Who Is Volodymyr Zelenskyy?

            My VIP for this week is Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Although most of my VIPs are Americans, I have been so impressed with Zelenskyy that I consider him a particularly important person. The reason that Zelenskyy is so respected by many people is the way that he has stayed in Ukraine to encourage his people in their fight against Putin’s invasion and to plead for international help.

            Zelenskyy could have taken his family and a bunch of money and gold and skipped the country. Instead, he has continued to stand up to Putin and to stand as an example to his people. David Bauder and Jocelyn Noveck wrote the following about Zelenskyy. 

To a watching world, his message is this, in both his words and his resolute, sometimes haggard appearance: He stands as a mirror to the suffering and spirit of his people.

It appears to be getting through. Just days into the war engulfing his nation, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is drawing historical comparisons as an effective and stirring wartime communicator – yet with a distinctly modern touch inflected by the sensibilities of live television and the personal feel of social media.

His baby-faced complexion is now usually puffy and pasty, with a faint growth of beard. Suits and dress shirts have been replaced by olive military-style garb. His raspy voice betrays exhaustion. Together, these help form a narrative of personal courage, of David fighting mighty Goliath and refusing safe passage out of his homeland – embodied by his line that he needed “ammunition, not a ride.”

            Zelenskyy was a TV actor and comedian before he became President of Ukraine. No one expected him to show courage and commitment to Ukraine. I suppose that everyone expected him to flee. Because he chose to stay in Ukraine and lead his people, he developed what has been called “a reciprocal relationship” with his fellow Ukrainians. The relationship is such that he gains strength and energy from the people, and they gain strength and energy from their president.

            Zelenskyy has been compared to “Winston Churchill, who rallied Britons during World War II’s darkest days.” He has also been compared to “Benjamin Franklin and his success in soliciting French support for the American Revolution.”

            Ukraine was a sovereign nation that was invaded by an evil man with great power. Zelenskyy has survived at least one assassination attempt. Ukrainians are fighting in a just cause as they seek to defend their homeland. There are many innocent people being exposed to terror, injury, and death. I pray that peace will come soon, but all of us should recognize the bravery of Zelenskyy no matter which side of the war we support.

Is the Constitution Sacred, or Is It Trash?

            The topic of discussion for this Constitution Monday is the Constitution of the United States. Elie Mystal, a recent guest on “The View,” was promoting his new book titled “Allow Me to Retort: A Black Guy’s Guide to the Constitution.” He argued that the U.S. Constitution is “trash” because only white men were involved in writing it. Randy DeSoto gave the following reasons for why the Constitution is sacred and not trash. 

·         The U.S. “Constitution has been in operation since 1789, making it the world’s longest-surviving written charter of government.”

·         The “Northern states began outlawing the institution [of slavery] during and in the years immediately following the Revolutionary War.

·         All Northern states “had passed legislation ending slavery” by 1804. Great Britain abolished slavery in 1833, “over 50 years after the American colonies declared their independence.”

·         In “1787, the Continental Congress passed the Northwest Ordinance … barring the introduction of slavery into the territory that would become the states of Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin.” Remember, the Constitution was drafted in the same city of Philadelphia during the summer of 1787.

·         “The Constitution specifically authorized the federal government to ban the importation of slaves in 1808 (approximately 20 years from the date the document was ratified).” In fact, Congress “passed the legislation in 1807 because the lawmakers wanted the ban to take effect at the soonest possible date, Jan. 1, 1808. President Jefferson signed the bill into law.”

·         The “Constitution contained a compromise that the Founders had reached, counting three-fifths of the state’s slave population when calculating the overall population for determining how many representatives a state would have in Congress.” As you might remember from your history lessons, the “Southern states wanted to count their entire slave populations” to have as many representatives in Congress as possible, but “the Northern states were not willing to allow it.” The result was fewer “votes [for] slave-holding interests in the House of Representatives.”

