'maybe we could get rid of Kamala'

'They hit us on the head with 'We Love Joe’ signs,'

'You guys are falling head over heels for this lady'

Over the years 1934-1961, British historian Arnold Toynbee published his 12-volume “A Study of History.” Toynbee studied the rise and fall of 23 civilizations. His conclusion was that great civilizations die not from external causes but from internal causes. They commit suicide. Toynbee concluded, in the words of one journalist, that “civilizations start to decay when they lose their moral fiber.” We don’t have to be great historians to know that civilizations have come and gone. Forever is not a given fact of life. In this vein, in this political season, with the excitement of an upcoming election in which we will choose who holds the highest office in our government for four years, as well as elections for the Senate and the House, I pray for a grand national awakening. It is the business of politicians to aspire to power, to tell us that our problems are because of the other party, and to divert our attention from where it should be—on ourselves. If we so focus, many I believe will conclude it is hard to see a future for a nation with fewer and fewer children, greater and greater government and debt, and less and less economic growth. Per the Congressional Budget Office, growth of the U.S. population averaged 0.9% per year from 1974 to 2023. It projects from 2024 to 2054 it will be half that—0.4% per year. For a population to hold steady, to not shrink, the average fertility rate must be 2.1 children per woman. We have fallen well below this to 1.67, and CBO projects it will stay there. The implications are an aging population, with fewer and fewer of working age and an increasing burden of the expenses of an aging population—greater retirement costs and health care costs. One measure of this picture is the ratio of the size of the working-age population—ages 25-64—to the size of the population 65 and above. In 1950, that ratio was over 6 to 1. In 2004, it was 4 to 1. In 2024, per CBO, it is 2.9 to 1. And CBO projects that by 2054, it will be 2.2 to 1. Per Pew Research, in 1980, 6% of 40-year-old Americans had never been married. By 2021, it was 25%. In 1980, federal debt held by the public was about 25% of gross domestic product. Now it is almost 100%. CBO projects that by 2054, it will be 166%. Explosion of federal debt is the result of the explosion of federal spending and growth of government. More government means more of our economy is diverted to bureaucrats and away from those who work and create. As a result, economic growth suffers. From 1950 to 2000, per Hoover Institution economist John Cochrane, the U.S. economy grew an average of 3.5% per year. Now we’re around 2%. Cochrane notes that if from 1950 to 2000 growth was 2% rather than 3.5%, per capita GDP in 2000 would have been $23,000 rather than $49,000. CBO projects average growth rate of the U.S. economy for the next 30 years less than 2% per year. This, of course, means diminishing average income for all Americans. Many years ago, when I turned away from welfare and turned toward God, my guide and mentor told me that there are two possibilities—government or God. The data shows more Americans turning away from faith and church attendance, and hence they are choosing government. We hear much rhetoric now about American democracy, but democracy is about how we choose, not what we choose. The focus of a free nation under God is about what we choose. So, I return to where I was at the beginning. A nation without children, without marriage, with expanding government and debt, is a nation, in the words of historian Toynbee, committing suicide. I pray for a reawakening. COPYRIGHT 2024 CREATORS.COM We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal. The post The Nation Needs a Great Reawakening appeared first on The Daily Signal.

California: Free Houses for All of Our Illegals!

