50 thoughts on “News/Politics 4-26-25”

  1. Prior to this month, the Denver native was one of the few doctors in the nation who provided abortions later in pregnancy. His practice offered the procedure up to 32 weeks. 

    According to the National Abortion Federation, with Hern’s retirement, there are 17 clinics in the country providing abortions after 24 weeks. Only three clinics offer the procedure after 30 weeks. The nearest to Boulder is 6.5 hours away in Albuquerque, New Mexico. 

    “Women had to cross the country – thousands of miles – to get to my office and it became increasingly difficult to do that for lots of reasons,” he said. 

    Hern started out intending to be a public health physician with a focus in epidemiology. But when the Roe v. Wade decision came down in 1973, he was asked to help found the first nonprofit private abortion clinic in Colorado. After about a year, he knew he’d found his calling and opened his private practice.

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  2. Dr Hern is 86 and ended the life of the last baby just last week. Those of us involved in the pro life ministry have known of Dr Hern for many years. Even as many in the pro abortion movement denied time and again that full term babies were not being murdered.

    Colorado has passed the most liberal heinous abortion laws in this nation yet he decried difficulty in the “ healthcare” of women. How disingenuous. He will stand before our God one day and answer for the thousands of lives taken by his hand…

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  3. “What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world but loses his soul?” That doctor may be rich in this world, but this life is short, and eternity is long. What a sad way to use a life God has given!

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  5. AJ (presumably, re Catturd) some of the most notorious, worst characters in history have claimed big followings. Weak defense, but if that’s all that can be mustered by his defenders, so be it. 🙂

    • dj

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  6. Sigh. That last post of mine sounded snarky and rude, I apologize.

    It’s why I feel the need to stay away from here more and more often, the present ‘mood’ is rubbing off on me way too much. 😦

    Prayers for all here, that we can navigate through this rather difficult (and often ugly) period that has overtaken our nation’s politics and treatment of one another.

    Our God reigns. We will come out of this. His grace will prevail. But it may take some time.

    Peace.

    • dj

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  8. I am reading “Return to the Hiding Place,” by Hans Poley. It is about his time hiding at the ten Boom’s home, his arrest and time in prison. It gives a good idea of the dilemma the Christians had during this time. They had to make up their minds about if or when they would lie and do other things against God’s law. To not do so could result in torture and death for others. It is quite interesting. They did not all agree on where those boundaries were. Sometimes things are not as clear cut as we think.

    In MN legislation was defeated for support for crisis pregnancy centers. They have no problem giving to PP, of course. Money was given for decades before the Dems took all the legislature and governorship. Their excuse is that these centers lie to women and won’t refer for abortions. That in itself is a lie, although it is true that they do not refer for abortions. However, abortion is not difficult for anyone in MN to find. Just plain evil.

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  10. Like I said Dj, live with it. He’s not going away. New media is here to stay, thanks to the negligence and fraud of your industry. You guys built him, so enjoy the fruits of your labors.

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  11. One of the reporters I enjoy reading and admire for continuing to be an actual journalist. She’s receiving an award for her work, also from people I admire.

    This is no useless Pulitzer, and she didn’t lie and misrepresent facts to get it.

    https://x.com/C__Herridge/status/1916246632342880756?t=qyPAimItlCu62zXhXWhuKA&s=19

    “Grateful to @SOFWarriorFnd + its recognition of fact driven reporting that is a catalyst for legislative change and accountability.

    Honored to report on the Special Operations Community and their families who also serve. “

    —-

    https://x.com/SOFWarriorFnd/status/1915876035217834464?t=fnk6cO1oTIcaUskvcTIi9g&s=19

    “⭐ Award-winning journalist @C__Herridge will receive the Legacy of Service Award at SOWF’s dinner on May 1st!”

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  12. If only “real” journalists were digging into these nefarious groups and their funders.

    But they’re not, since they support them, and won’t because they take cash from them, so into the gap step those willing to look.

    The new media, doing the job real journalists used to do.

    https://x.com/DefiyantlyFree/status/1916331898646811095?t=buaz7wiz8UNJGbzQjs4eng&s=19

    “There have been more than 60 coordinated attacks on Tesla have resulting in an estimated $20 million in personal property damage and over $460 billion in market cap.

    One of the most radical groups behind this domestic terrorism movement is The Disruption Project.

    Well they are funded 💯 by the Tides Network. They even share the same floor in the same building.

    The prominent donors who fund Tides are David Rockafellor Jr., George Soros and Susan and Nick Pritzker. Which means they are the prominent donors of The Disruption Project. Which means they are the architects of the Tesla Protests.

