Soros Donations Aim to Turn Red Texas Blue

From News Max.com (Jan. 28):

Billionaire Democrat donor George Soros is reportedly pouring cash  into Texas to turn the red state blue.

The Texas Tribune in early January reported the Soros-backed Texas Majority PAC was pouring funds into “various regions” in hopes to sway the state.

In a new report from Fox News, the breadth of the contribution was revealed — showing Soros has contributed over $3 million to liberal groups over the last year to help Democrats gain some traction in the GOP stronghold.

In August 2023, the PAC had gotten hundreds of thousands of dollars from Soros' Democracy PAC II, the outlet reported — yet hadn’t been publicly launched at the time.

The Texas Tribune reported former staffers of Beto O’Rourke’s gubernatorial run raised nearly $2.25 million last year.

"We need millions of more dollars and hundreds of more full-time staff to do this," the group's executive director, Katherine Fischer, told The Texas Tribune. "Texas Majority PAC works with partners across the state to create the conditions that will make flipping the state possible."

According to Fox, recently released Texas campaign finance records show Soros’ Democracy PAC II has given the group $850,000 in contributions — and personally provided $1.4 million — accounting for the PAC's entire $2.25 million in donations.

Mayra Flores, a former GOP lawmaker — the first Mexican-born woman to serve in the House — thinks Soros is pouring money into  the Texas Majority PAC to boost Democrat turnout, and thwart GOP Hispanic leaders to win over other Hispanics who traditionally voted blue, the outlet has reported.

"George Soros and the Democratic Party are seeing people like myself that resonate with the Hispanic community," she reportedly said.

"They resonate with me. I resonate with them. We have similar stories. I'm bilingual. I speak Spanish and English. We have similar stories, and we share that bond."

Though most of Soros' Texas cash has gone to the Texas Majority PAC, he’s also given hundreds of thousands of dollars to other groups working to elect Democrats statewide, the outlet reported.

Campaign finance records show Soros has donated at least $300,000 in the second half of 2023 to CTX Votes, and in December gave $250,000 to the Texas Organizing Project — which was criticized for bailing out a man charged with several slayings, including his parents.

Soros also gave gave $200,000 to the Dallas County Democratic PAC and $100,000 to a group called First Tuesday in the second part of 2023.

Michael Vachon, a spokesman for the wealthy donor, didn’t respond to the outlet when a query was sent. [source]

Texas is the first state the Spooky Dude will try to turn into California because of its electoral votes. Other red states will follow if he is successful. Then America is screwed.

The Spooky Dude's agenda continues:

• Soros Moves to Control Second-Largest Radio Group in US
• Soros-backed group advises Biden admin that Clean Air Act could be used to 'control or prohibit' gasoline
• Billionaire Soros Pours $60M Into Democrats' War Chest
  

Sen Paul says Ukraine aid package would ‘tie the hands’ of future administrations

From Fox News.com (Feb. 12):

Several conservatives agree with Sen. JD Vance's memo circulated early Monday that there's a "hidden" clause in the national security supplemental bill that he believes could be grounds to impeach former President Donald Trump from office if elected to office later this year.

Vance sent a memo to GOP lawmakers highlighting that the bill, which would send billions of federal dollars to Ukraine, assures the delivery of funding through September 2025. Trump, however, has vowed to end the war in Ukraine within 24 hours of gaining office, which would also end funding.

Vance's memo claimed that the supplemental bill "represents an attempt by the foreign policy blob/deep state to stop President Trump from pursuing his desired policy, and if he does so anyways, to provide grounds to impeach him and undermine his administration," and he urged Republicans to block its passage.

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky, said he supported Vance's memo on Monday, arguing that Democrats are "setting up" for a possible Trump presidential win.

"They're locking in foreign aid that will even tie the hands of the next president," Paul told Fox News Digital in an interview. "So, I think it's a terrible idea. But also, if the next President were to try to have a different policy, you can see the Democrats again starting an impeachment."

"I think they're going to try to impeach him before he gains office now, and that's exactly what this is," he said.

Mark Paoletta, former Office of Management and Budget (OMB) General Counsel during the Trump Administration, told Fox News Digital in a statement that the clause in the bill text is an "effort to inappropriately tie President Trump’s hands in his next term by locking in Ukraine funding for multiple years."

"In a presidential election year, Congress should not be making long-term funding commitments, particularly in foreign policy, that will attempt to tie the hands of the next commander in chief," Paoletta said. "President Trump had every right to pause the Ukraine funding for about 60 days, given his concerns about corruption in Ukraine and how best to spend those funds."

He added, "As OMB General Counsel, I issued the legal justification to pause the funding, and would do it again today." [read more]

Yea, the senate shouldn't have passed the bill. The Ukraine, Israel and Indo-Pacific aid parts should have been voted on separately. Giving Ukraine money for nothing that has to do with the war is stupid. And as for the Trump-trap in the bill, the persecution continues.

Along the same line... How you can STOP the Senate’s NEW WAR BILL

Christianity Has Nothing to Hide

From Breakpoint.org (May 6, 2022):

Many say they want a world without Christianity, but many secular thinkers are discovering they should be careful what they wish for. For the Colson Center, I’m John Stonestreet. This is Breakpoint.

Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in the case of a public high school football coach who was fired for praying on the field after games. Though the firing should never have happened, this now years-long controversy has provided a window into how many in our culture feel about Christian prayer. Hint: they’re not positive feelings.

Still, one specific prayer, known as the Serenity Prayer, remains a part of our shared cultural language and a staple of addiction recovery meetings: “God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”

Of course, Alcoholics Anonymous’ official position is that the “God” of the Serenity Prayer can be any sort of Higher Power you wish, but it is profound that most addiction recovery programs continue to stubbornly insist that faith is critical for addiction recovery. That insistence is backed by a constantly growing mountain of data, which has become un-ignorable. Even the government quietly admits that faith-based recovery programs are the most effective.

A re-discovery of Christianity’s practical benefits isn’t just happening in addiction recovery. The more that various aspects of our culture struggle under the weight of bad ideas and their consequences, the more and more people are discovering “new” solutions in the old Scriptures.

Canadian clinical psychologist and self-described nonbeliever Jordan Peterson has become famous in part for his bold claims that Christianity has a unique positive impact on individuals and culture. Contemporary historian Tom Holland, a self-described atheist, literally wrote the book on the responsibility Christianity bears for just about every good thing about modern culture. According to Holland:

“[Christianity] is the principal reason why, by and large, most of us… still take for granted that it is nobler to suffer than to inflict suffering. It is why we generally assume that every human life is of equal value.”

