At a rally in Michigan, “before you cast your votes ask yourselves what side of history do you want to be on.” She said male “rage” is what could cost Democrats the election. “If we don’t get this election right,” she nagged, “your wife, your daughter, your mother — we as women will become collateral damage to your rage. So are you men prepared to look into the eyes of the women and children you love and tell them that you supported this assault on our safety?” (Can we get one of those overpaid consultants to advise women in politics that there’s nothing frank or authentic about referring to men as “fellas?”)

Consider that Obama’s supreme legislative achievement was a health insurance industry overhaul. The ultimate result has been higher prices and fewer insurance options. Obama supported Hillary Clinton as his successor, discouraging Biden. She was ended by Trump. In 2020, Biden became the Democrat nominee with the eventual support of Obama, only to preside over breakouts of foreign conflict, hyperinflation, rampant crime, and unmitigated chaos at the southern border, none of which was inevitable but in fact instigated by Biden’s agenda. Now voters are once again turning to Trump, the man who made his entry into the Obama-era of politics by demanding proof of Obama’s birth certificate, which Obama, the sitting president of the United States, responded to by publishing it. Sad!

Generally speaking, Democrat men have never been accused of being too manly, but it remains a mystery as to who came up with the idea to browbeat them into voting for Kamala. If it was Obama’s idea, man has he lost his magic. And if it wasn’t his idea, man has he lost his magic.https://cdd84e69c15689bed0169c67cd64e921.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-40/html/container.html

“Hope and change” became, “Do what mommy and daddy said.”

Then Trump won decisively, the first Republican in 20 years to win the popular vote. It’s the second time Trump defeated the Obama-backed candidate and the second chance Trump has to reverse the havoc Obama and his legacy have wrought.

America is done with him. Obama was 2024’s biggest loser.

Leftism is psychologically sick — beyond redemption, correction or repair. It’s a self-devouring intellectual, cultural and political malignancy.

To be a committed leftist, you must loathe yourself. When you find others who will not loathe themselves, you become frightened–because the existence of happiness provides an indication of where you have gone horribly wrong. Soon, fear becomes anger, rage and hatred. Think frightened three-year-olds having a tantrum — with none of the innocence. That’s all we’re up against.

Leftism is programmed with a self-destruct mechanism: The fear of seeing others who are sincere, virtuous and happy ignites a never-ending rage and impulse toward annihilation of all things valuable. Hence the desire to turn Mickey Mouse into a “transgender” and make Batman into an emasculated feminist: To wokesters, it’s the destruction that matters. It started with straws and Aunt Jemima. It won’t stop until it gets to the 21st century version of concentration camps.

Scratch the surface of Communism, socialism, woke corporate fascism, environmentalism and all the other ridiculous trends of our era, and you will find nothing but metaphysical terror manifesting as snarls and hatred. I can’t hang out with leftists. Not because I can’t tolerate dissension; but because I can’t tolerate misery disguised as hatred.

Brace yourselves for 2025. Donald Trump cannot fix everything. No one election can fix everything. It’s deeper than politics. We’re talking fundamental differences. A lot of people are confused, uncertain and in the middle. But the people running things — the politically connected corporations (the big ones), the universities and schools, the government agencies (especially at the federal level) — are not going to back down. They’re going to make the Biden years seem sane. Listen to Biden when he sneered that the 2024 election was losing a battle, but not the war. It’s the war on America that Obama started and continues to this day, although it predates Obama. So fasten your seatbelts and decide what’s really important to you. It’s going to get truly interesting.

Happy 2025!

Outgoing Sen. Joe Manchin (I-WV) wrote a scathing tweet about President Joe Biden after he granted clemency to 37 prisoners on federal death row who received life sentences without the potential for parole. He called it “horribly misguided and insulting,” especially regarding the two men convicted of murdering a student at Marshall University.

The Democrat-turned-Independent said he felt a moral obligation to speak out against the outgoing president on behalf of the parents of Samantha Burns, a 19-year-old girl who was killed in November 2002. However, her remains were never found. Manchin said her family wrote letters to Biden pleading with him not to pardon the murders, but their concerns were disregarded.

“After speaking to Samantha Burns’ parents, I believe it is my duty to speak on their behalf and say President Biden’s decision to commute the death sentences for the two men convicted in her brutal murder is horribly misguided and insulting,” Manchin wrote on X. “Particularly since Samantha’s family wrote letters to President Biden & the Department of Justice, pleading for them not to do this, but their concerns were unheard. I can’t imagine the grief that Kandi and John Burns are reliving and dealing with during the holiday season. As their U.S. Senator and a father, I want to express my deepest sympathy for their continued suffering. Please know that Samantha will forever be in our prayers.”

