case dates back more than a decade and a half when, in 2007, the powerful Mexican miners’ union Los Mineros went on strike at Grupo Mexico’s San Martin mine in Sombrerete, Zacatecas, which produces a high quantity of Mexico’s lead, zinc and copper supplies. The strike was related, in part, to safety conditions at the site.

According to legal filings reviewed by Fox News Digital, the San Martin mine reopened 11 years later, in 2018, when the mine’s operator struck a deal with Los Trabajadores Coaligados, a coalition of workers that voted to return to work and end the strike. In June 2023, the Mexican Conciliation and Arbitration Board, a government panel, confirmed in a ruling that the strike was over and San Martin could operate as normal.

(Read more at Fox News)

This only accentuates the claim by President Trump that Biden is “Mexico First”

At a time that we are being flooded by illegal aliens, this will not sit well with most voters. At a time that most Americans struggle to make ends meet, having Joe Biden go to bat for a Mexican union just does not seem right.

And at a time that Joe keeps claiming he works for America and has our economy running better than it ran under President Trump, that will likely keep people home on election night.

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Biden puts in an executive order to socialize the apprenticeships of working Americans

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How do those in the working class see it?

The Biden Labor Department proposes unreasonable rules on apprenticeship.

The Associated Builders and Contractors published their take on Biden’s latest veer towwards socialism: requiring employers of apprentices to provide full benefits (health insurance, life insurance, vacation, and any other benefits provided to full-time employees) to apprentices and to document their DEI initiatives.

On Jan. 17, 2024, the Federal Register published the controversial 626-page U.S. Department of Labor proposed rule that would make significant revisions to the National Apprenticeship System that will affect ABC members, chapters, apprentices and other industry stakeholders participating in government-registered apprenticeship programs.

On Jan. 30, 2024, from 2 to 3:15 p.m. ET, ABC offered a members-only webinar on the proposed rule regarding the problematic and beneficial provisions of the rule and how to best participate in regulatory and advocacy efforts to help improve this extensive regulation. Watch the archived webinar on ABC’s Academy, which is available to ABC members in management positions and chapter staff. To obtain login information, ABC members should fill out the online Academy Login Request Form.

In addition, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration abruptly cancelled its Jan. 11 webinar summarizing the proposed rule. The webinar has been rescheduled for Jan. 25 at 2 p.m. ET.

The deadline for public comments on the DOL proposal is March 18, 60 days after the proposal was published in the Federal Register. ABC submitted a request to extend the deadline by 30 days.

DOL Proposal Widely Criticized

On Dec. 18, ABC issued a press release in response to the ABC-opposed proposal, which the DOL published a preliminary version of on Dec. 14:

ABC supports government-registered apprenticeship programs and offers more than 450 such education programs across the country as part of its all-of-the-above approach to meet the workforce needs of the construction industry,” said Ben Brubeck, ABC vice president of regulatory, labor and state affairs. “ABC is thoroughly reviewing the Biden DOL’s overreaching, 779-page proposal and is concerned that aspects of the proposed rule will limit the number of apprentices and employers participating in GRAPs.

Already, the government-registered apprenticeship system is woefully inadequate in meeting the workforce needs of the construction industry,” said Brubeck. “Recent data suggests that it would take 12 years for the current broken GRAP system to educate the more than half a million workers needed by the construction industry in 2023 alone. Additional unclear and onerous requirements in the DOL proposal are likely to exacerbate the construction industry’s skilled labor shortage.

The misguided proposal will discourage employer participation in the GRAP system by adding more bureaucracy and paperwork requirements while also eliminating flexible competency-based approaches to workforce development that benefit apprentices and employers,” said Brubeck. “As currently written, the Biden’s proposal threatens to undermine significant investments recently made by taxpayers in infrastructure, clean energy and manufacturing projects procured by government and private owners.

The Biden DOL’s proposed rule was also panned by both the chairwoman of the U.S. House Education and the Workforce Committee Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., and the ranking member of the Senate HELP Committee Bill Cassidy, R-La.

Rep. Foxx’s statement derided the new rule, stating, “If the goal was to make an already dysfunctional registered apprenticeship system less workable and relevant to the needs of workers and employers, this proposed rule appears likely to succeed.”

Sen. Cassidy’s statement criticized the rule’s circumvention of Congress, seeking to implement a new regulation “395 times longer than the legislation it is supposedly interpreting.” According to Cassidy’s statement:

The regulations would inject political ideology into the National Apprenticeship System, including diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies. The rule would allow DOL to dissolve the apprenticeship programs of employers accused by labor unions of misconduct without a requirement that the charges are verified by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). This would empower unions to intimidate and coerce employers with baseless accusations. It would also give unions veto authority over new apprenticeship programs, limiting job training opportunities for American workers. This comes at a time when workforce shortages continue and the labor force participation rate remains well below pre-COVID levels.

Additionally, the rule gives the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Apprenticeship and State Apprenticeship Agencies enforcement authority over labor disputes, a role already performed by the NLRB. Ultimately, the proposed regulation applies more bureaucracy to a system in need of flexibility when responding to pressing workforce needs.

The Biden proposal was also roasted in a Wall Street Journal editorial (Biden to Apprentices, You’re Fired, Dec. 18):

DOL’s manifest goal is to limit non-union programs that don’t result in more union jobs. The rule would let the department dissolve programs accused by unions of misconduct or found to be non-compliant with minor government regulations and DEI benchmarks.

One result of DOL’s regulations will be fewer job-training opportunities for minorities. The rule will also undercut the Administration’s industrial policy and climate agenda. The Inflation Reduction Act’s myriad green energy tax credits require employers to utilize apprentices from government-approved programs. Good luck finding them.

President Biden’s message to non-union apprentices: You’re fired.

(Read more at the Associated Builders and Contractors)

So, from the working force point of view, they know that Biden opposes their existence

They know that Joe wants to kill the oil industry, the industries supporting or using the internal-combustion engine, and all of the companies that support those enterprises.

Therefore, they know to watch Joe’s moves and oppose the actions that will further cripple their way of life.

…

What do the unions of federal employess say about this executive order that forces Main Street to abide by their socialist rules?

Biden order expands federal apprenticeships, reestablishes labor-management forums

Government Executive gives the view of the unionized federal employees concerning this expansion of federal authority.

President Biden on Wednesday signed an executive order aimed at expanding federal agencies’ use of apprenticeship programs to attract and develop young federal workers, as well as reinstating agency labor-management forums that have largely sat dormant since 2017.

White House officials said the measure, entitled Scaling and Expanding the Use of Registered Apprenticeships in Industries and the Federal Government and Promoting Labor-Management Forums, dovetails with the recent push by presidents of both parties to shift how federal agencies evaluate job candidates from a largely based on educational attainment to one that emphasizes applicants’ relevant skills and work experience.

At an event in Madison, Wisc., Wednesday, Vice President Harris touted registered apprenticeship programs as a valuable way for young people to prepare them for good-paying careers at a time when college affordability is at an all-time low, as well as a strong example of the positive outcomes that are possible when unions and employers collaborate.

“Apprentice programs for labor and union apprenticeship programs also pay their apprentices while they’re in the program, which means that people don’t have to worry about whether they have to borrow money in order to receive an education that is for the benefit of the community and its productivity,” she said. “I say all that to say that this is another example of, also, the partnership between our administration and unions, around the apprenticeship programs that they create for young people to enter a profession, enter a career that means a very high quality of life for themselves and their families.”

The order creates a new Registered Apprenticeship Interagency Working Group; led by officials from the Office of Management and Budget, the National Economic Council, Office of Personnel Management and the Labor Department; and tasks it with finding ways to incorporate apprenticeship programs at agencies.

The group also will make recommendations on how to promote the hiring and professional development of apprenticeship program graduates, as well as how such programs can help agencies recruit and retain employees with mission-critical skillsets.

(Read as much as you can stomach at the Government Executive)

Government employees have the highest salaries in the nation and are the hardest to fire. Therefore, a socialistic executive order finds great support among their ranks.

What did you expect? Biden has taken the bread and fish from the taxpayers and fed the federal unions. They are ready to make him king.

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How does one press outlet portray it?

Biden’s DEI mandates on employers fail American workers

Fox News lays out a defense of the business side of this total equation.

Andre Jones, a recent college grad, had been job hunting for months until he enrolled in an IT apprenticeship program that led to full certification and a thriving career. George Forest, an Army veteran, completed a diesel technician apprenticeship program that helped him transition from the military to civilian life. Allison Van Houten switched careers entirely because of an apprenticeship, leaving her job as a speech therapist to become a woodwork manufacturing specialist.