And just last week, in former New York Times’ reporter Bari Weiss’s new independent Substack, non-believing author Tim DeRoche put forth what he called “The Secular Case for Christianity”:

“The crucifixion of Jesus Christ is the most successful meme in the history of the world. And the spread of that meme over the last 2,000 years has largely been correlated with decreasing levels of slavery, war, crime, poverty, and general suffering.”

Modern culture, the same modern culture so scandalized by football field prayers and so put off by Christian sexual ethics, must reckon with what Christianity has given the world, DeRoche argued.

We should, of course, welcome this kind of cultural self-discovery, though it is a bit like the angsty teenager who rejects the ways of his parents in order to find a more “enlightened” way to do life. But, after all his experimentation, that teen is forced to admit his open-mindedness only led to suffering and maybe his parents were right after all.

Dutch theologian Herman Bavinck wrote that “an independent creature is a contradiction in terms.” In other words, whether we acknowledge He’s there or not, all creatures were made and are sustained by God.  He knows best, and He knows us best. That He chose to reveal Himself to us in the creation, the Bible, and ultimately in Christ is a tremendous mercy. A Christian life isn’t without suffering, of course, but it is the only life in which suffering has meaning, can be redeemed, and will ultimately be defeated.

Christians who claim that publicly promoting Christian ethics is somehow intrusive or unloving miss this point, as well as the related point that sharing the best way to live is a way of loving our neighbors. Years ago, comedian Penn Jillette of the comedy duo Penn and Teller famously said that he did not respect Christians who did not proselytize. “How much do you have to hate somebody to believe that everlasting life is possible and not tell them that?” he asked. How much do you have to hate somebody to not tell them the best way to live life?

To be clear, neither Christian faith nor Christian public witness is utilitarian. Christianity isn’t true because it “works,” but it does work because it’s true. If God did not take the form of a man, if He had not died and then resurrected, if He were not on the throne of the universe, then Christianity’s cultural “benefits” would not matter all that much. But He did, so they do.

The Church’s great opportunity is not to say, “I told you so,” but rather “come and see.” The world is better because Christianity is true. Now, come and meet the One behind it all. [source]

This J6 Defendant Was Thanked For Helping Officers At The Riot. Now Prosecutors Want Him Locked Up For 17 Years

From The Federalist.com (Jan. 24):

Sarah McAbee’s husband, a former sheriff’s deputy in Tennessee, was incarcerated for 26 months before he was given a trial for his role in the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021.

“And clearly it wasn’t a jury of his peers,” McAbee said on the “Vicki McKenna Show,” a radio program in Madison, Wisconsin.

Ronald McAbee now awaits sentencing after being convicted of five felonies in a D.C. district court. Mr. McAbee had already pled guilty to another felony and a misdemeanor related to the riot, and prosecutors are now asking the judge to give him 14 to 17 years behind bars.

Sarah McAbee, however, says her family has become victims of politically weaponized prosecutions of those involved in the Jan. 6 demonstrations. When asked by the radio show’s guest host, Federalist Senior Elections Correspondent Matt Kittle, why her husband remains behind bars 29 months later, Sarah blamed the lengthy incarceration on what her husband saw at the riot.

“I truly believe it is because he was a law enforcement officer, and he witnessed a murder happen right in front of his eyes,” Sarah said. “I believe that’s why he was held without bond. He was held 26 months before he even stepped foot in a trial.”

Sarah said her husband was at the scene where Rosanne Boyland died. Ronald apparently deployed his skills as an emergency responder to assist both a fallen officer struggling in the crowd and Boyland, to whom he gave chest compressions. Sarah uploaded a seven-minute film about her husband’s case including footage of the riot to Rumble.

“[Ronald] saw that there was a law enforcement officer down, and he told the officers, ‘You have a man down,’ and they didn’t do anything,” Sarah told Kittle. “So [Ronald] went around the barrier to get this officer up off of the ground. He was completely defenseless with protesters around him. And as he was trying to pick up this officer, another officer came up and struck him with a baton across the ribs.”

As Ronald McAbee was pleading with officers to let him help, Sarah said, Boyland was “being beaten by Metropolitan police.”

“So he did try to assist the officer. He ended up getting him back to the line of duty, but unfortunately Rosanne Boyland lost her life,” Sarah said.

“There was a third officer that watched this entire encounter go down,” Sarah added. “The officer thanked him twice for his assistance, and at the end, he even put his arm around him and said, ‘I got you, man, I got you.'”

Sarah McAbee said federal prosecutors in D.C. dismissed evidence related to her husband’s defense. Other demonstrators charged with crimes related to the Jan. 6 riot have similarly struggled to receive a fair trial in the nation’s capital. The politically charged cases have been decided by residents whom D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb says are still facing the “trauma” of the demonstration years later.

Former President Donald Trump himself faces a near-impossible defense in a D.C. courtroom despite merely giving a speech at the White House where he implored his supporters to make their voices heard “peacefully.” According to a survey from Emerson College in September, 64 percent of D.C. residents said they would vote to convict Trump, and just 8 percent said they would find him innocent. Twenty-eight percent said they were unsure. Yet Trump, along with other Jan. 6 defendants being tried in D.C. courtrooms, have been unsuccessful in their attempts to move their trials outside such a hostile environment.

Sarah McAbee is now running a nonprofit called “Stand in the Gap Foundation” to offer financial assistance to Jan. 6 defendants and their families as they await trial and sentencing.

“Most of these are over-charged and over-punished,” McAbee told Kittle, “and unfortunately the punishment is the process.” [source]

A terrible injustice. Instead of being locked up, he should get a commendation. This behavior should be encouraged not discouraged. Lawfare at its worse.

Trump vows to build ‘greatest Iron Dome anywhere in the world’

From JNS.org (Jan. 24):

Donald Trump pledged to build an “Iron Dome” air-defense system for the United States if he is re-elected in November’s presidential election.

The former president and Republican frontrunner to challenge the current office holder, Democrat Joe Biden, for the White House made the remarks at a rally in New Hampshire on Tuesday. He spoke ahead of the state’s primary, which he later won against his final GOP opponent Nikki Haley.

“I will build an Iron Dome over our country. A state-of-the-art missile defense shield made in the USA. We do it for other countries. We help other countries. We don’t do it for ourselves. We need it, too,” Trump said.

Israel’s Rafael Advanced Defense Systems and Israel Aerospace Industries developed the Iron Dome missile-defense system, which since 2011 has received $1.6 billion in U.S. funding, with another $1 billion approved by Congress last year.

Trump described seeing the technology in action and being impressed by its capabilities during his visits to the Jewish state.

“I’ve seen shots that you wouldn’t even believe. Missile launch. They go, ‘Missile launch!’ and you hear a bell go. I see this. I like it. It’s so incredible. And these guys. These geniuses. These are not muscle guys,” he continued from the stage in the city of Laconia.

