For the pro-Hamas people in the Chicago streets this week

 For your personal enjoyment.

Israel Gaza: Hamas raped and mutilated women on 7 October, BBC hears

WARNING: CONTAINS EXTREMELY GRAPHIC DESCRIPTIONS OF SEXUAL VIOLENCE AND RAPE

Several people involved in collecting and identifying the bodies of those killed in the attack told us they had seen multiple signs of sexual assault, including broken pelvises, bruises, cuts and tears, and that the victims ranged from children and teenagers to pensioners.

Video testimony of an eyewitness at the Nova music festival, shown to journalists by Israeli police, detailed the gang rape, mutilation and execution of one victim.

Videos of naked and bloodied women filmed by Hamas on the day of the attack, and photographs of bodies taken at the sites afterwards, suggest that women were sexually targeted by their attackers.

Few victims are thought to have survived to tell their own stories." . . .

Attackers laughed as they raped and murdered a woman in Israel on October 7, witness says | CNN    "Five men came out of the van and captured a woman, ripping off her clothes as they formed a circle around her. One raped her and killed her with a knife. Then he raped her again, said Raz Cohen, a survivor of Hamas’ murderous rampage in Israel on October 7." . . .

Struggling Grocery Store Owners Rake Kamala Harris Over the Coals for 'Price Gouging' Proposal

Jeff Charles  

"Ehsan Khan, who owns a grocery store in Brooklyn, New York, said that during his 24 years in the business, he “never saw the cost of grocery bread, butter, cookies, milk going up” as it has under the Biden/Harris administration."

"As Americans are struggling to put food on the table and make ends meet, Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz are focused on pushing a “positive” and “joyful” message to appeal to voters.

"Harris recently declared a new policy proposal: Enacting a federal ban on “price gouging” for food companies. The proposal has met with fierce criticism from both sides of the aisle, with many pointing out that this would only make the problems worse.

"A new video is circulating on X featuring two small business owners discussing how rampant inflation has affected their businesses and customers. To put it succinctly, it ain’t looking good, folks.

"Ehsan Khan, who owns a grocery store in Brooklyn, New York, said that during his 24 years in the business, he “never saw the cost of grocery bread, butter, cookies, milk going up” as it has under the Biden/Harris administration.

"Carlos Collado from Fine Festival Market described how his store has to reduce inventory because of inflation. “See those shelves right there? We're trying to keep less inventory because it's expensive after the inflation under your vice presidency,” he said.

Now I go through the store. Yes, we have to have merchandise here for our customers. But if you only knew how this works, and I invite you to come down. We can have you help us enter the invoices into QuickBooks since you claim that we are price gouging.

"Khan continued, discussing how Oreo cookies more than doubled in price.

For example, I'll give you an example. You see this Oreo cookie? I love Oreo cookie. I used to sell it for my guys. I used to be $1.50. I used to sell it for $2.99. Right now, this cookie, I'm selling it for $7. Why? Because my cost is over $4. Look, I have only two pieces. I used to order cases and cases. Because the cost of groceries is so much high, I can't afford it.

"Collado issued an invitation to Harris to show her what they are going through due to inflation." . . .

WSJ

"If I were part of Trump’s campaign, I’d advise them to find more business owners like Khan and Collado who are willing to speak out against Harris’ ill-advised policy proposals. In this economic climate, it wouldn’t be hard to find plenty more who are going through similar ordeals.

"The fact of the matter is that the Biden administration’s economic record is horrid. Harris’ proposals suggest that they have not yet learned their lesson." 

Emphasis mine. TD

Reasons I fear Harris and her Democrats handling the economy

 

‘Squandered The Moment’: Washington Post Editorial Board Blasts Kamala Harris’s Economic Rollout As ‘Disappointment’ (Daily Caller)    

"The editorial board of The Washington Post criticized Vice President Kamala Harris’s economic policy rollout as a “disappointment” Friday.

"Harris delivered a speech Friday seeking to address the economic concerns of American voters, but her approach drew criticism for lacking substantive plans and relying on populist rhetoric, according to The Washington Post. The editorial board stated, amid continuing frustration over high costs of living, Harris chose to focus on corporate malpractices like price-gouging rather than provide a detailed economic strategy. The editorial board also claimed Harris “squandered the moment on populist gimmicks.”

