The Top 5 Plus (October 24)

1) Paradise From the Wall Socket: Why the Left Is Winning the Young, From Berlin to New York -- Human dignity is an unconditional right. Prosperity is a conditional achievement. (Frank-Christian Hansel, American Greatness) 

From the article -- Electricity comes from the wall socket. Money comes from the ATM. Food comes from the store, the pension from the government, the apartment from the landlord. The water runs, the heat works, the ambulance arrives. Nothing about this needs to be understood in order to be used. You are born into it, and it is simply there.

That is the greatest achievement of the modern affluent society and its most dangerous weakness. What has always been there is taken for granted. What is taken for granted seems available. What is available merely needs to be fairly distributed. And whatever does not flow equally to everyone is a scandal.

In that short chain of assumptions sits an entire political worldview. It belongs to a generation that encounters a finished world and sees in it mainly the gaps: the unaffordable apartment, the unequal wealth, the poverty in a rich country. The questions are legitimate. The answer that follows with great regularity is wrong. It says, “all that is missing is political will.”

The better a society works, the less its members have to think about how it works. Nobody has to understand supply chains to buy a phone. Nobody has to know how a power grid is kept stable to switch on a light. This invisibility is a civilizational accomplishment; the division of labor frees the individual from knowing all the preconditions of his own life. But invisibility breeds illusion. What works reliably looks like nature. What has always been there will always be there. And what is there need only be shared out.

So prosperity becomes a pile to be divided. The question “how does this come into being?” disappears behind the question “why doesn’t everyone get the same amount?” And with it disappears the half of reality on which the other half stands.

2) A frenzied assault on French civilisation: The rioters’ targeting of the French Republic’s symbols speaks to their violent estrangement from their nation. (Frank Furedi, spiked!)

From the article -- Yet the most striking feature of these riots has been the extent to which they’ve been fuelled by a destructive and disruptive dynamic from the start. This dynamic has encouraged the convergence of different groups with no shared goals – from school and university students to violent bands of casseurs – to hit the streets together and cause havoc. And this, in turn, has led to a loss of self-control and the erosion of the kind of restraint that is usually associated with civilised behaviour. The riots have effectively been decivilising society.

Unlike the well-known revolts of modern times, these riots seem driven by a profound sense of hatred towards France. From the outset, the mob has directed its destructive passions against the symbols of the French Republic and the authority of the state. Schools, police stations and city halls have been targeted and, in many instances, set on fire – including the ornate, 19th-century Limoges city hall, which was gutted and engulfed by flames last Saturday.

The self-conscious desecration of the institutions of the French Republic was captured well by the behaviour of the masked gangs who invaded the city hall in Marseille and hurled the bust of Marianne on to the floor. The desecration of Marianne – the female personification of the French Republic – was not an accidental act of vandalism. The mob was performing a ritual of giving France a good kicking.

Related articles: The French Revolution of the 21st Century: From the Guillotine to the Suicide Vest: The Reign of Terror, Reimagined. (Itxu Díaz, American Spectator), France on fire: the nihilists against the normies: Across the West, a Bonapartist alliance of privileged leftists and lumpen foreigners are setting fire to decency. (Brendan O'Neill, spiked!), BLM-Style French Riots Offer Cautionary Tale to Americans (Joshua Arnold, Washington Stand)

3) Pyromania, from Paris to Palestine (Seth Mandel, Commentary)

From the article -- Brad Lander is currently on a selfie tour of Judea and Samaria. Here he is on a comfy bus ride guarded by IDF soldiers—Lander was with a group of foreigners seeking to provoke clashes between Jews and Arabs during the olive harvest, and the IDF accompanied him away from the area where he was trying to start a war.

Lander’s fun trip turned sour, however, when he practically begged the IDF to arrest him and they refused. Lander told the friendly IDF soldiers that he wasn’t yet a congressman, just a candidate for Congress, hoping they would put him in handcuffs or give him some anti-Zionist photo op. But the IDF didn’t care that he wasn’t that important; they treated him with respect anyway. All they required of him was to follow the law.

Lander’s disappointment was palpable. Over the past week or so, a particular pattern has taken place. American activists join Arab Palestinians in rock-throwing attacks and other provocations against Jews in the area, Jews respond with their own acts of violence, the foreign media print only the Jewish violence, and more conflict tourists are incentivized to join a conflict on the other side of the world.

Jewish shepherds and farmers have had their animals stolen, others have seen their animals poisoned. Settlers have blocked roads, trapped Palestinians inside their houses, and committed their own disreputable acts of violence and provocation. It’s a genuine cycle of violence, with a complicated back story: The Palestinian rejection of statehood has left Judea and Samaria in a state of limbo. Jews and Arabs thus try to create facts on the ground in a competition over land.

The other day, a Palestinian appeared to be caught on video trying to kill Knesset candidate Fleur Hassan by throwing a football-sized jagged rock through her car window while she and others were driving through Judea and Samaria. Brad Lander did not volunteer to drive Fleur Hassan around in an act of protective solidarity because such anti-Israel activists are there to provoke, not prevent, violence.

4) The Damage Weak Leaders Can Do To Their Own Countries (Nils A. Haug, Gatestone Institute)

From the article -- Why are France and other parts of Europe going up in flames? No one tried to stop the marauders when they could. Many people, apparently, would rather be conquered by rapists, stabbers, car-rammers and beheaders than be called a racist.

