Viewpoints with Kerby Anderson

Kerby Anderson
Reporter Leonardo Blair says that the youngest generations are “mired in debt” and that a “majority of young adults are financially dependent on parents.” He based these conclusions on a recent study by Pew Research Center’s American Trends Panel.
The study was a collection of two surveys taken in October and November. The researchers found that less than half (45%) of these young adults (18-34) reported being completely financially independent from their parents. As you might have expected, the older adults (in their early 30s) were much more likely to be completely financially independent from their parents.
On the other side, nearly half (44%) of young adults said they received financial help from their parents in the past year. The survey identified two major areas where they needed financial help from their parents. One was to pay for household expenses. The other was to pay for their cellphone bill or subscriptions to streaming services.
The survey also found that the debt load of young adults has skyrocketed. This includes not only student loan debt but mortgage debt. The article and the research study compared mortgage debt in previous decades as well as the price of a home. Both have increased due to inflation and due to rising interest rates on those mortgages.
This also has an impact on marriage and families. A much lower percentage of young adults (18-24) are likely to be married today compared to previous decades. And young adults are much less likely to have a child living in their household than in previous decades.
As I have mentioned in previous commentaries, many politicians have been trying to tell Americans that the economy is doing well. Many of these young people just don’t feel that way.

Kerby Anderson
Yesterday I talked about the book, Life in the Negative World: Confronting Challenges in an Anti-Christian Culture, by Aaron Renn. He explains that we live in a negative world. He also answers a question I frequently get from my audience: How did this change to a negative world happen?
He quotes from philosopher Charles Taylor and his book, A Secular Age. Here are a few reasons for the accelerating decline of the status of Christianity.
The sixties’ social revolution was a major upheaval with young adults rejecting the authority of their parents and other traditional authority figures. In its place was a counterculture that embraced drugs, protested the Vietnam War, and formed new communities.
The sexual revolution that took place at the same time called into question many beliefs and practices regarding sex and family that came from the Christian tradition. It also normalized many practices that would have been forbidden, including premarital sex, pornography, homosexual practices, and divorce.
Another factor was the end of the cold war. In my radio interview with Renn, he talked about how the fight against “godless communism” connected America with Christianity. The link was important until the fall of the Soviet Union.
One other factor is digitalization. As he pointed out, only two companies control the entire market for smartphone operating system software (Apple, Google). These businesses retain discretion over those with whom they will and will not do business. This gives them vast cultural power.
As I mentioned yesterday, this negative world poses new challenges for Christians as we try to navigate through an anti-Christian culture.

Kerby Anderson
Two years ago, Aaron Renn wrote about “The Three Worlds of Evangelicalism” in the journal, First Things. I did an interview with him about the article. He has now expanded that concept in his new book, Life in the Negative World: Confronting Challenges in an Anti-Christian Culture.
When he was on my radio program recently, he described the three worlds. The first world was the “positive world” that existed from 1964 to 1994. Society at large still had a mostly positive view of Christianity. He says that to be known as a good, churchgoing person was a positive attribute. Being a Christian enhanced your social status.
The second world was a “neutral world” that ran from 1994 to 2014. During this period, society took mostly a neutral stance towards Christianity. No longer did Christianity have a privileged status but neither was it disfavored. Christianity was merely one valid option among many within a pluralistic, multicultural public square.
The third world is the “negative world” we live in today. Society has an overall negative view of Christianity. Being known as a Christian can be a social negative, especially he says, in the higher status domains of society. Christian morality is repudiated. Expressing biblical ideas in public can have negative consequences.
Christians need to adapt to this negative world. Some of the actions and strategies that might have been successful in the other worlds, may not be effective in this negative world. Most of his book provides guidance in how to live personally and institutionally. We need wisdom in how to live effectively as Christians in this negative world.

Kerby Anderson
Will artificial intelligence take your job? That is a question that John Stossel asks in a recent video. He says the media warns, “Artificial intelligence will replace millions of jobs.” He shows you Teamsters protesting the use of self-driving cars because they will replace taxi drivers.
In previous commentaries, I have talked about how technology can be disruptive to society. But the long-term impact isn’t as bad as fearmongers would suggest. Jay Richards is the author of the book The Human Advantage: The Future of American Work in an Age of Smart Machines. He writes about the impact of robots and acknowledges that the coming disruption could be as abrupt as the Industrial Revolution.
But he and John Stossel point to history to dismiss many of the concerns. For example, if it is true that technology leads to permanent unemployment of the masses, the history of the last few centuries would be a history of joblessness. That is not true.
Both point to the fact that more than 90 percent of America’s workers once worked on farms. Better farm equipment replaced many of those jobs and now one percent work on farms. John Stossel reminds us that “There were once half a million typists in America. Nearly all those jobs are gone.” Also, there were “thousands of phone and elevator operator jobs.”
Many “bank tellers were replaced by ATM machines and online banking. Video rental stores were killed by streaming services.” In nearly every industry, you can find examples of how technology resulted in lost jobs. But there was no major surge in unemployment decades later. People found other jobs in such fields as education, hospitality, and health care.
Technological change can be disruptive, but we need only look to history to see how society usually benefits from new technologies.

