What Patriotic Americans Can Do to Resist the Destruction of Our Constitutional Republic

From The Gateway Pundit.com (June 22, 2022):

First, recognize that the United States is not a functioning constitutional republic, but a government being deliberately transformed into a one-party totalitarian state.

The federal government, as an institution, is hopelessly corrupt and, although we have elections, we do not have a representative government. It cannot be reformed. It can only be ripped out and replaced.

Do not expect any top-down solutions for America’s problems to miraculously emerge from Washington D.C. The U.S. government has seceded from the people. Most members of Congress act more like foreign occupiers than executors of the views and needs of their constituents.

Angelo Codevilla noted that the United States already has a bona fide ruling class, which transcends government, a political aristocracy that sees itself as distinct from the rest of society and as the only element that may act on its behalf. The ruling class considers those who resist it as having no moral or intellectual right, and, now, any civil right as well.

Republican Party leaders neither contest that view nor vilify their Democrat counterparts because they do not want to challenge the ruling class, they want to be part of it.

The Republican leadership has solidified its choice to no longer represent what had been its constituency, but to adopt the identity of junior partners in the ruling class. By repeatedly passing bills that contradict the views of its voters, the Republican Party has made political orphans of tens of millions of Americans.

The only remaining course of action for patriotic American, who want to restore our constitutional republic, is a bottom-up political insurgency based on the Constitution and the Founding documents.

Foremost among them are the Second and Tenth Amendments.

The Second Amendment, “the right of the people to keep and bear Arms,” is now the only obstacle standing between freedom and the absolute tyranny the federal government now wishes to impose.

Buy firearms and lots of ammunition. [read more]

Sound advice.

Chinese students with CCP membership, military links ‘infiltrate’ U.S. universities, watchdog says

From Just the News.com (Feb. 3):

Chinese students and scientists who are members of the Chinese Communist Party, attended schools tied to the Chinese military or worked with companies connected to Beijing's theft of U.S. technology have “infiltrated” several top American universities, according to a watchdog group report that raises fresh concerns about America's vulnerabilities to its most fierce adversary.

A conservative non-profit oversight group, the American Accountability Foundation, reported that it found nearly two dozen Chinese academics working at elite U.S. schools and labs “who because of the dual-use threat of their research, close ties to the military research sector in China, and/or clear ties to the Chinese Communist Party should be expelled from the United States or never be re-admitted."

The research document — titled "Chinese Scientist Infiltration Threat Assessments " — says that Chinese students working at some of America’s top colleges, often receiving U.S. federal funding (some of it from the Pentagon) to conduct research into advanced technologies have troubling backgrounds which could pose a risk to U.S. national security.

Many Chinese scientists at U.S. institutions have CCP connections

The concerns raised by AAF’s new report include the fact that some of the Chinese scientists ensconced inside American academia and at cutting-edge U.S. labs appear to be members of the CCP and are affiliated with the CCP’s projects aimed at stealing U.S. technological know-how or military secrets, and worked with or for companies which serve the Chinese defense industry.

Some of these Chinese academics have clear links to problematic Chinese firms like Huawei or to China’s notorious Thousand Talents program, of which the FBI said "American businesses, universities, and laboratories should understand the potential risks and illegal conduct incentivized by Chinese talent plans and take steps to safeguard their trade secrets and intellectual property." At least one of the Chinese scientists appeared to have been employed by the Chinese government while in the U.S.

The schools employing the Chinese scientists named in the AAF report include Harvard University, Carnegie Mellon, Cornell University, Brown University, Purdue University, the University of Wisconsin, Georgia Tech, the University of Florida, the University of Michigan, University of Florida, Penn State University, the Stevens Institute of Technology, Michigan State University, Indiana University, and the University of Southern California, as well as Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

The research areas focused on by these Chinese students — many of whom are receiving U.S. government funding for the lab research they are doing in the U.S. — include unmanned aerial drones, robotics, exoskeletons, artificial intelligence, large language models, viral research into highly-infectious pathogens, advanced materials research, next-gen semiconductors, advanced laser welding, quantum sensing, nuclear materials research, thermal-resilient electronics, electrical grid technologies, pharmaceuticals, applied mathematics, condensed matter physics, and other key areas which could have dual-use military applications. [read more]

They are both students and spies. The Chi-Coms require by law any Chinese national student to report any info they learn to the Chinese Embassy. I believe this is a general law for any country a Chinese national is in.

Another article on the matter

Report: These Chinese Researchers At U.S. Universities Have CCP Ties

‘This Is About As Big as It Gets’: Trump Formally Guts Obama-Era Climate Finding That Allowed Feds To Regulate Emissions

From Free Beacon.com (Feb. 12):

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Flanked by EPA administrator Lee Zeldin in the Roosevelt Room, President Donald Trump announced that his administration has formally rescinded a 2009 Obama-era finding that greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide endanger public health. That finding led to a slate of federal climate regulations targeting gas-powered vehicles, including former president Joe Biden’s top-down effort to force Americans to buy more electric cars.

Trump’s action will have a domino effect, toppling years of federal regulations targeting emissions produced by vehicles, power plants, and oil facilities. Zeldin said it is the "largest act of deregulation in the history of the United States" and would save Americans more than $1 trillion, a point Trump emphasized.

"This is about as big as it gets," Trump remarked as he entered a news conference announcing the action. "This action will eliminate over $1.3 trillion of regulatory cost and help bring car prices tumbling down dramatically. You can get a better car, you can get a car that starts easier, a car that works better, for a lot less money."

Surrounding Trump were signs emblazoned with the $1.3 trillion figure and stating that the action would decrease the cost of the average vehicle by $2,400. "Largest deregulation in U.S. history," read another sign.

"Under President Trump's leadership, vehicle manufacturers will once again build what Americans want, not what politicians and bureaucrats in Washington demand," Zeldin said.

The action makes good on Trump’s 2024 campaign promise to achieve the "most aggressive regulatory reduction" in the nation’s history and represents the president’s single greatest achievement to date in his pursuit to unwind previous administrations’ climate policies. The president has labeled efforts to fight global warming as a "scam" and, like many critics of the climate movement, blamed it for rising affordability issues in the United States.

Still, the action tees up an expected deluge of lawsuits from Democrat-led states and far-left activist organizations that have argued that preserving the endangerment finding and regulating greenhouse gases is essential for combating climate change. Many of those states and groups have vowed to challenge any move to rescind the finding.

"California will not stand by," Governor Gavin Newsom (D., Calif.) wrote to Zeldin in September. "You still have a choice: honor the law, follow the credible and established science, and fulfill your duty to the American people. Or go down in history as the administration that abandoned its mission, betrayed its mandate, and failed its country."

Every Senate Democrat signed a separate letter to Zeldin, warning that rescinding the finding would be a "dereliction of duty" and take "breathtaking hubris." And Loren Blackford, the Sierra Club’s acting executive director, wrote this week that "removing EPA’s authority to limit deadly greenhouse gas emissions is as shortsighted as it is stupid."

The expected litigation could ultimately force the Supreme Court to weigh in on the issue. According to former DOJ counsel Michael Buschbacher, that means Trump’s action on Thursday risks having the opposite of its intended effect and could solidify the endangerment finding.

"Unless this is done really, really well, this has the potential of being a kind of regulatory Vietnam, which is surely what administration opponents will be trying to accomplish," Buschbacher told the Washington Free Beacon in July.

The issue dates back to the 1970s, when Congress passed the Clean Air Act. The act requires the EPA to regulate any air pollutant emitted by mobile sources, like cars, and stationary sources, like power plants, that the agency determines to cause or contribute to pollution endangering public health or welfare. For decades, the EPA did not interpret that provision to include greenhouse gas emissions such as carbon dioxide and methane.

A coalition of states led by Massachusetts eventually sued the EPA after the agency formally determined in 2003 that the Clean Air Act did not authorize it to consider greenhouse gas emissions. In 2007, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the states and directed the EPA to consider whether greenhouse gas emissions do, in fact, endanger public health, leading to the 2009 endangerment finding. [source]

The wins keep coming! 