These are just a few of the dozens of apprenticeship success stories touted on the federal Apprenticeship USA website. Unfortunately, a new proposal by the Biden administration threatens to burden apprenticeship programs with red tape, extra costs, and more bureaucracy.

The Department of Labor quietly released a nearly 800-page proposal to regulate apprenticeships right before Christmas. Between the holidays and the busy start to the year, this proposal went largely overlooked by the public, though businesses, trade groups, state agencies and others have started to sound the alarm.

All signs indicate that the administration wants to finalize this rule quickly, despite its complexity — jeopardizing the success of apprenticeship programs and even their viability. Most tellingly, the labor secretaries and workforce development officers from Arkansas, Iowa, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Dakota and Virginia banded together to outline their concern that this rule would stifle apprenticeship growth in their own states.

Apprenticeships can be a phenomenal way to connect workers with in-demand jobs and fill businesses’ workforce needs. They allow workers to get on-the-job experience and training while getting paid instead of spending years in school and foregoing a paycheck — or even taking on debt to find a job. For businesses, they generate a steady pipeline of talent who know the ropes of their industries inside and out.

Unfortunately, the Biden administration’s new proposal risks relegating apprenticeships to a last-resort option for businesses. Many pieces of the proposed rule are concerning, but three in particular represent some of the most problematic changes.

First, the proposed rule removes flexibility for businesses that run apprenticeship programs and imposes a one-size-fits-all structure. Today, businesses have three options when evaluating apprentices’ successful completion of their programs: a time-based approach, which requires the apprentice to complete a certain number of hours of training; a competency-based approach, which requires the apprentice to achieve certain skills; or a combination of the two.

This new rule removes the competency-based approach entirely and instead requires all apprentices to complete a minimum of 2,000 hours of on-the-job training and 144 hours of classroom instruction. This not only increases costs for businesses that can train apprentices in less time but also demoralizes talented workers who can achieve competency quickly.

Second, the rule requires that businesses provide apprentices with the same benefits as full-time employees, including paid leave, health care, retirement benefits and more. Essentially, businesses must provide the same benefits to apprentices as full-time employees without receiving the same caliber of work a full-time employee provides.

(Read at Fox News for the third point against the executive order)

It is odd that one executive order can do so much harm.

Furthermore, in an election year where Joe surely wants votes in Michigan — why does he implement a job-killing option like this?

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How does the left-leaning political machine portray it?

Biden issues executive order to expand federal apprenticeships

Politico tries to tell us that Joe has lifted the poor and oppressed in the working class who participate in apprenticeships.

President Joe Biden issued an executive order Wednesday pushing federal employers to expand and prioritize hiring workers through Registered Apprenticeship programs.

The Office of Personnel Management and the Labor Department are required under the order to prepare a report with ideas for expanding Registered Apprenticeship opportunities. The deadline for that report is in 180 days, at the beginning of September.

The order encourages federal agencies to give preference to projects that hire individuals through Registered Apprenticeship roles, which are often affiliated with labor unions. In some cases the administration advocates for incentives and requirements for contractors and grant recipients to hire apprentices.

Biden is also re-establishing labor-management forums for federal employees to give feedback within the government.

Those changes were recommended by the administration’s Task Force on Worker Organizing and Empowerment, chaired by Vice President Kamala Harris. She is visiting Wisconsin today to meet with registered apprentices at a Metro Transit construction site and promote the changes under the executive order.

__

And they wonder why we don’t believe them.

It is not as if finding the lies is not a continual action for those who read these outlets. If they would limit themselves to a lie per month or a lie per year among the daily articles published, it would be easier to give these publications a little grace. However, the constant stream of propaganda cannot be ignored.

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Biden regime ramps up his various attacks

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In a series of moves against the Second Amendment

The Biden regime launches a national “resource center” to aid authorities in taking firearms from people accuseed of being a “threat to themselves or others”

The Daily Wire trumpets the actions of Joe Biden to grab people’s guns through newly-enacted “red flag” laws.

President Joe Biden’s Department of Justice announced on Saturday the launch of the National Extreme Risk Protection Order Resource Center — to the surprise of some congressional Republicans.

Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a Saturday press release that the new national resource center “will provide our partners across the country with valuable resources to keep firearms out of the hands of individuals who pose a threat to themselves or others.” Extreme Risk Protection Orders (ERPOs), commonly referred to as “red flag” laws, allow authorities to confiscate firearms from a person whom a court deems to be a risk to himself or others. ERPOs also prevent a person from buying or possessing a gun for the duration of the order.

“The establishment of the Center is the latest example of the Justice Department’s work to use every tool provided by the landmark Bipartisan Safer Communities Act to protect communities from gun violence,” Garland said.

The resource center, which was launched with a new website, is described as “a resource for implementers” that will “provide training and technical assistance to law enforcement officials, prosecutors, attorneys, judges, clinicians, victim service and social service providers, community organizations, and behavioral health professionals responsible for implementing laws designed to keep guns out of the hands of people who pose a threat to themselves or others.”

(Read more at the Daily Wire on this center)

As with Biden’s COVID mandates, this oversteps

Just as Biden overstepped by shutting the nation down for a disease only dangerous to certain segments, Biden has overstepped here. Oddly, when the government did overstep, it then made the mistake of then overexposing those segments who were in government housing by jamming in COVID patients. Whether by design or total ineptitude, Biden got it all wrong.

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Harris urges states to pass red flag laws during Parkland visit

Politico outlines the push by Kamala Harris to tie “red flag” laws to events like the 2018 attack by an expelled student on Parkland High.

Vice President Kamala Harris on Saturday announced new gun safety initiatives from Parkland, Florida, after walking through the old Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School building, where 17 people were killed by a gunman in 2018.

The vice president was in the state Saturday to meet with victims’ families and to see the high school, which was preserved as evidence for the shooter’s trial that concluded in late 2022. The building will be demolished this summer.

Harris, who spent hours inside the building on Saturday, walked up to the podium for her remarks as the Parkland families stood behind her holding photos of their late children.

“I will say thank you to the leaders of this community, starting with these families. This school is soon going to be torn down. But the memory of it will never be erased,” Harris said. “And let us through the courage and the call to action of these families find it in ourselves to consider what they’ve been through as some level of motivation and inspiration for all of us.”

The vice president has played a growing role in the administration’s gun safety work and will continue to serve as a leading voice on the issue for the 2024 cycle. President Joe Biden tapped her in the fall to oversee the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention.

She announced on Saturday the launch of the first-ever National Extreme Risk Protection Order Resource Center, which will support states in the implementation of red flag laws. The center, funded by the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act and run by the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions, will provide training and technical assistance to states and localities.

Harris also made a plea for states across the country to pass red flag laws, and to use the funding from the 2022 gun safety legislation to implement these programs. Twenty-nine states currently don’t have red flag laws. Of the 21 states that do have these laws, only six are using Bipartisan Safer Communities Act Funding to implement them.

(Read more at Politico)

I still believe Reagan: “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I’m from the Government, and I’m here to help. “

There is nothing that the government can do for us that we should not do for ourselves.

Harris had no business in poking a six-year-old scab (any more than the Texas press has a need to still air daily reminders of the Uvalde shooting just over two years ago).

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How is Minnesota’s red flag law being enforced?

CBS affiliate WCCO digs into the liberal propaganda supporting the enforcement of Minnesota’s “red flag” laws.

 Minnesota’s “red flag” gun laws went into effect on Jan. 1, and a WCCO Investigation uncovered four cases moving through the courts seeking to remove guns from people who could be a risk to themselves or others.

These legal orders are called extreme risk protection orders.

“The law is fairly clear as it’s written in that we know what we need to prove in court to present these to the judge,” Inspector Elliot Faust, with the Brooklyn Park Police Department, explained to WCCO News. “This order is a tool to try and prevent a tragedy from happening, and we do run into situations where we have information that a tragedy is on the horizon.”

Brooklyn Park’s police chief was the first in Hennepin County to petition the court for a protection order. In a court filing Jan. 11, investigators sought permission to retain possession of a firearm from a man who they said attempted suicide and fired gunshots in his apartment building.

“It’s a multi-family housing building with 200 units,” Faust added. “He’s a risk to himself but he’s also a risk to other people in the building when you fire a gun like that, and there are other people living there.”

The three other cases were from Martin, Steele and Wright counties, with two of three petitions granted, while the third was denied.

(Read more at WCCO)

Taking without a trial? Is this Constitutional?

It would seem that there would need to be a trial for the government to swoop in an take property.

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Michigan governor signs red flag gun law, questions linger over enforcement

PBS “News” likewise shovels the liberal propaganda (all while acknowledging that this may all get overturned by the courts).

