đ¤Łđ Recap: Wuflu is man-made, laptop is real, Russian Collusion is not real, Intelligence community is corrupt, Boarder is wide open, Globalist Agenda for World Domination is Open Source News, Federal Reserve Bank is broke, Epstien didn't kill himself, what am I forgetting? pic.twitter.com/gjbvenryIn
âJeffrey Epstein discovered that Bill Gates had an affair with a Russian bridge player and later appeared to use his knowledge to threaten one of the worldâs richest men, according to people familiar with the matter.âhttps://t.co/HHZAtJpILp
— Jerry Dunleavy đşđ¸ (@JerryDunleavy) May 21, 2023
Most important part of the WSJ story: Gates spox confirms the affair, and confirms their interpretation of Epsteinâs conduct was blackmail.
This is the most pitiful thing I have seen in a good long while. Nebraska state senator starts crying over "trans rights," refers to himself as a "fierce advocate" for the chemical castration of children.pic.twitter.com/kmOGINoN7v
“The Durham Report was released this week and Democrats could not wait to try to discredit it.
-Durham Report: âThe FBI Discounted or Willfully Ignored Material information that did Not Support the Narrative of a Collusive Relationship Between Trump and Russiaâ
-Durham Report proves âwhat a destructive, vicious, damaging person Hillary Clinton is to our political processâ
Remember when Democrats loved whistleblowers? They donât.
-FBI Whistleblowers Battle Against the Agency and Congressional Democrats
-Rep. Sanchez Tries to Discredit FBI Whistleblower With His Twitter AccountâŚExcept Itâs Not His
-âThe FBI Will Crush Youâ: Whistleblower Tells Future Whistleblowers to Come to Him or Congress to Expose Corruption
Oh, is that all?
-FBI Claims It âMisusedâ Digital Surveillance Tool Over 270,000 Times Between 2020-2021
How did we get here?
-Pro-Life Activist Says FBI Visit to Mother was âto Intimidateâ Her
-Rep Comer: Nine of 10 Whistlebowers in Biden Family Business Investigation are âMissing,â WH Intimidating Them”
“The inventors of artificial intelligence went before Congress last week and warned that without government supervision, the emerging technology could be employed by the unscrupulous to mislead people and spread falsehoods.
Itâs frightening, but not without precedent.
If you want to know what it would look like if an AI were programmed to be relentless, ruthless, and amoral in service to a political agenda, you donât have to look far.
Just consider the mainstream media. They have tailored their so-called news coverage to focus entirely on attacking conservatives and covering up for Democrats. Anyone who challenges their narrative is accused of lying or peddling âconspiracy theories.â Any facts that disprove their assumptions are either ignored entirely or summarily dismissed as Republican âtalking points.â
And then remember this: Thanks to the First Amendment, the dangerous lies of the media cannot be subject to government supervision or control. Itâs entirely up to us to sniff out and reject the falsehoods, but if you are a trusting soul who canât imagine a world where you are intentionally kept in the dark about fundamental truths, then you will always be living an illusion.
A perfect metaphor for this state of blissful ignorance was unveiled recently on the Apple TV+ show âSilo,â which tells the story of a few thousand people who have been living underground in a massive silo for generations. Their only contact with the outside world is a video link to a camera placed on the surface, which shows a forlorn landscape littered with the bodies of those few daring people who had exited the silo after growing sick of being virtual prisoners. The video of the bleak and deadly surface plays nonstop in public places to remind the residents of the silo that there is nothing for them on the outside.
In our metaphoric analysis, that video represents the relentlessly negative and destructive narrative of the mainstream media, played over and over for an unwitting population. There is little reason for the average person to doubt what he or she has been told so convincingly by so many seemingly sincere talking heads. But what happens if the public gets a glimpse of reality?
Just such an occurrence happened in a recent episode of âSiloâ when the main generator for the silo was turned off in order to accomplish needed repairs. In the brief moment between the power going down and the backup generator kicking in, the Hiroshima-like deathscape on the video screen was replaced by a halcyon sunlit pasture of green grass and trees. Blink and you missed it. And if you are one of the characters who lives in the silo, you keep your mouth shut. No one so far has admitted what they saw or asked questions about it. Thatâs what happens when you are fed an endless diet of lies. The truth looks like an unappetizing worm.
But sooner or later, as the Bard tells us, the truth will out, or in this case the worm will turn.
That transformation for the mainstream media began on May 10, when Donald Trump climbed out of the silo and showed millions of CNN viewers that the lies theyâve been told for years were absurd and dangerous, starting with the notion that the 45th president himself is absurd and dangerous. Town hall moderator Kaitlan Collins did her best to lock down Trump with questions intended to humiliate or mock him. But what she did not count on was that having an audience full of real people from the free state of New Hampshire would make her questions look as fake as that dead planet on âSilo.â
From the moment the crowd of 300 or so Republican and independent voters gave Trump a standing ovation as he was introduced, it was obvious that Collins was in for a long night. So was the television audience of 3.3 million presumably mostly liberal CNN viewers who have been fed a steady drumbeat of anti-Trump propaganda for more than six years. Collins did her best to unsettle Trump by bringing up topics such as the legitimacy of the 2020 election, the Jan. 6 riots, and the many legal cases brought against him by Democratic district attorneys or funded by Democratic donors. But in every single instance, Trump was prepared to answer by rejecting and refuting the left-leaning assumptions implicit in the questions. And the audience kept applauding. They even cheered when Trump called Collins a ânasty personâ because she didnât listen to his answers, or dismissed them because they didnât agree with her own preconceptions.
It was no doubt maddening to the usual suspects at CNN, as was made obvious by the fact that they cut short the scheduled 90-minute town hall by nearly 20 minutes and then proceeded to devote nearly two hours to re-establishing the official CNN narrative: Trump is absurd and dangerous, and canât be trusted no matter how much those crazy people from New Hampshire seemed to like and respect him!”
So how are things working out over at Fox since Tucker’s firing?
Not well…….
They say forced, but I get the feeling this is by design from Murdoch’s sons and their hard left wives. I’m sure they’d come roaring back were Trump re-elected…
“Report: Fox News Forced to Lay Off Entire Unit of Journalists In Wake of Carlson Firing”
“A report on Saturday revealed that the situation at Fox News, which sat atop cable news ratings for years, is getting worse as fallout from the decision to take top-rated talent Tucker Carlson off the air last month.
According to Rolling Stone magazine, Fox laid off its entire investigative unit on Friday, a decision linked to the networkâs massive $787.5 million defamation lawsuit settlement with Dominion Voting Systems, also last month.
âThe rank and file journalists are getting let go. Meanwhile, upper management are sitting pretty while they are the execs responsible for the Dominion debacle. We are the sacrificial lambs,â the magazine quoted a Fox News source as saying.