Trump WH Pulls $1.5B in DOT, CDC Grants From Dem States

From Newsmax.com (Feb. 12):

The Trump administration is rescinding more than $1.5 billion from a handful of Democrat-run states on the grounds that the funds were being mishandled.

The White House Office of Management and Budget directed the Transportation Department to scrap more than $943 million in grants and ordered the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to roll back at least $602 million more from California, Colorado, Illinois, and Minnesota, the New York Post reported.

An OMB spokesperson told the Post the states were being targeted for "waste and mismanagement" of taxpayer funds.

The targeted DOT programs included $100 million for the deployment of electric vehicle charging stations in Illinois near underserved communities; $15 million for Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, to deploy EV chargers in low-income and high-pollution areas; $15 million for a "robust, accessible, and equitable" EV charging network for "disadvantaged communities" in nine counties across San Francisco; $2 million for California's "climate change adaptation" plans; and $4.9 million for Colorado to install charging stations in low- and middle-income neighborhoods.

"At this time, Colorado has not received any official cancellation notices from the federal administration related to these grants," a spokesperson for Gov. Jared Polis told the Post.

"There is nothing 'woke' about making sure American roads are safer for everyone."

A Transportation Department spokesman confirmed the cuts were being carried out, the Post reported.

None of the rescinded CDC grants involved disease-specific research funding.

Instead, the money came from a pool of taxpayer funds distributed to the states, according to the Post.

Chicago was in line to receive $7 million for research involving "adolescents, racial and ethnic minorities, and men who have sex with men" being "disproportionately affected with sexually transmitted diseases," according to the Post.

Another $7.2 million was rescinded for the Illinois branch of the American Medical Association, which officials said supported gender reassignment surgery for children.

"Time and time again, the Trump administration has attempted to politicize and punish certain states President [Donald] Trump does not like," a spokesperson for Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker's office told the Post.

"It's wrong and often illegal, so Illinois will always fight for the resources and services our taxpayers are owed."

At least $3 million had been outlined for Colorado to "Address COVID-19 Health Disparities Among Populations at High-Risk and Underserved, Including Racial and Ethnic Minority Populations and Rural Communities," according to the Post.

Another $1.2 million grant was cut that would have allowed the state to "partner with local public health departments, local health agencies, community-based organizations, STD clinics, family planning clinics, [and] Title X clinics."

Los Angeles County is set to lose $1.1 million in remaining funding for an HIV behavioral survey after an initial $4.3 million grant was approved in January 2022, the Post reported.

California universities were also awaiting hundreds of thousands of federal dollars for research projects "reducing social isolation among older LGBTQ adults," "Creating Medical Trust with Latinx Communities," and a National Transgender Health Summit.

San Francisco had $337,000 remaining from a larger grant for "intersectoral climate adaptation," while Minneapolis was set to receive about $754,000 for "Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health," according to the Post.

The OMB spokesperson said additional grant cancellations were expected.

Officials with the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the CDC, did not immediately confirm the cuts, the Post reported. [source]

Good.  If a state wastes gov't grants, it shouldn't receive anymore money. It's called accountability.

Democrats Hate The SAVE Act Because They Want Illegals To Vote

From The Federalist.com (Feb. 6):

Democrats’ recent hysteria over the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act has unsurprisingly manifested in claims that it’s “Jim Crow 2.0” and a threat to democracy itself. But cut through the hysterics and you’ll find that Democrats’ opposition to the SAVE Act is based on something far simpler: They hate anything that interferes with their long-running effort to control elections and consolidate power.

The SAVE Act would amend the 1993 National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) to require documentary proof of citizenship to register to vote in federal elections.

It’s not a literacy test or a poll tax. It’s just asking would-be voters to prove that they’re citizens of the country of the election they are participating in because currently, the only thing standing between a noncitizen and our “free and fair” elections is a small square box on the federal registration form asking applicants to attest under penalty of perjury that they are a citizens. In other words, the honor system.

Our “democracy” is so important to Democrats that they hinge it entirely on the honor system. But Democrats’ fight against the SAVE Act is part of a bigger effort to remake American elections in ways that permanently advantage Democrats.

Take H.R. 1, also known as the For the People Act. This was one of Democrats’ top priorities during the Biden administration. The legislation would, in part, mandate mail-in voting, require states to accept late ballots, and override state voter ID laws, as reported by The Federalist’s Joy Pullman. In other words, H.R. 1 would normalize the problems of the 2020 election and codify them into law.

Democrats wanted to grant the federal government veto power over state election laws, particularly laws that ensure the integrity and security of elections.

Similarly, Democrats tried to pass the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. This legislation would strip states and local jurisdictions of their control over elections. For example, the Department of Justice would be allowed to seize control of elections where voter ID laws were in place, according to The Heritage Foundation.

When states have acted on their own to protect the integrity of their elections, Democrats turned to the courts. Democrats have been particularly opposed to voter ID laws, with the Biden administration going so far as to sue Georgia in 2021 over its election integrity law that mandated voter ID. The DOJ alleged the legislation was discriminatory. Georgia later saw record turnout after the implementation of the bill.

The Biden administration sued Arizona in 2022 over the state’s requirement that prospective voters show documentary proof of citizenship to register to vote in statewide elections. Notably, Arizona came up with its dual registration system after the Supreme Court ruled in 2013 that the state could not require documentary proof of citizenship to register to vote in federal elections. The state permits individuals who can provide documentary proof to register for both statewide and federal elections, while those unable to provide documentation may be registered as “federal only” voters.

The administration also sued Virginia for trying to remove noncitizens from its voter rolls in 2024. The suit alleged that the removal of noncitizens from the voter rolls violated the “Quiet Period Provision” of the 1993 National Voter Registration Act, which requires states to complete voter list maintenance “not later than 90 days prior to the date of a primary or general election for Federal office. …”

The pattern is clear: Anytime a red state tries to enforce basic election integrity (whether cleaning voter rolls or implementing secure election practices), Democrats respond with lawsuits, threats of racism, or attempts at federal overreach.

In this context, Democrats’ hatred of the SAVE Act makes sense. Proof of citizenship to register to vote limits Democrats’ ability to exploit insecure election infrastructure, which could lead to noncitizens voting. The SAVE Act also reinforces the idea that voting is a right only of citizens — not just anyone within our borders.

And at this point, the only explanation there could be for opposing requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote is a desire to have noncitizens voting. There is no alternative rationale that survives even minimal scrutiny.

The same party that falsely claimed it was the end of democracy and “Jim Crow 2.0” when Georgia passed voter ID requirements in 2021 is the same party now selling the same shtick about the SAVE Act. Of course it’s just Democrats’ go-to defense line, but the rationale has been proven false time and time again.

When Democrats try this hard to kill a measure so reasonable and broadly supported, the facts speak for themselves about their motives. [source]

So, true. That and the SAVE act makes it hard for the Left to cheat. If the Dems are so against ID (they aren't really) why do Democrat conventions require ID to enter? It seems they like the Jim Crow laws of yesteryear that Chucky Schumer likes to invoke all the time.

The act only requires a person to show their ID when they register to vote not when they actually vote. Nonetheless, a good start. Hopefully, legislation later on will make it mandatory that a person will have to show their ID to vote.

Along the same lines...

• Mitch McConnell Might Try To Smother The SAVE Act To Spite Trump
• Democratic senator requires photo ID to enter campaign event while opposing voter ID for elections
• Sen. John Fetterman: Voter ID Is Not Radical, "Absolutely Not Jim Crow"
• Top Dems Scramble To Explain Why They’re On The Wrong Side Of Voter ID
• House Passes Bill to Require Proof of US Citizenship for Midterm Voters

Cultural Spectacles and the Eternity in Human Hearts

From Breakpoint.org (Feb. 10):

This past weekend, a pair of events drew global audiences. The Opening Ceremonies of the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics and Super Bowl LX in San Francisco are the most recent installments of events that have become contemporary cultural flashpoints and feature the clash of worldviews.

