A Costly 'Get Out of Jail Free' Card

There are two things I can say with near certainty about Joe Biden:

• Joe Biden is a crook
• Joe Biden will not be held accountable for any of his crimes

Most of us have seen the now-famous picture of a 60's era Corvette parked in the driveway, in front of an open garage.  Inside the disheveled-looking garage, are beat up boxes of papers - sitting there right out in the open on the floor in front of the open garage door.

Today we learned that the owner of that garage and the man who previously claimed that he was "surprised" when boxes of illegal classified documents were found in his house and garage, (while feigning outrage that Donald Trump had retained classified documents among his personal papers)  1  - has admitted under questioning by Special Counsel Robert Hur and his deputies, to knowing that he illegally held classified documents in his possession.

Hur's findings, outlined in a report which came out on Thursday, February 8, established that Biden, "willingly retained and disclosed classified materials," including "military, foreign policy, and sensitive national security secrets."  Additionally, Biden "knew he kept classified information in notebooks stored in his house and he knew he was not allowed to do so."  

Proving yet again how this corrupt Justice Department maintains a two-tiered justice system, Biden will not be charged (much less, impeached by the House of Representatives) for his illegal activities. In fact, Mr. Hur refuses even to prosecute the theft of classified documents from a secure SCIF while Biden was a U.S.Senator.  Meanwhile Merrick Garland moves forward with the Trump indictment for far less serious circumstances.

Nope.  Instead, doing his best impersonation of Jim Comey protecting Hillary Clinton, Special Counsel Hur declined to prosecute, even after authoring a 388 page report laying out the legal grounds for such a prosecution.

The Special Counsel did, however, throw at least one bone to Biden's conservative critics.  Hur laid bare Biden's drastic and severe cognitive decline when he revealed that Biden's memory had "significant limitations" and that he failed to recall such significant milestones as the time of his Vice Presidency or the date of his older son's death.  The report says, "Mr. Biden's memory also appeared to have significant limitations."

In fact, one excuse given for not charging Biden with these felonies was that after his presidency ends, Biden's legal team would likely present him at his trial as "a sympathetic, (I would say 'pathetic') well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory."  Funny, but that sounds to me more like a consideration to be left for the sentencing phase of a trial, instead of the legal basis for blanket prosecutorial immunity from serious crimes.

Not that logic and reason count for much with this bunch, but, it certainly does put Biden and his handlers in a rather difficult logical conundrum.  As Victor Davis Hanson points out, how exactly does he argue against the report?  No, I'm not cognitively challenged and therefore should be indicted after my terms ends - or - He's right to not prosecute because I am in cognitive decline and therefore no longer qualify under the 25th amendment to be president. 2

In the final analysis, however, if we desire to protect our country from another four years of this tyrannical and lawless regime, if we wish to spare the country from increasing international embarrassment, disrespect, and scorn, and if we hope to save the United States from this mentally diminished, bumbling Mr. Magoo-like character in the oval office, we can't count on the news media, the 25th amendment, or the courts.  To do that, patriotic citizens like you and I will have to vote him out of office.

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1. When asked for his thoughts upon hearing that President Trump had kept classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, President Biden replied, "How that could possibly happen?  How could anyone be that irresponsible?" (60 Minutes interview, 09/18/2022)

2. U.S. Constitution.  Amendment 25. Section 4 - "Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President..."

 

 

A Dream Interrupted

 

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today.  ~  Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Some 60 years ago (and just months before I was born), Martin Luther King gave what became one of the most heralded speeches yet to have been delivered in the English language.

At the time, hopes that this dream laid out by Rev. King would become widely accepted were largely aspirational.  His words that day hearkened back - in more than one way - to those of a similarly gifted orator, Abraham Lincoln.  You may recall, in urging for reconciliation how President Lincoln had appealed to "the better angels of our nature," in his first inaugural address.

In both cases, the nation moved forward, however imperfectly, until both of these great men's visions advanced from aspiration to realization.

 

In fact, not that many years ago, acceptance of the notion that all people should be judged by the content of their character was nearly ubiquitous among both conservative and liberal constituencies.

More recently, however, a worrisome trend has emerged.

This troubling new vision substitutes reconciliation with Balkanization.  It is a vision of division instead of unity.  No longer is the appeal to our nature's "better angels", as it once was, but to something far less noble:  tribalism, avarice, and retribution.

This vision pushes back against the very notion of good character as a virtue.  Such ideals have been watered down, redefined - or rejected outright.  No longer is the vision one of character qualities over superficial appearance, but rather tribal affiliation based on skin color over all else.

So in our current political climate, while the conservative cause has fully embraced King's colorblind creed, it seems that the political left has gone in a new and dangerous direction.  In doing so, they have abandoned the dream, and embraced a nightmare.

 

 

A Tale of Two Thieves

As we approached Holy Week, the Lord had been leading me to contemplate the story commonly known as the Thief on the Cross – a short and familiar story found here in Luke 23:39-43.

39 One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: “Aren’t you the Messiah? Save yourself and us!” 40 But the other criminal rebuked him. “Don’t you fear God,” he said, “since you are under the same sentence? 41 We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.” 42 Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” 43 Jesus answered him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”

I wanted to talk a bit about this story. But not simply to look at the story as part of the larger Easter narrative, or even to share some intellectual observations, nor as just a curious observer. No. I want to make the story personal to you and to me.

At this point, you are might be saying to yourself, “Yes, but I am neither a thief, nor am I facing a death sentence,” and in a temporal sense, you would probably be right about that.

But I would argue that one or the other of these two men, and their condition, represent all of us, in our own condition.

