Monthly Archives: September 2024

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The Broadside | Voting Isn’t Just a Right, It’s a Duty

One of the things that has bothered me over the last several years is the tax-exempt status of US churches. It’s true that it’s helpful, but it’s also true that once the government has its hooks in you by conferring a special status, it then has leverage over you. The government can make demands or restrict the activities of the church as the price you pay for their indulgence.

Covid-19 anyone?

I have thought several times that there may come a day when the church will have to give up its tax-exempt status in order to stay true to its calling. That may mean going back to house churches, small gatherings without a formal organizational structure.

That’s the topic of the introduction to the following sermon that pastor Gary Hamrick of Cornerstone Chapel delivered on September 8. He mentions the 1954 Johnson amendment which, on the surface, is unconstitutional.

The Johnson Amendment is a provision in the U.S. tax code, since 1954, that prohibits all 501(c)(3) non-profit organizations from endorsing or opposing political candidates.

The Johnson amendment is currently being challenged in court and Cornerstone Chapel is a party to the proceedings.

Hamrick takes us back to the early years of the founding era and observes that pastors freely spoke of politics in their sermons. He mentions a two-volume series called “Political Sermons of the American Founding Era, 1730-1805” (which I have on my shelf and recommend if you’re interested in that era). His point is that pastors used to be able to freely speak on what was happening politically in the colonies and then in the newly formed United States of America.

After his introduction he goes on to make three points about our responsibility to vote and why it’s important that we do. I post his sermon here because I think it’s worth listening to as we approach November 5.

I’ve cued it to the second point of his message, which is that we should “vote policies over personalities,” and he then goes on to discuss seven policies that a candidate will influence. I strongly urge you to listen to at least the 15 minutes devoted to those issues.

I know not all readers of this blog are Christians, but I think the majority of us are conservative. Even if you’re not a believer, you can better understand why someone of the faith thinks the way we do about these issues.

If you have the time, I’d encourage you to listen to the whole thing.

Happy Monday and farewell to September.

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The Broadside | Kamala Harris Is An Empty Pantsuit

According to the New York Post, Kamala Harris is “on track to grant the fewest interviews of any major party’s presidential nominee ever.” She’s only given six so far, compared to almost three times as many from Trump in the same time period.

We all know why. It’s because when you get her away from a controlled environment with scripted answers, she’s an empty, vacuous charlatan. The problem is that even in a friendly, controlled environment, she’s no better.

Take her “interview” with Oprah Winfrey. Here’s a sample that, as Kate Hyde says, “might just be the most spectacular two minutes of Kamala’s nonsensical wisdom I have ever heard.” See if you don’t agree.

This woman is so utterly fake in everything she says. Her body language, her words, her emphases—everything telegraphs that she doesn’t know what she’s saying and that it’s just a lot of gibberish pasted together from half-formed thoughts. Empty, mindless patter that means nothing, void of any consequence in the national dialogue and certainly not reaching the level of any meaning for the world.

Just watch Oprah. At some point even she looks at her like she’s a ditz.

I don’t know. I think Kammy is so unoriginal, so uninspired, so used to failing upward, so used to being given everything she has, that she finds herself in over her head. Her role exceeds her talents. So, she falls back on esoteric imagery and empty platitudes, trying to pass them off as some philosophical brilliance.

The other thing that’s going on here is that at her core, she’s a commie. That’s why everything she says sounds so fake. She doesn’t mean a word of it.

I don’t want that woman any closer to the most powerful position in America than she already is.

Have a good weekend.

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The Broadside | *Paging Dr. Hez Bollah. Dr. Hez Bollah.* Hey, Try His Walkie-Talkie.

Hats off to whoever pulled off one of the most ballsy ops in modern-day spy craft that I’m aware of. And I use the term “ballsy” quite intentionally.

Not only did they shock the members of Hezbollah with the remote detonation of thousands of pagers on Tuesday, but they followed up yesterday with the detonation of thousands of smart phones, radios, smart watches, solar panels and (allegedly) even some household appliances.

I was thinking about these clandestine attacks for the last 24 hours. I mean, everyone knows it’s *cough* Israel *cough*, who refuses to comment. But think about what they just accomplished.