·         “Both of these constitutional provisions were a recognition that slavery was a present evil, not something many of the Founders wanted to see continue in perpetuity.”

·         Slavery existed in the world for thousands of years before slaves were brought to the American colonies, and it still exists in many parts of the world. However, “it was in the United States where the abolition movement took hold and bore legislative fruit in the Constitution and the laws of the Northern states.”

·         “Abolitionist and former slave [Frederick] Douglass argued convincingly that the Constitution was an anti-slavery document….”

·         “President [Abraham] Lincoln and the North would oversee the demise of slavery on all American soil during the Civil War in the 1860s.”

·         “The Republican-controlled Congress then passed the three post-Civil War amendments outlawing slavery, guaranteeing equal protection under the law and securing the right to vote for African-Americans.”

All of the above historical information should be taught in schools from kindergarten through university. If it were taught, people like Mystal could not make money by proclaiming that the Constitution is trash. The Constitution has guided the United States of America for more than 230 years and has stood the test of time, something that “trash” could never do. However, I Ben Shapiro said it best in his response to Mystal: “When he writes a document that ends up founding the most powerful and tolerant nation in world history, I will take this buffoon more seriously.”

Do You Know How to Get on the Covenant Path?

            My Come, Follow Me studies for this week took me to Genesis 28-33 and Jacob’s story. As you may remember from last week’s lesson, Isaac and Rebekah had twin sons who were opposites. The birthright was to go to Esau, the eldest of the two sons, but he sold it to Jacob for a mess of pottage. Then nearly blind Isaac gave Jacob the birthright blessing, thinking that he was giving it to Esau. Esau hated Jacob and planned to kill him after the death of Isaac.

            Rebekah was informed of Esau’s plan to kill Jacob and convinced Isaac to send Jacob to “Padan-aram, to the house of Bethuel thy mother’s father” to take a wife from among the daughters of Laban, Rebekah’s brother (Geneses 28:2). So, Jacob left the home of his father and mother and traveled to Laban’s house.

            The reading material for this week tells of two spiritual experiences given to Jacob. Both experiences happened in the wilderness, one on the way to Laban’s house and the other after leaving Laban’s home. On his way to his mother’s homeland to find a wife, Jacob spent the night on a pillow of stones.

12 And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it.

13 And, behold, the Lord stood above it, and said, I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac: the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed;

14 And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south: and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed.

15 And, behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land; for I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of (Genesis 28:12-15).

            When Jacob awoke the next morning, he recognized that he had had a spiritual experience: “Surely the lord is in this place; and I knew it not” (Genesis 28:16). He set a stone as a pillar and poured oil on it. He then named the place Bethel.

            As we can see from the above verses, God renewed with Jacob the same covenants He had made with Abraham and Isaac. The principle for this post comes from this experience: I am promised the blessings of Abraham in the temple. President Marion G. Romney explained why Jacob’s vision of heaven was shown in the form of a ladder and why Jacob called the place Bethel:

When Jacob traveled from Beersheba toward Haran, he had a dream in which he saw himself on the earth at the foot of a ladder that reached to heaven where the Lord stood above it. He beheld angels ascending and descending thereon, and Jacob realized that the covenants he made with the Lord there were the rungs on the ladder that he himself would have to climb in order to obtain the promised blessings – blessings that would entitle him to enter heaven and associate with the Lord.

Because he had met the Lord and entered into covenants with him there, Jacob considered the site so sacred that he named the place Bethel, a contraction of Beth-Elohim, which means literally “the House of the Lord.” He said of it: “this is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.” (Genesis 28:17.)

Jacob not only passed through the gate of heaven, but by living up to every covenant he also went all the way in. Of him and his forebears Abraham and Isaac, the Lord has said: “… because they did none other things than that which they were commanded, they have entered into their exaltation, according to the promises, and sit upon thrones, and are not angels but are gods.” (Doctrine and Covenants 132:37.)

