If you are wrestling with a tattered and torn friendship today, take it to Jesus and ask him to grant you peace. Then, ask him to give you opportunities to extend his love back to others.

The peak of modal brilliance. The post “The greatest jazz album ever made”, according to John Densmore first appeared on Far Out Magazine.

March 30, 1981 seemed like it would be a routine day for President Ronald Reagan. That afternoon he was speaking to a friendly crowd at the AFL-CIO convention in the International Ballroom at the Washington Hilton Hotel. He had no idea how dramatically things would soon change outside. Does Trump likewise also now believe that, “Whatever time I have left is for Him?” The speech went well. Yes, it was a union audience — guys who for years had been blue-collar Democrats. But these were the kind of Rustbelt Americans who uniquely rallied to Ronald Reagan’s side in a way that no Republican president would experience until Donald Trump decades later. At 2:25 p.m., leaving the hotel through a side door, Reagan, surrounded by staff and Secret Service and curious onlookers, smiled as he happily strolled to his car. One unsmiling face in the crowd was an unstable individual named John Hinckley, an early 20s loner, an outcast. He was looking to make his mark. (WATCH NOW Paul Kengor and Grace Reilly: The Weekend Spectator Ep. 3: Trump the Fighter) A reporter yapped out a question, which Reagan tried to deftly and literally wave off with his left hand. The target was set. It would be under that left arm, near his armpit, that John Hinckley’s bullet would enter his body. Reagan and those around him suddenly heard what sounded like firecrackers, followed by chaos and bodies scrambling, ducking, falling. One of them, the press secretary, James Brady, in an instant was lying face down on the pavement in his suit, struck in the head by a bullet intended for the president. Reagan was thrust into the backseat of the limo by diligent Secret Service agent Jerry Parr, who covered the president’s body with his own. “Jerry, get off,” pleaded Reagan, “I think you’ve broken one of my ribs.” The pain near his chest was not from anything Parr had done. It came from the bullet fired into his chest by Hinckley. Parr noticed frothy blood bubbles coming from between the president’s lips and immediately suspected a lung wound. He ordered the driver to head straight to George Washington University Hospital. Parr’s snap-call saved Reagan’s life. No one yet knew it, but the 70-year-old was losing a lot of blood under his coat. When the surgeons opened up Reagan, they discovered that the bullet had just missed his main aortal valve. A few centimeters over, and Reagan would have bled to death. After the surgery, Ronald Reagan learned how close he had come to dying. Reagan recorded in his diary: “I know it’s going to be a long recovery. Whatever happens now I owe my life to God and will try to serve Him in every way I can.” He immediately began telling friends, family, and intimates that he believed his life had been spared by God. On Good Friday just two-and-a-half weeks later, New York’s Cardinal Terence Cooke met with Reagan at the White House. “The hand of God was upon you,” Cooke told Reagan. A humbled Reagan said simply, “I know.” He then told Cooke: “I have decided that whatever time I have left is for Him.” Reagan said the same to the Rev. Billy Graham, to the Rev. Louis Evans, who was his pastor at the National Presbyterian Church, to his son Michael, to Mother Teresa. The Mother Teresa moment was especially touching. It occurred on June 4, 1981. She and another nun visited the White House. She looked Reagan in the eye and said of herself and her fellow sisters: “Mr. President Reagan, do you know that we stayed up for two straight nights praying for you after you were shot?” She then leveled her brow at the president: “We prayed very hard for you to live.” Deeply moved, Reagan thanked her, but she wasn’t finished. She looked at the president pointedly and explained: “You have suffered the passion of the Cross and have received grace. There is a purpose to this. Because of your suffering and pain, you will now understand the suffering and pain of the world.” She told the president: “This has happened to you at this time because your country and the world need you.” Nancy Reagan dissolved into tears. Her husband, the great communicator, was at a loss for words, unsure what to say. But he knew what to do. Reagan had learned quite acutely that his life could end at any moment. It was time to act, to make good on his campaign promise to “Make America Great Again” (yes, that was Reagan’s 1980 slogan), to return the nation to greatness, and to fight and defeat the evil of Soviet communism that threatened the world. For Reagan, the near assassination was quite a wakeup call. It was a life changer in many ways, for him, for his sense of mission, and for his nation. Let us fast forward 43 years later, to a field in western Pennsylvania — the Butler Farm Show grounds. That’s a place where I’ve treaded many times as a native of Butler, Pennsylvania (Butler High School Class of 1984). I almost attended that Trump rally last weekend to cover the event for The American Spectator. I didn’t go, but my 16-year-old son was there, the mother of one of our Spectator writers was there, and countless friends and others who have emailed me since last Saturday were there. That was a Trump crowd — MAGA country. Butler is an old steel town (the town also once made Pullman cars and invented the Jeep). It’s filled with the kind of blue-collar Reagan Democrats who supported the Gipper in the 1980s. Trump loved that Butler crowd in 2020 and loves it still in 2024, despite what happened there. In his Republican National Convention speech this past Thursday evening, he saluted the “incredible” folks in Butler who, after the bullets struck and he rose up with fist in the air and yelled “Fight! Fight! Fight!,” exploded in applause and started chanting “U.S.A.! U.S.A.! U.S.A.!” As Trump noted, the undaunted, brave crowd didn’t turn into a chaotic, dangerous stampede; rather, the people stayed and urged on their hero. They were ready to fight like him. Like their survivor. As with Ronald Reagan on March 30, 1981, if the bullet fired by this early 20-something young man — a loner, an outcast — had struck Trump merely a few centimeters over, he would have been dead. And just as with Reagan, Trump immediately that evening thanked God, crediting “Him” with his survival. As with Reagan, he didn’t hesitate to say just that to friends, family, and intimates. He has said it several times since last Saturday. He said so in a private event in Milwaukee, the site of the Republican National Convention, saying to a small group, “God was with me,” and then said it to the world in his truly historic RNC speech on Thursday evening, where he accepted his party’s presidential nomination. “I had God on my side,” said Trump. He quite vulnerably told the audience, “I’m not supposed to be here tonight.” The delegates shouted back, correcting him: “Yes, you are! Yes, you are! Yes, you are!”(READ MORE: In My Hometown — Trump the Fighter) As if agreeing with the audience, Trump a few moments later added: “I stand here in this arena only by the grace of Almighty God.” He called his survival a “Providential moment.” Trump’s children agree. Eric Trump, speaking at the RNC on Thursday, looked up at his seated father and said, “Dad … By the grace of God, divine intervention, and your guardian angels above, you survived.” In all, the experience seems to have profoundly affected Donald Trump. One could see that in his countenance the first time he walked onto the floor in Milwaukee last Monday — incredibly, just two days after he was shot in the ear. He looked like a very different man. He was pensive, mellow, humbled. A literal brush with death will do that to you. Trump’s speech on Thursday revealed that changed man, especially the riveting first 30 minutes. That was a different Donald Trump for sure. The big question, of course, is how this will affect Trump going forward. Like Ronald Reagan, Trump believes that God has spared him. He has credited God. He has thanked God. Does Trump likewise also now believe that, “Whatever time I have left is for Him?” And as with Reagan, to borrow from the words of Mother Teresa, did this happen to Donald Trump because his country and the world need him? Does it have a truly Providential purpose? Those are answers that your humble columnist cannot know. Truly, only God knows. But I do know this. The last few months of presidential politics have been plainly astounding, at times profound. Let us see how the next months play out. Buckle up. The post Thanking God — Reagan and Trump appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.

