Category Archives: Daily Broadside

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Daily Broadside | Israel Proves It Can Handle What the Mullahs in Iran Throw At Them—But for How Long?

So … did anything happen over the weekend?

Sirens blared across Israel on Saturday night as hundreds of drones and missiles launched from Iran reached Israel. Drones and missiles were also reportedly launched from Yemen and other countries around the region.

[…]

The IDF has updated that the full Iranian attack consisted of over 300 threats, of which 100 were ballistic missiles launched from Iran. Another 30 cruise missiles were launched from the Islamic Republic, along with drones. There were also two rounds of rockets, around 40 total, fired on Israel from Lebanon, with Israel responding with counterattacks in close to real-time.

None of the drones or cruise missiles entered Israeli airspace. IDF spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari noted that only a small number of  ballistic missiles penetrated the Jewish state’s airspace.

Almost all interceptions have been by aircraft, David’s Sling, or the Arrow missile systems. The Iron Dome, which defends well against Hamas and Hezbollah’s simple rockets, is less relevant for drones and fancier long-range missiles.

Fortunately Israel, along with her partners including the U.S., Great Britain, France, and other unnamed parties, were able to defend against “99%” of the hostile projectiles launched against the Middle East’s only democracy.

Israel managed to shoot down 99% of the 300 deadly suicide drones and missiles that Iran launched at the Jewish state on Saturday night using an advanced air defense system known as David’s Sling — in addition to an array of other anti-missile capabilities.

Israel also had help from the US, the UK and an unlikely Arab ally.

Not a single drone or cruise missile fired by Iran and its proxies made it through, according to Israeli media. And only a few of Iran’s more advanced ballistic missiles struck Israel.

Despite facing a direct attack from Iran for the first time in modern history, Israel appears to have suffered very little damage, and only one casualty is known so far — a 7-year-old Bedouin girl.

What we’re looking at is one of the most advanced defensive arrays in world history. Israel, because of its existential imperative to survive in the lion’s den of the Middle East, has developed one of the most impressive defensive military systems in the world; even better, perhaps, than what the U.S. can field.

The attack is a response to the killing of top Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander Mohammad Reza Zahedi, the death of whom Iran blames Israel.

More importantly, the attack is a direct result of the Biden junta’s jumbled messaging about Israel’s right to self defense and their idiotic pacification of Iran. Of course, they don’t see it that way. They blame—wait for it—Donald J. Trump.

Bream pressed Kirby about the Biden administration’s policies to permit waivers on sanctions and unfreezing assets vis-à-vis Iran. Last month, the Biden administration re-approved a sanctions waiver to permit Iraq to purchase energy from Iran, effectively allowing the state-sponsor of terrorism to access $10 billion. Kirby had said at the time the money would not go to its “mullahs.”

“Could this administration have been tougher on Iran? Did it sense an opening?” Bream asked. 

“It’s hard to take a look at what President Biden has done and say that we have somehow gone soft on Iran,” Kirby responded. “It was the previous administration that decided to get us out of the Iran deal. And now Iran is so much dramatically closer to a potential nuclear weapon capability than they were before Mr. Trump was elected.”

That Donald Trump, guys. Out of office for almost four years, and the impact he’s had on this administration. I mean, he’s made it so hard for them to govern.

It’s not hard to believe that this gang of incompetent wokesters hastens to blame the prior administration which has been out of power since January 2020. Blame-shifting is their go-to tactic, especially since all Brandon can do is wag his finger and cough up “don’t” as though Iran has any respect for him at all. He’s all pose and no substance, one of the weakest “leaders” we’ve ever had at the helm of this nation.

Bream pressed Kirby again on whether the White House was soft on Iran, and he again blamed Trump’s foreign policy. 

“Is it not fair to say, though, that there have been moves by this administration that have opened up cash and other opportunities for them, which we know are fungible in ways that are not helping the Iranian people but are benefiting the elites and people there who chant ‘Death to America?,'” Bream asked. 

Kirby responded by saying, “The additional funds that have been made available to Iran due to the sanctions relief program that the Trump administration put in place, can only be used for humanitarian goods. It doesn’t go to the regime. And the idea that the regime was somehow felt like they were freed up to support these proxies because of that. It just doesn’t comport with the fact that they have been supporting these proxies for years.” 

For now Israel has withheld a retaliatory response, influenced in part by a call that Biden had with Netanyahu. But there are calls for Israel to attack Iran directly. One publicationn called for Israel to go on the offensive.