As we saw in the text from Luke, the story is not just about one criminal, but actually two criminals or thieves, being crucified, “one on the right and the other on the left” of Christ. The actual word used has been translated as thief, criminal, malefactor, robber, and rebel - even revolutionary.

But whatever their specific crimes, both men had been convicted of a capital crime against the Roman state and faced the most serious known method of punishment. As Matthew (27:44) and Mark (15:32) point out, both men initially mocked Jesus.

The first criminal, sometimes known as the penitent thief, was a witness to all of the humiliation and suffering endured by the one who proclaimed Himself to be the Messiah – and observed that He did not lash out, spew vile curses, act in his own defense... or, if His claims about Himself were true, attempt to save himself by calling down fire and the wrath of heaven upon his persecutors. Having seen this all – this demonic outpouring of injustice on the innocent one hanging next to him – he reached deep within his conscience to recall a long-suppressed fear of God. He came to realize his own depravity and unworthiness in the presence of the Holy Son of God.

At this point, he looks into the face of the Savior, confesses, and begs for mercy.

The tragedy of the second, unrepentant thief is that he experienced everything his compatriot experienced. He even felt the same nails that hung Christ to the cross. He heard Jesus' utterances from the cross, the same as his companion. He had witnessed the exchange between Jesus and first thief. And yet this rebel was unmoved. He was too proud. He refused to humble himself and confess either his own guilt or even Christ's innocence.

He was fatefully willing to march to his death and judgment singing (as popularized by the Frank Sinatra song) “I did it my way.”

This is all the more sad because the Scriptures say it is so simple: If you confess with your mouth “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. - Romans 10:9

But I want to take us back to the initial objection, that defensive objection, that "I am certainly not a criminal worthy of death like these two malefactors were."

Quite honestly, all of us are – or were at one time – just like one or the other of these two men. Criminals, thieves, and rebels against God: Sinners all, as Romans chapter 3, verse 23 says, All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

We are all under the condemnation of our sins against a holy God, but still having the power to humble ourselves, repent, and ask for forgiveness – or more tragically – proudly continue on our path toward the finality of death where we will face judgment and hell.

Our holy God is very generous in his terms for those who wish to be redeemed and reconciled to Him, but He does not negotiate or entertain counter-offers. As it says in John 14:6 : Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

My friend, I urge you then even this day, to consider carefully, judge yourself rightly, and humble yourself necessarily. Choose today to be like this penitent thief.

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. - John 1:9

 

Like Sodom and Gomorrah - but with Lakes, Rocks, and Cows

With that soothing baritone voice of his and a Santa Claus-like physique, one could easily assume Minnesota DFL Governor Tim Walz was harmless.  And you'd be very wrong.

In an age of hyperbole, even by 'Minnesota nice' standards, it is hardly understatement to say he is a dangerous, tyrannical extremist.  Walz came on the scene in 2018 with a campaign giving lip service to a slogan "One Minnesota", but it didn't take him - or voters - long to realize his radical policies were extremely unpopular in outstate Minnesota and that his base of support was a handful of Democrat stronghold urban counties in the Twin Cities metro, plus Duluth and Rochester. For the most part, suburban and rural areas - the land of "mostly rocks and cows" as he so famously dismissed them - rejected his divisive talk and disastrous policy prescriptions.

Not satisfied with the typical Democrat favorite pet projects, such as expanding the already bloated welfare state, funding pork-barrel spending construction projects, and dumbing down the education system, Walz had his sights set on much more far reaching structural changes, but was held back, by a legislature that his party didn't fully control.  At least until COVID, where we got our first true glimpse of a man acquiring a taste for tyrannical power - a man who would come to be affectionately known to some as 'Timmy the Tyrant'.  Using ambiguous and arcane emergency rules, Walz assumed near marshal law status, by continuing to extend his peacetime emergency powers for well over a year beyond when any true COVID emergency may have possibly existed.

Then came the unthinkable.

Rather than being punished by voters for his divisive, erratic, and downright ineffective leadership during the George Floyd riots, Feeding Our Future scandal, and COVID, Walz was inexplicably swept back into office and given a Democrat majority in both chambers of the legislature to back him.  They quickly conspired to seize on the opportunity for action to turn our charming land of 10,000 lakes into a diabolical landscape of 10,000 boiling cauldrons of corrosive far-left politics.

In a flurry of activity, all hell literally broke loose as the 2023 legislative session began.  Without any effective checks and balances.  Walz and his party wasted no time enacting an agenda that seemed to many of us "rocks and cows" types, too extreme for even Satan himself.

Revealing their top priority - death and destruction - the first bill from both chambers (HF1/SF1) removed virtually all abortion safeguards or restrictions and guaranteed gruesome child-killing for any or no particular reason, up until the moment of birth. Walz only too happily signed it into law.  Keep in mind that was despite denying a charge from his campaign opponent that he supported abortion up to the moment of birth and claiming that he supported maintaining current abortion laws. 1  (The bill followed nicely in the footsteps of his 2022 executive order which gave state sanction to 'abortion tourism' by refusing to cooperate with neighboring states which don't allow the grisly procedures. 2 )

Although I'm not going to take time to outline all the bad and outright evil policies and laws inflicted upon Minnesotans by Governor Walz (expensive carbon-free electricity, felon voting, and illegal alien driver's licenses immediately come to mind), we must mention his most egregious action of all, at least to this point:  Walz's 'Gender Transition' executive order.