A second source told Rolling Stone: âYes, [layoffs] have happened and continue to happen.â
âI think producers, management, et cetera [are being laid-off],â a former Fox News staffer was also quoted as saying. âThey are trying to get money off the books before June 30. They have to save money because of the [Dominion] lawsuit.â
But according to a report from the New York Daily News, the investigative unit was not eliminated but merely reorganized.
âThere were three employees in the seven-person unit impacted, while four employees were offered different positions within the company,â a Fox News source told the Daily News, which noted further: âEmployees on the team had already been working in other areas of the company, and had not been on major investigative programming initiatives in a long time, they added.â
“Most people have blotted out just how vile the gaslighting during COVID was.
The political, cultural, academic, and media Elite literally promoted the idea that anybody who was skeptical about the safety and effectiveness of the COVID vaccine was a murderer and deserved to die.
Deserved to die. Not just that they were placing themselves at risk, but that their failure to comply with the diktats of others made them worthy of death.”
“It is impossible to overstate the level of evil involved. And yes, it was not just wrong, but evil. The primary justifications behind the propaganda effort were manifestly false: unvaccinated people somehow magically endanger people who themselves are totally incapable of either getting or transmitting the virus itself.
This idea is absolutely irrational. If the vaccine worked as advertised, nobody who chose to be unvaccinated presented a momentâs danger to anybody who was vaccinated. After all, if you were vaccinated you were protected, right? That was the point. You could neither get nor spread the virus.
Of course, that claim was untrue. The COVID-19 vaccine was simply a form of âpre-treatmentâ for a virus that you would inevitably contract. Ironically, a Cleveland Clinic study confirmed what other studies already had detected: you are in fact MORE likely to contract COVID if you are vaccinated than if you are not. The more vaccinated the patient, the higher the incidence of COVID infections. More than 3x as likely, in fact.”
“This doesnât mean that for a certain cohort of the populationâthose most likely to be killed by the virusâit was irrational to get the vaccine. It does appear to work as a pre-treatment for severe disease. What it doesnât do is prevent infection or transmission.”
“Former President Donald Trump’s social media company has sued The Washington Post for defamation over an article it published earlier this month and is seeking $3.78 billion in damages.
The lawsuit by Trump Media and Technology Group, which owns the Truth Social platform, was filed Saturday night in Florida state court in Sarasota County and accuses one of America’s most storied newspapers of publishing a story of libel and slander that the suit claims poses an “existential threat” to the social media company.
A spokesperson for The Washington Post declined comment on Sunday. âWe donât have a comment on this,â Kathy Baird said.
The suit alleges the Post “published an egregious hit piece that falsely accused TMTG of securities fraud and other wrongdoing” and “has been on a years-long crusade against TMTG characterized by the concealment of relevant information in its possession.”
“The obvious reaction to the bizarre idea that Chris Christie will soon enter the 2024 GOP primaries and then win the general election â âFat chance! â is accurate on every level. The rotund Republican has zero support among the base, having missed his window a decade ago and having gone on to become one of those Republicans whose primary function is to trash other Republicans â a chubby chimp dancing for dimes as the MSNBC organ grinders play. Why is he running? Delusion? Narcissism? Greed? Who knows?
Who cares?
Weâve talked about Nikki Haley before. Remember her? Sheâs still running for vice president, er, president. I spoke to about 150 conservative women in Washington state the other night and mentioned her. Her support was zero. Nada. Nil. Yet now the aforementioned Pillsbury Dough candidate and a few other no-hopers are joining her in spending tens of millions to top out at 3%.
Add Mike Pence to the Footnote Force, about 20 years after the last election where his brand of milquetoast Weekly Standard weakness had any resonance. Just this week he decried Republican candidates doing things their voters cared about, like taking on the communist corporations trying to turn us into a gender-ambiguous wine-woman dictatorship. Real Republicans apparently focus on the important things, like tax cuts for those same communist corporations and carefully, soberly managing our nationâs decline. Pence spices it up by throwing some Jesus into the mix â not the Jesus who grabbed a whip to drive the money changers out of the temple but the one that guitar-strumming Methodists from Santa Monica dig, the one who never actually challenges the status quo because Oh Well I Never and Thatâs Not Who We Are and Weâre Better Than That. If we must have a preacher run things, I vote for John Lithgow in Footloose. He may have tried to keep those kids from dancing, but at least he wasnât a sissy. He wouldnât mutter something about âWell, we canât interfere with the rights of parents’ ‘ and show his belly when the pervert lobby cries about us banning mutilating little kids to conform to their Munchausen Mommiesâ Chardonnay-fueled gender delusions. Which you know Pence would do in a second.
I will not dignify maple syrup sap Chris Sununu by pretending his nascent candidacy is a thing.
Then thereâs Tim Scott, the favorite of everyone who thinks Mike Pence is too fiery and aggressive. I like Tim Scott. Heck, I like Mike Pence too. They would make terrific Sunday school teachers, but itâs Saturday night and all right for fighting. Gentle people like them have a role, and that role is not âleader.â Leaders have to lead, and sometimes that means leading the troops through the midst of the enemy behind sharpened, gleaming bayonets. Tim Scott is a nice guy with a nice story and a nice demeanor who does not take pleasure in crushing his enemies, which means that he will not aggressively seek to crush his enemies, and the crushing of our enemies is the key requirement of a Republican nominee in 2024.
The enemy hates us, and it is dead serious about converting its hatred into policy. From legalizing crime to weaponizing the government against us, from disenfranchising us at the ballot box to disarming us in our homes, to gagging us on social media and leveraging the regime media to hide the truth and amplify the lies, this is a cold war where we become serfs if we donât win. Itâs not the time for Team Use Your Inside Voice. The enemy holds every major institution; if you are worried about collateral damage to the institutions that seek to enslave us â or worse â then you donât have the stones to flatten them and their current occupants. And thatâs what we need to do.”
Click the first tweet, it’s much longer and detailed, as are those that follow.
Once the explosives were planted, they would be triggered by sonobuoy.
On September 25, at roughly 10:52 pm UTC, a US Navy Sikorsky MH-60R Seahawk appeared on radar in the Baltic Sea, east of Bornholm Island. Radar data indicates that this state-of-the-art helicopter, equipped⌠pic.twitter.com/3eL2xOPqXs
At this juncture, the Poseidon had completed the first part of its mission, confirming the detonation of the explosives. It then flew over land near Miastko and rendezvoused with a US Air Force Boeing KC-135R Stratotanker for in-air refueling at 1:20 am UTC on September 26. The⌠pic.twitter.com/cVXGnyXOOq
After the second wave of explosions at 5:03 pm UTC on September 26, the original US Navy Sikorsky MH-60R Seahawk reappeared on radar in the Baltic at roughly 6:42 pm UTC. It then hovered for over two hours until approximately 8:50 pm UTC, at which point it went off radar. During⌠pic.twitter.com/GfBygPiYYb
My comment: I was contacted by this whistleblower and was asked to publish this thread. I reviewed the radar evidence and it creates a compelling case of the US Govt blowing up the NordStream pipelines. There is no question in my mind that Joe Biden ordered this act of terrorism.