The IDF spokesperson said rightly when referring to those who use ballistic missiles as not planning a “moderate attack,” but intending to hit hard. Ballistic missiles, after all, are like a declaration of war.

This could be the run up to World War III. It’s clear that power centers are shifting and the mullahs are growing bolder. They know what is true about any attack, even against an enemy as well prepared defensively as is Israel: the target has to be lucky all the time. Terrorists only have to be lucky once.

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Daily Broadside | OJ Simpson Dies and Leaves Behind A Racially Divided Nation in His Wake

I was going to write about the flood of illegal aliens again today, but the death of O.J. Simpson was announced yesterday and I can’t let the moment pass without saying something about it.

Simpson, a former NFL running back and celebrated TV personality, died after a long battle with cancer. He was 76. Despite his celebrity, he is most well known for the infamous “Trial of the Century” in which he was tried and acquitted for the brutal murder of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ron Goldman. Some years later he was found guilty of an unrelated armed robbery and kidnapping and sentenced to 33 years in prison. He served nine before being released in 2017.

Simpson was my first sports hero. He already played for the NFL’s Buffalo Bills (1969–1977) when my parents moved our family to upstate New York. The Bills were my team and OJ—”The Juice!”—was my favorite player as my budding awareness of sports in general, and football in particular, took flight.

I remember being fascinated by his raw athleticism on the field and my friends and I would trade stories and talk smack about how great he was. He was the first running back to rush for 2,000 yards in one season (1973). I remember buying a pair of athletic shoes that looked like the shoes he wore on game day. The number 32 was an icon for me long before I moved to Chicago where its reverse (23) was even more iconic (Michael Jordan).

But his association with the murder of his ex-wife ruined the admiration I had for him. It was clear to me and to the country as a whole that Simpson was the murderer. The judge allowed the trial to be televised, and it became obvious that while the trial was about whether or not the accused was guilty of the crime, the black public was watching it as a soap opera about race.

Blacks were hoping he would be acquitted not because he didn’t commit the crime, but because he was black. I wanted him convicted because I was sure he had committed the murders.

I remember where I was—in an office, at a counter by myself, where a small radio was relaying the news—when the jury returned a verdict of “not guilty.” I couldn’t believe it. But what was truly astounding was the glee with which the verdict was greeted by (mostly) blacks.

They cheered. They celebrated. It was as if they had won something.

It’s one thing to believe he’s not guilty and breathe a sigh of relief when it’s over, but it’s quite another thing to cheer and celebrate as though Simpson had just completed his record 2,000-yard season. A woman and her friend had been murdered—and nobody seemed to care about that part, even when it was transparently clear that Simpson had done it.

Remarkably, years later we finally got a look at the truth behind the incomprehensible verdict when one of the jurors admitted that they knew Simpson killed Nicole and Ron, but were determined to acquit Simpson for revenge.

She says it was payback for the acquittal of four LAPD officers who beat Rodney King in March1991, which led to the Los Angeles riots of 1992.

The black jurors, instead of doing their duty as American citizens, decided that they’d use their power to let a murderer go free.

To get even with whitey.

She and the rest of the jurors should be ashamed of themselves. But they’re not.

Personally, I think we can draw a straight line from the OJ Simpson case to the racial conflict we are experiencing today.

Have a good weekend.

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Daily Broadside | Donald Trump Isn’t A Hardline Pro-Life Candidate, But I’ll Still Vote for Him

On Monday president-in-exile Donald J. Trump posted a video in which he affirmed IVF (in vitro fertilization) but declined to endorse a federal abortion ban. Instead, he said that the issue should be left to the states.

Many pro-life conservatives were severely disappointed by his announcement, especially since he had said he would sign a federal ban on abortion during his previous administration.

As a 2016 presidential candidate, Trump embraced a federal abortion ban as he sought to consolidate Republican support for his unexpected ascension to GOP nominee. He sent a letter to anti-abortion leaders committing to signing legislation that would have criminalized abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy, with exceptions for instances in which the life of the mother is at risk or cases involving rape or incest.

President of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, Marjorie Dannenfelser, issued a statement typical of the pro-life response.

“We are deeply disappointed in President Trump’s position. Unborn children and their mothers deserve national protections and national advocacy from the brutality of the abortion industry. The Dobbs decision clearly allows both states and Congress to act.

“Saying the issue is ‘back to the states’ cedes the national debate to the Democrats who are working relentlessly to enact legislation mandating abortion throughout all nine months of pregnancy. If successful, they will wipe out states’ rights.

A bit stronger was the statement from LiveAction, the pro-life advocacy organization founded and led by Lila Rose.

