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

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.

 

 

Pride Cometh...

Pride comes before destruction, and an arrogant spirit before a fall. - Prov. 16:18 (CSB)

 

 

The cracks are already starting to show, and we haven't even made it to inauguration day.

 

After the brilliant execution of their presidential campaign's master strategy - that of successfully keeping Biden, the elder, safely away from public scrutiny through the summer and fall months - Biden's handlers found it increasingly difficult to continue their plan, post-election.  Sequestering the old Biden away in his basement, safe from the reach of COVID and the occasional inquisitive journalist, was simply no longer feasible.  Since the election, his protection-squad of staffers came up with a new technique:  that of utilizing the most supportive hand-picked cheerleaders-slash-journalists to read pre-approved questions simple enough to be comprehended by even the most age-addled mind.(1)

But in anticipation that they cannot suppress every journalist, every time, their backup plan was to provide him with canned answers to damning questions. Such is what we have seen several times now when he was asked about the criminal investigations currently underway targeting his son Hunter and implicating Biden himself.(2)

 

Like all naughty children, hucksters, empty suit politicians, and other charlatans, when facing a question the response to which might put him in a poor light, there is always a dodge.  In this case, it is much safer for the elderly Biden to answer a question he wasn't asked, than to answer the question people actually want an answer to.

At least twice in the past few weeks, in response to specific questions about the family's financial improprieties, the presumptive president-elect replied with the strangely detached answer that:  "I'm proud of my son."(3)  An answer that naturally leads one to wonder exactly what the elder Biden feels he needs to hide from the public with this non-sequitur, and begs the question of exactly which of his son Hunter's actual or alleged improprieties are the source of such intense pride.

 

Might it be those lucrative Ukrainian and Chinese business deals (with 10% set aside "for the big guy"), or the alleged federal tax evasion, perhaps it was his being so quickly drummed out of the military, maybe the repeated alcohol and drug abuse, or his refusal to pay child support for his out-of-wedlock progeny?  Then again, based on the widely circulated photos from his abandoned laptop, it's probably his prowess in wielding a crack pipe.  I mean, what father wouldn't be proud of that?

All this does lead one to ponder why most Americans are only now, at such a late stage, hearing about the nefarious activities of the Biden family crime syndicate. Post-election polls revealed that 17% of Biden voters would not have voted for him had they known about the multiple Biden family controversies - controversies largely suppressed or covered up by the unholy alliance of the DNC-controlled establishment media, big tech tyrants, and deep staters embedded in the Justice Department.(4)

 

That was the plan all along, of course.

 

With only a few exceptions, the entities that comprise what was once known as the mainstream media - and now primarily function as the propaganda arm of the Democratic National Committee - fully intended to keep the truth from voters in order to insure the anointing of their apparently successful, albeit failing, candidate. But despite the complicity of an establishment media, which staked the last and tattered remains of the garments of their credibility on Trump's defeat, I'm not confident their suppression strategy will forever hold off the occasional 'baying hound' journalist hiding among the ranks of media lapdogs.

 

Until that time, however, we may have to sit waiting patiently for the necessary critical examination of the extent to which our national security is threatened by the foreign influence-peddling, tax-dodging, child-support payment skipping, drug-using, alcohol-abusing, crackpipe sucking son of our soon-to-be-inaugurated leader.  And if the 2020 Senate and 2022 House elections go as expected, we may get Senate committee hearings, special counsels, and perhaps even several years of phony impeachment proceedings designed to reinvigorate the fading memory of our Octogenarian-in-Chief and his family members regarding their barely arms-length business deals with the Chinese Communist party, wives of Russian bureaucrats, and Ukrainian energy companies.

If or when that happens, we may get just a brief glimpse of the secretive world surrounding the Biden Crime Family's dealings with a myriad of unsavory foreign actors, at least until the unholy trinity of big tech crony capitalists, Marxo-Orwellian academic elite, and Democrat sock-puppet media propagandists either shut it down again or distract us by fomenting more BLM and Antifa riots in our streets. Despite the triumvirate's best efforts to downplay the scandals associated with their preferred candidate, this is clearly not over... so stand by.

But then, who am I to say... quite literally. I'm sure by penning this blog I've already triggered the notice of FB and Google's speech-smothering and deplatforming algorithms - the same algorithms they developed and used so successfully at the behest of the Chinese government as part of the price of doing business in a Communist country.

