Daily Broadside | Dept. of Homeland Security Wants to Police Your Speech

Daily Verse | 2 Chronicles 1:10
“Give me wisdom and knowledge, that I may lead this people, for who is able to govern this great people of yours?”

Friday’s Reading: 2 Chronicles 6-9
Saturday’s Reading: 2 Chronicles 10-12

Friday and the last post of April. Don’t forget to use the “Like” button below my posts. It’s an easy way to let me know I’m connecting with you. (Or not.)

I am convinced by any measure that we’re in an existential fight for the future of America. Middle-America conservatives who are just minding their own business as they diligently raise their families, work their jobs, attend church and take vacations to the beach may not fully realize it yet, but any patriotic, conservative America-first constitutionalist who has been paying attention has no doubt that there are anti-American forces seizing and holding national intellectual and institutional spaces, which is creating a dystopian future right this moment that will crush freedom if it is not just opposed, but actively resisted, stopped and obliterated from top to bottom.

We are seeing it …

… in the suspension of due process being foisted on a small group of American citizens who did nothing more than walk through the capitol at the invitation of the Capitol Hill police on January 6, 2021, still being held without bail and without proof for taking part in a so-called “insurrection” when it was nothing of the sort, while the dirty Democrats and a few turncoat Republican allies conduct an inquisition in the form of the J6 committee, trying to eliminate Donald J. Trump as a threat and disqualify certain Republicans from keeping their seats or standing for reelection;

… in the totalitarian Wuhan flu lockdowns and the make-it-up-as-I-go-along-ism of Tony Faux Chi MD, the highest paid government bureaucrat in the country and his governor imitators across the states

… in the open borders that allow millions of foreigners to invade our land with impunity and live anywhere the government pleases to put them;

… in the promotion of Critical Race Theory (CRT) in our high schools and colleges and in the claim from the DOJ that “white supremacists” are the greatest terror threat to this country;

… in the criminal conspiracy to undermine a duly elected, sitting president by his opponent with the collusion of the FBI trying to frame him as a Russian asset;

… in the destruction of the cohesion and discipline of the armed forces as transsexuals, homosexuals and women are forced into close quarters with men who are supposed to kill and destroy enemy armies, not be pawns in utopian social experiments run by sexual perverts;

… in the censorship of opinions and news on social media that doesn’t fit the woke narrative of the neo-marxists along with the doxxing of anonymous figures who embarrass the Left with their own material;

… in the groomers in public schools who push the sexualization and disfigurement of children as young as five;

… and on and on and on and scoobie-doobie-doo.

The latest development is almost as unbelievable as it is chilling.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas testified Wednesday that a Disinformation Governance Board had recently been created to combat online disinformation and Politico reported that Nina Jankowicz, who previously served as a disinformation fellow at the Wilson Center, will head the board as executive director.

The announcement comes just two days after Elon Musk struck a deal to buy Twitter—not that that had anything to do with it, comrade.

Seriously, I’m appalled. I’m not the first to use this term to describe it, but how is this any different from a “Ministry of Truth”? It’s Orwellian. It’s dystopian. It’s tryannical. It’s stinks to high heaven of a centralized nanny-state with the power to ruin your life if you step out of line.

Worse, it’s being set up by the very purveyors of disinformation that it purports to defend against.

They say its purpose is to combat “online disinformation” focused on “irregular migration and Russia,” along with fighting misinformation among minorities and will “reduce domestic threats to the United States.”

With a mission like that, I can’t imagine how it would be abused.

We can’t have a department or “board” like this defining what is misinformation and what is not. And once they do, what are the consequences of spreading misinformation? Are we all going to get January-Sixed?

The establishment of this department violates the First Amendment which, as you recall, prohibits Congress from making any law “respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.”

And while it specifically says Congress can make no law that would abridge the freedom of speech, that does not mean that the Executive Branch of our government can take it upon itself to do so. The Executive Branch does not have law-making powers. Neither does the Department of Homeland Security.

Reaction was swift.

“A conservative movement that doesn’t fight this with everything it has isn’t worthy of the name. Or the name American.” I’m with her.

Call your Congresscritter and make some noise. Demand that they fight this “monstrosity” tooth and nail. Remind them that we’re governed by the U.S. Constitution that limits the reach of the federal government.

This is a real threat. Once established, it’s hard to kill an organ of the ever-growing Leviathan.

The U.S. Constitution is the supreme law of the land. And We the People are its authors. That means the elites are accountable to us. We’re the boss of them.

Never forget that.

Have a good weekend.

Daily Broadside | A Flood, Some Friends, and the Grace of God

Daily Verse | 1 Chronicles 29:9
The people rejoiced at the willing response of their leaders, for they had given freely and wholeheartedly to the Lord.

Thursday’s Reading: 2 Chronicles 1-5

Happy Thursday. More of a personal reflection this morning.