Executive order 23-03, signed on Wednesday, March 8, leapfrogs the legislature and effectively transforms Minnesota into a sanctuary state for so-called gender transitions. The order guarantees access - and punishes denial of services - to what they euphemistically call "gender affirming healthcare services." 3  (A writer for Hot Air points out that it even goes to the lengths of protecting non-custodial parents from consequences for kidnapping a child and bringing them to Minnesota for the purposes of receiving such 'services.' 4)

Their deliberately vague and obfuscatory language deserves to be unpacked.  Completely unheard of a decade ago, the term "gender affirming healthcare services", encompasses a range of horrific practices and procedures, of which I hesitate to even mention, such as the administration of cross-sex hormones, powerful and still not fully tested puberty blocking drugs, genital mutilation surgeries, breast removals, and castration of children.  Indeed Dr. Mengele would be proud of this governor and his administration!

A boy insists he is a girl so he can shower with the cheerleaders?  Great!  A girl wants to be a boy, because the other girls in her class are mean to her?  We can make that happen!  Your 2nd grade son says he wants to be a pirate, so they surgically remove an eye from it's socket and give him a patch and amputate half his leg to fit him with a pegleg.  That is doable!  Your kindergarten daughter says she wishes she were a purple polka-dotted unicorn... well you see where this foray into fantasy land goes.

And so, we have Walz's Lt. Governor, Peggy Flanigan, out there publicly insisting that she knows "what it means to be a good parent," emphatically claiming "it is our job as grown-ups to listen and believe" whatever a child may say about who or what they are. 5   For the extremists in charge, it has nothing to do with providing wise guidance and religious direction to children through times of trouble and confusion.  Instead, she insists logic, reason, genetic science, and all that is true must be tossed aside in a dogged pursuit of the lunatic left's cause du jour.

The intent of these things is not to affirm genetic science, X and Y chromosomes, or a reality-based concept of male and female, but rather to obscure them.  This done, not in the name of truth, but in the name of politically motivated theories revolving around gender fluidity - a cause celebre of the far left LGBTQ+ABCXYZ sexual deviancy movement.

Having received both public recognition and government sanction to their unholy unions, and left unsatisfied even by the continuous positive publicity being puffed in the legacy media and pop culture, the sexual deviancy movement continues to progress into evermore sinister areas of depravity such as indoctrination, recruitment, molestation, and even mutilation of children.  In the case of minors, the innocent-sounding term, "gender-affirming care" actually cares nothing about the actual havoc raised in the lives of it's young, confused, or mentally ill victims.  There is a profitable and sexually-charged political agenda to be advanced at their expense.    

In actuality, the result is little more than the official enabling and even celebrating of an untreated mental disorder - in this case, one called gender dysphoria. 

While it may be hard to even fathom this depth of evil by those of us in the land of rocks and cows, it has been adopted wholesale from a political party and it's leader in St. Paul that has a central vision of sexual confusion, immorality, and mutilation.  Sadly, it's portends a legacy of broken lives, destruction, and death that targets children, who will bear the imprint for decades hereafter.

 

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1 - https://minnesotareformer.com/briefs/gov-tim-walz-does-not-support-abortion-up-to-the-moment-of-birth-contrary-to-jensen-claim/

2 - https://m.startribune.com/small-devoted-group-at-state-capitol-shares-in-gratitude-for-roe-being-overturned/600185247/

3 - https://alphanews.org/gov-walz-signs-order-making-state-a-sanctuary-for-gender-transitions/

4 - https://hotair.com/david-strom/2023/03/09/minnesota-about-to-become-a-kidnapping-sanctuary-state-n535743 

5 - https://alphanews.org/flanagan-good-parents-believe-kids-when-they-tell-us-who-they-are/

Their Most Sacred Sacrament

If there was any ambivalence or doubt left about the diabolical nature of the Democrat party's agenda - or for that matter, the depth of depravity required of those who aspire to be one of the party's elected officials - well, all doubt about it was erased last week.  An uncomplicated bill was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives which simply affirmed the common understanding among civilized people that the attending medical personal would provide children with the necessary postnatal medical care after a successful delivery.

As Lifenews reported:  "The Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act requires that, when a baby is born alive following an abortion, health care practitioners must exercise the same degree of professional skill and care that would be offered to any other child born alive at the same gestational age."

And yet, 210 Democrats voted against the measure.

How could that be?  Had all the House Democrats just been on a whisky drinking and crack smoking bender in the Congressional Cloakroom and were too high to comprehend the issue before them?  Or perhaps they were distracted by their planning meetings for the 3rd, 4th, and 5th Trump post-presidential impeachment debacles?  Or maybe they were simply confused about which bill it was that they were casting their vote on?  Sadly, all of those excuses could be understandable, were they actually the reason.

One would think that this would be a no-brainer;. An easy, albeit rare, unanimous "Yes" vote in an age characterized by political acrimony.  Unless, of course, you are a Democrat, in which case you will fight any perceived threat to the few remaining tenets of your unholy religious cult.

Thankfully, the bill passed without their help.  Yet only one lone House Democrat voted in favor the bill that would simply mandate medical attention for children who survive an abortion and live through the trauma of it, (in actuality, these are children who have survived a murder attempt at the hands of an unethical abortionist) ...and as best I can tell, it was solely due to their peculiar religious beliefs.

We have seen time and time again that for Democrats, the ends justify the means, there are simply no ethical guardrails or guideposts for the lunatic left.  Thus as a political party, they have come to a place where no principle within their party platform is sacrosanct in their diabolical quest for control.  Almost none, that is.  You see, they aren't quite as godless as they seem.  There still is one principle - one exception to the rule.

The bedrock principle, the seemingly single non-negotiable tenet, the unwavering and supreme precept - serving as the centerpiece of their death-cultic creed - is their absolute and unquestioning support for abortion for any or no reason.  The cruel and barbaric gods the Democrats serve demand child sacrifice on the Planned Parenthood altar to appease their diabolical bloodlust.  And it rivals, if not surpasses, anything the Aztecs, Incas, or Mayans may have engaged in.

