emery shannon

[Melissa Chen @MsMelChen]

Let’s be real here. Europe has spent decades freeloading on American security. Even now, with every NATO member finally hitting the 2% GDP target in 2025.

But beyond the financial contributions, the real rupture is philosophical and the Iran crisis has shown a spotlight on it.

Europe worships process. Endless committees, consultations, and “predictability.” Macron actually calls it a virtue. For Trump, this is paralysis as his style is to articulate a threat, fix a target, and act. The Americans are men of conviction and purpose. Europe on the other hand lives by bureaucratic liturgy and in high-minded abstractions.

Sure, Americans might make mistakes when acting. But Europe never considers what the costs of not acting actually are.

Just look at how their nations are doing on various fronts, especially on the border crisis, and you see the same cancerous rot that undergirds their foreign policy approach play out domestically. It's the same problem on a different scale.

Iran is currently holding the Strait of Hormuz hostage, choking 20% of global oil and spiking prices past $100 a barrel. Meanwhile, the regime is bleeding from strikes, its nuclear ambitions are still alive despite degraded capability, and its proxies are firing missiles at allies and oil tankers. If this isn’t a clear and present danger to the global economy - of which Europe is a part - then I don’t know what is.

Yet when Washington asked to use European bases to finish the job - bases the US has defended for generations, the response was hesitation and hand-wringing. The US did strike from RAF Fairford, but only after warnings that British soil could become a “legitimate target.”

If you cannot agree that a theocratic regime with eschatological ambitions who have shown no restraint in hitting out at Gulf countries and threatening the world’s energy jugular is an enemy worth confronting, then what, exactly, are we allies about?

Europe loves to preen about being tough on Russia. They issue condemnations and speeches and slap sanctions that hardly work to cripple the Russian economy.

Now here was a chance to do something concrete: let the Americans use the bases they already pay for, help clear the Strait, and actually degrade the Iranian war machine that arms Moscow’s proxies. Turmp didn’t ask for boots on the ground or any kind of more offensive action. All he wanted was permission to operate from the infrastructure America has underwritten for decades.

They couldn’t even manage that.

So can you blame the Americans for seeing NATO for what it is? A paper-tiger alliance that expects Washington to bleed and pay while Brussels and London convenes and deliberates.

If Europe refuses to treat Iran as the threat it is while happily letting American power keep the Strait open and the lights on, then the alliance is already dead. Trump is simply stating the obvious and the Americans are becoming very reluctant to subsidize the European delusion any longer.

[Massimo @Rainmaker1973]

Heaviest single repetition get-up 116.83 kg (257.56 lbs) achieved by Burak Yazgi.
https://t.co/tHtuFrnCR9

[Daniel Buck, “Youngest Old Man in Ed Reform” @MrDanielBuck]

I've struggled to put this to words, so I haven't written about it before, but let me try to put it together

No amount of money will fix inner-city schools because the pull of urban culture is too strong and destructive

When I worked in inner city schools, students couldn't let a single slight go. Anything they perceived as a wrong against them, HAD to be avenged, always with violence. The smallest word of gesture of disrespect always escalated to fights

Machismo-ism was truly, actually toxic (feminists want to complain about it among guys in the suburbs? No, they're weaklings play-acting as machismo). Young men in these schools constantly tried to outperform each other, always through destructive violent or sexual behavior.

Kindness was weakness. Instead, take advantage of others, because otherwise they'll take advantage of you.

Share, share, share. It's nice at first, but you start to realize that once someone gains anything (from a bag of chips to a stable income), everyone wants take it all away. No one can build wealth.

No value on long-term outcomes or education. Glom onto whatever gives immediate gratification. Drugs, sex, fights, gang involvement. Get it now.

It didn't matter there if students there had a brand new Chromebook. The pull of urban cultural attitudes and habits had these students caught in a destructive cycle that would end, inevitably, in jail, poverty, or death.

Some will say I'm cruel for pointing this out. I think it's the exact opposite. If we don't address this cultural issue, if we pretend like it's not there because it offends our hoity toity pretentions, then we'll never actually help students in poverty.

It's a luxury belief to say that all culture doesn't matter, when our bourgeois habits propel us to affluence and broken, urban culture consigns children to more broken homes and broken lives

[Exeunt]

[Naval @naval]

On Scott Adams.