First, they infiltrated and compromised the terrorists’ electronics supply chain. It’s not like the Hezbollah chieftains order off of Amazon. They have to skirt international sanctions, and we know that Iran is involved somewhere along the line. That means they had to have understood the logistics involved and planted the explosives in a way that wouldn’t be detected (or after they were inspected, assuming they were).

The second big thing they did was to degrade Hezbollah’s fighting force. The explosions killed 26 (including two children) and wounded at least 3,200 others—some severely, losing eyes or fingers or hands. Depending on injuries, some of them will be out of commission for a few weeks or months, putting pressure on the organization’s command and control grid. And they did it with incredible precision (you can’t prevent all collateral damage).

Next, they severely handicapped the terrorists’ communications network. They’re back to using bicycle couriers and homing pigeons, and neither of those are encrypted. Communication is the connective tissue of any organization and these days it’s made up of bits and bytes.

Not for Hezbollah. No more instantaneous messaging or phone calls. No more email or social media apps on your phone. This sets Hezbollah back to working at a snail’s pace, which will be tough (but not impossible) to adapt to.

Plus, Hezbollah suddenly realizes that *cough* Israel *cough* knows a lot about them. As Laughing Wolf puts it,

… if you think Israel wasn’t watching the hospitals and other locations to see who came in and when, and wasn’t monitoring local social media for news and IDs, I’ve got a bridge for sale… Again, no way for them to know in advance who all the members of Hezballess were. They do now, and can plot that against all the intel from the metadata and…

Then there’s the psychological damage they’ve inflicted. Can you imagine the fear? What will explode next, my refrigerator? I’d be throwing out anything electronic including my PlayStation 2. What will Hezbollah do to rebuild their infrastructure? No way am I carrying a pager or cell phone anytime soon.

Welcome to the terror show, Hezbollah. How does it feel to be on the receiving end?

Other terrorist organizations have to be thinking about their communication devices, too. If *cough* Israel *cough* can simultaneously detonate a few thousand pagers in one country, why wouldn’t they be able to do it in a bunch of other states like, say, Yemen or Iran? You bet other countries are taking a close look at their pagers and phones and smart thermostats today.

It was a brilliant operation and clearly places *whoever it was* at the forefront of the global cloak and dagger games.

Unlike our own clandestine services, which can’t even sweep a golf course for a nutjob hiding in the bushes for 12 hours to take a shot at a former president.

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The Broadside | “They Want Him Dead” Is Pretty Much Right

One of the guys I read occasionally is Mark Steyn, a Canadian conservative who was a popular guest-host for Rush Limbaugh (PBUH) and who now lives in the U.S.

I read his column from yesterday and wanted to call your attention to it because I think he gets at the nut of the truth that no one else has about the two assassination attempts on Trump’s life.

But I think my longtime Rush colleague Diana Allocco is closer to the mark:

Just so. When I heard that an airplane had hit the north tower, I spent the next fifteen minutes going about as usual on the assumption that some twin-prop had had an accident. Then the radio announced that another ‘plane had hit the south tower. The Secret Service failures in Florida are as crude and obvious as they were in Pennsylvania which means that, in the words of my former GB News colleague Neil Oliver, this is happening because they want it to happen. They want Trump to die, and they are willing to create the necessary conditions.

I believe that to be true because the conditions are lax and the USSS has no cogent answers for their failures. At the very least, those in power are okay with leaving Trump vulnerable and hoping that some extreme lefty takes advantage of the opening. Still to be determined is whether or not “they” are clandestinely goading nutjobs like Thomas Matthew Crooks and Ryan Wesley Routh into taking the shots.

There was no unusual level of foreign interference in the 2016 election; instead, the fever about “foreign interference” was a convenient cover for an unusual level of domestic interference in the 2016 election. The Russians have their uses, which is presumably why the Dems are so eager to sleepwalk the world into nuclear war. But, in a more parochial sense, what the Deep Staters were doing in 2016 was prepping the ground for a post-election plan to use Russia “interference” as a pretext for subverting any incoming Trump administration.

This mini-spate of lone shooters is beginning to feel a bit like the 2024 version of Russian interference: they’re getting us used to the idea of Trump being an assassination target, so that the ultimate “October surprise” won’t seem such a big deal.

The Deep State is telling us they will not permit Donald Trump to take office again.

