Branding -- Whistleblower Vs Leaker

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2019/09/was-the-whistleblower-part-of-a-plan.php

The branding is so obvious as to be funny. Information illegally made public about a Republican? "Whistleblower" ... often "courageous whistleblower"!

Information illegally made public about a Democrat? LEAK! Often "criminal leak" very possibly treasonous!

Just as "Russiagate" turned out to be nothing, "Ukrainegate" is the same -- but of course that doesn't matter. The purpose is to deny Trump re-election by any means possible.

The purpose of the multiple “inquiries” through which we are about to suffer is not, of course, to learn anything about events in Ukraine. It is, rather, to generate as many headlines as possible from friendly newspapers (i.e., all of them) that pair the words “Trump” and “impeachment.” If the Steele dossier couldn’t stop Trump from being elected in 2016, the Democrats are hopeful that the equally baseless Ukraine complaint will prevent him from being re-elected in 2020.

Ukraine Transcript

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2019/09/the-ukraine-transcript-not-damning-and-not-as-advertised.php

Ho hum ...  he asked the Ukraine president to ask his people to cooperate with the US justice department.

Well, that is the view from the "moderate right". How about the "as moderate as the left gets" ...

Naturally, they don't mention exactly WHAT is "impeachable" ... I think we already know that! Being a Republican, a Christian, not worshiping at the Climate Change altar ... all are both deplorable and impeachable.

I love the mention of CLINTON'S "balanced budget" ... he did sign the budgets, and the Republican congress that actually balanced the budgets got no credit at all.

So now we have TWO parties that don't care about a balanced budget! I really don't think that much of anyone outside of the press when a Republican is in office actually cares -- Oh, and a press that apparently does not know who it is that does appropriations ... hint, "Congress Shall Appropriate"!

The WaPo does keep some irredeemables on staff ... one can only hope!

Democrat Takeover Strategy

https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/09/brett-kavanaugh-accusations-democratic-strategy/?sfns=mo&utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=continetti&utm_content=kavanaugh

The SCOTUS is the last backstop to prevent a possible return to Constitutional government if Trump is re-elected. The Democrats love to have strategies to de-legitimize any sort of conservative move to weaken the Deep State and follow the Constitution. (see "Russiagate", "impeachment", etc)

The Kavanaugh controversy is not, as one reporter for the Washington Post described it, a “journalistic mishap.” It is a case of Democratic activists and lawmakers using journalists precisely as intended: as instruments of a political agenda. Democrats are much more aware than Republicans that the very survival of their party depends on the maintenance of the “living Constitution,” as opposed to the Constitution as written and subsequently amended. The courts have been the Democrats’ backstop. If Donald Trump transforms them, liberals would have to reckon with the voting public. Things could get ugly.

Well, "ugly" for the left, the Deep State, and continuation of totalitarian control by "The Party" ... Dems, media, Deep State, universities, elites, etc.

Ukraine Frenzy Explained

https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/09/trump-whistleblower-claim-congress-should-investigate/?sfns=mo&utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=mccarthy&utm_content=whistleblower

Clinton News Network Becomes FNN

https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/09/cnn-trump-derangement-everything-but-news/?sfns=mo

When Slick Willie was in office I renamed CNN (Cable News Network) to Clinton News Network --- It's now clearly the FAKE News Network. It's one thing to be totally tilted in one direction about what stories you decide to report.

Making things up in a vendetta against a president you happen not to like is crossing into a whole other level of disservice!

CNN has now lost so much of its prior viewership and its reputation for global reportage that it would be wise for the network to shut down, fire its entire management and most of its journalists, and reboot in a year or so with an entirely new name, team, and a code of ethics.

Isn't "cable" a bit outdated anyway? 

Always Certain, Frequently Wrong

https://cei.org/blog/wrong-again-50-years-failed-eco-pocalyptic-predictions?sfns=mo#.XYN9tOCh7wA.facebook

The linked article goes through a long list of certain predictions that turned out to be wrong -- worth a scan for perspective.

My conversion to being a skeptic in pretty much everything  began with the Carter "malaise" speech. It is worth going back and reading it -- who would have thought that the main problem was Carter and the Deep State? Reagan came as close to "proving" that was the case as it is possible to do by 1984.

"The threat is nearly invisible in ordinary ways.
It is a crisis of confidence.
It is a crisis that strikes at the very heart and soul and spirit of our national will. We can see this crisis in the growing doubt about the meaning of our own lives and in the loss of a unity of purpose for our nation.
The erosion of our confidence in the future is threatening to destroy the social and the political fabric of America."

It's interesting to note that Carter, then a practicing Southern Baptist, came close, but only sideways mentioned the cause of the "loss of confidence".