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer gave final approval Monday afternoon to a red flag law that aims to keep firearms away from those at risk of harming themselves or others as the state grapples with ways to slow gun violence in the wake of its second mass school shooting.

Michigan joined Minnesota as the second state in under a week to implement a red flag law after Democrats in both states won control of both chambers and the governor’s office in November. New Mexico previously was the last state to pass a red flag law in 2020.

Whitmer signed the legislation just outside of Detroit, flanked by state lawmakers and individuals affected by gun violence. Former Arizona Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, who began campaigning for gun safety after she was shot in the head in 2011, was also in attendance.

“We have heard too many times from those who knew a mass shooter who had expressed concern in advance about that mass shooter’s intentions,” Whitmer said Monday. “With extreme risk protection orders, we have a mechanism to step in and save lives.”

(Read more at PBS)

Will Gretchen Whitmer apply the same standard of protection to abortion clinics?

Will she seek to save lives by taking away what some see as a right? The Second Amendment guarantees the right of self-protection; however, she is willing to strip that.

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This is not just happening in the East: Bill to amend red flag law law heads to New Mexico House floor

NM Political Report pulls out the steam shovel for liberal propaganda in regard to the “red flag” law in consideration in New Mexico.

The House Judiciary Committee passed a bill aimed to amend and improve a law regarding extreme risk protection orders, also known as a red flag law, on a 7-4, party-line vote Monday.

The bill would clarify that law enforcement officers could be the reporting party, according to the bill’s sponsor.

HB 27, sponsored by state Rep. Christine Chandler, would amend the Extreme Risk Order Protection Act, which became law in 2020. Chandler said the amendments are necessary because of some impediments to efficiency and ways the new law could be improved upon.

The original law allows immediate family members to seek an extreme risk of firearm protection petition when there are signs of imminent danger of an individual who owns a firearm of hurting themselves or others. Chandler said that since 2020, the law has been used 75 times.

She said that there are differing interpretations as to whether law enforcement and health professionals can file for a petition. The amendments would clarify that.

“Who is authorized to be a reporting party? There is some disagreement and confusion among those relying on the law if law enforcement could be a reporting party,” Chandler said.

The changes include specifying that the protection order would expire in 365 days; adding licensed healthcare professionals to the list of individuals who can request the order; allowing a petitioner to be anyone with “a continuing personal relationship” to the respondent to request an order; expediting the process; and requiring the respondent to request the return of the firearm and allows law enforcement to destroy, sell or transfer an unclaimed firearm after 365 days.

(Read more at NM Political Report)

Taking and then selling unclaimed firearms taken “for the safety” of the people. That makes sense.

It makes sense to take and then sell a gun “for the safety” of the people as much as the other acts of Biden make sense.

…democr

On the other attacks by the Biden regime

Lawfare: it’s not just against President Trump

The Washington Times reports on the weaponizing of the courts by Democrats against President Trump and other political foes of Democrats.

New York Republicans say Attorney General Letitia James’ vendetta against former President Donald Trump is the latest proof that Democrats have turned the state’s courts into a political retribution machine.

They say business owners in New York City and across the state must acquiesce to Democrats’ political agendas and cooperate with the party’s incumbents who control the levers of government.

Mr. Trump has been hit with city and state lawsuits for paying hush money to an adult-film actress in 2016, decades-old sexual assault allegations and business fraud. He did notch a victory Monday when a whopping $464 million bond for the fraud case was slashed to $175 million while he appeals.

“This is a real serious issue. Why would you ever want to do business in New York state? What if they didn’t like the business you’re in?” said Rep. Claudia Tenney, New York Republican.

“Say you’re producing propane for people in upstate New York and they decide they didn’t like you. Are they going to prosecute you and put up a bond that you can’t pay and run you out of business?”

Former Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino, a Republican who ran a failed campaign against Gov. Andrew Cuomo, said businesses want to play it safe and not risk being on the “wrong team.”

“[The Democrats] control all the levers of government. They control the permits and the agencies and all that,” he said. “And unlike some other places where they’ll give to both sides, in New York, they’re afraid to do that.

“I had millions of conversations with high-ranking real estate developers and others in the New York business community — probably all of whom wanted me to win and very few of whom donated because they were afraid,” he said.

Critics say beef producer JBS and the National Rifle Association are examples of organizations put through the legal wringer in New York for political reasons.

(Read at the Washington Times for more instances of abuse)

It seemed like this was being set with the IRS being set against the Tea Party groups

When Obama set the IRS against the Tea Party and Patriot groups, we should have seen a foreshadowing of Joe’s actions.

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Eternal Rewards

Featured

The Judgement Seat

The following comes through the notes of Mark Ramsey and the responses of the class.

  1. The Bema seat

    A class member noted that we have received a gift of salvation; something not worked for. Still, there are rewards for obedience.

    The day is coming when every believer in Jesus Christ will stand before the Lord and at that time, we will discover what was pretend and what was pleasing to Him. The Bible calls this future event the judgment or bema seat of Christ.

    What is your reaction or response knowing that this future event will take place?

    One class member replied by questioning the point where he became aware of rewards. He then noted that he wanted his actions to be from a pure motive and not seeking rewards. Another class member remembered how Billy Graham had a reverent fear of the rewards waiting for him. Another class member noted that he was before the Lord daily and, therefore, looked ahead to it. Yet another noted that she would be excited just to be there.

    In Scripture, the Greek word translated “judgment seat” is bema.

    ‭For we will all stand before God’s judgment seat. (Romans 14:10c NIV‬)

    So then, each of us will give an account of ourselves to God. (Romans 14:12 NIV‬)

    For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad. (‭2 Corinthians 5:10 NIV‬)

    One class member repeated the point “whether good or bad” to point out that the things reviewed at the Bema seat would be a unique experience.

  2. The participants at the judegement seat

    Who will judge us?

    Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father, who sent him. (‭John 5:22-23 NIV‬)

    ‭Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, (Hebrews 9:27 NIV‬)

    A class member noted that all will be judged. The saved will see their works judged at the Bema seat. The unsaved will see their rejection of Christ and their works judged at the Great White Throne judgement.

    ‭Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. The earth and the heavens fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what they had done. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire. (Revelation 20:11-15 NIV‬)

    Several class members observed that they were so happy that they would not experience the Great White Throne judgement. They wanted to do everything to lead others from that fate.

    Does the idea that you must appear before the judgment seat of Christ concern you?

    Does the idea of a final judgment of unbelievers have any influence on you? If so, what?

  3. When do believers appear before the judgement seat?

    Scripture indicates the judgment seat will take place AFTER the rapture but BEFORE the second coming of Jesus back to earth to establish His kingdom.

    ‭Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait until the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of the heart. At that time each will receive their praise from God. (1 Corinthians 4:5 NIV‬)

    To that, one class member noted that Christ will have praise for the believer.

    ‭Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready. Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear.” (Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of God’s holy people.) (Revelation 19:7-8 NIV‬)

    A class member noted how the fine linen was provided to us for a matter of grace.

    Believers will appear before the judgment seat in heaven while the tribulation is raging on earth. How does that strike you?

    Obviously, this judgment will take place in heaven.

    “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God ; believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. (‭John 14:1-3 NIV‬)

  4. The principles of the judgement seat — How will we be judged?
    • Individually — Every believer will stand alone and individually before the Lord.

      ‭For we will all stand before God’s judgment seat. (Romans 14:10c NIV‬)

      For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad. (‭2 Corinthians 5:10 NIV‬)

    • Impartially

      ‬For God does not show favoritism. (‭Romans 2:11 NIV)

      ‭Anyone who does wrong will be repaid for their wrongs, and there is no favoritism. (Colossians 3:25 NIV‬)

      A class member noted that, if it appears once in the Bible, we can count on it, but if it appears twice, we can be doubly sure. Therefore, we know there will be no favorites. However, all of us who have taught know who will come under more strict judgement.

      Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly. (‭James 3:1 NIV‬)

      Teachers will be judged on whether their teaching was accurate and whether they were doers of the Word.

      One class member pointed to the text of Luke 17:2, where Christ said:

      It would be better for them to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around their neck than to cause one of these little ones to stumble. (‭Luke 17:2 NIV‬)

      Another noted that, from God’s perspective, even the oldest of us qualifies as children.

      Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. (‭Matthew 5:19 NIV‬)

    • Inclusively

      Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account. (‭Hebrews 4:13 NIV‬)

      ‭Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait until the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of the heart. At that time each will receive their praise from God. (1 Corinthians 4:5 NIV‬)

      ‭“Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. “So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. (Matthew 6:1-2 NIV‬)

      “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. (‭Matthew 6:5 NIV‬)>

      “When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. (Matthew 6:16 NIV‬)

      One class member noted how all of these speak to the motives of the Christian.