Thankfully, this year’s Opening Ceremonies were tame compared to recent Olympics, especially the debauched 2024 Paris debacle. This time, Grammy-winner Mariah Carey performed the Italian classic “Volare,” invoking much online discussion centered about whether she was lip-syncing. With that as the biggest controversy, parents could breathe a sigh of relief and say to themselves, “Well, at least it wasn’t Paris.”

And it’s a good lesson for future host nations: avoid overt desecration of things much of the world considers holy. Instead, as the iconic Olympic rings came together in the arena, NBC announcers noted how these games focused on “harmony between seemingly dueling ideals,” symbolizing an emerging global unity.

Seattle fans are happy, but the pre- and post-game buzz of the Super Bowl had far more to do with the dueling halftime shows than the game itself. The NFL’s official halftime show was headlined by Bad Bunny while an alternative show, produced by Turning Point USA, was described as entertainment “without parents having to worry about shielding their children’s eyes.” That’s been a very real concern since the infamous 2004 “wardrobe malfunction” and several provocative performances since. Many also noted the irony of Kid Rock being the family-friendly alternative, but he was. The Bad Bunny performance featured homoeroticism and, for those who understand Spanish, sexually charged lyrics.

As expressions of worldviews, both the Opening Ceremonies and the Super Bowl, in distinct ways, demonstrate a reality of the human condition. God made people to yearn for something larger than themselves. This longing, which can take the form of athletic struggle and triumph, national pride, or an idealized vision of global harmony, is embedded in humanity’s created nature. As C.S. Lewis observed in Mere Christianity:

Creatures are not born with desires unless satisfaction for those desires exists. . . If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.

The Olympic ceremonies reflected this human longing specifically. The theme of peace and the joining of the rings presented a dream for harmony and unity that recalled the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, in which John Lennon’s “Imagine” served as a theme song of the Opening Ceremonies:

Imagine there’s no countries

It isn’t hard to do

Nothing to kill or die for

And no religion too

The song, which is often played at nostalgic cultural moments, captures the utopian vision of progressivism: a world without borders, conflict, or transcendent authority, in which humanity is perfectible and human nature is inherently good. Of course, the dissonance between the song and the reality of the human condition, especially given the nation hosting those Olympics, was palpable. At the time, Beijing was actively persecuting Uighur Muslims, clamping down on churches, and violating the 50-year agreement about Hong Kong.

In fact, from the Tower of Babel onward, history is full of the futility and dangers of seeking unity above everything else. Often, it is sought by replacing God with government. Scripture describes how God “put eternity into man’s heart,” and how creation “groans” waiting for Christ’s redemption to be complete. So, what humanity actually longs for is not a utopia, but for our Creator. When that longing is sought outside of Christ, it manifests in what is profane, idolatrous, and futile.

Unity and cooperation are high ideals but remain fleeting and incomplete when pursued apart from God. Christians have the opportunity to bring clarity and meaning to these human longings. As Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 5, “Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.” Christians who are anchored in the truth of what Christ has accomplished and the assurance that He is making all things new are empowered for faithful engagement in this world.

Lewis captured well the paradox that intentional and continual looking to the eternal “does not mean that we are to leave the present world as it is. If you read history,” he continued, “you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next.”

Humans always hunger for more meaning, purpose, and transcendence than fleeting spectacles such as the Olympics or the Super Bowl can provide. Today, in addition to the deep-seated longing etched into every human heart are the failed utopian visions that promised what they could not deliver. Thus, Christians have both the opportunity and responsibility to respond with courage and clarity to point people to the true Reconciler, the Prince of Peace. Only Jesus Christ can fully satisfy the eternity God has placed within us. [source]

Amen.

Abuse of Power Part 1: FDR

[David] Burnham [formerly a New York Times investigative reporter] writes that “confidential government documents prove . . . that . . . Roosevelt [FDR] and the officials around him did not hesitate to mobilize the IRS in efforts to destroy the careers of individuals they had decided were enemies. The records even show that on one occasion an inquiry from Eleanor Roosevelt prompted Treasury Secretary [Henry] Morgenthau to order a tax investigation of a conservative newspaper publisher who had become one of the Roosevelt administration’s leading critics.”

Roosevelt was particularly hostile toward Andrew Mellon, a former Republican Treasury secretary and successful businessman. “Probably the single most brazen display of the Roosevelt administration’s willingness to use the tax agency for political purposes,” declares Burnham, “was its attack on Andrew Mellon, the millionaire capitalist who served as the Republican secretary of the treasury from 1921 to 1932. . . . Elmer L. Irey, the first director of what is now called the Criminal Investigation Division, acknowledged that Treasury Secretary . . . Morgenthau ordered him to develop serious tax charges against Mellon even though he knew that the just-retired treasury secretary was innocent. It seems unlikely that Morgenthau would have mounted such a campaign without the approval of FDR.”

Mellon was harassed for years, with false charge after false charge filed against him. In the end, “all criminal and civil fraud penalties the Roosevelt administration had brought against him” were dismissed.

Burnham explains that Roosevelt “was a driven man who did not hesitate to adopt questionable tactics to maintain his power.” “The Mellon case was hardly the only occasion on which the Roosevelt administration mobilized the tax agency for political purposes. From his very first moments as the Democratic presidential candidate in 1931, for example, Roosevelt had understood that Huey Long . . . represented a genuine political threat.” “The administration’s deep concern about Long was translated into action exactly three days after Morgenthau became Roosevelt’s treasury secretary . . . , when Morgenthau ordered . . . Irey, the man he had instructed to go after Mellon, to launch a second campaign against Long.”

Source: Unfreedom of the Press (2019) by Mark R. Levin.

19 Black Americans Explain Why They’re Conservative

From The Daily Signal.com (June 22, 2020):

These are difficult times, and Americans are looking for guidance on how to make sense of the most divisive issues we face. When it comes to race in America, Heritage President Kay C. James says that conservatives should be leading the civil rights movement.

That’s why The Daily Signal reached out to African American conservatives to ask why they are conservative. Here are their responses.

1. W.B. Allen: Good Sense Needs No Explanation

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My political conservatism is an effect or consequence, not a cause.

I am an American patriot, informed by a deep appreciation of the human significance of the advance in human affairs occasioned by the founding of the United States. For the first time in human history, the idea that mankind in general was capable of self-government had been realized.

Moreover, the fulfillment of the promises attending that realization have been made manifest in the consistent progress of civilization in the United States, in which the power of the individual and the value of self-agency, informed by the security of religious conviction, have steadily reinforced real material progress and the opportunity for moral progress.

For those reasons, it is a matter of prudent judgment that one’s political exertions should ever be careful to reinforce and not to undermine the foundations of the hopes invested in the political constitution of this nation.

The United States was formed as a lamp unto the world, and whatever undermines the power of the United States to perform that role constitutes an impediment to human happiness.

If it is conservative to wish to preserve the “last best hope of man” on earth, then such conservatism is the effect of devotion to liberty. No one could do otherwise, if guided by good sense and a due appreciation of the values of faith, freedom, and responsibility.

W. B. Allen, Ph.D., is the chief operating officer of UrbanCURE.

2. Brian Bledsoe: Most Fair for All

As a conservative who happens to be Black, I’m typically asked why I am a conservative. So here’s why.

I’m a conservative because the most innocent among us should be given the chance to live.

I’m a conservative because you shouldn’t be punished for being successful.

I’m a conservative because securing our borders against those who seek to come here illegally should be as commonsensical as securing our residences.

I’m a conservative because we need to defend the Second Amendment more than ever from the constant and vicious attack on our right to bear arms.

I’m a conservative because speech should be free whether I agree with it or not.

I’m a conservative because I stand against the deceptive allure of an all-controlling government by way of socialism, which threatens everything that made this country great.

I’m a conservative because we should remain forever vigilant in advocating limited government.

Leftists will argue that being conservative goes against what they perceive is in my self-interest. I’m a conservative because the principles of conservatism are the most effective, realistic, and fair for all—regardless of individual outcome.

Brian Bledsoe is a Heritage Action Sentinel from Texas.

3. The Rev. Arnold M. Culbreath: Not Sellouts, but Solutions

We are living in turbulent times. Racial tensions run high, and intensified feelings, conversations, shouts, and pressure reverberate across the land. And in the midst of all this, a wide variety of perspectives abound.