After speaking to Samantha Burns’ parents, I believe it is my duty to speak on their behalf and say President Biden’s decision to commute the death sentences for the two men convicted in her brutal murder is horribly misguided and insulting. (1/3) — Senator Joe Manchin (@Sen_JoeManchin) December 26, 2024

Particularly since Samantha’s family wrote letters to President Biden & the Department of Justice, pleading for them not to do this, but their concerns were unheard. I can’t imagine the grief that Kandi and John Burns are reliving and dealing with during the holiday season. (2/3) — Senator Joe Manchin (@Sen_JoeManchin) December 26, 2024

As their U.S. Senator and a father, I want to express my deepest sympathy for their continued suffering. Please know that Samantha will forever be in our prayers. (3/3) — Senator Joe Manchin (@Sen_JoeManchin) December 26, 2024

In defense of his commutations, Biden doubled down on his opposition to the death penalty, saying he is “more convinced than ever that we must stop the use of the death penalty at the federal level.”

Social media users appeared to agree with Manchin, suggesting it is just a matter of time before the killers Biden granted clemency to kill again.

Joe Biden did this for 37 murderers.

Joe Biden has shown he does not care about the real victims of crime.

He is disgusting and lawless to do this. — Think for Yourself (@PhilipBLee) December 27, 2024

Just wait until one of the monsters biden commuted kills again.

It will happen, make my words. — Billy Bob (@The_Real_Solyad) December 26, 2024

Democrats are evil people. — Gunther Eagleman™ (@GuntherEagleman) December 26, 2024

Biden should be censored and not allowed to make anymore judgement calls. He is unable to stand trial why is he being allowed to make decisions for pardons? I blame congress for no action to stop what has gone on for 4 years. — Psmyth ExtremeMAGA (@Ps5725) December 27, 2024

Joe, these things happen when the entirety of government pretends it is perfectly normal to install a demented potato in the WH for 4 years. — Bytemeharder (@bytemeharder) December 26, 2024

Biden isn’t making these decisions. We all know it. — Deborah Anderson (@And434Deborah) December 26, 2024

For Palestinians, Syria is a closing door and an opening window

The Assads, father and son, always claimed to be the defenders of the Palestinians against the Zionist entity. The truth is quite otherwise. More on how the Assads used and abused the Palestinians can be found here: “For Palestinians, Syria is a closing door and an opening window – analysis,” by Elias Zananiri, The Media Line, December 16, 2024:

The Syrian regime under Hafez Assad and his son, Bashar, had always been a puzzle for the Palestinians. They couldn’t figure out if it was a regime they loved to hate or they hated to love.

Although Syria had the chance to play a pivotal role in the region, it focused on fighting the Palestinians a lot more than the effort it made to fight Israel, the perceived occupier of the Palestinian people. Ask any Palestinian about the Syrian regime under the father and later his son, and he will immediately tell you it never shot a bullet at Israel after the 1973 October War. For the Palestinian majority, this is not only an indication but damning evidence that Syria was not on the side of the Palestinian national rights.

The Syrian regime offered lots of lip service to the Palestinians. Still, it spared no effort to take over the PLO and turn it into a Syrian proxy, like Ahmed Jibril’s Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC) and Zuheir Mohsen’s As-Sa’iqa, Arabic for thunderbolt. Most Palestinians in Syria knew these two as senior officers in the country’s secret service….

The story of Bashar Sharif Ali Saleh, a Palestinian from the West Bank city of Jenin, illustrates how ruthless Jibril’s personality was.

Bashar was released upon the collapse of the Assad regime after spending 40 years in Syrian jails because Ahmad Jibril considered him a person of interest. In an interview with him at the Palestinian embassy in Damascus after his release, Bashar said he joined the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestinian territories -General Command, PFLP-GC, whose leader then was Ahmad Jibril.

One day, Bashar and a few volunteers were sitting in a room when Jibril suddenly entered. Everybody rose except for Bashar. “I know it was a mistake that I didn’t stand up, and instead, I shook Jibril’s hand while seated,” Bashar said.

He added: “I should have behaved like the others. Jibril ordered his men to shave my head, strip me of my military uniform, and take me to jail. Since then, I was moved to three different jails, the last of which was Adra prison.” Before Adra, Bashar served 12 years in Sednaya Prison, the notorious torture center near Damascus. Videos and interviews with prisoners held in Sednaya and released by combatants belonging to Hay’at Tahrir Al-Sham (Organization for the Liberation of the Levant) or HTS told unbelievable stories of how their wardens treated them….

