Anybody who’s paying attention to the news knows that Twitter’s leadership is politically biased. But you might not know that the social media giant has gone beyond censoring alleged extreme right wing users to “shadow-banning” mainstream GOP congressmen.

 

“Shadow-banning” is when an account and their tweets are hidden from others without the user being notified.

 

In a public statement, Twitter denied that they shadow-ban people—but they changed the definition of shadow-ban in order to do so. And then they undid the bans, which they denied ever having made in the first place.

 

Of course twitter has a 1st amendment right to ban whatever speech they want to.

 

But: If Twitter executives use corporate resources to push their own political hobbies, then they are misusing shareholder assets, and they should stop … now.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Just last month, Vice President Michael Pence, speaking on behalf of the Trump administration, stared down the nation of Turkey. In 2016, an evangelical pastor ministering in Turkey was arrested by government authorities and imprisoned. After being held for more than a year Pastor Andrew Brunson was finally charged with “dividing and separating” Turkey. Or—as Vice President Pence said, for “simply spreading his Christian faith.”

The Vice President spoke boldly: “Release Pastor Brunson now, or be prepared to face the consequences…” and he went on from there.

It was tough language— and it was language the Trump administration followed through on just last week. It’s what the defense of religious liberty requires in these times. This is exactly the message the world needs to hear from the land of the free, and the home of the brave. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Economic growth has been significantly stronger than last year and has really spiked—up 4.1 percent in the last quarter.

Some say that the tax cuts had nothing to do with the growth spurt. But the fact that growth slowed  before the tax cut kicked in, and sped up after it kicked in shows that the tax cuts were the drivers.

In addition, a new report indicates that average Americans have gotten a 5.4 percent increase in disposable income. That’s partly because of the pay increase and partly because of the tax cut.

But it’s entirely good news.

When you consider the low unemployment numbers and the growth in capital spending, there’s substantive evidence that the decade of stagnation may be over.

 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We are just under 100 days from the November 6 midterms, and Republicans are in much better shape than most prognosticators imagined.

 

The president’s brand of political hardball upsets many in the GOP, even unbalancing more than a few.

 

But his commitment to originalist judges and a sizable military rebuild are the two most consequential aspects of his tenure. The economy is cooking, with a promise of a long stretch of economic growth above 3 percent ahead.

 

Electing Democrats to a majority in the House or the Senate at the height of that party’s lurch left would be a disaster: Impeachment, demands for massive income tax hikes, while also throwing the military rebuild into reverse.

 

It’s critical for Republicans to unite solidly behind Republican candidates, yes: even if you loathe the president, vote Republican.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

News media portray today’s politics as incomparably corrupt, focusing on endless scandals to tarnish politicians in general and the Trump administration in particular.

But in historical perspective, corruption is far less rampant than in the past: prominent officials in the Johnson, Nixon and Reagan administrations faced criminal prosecution.

Around the world, top leaders in Brazil, France, Israel, South Africa and many other countries faced criminal charges for abusing public office; in lists of “most corrupt governments,” the US never scores among the worst. But media here love to dwell on scandal because it’s lurid and dramatic, and they also mislead the public with acclaimed entertainment series like “House of Cards,” “Scandal” and “Veep.”

The reality of our politics today is less exciting, but it’s also far less sordid.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The state of the U.S. economy is strong, and getting stronger.  On Friday last week, government data showed that the gross domestic product, a measure of the goods and services produced in America, grew by over 4 percent last quarter.  It’s the fastest rate of economic growth we’ve seen since 2014.  The American economy is growing at a rate that few thought possible and there is good reason to believe that our economy is headed for continued growth ahead.

President Trump has been the American economy’s biggest cheerleader, and that’s an important thing.  Part of our country’s economic success is tied to a belief that we can and will do better.  But we’ve also seen good economic policy coming out of the Trump Administration, like tax reform and efforts to overhaul our regulatory system. 

Economic growth is good news for all Americans—left, right and center.

 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Somewhat lost amidst the all the noise in our news cycle and our hyper-partisan political moment is a major development that we should not overlook:

The very significant investment in our military that has been needed for years. Both the House and the Senate have been moving aggressively to  pass the 2019 N.D.A.A.—the National Defense Authorization Act.

Amidst the details in this over-$700 billion bill are a fresh round of purchases of:

• F-35 lightning fighters—our stealthy fighter jet
• Blackhawk Helicopters, and a
• Re-investment of in our severely-depleted naval fleet

I want to highlight that we’ll be seeing a green light given for the creation of not one but two new aircraft carriers.

We’ve still got more work to do to get where we need to be—but we’re moving in the right direction finally.

That is good news indeed.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A group of liberal Christians is calling for a “pause” in the culture wars. This “Call to Pause” is really a demand for evangelical surrender on the issue of abortion—and that’s not going to happen.

Interestingly, it was the left in American politics that politicized the judiciary—going around the legislative process to force vast moral change through the courts. They understand exactly what is at stake as we look at the nomination of a strict constructionist justice to replace Justice Anthony Kennedy.

The nomination of Supreme Court justices who are committed to the actual words and text of the Constitution is vital to the survival of America’s grand experiment in constitutional self-government. The protection of human life is an even higher mandate.

This is no time to hit the pause button.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

One of President Trump’s best judicial nominees has been blocked by indignant Democrats because of columns he wrote while a Stanford student 25 years ago. 

In one of these pieces, Ryan Bounds argued that ethnic identity groups promote campus divisions, and in another he demanded proof “beyond a reasonable doubt” before expelling young men accused of sexual assault.  Now these are arguable but mainstream teenage opinions have wrecked the hopes of a Yale Law graduate and a respected federal prosecutor.

If Republicans gain a few Senate seats in November, I hope President Trump will try again to win confirmation for the eminently deserving Ryan Bounds.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This past Sunday The New York Times—the most influential newspaper in the world and secular to its core—ran an opinion essay on Leviticus chapter 18.

No kidding! 

The title of the piece: “The Secret History of Leviticus.” In it, Idan Dershowitz argues that the prohibition of men having sex with men is all based on the fact that a later editor—or a “redactor”—changed the text of the Bible.

There’s really no question about the Bible’s teaching on these issues.

The whole thing is another example of how—even in this supposedly secular age—the conscience of Western civilization continues to be haunted and shaped by the Bible. It’s 2018. And the New York Times is running a piece on Leviticus 18.

That, in itself, is stunning.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.