Americans also believe that the materials on the Hunter Biden laptop are real, and are not and never were "Russian disinformation."
So again, Americans view the claim that the US corporate media and CIA spread for weeks before the 2020 election – to help Biden win – as a fraud. pic.twitter.com/aPYmU4jqyz
*Large majorities* of Americans say they are not surprised to learn the FBI abused it power in the 2016 Trum/Russia probe to help Biden.
*Large majorities* also say they are deeply worried about the US Security State's manipulation of US politics, and sweeping reform is needed. pic.twitter.com/io4ifiq4aV
What's so striking here isn't that the corporate media relentlessly advocates views and ideologies that majorities of Americans – often large majorities – reject.
It's that the views held by majorities are all but banned on NBC, CNN, NYT and WPost. Thus, this is not a mystery: pic.twitter.com/Xm3lh0HUzv
First tweet AJ posted
The laptop is real, the content may or may not be;
Russian Collusion is real, Trump’s campaign met Russians in Trump Tower, the Mueller investigation led to 34 individuals and 3 companies being indicted; eight pleaded or were found guilty including five Trump associates. Not to mention three Russians indicted.
I’m sure Epstein had lots of video tapes ready to blackmail everyone from Trump to Prince Andrew. Hence, he’s dead under mysterious circumstances.
Boarder is actually spelled “border”.
The intelligence community has always been corrupt just like the FBI and your local police.
The Federal Reserve Bank isn’t broke – that’s impossible.
Where Covid came from is neither here nor there. The idea China weaponized a virus is almost as ridiculous as the Russians claim the US and Ukraine weaponized mosquitos with viruses to kill Russian soldiers. The Albanian delegate to the UN asked the Russians a simple question – how does a mosquito tell the difference between a Russian and a Ukrainian.
Mental health is interesting. It’s either ignored or over-emphasised. We used to treat it as embarrassing that a friend, family member or relative was too weak and had a mental breakdown. For the most part mental and physical health are the same, they both have a biological origin. Mental health problems tend to be hereditary. Many health issues can be treated or at least the symptoms suppressed by simple medication. For example, a schizophrenic can often lead a normal or semi-normal life with medication.
Currently, we’ve become much better at detecting learning disabilities and those on the spectrum. One of the reasons is our society demands far more conformity than it used especially in order to survive economically. Those on the spectrum could function well as long as their eccentricies were tolerated but in North America, if you aren’t 100% useful to the economic machine you are mentally ill. A word I see used more often in place of mentally ill or on the spectrum is neurodivergent.
When people claim that up to 40% of people are mentally ill; they are mistaking the inability for a personality to adapt to a particular circumstance or environment as a mental illness. It’s not. The environment has to change to adapt or the person needs to find a new environment.
A Ligonier Ministries devotion I stumbled upon this morning:
~ What are we to look for in a godly leader? Are we to find someone who simply wants to get the job done even if it means steamrolling the people under him? The answer is no. If even the Davidic king was to be characterized by meekness, truth, and righteousness, then surely lesser leaders are to model the same. This is particularly important in the church. As we seek leaders in our churches, let us look for those who humbly serve God and His people. ~
AJ — the Durham Report said nothing new. I’m not an apologist for the FBI or the Deep State (which doesn’t exist). The FBI had tunnel vision – police frequently do. Of course, they misused surveillance, all cops do. The Clinton family is power hungry and a ruthless political machine; nothing new. They actually ran a horrible campaign though.
The Republican whistleblowers aren’t whistleblowers. They won’t share their testimony with the Democrats nor the press just Republicans. And the other whistleblowers were probably a figment of Comer’s imagination or didn’t deliver what was promised, so they conveniently disappeared.
FOX reorganized a department and laid off a few people. As the article states, this is about Dominion not Tucker. They were overpaying Tucker anyway.
I don’t think the Washington Post is worried about a Trump lawsuit. Trump just had his NYT lawsuit thrown out and has been ordered to pay NYT’s legal fees as the suit was frivolous. I suspect the same will happen here.
While that post @12:58 may be more directed toward leadership ideals within the church, I think it also has something to say about the characteristics we are to value in national leadership (but so seldom see). People who value truth and humility.
Do you actually take this type of commentary seriously?
“Kaitlan Collins did her best to lock down Trump with questions intended to humiliate or mock him. ” – she wasn’t trying to humiliate him; she asked him about his behaviour and comments he made previously. In other words, if this was humiliating then Trump humiliated himself.
“audience full of real people” – they applauded sexual assault; if this is real people I want to exit this reality.
“They even cheered when Trump called Collins a ânasty personâ ” – again who cheers schoolyard insults. She didn’t ignore or dislike his answers, she acted like a journalist and asked tough questions and then questioned his answers. She did her job.
It’s not crass, it’s beyond the pale and reeks of 1930s fascist rhetoric.
“a chubby chimp dancing for dimes as the MSNBC organ grinders play. ”
On one hand this is a school yard insult on the other hand It’s a deliberate attempt to dehumanize both Christie and the MSNBC audience. Right wing critics of Chavez used to refer to him as a monkey on television. Although a primate is at least in the genus or phylum, the next step is to refer to opponents as vermin.
“communist corporations” now there’s an oxymoron. Its impossible for a corporation to be communist, but in the 30s anyone who opposed the fascists were communists or fellow travellers.
“he wasnât a sissy”
– fascists always appeal to traditional gender roles and macho idealism. Jesus may have chased the moneychangers out of the temple; but he also ate with the tax collector, ask for the children to come to him, and hung out with prostitutes. In short he was a far more balanced person than just some tough guy with a whip.
“but itâs Saturday night and all right for fighting” –
do we really want a political climate where fighting is acceptable? In 1920s Germany every political party had its own militia and they fought each other in the streets. Btw, Elton John was dripping with sarcasm in that song and refers to this attitude as juvenile behaviour with no self discipline.
“this is a cold war where we become serfs if we donât win….. The enemy holds every major institution; if you are worried about collateral damage to the institutions that seek to enslave us â or worse â then you donât have the stones to flatten them and their current occupants. ”
The whole last paragraph is messed up. The all or nothing rhetoric is similar to 1930s fascism – its us or the communists, the Jews, and the degenerates in the cities. Therefore, its time to tear down the state and rebuilt to suit us and us alone.
I checked the Harris polling company; it’s rated B or lower. And like Rasmussen leans Republican to about 1-2% .