At this point, I would emphatically NOT be surprised if we discover that the Deep State’s hands are all over these two attempts on Trump’s life. We are in very dangerous waters.

Read the whole thing.

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The Broadside | The Democrats Are the Party of Deranged and Murderous Nutjobs

It’s been this way since they murdered Abraham Lincoln.

The 58-year-old man accused of pointing an AK-47 at former President Donald Trump on Sunday afternoon has a prolific arrest record that spans several decades.

Ryan Wesley Routh was arrested shortly after the incident at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Fla. Authorities said Secret Service agents fired at him after seeing the muzzle of his AK-47 pointing through a chain-link fence one hole ahead of where Trump was playing.

Authorities are treating the episode as an apparent assassination attempt on Trump.

Routh didn’t get a shot off, but nonetheless was only 300-500 yards from the president.

So many questions. How did the Secret Service allow another breach of security, especially since the attempt back in July? How did Routh, who lives in Hawaii, get to Trump’s golf course in West Palm Beach with an AK-47? And why are the Democrats such a craven bunch soulless anti-Americans?

Hilarious. The wife of notorious Alexander Vindman from Trump’s first impeachment laughs off the violence that the Left says the Right incites but seems to only come from the Left.

Then there’s the platitudes.

I’ve got news for you Harris-Walz: violence is who the Democrats are. And it’s increasingly “who we are as a nation” on the Left.

Harris and Biden and their minions are inciting violence by suggesting he’s a threat to democracy or comparing him to Hitler or claiming democracy is at stake or claiming he’ll be a dictator from day one.

Here’s Victor Davis Hanson (VDH) on X:

“These serial assassination attempts, unfortunately, occur in a weary context of Russian collusion, laptop disinformation, state ballot removal, and lawfare. And they are starting to reflect a larger environment of justifying extra-legal means to achieve the ends of ending Trump’s presidency and later reelection by any means necessary.”

And here’s a trenchant observation:

They’re going to get Trump killed, and then they’re going to dance in his blood.

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The Broadside | Never Forget

Every year on 9/11 I post a memorial to the victims of one of the most barbaric attacks in history. I was so focused on the debate on Tuesday night that I forgot Wednesday was 9/11.

This is my post—a day late.

We must never forget. I must never forget.

Ever.

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The Broadside | The Debate Didn’t Change a Thing Except Make Me Want to Keep Harris Out of the White House Even More

I’m live blogging the debate tonight and will send it out in the morning.

First thing I observed: Kamala (KH) strode across the stage with arm extended to greet Trump and introduced herself. It didn’t look like Trump was going to approach her since he went right to his podium. I think that was a good tactic by KH. Made her look unafraid or intimidated. Made him look small for a moment, but he handled himself well by politely returning her greeting.

Overall, I think Kamala held her own and actually put Trump on the defensive a lot of the time. She knew her lines and, as we anticipated, she had allies in the moderators, David Muir and Lindsey Davis. They teamed up to fact check Trump throughout the debate; not once did they do that to Harris.

Lindsey Davis said after the candidates traded comments about abortion, “no state allows the killing of a baby after birth.” But Trump never said that. He referenced the former governor of Virginia who did indeed talk about allowing a baby to born and then decide whether to save it or not. The moderator became part of the debate at that moment.

Make Debates Fair Again.

Whereas I thought the muted mic helped Trump in his debate against Biden, I don’t think it helped him as much in this one. Harris was able to fire off her memorized talking points without interruption. But on the flip side, if Trump had interrupted her, he would’ve come off as rude and demeaning to a woman of color.

Trump had to point out Harris’s many lies including, incredibly enough, the debunked “many fine people on both sides” lie. Seriously, Harris knows it’s a lie, but they continue to smear Trump with it to keep their uninformed voter base hating Trump. If you’re going to hate Trump, at least come to it honestly.

She lied about Trump being behind “Project 2025.” He had to defend himself and tell everyone that he’s not part of it and hasn’t (and won’t) read it. She lied about his use of the word “bloodbath” and he had to correct the record. She lied that his father gave him $400 million dollars and he had to address that.

To me it’s obvious that her strategy was to force him to defend himself, chewing up the clock.

Honestly, it felt like Trump was winging it too much. He needs to really prep to stay focused and stay away from the bragging and hyperbole. Not everything was the “best” or the “worst” in “the history of our country.” I mean, things are bad—don’t get me wrong—but Trump’s need to exaggerate undermines what was really extraordinary about his administration.