“We are going to have the greatest Iron Dome anywhere in the world,” the former president continued to applause. “And it’s going to be manufactured right here in New Hampshire.”

Trump said last week after winning the Iowa caucuses that Hamas would not have attacked Israel on Oct. 7 if he had still been president, and pledged to “solve” the “horrible” situation in Israel if he wins in November.

In his victory speech, Trump declared from the Iowa state capital Des Moines that Biden is the “worst president that we’ve had in the history of the country.”

Trump, who served as president from 2017 to 2021, said that if he had remained in the White House, “Russia would not have attacked [Ukraine], Israel would never have been attacked.”

He said these two issues would be resolved quickly should he be voted back into office later this year.

“The Ukraine situation is so horrible, the Israeli situation is so horrible, what’s happened. We’re going to get them solved, we are going to get them solved very fast,” he said. [source]

Just like Israel has. Nice. This is almost like Reagan envisioned for "Star Wars" but America didn't have the technology back then.

AMERICA'S GROCERY LIST 2024

The PAC Make America Great Again Inc. made the Biden-Mart.com website with data from the USDA. It shows the difference between selected food group prices in Jan. 2021 and Jan. 2024. For example, a price of 12 pack of eggs rose 35.85 % from 2021! Great idea to show how Crooked Joe is screwing the public. Thanks for nothing!

State Department Pushes US Social Agenda on Foreign Partners

From Liberty Nation.com (Jan. 27):

The Biden administration has failed to persuade America its social justice agenda has made the country better. Not to worry, the US State Department has other nations in its sights for sowing seeds of division. Throughout the US, citizens have taken great exception to the full court press the radical LGBTQI+ advocates have attempted to foist on the American public.

The social justice warriors have couched their message in benign, often appealing terms like “inclusion,” “diversity,” and “equity.” The US State Department has been particularly energetic in its propagandizing the social justice message. Liberty Nation described this campaign as divisive and deceptive in its report, “Diversity – A Smoke Screen for Race and Behavior Preference.” No group has been more strident and aggressive than the LGBTQI+ marketers in the State Department in pushing the latest progressive worldview.

State Department View of Human Rights

Proselytizing for other countries to be held accountable to American behavioral preferences has become an institutionalized practice at Foggy Bottom. The US State Department established the office of the Special Envoy to Advance Human Rights of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Intersex (LGBTQI+) Persons Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor. This office is funded by the American taxpayer but, thankfully, not by the number of words in the job title. The position is currently held by Ms. Jessica Stern, whose duties include leading efforts “to protect LGBTQI+ persons globally from violence and discrimination.” On the surface, that may seem admirable. However, on closer examination, what is being promoted is that human rights and behavioral rights are equivalent. In many cultures, this notion could not be farther from the truth.

To support the US perspective on human behaviors that make up less than 10% of the global population, Special Envoy Sterns traveled to Brazil to deliver an address to the first National March for Trans Day of Visibility. “On January 29, SE [Special Envoy] Stern will give remarks at the government’s launch of a report on statistics of violence against transgender and nonbinary persons around the world. While in Brazil, SE Stern will also meet with activists, Brazilian government ministries, and parliamentarians,” a State Department press release announced. The impression one gets from reading about the remit of SE Stern is that people who identify as transgender are a significant community within the population.

If that’s what you believe, you would be wrong. Worldwide, the focus of SE Stern’s concern makes up roughly 3% of the global population and 2% of the United States, according to Statista. Switzerland is the most popular haven for those identifying as “transgender, gender fluid, non-binary, or other ways.” Statista leaves it to the reader’s imagination as to what “other ways” might mean. Furthermore, the LGBTQI+ narrative falls way short of being adopted in the US. Yet, this group has garnered significantly and disproportionately greater attention from the social justice community than it deserves based on its position worldwide. [read more]

Not a good idea. I don't think other nations appreciate the US pushing our DIE crap on them. Bad PR for America.

Former Defense Secretary Says Jan. 6 Committee Issued ‘Latent Threat’ to Keep Quiet

From The Epoch Times.com (Mar. 24):

A former Trump secretary of defense revealed that he was pressured by the House Jan. 6 committee into staying silent about claims that then-President Donald Trump authorized the deployment of National Guard troops before the breach at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Speaking to the Daily Mail on March 23, former acting Secretary of Defense Chris Miller, who was only on the job for about two months, said that members of the Democrat-led panel used “aggressive” tactics after he spoke to several media outlets about the Trump authorization. The final report from the Jan. 6 subcommittee, which was dissolved after the current Congress took over, claimed that President Trump did not authorize the deployment of the National Guard.

In 2022, Mr. Miller appeared on a Fox News segment along with former Trump national security official Kash Patel in an interview that he said “hit a nerve.”

“The two of us were on [the Fox News show] and the next day my lawyer got a call from the Jan. 6 staff director. ... I forgot exactly who it was, but basically saying, very legalistic, ‘Well, if your client has additional information he wants to share, we’d be happy to have him re-interviewed,'” Mr. Miller told the Mail.

“It was more that latent threat of, ‘If you want to keep going on TV, we’re gonna drag you in here again for additional hours of hearing testimony.’ So that was the nature of that whole thing. It was the latent threat of the government continuing to intrude into my life.”

The former defense secretary added that he did not have the “resources to continue the battle” with the Jan. 6 committee and didn’t want to face any more depositions. Instead, he kept to himself and did not discuss how the panel allegedly targeted him.

“I didn’t talk about it with anybody else because of the fear or the concern,” he told the outlet. “I wasn’t communicating with anybody, because I knew any interactions I had on it would result in me having to ... acknowledge that I'd been in communications with other people. And then that just sort of opens up a whole can of worms with the investigators that I just didn’t want to do.”

The former secretary said, “It was much easier just to not be involved with anybody or talk to anybody about this stuff because it was going to cause conflict and difficulties with the investigating team.”

Mr. Miller added that it was clear that former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) was running the Jan. 6 panel even though she was one of only two Republicans on the committee. He said that he believed that Ms. Cheney, who lost the 2022 Wyoming Republican primary to the pro-Trump Harriet Hageman, was not happy with the “optics” of Mr. Miller’s appearing on television and going against the panel’s anti-Trump narrative.

Ms. Cheney and other members of the Jan. 6 panel will likely attempt to downplay his claims about the National Guard authorization, Mr. Miller said, adding that the committee was engaging in “political theater.”

But his recent remarks contradicted statements he made in 2022 when he told the Jan. 6 panel that President Trump did not order the 10,000 National Guard troops before Jan. 6.

“I was never given any direction or order or knew of any plans of that nature,” Mr. Miller said at the time. “There was no order from the president.