No challenge to that absolute guiding principle can be tolerated.  No compromises can be entertained.  No tactic is too extreme in the defense of their most sacred sacrament - even to the point of a full-throated support of infanticide by refusing medical care to infants.

Abortion has become the most sacred of Democrat Party sacraments.

 

https://www.lifenews.com/2023/01/12/210-democrats-voted-to-deny-medical-care-to-babies-who-survive-abortions/

 

 

The Biden Referendum: Tuesday, November 8

Joe Biden is a really bad President.

That's not just a statement from an admittedly partisan blogger, but it is empirically confirmed by the citizens and voters across the country.  There can be no question that, despite the advantages provided by a fawning and shilling news media, Joe Biden - with his 38% favorable rating - is one of the least popular U.S. presidents since such statistics have been tracked. (1)  However, that's not to say he hasn't been effective.  The trio of executive orders, selective non-enforcement of existing law, Congressional legislation, combined with a constant stream of propaganda from the presidential teleprompter have been very effective in dividing us along political and racial lines, undermining the shared social fabric, and destroying the country's economy.  Effective yes, very much so.  But popular, absolutely not.

As such, tomorrow's election - despite the President's objections - has turned into a referendum on the dangerous and destructive policies being imposed on us by the unpopular Biden Regime.  Many of us have come to the conclusion that the best way to stop or at least slow the consequences of those policies - at least in the short term - is to deny his political party the Congressional and state majorities which exist to enable his lawless regime and its policies

With this in mind, I have been compiling a list of a few of the most obvious reasons to vote against Democrats at all levels in Tuesday's election.  Below, I offer you my Top Ten Reasons to vote GOP on November 8:

 
Reason #1 to vote GOP on November 8: 
Intentional human Chaos created on the southern border - For fiscal year 2022, we had an all-time record number of criminal and illegal aliens flooding across the border.  Under the intentionally chaotic misrule of DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, we have suffered through:
- 2,378,944 illegal alien 'encounters' in 2022 - the worst on record.  Most of these unscreened, undocumented, unvaccinated, uneducated, and acculturated aliens were ushered into the country posthaste by the Biden regime.
- Another 600,000 illegal alien known 'got-aways'
- 856 reported deaths at the southern border, another record - not including the deaths south of the border
- 98 known or suspected terrorists apprehended - 4x more than the previous 5 years combined (for reference, only 19 terrorists were involved in the Sept 11 attacks)
In an attempt to conceal the bad border news which reporting requirements forced them to publicly reveal, Homeland Security dumped the Sept. and fiscal year end data at 11:30 pm Friday (10/21) night. (2)

Reason #2 to vote GOP on November 8:
Intentional drug Chaos on the southern border - During his first two years in office, Biden oversaw record drug overdose numbers, much of which was fentanyl-related.  As a consequence of Biden's lawless border policies, enough fentanyl was seized while being smuggled in fiscal year 2021 to kill every US citizen 7 times, which begs the question how much of the deadly drug wasn't intercepted at the porous and virtually undefended southern border.  If the Biden regime isn't deliberately cooperating, hand-in-glove, with the Mexican drug cartels which are flooding our country with illegal drugs, it is hard to fathom what more they could be doing to assist the effort.

Reason #3 to vote GOP on November 8:
National security - A Surrender in the fight against Terrorism.  After the ill-planned and hasty withdrawal from Afghanistan, literally billions in armaments were gifted by Biden to the Taliban.  This included vehicles, planes, night vision equipment, small arms, and parts.  Even the lowest estimates of the value ($7-8 billion) of what he left behind is 2 to 3 times the amount the Biden regime requested for Israeli defense in fy2022 - in other words, Biden's policies provide more support for Taliban terrorists than our best middle eastern ally.

It's no better on the home front, where his inexplicably stubborn refusal to enforce the law, finish the border wall, or beef up the U.S Border Patrol, means that would-be terrorists are literally pouring across the southern border (98 of whom were stopped in fiscal year 2022 alone, according to DHS statistics, which do not speculate how many terrorists made it through)

Reason #4 to vote GOP on November 8: 
National security - Projecting Military weakness.  Undermining our military strength has been a hallmark of Biden's defense policy.  Not only did his unceremonious and haphazard surrender in Afghanistan signal weakness to our global enemies - and thereby greenlighting Putin's invasion of Ukraine - but by not consulting with our allies before his pullout there, he jeopardized their future cooperation.

He has further undermined our military by:
- Draining the Strategic Petroleum Reserve needed to defend the country in wartime
- Injecting woke, politically correct, and divisive racial theories into the officer corps and enlisted ranks
- Implementing politicized COVID and speech policies to thin the ranks and deter recruitment.  (For instance, the army has fallen 25% below its recruiting goal in 2022). (3)

Reason #5 to vote GOP on November 8: 
Fuel prices - Biden's war on the energy industry.  While our Commander-in-Chief has generally favored the funding of - rather than fighting against - terrorism, Biden was quite quick to declare war on our domestic energy industry, and by proxy, the American people.  On his first day in office, he revoked the existing permit for the new pipeline bringing oil in from Canada, enacted a moratorium on oil and gas leases on Federal lands, and placed our entire economy hostage to the whims of Obama's unratified treaty known as the Paris Climate Accords.

In addition, he reinstated restrictive permitting & drilling rules while cancelling leases & lease auctions.  Among the most debilitating effects of all these America-punishing efforts included doubling and even tripling, the cost of heating oil, gasoline, and diesel.  This, in turn, led him to order the draining of the strategic petroleum reserve prior to the 2022 midterms, in an attempt to ameliorate the electoral impact of his misguided energy policy.

