Silicon Valley COVID Political Fakery II

Upon reflection, those Silicon Valley-funded Future Forward fake doctor COVID ads, starring at least one charlatan posing as an epidemiologist, are even worse than I opined.

Think about it.  Who has benefited the most from the COVID shutdowns?  Silicon Valley.  Think Zoom, Amazon, Google, various cloud stocks etc.  Who of the two POTUS candidates is most eager to shut us back down?  Joe Biden.

Thus the Future Forward Silicon Valley funders are seeking to impoverish most of us so they can stuff their pockets even more.

And I do not trust myself to say more.

A Labour Purge of Anti-Semites?!?

First, you may wish to sit down before reading this….

Good.  For two aspects of this post may floor you.  First, I am compelled to now praise the Labour Party.

Yes, I know.  Shocking.  But don’t stand up yet… Second, the Labour Party may be purging its anti-semites.

Already, the Labour Party has suspended (Still sitting?) past Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.  And other Corbynistas are in danger as well, including (Please God!) Dianne Abbott.

I have to praise the courage of Labour leader Keir Starmer.  At the same time, I wonder if Labour will now split into a semi-sane, non-Communist Party and a silly Left Islamonazi Party.

Now if only the U. S. Democrat Party would purge its anti-semites.

Islamic Decapitation Attack in Nice, France Linked to All Saints Day

Something that is not getting much attention about the Islamic decapitation attack in Notre Dame Church in Nice, France.  It may have been timed to coincide with All Saints Day:

…Several local priests are saying that they were warned about the possibility of an attack days ago.

The timing, they say, is intended to coincide with the Catholic All Saint's Day holiday on Nov. 1. Some in terror circles are making a connection between the Day of the Dead and killing non-believers.

Also, according to eyewitness reports, the attack unfolded inside the church, during morning services, in full view of the priest and clergy. At least two of the three victims were killed inside the church.

Priests said they received threats in the days before the attack.

"We had been warned for two or three days that there might be some additional attacks with the approach of All Saints' Day, since some made a link with the Christian feast of the dead and the fact of increasing the number of dead."

So this year, I will be celebrating All Saints Day with that much more gusto.

And, yes, I may be armed.

St. Jude: “Contend for the Faith”

I must confess I did not pay much attention to the Feast of Saints Simon and Jude (which is today) until I resided at Pusey House during Michaelmas Term 2018.  It then struck me how the day is a fitting harbinger of All Saints Day, a favorite holy day of mine.

Last night, I was struck all the more what a fitting harbinger this day is for the Feast of All Saints when I read the Epistle of St. Jude.  Early in it he writes:

…it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.  (v. 3)

Note that the epistle is addressed “to those who are called, beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ.”  So he is writing to all church people, both clergy and laity, not just church leaders.

Hence it is the responsibility of all of God’s people, of all the saints, to “earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.”  

And judging from the rest of the epistle, Jude did not want the people to be all that nice about it.  “For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.” (v. 4) And Jude was just getting warmed up about false teachers.

Recent history illustrates that Jude was right that it is the responsibility of all God’s people to contend for the faith and put down false teachers.  I’ve long stated that a big reason most of the mainline denominations have gone to Hell is because people in the pews did not put their feet down and say, “NO!”

Yes, clergy have a heightened responsibility to hold each other accountable.  But should the laity rely on clergy to police clergy? NO.

A weakness of modern Anglicanism is that the laity can be shy about calling out false teaching.  Don’t be.  Follow the good exhortation and good example of St. Jude and “contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.”

Silicon Valley COVID Political Fakery

If you watch any cable TV, you’ve seen, over and over, ads from Future Forward PAC blaming Trump for COVID. Funded by Silicon Valley, these ads feature supposed doctors who are oh-so concerned about Trump’s handling of the COVID pandemic.  