A man finds, to his astonishment, that he exists. After the elation of childhood wears off, he asks, who am I, why am I here, how does this work? These are hard questions, so after a brief struggle, he selects a readymade answer and goes about the motions of life.

Scott Adams was not such a man. He was a live player, ever curious, intent on figuring out this simulation that he found himself in. From first principles, Scott unraveled, understood, and ultimately controlled his own reality. He hacked himself with affirmations, others with persuasion, the world with simultaneous sips. He explained people as moist robots, two movies happening on one screen, his world as Gods’ debris. He carved a personal mission to “be useful,” and made us all better writers, public speakers, and persuaders. He preached the footwear theory of motivation, the Adams Law of slow-moving disasters, the skill stack, systems over goals, and of course, the Dilbert Principle.

Besides cartooning, philosophizing, and teaching, Scott rose to the occasion and displayed, “the one virtue that cannot be faked” - courage. Scott had the courage to speak honestly as he saw it - about Trump, about his nation, and about his time, even though it cost him friends, audience, money, and his ticket to polite society. Scott had true courage, the kind that makes you unpopular, the kind that is always and everywhere in short supply,

At the end, as any hacker of reality, Scott covered all of his bases - he left as a Buddhist, a Christian, and a player in the Simulation.

Scott, we didn’t get enough time with you, but you were a mentor and a marvel. You were useful and you were courageous. You were incompressible and indivisible. One of a kind, and generous with your drawing, writing, and speaking. Unlike your squealing critics in the chattering class, you will be read generations from now.

On this earth there are many long-lived hells but no lasting heaven. Each heaven must be created and nurtured, ex-nihilo, from mind and from mud. Scott, you created a small heaven for us all, and to a larger heaven you go.

A man finds, to his astonishment, that he no longer exists. He asks why, what it was for, and how will the new reality work? When the rest of us get there, we’ll find Scott, ever useful, ready to explain, having figured it all out.

Notes:
• First line paraphrasing Schopenhauer.
• Courage quote via Taleb.

[Ian Miles @ianmiles]

I wanted to take a moment to share some thoughts on the passing of Scott Adams.

Most of the world knew him as the creator of Dilbert, but for many of us, he was something far more significant. Scott was one of the few people with everything to lose who actually chose to risk it all for his principles. He walked away from the safety of his career and sacrificed his social clout and reputation because he believed that the truth and the protection of free speech were more important than his own comfort.

On a personal level, Scott had a massive influence on my own views. In a time when it often feels like we’re being told to ignore our own common sense, Scott was a voice of clarity. He had an incredible gift for amplifying the thoughts I already held but couldn't quite articulate, and he treated good ideas with a level of respect and intellectual honesty that you just don't see in the media anymore.

What truly set him apart, though, was his intellectual humility. While he was incredibly adamant in his views, he was never afraid to stop and reconsider his position. He was never above being humble; he had the rare courage to admit when he was wrong and pivot when he saw a better path. To me, that made his voice even more powerful—he wasn't interested in being "right" for the sake of his ego. He was interested in the truth.

He backed Donald Trump when it was the most socially expensive thing a person in his position could do. He did it because he saw a cause worth fighting for, and he did it with his head held high.

I will always appreciate him for his courage, his influence on me, and the way he made me feel that my values were worth standing up for. We lost a brilliant mind and a good man, but the way he taught us to think will stay with us forever.

Rest in peace, Scott. Thank you for everything.

[GregGutfeld @greggutfeld]

Rest in glorious peace, @ScottAdamsSays - you changed more lives and made the world infinitely better. God bless you and thank you for everything you did for me. We will always love you.

[Cynical Publius @CynicalPublius]

Everything makes sense when you consider the following seven immutable truths:

1. A large majority of native-born Americans strongly oppose Democrat policies.

2. The only way Democrats can win national elections is to import new voters, both legal and illegal.

3. The way to ensure that the newly-imported voters vote Democrat is to give them free stuff, whether via fraud or legal wealth redistribution, or both.

4. Trump’s efforts to deport illegals are therefore an existential threat to the Democrat Party and its policies.

5. Because of the foregoing, it is imperative to Democrats that they shut down ICE operations.

6. A key factor in the attempt to shut down ICE operations is to create martyrs.

7. Dead SUV Karen is a martyr. Deep down they are glad she is dead, because they NEED her to be dead.

[MAZE @mazemoore]

4) Page 13 of 13

[MAZE @mazemoore]

The Minnesota child care fraud saga is so strange because years ago it was fully investigated, documented, and reported on by a team of state investigators set up to catch and stop child care fraud.