Killing babies is always wrong. President Trump is not a pro-life candidate. He’s far less pro-abortion than Biden, but he supports killing some preborn children and will even make that his position in an attempt to get pro-abortion votes. 

President Trump also says that abortion should come down to the “will of the people.” It is not right for democratic societies to vote on the fundamental rights of unpopular minorities. There is no more unpopular minority today than preborn Americans. Abortion is not about the “will of the people,” it’s about respecting the human right that we are endowed with by our creator. Our rights come from God, not the government. Those rights do not change because of the circumstances of our conception. Children conceived in rape do not deserve to be killed. Children conceived in IVF do not deserve to be killed, frozen indefinitely or subjected to lethal science experiments.

President Trump’s position also stands in opposition to the GOP platform, which has for decades advanced the idea that the federal government has a vigorous role in protecting children from abortion.

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That position represents the views of the vast majority of Republican voters and supporters of former President Trump. It is tragic that President Trump is abandoning this long-held Republican position. President Trump’s new position is not leadership; it’s a stab in the back against his supporters. With a leader like this, the GOP has little hope of making meaningful progress to protect preborn children. President Trump’s mistake will also make it more challenging for the pro-life movement to win statewide referendums. 

Human life begins at fertilization, and this is the true pro-life position. Human life deserves protection from the moment life begins. 

Personally, I am in full agreement with the position on abortion in both statements. Human beings should not be executed in the womb because they’re inconvenient or for any other reason.

But I’m also sympathetic to the political realities facing Trump. In order to get a federal ban or even some federal restriction on abortion, we have to win the presidency, along with the House and Senate. To win office, Trump has to attract as many voters as he possibly can (without totally selling out). If the margin is too small, the Democrats will cheat again and win. (They’ll cheat no matter what.)

I particularly liked the tone set by Tony Perkins, president of the pro-life Family Research Council, in his response (read the whole thing).

Trump is not a perfect candidate. Ironically, he’s the closest “choice” we have to a pro-life president. Let’s not forget his nominations of Gorsuch, Kavanaugh and Barrett, who sent Roe to the ash heap of history. He deserves our thanks for that.

Would I like a hardline pro-life candidate to vote for? Yes. Do I have one on the ballot come November? It’s not looking like it.

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Daily Broadside | Surprise! Black Pressure Groups Want Destroyed Francis Scott Key Bridge Renamed

Well, that didn’t take long.

African American groups call for ditching ‘racist’ Francis Scott Key, naming new bridge after late congressman

A coalition of African American groups in Maryland is pushing for Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge to be renamed once reconstructed over what they say is racism connected to Key’s legacy. 

The Caucus of African American Leaders of Anne Arundel County recently voted unanimously to call for changing the names of two bridges in Maryland, including the Key Bridge, and will lobby Democratic Gov. Wes Moore and the state’s Democrat-controlled General Assembly on the proposal, the Baltimore Banner first reported Tuesday. The bridge collapsed in late March when a cargo ship struck a support beam. 

The coalition includes groups such as an NAACP chapter and the National Coalition of 100 Black Women, which wants the replacement bridge to be renamed in honor of the late Rep. Parren Mitchell, the first African American elected to the U.S. House from the state of Maryland. Mitchell was also a civil rights pioneer as the first Black graduate student admitted to the University of Maryland.

We haven’t even found all the bodies yet, but don’t let that stand in the way of your grievance activism.

A spokesperson for the Caucus of African American Leaders told Fox News Digital they believe “public structures and buildings that taxpayers pay for shouldn’t be named in honor of people who owned slaves.”

It may come as no surprise that I, as a taxpayer, believe that naming “public structures and buildings that taxpayers pay for” shouldn’t be held hostage by one group that has a chip on its shoulder.

As a lawyer, Francis Scott Key helped black Marylanders sue for freedom prior to emancipation. Yet the grievance mongers smear Key with his alleged later views on slavery.

They also quote Key as having said Black Americans are “a distinct and inferior race of people, which all experience proves to be the greatest evil that afflicts a community,” which has received pushback as an “erroneous” quote from the Star Spangled Banner Foundation. 

“A racist quote attributed to Francis Scott Key, the author of the lyrics to ‘The Star-Spangled Banner,’ has been circulating in news articles and blog posts,” the foundation wrote in 2020. “Incorrectly credited to Key as a first-person expression of his attitudes about race in the United States, the quote asserts that free Blacks are “a distinct and inferior race of people, which all experience proves to be the greatest evil that afflicts a community.”

