RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://amgreatness.com/2024/04/01/with-friends-like-obrador/

In a recent 60 Minutes interview, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador—who prefers to be known as AMLO for short—issued to the Biden administration blackmail demands that sounded more like existential threats.

AMLO warned the U.S. that the current influx of some 10 million illegal aliens through the southern border will most certainly continue—unless America agrees to his ultimatums.

One, Obrador says the U.S. must now send $20 billion in de facto bribery payments to Latin American nations, many of them corrupt and dysfunctional. Apparently, he thinks it is America’s fault that millions of Latin Americans are fleeing these failed states northward, not the inept and corrupt governments that create such misery.

Two, AMLO demands amnesty for vast numbers of Mexican illegal aliens currently unlawfully residing inside the U.S. He apparently also thinks there is no such thing as U.S. immigration law. Or, if there is, such statutes do not apply to citizens of Mexico. Can we ask Mr. Obrador to simply grant permanent visa-free, no-questions-asked residence to any American living in a vacation complex in Mexico?

Three, he also requires America to lift sanctions against anti-American Venezuela. That communist government currently is part of the new China/Russia/Iran strategic axis. It is sending thousands of its citizens northward to enter the U.S. illegally.

Many of them are criminals, as the recent murder of Laken Riley by a felonious Venezuelan illegal alien attests. Dictator Nicolás Maduro’s Venezuelan regime recently threatened to invade and annex oil-rich Guyana, its smaller neighbor to the east. Maduro’s “security forces” have routinely murdered hundreds of political opponents. This rogue state is apparently Mexico’s newest ally.

Four, AMLO further requires the U.S. to stop its long embargo of communist Castroite-controlled Cuba, a decades-long avowed enemy of the U.S.

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2024/03/the_season_of_life.html

As the Christian world celebrates Resurrection Sunday, the Northern Hemisphere is springing with new life.  Buds on trees are visible, and baby animals are moving around for the first time.  It is a season of rejuvenation.  These sights are pleasing reminders that physical death is insignificant next to the prospect of everlasting spiritual life.

Farmers are counting down the days until the final frost and the opportunity to plant new crops in warming soil.  Growing food teaches that, as in our individual lives, timing is often critical.  If you plant corn too early, seedlings will die; if you plant too late, an early autumn frost can kill the crop.  Sweet corn needs both a lot of sun and sufficient moisture.  Heavy rains can drown young plants before they have time to strengthen their roots.  When stalks are growing tall in harsh summer heat, though, a good rain can make the difference between a bountiful harvest and a desiccated field.  A gentle breeze is helpful for pollination; strong winds, however, might break stalks in half.  Seeds should be sown close to each other but never too close — or you’ll end up with tiny ears!  Sweet corn plants grow well together, but they also need their space to produce delicious, milky kernels.

Think about those lessons in the context of human life.  Sometimes we need temperate weather to survive; at other times, we need intense heat, wind, or rain to grow as individuals.  We must learn to endure harsh conditions.  Sometimes we must even seek out dangerous storms.  If a young child is made to suffer too early or for too long, the damage can cut short an otherwise healthy life.  If a young adult suffers too little, however, then he may never grow strong enough or wise enough to truly live.  To find joy, we must experience disappointment.  To be whole, we need other people.  To be our best, though, we need the space to become the people we are meant to be.  As on a farm, sometimes violent storms weaken us; sometimes they make us remarkably resilient.  Such is life.  Timing is everything.  

https://amgreatness.com/2024/03/31/easter-reflections-george-washingtons-farewell-address-in-todays-america/

Sitting down the day before Easter, I thought I might say something about this most awful (in the old sense) holiday in the Christian calendar.  But then Joseph R. Biden, the President of the United States, issued an official proclamation denominating March 31 as Transgender Day of Visibility. Farewell Easter! You just got superseded by the latest freak show in the great Democratic carnival of perversity. 

I can’t compete with Transgender Day of Visibility.  Nor can I compete with “Lizzo,” the kinky, obese black singer who performed for Joe Biden’s “grassroots” fundraiser at Radio City Music Hall last week.  That event, which featured three presidents—Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, and Joe Biden—pulled in some $26 million for Biden’s 2024 presidential coffers. Tickets to the event topped out at $500,000 a pop. How’s that for a “grassroots” extravaganza?  That same day, Donald Trump went to the wake for Jonathan Diller, the New York City cop who was gunned down in cold blood by Guy Rivera, a black ex-con who had 21 prior arrests. He also made a donation to a charitable organization to pay off the house mortgage for Diller’s widow. 

I feel stymied by these contrasts, so I thought I would reprise, with some updates, a column featuring George Washington that I wrote for a prior Easter. 

I recently chanced across a photograph of the lower Manhattan skyline at night from Good Friday in April 1956. Three skyscrapers dominating the space feature certain windows illuminated to form gigantic crosses to commemorate that most solemn of Christian holidays. The year 1956 was not that long ago. But how much has changed in those 60-odd years! Can you imagine such a public display of Christian affirmation in New York today? Nor can I.