If Trump had an advantage, it was that Americans got an earful of Harris’s nasally wine mom voice and fake grins, head shakes and eye rolls. Her voice and tone are not just irritating but grating. As Vodka Pundit Stephen Green asked, “can anyone stand to listen to THAT VOICE for the next four or eight years?”

I know I can’t.

She also tried playing to emotions. When talking about “Donald Trump’s abortion ban” (wut?) she talked about some pregnant woman “sitting next to strangers on a plane.” One of my littles laughed out loud when she said that.

At one point Harris accused Trump of not having a plan about something (it doesn’t matter what) and all I could think was, “This from a woman who hasn’t told us what her plans are since she was anointed as the Democrat’s candidate. That’s rich.”

The worst of all was the question from David Muir about Trump saying that he didn’t know Kamala was now black. That was low—and then, instead of grilling Harris on why she identified as an Indian, and now as a black woman, which Trump correctly pointed out, he had the audacity to ask Harris what she thought about Trump’s comment.

As Paula Bolyard asked, “Where is the question from Muir asking Kamala about the fake black accent she trots out when she’s in front of a black audience?”

It wasn’t about policy, it was about identity politics. Shame on the moderators.

Trump was very direct. He called Harris a Marxist, which she is. He said that Biden and Harris are weak and incompetent, which they are. He said we’re a nation in decline, which we are. He said we’re facing a real possibility of World War III, which is probably true.

Kamala bluntly said Trump wants to be a dictator and that he “adores dictators” so it went both ways.

In her closing statement, KH uses all kinds of trite sound bites like “the future” and “we’re not going back” and “we have so much more in common than separates us.” But the most cringey thing she said was that she will be a president who asks, “Are you okay?” just like she did as a prosecutor.

“I’m from the government and I’m here to help,” anyone?

Trump rambled (again, the guy has to be better prepared) but I think he hit his main points. He observed tht she’s been in office for three-and-a-half years and asks why she hasn’t done anything that she says she’s now going to do. He could’ve just said, Are you better off now? He rebuilt the military, we’re being invaded by millions of immigrants, we’re in serious decline, and we’re on the verge of WWIII.

Bottom line for me: The debate was fairly unbalanced and didn’t change anyone’s mind. Harris held her own, and Trump could’ve been stronger. But if you hate Trump, you still do. If you don’t trust Harris, you still don’t.

What’d you guys think? Let me know in the comments.

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The Broadside | Nancy Pelosi Tells Republicans What She Really Thinks of Them

I’m continually amazed by how openly hostile Democrats are toward anyone outside their party. And how diametrically opposed our worldviews are.

AUSTIN, Texas – Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., suggested that “30%” of Republican voters will never vote for Democrats because of their racism, sexism and homophobia. 

Speaking at the 2024 Texas Tribune Festival on Saturday, Pelosi was pressed by podcast host Kara Swisher on why the presidential race between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Trump is so close.

“There are people who will never be, shall we say, inclined to support Democrats because of – they just have a different orientation toward women, people of color, LGBTQ, you know, they just are not ever going to be there,” Pelosi said. “So, say that’s about like 30% or something like that… of the Republicans. 

This is just sloppy thinking, typical of the progressive movement. “[T]hey just have a different orientation …” Ackshully, Nance, it’s YOU who have a “different orientation” toward those tribes you’ve created. Don’t forget that you and your party started this by pushing abortion, gay marriage and minority supremacy. Before you, our culture was quite stable.

Then, she just throws out a completely made-up “30% or something like that” of all Republicans. I know that both sides speak in generalities, but if you’re going to accuse your opponents of having a “different orientation”—a progressive term if there ever was one—then be factual.

“But here’s where I think we have to be as respectful and understanding as possible,” she continued. “There are people who are concerned. They have fear of globalization. They saw the factory down the road move overseas. They’re fearful of innovation. Their father is a truck driver, and now they’re gonna have auto-“

“Autonomous truck,” Swisher interjected.

“Yeah,” Pelosi replied. “And so the innovation, globalization, and they include immigration… So, understandably, these people have a concern about the future for themselves, but also for their children.”