“The quote is taken from page 40 of Jefferson Morley’s generally insightful 2012 book Snow-Storm in August: Washington City, Francis Scott Key, and the Forgotten Race Riot of 1835),” the foundation continued. “Morley, in turn, cites as his sole source a quote in the 1937 biography Francis Scott Key: Life and Times by Edward S. Delaplaine. This biography is the source of confusion as to the quote’s speaker.”

Be that as it may, this push to rename the bridge after an obscure black Marylander really comes as no surprise, especially after the destruction of nationally-important statues over the last few years, including of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. Francis Scott Key is a national figure who contributed to our national identity by authoring the national anthem. But with professional and college sports teams either kneeling or not showing up for the playing of the national anthem, cancelling the anthem’s author is just the next step in smothering our historic national identity.

I can only assume that the black Americans behind this and other efforts to replace recognition of white Americans (like General Robert E. Lee, and presidents George Washington and Thomas Jefferson) with recognition of black Americans think that this somehow fixes past injustices.

It doesn’t, because it can’t.

Whatever isolation black Americans feel, removing and replacing white national historic figures with obscure black figures only furthers that isolation. I know nothing of “Rep. Parren Mitchell, the first African American elected to the U.S. House from the state of Maryland” and I’d wager that very few blacks know who he is, either. Instead of us all, blacks and whites, being bound by the national anthem and its author—who, by the way, was born in Frederick County, Maryland, and lived most of his life there—blacks in Maryland will reject that commonality and replace it with a black man only a few of them know.

Their prerogative. Maryland will reject one of their sons, known for writing our national anthem, for another son, a “first black,” i.e. based solely on race.

Stupid.

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Daily Broadside | Sunny Hostin Eclipsed By (Brighter?) Minds On Eclipse of Sun

There was a lot of oompah-oompah leading up to yesterday’s solar eclipse. Where I live the moon covered 92 percent of the sun, so our favorite star was a thin crescent and didn’t go completely dark.

Still, a solar eclipse produces a bit of a spooky atmosphere. The world is there, in color, and it’s clearly daylight, but it’s like looking through a screen door. Everything has sort of a gray hue to it.

One of the littles was present along the path of totality and experienced the mid-day darkness.

Some Christians speculated that this solar eclipse finished the “X” across America that was started by the last solar eclipse seven years ago and is a sign of impending judgment for our nation. Scripture does say that one of the purposes of the heavenly bodies is to provide “signs.”

And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years. Genesis 1:14

Of course, this is great fun for skeptics and CHINOs (CHristians In Name Only).

Hostin’s unhinged conspiracy theories may have been the wildest, but they were not the first during the episode. Faux conservative Alyssa Farah Griffin rhetorically scoffed at the idea that the Friday earthquake in New Jersey was a sign that Jesus was returning, but suggested former President Trump’s gold club had something to do with it:

So, what’s kind of crazy is with the earthquake on Friday and then the eclipse today, people are having all sorts of conspiracies about the end of the world. And then I read online that the earthquake epicenter was actually at Bedminster in New Jersey. Fun fact. So it originated with Trump.

Hostin, a self-proclaimed devout Catholic, laughed about how their studio makeup artist “put on her coat” and “ran down the hallway” during the earthquake saying “Jesus is coming” and “the rapture is here.”

She also bloviated about how it was the first time in 100 years that two different cicada broods were emerging for their mating seasons at the same time.

Apparently, all the pieces were on the table and only Hostin was smart enough to put them together, and “climate change” was the answer. “All those things together would maybe lead one to believe that either climate change exists, or something is really going on,” she proclaimed.

You knew things were bad when Joy Behar and Whoopi Goldberg were the voices of reason.

“Except earthquakes are not at the mercy of climate change. It’s underground. It can’t,” Behar pushed back. But Hostin wouldn’t listen to reason. “How about the warming of the planet?” she huffed in what she seemingly thought was a checkmate, without evidence of how it would cause earthquakes miles below the earth’s surface.

“No, it happens. And the eclipse, they’ve known about the eclipse coming because eclipses happen and they actually can say when these things are going to happen,” Goldberg argued.

“The View” is the last place to go to get an opinion or news (which are often the same thing with them). But the absolute lack of self-awareness in mocking believers for thinking Jesus is coming and then demonstrating your sheer ignorance of how the earth and the planets work is astonishing, even for “The View.”

The only explanation is that she’s an indoctrinated climate change cultist.

Nobody can be that … um, what’s the word … clueless? Although at this point, given the state of our world, I’m ready to believe that anything is possible.