  5. The purpose of the judgement seat

    ‭“Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life. (John 5:24 NIV‬)

    One class member noted that John 5:24 was a message of non-judgement.

    ‭Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, (Romans 8:1 NIV‬)

    One class member noted that this was a verse of no condemnation.

    We will not be punished for our sins, but will we see our sins at the judgment seat?

    Faithfulness will be rewarded while faithlessness will go unrewarded. Jesus will evaluate our faithfulness in light of the abilities and opportunities that God has given us.

    What are the “bad” works of believers in 2 Corinthians 5:10?

    The Lord will reward us for every act of faithfulness done for Him and in His name, no matter how small “right down to every cup of cold water we give to the needy in His name” – Mark 9:41.

    How does that make you feel?

 

What will Democrats try to pin on President Trump and MAGA Americans next?

Featured

Tax hikes, affordability, and leaving New York

The Spectrum News affiliate of New York City outlines how tax hikes have led to an epidemic of unaffordability and evacuation of New York.

The New York state Assembly and Senate will release and vote on their own one-house budgets this week. One of the big questions the budgets will answer is this: Will lawmakers push for a tax hike on the state’s wealthiest citizens or not?

New York relies heavily on the Personal Income Tax (PIT) tax, so a perennial argument in Albany balances whether to increase taxes on the wealthy to bring in needed revenue, against the possibility of the wealthy fleeing the state.

In a New York Daily News column seemingly timed to head a tax hike off at the pass, President and CEO of the Business Council Heather Mulligan, and state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli, warned that New York’s outmigration is impacting its tax revenue, and if the state keeps raising taxes, more people will leave.

Paul Zuber, executive vice president of the Business Council of New York, told Capital Tonight that there is a confluence of factors that are leading people to move away from the state.

“Obviously, people are concerned about affordability in New York. People are concerned about taxes in New York,” Zuber said. “From the business perspective, one thing our lawmakers have to understand is COVID changed a lot, in terms of how businesses do business.”

One example? Zuber pointed to the rise of Zoom, making the point that employees don’t necessarily have to live in the state to work here.

The Daily News column states, “exercising spending restraint will be crucial for taxpayers who continue to see high inflation impacting their everyday family decisions.”

But advocates for increased spending are looking at the data and coming to very different conclusions.

“Now is the perfect time to tax the record profits of these huge corporations and the sky-high wealth and incomes of their super-rich executives to invest in affordability for regular everyday people: affordable housing, healthcare, childcare and higher education, not new giveaways to big business,” Michael Kink, executive director of the Strong Economy for All Coalition, a labor-community coalition focused on economic fairness and income inequality, stated in an email to Capital Tonight.

A report produced by the Groundwork Collaborative underscores Kink’s assertion, and blames persistent inflation on corporations, arguing that “even as the cost of doing business has gone down, corporations continue to pad their bottom lines at consumers’ expense.”

Separately, according to a Fiscal Policy Institute (FPI) report released in December, there are now an additional 17,500 millionaires than before the pandemic.

Zuber stated, “even in (FPI’s) numbers people are leaving New York.”

“We can quibble over how we define a millionaire; do we define their net worth? Do we define how much they’re getting paid? But the fact of the matter is every reasonable and responsible study that we see [says] there are major problems for New York,” he said.

The Business Council’s own study of the financial services and insurance industries shows that New York is not staying competitive with other states.

Again, because of New York’s reliance on the PIT, this is especially bad news because the securities industry pays out annual bonuses that are taxed at a high rate, contributing significantly to the state’s bottom line.

(Read more at Spectrum News)

One hint of what Democrats will blame on Republicans comes today: a “lack of advancement” in something they initially opposed

News flash: neither Dixiecrats nor Jim Crow laws had roots with Republicans. Still, Democrats claim no voting rights advances since 1965

The Federalist points to the disingenuous diatribe of Democrats over voting rights (especially considering that the 1965 law had almost no Democrat support and would not have passed without Republican votes).

he Senate Judiciary Committee’s show hearing this week laughably labeled as “Protecting Voting Rights in America” accomplished two things: It reminded us that what Democrats are really interested in protecting is their power, and that the American left still wants to party like it’s 1965.

Oh, one other thing: Sen. Ted Cruz ate Sen. Dick Durbin’s lunch.

The “Voter Suppression” Show, sponsored by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin, D-Illinois, and his fellow Dems, used much of the nearly three-hour hearing to tell whoever was watching that Republicans abhor democracy and to campaign for November.

They certainly weren’t in it because they believe their John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act — an anti-states rights monstrosity of a proposal — has any hope of becoming law this year. The bill, which in part demands once again that states seek Justice Department approval for voting law changes such as ID requirements, has no chance of moving in the Republican-controlled House or the higher-threshold Senate.

But Durbin and crew put on quite a performance in trying to convince Americans that their democracy is imperiled by election integrity.

“It’s time for us to establish the right to vote in this country, and those who would take that right would have to pay a price in answering to not only the judgment of history but their peers at this time in history,” said Durbin in his serious, sinister voice. Remember, this is the same guy who argued for a national litmus test to define “legitimate” journalism.

Establish the right to vote? What year does he think this is? Durbin and crew would have you believe that Bull Connor is standing behind every street corner with a firehose and a German Shepherd to suppress the vote.

By the way, here’s a little inconvenient truth for these self-righteous defenders of democracy. Bull Connor was a Democrat, as Cruz, R-Texas, reminded Durbin and the 2024 Dems in his spanking of the hypocritical left.

“Contrary to the prevailing Democrat narrative happily repeated by the corporate media that Republican-sponsored legislation would herald a return to Jim Crow —I would note, by the way, Jim Crow laws were drafted by Democrats to ensure the voters could only elect Democrats — the reality is the majority of Americans support election integrity that projects the right to vote,” the senator said.

Election law expert Hans von Spakovsky drilled that point home during his testimony before the august committee.

Voter ID Is Not Voter Suppression

Asked if voter ID laws disenfranchise voters, as many on the left insist, von Spakovsky pointed to multiple studies showing the laws do no such thing. Included in the findings is a 2019 National Bureau of Economic Research report titled, “Strict ID Laws Don’t Stop Voters: Evidence from a Nationwide Panel, 2008-2018.” The findings are summed up in the title, but here’s a little more for the doubting Dicks of the liberal political world.

“U.S. states increasingly require identification to vote – an ostensive attempt to deter fraud that prompts complaints of selective disenfranchisement. Using a difference-in-differences design on a 1.6-billion-observations panel dataset, 2008–2018, we find that the laws have no negative effect on registration or turnout, overall or for any group defined by race, gender, age, or party affiliation,” the report states.

Democrats wail that several states have enacted “restrictive” voter ID laws since a 2013 U.S. Supreme Court ruling struck down the DOJ’s power of preclearance of state voter laws. Von Spakovsky testified that the states in question had registration rates close to or exceeding the national rate. All of them perform better than leftist enclaves California and New York, including in the registration and turnout of black voters.

The 2020 election had the highest voter turnout in decades. U.S. Census Bureau data show 67 percent of voting-age citizens voted, up 5 percent since the 2016 election, with 73 percent registering to vote. That’s not a mark of voter suppression.

“The claim that there’s a wave of voter suppression in the country that requires expansion of the Voting Rights Act [of 1965] is simply false,” said von Spakovsky Senior Legal Fellow at the Heritage Foundation’s Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies. “Efforts to enhance the integrity of elections through reforms such as voter ID, and improvements to the accuracy of voter registration lists are not voter suppression.”

(Read of the irony of this claim at The Federalist regarding the liberal anti-Democratic acts)

…

They say the quiet part out loud in an effort to get us accustomed to the Overlord’s voice

Featured

After years of denying the existence of the deep state, the New York Times crows about the advantages of their “deep state”

Fox News points to the New York Times and the video piece that touts the purported advantages of having a “deep state” looking over our shoulders.

The New York Times video opinion team took a cross-country trip for a project to humanize the “deep state,” declaring it to be “kind of awesome” in its new report.

The piece, which is part article, part video essay, took aim at former President Trump’s constant rhetorical attacks against the “deep state,” the phrase, often derogatory, employed for unelected bureaucrats he and his supporters believe work to stymie his agenda.

To paint Trump’s claims as paranoid, the authors traveled to meet various federal government workers throughout the country and put a spotlight on how normal and down to earth they are.