There also seems to be a slight confusion about who are actually the racists here: the Westerners who incomprehensibly seem not to appreciate being raped, stabbed, car-rammed or beheaded, or the rioters and those who told them exactly which homes and businesses to smash, loot and burn. By a miraculous coincidence, it seems, not one Muslim shop in Marseille was damaged.

As Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pointed out this week, the Jews have lived on that land for more than 3,000 years. Part of it is actually called Judea. How can you "occupy" land if you are its indigenous people?

If anyone is committing ethnic cleansing or genocide -- not just of Israelis, but of all Jews -- it is the Palestinians. Hamas states it quite plainly in its original covenant: "The Day of Judgement will not come about until Moslems fight the Jews (killing the Jews), when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say O Moslems, O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him." – Hamas Covenant, Article 7, 1988.

5) Europe: Ready for the Antichrist (Jan Markell, Harbinger's Daily)

From the article -- We’re seeing Europe’s globalists paving the way for the Antichrist. They are throwing out the welcome mat.

No, the title of Antichrist doesn’t belong to bumbling Emmanuel Macron, but in 2016, even The Economist magazine was calling him Europe’s savior. How God humbles the proud. As the head of France, no European leader today should be as ashamed as Emmanuel Macron, who casually enjoyed a Celine Dion concert while policemen were on fire in Paris and elsewhere.

Now the world knows he’s no savior. But there is one standing by somewhere. He will rise from obscurity.

There have been riots and demonstrations in Greece, Spain, Italy, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Portugal, and beyond, but began in mid-September in France.

Be He God or Devil, We Will Receive Him! Seriously?

Europe has cried for a savior in days gone by. Paul Henri Spaak—a Belgian politician called “Mr. Europe”, was Secretary General of NATO in 1957. At that time, he made a statement that lingers and should haunt Europeans today:

“What we need is a man of sufficient stature to hold the
allegiance of all people, and to lift us out of the
economic morass into which we are sinking.
Send us such a man, and be he god or devil, we
will receive him.”

Daniel 9 suggests the Antichrist will come from the region that destroyed the Temple in 70 AD. And while the Roman Empire was huge, most scholars suggest this “little horn” will arise from what is today, the European Union.

Welcoming the Stranger??

Europe has reeked with the familiar mantras of “free Palestine” and “from the river to the sea” since October 7, 2023. Could that be a judgment? Decades ago, Europe killed most of its Jews and then began welcoming Islamic immigrants to the point of collapse today.

Now, they need a savior, and according to Spaak and almost all of today’s globalists, be he god or devil, they will receive him.

Other Excellent Articles

* High Time For A History Lesson: Who Is The Greatest Obstacle To Peace Between Israelis And Arabs? (Chris Katulka, Harbinger's Daily)

* Crazy Colorado: It’s no California, but it’s getting there. (Tom Raabe, American Spectator)

* The Emperor’s New Running Shoes: A Washington cross-country runner’s sudden success puts the hypocrisy of progressive feminism on full display. (Sarah Kendis, American Spectator)

* Pedophilia Proliferates in U.S. Schools: The federal government has intensified efforts to curb rampant sexual abuse of students in the nation’s schools and to end the despicable practice of “passing the trash.” (Larry Sand, American Greatness)

* Your Browser Might Be Spying On You To Change The Price Of Items You Purchase (Sarah Westall, Federalist)

The Top 5 Plus (October 17)

1) What an Awful Woman: She wants to promote abortion as a cost-saving measure. (Ellie Gardey Holmes, American Spectator)

From the article -- Of course, this question Valenti refers to, “whether or not to have a child,” is really a question of whether or not to kill your existing child.

Valenti concludes that this decision of whether or not to kill your baby is just the same as sitting around your kitchen table with your spouse and deciding whether to change to a cheaper phone plan or spend less on eating out that month. Valenti concludes that this decision of whether or not to kill your baby is just the same as sitting around your kitchen table with your spouse and deciding whether to change to a cheaper phone plan or spend less on eating out that month. “And so I do not see how this is not a kitchen table issue when you talk about it,” she said. “Voters understand it when you are actually talking about it.”

Apparently, the reason Valenti sees dollar signs when she thinks of abortion is that she herself is happy every day that her bank account is a little fuller because her child is dead. Yes, when Valenti was 28 years old, she killed her own unborn child. She has spoken about how much better her life is because her dead child is not a part of it anymore. (RELATED: How Abortion Politics Led to a Broader Revolt Against Biology) FindCare Clinics

“The life and family I have now simply would not exist without that abortion,” she wrote in 2021. Moreover, she explained, she would not have been able to have a successful career advocating for abortion and “helping” other women abort their own babies. “Because of my abortion,” she wrote, “I wrote books and gave speeches; I did work that helped other women.”

2) As Europe Crumbles, The United States And Israel Stand As The Two Nations Willing To Defend Their Civilization (Erick Stakelbeck, Harbinger's Daily)

From the article -- It’s easy to see why Europe resents Israel so much.

Israelis are patriotic. They’re resilient in the face of adversity. They’re confident in their country, their culture, and the justness of their cause. Everywhere you look in Israel, there are large families. Israel is everything Europe used to be.

