Beloved, Greetings in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ! Who is the TRUE source for ALL Heavenly blessings here on earth and in Heaven above (Eph. 1:3)!
As we celebrate this time of Thanksgiving we are very mindful of many things. We are thankful for our loved ones, a measure of health and a sound mind. We are thankful for the earthly blessings and liberties that we possess as Americans. We are thankful for those who have shed their blood on our nation’s behalf which have preserved our freedoms and liberties. We are thankful for the vision and labor of our Founding Fathers which steadfast sought to provide its posterity with a nation and constitution that we may enjoy our unalienable rights as human beings. We are thankful to those who labor for the Lord on our behalf, who challenge us and encourage us in the ETERNAL truths and promises of Almighty God.
In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you! (1 Thess. 5:18).
But most of all we are thankful for Almighty God our Father for so loving us that He sent His only begotten Son on our behalf (John 3:16-17), that we may be redeemed, forgiven, received, adopted and made righteous in the Person and work of Jesus Christ (Rom. 10:4, 1 Cor. 1:30).
We are truly thankful that we are still able to worship Almighty God in spirit and truth here in America and that we still have a measure of time left to get out His saving message to a dying and condemned world. We rejoice that Christ is coming again very soon and that this fallen world is NOT our home. We have a glorious future forevermore with our Savior and Lord in perfect RIGHTEOUSNESS in Almighty God’s ETERNAL day (1 Cor. 2:9, Rev. 22:5).
May this Thanksgiving be a great blessing to you all! We indeed have much to be thankful for (Phil. 4:4)!
Beloved, Maranatha! The Kingdom of Heaven is truly at hand!
A generation sidelined by debt, ideology, and stalled adulthood is drifting—but it won’t stay lost if society restores real opportunity, accountability,
The current generation “Z”—those now roughly between 13 and 28 years old—is becoming our 21st-century version of the “Lost Generation.” Members of Gen Z are often nicknamed “Zoomers,” a term used to describe young adults who came of age in the era of smartphones, social media, and rapid cultural upheaval.
Males in their teens and twenties are prolonging their adolescence—rarely marrying, not buying a home, not having children, and often not working full-time.
The negative stereotype of a Zoomer is a shiftless man who plays too many video games. He is too coddled by parents and too afraid to strike out on his own.
Zoomers rarely date, supposedly out of fear that they would have to grow up, take charge, and head a household.
Yet the opposite, sympathetic generalization of Gen Z seems more accurate.
All through K-12, young men, particularly white males, have been demonized for their “toxic masculinity” that draws accusations of sexism, racism, and homophobia.
In college, the majority of students are female. In contrast, white males—9-10 percent of admittees in recent years at elite schools like Stanford and the Ivy League—are of no interest to college admission officers.
So they are tagged not as unique individuals but as superfluous losers of the “wrong” race, gender, or sexual orientation.
Gen Z men saw themselves scapegoated by professors and society for the sins of past generations—and on the wrong side of the preposterous reductionist binary of oppressors and the oppressed.
Traditional pathways to adulthood—affordable homes, upwardly mobile and secure jobs, and safe and secure city and suburban living—had mostly vanished amid overregulation, overtaxation, and underpolicing.
Orthodox and loud student advocacies on campus—climate change, DEI, the Palestinians—had little to do with getting a job, raising a family, or buying a house.
During the Biden years, white males mostly stopped enlisting in the military in their accustomed overrepresented numbers.
In Iraq and Afghanistan, they had died in frontline combat units at twice their percentages for the demographic. No matter—prior Pentagon DEI commissars still slandered them as suspects likely to form racist cabals.
Gen Z males seemed bewildered by women and sex—and often withdrew from dating.
Never has popular culture so promoted sexually provocative fashions, semi-nudity, and freewheeling lifestyles, and careers of supposedly empowered single women.
And never had the rules of dating and sexuality become more retrograde Victorian.
Casual consensual sex was flashed as cool everywhere on social media. And when it naturally proved in the real world to be selfish, callous, and empty, males were almost always exclusively blamed as if they were not proper Edwardian gentlemen.
Soon, young men feared sexual hookups and promiscuity as avenues to post facto and one-sided charges of harassment—or worse.
For the half of Generation Z who went to college, tuition had soared, rising faster than the rate of inflation. Administrators were often more numerous than faculty. Obsessive fixations with race determined everything from dorm selections to graduation ceremonies.
Zoomers were mired in enormous student debt.
Unemployed or half-employed Zoomers then ended up with unsustainable five-figure student loans and the insidious interest on them. Their affluent, left-wing, tenured profs, who had once demonized them as oppressors, could have cared less about their dismal fates.
Add it all up, and Zoomers puzzled their parents. And they found scant guidance from the campus.
Instead, they sought needed spiritual inspiration from a Jordan Peterson, entertainment and pragmatic advice from a Joe Rogan—but sometimes toxic venting from a demagogic, anti-Semitic Nick Fuentes.
What would shock the lost generation back into the mainstream, barring a war, depression, or natural catastrophe?
Instead, they sought needed spiritual inspiration from a Jordan Peterson, entertainment and pragmatic advice from a Joe Rogan—but sometimes toxic venting from a demagogic, anti-Semitic Nick Fuentes.
What would shock the lost generation back into the mainstream, barring a war, depression, or natural catastrophe?
One, an end to DEI hectoring and blame-gaming, and a return to class rather than race determining “privilege.”
Two, some sanity in the war between the sexes. When women represent nearly 60 percent of undergraduates, why does gender still assure an advantage in admissions and hiring?
Three, the federal government needs to stop funding $1.7 trillion in student debt, often for worthless degrees, and wasting away one’s prime twenties and thirties.
Let universities pledge their endowments to guarantee their own loans. They should graduate students in four years. And they must slash the parasitical class of toxic administrative busybodies who cannot teach but can hector and bully.
Four, society needs to stop granting status on the basis of increasingly meaningless letters and titles after a name.