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(1) https://www.dailywire.com/news/biden-team-disables-chat-on-virtual-press-conferences-after-reporters-ask-tough-questions

(2) https://thefederalist.com/2020/12/09/federal-prosecutor-investigating-hunter-biden-for-potential-tax-crimes/

(3) Dodging the question, "I'm proud of my son."  https://www.c-span.org/video/?c4929905/president-elect-biden-im-proud-son   Biden is "deeply proud of" his son - https://apnews.com/article/45e0fe89ff7302a2a14afdba2d91b531

(4) “One of every six Biden voters we surveyed (17%) said they would have abandoned the Democratic candidate had they known the facts about one or more of these news stories.”  https://cnsnews.com/article/national/alexander-watson/poll-shows-media-censorship-cheated-voters-vital-info-robbed?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=cns&utm_campaign=n-poll-censorship

A response to Christianity Today

Yesterday (December 19), Christianity Today's Editor-in chief, Mark Galli launched a bombshell into the midst of the current culture wars, planting his editorial flag firmly on the top of the Democrat's impeachment hill:
https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2019/december-web-only/trump-should-be-removed-from-office.html?fbclid=IwAR0S0-Negk1nbkaIPnSAf4BFlTYt5cXThacnyWzqSoxzGmjFF-o_yl_BeUo

I don't know Mark Galli. As editor of the neo-evangelical publication Christianity Today (CT), I accept the brother's claims that he is a Christian, with but just a twinge of a hesitation. Personally, I had long ago abandoned CT for similar reasons that I don't give credence to Sojourners, Mother Jones, the Atlantic, The New Yorker, Slate, and the New York Times - in that they are all hopelessly and unapologetically leftist in their biases. While others have questioned Galli's motives or point to his longstanding Trump opposition - I prefer to avoid that direction with a brother in Christ. However, given the editorial leanings of his publication, I certainly do question his judgement. And based on his most recent opining, it appears to me that he has been an undiscerning consumer of MSNBC's opinion hosts and the DNC's latest talking points.

So while I do not know Mr. Galli, I do know this:  the claims he made in Friday's shocking editorial are dubious, if not straight up untruthful. For starters, he needs to pull out a copy of Websters and look up the word "unambiguous".  The facts behind the most recent Democrat attempt to undo the results of the 2016 election are anything but "unambiguous", as Galli claims in his piece. In fact, the whole procedure abandoned both past precedent and due process in a blind pursuit of a predetermined and politically motivated outcome. For anyone who actually listened to portions of the Intelligence and Judicuary Committee hearings, the so-called 'unambigueous' impeachment facts are notorious only for their absence. So much so that not one firsthand witness could be found to bolster the extravagant and ever-changing Democrat claims of extortion, bribery, or even quid pro quo.  As a result, their case was left with conjecture, supposition, and opinion based primarily on hearsay, with a sprinkling of liberal law professors thrown in for good measure.

Despite everything President Trump's detractors threw up against the wall, nothing stuck, so to keep things on schedule, they were left to hastily cobble together just two bogus impeachment articles. The disingenuous obstruction of Congress article and a nebulous abuse of power charge - neither of which are actual, specific crimes, much less a high crime or misdeameanor.

Mr. Galli also disingenuously states that the President exhibited "profoundly immoral" motives (motives are something I am deliberately not speculating on in regards to Galli) to "harass and discredit" a political opponent. If Galli did not hear - along with the rest of the nation - the relevant portion of the Ukraine transcript, the Democrat's bribery, extortion, and quid pro quo charges were blown completely out of the water when Trump called their bluff and he publicly released it early on - even before chairman Schiff's show trial's basement hearings could begin.  So much so that they were forced to misrepresent its contents to try to buttress their evidenceless and weak case.  If anything there is "profoundly immoral", I suggest it is Galli's attempts to ascertain the motives of someone he does not know, on a subject he is not well informed, about a situation he is clearly misrepresenting.