Bashar Sharif Ali Saleh spent more than 12 years in Sednaya Prison because he had failed to stand up when Ahmed Jibril, the head of Syrian-allied PFLP, entered the room. It is that kind of detail that conveys the full horror of the Assad regime and its Palestinian allies.

Walid Barakat is a Palestinian who flew to Damascus in 1982 to enroll in one of its universities. He was arrested upon arrival and sent to three different prisons until he was taken to Sednaya Prison in 2001, where he stayed until his release after HTS combatants stormed Damascus. He couldn’t even tell why he was arrested….

The Assad regime would arrest and imprison Palestinians at will; no reason was ever given for most of these sentences. Anyone perceived as a threat to the regime would be immediately picked up. Did Walid Barakat let slip some anti-regime sentiment before he went to Damascus, that an Assad agent overheard and reported, and Barakat spent 42 years of his life in prison as a result?

Assad was not interested in the Palestinians except insofar as he could use some of them, under his threat, to help maintain Syrian control of Lebanon. He “never fired a shot” against Israel.

Ahmed al-Sharaa, the HTS leader, expressed his belief that Syria needs to democratize all its institutions. Known by his nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Golani, al-Sharaa told a Syrian television channel that many domestic issues in Syria need urgent treatment and solutions. Therefore, he added, the leaders of the new regime are not out there to fight Israel.

“We want the Iranian presence in Syria to end so Israel would have no more excuses to attack Syria,” he said. He sounded more like a leftist rather than an Islamist as he reasonably discussed the future he expects for Syria. He said, “Syria needs a transformation from the mentality of revolting against the tyranny of Assad’s regime into a state mentality where issues must be dealt with collectively and in cooperation with all segments of the society.”

Since he quit al-Qaida, al-Sharaa has done his homework correctly. He dropped his nom de guerre and preferred to be called by his real name. He also removed his al-Qaida camouflage, as he understood that it would not encourage the Syrian public to support him and his group. Modernizing Syrian governance is genuinely needed, and al-Sharaa is convinced that he and his colleagues in the new country’s command must follow this line.

It’s hard to know if al-Sharaa’s claim to have abandoned the jihadist beliefs he held for so long is sincere. Right now he is so focused on three things: first, persuading the West to lift its sanctions on Syria; second, having the West remove the designation of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham as a terrorist organization; third, having the West supply aid so that Syria can start to rebuild. He is willing to say anything that will further those goals. No one seems to know if he can be trusted; the Israelis, quite rightly, are acting on the assumption that he cannot, and the IDF is determined to deprive Syria of its military assets through a campaign of sustained bombing that has already reduced those assets to 20% of what they were just a few weeks ago. Now Syria has been stripped of the wherewithal to harm the Jewish state.

It is uncertain if Syria will become a Western-style democracy. Only time can tell if Syria is moving in that direction. From a Palestinian perspective, it is better to have a neutral Syria than a country that proclaims to support the Palestinian national struggle while it does nothing. A senior Fatah member who graduated in Syria and spent most of his years in the country said he would prefer to see Syria sitting on the fence watching what happens in the region to a Syria that stabs the Palestinian people in their back. He added that Syria “is a closing door and an opening window.”

“We hope it will be a window of positive and fruitful change in a country that deserves to live in a democratic regime honoring human rights and individual liberties.”

As De Gaulle skeptically said on another occasion, “Vaste programme, monsieur.”

Around this time of year, so many people tell me how they find the gift-giving process stressful and/or downright unpleasant. (Not everybody does, mind you, but some definitely do.) There’s got to be a better way to enjoy Christmas! I made this point in an article several years ago and was amazed at the response I received – all positive – when people took a more objective approach to holiday shopping.

Year after year, more and more people tell me, “The holidays are so stressful! Shopping is such a chore!” But does it really have to be that way? Have we forgotten about that wonderful thing called … choice? Believe it or not, we have the power to choose how much holiday anxiety we endure. Specifically, we can choose to limit, or not to engage in, the exchange of gifts. We’re free to tell significant others, friends and family that this is the year to control the stressful search for (what we hope will be) the “perfect gift.” Or, we can dive headlong into the giving and receiving. But if that causes more stress than happiness, then we’re free to choose an alternative.

Nothing is more festive than lots of brightly wrapped presents under the tree. But in the interest of stress reduction, you can propose other options. For example, suggest that each person draw a single name for which they will buy. Some large families and offices do this all the time. Or what about a memorable experience like a cruise, a trip or an evening at one of our great restaurants – anything that isn’t doomed to collect dust in the attic.

