There were so many exceptionally enlightening articles this week (especially on the critical topics of the persecution of the Church and the rising wave of anti-Semitism throughout the world) that I share links beyond the normal number this morning. And, yes, they’re all well worth the read.
1) “When the Churches Go Silent at Christmas. Why Christianity endures while Europe locks its church doors.” (Lou Aguilar, American Spectator)
From the article -- This godless philosophy has destroyed Western Europe. The Christian faith that built its civilization and sustained it through a thousand years of darkness has been abandoned, hollowed. Consequently, the two forces Europe soundly defeated -- Islam and Marxism -- are now conquering it with little resistance, enabled by the nations’ leaders.
All over the continent, charming Yuletide traditions are being canceled for fear of Muslim-induced violence. In Germany, for instance, the beloved Christmas markets, the Weihnachtsmärkte, were scrubbed this year. Evil feeds on fear, and removing a spiritual counter to it only hastens its advance.
Related articles regarding the persecution of Christians: “Politico Frames European Christmas Celebrations as ‘Far-Right Spectacle’” (Olivia Rondeau, Breitbart)... “This Christmas was even harder for China's Christians (Christian Shepherd & Huiyee Chiew, Jewish World Review)... “‘The Victims Are Sold in Catalogs Like Property’ -- The Persecution of Christians, October 2025” (Raymond Ibrahim, Gatestone Institute)...“CCP Conducts Mass Arrests of Christians Days before Christmas” (S.A. McCarthy, Washington Stand)...“Christian Almost Murdered Twice By Islamists Finds Home In Canada For Christmas” (Casey Chalk, Federalist)...“‘Too White and Male’ -- Woke Museum Issues Guide to ‘Decolonising’ Father Christmas” (Simon Kent, Breitbart)
2) “Cheers for Ben Shapiro” (Editors, National Review)
From the article -- Ben Shapiro did the conservative movement a service last week by giving two speeches that were deliberate acts of provocation. First, at the Heritage Foundation, he argued that a political movement, like a nation, needs borders. He illustrated the point with reference to the Heritage Foundation mission statement, which supports free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom, traditional American values, and a strong national defense.
He then compared those principles with the beliefs of Tucker Carlson, with whom Heritage President Kevin Roberts has been in ideological sympathy, up to and including initially defending Carlson’s interview with Nick Fuentes (before backpedaling). Shapiro persuasively argued that by Heritage’s own standards Carlson — who expresses routine contempt for markets, who launders Russian propaganda, who sees the advantages of sharia law, and who gives sympathetic interviews to white nationalists, Churchill-hating World War II revisionists, and proud misogynists accused of rape — is no longer a conservative.
We assume that Roberts won’t be inviting Shapiro back any time soon, but his talk was received warmly by the audience at the Heritage Foundation.
A couple of days later, Shapiro spoke at TPUSA’s AmFest conference. He addressed the rank pandering to audience, widespread conspiracy-theorizing, and cowardly unwillingness to call out lunacy on the right that has infected the right-wing influencer space. Here, Shapiro focused on the absolutely cracked theories promoted by Candace Owens about the Charlie Kirk assassination; these rancid, obsessive musings, which would set off alarms bells for any psychiatrist if spouted by a patient, have significantly shaped the debate on the right about Kirk’s assassination.
True to form, Owens responded to Shapiro’s speech with an anti-Jewish rant.
Related articles: “What, Exactly, Does the Right Stand For? The American Right must relearn judgment and stop confusing tolerance with moral abdication.” (Josh Hammer, American Spectator)...“For JD Vance, Free Speech Only Means His Friends Can’t Be Criticized” (David Harsanyi, Jewish World Review)...“American conservatism and ‘the Jewish Question’ -- The silence of mainstream conservatives over the antisemitism in their midst is lethal for the Republicans and America.” (Melanie Phillips, Jewish News Service)...“Few on the ‘Far Right’ Turn Against the Jews” (Pierre Rehov, Gatestone Institute)...The Return of the Jewish Question (David Azerrad, Compact)...“Jewish state will always stand with Christians, Netanyahu says on Christmas Eve -- Netanyahu noted that the Jewish state is the only country in the region where Christians continue to live ‘with full rights and in total freedom.’” (Jewish News Service staff)
3) “The Religion of the Strong Horse: The world’s major religions need a better answer to Islam.” (Daniel Greenfield, Trajectories)
From the article -- Conversions to Islam rose sharply after major Islamic terrorist attacks from 9/11 to Oct 7. This runs counter to everything we would like to believe about religion and morality, but it’s reality.
Bin Laden’s ‘Strong Horse’ wasn’t about who would win a military campaign between America and Al Qaeda, as some foreign policy experts insisted on arguing in major publications, it was about who would win the religious and cultural war between Islam and the West. Terrorist attacks were battles for the ‘hearts and minds’ of the rest of the world. 9/11 and other attacks would show the world the religious superiority of Islam by showing it was the ‘Strong Horse’.