The article stated, “As we met the Americans who are being dismissed as public enemies, we discovered that they are … us. They like Taylor Swift. They dance bachata. They go to bed at night watching ‘Star Trek’ reruns. They go to work and do their jobs: saving us from Armageddon.”

The corresponding video depicted brief interviews with individuals working at the Environmental Protection Agency, the Marshall Space Flight Center and other U.S. government agencies.

The piece continued, telling readers that they should support this “deep state.”

“When we hear ‘deep state,’ instead of recoiling, we should rally. We should think about the workers otherwise known as our public servants, the everyday superheroes who wake up ready to dedicate their careers and their lives to serving us.”

“These are the Americans we employ. Even though their work is often invisible, it makes our lives better,” the article declared, before warning that Trump plans on getting rid of many of these individuals if he returns to the White House.

“But if Donald Trump is re-elected and enacts Schedule F, that could change,” it stated, referring to the classification status that would make government workers easier to terminate as political appointees. “He would have the power to eviscerate the so-called deep state and replace our public servants with people who work for him, not us.”

The article concluded, saying, “In the video above, you’ll meet a few of our hard-working American public servants, and we hope you’ll agree that they’re not scary at all. In fact, they’re kind of awesome.”

(Read more at Fox News)

Forgive me for not going straight to (the horse’s mouth), but I kept throwing up when I looked into it.

It is rather sad that the “Old Gray Lady” of New York has stooped to pulling stunts like this. However, we have to ask one thing: “How else can she make such an abrupt about-face without doing a face plant?”

For the New York Times to switch from denying the deep state to celebrating it, either they have to have realized that the rest of the world saw that they have been lying all along (as we know that they were on the Russia collusion hoax, the Hunter Biden laptop, and too many other topics to waste time trying to catalog) or they were told by their Democrat overlords to make the change.

Maybe it is a bit of both. Maybe the Democrats want us so beaten down that we will not raise our heads for fear of the next blow from the “deep state” whip.

First, there are the open admissions of Big Brother looking over our shoulders for “hate crimes” (aka thought crimes) of misgendering, rebellion against DIE, and resistence against Democrat drives to the “green” economy.

Next, there are further crackdowns on people accused of going to Washington on 6 January 2021 (all while Democrat District Attorneys like Alvin Bragg let illegal aliens out of jail on the day after those illegals put police officers in the hospital and Joe’s “Justice” Department sues Texas to stop a law allowing Texas State Troopers to arrest illegals).

Next (although Eric Holder defied Congress and never went to jail), Trump administration official Peter Navarro goes to prison for defying a summons to the January 6 Commission (aka Democrat kangaroo court in Congress).

Next, the New York justice system makes a mockery of due process by using a biased District Attorney and biased judge to exact political retribution on a former president.

Does anyone remember a quote by German theologian Martin Niemöller?

…

$454M bond could force a real estate fire sale

Breitbart lets President Trump use his expertise in real estate to draw a line between the actions of socialists in the New York justice system and the results of those actions.

Former President Donald Trump said Tuesday that the $454 million bond required to appeal the civil fraud judgment against him could force a fire sale of his real estate.

New York Attorney General Letitia James’ prosecution of Trump essentially tries to bankrupt the president. Trump must post a liquid (cash, securities) bond covering the full amount of the judgment to pause enforcement of the judgment, but 30 surety companies told Trump they would not accept real estate assets as collateral, Trump’s lawyers said Monday. The enforcement will begin on March 25.

If Trump can not post the $454 million bond, James could seek to freeze some of his bank accounts and properties.

Trump might have to sell his real estate at a “Fire Sale prices” to obtain the cash to appeal the ruling, he said Tuesday on Truth Social:

Judge Engoron actually wants me to put up Hundreds of Millions of Dollars for the Right to Appeal his ridiculous decision. In other words, he is trying to take my Appellate Rights away from me when I have already won at the Appellate Division, but he refuses to accept their already made decision.

“Nobody has ever heard of anything like this before. I would be forced to mortgage or sell Great Assets, perhaps at Fire Sale prices, and if and when I win the Appeal, they would be gone,” Trump added. “Does that make sense? WITCH HUNT. ELECTION INTERFERENCE.”

(Refer to Breitbart for input from Constitutional expert Turley on the effect of this)

Considering these actions, I wonder if the inflation inflicted on America has likewise been a deliberate effort to make America bow to Democrats

By emptying the wallets of America through inflation, has it been the plan of Democrats to subjugate the American middle and lower classes into not being able to rebell against Democrat overlords?

Obviously (in the case of Donald Trump in this court case), the Democrats of New York are willing to take things to the extreme (even sacrificing the value of their properties across that city and state). Further, they are obviously willing to overlook legal details when this District Attorney ran on “getting Trump.” Can there be much more bias in a forum that purports to be fair and evenhanded?

Like the slaves in the antebellum South, would they use every means to beat us down and keep us on the plantation? I think they would.

…

Does it seem the Supreme Court see themselsves as little gods and play with the rights of us mortals?

Featured

Supreme Court Justice Kavanaugh loses patience with the judiciary’s far right, takes it out on our First Right

Vox goes into the posturing between Justices on the “far right” and “center right” where the socialists win.

There are several recent signs that the federal judiciary’s center right is losing patience with its far right.

Last week, a policymaking body within the judiciary announced new steps to combat “judge shopping,” a practice that has allowed Republican litigants to choose to have their cases heard by partisan judges who are well to the right of even the median Trump appointee. The Supreme Court has also heard several cases in its current term where it appears likely to reverse rulings made by the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, a MAGA stronghold that frequently hands down decisions that appear designed to sabotage the Biden administration.

On Monday, the Supreme Court held oral arguments in one of these Fifth Circuit cases, known as Murthy v. Missouri, where the lower court handed down a sweeping injunction forbidding much of the federal government from having any communications at all with social media companies. A majority of the justices appeared very unlikely to sustain that injunction on Monday, with Justice Brett Kavanaugh repeatedly noting that the Fifth Circuit’s approach would prevent the most routine interactions between government officials and the media.

Murthy was one of two cases heard by the justices on Monday involving so-called “jawboning” — cases where the government tried to pressure private companies into taking certain actions, without necessarily using its coercive power to do so. The other case, known as National Rifle Association v. Vullo, involves a fairly egregious violation of the First Amendment. Based on Monday’s argument, as many as all nine of the justices may side with the NRA in that case. (You can read our coverage of the NRA case here.)

Most of the justices, in other words, appeared eager to resolve both cases without significantly altering their Court’s First Amendment doctrines, and without disrupting the government’s ability to function. That’s good news for the NRA, but also good news for the Biden administration.

So what is the Murthy case about?

The general rule in First Amendment cases is that the federal government may not coerce a media company into changing which content it publishes, but it can ask a platform or outlet to remove or alter its content. Indeed, as Kavanaugh pointed out a few times during the oral argument, if the government were not allowed to do so, White House press aides and the like wouldn’t be allowed to speak to reporters to try to shape their coverage.

In Murthy, various officials throughout the federal government had many communications with major social media platforms, where the officials either asked the platforms to remove certain content or provided them with information that convinced the platforms to do so.

These communications concerned many topics. The FBI, for example, frequently contacts social media platforms to warn them about criminal or terroristic activity that is occurring online. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) flags social media content for the platforms that contains election-related disinformation, such as false statements about when an election will take place. The White House sometimes asks social media companies to remove accounts that falsely impersonate a member of the president’s family.

Many of these communications also involved government requests that the platforms pull down information that contains false and harmful health information, including misinformation about Covid-19. And these communications were center stage during the Murthy oral argument — the Murthy plaintiffs include several individuals who are upset that their content was removed because the platforms determined that it was Covid misinformation.

These plaintiffs were able to identify several examples where government officials were curt, bossy, or otherwise rude to representatives from the social media companies when those companies refused to pull down content that the government asked them to remove. Notably, however, neither these plaintiffs nor the Fifth Circuit identified a single example where a government official threatened some kind of consequence if a platform did not comply with the government’s requests.

Instead, the Fifth Circuit appeared to complain about the fact that the government has so many communications with social media companies. It claimed that the Biden administration violated the First Amendment because government officials “entangled themselves in the platforms’ decision-making processes,” and ordered the government to stop having “consistent and consequential” communications with social media platforms.

It’s unclear what that decision even means — how many times, exactly, may the government talk to a social media company before it violates the Fifth Circuit’s order? — and at least six of the justices appeared frustrated by the Fifth Circuit’s ham-handed approach to this case.