Isn’t that generous and sensitive of Nancy, handling those with a “different orientation” with kid gloves? “Respectful and understanding as possible” … *spit* … as she led two sham impeachments and tore up Trump’s State of the Union behind his back on national TV.

She says we have “a fear of globalization” as though that’s silly, but then says, we “saw the factory down the road move overseas.” Well, yes. The factory down the road put everyone in that factory out of work so that the owners could reduce costs. Such contempt for flyover country.

And we’re “fearful of innovation.” No, we’re not. We’re fearful of government mandating such debacles as EVs which are unsustainable and a total scam. We’re not stupid—the energy to charge those vehicles has to come from coal or, better yet, nuclear energy. But the progressives are in thrall to Mother Earth, not everyday Americans.

It’s a way for ultra-rich liberals like Pelosi to get even richer, like she does trading on insider information from her position in the government. Don’t lecture me about how the rich “do not really want to pay taxes or have any regulation of clean air, clean water, any of that.”

Considering you and your liberal pals create the taxes and regulations from your perch above us all, I think we should be concerned.

She’s right that we have a “different orientation.” But it’s clear that she thinks we’re wrong in our view and she and her progressive Marxist troops are right in theirs.

And we do the same.

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The Broadside | Two Political Analysts Predict Opposite Outcomes in November

Welcome back!

No, not you.

Me!

Hard to believe that it’s been over a month since I last posted. That’s the longest I’ve gone without a post over the last four-and-half years. I’d apologize, but I can’t say I’m sorry.

August was a month full of travel and working diligently to complete that project and this past week one of my littles had a little. I’m a grandfather and now I smell like menthol and wear suspenders and carry Werther’s candy in my pockets.

AnyH0oO.

The last time we were together I believe Joe “my word as a Biden” Brandon was still the Resident. A lot has happened since then, amiright? The Demokraken, champions of “muh democracy,” forced Joey Vanilla Bean out of the race and installed Cacklin’ KUHmala without so much as the courtesy of citizen input in the form of a primary.

Nope, the Democalvinists predetermined that their tribe chose KaMAHla. How’s that working out?

The formula Allan Lichtman has used to correctly predict nearly every presidential race since 1984, his “Keys to the White House,” was developed in 1981 with mathematician Vladimir Keilis-Borok and is based on their analysis of presidential elections dating back to 1860. The “keys” consist of 13 true or false questions, parameters that, if true, favor stability. 

“The way it works is real simple. If six or more keys — any six — go against the White House party, they are predicted losers. Otherwise, they’re predicted winners,” Lichtman told Fox News Digital this week. “And by the way, this also led to a prediction of Donald Trump’s win, which made me virtually alone in making that prediction in 2016.” 

Lichtman says the Democrats represented by Harris could lose five keys “at most” and that is why he is predicting that “we are going to have a precedent-breaking election and Kamala Harris will become the first woman President of the United States.”

There you have it. Get used to Mrs. President’s cackling after a vapid, vacuous, and uninspiring word salad, “unburdened by what has been.”

The only saving grace is that Lichtman has been wrong once before, which means his method of prediction isn’t foolproof. Even Tom Brady lost a Super Bowl or three.

So, for instance, there’s also this:

A liberal pollster’s latest projection shows Donald Trump securing a blowout victory over Kamala Harris.

Nate Silver’s prediction places the Republican hopeful’s chances of winning the electoral college vote at 63.8 percent, compared to 36 percent for Harris.

Silver’s modelling, published on his blog Silver Bulletin, also places Trump ahead in all of the crucial swing states.

He predicts 312 electoral college votes for Trump versus 226 for Harris in a no toss-up map.

The figure is a massive upswing on the 227 Trump secured against Biden in 2020 and even an improvement on his victory over Hillary Clinton in 2016 when he romped to the White House with 304 electoral college votes.

That’s encouraging. But I have to warn you, if it’s anywhere close, the Democrats will cheat. They did it in 2020 and they’re figuring out how to do it in 2024. They’ll flood a toilet in Arizona again which will stop the counting in six swing states and then truck in the pallet-loads of ballots to feed the voting machines and we’ll see KamaLA suddenly overcome Trump’s victory.

By all that’s logical, Trump’s going to be elected for the third time this fall. But may God have mercy on the U.S. if Kamalarama is the certified winner.