Temples are to us all what Bethel was to Jacob. Even more, they are also the gates to heaven for all of our unendowed kindred dead. We should all do our duty in bringing our loved ones through them. (“Temples – The Gates to Heaven,” Ensign, March 1971, 16).

            One clear message from the chapters studied this week is the significance that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob placed on marriage in the covenant. Latter-day prophets continue to emphasize the importance of covenant marriage. The following messages come from Brigham Young, Joseph F. Smith, and Spencer W. Kimball, all latter-day prophets of the Lord.

Be careful, O ye mothers in Israel, and do not teach your daughters in future, as many of them have been taught, to marry out of Israel. Woe to you who do it; you will lose your crowns as sure as God lives. (Brigham Young, Discourses of Brigham Young, p. 196).

Some people feel that it does not make very much difference whether a girl marries a man in the Church, full of the faith of the Gospel, or an unbeliever. Some of our young people have married outside of the Church; but very few of those who have done it have failed to come to grief…. There is nothing that I can think of, in a religious way, that would grieve me more intensely than to see one of my boys marry an unbelieving girl, or one of my girls marry an unbelieving man (Joseph F. Smith, Gospel Doctrine, p. 279).

Many times, women have come to me in tears. How they would love to be able to train their children in the gospel of Jesus Christ! But they are unable to do so because of religious incompatibility with a nonmember husband. How they would like to accept for themselves positions of responsibility in the Church! How they would like to pay their tithing! … How they wish they could be sealed for eternity and have the promise of having their own flesh and blood, their children, sealed to them for eternity! Sometimes it is men in this predicament. But they have locked the doors, and the doors have often rusted on their hinges (Spencer W. Kimball, Miracle of Forgiveness, p. 241).

            The ladder that Jacob saw in his dream has often been compared to the covenants made in the temple. Those covenants are part of the covenant path that President Russell M. Nelson urges us to travel.

At baptism we covenant to serve the Lord and keep His commandments. When we partake of the sacrament, we renew that covenant and declare our willingness to take upon ourselves the name of Jesus Christ. Thereby we are adopted as His sons and daughters and are known as brothers and sisters. He is the father of our new life.

Ultimately, in the holy temple, we may become joint heirs to the blessings of an eternal family, as once promised to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and their posterity. Thus, celestial marriage is the covenant of exaltation.

When we realize that we are children of the covenant, we know who we are and what God expects of us. His law is written in our hearts. He is our God and we are His people. Committed children of the covenant remain steadfast, even in the midst of adversity. When that doctrine is deeply implanted in our hearts, even the sting of death is soothed and our spiritual stamina is strengthened (“Covenants,” Ensign or Liahoma, Nov. 2011, 88).

            The covenant path starts at baptism and continues through the covenants of the temple. Our safety lies in getting on the covenant path and staying on it.

Will America Ever End Abortion on Demand?

            Families, communities, and nations are stronger when babies and children are protected. So many babies have been aborted worldwide that the populations of most nations have fallen below the replacement level.

            The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization several months ago, and they will soon issue their ruling. Their ruling could overturn some or all of Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey. If the justices rule in favor of Dobbs, the question of abortion will be returned to the states.

The Democrats are so hungry for power that they tried to codify abortion into law despite the fact that the majority of Americans are not in favor of such a law. The good thing is that the most recent abortion bill failed to pass in the Senate. Nicole Russell beliefs that the real story is not that the “abortion bill failed, but the fact that it was crafted at all.” 

This particular abortion bill is so expansive, so ghoulish, it’s truly shameful that Democrats even tried to codify such provisions in law. It demonstrates just what they would do, if given enough power. It also directly contradicts the majority of Americans’ views on abortion.

The Senate failed to invoke cloture and proceed to a vote Feb. 28 on the House-passed version of the Women’s Health Protection Act, HR 3755.

This stunningly progressive legislation is “a radical proposal to mandate unfettered abortion access in federal law,” warned Melanie Israel, policy analyst at The Heritage Foundation’s DeVos Center for Religion and Civil Society….

