Do We Have Fact Checkers or Spin Spoilers?

PolitiFact “fact checkers” may actually be “spin spoilers,” according to Tim Graham, director of media analysis at the Media Research Center and executive editor of the blog NewsBusters.org. He said that the so-called fact checkers “barely touch the talking heads on cable television anymore” although they once had “a serious tilt against the Fox News hosts in prime time.” However, the “fact checkers” had their knives out for conservative CNN analyst Scott Jennings for his “tough words about Medicaid beneficiaries.” 

“There are like almost 5 million able-bodied people on Medicaid who simply choose not to work,” Jennings said July 1 on “CNN NewsNight with Abby Phillip.” “They spend six hours a day socializing and watching television. And if you can’t get off grandma’s couch and work, I don’t want to pay for your welfare.”

Abby Phillip leapt on that immediately, questioning where Jennings found these numbers. Before we get into the “facts” at hand, let’s investigate PolitiFact’s target selection. There is no page on PolitiFact for Abby Phillip. There is one other “fact check” on Phillip’s show, a “True” rating for liberal New York Times columnist Charles Blow.

There is no page on PolitiFact for former MSNBC weekend host Tiffany Cross, who smeared U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Phillip’s show on July 8: “We are normalizing a government agency disappearing people. We’re talking about it like it’s no big deal that they are kidnapping people and transporting them to concentration camps, both domestic and foreign.” She said “concentration camps” four times.

New York Post writer Kelly Jane Torrance tried to interrupt her and tell her these terms were inaccurate and insensitive to Jews, but Cross just kept rolling – and Phillip said nothing, unlike when Jennings makes a conservative point.

As usual, the PolitiFact scribe on the Jennings case, Loreben Tuquero, rounded up a congal line of liberal experts – two from the Harvard T.H. Chan School for Public Health, as well as the Brookings Institution, the Kaiser Family Foundation, and the Urban Institute. None of them are assigned a label. But Jennings cited the “conservative” American Enterprise Institute.

This is one of many ways PolitiFact reads exactly like every other liberal media outlet that pretends that liberals are the most nonpartisan, independent experts you can find.

Tuquero pointed out that the Harvard folks nitpicked Scott’s “almost 5 million” number, claiming the Congressional Budget Office didn’t say all these people “chose not to work,” but that they would lose Medicaid coverage due to work requirements. This is a distinction without much of a difference, but liberal “fact-checkers” pounce anyway.

What Jennings said that really offended the ears at PolitiFact was that Medicaid recipients are sitting around watching TV for six hours a day. Did he mean that as a statement of fact, or was he making a rhetorical point? Because people make a lot of rhetorical points on CNN that don’t get “fact-checked.”

The experts t PolitiFact tried to aggressively dismiss the idea that there were many “able-bodied” Medicaid recipients. Tuquero concluded that “the majority are women” who have “a high school education or less” with the “average age” of 41. This state raised a question about the expectation of “women over 40 [being] expected to meet work requirements.”

Graham concluded that liberal outlets have “spin spoilers” more than “fact checkers” who are “offended by the tone of conservative commentary” that must be discredited “even if the points are rhetorical.” The obvious conclusion is: “Conservatives probably shouldn’t impose work requirements or suggest people who don’t meet them are lazy.”

Should John Brennan Be Investigated for Lying to Congress?

The Attorney General Pam Bondi and the Trump Department of Justice announced that they are investigating John Brennan (former-CIA head under Barack Obama) and James Comey (former-FBI Director) – an investigation into how they run the CIA and FBI, respectfully.

Victor Davis Hanson posted an article in The Daily Signal about the rise of John Brennan and how Brennan lied flagrantly. Brennan lied before Congress during the Obama administration when he said that no civilians were “killed by Obama’s targeted assassination program via Predators on the Afghan or Pakistan border” when “there were 50 or 75 innocent people … killed.” Brennan was caught in that lie. 

Three years later, he went before the Congress and there was information that he had been tapping, his CIA, the staffers for the Senate to get into their computers. He not only lied about it, he did so emphatically – “Oh, we would never do that. That’s horrible.” Then he was forced to say. “Yes, I lied.” In both cases, there were no perjury charges, nothing.

The pièce de résistance for John Brennan was in October 2020, on the eve of the second and critical presidential debate, Joe Biden was in trouble. People were furious about this laptop. There was pornography on it. There was drug use. There were references to Joe Biden as “Mr. Big Guy.” Ten percent that he’d been giving money. He was crooked. People wanted to hear, he had no excuse.

So, what happened? Antony Blinken, his future secretary of state, campaign aid, called Michael Morell, interim CIA director at one point, said, “Round them up.”

So, 51 “intelligence authorities” swore the laptop had all the hallmarks of Russian information. Notice the words: All the hallmarks, escape clause, of Russian information. Not disinformation, but that’s what they meant.

So, what happened in the debate? Donald Trump went right after Biden and said, “That laptop is real. It shows that you’re a crook. It shows your son is a miscreant.”

And Joe Biden’s, “How dare you? Fifty-one Intelligence authorities swear that it’s a product of Russian espionage. Only you and Rudy Giuliani believe that.” And it was effective.

Later a poll showed, the TechnoMetrica poll showed that if people had known that it had been authenticated – and by the way, that laptop was sitting in the hands of the FBI and adjudicated to be authentic and not released to the public at a time when Christopher Wray’s FBI was partnering with Twitter and Facebook to suppress any news story that was accurately reporting that the laptop was authentic.