Further, Galli seems to conveniently dismiss the fact that the president is duty bound to enforce anti-corruption laws domestically as well as in regards to Ukraine and morally obligated to ensure foreign aid tax monies are not used to line the pockets of corrupt politicians. If those politicians are foreigners, that means cooperating with Ukraine to root it out. And whether those politicians are vice presidents who are intending to run against him - or their flawed sons - they still do not get a grant of immunity.

Further, Galli's political philosophy lacks thoughtful consideration at best, and is utterly hypocritical at worst. We participate in a system where we almost always are presented with a binary choice in selecting our political representaves and president. In essence, since Jesus himself is not on the ticket, every election provides a series of choices between the lesser of two evils.

It is certainly not, as Galli posits, an affront to our creator to choose and support the candidate which best defends our Constitutional liberties to life, property, and freedom to worship (even when that person speaks using biting, sarcastic, and even embarrassingly hurtful language at times). In a display of hyperbolic absurdity, Galli goes even further when he makes the claim that our "loyalty to the Creator of the Ten Commandments" itself is to be questioned if we don't throw in with Pelosi and the Democrats and support the president's removal by any means possible.  Leaving us - I can only presume - the fiendish choice of either risking our very soul by lending support to Trump on the one hand or choosing the diabolical Democrat agenda of partial birth abortion and infanticide, unfettered homosexuality and sexual perversion in our schools, libraries, & society, radical environmental extremism, and the cherry on top of the ice cream - revisionist judges who will rewrite the Constitution to suit the latest whims of the far left.

Additionally, as someone I read has previously pointed out, CT does not hesitate to hold high the noble and remarkable achievements of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, despite his well known moral failings - and rightly so. But yet, it now claims it to be incumbent on today's evangelicals to ignore the unprecedented achievements in the protection of the preborn, religious liberty, and appointment of originalist judges - and instead excoriate and abandon President Trump because of his very similar moral failings. While such a stance might help us gain acceptance in secular socialist and post-modern circles, it will ultimately lead to our own (and countless children's) demise.

Finally, I want to quickly note that in an apparent attempt to give some credence to his ill-thought-out opinion, he several times invokes the name of the founder of his rudderless publication, the Rev. Billy Graham. Huge mistake there! Alas, this tactic almost immediately blew up in his face, when a clearly perturbed Franklin Graham fired back by not only postulating that his father would have been displeased with Galli's words, but also revealing for the first time that his father had actually voted for and had been a silent Trump supporter.  The elder Graham believed "that Donald J. Trump was the man for this hour in history for our nation."

I am very disappointed in the publication which presumptuously calls itself Christianity Today. Opinions are one thing, but facts, they continue to be in short supply these days.

Post Iowa/Pre New Hampshire primary thoughts...

On the eve of the New Hampshire Primaries, how do we analyze the field of Republican candidates?  Except for the fact that Christie doesn't much like Rubio, ABC's Saturday night debate certainly didn't clarify much - other than perhaps play into the public perception that media bias is alive and well.




The exclusion from the ABC debate of Carly Fiorina - one of the field's most lucid and refreshing Republican candidates - was only the most recent example of the liberal media's constructing and defending its negative stereotype of the Republican party.  Having an articulate and thoughtful woman standing next to a thoughtful and accomplished black man on the stage of a Republican debate blows up the whole false narrative they have worked so hard for decades now to perpetuate.  So ABC barred the only woman in the GOP race from the debate stage, despite the fact that there was an empty podium sitting unused backstage available for her.


Despite the urging of both Ben Carson and Ted Cruz, ABC was doggedly unwilling to accommodate a change in circumstances and continued to stick with their flawed qualification rules. Rand Paul, who dropped out of the race earlier in the week, had qualified to debate - Fiorina had failed to make the cut.  That made her the only candidate running who was denied an opportunity to debate.  To keep her out, they had to argue the ridiculous position that Paul, a candidate who was no longer running, could still participate if he wished, but Fiorina, who had gotten more delegates in Iowa than either Kasich and Christie, could not participate. * (see below)




Consider this:  Two Latinos - Cruz and Rubio - plus an African-America - Carson - garnered 60% of the GOP caucus-goer's votes in Iowa.  But wait... the entities that make up what is falsely called the 'mainstream media' continuously propagates the narrative that the Republican base is ignorant, lilly-white racist, and hopelessly out-of-touch with the nation's changing demographics and morals.  Meanwhile, the two Democratic candidates left in the race are senile, white, senior citizens pushing each other further to the left in an attempt to prove their relevancy and buy votes.  Doesn't that just blow up ABC's faulty wordview?




