ATHOL DICKSON

Not Hitler

By

Donald Trump is not Hitler
This is not Hitler. Really.

The smart people over at Quora are comparing Donald Trump to Hitler. I would provide the link to their discussion, but that would not be nice. Suffice it to say there’s a pontificating anti-Trumpite over there who has convinced a bunch of Mensa wannabes that if The Donald is elected, he will magically morph from a Former Reality Television Star into a Genocidal Megalomaniac who will fundamentally transform America into a neo-Nazi empire.

So many numbskulls, so little time. They’re popping up everywhere, so it’s a lot like playing whack-a-mole to write these words, but I shall state the obvious…

Donald Trump is not Hitler.

Of course I know you know this. After all, you’re smart enough to be here, reading what I have to say and nodding along with every  brilliant word. But into every life a little rain must fall, so in your Internet ramblings you may also stumble upon a nincompoop who doesn’t understand the difference between people they don’t like, and Adolph Hitler. Never one to complain about a problem without offering a solution, I offer you a song you can use to educate the little darlings, a kindergarten ditty really, which should meet them where they are.

The music starts at the 1:08 mark. Enjoy!

The Fourth Estate Is A Fifth Column

By

American Flag in DistressHave you been following the Wikileaks revelations? Leaked emails have confirmed what many Americans already suspected: reporters and news executives throughout the “mainstream media” have gone far beyond merely having a political bias. Abandoning all semblance of journalistic integrity they are working directly with politicians behind the scenes to manipulate the information American voters need to make informed decisions. The scandal has been slowing rising to the surface for months, but the latest Wikileaks blew the lid off. Click the links below to see how the rot has been uncovered at major news organizations such as:

The Atlantic
CNN
The New York Times
Politico
Associated Press
CNBC

Except for the first link above, which is about an older revelation, all of those links lead directly to the relevant emails at Wikileaks. If you don’t recognize the names in the emails, I suggest you Google them. Then read for yourself these emails that expose a reporter at The Atlantic who agrees to insert specific words in an upcoming article in return for an early look at a future Hillary Clinton speech, a  CNN contributor (now Democratic National Convention Chairperson) who leaks CNN Town Hall questions in advance to Hillary Clinton’s staff, a New York Times reporter and Clinton staffer who coordinate attacks on Donald Trump, a Politico reporter who allows Clinton’s campaign director to review the entire text of a news report to suggest changes, Clinton staffers who appear to control the timing of Associated Press news releases, and a CNBC panelist asking Clinton’s campaign director to suggest questions for Donald Trump in an upcoming interview.

I don’t know why these so-called “journalists” all seem to be supporting Hillary Clinton, and I don’t care. I’d be equally outraged if this kind of corruption came to light with Trump staffers. This is not about who the media supports. This is about rigging the entire American political system. It’s about robbing us of our right to chose government representatives based on facts. It’s about fraud, flat out, and it borders on treason as far as I’m concerned.

Obviously, we no longer have a mainstream news media which simply “leans” left. We have a “fourth estate” that actively and intentionally functions as a “fifth column” propaganda machine with the goal of brainwashing the American people.  But what can we do?

We can hit the mainstream media where it hurts, in their pocketbooks, that’s what we can do. Every time you buy one of their papers, subscribe to one of their websites, or pay for their content on your television screen, you’re paying them to lie to you. So stop doing that.

Switch off. Unplug. Cut the cable. Ditch the dish. And do it now, while you’re still angry about it.

I’m not saying bury your head in the sand. Now more than ever Americans need to know what’s really going on. Fortunately, there are still news sources online where you can get real news for free.

To help you with that, I’ve assembled a short list of original news sources and source aggregators which, as far as I know, are still behaving honestly. I’m not saying they don’t have a bias. I’m saying their bias is obvious, and to my knowledge they’re not actively colluding with politicians or the government to weave a fabric of outright lies and distortion. Some of these sources lean right; some lean left. I think it’s important to read them all to keep the information balanced. I scan them often. And again, all of them are free.

If you get your news here you’ll be pushing back on the propaganda, improving the accuracy of what you’re told, and saving money all at once. What’s not to love about that?

As for entertainment without network or cable programming, there’s always Netflix and Amazon Prime, both of which are cheaper than most cable plans. I subscribe to both, and have a surplus of excellent movies and television programming available at all times.

So, here are my first few suggestions for free, uncorrupted news sources. This batch leans right, but none of them seem to be in bed with the Republican Party (they often criticize GOP leaders, for example, and none are openly fond of Trump):

https://pjmedia.com/instapundit/
http://dailycaller.com/section/us/
http://freebeacon.com/
http://heatst.com/
http://thefederalist.com/
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/
http://www.washingtontimes.com/

These are left leaning, but not full out socialists, and I have seen no sign on the sites or in Wikileaks that they’re actively helping Clinton get elected:

https://www.theguardian.com/us
http://www.macleans.ca/
http://www.reuters.com/news/us
http://www.upi.com/

Here are a couple of the better known polling sites where you can get raw facts without any spin:

http://www.pewresearch.org/
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/

And here’s a concept: learn about American foreign policy from foreigners!

http://www.jpost.com/
http://mideastposts.com/
https://www.rt.com/usa/
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/

Everyone will find something they don’t like on this list, and that’s okay. Don’t stop here. Look around the Internet and create your own list. By all means, approach all news sources with skepticism. But whatever you do, stop supporting the corrupt propagandists of the mainstream media who have been caught red handed perverting America’s political process.