John Brennan finally accused Donald Trump of being a Russian traitor. He said that after Donald Trump spoke in Helsinki about Russian-American relationships, he said that he is treasonous….

So, what was John Brennan doing? Here’s what he was doing – and two or three of the most significant scandals of the 50 years, he was at the center.

You could make the argument that the Russian collusion hoax almost swung the election to Hillary Clinton….

You could argue that the Mueller investigation, based on that stupid dossier, cost Donald Trump 22 months of his first two years in office. Forty million dollars to find nothing.

You could make the argument that if the FBI had just released its investigation of the laptop, told the people it was authentic, John Brennan would not, and his cohorts, been able to lie to the American people that it was cooked up in Russia and that Donald Trump was complicit in that.

That disclosure, that failure to disclose the true nature of that laptop, thanks to John Brennan and 51 intelligence authorities, and the debate by Joe Biden, and the false charges, may have affected the election. As I said, one polling company found that it did.

And finally, we wouldn’t be in this big trouble about the Ukraine war and Russia had John Brennan and people like him not floated the spurious narrative that Donald Trump was working hand in glove with Vladimir Putin. Vladimir Putin. Russia, Russia, Russia. That colored and poisoned the whole relationship we had with Russia. It affected the Russian-Ukrainian war. And it was all a lie.

And so, here we are with John Brennan made that he lost his security clearance for being a well-paid MSNBC analyst. He should be better worried, not that he lost his security clearance, that he might be indicted and go to jail. He’s got a lot of culpability, both in not telling the truth and spinning lies and being at the heart of a number of scandals that affected the history of the United States.

 

Who Are Pete Ricketts and John Fetterman?

My VIPs for this week are Republican Sen. Pete Ricketts and Democrat Sen. John Fetterman who recognized the dangers of Communist China owning American farmland. They recently introduced legislation to stop China from owning our farmland. Quinn Delamater discussed this issue in an article published at The Daily Signal. 

“It’s not just about the number of acres that they [the Chinese] own, but the fact that they own it around Grand Forks Air Force Base in North Dakota or Fort Liberty in North Carolina. They’re buying it around sensitive military installations,” Ricketts, who represents Nebraska, said to Fox News Digital. He said that American farmland should not be a “tool that our adversaries, like Communist China, can use to attack us from inside our own country.”

“I hope many would agree the Chinese government and other U.S. adversaries should own ZERO agricultural land in our great country. This is really a national security issue and also a food security issue. Proud to partner with @Senator Ricketts on this,” Pennsylvania’s Fetterman posted on the social media platform X.

The Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Improvements Act would codify the findings of the Government Accountability Office that say that enhancing efforts to collect, track, and share information about foreign investments in U.S. agricultural land “could better identify national security risks,” according to a report by the office.

Ricketts told Fox News Digital: “We are at the most dangerous point in our history right now since World War II. We have to be investing in our military. We have to be supporting our friends around the world that are pushing back on these dictators. Communist China is one of them.”

According to a report by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, China holds 277,336 acres of U.S. land as of Dec. 31, 2023. This is almost 1% of all acres held by foreign entities. Other countries that have larger landholdings include Canada, the Netherlands, Italy, the United Kingdom, and Germany.

The Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Improvements Act seeks to increase the flow of information between the U.S. Treasury’s Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States and the USDA and would require the disclosure of all foreign persons or entities holding more than a 1% interest in American agricultural land. It will also set up a deadline for the USDA to set up an online system for tracking those foreign agricultural investments, according to a statement released by Ricketts’ office.

I remember when I first learned numerous years ago that China had purchased Smithfield Foods. I was shocked that federal officials would allow such a thing. I wondered why the United States allowed any foreign nation to own American land, especially not China and other sworn enemies of the American way of life. I am pleased to know that some Senators have recognized the dangers in allowing foreign nations to own our farmland.

What Is Difference in Rights for Citizens and Green Card Holders?

The topic of discussion for this Constitution Monday concerns the main differences between American citizens, green card holders, and illegal immigrants. A short answer is: (1) American citizens have full rights, including the right to vote and a U.S. passport; (2) Green Card holders or lawful permanent residents (LPR) have indefinite rights to reside and work in the United States but face travel limits and risk loss after certain crimes; (3) Illegal immigrants have no legal status and face deportation risk.

This site gives the following rights and duties for Green Card holders and the rights and responsibilities of U.S. citizenship. 

Green Card rights and duties

·         Permanent residents have the right to work and live in the U.S. indefinitely, as well as the right to petition for close family members for a Green Card.

·         However, because Green Card’s relatives are considered preference relatives, this process takes considerably longer than for a U.S. citizen.

·         Permanent residents continue to be the citizens of another country, which means they do not have the right to a U.S. passport.

·         Lawful permanent residents do not have the right to vote in U.S. elections and may lose their status if U.S. government considers they have abandoned their status, by spending more than 6 months outside the United States, for example.

·         If a lawful permanent resident plans on leaving the U.S. for a period exceeding 1 year, they must first obtain a permit if they do not wish to abandon their status.

·         After a certain amount of time, permanent residents can apply for U.S. citizenship, also known as the naturalization process.

U.S. Citizenship rights and responsibilities. U.S. Citizenship is a status that entails specific rights, duties, and benefits, usually acquired by birth:

·         A U.S. Citizen has the right to live and work in the United States and to receive federal assistance.

·         Individuals can become U.S. citizens by birth, through U.S. citizen parents, or through the process known as naturalization.