Reason #6 to vote GOP on November 8:
The lawless Justice Department. - Since his confirmation as Attorney General, Merrick Garland's partisan conduct has only proved that he was rightfully spurned as a Supreme Court justice nominee.  During his short time as A.G., the FBI has lost what was left of it's tattered credibility, while being remade into a bludgeon of political persecution. He has turned the Justice Department as a whole into little more than a partisan tool of the far left to target the Biden regime's ideological opponents.  At his direction,we saw:

- Targeting school board attendees by raising the specter of FBI investigations of parents interested in debating school board policies
- Refusing to enforce federal law against those engaged in intimidation of Supreme Court justices
- Personally approving an unprecedented armed Raid on a former President's residence over a document storage dispute
- Charging pro-life protestors with Federal crimes under a spurious interpretation of the FACE Act (while still ignoring BLM/Marxist/Antifa rioters who burned down entire city blocks and government buildings)

Reason #7 to vote GOP on November 8:
Stop a Lawless administration - Insomuch as he is actually capable of being in charge, Biden presides over a profoundly lawless and corrupt administration.  We had previously discussed the Dept. of Homeland Security and the Justice Department:
- Under Alejandro Mayorkas, Homeland Security is blatantly ignoring it's mandate and allowing literally millions of would-be terrorists, drug smugglers, human traffickers, and illegal aliens to stream across the porous southern border.
- Under Merrick Garland, we have seen the continuing radical politicization of the Justice Dept. and the FBI - including targeting of parents attending school board meetings and peaceful pro-life picketers, armed predawn raids and arrests of political opponents, and a refusal to prosecute Democratic political allies.
The only way such lawless public officials can be impeached and removed from office is when the Democrats who protect them don't control Congress or block Congressional inquiries.

While those examples are truly bad, there is much more dereliction of duty and outright corruption that requires probing by the Congressional oversight committees that Democrats currently control, including:
- The self-inflicted war on domestic energy production, that enrich our enemies (such as Russia, Iran, and Venezuela), spurred by his adoption of the radical Green New Deal policies
- The reckless draining of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in a pre-election attempt to temporarily lower fuel costs caused by his energy policies
- The leaving of Billions - if not tens of Billions - of armaments and the renovated Bagram airbase to Taliban terrorists during his hasty surrender in Afghanistan
- An IRS which is literally arming up its agents and requiring them be prepared to use deadly force against taxpayers, while at the same time filling 87,000 new positions
- An attempted politicization and demoralization of our armed forces
- The Unconstitutional spending of $500,000,000 in unappropriated funds to forgive and transfer the college debt of potential wealthy supporters in a bold attempt to buy votes before the election. (The Brookings Institution says one-third of student debt is held by the wealthiest 20% of households.  By comparison, only 8% is owed by the bottom 20%)

Reason #8 to vote GOP on November 8:
Economy and Inflation - Biden's 8.2% inflation.  The Biden team's level of economic incompetence seems to be only rivaled by that of Jimmy Carter, and chasing hat of Weimar Germany.

Plainly put, Democrat policies have pushed our economy into a recession.  Despite the left's desperate attempts to rewrite the classic definition of recession or blame everything bad on Putin, a recession is defined as "two consecutive quarters of negative growth."  Biden delivered negative economic growth for both the 1st and 2nd quarters of 2022, and it is expected to go negative again for Q4.  Despite labor market shortages, inflation has now outpaced wages for 18 consecutive months.(4)  Fuel prices have doubled, and even tripled.  Pinching you even more, home mortgage rates have went from under 3% to over 7.5% under Biden's watch.

Although Biden had promised not to raise taxes on the middle class, keep in mind that this inflation itself is a cruel 8.2% tax - in fact, it is a flat tax - one that both erodes the value of our savings and increases the cost of goods and services we need to survive.

Reason #9 to vote GOP on November 8:
COVID-19 Policy - While COVID-19 was clearly a serious threat, in retrospect, one has to wonder if the threat to individual liberty was by far the greater peril.

The Wuhan/COVID virus quickly became an excuse for all sorts of mischief by those (almost exclusively Democrats) with totalitarian instincts, such as:  inflexible vaccine mandates, travel bans, lockdowns, vaccine work requirements, shutting down schools, locking in seniors, eviction moratoriums, banning church services, emptying prisons, student loan interest forgiveness, student loan debt cancellation and reassignment, the abrogation of election laws, unmonitored ballot drop boxes, etc. - and don't forget those economic stimulus checks they paid to inmates - all of which empowered the bureaucracy and endangered individual liberty.

Reason #10 to vote GOP on November 8:
Abortion - While it is probably unfair to characterize Democrats as godless, it is fair to ask the question - exactly which god it is that they worship?  Especially so as almost every other ad they've run during this campaign cycle is in support of unfettered, unrestricted abortion.  It does seem to me that this spectacularly cruel form of child sacrifice has become the most important sacrament required in the worship of their diabolical gods.

Indeed, their leader has pledged to turn bad Constitutional law (which was overturned by the Dobbs vs. Jackson ruling) into bad Congressional action.  Joe Biden has already promised that the first bill he sends to Congress next year will be one that legally codifies - and likely exceeds - the Roe vs. Wade decision, in the unlikely event that Democrats somehow control enough seats in Congress to pass it.  This threatened violation of everything good and holy in itself, seems to me to be the only reason one needs to justify denying them a ruling majority.


That's the ten, but there's still so many more, which I will lump under the title:
Return to sanity - I recently heard a GOP congressional candidate say something to the effect that this election "wasn't about Democrat versus Republican, but crazy versus normal."  I think he was on to something.