On Tuesday evening we experienced the scourge of households everywhere when one of our sump pumps stopped working and began to flood the basement. April showers and all that. Fortunately, my wife had gone into the back room for something and discovered the unfolding disaster, preventing it from going any further — although it was already pretty bad since the smell of sewer water was already wafting through the air.

We started bailing by getting the shop vac and filling that, dipping buckets into it when it was full, walking them up the stairs and down the hall to the front door, then throwing them out into the lawn. Rather smelly business.

The irony is that a friend had asked if I wanted to spend some time praying for an hour or so. I had nothing on the schedule, and it was during that time that the springs burst. Fortunately — or was it Providentially? — he had grown up fixing sump pumps in properties his father owned and knew exactly what to do. As for me, I had replaced a sump pump one time about 10 years ago, so I wasn’t exactly brimming with confidence and experience.

If it hadn’t been for his presence, I wouldn’t have gotten to bed by 1:00 a.m. I would have been trying to figure out what I needed and how to fit the pipes together. As it turned out, I had all the necessary tools (90 percent of any solution), but I didn’t have the know-how. He did.

In addition, while my friend and I were out getting a new pump and all the fittings around 9:45 PM, some neighbors showed up to help. They came with buckets, a pump to get the water out, and a willingness to do whatever we needed.

As it turned out, there wasn’t much for them to do, but the fact that they showed up that late in the evening (they all have day jobs, too) to lend a hand was more of an encouragement to me than if they dug a trench from my basement to Lake Michigan. That’s something that I think is missing in neighborhoods these days — a true sense of community. We’re working to build that here, with Christ at the center of it.

Anyway, by the time we had installed the new pump, cleaned up the little water remaining, mopped the basement floor, started a load of towels, cleaned the buckets and put all the tools away, it was after mid-night. It was a little late to start a blog post, so I bailed again (see what I did there?) and decided to get some sleep.

As I climbed into bed and pulled the covers up around 1:00 AM, I thanked God for the remarkable “coincidence” that a friend had reached out to me to pray, had driven to my house and, as we were praying for each other and our families, I was given (yes, “given”) an urgent hardship — and he was there to help us manage the exact problem we faced in that moment.

“And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus.”
— Philippians 4:19

And that’s how God sometimes works.

Daily Broadside | Musk Buys Twitter and the Left Melts Down

Daily Verse | 1 Chronicles 17:20
“There is no one like you, O Lord, and there is no God but you, as we have heard with our own ears.”

Tuesday’s Reading: 1 Chronicles 21-24

Happy Tuesday and for once we have a story that offers not only a glimmer of hope for our conservative sensibilities, but also some entertainment bordering on not just amusement, but hilarity.

Twitter shares popped over 5% on Monday after the company’s board unanimously accepted Tesla CEO Elon Musk‘s $44 billion offer to take the social media giant private.

Under the terms of the agreement, Twitter stockholders will receive $54.20 in cash for each share of common stock that they own upon closing of the proposed transaction. The purchase price represents a 38% premium to Twitter’s closing stock price on April 1, the last trading day before Musk disclosed a 9.2% stake in the company.

So Musk buys out stockholders, who get a premium on their shares, and will take the company private.

Musk, a self-described “free-speech absolutist,” has been critical of the platform and its chief executive Parag Agrawal’s approach to free speech.

Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated,” Musk said in a statement. “I also want to make Twitter better than ever by enhancing the product with new features, making the algorithms open source to increase trust, defeating the spam bots, and authenticating all humans. Twitter has tremendous potential – I look forward to working with the company and the community of users to unlock it.”

Shareholders make money and Musk will make money, but the point of his takeover, he says, is that he sees Twitter as the “digital town square” where speech (opinions, fast takes, facts and news) needs the freedom to express itself without condition.

On the surface, that’s a good thing since Twitter is notorious for shutting down anything that goes against a Leftist narrative and for censoring a story (the New York Post’s reporting on the Hunter Biden laptop) that should have had a measurable effect on the outcome of the 2020 election, i.e. 15 percent more votes for Trump.

Setting that aside, the best part is the meltdown happening with the Twitteratti and the Twitter-adjacent.

Those who are horrified that Musk now owns one of the most effective and popular means of mass communication in the world are worried that somehow, freedom of speech means that people on the fringe are going to get hurt.

Like, literally hurt.

Deborah Brown, whom Reuters describes as a “digital rights researcher and advocate” at Human Rights Watch, asserted: “Regardless of who owns Twitter, the company has human rights responsibilities to respect the rights of people around the world who rely on the platform. Changes to its policies, features, and algorithms, big and small, can have disproportionate and sometimes devastating impacts, including offline violence. Freedom of expression is not an absolute right, which is why Twitter needs to invest in efforts to keep its most vulnerable users safe on the platform.”

And who are these “most vulnerable users”?

But Michael Kleinman, director of technology and human rights at Amnesty International USA, sees trouble ahead: “The last thing we need is a Twitter that willfully turns a blind eye to violent and abusive speech against users, particularly those most disproportionately impacted, including women, non-binary persons, and others.”