·         A U.S. citizen is eligible to receive a U.S. passport, which is issued by the U.S. State department.

·         Many countries allow visa-free travel for U.S. citizens.

·         A U.S. citizen may also leave and reenter the U.S. at any time without being subject to the grounds of inadmissibility or require a re-entry permit.

·         U.S. citizens can also vote in U.S. federal and local elections, hold certain government jobs, and serve on juries.

·         Many federal and state government grants, scholarships and benefits are available only to U.S. citizens.

·         U.S. citizens may also petition on behalf of relatives to immigrate to the United States.

                  ·         Unlike Green Card holders, U.S. citizens cannot be deported from the United States –                             unless, that is, they committed fraud to obtain their green card or citizenship.

What Can We Learn from the Visions Recorded in Doctrine and Covenants 76?

My Come Follow Me studies for this week took me to Doctrine and Covenants 76 in a lesson titled “Great Shall Be Their Reward and Eternal Shall Be Their Glory.” The lesson was introduced by the following paragraphs. 

“What will happen to me after I die?” Nearly everyone asks this question in some form or another. For centuries, many Christian traditions, relying on biblical teachings, have taught of heaven and hell, of paradise for the righteous and torment for the wicked. But can the entire human family really be divided so strictly? In February 1832, Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon wondered if there was more to know about the subject (see Doctrine and Covenants 76, section heading).

There certainly was. While Joseph and Sidney were pondering these things, the Lord “touched the eyes of [their] understandings and they were opened” (verse 19). They received a revelation so stunning, so expansive, so illuminating that the Saints simply called it “the Vision.” It threw open heaven’s windows and gave God’s children a mind-stretching view of eternity. The vision revealed that heaven is grander and broader and more inclusive than most people had previously supposed. God is more merciful and just than we can comprehend. And God’s children have an eternal destiny more glorious than we can imagine.

The scripture block includes the following principles: (1) Salvation comes through Jesus Christ, the Son of God (Doctrine and Covenants 76), (2) I can understand God’s will “by the power of the Holy Spirit” (Doctrine and Covenants 76:5-10, 114-18), (3) Exaltation is the highest form of salvation (Doctrine and Covenants 76:39-44, 50-70), and (4) My Heavenly Father wants me to receive eternal life in the celestial kingdom (Doctrine and Covenants 76:50-70, 92-95). This essay will include all four principles.

The first principle is “Salvation comes through Jesus Christ, the Son of God” and is found throughout Doctrine and Covenants 76. This section reveals numerous important truths about our eternal destiny, including the three kingdoms of glory and the plan of salvation. However, it is more accurate to say that this section is about Jesus Christ, who makes possible God’s plan for our salvation and eternal glory.

This section describes the type of people who will inherit the different kingdoms of glory. To state it simply, each of the sons or daughters of Heavenly Father will receive immortality and inherit the kingdom of glory – celestial (verses 50-70, 92-96), terrestrial (verses 71-79, 97), or telestial (81-90, 98-106, 109-12) – that they choose by their choices and actions in mortality. Those people who receive the testimony of Jesus Christ and make and keep the necessary covenants will receive the highest degree of the celestial kingdom and enjoy eternal life (the ability to be married and have spirit children).

The second principle  is “I can understand God’s will ‘by the power of the Holy Spirit’” (Doctrine and Covenants 76:5-10, 114-18). Not all members of the Church easily accepted the revelation in section 76, because it taught that almost everyone would be saved and receive some degree of glory. Brigham Young said: “My traditions were such, that when the Vision came first to me, it was directly contrary and opposed to my former education. I said, Wait a little. I did not reject it; but I could not understand it.” He explained that he had to “think and pray, to read and think, until I knew and fully understood it for myself” (in “The Vision,” in Revelations in Context, 150).

The third principle is “Exaltation is the highest form of salvation” (Doctrine and Covenants 76:39-44, 50-70). Doctrine and Covenants 76:39-44 describe salvation generally. Verses 50-70 describe exaltation, a specific kind of salvation. There is a significant difference between salvation and exaltation. Salvation comes to every single person who received a mortal body through the power of the resurrection. Exaltation is the highest degree of salvation and involves living the kind of life that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ live. Jesus Christ makes both salvation and exaltation possible.

The last principle is “My Heavenly Father wants me to receive eternal life in the celestial kingdom” (Doctrine and Covenants 76:50-70, 92-95). Heavenly Father wants all of His children to join Him in the celestial kingdom, but He will not force anyone to go there. He wants us to choose to be with Him because we love Him. Many people wonder if they are good enough to be in the celestial kingdom. Elder J. Devn Cornish of the Seventy spoke on the topic “Am I Good Enough? Will I Make It?” (Ensign or Liahona, Nov. 2016, 32-34) at the October 2016 General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

As with my own experience, our members often ask, “Am I good enough as a person?” or “Will I really make it to the celestial kingdom?” Of course, there is no such thing as “being good enough.” None of us could ever “earn” or “deserve” our salvation, but it is normal to wonder if we are acceptable before the Lord, which is how I understand these questions.

Sometimes when we attend church, we become discouraged even by sincere invitations to improve ourselves. We think silently, “I can’t do all these things” or “I will never be as good as all these people.” …

Please, my beloved brothers and sisters, we must stop comparing ourselves to others. We torture ourselves needlessly by competing and comparing. We falsely judge our self-worth by the things we do or don’t have and by the opinions of others. If we must compare, let us compare how we were in the past to how we are today – and even to how we want to be in the future. The only opinion of us that matters is what our Heavenly Father thinks of us. Please sincerely ask Him what He thinks of you. He will love and correct but never discourage us; that is Satan’s trick.