Above all, even  in the political realm, our relationship with God gives us perspective. The result has been a government that has moved further and further away from the people. That’s no small thing. Our perspective is the way we see the world. Things we don’t associate with religion depend on that perspective. This has played out in Western history. Of Europe’s Age of Faith, the mathematician and philosopher Alfred North Whitehead wrote: The Middle Ages formed one long training of the intellect of Western Europe in the sense of order … The habit of definite exact thought was implanted in the European mind by the long dominance of scholastic logic and scholastic divinity. The habit remained after the philosophy had been repudiated, the priceless habit of looking for an exact point and of sticking to it when found. It is not only our science that built upon a frame of mind instilled by the great religious enterprise. Our politics as well has its roots deep in the soil of our religion. We can trace the foundations of the republican constitutionalism that gave birth to this country back to the Bible. In the brief space of this article, we will follow one idea from the Bible forward. The following text is from Psalm 146: 3 Put not your trust in princes, Nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help. 4 His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his dust; In that very day his thoughts perish. 5 Happy is he whose help is the God of Jacob, Whose hope is in the LORD his God, 6 Who made heaven and earth, The sea, and all that in them is; Who keepeth truth for ever; 7 Who executeth justice for the oppressed; Who giveth bread to the hungry. Read straightforwardly, this text speaks of God as sovereign on earth as in heaven. The long domination of tyranny, whether of Roman Caesars or medieval feudal lords and kings, accustomed us to concentrate on heaven exclusively, as that always remains the reach of human corruption. But Hebrew Scripture, plainly read, affirms God’s governance here on earth as well, and as constitutionalism took hold, writers like the medieval justice Fortescue affirmed the biblical idea that kings owe obedience to God; their own sovereignty is only a kind of a user’s license, granted on God’s terms. In the 1600s, England rose against its king, who had attempted to concentrate all power in his person. Political thinkers of the day dared to speak even of the illegitimacy of kingship. Thomas Hobbes wrote in Leviathan: When the Elders of Israel … demanded a King, Samuel displeased therewith, prayed unto the Lord; and the Lord answering said unto him, Hearken unto the voice of the People, for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them. Out of which it is evident that God himself was then their King. By this time, non-Jewish scholars had turned to the great wealth of post-Biblical Rabbinic literature. One rabbinic text was known and quoted by republican thinkers of the day. It is from Devarim Rabba, a rabbinic compendium of traditions and explorations on Deuteronomy. The discussion here referenced the section of Deuteronomy that set down legislation for future kings in Israel: The Rabbis say: God said to Israel: “I planned that you should be free from kings” … The Rabbis say: Whosoever puts his trust in flesh and blood passes away and his dignity also passes away, as it is said, Nor in the son of man in whom there is no help (Ps. 146:3). What follows on this verse? His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his dust. God said: “Although they know that man is nought, yet they forsake my Glory and say: ‘Set a king over us.’ Why do they ask for a king? By your life, in the end you will learn to your cost what you will have to suffer from your king.” Whence this? As it is written, All their kings are fallen, there is none among them that calleth unto Me (Hosea 7:7). More than a century after Hobbes, the Framers of our Constitution, well-versed both in Bible and in classic history, recognized that merely setting up a government of the people would not guarantee that they would avoid tyranny or anarchy. The Bible itself records the troubles into which Israel fell even when there was no king. So the Framers designed a structure of government in which the divergent interests of those in power would counterbalance each other, much the way that in architecture, a structural triangle resists the pull of gravity and the beams set against each other stand firmly in place and stabilize the great weight of the structure. The Framers were deeply aware of the power of religious commitment. The revolt against King Charles I in the 1600s did not gain traction until it became inflamed as a religious struggle between the Puritans and the Church of England’s episcopacy, with a generous dose of Scottish Presbyterianism as another combatant. So as never to unleash the most powerful of motivators against the new Constitution, the Framers forbade the new government to favor one religion over another or to prohibit free exercise of religion. Yet, as John Adams affirmed, the Constitution would not work unless the citizens who empower the Constitution accepted the moral order of God as sovereign in their lives. Today, the extended crisis of American political life has reached a turning point, and we need this grand religious perspective from which to grasp its size and power. For a long time, so many of our schools have taught that our political freedoms have come as we have left religion behind and judged that facts, instead, should lead us. This, they led us to think, is what “science” means. Instead of the old ideas that could not be verified as factual, we accept the final word of appropriately credentialed “experts.” The People are not experts and should relinquish their political power to those smarter folks. The result has been a government that has moved further and further away from the people. And the people, after long study of this idea, and after seeing the experimental evidence of how poorly it has worked in their lives — the people have deliberated and the outlines of their verdict are starting to appear. The ruling political elites have soiled themselves with their lies. The stench has grown too great. The politicians who engineered a regime of lies, the media and the schools that supported them, the bureaucrats who betrayed the Constitution whose power they have enjoyed and then usurped, all stand naked in their incompetence, venality, and unfaithfulness, covered with their own filth. The people are seeing this. And day by day, they are slowly letting everyone grasp that they will have their say. They are ready to clean up the mess. READ MORE from Shmuel Klatzkin: The Lies of the Biden Presidency Are a Problem Becoming a Moral Person Takes Work Bible Stories in School The post Our Political Leaders Have Been Revealed appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.