Ah. The usual suspects.

Listen, I support banning users who use the platform to intimidate, bully, or threaten the welfare or life of other users, online or off. The problem is that the Left defines “intimidate, bully, or threaten” in terms that favor only its viewpoint and that often include speech that is simply anything they don’t like.

As usual, the Right can meme.

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Good times.

It remains to be seen how many Lefties leave Twitter because Musk is now boss. I think it’ll be hard for them because they’re like crack addicts and need their daily fix of dunking on the Right in 180-character units.

And if they don’t like it, they can go build their own site.

Daily Broadside | American Citizens Pay the Price for Illegal Inhabitants

Daily Verse | 1 Chronicles 15:28
So all Israel brought up the ark of the covenant of the Lord with shouts, with the sounding of rams’ horns and trumpets, and of cymbals, and the playing of lyres and harps.

Monday’s Reading: 1 Chronicles 16-20

Monday and we’re in the last week of April 2022.

On Friday morning I wrote that we knew alleged mom killer David Bonola was from Mexico, but authorities wouldn’t divulge his immigration status. That led me to speculate that he is here illegally, even though it’s been more than 20 years since he arrived. Friday, Fox News reported exclusively that, yes indeed, Bonola is here illegally.

EXCLUSIVE – David Bonola, the handyman arrested in the grisly murder of Queens mother Orsolya Gaal, had been living in the United States in violation of immigration law when he was arrested, law enforcement sources confirmed to Fox News Digital on Friday.

Bonola moved to the United States from Mexico 21 years ago, police officials said Thursday. They would not comment regarding the 44-year-old’s immigration status at the time. But two law enforcement sources with knowledge of the matter told Fox News Digital that Bonola was in the country in violation of immigration law. Details of whether he entered the U.S. legally were not immediately available.

“ICE focuses its civil immigration enforcement priorities on the apprehension and removal of noncitizens who pose a threat to our national security, public safety, and border security,” an Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesperson said in a statement in response to Fox News Digital’s questions. Fox News Digital is further told ICE has lodged a detainer with Queens Central Booking.

For twenty years he’s been here illegally.

How many more trespassers like David are living here illegally?

Millions, with millions more being ushered in and shuttled across the country by the illegitimate junta in the White House.

I did a study on illegal immigration some years ago and found that the estimated number of foreigners residing here illegally is remarkably consistent in projections by governmental and advocacy organizations (both for and against) at about 11-12 million. But that number for certain does not reflect the true number of illegals here in the United States.

Our analysis covers the years 1990 to 2016. We develop an estimate of the number of undocumented immigrants based on parameter values that tend to underestimate undocumented immigrant inflows and overstate outflows; we also show the probability distribution for the number of undocumented immigrants based on simulating our model over parameter value ranges. Our conservative estimate is 16.7 million for 2016, nearly fifty percent higher than the most prominent current estimate of 11.3 million, which is based on survey data and thus different sources and methods. The mean estimate based on our simulation analysis is 22.1 million, essentially double the current widely accepted estimate.

And that’s just one study published four years ago using data ending six years ago. The Federation for American Immigration Reform, a reputable non-partisan, public interest organization, estimates that there are approximately 15.5 million illegal aliens residing within the United States. They attribute this “alarming increase” to “two significant developments:”

  • The improvement of the United States’ economy as the country re-opens after the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic [we’ll see how inflation affects that — do]
  • A more significant factor fueling this increase is that the Biden administration has effectively abolished the mission of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), preventing the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) from securing our southern border, and implementing measures that encourage mass illegal immigration.

For another take, best-selling author and firebrand Ann Coulter makes a case in her book that the number is closer to 30 million. First, the Census Bureau, where the initial 11-12 million number comes from, assumes illegal aliens will fill out census forms and admit their status—a faulty assumption for obvious reasons. Second, the bureau adds 10 percent to their estimate, which implies they know they are undercounting.

Third, in 2005, a pair of Bears Stearns analysts studied remittances from the U.S. to Mexico. They found that “while the number of Mexicans living in the United States was supposed to have grown by only 56 percent from 1995 to 2003, remittances from the United States to Mexico grew by almost 200 percent, even as the median weekly wage increased by just 10 percent.” They also found that during the same period, housing permits in immigrant enclaves were vastly different from official figures.

So, there are roughly somewhere between 15 and 30 million foreigners who are living here illegally. Maybe more. We don’t know how many because our immigration system has been dismantled by anti-American zealots and feckless lawmakers who love them some cheap labor.

But increasingly, illegals are not even coming here to work.