Being Black in America is not easy. However, I remain hopeful and work to make America better every day. As a pastor, Army veteran, business owner, and national ministry leader, I strive to model what being a Christian, socially conscientious, Black man in America looks like, while frequently facing racism and exclusion in the process.

In spite of the odds, I have labored long and participated in initiatives that help hopeless and hurting people, and programming that moves past rhetoric to get real resources to people in need. Things like after-school feeding programs, grocery giveaways, the First Step Act, opportunity zones, free help to women in crisis pregnancies, and more.

These principles need not be defined or confined by polarizing labels such as left or right, conservative or liberal. The question is: Does an initiative strengthen and lift impoverished and disenfranchised people and communities that need it most?

If so, collaboration is desperately needed to serve those ravished by a pandemic, shaken by injustices such as the brutal killing of George Floyd and many others at the hands of police, racial upheaval, and socio-economic disparities, and we need it now.

In order for this to occur, name-calling and marginalizing of viewpoints must stop. It’s much more helpful to stop viewing me and others like me as “Uncle Toms,” but as fellow team members. Not as sellouts, but as solutions to the problems.

This is our country, and our world, so let’s work to make it the absolute best that we can together.       

The Rev. Arnold M. Culbreath is the director of ministry engagement at the Douglass Leadership Institute.

4. Michael E. Kerridge: Reasonable Human Imperative

If anyone is willing to step away from the noise and cacophonic discourse that now compromise political discussion, we can begin to see that conservatism is not just an opposing or competing ideology. It is a human imperative wrought in the will and psyche of every reasonable person.

I am a conservative because personal initiative favors personal economic freedom. I oppose excessive government control of business and the subversion of the traditional family structure. I fully endorse and favor a free-market economy and the rule of law.

The values inherent in the individualism of my grandmother that spawned four generations of conservative thought and action embodied the sentiment that “all are created equal,” and that government does not bestow anything on anyone.

The entrepreneurship, individual effort, and hard work that made all of my grandmother’s efforts and her life rich and full have influenced and spawned generational success. This makes me a “reasonable man,” a reasonable person.

The family is a microcosm of what works best for all of mankind. We realize that God created us male and female, that we are to train up our children and equip them with self-confidence, discipline, and respect for all that is good and right.

This fortifies our society with reasonable people who think critically about their impact and legacy for their families, their fellow citizens, and their society.

Only this actually works for all concerned.

Michael E. Kerridge is a Heritage Action Sentinel from Florida. [read more]

The world’s largest experimental tokamak nuclear fusion reactor is up and running

From Pop Sci.com (Dec. 4, 2023):

Japan and the European Union have officially inaugurated testing at the world’s largest experimental nuclear fusion plant. Located roughly 85 miles north of Tokyo, the six-story, JT-60SA “tokamak” facility heats plasma to 200 million degrees Celsius (around 360 million Fahrenheit) within its circular, magnetically insulated reactor. Although JT-60SA first powered up during a test run back in October, the partner governments’ December 1 announcement marks the official start of operations at the world’s biggest fusion center, reaffirming a “long-standing cooperation in the field of fusion energy.”

The tokamak—an acronym of the Russian-language designation of “toroidal chamber with magnetic coils”—has led researchers’ push towards achieving the “Holy Grail” of sustainable green energy production for decades. Often described as a large hollow donut, a tokamak is filled with gaseous hydrogen fuel that is then spun at immense high speeds using powerful magnetic coil encasements. When all goes as planned, intense force ionizes atoms to form helium plasma, much like how the sun produces its energy.

Speaking at the inauguration event, EU energy commissioner Kadri Simson referred to the JT-60SA as “the most advanced tokamak in the world,” representing “a milestone for fusion history.”

“Fusion has the potential to become a key component for energy mix in the second half of this century,” she continued.

But even if such a revolutionary milestone is crossed, it likely won’t be at JT-60SA. Along with its still-in-construction sibling, the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) in Europe, the projects are intended solely to demonstrate scalable fusion’s feasibility. Current hopes estimate ITER’s operational start for sometime in 2025, although the undertaking has been fraught with financial, logistical, and construction issues since its groundbreaking back in 2011.

Experts alongside Simson believe creating sustainable nuclear fusion would mark a revolutionary moment that could ensure an emissionless, renewable energy future. Making the power source a feasible reality, however, is fraught with technological and economic hurdles. Researchers have chased this goal for a long time: The world’s first experimental tokamak was built back in 1958 by the USSR.

While researchers can now generate fusion energy at multiple facilities around the world, it is usually at a net loss. By advancing the technology further at facilities like JT-60SA, however, industry experts think that it is only a matter of time until fusion reactors regularly achieve net energy production gains.

In the meantime, another possible road to fusion energy is making its own promising gains. Earlier this year, the National Ignition Facility (NIF) at Northern California’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory achieved a net energy gain for the second time using what’s the inertial confinement fusion method. In this process, a high-powered laser is split into 192 beams that then hit a capsule containing a pellet of tritium and deuterium. The resultant X-rays generate pressure and temperatures that then initiate fusion.

No matter which process—be it tokamak reactors or ICF lasers—a successful nuclear fusion facility could play a major role in finally shifting humanity away from fossil fuels. [source]

America should be trying this. But the Left is too obsessed with wind turbines and solar energy. Fusion energy is much cleaner and safer than fission energy.

3 Things Republicans Need To Do Between Now And November To Win The Midterms

From The Federalist.com (Jan. 28):

The Republican majority in the U.S. Congress may be at risk in the 2026 midterm elections. This is hard to believe, given recent approval polling on the Democrat Party. Last month, reputable Quinnipiac pollsters reported congressional Democrats hit a record low job approval of 18 percent, with 73 percent disapproval — the worst since tracking began in 2009.

Still, the Republican majorities in the Senate and particularly the House are at risk in the upcoming midterm elections if the base of the Republican Party is not motivated to vote. Historically, the president’s party generally loses seats in the midterms, particularly in the House. If this happens, the reform agenda of the Trump administration would be constrained, if not derailed. President Donald Trump says he will campaign this year for Republican candidates, but more importantly he needs to do several things to get out the vote, protect his agenda,  and even increase the Republican congressional majority.

Most important, Trump needs to deliver on three major unfinished initiatives: First, fix the integrity of our national elections by mandating voter IDs, one-day vote casting and counting, and replacing digital voting machines with paper ballots. Second, make sure public officials and powerful private-sector figures who have committed felonies are visibly and successfully prosecuted in the next few months. Third, use all legal tools and precedents to arrest and prosecute perpetrators of mass felony crimes and reestablish law and order in blue cities and states that are experiencing urban lawlessness and industrial-scale fraud.

Fixing the Integrity of U.S. Elections

The fundamental reason why election integrity is of paramount importance is that the whole basis of the United States is the sovereignty of the people. It is the DNA of America. The legitimacy and moral authority of the country come only from the people, who express their preferences for their local, state, and national government officials through free and fair elections. When there is vote fraud and election irregularities, the moral authority of government is compromised, causing the people to disrespect and distrust their own government.

The moral authority of United States is also critical in maintaining regional and world order and peace. There are times when the most crucial factor in prevailing against corrupt regimes and dictatorial foreign governments is the moral authority of the United States. When the U.S. loses it moral authority, as it did during the Biden administration, its deterrent power is compromised and foreign adversaries are emboldened.

Prosecuting Felonies

One function of our law enforcement and justice system is to punish lawbreakers. However, the more important function of law enforcement is the deterrence of other lawbreakers and the prevention of escalating crime.

What has most greased the skids of America’s decline toward the ways of banana republics is the emergence and acceptance of two-tiered justice and attendant cronyism and political corruption.

Nowhere is this more obvious than in the pass given to the Clintons, and particularly former First Lady and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who destroyed, concealed, and covered up records and documents on paper and digital devices with the intent to impede or obstruct the investigation of a matter about which she was subpoenaed and under investigation by the U.S. Congress. Hillary’s crimes were felonies, punishable by fines and imprisonment up to 20 years, according to 18 U.S. Code 1519. Then FBI Director James Comey let Clinton off with no sanction or penalty.