July 13 will be remembered in American history — and even world history — for decades and, hopefully, centuries to come. The big question, of course, is “How did this happen?” How did the Secret Service and state and local police fail to protect President Donald J. Trump from being shot in the head? What motivated the shooter? Who knew about the attack beforehand? What orders were given to whom and by whom? While authentically-American representatives, senators, reporters, and whistleblowers seek answers to these questions, Christians face another: Did God save Donald Trump? Historical examples aside, politics shape law, which in turn shapes how men live their lives, which in turn impacts their immortal souls. The man giving and risking everything to make America great again was less than an inch away from death. Had Trump not turned his head the smallest fraction of an inch at the exact moment that he did, his head would have exploded on live television. At the Republican National Convention, less than a week after being shot, the former president claimed that God saved him. The claim had been made repeatedly for days on social media before Trump repeated it onstage. Ultimately, God Himself is the only one who can definitively answer the question of whether or not He saved Donald Trump from an assassin’s bullet on July 13, 2024. But some common or prominent objections to the claim may be addressed. Trump’s Belief That ‘God Saved Me’ Is Narcissistic  Maybe the most ridiculous objection to the claim that God saved Donald Trump was articulated by Joy Behar on The View. Although far from being the voice of wisdom, the viciously-left-wing Behar chose to air her views on both Divine Providence and Donald Trump anyway. “When something like this happens to you, like this assassination attempt, and you say something like ‘God was watching me,’ that is a very un-Christian thing to say because it’s very narcissistic,” Behar posited. In fact, “God was watching me” is arguably the least narcissistic and most humble response one could have to surviving an assassination attempt. The isolating hubris required to attribute such an escape from death to mere chance or, even more egotistically, to one’s own reflexes or quick thinking is staggering. (READ MORE from S.A. McCarthy: GOP: Don’t Ignore the Valuable Catholic Vote) Contrary to Behar’s whining, attributing his survival to God is one of the most humble professions Trump has ever made. It is crucial also to recognize that his declaration of God’s providence was preceded by an act of virtue, of complete selflessness: all Trump knew in that moment was that he had just been shot in the head, but he nevertheless rose to his feet, pushed his security aside, and defiantly faced wherever the bullet had come from, raising his fist high and urging his countrymen to fight for the heart and soul of America. Instead of boasting about his seeming imperviousness to death, instead of (aptly, mind you) comparing himself to American legends like George Washington or Andrew Jackson or Theodore Roosevelt, instead of accrediting his survival to his own presence of mind or vitality, Trump instead humbled himself before God, giving all credit to the Almighty and hoarding none for himself. That is, quite frankly, the most Christian response one could possibly have after being shot in the head and living to tell the tale. After all, the entire Christian faith is founded on the central, pivotal, and awe-striking truth that God so loved the world that He became man, taking on the form of one of His own creatures, and suffered death on the cross for our sake. Is it narcissistic to realize that God died for you? Does an Innocent Man’s Death Preclude Divine Intervention? While a far less ridiculous, far less malicious, and far more sympathetic argument, the claim that God couldn’t have possibly saved Trump because it resulted in an innocent bystander’s death also fails to carry water. First of all, both life and death are intended to glorify God. Christian history is full of the stories of martyrs: men and women of virtue who God has allowed to die. Their deaths, even when horrific, serve to glorify God. St. Polycarp was burned at the stake and, when the flames would not devour his flesh, he was stabbed with a lance. His blood extinguished the fire. St. Lawrence faced his death — being roasted alive on a grille over an open fire — with such courage that he famously joked, “You can turn me over now, this side’s done.” When St. Denis was beheaded while preaching, he picked up his own severed head and continued to finish his homily. While these saints glorified God by their deaths, others glorified Him by their lives. St. Ignatius of Loyola was wounded in combat — his leg was shattered by a cannonball — but God saved his life so that he could go on to found a new religious order which would, in turn, spread the Faith across the globe, building countless churches and schools everywhere they went. St. Francis of Assisi famously sought martyrdom, even traveling to the Holy Land and confronting the Muslim Sultan in the midst of the crusades. But God did not allow the poor friar to die by the sword. The death of Corey Comperatore is, indeed, a tragedy. It was not God’s hand which struck him down but the hand of a malicious, calculating murderer. But even through the brave father’s and firefighter’s death, God was glorified. Comperatore died shielding his wife and daughter, truly laying down his life for those whom he loved. From all accounts, his life was a virtuous one, forming the habit of selflessness that allowed him, in the end, to follow in Christ’s footsteps and lay down his life, out of love. Trump’s life may have been, likewise, spared in order to glorify God. It wouldn’t be easy to argue that the billionaire real estate mogul and reality TV personality has lived an abundantly virtuous life, but this may be the very reason that God spared his life. It may be, perhaps, no accident that Trump survived an assassination attempt just days after gutting pro-life and pro-family commitments from the GOP platform: he has been afforded an invaluable opportunity to revitalize the Republican Party and strengthen — not dilute — its commitment to truly American and Christian principles. Even aside from the fate of the Republican Party, Trump — constantly contrasting himself against the aged, feeble, one-foot-in-the-grave Joe Biden — has been given a chance to contemplate his own mortality and, perhaps, accept God’s grace more fully than ever before. God Doesn’t Intervene in Politics The story of St. Joan of Arc would tell a different story. The Maid of Orleans was called by God to lead the French during the Hundred Years’ War. At stake were English claims to French territories and competing claims amongst various partisan groups to the French throne. In short, the matter God called Joan to deal with on His behalf was political. Historical examples aside, politics shape law, which in turn shapes how men live their lives, which in turn impacts their immortal souls, and God has a vested interest there, as both the Creator and, through His sacrifice on the cross, the Savior of all mankind. To say that God cares nothing for politics is, at best, a mere misunderstanding. Certainly He transcends politics, and while this means that God is, in a sense, above politics, it does not mean that He is uninterested in what His creatures do with politics and political power. (READ MORE: Viganò Justly Excommunicated, but There Is More To Do) After all, it is politicians who decided that tens of millions of unborn Americans would die in abortuaries. It is politicians who will now decide whether or not millions more will be slaughtered on the altar of abortion. It is politicians who have enabled the transgender madness infecting the minds of countless Americans, both young and old, driving parents to allow doctors to mutilate their children’s genitals and children to beg doctors to do it. It was God who first established Law and wrote it on the hearts of men. It is not inconceivable that, when a man arises with the courage necessary to bring the laws of men back into accord with — or at least significantly closer to — the Law of God, He might indeed protect that man. The post Did God Save Donald Trump? appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.

(NOTE: As my readers well know, it is customary among many Orthodox Jews to hyphenate nouns referring to the Creator of Heaven and Earth in awe of His holiness and the holiness of His name, which may not be taken in vain; that is, if it can be avoided. Moreover, the practice is in recognition that pages often get printed and eventually thrown into garbage receptacles. We believe His holy name must be treated with awe.) There has been much talk very recently in America, particularly among Republicans and conservatives over the past week, about G-d Almig-ty, His miracles, and His role in our lives. I offer a few thoughts: Or is it all G-d’s plan to elevate J.D. Vance for the next 12 years to help save America from the Obama-Biden catastrophe? First, none of us is a prophet. None of us ever can know with certainty why things happen, why G-d allows them to happen, why He sometimes intercedes in the natural course of events while, on other occasions, He “hides His face” (Deut. 31:17-18; 32:20) and refrains from altering the natural course. Most wars, for example, follow a somewhat predictable course, but He once made the sun stand still in Givon, extending a Friday afternoon, so that Joshua and the Israelites could finish their battle before Shabbat. Joshua 10:12-14 Once, with miles of Sancherev’s (Sennacherib’s) soldiers camped outside Jerusalem for the night, planning to invade and massacre King Chizkiahu’s (Hezekiah) people the following day, that night all 185,000 of his men died in a mysterious and inexplicable plague. II Kings 18:17-19:37 Many of us have grown up on Biblical miracles such as the Ten Plagues, the splitting of the Sea of Reeds (alt. translation “Red Sea”), food falling from Heaven daily for nearly 40 years, and more. (READ MORE from Dov Fischer: Trump’s Excellent History-Changing Populist Republican Convention) We don’t know why things happen or don’t, but we know G-d is at the helm, and He has His reasons. The sun is 93 million miles from earth. If it had been a bit closer, the planet and its inhabitants would have been incinerated; if a bit farther, all would freeze. If the oxygen component of the atmosphere were a bit more rich, a strike of a match would explode the planet; if a bit less, we all would die of asphyxiation. With stronger gravitational pull, we would be unable to move; with less, our bones would break constantly. It takes greater faith to believe atheistically than to recognize Almig-ty G-d, our Creator. There is Divine purpose, and sometimes events become comprehensible only decades or centuries later. King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella exiled all Jews from Spain in August 1492. That remains one of the worst catastrophes in Jewish history. All seemed lost for Sephardic Jewry. As it happens, on that same time, the Italian explorer Christopher Columbus, sponsored by the same Isabella and Ferdinand, set sail for India. His journey, all confused, instead landed him in a New World that would become the most extraordinary haven that Jewish people ever would experience outside Israel. Coincidence? We Jews see the hand of G-d in it. The hand of G-d?  During the Civil War, Union armies expected a rapid victory. Northern citizens even brought folding chairs and picnic baskets to watch the first important conflagration, that of First Manassas/Bull Run. They came for a picnic. By the time the Confederates had turned the tide, those picnickers were fleeing for their lives. The South put up a heck of a fight for five years. What they lacked in population numbers and supplies, they made up for with great generals. Perhaps their greatest after Robert E. Lee was Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson. One night, after yet another Confederate victory, this one at Chancellorsville, Jackson arrived back at the camp late at night after scouting his enemy. A young fidgety sentry on guard duty asked him the password, and Jackson did not know it. The kid got antsy and shot Jackson, whose left arm had to be amputated as infection threatened. Nevertheless, Stonewall Jackson died from pneumonia generated by that wound infection a few days later. (I not only have visited his burial site but also traveled, searching half a day, to the separate site where his left arm is buried.) If