However, the results of the polls does indicate something I’ve been saying for years. The media is not a left wing mouthpiece. So-called mainstream media do make an attempt to cover both sides of a dispute. Meanwhile highly biased news sources are becoming more popular as people watch news not to be informed but to have their ideas confirmed.
The same poll revealed that podcasts were trusted more than cablenews. Joe Rogan has 17 million subscribers on spotify vs CNN’s 15 million on Youtube. Add FOX at 10 million and Newsmax and others like them at 2 million a piece and it’s no wonder right wing talking points are mainstream and believed.
The Harris poll also suggested Trump is ahead of Biden by 7 points. It’s the clear outliner and has been for months. Previously they had Trump ahead by 6 and then 5. Meanwhile the other polls all have either an opponent ahead or behind by 2. Essentially a coin flip. Most pollsters lean about .5 to 1% Republicans mainly because it’s impossible to have people under 35 answer a survey and pollsters tend to oversample older more conservative voters.
The roles of pastor and president may be different and require different skills. Even so, the character and comportment of both men should be similar (or similarish).
As for 11:02, Kurt Schlichter writes in a nasty, crass, and crude manner. Even if he happened to write an article expressing a view that I totally agreed with, making great points that I wanted others to read about (which I doubt he would), I still would not share it because of the way he writes.
There have been articles by other writers that have made great points, but they used offensive language against their opponents (and I’m not referring to “bad words” necessarily, but often those, too), and I chose not to share them, either here or on Facebook.
I feel like maybe Col. Schlichter hit a nerve with you there…..
Perhaps you feel like maybe you and DJ is who he’s speaking about with this…
“Pence spices it up by throwing some Jesus into the mix â not the Jesus who grabbed a whip to drive the money changers out of the temple but the one that guitar-strumming Methodists from Santa Monica dig, the one who never actually challenges the status quo because Oh Well I Never and Thatâs Not Who We Are and Weâre Better Than That.”
—-
He may be crass to the squeamish, but what he says needs saying, whether those who need to hear it want to or not.
R’s have played nice for too long, and Dems run all over them. You may be OK with that, most R’s aren’t.
You two may now resume clutching your pearls and question my theology, which again, has nothing to do with selecting a secular leader.
Even when selecting a secular leader my theology doesn’t allow me to sit by while evil triumphs, and do nothing, and pretend my hands are clean.
Evil wins when good people do nothing. I’m done with standing by. Lecture me, smugly pretend your inaction isn’t enabling it, and evil. yes evil, Dems will continue to win. I’m done with that, but you do you.
Praying is not doing nothing. And if those who find they can’t vote will fast and pray, I would say they’ve done their part…as long as they don’t undermine their prayers.
AJ, I think I’m seeing what you’re seeing. But you can’t just make people see the things you see so clearly. (If it could be done I would have done it myself —God knows I’ve tried). But only God can do that. You do what you can, and you’ll have more peace if you can leave the outcome in God’s hands.
PS. I don’t see anything wrong with your theology. :–)
AJ – You are putting the worst spin on what DJ and I say, and then calling us smug and accusing us of enabling evil. That is not a fair representation of what we are trying to say or how we feel.
DJ and I have both said – more than once – that we still vote. Not voting for the candidate who you think we should vote for is not shirking our responsibility. And even more importantly, we pray for God to move in our elections. (Well, I do, and I am assuming that DJ does, too, and I think that’s a safe assumption.)
No, Schlichter doesn’t hit a nerve with me, I just find his nastiness to be totally unnecessary, to say the least. The Bible has a lot to say about the words that we use, and I would dare say that we should apply it to the articles we choose to share and endorse.
Jesus âhanging out with the tax collectors and prostitutesâ is not an indication that He was âbalancedâ as in accepting. Jesus is GodâŚour SaviourâŚthe way truth and life⌠there is no other. He does not condone sinâŚHe laid His life down for our sinâŚall of usâŚeven the prostitutes and greedy.
When we are faced with a choice during an election I look for the better of the two. Biden has not one tittle of integrity nor good character. He is hell bent on destroying this nation along with most democrats. The other candidate may grind on the nerves of some but he sure as heck wanted and wants the best for our citizens.
I’ve always looked for the “least of two evils” or the “better of the two” in more promising years. Sometimes, conscience prohibits “choosing” either.
And there I still stand, I make no apologies. I remain hopeful we will have 2 better choices in 2024.
“Secular leaders” fall entirely under God’s divine providence, as does everything else. It’s a false divide. Of course, sometimes God will also give us the “kings” we cry out for. God appears to come frequently in judgement against the nations by letting us go our own way.
Theology is always up for questioning and study! It’s much more worthwhile and illuminating — and will better ground all of us — than the deep dives into our culture’s current toxic and ugly politics.
And learning to disagree in a courteous and respectful way? That also comes from more time in the important matters, a broader perspective that comes (or should come) from our faith. It matters. A lot. And it takes some intention and practice. It’s theologically sound, also.
Otherwise, we’re sadly left to being like the rest of the world, trusting in the world’s horses and chariots and kings and even cultivating anger toward anyone, including fellow believers, who dare to express another view.
To clarify, the point about theology — and none of us has perfect theology, not me, not AJ, not Kizzie, not NJ, not my pastor or any of yours — I was making an effort to convey was more about how (or even whether) we employ our theology in the real world.
Does it create the overall lens (that we choose to use) though which we see the world and events around us? Do we (and I’m speaking to myself here) make a conscious effort to see that our view is really so limited, always, and that God has a much bigger story going on, that he’s “doing something” with all of this that we don’t like and don’t understand?
Can we actually see — with assurance — what is “true” or “false” in the news or social media blasts that come at us every day, with no first-hand knowledge of the event or claim ourselves?
I can like a particular candidate or political movement or “narrative” — or not.
But am I reminding myself that I see only in part? That all of this is so much deeper and bigger than a twitter thread?
I enjoy “the game” of politics.
More so in the past than currently, admittedly.
If I just glance at the headlines and twitter feed, it can make me (or anyone) crazy in “the sky is falling” kind of way.
Instead, I try (not always successfully) to labor, if that’s what it takes often times, to put on those theological and biblical lens glasses to know God is above and around and behind it all. We don’t (can’t) know to what purpose or end. But we know that view and God is True — in a way that no political candidate or movement is ‘true.’
I apologize if I come off as a “pearl clutcher” (without pearls), that is not my intent and I do try to think and pause before I post.
I may not always do that successfully. Or things may be taken out of context in the eyes of a reader.
But if I choose to post further on this thread, I will try to keep trying to do better at that.
We believers sometimes have what I’d call a very dysfunctional relationship or interaction on this particular thread. I’d love to see that change among and for all of us!
Wandering Views 
And the media and Dems lied/lie about all of it.