Roughly two-thirds of undocumented immigrants have lived in the United States for more than a decade, and many are the parents of U.S.-born children. Until 2013, almost all of those trying to cross the U.S.-Mexico border were Mexican citizens and most were individuals seeking work; since then, Central Americans have made up an increasingly large share, reaching 81 percent [PDF] in 2019. Generally, they are coming not for work but to make asylum claims, and many of them are unaccompanied children. Some of these immigrants have different legal rights from Mexican nationals in the United States: under a 2008 anti–human trafficking law, unaccompanied minors from noncontiguous countries have a right to a hearing before being deported to their home countries. The spike in Central American migration has strained the U.S. immigration system, with more than 1.2 million cases pending in immigration courts.

Why do aliens target America? Well, besides being the freest and richest country in the world, there aren’t any consequences for entering illegally. In this report, we learn that crossing the border illegally in Singapore is punishable by six months in prison and three strokes with a cane. In Russia, you can get two years in a prison labor camp. In Pakistan, trespassers can get up to 10 years in prison, while India allows for up to eight years behind bars.

The U.S.? Illegal entry in the U.S. is a misdemeanor, with a maximum of six months in jail.

The U.S. has one of the world’s weaker laws for illegal entry, according to the data in a study by the Library of Congress, which surveyed statutes in more than 160 nations and released its findings amid a heated debate over whether America’s penalties are too stiff.

Yeah, “too stiff.” If progressive Marxists had their way, we wouldn’t have any borders so that illegals could just waltz right in.

Oh, wait. That’s exactly what we have.

We are a compassionate people, but our current immigration policies put American citizens at risk. There are thousands and thousands of documented crimes committed by squatters like Mexican national David Bonola. Remember Mollie Tibbetts? Killed by a Mexican national living here illegally. How about Kate Steinle? Killed by a Mexican national who was here illegally, who had seven felony convictions and had been deported five times previously.

These men and millions like them violate this nation’s borders with impunity and infect our communities by driving up taxes, increasing the burden on our medical and educational systems, and are never punished for their crime of unauthorized residency.

It takes a killing or a rape to get the authorities’ attention.

In this case, Bonola will likely face punishment for murder, but for Orsolya Gaal, his victim, it’s too late.

Let’s hope it’s not your wife, or daughter, or mother, or friend who’s next.

Daily Broadside | In a Few Weeks, The Border Invasion Starts Again

Daily Verse | 1 Chronicles 5:20b
He answered their prayers, because they trusted in him.

Friday’s Reading: 1 Chronicles 6-10
Saturday’s Reading: 1 Chronicles 11-15

Friday and only nine days until May. This year is flying by.

Of course, it can’t go fast enough to get us to November, when we can begin to apply the brakes on our out-of-control federal government. If we’re reading the tea leaves correctly, the Democrats are in for a world of hurt. The House could get a veto-proof majority while kicking Nancy Pelosi back to her floor seat, Republicans could take over all the committees, including the January 6 fiasco, and not only could they legislate, but they could impeach both Brandon and Kamala Harris for their dereliction of duty in upholding the Constitution as they swore to do.

That is, we could see that happen if we aren’t swindled again at the polls when a toilet overflows in Atlanta and shuts down ballot counting in six other states. Even if we do overthrow the anti-American Marxists infecting our government, we still run the risk of the do-nothing GOPe, who never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity. While there are fighters in the House and Senate (Marjorie Taylor Greene, Matt Gaetz, Ted Cruz, and Tom Cotton come to mind), there are still too many RINOs like Lindsey Graham-Cracker, Mittens Romney, and Lizard Cheney. Here’s hoping Cheney is in need of employment come the fall — she could probably get hired by CNN or MSNBC as a token “conservative” by which I mean a Democrat masquerading as a Republican.

You were probably as horrified as I was by the murder of Orsolya Gaal, the 51-year-old Queens woman who was repeatedly stabbed with a kitchen knife, stuffed in an oversized duffle bag on wheels, and dragged nearly a mile from her home before being left for some pedestrian to find the next morning. Turns out police have arrested David Banola, “a Queens transplant from Mexico,” who was having an affair with the married woman and was angry because she didn’t want to continue the “intimate” relationship.

It’s unfortunate that Gaal chose to be unfaithful and got herself into a compromising situation that didn’t end well. But what irritates me most is that Banola moved to the U.S. from Mexico about 21 years ago and police “would not discuss his immigration status.” I’m sure his “immigration status” will eventually be revealed, but the fact that they won’t discuss tell us whether he’s here legally or not is a sign that he’s probably here illegally.

Of course, I could be wrong. But I’d lay even money I’m not.

Mexico isn’t sending us their best, despite what all the open border zealots claim. Our country just wouldn’t be as rich and progressive without the diverse perspectives that people like David Banola bring, they insist. They’re right, you know: spontaneously slicing someone up and stuffing them in a zippered hockey bag for someone to find on a city sidewalk is unique.

Yet Brandon seems to be moving ahead with opening our southern border to thousands of more people just like David Banola: an unknown threat.

Rep. Henry Cuellar on Thursday said the [Brandon] administration told him it’s planning to use law enforcement officers from the northern U.S. to deal with a massive surge in migrants coming to the southern border when Title 42 ends.