The two justices who’ve worked in senior White House jobs appeared especially dismissive of the Fifth Circuit’s position

Justices Elena Kagan and Kavanaugh seemed especially frustrated with the Fifth Circuit’s attempt to shut down communication between the government and the platforms, and for the same reason. Both Kagan and Kavanaugh worked in high-level White House jobs — Kagan as deputy domestic policy adviser to President Bill Clinton, and Kavanaugh as staff secretary to President George W. Bush — and both recoiled at the suggestion that the White House can’t try to persuade the media to change what it publishes.

Kavanaugh, a Republican appointed by Donald Trump, even rose to the government’s defense after Justice Samuel Alito attacked Biden administration officials who, Alito claimed, were too demanding toward the platforms.

After Alito ranted about what he called “constant pestering” by White House officials who would sometimes “curse” at corporate officials or treat them like “subordinates,” Kavanaugh said that, in his experience, White House press aides often call up members of the media and “berate” them if they don’t like the press’s coverage.

Similarly, Kagan admitted that “like Justice Kavanaugh, I’ve had experience encouraging people to suppress their own speech” after a journalist published a bad editorial or a piece with a factual error. But this sort of routine back-and-forth between White House officials and reporters is not a First Amendment violation unless there is some kind of threat or coercion. Why should the rule be any different for social media companies?

(Read more at Vox)

So the “in” crowd has decided that government censorship ranks higher than your first right

There is a reason that the founders put freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and freedom of the press in the first amendment. Sadly, most of our press has abdicated their place of responsiblity in order to cozy up at the government fireplace.

Still, even when our justices seem willing to whittle away at our fundamental rights just so that they can score points against someone for offending them or score points to be in the “in” crowd, we need to realize that these are God-given rights. While they may be infringed by this regime, they will not be entirely lost as long as we hold to them.

Nonetheless, with friends like this in our Supreme Court, who needs enemies?

…

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson seems to want to flip the script of the First Amendment and “hamstring” citizens rather than government

Fox News talks about the view of Justice Brown Jackson who seems to think that the Bill of Rights were written to protect the government.

In a debate Monday at the Supreme Court challenging the Biden administration’s alleged coordination with Big Tech to censor certain messages, one justice raised eyebrows in her comments about the government’s relationship with the First Amendment.

The case stems from a lawsuit brought by Republican-led states Missouri and Louisiana that accused high-ranking government officials of working with giant social media companies “under the guise of combating misinformation” that ultimately led to censoring speech on topics that included Hunter Biden’s laptop, COVID-19 origins and the efficacy of face masks — which the states argued was a First Amendment violation.

In nearly two hours of oral arguments, the justices debated whether the Biden administration crossed the constitutional line, and whether its outreach efforts with private companies amounted to permissible persuasion or encouragement versus illegal coercion or threats of retaliation.

“It’s got these big clubs available to it, and so it’s treating Facebook and these other platforms like their subordinates,” Justice Samuel Alito said. But Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson took a different approach.

“Your view has the First Amendment hamstringing the federal government in significant ways in the most important time periods,” she told the lawyer representing Louisiana, Missouri and private plaintiffs.

“The government actually has a duty to take steps to protect the citizens of this country… by encouraging or even pressuring platforms to take down harmful information,” she said.

“Justice Jackson appears to be saying that she believes that the states’ view would prevent the government from explaining its facts or positions to the social media companies when there is some danger or imminent threat,” John Shu, a constitutional attorney who served in both Bush administrations, told Fox News Digital, noting that the “heart” of the case “revolves around where the differentiating line between persuasion and coercion exists.”

“The First Amendment does not prevent government officials from complaining about a particular post or explaining why the post is factually incorrect. In fact, that’s why X has the ‘Community Notes’ function,” he said.

However, Shu noted that the First Amendment “prevents government officials from coercing, whether explicitly or implicitly, publishers to remove posts or articles because the government disagrees with or doesn’t like that viewpoint, even if it is under the guise of ‘national security’ or ‘public health.’”

(Read how experts agree with Justice Brown Jackson at Fox News)

Remember how Brown Jackson could not define “a woman” during her confirmation hearings?

So what do you expect now other than doctrinaire liberalism?

…

If Democrats will do this type of injustice to fellow Democrats, what have the 6 January defendants had to endure?

Featured

What first caught my eye was this report from Fox Digital that made the Sylvia Gonzalez case seem non-partisan

On 18 March 2024, Fox News Digital released the following video consisting primarily of the words of one of the lawyers from the firm supporting Sylvia Gonzalez before the Supreme Court.

In the deep-blue part of San Antonio, a city councilwoman carries a petition for her constituents and gets arrested

The Texan reported in a 23 October 2023 article on the case of Castle Hills Councilwoman Sylvia Gonzalez and the way the mayor, police chief, and city manager worked to squash the petition that got her elected, get rid of her First Amendment rights, and jail her.

The story contained in the alarming allegations raised by former Castle Hills City Councilwoman Sylvia Gonzales is fit for a movie plot. Now, the 76-year-old grandmother’s tale will be reviewed by justices of the U.S. Supreme Court to determine whether she may sue several officials who she says violated her constitutional rights.

According to court documents, Gonzales was concerned about the direction of Castle Hills, her small municipality surrounded by the larger City of San Antonio, and not only decided to run for city council but also started a citizen-led petition calling for the removal of the city manager.

The filings describe how Gonzales faced hostilities from incumbents in the city government and their political allies, beginning with an attempt to oust her immediately after being sworn into office by claiming her oath of office was not properly administered by the county sheriff.

Gonzales secured a court order preventing them from removing her from office, but the battle raged on.

At a city council meeting after the citizen-led petition calling for the removal of the city manager was presented, Gonzales says she briefly stepped away from the council dais. When she returned, Mayor JR Trevino asked her where the petition was, and after looking she found it inside her binder lying on the dais.

Gonzales says she doesn’t know how the petition came to be placed in her binder.

Trevino then instructed Chief of Police John Siemens to conduct an investigation into the seemingly innocuous moment.

After a Castle Hills police officer did not find any wrongdoing in his investigation,  Siemens hired a local attorney, Alex Wright, who also holds a police commission with Castle Hills to conduct another investigation.

After a month of investigating, Wright obtained an arrest warrant for Gonzales, charging her with tampering with a government record — a misdemeanor, for which she was booked into jail as opposed to receiving a citation.

The efforts against her continued to pile up, with a group of citizens described as being “politically aligned” with Trevino filing a lawsuit seeking her removal from office, citing “incompetency” as the basis for their petition.

After beating back the criminal charges and the multiple attempts to remove her from office, Gonzales says that her reputation was destroyed and she was forced to spend thousands in legal bills.

Joining forces with the Institute for Justice (IJ), Gonzales filed a federal lawsuit against Trevino, Wright, and Siemens, alleging they violated her First and 14th Amendment rights.

The IJ, which is a public interest law firm, defeated a motion to dismiss at the trial court level but failed at the U.S. 5th Circuit after a multi-judge panel ruled that binding case precedent favored the defendants.

(Read more at the conservative source, The Texan)

For bringing the petition her consituents signed, they jailed her

Likewise, the San Antonio Express News reported in a 16 Octover 2023 article on the case that once involved both Sylvia Gonzalez and then-Alderwoman Lesley Wenger on what seem now to be trumped-up charges of evidence tampering.

Four years ago, a bitter political dispute in the small suburban city of Castle Hills landed a city council member in jail. The resulting lawsuit now is headed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The high court on Friday agreed to consider an appeal by the former alderwoman, Sylvia Gonzalez, who was arrested by Castle Hills police in July 2019 and charged with tampering with a public document.

She spent a day in the Bexar County Jail but the charge was dismissed by the Bexar County District Attorney’s Office. Gonzalez filed a lawsuit in 2020 accusing other officials of retaliation.

The Supreme Court will decide whether Castle Hills officials, particularly the mayor and high-ranking police, can claim government immunity against lawsuits. The affluent North Side community along Loop 410 has about 4,000 residents.

Gonzalez, now 76, has said she was embarrassed by the arrest. She was placed in an orange inmate uniform, forced to sit on a cold metal bench and had her booking photo released to the media. Her lawsuit sought about $70,000 in legal fees and compensation for stress, harm to her reputation and loss of future job opportunities.

The lawsuit alleged violation of her rights under the First and Fourteenth amendments of the U.S. Constitution. She is represented by the Institute for Justice, a national law firm based in Virginia that bills itself as a guardian of basic American rights.

Senior U.S. District Judge David A. Ezra ruled in her favor, saying the city could have issued a summons for the nonviolent misdemeanor but got an arrest warrant instead, “which ensured that she would spend time in jail rather than remaining free and appearing before a judge.”