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He did this to politicians in our govt as well.
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Typical Democrats.
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HRW,
It’s OK, you’re not alone….
Lots of links….
“Democrats Love the Deep State Week at Legal Insurrection
All the news you may have missed.”
https://legalinsurrection.com/2023/05/democrats-love-the-deep-state-week-at-legal-insurrection/
“The Durham Report was released this week and Democrats could not wait to try to discredit it.
-Durham Report: âThe FBI Discounted or Willfully Ignored Material information that did Not Support the Narrative of a Collusive Relationship Between Trump and Russiaâ
-Durham Report proves âwhat a destructive, vicious, damaging person Hillary Clinton is to our political processâ
Remember when Democrats loved whistleblowers? They donât.
-FBI Whistleblowers Battle Against the Agency and Congressional Democrats
-Rep. Sanchez Tries to Discredit FBI Whistleblower With His Twitter AccountâŚExcept Itâs Not His
-âThe FBI Will Crush Youâ: Whistleblower Tells Future Whistleblowers to Come to Him or Congress to Expose Corruption
Oh, is that all?
-FBI Claims It âMisusedâ Digital Surveillance Tool Over 270,000 Times Between 2020-2021
How did we get here?
-Pro-Life Activist Says FBI Visit to Mother was âto Intimidateâ Her
-Rep Comer: Nine of 10 Whistlebowers in Biden Family Business Investigation are âMissing,â WH Intimidating Them”
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“Trump Town Hall Destroys Fake News Silo”
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2023/05/22/trump_town_hall_destroys_fake_news_silo_149256.html?callback=in&code=NJIZODBIMZGTYJG1YI0ZZJBJLTHIYZQTNGY5ZDG2ZTY1YZI4&state=422890a22bdd4b9694a3cb56d23cfc83
“The inventors of artificial intelligence went before Congress last week and warned that without government supervision, the emerging technology could be employed by the unscrupulous to mislead people and spread falsehoods.
Itâs frightening, but not without precedent.
If you want to know what it would look like if an AI were programmed to be relentless, ruthless, and amoral in service to a political agenda, you donât have to look far.
Just consider the mainstream media. They have tailored their so-called news coverage to focus entirely on attacking conservatives and covering up for Democrats. Anyone who challenges their narrative is accused of lying or peddling âconspiracy theories.â Any facts that disprove their assumptions are either ignored entirely or summarily dismissed as Republican âtalking points.â
And then remember this: Thanks to the First Amendment, the dangerous lies of the media cannot be subject to government supervision or control. Itâs entirely up to us to sniff out and reject the falsehoods, but if you are a trusting soul who canât imagine a world where you are intentionally kept in the dark about fundamental truths, then you will always be living an illusion.
A perfect metaphor for this state of blissful ignorance was unveiled recently on the Apple TV+ show âSilo,â which tells the story of a few thousand people who have been living underground in a massive silo for generations. Their only contact with the outside world is a video link to a camera placed on the surface, which shows a forlorn landscape littered with the bodies of those few daring people who had exited the silo after growing sick of being virtual prisoners. The video of the bleak and deadly surface plays nonstop in public places to remind the residents of the silo that there is nothing for them on the outside.
In our metaphoric analysis, that video represents the relentlessly negative and destructive narrative of the mainstream media, played over and over for an unwitting population. There is little reason for the average person to doubt what he or she has been told so convincingly by so many seemingly sincere talking heads. But what happens if the public gets a glimpse of reality?
Just such an occurrence happened in a recent episode of âSiloâ when the main generator for the silo was turned off in order to accomplish needed repairs. In the brief moment between the power going down and the backup generator kicking in, the Hiroshima-like deathscape on the video screen was replaced by a halcyon sunlit pasture of green grass and trees. Blink and you missed it. And if you are one of the characters who lives in the silo, you keep your mouth shut. No one so far has admitted what they saw or asked questions about it. Thatâs what happens when you are fed an endless diet of lies. The truth looks like an unappetizing worm.
But sooner or later, as the Bard tells us, the truth will out, or in this case the worm will turn.
That transformation for the mainstream media began on May 10, when Donald Trump climbed out of the silo and showed millions of CNN viewers that the lies theyâve been told for years were absurd and dangerous, starting with the notion that the 45th president himself is absurd and dangerous. Town hall moderator Kaitlan Collins did her best to lock down Trump with questions intended to humiliate or mock him. But what she did not count on was that having an audience full of real people from the free state of New Hampshire would make her questions look as fake as that dead planet on âSilo.â
From the moment the crowd of 300 or so Republican and independent voters gave Trump a standing ovation as he was introduced, it was obvious that Collins was in for a long night. So was the television audience of 3.3 million presumably mostly liberal CNN viewers who have been fed a steady drumbeat of anti-Trump propaganda for more than six years. Collins did her best to unsettle Trump by bringing up topics such as the legitimacy of the 2020 election, the Jan. 6 riots, and the many legal cases brought against him by Democratic district attorneys or funded by Democratic donors. But in every single instance, Trump was prepared to answer by rejecting and refuting the left-leaning assumptions implicit in the questions. And the audience kept applauding. They even cheered when Trump called Collins a ânasty personâ because she didnât listen to his answers, or dismissed them because they didnât agree with her own preconceptions.
It was no doubt maddening to the usual suspects at CNN, as was made obvious by the fact that they cut short the scheduled 90-minute town hall by nearly 20 minutes and then proceeded to devote nearly two hours to re-establishing the official CNN narrative: Trump is absurd and dangerous, and canât be trusted no matter how much those crazy people from New Hampshire seemed to like and respect him!”
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So how are things working out over at Fox since Tucker’s firing?
Not well…….
They say forced, but I get the feeling this is by design from Murdoch’s sons and their hard left wives. I’m sure they’d come roaring back were Trump re-elected…
“Report: Fox News Forced to Lay Off Entire Unit of Journalists In Wake of Carlson Firing”
https://conservativebrief.com/report-fox-73472/
“A report on Saturday revealed that the situation at Fox News, which sat atop cable news ratings for years, is getting worse as fallout from the decision to take top-rated talent Tucker Carlson off the air last month.
According to Rolling Stone magazine, Fox laid off its entire investigative unit on Friday, a decision linked to the networkâs massive $787.5 million defamation lawsuit settlement with Dominion Voting Systems, also last month.
âThe rank and file journalists are getting let go. Meanwhile, upper management are sitting pretty while they are the execs responsible for the Dominion debacle. We are the sacrificial lambs,â the magazine quoted a Fox News source as saying.
A second source told Rolling Stone: âYes, [layoffs] have happened and continue to happen.â
âI think producers, management, et cetera [are being laid-off],â a former Fox News staffer was also quoted as saying. âThey are trying to get money off the books before June 30. They have to save money because of the [Dominion] lawsuit.â
But according to a report from the New York Daily News, the investigative unit was not eliminated but merely reorganized.