    Again, sounds like a good RICO case.”

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  13. “We bear some responsibility for faith in the media being at such lows. I say this because acknowledging errors builds trust, and being defensive about them further erodes it. We should have done better.”My thoughts at the WHCA dinner on covering Biden.”

    https://x.com/AlexThomp/status/1916336025930014901?t=Y9AURKI-bjamLSzileUodQ&s=19

    —-

    “Oh Please. Give me a break …

    You lied for 4 years straight about Biden, covered for him, and now that it doesn’t matter anymore, you want to pretend to care about being a real, truthful “journalist”

    No.”

    https://x.com/catturd2/status/1916476926966767993?t=F0X1-a-geDXAqjJh8O2ULg&s=19

    Correct!

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  15. Well that’s weird….

    Oh wait, no it’s not. This is what the corrupt media does.

    https://x.com/RapidResponse47/status/1916488990896656683?t=6pPQnzu77QwVlj2pDnzl3w&s=19

    “@SecScottBessent: “There was a story ten days ago that said this is the worst April for the stock market since the Great Depression. Ten days later, the Nasdaq is now up on the month of April, and I haven’t seen a story that says ‘stock market has biggest bounce back ever.'”

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  16. Poor Frank Luntz. His narrative is busted. He was looking for Trump supporters to jump ship. They didn’t, and for the same reasons I gave here weeks ago.

    https://x.com/EricLDaugh/status/1916106062609973377?t=2wf4fGZX0VhVWyyG4omG6w&s=19

    “Frank Luntz gets a panel of Trump voters and is shocked when he finds out they aren’t jumping ship because of a market correction/dip in response to tariffs.

    There’s too much reason and logic in this frame for any single Democrat to handle!

    LUNTZ: “That has crashed your 401ks! Most of you! Tariffs. Stock market is WAY down.”

    “It needed a correction.””

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  17. “The media’s self-congratulatory “reckoning” is 3 years late and $10 trillion short. Biden’s decline wasn’t a mystery—it was a national security crisis they gaslit Americans into ignoring. When CNN anchors and White House lackeys spent years dismissing obvious cognitive collapse as a “stutter,” they didn’t just fail journalism—they endangered the country. Now they want applause for admitting the lie?

    The same outlets that buried Hunter’s laptop, smeared whistleblowers, and parroted “mostly peaceful protests” during cities burned can’t lecture anyone on truth. Real accountability means dismantling the entire corrupt ecosystem that prioritized partisan narratives over national interest.

    The press corps’ credibility didn’t collapse because of one book—it imploded after decades of collusion with power.”

    https://x.com/dogeai_gov/status/1916465011087610328?t=bYaIjjJXcPNM6ktPdLYK8g&s=19

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  18. “It seems like a simple concept, but it’s important to never forget, and also to consider all future information through this lens:

    – They were not wrong about COVID; they lied.

    – They were not wrong about Hunter’s laptop; they lied.

    – They didn’t miss Biden’s dementia; they lied.

    – They were not wrong about Ukraine; they lied.

    – They were not wrong about Russiagate; they lied.”

    https://x.com/JohnLeFevre/status/1916258093664768508?t=w735P1S-3WeqYWT48RuXMA&s=19

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  19. Media is owned and controlled by the owners.

    While some reporters are popular enough they can write anything they want, most reporters are limited and edited, often to an actual change in their story.

    If you “cross the determined line” set by publishers and editors, you lose your job.

    for the last 50 years, many beginning reporters come out of communications majors or journalism school.

    That has resulted in reporters having a limited knowledge base from which to report.

    They can put together a neat presentation, but don’t know backstory, particularly historical back story, and thus their stories are shallow.

    When challenged, they retreat to their editors who often know even less.

    Those who have been in the reporting trenches are often disparaged because they may fumble with technology, even as they have excellent reporter chops.

    To declaim all reporters is unfair.

    So many work for low wages in an industry which at large is destroying itself through lack of knowledge and inability to capture the fickle reading mind.

    Other than big names that grab attention and speak above the noise, I’d say most reporters are powerless.

    and always subject to having their words twist and used I. Ways they did not intend.

    Everything changed in the early 90s when ABC sports head was made the head of their news department.

    Did Roone Arlege know anything about news reporting?

    He was a sports caster, all he knew was entertainment.

    Others followed suit.

    And that’s where we are now.

    Smoke and mirrors.

    Please do not disparage DJ for the guilt of so many others.

    Like many others, she is an experienced, dedicated, shoes on the ground reporter who has worked hard and with honor for many, many years.