Skilled tradesmen like electricians and mechanics are noble professionals. And their status and compensation should reflect their value to society—far more so than a bachelor’s degree in a studies major or years vaporized in off-and-on college.
Finally, incentivize building homes, rather than overregulating and zoning them into unaffordability.
If the lost Gen Z is not found soon, the result for everyone will not be pretty.
Victor Davis Hanson
Victor Davis Hanson is a distinguished fellow of the Center for American Greatness and the Martin and Illie Anderson Senior Fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution. He is an American military historian, columnist, a former classics professor, and scholar of ancient warfare. He has been a visiting professor at Hillsdale College since 2004, and is the 2023 Giles O’Malley Distinguished Visiting Professor at the School of Public Policy, Pepperdine University. Hanson was awarded the National Humanities Medal in 2007 by President George W. Bush, and the Bradley Prize in 2008. Hanson is also a farmer (growing almonds on a family farm in Selma, California) and a critic of social trends related to farming and agrarianism. He is the author of the just released New York Times best seller, The End of Everything: How Wars Descend into Annihilation, published by Basic Books on May 7, 2024, as well as the recent The Second World Wars: How the First Global Conflict Was Fought and Won, The Case for Trump, and The Dying Citizen.
The methods of modern censors have barely changed since the first rebellious citizen scrawled an obscenity on an ancient wall: those who question the ruling narrative are not refuted by argument but isolated — socially, economically, morally.
The analog world still relies on well-worn tools: public shaming, professional reprisals, and a reliably mobilized cadre of Antifa thugs and NGO operatives whose business model is built on performative moral outrage and steady state financing.
Every protest, every aggressive convention stunt — most recently the Book Fair scandal in Halle during the “Seitenwechsel” event — draws from the same ideological reservoirs, public funding channels, transnational “democracy foundations,” and discreet pots of money linked to long-familiar actors like the Soros network.
Digital Control: Invisible Interventions in the Platform Engine Room
Online, the system is more subtle but no less effective. With the DSA, Brussels has forged an instrument that no longer needs to announce censorship, because it is automated through technical-administrative mechanisms.
“Trusted flaggers” — mainly NGOs and semi-public institutions — receive quasi-state authority. Their reports trigger instant algorithmic downranking, visibility throttling, or full deamplification of posts and accounts. Mass-reporting campaigns, often reinforced by bot-like accounts, generate the risk signals that platforms, terrified of billion-euro EU fines, react to immediately.
The result is a state-steered information environment where politically inconvenient views are not banned — they are simply rendered invisible, disappearing into a censorship fog without ever being formally deleted. Publisher Markus Schall has described these tactics in meticulous detail.
Germany at the Center of the Censorship Regime
EU governments — and Brussels, Europe’s supreme censor — spend staggering sums on surveillance and opinion control. Across the EU, the financial architecture supporting this system likely reaches over €17 billion annually. Tellingly, Germany once again stands out as the most zealous censor, allocating nearly €1.5 billion per year to its NGO censorship complex.
Lowenthal sees Germany as the central enforcement hub for Brussels’ digital governance regime. Its influence on the international NGO infrastructure is enormous — and much of the system rises or falls with German taxpayer money.
Germany provides far more resources for content control than any other EU country. And as seen with groups like the German Environmental Aid or the increasingly bizarre stunts by Fridays for Future — blocking highways or even airports — NGOs in Germany are extremely active and generously funded. Germany is the feeding ground, the playground, and the sanctuary for the NGO mob, enabled by a politically compliant establishment.
Despite growing public criticism, the German government under Friedrich Merz and Antifa-sympathizer Lars Klingbeil has allocated millions more — even NGOs feel the inflationary squeeze and rising wage costs.
A Glimmer of Hope
The increasingly aggressive posture of Antifa and the grotesque media reactions — like the coverage in state broadcasters following the assassination of American free-speech activist Charlie Kirk — indicate two underlying developments.
First, the rise of conservative forces across Europe is putting tremendous pressure on the censorship complex. Second, the U.S. government’s final dismantling of USAID — the funding artery behind countless left-wing media and NGO initiatives — acts like a stimulant on activist networks suddenly aware that their financial oxygen is running out.
They know that as long as platforms like X offer refuge for free speech, public scrutiny of their activities will only intensify, and citizen willingness to bankroll this system will continue to erode.
And they sense that every new revelation of their authoritarian impulses — escalated with growing aggression and intolerance — translates fear and uncertainty into civic resistance.
The internet has become the primary battleground for free expression. With ever-expanding funding streams, the German government is building an NGO-driven censorship apparatus that quietly injects the poison of the totalitarian impulse into public discourse. Now, a group called “Liber-Net” has succeeded in illuminating this sprawling, kraken-like suppression network.
If you are an active participant in online debates — especially if you occasionally express views critical of the government — you’ve likely already encountered one of the countless “fact foxes.” Point to independent research on CO2’s impact on global climate that undermines the logic of the green transition, and suddenly the likelihood rises that a state-funded NGO will sic one of these “fact-checkers” on you, flag your content, accuse you of hate speech, and launch a bot-driven harassment cascade designed to dehumanize and trivialize your replies.
If this has happened to you — congratulations. You are now part of the resistance against the state’s expanding censorship kraken.
Liber-Net and the Kraken
Just how deep the state’s covert censorship apparatus now reaches has long been difficult to assess. Censors love darkness, hidden channels, and opaque financing. But a spectacular investigative effort by “Liber-Net” — a civil society group advocating for digital rights — has, for the first time, shone a bright light into that darkness.
In an interview with Berliner Zeitung, Liber-Net director Andrew Lowenthal describes in detail how this multi-layered NGO ecosystem operates and the extent to which it is intertwined with state authorities.
Liber-Net identified more than 330 actors — directly or indirectly funded with taxpayer money — who participate in online content moderation. Their mandate: mark politically inconvenient posts, flag them as “harmful,” or suppress them entirely. They provide the operational foundation that gives life to the Digital Services Act (DSA), the EU’s largest regulatory project aimed at disciplining the digital public sphere.