âThere were three employees in the seven-person unit impacted, while four employees were offered different positions within the company,â a Fox News source told the Daily News, which noted further: âEmployees on the team had already been working in other areas of the company, and had not been on major investigative programming initiatives in a long time, they added.â
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“These are not the droids you’re looking for…”
(waves hand….)
“How bad was the gaslighting?”
https://hotair.com/david-strom/2023/05/22/how-bad-was-the-gaslighting-n552461
“Most people have blotted out just how vile the gaslighting during COVID was.
The political, cultural, academic, and media Elite literally promoted the idea that anybody who was skeptical about the safety and effectiveness of the COVID vaccine was a murderer and deserved to die.
Deserved to die. Not just that they were placing themselves at risk, but that their failure to comply with the diktats of others made them worthy of death.”
“It is impossible to overstate the level of evil involved. And yes, it was not just wrong, but evil. The primary justifications behind the propaganda effort were manifestly false: unvaccinated people somehow magically endanger people who themselves are totally incapable of either getting or transmitting the virus itself.
This idea is absolutely irrational. If the vaccine worked as advertised, nobody who chose to be unvaccinated presented a momentâs danger to anybody who was vaccinated. After all, if you were vaccinated you were protected, right? That was the point. You could neither get nor spread the virus.
Of course, that claim was untrue. The COVID-19 vaccine was simply a form of âpre-treatmentâ for a virus that you would inevitably contract. Ironically, a Cleveland Clinic study confirmed what other studies already had detected: you are in fact MORE likely to contract COVID if you are vaccinated than if you are not. The more vaccinated the patient, the higher the incidence of COVID infections. More than 3x as likely, in fact.”
“This doesnât mean that for a certain cohort of the populationâthose most likely to be killed by the virusâit was irrational to get the vaccine. It does appear to work as a pre-treatment for severe disease. What it doesnât do is prevent infection or transmission.”
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Next media conglomerate up for a billion dollar payout…..
WaPo….
“Trump social media firm sues Washington Post for defamation, seeks $3.78 billion in damages”
https://justthenews.com/accountability/media/trump-social-media-firm-sues-washington-post-defamation-seeks-378-billion
“Former President Donald Trump’s social media company has sued The Washington Post for defamation over an article it published earlier this month and is seeking $3.78 billion in damages.
The lawsuit by Trump Media and Technology Group, which owns the Truth Social platform, was filed Saturday night in Florida state court in Sarasota County and accuses one of America’s most storied newspapers of publishing a story of libel and slander that the suit claims poses an “existential threat” to the social media company.
A spokesperson for The Washington Post declined comment on Sunday. âWe donât have a comment on this,â Kathy Baird said.
The suit alleges the Post “published an egregious hit piece that falsely accused TMTG of securities fraud and other wrongdoing” and “has been on a years-long crusade against TMTG characterized by the concealment of relevant information in its possession.”
—-
The suit…
Click to access Complaint%20-%205.20.23_0.pdf
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#USELESS GOP
Don’t sugar coat it Colonel, tell us how you really feel…. đ˛
*the opinions expressed are his, not mine. It’s an op-ed, but he’s right on most of it, even if he’s crass about it.
“The GOPâs Festival of Losers”
https://townhall.com/columnists/kurtschlichter/2023/05/22/the-gops-festival-of-losers-n2623507
“The obvious reaction to the bizarre idea that Chris Christie will soon enter the 2024 GOP primaries and then win the general election â âFat chance! â is accurate on every level. The rotund Republican has zero support among the base, having missed his window a decade ago and having gone on to become one of those Republicans whose primary function is to trash other Republicans â a chubby chimp dancing for dimes as the MSNBC organ grinders play. Why is he running? Delusion? Narcissism? Greed? Who knows?
Who cares?
Weâve talked about Nikki Haley before. Remember her? Sheâs still running for vice president, er, president. I spoke to about 150 conservative women in Washington state the other night and mentioned her. Her support was zero. Nada. Nil. Yet now the aforementioned Pillsbury Dough candidate and a few other no-hopers are joining her in spending tens of millions to top out at 3%.
Add Mike Pence to the Footnote Force, about 20 years after the last election where his brand of milquetoast Weekly Standard weakness had any resonance. Just this week he decried Republican candidates doing things their voters cared about, like taking on the communist corporations trying to turn us into a gender-ambiguous wine-woman dictatorship. Real Republicans apparently focus on the important things, like tax cuts for those same communist corporations and carefully, soberly managing our nationâs decline. Pence spices it up by throwing some Jesus into the mix â not the Jesus who grabbed a whip to drive the money changers out of the temple but the one that guitar-strumming Methodists from Santa Monica dig, the one who never actually challenges the status quo because Oh Well I Never and Thatâs Not Who We Are and Weâre Better Than That. If we must have a preacher run things, I vote for John Lithgow in Footloose. He may have tried to keep those kids from dancing, but at least he wasnât a sissy. He wouldnât mutter something about âWell, we canât interfere with the rights of parents’ ‘ and show his belly when the pervert lobby cries about us banning mutilating little kids to conform to their Munchausen Mommiesâ Chardonnay-fueled gender delusions. Which you know Pence would do in a second.
I will not dignify maple syrup sap Chris Sununu by pretending his nascent candidacy is a thing.
Then thereâs Tim Scott, the favorite of everyone who thinks Mike Pence is too fiery and aggressive. I like Tim Scott. Heck, I like Mike Pence too. They would make terrific Sunday school teachers, but itâs Saturday night and all right for fighting. Gentle people like them have a role, and that role is not âleader.â Leaders have to lead, and sometimes that means leading the troops through the midst of the enemy behind sharpened, gleaming bayonets. Tim Scott is a nice guy with a nice story and a nice demeanor who does not take pleasure in crushing his enemies, which means that he will not aggressively seek to crush his enemies, and the crushing of our enemies is the key requirement of a Republican nominee in 2024.
The enemy hates us, and it is dead serious about converting its hatred into policy. From legalizing crime to weaponizing the government against us, from disenfranchising us at the ballot box to disarming us in our homes, to gagging us on social media and leveraging the regime media to hide the truth and amplify the lies, this is a cold war where we become serfs if we donât win. Itâs not the time for Team Use Your Inside Voice. The enemy holds every major institution; if you are worried about collateral damage to the institutions that seek to enslave us â or worse â then you donât have the stones to flatten them and their current occupants. And thatâs what we need to do.”
—-
This is politics, not church.
There’s more, but not for the squeamish….
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Huge if accurate.
Click the first tweet, it’s much longer and detailed, as are those that follow.
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Good.
About time they get with the program.
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More…..