Consider the following "crazy" ideas being promoted by the left:
- Critical Race Theory (CRT) in public schools
- Drag queen story hours and pornographic literature for small children
- Mutilating minors with so-called 'transition' surgeries
- Girls/women forced to compete against boys/men in sports.
- Criminalizing political dissent
- Decriminalizing drug crimes
- Defunding the police
- No cash bail for repeat offenders
- Millions of criminals crossing southern border
- 401k plan-destroying inflation
- DEI and ESG
- Promises from a figure-head president to shut down power plants and "no more drilling"

A return to a Republican Congress, your statehouse, and legislature is the best check on their "crazy" brand - the crazy, leftist policies of Biden and his Democratic enablers, led by Pelosi and Schumer.  It could even open a path to impeachment proceedings against their worst offenders - including Garland, Myorkas, and Biden.

Meanwhile, we keep in mind their sneering arrogance and refuse to forget the utter contempt these people have for us.  Obama called us 'bitter clingers', Hillary called us "the deplorables", CNN's Rick Wilson sneers that we are the ignorant "boomer rube demo", Biden thinks he insults us by saying we are "ultra MAGA", and more recently, the View's Sonny Hostin accuses us of being cockroaches.  But considering the source of the insults, those of us patriots who are their targets either laugh or perhaps take it as a compliment, while we vote them out of office at the polls on Tuesday!

But above all, remember to fight, finish, and keep the faith.  As goes the encouragement the Apostle Paul gave to his understudy, Timothy, while speaking to his fortitude and personal conduct:  " I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith." (5)

 

 

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1 - https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2022/10/20/bidens-job-rating-is-similar-to-trumps-but-lower-than-that-of-other-recent-presidents/ 

2 - https://nypost.com/2022/10/22/record-856-migrants-die-at-southern-border-in-fiscal-year-2022-cbp/

3 - https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2022/10/13/is-the-military-too-woke-to-recruit/

4 - https://www.statista.com/chart/27610/inflation-and-wage-growth-in-the-united-states/

5- II Timothy 4:7

A Short and Harsh Memorial Day Assessment

In their relentless assault on our rights, the tyrannical left rarely waits until the bodies are cold before they seize upon what must certainly be viewed in the dark quarters of their leadership as yet another fortunate opportunity to capitalize on the emotions surrounding the victim's deaths.

Yes, as harsh as that sounds, I do believe there is neither sincerity, nor honest acknowledgement with them of the brutal truth behind why the 2nd Amendment is the cornerstone upon which all other rights that free Americans possess are secured.  For the truly astute observer would take note that it was hardly a week ago that they were proclaiming the virtue of and insisting on the Constitutional necessity of ensuring the legal slaughter of millions of innocent children - if done at the bloody hands of the trained abortionist.  And yet this week, in a remarkable reversal, an awful and illegal slaughter by a lone psychopath is held up as the sufficient and sole reason to gut the amendment that underpins the entire Constitution and to place the liberties of all citizens in the hands of so-called enlightened tyrants.  This sort of duplicity is exactly the reason why their endless pursuit of the disarming of the American citizen cannot just be chalked up to ignorance of our founding documents.

No, it would be overly charitable to assume that the American left is ignorant of the importance of the Second Amendment to the preservation of liberty.  Rather, the Bill of Rights in general, and the right to bear arms in particular, remain the greatest and perhaps last obstacle to their goals of perfecting upon the many failed and bloody attempts by their ideological soulmates, ranging from the past to the present - be it Stalin, Mussolini, Mao, Pol Pot, Castro, Ceausescu, Chavez, or Maduro.  These goals were and are of a desire to rule over us, born of extreme arrogance, combined with an exceptionally dangerous belief in the perfectibility of man and the woeful misreading of the sin nature inherent in mankind.

Thus, the calls for still more laws heaped upon more laws, under the guise of gun control, gun bans, ammo bans, or whatever the latest registration and licensing schemes, are not the end in themselves, but another step toward your ultimate enslavement.  It will come at a great cost, and will be imposed - if not opposed - with or without your consent.

That is a tragic lesson Ukrainian citizens almost learned too late.  So when you hear calls for 'reasonable restrictions' and 'compromise' over issues concerning gun or ammunition rights, learn from the past and consider carefully the motives of those making such proposals.

I implore you to remember again this Memorial Day how it was that the hard-fought and blood-bought freedoms we enjoy were earned, who paid the price, and how quickly they could be squandered if the left is allowed their way.

"I would remind you that extremism in defense of liberty is no vice."  - Barry Goldwater

 

 

The Will Smith incident and what should we take away from it.

My only real interest in the comings and goings-on of Hollywood's culture of narcissim these days is in reacting against their most blatant attempts to spread their poisonous values on our culture.

Having seen that the real entertainment typically occurs at the Nancy Pelosi and Barnum Bailey Circus on the floor of the House of Representatives or at the Jen Psaki comedic disinformation revue over in the White House press room, everything else pales in comparison.  The prospect of a roomful of smug, self-important narcissists exchanging trophies and spewing anti-conservative insults, simply no longer intrigues those who work with their hands - or their brains.

Normally I wouldn't comment on a Hollywood awards show of which I (and almost everybody else) didn't watch.  But in the case of the 94th annual Academy Awards (the Oscars) and the ensuing brouhaha between Chris Rock and Will Smith, it's impossible to not give it some attention since it had become the media focus for two or three weeks in late March and early April.   

That in itself should give you pause to wonder about the whole thing.  Given that their ratings over the past decade have been sagging even faster than the preoperative jowls of an aging overweight actor and plunging farther than the neckline of an otherwise irrelevant Hollywood starlet whose career is in decline, the outside possibility still lurked in our minds that it was nothing more than a orchestrated publicity stunt designed to bolster their ever plummeting ratings.  But after testing the winds of public opinion with a wet finger in the air for almost two weeks, the Academy finally issued a punishment late last week. However reluctantly, Smith was banned for 10 years.