Although the abortion bill failed, it’s important to see why Democrats crafted such legislation and what the measure would have done if enacted into law.

            The Democrats know that Roe and Casey could be overturned, so they crafted another law to revive them. Thomas Jipping claims that the Women’s Health Protection Act was “far more radical than even Roe v. Wade itself.” Russell shared some of key provisions of the bill.

Crafted on a faulty promise, the legislation repeatedly mentions the “constitutional right to terminate a pregnancy.” [This claim has been debunked by “many” justices.]

One of the worst aspects of the Democrats’ bill is its sweeping scope, including its claim that Congress’ power to regulate interstate commerce gives it authority to control state and local abortion legislation.

The legislation would have repealed all existing state laws that specify abortion restrictions or protect the unborn in some way, endangering laws that ban late-term abortions. Never mind that 71% of Americans say they favor more abortion restrictions, even those who aren’t ardently pro-life.

The bill also would have prohibited future laws regulating abortions and the abortion industry. This is especially gut-wrenching, because as technology has improved and our understanding of the human body has grown, abortion laws have reflected such progress.

If passed, this measure would have had the effect of wiping out those advancements and decades of consensus among politicians on both sides of the aisle, who slowly have begun to recognize the personhood of the unborn.

            The Women’s Health Protection Act would have prohibited laws to protect the unborn. This would include protecting them from genetic testing. The law would also end protection for survivors of abortion. The law would have also stopped laws that would require women be given time and information to make informed decisions about abortion. In addition, it would prevent “laws that would prevent taxpayer dollars from subsidizing the abortion industry.” The Democrat bill would have ended most of the abortion regulations at the state level. In the words of Jipping, “The bill, in fact, tries mightily to erase, avoid, or deny any suggestion, hint, or whisper that a second human being exists at all.”

            Science has made many advances since Roe and Casey were made the law of the land. However, Democrats do not want these scientific advances to curtail their power in any way. Nevertheless, the American people are “slowly but steadily” becoming more pro-life because they understand what science is telling us. We know better now than we ever did before that every abortion takes the life of an unborn human being.

Where Has Our Economic Freedom Gone?

             The liberty principle for this Freedom Friday concerns economic freedom. The Heritage Foundation released its annual Index of Economic Freedom in February. The United States dropped to 25^th place, which is the lowest ranking for the U.S. in the history of the index. Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) has an explanation for the decline for America: economic freedom declined along with other freedoms during the pandemic. 

Anytime you see other freedoms infringed, I think economic freedoms are deteriorating at the same time, because of government action….

You saw people being told that they couldn’t go to church because they couldn’t do all sorts of things, that they had to wear a mask in public, that they had to have a procedure they may or may not want, or may or may not need based on their own medical history, and natural immunity…. Anytime you see those things happening, you see a corresponding diminution of economic liberty.

Economic freedom was diminished as government churned out trillions of dollars that it didn’t have, just printing it off, as regulations affected businesses, told businesses they would have to fire anyone who didn’t defer to a presidential medical orthodoxy as it relates to the vaccine mandates…. So, these are all examples of how economic freedom has diminished with a particular pace over the last two years.

            The Biden administration and the Democrat-controlled Congress have weakened our economic freedom with their bad policies. By spending trillions of dollars that our nation did not have and increasing regulations, they contributed to the 7% national inflation and further weakened the economy.

Is Putin the Modern-Day Hitler?

            I was born near the end of World War II, so I do not have any personal experience with that war. However, I know that Hitler started invading countries and taking control of them one by one. It appears to me that Putin is acting in the same way. He invaded Georgia during the George W. Bush administration, Crimea during the Barack Obama administration, and Ukraine during the Joe Biden administration.

            Ukraine existed under the USSR and have known what it is like to be governed by communists. The people of Ukraine obviously do not want to go back to be governed by Russia. Apparently, Putin and the Russians were surprised at the fight they found in Ukraine. They somehow understood that Ukrainians disliked their freedoms and wanted to be enslaved once again. They now know that the citizens of Ukraine would rather die than live in communism.

