Can Texas Save America?

The topic of discussion for this Constitution Monday is the dangerous open border polices of the Biden administration. Texas Governor Greg Abbott recently signed a new law that empowers local officials to arrest migrants who enter Texas illegally.

According to Katelynn Richardson at The Daily Signal, the U.S. Justice Department has threatened to sue the state if Texas enforces the law to arrest illegal aliens entering Texas. The Department of Justice claims that the law is unconstitutional because the responsibility for controlling international borders belongs to the federal government. Governor Abbott made the following statement according to Richardson: 

“President [Joe Biden has repeatedly refused to enforce federal immigration laws already on the books and do his job to secure the border,” Abbott previously told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “In his absence, Texas has the constitutional authority to secure our border through historic laws like SB4. Texas will take this fight all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court if necessary to protect Texans from President Biden’s dangerous open-border policies.”

The Justice Department’s letter cites a 2012 Supreme Court ruling that found Arizona’s state immigration laws, including one that made it a crime to be in the state without authorization, were preempted by federal law, according to the Houston Chronicle.

“Indeed, the Supreme Court has confirmed that ‘the removal process’ must be ‘entrusted to the discretion of the Federal Government’ because a ‘decision on removability’ touches ‘on foreign relations and must be made with one voice,’” the letter states, per the newspaper.

The American Civil Liberties Union sued Texas the day after Abbott signed the law, arguing in the lawsuit filed on behalf of Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center, American Gateways, and the County of El Paso, Texas, that the law oversteps federal authority.

Chuck DeVore, chief national initiatives officer at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, told the Daily Caller News Foundation in November that the measures in Texas’ bill are “fundamentally different” than the ones in the Arizona law that the Supreme Court struck down. Texas’s law offers those crossing illegally the choice of returning to Mexico or facing the threat of arrest for being in the state illegally, while Arizona’s law was “essentially affirmatively enforcing federal immigration law insofar as asking people for their status and then acting upon that,” he said.

Abbot’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The difference in the two laws – one from Arizona that was shot down and one from Texas that is being threatened – may be enough to force the Federal Government to do something to slow or stop the flow of illegal immigrants into the United States. If the flood continues as it is, Americans will have lost their country.

However, the real dangers come from people living within the borders of the United States. Some of them are people who are here on visas, while others American. Some are actively working to destroy the American way of life, but others refuse to see the dangers overtaking America.

If Biden gets re-elected and continues the same policies that he has followed for the past three years, there will be no coming back without a miracle from God.

What Do You Want Written in the Lamb’s Book of Life?

 My Come Follow Me studies for this week took me to the last seven chapters in the New Testament, Revelation 15-22, in a lesson titled “He That Overcometh Shall Inherit All Things.” The lesson was preceded by this statement: “Sometimes the biggest obstacle to learning is our assumption that we don’t need to learn – that we already know. As you read the scriptures, be open to new insights that the Lord wants to give you.” The lesson was then introduced by the following paragraphs: 

As you may recall, the book of Revelation begins with the Savior declaring Himself to be “the beginning and the ending” (Revelation 1:8). Fittingly, it ends with similar words: “I am … the beginning and the end” (Revelation 22:13). But what does that mean? The beginning and the end of what? The book of Revelation powerfully testifies that Jesus Christ is the beginning and end of everything—of the great, sweeping drama of human existence and salvation. He is “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (Revelation 13:8). And He is the King of kings who brings an end to wickedness, sorrow, and even death itself and ushers in “a new heaven and a new earth” (Revelation 21:1).

Yet before this new heaven and new earth arrive, there is much for us to overcome: plagues, wars, rampant wickedness—all of which Revelation vividly describes. But Jesus Christ is with us during this part too. He is the “bright and morning star” that shines in the dark sky as a promise that dawn is coming soon (Revelation 22:16). And it is coming soon. He is coming. Even as He invites us, “Come unto me” (Matthew 11:28), He also comes to us. “I come quickly,” He declares. And with hope and faith that has been purified in the fires of latter-day adversity, we answer, “Even so, come, Lord Jesus” (Revelation 22:20).

The principle chosen for this discussion is “All of God’s children will be judged out of the book of life (Revelation 20:12-15; 21:1-4).

If someone offered to author the story of your life, what details or experiences would you like to be included? If you knew that your future actions would also be recorded, how would you approach your future life to make your life story better? Consider the above two questions as you study Revelation 20:12-15.