Yesterday, while seeing one of these ads for the upteenth time on the Weather Channel, I lost it to the point where my neighbor messaged me to see if I was okay.  I just knew these doctors either were fakes or had zero ethics, and I had had enough. 

Well look what I found out overnight about one of the “doctors,” one Eric Feigl-Ding.  He has a history of deceiving about his credentials.  He may play a medical doctor on TV in order to bash Trump, but he is no such thing.

At the beginning of 2020, Feigl-Ding was an unpaid, visiting scientist in Harvard’s nutrition department. His academic research centered entirely around nutrition, diet, and exercise. If Eric Feigl-Ding was interested in pandemics and the study of viruses, his research and academic credentials did not reflect that.

But note that doe not stop the Future Forward ad from touting him as an “epidemiologist.”  Yet he has already been exposed and warned to stop the deceptive self-promotion:

In mid March, Marc Lipsitch, a professor of epidemiology at Harvard, described him as a “charlatan exploiting a tenuous connection for self-promotion.” 

The Association of Health Care Journalists also took notice, reporting that he has “precisely zero experience in infectious diseases.” 

An unnamed source at Harvard told The Chronicle on Higher Education in April that Feigl-Ding has “been asked many times to stop promoting himself as having specialized knowledge.”

Yet, again, the Silicon Valley billionaries, not content with suppressing and censoring real information, participate in and push Feigl-Ding’s fakery:

Feigl-Ding has continued to muddy the waters surrounding his credentials, taking it to new heights in a new political advertisement. He recently appeared in a pro-Biden Super PAC (funded by Silicon Valley billionaires) ad about the coronavirus pandemic. It features “Dr” Feigl-Ding in a lab coat with tie ensemble that is associated with the attire worn by a medical doctor, not a PhD academic with a background in nutrition research.

If he is a PhD. Something that is real about Feigl-Ding is his connections to George Soros.  Is there anything evil that Soros is not involved in?

In 2018, he ran unsuccessfully for a congressional seat in Pennsylvania. Universal healthcare and medicare for all, or socialized medicine, was the centerpiece platform of his congressional run. According to Science Magazine, Feigl-Ding was supported in his run by political networks associated with far-left democrat mega donor George Soros, and FEC records reflect that. Feigl-Ding’s ties with Soros go back many years. In 2008, he received a Soros scholarship for his medical school studies (he would later drop out)….

Feigl-Ding remains closely connected to the Soros network. He currently serves as Treasurer of the The Paul and Daisy Soros Fellows Association (PDSFA).

All this begs the question of what other fakery and lies Soros and Silicon Valley money is pushing in this election.  At least now you know about the COVID lies from Future Forward.

Why We Must Punish The Democrats

Yes, the title to this post is in the 19^th Century school of candor in titling.  But this is a time for clarity, is it not?

But, no – and this may surprise – the main reasons why the Democrats must be punished in this election are not policy issues.  Parties have had significant policy differences almost as long as there have been political parties, but this country has muddled along and even thrived.

But now the problem with the Democrat Party goes to the core of how we do political combat itself.  For today’s Democrat Party refuses to accept the verdict of the Constitution and of the electorate unless they win.  They respect the rules of the American political game, if you will, only if they serve to give them victory.

With the marginal exception of 2004, have they respected a presidential election they’ve lost since 1988?  No.  And their response (and the response of a few RINO allies) to the 2016 election was the worst of all, engaging in a long coup which began with spying on Trump, aided by felonious FISA warrants, continued with threatening members of the Electoral College then a long investigation based on invented lies and culminating in a bogus impeachment.

In politics and government, you get more of what you reward.  We must not reward their perpetual coup; we must not reward this refusal to respect elections they don’t win, but must instead punish it.

I keep thinking back to the ugly Steelers-Bengals 2016 NFL playoff game as an illustration.  That rivalry had long been intense, and so was the game.  But when an especially injurious and illegal dirty hit not only was not penalized, but was even rewarded, the game got out of control and became the perhaps the ugliest NFL game of that decade.  God help us if we dare reward the Democrats’ dirty play, namely their refusal to respect the last presidential election.