They spent years gathering evidence including many hours of surveillance footage. In 2018 they compiled a detailed report and delivered it to their boss, the DHS Inspector General.

Directly from the report: "Investigators, as well as the Supervisor and Manager of this unit believe that the overall fraud rate in this program is at least 50% of the $217M paid to child care centers in CY2017."

What did the Inspector General do with this information? She refused to meet with her own team, refused to discuss the findings of the report, and then spent $90,000 of taxpayer money to have an outside company write a report saying the fraud isn't quite as bad as her own team of investigators was claiming.

Here's an email summarizing the fraud that the lead investigator sent the IG in 2018. Those currently in the MSM claiming that child care fraud isn't a serious problem should read this.

The real question is how highly paid state investigators spent years investigating child care fraud in MN, reported on said fraud, and eight years later not only was the fraud not stopped, it was bigger than ever.

1) Pages 1-4 of 13

[Asra Nomani @AsraNomani]

🧵 Who organized and funded the pro-Maduro demonstrations?

I was up when the news broke that U.S. forces had possibly had a military strike on Caracas. Immediately, I knew where to look next, not for confirmation from the Pentagon, but for signals.

🔗 READ my 1st story for @FoxNews in my new role as senior editor of investigations to understand the full narrative of how the street protests were organized within 12 hours, before Nicolás Maduro was even on U.S. soil: https://t.co/t5tSwhVR7s

📽️ WATCH the video here to hear the protest organizers in their own words as they chronicle how they mobilized foot soldiers for the new "class war" they say they are fighting against "American imperialism." They admit they got an unexpected ally: Democratic Party activists in 50501, a group launched last year to organize #TeslaTakedown protests against Elon Musk and #HandsOff protests against Trump.

What I discovered:
As U.S. forces captured Maduro, a parallel operation began almost instantly inside the United States:a rapid, coordinated information and street-mobilization campaign by a network of self-described socialist, Marxist, and communist organizations, most of which operate as nonprofits that DO NOT have to pay taxes.

I'll lay out how I followed the breadcrumbs in this special X Reporter's Notebook...

For three years since Oct. 7, I’d been seeing the same thing at protest after protest: Venezuelan flags showing up at anti-Israel rallies. Not randomly. Not organically.

Always alongside the same slogans, the same organizers, the same faces. That’s when I knew this wasn’t about Gaza, or Venezuela, or “peace.”

🔻 When activists protested Benjamin Netanyahu and burnt the American flag and painted an upside red triangle using the symbol Hamas uses for targets, writing HAMAS IS COMIN, I went to their bus pickup spots to follow the money. I saw protestors climbing into busses. That's when I saw their t-shirts: they were all proudly wearing red t-shirts for the Party for Socialism and Liberation @pslnational. The group had rented the busses.

Then I went to the address for the @answercoalition that had gotten the protest permit. It was in Adam's Morgan on Florida Avenue NW not far from where I had lived as a 20-something in DC.

Outside there were two flags flapping in the wind. Whose flags are they, I asked the woman who answered the door.

"Cuba and Venezuela."

That's when I knew. This wasn't about peace or anti-war.

It was about ideology.

Stoking discord was a part of that ideology as a tactic called agitation propaganda, or agitprop.

Their goal was to overthrowthe "American empire" and install some version of a Marxist, communist or socialist system. Talk about regime change.

And I learned something else: they had very close ties to Iran, Russia and China, with its leaders taking regular trips to those countries. They wanted communism or socialism in South Korea, the Philippines, Puerto Rico....America.

I saw them again in Chicago, protesting the @DNC. We had cells of proud communists, socialists and Marxists in America and they were appropriating the latest cause of the day to press their cause to dismantle "American imperialism."

They were self-declared, self-professed and proud of their ideological beliefs but the media usually glossed over them to describe them generically as "demonstrators."

So when we learned that there was an air strike on Caracas, I watched the clock -- and waited for the signals.

⏱️ 1:35 AM — As U.S. special operations reportedly land in Venezuela, @BTNews, a socialist propaganda arm of the ANSWER Coalition, posts early video and frames the mission as an “illegal bombing of Caracas.” The narrative is set.

⏱️ 1:45 AM — Manolo De Los Santos @manolo_realengo of @PeoplesForumNYC echoes the “illegal bombing” line. Message discipline is established. The People's Forum had been funded by a tech tycoon named Neville Roy Singham, who lived in Shanghai and funded a global network of socialist causes.