The prophet Zechariah promised a day would come when the streets of Jerusalem would be full of boys and girls playing in the streets (Zech. 8:5). We are there today, and it’s a beautiful thing to see. Israelis are increasingly conservative, and they honor their traditions and forefathers. There is a feeling among Israelis that they are all in it together as they battle Islamic jihadists on a daily basis. Israelis are innovative and optimistic about the future.

Drive through Jerusalem today, and you see cranes and construction everywhere. Exciting things are happening. On the other hand, drive through Paris, London, Brussels, or Berlin, and the last word that comes to mind is not excitement, but alarm.

Over the past several days in France, we’ve seen thousands of young Muslim migrants and second-generation Muslim immigrants wreak havoc.

According to the willfully blind mainstream media, they’re supposedly protesting the conditions in French schools. But that’s just a cover for the real goal: to conquer France from within. The display from Paris last weekend was Palestinian flags as far as the eye could see, no French flags—funny how that works! Now, the riots in France have spread to Brussels. We have also seen mass Islamic shows of force over the past week in London, Copenhagen, and Turin, all with the full support of the European left, which is marching arm in arm alongside.

The unholy red-green alliance is the main reason Europe is a basket case today. Mass civil unrest and civil war seem inevitable.

Related article: A People Apart: The deepest questions about America and Israel are not questions of foreign policy. (Michael S. Kochin, American Greatness)

3)  Europe’s Hard Left at Its Most Dangerous: As elections loom, it’s determined to do whatever it takes to hold on. (Martin Arostegui, American Spectator)

From the article -- Conservatives are poised to win back power throughout Europe, but the left is fighting back, violently. Communists and Islamist groups funded through CCP channels are using shock tactics, mass mobilizations, media, and vote manipulation to influence critical elections scheduled in the coming months.

Far left organizations allied with pro-Palestine activist groups are rioting across France in anticipation of a victory by the anti-globalist Rassemblement National party. Leftist parliamentary leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who has said that he will “not accept” an RN victory, has called for a “general strike.” 

Violent protests are spreading in Germany in response to nationalist AfD victories in recent regional elections. In Spain, socialist president Pedro Sánchez is calling for “mobilizations against the ultra-right wing opposition” favored to win Nov. 29 elections, which his scandal-ridden, rickety minority government is holding after losing far left support in parliament. 

Socialist-controlled labor unions are now also calling for a general strike in Spain, which could become the next major battleground...

The far left, backed by powerful outside actors, is waging  political warfare at an unprecedented scale to retain control of the EU.

The chaotic scenario unfolding in major NATO countries once considered stable U.S. allies and bulwarks of the Western alliance plays into the hands of Iran’s IRGC, which is activating terrorist sleeper cells in Europe. China’s interests are also closely protected by European leftists. Russia is already engaged in widespread hybrid warfare against NATO countries. 

4) FDA continues to punt conclusions on abortion drug’s safety (Erin Morrow Hawley, Alliance Defending Freedom)

From the article -- The American people deserve the thorough report on abortion drug safety that the FDA has promised for nearly two years, but the agency has again failed to deliver it. The FDA now says it won’t release its final study until March. That will be too late for nearly 90,000 unborn babies who will die between now and then by illegally obtained abortion drugs in states like Louisiana that have taken great care to protect babies and mothers from the harms of abortion.

“But even then, the lengthy regulatory work that will be required after the study concludes could push any potential solution to the next administration. Not only is that unacceptable, but it’s also beside the point. The release of a study does nothing to correct the unlawfulness of the FDA’s 2023 decision, which three 5th Circuit panels, two district court judges, and now DOJ leadership itself have all concluded was ‘wrong.’

“Meanwhile, every month of additional delay puts nearly 15,000 additional babies at risk in states where mail-order abortion drugs are unlawful—1,000 in Louisiana alone—and more women like Rosalie, Catherine, and Elizabeth at risk of being coerced or tricked into ingesting these life-ending drugs. Nobody disputes that. And the FDA can easily end that today, even while its study continues, by entering into a consent decree with Louisiana to vacate the 2023 REMS.

“Indeed, mail-order abortions don’t empower women—they facilitate the abuse, coercion, and poisoning of women by making high-risk drugs accessible to bad actors at the click of a button. The FDA knows the right thing is to restore the in-person dispensing requirement. In fact, a new peer-reviewed article was just released detailing that the agency lacked evidence to justify removing this basic safety requirement.

Related article: The Case to Revisit the FDA’s Approval of Abortion Pills (Chuck Donovan, Washington Stand)

5) Nobel Peace Prize Goes To Pro-Hamas Supporter Of Chinese Genocide: The Nobel Committee’s credibility won’t recover until it stops treating political alignment as a substitute for genuine achievement. (Helen Raleigh, Federalist)

From the article -- Critics of Pillay’s award were blunt. Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch, said Pillay’s “troubling record on antisemitism and gross breach of ethics in presiding over a notorious UN commission utterly disqualifies her from such an award.” A Wall Street Journal editorial argued that because Pillay could not distinguish “the difference between genocide and a defensive military campaign against a homicidal adversary that hid behind civilians in mosques, schools and hospitals,” awarding her the Peace Prize is unlikely to “promote the cause of peace.”