“We obviously had plans for activating more folks, but that was not anything more than contingency planning. There was no official message traffic or anything of that nature.”

The Epoch Times contacted Ms. Cheney for comment on March 23 but received no response by press time. [read more]

More interference from the fake Jan. 6 committee.

Another Jan. 6 committee article:

REPORT: January 6 Committee Destroyed Evidence and Did Not Investigate Capitol Hill Security Failures

The Two Brain Systems

With two brain systems and two possibilities for each of them, we can thus identify four different cognitive modes—four different ways of interacting with people and responding to situations that arise in the world:

	Highly Utilized Top	Minimally Utilized Top
Highly Utilized Bottom	Mover Mode	Perceiver Mode
Minimally Utilized Bottom	Stimulator Mode	Adaptor Mode

   

Mover Mode results when the top- and bottom-brain systems are both highly utilized.

According to our theory, when people think in this mode, they are inclined both to implement plans (using the top-brain system) and to register the consequences of doing so (using the bottom-brain system), subsequently adjusting plans on the basis of feedback. The evidence suggests that prior to his injury, Phineas Gage often relied on this mode when he was at work; he probably could not have risen so far so fast if he had not. But after his accident he could no longer operate in this mode.

People who habitually operate in Mover Mode tend to be well suited to being leaders. They might head a company, act as a principal of a school, or take charge of revising a church afterschool program. According to our theory, people who habitually operate in this mode should be most comfortable when in positions that allow them to plan, act, and see the consequences of their actions.

…………

Perceiver Mode results when the bottom-brain system is highly utilized but the top-brain system is not.

People who highly utilize the bottom-brain system try to make sense in depth of what they perceive; they interpret what they experience, put it in context, and try to understand the implications. They may use the top-brain system to generate narratives that make sense of what the bottom brain registers, but they do not use the top brain to initiate complex or detailed plans; the top brain is largely used in the service of the bottom brain. Gage would have been better off post-accident if his top-brain system had been better able to sort the inputs from his bottom-brain system.

Among others, many librarians, naturalists, and pastors appear to rely habitually on Perceiver Mode. If the Theory of Cognitive Modes is correct, people who are relying on this mode often play a crucial role in a group; they can make sense of events and provide a bigger-picture perspective. In business, they are often crucial members of teams, providing perspective and wisdom but not always getting credit.

……….

Stimulator Mode results when the top-brain system is highly utilized but the bottom-brain system is not.

People interacting with the world in Stimulator Mode often create and execute plans (using the top-brain system) but fail to register consistently and accurately the consequences of acting on those plans (using the bottom-brain system). They may be creative and original, and may be able to think outside the box even when everybody around them has a fixed way of approaching an issue or situation. But, at the same time, these people may not always note when enough is enough—their actions can be disruptive and they may not adjust their behavior appropriately. Gage’s problem was not so much in registering the consequences of his actions but in too freely allowing ongoing situations to interrupt his plans; the damage disrupted the usual interactions between his top-brain and bottom-brain systems.

……..

Adaptor Mode results when neither the top- nor the bottom-brain system is highly utilized.

People who are thinking in this mode are not caught up in initiating plans, nor are they fully focused on classifying and interpreting what they experience; instead, they are open to becoming absorbed by local events and the immediate requirements of the situation. If the Theory of Cognitive Modes is correct, they often are “action-oriented” and responsive. In addition, people who habitually operate in this mode often “go with the flow” and may tend to be seen as free-spirited and fun to be with. (Gage would have been better off if he had been able to adopt this mode and let others define his agenda.)

Source: Top Brain, Bottom Brain: Surprising Insights into How You Think (2014) by Stephen Kosslyn, Ph. D. and G. Wayne Miller.

80 PERCENT of the Senate 'border' deal would have gone to FOREIGN governments

From Glenn Beck.com (Feb. 7):

Today, Senate Republicans celebrated a rare victory after shutting down what Glenn has called a "multi-billion dollar war package" disguised as a "border deal." The question as to whether the inept GOP leadership under Mitch McConnell can negotiate a meaningful border package is still to be seen. However, there is a task at hand: to fight Democrat-led propaganda accusing the conservatives of sensationalized partisan theater.

Democrats say the fact that their Republican colleagues shot down the border deal proves that they don't actually care about the border at all. Instead, they say, Republicans are using the border to play partisan politics ahead of the 2024 election. As Glenn says, there's a reason why Senate and House leadership give Congress only a few days to review a 370-page bill. If the American people had enough time to read the entirety of the bill, they would see clearly that this is anything but a border package.

Thankfully for you, you don't have to read all 370 pages of the border bill. Here is everything in the "not-so-border" bill so you call out the Democrats' propaganda.

More than HALF of the bill's funds would go to Ukraine.

Out of the $118 billion bill, $60 billion would have gone to Ukraine. How fitting of the Democrats to accuse Republicans of partisan politics when they delegated a majority of the funds of a "border" package to their own partisan issue.

You would think that the Senate Democrats would delegate the other half of the bill to border security to at least tempt the consideration of their hardline Republican colleagues... think again.

Only ONE SIXTH of the bill's funds would go towards border security.

Not even half of the "border" bill would have gone towards border security. Out of the $118 billion bill, only $20 billion would have gone toward securing the border. That's one-third of the amount allotted for Ukrainian aid.

The bill would have allowed 1.8 MILLION illegal immigrants to enter the country every year.

Not only did the Senate "border" package fail to fund any meaningful border reform, but moreover, the mandates within the bill itself would have accomplished nothing to stop the border crisis.

The "border" bill would have allowed the Department of Homeland Security to "nearly shut down the border." What does "nearly shutting down the border" actually entail? In short, DHS would have been able to allow a maximum average of 5,000 migrants per day on a given week. At that rate, up to 1.8 million illegal immigrants would enter the country every year.

There have been an estimated 6-10 million illegal immigrants who have entered the U.S. under the Biden administration over the past 3 years. Assuming the lower estimate, that is an average of 2 million illegal immigrants per year. That means that the "border" bill would have done nothing to stop the migrant crisis. [read more]

Glad that immigration boondoggle didn't pass. Definitely wouldn't have fixed the border. The foreign aid should have been in separate bills.

The H.R.2 - Secure the Border Act of 2023 is much better. It has already passed in the house, but Schumer is just sitting on the bill and not letting any senators vote on it. Evidently he doesn't want to secure the border.

Audio recording reveals the moment that senior Republican figure tried to bribe Kari Lake not to run for Senate

From Daily Mail.co.uk (Jan. 23):

An audio recording obtained by DailyMail.com reveals the extraordinary moment when what appears to be Arizona's top Republican official tried to bribe populist firebrand Kari Lake not to run in the state's Senate race.