12 And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.

13 And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.

14 And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.

15 And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. [Emphasis added.]

What do you hope will be written about you in the book of life? How would you describe the Savior’s role in your book of life? In your opinion, why is it significant that it is called “the Lamb’s book of life” as stated in Revelation 21:27?

27 And there shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb’s book of life. 

If the thought of standing before God to be judged is uncomfortable for you, consider looking at Revelation 21:1-4.

1 And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.

2 And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

3 And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.

4 And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.

Referring to the above verses, Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf of the Quorum of Twelve Apostles said the following:

“That Day of Judgment will be a day of mercy and love — a day when broken hearts are healed, when tears of grief are replaced with tears of gratitude, when all will be made right. Yes, there will be deep sorrow because of sin. Yes, there will be regrets and even anguish because of our mistakes, our foolishness, and our stubbornness that caused us to miss opportunities for a much greater future.

“But I have confidence that we will not only be satisfied with the judgment of God; we will also be astonished and overwhelmed by His infinite grace, mercy, generosity, and love for us, His children” (“O How Great the Plan of Our God!,” Ensign or Liahona, Nov. 2016, 21). O How Great the Plan of Our God! (churchofjesuschrist.org)

How do these truths affect the way that you view the Final Judgment? What do these truths inspire you to change in your life?

Heavenly Father is both a merciful and a just God. I believe that He will be as generous with us as possible in His mercy. I also believe that He will be as lenient as possible in His justice. However, I know that He must abide by His laws. I am grateful for His loving gift of His Only Begotten Son, even Jesus Christ, to mediate in my behalf and on the behalf of all people. I love both Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ for acting in a way to give me and all people eternal life if we choose to receive their plan.

What Can Be Done to Lower the Deaths by Fentanyl Users?

Parents, community, state, and national leaders must act in unity to save the lives of adolescents and young adults from the fentanyl epidemic taking place in America. According to Jennie Taer of The Daily Signal, “Honduran nationals are running fentanyl trafficking rings in cities across the western U.S.

Law enforcement agencies have been investigating a cartel using “Honduran nationals to distribute bulk amounts of fentanyl … in the western United States,” according to Willamette Week, citing a criminal complaint filed Dec. 12 in U.S. District Court in Portland.

Fentanyl trafficking operations have been identified in the cities of Seattle, Denver, Portland, Oregon, Oakland, California, and Salt Lake City, Utah, the newspaper reported.

A U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration task force, Group D-51, has been investigating cases involving the drug trafficking rings, according to Willamette Week. The task force includes the Department of Homeland Security as well as Oregon’s Tigard and Sherwood police departments and the Washington County Sheriff’s Office.

One drug trafficking organization “is suspected of importing controlled substances, including fentanyl pills, heroin, and methamphetamine from Mexico into the United States, and conspiring to distribute those drugs in Oregon and Washington,” the newspaper reported. Honduran nationals have dominated fentanyl dealing on the streets of San Francisco in recent years, the San Francisco Chronicle reported in July. One of the biggest appeals the city offers is a shield from immigration authorities due to it sanctuary status.

“The reason is because, in San Francisco, it’s like you’re here in Honduras,” one Honduran drug dealer told the Chronicle. “The law, because they don’t deport, that’s the problem.”

“Many look for San Francisco because it’s a sanctuary city,” the drug dealer added. “You go to jail, and you come out.”

It is the responsibility of parents and leaders in cities, counties, states, and nations to keep the rising generation safe. One way that they can meet this responsibility is to vote for leaders who will be tough on crime and who will get rid of sanctuary cities. At this time, it seems to be Democrats who are lenient on law breakers and Republicans who work for tougher laws and better enforcement of current laws.

The Constitution of the United States was written for people who are law abiding and has no power over law breakers. Parents should teach their children to be law abiding citizens, and elected leaders should see that the laws are enforced as intended. By doing so, they can better control crime and decrease the possibility for teenagers and young adults to obtain fentanyl.

What Is Trump Derangement Syndrome?

The liberty principle for this Freedom Friday concerns Trump Derangement Syndrome and its affect on ordinary people. Many people voted for Joe Biden in 2022 because they hated Trump so badly, but Trump hatred and Trump Derangement Syndrome are two different problems. Trump hatred can stem from hearing what others say about Trump. It can come from comparing Trump’s moral compass to one’s own and finding Trump’s lacking. It can come from any number of things. Trump hatred can be cured by wisely comparing the positive and negative factors of Trump to those of other politicians.