⏱️ 2:29 AM — The ANSWER Coalition drops a red-siren graphic on X calling for protests in Times Square: “NO WAR ON VENEZUELA.” The shift from commentary to mobilization begins.

⏱️ 2:34–2:43 AM — The People’s Forum and the Party for Socialism and Liberation amplify the call. Same poster. Same language. Same timing.

⏱️ 3:21 AM — @VijayPrashad, director of Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research, a research institute funded by Singham that examines issues through the lens of "national liberation Marxism," weighs in with a tweet: “Down with U.S. imperialism.” The ideological framing goes global.

⏱️ 6:09 AM — @CodePink condemns the U.S. as “terrorist.” The group was cofounded by Singham's wife, Jodie Evans, a fixture in anti-American protests, along with cofounder @medeabenjamin. Professional CodePink protestor @OliviaDinucci frequently yells at Trump administration officials around town. The nonprofit ecosystem is now fully engaged.

⏱️ 7:49 AM — The International People’s Assembly @peoplesassembly, a global umbrella group for socialist and communist organizations that partners with Singham's Tricontinental institute, circulates an “EMERGENCY DAY OF ACTION,” urging resistance to U.S. “hegemony.” The command-and-control layer activates.

This wasn’t outrage catching fire.

This was a socialist, communist, Marxist transnational network executing information warfare with military precision.

By daylight, the narrative was locked.

By midday, the protests were live.

By afternoon, politicians like @RepRashida Talib, Rep. @AOC and @NYCMayor @ZohranKMamdani were repeating the same lines I’d seen first pushed in the dead of night.

I’d seen the signals broadcast for years. Thorough investigators like @DataRepublican and @thestustustudio have followed the breadcrumbs on this vast network seeking to dismantle the U.S. free enterprise system in the name of "anti-imperialism," and I encourage you to follow them to see well-documented information.

Friday night, they came in strong and precise, in a parallel military operation run by comrades in the cause to destroy America as we know it.

This wasn’t just about Venezuela. It was about a global war -- an information war running parallel to a kinetic one -- and what I learned next was that it had been years in the making. 🧵⬇️

[Cernovich @Cernovich]

Scott Adams, facing death, shows us how to live.

Someone recommended “How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big” by Scott Adams. I had burned out on mainstream books, but picked it up, and was hooked. He had put into words a way of living, similar to one I had found, except his approach was systemic and analytical. Better than my own slapdash notes. Outside of religious texts, Adams was and is as close to a “guide to life,” as you’ll ever find. And even if you’re religious, you still live in this world, and would be wise to learn how to navigate it.

Scott is closing in on the end of his life, and even now he is creating new beginnings.

I’d better write this now, I won’t be able to when it’s too late.

After losing Charlie Kirk, a lot of us are wondering how we can possibly write another obituary. While there’s much to complain about the internet and social media, those mediums expanded the sizes of our communities, our influences, and indeed our families. Too often we find new ways to hate people, instead of finding new people to love.

Scott Adams comes up in conversation at every social event I host. “How is Scott Adams doing? Will he make it?” We all talk about streams we watched and lessons learned. It’s a memorial except he’s still alive. Scott would love to hear that, which is why I have said so repeatedly. I’ve lost too many people, via death or fallings-out, to leave feeling unexpressed.

He’s been a surrogate father figure and mentor to millions of people.

Scott Adams is not liked, he is loved.

People don’t “like” Scott Adams, they aren’t “a fan of his.” They love this man. And I do as well. I’m still living in denial of his fate. We all are.

We’d been making a film about the meaning of life, and while Scott Adams had been in both of our other films, we hadn’t booked him for Meaning yet. Then we found out he was going to take the ride of assisted suicide. Foolishly, we had assumed he’d always be around. Nobody ever dies, right? Your dad will be there to take your call the next time you phone home. Your friends aren’t going anywhere. That’s how we too often live. We could book Scott later.

We reached out and he graciously agreed to be interviewed. We all knew it was going to be our last interview together. Scott and I are both efficient with our time. When a moment is over, it’s time to go do something else. Obligations call. The crew pushed this one as long as we could.

After the interview wrapped up and the gear was packed and it was time to go, there was an awkward pause. I broke it.

“Scott, we love you.” He said thank you. “No, Scott, we love you, I mean it, we all do. We love you.”