Jeff DeWit, 51, chair of the Arizona Republican Party, can be heard asking Lake, a close ally of Donald Trump, to name her price to stay out of politics for two years.

'There are very powerful people who want to keep you out,' he tells her in a conversation recorded at the start of March last year.

DeWit tells Lake, 54, one of the most public faces of the former president's MAGA movement and a woman frequently spoken of as a 2024 vice-presidential pick, that he thinks Trump will lose and it is time to make way for someone else.

After asking her not to mention the conversation to anyone, he makes his first offer.

'So the ask I got today from back east was: "Is there any companies out there or something that could just put her on the payroll to keep her out?’

Lake reacts with indignation.

'This is about defeating Trump and I think that's a bad, bad thing for our country,' she said.

Later, DeWit, who was chief operating officer on the Trump's 2020 campaign frames it differently.

'Just say, is there a number at which....' he begins.

Lake cut in: 'I can be bought? That's what it's about.'

'You can take a pause for a couple of years. You can go right back to what you're doing.'

Lake repeatedly rebuffs him and says she wouldn't do it for a billion dollars.

'This is not about money, it's about our country,' she says. [read more]

The Deep State is really worried.

Along the same lines... Kari Lake: Resignation Letter of Former Ariz. GOP Chief 'Disgusting'

Expert Testifies in Court: Dominion Voting Systems Easily Hackable

From Newsmax.com (Jan. 23):

A voting systems expert testifying in a Georgia trial last week demonstrated that Dominion Voting Systems machines were so easily hackable he could use a Bic pen and smart card to copy, edit, and change votes in seconds, according to Law360 Pulse, which is covering the trial.

Professor J. Alex Halderman of the University of Michigan, the author of a highly publicized report detailing deficiencies in Dominion's voting machines, testified at an Atlanta trial Thursday in a case filed in 2017 against the state of Georgia.

The suit was originally filed by the Coalition for Good Governance, a liberal activist group, which claimed the state's use of voting machines which include touch-screen computers to cast ballots without the benefit of a verifiable print ballot, made the voting counts susceptible to manipulation.

After the suit, Georgia election officials changed their voting vendor in 2020 to Dominion Voting Systems, which also used a touch-screen ballot but provided voters with a paper ballot containing a QR code containing their vote information.

The Good Governance suit, however, asked a federal judge to order Georgia to stop using Dominion since they claimed their machines remain vulnerable to attack.

The suit also claimed the Dominion machines offer voters a paper QR code that cannot easily be read to verify the accuracy of their vote.

Halderman, who wrote a 96-page report in July 2021, began his demonstration before U.S. District Court Judge Amy Totenberg in Atlanta by asking a plaintiffs' attorney to borrow a pen, Law360 Pulse reported.

The professor then inserted the pen into the Dominion voting machine and held it there for a few seconds, which caused the machine to reboot into "safe mode," according to Halderman.

Halderman then explained that a person could copy or change files on the voting machine, change its operating settings, or install malware.

Halderman said accessing the "terminal emulator" could allow a user to bypass the computer's normal security settings and obtain "super-user" access — something that allows a person to read, monitor, and change "anything," including ballots, on the voting machine with "no limits," Law360 Pulse reported. [read more]

Doesn't sound good. Dominion should probably fix the hack. A ball point pen? It would be a very good idea to fix the hack.

NYC-bound flight canceled when passenger notices missing bolts on plane wing

From NY Post.com (Jan. 22):

A New York-bound Virgin Atlantic flight was canceled just moments before takeoff last week when an alarmed passenger said he spotted several screws missing from the plane’s wing.

British traveler Phil Hardy, 41, was onboard Flight VS127 at Manchester Airport in the UK on Jan. 15 when he noticed the four missing fasteners during a safety briefing for passengers and decided to alert the cabin crew.

“I’m a good flyer, but my partner was not loving the information I was telling her and starting to panic, and I was trying to put her mind at rest as much as I could,” Hardy told the Kennedy News agency of the moment he spotted the missing fixings.

“I thought it was best to mention it to a flight attendant to be on the safe side.”

Engineers were promptly called out to carry out maintenance checks on the Airbus A330 aircraft before its scheduled takeoff to John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City, a Virgin Atlantic rep said.

Footage shot by Hardy showed one of the engineers climbing onto the plane’s wing before using a screwdriver to tinker with some of the fasteners.

Hardy said airline staff repeatedly reassured him there was no safety issue with the wing, but his fear was heightened given the recent ordeal in which an Alaska Airlines plane lost its door plug and a chunk of its fuselage flew off mid-flight.

Both Virgin and Airbus stressed there was no impact to the safety of last week’s aircraft despite the missing fixings.

The Virgin representative said the flight ended up being axed to “provide time for precautionary additional engineering maintenance checks, which allowed our team the maximum time to complete their inspections.

“The safety of our customers and crew is always our top priority and this was not compromised at any point,” the rep said in the statement. “We always work well above industry safety standards and the aircraft is now back in service.”

Neil Firth, the Airbus local chief wing engineer for A330, added that the affected panel was a secondary structure used to improve the aerodynamics of the plane.

“Each of these panels has 119 fasteners, so there was no impact to the structural integrity or load capability of the wing, and the aircraft was safe to operate,” he said.

“As a precautionary measure, the aircraft underwent an additional maintenance check, and the fasteners were replaced.”

Passengers were rebooked onto alternate flights to the Big Apple.

“We’d like to apologize to our customers for the delay to their journeys,” the Virgin representative said. [source]

Hopefully, the airlines thank the passenger for his awareness and even gave him a discount on his next flight. Good thing someone noticed the bolts missing before the plane took off. Otherwise...

Along the same lines...

• New problem found on Boeing 737 Max planes
• Signs Suggest Alaska Airlines Plane Lacked Bolts When It Left Boeing Factory

Taking Unpopular Stands in a Strange New World

From Breakpoint.org (Apr. 27, 2022):

According to Theodoret of Cyrrhus, on January 1, A.D. 404, an ascetic monk named Telemachus jumped to the floor of the arena during a gladiatorial match and begged the competitors to stop. The crowd was so angry at the interruption that they stoned him to death. When Christian Emperor Honorius heard about Telemachus’ act of bravery, he ordered an end to gladiatorial combat.

Telemachus’ stand led to martyrdom, but it changed a culture. Throughout history, similar stands made in Jesus’ name yielded similar results. Though they often came at great cost, and transformation was not instantaneous, in the end, a culture was left better.