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Daily Broadside | US Muslims Pressure Biden Who Pressures Israel Who May Be Bending. But I Hope Not

It’s been a bit since I’ve addressed the situation in Israel, now in its seventh month. You might recall that I’m unambiguously in support of Israel’s war on Hamas in the Gaza strip. Hamas is the evil terrorist squad that launched the massacre against Israeli civilians on October 7 last year, killing some 1,200 innocents, while raping women, shooting children, and baking infants in ovens, then abducting hundreds more civilians as hostages.

My view is that if you’re going to provoke a war, you don’t get to cry about the beating you get in return. That view is not shared by Brandon and the puppeteers who pull his strings, or by the Muslim communities who now live here in large enough numbers to make their anti-American voices heard.

Muslim protestors chant ‘death to America, death to Israel’ at rally in Michigan’s Dearborn after city was branded Jihad capital of the U.S by WSJ

  • Protestors gathered to honor Al-Quds Day, an international day to express support for Palestine
  • ‘The chant “death to Israel” has become the most logical chant shouted across the world today,’ one activist said
  • Dearborn was deemed ‘America’s jihad capital’ in an op-ed earlier this year

Chants of ‘death to America!’ and ‘death to Israel!’ erupted during a protest in a Michigan city branded the county’s ‘jihad capital’ by a Wall Street Journal columnist.

Demonstrators gathered in the city on Sunday in commemoration of Al-Quds Day, an international day to express support for Palestine and oppose the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories.

The protest came six days after seven aid workers from World Central Kitchen were killed by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza.

Video shared by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) shows Tarek Bazzi, a local activist, delivering remarks at a podium as chants of ‘death to America!’ sound in the background. 

‘It’s not just Genocide Joe that has to go,’ Bazzi said in reference to President Biden. 

‘It is the entire system that has to go. Any system that would allow such atrocities and such devilry to happen, and would support it – such a system does not deserve to exist on God’s Earth.’

I’m surprised Merrick’s Gestapo isn’t all over this. Sounds kind of insurrectioney to me.

A decade ago I was echoing warnings that allowing Muslims to resettle here would result in hot spots with Muslim majority rule that would clash with American civic values and long-standing history and traditions. Islam, to which Muslims adhere, is not a benevolent religion that just wants to practice their beliefs in peace. To be clear, many individual Muslims do, but Islam is an entire socio-political religious system—a religious-political-cultural ideology—whose goal is to so dominate the world that all non-Muslims will either convert or live in subjugation to it. Indeed, Islam is Arabic for submission and the word “Muslim” means one who submits.

What you’re seeing in Dearborn is a localized manifestation of the broad dominance they will eventually achieve, here and around the world. Pew Research published a report in which they project that,

In the United States, Christians will decline from more than three-quarters of the population in 2010 to two-thirds in 2050, and Judaism will no longer be the largest non-Christian religion. Muslims will be more numerous in the U.S. than people who identify as Jewish on the basis of religion.

This is the bed that your leaders have made and you will be made to lie in it.

Back to Israel. The IDF has withdrawn almost all troops from southern Gaza.

Israel withdrew more troops from southern Gaza on April 7, leaving only a single division in the area as the country faces growing pressure from the United States and internationally to improve humanitarian conditions in the region.

“Today, Sunday April 7th, the IDF’s 98th commando division has concluded its mission in Khan Yunis. The division left the Gaza strip in order to recuperate and prepare for future operations,” the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement. “A significant force led by the 162nd division and the Nahal brigade continues to operate in the Gaza strip, and will preserve the IDF’s freedom of action and its ability to conduct precise intelligence-based operations.”

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The troop withdrawal comes as Israel is under increased pressure from the United States. [So-called] president Joe Biden has demanded an improvement in humanitarian conditions in Gaza and called on Israel to work toward a cease-fire, saying further U.S. support will depend on that. The United States is a major supplier of arms to Israel’s military.

President Biden has also urged leaders of Egypt and Qatar to pressure the Hamas terrorist group to agree to a cease-fire and arrive at a hostage deal ahead of a fresh round of talks in Cairo.

Our Fool in Chief is pandering to the Muslim enclaves in Michigan and Minnesota and anywhere else in the U.S. to get their votes in November. Sacrificing Israel on the altar of anti-Semitism to the radical Islamists is of no concern to him, since making Iran a nuclear power in the Middle East is obviously one of his goals.

Israel, on the other hand, is fighting an existential battle for its life. It’s embarrassing that the U.S. is trying to sandbag its efforts.

However, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu remains firm in his commitment to destroy Hamas.