Pillay’s 2026 award continues a disturbing pattern of the Norwegian Nobel Committee elevating figures whose record on peace was either doubtful or even anti-peace. Yasser Arafat received the 1994 prize despite chairing the Palestine Liberation Organization and pursuing armed struggle against Israel rather than peace throughout his life. In 2009, Barack Obama received the prize despite the absence of major peace agreements and while overseeing ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Many criticized the Nobel Committee for rewarding aspirations, rhetoric, and potential rather than real accomplishment. A USA Today/Gallup poll shortly afterward found 61 percent of American adults said he did not deserve it. 

These examples show how the Norwegian Nobel Committee has steadily blown its credibility by using the Peace Prize to spread leftist worldviews rather than consistently recognizing genuine peacemaking and the courageous defense of human rights. Such an approach is increasingly shaped by what critics call the red-green alliance — the convergence of Democrats, leftists, and socialists with radical Islamists, bound together mainly by hostility to capitalism, Israel, and the West.

Related article: The Moral Inversion of the Nobel Peace Prize: From Liu Xiaobo to Navi Pillay (Sasha Gong, American Greatness) 

Other Important Articles:

* 'Do Not Provoke Us!': The Extremist Persecution of Christians, June 2026 (Raymond Ibrahim, Gatestone Institue)

* The cloying cult of Muslim victimhood: A new report claims a mosque in the UK is attacked every five days. It’s simply untrue. (Brendan O'Neill, spiked!)

* Romans One On Display: Secular Study Struggles To Answer Why The Laws Of Physics Are So Perfectly Suited To Life (Ken Ham, Harbinger's Daily)

* National Book Foundation Honors Book About White Paint Being Racist (Steven Tucker, Federalist)

* Why Gas Prices Stay High Even When America Drills Its Own Oil (Victor Davis Hanson, Daily Signal)

The Top 5 Plus (October 10)

1) “When It Comes to Christians and Policy, Pastor Willy Rice Gets It” (Paul Batura, Citizen)

From the article -- “The need of the hour is not for executives, celebrities, intellectuals, life-coaches, podcasters, authors or performers,” he said. “The greatest need in our movement is for faithful, Christ-honoring pastors that will take up the task of shepherding the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ.”

According to Dr. Rice, part of that pastoral task includes encouraging Christians to engage in the political process. “Throughout American history, pastors have had a strong voice at key moments in American political history, even in the revolutionary times—maybe especially in the founding of our country,” Rice said.

Pastor Rice isn’t shy about confronting the mistaken belief that Christian leaders should stay silent on hot-button cultural issues. “It’s quite interesting, over the last several years, among many conservatives—and by conservative, I’m not talking politically there as much as I’m talking theologically; I’m talking about historic Christian orthodoxy,” Rice stressed. “Many Bible-believing, conservative evangelicals were actually being encouraged to be more quiet, to withdraw from the political process.”

He continued: “Some of those voices came externally from pressure saying, ‘You shouldn’t mix religion and politics,’” Rice argued. “But some of those voices came internally from those who said, ‘In order to be faithful in our mission, we needed to decouple, divorce ourselves as it were, from some controversial political issues.’”

Related articles: “Rice: Southern Baptist pastors should be involved in the political process” (Scott Barkley, Baptist Press), “Southern Baptist Convention President: Midterm Election Issues Are ‘Deeply, Profoundly, Theological’” (Lee Weeks, Decision)

2) “The New Antisemitism: October 7 Was A Symptom As Well As A Tragedy” (Olivier Melnick, Harbinger’s Daily)

From the article -- It took decades for the tree of “Palestinian Narrative” to take root, but today it is a tree of deceit firmly planted in Western tolerance and multiculturalism, and it continues to be watered by social justice and wokism from the Left AND from the Right. In 2026, the switch is complete. In the eyes of our global village, the Jewish victims have fully morphed into the new perpetrators in the Middle East (and by proxy, all Diaspora Jews), seeking occupation, apartheid, and genocide.

At the same time, Palestinian Arabs have been recast as the new victims, through the crafty media productions in books, movies, online, and on the streets. It is a method known as “Pallywood,” where scenes are staged and filmed with actors and fake victims to simulate victimization and heavy casualties of Palestinians and, as a result, demonize and delegitimize Israel in the eyes of the world. If there were ever an award ceremony for the “Palestinization” of the world, the events of October 7, 2023 would win in every category.

So, it is appropriate to remember the tragedy of October 7. In a gruesome Holocaust fashion, many lost their lives after psychological torture, violence, rape, and fire. Many more were taken hostage by Hamas and a plethora of willing Palestinian co-perpetrators (70%-75%). Even during Nazi Germany, some Germans rescued and sheltered Jews. Not one Palestinian did such a thing in Gaza. 

Related articles: “Oct. 7, remembered in Israel and beyond” (JNS Staff), “Hijacker Target Revealed: Ben Gurion Airport” (Also, Britain's antisemitism problem returns.) (Amit Segal and Ari Tatarka, It’s Noon in Israel), “We Stand with Israel” (Denny Hartford, Vital Signs Blog), “On The October 7 Anniversary, The United Kingdom Advocates For Israel’s Eradication ‘From The River To The Sea’” (Chris Katulka, Harbinger's Daily), October 8th’s Irony: Islamic Supremacists Fall in the Middle East, Rise in the West: Will we find the moral clarity and summon the courage to defeat them? (Benjamin Weingarten).