In the last year of Barack Obama’s first presidential term, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton failed to respond to the militant insurrection at the U.S. embassy’s diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, that resulted in the death of four Americans, including then U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens. In fact, Clinton succeeded in deflecting accountability, failure, and penalty by sending then-Obama National Security Advisor Susan Rice to promote and repeat a fabricated story of causality for the Benghazi humiliation and tragedy on all the major TV network Sunday talk shows.

When Trump succeeded in the 2016 upset presidential election against favored candidate Clinton, a cabal to undermine President-Elect Trump was organized by Obama. Included in that cabal were the FBI’s Comey, CIA Director John Brennan, DNI Director James Clapper, and National Security Advisor Rice. It could be argued that this unthinkably bold seditious act was undertaken by these very people because of the legacy of prior unaccountability and the two-tiered justice system that had become the norm.

Restoring Law and Order in American Cities

The modern sanctuary city movement to provide safe haven to illegal immigrants began in the 1980s during the surge of  Central American refugees into the U.S.

According to radical left training manuals from the Conference on Alternative State and Local Policies in the late 1970s and 1980s, there was an agenda to radicalize city and state government to transform America. The radicalization of targeted “blue” cities and states dovetailed with the sanctuary city movement. And today there are about 20 large cities and 13 states that have adopted sanctuary status with policies, laws, and regulations that impede enforcement of federal law and federal immigration laws in particular.

In addition to huge sums of money funding radical political change at the state and city levels, over the last few decades radicalized state and city government leaders have increasingly embraced defunding the police and been corrupted through public funding kickbacks. They have also become increasingly militant in using their authority to violate, obstruct, and defy the enforcement of federal immigration laws.

The pent-up frustration with unaccountability for questionable elections, seditious high crimes by the political class against the American people, and the radicalization and breakdown of law and order in a growing number of cities demoralizes American citizens. Trump needs to make sure these three areas are dealt with promptly and decisively to ensure that America remains an independent constitutional republic.

Failure to deliver in visible ways on these three problem areas would surely demoralize the Republican base and depress voter turnout and put Republican congressional majorities at risk.  A Democrat majority in the House would not only derail the Trump agenda but would lead to impeachment 3.0 and conditions that would threaten the integrity and continuity of the United States. [source]

Good advice.  Hopefully, the Republicans will take the advice and stop being the Washington Generals to the Dems.

Trade Victory

From Bill O’Reilly.com (Feb. 3):

Big win for the world as the Trump administration solidifies a trade deal with India. That country will stop buying Russian oil, which will hurt Putin, and start purchasing US and Venezuelan oil.

Unless Jeffrey Epstein once bought US oil, chances are you will hear little about the trade victory with India. It’s almost like the Marx Brothers are in charge of the American press these days: “Hello, I must be going.”

The media is locked in on ICE and Epstein in order to continue damaging Trump with the midterm election later this year.

The absolute focus of the vast majority of media reporting is to assure a democratic victory. That’s it.

In a way, it’s kind of shocking, the abdication of any journalistic fairness.

In fact, the horrid cliché comes to mind: it is what it is.

But it shouldn’t be. [source]

Another win!  And if it helps stops the Russia-Ukraine war, even better.

How the Church Has Been Good for Women… and Other Ways It Is “Essential”

From Breakpoint.org (Aug. 9, 2022):

Throughout Church history, church attendance and overall religiosity have been higher among women than among men. That seems to be changing, especially for younger generations. According to new data, the long-existent church gender gap, which shows up in both religious affiliation and church attendance, has now flipped.

However, the headline is not that more men are connecting with the Church. The story is that more women are disconnecting from the Church.

A number of factors have contributed to this demographic shift, not least of which are recent scandals of sexual impropriety and abusive leadership among prominent pastors and Christian leaders. Also, education and ethnicity seem to play a significant role in the religious identification of millennial women. “Among white respondents,” a recent Christianity Today article summarized, “women are 9 percentage points more likely to say that they have no religious affiliation compared to white men,” but “there’s no real difference in the share of male and female nones among Black, Asian, and other racial groups.”

Another factor, Dr. Abigail Favale argues in a new book The Genesis of Gender: A Christian Theory, is the rising influence of feminist thought, what she calls “the gender paradigm” in evangelical circles. Or as a colleague recently put it, describing the deconstruction process of a few of her friends, “It’s all about ‘resisting the patriarchy.” That kind of language points to the paradigm which Dr. Favale once herself subscribed. She now believes it to be incompatible with a Christian understanding of male and female, sex, and gender.

Even so, the feminist paradigm has quite successfully framed Christianity and the Church as misogynist, patriarchal, and harmful for women. The same paradigm idealistically reframes pagan religions and cultures as being pro-woman, at least until Christianity gained prominence. This narrative, however, doesn’t match the historical realities.

First, in contrast to ancient paganism, monotheism provided women with more freedom than polytheistic religions with goddesses did. In cultures dominated by the latter, women were limited to roles performed by the goddesses, and not always all of them. In fact, the “role” designated for many women by pagan religion was temple prostitute, a tool of men’s worship.

In ancient Rome, women were permitted to engage in business, but their primary role was in the household. Men had public roles, but women engaged in domestic work were subservient to their father or husband. As in other historical periods, elite women had more options. However, the vast majority of women were seen as not much better than slaves.

Twelve was the legal age for girls to marry in Rome. If not married by 20, women were generally marginalized. Though divorce was available to both men and women, husbands caused most divorces since women rarely had other financial means. Ex-wives and widows were often left destitute.

In contrast, Christianity saw women as the spiritual and moral equal of men. Women and men shared the same created dignity, the same problem (sin), and the same solution, Jesus. As result, women in the Christian community had a higher status and more freedom than women in the broader Roman world.

The Christian rejection of divorce and sexual double standards, and its insistence on strict monogamy reflected this. Further, women were given more choice about whom and whether to marry and tended to marry later than their Roman counterparts. While widows were encouraged to remarry, the Church provided aid for those who did not or could not.

The Church also rejected abortion and infanticide as murder, meaning that women were not subjected to dangerous surgical procedures, and girls were not “discarded.” Thus, there were proportionately more women in the Christian community than in Roman society as a whole.

Because of Christian attitudes and behavior toward women, more women converted to Christianity than men, and many men who converted did so under the influence of their wives. Eventually, Christianity transformed the status of women in the Roman world. Unfortunately, as Greek ideas were adopted within the Church, elements of pagan misogyny were as well. For example, some Church fathers placed blame for the Fall entirely on Eve and ignored the Apostle Paul’s putting the blame on Adam.

Nonetheless, Christianity did more to improve the status of women than any other historical force. Even today, as the Gospel spreads around the Global South, the status and freedoms enjoyed by women are being raised. The treatment of women is just one example of how the Church has been an essential force for good in the world.

There are others, even in an age that often labels the Church “non-essential.” Don’t buy it. [source]

Weimar America

From AM Greatness.com (Dec. 4, 2023):

Something eerie, something creepy, is happening in the world—and now in America as well. The dark mood is brought on by elite universities, the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion industry, and massive immigration from illiberal nations and anti-Enlightenment societies.

At Hillcrest High School in Queens, New York, hundreds of students rioted on news that a single teacher in her private social media account had expressed support for Israel. Waving Palestinian flags, and screaming violent threats, the student mob rioted, destroyed school property, sought the teacher out and tried to crash into her classroom—before she was saved from violence by other teachers and an eventual police arrival.

The subtext was that the overwhelmingly minority students (whose school is ranked academically near the bottom among New York City schools) were acculturated to the racist reality that as the “oppressed” they were exempt from any punishment for hunting down their own teacher. As a Jewish (and thus white) “oppressive” supporter of Israel, she was reduced to, in the words an enthusiastic commenter on a Tik Tok video of the riot, a “cracker ass bitch.” And so the student pack tracked her down as if they were hunting an animal. The old Nazi youth gangs tried to kill Jews because they were not considered “white;” our new Nazis hunt them down because they allege that they are. The common denominator between the 1930s and 2023 is an unhinged hatred of Jews.