Kerby Anderson
We face significant challenges in this nation. Many of the challenges go back to the 3D’s: disinformation, deception, and discernment. Some of the false information is being spread by people who don’t know the truth. Much more is deliberately deceptive, and that’s why I encourage people to read the new book by Pastor Jack Hibbs.
Living in the Daze of Deception catalogs the deception taking place inside the church and in the society at large. Ten chapters help us recognize deception, and two concluding chapters talk about standing for truth. We need to be prepared. Jesus warned his disciples, “Take heed that no one deceives you” (Matthew 24:4).
When he was on my radio program, we talked about the sources of deception. That includes both progressive education and social media. He writes about churches that are not preparing its members to discern truth from error. One section talks about “amusing the church to death.” That recalls the book by Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business. Many pastors fail to teach God’s Word and promote a theology of “easy believeism.”
We also talked about how words have been redefined. Marriage has been redefined. Gender and sexuality have been redefined. His chapter on “The New Tolerance” reminds us that even the word tolerance has been redefined. I referred to that as the “Princess Bride Myth” – “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.”
He calls for us to scrutinize the teachings of religious leaders. And he warns us of the growing influence of deceivers in business, education, and the media. We will need biblical discernment in this changing world. That is why I recommend his book so you will not be deceived.

Penna Dexter
Washington state has some of the nation’s most progressive laws regarding teen gender transitions.
This became a problem for Puget Sound therapist Tamara Pietzke. She was employed for six years by MultiCare, one of Washington’s largest hospital systems. In a piece for The Free Press, she expresses her growing concern at being required to “approve all teen gender transitions.”

“I was getting the message from my supervisors that when a young person I was seeing expressed discomfort with their gender—the diagnostic term is gender dysphoria—I should throw out all my training. No matter the patient’s history or other mental health conditions that could be complicating the situation, I was simply to affirm that the patient was transgender, and even approve the start of a medical transition.”

This, she writes, “challenges the very fundamentals of what therapy is supposed to provide.”
Ms. Pietzke goes on to describe three cases that heightened her alarm at this protocol and ultimately resulted in her resignation—a risky move for a single mom of three children under six. Each case involved prior mental health diagnoses, often autism, family dysfunction, and even abuse. One teenaged female patient began identifying as a “wounded male dog.”
In each case, Ms. Pietzke was told she must refer the patient to a gender health clinic to begin hormone treatment which normally continues for life.
When she questioned this, she was accused of “spreading disinformation. She was removed from cases and eventually left her job so she could speak freely. She writes, “Nothing will change unless people like me—who know the risks of medicalizing troubled young people—blow the whistle.”
Last week the American College of Pediatricians released a statement based on its review of over 60 studies of adolescents with gender dysphoria. The authors conclude that these so-called “affirming” interventions destroy healthy bodies but provide no long-term benefit to psychological well-being.
A timely vindication.

Kerby Anderson
A few months ago, I talked about how leftist groups were using a variation of the heckler’s veto. The heckler’s veto occurs when someone who disagrees with a speaker’s message triggers actions or protests to disrupt the event and get the speech cancelled. We have seen this tactic on university campuses primarily used against conservative speakers.
The latest version might be called the heckler’s veto fee. Universities fearing the actions of protesting groups, charge massive security fees to the sponsoring group. Since they cannot pay such outrageous sums, the speech is cancelled.
Now we have what some are calling an assassin’s veto that comes from radical Muslim groups. Perhaps the best know example is Salman Rushdie who was threatened decades ago for publishing The Satanic Verses. He had to go into hiding for decades but was nearly killed 34 years later at a literary festival in upstate New York.
Another would be Ayaan Hirsi Ali who criticized Islam and has faced death threats. Her colleague and filmmaker, Theo van Gogh, was murdered for collaborating on a movie about Islam with her.
More recently Douglas Murray was forced to cancel an event in a London theater. The theater refused to host a pro-Israel program of his because of violent threats against their staff.
Mike Freer has been a member of British parliament for 14 years and represents a part of London where many Jewish people live. He announced he will no longer seek reelection because of violent threats against him and his loved ones.
This is, unfortunately, the world we live in today. We will need courage to speak the truth because many will use harsh and dangerous tactics against those who speak the truth.