Let me be direct and clear. The answers to the questions “Am I good enough?” and “Will I make it?” are “Yest! You are going to be good enough” and “Yes, you are going to make it as long as you keep repenting and do not rationalize or rebel.” The God of heaven is not a heartless referee looking for any excuse to throw us out of the game. He is our perfectly loving Father, who yearns more than anything else to have all of His children come back home and live with Him as families forever. He truly gave His Only Begotten Son that we might not perish but have everlasting life! Please believe, and please take hope and comfort from, this eternal truth. Our Heavenly Father intends for us to make it! That is His work and His glory.

I love the way President Gordon B. Hinckley used to teach this principle. I heard him say on several occasions, “Brothers and sisters, all the Lord expects of us is to try, but you have to really try!”

“Really trying” means doing the best we can, recognizing where we need to improve, and then trying again. By repeatedly doing this, we come closer and closer to the Lord, we feel His Spirit more and more, and we receive more of His grace, or help.

  

Does Living and Practicing Faith Strengthen Marriage?

Marriages are stronger when spouses live their religion and attend church meetings regularly, and strong marriages create a firm foundation for strong families, which in turn strengthen communities, states, and nations. In his article published at The Daily Signal, Timothy Goeglein reported on a survey recently completed by Focus on the Family with more than 3,800 participants. The survey questioned “how faith impacts personal decisions about marriage and recorded married respondents’ self-assessments of their unions.” 

The good news is that 74% of all married couples described their marriages as “healthy.” But even more encouraging is that convictional Christians – those who actively live out and practice their faith – scored higher on all 32 aspects of marriage that speak to matrimonial health – whether it be taking responsibility for mistakes, having compassion toward each other, trust, or financial management.

The difference between convictional Christian marriages and non-Christian marriages comes into focus, so to speak, when one digs deeper into the research findings. The study found that 25% of non-Christians surveyed said their marriages were in crisis, while only 13% of convictional Christians said so. And among those who profess faith, but not as strongly as convictional Christians, 22% of nominal Christians and 17% of born-again Christians said their marriages were in crisis.

Thus, when it comes to marriage, faith really does matter.

But don’t just take Focus on the Family’s word on it. Other researchers have found the same thing. A Harvard School of Public Health study found that couples who regularly attend church services are about 30%-50% less likely to divorce.

This statistic also holds true across racial groups. Research done by Kenneth Pargament and Annette Mahoney of Bowling Green University’s Spirituality and Psychology Research Team found that marriages are stronger and happier when husbands and wives understand there is a deeper spiritual significance to marriage beyond feelings or economic security.

Unfortunately, over the past several decades, the understanding of marriage as a sacred bond between a man and a woman has been lost as faith has diminished and our society becomes more about personal happiness and “self-fulfillment.” [Is it] any wonder why divorce has become so prevalent in our culture, as faith – the glue that keeps couples together – loses influence in our society?

Or as the late esteemed social scientist James Q. Wilson put it, “Marriage was once a sacrament, then it became a contract, and now it is an arrangement. Once religion provided the sacrament, then the law enforced the contract, and now personal preferences define the arrangement.

And sadly, because of these factors, many young people, as the Focus on the Family study finds, are less interested in getting married, with only 56% of single, non-married respondents saying they want to be married someday.

Thus, the renewal of faith in our culture is essential to solving the breakdown of marriage and the family – the two bedrock institutions that affect both present and future generations either positively or negatively. It is this same renewal of faith that will make marriage an institution to be desired, rather than one that has come with the negative emotional baggage of separation and divorce for so many young people.

And those of us in healthy marriages need to come alongside those who are struggling to offer support and encouragement. We also need to model what a biblical marriage looks like, through our words and actions, so people will be drawn to what we have, rather than be repelled by what they see when marriages take a wrong turn and head down the wrong road to dissolution….

To restore the commitment of marriage and the family and begin to reverse the tragic trends of the past 60-plus years, our efforts must start with the renewal of faith and the restoration of the family. By doing so, we will reap benefits beyond just stable families…

As Goeglein stated, stable families bring about stability in other areas by successfully addressing other issues, such as “unwed pregnancy, drug addiction, income inequality, and government dependence – that plague our society.” A healthy society benefits everyone, both married and single. Thus, strong marriages and families strengthen communities, states, and nations.

Should America Revive Civics Education for 250th Anniversary?

The liberty principle for this Freedom Friday concerns the need to revive civics education. The 250^th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence will be next year, and the United States is planning a year of celebration. Madison Marino Doan and Jonathan Butcher discuss the revival of civics education in their article published at The Daily Signal. 

… this anniversary should be more than a celebration. It should be a reflection point for civics education in America’s K-12 schools.

Across the country, states are launching commemorative events. In North Carolina, the Museum of History and its affiliates will sponsor civics-focused teacher workshop sessions and feature exhibitions showcasing the unique experiences of North Carolinians. In Utah, the state’s 250^th commission is collaborating with a university’s Center for Constitutional Studies to train 500 K-12 teachers and prepare a public display of Revolutionary War artifacts in the Utah State Capitol. Even the U.S. Navy is participating, celebrating not just the country’s 250^th but its own by hosting port calls and other community outreach engagements in cities nationwide.