Dozens of patients took advantage of the mobile Planned Parenthood clinic set up near the Democratic National Convention and underwent anti-life medical interventions, including abortions and vasectomies.On Monday and Tuesday, Planned Parenthood Great Rivers — which normally sees patients in Missouri and southern Illinois — opened a mobile clinic in the West Loop of Chicago, just a few blocks from the United Center, which is currently hosting the DNC, as Blaze News previously reported.'We know that the services that we provide bring out folks who are in opposition.'Now, reports indicate that anywhere between 20 and 30 people total visited the clinic while it was open this week. Of those patients, at least 10 underwent a vasectomy, and at least two received medication to kill their unborn children, Politico reported.Blaze News reached out to Planned Parenthood to confirm the total number of medical abortions given by the clinic this week but did not receive a response.Those women who received abortion-inducing medication from the mobile clinic could take them on site or at home to comply with Illinois law, NPR reported, citing Dr. Colleen McNicholas, the chief medical officer at Planned Parenthood Great Rivers who performed services at the pop-up abortion center."We're just really excited to provide the opportunity for the thousands of folks who are coming to Illinois to demonstrate for them that it is possible to start closing some healthcare gaps for folks," McNicholas said.Luis Ayala was among the "folks" at the clinic this week. The 28-year-old husband and father of three described the vasectomy he received as "a little uncomfortable.""I have three kids and pretty much I wanted to stop having kids," Ayala explained to NPR.Ayala's wife, Fabiola, supported the decision. "I’m ready to remove my birth control and just get off the hormones," she said.Ayala signed up to visit the mobile clinic after Fabiola spotted an ad about the "free" services offered at the clinic, and a post to the Planned Parenthood facility's X account did promote "FREE vasectomies & medication abortion" as well as free emergency contraception. However, whether all of the patients who visited the clinic this week received free services is unclear.Some pro-life protesters also gathered near the clinic, which was surrounded by a fence, and chanted, "Abortion is genocide," perhaps borrowing a phrase from other protesters in the area who alluded to "genocide" in Gaza.McNicholas claimed she's "used to" the chants of pro-life activists. "We know that the services that we provide bring out folks who are in opposition," she told NPR."But the truth is healthcare shouldn’t be politicized."McNicholas did not explain how killing unborn children or preventing healthy reproductive organs from functioning properly are forms of "healthcare."In a statement to NPR, National Right to Life President Carol Tobias described the pop-up abortion center near the DNC as "disgusting" but "not surprising."Kamala Harris and running mate Tim Walz have focused heavily on abortion for a while now, even before Harris tapped Walz to join her at the top of the Democratic ticket earlier this month. Back in March, they toured a Planned Parenthood abortion clinic in Minnesota together, marking the first time a sitting president or vice president has visited an abortion clinic."My role is to do what I just did, which is to articulate exactly these points and to continue to articulate them and to organize folks around what I know is an issue that is impacting more people than you ever really know," Harris helpfully explained to the clinic staff during her visit.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Michigan state Sen. Mallory McMorrow (D) told fellow travelers at the Democratic National Convention Monday, "Donald Trump would be able to weaponize the Department of Justice to go after his political opponents! He could even turn the FBI into his own personal police force!" "That is not how it works in America," added McMorrow. This provocative claim — that President Donald Trump will weaponize the Department of Justice and the FBI against his political opponents — has been recycled numerous times by Democrats in recent months. While Trump certainly has a history of suggesting in speeches that various Democratic officials should be "locked up" over their alleged improprieties, actions taken by the Biden-Harris administration have alternatively provided Americans with concrete examples of what precisely it is that Democrats fear will happen if and when the tables are turned. What follows is a look at Democrats' rhetoric and record when it comes to the weaponization of federal law enforcement against their foes. It is abundantly clear from the approach taken by the Biden-Harris DOJ and the FBI toward Trump allies, pro-lifers, and Trump himself that to realize Democrats' fears of weaponization, the Republican need only replicate their behavior. Jail for thee, but not for me Former Attorney General Eric Holder is among the various prominent Democrats to push the weaponization line. He told MSNBC talking head Joy Reid earlier this year, "A second Trump term would have a politicized, weaponized — forget politicized — weaponized United States Department of Justice." "You have a president who is beyond the reach of law. You have a Justice Department that goes after political opponents on absolutely no basis. He's going to prosecute Joe Biden. Well, exactly for what? That's not going to bother them," said Holder. "You would have a United States of America that would be unrecognizable to us; that would be one that you would see more in Putin's Russia as opposed to the United States that we have come to all know and love." It appears that Holder, like other Democrats, was largely engaging in projection. After all, just days after Holder made these remarks, Peter Navarro, a former Trump White House adviser, was sentenced to prison for contempt of Congress. 