Telemachus’ brave act occurred 91 years after Christianity was legalized by Constantine, and 24 years after it was made the state religion of Rome by Emperor Theodosius I. Earlier Christians denounced other evils, such as abusive sexual mores. They insisted that sex be limited to marriage and, following the Jews, rejected abortion and infanticide. They treated women and slaves as the spiritual equals of men. As a result, woman and slaves became leaders in the church. Pliny the Younger, in a letter dated about 111, mentions deaconesses, and a slave was made a bishop of Ephesus in the early second century.

Christians didn’t kill baby girls, a practice common among the pagans. Nor did they pressure girls into early marriage, or Christian widows into remarriage. As a result, Christian churches had a higher percentage of women than did society at large. In fact, Christianity was held in contempt by the Romans as “a religion of women and slaves.”

The Church’s response to slavery is more complex. Though the early Church did not outright oppose slavery, they opposed the abusive conduct normal to the slave trade, and often purchased slaves in order to free them. Eventually, as the implications of the Gospel’s insistence on the spiritual and moral equality of all people sank in, medieval theologians such as Thomas Aquinas declared slavery a sin.

Nonetheless, many Christians continued the horrible practice, particularly with the discovery of the Americas. Other Christians, most notably William Wilberforce and the Clapham Circle, actively sought the abolition of the slave trade. After decades of persistent effort in the face of opposition from cultural elites and an apathetic public, slavery was brought to an end in the British Empire.

Similar examples can be found in other cultures. Christian missionaries led the fight against sati, the practice of burning widows on the funeral pyres of their husbands, against the opposition of the Hindu elites in India. Native Chinese Christians fought against foot binding, the breaking of bones to compress the feet of girls, a trait considered desirable among the Chinese people. Christian diplomats saved Jews from the Holocaust, often bucking instructions from their home government and direct superiors. Many leaders and activists in the U.S. civil rights movement faced beatings, dogs, lynchings, and fire hoses. Though these courageous actions led to the renewal of various aspects of those cultures, change was not immediate.

Christians had to oppose cultures before change took place. Of course, they had no way of knowing whether or not their actions would bring change. Telemachus did not live to see the redemptive consequences of his courage. They acted because they had to, not because they knew their actions would work.

As T.S. Eliot said, “For us there is only the trying. The rest is none of our business.” Christians today must oppose cultural evils, such as the taking of preborn life, the buying and selling of preborn lives, the ideological sexual abuse of children, and the persecution of religious minorities. Though the rapid changes in our society are confusing and distressing, we must understand them if we are to know when, where, and how we must take a stand. [source]

Pagans have had a lot of bad and weird practices. Most of this stems from, in my humble opinion, because they were collectivist societies where the individual doesn’t count. No-one has individual rights or dignity so whatever happens to them (like human sacrifice) is for the good of the collective. Or to appease a certain god.

The early Church should have opposed slavery more strongly because in God’s eyes it is evil.

Ice Ice Baby: Why Donald Trump Should Annex Antarctica

From Revolver.news (Jan. 8):

One of the zanier moments of Donald Trump’s memorable presidency came when he broached the idea of becoming the first U.S. president to meaningfully expand U.S. territory since William McKinley annexed Hawaii in 1898. Why, Trump asked his advisers in 2019, shouldn’t the U.S. pony up to take Greenland off Denmark’s hands? Like so many of Trump’s off-the-wall notions, the idea was mocked in the papers and ridiculed on late-night TV, but it was actually brilliant. In Denmark’s hands, Greenland is a sad relic of a former overseas empire, occupied by about 50,000 Inuit who suffer from the world’s highest suicide rate and are largely dependent on Denmark’s welfare state for survival. In America’s hands, Greenland would greatly increase America’s strategic presence in the Arctic region while also giving it new, largely unexploited reserves of important natural resources, which the U.S. has far more capacity to develop than Denmark.

Sadly, the Danes aren’t selling. Too bad.

But the dream of a new, greater America need not die there. Because, in fact, there is a vast piece of strategic real estate ripe for the taking that need not be bought or conquered by anyone. Yes, you’re thinking correctly: After he successfully reclaims the White House, one of Donald Trump’s objectives should be to expand America’s borders and her economic might by annexing Antarctica.

No, we’re serious.

Is this some wacky meme idea? Well, obviously, yeah. But at the same time, we are quite sincere. The list of reasons to colonize Antarctica is long, and the reasons not to do it are surprisingly thin.

Antarctica Is Full of Unexploited Natural Resources

At the risk of stating the incredibly obvious, Antarctica is a fully-sized continent. At 5.5 million square miles, it’s larger than both Australia and Europe. It’s 88% as large as Russia. That means a continent’s worth of untapped natural resources—oil, gas, gold, copper, uranium, you name it—plus even more in the continent’s almost totally unexploited coastal waters.

Right now, these resources are not economical to seek out and develop, so the continent appears useless. But one day, that will change.

In fact, there’s even precedent for such a change in a current U.S. state: Alaska. When William Seward masterminded the territory’s purchase in 1867, support for it was grounded mostly in Manifest Destiny and the potential for increased U.S. trade with Asia. Only thirty years after the purchase, with the Klondike Gold Rush, did Alaska become attractive for economic exploitation in its own right, and it took 110 years for the Prudhoe Bay oil field (the largest in North America) to enter development. The payoff on Seward’s purchase was long, but it indisputably has been to America’s gargantuan benefit.

Antarctica Is Neutral Because of an Obsolete Treaty

So, more than a century after the race to the South Pole, why does almost ten percent of the Earth’s land area remain the exclusive domain of a few thousand science nerds? The answer is the Antarctic Treaty and its many follow-up agreements.

The Antarctic Treaty dates back to 1959, when it was negotiated among 12 nations with existing or potential claims to the Antarctic landmass. The treaty banned territorial claims, military operations, nuclear testing, and economic exploitation below 60°S latitude—in essence, for the entirety of Antarctica and its outlying islands.

At the time, the treaty was motivated by recurring conflicts between potential Antarctic powers and by the fear that the Soviet Union would muscle its way into the Antarctic theater.

If Donald Trump has a pet peeve as a politician, it’s bad deals—and worst of all, bad deals that stick around for no discernible reason. When the U.S. proposed making Antarctica a neutral zone, it was by far the country with the greatest ability to develop Antarctica. America remains as such today, but in a far less dominant position than 60 years ago. Today, the Cold War is over, and both China and Russia flagrantly lay the groundwork for economic expansion in Antarctica, while the U.S. does nothing. [read more]

Not sure if Trump should annex or not, but the author does make rather interesting points.

Fauci’s COVID-19 testimony to Congress was damning — and more questions loom

From Jon Miltimore on Washington Examiner.com (Jan. 16):

Dr. Anthony Fauci sat down last week with the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic. During a 14-hour session, the former head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases was grilled by lawmakers on various subjects, including the origins of COVID-19, coerced vaccination, mask mandates, and the lost learning of students due to school closures.