I’m not advocating any particular way to exchange gifts. What I am saying is that we have a choice. Psychologically speaking, the biggest problem is that too many people approach the holidays as a duty. They feel they must buy gifts for everyone – all or nothing. Sadly, quality often gives way to quantity. Are you motivated to buy expensive gifts for your kids because you know they’ll appreciate them all year long? Or (be honest, now…) are you trying to impress everybody else?

“Materialism,” business and advertising get the blame for much of this, but advertising can’t do anything more than momentarily intensify a desire to buy. But we still retain the power to choose. Well-run businesses respond to what the majority demands, and many people simply don’t question what they want. They just do it — often with resentment and bottled-up anger.

If you find yourself thinking, “I just can’t do it this year,” ask yourself, “How do I really want to handle gifts? Am I truly satisfied when it’s all over?” Think about last year: If you liked everything the way it was, then know that all the hassle will be worth it. Don’t rush to label something a hassle that is actually something you treasure.

Several years ago, during a particularly busy pre-holiday time, I agonized over the decision to suggest to family and friends that we suspend gift giving in favor of experiences together, like dinner at a nice restaurant or a day trip to a nearby city. After I worked up the nerve to hear what I was sure would be, “No gifts!? Horror of horrors, it’s Scrooge!”, I was astounded by everyone’s reaction. They loved it! The stress of battling traffic for a gift that would end up languishing in a dark corner (or furtively returned) was wearing on everybody. I just happened to be the one to bring it up. We still buy gifts for one another during the year — retailers here at the beach always have unique and unusual items — making the season more fun and less frenetic.

Why approach the holidays as a duty? If the season feels that way to you, then something is wrong. You might be surprised at how many of your friends and family feel the same way. Create a plan and exercise your power to choose. Then guiltlessly enjoy whatever makes you happy.

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In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that the whole world should be enrolled. This was the first enrollment, when Quirinius was governor of Syria. So all went to be enrolled, each to his own town. And Joseph too went up from Galilee from the town of Nazareth to Judea, to the city of David that is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David, to be enrolled with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. While they were there, the time came for her to have her child, and she gave birth to her firstborn son. She wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

Now there were shepherds in that region living in the fields and keeping the night watch over their flock. The angel of the Lord appeared to them and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were struck with great fear. The angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for behold, I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For today in the city of David a savior has been born for you who is Christ and Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find an infant wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was a multitude of the heavenly host with the angel, praising God and saying: “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”

We notice all the references to Davidic covenant fulfillment: Bethlehem, David’s birthplace; Joseph “of the house and lineage of David”; the presence of shepherds, who remind us of David the Shepherd.

St. Luke takes pains to date the event by secular history (Caesar Augustus … Quirinius, etc.). He does not intend to record myths and fables, but real human events. As John also says, that “which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and touched with our hands … we proclaim to you” (1 John 1:1). Disbelieve if you will, but Luke and John intend to record history.

There is a well-known historical issue with the dating of Quirinius, who according to some historical records seems not yet to have been governor of Syria at the time of Jesus birth. But the Greek of this passage can possibly be rendered, “This was the census prior to Quirinius being governor of Syria,” in which case the chronological problem is solved (so F.F. Bruce, The New Testament Documents: Are They Reliable?). There are other possible solutions (see Hahn and Mitch, Ignatius Catholic Study Bible, excursus ad loc.).

“⁶As many have noted, the name “Bethlehem” is literally “House of Bread.” Thus it is appropriate that the “Bread of Life” should be born in the “House of Bread” and laid in a feeding trough (a “manger” from “mangé,” “to eat”). We will feed on Him in this Mass.

This chapter is an embellished story, so do not take it as inspired by GOD. I wrote this for entertainment, and thus it is but a figment of my active imagination mixed with some facts surrounding the times, the places and the characters.

I ask that you allow yourself to truly see what it must have been like for a husband and his 16 year old pregnant wife as they traveled from Nazareth to Bethlehem in the week leading up to the birth of their first child. They were two humans with thoughts, feelings, and faith in the One and only Living God who promised them their child would be special. Here are some of the particulars involved that they had to face.

I Offer These Facts To Consider About Mary and Joseph’s Journey to Bethlehem, Before My Story Begins

We live at a time when children are born in sanitized hospital rooms with the best of care, before and after the mother gives birth. When we hear of stories of women giving birth at home, or alongside the road where the car had to pull over because the child would not wait, we are captivated and amazed of such a thing happening in today’s world.