Rafah, a city where about 1.5 million Palestinians have come seeking refuge from other parts of Gaza, is a key point of conflict between Israel and the Biden administration. President Biden has asked Israel to not conduct military incursions in Rafah, warning that doing so would be crossing a “red line.”

However, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said during a cabinet meeting last month that “no international pressure will stop Israel” from achieving its military goals.

“If we stop the war now before achieving all of its goals, the meaning is that Israel had lost the war and we will not allow this,” he said.

Good.

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Daily Broadside | However Much You Despise This Administration, It’s Not Enough

The latest gaslighting project to smear Trump just dropped from the Biden administration junta.

Terrible, right!?! Trump called immigrants “ANIMALS”!

Except he didn’t.

Here’s what he actually said.

Dems love to change the focus to the FEEEEELings of the animals who committed these crimes. They want to nitpick words and insults while ignoring the murder of innocent Americans by the criminals allowed to be in this country as a result of the anti-American policies the Dems design, implement and support.

CNN of course picked up and amplified the lie.

Don’t let them change the subject. Keep the focus on the blood that they have on their hands.

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Daily Broadside | Biden Lies And Says He Didn’t Proclaim “Trans Day of Visibility” to be on Easter

When asked about Speaker Johnson’s claim that Brandon proclaimed Easter Sunday to be the “Trans Day of Visibility,” the mentally incompetent bozo simply lied and said he didn’t do it. But the Internet is forever:

I mean, it sure sounds like he proclaimed it because he uses words like “therefore I … do hereby proclaim.” Yet he says that Speaker Johnson “thoroughly uninformed.”

Yes, it’s bad that Brandon proclaimed such a day in direct conflict with the holiest day on the Christian calendar. But there could be more than meets the eye here, and probably is. James Lindsay, whom I’ve quoted before, is someone who understands the mechanics of a cultural revolution, like the one we’re in the middle of right now.

This isn’t just an insult to the Christian faith, and indeed an intolerable one that proclaims a form of embodied Gnostic theosophy that misleads and destroys kids. It is entirely consistent with Woke Theosophy, as I’ve discussed elsewhere and may attach here as a thread, but it is more than that. It is also a deliberate provocation against Christians that must be understood.

A key principle of Woke activism is “your target’s reaction is your real action.” That derives from Saul Alinsky in Rules for Radicals and has been codified in the updated activism manual called Beautiful Trouble. They do these provocations intentionally, as I have discussed at length in the past, as a means of stoking a reaction they can use to their advantage.

On the reactionary side at present, it must be indicated that there are multiple overlapping active measures to drag faithful Christians into reactionary stances. One is the prevailing “Operation Christian Nationalism,” which this same administration is framing as one of the most dangerous threats to “democracy” in the world today. Another is the more local and specific radicalization attempt during Holy Week that follows the Christian rhetoric of “Christ is King,” which has been successfully tied to an antisemitic trope and active measure meant to drive a wedge between Christians and Jews and Christians and Christians. I have taken tremendous heat for exposing this active measure, as have many others, which is a testament to its status as an active measure.

This provocation, published yesterday, is overwhelmingly likely aiming to feed into those prevailing active measures (“ops”) meant to drag Christians into a positions of fruitful reaction that the Regime can use to clamp down on them. Again, Christian reaction is their real action, and we know for certain that Christian circles are deeply infiltrated with a chest-beating and growing radicalism that is being baited toward and associated with a growing antisemitism. The responses to this post will almost certainly prove this out, btw. Your evil government wants this to happen. They are baiting you into it.

It’s hard to internalize that our government may be deliberately trying to entrap us, but it is (at the very least) possible, and looking more probable as time goes on. So what should we do?

You should cleave to your faith with wisdom and discernment. You should celebrate your Christianity as loudly and publicly as you want, and you should do so aware that a reaction is being solicited from you. Pray for those caught up in the trans cult. Make your prayers visible. Welcome them to healing and communion, even if they’re not ready to take it. Likewise, pray for these evil “leaders” that they repent of this wickedness. Pray also for those professing Christianity but not practicing it, seeking to lead Christians into error from within, that they repent and find forgiveness, peace, strength, and ultimately faith.

More than that, celebrate your faith openly and on terms that avoid the desired reaction of these enemies of both the church and our nations. Proclaim “He is risen” and celebrate your salvation through Him. Do not be afraid, but do not take the evil path that is being offered to you. I advise reading Matthew 10 in its entirety in this dangerous time in which your religion is targeted and in which you are being targeted and identified for this persecution, which is being set up through these provocations. It contains wisdom and guidance for times precisely like these.