he had not been shot so pointlessly, might the subsequent war, particularly the Battle of Gettysburg, have turned out differently? If so, then today we might be two separate, weaker countries. Was it the hand of G-d that ensured that America would remain united as one enormously rich and populous country so that it would be the only world power capable  — a century later — to take down Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, and Arab terror? The hand of G-d? Indeed, it is believed by some historians that Abraham Lincoln was elected president by a fluke. Get this: In the old days, there were no presidential state primaries, so parties went into their conventions with various contending candidates, and delegates would cast votes at the convention, amid promises and horse-trading. Such votes often ran several rounds until someone among several contenders finally secured a majority of delegates. For example, it took 17 days and 103 (one hundred and three!) rounds of balloting until Congressman John W. Davis finally beat out New York Governor Al Smith, a Catholic who opposed Prohibition, and Ku Klux Klan-endorsed William G. McAdoo for the 1924 Democrat presidential nomination (It proved to be, uh, “McAdoo about nothing”: Republican Calvin Coolidge won in November.) Well, going into balloting at the 1860 Republican convention, William Seward was the odds-on favorite to win on the first round of balloting, the first night of the convention. Yet, somehow, the people running the convention had not ordered enough paper ballots, so they rushed an order for more and needed to postpone the first round of voting to the next day. That entire night, delegates advocating for the various contenders worked like crazy to turn minds. Just enough flipped from Seward while awaiting the paper ballots into the next morning so that he just missed. Lincoln won a few rounds later, and the rest is history. Was G-d turning history to raise Lincoln to lead during the forthcoming Civil War? Did G-d intervene in the course of America’s history by having Lee Harvey Oswald’s bullet hit its mark? If so, why? Or by having John Hinckley, Jr. barely miss his goal?  Why? Or the dirtbag who shot President Trump? When Israel was declared independent, how did they beat seven weapon-stocked invading and trained Arab Muslim armies, when the Jewish state’s defenders were barely trained Holocaust survivors, severely undersupplied, with Harry Truman imposing a complete embargo on sending weapons to Israel? (READ MORE: Limited Biden Goes Terminal: Prepping a Supreme Court for Republican Feasting) Later, in 1973 during the Yom Kippur War, it would be Richard Nixon — of all people — who was G-d’s messenger on earth to rescue Israel by rushing weapons that saved the day. And books have been written about the miracles of the 1967 Six-Day War. We do not know G-d’s ways because His thoughts are not our thoughts, and His ways are not our ways. Isaiah 55:8. It may be that 9/11 happened as part of a Divine intervention — or, maybe, simply because fools in Washington were welcoming haters from “our friends, the Saudis” to be trained in America to fly commercial aircraft, while no one bothered them for failing to attend the class on how to land a plane. Likewise, the Butler, Pennsylvania outrage may simply have been because of Secret Service incompetence in the upper-echelon DEI level. Warnings and sightings of the shooter went on for an hour. He was seen on the roof for twenty minutes. That roof should not even have been vacant. Even a rabbi and attorney who never has worked in law enforcement knows from TV and movies that assassins go for nearby rooftops with unobstructed lines of vision. And still, although we do not know His purposes with certainty, we know with certainty that we presently are witnessing not only an historical epoch but also miracle times: The Democrats’ gang rape of the legal system miraculously all falling apart everywhere at once just as conventions and elections approach. The miracle of Biden self-destructing before tens of millions, in a live event the leftist media could not cover up. The miracle that, although Biden had won the coin toss, he gave Trump the right to the last word and closing argument. The miracle that Biden’s people required that Trump’s mike be cut off every time Biden would speak, thus enabling (i) Trump to appear gentlemanly, and (ii) Biden to deliver uninterrupted two-minute soliloquies of fumbling and doddering. The miracle of the Butler incident, missing by just a whisker because Trump was turning to point to a chart. Was this G-d’s way to elevate Donald Trump, to say, “You still have a history-impacting role ahead to save America in its Eleventh Hour and also to save the world by reimposing crushing sanctions on Iran before they go nuclear”? Is it G-d’s three-dimensional chess also aimed at Putin and at Xi and at North Korea, for this man to be G-d’s messenger to save Taiwan or Ukraine or Israel as Biden cannot? Or was G-d destroying and humiliating Biden for 40 years of public lying and shaming others? To punish him for cutting off aid to Israel and allowing $250 billion to an almost bankrupt Iran? For proclaiming Easter Sunday as Transgender Day? Or is G-d’s purpose to elevate Kamala to the presidency — G-d forbid — because there is no other way, short of miracles, that she conceivably could be in the discussion? Or is it to punish Americans for the immorality of abortions on demand, even late-term abortions; transgender shower stalls and elementary school bathrooms, and transgender sports competitions, sex-change surgeries, and so much immorality. Or is it all G-d’s plan to elevate J.D. Vance for the next 12 years to help save America from the Obama-Biden catastrophe? No way to know — now. It will be revealed with the passage of time. Know that we now are living in a moment of miracles. And know that it devolves on us not to proclaim whether G-d is on our side, but instead to strive always to be on G-d’s side. Subscribe to Rav Fischer’s YouTube channel here at bit.ly/3REFTbk  and follow him on X (Twitter) at @DovFischerRabbi to find his latest informative and inspiring classes, interviews, speeches, and observations. The post G-d’s Vibrant Hand in Our Lives and Destiny appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.