Hundreds of such incidents are now occurring on a daily basis—as the country is leaving its Weimar phase and heading at warp speed into normalizing Jew-hatred and worse. Instructors singled out Jewish students in classes at UC Davis and Stanford. Pro-Hamas students ripped down posters, swarmed public buildings, and disrupted traffic.

A pro-Israeli demonstrator in Los Angeles was hit on the head and killed by a pro-Palestinian university professor.

Jewish students were trapped in a Cooper Union university library surrounded by pro-Hamas demonstrators. At MIT, Jewish students were warned to keep away from particular areas of the campus deemed dangerous for them.

What would happen to a university president who warned black or Latino students to keep clear of areas where she could not guarantee their safety from other students?

A bankrupt media deserves much of the blame. They daily broadcast Hamas’s suspect casualty figures, as if that terrorist organization has ever been capable of speaking the truth.

The Western news regurgitated “500 dead at a Gaza hospital,” due to a supposedly deliberate Israel bombing. In fact, the hospital parking lot was hit by an errant Islamic Jihad missile intended to kill civilians in Israel.

No matter—few reporters apologized for spreading Hamas-fed misinformation, despite the previous Hamas lies that they never harmed civilians, that tunnels were not beneath hospital grounds, that they did not murder 1,200 Israelis; or their lies that Hamas gunmen do not rape, when they engaged in mass rape on October 7.

The media normalizes Hamas’s atrocities by treating it as if it were an ordinary government, not a murderous terrorist clique that decapitates civilians, takes children as hostages, and mutilates those it slaughters. That the terrorist organization has kidnapped at least ten American citizens and killed perhaps another 31 is lost on the “journalists,” many of them Americans who could care less about the fate of their fellow citizens.

The media fixates on the Israeli response to mass murder, but rarely the mass murder of 1,200 Israeli civilians that prompted the current war. During ceasefires do Israeli terrorists drive into Gaza cities, and shoot and kill innocent civilians—and then brag, as did Hamas recently, that such murdering will only increase? [read more]

Another interesting (and possibly unnerving) essay by VDH.

The Revivalist Manifesto Is a Blueprint for America

From Duggan Flanakin on Townhall.com (July 9, 2022):

Last October when I had lunch in Baton Rouge with Scott McKay, the first of his op-eds championing an American revivalism had just appeared in The American Spectator. There, he had proclaimed that Bush Republicanism was effectively dead, that “conservatism” had been quite unsuccessful at conserving anything, and that Trump was a John the Baptist figure who had set the table for the coming revival.

My appetite for Scott’s vision grew rapidly as he published a follow-up article a month later. Since there was little left of the Founders’ vision left to “conserve,” it was time, he said, to move from passive, defense-minded conservatism to an activist, offense-minded revivalism.

“We need,” he admonished us, “to push back against the incompetence and treason which have encroached upon our liberty and prosperity, and we need a reflowering of the cultural, economic, and political patrimony our forebears gave us.”

Reviving the American spirit, and the American nation, he suggested, should rest on four major tenets. First, too much government makes stealing easier than earning a living, as government power is both corrupt and self-protective. Second, government is representative not of the people but of the interests with access; thus, revivalism should shore up civil society to revitalize long-dormant self-functioning communities.

Third, as we cede more power to government, it corrodes nearly every institution in our culture. Revivalists, therefore, must foster creation of an effusive culture not subject to government control or intervention, one that replaces the greatly decayed educational, entertainment, and informational (media) institutions.

Finally, McKay said, revivalists must stop allowing abuses by corporatist oligarchs (whose power is akin to that of government) and bring forth a new anti-corporate capitalism that can bring prosperity across the board. Stop defending low tax rates for monopolistic corporatists who exercise their wealth and power in support of their government partners. [read more]

A great blueprint for saving the country.

UChicago scientists discover way to make quantum states last 10,000 times longer

From UCChicago.edu (Aug. 13, 2020):

If we can harness it, quantum technology promises fantastic new possibilities. But first, scientists need to coax quantum systems to stay yoked for longer than a few millionths of a second.

A team of scientists at the University of Chicago’s Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering announced the discovery of a simple modification that allows quantum systems to stay operational—or “coherent”—10,000 times longer than before. Though the scientists tested their technique on a particular class of quantum systems called solid-state qubits, they think it should be applicable to many other kinds of quantum systems and could thus revolutionize quantum communication, computing and sensing.

The study was published Aug. 13 in Science.

“This breakthrough lays the groundwork for exciting new avenues of research in quantum science,” said study lead author David Awschalom, the Liew Family Professor in Molecular Engineering, senior scientist at Argonne National Laboratory and director of the Chicago Quantum Exchange. “The broad applicability of this discovery, coupled with a remarkably simple implementation, allows this robust coherence to impact many aspects of quantum engineering. It enables new research opportunities previously thought impractical.”

Down at the level of atoms, the world operates according to the rules of quantum mechanics—very different from what we see around us in our daily lives. These different rules could translate into technology like virtually unhackable networks or extremely powerful computers; the U.S. Department of Energy released a blueprint for the future quantum internet in an event at UChicago on July 23. But fundamental engineering challenges remain: Quantum states need an extremely quiet, stable space to operate, as they are easily disturbed by background noise coming from vibrations, temperature changes or stray electromagnetic fields.

Thus, scientists try to find ways to keep the system coherent as long as possible. One common approach is physically isolating the system from the noisy surroundings, but this can be unwieldy and complex. Another technique involves making all of the materials as pure as possible, which can be costly. The scientists at UChicago took a different tack.

“With this approach, we don’t try to eliminate noise in the surroundings; instead, we “trick” the system into thinking it doesn’t experience the noise,” said postdoctoral researcher Kevin Miao, the first author of the paper.

In tandem with the usual electromagnetic pulses used to control quantum systems, the team applied an additional continuous alternating magnetic field. By precisely tuning this field, the scientists could rapidly rotate the electron spins and allow the system to “tune out” the rest of the noise.

……

“This approach creates a pathway to scalability,” said Awschalom. “It should make storing quantum information in electron spin practical. Extended storage times will enable more complex operations in quantum computers and allow quantum information transmitted from spin-based devices to travel longer distances in networks.” [read more]

Acceleration: The Next Dangerous Stage

From Glenn Beck.com (Jan. 26):

For a long time, we treated political violence like a weather event: rare, localized, tragic--then over. But law enforcement and researchers have been warning for years about a mindset that is different from normal extremism. It's not "I want my side to win."

It's "I want the system to break."

This mindset has a name: accelerationism.

This is exactly what is happening in Minnesota right now. It's moved beyond peaceful protest; it's even moved beyond "mostly" peaceful protest. Things have begun to accelerate.

"Accelerationism"--right or left--has a recognizable logic. It is a rising ideology that believes society is corrupt beyond repair. Institutions are illegitimate. Chaos is a tool. Violence is an accelerant. That's not a theory. That is an observable ideological pattern across multiple movements and decades. The key change in the last several years is this: it's more connected than it used to be. It is not necessarily more disciplined It is not necessarily bigger in raw numbers. But it is more connected--more quickly mobilized--more capable of spreading tactics, targets, and narratives. Accelerationism is going mainstream. That changes the risk profile.

The second fact: The line between "protest" and "insurgent behavior" is being tested,

Protest is protected. Even loud, offensive protests that make you furious.

But there's a line that every stable society must defend, or it ceases to be stable. That line is crossed when groups begin to coordinate to obstruct lawful operations as a strategy. not an accident. They track or identify government personnel for intimidation. They build parallel communications networks specially designed to evade accountability. They justify targeting state actors as morally necessary.

Those are not theoretical markers. They are historically recognizable markers. When those behaviors appear. the question is no longer. "Is this a demonstration?" The question becomes: "Is someone trying to build veto power over law enforcement through fear?" Because once a movement believes it can control outcomes by making enforcement too costly--too dangerous--too politically 1'adioactive-then law becomes optional. And when law becomes optional, the next step is not persuasion. It's escalation.