Though the interview took place behind closed doors, parts of Fauci’s testimony were reported by media and lawmakers, offering various revelations — including the fact that Fauci said he was “not convinced” schoolchildren actually experienced learning loss during the pandemic.

An abundance of evidence contradicts Fauci’s belief, including research cited by Harvard Magazine showing “a significant decline” over the past three years in reading, math, and history, part of what the New York Times editorial board recently described as “the most damaging disruption in the history of American education.”

But put learning loss and Fauci’s denials aside for now. His admissions are damning enough.

Take “social distancing,” the idea that people had to be six feet apart from one another to be in public, a ritual virtually all of us participated in at one time or another to grab a bite to eat at our local restaurant. Fauci admitted to lawmakers that the policy was basically a charade, something that “sort of just appeared” and lacked scientific basis.

Or take the unintended consequences of the coercive vaccine policies Fauci advocated and governments initiated at the federal, state, and local levels. Fauci, who privately told officials that “it’s been proven that when you make it difficult for people in their lives, they lose their ideological bulls*** and they get vaccinated,” conceded that the coercive vaccine policies he advocated likely increased vaccine hesitancy. (The evidence suggests he is probably right.) [read more]

Disgraceful. Missteps? More like lies and fabrications. Just give the people the facts and trust their decisions. If you don't know, then say that. Don't BS the folks.

Former Jan. 6 Select Committee 'deleted more than 100 encrypted files from its probe in the days before Republicans took over the House majority'

From Daily Mail.co.uk (Jan. 22):

A bombshell new report alleges that just days before the GOP took over the House majority in 2022, over 100 encrypted files relating to the January 6th Capitol riot probe were mysteriously deleted.

In a new interview with Fox News, the chairman of the House Administration Committee's Oversight Subcommittee, Rep. Barry Loudermilk of Georgia, described the revelation as bringing the investigation into a 'new phase.'

Loudermilk alleges that a forensics team found that 117 files had been either deleted or encrypted on January 1, 2023, shortly before the Republicans took over the investigation that had previously been led by Rep. Bennie Thompson and Rep. Liz Cheney.

The congressman is demanding that Democrats handover the passwords as the files have since been recovered. The files are believe to contain interviews and depositions that could prove crucial to the case.

'It’s obvious that went to great lengths to prevent Americans from seeing certain documents produced in their investigation.It also appears that Bennie Thompson and Liz Cheney intended to obstruct our Subcommittee by failing to preserve critical information and videos as required by House rules,' Loudermilk said.

The former state senator said that the investigation into 'what really happened' that day is growing thanks to the support of new House Speaker Mike Johnson, who is pouring more taxpayer dollars into the probe.

'The speaker has committed whatever resources we need to move forward, and has basically tripled the size of our staff,' he said.

The riot, which began after ex-President Donald Trump called on his supporters to try and overturn the result of the 2020 election, was responsible to for the deaths of nine people, saw dozens more injured and has so far seen 1,200 people charged.

'We are investigating what really happened on January 6 and how were these people — whoever they were — how were they able to get into the Capitol? What was the security failure?,' Loudermilk told Fox News.

'Because the American people have a right to know what happened. My main goal is to get the truth out there and give the American people the ability to make their own determination on this with facts — not with preconceived ideas or pre-determined narratives — but just the facts of what happened,' he added.

The Georgia conservative accused the Democratic investigation into the riot as trying to 'prove something that they wanted to be the truth.'

He went on to say that liberal's 'cherry-picked' evidence and omitted things that contradicted their narrative.

'Look, I'm not here to vindicate anyone. But we want the truth to prevail,' Loudermilk said.

DailyMail.com has reached out to both Thompson and Cheney's offices for comment.

Loudermilk said that his investigation will target security failures on the days including the erection of a gallows by Trump supporters, something that has been used in Biden campaign adds.

'He’s using images of the gallows that was erected — that’s something we’ve been investigating. It was erected at 6 in the morning — how in the world did it stay up all day long? Right with Capitol Police there? That is something that at first sight, somebody should have been taking down,' Loudermilk said.

'We do know there was plenty of intelligence that there was going to be an attack on the Capitol. So Secret Service knew of it. The FBI knew of it. Department of Defense had intelligence. Homeland Security had intelligence. That intelligence was sent to the Capitol Police Intelligence Division—but it never got passed on any further. The chief did not know about it,' he went on.

Loudermilk said that intelligence has indicated that there were federal agents embedded with the crowd, common practice for large gatherings. 

Authorities are still working to identify more than 80 people wanted for acts of violence at the Capitol and to find out who placed pipe bombs outside the Republican and Democratic national committees' offices the day before the Capitol attack.

And they continue to regularly make new arrests, even as some Jan. 6 defendants are being released from prison after completing their sentences.

The cases are playing out at the same courthouse where Trump is scheduled to stand trial in March in the case accusing the former president of conspiring to overturn his 2020 election loss in the run-up to the Capitol attack.

'The Justice Department will hold all Jan. 6 perpetrators at any level accountable under the law, whether they were present that day or otherwise criminally responsible for the assault on our democracy,' Attorney General Merrick Garland said earlier this month.

He said the cases filed by Graves and the special counsel in Trump's federal case, Jack Smith, show the department is 'abiding by the long-standing norms to ensure independence and integrity or our investigations.' [source]

Sounds like a coverup and even a possible crime. What are the Dems hiding?

More on the Jan. 6 Select Committee:

• Exclusive: Liz Cheney, January 6 Committee Suppressed Exonerating Evidence Of Trump’s Push For National Guard
• House Report: J6 Committee Hid Troves Of Records And Testimony Undermining Democrat Conspiracies
• Former Trump Official: Liz Cheney & the J6 Committee “BURIED EVIDENCE” [video]
• Hidden Jan. 6 Transcript Revealed, Undermines House Committee’s Claim
• Former Defense Secretary Says Jan. 6 Committee Issued ‘Latent Threat’ to Keep Quiet

Georgia Senate passes measure to ban ranked-choice voting

From Just the News.com (Jan. 26):

(The Center Square) — The Georgia Senate passed a measure Friday to bar ranked-choice voting in the state.

The chamber passed Senate Bill 355 by a 31-19 margin.

"We must aggressively fend off any attempts of anyone attempting to hijack our election software while also combating those who attempt to reduce voter turnout or confuse our citizens with overcomplicated processes under the guise of saving money," state Sen. Randy Robertson, R-Cataula, said during Friday's debate. "One such idea that has crawled out of the tar pits from yesterday is rank choice voting or RCV."

Robertson said rank choice voting has been around since the early 1900s. While the approach disappeared, "some politicians who did not like runoffs" reintroduced the process, the lawmaker added.