Many Media Mavens were shocked — shocked! — when they learned of acclaimed short story writer Alice Munro’s cruel abandonment of her daughter, Andrea, and her undying love for her husband, Gerald Fremlin, the man who began sexually assaulting Alice’s biological daughter and his stepdaughter when she was only nine years old. Thus, for a long while, Andrea felt betrayed by her immediate family — and then she lost the only mother she would ever have. Such a shocked reaction betrays an enormous ignorance about the nature of incest families and about sexual violence in general. Many feminist trauma-related researchers and clinicians have long noted that the mothers who are married to pedophiles, including biological fathers and stepfathers who pray on pre-adolescent girls, (or boys), invariably choose the predator over their own daughters; deny that such abuse ever happened; claim that the victims are lying; and if they concede sexual acts did occur, blame it on the child herself, who is portrayed as a seductive “homewrecker,” a Lolita, even if they are under 10 years old. (READ MORE from Phyllis Chesler: Hitler Absolutely Plundered Europe) Such mothers also view themselves as the real victims; resent being forced to choose between a husband whom they love and/or between a husband’s much needed paycheck and the needs of a troublesome daughter. If anything, such mothers also tend to ostracize or even exile the reporting child if she insists on continuing to talk about it or if she demands that the mother protect her. Many incest victims in therapy are far more wounded by their mother’s betrayal than they are by their father, stepfather, or older brother’s sexual abuse. They continue to suffer this maternal failure-to-protect even more than the sexual violence itself. In part, this is also due to our society’s holding mothers to much higher expectations and punishing them for failing even a little, not to mention a lot — as well as to our complicated discomfort about and fear of being re-victimized by police or judges when we dare accuse a male of intimate of sexual violence. Munro was a typical mother in all the ways listed above. By the time Andrea truly confronted her, it was too late in the day and Alice “still loved (her husband) too much … (she insisted that) our misogynistic culture is to blame, and if (Andrea wanted me) to deny (my) own needs, sacrifice for (my) children and make up for the failings of men” — she would not do so. When Retired Ontario Provincial Police Detective, Sam Lazarevich, came to arrest Fremlin, who confessed, and was found guilty in court, the arresting police officer was “disturbed by the writer’s reaction … a very angry Munro accused her daughter of lying.” “That’s your daughter, aren’t you going to defend your daughter?” he recalls. Lazarevich said he has “no idea why the arrest didn’t receive media coverage back then and that the prosecutor at the time should be asked that.” Munro’s genius did not save her from common, vulgar prejudices. Why should we expect her to rise above a pervasive preference for men and/or an even greater prejudice against other women, especially younger women, even daughters? The fact that she was also a much revered, Nobel Prize-winning short story writer does not mean that she would personally, privately, act against the patriarchal grain. Or against her own perceived interests. Please understand: I do not think that we should cancel Alice Munro’s work based on her human imperfections. Virginia Woolf, George Orwell, T.S. Eliot, and Ezra Pound were all Jew-haters and yet I would never support eliminating their work from the canon of great literature. Should we avoid reading Oscar Wilde because, in his time, he was jailed as a criminal for having had sex with another, younger man? I must note that Alice Munro was not the only “shockingly” guilty party. The problem is far bigger than just one person. Munro had many collaborators and bystanders right by her side. In Andrea Robin Skinner’s case, née Munro, neither her stepmother Carole, her biological father Jim, or her stepbrother, Andrew, sided with her when she revealed what had happened. They chose not to tell Alice anything. They all kept silent, all kept the “peace.” It’s even bigger than the family, with whom Andrea has since reconciled. Media coverage of Fremlin’s guilty verdict was very muted in Canada and elsewhere. Various Munro biographers refused to include these facts in their work, including in the revised editions. What happened to Andrea? Immediately after the first sexual assault, her life changed for the worse. She did not feel safe at home. She did not think that anyone who mattered would believe her. Andrea writes that she “developed bulimia, insomnia, and migraines,” which she “attributed to the abuse.” She writes that her “private pain was taking a toll. In university, my grades plummeted and bulimia took over my life. I dropped out of an international development program and gave up my dream of working abroad. By the time I was 25, I couldn’t picture a future for myself.” When Andrea herself became a mother, she told Alice that “she would not allow Fremlin near her children.” Alice, who could not drive, still insisted on having Fremlin drive the adult Andrea and her young daughter to the airport. She refused to visit Andrea without Fremlin. That’s when Andrea cut off all contact with her mother. Thus, for a long while, Andrea felt betrayed by her immediate family — and then she lost the only mother she would ever have. They never reconciled. The #MeToo movement exposed many men of power for having sexually assaulted or for having demanded sexual favors from vulnerable or ambitious female employees. Each such powerhouse was also protected by countless enablers, conspirators, collaborators, and bystanders. This Munro-Fremlin-Skinner story is but one example among thousands, maybe millions of other relatively “unimportant,” or at least unknown men (union bosses, shop stewards, foremen, small businessmen), and how they fare after committing such crimes. (READ MORE: Immigration of Cultures Hostile to the West Must End) Survivors of violence, even atrocities, say they are haunted by those who heard their screams but turned their backs, closed their doors, remained neutral, and refused to take any stand other than an opportunistic one. One cannot remain a bystander without becoming complicit. The post Nobel Prize Winner Munro Fails Her Daughter appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.