Can you imagine the stories if the situation was reversed?  Headlines and editorials saying: Republicans Aging Demographic Spells Trouble, GOP is Out of Touch with Gen-Xers, The Monochrome Coalition, GOP is WOP (White's Only Party), The Geriatric Generation, etc.  Go ahead and have fun with it - I'm sure you can come up with some of your own.




On New Hampshire's election eve, we are told that both Trump and Sanders have double digit leads.  Bernie Sander's lead only goes to prove that today's Democratic party is in serious trouble.  What do you do if you are a Democrat?  You get to choose between a 75 year old self-avowed socialist redistributionist  -or-  an 'about-to-be-indicted' chameleon who despite denying actually being a socialist, is unable to define what a socialist is.  And she may be right in her denials - with her multiple and close ties to crony capitalists - she does appear to be more a fascist than socialist in my mind.




Having reread that last paragraph, I think I portrayed a lot more confidence in the Obama Justice Department than I actually have.  Be it about her phenomenally profitable forays into cattle futures trading, her outright deception of the families of those killed in Benghazi, or lying about her felonious disregard for Classified documents and the security of our country, Hillary has proved remarkably resilient due, no doubt, to the sheer vastness of the web of corruption that has surrounded her since her Arkansas days. I have serious doubt that our current president and alleged "Constitutional Scholar" has enough respect for the law to actually allow his Justice Department to enforce it in an even-handed manner.  Hillary won't be exchanging her tan pantsuit for an orange jumpsuit any time soon.


Donald Trump's lead in the polls illustrate the level of frustration among Republican voters and will test whether those who indicate support in polls are actually willing to go out and vote for the guy.  Remember, the Des Moines Register poll taken a few days before the Iowa caucuses was not accurate.  Conventional wisdom said that Trump was the big loser for skipping the debate just prior to the Iowa precinct caucuses.  I doubt skipping helped him, but, as one who has actually participated in precinct caucuses in Iowa, consider how much work is involved.  Participants have to give up an entire evening, go out on a cold winter night, declare their party affiliation, show up for and spend a couple hours in a political meeting, and (literally) stand up in plain sight of your neighbors and friends for your candidate.  There is no anonymity, no Democrats allowed to vote, and few, if any, uncommitted participants.  Perhaps the format of a caucus doesn't well suit Trump's mixed and eclectic constituency - many of whom may not be registered Republicans.



In New Hampshire, Bush, Christie, Cruz, Kasich, Rubio, and possibly Carson are all vying for the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th spots.  One or more of those who don't do so will likely go the way of Huckabee and Paul, and drop out.  I agree that Bush is in serious trouble.  The man doesn't seem to really be comfortable as a candidate, and Lindsey Graham's endorsement is a compelling reason NOT to vote for him. But with his campaign's deep pockets, don't look to Bush dropping out this soon, no matter how poorly he continues to show.  Cruz, Rubio, and hopefully Carson are in this for the long haul, hoping for more fertile ground in South Carolina.  Christie and Kasich are not both going to last.  Personally, I think a vote for Kasich is a vote for the status quo of the Republican party, but he is polling well among New Hampshire's more moderate Republican voters.  And keep in mind, this is an open primary - independents and Democrats can vote here.  There are still many undecided voters.


I'm sure I'll be up late on Tuesday night!


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* ABC: No Last Minute Invite for Fiorina to Debate


Addendum - New Hampshire final results per WMUR, an ABC News affiliate: 
http://www.wmur.com/politics/2016-full-new-hampshire-presidential-primary-election-results/37649066

President - GOP Primary

February 10, 2016 - 03:57PM ET

New Hampshire - 300 of 300 Precincts Reporting - 100%

Name Party Votes Vote % Trump, Donald GOP 100,406 35% Kasich, John GOP 44,909 16% Cruz, Ted GOP 33,189 12% Bush, Jeb GOP 31,310 11% Rubio, Marco GOP 30,032 11% Christie, Chris GOP 21,069 7% Fiorina, Carly GOP 11,706 4% Carson, Ben GOP 6,509 2% Paul, Rand GOP 1,900 1%