Here's How Americans View Harris And Trump On The Economy (forbes.com)

. . ."Trump’s economic plan has largely focused on deregulation in the energy and financial industries, touting the much-better inflation during his presidency than Biden’s, and instituting significant tariffs on Chinese goods. The U.S. economy performed very well under both Trump and Biden by most metrics, with historically low unemployment, strong stock market performance and steady economic output growth occurring during both administrations, save for a 2020-21 global blip during the depths of the COVID-19 pandemic (see here for detailed data on how the economy fared under Biden and Trump). The president often has a less direct impact on the U.S. economy than public perception may suggest, considering the difficulty in implementing policies, the global nature of the economy and the fragile nature of the stock market, which ultimately relies on earnings growth for multinational corporations." ...

Kamala Harris’s Economic Plan Will Be a Disaster for Consumers (townhall.com)  . . ."Harris has misidentified the disease of which inflation is a symptom. She blames corporate greed as the driver of rising prices — not profligate stimulus; not incontinent monetary policy; not the supply-side chaos caused by Covid-19 and the attendant state-imposed lockdowns; not price-ballooning central planning, such as protectionism and barriers to energy abundance; not anti-innovative boondoggles, such as the Farm Bill.

"The strings connecting high food prices to corporate greed are wild-eyed and largely fictious, economists Ryan Bourne and Bryan Cutsinger write. According to NYU data, the grocery industry average a net profit margin of just 1.18 percent. Bourne and Cutsinger note that policies that attempt to tie inflation to corporate greed “are not only economically destructive, but would have failed to address inflation’s underlying cause — namely, a surge in total spending brought on by excessive monetary and fiscal stimulus.”

"Harris’s policy prescriptions are predictably inapt — or worse. Her campaign says that she will seek to impose price controls on food and groceries and dispatch antitrust officials to harass grocery stores that attempt mergers. These kinds of policies — which, under Biden, have proven useless — have attracted economically muddled politicians for time immemorial. Ham-fisted flailing at “corporate greed” is the last refuge of politicians who want desperately to seem to have command of economic issues about which they are wholly baffled. The twin barrels of anti-corporate populism — price fixing and frivolous antitrust — unfailingly worsen the bad economic conditions that cultivate populism in the first place." . . .

Trump Says Jews Haven’t Been in [as] Much Danger as They Are Today Since the Holocaust

  Anthony Gonzalez (resistthemainstream.com)  

“They turned him down for other reasons, but the primary reason is because he’s Jewish,” the former president said, adding, “Any Jewish person that votes for [Harris] or a Democrat has to go out and have their head examined.”

Democrats need the votes of these people.

"As Jews in Israel are being massacred by Iranian-funded terrorist groups like Hamas and Hezbollah, former President Donald Trump has declared that Jews are in danger more today in the U.S. since the Holocaust.

"Trump said that Jews across America are being subjected to abuse and are being overlooked because of their religion.

"The former president mentioned that Vice President Kamala Harris did not end up choosing Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) as her running mate because he was Jewish.

“ 'They turned him down because he’s Jewish,” Trump said during a packed rally in Bilkes-Warre, North Carolina.". . .

("Shapiro has said that he was not overlooked because of his faith.")

. . .Last week, a Citi Bike rider punched a 70-year-old man in Central Park, calling him a “F***ing Jew pig” while threatening to kill him. The elderly man was walking his daughter’s dog before he was assaulted.

"The Israel-Hamas war has led antisemitism to skyrocket in the U.S., leading many protests to pop up across the country.

"While speaking to the New York Post last month, the Director of Communications for End Jew Hatred, Michelle Ahdoot, said that “the single most significant hatred we see in New York City since Oct. 7^th is overwhelmingly Jew-hatred.”

“On an almost daily basis, we see groups of radical Hamas supporters — some even waving the Hamas flag — marching in city streets calling for the genocide of Jews. We do not feel safe,” Ahdoot added." . . .

The liberal press protects Kamala from shots by any serious media

 "In a video posted on social media, Johnson accused the Harris campaign of engaging in what he called “Democrat Plantation tactics,” using black celebrities to pressure and shame the black community into voting for a party that, in his view, offers little in return."

Say what we want and we'll protect you!

This is why Kamala Harris is avoiding the press — and getting away with it  

"Still, it is disturbing that even as Americans and our allies harbor serious concerns about whether the president is up to an increasingly fraught geopolitical and economic moment, his constitutional understudy has done so little to reassure the public."

When will Kamala Harris meet the press? - Poynter   "Eventually, Harris will have to sit down for a one-on-one interview or press conference. But, so far, not doing so hasn’t hurt her." . . .