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First tweet AJ posted
The laptop is real, the content may or may not be;
Russian Collusion is real, Trump’s campaign met Russians in Trump Tower, the Mueller investigation led to 34 individuals and 3 companies being indicted; eight pleaded or were found guilty including five Trump associates. Not to mention three Russians indicted.
I’m sure Epstein had lots of video tapes ready to blackmail everyone from Trump to Prince Andrew. Hence, he’s dead under mysterious circumstances.
Boarder is actually spelled “border”.
The intelligence community has always been corrupt just like the FBI and your local police.
The Federal Reserve Bank isn’t broke – that’s impossible.
Where Covid came from is neither here nor there. The idea China weaponized a virus is almost as ridiculous as the Russians claim the US and Ukraine weaponized mosquitos with viruses to kill Russian soldiers. The Albanian delegate to the UN asked the Russians a simple question – how does a mosquito tell the difference between a Russian and a Ukrainian.
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Mental health is interesting. It’s either ignored or over-emphasised. We used to treat it as embarrassing that a friend, family member or relative was too weak and had a mental breakdown. For the most part mental and physical health are the same, they both have a biological origin. Mental health problems tend to be hereditary. Many health issues can be treated or at least the symptoms suppressed by simple medication. For example, a schizophrenic can often lead a normal or semi-normal life with medication.
Currently, we’ve become much better at detecting learning disabilities and those on the spectrum. One of the reasons is our society demands far more conformity than it used especially in order to survive economically. Those on the spectrum could function well as long as their eccentricies were tolerated but in North America, if you aren’t 100% useful to the economic machine you are mentally ill. A word I see used more often in place of mentally ill or on the spectrum is neurodivergent.
When people claim that up to 40% of people are mentally ill; they are mistaking the inability for a personality to adapt to a particular circumstance or environment as a mental illness. It’s not. The environment has to change to adapt or the person needs to find a new environment.
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A Ligonier Ministries devotion I stumbled upon this morning:
~ What are we to look for in a godly leader? Are we to find someone who simply wants to get the job done even if it means steamrolling the people under him? The answer is no. If even the Davidic king was to be characterized by meekness, truth, and righteousness, then surely lesser leaders are to model the same. This is particularly important in the church. As we seek leaders in our churches, let us look for those who humbly serve God and His people. ~
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AJ — the Durham Report said nothing new. I’m not an apologist for the FBI or the Deep State (which doesn’t exist). The FBI had tunnel vision – police frequently do. Of course, they misused surveillance, all cops do. The Clinton family is power hungry and a ruthless political machine; nothing new. They actually ran a horrible campaign though.
The Republican whistleblowers aren’t whistleblowers. They won’t share their testimony with the Democrats nor the press just Republicans. And the other whistleblowers were probably a figment of Comer’s imagination or didn’t deliver what was promised, so they conveniently disappeared.
FOX reorganized a department and laid off a few people. As the article states, this is about Dominion not Tucker. They were overpaying Tucker anyway.
I don’t think the Washington Post is worried about a Trump lawsuit. Trump just had his NYT lawsuit thrown out and has been ordered to pay NYT’s legal fees as the suit was frivolous. I suspect the same will happen here.
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While that post @12:58 may be more directed toward leadership ideals within the church, I think it also has something to say about the characteristics we are to value in national leadership (but so seldom see). People who value truth and humility.
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AJ – 8:48 am post;
Do you actually take this type of commentary seriously?
“Kaitlan Collins did her best to lock down Trump with questions intended to humiliate or mock him. ” – she wasn’t trying to humiliate him; she asked him about his behaviour and comments he made previously. In other words, if this was humiliating then Trump humiliated himself.
“audience full of real people” – they applauded sexual assault; if this is real people I want to exit this reality.
“They even cheered when Trump called Collins a ânasty personâ ” – again who cheers schoolyard insults. She didn’t ignore or dislike his answers, she acted like a journalist and asked tough questions and then questioned his answers. She did her job.
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11:02 – Townhall link.
It’s not crass, it’s beyond the pale and reeks of 1930s fascist rhetoric.
“a chubby chimp dancing for dimes as the MSNBC organ grinders play. ”
On one hand this is a school yard insult on the other hand It’s a deliberate attempt to dehumanize both Christie and the MSNBC audience. Right wing critics of Chavez used to refer to him as a monkey on television. Although a primate is at least in the genus or phylum, the next step is to refer to opponents as vermin.
“communist corporations” now there’s an oxymoron. Its impossible for a corporation to be communist, but in the 30s anyone who opposed the fascists were communists or fellow travellers.
“he wasnât a sissy”
– fascists always appeal to traditional gender roles and macho idealism. Jesus may have chased the moneychangers out of the temple; but he also ate with the tax collector, ask for the children to come to him, and hung out with prostitutes. In short he was a far more balanced person than just some tough guy with a whip.
“but itâs Saturday night and all right for fighting” –
do we really want a political climate where fighting is acceptable? In 1920s Germany every political party had its own militia and they fought each other in the streets. Btw, Elton John was dripping with sarcasm in that song and refers to this attitude as juvenile behaviour with no self discipline.
“this is a cold war where we become serfs if we donât win….. The enemy holds every major institution; if you are worried about collateral damage to the institutions that seek to enslave us â or worse â then you donât have the stones to flatten them and their current occupants. ”
The whole last paragraph is messed up. The all or nothing rhetoric is similar to 1930s fascism – its us or the communists, the Jews, and the degenerates in the cities. Therefore, its time to tear down the state and rebuilt to suit us and us alone.
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I checked the Harris polling company; it’s rated B or lower. And like Rasmussen leans Republican to about 1-2% .
However, the results of the polls does indicate something I’ve been saying for years. The media is not a left wing mouthpiece. So-called mainstream media do make an attempt to cover both sides of a dispute. Meanwhile highly biased news sources are becoming more popular as people watch news not to be informed but to have their ideas confirmed.
The same poll revealed that podcasts were trusted more than cablenews. Joe Rogan has 17 million subscribers on spotify vs CNN’s 15 million on Youtube. Add FOX at 10 million and Newsmax and others like them at 2 million a piece and it’s no wonder right wing talking points are mainstream and believed.
The Harris poll also suggested Trump is ahead of Biden by 7 points. It’s the clear outliner and has been for months. Previously they had Trump ahead by 6 and then 5. Meanwhile the other polls all have either an opponent ahead or behind by 2. Essentially a coin flip. Most pollsters lean about .5 to 1% Republicans mainly because it’s impossible to have people under 35 answer a survey and pollsters tend to oversample older more conservative voters.
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“This is politics, not church.” Hmmm.
We might want to work toward a broader — and sounder — theologic view there.
God, in fact, owns it all.
We just like to ignore that at our convenience or personal political preferences that don’t match up so well with what Scripture teaches.