Cuellar, D-Texas, who represents a border community and opposes many of President Biden’s border policies, also said it seems the administration seems more interested in quickly moving migrants into the country than border security.

You don’t say.

According to this report (read it all), Brandon is effectively participating in human trafficking by flying illegal border jumpers throughout the United States in the middle of the night.

If it were not for The Post, the public would not be aware of any of the Biden administration’s charter flights, which are fanning out every night, all over the country, delivering illegal migrants from the southern border to oblivious communities.

After a lull late last year, in recent weeks “the charters are back with a fury,” says a whistleblower from Avelo Airlines, one of three charter companies raking in millions of taxpayer dollars whisking migrants out of sight.

Staffers are disturbed by the secrecy of the operation, and the prospect that they are participating in a human-trafficking operation, the whistleblower says.

“The charters are not on our paperwork, not on the [air-traffic] breakdown, not on the schedule, not on the flight plan. They’re not listed anywhere.”

The journey for illegal migrants through Mexico to the US border is facilitated by people-smuggling cartels but the flights into the interior of the country, provided by the Biden administration, are simply the last leg of that human-trafficking operation.

Brandon solemnly swore to “faithfully execute the office of president of the United States and will, to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, so help me God.”

Liar. He had no intention of doing so.

The presidency is not a solemn duty to him and his posse; it’s a means to an end. He grabbed the brass ring and the power to use executive orders to accelerate the fundamental change to the character and culture of this country.

One of the means by which he’s doing that is by not only allowing, but actively facilitating, the invasion of foreign hordes to our soil.

Did you know that,

More than 2.5 million illegal migrants have crossed into the US since Joe Biden took office. Among them were 42 people on the terror watchlist, according to CBP.

Yet when White House press secretary Jen Psaki was asked about these suspected terrorists, she blew off the question, saying it was a tiny proportion of total illegal crossers.

Oh good. We’ll only have 42 terror incidents instead of 2.5 million. What a relief.

OK, that was sarcastic.

Did you know that illegal immigration is a victimless crime?

Sorry. Sarcasm again.

Support for victims, as it turns out, is denied by these activists to one particular group: those who have lost their lives as a result of illegal alien crime, and the families who must live with the loss. In a culture that elevates and too often embellishes victimhood, these “Angel families” are victims in the purest sense, yet they have been marginalized because the circumstances of their losses are at odds with the anti-borders narrative.

[…]

The activist corporate media that claims to give voice to the voiceless would have none of this. The Los Angeles Times was appalled, calling Trump’s spotlight on Angel families “tackiness and rank opportunism.” The Wall Street Journal cited reports from left-wing nonprofits that illegal aliens commit fewer crimes than the native population. The impact of such data is dead on arrival, however, as the amount of illegal alien crime would and should be near zero if our political leaders simply enforced the current immigration laws.

In social media debates I have had with crazed Leftists, the murder and mayhem illegal aliens inflicted on American citizens was excused by comparing percentages of “American” crime to “illegal alien” crime. It was maddening, since none of the crimes illegal aliens commit would have happened here if they were kept out of the country in the first place. But such logic had no impact on the deranged minds of the open borders crowd.

Did you also know that Maine is now a southern border state?

The alien invasion across America’s porous southern border has turned every state into a border state – and every Fake News editor into an agent and a cheerleader for a foreign occupation army.

Here in Maine, 2400 miles northeast of the Texas border, we are the final destination for thousands of illegal immigrants who are being resettled here at taxpayer expense, to the applause of all the really smart people in both political parties.

[…]

It was three years ago this summer when an estimated 500 foreign nationals, most of them from central Africa, crossed the southern border in Texas and boarded buses for Portland, where they were housed at the Portland Expo while state and local officials scrambled to find permanent housing for these asylum-seeking “new Mainers.”

Over the past year, another 1,000+ non-citizen newcomers have made their way from the southern border to Portland, overwhelming the city’s homeless shelters. Many are being housed at taxpayer expense in hotels across Cumberland and York Counties. One hotel in South Portland houses more than 400 non-citizens, half of them children, many of whom are now enrolled in local public schools.

If you don’t have borders, you don’t have an ordered society.

Joe Biden, the failing fabulist who was installed as “president” on January 26, 2020 through a coup orchestrated by the media, tech oligarchs and corrupt state government officials and volunteers, is an anti-American extremist owned by China. He is everything the Left claimed Trump was, but wasn’t.

Once seated, Brandon proceeded to betray his “oath” of office and put Americans in danger and is not, in any sense of the phrase, “preserving, protecting or defending the Constitution of the United States of America.”

Have a good weekend.

Daily Broadside | A Tsunami of Loss Coming for the Democrats This Fall

Daily Verse | 2 Kings 25:9
He set fire to the temple of the Lord, the royal palace and all the houses of Jerusalem. Every important building he burned down.