Happy Easter, everyone, and may the Good News of your faith overpower the evil being done against it, not through chest-beating reaction and temptations to evil, but through the power of peace, repentance, and forgiveness that is at the heart of it, for all the people in all the nations of the world. Let not this weapon that has been forged against you prevail. Keep your faith, and keep your head. These are trying times.

It’s hard to ignore such a deliberate offense, and as I’ve cautioned before (following Doug Wilson here and here), we must not take the bait. I don’t know if James Lindsay is a professing Christian, but we need men like him helping us see what is really going on behind the bizarre cultural deformities being pushed by the authorities.

Keep your faith, and keep your head.

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Daily Broadside | There’s Always Two Sides to Changing Our Political Processes

Happy Monday and I hope you all had a blessed trans day of visibility Easter celebration.

It’s also April Fool’s Day, so happy anniversary to me as I start a fifth year of blogging. Thanks to all of you who read regularly, thanks to those of you who link to posts in Facebook and other social media, and thanks to those of you who comment.

Every now and then someone comes up with a novel idea that begs to be taken seriously. I came across an article at The American Conservative in which the author argues that we should abolish the Twenty-second Amendment. The text in question:

No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of President more than once.

The argument of the article’s author, Peter Tonguette, is driven by the amazing rebound of Donald J. Trump, who “lost” reelection nearly four years ago. Only one other president in our nation’s history has been elected to two nonconsecutive terms: Grover Cleveland (1884 and 1892).

This is plainly unfair. Indeed, there has long been support for axing the Twenty-second Amendment due to the artificial limits it places on voter choice. Many popular presidents have agreed. In 1985, the Washington Post reported that Ronald Reagan supported repealing the amendment, saying in private remarks that the lame-duck label being applied to his second term left him feeling “handicapped.” In 2016, Barack Obama told David Axelrod that he was sure he would have coasted to a third term if such a thing were permissible: “I am confident in this vision, because I’m confident that if I had run again and articulated it, I think I could have mobilized a majority of the American people to rally behind it.” 

The case of Donald Trump, however, makes an even more forceful ethical argument against the Twenty-second Amendment and for its repeal: If a man who once was president returns, after a series of years, to stand again for the office and proves so popular as to earn a second nonconsecutive term—as Trump seems bound to do—to deny him the right to run for a second consecutive term cuts against basic fair play. If, by 2028, voters feel Trump has done a poor job, they can pick another candidate; but if they feel he has delivered on his promises, why should they be denied the freedom to choose him once more?

I almost decided not to comment on this article because it’s an isolated topic that has no particular momentum. Sort of a nice idea, but there are more important things to be talking about.

But as I got ready to close the tab I thought, “it’s NOT a nice idea.”

It’s right there in the first paragraph of the section I quoted above. “In 2016, Barack Obama told David Axelrod that he was sure he would have coasted to a third term if such a thing were permissible.” That statement scares me. Can you imagine a third consecutive term of B. Hussein Obama himself in the White House? I mean, we’re living it right now (you do know that Obama is pulling the strings of this “administration”, right?), but the Lightbringer doesn’t have the bully pulpit from which to personally call his minions to action.

What if he got elected to a third term, then a fourth, like FDR?

We have to remember that there are always two sides to every idea that we think will give us some advantage. On the one hand, I’d like to see term limits for congresscritters. We could do away with the likes of Nancy Pelosi, Adam Schiff, Maxine Waters and AOC. But that also means we’d lose members like Ted Cruz, John Kennedy, Chip Roy, Marsha Blackburn and Mike Lee.

When Harry Reid changed an historic Senate rule to overcome filibusters, he and his party didn’t take seriously the long-term consequences.

In 2013, Reid invoked the “nuclear option,” a historic move that changed a long-standing Senate rule, dropping the number of votes needed to overcome a filibuster from 60 to a simple majority for executive appointments and most judicial nominations — a decision he justified because of trouble getting through court confirmations in the latter half of the Obama Administration.

At the time, then-Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and many other Republicans warned Reid that he would regret implementing the nuclear option.

“What goes around comes around. And someday they’re going to be in the minority,” Republican Sen. John Thune warned.

Well, it’s come around. Democrats are in the minority and many are pointing to Reid’s tweet as evidence of the folly of changing the Senate rules.

Reid’s rule change led to Trump getting his Supreme Court nominations through the Senate without any trouble. Thanks, Harry, for Kavanaugh, Gorsuch and Coney Barrett.