So we toss Scripture, go with the bare-knuckle politics. There. That works. (?) Or at least it satisfies our emotional urges.
And …
Here we are, folks.
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The roles of pastor and president may be different and require different skills. Even so, the character and comportment of both men should be similar (or similarish).
As for 11:02, Kurt Schlichter writes in a nasty, crass, and crude manner. Even if he happened to write an article expressing a view that I totally agreed with, making great points that I wanted others to read about (which I doubt he would), I still would not share it because of the way he writes.
There have been articles by other writers that have made great points, but they used offensive language against their opponents (and I’m not referring to “bad words” necessarily, but often those, too), and I chose not to share them, either here or on Facebook.
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Nope DJ,
My theology is sound. I’m looking for a secular president, not a pastor.
But you keep trying to justify your inaction and letting Dems win by sitting home, with your far superior (in your own mind) theology.
Does your theology ever mention standing up to evil?
Righteous anger?
Or does it just roll over, let evil people win, and then claim your inaction had nothing to do with it, that it’s just God’s will?
That seems a convenient way to shirk your civic duties.
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Kizzie,
I feel like maybe Col. Schlichter hit a nerve with you there…..
Perhaps you feel like maybe you and DJ is who he’s speaking about with this…
“Pence spices it up by throwing some Jesus into the mix â not the Jesus who grabbed a whip to drive the money changers out of the temple but the one that guitar-strumming Methodists from Santa Monica dig, the one who never actually challenges the status quo because Oh Well I Never and Thatâs Not Who We Are and Weâre Better Than That.”
—-
He may be crass to the squeamish, but what he says needs saying, whether those who need to hear it want to or not.
R’s have played nice for too long, and Dems run all over them. You may be OK with that, most R’s aren’t.
You two may now resume clutching your pearls and question my theology, which again, has nothing to do with selecting a secular leader.
Even when selecting a secular leader my theology doesn’t allow me to sit by while evil triumphs, and do nothing, and pretend my hands are clean.
Evil wins when good people do nothing. I’m done with standing by. Lecture me, smugly pretend your inaction isn’t enabling it, and evil. yes evil, Dems will continue to win. I’m done with that, but you do you.
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Praying is not doing nothing. And if those who find they can’t vote will fast and pray, I would say they’ve done their part…as long as they don’t undermine their prayers.
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AJ, I think I’m seeing what you’re seeing. But you can’t just make people see the things you see so clearly. (If it could be done I would have done it myself —God knows I’ve tried). But only God can do that. You do what you can, and you’ll have more peace if you can leave the outcome in God’s hands.
PS. I don’t see anything wrong with your theology. :–)
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AJ – You are putting the worst spin on what DJ and I say, and then calling us smug and accusing us of enabling evil. That is not a fair representation of what we are trying to say or how we feel.
DJ and I have both said – more than once – that we still vote. Not voting for the candidate who you think we should vote for is not shirking our responsibility. And even more importantly, we pray for God to move in our elections. (Well, I do, and I am assuming that DJ does, too, and I think that’s a safe assumption.)
No, Schlichter doesn’t hit a nerve with me, I just find his nastiness to be totally unnecessary, to say the least. The Bible has a lot to say about the words that we use, and I would dare say that we should apply it to the articles we choose to share and endorse.
https://www.jollynotes.com/bible-verses/21-encouraging-bible-verses-about-the-words-of-our-mouth/#:~:text=Ephesians%204%3A29%2C%20NIV%20Do,The%20Words%20Of%20Your%20Mouth.
You wrote, in part, “. . . my theology, which again, has nothing to do with selecting a secular leader.”
Shouldn’t our theology have something to do with everything in our lives?
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Jesus âhanging out with the tax collectors and prostitutesâ is not an indication that He was âbalancedâ as in accepting. Jesus is GodâŚour SaviourâŚthe way truth and life⌠there is no other. He does not condone sinâŚHe laid His life down for our sinâŚall of usâŚeven the prostitutes and greedy.
When we are faced with a choice during an election I look for the better of the two. Biden has not one tittle of integrity nor good character. He is hell bent on destroying this nation along with most democrats. The other candidate may grind on the nerves of some but he sure as heck wanted and wants the best for our citizens.
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I’ve always looked for the “least of two evils” or the “better of the two” in more promising years. Sometimes, conscience prohibits “choosing” either.
And there I still stand, I make no apologies. I remain hopeful we will have 2 better choices in 2024.
“Secular leaders” fall entirely under God’s divine providence, as does everything else. It’s a false divide. Of course, sometimes God will also give us the “kings” we cry out for. God appears to come frequently in judgement against the nations by letting us go our own way.
Theology is always up for questioning and study! It’s much more worthwhile and illuminating — and will better ground all of us — than the deep dives into our culture’s current toxic and ugly politics.
And learning to disagree in a courteous and respectful way? That also comes from more time in the important matters, a broader perspective that comes (or should come) from our faith. It matters. A lot. And it takes some intention and practice. It’s theologically sound, also.
Otherwise, we’re sadly left to being like the rest of the world, trusting in the world’s horses and chariots and kings and even cultivating anger toward anyone, including fellow believers, who dare to express another view.
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To clarify, the point about theology — and none of us has perfect theology, not me, not AJ, not Kizzie, not NJ, not my pastor or any of yours — I was making an effort to convey was more about how (or even whether) we employ our theology in the real world.
Does it create the overall lens (that we choose to use) though which we see the world and events around us? Do we (and I’m speaking to myself here) make a conscious effort to see that our view is really so limited, always, and that God has a much bigger story going on, that he’s “doing something” with all of this that we don’t like and don’t understand?
Can we actually see — with assurance — what is “true” or “false” in the news or social media blasts that come at us every day, with no first-hand knowledge of the event or claim ourselves?
I can like a particular candidate or political movement or “narrative” — or not.
But am I reminding myself that I see only in part? That all of this is so much deeper and bigger than a twitter thread?
I enjoy “the game” of politics.
More so in the past than currently, admittedly.
If I just glance at the headlines and twitter feed, it can make me (or anyone) crazy in “the sky is falling” kind of way.
Instead, I try (not always successfully) to labor, if that’s what it takes often times, to put on those theological and biblical lens glasses to know God is above and around and behind it all. We don’t (can’t) know to what purpose or end. But we know that view and God is True — in a way that no political candidate or movement is ‘true.’
I apologize if I come off as a “pearl clutcher” (without pearls), that is not my intent and I do try to think and pause before I post.
I may not always do that successfully. Or things may be taken out of context in the eyes of a reader.
But if I choose to post further on this thread, I will try to keep trying to do better at that.
We believers sometimes have what I’d call a very dysfunctional relationship or interaction on this particular thread. I’d love to see that change among and for all of us!
Keep the faith.
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