Thursday’s Reading: 1 Chronicles 1-5

Thursday and although I deeply resent the presence of Resident Brandon not only for his lack of courage and character, but also for the way in which he attained his office, I admit that his failing mental acuity is a tragedy for him and makes him a more sympathetic figure for those who, like me, do have compassion for those who are handicapped by some kind of physical limitation.

I do have some sympathy for his deteriorating mental condition but — BUT — he and his handlers put him out there in public and he is clearly a menace to our nation. In addition, he’s an insufferable blowhard who thinks stratospherically more highly of himself than his performance allows. Even with all the shucking and jiving the media does to cover for Brandon, the public isn’t stupid, and it’s showing up in the polls.

More important than money, at least to us, is the political environment, which continues to look promising for Republicans. President Joe Biden’s approval rating remains just a little over 40% in averages, with disapproval a bit over 50%. Polls of congressional voting sentiment, the House generic ballot, continue to be relatively close, with Republicans generally up just a few points in averages. But if Biden’s approval continues to be weak, we would expect the Republican advantage to grow in the coming months.

So our main question about the House continues to be not whether Republicans will flip the House — although we would not completely shut the door on Democrats’ retaining control if the political environment improves markedly — but rather how big the Republicans’ eventual majority will be.

Toward that end, we are making 11 House rating changes, all in favor of Republicans

That’s from Sabato’s Crystal Ball. The other is from The Cook Political Report (paywall).

President Biden’s approval rating remains stuck at 42 percent, and if anything the political environment has deteriorated for Democrats since January as inflation concerns have soared and Build Back Better has stalled. That means no Democrat in a single-digit Biden (or Trump-won) district is secure, and even some seats Biden carried by double-digit margins in 2020 could come into play this fall, giving the GOP surprising “reach” opportunities.

This week, we’re moving eight Democratic-held seats into more competitive categories. With these changes, there are 27 Democratic seats in Toss Up or worse, and that list is certain to grow longer when Florida and New Hampshire finalize their lines. By contrast, there are only 12 GOP-held seats in Toss Up or worse – all of which are due to redistricting, not atmospheric factors. Republicans need to net just five seats to regain the House.

Both of these sites are well-respected in their political forecasts, and both are showing major shifts towards Republicans.

In addition, Brandon’s support among the youth vote has completely collapsed, as Stephen Green reports.

Canadian leftie Jeet Heer was sounding the alarm about the “collapse of support for Biden among young” people, which he described as “a disaster.”

That’s in no small part, as Heer also noted, because “Under 44 was the only age group Biden won a majority of in 2020.”
[…]
Snark aside, pollsters call the narrower 18-34 age group the youth vote, and taking just them into account, Biden’s support has dropped 18 points since Election Day, putting him 26 points underwater with a 55% disapprove/29% approve rating.

That’s crater territory.

Even worse, the Resident is down 26 points among Hispanics, and 30 points among Blacks. Black voters have been the most stalwart Democrat constituency for the last 60 years, but that support is falling apart. If you’ve lost a cornerstone of your support and aren’t making any headwind with other constituencies, that can only mean one thing: disaster.

Nothing is guaranteed, but the 2022 mid-terms are shaping up to be a tsunami of loss for Democrats this fall.

Just don’t get cocky, take nothing for granted, and vote.

Daily Broadside | A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words Edition

Daily Verse | 2 Kings 21:9
But the people did not listen. Manasseh led them astray, so that they did more evil than the nations the Lord had destroyed before the Israelites.

Wednesday’s Reading: 2 Kings 22-25

Wednesday. How about something different today … something to laugh about in the middle of the week? Some memery that highlights the absurdity of the circus in Washington and the clown car driving down the middle of the street in a city near you.

You’re welcome.

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May be an image of 1 person and text that says 'THEY'RE NOT PREDICTING FOOD SHORTAGES pb L THEY'RE PLANNING THEM'
Political Cartoons by Chip Bok
Political Cartoons by Steve Kelley
Political Cartoons by Margolis & Cox
Political Cartoons by Michael Ramirez
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And finally …

Daily Broadside | Easter Bunny Terrorizes Old Man Talking Politics

Daily Verse | 2 Kings 17:9
The Israelites secretly did things against the Lord their God that were not right.

Tuesday’s Reading: 2 Kings 18-21

Tuesday and for those of you who subscribe or follow this site, I’ve added a “Like” button to the bottom of my posts. That means you can give me an anonymous thumbs up if you like the post for the day. So have at it.

This has been making the rounds but if you haven’t seen it yet, take a gander at what anti-Americans like Mark Zuckerberg foisted on us in 2020.

The Resident looks completely startled by the “Easter Bunny” when the life-sized rabbit steps up to him while at the Easter egg roll at the White House. Just look at his face:

He looks like he’s just had a Jack-in-the-Box pop out at him. It takes a couple of parsecs for what he’s seeing to register. He is caught completely off guard and you can see his brain trying to decide: fight or flight? It’s like Putin showed up and Brandon realizes he’ll have to eat his words that Vlad “cannot remain in power.”