The third fact: Cities become laboratories when enforcement is inconsistent

This is the part that's hard to say out loud, because it sounds like an insult to the city. It isn't. It's sociology. When you have an environment with deep political polarization. high distrust of institutions, uneven prosecution, activist ecosystems with strong NGO infrastructure. and a constant media feedback loop, those conditions don't automatically produce violence. But they do produce something else. They produce repeated stress tests. It is not "one riot." It is not "one clash." It is a series of probes. How fast can we mobilize?

What are police allowed to do?

Will prosecutors follow through?

Will federal authority pull back if we make it ugly enough?

Can we create martyrs?

Can we flood the zone with a narrative before facts catch up?

That is what "laboratory" means: not that everyone is guilty. but that the environment is ideal for testing the boundaries of the state. If the state responds with either overreach which manufactures recruits) or paralysis (which manufactures militias), then you have a recipe for replication. [read more]

Scary.  What did Van Jones say? Top down--bottom up--inside out. Is that what's happening now in Wisconsin? 

Who Funds the Groups Harassing ICE Agents in Minnesota? The Left's Premier Foundations and Dark Money Networks Have Given Millions, Records Show.

From Free Beacon.com (Jan. 14):

When the Trump administration sent some 2,000 immigration agents to the Twin Cities area, they were met by activists who trailed their movements and harassed them outside their hotels. The activists are members of radical groups that together have received millions of dollars from the Left's premier foundations and dark money networks, including George Soros's Open Society Foundations, the Ford Foundation, the Tides Foundation, and the Sixteen Thirty Fund, a Washington Free Beacon review found.

At the center of the unrest is the Sunrise Movement, a left-wing group founded to fight climate change that has since directed its local chapters to fight the Trump administration. For Sunrise Twin Cities, that means tormenting ICE agents on the ground. The group holds in-person "action trainings" on how to "stop ICE & build a revolution." It also maintains a running list of the Twin Cities hotels housing ICE agents and organizes late-night "noise demonstrations" aimed at making it "impossible" for those hotels to operate.

Sunrise is bankrolled by a who's who of deep-pocketed left-wing organizations. Open Society Foundations has sent it $2 million since 2019, according to its grant database. Half of the money supported general "social welfare activities." The Ford Foundation contributed $150,000 in 2024 and $550,000 in 2025, while the MacArthur Foundation—the 12th-largest private charity in America—gave $250,000 in 2024, according to tax filings and grant disclosures. Sunrise says it generally rejects "checks that come with expectations of input on our strategy." It also says donations go to support its local chapters with "materials, housing, technology, food, travel, training expenses, and more."

Sunrise Twin Cities has collaborated with two other local groups to drive anti-ICE demonstrations: Unidos MN and Defend the 612.

Unidos, an "immigrant-led, BIPOC majority, multiracial, state-wide organization," leads a "rapid response" network through its affiliate group, Monarca. That network includes a 24/7 hotline that Twin Cities residents can call to report ICE activity. The group's trained "responders" are then dispatched to the area in an attempt to prevent ICE agents from making arrests. Like Sunrise, Unidos is backed by the Ford Foundation, which sent the group $400,000 in 2024. The left-wing dark money juggernaut Sixteen Thirty Fund sent Unidos $150,000 between 2021 and 2022, tax filings show. [read more]

Just the usual suspects funding the professional "protesters." Nothing organic. And when an agitator gets arrested following their advice (orders?) these funding groups probably won't help them.

According Bill O’Reilly on his First TV broadcast here are some more far-Left groups aiding chaos in Minneapolis: BreakThrough News, The People’s Forum, Party for Socialism of America, Freedom Road Socialist Organization, Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee, Black Lives Matters chapters.

More on the agitators:

• I Got Inside the Signal Chats Used by Far-Left Extremists in Minnesota—Here’s What I Saw
• Who's Funding the Insurrection?
  
• ‘Grassroots’ anti-ICE campaigns funded by left-wing billionaire donors: sources
  
• Anti-ICE Activism Represents The Suicide Of Western Civilization
  

How Christianity Created the Hospital

From Breakpoint.org (Aug. 17, 2022):

Far from being an otherworldly religion, Christianity teaches both the importance and goodness of life in this world. In fact, from Jesus’ healing ministry to the work of modern missionary doctors, a consistent feature of the work of the Church in the world has been to care for the sick and needy, and not just point them to the life to come.

The early Church understood Jesus’ ministry to be a paradigm for their own work. So, just as Jesus set believers free from their bondage to sin, early Christians purchased slaves specifically to free them. Whereas Jesus used miraculous power to heal people from physical effects of the Fall, Christians used more ordinary tools to care for the sick and disabled. These activities are not merely good deeds in themselves but serve to advance the Kingdom. Though the Gospel is a message and must be proclaimed, the early Church saw works of mercy and preaching the Gospel as two sides of the same coin.

The first major epidemic faced by the Church was the Antonine Plague (A.D. 166-189). In fear of their lives, the Romans threw the sick out of their homes to die in the streets. Galen, the most prominent physician of the age, knew he could neither heal its victims nor protect himself. So, he fled Rome to stay at his country estate.

Recognizing that all persons were made in the image of God and that Jesus came to make all things new, body and soul, many Christians ran the other direction. They fought the Fall by tending to the sick, at risk (and often at the cost) of their own lives.

Since even basic nursing care can make a significant difference during an epidemic, Christian action saved lives. Their courage and self-sacrifice contributed to the rapid growth of Christianity. For example, when Irenaeus arrived in Lyon from Asia Minor, there were very few Christians. By the time the plague ended, there were 200,000 believers in Lyon.

The Plague of Cyprian, which took place the following century, was named after the bishop of Carthage who documented the epidemic. Dionysius of Alexandria, also a bishop, described what happened this way:

At the first onset of the disease, they pushed the sufferers away and fled from their dearest, throwing them into the roads before they were dead and treating unburied corpses as dirt…

But, he continued…

Most of our brother Christians showed unbounded love and loyalty, never sparing themselves and thinking only of one another. Heedless of danger, they took charge of the sick, attending to their every need and ministering to them in Christ.

From the earliest centuries, Christians embraced the medical theories and practices of the day. Contrary to stereotypes, the early Church did not attribute illness to demons, though they did recognize demonization as a real phenomenon. The real difference between Christians and physicians of the day was the willingness to risk death in order to treat the sick, convinced that if they died it would only mean a transition to a better life. The physicians, on the other hand, fled.

Christians also founded the first hospitals in history. By the late fourth century, there were hospitals in both the eastern and western halves of the empire. By the Central Middle Ages, hospitals and leprosaria (leprosy hospitals) could be found throughout most of the Christian world. When universities began granting medical degrees during the period, church-affiliated institutions continued to provide much of the care.

By the 18th century, the medical field had become increasingly professionalized and separate from the clergy. Though monasteries still provided care for the poor and nursing was almost entirely in the hands of sisters and nuns, professional physicians increasingly handled medical issues for those who could afford to pay. Clergy attended to the dying and contributed to discussions of medical ethics but had few other responsibilities for the sick.

However, medicine was an integral part of the modern mission movement of the 19th century. Because Christianity has always affirmed the importance of the body, hospitals soon followed wherever missionaries went. This is another way the Church has been essential throughout history. [source]

Globalism Is Satanic

From Caldron.com (Aug. 1, 2022):

A significant milestone occurred last Saturday in the ongoing cultural civil war in America.

Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene declared at a Turning Point USA Student Action Summit in Tampa, Florida that not only is she a nationalist, she is a Christian nationalist, and that other conservatives should embrace the label.

The shrieking from the atheist media and the establishment church was shrill and immediate, of course. Newsweek, Time, MSNBC, the New York Times and many others have run hit pieces. The fear was palpable.

They are right to be afraid. The political cult that is cultural Marxism has advanced without adversary for decades through Western societies because its footsoldiers are fanatics and the milquetoast church leaders who should have fought back were too cozy, too careerist and too foolish to take it seriously.

Now we’re murderers.

Champagne communists like Pirate Pete don’t care about gay people or Indigenous people or Muslims or women. They love only themselves. They hate the gospel just as much, and they pretend concern for the ‘marginalized’ and oppressed of the world as a cudgel to wield against God and His people.