None of us broke down crying, not that there would have been any shame in that, but we no doubt all soon will.

Well then, what is the lesson of Scott Adams?

On a practical level, the lesson of Scott Adams is the power of showing up. Nobody works harder and on a more regular schedule. You can set your clock to Scott’s show. Too many of us wait for the muse of inspiration or the jolt of information to force us into action. Work, everyday, maybe in obscuring and without tangible benefits for years. Eventually you’ll hit your mark and go beyond.

Scott plugged away with his streams from a small account (after a huge career via Dilbert) and soon became must-watch, and then transcended his role to becoming something much more.

On a spiritual level, we might ask, why do we love Scott? It’s not because he’s so smart (he is). There are not shortage of intelligent, clever, Machiavellian, and rich people with podcasts. When one of them dies, what is lost? All of that Ego and desire for adoration, and does anybody even care? When those people fall while living, who will be there?

Scott is loved because he’s devoted his life to service to humanity. “What is the meaning of life,” is the question we ask every interviewee, and Scott’s answer, “Be useful to humanity.”

Despite pain, sickness, and inevitable death, Scott is doing his daily streams, serving his country and all of humankind until his end.

He’s a light to the world and a mirror for all of us.

What exactly are we doing with the gift of life given to us by God. (Scott believes in the Simulation, but I believe God evens this all out in the Judgment.) Are we doing enough for others? Are we doing anything for others?

Like everyone else, I’m capable of throwing myself a pity party. Sometimes when life is going too well, and I don’t have real problems, I invent some. That’s where the Ego brings you, recursively worshipping itself, and when that fails, tormenting itself, as each path leads to its own attention.

May all of us live more like Scott Adams, and may God bless his immortal soul when he passes.

P.S. I ran this article through Grok for typos. The original version had “immoral” soul where I meant it to read “immortal.” I think Scott would have had a great laugh had that typo been left in.

[🎼🌺Music Love♥️ @ThoNg676733]

Nobody can sing this song anywhere near as good as Lou in his prime. So powerful

[JD™ @LostMyHats]

Let this “stupid” chicken farmer school you with facts, Glenn. But first, let me say I’ve listened to you since 2001 and I’m saddened by you selling out your own country in favor of another. Never thought I’d see it, but here are the facts:

Iranian, Turkish, or Qatari PACs is like comparing a volcanic eruption to a scented candle. It is a category error that only works if your audience has never looked at a single number in their lives.

AIPAC is not one PAC among many. It is not a normal lobbying group. It is the single most powerful foreign policy lobbying force in the United States, with a budget, network, and electoral footprint that absolutely dwarfs every group you listed. Armenian and Cuban lobby groups are small, scattered, and mostly focused on symbolic issues. The Iranian, Turkish, and Qatari groups you invoked are tiny and constrained by obvious geopolitical baggage. None of them run a national electoral machine. None of them pour tens of millions into congressional primaries. None of them terrify incumbents the way AIPAC does. None of them could pick off sitting members of Congress for holding the wrong opinion about a foreign country. AIPAC can. AIPAC has. AIPAC does.

You mocked the idea of singling out a Toyota Corolla. But AIPAC is not the Corolla. AIPAC is the Interstate Highway System. It is the gas refineries. It is the shipping terminals. It is the factory, the advertising agency, the parts supplier, and the dealership chain. The other PACs you mentioned are a few scooters in a parking lot. Pretending they exist on the same level is not only misleading. It is insulting to the intelligence of your audience.

AIPAC did not become a household name by accident. It became one because its fundraising and lobbying reach into nearly every corner of Congress. Members know that crossing AIPAC comes with real consequences. Small diaspora PACs cannot make or break careers. AIPAC can fund entire slates of challengers and flip seats across the country. AIPAC can shape foreign aid packages. AIPAC can draft letters that gather nearly every signature in the chamber. When AIPAC calls, offices answer. When the Armenian or Cuban PACs call, staffers take a message and get back to whatever they were already doing.

Your argument only works if every PAC in America exists on a level playing field. They do not. AIPAC is in a league of its own. That is not criticism. That is a plain statement of observable reality. You can say that reality makes you uncomfortable. You can argue that people misuse it. What you cannot do is pretend that a group with unmatched money, unmatched political muscle, and unmatched access is somehow equivalent to a handful of niche lobby groups with a fraction of its size, reach, or impact.