Seriously. Go back and watch it again. I’ll wait.

This isn’t a “gotcha!” moment; this is a costumed performer who interferes with some mouth mash Brandon is grinding through with reporters. It’s actually Brandon’s director of message planning, Megan Hayes, and apparently his message wasn’t planned.

So what, you say. You think I’m maybe being too nit-picky?

Here’s what happened at the start of the event. Make sure you have the volume up to hear what Doctor Jill Brandon tells him as he finishes his welcoming remarks.

“Wave.”

And again, “wave.”

Brandon has to be directed and redirected throughout the event.

Here’s why this matters: If Brandon is cognitively unable to manage himself, WHO IS RUNNING THE COUNTRY?

All Brandon is right now is a script reader. And not a very good one, at that.

And here’s what it got him (and us):

CNN’s Harry Enten outlines new polls from Quinnipiac and NBC showing that Joe Biden has a lower approval rating than Donald Trump did at this point in his presidency, breaking Trump’s record for lowest ever recorded.

“It was always a thing, ‘Donald Trump had the lowest approval rating at this point in his presidency,’ we did it over and over and over and over again,” Enten recalled. “At this point in his presidency, Donald Trump’s average approval rating is actually one point higher than Joe Biden’s which is 41%. Donald Trump at 42%. For a first-term president at this point in his presidency, this is the lowest.”

“This is the lowest for anyone who was elected to the presidency and didn’t get there through the vice presidency.”

“Joe Biden at this point, minus 23 points. That is the worst on record since they started asking about economic job approval ratings back in 1978 with Jimmy Carter,” Enten said.

The talking heads of CNN look positively shocked. Their preferred candidate is more of a disaster than they could have ever conceived and it’s dawning on them that they own him.

82 million votes, you guys. Landslide victory, most ever in recorded history!

Let’s. Go. Brandon.

If anyone shouldn’t remain in power, it’s him.

Daily Broadside | All Lies Create Alternate Realities for the Victims

Daily Verse | 2 Kings 12:15
They did not require an accounting from those to whom they gave the money to pay the workers, because they acted with complete honesty.

Monday’s Reading: 2 Kings 15-17

It’s Monday, the day after the holiest day of the Christian calendar: Easter Sunday. It’s the most important day to Christians because, as Paul says, if Christ has not been raised, we’re still in our sins and our faith is futile.

Futile. Worthless. Useless. Pointless. That candid admission is one reason I believe scripture. I am unaware of any other faith that allows that if their central claim is untrue, the entire belief system collapses.

I hope those of you who follow Christ marked the occasion with joy and celebration, and I hope those of you who are still undecided remain curious about the claim that Jesus defeated death. If that claim is true, it means everything to you now and for eternity. You can always write me at info@daveolsson.com and I’ll happily answer your questions or point you to resources that can.

While in seminary, studying for my MDiv., I took a course from one of the more popular professors on campus who was also very pastoral. By “pastoral” I mean that he cared about people, he seemed wise, and he had a good-natured, grandfatherly affect about him.

During one class, he said something about the nature of truth and to this day, try as I might, I cannot remember his exact words. I even asked him to repeat what he said so that I could write it down, but even he couldn’t remember exactly what he had just said. In the moment the words were profound, and I’ve often tried to recall them, but they just aren’t there—so what I’m about to write is (most likely) a poor approximation of what he actually said.

The gist of it was this: When someone lies, they alter the reality of the person to whom they lied. In other words, when someone receives a lie as the truth, they are living with a distorted understanding of what is, in fact, real, courtesy of the liar. They live as though the lie is the truth.

Lying is so abhorrent to me that it was one of two non-negotiable rules that we held for our kids: you may not defy us, and you may not deceive us. We wanted them to respect authority and the truth.

Now we know that our children did not always tell us the truth (and they did not always obey our direction)—but then, neither did I always tell the truth and neither did I always respect authority. It’s part of the nature of unredeemed mankind and even after repenting, it’s a process of learning to live the truth no matter what.

The reasons for lying are numerous, but often they have to do with gaining an advantage over someone or avoiding responsibility for something, both being motivated by pride. Lying can get us more power or more money or more attention; it can also help us avoid humiliation or the consequences of our actions.

One of our maxims was, “Little people, little problems. Big people, big problems.” When children lie, the consequences are (almost) always small.

Parent: Did you make mommy a pretty drawing on the wall with markers?

3-year-old: No.

Parent: Why is there marker on your hands?

3-year-old: I don’t know.

But the bigger they get, the bigger the consequences of a lie can be.

The Lie: “Cigarette smoking is no more ‘addictive’ than coffee, tea, or Twinkies.”

The Truth: “Nicotine is a highly addictive chemical compound present in a tobacco plant.”

The Consequences: “Cigarette smoking is responsible for more than 480,000 deaths per year in the United States, including more than 41,000 deaths resulting from secondhand smoke exposure. This is about one in five deaths annually, or 1,300 deaths every day.”