Yet, for the vast majority of man’s history, women have given birth in conditions we would not expect our pet animals to give birth in. So when you consider what Mary had to endure in her last week leading up to the birth of her first child, I want you to consider the following. Then maybe, just maybe, you will look at the story of Christmas a bit differently than you have in the past.

When you consider that Luke was a Doctor, it kind of makes sense that his version of the Gospel is the only one that tells the story of the birth of Christ. It makes even more sense when you consider that Luke was not just a good friend and traveling companion, but he was also the Apostle Paul’s Doctor. Another point of consideration is that, in Paul’s letter to the Galatians he wrote that he did not receive the Gospel from man, but from Christ Himself. So who better to know the events leading up to the birth of Jesus, than the man He shared it with.

“But I make known to you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came through the revelation of Jesus Christ.”
(Galatians 1:11-12)

I ask that you allow yourself to truly see what it must have been like for a 16 year old pregnant wife and her husband in the week leading up to the birth of their first child. They were two humans with thoughts, feelings, and faith in their God who promised them their child would be special. Here are some of the particulars involved that they had to face.

“And she brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the Inn.”
(Luke 2:7)

Victoria Coates is a former Deputy National Security Adviser in the first Trump administration. Now she is the Vice President of the Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Institute for National Security and Foreign Policy at the Heritage Foundation. She has an interesting take on what is not the “Palestinian problem” (with its implied “two-state solution”), but rather, the “Palestinians’ problem,” the problem, that is, of failing to recognize the significance of their repeated defeats. For nobody will tell it to them straight. She does. More of her discussion can be found here: “Victoria Coates: Palestinians lost battle with Israel – ‘someone has to tell them,’” by Maayan Hoffman, ILTV, December 3, 2024:

The Palestinian-Israeli conflict ended decades ago with the country’s founding and its victory in the 1967 Six-Day War, according to former U.S. Deputy National Security Adviser Victoria Coates.

Speaking to ILTV on Monday at the Misgav Institute for National Security & Zionist Strategy, she said the Palestinians were never told they lost. Instead, “they were encouraged, particularly after the Iranian Revolution, to continue this self-defeating, suicidal, genocidal [behavior] we saw on October 7.”

“Someone has to have the nerve to say to the Palestinians, we are not negotiating a ceasefire, we’re negotiating terms” to end the conflict, she added.

Coates, an evangelical Christian and staunch supporter of the Jewish state has visited Israel many times. She has held several key political leadership roles, including serving in the Department of Energy, where she advised Secretary Dan Brouillette on national security issues and acted as his representative in the Middle East and North Africa.

Today, she serves as Vice President of the Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Institute for National Security and Foreign Policy at The Heritage Foundation. She recently published a book, The Battle for the Jewish State: How Israel—and America—Can Win, which focuses on October 7 and why America must stand with Israel.

She said the possibilities for the Palestinians, if they were to disarm and accept defeat, are abundant….

What would that mean? It would mean they would have, as Prime Minister Netanyahu likes to say, “all the powers they need to govern themselves, and none of the powers to harm Israel.”

Coates told ILTV she believes Trump would act decisively to expand the Abraham Accords, including securing a Saudi deal….

Is an Israel-Saudi “normalization deal” even possible? The Saudis insist that first a Palestinian state must be created. The Israelis are not about to see themselves squeezed back within the 1949 armistice lines, with a nine-mile-wide waist from Qalqilya to the sea, in order to accommodate a 23rd Arab state that would be used to launch future attacks on the single Jewish state. Let me repeat it one more time: As Prime Minister Netanyahu has said, Israel wants the Palestinian Arabs to have all the powers to govern themselves, but none of the powers to harm Israel.

Trump will likely operate with an “unabashedly pro-Israel stance” because he understands this approach is in America’s best interest.

“I’m a Christian … but that’s not why I am here and not why I wrote the book,” Coates emphasized. “I wrote the book because the United States, we need Israel in the region, we need Israel locally, to be a partner and ally to us.”

She highlighted Trump’s nomination of former Governor Mike Huckabee as ambassador to Israel as an example of his pro-Israel policies and his understanding of the evangelical community that played a significant role in his election.

“You would assume that Israel would want a Jewish ambassador. But I think the enthusiasm for Governor Mike Huckabee is palpable,” Coates said. “I think he can help bridge those two worlds and not make this a Jewish or Christian issue. This is an American issue. There are hundreds of millions of Americans who care deeply about Israel.”

Listen up, Palestinian Arabs. You lost. Get over it.