Lowenthal outlines a system in which government agencies, quasi-public institutes, and ideologically aligned NGOs coordinate in lockstep. It is a network that does not operate openly, is not democratically legitimized, and certainly not transparent — yet it has unleashed an intimidation machine that only runs into resistance from a handful of American platforms, most notably Elon Musk’s X.
This is the new engine room of European information control: decentralized, specialized, lavishly funded — and invisible to the average citizen, until now.
The methods of modern censors have barely changed since the first rebellious citizen scrawled an obscenity on an ancient wall: those who question the ruling narrative are not refuted by argument but isolated — socially, economically, morally.
The analog world still relies on well-worn tools: public shaming, professional reprisals, and a reliably mobilized cadre of Antifa thugs and NGO operatives whose business model is built on performative moral outrage and steady state financing.
Every protest, every aggressive convention stunt — most recently the Book Fair scandal in Halle during the “Seitenwechsel” event — draws from the same ideological reservoirs, public funding channels, transnational “democracy foundations,” and discreet pots of money linked to long-familiar actors like the Soros network.
Digital Control: Invisible Interventions in the Platform Engine Room
Online, the system is more subtle but no less effective. With the DSA, Brussels has forged an instrument that no longer needs to announce censorship, because it is automated through technical-administrative mechanisms.
“Trusted flaggers” — mainly NGOs and semi-public institutions — receive quasi-state authority. Their reports trigger instant algorithmic downranking, visibility throttling, or full deamplification of posts and accounts. Mass-reporting campaigns, often reinforced by bot-like accounts, generate the risk signals that platforms, terrified of billion-euro EU fines, react to immediately.
The result is a state-steered information environment where politically inconvenient views are not banned — they are simply rendered invisible, disappearing into a censorship fog without ever being formally deleted. Publisher Markus Schall has described these tactics in meticulous detail.
Germany at the Center of the Censorship Regime
EU governments — and Brussels, Europe’s supreme censor — spend staggering sums on surveillance and opinion control. Across the EU, the financial architecture supporting this system likely reaches over €17 billion annually. Tellingly, Germany once again stands out as the most zealous censor, allocating nearly €1.5 billion per year to its NGO censorship complex.
Lowenthal sees Germany as the central enforcement hub for Brussels’ digital governance regime. Its influence on the international NGO infrastructure is enormous — and much of the system rises or falls with German taxpayer money.
Germany provides far more resources for content control than any other EU country. And as seen with groups like the German Environmental Aid or the increasingly bizarre stunts by Fridays for Future — blocking highways or even airports — NGOs in Germany are extremely active and generously funded. Germany is the feeding ground, the playground, and the sanctuary for the NGO mob, enabled by a politically compliant establishment.
Despite growing public criticism, the German government under Friedrich Merz and Antifa-sympathizer Lars Klingbeil has allocated millions more — even NGOs feel the inflationary squeeze and rising wage costs.
A Glimmer of Hope
The increasingly aggressive posture of Antifa and the grotesque media reactions — like the coverage in state broadcasters following the assassination of American free-speech activist Charlie Kirk — indicate two underlying developments.
First, the rise of conservative forces across Europe is putting tremendous pressure on the censorship complex. Second, the U.S. government’s final dismantling of USAID — the funding artery behind countless left-wing media and NGO initiatives — acts like a stimulant on activist networks suddenly aware that their financial oxygen is running out.
They know that as long as platforms like X offer refuge for free speech, public scrutiny of their activities will only intensify, and citizen willingness to bankroll this system will continue to erode.
And they sense that every new revelation of their authoritarian impulses — escalated with growing aggression and intolerance — translates fear and uncertainty into civic resistance.
Our lives are made up of decades, years, minutes, and seconds. The numbers vary by individual, but we are all given a limited amount of time on earth to live. The average American lifespan is about 78 years, roughly 2.5 billion seconds.
In each person’s life, there comes a time when they truly comprehend good and evil, as the conscience bears witness to the law being written on our human hearts. In God’s grace and mercy, He knows when that time is for each person. As the awareness of sin marches on, the seconds of our lives tick away. Every one of those seconds is a step on the road to eternity.
Time is an immeasurably valuable commodity, a finite resource we can spend, invest, or waste just like money. There are 86,400 seconds in each day. We will obviously spend some of those seconds sleeping, so if the average person sleeps eight hours, we still have around 56,000 seconds to fill at our discretion.
We live at a point in time when there are so many things clamoring for our attention. Just a few decades ago, we could come home after work or classes and have a refuge from the outside world; now, interruption is a constant email or text alert away. Scrolling through social media, posting on our profile, and channel surfing all chip away at the remaining seconds.
“Show me, Lord, my life’s end and number of my days; let me know how fleeting my life is. You made my days a handbreadth; the span of my years is as nothing before you.” -King David
Christians have a Biblical mandate to redeem the time, and we do this by using the seconds we’ve been given to count for God’s glory. In the scope of eternity, our life on earth is a vapor and mist compared to the ages to come, James 4:14.
Jesus told several parables about using our time wisely. In Matthew 25:14-30, He instructs us to use our time and opportunities to serve God and warns those who waste time. In Matthew 25:1-13, He warns about waiting and being prepared for His return, and that time will be up for the unprepared at His coming. Jesus told us to work while it is still day, because the time is coming when we can’t work, John 9:4. We’re instructed to pray without ceasing and make the most of our time because the days are evil, Ephesians 5:15-16.
As Christians, being good stewards of our time goes far beyond a well-managed schedule because our time doesn’t belong to us; it belongs to the Lord. He gives us time to use for His kingdom and glory. Anything that takes precedence over that is wasted time. Things like playing with your kids on the floor, taking your teen on a lunch date, or spending time with your spouse at dinner or in prayer are all honoring to God. So many people gripe that they have little or no time for prayer, Bible study, or witnessing about Jesus to others, yet they will fill hours with activities that won’t matter in eternity.