Jim Hᴏft  "Dr. Umar Johnson, a well-known activist and educator with millions of followers on social media, rejected an interview offer of $10,000 from the Kamala Harris campaign, calling out a manipulative strategy to win over the black vote.

“Black vote ain’t for sale no more,” Johnson said, emphasizing that the days of pandering to black voters with empty promises and financial incentives are over.

"Johnson shared a screenshot of the text from the Kamala campaign offering him money to do the interview.

"The text reads:

“Hello Dr. Umar Johnson. [redacted] from the Harris2024 team. You are a big part of the black community. Can you help us by completing a Zoom meeting with VP Kamala Harris. Paying [redacted] are looking for about an hour of your time. Please advise if you would like to complete the Zoom call. Your help can get us across the finish line. HARRIS2024”

"Johnson responded:

“Peace & PanAfrikanism. I hope that all is well. I’m not interested in your money. However, I am very interested in having the zoom conversation with Vice President Harris to discuss our needs and her plans for the Black community. This zoom must be livecasted to the national Black community and may not be prerecorded.

I promise to be completely respectful of the Vice President but I will ask direct questions about miseducation, mass incarceration, police brutality, economic strangulation, gentrification/ migrant crisis, reparations & and the need for a federal anti-Black Hate Crimes Bill.”

 More...  

What sort of chaos can we expect at the Democrat Convention? 

How would a violent DNC affect Harris’s polling numbers?  Kamala is already seeing her honeymoon begin to tatter; her unforced error promising $1.7 trillion in new entitlements was likely a significant boost for Trump.  Harris is burdened with a considerable handicap: she must woo her left flank while trying to prove she has a different plan from failed Bidenomics.  With luck and a little bit of history, perhaps the nearly twenty million undecided voters will use their minds and not their emotions in deciding who the next president should be.

You Know It’s Bad When Even WaPo Calls Kamala Harris' 'Price Gouging' Plan a 'Gimmick'

RedState

Perhaps this is why Democrats are recommending that the vice president refrain from discussing policy until after the election. They know what a radical she is, and that this will turn voters off.

"Vice President Kamala Harris recently announced her plan to reduce the impact of inflation by imposing price controls, ostensibly to prevent “price gouging.”

"Surprisingly, nobody seems to like the plan – including leftist media outlets, several of whom have published reports criticizing Harris’ plan while they try their darndest to make sure she wins the election in November.

"The vice president's campaign announced on Wednesday that she will enact “the first ever federal ban on price gouging on food and groceries—setting clear rules of the road to make clear that big corporations can’t unfairly exploit consumers to run up excessive corporate profits on food and groceries.”

"Then in a Friday statement, the Harris/Walz campaign said: “Extreme consolidation in the food industry has led to higher prices that account for a large part of higher grocery bills." Economists balked at that:

Several economists have taken issue with Harris’ plan.

Some economists, however, rejected the notion of corporate power as an important cause of inflation, saying a limit on price hikes could result in shortages of goods.

Michael Jones, an economics professor at the University of Cincinnati, said a government-imposed ceiling on prices could cause stores to run out of goods in times of scarcity.

"If there's a restriction on the prices that companies can charge for products, they simply won't supply them," Jones told ABC News.

 Full article here.

A. Greeting and giving of thanks.

1. (1-2) Paul greets the Christians in Colosse.

Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, to the saints and faithful brethren in Christ who are in Colosse: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

a. Paul: According to the custom of writing letters in that day, the author’s name is given first. Therefore the author was Paul; he wrote the letter while in Roman custody (Colossians 4:3, 4:10, and 4:18), probably from Rome and around A.D. 63.

i. Paul probably wrote the letter because of the visit of Epaphras from Colosse (Colossians 1:7). It is likely that Paul himself had never visited the city (Colossians 2:1).

b. An apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God: Paul was qualified to write this letter of instruction to the Colossians, though he had never met them personally, because he was an apostle.

i. “The literal meaning of apostolos is ‘one sent’; but at its deepest level it denotes an authorized spokesman for God, one commissioned and empowered to act as his representative.” (Vaughan)

ii. And Timothy our brother: Timothy was an honored companion of Paul, but he was not an apostle. “Though Timothy is here joined in the salutation, yet he has never been understood as having any part in composing this epistle. He has been considered as the amanuensis or scribe of the apostle.” (Clarke)

c. To the saints and faithful brethren: When Paul addressed the saints, he did not separate some Christians from others in the Colossian church. Every true Christian is a saint. However, Paul may make a distinction with the phrase faithful brethren. He may refer to those who haven’t embraced the false teaching that concerned Paul so much in this letter.