The Lie: There is an epidemic of white police officers killing unarmed black suspects.

The Truth: “In 2019 police officers fatally shot 1,004 people, most of whom were armed or otherwise dangerous. African-Americans were about a quarter of those killed by cops last year (235), a ratio that has remained stable since 2015 … In 2018, the latest year for which such data have been published, African-Americans made up 53% of known homicide offenders in the U.S. and commit about 60% of robberies, though they are 13% of the population.

That’s why there’s a disproportionate number of encounters with police. In addition, “white officers appear to be no more likely to use lethal force against minorities than non-white officers.”

The Consequences: “Mostly peaceful riots” over George Floyd’s death caused more than $2 billion dollars in damages, killed at least 15 people, and injured more than 700 officers.

The Lie: Gas prices are so high because of Putin’s war in Ukraine.

The Truth: “[Biden] canceled pipelines, restricted drilling on government lands and waters, and tightened regulations on oil and gas producers.” Also, “Gasoline prices climbed 48.3% between Biden’s inauguration and Putin’s invasion.”

The Consequences: “As of April 14, average prices for regular gasoline range from a low of $3.64 in Missouri to a whopping high of $5.72 in California, according to the national motor club AAA. The national average was $4.07, a 42% increase from last year.” Brandon pretends that the high cost of gas is out of his hands. It’s a lie and we’re literally paying the price for his deception.

There’s so many more lies that I could cite: Hunter’s laptop; Hillary’s illegal server; that men can be women; that January 6 was an insurrection; that 1619 is the true founding of America; that white supremacy is the biggest threat we face … and on and on and on.

We’ve come to accept that lying is part and parcel of politics. Why? Why shouldn’t we demand that our leaders are honest? At least we could make informed decisions. As it is, those lies distort reality and the results are what we’re living with today.

Maybe someday we’ll get lucky, and all of our political leaders will be forced to tell the truth, like Fletcher Reede (Jim Carrey) in Liar Liar, who is under a truth curse and cannot lie.

While I doubt we’d get that, I’d settle for workers who “acted with complete honesty.”

See you tomorrow.

Daily Broadside | Finding the Good in “Good” Friday

Daily Verse | 2 Kings 8:19
Nevertheless, for the sake of his servant David, the Lord was not willing to destroy Judah. He had promised to maintain a lamp for David and his descendants forever.

Friday’s Reading: 2 Kings 9-12
Saturday’s Reading: 2 Kings 13-14

Friday, but not just any Friday. Good Friday.

Good Friday?

On that Friday, Jesus suffered the indignity of a show trial during which false witnesses testified against him.

Good?

Jesus was accused of blasphemy for telling the truth that he was the Son of God when charged under oath to admit if he was the Messiah.

Good?

Jesus was slapped, punched, and spit in the face by the chief priests and the Sanhedrin, who then mocked him for good measure.

Good?

Jesus was brought to the Roman governor, Pilate, to be executed—because the Jews weren’t allowed to do it themselves.

Good?

Jesus was sent to Herod, who ridiculed and mocked him, then sent him back to Pilate.

Good?

Jesus was traded for an imprisoned murderer, Barabbas, whose name ironically means “son of the father.”

Good?

Jesus was flogged, a lashing with nine leather straps laced with pieces of splintered animal bone and lead weights that ripped the flesh open across the shoulders, back, and legs to a depth of one inch, pulling ribbons of muscle out through the lacerations.

Good?

Jesus was mocked, dressed up in a scarlet robe with a coil of inch-long thorns jammed onto his head and a wooden staff in his hand. After humiliating him that way, the soldiers spit on Jesus and beat him on the head with the wooden staff.

Good?

Jesus was nailed to a wooden beam by his wrists, then hoisted up onto a vertical beam sunk in the earth. His feet were then nailed to the upright beam, and he was left there hanging. Breathing in wasn’t a problem, but to breathe out, he had to pull himself up by his nailed wrists while pushing up with his legs on his nailed feet.

Good?

Jesus was crucified between two thieves, being “numbered with the transgressors.”

Good?

Jesus was insulted by one of the thieves hanging there with him.

Good?

Jesus’ clothes were taken by the soldiers.

Good?

Jesus was sneered at by the religious leaders.

Good?

Jesus was mocked again by the soldiers.

Good?

Jesus was taunted, insulted and mocked by passersby.

Good?

Jesus wondered why he had been abandoned by God.

Good?

Jesus hung from his wrists on the cross from 9:00 in the morning until 3:00 in the afternoon.

Good?

Jesus died, condemned by his own and executed by proxy.

Good?

Jesus’ body was taken down from the cross and placed in a tomb not his own.

Good?

Surely he took up our pain
    and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
    stricken by him, and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our transgressions,
    he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
    and by his wounds we are healed.
We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
    each of us has turned to our own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
    the iniquity of us all.

Isaiah 53:4-6

Good?

Yes! Good.

Have a good weekend—and a very happy Easter.