Can you imagine what would happen if true Christians started to redeem the time as though Jesus might return at any moment? Our walk with the Lord would be marked by renewed boldness for Him and love for lost souls.
As we consider the people who don’t know Jesus as their Lord, the reality that they will all soon face God’s wrath should compel us to make the most of every second we have available to share the good news with them. Many of our modern churches are swanky spiritual country clubs brimming with people who have itching ears, not broken hearts for lost souls, 2 Timothy 4:3.
There are still local churches where remnant Christians gather to make much of Jesus, not themselves, Hebrews 10:25. When we realize that the road to eternity is measured in seconds, we will have a renewed sense of biblical urgency to compel lost people to come to repentance and saving faith.
“Right now people are being swept into the vortex of a sewer of gross iniquity which ultimately will suck them down into eternal hell.” -Leonard Ravenhill
Dear Friends, if we love Jesus and lost souls, we don’t have a second to waste. Don’t put off reaching people until you feel equipped. Because the Holy Spirit lives in you, consider yourself equipped. As you plan, pray for the Lord’s will to be done and to direct you. Since the road to eternity is measured in seconds, we can’t assume that we’ll have until old age to serve God. Two dear brothers were called home to be with the Lord at a very young age, but they made quite an impact for His kingdom in just a few years.
William Borden was born in 1887 into a very wealthy family. After conversion around age 16, the young millionaire was on a trip around the world, and while in London, he felt called to foreign missions. He wanted to bring the good news to the Hui Muslims in Northwestern China, but first went to Cairo to study Islam and Arabic before going on to China. While in Egypt, he spent time distributing Christian sermons on the streets of Cairo. William contracted cerebral meningitis in March 1913; he died 3 weeks later. He was only 25 years old, but he made the seconds he was given count for eternity.
Beloved singer-songwriter Keith Green was born-again at age 19. From that point on, whether he was composing soul-stirring worship songs, providing housing for marginalized people, or preaching the gospel, Keith lived a life of no compromise. At the pinnacle of his ministry, he died in a plane crash in 1982 at the age of 28. After Keith came to faith in Jesus, he lived the remaining few years of his life for God’s glory. Both William Borden’s and Keith Green’s lives were brief, but these men stand as a vivid testimony of what the Holy Spirit can accomplish in a person who understands that the road to eternity is measured in seconds.
The longest life ends abruptly, and one is suddenly ushered into eternity. Time has vanished into the past, except as choices and words and deeds have affected eternity.” -Dave Hunt
If you are reading this article and don’t know Jesus as your Savior, I have to warn you about the eternal danger you are in. No one is guaranteed tomorrow. Approximately 150,000 die and go into eternity every day; many go there unexpectedly. Jesus said that most people would take the wide road leading to destruction. God’s wrath will soon fall on all unrepentant people, and the only way to be saved is by coming to repentance and being born again.
God does love you and demonstrated it by sending Jesus. He’s the only way to eternal life. I’m pleading with you to come to saving faith in Him while you still have time. The road to eternity is measured in seconds, and each one might be a final opportunity to have your sins forgiven.
In a significant shift in the Middle Eastern power dynamics, Iranian officials have admitted that their once-loyal proxy force, the Houthis in Yemen, is increasingly defying Tehran’s orders.
Reports indicate that the Houthis, who have long served as Iran’s strategic arm in the ongoing conflicts against the United States and its allies, are now acting independently, much to the dismay of their former benefactors.
A senior Iranian official disclosed that the Houthis have distanced themselves from Iran. “They have gone rogue for a while and are now really rebels,” the official stated, reflecting concerns within the Iranian regime as they grapple with a deteriorating hold over their regional proxies.
This development comes on the heels of significant military and strategic collapses for Iran, particularly following the successful operations by Israel against Hezbollah and the ongoing struggles of Hamas.
In a desperate attempt to regain control, Iranian leaders dispatched high-ranking commanders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to Yemen, hoping to rein in the Houthis and restore a semblance of order among Tehran’s remaining regional allies.
However, analysts suggest that the Houthis have matured into a self-sufficient force, developing their own military strategies, cultivating alliances, and securing resources beyond Iranian support. Despite facing escalating military pressure, they have learned to adapt, successfully hiding their assets and leveraging Yemen’s complex terrain for tactical advantages.
The Iranian officials’ candid acknowledgment of their waning influence highlights an alarming trend for Tehran, which has built its regional policy on cultivating proxy forces for decades. The Houthis’ revolt indicates a fracture in a strategy that once appeared robust.
This internal rift has profound implications. As the Houthis continue to assert their independence, Tehran faces the stark reality of having to confront a multifaceted crisis—both from external military pressures and internal fragmentation of its proxy forces.
The shift in control also signals a potential for increased instability, not just in Yemen but across the region, as the United States and its allies monitor the evolving landscape.
With President Trump now in office, the U.S. is likely to leverage these developments to further push back against Iranian aggression and exert pressure on Tehran’s remaining interests in the Gulf and beyond.
As Iran struggles to manage its proxies, the consequences of its diminishing power will resonate throughout the Middle East, providing the U.S. and its allies with an opportunity to redefine the balance of power in a region that has long been plagued by instability.
This moment calls for a renewed commitment to U.S. interests in the region, echoing the previous successes of the Trump administration in countering Iranian influence and supporting democracy and stability among U.S. allies.
Only time will tell if the Houthis’ defiance will lead to a stronger, more autonomous Yemen or if they will ultimately be brought back under Tehran’s thumb. However, in the current landscape, Iran’s influence is clearly on the wane.
Like a master chef promising a five-course meal in fifteen minutes, Washington’s latest promise on affordability might be biting off more than it can chew. The word “affordability” has become the political equivalent of a Swiss Army knife—everyone’s wielding it, but few seem to know which tool to pull out first.