What needs to happen when there is dirty play and a refusal to respect the rules of the game is the perpetrator(s) gets ejected from the game and for games to come if the violation is egregious.  But we do not have referees in politics that can do that.  Nor do we trust government to do that for the most part.  Yes, the Germans outlawed the Nazi Party after World War II, and that was understandable and called for given the destructive evil the Nazis had wrought.  But for the most part, we lack the mechanisms and the trust to do that in the U. S.  And politicians do not have a good track record of policing politicians for some reason.

So it is We the People who must politically eject parties who refuse to respect the Constitution and elections under the Constitution.  It is up to us.

And, yes, I think instead rewarding the Democrats with votes would be at the very least problematic for any who claim to be Christian or any who claim to be American.  That should be obvious, and I hardly trust myself to say more. 

And, yes, there is much else on the Left that calls for punishment, not reward: the riots of BLM and Antifa, the censorship and election meddling of social media, the virtual promises of the Democrats to turn us into a Leftist One-Party State should they gain both the White House and the Senate, and more.

But the habitual refusal of a major political party to respect clean elections unless they win is so corrosive to any state that it must be punished if a country is to survive intact.  The Democrats must be punished.  

And that is up to us.  They refused to respect our votes in 2016.  This year we must make them respect our votes.

The Election Could Come Down to Pennsylvania. God Help Us.

I have warned of the possibility of a contested election fueled by mail-in ballot fraud that is already occurring.  Upon further observation, my educated guess is that if a contested election comes down to one state, it will most likely be Pennsylvania.  And what is happening in Pennsylvania should move us all to pray that it does not come down to that one state.

Although not as notorious as Chicago or Dade County, Florida, Pennsylvania, especially Philadelphia, is a hotbed of election fraud.  I was among those who documented the likelihood of Philadelphia election fraud in the 2012 election with Romney getting ZERO votes in a suspicious number of precincts.  There was also election observers kicked out of polling places.  And already this year observers have been kicked out of election ballot centers (although I am having trouble finding stories on that.  More news suppression?)

Now DemocRAT hack state judges are further opening the door to massive fraud, allowing mail-in ballots to be counted long after Election Day, never mind if they have a postmark on or before Election Day and never mind if signatures do not match.  This is pretty much an open invitation to manufacture fraudulent votes.  And SCOTUS Chief Justice John Roberts is enabling this fraud.  (God, please may Amy Coney Barrett be confirmed today!)  The counting of Pennsylvania “votes” will continue for days after Election Day supervised by a Democrat Governor and his appointed Secretary of State, of course.

So if Pennsylvania is within the margin of fraud, which could be a big margin this year, we may not know for days or weeks who “won” Pennsylvania, and the final result could be fraudulent.  Personally, if it’s close enough, I expect it to be fraudulent.

God help us if that decides this election . . . and it might. 

A Time for Clarity Not Muddy Waters

I think we can already call who will lose this election – the church, especially The Evangelical Church of What’s Happening Now.

With notable exceptions, even supposedly orthodox church leaders have utterly failed their people and the country this election.  The Trump is a Messiah guys have failed us.  The Woke Church crowd has failed us, to say the very least.  

But it is not only these churchly extremes that have failed us.  There is an element that has muddied the waters with nuances and moral equivalencies when clarity is called for.  Sadly, this video from the ACNA Diocese of Christ Our Hope is an example of this failure.

There may be elections when such videos would be helpful.  This is not one of them.  What we are facing is too awful, too destructive, and too difficult to reverse should the electorate (augmented by election fraud) make the wrong choice.  What is at issue is not policy differences that good people can disagree on, but the destruction of our American society itself.