These programs connect Americans to our history and institutions. But … we need to reinvest in civics education at the K-12 level.

Current data tell a troubling story.

In 2024, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation surveyed 2,000 registered voters to test basic civic knowledge on topics form the three branches of government to the number of Supreme Court justices. Over 70% failed. Remarkably, most of these respondents said they’d studied civics in high school.

Today’s students aren’t faring much better. The National Assessment of Educational Progress civics exam, which evaluates the civic knowledge of a representative sample of students in fourth, eighth, and twelfth grades, found that nearly one-third of eighth graders are performing below NAEP “basic” level in civics – meaning many cannot explain the structure and functions of government.

Confidence is declining too: A 2022 survey accompanying the NAEP exam showed that more students reported low confidence in their civics knowledge than in 2018.

The U.S. Department of Education also found in 2022 that only 49% of eighth-graders reported taking a class primarily focused on civics or the U.S. government.

This means we’re not just facing a civic knowledge gap. We’re facing a generation of students unsure of how their government works or how they fit into it.

Research shows that 40 states and the District of Columbia have civics-related requirements for students in grades K-12. But some states lack such requirements, and others do not require students to earn passing scores on civics exams before graduating.

Recently, though, Florida and Louisiana have made significant efforts to revamp their civics standards for both students and teachers.

In Florida, lawmakers and educators have made civics a statewide priority….

Florida incorporates civics learning into every grade from K-12. In middle school, students must complete a one-semester course and pass an end-of course exam. At the high school level, students must complete a yearlong U.S. history course and a half-semester course in U.S. Government to graduate, and must take the Florida Civic Literacy Examination after completing their government course.

Louisiana has also taken meaningful steps on civic education. In 2022, the state adopted new social studies standards, known as the “Freedom Framework,” designed to integrate civic learning from kindergarten through high school. All high school students are required to take the Louisiana Education Assessment Program civics exam, and educators have been offered new resources to help with suggested pacing, framing, and access to high-quality sources.

These states are leading the way, and others should follow – rebooting civics just in time for our nation’s 250^th birthday.

 

Are You Proud to Be an American?

According to Gallup, Americans are nearly divided equally when it comes to believing in America: 42% do not believe in America, while “58% are either ‘extremely’ or ‘somewhat’ proud to be American.” Ben Shapiro concluded that the number of people who are proud to be American has steeply declined since 2004 when it was 91% and even in 2016 when it was 81%. He continued his analysis as follows. 

The trend isn’t equivalent across the political spectrum. Republicans have always been far prouder of their country: their pride number has never dropped below 84% in 2022, and currently stands at 92%. The serious decline is located among independents, who have dropped from 76% in 2013 to 53% today, and Democrats, who plummeted from 80% to 36% during that same period. Furthermore, Americans’ age correlates highly with levels of American pride: 83% of the Silent Generation venerates the country, as do 75% of Baby Boomers and 71% of Generation Xers – but just 58% of Millennials and 41% of Generation Z do.

So, what precisely happened?

The answer is simple: Republicans started winning, and Democrats spiraled off. President Donald Trump’s victory in 2016 sent Democrats spiraling into an anti-American black hole, with their pride in America dropping off a cliff during the first Trump term, recovering only moderately during Joe Biden’s term (62% in 2021), and then plummeting again this year. Democrats embraced a new and extreme anti-American point of view, reflected most obviously in the elevation of figures like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.; Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn.; Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich.; and now New York Democrat mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani.

These figures, emblems of a new wave in the Democratic Party, are disaffected with America in general. If the promise of Barack Obama is that the vessel of the Democratic Party could be used to bottle the fire and fervor of the revolutionary Left, these radicals believe that all bottles must be shattered – that the institutions of the United States must be exploded entirely. They see the reelection of Donald Trump as indicative of a deep rot at the heart of the American experiment, and wish to eviscerate the fundamental ideas of that experiment. They champion the supposed virtue of the Third World and the supposed evil of the United States; the supposed beauties of socialism and evils of capitalism; the supposed virtue of transgressive social values and the supposed evils of traditionalism. They believe that America’s unique Constitution is a framework for oppression; they believe that rights are mere guises for despotic power, and that duties are cynically placed fetters upon their true selves….

They have taken over the Democratic Party – and they are making extraordinary inroads among younger Americans. Ironically, that’s due to the failure of the very institutions the political Left hijacked and misused for decades….

Meanwhile, political independents grow increasingly discouraged by our politics. They see Republicans shifting the deck chairs atop the Titanic of state as Democrats eagerly drill more holes in the hull – and they are increasingly depressed. They are not wrong to be. But they are wrong to believe that they can or should chart a middle course between those who love America and her founding principles and those who despise them. We should all be proud of America, the greatest country in the history of the world, with all of its faults and flaws. And we should work to correct those faults and flaws rather than seeking its overthrow, or despairing and throwing up our hands.

Are You Willing to Live for Your Country?

Many people are willing to die for their country, but how many are willing to live for their country? This is a question asked by Jimmy Graham in an article published at The Blaze.

Independence Day is a national day to honor the men who pledged “to each other [their] Lives, [their] Fortunes and [their] sacred Honor.” The signers, all fifty-six of them, offered their lives and their fortunes to preserve and protect the rights given to all people by God.

Just as the signers of the Declaration of Independence offered their lives for our freedom and liberty, we should be willing to offer our lives for the freedom and liberty of Americans who will follow in our footsteps.