From New York City’s mayoral race to the halls of Congress, “affordability” has emerged as the buzzword du jour, a catch-all solution to Americans’ economic anxieties. President Trump has seized on this narrative with characteristic gusto, promising sweeping changes to make life cheaper for working families. His One Big Beautiful Bill Act—now rebranded as the “working families’ tax cut” because apparently everything needs a rebrand these days—represents the kind of bold economic overhaul that helped propel him back to the White House.
But behind the fanfare and executive orders, a more sobering message is emerging from Republican leadership. The revolution, it seems, will not be televised on a rapid timeline.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, in an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital, offered what amounts to a reality check on the administration’s ambitious affordability agenda. While affirming the GOP’s commitment to reducing costs across the board—from healthcare to energy—Johnson’s words carried a notable note of caution that should give both supporters and skeptics pause.
From Fox News:
“We the people rightfully revolted against that, and gave us the power again in January. But the economy is a very complex thing, you don’t flip a switch and just change it all in one week. It takes a while.”
This admission from the House Speaker represents more than just expectation management—it’s an acknowledgment of the enormous gulf between campaign promises and governing realities. Johnson’s comment that changes will manifest “by the time we get into the first and second quarter of next year” pushes the timeline for economic relief well into 2026, beyond what many voters might have anticipated when they cast their ballots.
The Speaker’s candor comes at a particularly awkward moment. And let me tell you, the timing couldn’t be worse. Just as Johnson was tempering expectations, the White House quietly postponed its much-anticipated healthcare cost proposal, originally scheduled for unveiling this week. The administration offered no explanation for the delay, but sources suggest the complexity of reforming healthcare while avoiding the pitfalls of simply extending Obamacare subsidies has proven more challenging than expected.
Meanwhile, another signature Trump initiative has quietly faded into obscurity. The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), once touted by Elon Musk as a revolutionary force for slashing federal spending, has been disbanded after just eight months. Former staffers have been reassigned to work on beautifying government websites. Beautifying websites? Really? That’s our radical restructuring?
Look, I’ve watched this movie before, and spoiler alert: it doesn’t end with rapid change. Every administration arrives in Washington convinced they can move faster, cut deeper, and deliver quicker than their predecessors. The Biden administration promised to “build back better” and ended up building back inflation. Now, the Trump administration promises affordability but asks for patience while the machinery of government slowly grinds forward.
Johnson correctly identifies the Biden-era policies as creating the inflation that sparked voter revolt. The Texas A&M analysis he references shows consumer prices consistently outpacing wage growth throughout Biden’s term. But diagnosing the disease and curing it are two different challenges entirely. The Speaker’s talk of unleashing “job creators, entrepreneurs, risk-takers, innovators” sounds promising, but these forces need time to work their magic—time that struggling families may not have.
But here’s what really got me: the most telling moment in this unfolding drama came last week when President Trump hosted New York City’s socialist mayor Zohran Mamdani for a friendly press conference, just weeks after calling him a dangerous communist. When pressed on this about-face, Trump simply shrugged: “We all change.” Indeed, Mr. President, but hopefully not on the promise to make life affordable for American families.
The truth is, Johnson deserves credit for his honesty. Better to level with the American people now than to perpetuate the cycle of overpromising and underdelivering that has defined Washington for decades. The economic mess inherited from the Biden administration won’t be cleaned up overnight, and pretending otherwise would be political malpractice.
Still, one can’t help but feel a sense of déjà vu. The “affordability agenda” risks becoming another entry in Washington’s long catalog of well-intentioned initiatives that take longer, cost more, and deliver less than originally advertised. For Americans struggling with grocery bills and gas prices, “full steam ahead” at government speed might feel more like a slow crawl.
“Appear weak when you are strong, and strong when you are weak.” —Sun Tzu
You understand, don’t you, what the aim was of the “Seditious Six” politicians who made last week’s now-notorious video suggesting that US military personnel should refuse the president’s orders if they deemed them to be “illegal?” This was the old Lefty game of provoking the authorities to react intemperately so they can be labeled “fascist.” It’s like the old schoolyard game of the kid who goes I’m touching you. . . I’m touching you. . . until the touched kid explodes. . . so the toucher can then say, look, he’s hitting me!
And they certainly succeeded in pissing-off the president enough for Mr. Trump to suggest they could be hanged for their little prank — though he was probably incorrect about the legal niceties therein.
That members of the out-party in Congress and the Senate must resort to this kind of skylarking japery tells you how desperate they are. The organizer, Michigan Senator Elissa Slotkin, is a former CIA officer. Is she in communication regularly with any of her former colleagues at the Agency? And did she coordinate any part of her prank with them? I bet DNI Tulsi Gabbard could find out and let CIA Director John Ratcliffe know so he can fire their a**.
The intel bureaucracy remains a hotbed of resistance to the swamp-draining project underway since 01/20/25. The swamp creatures like their swamp fecund and fetid as it has been, with the rich revenue stream it is used to feeding on, and Mr. Trump has done much to change that. Alas, the CIA remains the most implacably opaque major operation in government. It insists that its activities require secrecy, and the awful downside is that the Agency has run without real oversight since its inception after the Second World War. Gawd knows how many John Brennan clones are still lodged over in the Langley, VA, HQ.
Of all the celebrated new appointees in the agencies, Mr. Ratcliffe has been the least visible. He went into the job with very promising credentials, having served as DNI in the last months of Trump 1.0. He must know where a whole lot of bodies are buried (some of them actual bodies) but the public has heard squat from him all year.
Surely Mr. Ratcliffe must also know by now who in the CIA was scheming along with John Brennan to perpetrate RussiaGate, and who was on the leak-line to the news media. He must know how Adam Schiff coordinated impeachment No. 1 with CIA agent Eric Ciaramella, then Intel Inspector-General Michael Atkinson, Col. Alexander Vindman, and Lawfare ninjas Norm Eisen, Mary McCord, and Andrew Weissmann. He must know who in “Joe Biden’s” White House was coordinating the 92 felony prosecutions against Mr. Trump with DA Alvin Bragg and AG Letitia James in New York and DA Fani Willis Fulton County, GA.