    I admired her working my hometown paper— where I was once an intern— before I ever met her on these pages.

    I could go on, but it’s time for church.

    M— once a reporter, always a reporter.

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  22. The “new media” gets it wrong pretty often, too. There have been several times over the past few years when I or someone else has pointed out that a post, usually from X, has misrepresented a story, misled about what a video has shown, or even manipulated another post to twist the truth.

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  24. Well “pretty often” is a vast overstatement.

    And I’m guessing “X” does not have a long code of ethics it holds its reporters to with the threat of firing if it is violated.

    We do.

    • dj

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  27. Of course DJ is not responsible for her industry. I think she can be a good source of insight for those of us who have become rather flabbergasted by the sheer lack of transparency and honesty by some in the MSM.

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  28. And thank you M, with one very big clarification — the overwhelming influence of the online technology and the likes of google etc. that swept away advertising support which literally wiped out our underpinnings and started the whole ball rolling that completely decimated our industry; the rest was an avalanche from which we could never recover, try as we might … Everyone’s tried but no one has been able to financially make it “work,” even billionaire owners who now are bailing out of their efforts after seeing that even they are just losing money … I honestly don’t understand young people even trying to go into this industry as a career anymore 😦

    • dj

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  29. Debra, TV is a whole other segment. I’m speaking of standard print news journalism. Our code of ethics is long. We cannot have so much as a bumper sticker on our cars. And I think that’s a very good rule.

    You’re welcome.

    • dj

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  30. I’m not here to defend every journalist who ever lived.

    But I’m certainly here to say that the likes of X are not real journalism and that we all, as news consumers, generally suffer for the likes of it when we rely on it.

    • dj

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  31. I’ve been in this industry for a long time. I’ve watched the changes from the inside. It’s too often been heartbreaking. But technology, I suppose, along with fallen human nature has made it unavoidable in its course.

    But God.

    We will see where it all goes. Or future generations will.

    I may not be on this thread much going forward, if I can help it, it’s too hard to watch and be part of for me. I don’t think it’s helping our fellowship and I don’t think it’s helping my own faith walk which needs more attention. I think lately of the verse (applying it to myself) “if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off” in Matt. 5:30. 😦 I’ll read and/or comment but only if I ‘can’ and only if it brings some light and and not more heat. At least that is my intention.

    • dj

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  32. In the meantime, look for ‘old school’ journalism.

    We have editors who will call reporters out for not have other views in our reporting — call so-and-so, what does this side say? Did you call xxxx? before they hit publish.

    Look for those outlets, they still exist, they’re still operating. Find them. Include them in what you read.

    And yes, they still have long ethics code lists. They were and still are standard in many outlets. Shocking, I know, in this day and age of opinion “so-called journalism.”

    May it someday see a revival in our nation.

    • dj

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  33. Part of this now is the job of news consumers. (Always has been, of course, and I’m sorry that it’s all a bit harder now — but it’s worth it for an informed nation, no?)

    • dj

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  34. Most seasoned reporters know enough to call both or all sides of these issues, of course, some younger ones don’t — yet — but they quickly learn at our outlets where they intern or are employed; they learn quickly that it is how it should and must be done for good journalism.

    I’m not sure how journalism is being taught these days (I need to ask my former J colleague who now works on staff at a local community college more questions about that) I hope still in a traditional, hard-nosed way. Opinion journalism just isn’t real journalism in my book (or his, I’m quite sure).

    But once the traditional “business model” died with the surge of the internet, we were set adrift — we are now part of large coast-to-coast ‘chain’ owned by a (money-focused) NY-based hedge fund (but we’ve hung on to our ethics code, amen! and have sub-groups, we are a SoCal collection of outlets that operate as a single group of more than a dozen outlets).

    Once the “advertising” model collapsed (which we in editorial all just kind of blindly took for granted and didn’t even understand very much, it was completely separate but it somehow kept us afloat magically in our minds) due to the evil internet theft, we collapsed as well, though it took a while for it all to happen.

    Now we operate on thread-bare staffs with minimal, hand-to-mouth financial backing, trying to do what we know how to do best, provide honest, fair news in our various communities, cities, and states.

    Just some added background …

    • dj

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  35. Well said, M and DJ.

    The real, what exactly is the point of this thread?

    Above it says: News/Politics, What’s interesting in the news today? Open Thread.

    But that is not what it appears to be.

    Thanks for clarifying.

    mumsee

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  36. I suggest everybody go back and read what the real wrote in “About” about thirteen years ago. Find it above the big picture at the top, to the right of “home”.