Yes, that may sound alarmist.  But it is a time for clarity, for reality checks, not for excuses and high-sounding fig leaves for evil.  So some reality checks:

1. His “bi-partisan commission” cop-out aside, Biden refuses to disavow calls to pack the Supreme Court, i.e. to increase the number of Supreme Court justices and appoint Constitution-tearing Leftists to the new open spots not unlike Hugo Chavez.  The Constitution would then be a dead letter.

2. Democrats have been open about other plans to turn us into an unconstitutional Leftist One-Party State should they gain the White House and the Senate.  Combine statehood for Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia, open borders, and amnesty and eventual citizenship for illegals, and the electorate would be so changed that Democrats would control the White House and the Senate for decades to come.  Again, you can kiss America and the Constitution good-bye if that happens.

Really these two reality checks alone make voting for Biden and the Democrats either grossly disloyal to this country or grossly ignorant, hardly acceptable in a Christian citizen.  I mean, really, if a “Christian” hates America that much, they should do the right thing and leave.  (Or if they are that ignorant, they either should not vote or should get informed before voting.)  One doesn’t have to love America to be a Christian.  But a Christian should not vote to destroy the society and the Rule of Law that gives him the freedom to be a Christian in relative peace.

But that’s not all.

3. It is now quite obvious that Biden and his family have sold influence to China, Russia, the Ukraine and God knows who else.  Biden literally sold us out to China.  It is criminal and beyond.  If you haven’t seen the details, then may I suggest reading the New York Post or watching Tucker Carlson rather than the New York Times, CNN, and the rest of the Democrat Fake News media.

I could give many more reality checks, but most would pertain to policy.  I will give one obvious one.

4. Biden and Kamala Harris (spit) are baby killers.  They want open season on the unborn for all nine months of pregnancy, no doubt paid for by taxpayers.  Yes, I am well aware that such despicable “Christian” prevaricators such as the AND Campaign are trying to justify Christians voting for baby killers.  They and the baby killers will have a lot to answer for in the Judgement.  

But even if it wasn’t for reality check 4, for Christians who wish to be good American citizens, a vote for Biden or for most Democrats for that matter is not a viable choice.  Democrats are pretty open now about what they have secretly wanted to do for some time - trash the Constitution, turn the Supreme Court into their rubber stamp, import an un-American electorate, and turn America into a Leftist One-Party State.  Under these circumstances, voting for Democrats is profoundly disloyal and destructive.  

(No, you don’t have to vote for Trump although I have.  If you find both major choices unacceptable, a vote for a Third Party sends that message honorably and well.)

Again, if you hate America so much as to vote to destroy America, then instead do the right thing and leave or at least remove yourself from politics.  But cut it out with using the name of Christ to support such evil or to deceive the sheep like the AND Campaign or to muddy the waters like the ACNA Diocese of Christ Our Hope.  You are harming both church and country.

St. James and Works: a Sacrament of Faith?

I still remember as a teenager first coming across St. James’ rather cranky assertion that faith without works is dead and wrestled with that.  Did not St. Paul write that faith is what saves and that “not a result from works”?  (My understanding is a bit more exact and adamant now that God saves “by grace through faith.” Eph. 2:8, 9)

It took me a while to digest St. James.  Calvin’s dictum that faith alone saves but faith that saves is not alone was helpful.

But it was not until this week that I came across another enlightening take of St. James from Dr. Benjamin Bernier of Providence Reformed Episcopal Church, Corpus Christi:

James tells us that Faith without works is dead. Faith and works, theory and practice, the sacred and the profane, are not separate spheres as it is commonly presumed. They relate to each other as the body to the spirit, in such an intrinsic way that we may characterize their relationship as sacramental.

As we know from our catechism and The Offices of Instruction, a sacrament is an outward and visible sign of an inward invisible grace.

So, I would like to propose to you that the relationship between faith and works is sacramental in nature.

Works are the outward and visible expression of an inner, invisible body of belief, which defines both the inner character of our souls and the profile of our whole lives.