He must know how BLM and Antifa were allowed to burn down Minneapolis in 2020, and riot in scores of other places. He must know what agencies and what persons in them coordinated the Covid-19 operation and which foreign entities were involved. (Was it the US military, as many suspect, and how, if at all, did freelance players such as Bill Gates and George Soros’s myriad organizations fit in the picture?) And how is the machinery of the Democratic Party entangled in the workings of US intel? (Prime suspects: Sen. Mark Warner and his staff.)
You can say much the same thing about FBI Director Kash Patel and his Deputy Director, Dan Bongino. They were apparently horrified by the rot they encountered there on taking office earlier this year. What is so difficult about firing people, even a whole lot of people? And why wouldn’t you say you are doing it? Likewise, Pam Bondi, at her resistance-infected DOJ?
Mr. Trump had a rough week working through his “divorce” from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene. Both of them behaved rather badly; he the usual name-calling; she playing up to the cluster-B ignoramouses on The View, and then resigning from Congress in a snit (walking away from Daddy). The Epstein Files legislation she was twanging on the president about got passed in a flash and signed, but it contained rules that can easily be used to keep key documents suppressed. The suspicion will linger that it’s all about protecting Israel, and thereby stir-up continued animus against the Jews.
Mr. Trump had a ju-jitsu session in the Oval Office with NYC mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, the avowed communist jihadi — putting the young insta-celebrity pol off-balance by acting all nice and accommodating. “I want him to do a great job. . . “ “We agree on a lot more than I would have thought. . .” “It was a great honor [to meet him]. . . .” the president declared on his Truth Social account. Stand by on what any of that means.
And now, as we plunge into Thanksgiving week, comes the Ukraine peace proposal. Everybody knows it is a recognition that Russia is grinding toward victory in any case, and carrying-on further slaughter and destruction on-the-ground is insane. But then, Ukraine’s ruler, Mr. Zelenskyy, is insane (probably high on drugs, too), and the EU leadership is insane seeking to start a war with Russia that it has zero ability to prosecute — and nevermind whatever the obdurate defenders of the UK’s sclerotic empire think they’re doing to keep the Ukraine War going. But, bottom line: there’s a good possibility that the war will be over before Christmas, and the world will be better off for that.
With all the above going on, America needs a break. Enjoy a turkey, if you can afford to buy one, and count your blessings — for we are still a blessed people in a blessed land, and we should all show a little gratitude for the privilege of just being here on a planet so superbly suited to our needs.
By now everyone is aware that six Democrats in Congress created videos in which they openly encourage members of the U.S. military and Intelligence Community to mutiny against the commander in chief. They couched their seditious statements in the pretense that they are interested only in protecting the Constitution, but their message is unmistakable: Resist President Trump’s lawful orders, and we’ll have your backs.
Americans whose minds have not been pickled by leftism are not impressed. The Democrat instigators have been called “TikTok Traitors,” the “Seditious Six,” the “Idiot Six,” and worse. President Trump immediately accused the lawmakers of sedition and demanded that they be arrested and stand trial for their potentially deadly provocations. In response, the Democrat provocateurs have pretended to be outraged that the commander in chief would correctly describe their seditious actions as seditious.
Democrat word games have become so exhausting over the last thirty years. Remember when Bill Clinton lied about his affair with twenty-two-year-old White House intern Monica Lewinsky by telling a grand jury, “It depends on what the meaning of the word ‘is’ is”? No matter how corrupt American politicians were before Clinton’s galling equivocation, it has seemed as if rhetorical obfuscation began exponentially accelerating after that moment.
Fast-forward to 2025, and former CIA director John Brennan is entirely comfortable going on national news shows and telling the world that he and fifty other “intelligence professionals” never lied about Hunter Biden’s “laptop from Hell” being Russian disinformation because the spies clearly stated in their 2020 pre-election op-ed defending the Bidens that the laptop’s treasure trove of criminality had merely “the hallmarks” of a Russian operation. If Americans were confused about their attempt to blame Hunter’s crimes on the Russians, that’s because Americans are poor readers!
Senator Elissa Slotkin — one of the “Seditious Six,” a former CIA analyst, and a protégée of John Brennan — is busy playing the same sick word games as Slick Willy and commie Brennan. She claims that her seditious video is meant only to draw attention to President Trump’s “illegal orders,” but when she is pressed to name one such “illegal order,” she admits that she is “not aware” of any.
If Slotkin can’t identify any of President Trump’s orders as illegal, why is she making videos encouraging rank insubordination among America’s military and intelligence personnel? The Democrats are executing the exact same playbook that they have been using against Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. For months, Democrat governors and lawmakers have threatened federal agents with future prosecution for doing nothing more than enforcing existing immigration law and arresting criminal illegal aliens in their states. In order to protect millions of foreign nationals from deportation, Democrats have been obstructing law enforcement operations by promising to punish officers who do their jobs.
Threatening ICE agents with unlawful and malicious prosecutions will inevitably get people killed, because in the real world, hesitation invites disaster. When prominent Democrats encourage military and intelligence personnel to resist orders, the consequences are potentially catastrophic. As one astute commenter notes, “the threat of weaponized lawfare against U.S. troops is seditious psychological warfare. It’s seditious sabotage aimed at breaking the chain of command. It’s a seditious plot to erode trust in leaders and it undermines the oath that keeps the military united and effective.” The Democrat strategy is nefarious and straightforward: Induce service members to question the orders of their commanding officers. Hesitation and delay during combat will not only get Americans killed, but also directly serve enemy
Democrats’ attempts to confuse American service members also encourage our geopolitical adversaries to be more aggressive. As Glenn Beck argues, “if a video like this were aimed at Putin’s military, we’d assume Russia was unstable or nearing a coup.” Therefore, Democrats have severely “weakened America — signaling doubt to allies and opportunity to enemies.” If you were a general in China’s military, would you be less or more willing to invade Taiwan after prominent Democrat officials encouraged division and subversion among America’s rank-and-file troops? Public calls for insubordination make America appear destined for civil war at home and ill-prepared to defend its own interests or those of its allies abroad.