In closing, let me say this: I will do my best, but I will not do it alone. Let your voice be heard. Whenever you have a chance, say something good about our country. With God’s help and for the sake of our nation, it is time for us to join hands in America. Let us commit ourselves together to a rebirth of the American spirit. Working together with our common faith we cannot fail.

Today, Carter has left the Biblical faith ... you know, the kind of faith that believes the Bible. Carter feels it needs to be "updated" ... and interestingly, since his famous speech, more and more people have left Christianity because it is not "accommodating" enough. In the words of Christ ...

John 14:6 Jesus said unto him, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life; no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me.

"Faith" means you need to BELIEVE in something that is transcendent (not scientifically "provable") The time tested and extremely successful up to the late 20th century belief was Christianity. America was founded on the totally unproven belief that there were unalienable rights given by a sovereign God -- and up until the mid 20th century, we were held together by that common belief.

Lose your faith in the transcendent, and you are just a meaningless cosmic accident -- and "malaise" is virtually guaranteed. Just look at the rising depression and suicide statistics in the unlikely case that you don't have personal experience with yourself or loved ones.

We are natural believers -- and we WILL believe in something. We have to fill that hole with SOMETHING, and today one of the attempts is "Climate Change" ... which, like all idolatry, is a complete failure. You can "believe" that "saving the planet" is your "mission", but of course it isn't "personal" in the least, and it doesn't "save" YOU at all!

Ironically, in order to accept the climate change faith, you have to give up reason -- just as you always have to do to some extent to accept any faith. Either we have been created by a loving God with a built in need to seek his divine solution to that existential need in the person of Jesus Christ, or, a random universe has randomly put this unquenchable lust for faith in our hearts by pure accident.

You have a choice! Oh, and if you refuse to believe that climate change is not "proven", consider this.

Outside of mathematics, certainty is metaphysical -- so the "experts" that are "certain" are very frequently wrong. -

Raising Hell

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12280528-raising-hell

It took a bit after I was challenged to read this book to get back to a book that I HIGHLY recommend for anyone that is truthfully seeking the eternal historical God of the Bible and salvation in Christ "The Reason For God".

Here is my review of that book.

What Keller does, and I have a HARD time doing is to RESPECTFULLY answer common objections to Christianity. Chapter 5 is devoted to answering the objections to Hell. Essentially they all boil down to rejecting the sovereignty of God. Julie is a classic modern "liberal" -- her god is individuality (Julie), so SHE can judge ANYTHING -- including God, historical scholarship. etc.. The book would be better titled "Razing Christianity" ... with the definition of Christianity being  people who can truthfully confess the Creeds  ...  Orthodox, Catholic, and Protestant Christians all confess the creeds of the first thousand+ years of church history. (eg the Apostle’s, Nicene, and Athanasian creeds. Being able to truly confess these creeds is what it means to be Christian, and has been so for over a thousand years.

The the Athanasian Creed begins:

"Whosoever will be saved, before all things it is necessary that he hold the catholic (universal)  faith. Which faith unless everyone do keep whole and undefiled, without doubt he shall perish everlastingly."

The faith of this book is totally opposed to Christianity. The entry to Christianity is Holy Baptism, the practice is joining in confession of the creeds, Holy Communion and Holy Preaching with fellow Christians. Julie rejects that, so whatever she is, she is not a confessional Christian.

"There came a time when I left the faith. This was not because of what I learned through historical criticisms, but because I could no longer reconcile my faith in God with the state of the world that I saw all around me. There is so much senseless pain and misery in the world that I came to find it impossible to believe there is a good and loving God who is in control, despite my knowing all the standard rejoinders that people give.[21] I believe mainly what Bart is getting at is that, in light of most people “going to hell,” their suffering in this world makes no sense."

When you reject the faith, it indeed makes "no sense" (1 Cor 1:22-24) "

"Jews demand signs and Greeks search for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews foolishness to Gentiles, 24but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God."

The people who might really enjoy this book are those who have been damaged by Pharisaic "works based" and overly Hell focused (vs Grace focused)  church experiences and are desperate for a god of their own desires.  Atheists might like it if they are still just "hoping" there is no god, rather than completely convinced of his nonexistence.

 Although we certainly live in a universe with consequences (ever have a hangover?), projecting a metaphysical afterlife with no consequences might be "comforting"  to some (sorta like heroin).

Unless you have firmly made up your mind that Orthodox Christianity is completely wrong, Jesus doesn't matter (nothing to be "saved" from), and "history is bunk", JUST STAY AWAY! RUN! Don't walk!

I've commented extensively on Goodreads -- go there for more detail.

No matter how far you have strayed from the Christian faith, as long as you draw breath, Grace can be yours!