Yes, I know its old news now.  For several news cycles, there was a lot of sound and fury about the altercation between Smith and Rock, even knocking genocide in Ukraine out of top billing.  On the one hand, the Academy was coming under increasing pressure to act, but on the other, was bound by the narrow precepts of it's politically correct Hollywood ideals, that made it hesitant to appear critical of a racial minority.

Nonetheless, having said all that, a few words about the incident is probably warranted.

First, however, what of Chris Rock's character?  We are told that even before Smith issued a public apology, to his credit, Mr. Rock adamantly refused to press charges.  This is likely because he realized his complicity in the matter, in that his ribbing of Smith and his wife had intentionally or inadvertently crossed the line of poor taste.

And what of Smith's character?  A little more of a tricky question, since he clearly, publicly, and violently lost control of his temper.  To his credit, however, he apologized fairly quickly and then late last week, he resigned from the Academy of Motion Pictures.

In the light of all the controversy, conflicting stories, response and counter-responses to the incident, let's be very clear.  What Smith did to Chris Rock was wrong.  It was a clear case of criminal battery.

But that isn't the angle I am interested in, because it also serves as an example of our two-tiered justice system. 

To help put it into perspective, imagine if you will, the very different response if a disgruntled white man had charged the stage that night.  The same action would certainly viewed quite differently...    It's doubtful, he would have been granted the deference to do so.  It's not hard to imagine he would have been tackled before he made it halfway to the stage and roughly dragged off to the side and handcuffed.  Or, if he had made it up to the stage and able to punch the black MC, he likely woud have been confronted, marched out of the auditorium, and arrested - only to later be charged with a hate crime.   ...and become the favorite target of the race-baiting hacks at MSNBC for years to come.

Or, what if it was one of 'the help', one of the many little people who serve in the background, the rich and pompous - perhaps a server, cook, or security guard?  Do you think one of those serving tables had rushed the stage and punched the host would have been allowed to remain unhindered, for the remainder of the show and party afterwards?

In either case, the reaction of the media mob and the response of the justice system would no doubt be quite different.  Needless to say, if it was you or I, we certainly would have been marched out in handcuffs and spent the night in jail, possibly held without bail awaiting a trial for assault and battery.

Then again, it probably makes no difference since LA county DA George Gascon doesn't prosecute criminals.

 

 

The Fragility of Freedom

 

“Freedom is a fragile thing and it's never more than one generation away from extinction. It is not ours by way of inheritance; it must be fought for and defended constantly by each generation.” ~ Ronald Reagan (January 5, 1967)

In the weeks since President's Day and George Washington's birthday, I have been thinking about the history and the office of the Presidency. Washington is a president admired by all but perhaps the most extreme elements of our society. Presidents Adams, Jefferson, and Lincoln are others who are similarly respected. Some would add Coolidge, FDR, and Reagan to that list. These great men brought qualities to the office such as: extraordinary courage and vision, inspirational leadership, recognition of our country's unique & Godly heritage, and a healthy respect for the Constitution and the rule of law.

At the same time as one ponders these Presidents past, it's difficult to think of these great men without at some point making the inevitable comparison to the current inhabitant of the Oval Office. And that comparison, in my estimation, isn't a favorable one.

What we have seen thus far, as he stumbles and bumbles about from one domestic and foreign policy misadventure to another - reminiscent of Mr. Magoo - is a lack of coherent policy combined with an inability to articulate any discernible vision to the American people. We see in Biden, a dazed bewilderment, rheumy-eyed perplexment, and dithering indecision on the domestic front, combined with a dangerous projection of spineless weakness and dithering on the international stage. There is a demonstrable propensity to side with the leftist fringe elements of his political party, on issues such as the 2^nd amendment, the southern border, COVID policy, crime policy, or energy policy, even though these unpopular policies severely punish the American people. Sadly, there is also a clear willingness to flaunt the rule of law to consolidate executive power, restrict individual liberty, and silence dissent – as evidenced by their authoritarian response to the Chinese COVID virus.

That said, I don't want to divert into a discussion of the many and obvious failures of the Biden regime, but rather, to keep the focus on how swiftly hard-earned liberty and freedom can be taken away, when not vigorously defended.

In the past two weeks, we have all been shocked to watch the Russian dictator, Vladimir Putin, invading without provocation the sovereign nation of Ukraine (a country that I can trace some of my family roots through). While Ukraine has some of the world's richest farmland, energy and mineral stocks, it lacked robust military alliances and had previously ceded it's defensive nuclear weapon capability, leaving itself a tempting and vulnerable target for the neighborhood bully – Putin's Russian Confederation. The attack came by sending in tanks and troops, along with the indiscriminate shelling of cities from land, sea, and air in an attempt to terrorize civilian populations. Since the initial hostilities, we heard rumors of the use of internationally banned thermobaric and cluster bombs. We also saw reckless attacks on operating nuclear reactors, hospitals, schools, and a maternity hospital in acts of cold, calculating war crimes.

The Ukrainian army, air force, and navy found themselves hopelessly out-manned and outgunned. For example, their tiny naval fleet of 20 warships – left decimated, but unreplenished after the Russian seizure of Crimea in 2014 - proved completely unable to defend their own Black Sea port cities. Early in the attack, they were forced to scuttle their own flagship frigate to avoid its capture by the Russians.

With a history of highly restrictive firearms licensing and magazine limit laws (there is only one firearm per ten Ukrainian civilians), only a very small percentage of the population were adequately prepared to defend themselves and their families, while the rest of the world watched on the sidelines.  Only after the Russian invasion, did the Ukrainian parliament finally decriminalize gun ownership for self defense, allowing the people to protect themselves and their loved ones. Hopefully, the Ukrainian people didn't come to realize too late how fleeting the freedom of a naive and unarmed people can be.