d. Who are in Colosse: The city of Colosse was probably the smallest and least important city that Paul ever wrote to. It might surprise us that Paul would turn his attention to the Christians in Colosse at a time when he had so many other concerns. Yet he apparently thought the situation in Colosse was important enough for apostolic attention.

i. Paul wrote because there were problems among the Christians in Colosse, but the doctrinal problem – sometimes described as “The Colossian Heresy” – is difficult to precisely describe. It probably was a corruption of Christianity with elements of mystical and legalistic Judaism perhaps combined with early Gnosticism.

ii. The first century religious environment was much like our own. It was a time of religious mixing, with people borrowing a little from this religion and a little from that religion. The only difference was that in the first century, one joined a group who did the borrowing. In our modern culture one does the borrowing one’s self.

iii. Whatever the problem was precisely, Paul dwelt on the solution: a better understanding of Jesus. Knowing the real Jesus helps us to stay away from the counterfeit, no matter how it comes packaged.

e. In Colosse: The city of Colosse is not even mentioned in the Book of Acts. All our Biblical information about the church there comes from this letter and a few allusions in the letter to Philemon.

i. From these sources we learn that Epaphras was responsible for bringing the gospel to the Colossians (Colossians 1:6-7). He was a native of the city (Colossians 4:12), and also got the message out to neighboring towns in the Lycus Valley like Hierapolis and Laodicea (Colossians 4:13).

ii. Perhaps Epaphras heard the gospel himself when Paul was in Ephesus. As Paul taught in the lecture hall of Tyrannus, all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord (Acts 19:10). It would not be surprising if some people from Colosse heard the gospel at that time.

iii. Historically, Colosse was a prosperous city, and famous (along with other cities in its region) for its fabric dyes. Yet by Paul’s time the glory it had as a city was on the decline.

iv. Adam Clarke adds an interesting comment: “That this city perished by an earthquake, a short time after the date of this epistle, we have the testimony of Eusebius.” Tacitus also mentioned this earthquake, which happened around A.D. 60.

f. Grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ: Paul’s greeting was familiar but heartfelt. “Grace is God’s unconditioned goodwill toward men and women which is decisively expressed in the saving work of Christ.” (Bruce)

i. This letter – full of love and concern, written to a church Paul had neither planted nor visited – shows the power of Christian love. Paul didn’t need to see or meet or directly know these Christians in order to love them and be concerned for them.

2. (3) Paul’s habit of prayer for the Colossians.

We give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you,

a. Praying always for you: Though he had never met most of them, the Christians of Colosse were on Paul’s prayer list. He prayed for them not only often, but always.

b. We give thanks: When Paul did pray for the Colossians, he did it full of gratitude. Perhaps those who pray the most end up having the most reasons to thank God.

3. (4-8) Why Paul was thankful.

Since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of your love for all the saints; because of the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, of which you heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel, which has come to you, as it has also in all the world, and is bringing forth fruit, as it is also among you since the day you heard and knew the grace of God in truth; as you also learned from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf, who also declared to us your love in the Spirit.

a. Since we heard: Paul was thankful for their faith in Christ Jesus and their love for all the saints. Genuine faith in Jesus will always have a true love for God’s people as a companion.

b. Because of the hope: Paul was thankful for the hope laid up for them in heaven. He was thankful when he considered the destiny of the Colossian Christians.

i. We notice the familiar triad of faith, hope, and love. These were not merely theological ideas to Paul; they dominated his thinking as a Christian.

c. Which you heard before in the word of the truth: Paul was thankful that their eternal destiny was affected by the truth of the gospel, brought by Epaphras (as you also learned from Epaphras).

i. Epaphras is described as a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf. This doesn’t mean that Epaphras was superior to the other Christians in Colosse. The word minister does not mean “superior”; it means “one who serves.”

d. And is bringing forth fruit: Paul was thankful that the gospel was bringing forth fruit over all the world, even while Paul was in a Roman prison.

i. The phrase “in all the world” was “A legitimate hyperbole, for the gospel was spreading all over the Roman Empire.” (Robertson)

ii. “The doctrine of the Gospel is represented as a traveller, whose object it is to visit the whole habitable earth… So rapid is this traveller in his course, that he had already gone nearly through the whole of the countries under the Roman dominion, and will travel on until he has proclaimed his message to every people, and kindred, and nation, and tongue.” (Clarke)