            My point is that Putin’s invasions look a whole lot like what Hitler was doing at the beginning of World War II. Will the nations of the world stop Putin, or will they allow him to continue his invasions until World War III starts? Is Putin a madman like Hitler? If so, will he use nuclear weapons against Ukraine or other nations? My biggest question is, is Putin leading us into the final destruction of the world?

What Is the True State of the Union?

            President Joe Biden gave his first official State of the Union speech tonight. He addressed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, rising inflation at home, an ongoing border crisis, and a fading COVID-19 pandemic. His speech was fact-checked by Fred Lucas, Jarrett Stepman,Douglas Blair, and Virginia Allen at The Daily Signal. 

‘We Were Ready’ for Putin’s Invasion

Biden addressed the biggest issue in international politics – Russian President Vladimir Putin’s unfolding invasion of Ukraine, and the response from the United States and its allies….

He noted that the United States is a member of the 30-nation NATO military alliance.

“It matters. American diplomacy matters,” Biden said. “Putin’s war was premeditated and unprovoked. He rejected efforts at diplomacy. He thought the West and NATO wouldn’t respond. And, he thought he could divide us here at home. Putin was wrong. We were ready.”

How ready the Biden administration and allies were, however, is open to debate.

Russian troops have massed on the Ukrainian border since November. Ukrainian President Vologymyr Zelenskyy urged Biden to impose sanctions on Russia before an invasion could occur, as a preventive measure.

The Biden administration and European allies imposed sanctions on Russian financing a day after Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine….

State of the Economy, Job Market

Biden didn’t shy away from touting his accomplishments on the economy and job market as the nation began to emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic.

“In fact – our economy created over 6.5 Million new jobs just last year, more jobs created in one year than ever before in the history of America….”

The U.S. economy indeed added about 6.5 million jobs in the year that Biden has been president, the largest increase for a president in his first year in office.

However, this increase came in the wake of a wide-scale shutdown of the American economy during the pandemic. The total number of jobs is far below what it was under Trump in 2020, when the U.S. lost 9.5 million jobs.

Worse, the U.S. currently faces a serious labor shortage, with a near-record 11 million job openings….

Future of Manufacturing Jobs

“All told, we created 369,000 new manufacturing jobs in America just last year,” Biden said.

The president said he brought back manufacturing jobs to America. He said Ford and General Motors had created 11,000 and 4,000 jobs, respectively, saying it was evidence that manufacturing is returning.

But according to Heritage Foundation scholars, backed with data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, about 179,000 more Americans were employed in manufacturing in 2021 than the previous year….

American Rescue Plan vs. 2017 Tax Cuts

Biden touted the American Rescue Plan, the COVID-19 relief bill he crafted with congressional Democrats.

“And unlike the $2 trillion tax cut passed in the previous administration that benefitted the top 1% of Americans, the American Rescue Plan helped working people – and left no one behind,” he said.

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, supported by then-President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans, benefited all working Americans and not just the top 1%, many analysts say….

Assessing the Tax Burden

“Under my plan, nobody earning less than $400,000 a year will pay an additional penny in new taxes. Nobody,” Biden said.

This is incorrect.

Biden’s failed Build Back Better plan, which passed in the House of Representatives but met defeat in the Senate, would have increased taxes directly and indirectly for Americans who make less than $400,000 a year, analysts said.

The left-leaning Tax Policy Center noted that Biden’s plan would increase taxes on middle-income Americans….

            In addition to the above facts, the authored also fact checked several other topics in Biden’s speech: ‘Lower Your Costs and Lower the Deficit,” Fiscal Responsibility, Rising Energy Costs, ‘Suppress’ and ‘Subvert’ the Vote, and LGBTQ Rights and Equality Act. I may  write about those topics tomorrow night.