They are getting worried because there is an organized resistance forming to the cult of fake love taking over our societies. The movement against identity communism isn’t coming from the church establishment, however; those elite Sadducees who make good money as professional Christians using clever sophistry to compromise the faith and finding willing ears among those who still want a nice church to go to on Sunday but don’t want it to say anything that might offend their gay cousin.

The beginning of the rebellion against this demonic identity cult is coming from us peons in the pews, and it is scaring the purple-haired Marxists no end because they know it has the potential to roll back their century-long march through Western institutions.

So why Christian nationalism, then?

Well, largely because it’s the logical dialectical reaction to Satanic globalism. Jesus commanded us to be wise as serpents (Matthew 10:16), and have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but instead expose them (Ephesians 5:11).  So let’s do that.

Western Marxists are driven by a religious vision for humanity. They have a heaven they long for, but it is not celestial. It’s an earthly paradise that can only be achieved once the original sin of humanity has been redeemed.

No, not the original sin outlined in Genesis. The original sin of colonizing whiteness, of toxic masculinity, of stifling heteronormativity. Just as in the rambling original writings of Marx the labouring proletariat is oppressed by the property-owning bourgeoisie, in Western Marxism the bourgeoisie has been replaced by straight white men and the enslaved proletariat has been replaced by marginalized neurodivergent other-abled gender-non-conforming birthing people with special needs.

We can laugh at how ridiculous it looks when laid out plainly, but these people aren’t messing around. They’ve got a heaven on earth to realize, and you and I are getting in the way with all our plain speech, fact-based thinking and adherence to Scripture.

Western Marxists believe themselves to be the white saviours of all humanity. It is a political project as much as an ideological crusade. The same people who #BelieveAllWomen and #StandWithUkraine also love the United Nations and believe that Western imperialism is justified if it means just one more little girl in Pakistan can sit at the front of the class like her brother.

We Christians have underestimated the danger of ideological utopianism to our peril. The utopian political project has run like a crimson stain through atheist thinking since Thomas More wrote Utopia. Satan plays a long game. Its origins can be traced back even further to Plato’s Republic. The genocidal periods of Islamic expansion could even be included in the body count of utopianism given the earthly focus of the Mohammedan project to expand the Ummah across the world when a caliph is recognized.

Satan has long used the siren song of an earthly utopia to delude men into becoming ideological zealots. It drove forward the French Revolution and the Paris Commune a century later which then inspired Marx and Engels. It powered the firing squads and rape brigades of Bolshevism, the Einsatzgruppen of the Eastern Front and the Red Guards of the Chinese Cultural Revolution.

This beast has claimed hundreds of millions of lives and the church in the West has watched it be incubated in our lecture halls and classrooms since the 60s and done nothing. Now the beast has a new form and it’s strong. Very strong. [read more]

Juvenile Court Hears Case of Teens in French Teacher Murder

From Daily News Planet.com (Dec. 2023):

On Monday, November 27, six French teenagers went on trial for their alleged roles in the 2020 beheading of their history and geography teacher.

The juvenile court, where the trial is being held until December 8, 2023, is having closed-door proceedings, with the participants and audience limited to only those people directly affected by the case.

The victim, Samuel Paty, 47, was a secondary school teacher in the Paris suburb Conflans-Sainte-Honorine. He was killed on October 16, 2020, by an 18-year-old Chechen refugee, Abdoullakh Anzorov, who was later shot dead by the French police. The murder occurred shortly after Paty showed caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed from the satirical French magazine Charlie Hebdo during a class on French free speech laws.

Six teens, who were 14 or 15 years old at the time, were charged with participating in the lead-up to Paty’s killing. Five of them are accused of criminal conspiracy intending to incite violence, allegedly identifying Paty to Anzorov in return for money. The sixth accused, a 13-year-old girl at the time, is charged with making false allegations about Paty, disproven by her not being present during the class.

Louis Cailliez, the lawyer for the Paty family, is focused on understanding the teenagers’ actions, which he called “unforgivable.” Antoine Ory, representing one defendant, expressed his client’s regret and apprehension about confronting Paty’s relatives. The accused teenagers, now high school students, did not anticipate that their actions would escalate to murder, expecting at worst social media censure or minor physical repercussions for Paty.

The case is part of a broader inquiry, including trials for eight adults planned for late 2024. The involvement of the minors in the sequence of events resulting in Paty’s death is a central issue in both the teen and adult trials.

Samuel Paty’s murder has brought renewed focus on jihadist violence in France. In October, another teacher, Dominique Bernard, was stabbed, reflecting the ongoing threat of radical Islamist violence. [source]

This is a good reason why a person might have Islamophobia.

Earth's rotating inner core is starting to slow down — and it could alter the length of our days

From Live Science.com (June 19, 2024):

A new study confirms that Earth's inner core has been rotating more slowly than usual since 2010. This mysterious "backtracking" could also end up slightly altering the planet's overall rotation, lengthening our days.

The heart of our planet has been spinning unusually slowly for the past 14 years, new research confirms. And if this mysterious trend continues, it could potentially lengthen Earth's days — though the effects would likely be imperceptible to us.

Earth's inner core is a roughly moon-size chunk of solid iron and nickel that lies more than 3,000 miles (4,800 kilometers) below our feet. It is surrounded by the outer core — a superhot layer of molten metals similar to those in the inner core — which is surrounded by a more solid sea of molten rock, known as the mantle, and the crust. Although the entire planet rotates, the inner core can spin at a slightly different speed as the mantle and crust due to the viscosity of the outer core.

Since scientists started mapping Earth's inner layers with detailed seismic activity records around 40 years ago, the inner core has rotated slightly faster than the mantle and the crust. But in a new study, published June 12 in the journal Nature, researchers found that since 2010, the inner core has been slowing down and is now rotating a bit more slowly than our planet's outer layers.

"When I first saw the seismograms that hinted at this change, I was stumped," John Vidale, a seismologist at the University of Southern California, Dornsife, said in a statement. "But when we found two dozen more observations signaling the same pattern, the result was inescapable."

If the inner core's rotation continues to decelerate, its gravitational pull could eventually cause the outer layers of our planet to spin a little more slowly, altering the length of our days the researchers wrote.

However, any potential change would be on the order of thousandths of a second, which would be "very hard to notice," Vidale said. As a result, we would likely not have to change our clocks or calendars to adjust for this difference, especially if it were only a temporary change.

This is not the first time scientists have suggested that Earth's inner core is slowing down. This phenomenon, known as "backtracking," has been debated for around a decade but has been very hard to prove.

In the new study, researchers analyzed data from more than 100 repeating earthquakes — seismic events that occur repeatedly at the same location — along a tectonic plate boundary in the South Sandwich Islands in the South Atlantic Ocean between 1991 and 2023.

Each earthquake allowed scientists to map the core's position relative to the mantle and by comparing these measurements, the team was able to see how the inner core's rotation rate changed over time.

The new study is the "most convincing" evidence so far that backtracking has been happening, Vidale said.

It is currently unclear why the inner core is backtracking, but it is likely caused by either "the churning of the liquid iron outer core that surrounds it" or "gravitational tugs from the dense regions of the overlying rocky mantle," the researchers wrote.

It is also unclear how frequent backtracking is. It is possible that the inner core's spin is constantly accelerating and decelerating, but these changes likely happen over decades or longer. Therefore, longer data sets are needed to infer anything about long-term trends.

The inner core remains one of the most mysterious of Earth's hidden layers. But in recent years, new technologies are allowing researchers to learn more about the inner core, including that it is slightly lopsided, that it is softer than expected, that it potentially wobbles off Earth's axis and that it has a separate innermost core.

The study authors will continue to analyze seismic data to learn more about the heart of our planet and how it changes over time.

"The dance of the inner core might be even more lively than we know," Vidale said. [source]

More interesting science that mankind can't change just like mankind can't control global warming. Earth is just too massive for either control.

More on the core:

• Earth's Inner Core Is Mysteriously Changing Shape, Study Reveals
• Is Earth’s Core Rusting?