Mr. Chairman, Former President Trump avoided assassination by the tip of his ear because my agents acted fast. Still, the Secret Service failed the country because not one of the female agents who shielded Trump from bullets scooted up to him in a wheelchair. Worse, not one was African American. For that, I am sorry. The Secret Service adequately protected Trump in that he’s not dead but merely dinged up. The same could not be said for Abraham Lincoln, James Garfield, William McKinley, and John F. Kennedy. Can we please get a little credit for sort of doing our job? We wanted that MAGA horde to photograph our excellent work in Butler, so our agents remained on stage with Trump for an eternity instead of rushing him into an SUV after Thomas Matthew Crooks shot him. Had President Reagan’s 1981 detail kept him out of that limo instead of quickly shoving him into it after John Hinckley Jr. nearly killed him, perhaps the Gipper could’ve given a fist pump, too, and won Minnesota and Washington, DC, in 1984. Law enforcement successfully identified Crooks as a person of interest more than an hour before the shooting. However, we lost sight of him. In fairness to us, there were a ton of people at that rally. I mean, you try keeping track of all the weirdos at a Trump rally. It’s like being asked to keep tabs on the oddest creature in that Star Wars bar. It’s not easy. While our counter-snipers spied Crooks 20 minutes before he fired, we could not stop him because there could have been a perfectly rational explanation why Crooks had a rangefinder at a political rally and snuck onto a rooftop with a rifle and ladder. He could’ve been birdwatching or staking out a place to stargaze four hours in advance and simply wanted to protect himself. Remember what Barack Obama said about small-town Pennsylvania folk, they cling to their guns among other awful things. As for the failure to cover the American Glass Research roof on which Crooks perched, I told ABC News: “That building, in particular, has a sloped roof at its highest point. And so you know there’s a safety factor: we wouldn’t want to put somebody up on a sloped roof. And so you know the decision was made to secure the building from the inside.” By now, most Americans can visualize that roof and know its slope rivals that of Mount Everest and not a big white asbestos-laden pancake that a cow could walk across. And while it’s true that counter-snipers were posted on roofs with steeper slopes, to quote President Biden, well, anyway. Females in the Service I’m proud the Secret Service’s female agents fully protected Donald Trump from the chest down. Saying the female agent who shielded him was too short insults short agents and promotes the dangerous stereotype that men are physically bigger and stronger than women. Did it ever occur to you that maybe Trump is too tall? That female agent would have been as tall as Trump had she been wearing stiletto heels, which we will now incorporate into our agency’s dress code for male and female agents. The service’s goal remains 30 percent female recruitment by 2030 as part of the 30×30 Initiative; meaning, should some racist, red-hat-clad white male shoot at future President Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY.), she will be the first female president protected by at least one woman of the following types: indigenous, African American, paralyzed, Latinx, morbidly obese, and undocumented migrant. We will try our best to phase out all white female agents from protective detail by 2030 to promote inclusivity. We always recruit qualified candidates, many of whom exist within that MAGA rabble. Several of these eagle-eyed folks warned us about Crooks just minutes before he fired. Please, MAGA, apply to the Secret Service. We will pay for your reeducation. I, like many sincere liberals, am grateful the existential threat to our democracy who embodies Hitler, Mussolini and Voldemort, and who will turn our republic into a dictatorship if elected, survived an assassin’s bullet. We are a safer country for it. In closing, as ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos and Martha Raddatz stated, Donald Trump and his minions must tone down their vile rhetoric otherwise more people will get shot. And if that’s the case, we will be there to protect him/her/they. READ MORE from Matt Manochio: The Pride Play Book Chapter: Noem vs. The Cartel It’s Good That Some Truth Is Suppressed The post The Secret Service Chief’s Rousing Testimony appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.

Last month the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the rights of cities to enforce common sense laws which prohibit the homeless from sleeping in public spaces, such as parks or sidewalks where children play or families walk. It’s almost absurd that the Court was forced to expend its limited resources adjudicating a controversy over whether such laws should be constitutional. It’s time to stop listening to progressive rhetoric that ignores the realities of addiction. A similarly surreal debate took place last September in my hometown of Seattle. After months of debate, our city council adopted, by a contentious 6 to 3 vote, a policy to enforce laws banning the public use of illicit drugs. Such hesitancy — such inability — of a dark blue city to overcome its moral paralysis and protect residents from deadly drugs might be funny if it weren’t so tragic. (READ MORE: The Risk of Drug Addiction) I work in downtown Seattle and lived in the heart of the city for years. One day I drove to work and got lucky — I found a parking space near the office. During that short walk I saw things that are completely normal: A man laying on his back on the sidewalk, totally high. A tent — soiled and half-burned — in a graffiti-covered doorway, undoubtedly reflecting a botched attempt to smoke up. Another man, mentally absent with an upside-down-cross tattooed on his forehead and his pants around his knees, waddling down the road as cars carefully avoided him. A group of five young men and women, huddled near an alley passing around a drug pipe. In most American cities, and in most eras of American life, such sights would shock people and immediately incite strong corrective reactions from citizens and law enforcement. But when you see it every day, it has a corrosive effect on the soul. One begins to think it’s not insane for people to live like this — consequence-free. But then you remember: This dystopia didn’t happen by accident. It was caused by progressive politics. Community Assisted Suicide In San Fransicko, former progressive activist Michael Shellenberger documents that big blue cities attract homeless because of the unlimited supply of drugs and the zero-consequences policies for being an addict on the streets. My co-worker at Discovery Institute, journalist Jonathan Choe, has confirmed this through interviews with homeless people posted on his X account. Many openly admit they are not interested in getting housing, help, or clean. They’re content to live on the streets where nobody bothers them, and where stolen merchandise, ill-gotten cash, and illicit drugs flow freely. Progressive activists “help” by supplying brand new tents, so they can stay there, slowly killing themselves on the streets. Shoplifting is so common that I’ve often seen homeless addict types walk out of stores — from Goodwill to Lowes to Safeway — with goods knowing that there are effectively no penalties if the total value is under about $750. Besides, after Seattle