3) “The West Confronted with Two Islams” (Bat Ye’or, Gatestone Institute)

From the article -- The concept of dar al-harb (the “abode of war”) -- countries still to be conquered for Islam and regarded as the realm of absolute evil in which the injustice of infidel laws prevails -- remains current and effective in Islamic theology. It is this concept that today mobilizes some Muslim immigrants in the West to reject integration into societies that do not practice sharia. In other words, the clash of civilizations persists, but now within Western civilizations themselves, which have lost their homogeneity through the demographic changes and host large numbers of Muslim immigrants imposing their own laws

The present situation recalls the traditional waves of jihadist conquest of territories inhabited by Christians, Jews and other non-Muslims. Greek, Serbian, and Slavic historians bitterly chronicled, over the course of centuries, the internal traitors -- military figures, displaced aristocrats, princes of the Church -- who made pacts with Muslim conquerors and handed citadels and cities over to them.

The radical activism today of the Muslim diaspora within Western societies and its refusal to integrate... stem from directives issued by the OIC [a sort of global caliphate representing 56 Muslim countries].

In the West, jihad operates on several levels: indiscriminate terrorism, censorship of “blasphemy,” changes in customs and laws, the ballot box, the adoption of Western concepts in order to turn them against Europeans, such as cancel culture (to shut out Western evil), and calls for “resistance” (against Christian laws, by holding to jihadist principles of conquest and domination) and "liberation" (meaning the replacement of infidel law by sharia).

4) “Rubio’s Magnificent Speech Meant for Europe... and US: The Sec’y of State was masterful at the Acropolis” (Roger Simon, Substack)

From the speech itself -- For 25 centuries since, the Parthenon has stood.  Empires have risen and fallen beneath its shadow.  And the progeny of the men who built it – the sons of Athens and Rome – have carried their civilization with them to the ends of the Earth.

Two and a half centuries after the founding of the American republic halfway across the world from where I stand now – I stand here today as the Secretary of State of that republic, and a great-grandson of settlers who arrived in the new world from Spain – I stand here to testify to a debt that no lapse of time, no distance of space can ever extinguish. 

The history of America, the history of my country, is covered with the fingerprints of antiquity.  Greece is literally carved into the architecture of our government: in the towering columns, in the domes and the monuments across our capital city.  The city where our Constitution was born – Philadelphia – is itself a Greek name.

The men who founded my country were fascinated by the heritage we inherited from yours.  They were exceptionally well-read in history – they were vividly aware of their unique place in it – but no other age of the past held their attention or their imagination quite like that of antiquity.  Many, many people are surprised to learn that the most commonly cited author in the Federalist Papers was not an Enlightenment philosopher or political theorist.  No, the most commonly cited author in the Federalist Papers was Plutarch, the Greek biographer of Greece and Rome’s great men.

Now, much has been written and said about the influence of ancient Greece on the ideas of the American Founders – and, for that matter, on all of the Western philosophers and statesmen that preceded them.  Most of us are familiar with the basic history.  Athens gave us democracy.  Plato and Aristotle gave us Western philosophy.  Our ideas of law, of virtue, of citizenship, and republican government were shaped in the Greek city-states.  Even much of our political vocabulary – words like democracy, tyranny, the word “politics” itself – found its origins here.

Now, all of that is true.  But the things we owe to this place – as Americans, and as Westerners – are actually far far deeper.  These institutions and ideas – these institutions and ideas were the outward expression of more fundamental qualities we see in the ancient Greeks – qualities that can’t be reduced to any particular political system or theory.

Related articles plus a link to the full text (and video!) of the Rubio speech:

“Marco Goes Hard About what really matters” (Glenn Harlan Reynolds), “Rubio Warns Europe to ‘Wake Up’ and Rediscover National Strength” (AG News Staff), “Marco Rubio Delivers First Speech of the 2028 Presidential Race -- The speech receives an A+ grade.” (Daniel J. Flynn, American Spectator), and “Secretary of State Marco Rubio Remarks” (U.S. Department of State). 

5) “Trump and the Relentless Momentum of Events: Trump is the great magnetic north of our political metabolism.” (Roger Kimball, American Greatness)

From the article -- Back in 2022, I agreed with the conventional wisdom that the election would be a blowout for Republicans. I was wrong. This time, I suspect that the conventional wisdom has failed to price into its calculations the astonishing number of victories the Trump administration has racked up in its first 18 months.

It is a long list. The Dems recently learned the word “affordability” and have been practicing saying it aloud early and often. News from many quarters is undercutting their complaints. Yes, gas prices, which peaked in 2022 under Biden, are still elevated because of the war in Iran. But they are on their way down and will plummet in coming weeks as markets begin to register Iran’s defeat. Recently, the Atlanta Fed predicted that real growth in the third quarter will come in at a blistering 5.0–5.1 percent. At the same time, the Census Bureau released data showing that the poverty rate fell to 10.2 percent, the lowest in our history. Blue-collar income has jumped between 4 and 5 percent since January 2025, when Trump began his second term. Manufacturing—and manufacturing jobs—are flooding back into the United States.