Trump Derangement Syndrome [TDS] is Trump hatred taken to a different level, and it cannot be cured. Blogger Mike McDaniel described TDS this way: 

Those contracting the progressive disease [known as Trump Derangement Syndrome] suffer years of misery as Trump lives rent-free in their heads before their inevitable, gruesome, end. The disease drives its victims to paranoid obsessions and dementia commonly manifesting in apocalyptic, absurd public pronouncements of impending national and global doom. Other debilitating symptoms include dyschronometria – time distortion – a tendency to accuse others of impossible crimes and a compulsion to engage in wild logical fallacies.

McDaniel used presidential historian Michael Beschloss as an example. This unfortunate soul suffers from primary TDS symptom of believing that Trump is trying to destroy “our democracy” [we have a democratic republic – not a democracy]. In addition, Beschloss apparently believes that Trump caused the Holocaust! 

Presidential historian Michael Beschloss said Saturday on MSNBC’s “American Voices” that former President Donald Trump intentionally uses language that “led to the Holocaust.”

Beschloss said, “Absolutely, and provide Hitler with an easy way to blame the many ills of Germany 1924 after World War I, one group which was Jewish people as well as some others but it was mainly Jews. And for Donald Trump as a former president and possible future president to use that language, knowing that that language led to the Holocaust, he knows what he’s doing, and he thinks it works.”

I think that it is far-fetched to think that Trump influenced Hitler with his language because Trump was born in June 1946. It is just as far-fetched to believe that Trump is Hitler – a primary TDS symptom. McDaniel continued his article:

I’m not a psychologist or physician, but Beschloss is obviously suffering from dyschronometria. It’s possible he’s referring to unspecified “that language” causing what may are reasonably calling the Second Holocaust, the October seventh Islamist attack on Israel. If so, that’s further and convincing diagnostic evidence of TDS. Hamas, bloodthirsty Islamist savages, certainly needed no verbal nudging from Donald Trump or anyone else to murder Jews, and Beschloss provides no specific information to indicate Trump had anything to say prior to October Seventh that could, in any logical universe, compel lunatic Islamists, who need no outside encouragement, to the slaughter of innocents.

That’s another common TDS-related mental illness, the idea that civilization dare not strike back at the Islamist barbarians raping, mutilating, immolating, torturing and murdering them, because that will make them angry and produce future generations of raging, Islamist savages.

This leaves the inescapable conclusion and diagnosis Beschloss is in stage four TDS. Yet another TDS symptom allied with paranoid obsession is thinking others possessed of supernatural powers. Beschloss implies Donald Trump, not yet even a gleam in his father’s eye, was influencing events in Germany after WWI. Obviously crackling with magical power, Trump, while not yet an embryo in utero, was somehow knowingly using “that language,” which “led to the holocaust,” and he projected that power across the Atlantic! Trump’s powers are even more incredible when one considers the Holocaust was over before 1946 when Trump was born.

All people of good will must say a prayer for Beschloss and his family, but if even a tiny portion of his fantastic utterances are by chance true, and Donald Trump has those powers, that’s a selling point, not a bug, for his reelection.

I have enough common sense to believe that McDaniel is using his sense of humor to poke fun at Beschloss and all other people who have such strange ideas. As the sperm and egg that created the baby who became Donald Trump had not yet come together, Donald Trump was a mere spirit in the pre-mortal world.

I know that some spirits, particularly that of Jesus Christ, had great powers in their pre-mortal lives, I cannot see any circumstances where Trump would be given such powers because the pre-earth missions were delegated only to the Savior and some of His chosen prophets. I would write that explanation off as plain foolishness.

However, the comparison of Trump to Hitler can be downright dangerous because it may frighten people into voting for another loser like Joe Biden. Biden has done more damage to our American way of life than Trump would have done in twice as many years. People, please use your common sense to compare the peace and prosperity that America enjoyed during the Trump administration to the war and poverty of the Biden administration. Which one do you prefer?

Also, be careful. If you are one of the Trump haters or Never Trumpers, you should find a friend or family member with common sense to air your grievances. Then listen to why your hatred is misplaced. If you should recognize TDS in yourself, you should put your life in order as soon as possible because the disease cannot be cured and can lead to an early death.

Has the FBI Been Weaponized Against Americans?

FBI whistleblower Kyle Seraphin testified before the House Judiciary Committee in February that a memorandum exists within the Richmond, Virginia, office of the FBI. He testified that the letter “labeled Catholics as potential domestic terrorists.” 4xThis week (Monday) the House Judiciary Committee released a report on the disclosure titled “The FBI’s Breach of Religious Freedom: The Weaponization of Law Enforcement Against Catholic Americans” as reported by Mike Howell at The Daily Signal.