Kerby Anderson
Is inflation decreasing? You have probably been hearing, as I have, that inflation is going down. But that is why you should be skeptical when you hear such claims. It would be accurate to say that the rate of inflation is going down, but inflation itself is increasing.
We can all probably remember when the inflation rate peaked at over 9 percent. Now the inflation rate is one-third of that percentage. But that still means that prices are going up based on the consumer price index, which, as I have explained in previous commentaries, isn’t the most accurate measure of inflation.
Here is another way to look at the inflation trend. The annual rate in 2021 was 7 percent, it was 6.5 percent in 2022, and last year it was 3.5 percent. If you run the numbers, that means that average prices have risen 17 percent over the three-year period.
Of course, you don’t need all these numbers to know that inflation is still a reality in your world. I have a friend who tracks rising prices and inflation by recording the cost of bananas. I know of a YouTube producer who often uses the rising price of a Big Mac to illustrate inflation.
There has also been misinformation about the impact of inflation. A few years ago, I began to collect articles telling all of us that inflation is good. I have one article with the title “Inflation is Good for You” and a CNN article with the title “Why Inflation Can Actually be Good for Everyday Americans and Bad for Rich People.” Their argument is that inflation favors debtors. While that is true, any small benefit is offset by rising prices at the gas pump and grocery store.
Once again, we should be skeptical when politicians and the media misinform us about the rate of inflation and its impact on our lives.

Kerby Anderson
The number of states that now provide school choice is increasing. According to a recent report, 32 states (plus Washington, DC and Puerto Rico) are using school choice. That means that approximately 20 million students are now eligible for a private choice program.
Larry Sand is the president of the California Teachers Empowerment Network. While he is excited about the progress of school choice in this nation, he is also concerned about the attacks against school choice by teachers’ unions and the educational establishment. For example, one group maintains that “voucher programs are deeply rooted in segregation, racism, and discrimination.”
He says that on race, the critics have it exactly backward. “Almost 70 years after Brown v. Board of Education, public schools are still segregated.” Sixty percent of black and hispanic public school students attend schools where three-fourths are students of color. By contrast, virtually all the empirical studies on school choice programs found they reduced segregation.
There is still much segregation in the public schools because students are forced to attend schools according to their zip code. Since most residential areas are not integrated, the schools remain segregated. It’s no wonder the parents of all races are unhappy with zip-code-mandated schooling.
That is why school choice has become so popular in America. A recent poll found that two-thirds of Democrats (66%) and Independents (69%) favor school choice. An even larger percentage of Republicans (80%) favor it.
School choice is also taxpayer friendly. According to the latest figures, K-12 public schools spend an average of $14,347 per pupil. The nation’s private K-12 schools spend $12,350.
For these reasons, more states are likely to enact school choice.

Kerby Anderson
The number one issue for voters this year is immigration. To be precise, the real issue is the lack of border security.
This is not only perception but reality. Perhaps you have seen the chart that compares the illegal immigrant encounters for Presidents Obama, Trump, and Biden. The blue bar for the second term of Barack Obama lists 5 million encounters. The green bar for Donald Trump lists 4.7 million encounters. And the red bar for Joe Biden lists 8.4 million so far, with an estimate of 12 million by the end of his term.
If every person encountered at the border and let into the country was a law-abiding migrant, the sheer numbers pose a problem. Just ask the mayors of many of the large cities in America. Unfortunately, not every person crossing the border is someone we would want to live in this country.
Each year Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrests nearly 2,000 illegal aliens who have murdered Americans. Last year, ICE caught 1,323 illegals with homicide convictions along with 390 with pending homicide convictions. That works out to nearly five murders a day.
Of course, these are the ones who were caught. Millions have crossed the border and ICE estimates that there were at least 1.7 million “gotaways” who escaped federal custody. We can assume some of them are involved in drugs and human trafficking. A few might even be terrorists, who deliberately avoided capture.
As I mentioned in a previous commentary, we also have nearly 75,000 “special interest aliens.” These are individuals who have traveled to countries known for terrorist activity and should be given further scrutiny.
Americans are convinced that border security is a problem. These numbers illustrate that the problem is even worse than you know.