America and its allies wasted decades trying to win the ‘hearts and minds’ of Muslims from Afghanistan to Iraq to Gaza with billions in aid and democratic elections. The West welcomed mass Muslim migration to show how generous and tolerant we were. And no matter what we did, Muslim terrorist attacks became a regular feature of our lives because we insisted that being the liberal ‘Weak Horse’ made us morally superior to the men relentlessly killing us.
A generation later, more Americans are converting to Islam and joining the ‘Strong Horse’ than Muslims are converting to the democracy and liberalism of the ‘Weak Horse’. Secularism is on the decline in the Muslim world while Hamas and Hezbollah banners are waved on Ivy League campuses. Osama bin Laden had said that the “deeds” of the 9/11 hijackers had “overshadowed all other speeches made everywhere else in the world.” Terrorism is how Islam speaks and its message is that its followers believe so strongly that Islam is the only acceptable way of life that they are willing to die and kill to force everyone else to believe it too.
Related article: “Iran Opens New Front in Its War Against the U.S...But not the way you think.” (Robert Spencer, Front Page Magazine)
4) “‘We Don't Dispute’ It: Georgia 315k Vote Bombshell Blows a Big Hole in 2020’s ‘Most Secure Election’ Lie” (Rusty Weiss, Red State)
From the article -- David Cross, a local election integrity activist, made that allegation. He filed a formal challenge with the Georgia State Election Board in March 2022, alleging that Fulton County illegally counted around 315,000 early votes in the 2020 election without required poll worker signatures on tabulator tapes. He spoke at the hearing, telling the state election board of the irregularities he discovered.
“These signed tapes are the sole legal certification that the reported totals are authentic,” Cross said. “Fulton County produced zero signed tabulator tapes in early voting.”
“These are not clerical errors. They are catastrophic breaks in chain of custody and certification,” he continued.
“Because no tape was ever legally certified, Fulton County had no lawful authority to certify its advanced voting results to the secretary of state. Yet it did,” Cross added. “And Secretary Raffensperger accepted and folded those uncertified numbers into Georgia’s official total without questioning them. This is not partisan. This is statutory. This is the law."
"When the law demands three signatures on tabulator tapes and the county fails to follow the rules, those 315,000 votes are, by definition, uncertified.”
315,000 uncertified votes sure seem like a significant issue. For years after the 2020 election, we were told any questioning of the results in the "most secure election in history" was tantamount to a clear and present threat to democracy itself.
Related article: “The Fulton County 2020 Election Bombshell: A case study in how a deeply unpopular political party manages to win elections.” (David Catron, American Spectator)
5) “Policy Decisions, Immigration, And Greed Drive America’s Poverty Industry” (Allan J. Feifer, American Thinker)
From the article -- Thus, a Wall Street Journal article from last week completely upends the idea that we have many poor people in this country. Yes, I know that the idea is preposterous, yet it appears to be true. Did you know that welfare programs are not counted as income?
In the essay, Phil Gramm & John Early write that federal welfare spending now totals $1.4 trillion. If divided evenly among the 19.8 million families the government classifies as poor, each would receive more than $70,000 a year—yet none of these benefits are counted as income for eligibility or poverty measurement.
Even accounting for the “skim” (the money the government and NGOs rake in off the top), it’s a staggering number. It is impossible to reconcile the $1.4 trillion with what Democrats and the media maintain is a system that “neglects” the poor.
What this suggests is that everything we’re being told about the poor is a lie, or at least being called poor and not having money are separate things. How can we reconcile such foundational issues as “one in seven children go to bed hungry” with the reality that suggests strongly that there is little to no correlation between being poor and hungry and an unjust economic system? In fact, the contrary appears to be true.
Democrat and socialist politics depend on making Americans feel guilty. What if we all woke up one day and realized that the greatest scam of all was the underlying lie that not ‘paying your fair share’ meant you were not paying sufficient graft? In other words, our poverty complex isn’t about helping poor people. It’s about helping criminals (obviously aided by bureaucrats) enrich themselves with taxpayer funds by pretending to help poor people.
Other Excellent Articles from This Week?
Although I regularly scan the news and commentary found at Breitbart, Power Line, Fox News, Lucianne, American Spectator, Federalist, and so on, I am this week highlighting once again the value I regularly find in Harbinger’s Daily by selecting all 5 of this week’s Plus articles from that truly excellent (and almost unique) source:
* “Though Many Try, The Church Cannot Erase The Ongoing Importance Of Israel” (Amir Tsarfati, Harbinger’s Daily)
* “Celebrating Sin And Warping God’s Design: Progressive Church Blesses ‘Marriage’ Of Four Men” (Ken Ham, Harbinger’s Daily)
* “This Christmas, Bow Your Heart And Knee Before The King Of Kings” (Franklin Graham, Harbinger’s Daily)
* “Provoked To Anger Or Forever Changed: The Gospel Is For Everyone. Tell It Boldly” (Will Graham, Harbinger’s Daily)
* The Jesus Of Bible Prophecy: Christ Is No Longer A Little Baby Or Suffering Servant” (Nathan Jones, Harbinger’s Daily)