Calling people stupid for pointing out a glaring imbalance does not strengthen your case. It exposes how weak it is. If you want to defend AIPAC, defend it. Do not hide behind the fiction that it is just one fish in a crowded pond. It is the shark. Everyone knows it. That is why people talk about it. That is why it deserves scrutiny. And that is why your comparison falls apart the moment it meets reality.

[Syrian Girl @Partisangirl]

We have to face reality before we change it. I think @NickJFuentes shows a lot of geopolitical acumen here.

[Gunther Eagleman™ @GuntherEagleman]

To whoever wrote this, well said!

When millions of illegals were ushered in through the southern border, you said nothing!

When they abandoned millions of dollars worth of military equipment in Afghanistan, you said nothing!

When they flaunted a two-tier justice system, one for them and one for everyone else, you said nothing!

When they covered up the Hunter Biden laptop, you said nothing!

When they passed a trillion-dollar infrastructure bill that failed miserably, you said nothing!

When they forced Americans to take an untested vaccine, you said nothing!

When inflation crushed the middle class, you said nothing!

When they sent billions to Ukraine, you said nothing!

When chemicals polluted the water in East Palestine, Ohio and they ignored it, you said nothing!

When Americans were r@ped, robbed and murdered by illegals, you said nothing!

When they implanted Kamala as the presidential nominee without getting a single vote, you said nothing!

When billionaire and anti-American George Soros funded dozens of AG elections, you said nothing!

When they turned our classrooms into liberal indoctrination camps, you said nothing!

When they spent our tax dollars on inmates transition surgeries, you said nothing!

When they gave the citizens of Hawaii $700 after losing their entire city, you said nothing!

When they gave free money, food and 5-star hotel lodging to illegals, you said nothing!

When they came for our free speech, you said nothing!

When DEI weakened the military and put our national security at risk, you said nothing!

When they colluded with the media to push false reports, you said nothing!

When it was open season on law enforcement and criminals reigned, you said nothing!

When they weaponized the justice system to take down their political opponents, you said nothing!

When the bureaucrats took over the White House and ran the government, you said nothing!

When they covered up Biden's rapidly declining mental state, you said nothing!

When they gr00med our kids in school and hid it from the parents, you said nothing!

When the drug epidemic exploded and 1000s died annually, you said nothing!

When they accosted kids on their campuses, you said nothing!

When they weaponized the intelligence agencies against Americans, you said nothing!

When they spent $45 million dollars on "Diversity and Inclusion" scholarships in Burma, you said nothing!

When they let men play women's sports, you said nothing!

When they chanted "De@th to America" and burned our flag, you said nothing!

When they shut down our energy production and emboldened Russia, you said nothing!

When the crime rates in American cities increased, you said nothing!

When 300,000 migrant children went missing and no one had a clue, you said nothing!

When Joe Biden pardoned his friends and family, you said nothing!

When they sent billions to Iran and inadvertently funded Hamas, you said nothing!

When men were celebrated for pretending to be women, you said nothing!

When they let a Chinese Spy Ballon sail across America, you said nothing!

When 50 intelligence agents all lied to bury the Hunter Biden laptop as Russian disinformation, you said nothing!

When American citizens were taken hostage and held for a year in Gaza, you said nothing!

When Facebook admitted, they conspired with the Biden administration to censor the truth, you said nothing!

When they cleaned the streets of San Francisco for the communist Chinese President Xi Jinping, you said nothing!

When Fauci and the WHO peddled covid 19 virus lies and covered up the origins, you said nothing!

When they sealed the January 6th commission files or "lost them", you said nothing!

You saw the corruption, the lies, the bad policy, the antiAmerican agenda and said nothing, so please spare us your crocodile tears and all your fake hysteria now. For 4 years you watched this country get run into the ground on all fronts and you said nothing!

ITS OUR TURN

[SaltyGoat @SaltyGoat17]

We were warned almost 40 years ago...

We gonna listen this time?

[Wall Street Mav @WallStreetMav]

Scott Adams deserves the Presidential Medal of Freedom. He is ill. This needs to happen soon.

Retweet if you agree.

“MAGA supporters, you all took a personal and professional risk for the benefit of the country, and you knew that it was going to cost you dearly. You lost family members, you lost friends, you lost jobs. It cost you money. And you were right in the end. You bet the right way.”