The words of the Ukrainian-born congresswoman, Rep. Victoria Spartz (R-IN), serve to remind Americans of the importance of not allowing politicians or political parties to erode that precious right:

I'm so proud that strong, brave Ukrainians are willing to fight, again and again, to be free. It should inspire all of us in their bravery and actions – unbelievable. It should teach us and, maybe remind us, what it means to be a free country and how hard it is to get your rights and freedoms back when you lose it. We've had so many people die for our freedoms, so lets value and cherish them.

Indeed we should!

Before you say, "Yeah, but all that's over there," - we don't have to look as far away as Europe to see how quickly a formerly free people can be subjugated by a tyrant.  In fact, we only have to look to our northern neighbor.

While Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau may appear to some to be a harmless “leftist wimp,” (as former CIA officer and radio host Buck Sexton called him), he has in fact proved to be the heir-apparent of Saul Alinsky and a wanna-be dictator.  Like so many opportunistic socialists-turned-fascists before him, this little man has mastered the art of verbal subterfuge and political propaganda – by demonizing his detractors and accusing his opponents of being the very detestable thing he has himself become – which is, quite honestly, a fascist.  

Unfortunately for the targets of Trudeau's tyrannies, Putin's even greater brutality has - if only temporarily - caused the eyes of the world to turn elsewhere.

When faced with peaceful protests against what they considered his onerous COVID-related restrictions, Trudeau refused to meet or talk to them to hear out their concerns. Instead he and his fellow Liberal Party members first hid and ignored them, then demonized them, and finally dismissed these sympathetic and plain-spoken Canadian truckers – as laughable as it seems – as being terrorists, racists, Confederate sympathizers, and white supremacists.

Yes, you read that right. Trudeau literally compared the Canadian Freedom Convoy truck drivers, their families, and their supporters to terrorists and Confederates, while one of his Parliamental allies claimed the trucker's horn-honking was the equivalent of chanting “Heil Hitler” – simply because they opposed his onerous vaccine mandates and his other restrictions on their freedoms.

Using this false narrative as a pretext, and aided by a docile and fawning state-controlled Canadian media, Trudeau declared a marshal law-like state. By utilizing existing anti-terrorist statutes – the Emergencies Act – a statute intended for threats to national security and territorial integrity and designed for wartime and terrorist attacks, he aimed the full power of the police state against his own citizens. He froze the private bank accounts of both middle class truck drivers and their financial supporters, intimidated non-state-controlled reporters, shut down businesses and seized private property without the benefit of a warrant, and even subjected crowd-funding organizations to money-laundering and terrorist rules - all too reminiscent of Stalin starving Ukrainian peasant farmers.

In a final act of brutality, seen in a widely circulated video, we saw his shock troops beating a truck driver who was already on his knees with his hands behind his head and watched Ottawa mounted police forces violently charging in and breaking up the crowds whereby trampling an elderly woman on her mobility scooter (and reportedly joking about it later).

Just a reminder, this wasn't Chechnya, Syria, or Somalia - this was Canada.

Will Americans take heed before it comes here?  Or will we stand by complacently as our freedoms are taken from us, bit by bit, or in large bites?  Sadly, the verdict is still out on the question.

An Arresting Development

There remains very little room for doubt lurking in the mind of thinking persons that the Biden Administration's primary achievement in it's first year has been one of serving as some sort of an out-of-control wrecking ball dedicated itself to imposing maximum chaos and lawlessness upon this country.  One needs only look as far as the southern border to see this illustrated.

We have recently seen how our own Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has repurposed our border patrol agents into running some kind of government-funded air travel service for illegals - leaving precious little time spent enforcing the law by repelling or intercepting aliens as they illegally attempt to cross the southern border. And judging from his Congressional testimony, DHS Secretary Mayorkas - certainly one of the most disingenuous officials in the Biden cabinet - doesn't really know, or even seem.to care, who many of these illegal aliens are or what their intentions may be.

That would normally present a problem.  For instance, we have all seen how onerous the whole process of boarding an airliner has become.  You or I would be required to present an government-provided ID to a TSA agent at the security checkpoint, take off our shoes and empty our pockets, and then get yourself wanded - and still possibly be subjected to what almost amounts to a strip search - just to board an airplane.

That's how U.S. citizens are treated.  But what about illegal aliens who don't have a valid ID in their possession, or worse, those criminal aliens intent on hiding their background or who may have destroyed their ID and lied about their name, age, or origins?

Not a problem, says the TSA!

Apparently the official Biden Administration policy as outlined by the TSA for criminals caught sneaking into the country is that they can now fly at taxpayer expense, to the destination of their choice, simply by presenting their arrest warrant in lieu of a valid ID.  (1)

Imagine if you or I tried doing that.  "No sir.  I don't have an ID to show you.  But there is this outstanding warrant for my arrest, okay, so can you just use that and let me get on my plane now?  I really don't want to be hassled.  I've got stuff to do."  No doubt we not only would be kept from boarding our flight, but could very well expect a couple days - minimum - in a detention cell, all the while having some very uncomfortable conversations with law enforcement.  Yeah, that would go really well.

Instead, next time you fly, skip the hassle and tell them you are an illegal alien.

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 1 - "For non-citizens and non-U.S. nationals who do not otherwise have acceptable forms of ID for presentation at security checkpoints, TSA may also accept certain DHS-issued forms including ICE Form I-200 (Warrant for Arrest of an Alien)." a TSA spokesperson told Fox News.  https://www.foxnews.com/politics/tsa-confirms-allows-illegal-immigrants-arrest-warrants-id-airports