defunded the police in 2020, they don’t have the resources to investigate, enforce, or punish the vast majority of drug-related crimes. One intersection on my commute — the notorious 12th and Jackson — is Exhibit A for how boosted goods are easily converted into drugs. This area has ready black-market buyers, and plenty of drug dealers, making it easy to sell loot and get a fix. Unless you are committing some violent crime, everyone knows there will likely be zero consequences. So the party continues. (READ MORE: Druggies Vote Too) But it’s not really a party. These people are living in hell, and progressives’ “mutual aid” is only keeping them in street-addiction as they slowly kill themselves with drugs. Having spent time ministering to people in homeless camps, and witnessing their soul-crushing suffering, I’ve developed a term for the policies which imprison so many in lives of self-destruction: “Community Assisted Suicide.” Real Compassion How did Seattle come to adopt so many policies which encourage people to live in squalor, crime, and unabated addiction? It’s not that complicated: It comes down to naïve ideology, liberal guilt, and misunderstandings about human nature. Seattle is populated with guilt-ridden liberals who believe humans are fundamentally good. This misguided view pushes the lie that people will make good choices if you just improve their circumstances. Never mind that people with addicted brains usually aren’t capable of thinking clearly and making healthy choices — all their brains can fixate upon is getting the next hit. Negative consequences for illegal behavior that wrecks both society and individual lives are viewed as too “judgmental” or “harsh.” Even if people are rotting before our very eyes, we will at least feel good about ourselves. That’s the other lie that drives community assisted suicide policies — that creating zero-consequence environments somehow makes you compassionate. It doesn’t, because you’re actually inhibiting those most in need of true compassion from receiving help. “Housing first” policies won’t end the daily nightmares these people live in — at best they just mean that community assisted suicides will take place under a roof. Drug Addiction is ‘Cruel and Unusual’ The Supreme Court’s recent ruling in City of Grants Pass v. Johnson rejected arguments that imposing penalties upon homeless drug addicts is somehow a “cruel and unusual punishment.” Quite the opposite, it’s cruel and unusual to refuse to permit city governments to force people out of hellscapes of addiction. It’s time to stop listening to progressive rhetoric that ignores the realities of addiction and uncompassionately fosters people destroying their own lives. It’s time to start implementing policies that encourage or force people to get free from drugs and take responsibility for themselves. Only by presenting tough — but insanely obvious — choices like “go to rehab or go to jail,” will many addicts find freedom from the drugs that truly imprison them. I know former addicts who are grateful when society finally forced them to make that choice. That’s true compassion. It recognizes that a person stuck in addiction needs help — help that broken souls often want deep down, but don’t necessarily have the strength or ability to choose. Only when we stop aiding and abetting community assisted suicide can we finally start making a dent in this homeless crisis. Casey Luskin is an attorney and Ph.D. scientist working at Discovery Institute in Seattle. He is co-founder of Free a Life South Africa (www.falsa.org.za), an NGO helping drug addicts in Johannesburg. His views are his own. The post Seattle’s Policies Are Killing Drug Addicts appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.

MILWAUKEE — Since a would-be assassin tried to kill former President Donald Trump during a campaign rally Saturday, his team has been telling the world that the brush with death — which left Trump wearing a white bandage on his ear — had changed him. If there is one individual who benefited from Trump’s self-centered and long-winded rant, it was Biden. And I believed it, until Trump addressed the Republican National Convention on Thursday night as he accepted his party’s presidential nomination. It’s not just that Trump sent mixed messages — one was “fight, fight,” the other was unity. It was that Trump had squandered an opportunity to show a more human side of himself. (READ MORE from Debra J. Saunders: November Is Coming and Biden Has Another Border Plan) Before the RNC speech, Fox News anchor Bret Baier reported that he had talked to Trump and learned that Trump would not utter the name of his rival, President Joe Biden, during his acceptance speech. But then, before his talk was over, Trump did say “Biden.” He couldn’t help himself. Trump told the crowd, peppered with supporters who sported white bandages as a show of solidarity, that he would describe what happened, but only once because it was too painful to recall. But then he changed the subject. It felt like a return to the meandering and unfocused speeches that America saw during Trump’s one term in office. In the moment that was supposed to show that Trump had looked at eternity and become a better man, Trump instead paraded his list of petty grievances and his laundry list of conservative policies. (I write this as someone who agrees with his policies, but not the self-indulgence.) You can like his “no tax on tips” plank and still wish to hear it on another day. In an attempt at humor, Trump even told the crowd, “I’m trying to buy your vote.” Ugh. It was a wasted moment. I had come to expect a transformed Trump who had decided to put cheap shots aside, at least for the night. Instead, I heard a rant with the usual sound bites, such as his slam at “Deface the Nation” and his references to “the China virus.” “Has anyone seen The Silence of the Lambs?” Trump asked at one point. Then he joked that the character Hannibal Lecter, a cannibal, would love to have you for dinner. If there is one individual who benefited from Trump’s self-centered and long-winded rant, it was Biden. Or Vice President Kamala Harris, who could head the Democratic ticket within the week, if news reports are to be believed. Expect the Democratic National Committee to have a field day with Trump’s acceptance speech. In one address, Trump likely burned much of the good will that his bravery and defiance had won him. Earlier in the week, I attended an event put on by Concerned Women for America. I asked the dual U.S.-Israeli families of hostages seized on Oct. 7 how they thought Trump would be different than Biden. Liz Naftali, the great aunt of 4-year-old Abigail Edan, who was released earlier this year, responded, “the Abraham Accords.” It was a good moment that reminded me of some of the great things that Trump had done. All week here in Milwaukee, Republicans have gushed at Trump’s courage and ability to bounce back after his close call with a bullet. He is formidable. (READ MORE: There Are 2 Americas: Pro-Fauci and Anti-Fauci) And now it feels like a return to 2020. Trump had a chance to redeem himself, a chance to woo a slice of the electorate to give him another look, a chance to demonstrate the focus his team had promised. But his ego got in the way. Contact Review-Journal Washington columnist Debra J. Saunders at dsaunders@reviewjournal.com. Follow @debrajsaunders on X. COPYRIGHT 2024 CREATORS.COM The post Trump Gets 2024 Lifeline, Squanders It appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.