The above-mentioned report “details how the FBI ‘abused its counterterrorism tools’ to target Catholics. But there are some key issues that Capitol Hill – and most media – missed completely.

The FBI stigmatized a vast number of United States citizens s potential “radical traditional Catholic” terrorists based upon the existence of one criminal case involving a man who self-described as such a Catholic. The FBI’s version of the facts, detailed in an “intelligence note,” describes a man who likely suffers from mental illness – hardly a cross section of the Catholic population.

The most shocking aspect of this, one that largely escaped public attention, is that the FBI memo states the subject wasn’t even Catholic. He was taking catechism lessons in the hopes of becoming a baptized Catholic, but he was neither baptized nor confirmed.

The FBI never explained what “threat” the agency sought to “mitigate” by targeting Catholics. The intelligence note offers no history or example of political violence associated with conservative Catholics who prefer the Latin Mass. It simply asserts, baselessly, that they pose a threat as potentially violent domestic terrorists.

Moreover, the FBI’s denigration of Catholics is not limited to Latin Mass worshippers. Rather, the bureau appears to have issues with the Catholic faith in general. The “intelligence note” laments a purported “intelligence gap” when seeking to identify factors leading to violence, “which may include increased religiosity and/or adherence to extreme religious teachings.”

Hence, the FBI literally claims that increasing one’s religiosity makes one a greater domestic terrorist threat.

The FBI never bothered to explain precisely what tenets of Catholicism or “extreme religious teachings” of the Catholic Church [led] to political violence because, of course, there are none. Adherents of the faith who embrace extreme Catholic religiosity tend to become nuns in the streets of Calcutta.

The House Judiciary Committee also fails to address the most fundamental issue posed by the FBI’s abuse of Catholics’ civil liberties. The FBI labeled an amorphous and impossibly ill-defined faith community as potential terrorists without pointing to a single historical or current example of a “radical-traditionalist Catholic” associated with any form of political violence, the preeminent and unnegotiable element required by the domestic terrorism statute (18 U.S.C. § 2331).

No political violence = no domestic terrorism. Contrast this to the Black Lives Matter riots that engulfed the United States in the summer of 2020. The Heritage Foundation’s Oversight Project filed a federal lawsuit to force the FBI to provide evidence that the government conducted any investigation of BLM during that season of political violence and domestic terrorism. To date, the bureau has produced no such evidence.

Howell’s discussion admits that the FBI has not always been so cavalier about its duties. Before it became woke, the FBI “was required first to show that an individual sought to engage in criminally violent or life-threatening acts to intimidate or coerce a civilian population or government.

Howell explained that today’s FBI “blissfully bypasses the most fundamental elements of the domestic terrorism violation when it comes to labeling large swaths of peaceful, law-abiding citizens (non-Catholics as well as Catholics) as potential terrorists.” The Judiciary Committee report claims that “the FBI’s targets are Americans who dare hold such disfavored political viewpoints as ‘pro-life, pro-family’ and ‘support the biological basis for sex and gender distinction.’” Howell continued:

Perhaps the clearest indication that the FBI itself knows it has ventured into constitutionally impermissible territory is its flippant use of a “First Amendment caveat.” The wordy exercise in psychological projection is worth reading in full, especially as this caveat is relied upon in similar exercises elsewhere:

Potential criminality exhibited by certain members of a group referenced herein does not negate nor is it a comment on the constitutional rights of the group itself or its members to exercise their rights under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The FBI does not investigate, collect, or maintain information on U.S. persons solely for the purpose of monitoring activities protected by the First Amendment.

Obviously, the First Amendment implications of labeling an entire mainstream religious group are top of mind for in-house FBI lawyers. That should have been a cause for pause as opposed to further activity and laughable legalese.

Also, notice the looseness of the term “potential criminality.” The bureau now needs not rely on actual evidence of past criminality to determine threat levels. The standard now appears to be speech alone.

As the FBI continues to invent a new alphabet soup of terminological groupings, such as Radical Traditional Catholics and Racially Motivated Violent Extremist, and to open investigations for activities such as sporting Gadsden or Betsy Ross flags, the agency has reached apex weaponization as an ideological entity as opposed to a crime-fighting one.