Choosing Between Ba’al and Beelzebub

By

Beelzebub from The Pilgrim's Progress
Image of Beelzebub from John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress (1678)

There is a kind of Christian who believes all good things come from above, and all bad from below. But as Job said, “Should we accept only good things from the hand of God and never anything bad?” The reality is, God sometimes sends bad things, even to His most faithful people. Christians who don’t accept this do not know their Bible, and when the chips are down they tend to find out their faith is lukewarm and shallow.

God speaks everything into existence. That includes evil things. The Bible says so clearly, in many places. God does this not for evil, but for good. He tests us. Sometimes His testing comes in the form of a choice between two evils. By forcing us to make such choices, God teaches us to trust that all things work together for the good of those who love him. Perhaps the most famous Biblical example is the story of Isaac’s sacrifice, in which God forces Abraham to choose between disobedience to God, and the human sacrifice of his own son.

Obviously, choices like that are tough. Fortunately for us, God’s main concern is with what is in the heart. So in times of trouble Christians would be wise not to judge anyone who, with a heartfelt desire to please God, chooses what they believe to be the lesser of two evils…not even when it seems obvious to us they’ve chosen wrongly.

I was reminded of this by a Christian who seems to have forgotten it. Andy Crouch, who is executive editor of Christianity Today, recently wrote the following in that publication:

“Most Christians who support [Presidential candidate Donald] Trump have done so with reluctant strategic calculation…but there is a point at which strategy becomes its own form of idolatry—an attempt to manipulate the levers of history in favor of the causes we support. Strategy becomes idolatry, for ancient Israel and for us today, when we make alliances with those who seem to offer strength—the chariots of Egypt, the vassal kings of Rome—at the expense of our dependence on God who judges all nations, and in defiance of God’s manifest concern for the stranger, the widow, the orphan, and the oppressed. Strategy becomes idolatry when we betray our deepest values in pursuit of earthly influence. And because such strategy requires capitulating to idols and princes and denying the true God, it ultimately always fails.

So, here we have an influential Christian publicly accusing other Christians of a terrible sin, merely because he disagrees with their political choice. If Mr. Crouch had simply condemned Donald Trump’s obvious misogyny, immoral lifestyle, bullying behavior, and foul mouth, I would have heartily agreed. But Mr. Crouch wants me to know if I vote for Trump, I will become no better than Trump. I will commit idolatry. I’ll be “in defiance of God.” A vote for Donald Trump is no different from placing faith in Trump to save me, as if stepping into the voting booth for Trump is the modern equivalent of bringing sacrifices to the altar of Beelzebub.

For the vast majority of Christians I know, a vote for Trump will be just that: a vote. It’s not a declaration that Donald Trump is their personal Lord and Savior.

For the vast majority of Christians I know, a vote for Trump will be just that: a vote. It’s not a declaration that Donald Trump is their personal Lord and Savior. It’s not even a vote of confidence in Trump. On the contrary, most Christians I know who plan to vote for Trump are convinced “the stranger, the widow, the orphan, and the oppressed” would be worse off after a Trump Presidency. But they’re also convinced the results for such people would be even worse after a Clinton Presidency. They’re not idolaters, placing faith in a man or in the political system. They’re just sinners, doing the best they can to please their Father with their actions in spite of the fact that right now, in America, we’ve been cursed with two horrific choices.

A little later in the same opinion piece, Mr. Crouch writes, “Enthusiasm for a candidate like Trump gives our neighbors ample reason to doubt that we believe Jesus is Lord.” But I wonder what our neighbors think when Christians question each other’s faith because of politics? Shouldn’t Christians of all people avoid the slander and ugly insults that have become the norm between other Americans in this election cycle?

“For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged.” Andy Crouch, all the editors at Christianity Today, and you, and me, and every Christian everywhere would do well to remember that.

Did Bush Kill More People Than Stalin?

By

Skulls of Cambodian Communist Victims
Skulls of Cambodian Communist Victims (Wikipedia)

Good Grief. Sometimes I really do wonder if we should make Americans prove they have at least a basic understanding of world history before they’re allowed to cast a vote. A few days ago I posted a link to a Facebook post along those lines written by Mike Rowe. If you missed it, I strongly suggest you click that link to read what he has to say.  Because if the results of a poll recently published by the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation are even remotely accurate, we are in very bad trouble.

Here are a few quotes from their press release:

  • Approximately one in four Americans (26%) – and one-third of millennials (32%) — believe more people were killed under George W. Bush than Joseph Stalin.
  • Many millennials are unfamiliar with communist leaders – [Mao] Zedong: 42%; [Che] Guevara: 40%; Stalin: 18%; Lenin: 33%; Putin 18%.
  • Of those millennials familiar with Vladimir Lenin, 25% have a favorable view of him.
  • 64% of Americans agreed with the classic Karl Marx statement that underpins Marxist philosophy: “from each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs.”

Historians estimate the total number of people murdered by communist regimes in the 20th century at about 100,000,000. Count those zeros. When it comes to genocide, the Nazis were amateurs compared to the communist regimes, some of which are still around today.

How can so many Americans not know this? If it comes as a surprise to you, for goodness sake, educate yourself. And this seems like a good time to quote George Santayana, from his Reason in Common Sense, Vol 1:

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.