Graham wrote that it is often easier to offer to die for our country than it is to live for it. When asked, many Americans have said that they are willing to die for the red, white, and blue. However, most of them would think more deeply if they were asked to live for their country. Graham asked a young man training to become a Navy SEAL if he were willing to die for his country, and he nodded solemnly. Then Graham asked him if he was willing to live for his country.

That shift in wording – so simple – completely changed his posture. The romanticism of martyrdom dimmed in the light of daily responsibility. Living for something demands consistency, humility, and effort. It’s the long haul.

I then asked him to add “your family” and “my family” to the sentence. “Would you live for your country, your family, and my family?” That’s when the gravity hit him. Because if you won’t live for them – serve, protect, uphold – then you don’t deserve the honor of dying for them….

We are living in a destabilized America. The erosion didn’t begin with foreign powers. It began when we stopped holding ourselves and each other accountable. We began to celebrate selfishness over service, confusion over clarity, and chaos over order. When morality and justice become flexible, small government becomes impossible. That vacuum invites control. And when people abandon responsibility, tyranny grows in its place.

I’ve worked in environments where destabilizing a country was the goal, where operations were designed to light the fuse and let the people do the rest. Sadly, I see a similar fuse burning in our own nation.

When law is no longer tied to truth and truth becomes subjective, the foundation cracks. Evil ideas dressed as compassion are pushed forward under the guise of progress. But make no mistake: Confusion is not compassion. Chaos is not freedom. And evil, when legalized, is still evil.

So what do we do? We take ownership. We return to righteousness….

When I look around, I see a nation waiting for leadership – not from Washington, but from our homes, churches, and communities. Men, it’s time to get back in the fight. Not with fists, but with faith. Not with rage, but with righteousness….

This Fourth of July [and over the next year as we prepare to celebrate 250 years of independence and freedom], don’t just wave the flag – embody what it stands for. Choose to live for your country. Live with integrity. Live with purpose. Live in a way that honors your family and the generations that came before us.

Why Did Our Founders Sign Their Own Death Warrant?

My VIPs for this week are the signers of the Declaration of Independence. Americans celebrated Independence Day last Friday and all weekend, a celebration that will continue for the next year until July 4, 2026 – the 250^th anniversary of our national independence.

It is easy to think of Independence Day as just a national holiday that is celebrated with barbeques, parades, and fireworks. However, we must remember and teach the rising generation that we celebrate on July 4^th because we are celebrating our “hard-won independence from Great Britain and the establishment of our great nation founded on freedom” (Mark Levin). 

One way for us to remember the importance of this day and to teach the rising generation about its importance is to revisit “the timeless principles outlined in the document that defined America’s identity and declared her sovereignty.” Mark Levin shares with Blaze Media key phrases from the Declaration of Independence and explains them to help us to remember what it means to be American citizens.

“When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands, which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel to the separation,” he reads.

“Why do they keep talking about the Laws of Nature and Nature’s God? Because these were men of faith,” he says, noting that even Jefferson and Franklin, who were “deists,” still “embraced Judeo-Christian values” as well as the philosophies of John Locke, who declared that “your right to life, your right to be free doesn’t come from any government” or “from any man” but “from God Almighty.”

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.”

“In other words, your natural rights, your unalienable rights belong to you, no matter what – even if you life in a tyranny because they’re God-given,” Levin explains.

“That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among men, that whenever any form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness,” he continues reading.

Many today have forgotten that this “is the purpose of government – to secure your unalienable rights, to provide order and law so you can exercise your free will and so your voluntary participation in the civil society increases the benefit of the whole community,” Levin says. And while “we don’t rebel at the drop of a hat” – as “prudence indeed will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes” – we will never “acquiesce to tyranny.”

Levin reminds that, originally, there was a clause in the Declaration of Independence condemning slavery, but it was removed to maintain unity among the colonies, particularly to avoid alienating Southern states where slavery was entrenched, as the revolution required a united front against Britain.

When the founders signed the Declaration of Independence, they knew the risk. “All signed their death warrant because the British wanted to collect every one of them up and execute them,” says Levin, but they signed anyway, “[putting] their lives on the line” to make the America we love today a possibility.

“This is what Independence Day, July 4, is all about.” [Emphasis added.]

This is what the year-long celebration will be all about – a celebration of the men and women who brought about the founding of the United States of America and all those who have defended independence and freedom throughout the 250-year history of America.

How Can We Teach about the Founding of America to the Rising Generation?

The discussion for this Constitution Monday concerns the beginning of a year-long commemoration of the founding of America. On July 4, 2026, America will celebrate the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Kevin Roberts, Ph.D., is president of The Heritage Foundation and Heritage Action for America as well as the author of several books, and he wrote the following to start his article. 

Nearly 250 years ago, an extraordinary generation of Americans swore their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor to the cause of freedom. Determined to hand down the long-standing tradition of American self-government, our Founders took up arms, triumphed in a hard-fought war against the world’s strongest military power, and left us—their descendants—the greatest system of government the world has ever known. This is our inheritance. America is our birthright.

We can no more pay for such a princely gift than we can pay for the sunrise or the stars, but, as G.K. Chesterton reminds us, the way to pay for the priceless is to live lives worthy of the gift. That is what Americans today are called to do—to claim our birthright and keep alive what George Washington called “the sacred fire of liberty.”

Despite two and a half centuries of change, the United States is still at its best when its laws and policies—from immigration and national security to education and technology—reflect our founding principles.