In describing his disgust with Democrats’ efforts to instigate a military rebellion against the Trump administration, Congressman Byron Donalds pulled no punches: “Donald Trump is the commander in chief, not Mr. Crow, not Senator Slotkin. They are not the commander in chief! And like I said before, they would not tolerate any Republican launching any video like that!” Can you imagine? After patriotic grandparents and Iraq and Afghanistan War veterans protested the fraudulent 2020 election by walking through the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, Democrats (and useful RINO idiots Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger) spent tens of millions of dollars producing a theatrical congressional hearing meant to demonize all MAGA voters as “domestic terrorists” and “insurrectionists.” If prominent Republicans in Congress had subsequently encouraged members of the military and Intelligence Community to disobey orders coming from installed-president Biden, the backlash against them would have been swift and brutal. Not only would they have been expelled from Congress, but they also would have been arrested in the most publicly humiliating fashion. In contrast, the “Seditious Six” sit for ego-stroking interviews during which they play victim.
This is what Republicans mean when they denounce “Democrat privilege” in the United States. Time and again, Democrats do things with impunity that would land a normal Republican in prison for decades.
Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, John Brennan, and their fellow Russia Collusion Hoax co-conspirators will never be held accountable for manipulating intelligence to frame President Trump as a Russian spy. Kamala Harris and other prominent Democrats who bailed out arsonists during the most destructive riots in American history will never be held accountable for putting violent repeat offenders back on the street. Alexander Vindman will never be held accountable for undermining the Trump White House and triggering a farcical impeachment. None of the conspirators who violated state election laws and used fraudulent mail-in ballots to pretend that Sleepy Joe Biden was the most popular presidential candidate in our nation’s history will ever be held accountable for stealing the 2020 election. Anthony Fauci won’t be held accountable for covering up the laboratory origin of COVID or hiding the worst side-effects of the mRNA “vaccines.” Social media companies won’t be held accountable for censoring Americans who protested the stolen 2020 election or the unconstitutional “vaccine” mandates imposed by installed-president Biden’s administration. It appears that neither Jim Comey nor Letitia James will be held accountable for respectively committing perjury and mortgage fraud. Democrat prosecutors and judges will never be held accountable for abusing the criminal justice system to railroad President Trump, his friends, and his voters.
In the United States, two-tiered “justice” protects Democrats and renders Republicans defenseless.
Now we will see whether six Democrats can actually get away with encouraging a military mutiny. If past is prologue, the answer is surely “yes.”
There’s a popular social media meme that succinctly describes our situation: When leftists say “our democracy,” what they mean is “our regime.” Democrats have taken over so much of the permanent bureaucracy that even when they are out of power, they still command much of the American government. They are emboldened to commit sedition and treason because they know that no left-leaning prosecutor, judge, or jury will hold them accountable. This kind of in-your-face double-standard will eventually end the Union.
Let’s hope, for the sake of our country’s future, that guilty Democrats begin to pay a price. Forgive me for not holding my breath.
President Donald Trump is delaying a planned announcement of a proposal to extend Affordable Care Act subsidies, according to two White House officials, after congressional Republicans pushed back against the president’s sudden embrace of the expiring subsidies.
Trump was expected to unveil a plan aimed at halting ACA premium spikes on Monday, as first reported by MS NOW. But the reveal has been postponed — though not canceled — said the White House officials, who were granted anonymity to discuss the internal strategy.
Both White House officials noted that Trump’s announcement — which was never officially on the schedule — would take place soon. But they acknowledged the initial plan, which would have sought to end “surprise premium hikes” for those on Obamacare programs, was being actively reworked.
“Until President Trump makes an announcement himself, any reporting about the Administration’s healthcare positions is mere speculation,” White House spokesman Kush Desai said.
While the White House sought to downplay the seriousness of the delay, Republicans indicated they were surprised and angered by a plan that would help preserve the Affordable Care Act.
“I wasn’t expecting the proposal to be Obamacare-lite,” a conservative House Republican, who requested anonymity to discuss the yet-to-be-released plan. “Absolutely not supportive of extending ACA subsidies.”
“I’ve talked to enough [Republicans] to know that people weren’t expecting this and aren’t happy about it,” this lawmaker added. “I don’t see how a proposal like this has any chance of getting majority Republican support. We need to be focused on health care, but extending Obamacare isn’t even serious.”
Another conservative House Republican, who also requested anonymity to speak candidly about the proposal, told MS NOW that lawmakers knew the White House was working on something. “But not with a primary focus on the subsidies,” this Republican said.
‘I wasn’t expecting the proposal to be Obamacare-lite,’ said a conservative House Republican, who requested anonymity to discuss the yet-to-be-released plan. ‘Absolutely not supportive of extending ACA subsidies.’
The White House appears not to have sought significant input from Capitol Hill on the plan, with Republicans who spoke to MS NOW suggesting that most lawmakers were unaware the administration’s health care proposal would include an extension of the subsidies. Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., were expected to be briefed for the first time on the plan Sunday afternoon.
The delay comes as the president — and Hill Republicans — are caught in a bind over health care. Covid-era subsidies for nearly 22 million Americans who get their health insurance through the ACA exchanges are set to lose those plans at the end of the year, a change that would cause massive price spikes in red and blue states alike.
Thune promised a vote on extending the subsidies to Democrats, who agreed to end the recent government shutdown as long as they secured a vote to extend them.
Despite the lack of an official announcement, some Republicans who were learning the broad strokes of Trump’s plan from the media were not especially happy with it.
“I would absolutely NOT be supportive of that,” Rep. Eric Burlison, R-Mo., told MS NOW of extending the subsidies on Monday morning. “Since I last checked, Covid has been over for some time. This is definitely not the DOGE thing to do,” he added, referring to the cost-cutting agency formerly run by president adviser Elon Musk.