'The department adheres to the rule of law, follows the facts and the law and pursues equal justice under the law.' The Biden-Harris FBI investigated Navarro's case and the DOJ under Attorney General Merrick Garland prosecuted it. An entirely different approach had previously been taken in the case of Holder, who was held in contempt of Congress in an overwhelming 255-67 vote in 2012 for refusing to turn over documents related to the Fast and Furious scandal. The Obama DOJ let Holder skate, ostensibly for keeping former President Barack Obama's documents from the American people's elected representatives. A different approach was also taken by the Biden-Harris DOJ this summer when it came to tackling Merrick Garland's own contempt of Congress. The House voted 216-207 on June 12 to find the Biden appointee in contempt of Congress for refusing to comply with lawful congressional subpoenas. Like Holder, Garland was unwilling to divulge potentially damaging materials linked to his Democratic president. The DOJ subsequently made clear it would not prosecute Garland. Weeks after the DOJ indicated it would not hold its own accountable, former Trump strategist Stephen K. Bannon reported to prison over 2021 contempt of Congress charges. At the time the charges were filed, Garland said in a statement, "I have promised Justice Department employees that together we would show the American people by word and deed that the department adheres to the rule of law, follows the facts and the law and pursues equal justice under the law." Disproportionately targeting pro-lifers The Biden-Harris DOJ has made no secret of its pro-abortion bias, having gone so far as to create a "Reproductive Rights Task Force" to help advance radicals' abortion agenda. This bias and the corresponding weaponization of the department against the administration's opponents on the issue became especially clear in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court's Dobbs ruling, when scores of pro-life pregnancy centers, hundreds of Catholic churches, and various other pro-life institutions were attacked by leftist radicals. Although in many cases the pro-abortion group Jane's Revenge claimed responsibility for firebombings and other attacks, the Biden-Harris DOJ — which was simultaneously attempting to force pro-life pharmacies to traffic abortion drugs — refrained from designating it a terrorist group. As for the slew of individuals who executed the attacks on pro-life institutions, it appears only a handful were ultimately prosecuted. Those who were targeted by the DOJ appear to have been treated with kid gloves, as in the case of one pro-abortion domestic terrorist to whom prosecutors agreed to give a light sentence in April. 'It is very clear that the Biden Justice Department has politicized and weaponized the FACE Act to go after pro-life Christians.' The Biden-Harris DOJ has taken an entirely different approach to peaceful pro-life activists, oftentimes seeking heavy sentences. According to the legal organization Alliance Defending Freedom, "the DOJ brought at least 26 charges against pro-life individuals under the FACE Act in 2022. What were the total number of charges against abortion activists who obstructed or vandalized pro-life pregnancy centers in the wake of the Dobbs decision that year? Zero." The Washington Post indicated a year later that the department had continued with this lop-sided application of the law. The DOJ, which has shown no signs of stopping its round-up of ideological opponents, announced Tuesday that seven of the pro-life activists it charged for staging a peaceful 2020 protest at an abortion clinic in Michigan have been convicted of civil rights offenses. Among them is Eva Edl, an elderly Christian woman who survived a communist concentration camp in post-war Yugoslavia and committed her life to fighting similar dehumanization. Mike Davis, founder of the Article III Project, told Fox News Digital earlier this year, "It is very clear that the Biden Justice Department has politicized and weaponized the FACE Act to go after pro-life Christians praying outside of abortion clinics like Mark Houck while turning a blind eye to violent felons terrorizing and badly damaging Catholic churches like Maeve Nota." Blaze News previously reported that Mark Houck, a father of seven and Catholic — a denomination whose members the FBI has targeted with "counterterrorism tools" — was arrested at gunpoint by multiple FBI agents after he shoved a Planned Parenthood "escort" who repeatedly tried to antagonize him and his son in October 2021. "The Biden Justice Department tried to put Houck in prison for 11 years for defending his son while recommending no jail time for Nota after this deranged trans terrorist badly damaged a Catholic church, fought with the police, assaulted a church employee, and scared the hell out of a little old lady praying," Davis added. Attorneys for Houck noted in the lawsuit he filed in May against the DOJ and FBI his arrest was "a shocking display of the political animus against the pro-life movement harbored at the highest levels of the Department of Justice." Trying to take out Trump The Biden-Harris DOJ has done its best to kneecap Trump ahead of the 2024 election. Whereas the DOJ would ultimately take a deferential approach when investigating Biden over his admitted transport and possession of classified documents, Garland signed off on the August 2022 raid of Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence by armed agents. Despite the similarities between the allegations in the cases, of the two, only Trump was ultimately charged. Although the Biden-Harris DOJ appeared keen on sticking Trump with 37 counts and potentially decades worth of prison time, U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon determined that Garland unlawfully appointed Jack Smith as counsel and that Smith had no authority to bring the case. The DOJ opened a separate investigation in November 2022, looking to slam Trump for supposed election interference in the lead-up to Jan. 6, 2021, as well as on that fateful day former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi admittedly dropped the ball on Capitol security. Again, Garland tapped Jack Smith to take lead, and again Smith's handiwork resulted in a grand jury indictment, this time in the majoritively Democratic District of Columbia. The case is presently in limbo, in part thanks to the July 1 Supreme Court determination that Trump has immunity from criminal prosecution for various actions taken as president. There has been some suggestion that the Biden-Harris DOJ also put its thumb on the scales in New York County District Attorney Alvin Bragg's (D) prosecution of former President Trump in the person of former senior Biden-Harris DOJ official Matthew Colangelo. Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey told Blaze Media co-founder and nationally syndicated radio host Glenn Beck in late May, "The Biden Department of Justice has become a nerve center for a coordinated witch hunt prosecution of a political opponent, and it's not designed to obtain a legally valid conviction. It's designed to take anyone running against Joe Biden — in other words, president Donald Trump — off the campaign trail." Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Betting Markets Indicate SOMEBODY Is Getting a Dem Convention Bump (No, NOT Harris-Walz)

50 Veterans From Congress Sign Open Letter to Tim Walz

Matt Walsh Takes a Cue from Governor, Err ... Colonel General Tim Walz and Disguises Himself at the DNC