On the foreign policy front, it is hard to keep up. At the beginning of the year, Trump nabbed Nicolás Maduro and his wife from their supposedly impregnable fortress in Caracas. He then made what the White House called “the biggest oil deal in world history, delivering U.S. majority control of more than 65 billion barrels of proven oil reserves in Venezuela.” Last month, Trump signed a permanent security deal with Denmark and Greenland. The agreement recognized official “Danish sovereignty and Greenlandic self-determination.” It is an odd or “lite” version of sovereignty, however, since the agreement also grants to the United States the exclusive right to maintain and expand military bases in Greenland. The deal also grants the U.S. exclusive say about access to Greenland’s extensive mineral wealth and “sensitive sector investment.”

Other Important Articles

* “Are We Becoming Gondor?: J.R.R. Tolkien’s vision of a declining Gondor offers a warning for the troubled West—but also a message of hope that renewal remains possible.” (Victor Davis Hanson, Victor Davis Hanson, American Greatness)

3 of Denny’s Open Letters from This Week’s Vital Signs Blog:

* “Enough Already! Let's DEFUND the United Nations.”

* “Nebraska Leaders AWOL on the Safeguarding Women from Chemical Abortion Act: An Open Letter”

* “Fulfilling Islamic Law by Burning His Daughters? An Open Letter to Nebraska Senators”

* “Margaret Thatcher Goes to Hell” (If you didn't loath the modern Disney corporation enough) (John Hinderaker, Power Line)

Enough Already! Let's DEFUND the United Nations.

This basic letter is being sent to President Trump, all of Nebraska's Federal lawmakers, and selected Cabinet members...

Dear Secretary Rubio,

I certainly stand with Senator Mike Lee -- and so do the majority of Americans who are aware that the United States gives 13-14 billion dollars every year to the United Nations – “No more blank checks for the United Nations. Americans’ hard-earned dollars have been funneled into initiatives that fly in the face of our values, enabling tyrants, betraying allies, and spreading bigotry.”

Enough is way more than enough. The United States playing patsy to this ever-increasingly greedy, bizarre, socialistic, anti-Semitic, terrorist applauding, and anti-American business must come to an end.

Please pursue the aims proposed by of S. 669, the DEFUND Act and, in whatever other ways possible, defend America’s reputation for freedom, fair play, justice, and fiscal sanity by extricating our country from this inept, and hyper-hypocritical organization.

"We Stand with Israel"

"In this house, we remember in mourning the some 1,200 Jews that Hamas barbarians terrorized, tortured, and murdered on this date 3 years ago. And we remember the thousands more who survived the attacks and yet were injured, many of them severely, with effects that will last their entire lives. And we remember the 251 Jewish people who the demonic thugs of Hamas then kidnapped, took back to Gaza, imprisoned in cages, and further humiliated, starved, and further tortured.

And, in this house, we stand with Israel."

Have You Ever Thought of the Constitution as Sin Management?

“Alone in the woods, it’s possible to go a whole day without sinning, nutty as that may sound. Walking alone in the fields and praying, watching the game running up and down the pig trails, it’s unlikely you’ll use the Lord’s name in vain or worship some other god. In the woods there’s no one to steal from, no women to lust after. There’s no one to lie to either, and you can’t murder someone who’s not around. See? Sin management in isolation is easy. [But] I suspect our Founding Fathers knew most people wouldn’t participate in sin management by making their way to the woods. 

They knew that our great America wouldn’t be forged in isolation, and that most people would congregate down the wider roads. They knew folks would rub shoulders as they built society. And as I wrote in the previous chapter, they hoped these folks -- together with all their children and grandchildren -- would build a strong and virtuous nation. They knew, though, that any community of people hoping to build a virtuous society would need a teacher. And so, they left us a grand instructor: a canon of biblically based law.” (Phil Robertson, The Theft of America’s Soul: Blowing the Lid Off the Lies that are Destroying Our Country, page 115)

Nebraska Leaders AWOL on the Safeguarding Women from Chemical Abortion Act: An Open Letter

Dear Senator Ricketts,

I’m writing to ask what you are doing in opposing the mail order abortion drug mifepristone, a deadly and wickedly deceptive chemical poison that seriously endangers the health and well-being of the pregnant woman... and kills the precious and innocent baby she is bearing. Indeed, why have you not bothered to even co-sponsor S. 4066, the Safeguarding Women from Chemical Abortion Act?

That this common-sense, humane, and eminently just effort has only received 7 co-sponsorships among those Republicans who so loudly tout their pro-life convictions when they appear at pro-life events back home is truly inexplicable. We have long trusted your statements regarding the sanctity of life and have deeply appreciated your past efforts, so, please don’t let this oversight continue.

Therefore, Senator Ricketts, I am writing to ask you to please co-sponsor S. 4066 ASAP and to work diligently to educate your colleagues (and your constituents) about the sinister workings of the abortion poisons being manufactured by Danco and other big-pharma companies. And then, please redouble your efforts to defend and promote the sanctity of life by going strong against fetal death by chemicals. 