Other Republicans were more succinct. When MS NOW asked fellow Freedom Caucus member Greg Steube, R-Fla., if he would be supportive of the White House health-care proposal, he had a two-letter response: “No.”
Another conservative House Republican, who requested anonymity to discuss the yet-to-be-released plan, told MS NOW they were also skeptical of the idea.
“Fix health care for working Americans or don’t talk to me about subsidies,” this lawmaker said.
Trump’s proposal — whatever it may end up being, and whenever it may end up coming — would mark a significant development in the ongoing health care discussion in Washington. If Republicans suddenly relented and agreed to extend the ACA subsidies, even in a slightly modified form, that would mark a significant win for Democrats.
For weeks, Republicans have railed against extending the subsidies, arguing that Obamacare is broken and that extending the subsidies would amount to padding the coffers of insurance companies.
“I’m not putting a Band-Aid on something that’s broken,” Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., told reporters last week.
America’s leftists have gone from a reverence for Europe’s socialist institutions to a subtle but complete nullification of the United States Constitution and American law.
Leftists always adored Europe’s soft socialism. They wanted socialized medicine, practically free pharmaceutical drugs, six weeks of paid vacation a year, one year of parental leave for both parents (not that leftists actually want people to have children), subsidized housing, etc.
Pointing out that all of this came about because of American taxpayers who funded building Europe back up after WWII, who absorbed all of Europe’s defense costs, and who pay the costs of all the research and advertising behind the drugs sold at a discount to European socialized systems fell on deaf ears. Europe was the way.
Of course, lately, Europe hasn’t been the way. Its socialized medicine systems have fallen on hard times, with euthanasia often seen as the ultimate cost savings. Europeans aren’t having children, so parental leave is kind of a moot point. And of course, the systems are collapsing under the weight of unlimited immigration from Muslim countries—often a man, his multiple wives, and their many children—none of whom have paid into the system but all of whom get the benefits, including the subsidized housing, healthcare, education, etc.
With Europe increasingly less of a stellar example and more of a terrible lesson, Democrats have shifted to something new: International law.
The seeds of this have been there for a long time. All of you must remember in 2012, when Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who had sworn an oath to defend the Constitution, while in Egypt announced that she really didn’t like the pithy, government-limiting American Constitution. Given the choice, she said, she’d prefer the South African constitution, with its long preamble, 14 chapters, 244 sections (32 of which purport to be a “Bill of Rights”), 8 schedules, and 16 amendments. Thus, she explained,
“I would not look to the U.S. Constitution, if I were drafting a Constitution in the year 2012. I might look at the Constitution of South Africa,” says Ginsburg, whom President Clinton nominated to the court in 1993. “That was a deliberate attempt to have a fundamental instrument of government that embraced basic human rights, had an independent judiciary. … It really is, I think, a great piece of work that was done. Much more recent than the U.S. Constitution.”
Even though the American Constitution advances values bestowing rights on all American citizens, for Ginsburg, it was a document fatally tainted by the Founders’ bad views about women, blacks, and Native Americans. The whole Constitution is the fruit of the poisonous Founders’ tree.
Well, if a Supreme Court justice says the Constitution is bad, you can’t be surprised to fast-forward 13 years and discover Democrat party politicians saying that international law overrides American law. Zohran Mamdani is especially fond of international law if it means destroying Israel.
To that end, he insisted before his election that, because the International Criminal Court has put out a warrant for the arrest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, he would arrest Netanyahu if the latter came to New York City:
“This is something that I intend to fulfill,” Mamdani remarked, reiterating a pledge he had made earlier in the mayoral race, as the newspaper put it. “It is my desire to ensure that this be a city that stands up for international law.”
“Being a city of international law means looking to uphold international law,” Mamdani said. “And that means upholding the warrants from the International Criminal Court, whether they’re for Benjamin Netanyahu or Vladimir Putin.”
Second, it is unlawful for an American citizen to imprison, threaten, or intimidate (among other things) a foreign official or head of state. 18 U.S.C. § 112. The penalty can be up to 10 years in prison or more if weapons are used (as would be the case if Mamdani authorized armed police to detain Bibi).
Mamdani either does not care. But it doesn’t stop there.
Last week, a huge, intimidating, anti-Israel crowd gathered around the Park East Synagogue to protest the fact that it was holding an event for Nefesh B’nefesh, an organization that helps Jews immigrate to Israel. The protest was almost an illegal activity under federal law, and Harmeet Dhillon has promised to investigate and prosecute:
Mamdani’s response was interesting. First, he issued a bland statement saying it wasn’t really a good thing to surround some unnamed type of “House of Worship” and threaten people:
“The Mayor-elect has discouraged the language used at last night’s protest and will continue to do so,” Mamdani spokesperson Dora Pekec said Thursday. “He believes every New Yorker should be free to enter a house of worship without intimidation…”
Way to keep it bland, Mr. Mayor-elect.
Mamdani didn’t stop there, though. He added this strange statement: “…these sacred spaces should not be used to promote activities in violation of international law.” In Mamdani-World, Jews immigrating to Israel is “a violation of international law.”
First, no, it isn’t (at least, not yet). Even if the world says that the settlements in Judea and Samaria, the ancient heart of Israel, are “illegal,” immigrating to Israel is not a violation of any international law.
Second, and more importantly, international law doesn’t apply in New York or anywhere in America. What happened inside the synagogue was perfectly legal and unobjectionable…in America.
Mamdani, though, isn’t the only Democrat turning to international law when American law fails to help his objectives. Mayor Brandon Johnson, the truly execrable Chicago mayor, has the same attitude. He believes that, when the President of the United States enforces American immigration law in an American city, that, too, is a violation of “international law.”
What these ardent leftists are saying isn’t accidental, and it’s not ignorant. They hate America, and they desperately want to do away with the Constitution that limits the government while extending maximum liberty to the American people—something international law definitely doesn’t do.
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THE ARTFUL DILETTANTE 