Kerby Anderson
Perhaps the most poignant moment in a recent Senate Judiciary Committee hearing occurred when Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg stood up and apologized to families in the hearing. Senator Josh Hawley wanted to know if he had apologized to the victims and then asked, “Would you do so now?”
The Facebook founder joined other social media leaders from TikTok, Snap, X, and Discord. Senators on both the right and left wanted to know what these executives and their companies would do to protect child safety. Many of the parents wore blue ribbons reading, “STOP Online Harms! Pass KOS!” That was a reference to legislation aimed at strengthening protections for kids online.
There’s no denying the negative impact social media is having on young people in America. In previous commentaries, I’ve documented the many studies that demonstrate the harm to young people who follow social media.
The solutions, however, are more difficult to find. Some companies allow parents to control and observe what their children are seeing and doing. Unfortunately, too few parents avail themselves of that opportunity.
Another idea has been to require app stores (like Apple and Google) to let parents approve of app downloads. Parents would be notified that young people wanted to download apps. And such a link might also provide parents with the option of activating controls on daily time limits and even which accounts they might be following.
The biggest issue is whether Congress should repeal Section 230 which currently shields platforms from lawsuits because they are a common carrier. Although there is always talk of repealing that section of the Communications Decency Act, I think it is unlikely Congress will do so.
The solution once again falls in the hands of parents, who need to monitor what their children see and hear.

Penna Dexter
Members of the medical and psychological communities who advocate gender transition as a treatment for disturbed young people start them on puberty blockers as the first medical step. This sounds drastic — and permanent. But the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) publicly claims the effects of these drugs are “fully reversible.” Some of those folks know better.
In a recent Breakpoint commentary, John Stonestreet and Jared Hayden point out that puberty blocking drugs are often presented as a way “for gender-confused teens to ‘push pause’ on puberty and buy more time to find out who they are.”
It’s naive to believe that taking drugs that stop the development of a young person’s sexual organs is “fully reversible.” Stopping the drugs after a few months or years will not bring back the time that God ordained for that child to grow physically and emotionally.
Heading up the list of physical consequences of puberty blockers is osteoporosis. The Breakpoint hosts point to a recently-leaked video from a 2022 WPATH certification seminar. Dr. Daniel Metzger, a WPATH-certified pediatric endocrinologist told his audience: “Normally puberty is the time of putting the calcium into your piggy bank.” Those bones won’t catch up.
As is often the case when one searches Google about anything medical, the Mayo Clinic shows up near the top. This happened when I searched for “Harms from Puberty Blockers.” But “possible side effects” don’t show up until page 4 and 5 of Mayo’s 6-page document, where it states: the drugs “also might have long-term effects on growth spurts, bone growth, [and] bone density.”
The Mayo document advises: “Yearly bone density and bone-age tests may be advised.” It suggests “calcium and vitamin D supplements.”
The Mayo piece lists one more long-term effect: “Fertility, depending on when the medicine is started.”
A heartbroken grandmother at my church told me she’s praying her grandson will decide not to take this step. These are serious drugs. We must start saying so.

Kerby Anderson
Many Americans say they are living on the edge of a financial disaster. Is that merely perception, or is it reality? Although government officials cite some positive trends in the economy, the reality in people’s lives is different.
This year, Bankrate asked the same question as last year. If you had an emergency expense of $1,000 or more, could you pay for it? Once again, a majority (56%) of US adults said that expense would be too great of a hit to their savings. Because they did not have savings to fall back on, a third (35%) said they would borrow the money or finance with a credit card or turn to friends or family.
Inflation is one reason for this financial dilemma in the lives of Americans. Two-thirds (63%) of US adults say inflation is causing them to save less for unexpected expenses, while nearly half (45%) say the same of rising interest rates.
Americans don’t keep much money in their bank accounts. The GOBankingRates survey found that nearly half of Americans have $500 or less in their savings account. About three in ten (29%) had between $501 and $5,000 in their saving account. And two in ten (21%) of Americans have $5,001 or more.
Social media is full of anecdotal stories illustrating how prices are rising faster. A TikTok video that went viral was a woman’s receipt from Taco Bell 12 years ago. The old receipt showed that, 12 years ago, Americans could buy two beefy five-layer burritos for $2.59 including taxes. Today that same burrito costs $3.69 for just one, and that doesn’t even include taxes.  Other stories show the rising cost of rent, car insurance, and utilities.
Government officials may say the economy is doing fine, but millions of Americans are living on the edge.