Accordingly, faith and works are inseparable. They are like the fruit to the tree, different aspects of the same thing, the truth, and the love of God in faith and practice.

It had not occurred to me before that good works are a sacrament of faith.  But it makes sense.  And we know from St. Paul that faith is the gift of God. (Eph. 2:8)  Perhaps works out of true faith, like the traditional sacraments, are also gifts of God and manifestations of invisible Truth.  At least that is food for thought on this Eve of the Feast of St. James, the brother of our Lord and the likely author of that difficult Epistle.

And on this Feast of St. James, may God bless you both with faith and with good works flowing out of your faith, through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

By the way, the rest of Fr. Benjamin’s sermon may be found here and on YouTube.

Shameless: Biden Blames Trump for Michigan Plot

Yesterday I mentioned the plot to kidnap the Governor of Michigan as an illustration of what Psalm 37 teaches us not to do.  Little did I know the accused are a bunch of strange anarchists, at least one of whom hates Trump.  

I have to admit even I was thinking we finally had a violent plot of significance from Trump-supporting “right-wingers.”  I was wrong.  The remarkable record of non-violence from Trump supporters in the face of grievous provocations continues. 

But that did not stop Joe Biden from using this episode to smear and blame Trump.  He keeps pushing that “both sides” myth, so what do you expect from such a shameless liar?  Thank God Robby Starbuck has captured video of one of the ringleaders denouncing Trump in no uncertain terms.  (Sorry I had to link that tweet instead of embedding it, but embedding is not working for some reason.) 

This has gotten to be par for the course from Joe BigLie.

Psalm 37 – A Psalm for Our Time

Yesterday, because it was the Evening of the 7^th day of the month and I use the traditional Book of Common Prayer as the Lord intends, of course, I read and recited Psalm 37.  And it’s a good thing, too.

For Psalm 37 is a timely reminder to me and to anyone sorely provoked during this election season to “fret not thyself because of the ungodly” for God will take care of them and of his people in his good timing.  God will execute justice, and he’s a lot better at it than we are.  So we should “leave off from wrath, and let go displeasure; fret not thyself, else shalt thou be moved to do evil.”  Yes, if we allow ourselves to get so worked up that we foolishly take matters into our own hands, we can easily fall into evil and be the wrongdoers ourselves.

Note that this is not a call to passivity.  As in just about all things, there should be a balance.  Namely we should “put thou thy trust in the Lord and be doing good.”  But if we fret and do not trust in God’s timing and faithfulness to bring about justice, we can too easily fall into doing foolishness and evil.

Today we get a reminder of that from Michigan where an alleged plot to kidnap Democrat Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and overthrow the state government has been foiled with alleged perpetrators arrested. 

Now should the tyranny of Whitmer be opposed through legal means (which have had some success lately)?  Yes.

Should we not presume the guilt of those accused as the Feds have been known to make politically motivated prosecutions before elections? Yes.

Should we question why the four year long coup against President Donald Trump has not been prosecuted? Yes.

But, at the very least, have the accused acted foolishly and gone about opposing Whitmer’s tyranny in a completely wrong way?  Yes, and if the accusations are true, they were plotting awful crimes and should be prosecuted accordingly.

Assuming there is any truth to the accusations, what the accused have done is a sad illustration of what can happen if we ignore the Lord’s guidance to “fret not thyself, else shalt thou be moved to do evil.”

Frankly, I fear what I would be capable of if it were not for my faith in Christ and in his coming justice.  Those of us who care deeply about justice and hate tyranny especially need to remember that God, not our foolishness, will make all things right in the end.  Yes, we should care about the society God has placed us in and be active good citizens but, again, we should avoid getting so worked up that we allow ourselves to “be moved to do evil.”

So if you did not read Psalm 37 yesterday, do so today.  Maybe you, too, need a reminder during this trying time.