Howell’s article continued the discussion about the FBI. It discusses the FBI’s weaponized modus operandi, which is to target “Americans who never have demonstrated any propensity toward political violence.” It is not just the “inept or corrupt FBI leadership targeting peaceful Americans, but it is also “Ideologically weaponized FBI employees at all levels” who “gravitate toward FBI units, such as domestic terrorism squads.” Together, they “indulge their political ideology” against Americans. In fact, almost “all FACE Act prosecutions target pro-lifers,” while failing to do anything about the “countless attacks on pro-life pregnancy centers and Catholic churches….”

Howell asks an important question: why did Congress take “almost a year … to largely rearticulate what already had been known.” He continued, “The purpose of congressional oversight is to inform legislation and fix problems that have been identified.” Now that Congress has investigated and released its report, “what meaningful accountability measures are being taken to address these abuses? Who has been held accountable? What has changed at the FBI as a result? Howell concluded with these paragraphs:

Lawmakers have wasted enough time failing to prioritize deweaponization. Americans can’t afford to let them waste more time by failing to unite and make changes. And change is certainly what voters expected in 2022 when they flipped control of the House to the GOP.

            Congress already has the information it needs to begin deweaponization efforts immediately.                History will judge this Congress by that simple measure, not by its analysis and rhetoric                        regarding the problem. 

How Does the Left Work?

Victor Davis Hanson is far more intelligent than I am, and my mind is always stretched when I read one of his articles. His latest article in The Daily Signal was titled “Biden vs. Trump: 5 Ways the Left Is Way Beyond Double Standards.” The first paragraph illustrates how he uses words that are not used by the lowly common people. 

The abject narcissism of the insular Left is startling.

They apparently believe the American public is amnesiac enough to forget what leftists once did, now that they’re doing the utter opposite. And they assume we are to discount their hypocrisy and self-absorption simply because they self-identify as erudite and moral, and assume their opponents are irredeemable and deplorable.

In case you do not understand what Hanson was stating, here are a few definitions to help you to understand the previous paragraph. Abject means something experienced or present to the maximum degree. Narcissism is a mental health condition where a person has an unreasonably high opinion of their own importance and a lack of the ability to understand or even care about how other people feel. Amnesiac describes a person who has a partial or total loss of memory. Hypocrisy is a claim of moral standards or beliefs that is not shown by one’s own behavior, or pretending to be something one is not. Erudite means to have or show vast knowledge of learning.

Now that we know what Hanson was stating in his first paragraph, we will examine the remainder of his article which shows the hypocrisy of the Left.

Impeachment

The Left is saturating the airwaves with outrage over the current House Republicans’ impeachment inquiry. They allege that formally investigating President Joe Biden’s role in the family grifting operation is somehow a poor constitutional precedent, if not out of bounds entirely.

So we hear further arguments that it will be unwise to impeach a first-term president when he loses his House majority, that there is no reason to “waste” congressional time and effort when Biden will be automatically acquitted in the Democrat-controlled Senate, and that the impeachment is cynically times to synchronize with the president’s reelection efforts.

All of these are the precise arguments many of us cited when Donald Trump was impeached in December 2019 (as his reelection campaign began, and immediately after being cleared of the 22-month, $40 million special counsel Russian-collusion hoax). …

There is one difference, though between the Trump impeachment and the Biden impeachment inquiry. Trump was impeached because he accurately accused the members of the Ukrainian government of paying Hunter Biden, with his zero fossil-fuel expertise, an astronomical sum to serve on the Burisma board – as the costly quid that earned the lucrative quo from his dad, then-Vice President Joe Biden.

No one now denies that Biden got prosecutor Viktor Shokin fired by threatening to cancel legislatively approved U.S. aid….

In sum, Trump had a perfect right as commander in chief to delay – he did not cancel – aid to Ukraine, to ensure that its government was not still paying off the Bidens for t heir lobbying efforts on its behalf….

Offspring Subpoenas

The Left is now furious that Hunter has been subpoenaed by the House to testify in private about how he earned his multimillion-dollar income, whether he fully paid taxes on it, and to whom he distributed his winnings.

Hunter has refused to testify. He is now being held in contempt of the U.S. Congress….

Ask Peter Navarro or Steve Bannon whether one can simply ignore a House subpoena.

Ask Ivanka Trump whether she was, or was not, subpoenaed to appear before the Jan. 6 committee. Ask the Trump sons whether they could breezily say “no” to New York Attorney General Letitia James’ subpoenas in her farcical real estate valuation suit against Trump.

Whistleblowers

Do we remember when, not long ago, whistleblowers were noble?