A three-member panel of the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, in a 2-1 ruling, reversed the district court, determining Gonzalez failed to prove her arrest was retaliatory and upholding the defendants’ claim of immunity.

Lawyers for Gonzalez have said she was the first Hispanic councilwoman ever elected in Castle Hills and was responding to concerns from residents when she “championed a nonbinding, citizen-signed petition calling for the removal of the city manager.”

“This act of political speech and petition, protected by the core of the First Amendment, was met with a coordinated campaign of retaliation by Castle Hills officials,” the institute said in its release.

Anya Bidwell, an attorney with the institute, said the appeals court’s decision “sets an impossible standard for victims of retaliatory arrest and punishment to prove their cases.”

“We are taking this case to the Supreme Court to ensure that government officials are held accountable when they violate the Constitution and that we stop this censorship by retaliation,” Bidwell said.

Castle Hills Mayor JR Treviño, listed as a defendant, along with Police Chief John Siemens and police Detective Alex Wright, declined to discuss the case.

“We can’t comment on pending litigation,” said Treviño, who also is chief operating officer of Treco Enterprises and interim president and CEO of the San Antonio Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

In a release, the Institute for Justice called Gonzalez a “Texas grandmother” and retiree who endured “harassment, false charges, and even imprisonment, all stemming from her efforts to hold Castle Hills city officials accountable for their actions.”

Also arrested the same day, July 18, 2019, was then-Alderwoman Lesley Wenger, 77 at the time. She was charged with tampering with evidence and fraudulent use or possession of identification information.

Gonzalez and Wenger both were part of a three-member council majority that criticized City Manager Ryan Rapelye. They were accused in arrest affidavits of engaging in a yearlong effort to get him fired or force him to quit.

According to one police affidavit, Wenger copied information from Rapelye’s personnel file, including his Social Security number, driver’s license number, date of birth and information about his daughter, then later tore up the yellow sheet on which she’d written it — what police considered evidence. But the DA’s office also dismissed the charges against her.

Gonzalez was accused of illegally taking possession of petitions titled “Fix Our Streets” that called for Rapelye’s removal during a May 2019 council meeting, after a citizen said she’d been misled to sign one of the petitions “under false pretenses.”

The arrests also followed a 3-2 council vote supported by Wenger and Gonzalez a few weeks earlier to restrict residents from speaking until the end of regular council meetings. A new state law took effect in September 2019 that negated that vote, allowing the public to speak on individual agenda items during meetings of governmental bodies.

(Read more at the San Antonio Express News)

It’s odd how nobody brings to the conversation that this is all between Democrats

With the ways that both the press and political figures like Joe Biden regularly demonize Republicans, it’s odd that not one Republican has been involved in this fiasco.

Likewise, on the other end of the conversation, since Republicans are always demonized by the press and political figures, it would seem that either:

  • Democrats would jealously guard their reputations and not let them get stained by rapscallions like Senator Bob Menendez, Mayor JR Trevino, or Hunter Biden’s loving daddy
  • Or they would at least defend the weak that got them elected.

However, neither of these seem to be the case.

So, why hasn’t the Texas Democrat Party come out and excoriated this mayor and his compartriots? Why hasn’t Joe Biden come out and taken a stand for the little person who stood for what was right? Why hasn’t Kamala Harris hashed up some word salad on how this woman stood in the breach?

Could it be that they see us all as pawns to shuffle around? Are they currently unsure of which ones they will sacrifice before the game ends?

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Following in the steps of Bill Clinton, Hunter Biden gives the Chinese a corner on the nuclear energy market

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Memos show that Hunter Biden and partners aided Chinese bid to corner nuclear energy market with U.S. tech

Just The News details how Hunter Biden worked to advance the interests of the Communist Chinese in their pursuit of the nuclear energy.

While his father was still vice president, Hunter Biden and his business partners tried unsuccessfully to help a Chinese energy firm acquire one of the United States’ premier nuclear technology companies in a secret attempt to “control” the global market, according to new evidence turned over to Congress in President Joe Biden’s impeachment inquiry.

The evidence, which includes a detailed strategy memo, shows Hunter Biden was directly involved in emails and correspondence on the project in 2016 and that the goal was to exploit the future first son’s access to power and his family reputation to make Washington and Beijing comfortable with a potentially controversial deal and then to shield the acquisition of Westinghouse by China CEFC Energy behind intermediaries.

“In summary, utilising (sic) the U.S. face of Westinghouse, combined with the economic power of CEFC (China) is the perfect solution to control this global sector,” Hunter Biden partner James Gilliar wrote to CEFC in a strategy memo.

At the time, Westinghouse was U.S.-based but owned by Japan’s Toshiba and one of the darlings of the nuclear industry with its new AP1000 reactor, a smaller and more advanced power generator. But it privately was suffering financial strife due to cost delays and overruns at a planned nuclear power plant in Georgia that would eventually force the company to file for temporary bankruptcy protection.

Congressional investigators recently obtained new memos and testimony about the nature of the plan to help CEFC gain a larger foothold in the global nuclear energy market by acquiring Westinghouse. One of Hunter Biden’s former business partners, Rob Walker, told Congress the future first son was involved, providing a letter to make the Chinese comfortable with the plan.

Hunter Biden “had an interesting last name that would probably get people in the door,” Walker explained to lawmakers.
Hunter Biden’s association with CEFC dating to late 2015 has been well-known for years, including emails suggesting his father might get a 10% stake in the firm and testimony that Joe Biden met with the chairman of the Chinese company in early 2017 before nearly $8 million in money flowed from CEFC to companies tied to the Biden family.<

But most of the evidence in public to date has focused on efforts by Hunter Biden and partners to help CEFC gain access to oil and gas assets and technology in the United States, including a liquid natural gas project in Louisiana known as Monkey Island.

The fact that Hunter Biden and his team were also working to affect a transfer of one of America’s premier nuclear energy tech companies to China has only recently come into clearer focus for investigators.

(See the redacted file and read more details at Just The News)

This follows in the steps of Bill Clinton handing gyroscope technology over to the Chinese

For those with a little memory, there was the curious case where Bill Clinton handed missile technology in 1998 over to China’s “gang who couldn’t shoot straight” and then, somehow, Bill Clinton and Al Gore suddenly had several more million dollars in their billfolds.

Odd how these things work for Democrats and they never get punished.

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Eternal Rewards

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Salvation and Rewards

The following comes through the notes of Mark Ramsey and the responses of the class.

  1. Twin truths

    Blood-washed believers will be spotless in God’s sight, but not all will have the same service record. God is after obedience. Salvation gets us to heaven, but works determine what we do after we get there. (C. S. Lovett)

    What is your response to this quote?

    One class member noted that rewards are God’s idea. A second said, due to the mentioning of his words on the cross, that the theif on the cross gained works past his death through the Word.

    Twin truths:

    • Your belief determines where you will spend eternity. Does anyone disagree with this premise?
    • Your behavior determines how you will spend eternity. Any comments on this premise?
  2. Salvation or redemption by belief?

    Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness. (‭Genesis 15:6 NIV‬)

    ‭However, to the one who does not work but trusts God who justifies the ungodly, their faith is credited as righteousness. (Romans 4:5 NIV‬)

    know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified. (‭Galatians 2:16 NIV‬)

    One class member observed that the previous verse puts us at equal and sinful footing under the law, but that all believers find salvation separately under Christ through faith. As an answer, we give thanks to know what to do. We must remember the commandments to Christians, including: witnessing, going to church, confessing to one another, and many other commandments from Christ. We must obey in the present and not set aside our obedience.

    ‭For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. (Ephesians 2:8-10 NIV‬)

    he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, (‭Titus 3:5-6 NIV‬)

    These verses state that we are saved by grace through faith unto good works. The order is important: by, through and unto.

    Grace is the power of God doing for man what is impossible for man to do himself; it makes man acceptable before God. God gives His unmerited favor, or undeserved acceptance, to those who on their own merit are undeserving.

    Our personal faith becomes evident when we choose to demonstrate our belief in His Word, the Son of God, as the promised Savior and Redeemer and Lord of our lives.

    ‬Whoever believes in the Son of God accepts this testimony. Whoever does not believe God has made him out to be a liar, because they have not believed the testimony God has given about his Son. And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life. (‭1 John 5:10-13 NIV)

    ‭But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, (Hebrews 10:12 NIV‬)

    One class member noted “Not by our doing, but by His dying.”

    We are saved not by our merit but by Christ’s mercy. Not by our doing but by His dying. Salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. Yet, God saved us to do good works.

  3. Rewards by behavior

    Works confirm and validate that our faith is real and vital.