During Friday's debate, state Sen. Elena Parent, D-Atlanta, said moving to ranked-choice voting, could help save the cost of runoffs. The 2020 U.S. Senate runoff cost $75 million, Parent said.

"I view SB 355 as the latest part of the disinformation campaign about elections and, therefore, another effort to undermine faith and democratic principles and systems," Parent said.

"Before we pass any legislation, we should ask ourselves, what is the purpose of the policy under consideration?" Parent asked. "One key question might be, does this policy banning rank-choice voting support good governance? A follow-on to that is, is there an actual problem to be solved by the legislation or an issue to be addressed? Here with SB 355, the answer is a clear 'no,' because ranked-choice voting, also known as instant runoff voting, isn't legal anywhere in Georgia today."

Parent noted that Georgians serving in the military overseas vote via ranked choice.

The state Senate also passed Senate Bill 358 by a 30-19 margin. It clarifies that the State Election Board can investigate the secretary of state, an office currently occupied by Republican Brad Raffensperger.

"In order to have free and fair elections, Georgians must have the utmost trust in their state's elections systems," Lt. Governor Burt Jones, a Republican, said in a statement. "Senate Bills 355 and 358 strengthen our elections process by dispelling ambiguity and increasing public trust with Georgia's voters."

Raffensperger's office did not respond to a request for comment. [source]

Good! More states should do this. Ranked-choice voting was a dumb idea to begin with.

What It Means to Say, “Christ Is Risen!”

From Breakpoint.org (Mar. 29):

On Sunday morning, Christians will gather in houses of worship around the world—like they have since the very first century—and make a proclamation to one another. It’s the central claim of the Christian faith: “Christ is risen! He has risen indeed!”

It’s tempting to think of this claim in a highly personal and privatized way, along the lines of “I believe that Jesus Christ is risen from the dead.” While I certainly hope that if you make this proclamation that you truly believe it, that sentiment doesn’t quite catch the full effect of what this proclamation meant throughout Christian history. When the first Christians said, “Christ is risen! He has risen indeed!” they were making a public statement in a context where everyone had seen Jesus die. It was more than a statement of personal conviction and carried incredible implications for how to think about all of life.

This Easter, it won’t just be American Christians who say, “Christ is risen! He has risen indeed!” Our brothers and sisters in various parts of the world who, by saying these words, risk great harm, will, too. For example, Christians in Nigeria, for several years in a row on Easter Sunday morning, have been attacked in their houses of worship. Yet there, in the most dangerous place on the planet to be a Christian, they too will say, “Christ is risen! He has risen indeed!”

The Apostle Paul wrote an epistle to the church at Philippi. It’s all about what it means to have joy. Interestingly, Paul wrote Philippians from prison. There’s also a book that’s all about what it means to have hope. First Peter also was written in an unexpected context, to a group of early believers in Jesus facing an increasingly intensifying persecution. We know from history that he is speaking of the persecution of the Early Church under the Roman Emperor Nero. Just as the context of the book of joy in the Bible is prison, the context of the book of hope is persecution.

To these new believers facing an imminent and incredibly difficult situation, Peter does not say that they ought to feel hope but that they have hope. For Peter, hope is not a feeling. It is a certainty.

We tend to use the word hope as a way of expressing wishful thinking. We “hope” that a situation causing us distress or worry would change; that the next election may turn out as we “hope”; that the Supreme Court would decide a very important case how we “hope”; that our team would survive and advance in March Madness.

But for Peter, hope is not for a situation to change. It’s hope in a situation that’s already happened and will never change. For Peter what has already happened and will never change, that which solidly grounds our hope no matter what the future holds, is the proclamation we’ll say to each other this Sunday morning: “Christ is risen! He has risen indeed!”

The resurrection not only happened in human history: It is the defining moment of human history. For the Christian, this is not just a personal belief: It is the clearest statement of reality possible. Death is defeated. The Son of God is alive and sits on the throne of heaven and earth. No matter what happens in the history of the world, what will always be most true is that “Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!”

Easter always makes me think about Chuck Colson. Chuck spent many, many Easter Sunday mornings visiting “the Church behind the walls” by joining Easter services in prison. Chuck had a wonderful explanation of why he believed in the resurrection, an explanation connected to his experience in Watergate. Year after year, that quotation of Chuck Colson is shared widely around social media in a rare example of a meme both truthful and helpful:

I know the resurrection is a fact, and Watergate proved it to me. How? Because 12 men testified they had seen Jesus raised from the dead, then they proclaimed that truth for 40 years, never once denying it. Everyone was beaten, tortured, stoned and put in prison. They would not have endured that if it weren’t true. Watergate embroiled 12 of the most powerful men in the world—and they couldn’t keep a lie for three weeks. You’re telling me 12 apostles could keep a lie for 40 years? Absolutely impossible.

Every Easter, I remember something else Chuck often said to Christians as a way to encourage them to stay engaged in the cultural moment with their feet firmly grounded in the hope Peter described: “For Christians, despair is a sin because Christ is risen.”

Perhaps as our culture seems increasingly challenging, it may help to think of hope as the complete opposite of despair. Hope is not optional for the believer. Our hope is secure because, as we all say again, “Christ is risen! He has risen indeed!”

For the Colson Center. I’m John Stonestreet with Breakpoint. Have a blessed Easter. [source]

Happy Easter everyone!

I like the Watergate analogy. Well, done!

Heavenly Father, I am so thankful You are my Father God. The resurrection of Jesus is not just a story to tell during Easter. It is the cornerstone of my faith, proving You have the power over death and sin. Because Jesus was raised from the grave, I, too, can be raised from any situation that is not of You. I desire to walk in Your will and purpose for my life. Thank You, Father God. I pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Quantum Theory Is Mind-Boggling

From Breakpoint.org (April 13, 2022):

Quantum theory boggles the mind.

As science journalist John Horgan writes, quantum theory is “science’s most precise, powerful theory of reality. It has predicted countless experiments, spawned countless applications. The trouble is physicists and philosophers disagree over what it means, that is, what it says about how the world works.”

At the core of the disagreement is what matter consists of at the quantum, or the smallest, level. At that size, matter’s properties change when we try to observe it, even—amazingly—because we try to observe it. That’s led to over a century of frustrated efforts to understand exactly what the fundamental “stuff” of reality is. It’s not that these tiny things aren’t real; it’s that we can’t figure out what they’re like.

At the same time, quantum theory has proven explanatory power.

A theological parallel is the Trinity. We can’t comprehend exactly how the Godhead functions, but that doesn’t mean it’s not real.

As C.S. Lewis wrote back in 1952, if Christianity is true, it would be “at least as difficult as modern physics.”

And, we could add, just as rational. [source]