Washington D.C. is going crazy if they’re not already there! How can we pick the most important stories of the last few days? There are dozens out there we think you’d like to dig into. We’ll give you the headline bullet points of our top picks. If you want to get the entire story of all or any, there’s a hyperlink at the end of each bullet point on which you can click to go to the full story.
Before we do our Bullet Point roundup for you, please listen to this very important TNN message (30-seconds long):
- A very old and established Christian magazine Christianity Today published an editorial endorsing the removal of Donald Trump through a Senate trial following the House of Representatives’ impeachment of the President. The magazine was in large part affiliated originally with Evangelist Billy Graham, who was a devout Evangelical Christian who strongly supported Donald Trump and even voted for him in 2016. Both of Graham’s children immediately expressed their outrage against the editorial and both reaffirmed Rev. Graham’s longtime conservative Christian values support and that of President Trump. President Trump on Friday took to Twitter to excoriate Christianity Today noting the President’s tremendous results working with the Evangelical Christian community and the support he has from the Christian community. For all the details click on the following link: https://apnews.com/93553f9bab26da7df743676a091f94bf
- You certainly heard about the letter from the FISA Court to the FBI regarding uncovered abuses by the FBI in their production and presentation to the court “evidence” that in many cases was not even real and often misrepresented facts to justify the Court issuing FISA warrants that authorized the surveillance of the Trump Campaign and certain others associated with the Campaign. The Court issued the first warrant prior to the 2016 election and renewed the warrant three additional times. New details that were previously classified were released on Friday included names of FBI individuals the Court has demanded information regarding their activities in this matter. For all the details click on the following link: https://thehill.com/policy/national-security/475547-fisa-court-broadening-investigation-into-fbi-warrant-applications
- We have known for some time that it probably was coming, but we didn’t know when. Apparently tech giant Apple now wants to bypass cell providers and via satellite beam directly to users of iPhones. Financial giant Bloomberg broke the story that Apple hopes to have satellites in orbit within five years to handle the project. The plan that will allow direct access to not only iPhones but other Apple devices has put big cell providers in a panic. For more details click on the following link: https://www.fastcompany.com/90446468/apple-wants-to-bypass-carriers-and-beam-internet-data-directly-to-iphones-via-satellites
- Main Stream Media seems to concentrate on religious violence in the U.S. and around the world for violence against Muslims. Seldom do they cover religious violence against Christians. Many American Christians were horrified when after Saddam Hussein was removed from power in Iraq, Islamic extremists began a massive purge of Iraqi Christians, Christian churches and religious artifacts dating back thousands of years. In Africa, extremist religious factions have slaughtered thousands of Christians, seldom covered in the news. Nigerian Christians are prime targets for these thugs. Boko Haram is known as one of the most brutal sects in the raiding faction. But Nigeria is now heavily populated by groups even more heinous than is Boko Haram. For complete details click on the following link: https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-new-war-against-africas-christians-11576880200
- One thing Donald Trump as Candidate Trump promised Americans was if elected, he would aggressively begin ridding the nation of brutal gangs from foreign countries who brutally attacked and killed innocent Americans as part of those gangs’ illegal drug operations and sex trafficking. The vilest of those gangs was (and still is) MS-13. Oddly enough, Long Island, New York, was the epicenter of east coast MS-13 operations. Though very little has appeared in the news, President Trump’s Department of Justice, FBI, and Customs and Immigration have virtually eradicated MS-13’s presence in that area. But it’s taken two years. For all the details click on the following link: https://www.wsj.com/articles/nearly-100-arrested-in-long-island-probe-of-ms-13-street-gang-11576881721
- Nearly two decades ago, the first story appeared recounting abuse by Catholic priests in the U.S. Over the last twenty years or so, the Catholic Church has been inundated with tens of thousands of claims of sexual abuse that the Vatican is struggling to keep up within their investigations. The Vatican finds itself still struggling to reckon with the problem of predator priests — a scourge that first erupted publicly in Ireland and Australia in the 1990s, the U.S. in 2002, parts of Europe beginning in 2010 and Latin America last year. For all the details click on the following link: https://apnews.com/6e99b1ddf64d5fd7ff85fe065d699e7b
- In the holiday season, abuse of consumers and identity theft along with all types of personal data online skyrockets. Now it has just been revealed that Facebook users have been targeted and more than 1/4 Billion users’ personal information has been hacked and is on the open internet. Unfortunately, most of those affected are in the U.S. For all the details click on the following link: https://apnews.com/bdf02dbe7bf266b025b6f1b0ae5860fd
- Former CIA Director and Trump hater John Brennan is reported by the New York Times to be in the crosshairs of Federal Attorney John Durham who is conducting a criminal investigation of wrongdoing all the way back to the inception of the FBI probe of Donald Trump before he had even formally announced his candidacy for President. In addition to Brennan’s communications, Durham wants to find out the exact details of his role in the infamous Steel dossier and how that opposition research document that was funded by the Clinton Campaign and the DNC came to be and what Brennan’s and the FBI’s role in its development and getting it into the hands of the Media. For all the details click on the following link: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/19/us/politics/durham-john-brennan-cia.html.
- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s refusal to send the articles of impeachment to the Senate may be putting the Trump impeachment in question. Several Constitutional experts have weighed in on the matter. One legal scholar who testified before the Schiff House Intelligence Committee said if the House does NOT do so, it will cancel the impeachment. Other scholars agree. Noah Feldman and Jonathan Turley who both testified before that committee confirmed their thoughts that not doing so should void the impeachment articles. For all the details click on the following link: https://www.bostonherald.com/2019/12/19/house-speaker-nancy-pelosis-impeachment-delay-is-questionable-constitutional-experts-say/
Summary
Washington D.C. has been busy — unfortunately not taking care of the Peoples’ business other than Trump impeachment. The House did pass the USMCA trade deal and the funding plan to keep the government open for business. But there are dozens and dozens of other serious issues that have been ignored and replaced with Impeachment. Americans are sick of it. And the opinions of Americans that have polling numbers in the single digits have fallen more during the impeachment noise.
No one knows for sure how all this is playing in the thoughts of the American public regarding the 2020 election. It’s not only the presidency of Donald Trump. Every member of the House of Representatives faces an election every two years. It is said that “to live by the polls means to die by the polls.” Polls being what they are, Americans that have been polled are steadily lining up against impeachment. And Donald Trump’s favorability number has risen six points since the impeachment nonsense began — now even more than that of former President Barack Obama at this point in his first term.
What will happen with Congress? What will happen with impeachment? What about the apparently rampant sexual impropriety by Catholic priests for decades? There are no absolutes to use in response to those questions. The appropriate answers to these questions are unclear. But conventional wisdom says the Americans disgust for either party driving a duly elected president from office as Democrats are set to do. It appears that voters are sick enough to the idea that Trump’s core will be joined by a significant number of former Trump supporters — enough to move Trump into an overcomeable vote tally for 2020.
But you never know: this is America, the United States. We each have a free will. We each have a street address, telephone, and our private families. Political bias and political partisan each can create major kinks in the armor of the Pastor of the House. Anything can happen.
We should have the Senate trial information before Christmas. But don’t forget, politics in Washington do not fit into small, conservative political briefcases. Washington politics don’t really fit well in “the back of the bus.”
Through the holidays, keep your eyes and ears open. There will be many bullets floating around. Don’t get hit. But be cautious!
Be listening to our daily podcasts for details about the big plan coming up next month. You might want to grab a group of soaking steaks.