    Before this series, did you ever consider receiving rewards in heaven? What was your concept of receiving rewards?

    One class member noted that, here, we must not keep a scorecard, but must focus on Christ.

    As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead. (‭James 2:26 NIV‬)

    • Redemption:

      Based on Christ’s work for us; received by belief; eternal destination is heaven; free; cannot be lost (John 10:28-29); same for all Christians (Romans 3:22)

    • Rewards:

      ‭Based on our works for Christ; received by behavior; eternal compensation; earned; can be lost (2 John 1:8); differ among Christians (1 Corinthians 3:12-15)

  4. The law of rewards:

    We must trust in Jesus as savior apart from any works whatsoever and after we trust him, we follow with the good works that he has prepared for us to do-works that please him.

    This law will never change.

    However, it should change us.

 

Gosh, I wonder why the Democrats never harped on the 6 January 2021 bombs.

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Could it be that their assets in the “intelligence” community were involved in an operation on home soil?

Records show that the CIA deployed bomb technicians and dog teams to DC on 6 January 2021

Judicial Watch lets loose about the text messages they found revealing the facts that CIA bomb technicians and dog teams were deployed to Washington, D.C. on 6 January 2021.

Judicial Watch announced today it received 88 pages of Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) records from the Department of Justice in a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit that show the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) deployed personnel to Washington, DC, on January 6, 2021.

Judicial Watch forced the release of the records through a June 5, 2023, lawsuit that was filed after the Justice Department failed to respond to an August 10, 2023, FOIA request for records and communications regarding shots being fired inside the U.S. Capitol, as well as requests for Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) Special Response Team assistance on January 6, 2021 (Judicial Watch Inc. v U.S. Department of Justice (No. 1:23-cv-01608)).

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) records include a series of text messages under the heading “January 7 Intel Chain” in which two separate references to participation by the CIA are made. One states that “two CIA bomb techs” are assisting with “a pipe bomb scene on New Jersey and D ST SE.” Another references “several CIA dog teams on standby.”

Group texts contain a 4 p.m. hour message by persons whose names are redacted regarding two explosive devices found at the Democratic National Committee (DNC) building and one at the Republican National Committee (RNC): “Train traffic is stopped.” “It appears the powerplant is unfounded….” “Upper west Terrance of the capital breached by protesters.” “USCP is sending out a Mutual Aid request.” “Capital Police may be moving resources inside.” “Protesters are cutting tarp at bottom of scaffolding and moving up through that.” “FYSA-FC1, WASH1, SAC, ASAC responded to Capitol….” “2 explosive devices at DNC.” “One at rnc one at dnc.”

The “Intel Chain” also reports on the shooting of Ashli Babbitt: “Shots fired house floor. 1 civilian down with a gun shot [sic] wound to the chest on the 2nd floor. Gunshot victim has been extracted. Shooting was officer involved.”

A separate series of text messages is included in the records provided to Judicial Watch. In the 2 p.m. hour on January 6, 2021, the texts read: “West Terrace has been breached [redacted] … Explosion reported on the rotunda steps [redacted]. Shots fired at rotunda.”

Shortly thereafter, another set of texts report: Party 1: “VP stuck inside last I heard.” Patry 2: Copy.” Party 1: “Capitol PD shot someone dead on house floor. Dead.” Party 2: “Christ. What was the final in the devices real or not [redacted].” Party 1: “Clearing Capitol now with bomb techs. Lots of damage.” Party 2: “Damn that’s scary. So sad. Thx for keeping me in the loop brother. I was able to get I [sic] go to my team and the Director before they heard it from outside sources.”

The “Intel Chain” also reports that members of Congress are being evacuated to Fort McNair, which is located about two miles south of the Capitol: “Capitol has been transferred to Fort McNair.” “It’s an alternate location so they can continue their work.”

A heavily redacted series of text messages from redacted sources state, “Command post is at JERSEY and D St SE.” Three additional recipients are added to the text group at 1:21 p.m., one of whom reports: “Just made contact with [redacted] FBI is reporting an additional 3 possible devices for a total of 5 now.” A response follows: “Do you have the locations of the other devices?” The reply is: “Not yet, the FBI is going to pass it on. I believe one was located at the gates to the Power Plant.” The following text states: “LEO’s [Law Enforcement Officers] being attacked on the west side of Capitol with pieces of the restraining fence. Some officers injured.”

“These striking records show that CIA resources were deployed in reaction to the January 6 disturbance,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton.

(Read more at Judicial Watch)

There is so much wrong with this

This is wrong on so many levels, since:

  • The CIA is not supposed to operate domestically.
  • Since their bomb technicians and dog teams were involved (as part of a supposed clean up, possibly), had they been planning some sort of coup? We know that Clapper, Brennan, and much of the top brass identify as communist. Was this a move to keep President Trump from assuming office?
  • “Bombs” were found at the RNC headquarters and the DNC headquarters on 6 December 2021, but nobody was held to account. In fact, evidence was destroyed.
  • Although the bomber was clearly caught on video, the phone evidence of the bomber got corrupted.
  • Despite the clarity of the video evidence, there are large, unexplained gaps in that video evidence.
  • A sweep by the Secret Service and a D.C. bomb-sniffing dog did not detect the bomb at the DNC.
  • Kamala Harris was in the DNC headquarters (instead of the Capitol, as she reported several times later) when the riots were occurring. Considering that her party was on the receiving end of surges of “votes” duing November 2020, why was she not at the Capitol?

It seems that this might have been a back-up plan had President Trump actually overcome the 4 a.m. surges in the polling places where Republican poll watchers were not allowed. It just looks like our own CIA and its leadership (with its likely ideological clones of John Brennan) might be willing to bomb the RNC and DNC to derail a Trump presidency.

Therefore, for us to dismiss the idea that the Democrats are coordinating with RINO’s like Ken Buck and others to gain the gavel and deny the American people their choice — maybe is a bit premature.

…

Additionally, please consider the most recent incendiary comments of Chuck Schumer

For a party that has spent almost four years jailing, blocking, condemning, and otherwise harming anyone they deem as an “election denier,” Chuck Schumer’s message to Israel’s electorate rings hollow

The Guardian outlines the caustic words of the Democrat “leader” and the sharp response to those words.

Chuck Schumer, the US Senate leader and a top ally of Joe Biden, on Thursday broke with the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, over his handling of the invasion of Gaza and called for Israel to hold new elections, in comments that upset its ruling party and allies on Capitol Hill.

The shift by Schumer, the Democratic Senate majority leader and the highest-ranking Jewish official in the United States, came as he continued to press lawmakers to pass a military assistance package for Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan, the countries Biden has named as America’s top national security priorities.

In remarks from the Senate floor, Schumer said he had a longstanding relationship with Netanyahu but believed he “has lost his way by allowing his political survival to take precedence over the best interests of Israel”.

Noting the prime minister’s inclusion of far–right officials in his government, Schumer said Netanyahu “has been too willing to tolerate the civilian toll in Gaza, which is pushing support for Israel worldwide to historic lows. Israel cannot survive if it becomes a pariah.”

Israel’s ruling Likud party responded to Schumer by defending the prime minister’s public support and saying Israel was “not a banana republic”.

“Contrary to Schumer’s words, the Israeli public supports a total victory over Hamas, rejects any international dictates to establish a Palestinian terrorist state, and opposes the return of the Palestinian Authority to Gaza,” it said in a statement.

“Senator Schumer is expected to respect Israel’s elected government and not undermine it. This is always true, and even more so in wartime.”

The Republican Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell, struck a similar tone. “Israel is not a colony of America whose leaders serve at the pleasure of the party in power in Washington. Only Israel’s citizens should have a say in who runs their government,” he said from the chamber’s floor, shortly after Schumer spoke.

“Either we respect their decisions, or we disrespect their democracy.”

The Republican speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, who has refused to allow a vote on the military assistance package despite its passage in the Senate, said Schumer’s remarks were “highly inappropriate” and accused him of playing “a divisive role in Israeli politics”.

(Read at the Guardian about the unreported issues that these comments exacerbate)

If the party that has focused so heavily on the sanctity of elections will do this to an ally, what will they do to their supposed enemy?

Although we have to realize that a major pull for the Democrats is their newly-imported Islamic voting block (created some time around the Somali and Afghan crises), we also have to think about the effect of Chuck’s words on our own Jewish population and the only democracy in the Middle East.

You know, if Chuck doesn’t watch his words, he might find that he has “released the whirlwind and you will pay the price. You won’t know what hit you, if you go forward with these awful decisions.”

But then again, Chuckie and Dementia Joe have a compliant press to shield them. So who cares?

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