This is impossible, however, if America’s future leaders are not familiar with the aspirations that inspired those who fought in the American Revolution and the powerful ideas behind the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.

Unfortunately, much of this history has been forgotten. Many Americans today have grown up watching their sports heroes kneel during the national anthem and seeing their teachers refuse to say the pledge of allegiance. They have been told that they should be ashamed of our country, founded as it is on racism and sexism.

Roberts suggests in his article teaching correct principles about the founding of America will help to restore those principles in our nation today. However, we must first instill “curiosity about the Founding in their minds and a sense of informed patriotism in their hearts” before we can teach the rising “generation about the importance of the First Amendment, federalism, or the separation of powers.”

Roberts believes that the “best way to accomplish this [great task] is by recounting the remarkable stories of our Founders’ lives.” He reasons that by “encountering the lives and statesmanship of our greatest leaders, their vision for America, the challenges of the colonial world they lived in, and the sacrifices they endured to change that world,” we can be compelled “to reject the Left’s ahistorical accounts of their lives and legacies.”

To accomplish this important quest, we must believe that the best days for our nation lie ahead. We can recover the founding principles and instill them in the hearts of the rising generation. We must teach about “the courage that crossed the Delaware, the fortitude that outlasted that cold winter at Valley Forge, and the prudence that produced our Founding documents.” To teach properly, we must feel piety or “a deep sense of gratitude for what we have inherited.”

The Romans considered piety great among the virtues and it remains at the heart of any patriotic life. Unlike nostalgia and cynicism, which prompt passivity and stagnation, piety prompts action.

So, whether you are working in the classroom to remind a new generation about the moral truths and enduring principles that make America great, working in Congress to channel those truths and principles into good policy, or working in the courts to defend our Constitution’s original meaning, please take a moment today – as we celebrate 249 years of American independence – to learn more about the incredible lives of the men and women that founded our country, the patriotic piety their example rightly prompts in our hearts, and the civic action it spurs in our lives.

Let us never forget that, as Founding Father Benjamin Rush wrote, “Patriotism is as much a virtue as justice … Amor Patriae is both a moral and a religious duty. It comprehends not only the love of our neighbors but of millions of our fellow creatures, not only of the present but of future generations.”

How Can I Share the Gospel of Jesus Christ?

My Come Follow Me studies for this week took me to Doctrine and Covenants 71-75 in a lesson titled “No Weapon That Is Formed against You Shall Prosper.” The lesson was introduced by the following information. June 30–July 6: “No Weapon That Is Formed against You Shall Prosper”: Doctrine and Covenants 71–75

Ever since he was a boy, Joseph Smith faced critics—even enemies—as he tried to do God’s work. But it must have been particularly difficult in late 1831 when Ezra Booth began publicly berating the Church, because in this case the critic was a former believer. Ezra had seen Joseph use God’s power to heal a woman. He had been invited to accompany Joseph on the first survey of the land of Zion in Missouri. But he had since lost his faith and, in an attempt to discredit the Prophet, published a series of letters in an Ohio newspaper. And his efforts seemed to be working, because “unfriendly feelings … had developed against the Church” in the area (Doctrine and Covenants 71, section heading). What should believers do in a case like that? While there is not one right answer for every situation, it seems that often—including in this case in 1831—part of the Lord’s answer is to declare the truth and correct falsehoods by “proclaiming [the] gospel” (verse 1). Yes, the Lord’s work will always have critics, but in the end, “no weapon that is formed against [it] shall prosper” (verse 9).

The scripture block contains the following four principles: (1) The Spirit will guide me as I proclaim the Savior’s gospel (Doctrine and Covenants 71), (2) The Lord blesses me through the ministry of leaders like bishops (Doctrine and Covenants 72), (3) I have many opportunities to share the Savior’s gospel (Doctrine and Covenants 73), and (4) “Labor with your might … proclaiming the truth” (Doctrine and Covenants 75:1-16). This discussion will be about the last principle: “Labor with your might … proclaiming the truth.”

The revelation fund in Doctrine and Covenants 75 was addressed to people who had “given [their] names to go forth to proclaim [the Savior’s] gospel” (verse 2). One way to study this revelation is to make two lists: (1) how to share the gospel effectively and (2) how the Lord blesses and supports us as we do.

How to share the gospel effectively

Verse 3: Go forth without tarrying. Labor with your might and do not be idle.

Verse 4: Lift up your voices and proclaim the truth as revealed and commandments given to you.

Verse 10: Call on the name of God for the Comforter.

Verse 11: Pray always and not faint.

Verse 22: Gird up your loins and be faithful.

 

How the Lord blesses and supports us as we do

Verse 5: Those who are faithful will receive great blessings including a crown of honor and glory as well as immortality and eternal life.

Verse 16: Those who are faithful shall overcome all things and be lifted up at the last day.

Verse 21: Ye shall be filled with joy and gladness….

Verse 22: Ye shall overcome all things and be lifted up at the last day.

What Does Supreme Court Ruling on Porn Mean for Children?

Wise parents understand that independence and freedom are critical for proper growth of children. Today is Independence Day, the anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. It is a perfect day to recognize that the United States Supreme Court ruled in favor of freedom and independence from porn for our children. Jaco Booyens wrote that the Supreme Court decision was a “resounding moral affirmation” that “Children deserve protection from online pornography.” 