@ScottAdamsSays @realDonaldTrump

[Batya Ungar-Sargon @bungarsargon]

I hope this can be a unifying moment, not just for the Middle East but for us. I hope everyone who called Trump Hitler or a fascist takes this opportunity to rethink their assessment and join in the euphoria of this historic achievement. God bless the United States of America.

[James Lindsay, anti-Communist @ConceptualJames]

Regarding "Christian Nationalism" and "secularism," you all realize you have to be very, very, very clear and careful with these words and what they mean, right?

A "Christian nation" in America sounds great in a lot of ways and might, in those ways, be the solution to many of our Communist (and Fascist, and their hybrids) problem, but that's because the word "Christian" is vague.

You're probably mad now, not because I'm wrong but because you're not thinking practically about the issue. Stop being offended by everything. It prevents you from thinking. If you're mad and honest, it's because you're thinking in terms of a word you know represents a good thing (and it does): "Christian." (If you're mad and dishonest, it's because you're running this train against Christians and should be ashamed of yourself.)

If you're going to have a Christian nation as a legal framework or even the basis for a legal framework, you have to be able to answer the question "what is Christianity?" which, in practice, means "which Christianity or Christianities?" This question is not idle.

Are Protestants Christians? Most would say yes.
All of them?
Which confessions?
Is the Prosperity Gospel Christian?
Calvinists/Reformed?
Charismatics?
Presbyterians?
Are Catholics Christian?
How about LDS (Mormons)?
What about non-denominational?
Anglicans?
How about Unitarians, who deny the divinity of Christ and the Trinity? Are they Christians?
Messianic Jews?
Are left-leaning churches, including Catholic ones, Christian?
Radicals claiming Christ for extremist views?

These are real questions that will have to be answered if we're going to have "Christianity" as a legal basis for the country because some set of doctrines, narrow or wide, that can serve as the legitimate legal basis or law.

Think consequentially. If some but not all are in, then some are out. That means lines will be drawn about what is and is not legitimate as a "Christian belief" for a basis for legalism and the law. That means the state is telling you the range of acceptable beliefs, which not only infringes upon your religious liberties, upon which this country was founded, truly, but also potentially upon your relationship with God and your salvation (what if the state authorities actually get it wrong?).

Not having the state meddle in the affairs of your faith, conscience, belief, and worship is the real meaning of secularism. It doesn't mean "being neutral" on everything in the world and it doesn't mean "not being religious." The technical, formal meaning of secularISM is the belief that the state should be secular (out of, or separate from, church affairs).

The reason for this isn't to protect the state. It's to protect the churches and their congregants and believers of all kinds from the state. The state is seen rightly as an authority, and secularISM is the belief that the state should not be allowed to usurp the authority over matters of individual conscience and personal or group worship.

The secular world is that which is set apart, distinct, from the church. But it is the church and individual conscience which is actually set aside from the world by this principle. That is, the holy thing is set aside (as with the 7th Day in Genesis 2) from the worldly meddling of the state and its authorities, princelings, and bureaucrats. It sets the church aside as a space where the worldly power cannot touch, at least not deeply.

Living a secular life as an individual is another matter. It means not being religious, particularly or specifically, but it isn't the same thing as secularISM, which is the belief that the state doesn't have the authority to meddle in matters of faith, conscience, or worship.

The most of a "Christian nation" you can enforce, if that's what you want, and you want a country that doesn't allow the state to be granted the authority condemn people for believing the wrong way, regardless of God or conscience, is a culturally Christian nation, not a legally Christian nation. These are not the same thing at all, and neither necessarily leads to the other.

The thing is, the foundations of America are about 80% culturally Christian, truly, but there are other influences, including Jewish, Roman, and Greek, together with the genius of our own Founders. On the other hand, the foundations of American LAW are about 75% Jewish, coming from the Hebrew Bible predominantly, with incorporation of Christian, Roman, and Greek ideas, plus the Scottish Enlightenment views of our Founders.

It's easy to run with strong feelings and arguments without being careful enough to understand what the words really mean, using them as symbols you think represent "good" or "bad" without realizing what you're actually saying. The Left has done this for decades, but look what it got them.

We must be more discerning, more careful. We must understand distinctions. We must understand terms carefully and accurately and realize that generalizations often hide a lot of devil in the details that aren't being discussed.

Only by recognizing the genius of the Founders in dealing with these precise issues will we be able to navigate this dangerous, difficult time we're in. I hope you're up to it.

[The Babylon Bee @TheBabylonBee]

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