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  37. I don’t know why everyone suddenly seems so upset. Nor why anyone would be angry with DJ over the newspaper industry. Or why we’re talking about DJ at all other than she has valuable first hand experience in the newspaper industry.

    These are stressful times. Sometimes I refuse to watch news with family because they seem to become so stressed after every newscast. It’s just unhealthy to keep doing what you know stresses you out.

    God makes a way. Sometimes He opens doors just barely big enough for us to squeeze through. But He never fails. His love never fails, His care never fails. So why are we so worried and filled with care?

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  38. Debra, not sudden. But our fellowship is being destroyed and we would like it to resume. We are concerned for our brother and for our sisters. Maybe this place is done. Maybe not. We will at least try. But God has His plans and they are good.

    As for me, I have found this to be a place of encouragement and growth for many years. I would like it to continue, building up the body, not tearing it apart. Politics does not need to be divisive. Especially not among Christians. We all come from different perspectives but, as the real said in the About, all should be welcome and respected.

    mumsee

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  39. Aj started this blog. He maintains and pays for the blog. As far as I can tell this page is titled News and Politics. Some have taken issue with discussion of Politics. This would be the place to discuss that subject. We all will not agree on news sources nor on Politicians. While some object to rude behavior the objectors seem not to recognize their own.

    A comment was made about being snarky then an apology was made. Then the poster said the present mood was being rubbed off on them. Suggesting others here are a bad influence? Kind of felt like a drive by. So be it.

    In as much as journalists having standards I would suggest that is a broad brush approach. Most of the major new sources disperse false information as propaganda for the left. To not see that is closing the eyes and ears in my estimation. X being cited as a major source of false information is a bit of bias as it would not fit the readers narrative. I have seen all too much of the splicing and dicing of information of the left…kind of goes both ways. Nj

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  40. It takes work, NJ. And I’m sorry it’s come to that.

    But it’s the sad state of the industry through no one’s individual fault or to no one’s blame. Technology, advertising dollars driving runaway opinion journalism, short attention spans … It just is “what it is.”

    I’m sorry. No one or nothing to individually blame.

    And we’re all stuck with the mess left behind.

    • dj

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  41. But just realize that it is a mess, and it is chaos.

    We may read an opinion we like. It may be true. Or it may be false.

    We may read an opinion we don’t like. It may be true or it may be false.

    But it lands on us as an obligation to check it out, to find out what is true — and what is false.

    • dj

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  42. Mumsee, my family are believers but they are still stressed by listening to the news. We handle it by not being so involved with the news together. Our fellowship is not broken by that restraint. On the contrary, it’s preserved.

    I thought we all had a very nice conversation a couple of days ago. I’m not sure what some of you really want–or what that looks like.

    I have suggested the possibility of another separate thread on the blog …

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  44. Absolutely it lands on us to check out truth vs lies. Back to the critical thinking skills. Mistakes will be made as we are all fallible but I am fully convinced those of us here hunger after truth. Grace must come into the equation not belittling nor superiority of intellect.

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  45. I think a separate thread might be helpful.

    I believe the fellowship being discussed was the one here.

    I personally like the idea on the daily thread of more discussions about spiritual and biblical issues, I think we’ve moved away from that sometimes, myself included.

    • dj

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  46. Debra, what is this referring to?

    ~ I have suggested the possibility of another separate thread on the blog … ~

    (Maybe that’s different than my earlier suggestion of possibly taking a break from the politics or having a separate location (even a separated one here somehow so it’s not so “connected” — it seems to be causing dissension, just my thoughts and in the interest of keeping the fellowship intact and focused; I know it’s been rejected before and so be it if so again).

    • dj

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  47. Debra – You asked why we are talking about DJ. Check out the post from 9:37 this morning, presumably from AJ, who doesn’t sign his posts anymore.

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  48. Debra, of course believers should be discussing politics but they should do so with a civil tongue. We are taught that in the Bible. Of course this is the real’s blog and he does the work and pays for it and can run it however he likes. But thirteen years ago, he gave a very clear clarion call on how it ought to work. We have strayed from that. Telling people it’s politics, expect it to be dirty is vacating the call of Christ to be kind, encouraging, and serve one another. Two can disagree agreeably. It is not that difficult. We can point out error without being snarky or downright nasty. In but not of comes to mind.

    mumsee

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  49. AJ, presumably, (@9:37 which appears somewhat out of order on the thread), there has been reams written about what has happened to the news media since the advent of social media, you can look it all up.

    The information is available.

    • dj

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