The alleged whistleblower Eric Ciaramella, an Obama holdover who had burrowed inside the Trump administration, had zero firsthand knowledge of the Trump phone call to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Ukrainian expatriate Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman was on the call, as a member of the Trump national security team. He broke the law and apparently disclosed the classified call – in outrage that Trump was apparently too hard on his native Ukraine – to Ciaramella, and then hid the latter’s identity. Both met privately with Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., to engineer an impeachment writ.

This impeachment gambit was well-known to the media and the Democratic House. Both Vindman and Ciaramella were canonized as invaluable tools in wearing down Trump in a way that the failed Mueller prosecution had never done.

And whistleblowers now?

IRS supervisory special agent Gary Shapley and 13-year special IRS agent Joe Ziegler never violated any statue or disclosed classified information. They did not leak a presidential phone call to a foreign leader.

Instead, both came forward as whistleblowers to testify before Congress about how the Biden Justice Department deliberately and carefully ensured that the mountain of evidence for the prosecution of Hunter Biden that they had presented had simply been ignored – at least long enough for the statute of limitations to run out on his most egregious crimes.

When they both made their case that facts proved the Biden family received huge sums for selling access to, or action from, Joe Biden, they were roundly trashed by Democrats in Congress and pilloried as disgruntled politicos by a toady press.

Dictators

Never-Trumpers and leftists vie to predict the most nightmarish consequence of a 2024 Trump election win. Supposedly, he will commit every imaginable sin, from ending habeas corpus to jailing his enemies.

This fearmongering has no basis in fact, especially given that the nation has already experienced a Trump administration for four years. And it saw none of the weaponization of the CIA, FBI, Justice Department, and IRS that we have seen under the Biden and earlier Obama administrations….

Burden of Familial Indictments?

Suddenly yet another new narrative emerges: Joe Biden is unduly preoccupied, bearing the enormous burden of Hunter’s indictments. Apparently, we have never appreciated the supposedly unnecessary and cruel encumbrance on a president when his son is indicted.

So, we are told that a son’s legal exposure is an unfair weight on a president.

Have we again forgotten the subpoenaed Trump children, much less the four weaponized indictments of Trump himself? Does anyone wish to compare the drug-addicted, prostitute-hiring, gun-losing, pornographic-photo-taking, shake-down grifting of Huter with the conduct of the five Trump children? …

Hanson concludes his article by admitting that it is “unwise” to “impeach a president in his first term” when the other party controls the House, to “set a bad precedent to subpoena the children of presidents, to demonize whistleblowers, or to compare a president to Hitlerian dictator. He shows that the Left believes that it has a “supposedly morally superior agenda” of the left is so wonderful that “any means necessary are justified to obtain it.” He concludes:

And that alternate reality ensures that impeaching a president, indicting him, subpoenaing his kids, praising or libeling whistleblowers, or smearing a president as a dictator become good or bad things only by determining whether they prove useful to the progressive project.

In other words, the Left believes that it can set rules that will serve its own agenda and then set different rules for the opposing party. They definitely do not believe the oft repeated saying of “What’s good for the gander is good for the goose” or the saying known as the Golden Rule: “Treat other people as you would want to be treated by them.” 

Who Is Geoffrey Holt?

My VIP for this week is Geoffrey Holt, a caretaker of a trailer park in Hinsdale, New Hampshire, who died in June at the age of 82. I chose him to be my VIP because he is an excellent reminder that there are many good-hearted, honest, hard-working people in America.

Most of the people in Hinsdale knew Holt as an old man riding a lawnmower, taking care of a trailer park, and never drawing attention to himself. Yet, Holt was more than they saw.

Alison Anton reported the following in her article in The Western Journal. 

What his fellow townsfolk didn’t know was that Holt was a shrewd investor who carefully managed his money, amassing a fortune of $3.8 million – which he left to his entire hometown, according to the Brattleboro Reformer.

For Hinsdale, the revelation came as a complete shock. Despite Holt’s incredible wealth, he never changed his simple lifestyle.

“People really didn’t know who he was. I mean, I didn’t even know what his name was,” the town administrator, Kathryn Lynch, told The New York Times.

Even his close friend, Edwin “Smokey” Smith, had no idea the extent of Holt’s wealth until Holt approached him in 2000 asking what he should do with his wealth, according to CNBC.

Holt and Smith had known each other since the 1970s. Holt did many odd jobs for Smith, and Smith gave him a place a place to live on his 25-acre plot of land.

It was Smith who recommended that Holt, who had little surviving family and no children, use his money for the people of Hinsdale. Based on that advice, Holt decided to leave the entirety of his $3.8 million fortune to the care of the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation, to be given to his hometown of Hinsdale.