Booyens wrote that Big Porn used “the First Amendment like a shield” as it built a “billion-dollar industry” “on addiction, abuse, and shattered innocence.” However, the “shield” was ripped away when “the court drew a line in the sand” when it upheld “Texas’ pornography age-verification law.”

Texas’ age-verification law was never about silencing speech. It was about defending the voiceless and restoring the most basic responsibility we have as a society: to guard our children from harm.

That’s why my team at Jaco Booyens Ministries joined this case as a friend of the court. Our team submitted a brief to the Supreme Court that shared the lived experiences of survivors, the neurological science on childhood trauma, and the irrefutable consequences of exposure to online pornography.

As our brief stated in Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton: “There is no liberty in trauma. There is no freedom in addiction. When minors are exposed to pornography, they are not exercising constitutional rights, they are being wounded by the unchecked rights of others.”

Still, the porn industry screamed “censorship.” Companies sued, claiming this was a violation of their “rights.” But what about our children’s right not to be harmed? What about the parents fighting to keep predators out of their homes?

The court acknowledged what every honest parent already knows: Access to this kind of content isn’t harmless. It isn’t “education.” It is psychological, emotional, and spiritual violence. During oral arguments, Justice Amy Coney Barrett captured the heart of the issue when she asked, “Why should it be so easy for a 12-year-old to access this kind of material online, when we all know it can be incredibly damaging?”

That wasn’t a rhetorical flourish; it was a recognition of truth.

For children, exposure to pornographic material isn’t a neutral event. It reshapes the brain. It numbs empathy. It seeds confusion, fear, and addiction. I can no longer pretend this is just about speech. This is about harm. Real harm. And the court, at long last, chose to see it….

This victory isn’t just for Texas; it’s a win for every child in America. It sends a clear message to every state in this nation: You have the power to protect your children… children are worth protecting, that their innocence is not up for sale, and their safety is not negotiable.

Let this ruling be a turning point – for our families, for our faith, for our future.

Wise parents understand that pornography is dangerous for children and adolescents in numerous ways. Parents can make a difference by fighting against pornography in all its versions. They can strengthen their family and then strengthen their community, state, and nation.

What Is the Trump Doctrine?

The liberty principle for this Freedom Friday concerns the Trump Doctrine. What is the Trump Doctrine and what does it mean? Many, if not most, presidents have a “doctrine” concerning foreign policy. Some of them are more well known than others. Martin Kelly, a history teacher and curriculum developer, wrote the following in an article. 

Foreign policy can be defined as the strategy a government uses to deal with other nations. James Monroe pronounced the first major presidential foreign policy doctrine for the newly created United States on December 2, 1823. In 1904, Theodore Roosevelt made a significant amendment to the Monroe Doctrine. While many other presidents announced overarching foreign policy goals, the term “presidential doctrine” refers to a more consistently applied foreign policy ideology….

Kelly’s three key takeaways from the article are as follows:

·         The Monroe Doctrine stopped European colonization in the Americas as a key American foreign policy.

·         The Truman Doctrine promised support to countries fighting against communism and began America’s policy of containment.

·         The Reagan Doctrine provided support to anti-communist forces, influencing the fall of the Soviet Union.

In a perspective piece in The Deseret News, Valerie Hudson, a university distinguished professor at the Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University, states that the “Trump doctrine is coming into focus.” 

The Trump Doctrine proceeds from the premise that the United States has lost hard power and must regain it despite interim sacrifice. Tariffs, a new emphasis on shipbuilding, the resurrection of American manufacturing – all are designed to increase the hard power of the United States. The Trump Doctrine also implies that involving ourselves in many geographic regions has helped sap US power, and contends that our allies are simply not doing enough to help.

More broadly, the Trump Doctrine asserts that the “rule-based order” of the post-World War II world no longer works for the United States. This was most recently articulated by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who, during his Senate confirmation hearings, said, “The postwar global order is not just obsolete, it is now a weapon being used against us.” Interestingly, that is the same position being taken by both Russia and China, as well.

Thus, the Trump Doctrine is a reversion back to what is apparently believed to be a surer foundation for peace: great power spheres of influence, that is, a true multipolar world that relies on regional policemen, not one global policeman, to keep the peace internationally. According to the Trump Doctrine, the U.S. will be uninvolved in sub-Saharan Africa until and unless there is a threat to homeland security that emanates from that continent. The Western Hemisphere, of course, will be the suzerainty of the United States….

The idea behind “spheres of influence” is that each great power respects the others’ spheres, dampening the potential for great power conflict. Until and unless the Trump Doctrine’s inconsistencies regarding the Middle East and Asia are sorted out, then, it is unclear whether the United States will not still wind up in conflicts that will prove very unpopular with the American people, and which are unlikely to end with resounding U.S. victories. These inconsistencies bear continued scrutiny.

In sum, the Trump Doctrine is a return to the traditional Realpolitik view that great power spheres of influence are the foundation of international security, with the corollary that the rebuilding of American hard power, especially its manufacturing base, will be necessary to maintain the American sphere. Without American support, the rule-based international order is truly over, though it is possible to assert that it’s been over for a while but no one wanted to acknowledge that reality. Now that it’s been acknowledged in Washington, D.C., it’s time to hold the funeral. Mourning may be justified, but it won’t resurrect the dead.

The Trump Doctrine puts America and Americans first. Taxpayer money will be used to benefit Americans, not other countries or foreigners who sneak into America. He is bringing manufacturing back to  America and using tariffs to bring about fairer trade. However, Trump will not hesitate to use America’s influence and power to stop aggression and to bring about peace.