Novel ideas that upset long-standing traditions or practices cut both ways. There may be some — like abolishing the Twenty-second Amendment — that merit consideration. For instance, I think we should revisit the Seventeenth Amendment, which approved direct elections of US Senators by the voting public instead of being appointed by the state legislatures, as originally intended by the Founders.

But always, Always, ALWAYS remember: there are two sides to every change in political processes and rules, and while it might be beneficial to conservatives now, it may be beneficial to liberals later.

Choose your fights carefully and consider the long-term consequences.

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Daily Broadside | Maybe Jesus Didn’t Really Die on the Cross and Come Back to Life

It’s Good Friday and I always take a break from the political nonsense going on in our country to deliberately reflect on what is ultimately important in this life — a relationship with God through Jesus Christ. (See 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023.)

Because I don’t write on the weekends, I never specifically write about Easter Sunday and the resurrection of Jesus, which are inextricably bound up with the events of Good Friday. I want to do that today by examining some of the explanations posited by unbelievers who object to the idea of a physical resurrection from the dead.

To claim that Jesus was put to death and was really, indisputably dead — no heartbeat, no pulse, no brainwaves, no breath, fixed pupils, cold to the touch, completely unresponsive to any stimulation — and that he remained that way for some 40 hours and then came back to life, is extraordinary. It defies our reason, logic and experience.

When my father died, I was there. He was really, indisputably dead. If I had been told that he was up and walking around a few days later, it would be inexplicable and frightening and “unbelievable.” In our world, there is no “coming back” from the dead. Death is final. Dead is dead.

Yet we have four documents that describe an individual named Jesus who died and came back to life some 2,000 years ago. Could it be? Is it true?

Those who don’t believe say that what the Bible claims is impossible, and there must be another explanation. It was a hoax that the disciples pulled off by stealing and hiding the body; His appearance after death was a hallucination; Jesus didn’t die on the cross but was revived later; the entire story is a myth.

To say the disciples stole the body and just claimed Jesus was alive doesn’t stand scrutiny because they all went to their deaths proclaiming that Jesus was alive. One might die for something he believes to be true, but twelve will not die for something they know to be false.

Same with the theory that the appearances of Jesus were hallucinations driven by a fanatical wish for it to be true. But the Bible says that Jesus appeared to groups of people, including a crowd of more than 500. Individuals may hallucinate, but groups of people don’t all hallucinate the same thing at the same time.

As far as the whole story being a myth, the textual evidence doesn’t support the theory. A myth requires time to develop, so the closer a writing is to actual events the less time there is for the truth to be contaminated by mythology.

For example, in 1 Corinthians 15:3-5 Paul refers to a creed, a creed being a formal statement of belief.

For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve.

Paul wrote 1 Corinthians in the mid-50s. In this passage, he’s referring to an even earlier statement about Jesus’ life, death, burial and resurrection. Paul likely “received” this creed directly from Peter and James, both of whom were eyewitnesses and with whom he had met following his conversion. The features of Paul’s language dates the creed to the 30s, probably within a couple of years of Jesus’ death, which precludes any legendary developments.

So Jesus’ resurrection isn’t a myth, it wasn’t the product of mass hallucinations, and the disciples didn’t steal the body. What about the theory that Jesus simply passed out but recovered after he was removed from the cross?

It’s known as the “swoon theory” and it collapses under close scrutiny. Rather than summarize it for you, I’ll let the writers at CARM do it:

The Swoon theory falls apart quickly when you consider that Jesus had undergone six trials, was beaten, then scourged with 39 lashes that left His back raw, exposed, and bloody.  He had a crown of thorns forced upon His head, ripping His scalp.  He had been crucified with nails in the hands and feet; he hung there for six hours bleeding and dehydrating; his spear-pierced side emitted blood and water.  He was left in a tomb for three days and was tightly wrapped up.  Was anyone in this condition able to revive, get himself out of the tight wrappings, and then walk on pierced feet?

Could he single-handedly move a large stone with hands that were unusable due to the wrist piercings which severed the median nerve and paralyzed them?  Could he then somehow get by the armed guards given the charge of watching the grave-side?  Are we to believe further that Jesus managed to walk a long distance on feet which had been pierced and then appear to the disciples as a victorious conqueror of death?  The Swoon theory makes no sense.  In fact, it would take more to believe this ridiculous conjecture than it would to believe that Jesus rose from the dead.

Exactly so.

The resurrection of Jesus is the lynchpin of the entire Christian faith. If Jesus is still dead, then the entire ediface collapses. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15:17-19,

And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins … If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.

Fortunately, the tomb was empty and the only reasonable explanation is what the Bible declares: we have a risen Savior.

Happy Easter!