The charity will make grants “to honor Mr. Holt’s wishes: support projects, programs and organizations that provide health, educational, recreational or cultural benefits to the residents of Hinsdale,” a representative told CNBC.

From the testimonies of Holt’s friends and townsfolk, an interesting trend emerges. According to everyone who knew him, Holt’s wealth never changed him. As Smith told the Times, “I guess you really didn’t know whether he had money or not because he never bragged about anything.”

Holt’s lifestyle and spending habits remained unchanged from the moment he moved to Hinsdale to the moment he died.

He easily could have blown all his wealth on himself, but he didn’t.

Not only did Holt refrain from spending it all on himself, he spent essentially none of it on himself. He lived in the same frugal way he had always done and saved the money till his last breath in order to benefit the people with whom he lived for most of his life.

Holt’s life was one of simplicity and generosity. Therefore, it was both refreshing and reassuring, showing that there are people in this world who can withstand the pull of materialism and live simply and honestly. 

Will There Be Peace in America?

The topic of discussion for this Constitution Monday is peace. This Monday is Christmas Day, the day that we celebrate the Prince of Peace who is Jesus Christ. America was “discovered” by people who were looking for a place to worship God according to their conscience. The Declaration was written by men who believed in God, and the United States Constitution was organized around Christian principles. So how did it happen that Americans are divided as badly as during the Civil War.

The situation in the State of Colorado is one example of how much division there is in the United States. The Supreme Court of Colorado ruled Tuesday evening that former President Donald Trump’s name could be on the state ballot – for both the Primary and the General Election. Their reason is the “insurrection” that took place on January 6, 2021.

Of course, they did not mention that the “insurrection” began before Trump completed his speech, and they do not mention that Trump told his followers to go to the Capitol peacefully.

Nor do they mention that the unarmed people participating in the so-called “insurrection” did not strive to take over the government.

Nevertheless, the Colorado Supreme Court cited Amendment 14, Section 3 of the Constitution, which says that people are not eligible for office if they “have engaged in insurrection or rebellion” against the Constitution of the United States. Ben Shapiro posted an article in The Daily Signal discussing the decision of the Colorado Supreme Court. 

It is unclear whether the provision applies to presidential candidates; it is even more unclear whether such a provision is “self-enforcing,” meaning that any electoral official in any state can simply declare for himself whether a candidate has been an “insurrectionist.”

Nonetheless, the court said it is qualified to determine who is guilty of “insurrection” under the 14 Amendment without any criminal case or impeachment case. And the court says that “the events of January 6 constituted an insurrection and … President Trump engaged in that insurrection.”

On a legal level, this is extraordinarily strained. Section 3 was designed to prohibit those who had served in the Confederacy from holding public office in the United States.

The Confederacy, as we know, was an armed rebellion against the United States that ended in the deaths of some 600,000 Americans on both sides. Trump, by contrast, made a series of legal challenges to the election, all of which were denied, and then claimed – on the basis of specious legal reasoning – that the vice president could simply throw out electoral slates that had already been certified. He then called for his supporters to protest at the Capitol building and a riot broke out.

This hardly qualifies as an “insurrection,” let alone proving that Trump engages in one. Trump, let us not forget, has not been charged with insurrection. He was not even convicted in his impeachment trial over Jan. 6.

Yet the Colorado State Supreme Court says it can bar him from electoral eligibility anyway.

Shapiro continues by saying that the decision by the Colorado Supreme Court is “mildly, unbelievably dangerous” and “sets up a perverse set of incentives for both political sides. He wrote that Trump can rightly claim that “lawfare has been used to thwart the workings of democracy – that a slate of judges in any state can simply negate the will of the voters.” In addition, the Biden Department of Justice “has been attempted to drag [Trump] into court before the election in order to stymie his shot at the presidency.”

Even worse, the example set forth by the Colorado Supreme Court encourages “Democrats across the country” to expect Trump to “be legally barred from the presidency.” Those expectations will be doused with a flood of reality “when the Supreme Court overturns that Colorado Supreme Court ruling,” causing the Democrats to “claim that the Supreme Court itself is rigged.”

All of which means that 2024 is going to be the most insane and ugly presidential election in American history. And that’s saying a lot, since 1968 and 2020 are both years that existed. Under what circumstances, precisely, would Democrats accept the result of a Trump election? Under what circumstances, precisely, would Republicans accept the result of a Biden election?