After all, Senator, more preborn boys and girls are being wantonly destroyed now with these abortion pills than even the worst years of the Roe v Wade era. In fact, there has been more than a 20% increase since the Dobbs decision with 2/3 of the abortions being committed with the abortion pill. And the Safeguarding Women from Chemical Abortion Act presents a critically important response to this burgeoning, deadly industry.

The common-sense purpose of S. 4066 is “To provide that the approved application under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act for the drug mifepristone for the purpose of the termination of intrauterine pregnancy is deemed to have been withdrawn, to establish a Federal tort for harm to women caused by chemical abortion drugs, and for other purposes.”

Suction machines. Curettes. Saline solutions. Chemical poisons like mifepristone. It is time to fight wisely, comprehensively, and hard against all the means of killing boys and girls in the womb. Please let us know that you will be increasing your efforts in this most momentous of pro-life campaigns.

Denny Hartford (for Claire Hartford too)
Director, Vital Signs Ministries
Omaha

Fulfilling Islamic Law by Burning His Daughters? An Open Letter to Nebraska Senators

Dear Senator Fischer, 

Among the most atrocious elements of the militant Islam that are malignantly spreading throughout the world are forced conversion, violent persecution of Christians and other “infidels,” the cruel subjugation and mistreatment of women, and an arrogant disdain for evenly applied justice. Well, this story has it all. It is a horrifying example of the insidious evils spewing forth from intolerant Islam.

Late this summer, Amina and Shamila (shown above), teenaged sisters in the Kasese district of Uganda, had been introduced to Christianity with its central themes of compassion and forgiveness of sins via the substitutionary death of Jesus Christ. They decided to leave Islam and become Christians. Their father’s reaction? Just a few nights later, he doused their house with gasoline and set it ablaze while the girls were sleeping. He had previously threatened that he would “fulfill Islamic law” by punishing them and this was the lethal plan he chose.

By the grace of God, the girls awakened to the sounds and smells in the burning building, saw the flames entering their room, and began to frantically remove enough bricks from the wall to crawl out to safety. And, though they lost all their belongings in the fire, they were alive and received immediate help from Christian neighbors.

Despite the murder by arson attempt, the young women’s new faith in Christ was actually strengthened. “We are happy to say that the fire consumed our shelter, but did not consume our faith and hope in Jesus Christ.”

It remains unclear whether or not the father will face trial for the attempted murder of his daughters.

This sad account -- and its certainly not the first of its kind -- emphasizes the dire need of Americans to 1) carefully investigate immigration into the United States to keep hardcore Islamists out and 2) to diligently protect the U.S. Constitution (and the laws, procedures, and freedoms that flow from it) against the very real threats of its usurpation by “sharia law.” 

Thank you, Senator, for seriously considering the dire importance of these matters.

Denny Hartford
Director, Vital Signs Ministries
Omaha

The Top 5 Plus (October 3)

1) “Those amazing and heroic Israelis: An averted catastrophe in the air shows how the Jewish state chooses life, while Britain and the West are embracing a culture of death.” (Melanie Phillips, JNS)

From the article -- Only the Israelis could behave like this—regular people displaying raw courage, heroism and the lion-hearted, can-do Israeli spirit. Alerted to an existential threat, these ordinary guys immediately took matters into their own hands, neutralized the danger and saved countless lives.

What an amazing, wonderful, heroic country. What a symbol of everything Israel has been doing for the past three years, ever since Hamas launched its genocidal onslaught against it on Oct. 7, 2023. What a statement of defiance against Britain and a Western world now consumed (whatever they think they’re supporting) by a deranged agenda to wipe this country out. How this lifts the spirits. And how those spirits are instantly lowered by contact with the life-destroying venom of the Western intelligentsia.

Western media outlets tried everything they could to downplay the near-catastrophe in the skies over Saudi Arabia. CNN called it “an internal personnel incident between pilots.” The New York Times called it “a clash in the cockpit.” Reuters headlined it: “A pilot brawl, then a rapid descent: Passengers recount chaos in flydubai flight.”

As ever, the BBC excelled itself as a disgrace to journalism. BBC News reported: “Israel’s far right national security minister Ben-Gvir says that an Israel bound flight that landed in Saudi Arabia was due to a terrorist who wanted to crash the plane and kill Israelis.”

Related articles: “The lesson of Flydubai? Don’t mess with Zionists: The heroism on that crazy flight was a beautiful reminder that the Jewish nation is here to stay.” (Brendan O'Neill, spiked!)

2) “Why Solzhenitsyn’s 1978 Speech About America Still Demands Attention” (Daniel J. Mahoney, Daily Signal)

From the article -- Writing three years later in the pages of Foreign Affairs magazine, Solzhenitsyn remarked that he had been under the mistaken impression that Americans welcomed criticism, but now he understood that our elites only welcomed it from the Left. “Total,” unrelenting, even nihilistic, criticism of Western civilization by leftist ideologues was welcome, but “partial,” yet sympathetic, criticism of the kind proffered by Solzhenitsyn was verboten.

Later, however, Solzhenitsyn would observe in his memoir “Between Two Millstones” that after the initial round of uncomprehending indictments of the “Harvard Address,” he began to hear from those who belonged to another, more solid, traditional America. This less elite-driven America “was small-town and robust, the heartland, the America I envisioned as I was writing my speech, and to which my speech was addressed.” The receptive welcome of these patriotic and religious-minded Americans gave the great Russian writer and Nobel laureate “a glimmer of hope” that he could connect with the part of the country that had not yet succumbed to the progressivist Zeitgeist.

In the “Harvard Address,” Solzhenitsyn defends liberty under God and the law while taking aim at soulless legalism and facile moral relativism. Instead of recommending authoritarian coercion of any kind, Solzhenitsyn endorsed “freely accepted and serene self-limitation” as the wisest and most prudent course of action for both individuals and societies.

3) “‘UNAI’: It is time to rename the UN to United Nations Against Israel” (Duvi Honig, Jerusalem Post)

From the article -- From the opening day of the General Assembly, speech after speech turned toward Israel: Turkey. Jordan. Qatar. France. Britain. Brazil. The secretary-general himself. Different continents. Different religions. Different political systems. Different national interests. Yet somehow they keep finding the same common ground: Israel.

The world has wars raging, dictatorships crushing their own people, political prisoners sitting in cells, minorities being persecuted, women being denied basic rights, and terror groups operating openly. Iran itself poses a direct threat to America and the West. Yet when the nations gather, the recurring target becomes Israel.

Again and again.

And that is where the institution’s name begins to take on a different meaning. The UN seems unable to unite around almost anything. But put Israel in the middle of the room, and suddenly the nations discover what it means to be united.

Related articles: “United Nations Against Israel: The Backwards Antisemitic Thinking Of The World Is Stunning -- But Not Unanticipated.” (Breanna Claussen, Harbinger’s Daily): “America First Means Standing with Israel: Standing with Israel is in our strategic interest.” (Fred Fleitz, American Greatness)...“‘October 7 Will Return': Hamas, Like Iran, Will Not Voluntarily Give Up the Fight” (Khaled Abu Toameh, Gatestone Institute)...“Is Anti-Jewish Legislation Making A Comeback Across Europe?” (Olivier Melnick, Harbinger’s Daily).

4) “The Quiet Islamic Colonization of America” (Pierre Rehov, Gatestone Institute)

From the article -- While countries in the West are always nonchalantly accused of imperialism and colonization, how come no one ever mentions the Islamic imperialism and colonization of Christian Byzantium – now Turkey – let alone the entire Ottoman Empire? How come no one ever mentions the Islamic colonization of the Coptic Christian country of Egypt, or of northern Cyprus in 1974? Or the formerly Buddhist countries of southeast Asia, such as the Maldives, Malaysia or Indonesia?

The Islamic colonization now underway in Europe and the United States carries no racial or demographic content.... The territory being taken is ideological: it changes hands whenever a political movement discovers that open institutions can be used more profitably than if they were attacked, or whenever foreign money purchases standing inside institutions that form the next generation of American elites, or whenever two movements with incompatible values find they can trade access for votes.

Americans may not notice it right away, or now, but one day, unless actions are taken as soon as possible to prevent it, they may wake up one morning to find themselves under Islamic rule.

Related article: “‘Kowtowing To Sharia Law’: Gavin Newsom Signs Law Codifying Muslim Observances Over Christian, Jewish Holidays” (Decision Magazine, via Harbinger's Daily)

5) “Lost in the Wilderness: The True Roots of Male Demoralization: The crisis of young men isn’t simply a failure to grow up.” (R.B.A. Di Muccio, American Spectator)

From the article -- Nowadays, young men are treated as either victims of intense sociological anxiety or the objects of thinly veiled ideological derision. To their critics on the progressive left, young men are creatures of “fragile masculinity,” clinging to (and failing to live up to) arbitrary, patriarchal norms that must be therapeutically deconstructed if we are to achieve a more equitable future. To secular cultural commentators, they are caricatures of apathy; stalled adolescents lingering in their childhood bedrooms, checked out of the labor force, alienated from civic life and hopelessly anesthetized by the digital world.

The diagnosis from both camps is remarkably similar: the modern young man suffers from a fundamental failure of character. A refusal or inability to grow up is merely the predictable effect.

But this convenient consensus is not just lazy; it is willfully blind. A more honest assessment reveals that our sons are not suffering from a sudden, mysterious collapse of personal ambition. Rather, they are experiencing a profound, systemic misalignment between their hardwired aspirations and the woefully insufficient institutional pathways provided by our corrupt society. 

Related article: “Learning to Read and the Crisis of Male Demoralization: We have to nurture the right kind of masculinity.” (James H. McGee, American Spectator)

Other Important Articles:

* “I lost a state championship to a boy. I refuse to lose my voice.” (Kendall Kotzmacher, Fox News)

* “A Farewell to Land Acknowledgments: What was that all about anyway?” (Kyle Smith, WSJ Free Expression)

* “Rockefeller Brothers Fund Sent Nearly $32 Million to China-Based Nonprofits, Watchdog Finds -- ‘Dangerous partnership with Communist China’ is detailed in new report” (Ira Still, Washington Free Beacon)

* “Why Eric Cantor Going To Head Big Pharma Is The Swampiest Move Ever” (Christopher Jacobs, Federalist)

* “A Conservative Answer to the ‘National Freakout’ Over AI: AI needs a referee, not a ruler.” (Donald Devine, American Spectator)