The weaponization of the legal system creates an all-consuming fire, burning everything in its path. There is simply no 2024 result likely to result in anything but complete – and perhaps violent – chaos at this point.

Peace is a good goal to work towards in America. However, it is difficult to live in peace when half the nation refuses to follow the laws. The United States was founded on the rule of law, and it became the most powerful nation by following the law. Now, the nation is undergoing a “fundamental change” due to unlawfulness.

Secret combinations are ruling our nation, and they operate on the principle that a “crisis should never be wasted.” If Americans do not wake up to the fact that they are losing their nation and insist on a government that follows the rule of law, America will be an unrecognizable nation. May God bless America because no mere mortal has the power to save America without the help of God!

Why Do We Celebrate the Birth of Jesus Christ?

I studied about the Christmas story in my Come Follow Me study for this week in a lesson titled “Good Tidings of Great Joy.” The lesson was preceded by this bit of counsel: “Consider how pondering the Savior’s birth and mission can help bring a spirit of peace and sacredness to the Christmas season.” Then the lesson was introduced with the following information. 

Why does the birth of a baby bring such great joy? Perhaps because a new baby can be a symbol of hope. There’s something about a brand-new life full of possibilities that invites us to ponder what life might hold for that child and what wonderful things he or she will accomplish. Never has this been truer than at the birth of the Son of God, Jesus Christ. Never has there been more hope placed in a child, and never has there been one born with so much promise.

When an angel invited shepherds to seek a newborn child in a manger, he also gave them a message about that child. It was a message of hope—that this baby had come to earth to fulfill a sacred mission. The shepherds made their message “known abroad … and all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds. But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart” (Luke 2:17-19). Perhaps it would be good to follow Mary’s example this Christmas: to ponder in your heart the things you have learned about the Savior this year. How did He fulfill His mission of redemption in the accounts you have read? And more important, how has His mission changed your life? Then you might feel inspired to follow the example of the shepherds: how will you make it “known abroad” what Jesus Christ has done for you?

There are two principles contained in this lesson. The first principle is “Jesus Christ condescended to be born among us on earth” (Matthew 1:18-25; 2:1-12; Luke 1:26-38; 2:1-20).

You may have heard studied the story of the birth of Jesus Christ many times, but the lesson encourages us to study it this time pondering this thought: “Christmas is not only a celebration of how Jesus came into the world but also of knowing who He is – our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ – and of why He came” (Craig C. Christensen, “The Fulness of the Story of Christmas” [First Presidency Christmas Devotional, Dec. 4, 2016], broadcasts.ChurchofJesusChrist.org). The lesson suggested several questions to answer while studying His birth. 

·         What do you know about who Jesus Christ was before He was born? (Suggested references are John 17:5; Mosiah 3:5; Doctrine and Covenants 76:13-14, 20-24; Moses 4:2). These scriptures tell us that Jesus Christ lived with Heavenly Father and had power and glory before He came to earth as a newborn babe, that He is a living Personage who stands on the right hand of His Father, and that He wanted to do His Father’s will and give all glory to His Father.

§  How does this knowledge affect the way you feel when you read about His birth?

·         What do you know about why Jesus Christ came to earth? (Suggested references are Luke 4:16-21; John 3:16-17; 3 Nephi 27:13-16; Doctrine and Covenants 20:20-28.) These scriptures tell us that He came to “preach the gospel to the poor,” “heal the brokenhearted,” “preach deliverance to the captives,” recover “sight to the blind,” to give liberty to those who are bruised; to save all those who believe in Him by giving His life for those who repent, are baptized in His name, and endure to the end; to be crucified, die, be resurrected, and to ascend into heaven to be with Heavenly Father again.

§  How does this knowledge affect the way you feel about the Savior?

§  How does it affect the way you live?

You can find a wonderful video titled “The Christ Child: A Nativity Story” at this site. 

The second principle in the lesson is “Jesus Christ fulfilled His mission and made it possible for me to inherit eternal life (1 Corinthians 15:21-26; Colossians 1:12-22; 1 Peter 2:21-25). The story of the birth of Jesus Christ includes numerous miraculous events. However, His birth would have been just another birth if it had not been for what He accomplished as an adult. President Gordon B. Hinckley taught, “There would be no Christmas if there had not been Easter. The babe Jesus of Bethlehem would be but another baby without the redeeming Christ of Gethsemane and Calvary, and the triumphant fact of the Resurrection” (“The Wondrous and True Story of Christmas,” Ensign, Dec. 2000, 5).