Kerby Anderson
Yesterday, I talked about the reality of rising Federal budget deficits. Politicians are going to be looking for additional sources of revenue to keep the government running. They will notice that more than a quarter (27%) of all the wealth in America is held by Americans over age seventy.
Over the next quarter century, there will be at least $84 trillion transferred. About $11 trillion will go to philanthropic endeavors. The remaining more than $70 trillion will be transferred to heirs.
Most of this wealth has been earned, and the Americans who earned it should be able to decide what happens to it. But a government starved for revenue will also see this as another source of government income. All politicians would need to do is raise estate taxes and raise capital gains taxes so more money will flow into the federal government.
The trick will be to convince Americans that these policy changes will only affect the rich. It is a variation of the “tax the rich” slogan we talked about yesterday. But here is the catch. Most of that $84 trillion is not in the hands of the super-rich.
In her recent book, Carol Roth has a chapter on “The Upcoming Wealth Heist.” She runs the numbers on the top eleven wealthiest individuals in America (like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Bill Gates), whose collective estimated wealth is about $1.2 trillion.
That is a significant amount of wealth. But it’s merely a fraction of the trillions that will be transferred by upper-class and middle-class Americans. We are talking about many Americans who don’t even think of themselves as wealthy who will be transferring stocks, bonds, farms, businesses, and other assets to their children and grandchildren.
Once again, you can see this variation of “tax the rich” will ultimately be taxing many more Americans than you might have imagined.

Kerby Anderson
Federal budget deficits are rising faster than anyone would have imagined. About the only way to reduce spending would be to reform Social Security and Medicare. Congress doesn’t seem to be interested.
Politicians need to find enough money to keep the government running and will find that more difficult in the future. Bloomberg recently announced, “US Debt Interest Bill Rockets Past a Cool $1 Trillion a Year.” When the interest payments on the national debt rival the total amount we spend on defense, you know we have a problem.
One slogan we will hear is to “tax the rich.” Brian Riedl has run the numbers and concludes it won’t be nearly enough. For example, “Seizing every dollar of income earned over $500,000 wouldn’t balance the budget. Liquidating every dollar of billionaire wealth would fund the federal government for only nine months.”
In his study, he set upper-income tax rates at their revenue-maximizing level. He then matched that by reducing the loopholes and tax evasion used by the wealthy. His research shows that the “tax the rich model would only raise at most two percent of GDP in additional revenue.”
He understands if you are skeptical, because most Americans do not realize that the US tax code is already the most progressive of more than three dozen other developed countries. Put another way, the US “taxes the wealthy at European rates, while taxing the middle class at considerably lower rates.”
Other countries can do that because they have a hidden tax on their citizens known as the value-added tax or VAT. It is a consumption tax assessed at each production state of a good or service.
That is why we may hear about a VAT on the middle class in the future, because “tax the rich” is a financial fantasy.

Kerby Anderson
Trust has become a big issue in 2024. Elections are one reason. According to a recent estimate, a record number 4.2 billion could vote in elections around the world.
That is one reason why the theme of the recent World Economic Forum was “Rebuilding Trust Amid Uncertainty.” Kevin Roberts is the President of the Heritage Foundation and wrote that “trust must be earned. Global elites have not merely failed on that score. They have squandered the vast reserves of credibility they inherited from their institutional predecessors.”
Trust the media? That would be the same media in 2020 that assured us that the protests were “mostly peaceful” while buildings were burning in the background. The federal government documented 164 torched buildings in the cities of Minneapolis-St. Paul that occurred in May 2020. And that would be the same media that tried to convince us that Russia blew up its own Nord Stream pipeline.
Trust health officials? That would include the Surgeon General who tweeted: “STOP BUYING MASKS! They are NOT effective in preventing the general public from catching Coronavirus.” It would also include others who proclaimed masks would protect you from infection, sickness, and death.
Remember the slogan “fifteen days to slow the spread?” Those fifteen days went on for weeks, then months, and nearly two years.
Trust churches? Many pastors and churches are trustworthy. Others are not. Instead, they teach false doctrine and lead their members astray. Some churches even fail to report sexual abuse within the congregation.
This year, it will be more important than ever to use biblical discernment. Find a few trustworthy sources of information and be skeptical of the rest.

Kerby Anderson
Much of the debate surrounding the issue of border security and immigration centers on the word “invasion.” Texas Governor Gregg Abbott argues that Article IV of the US Constitution promises that the federal government “shall protect each [State] against invasion.” It also describes “the States’ sovereign interest in protecting their borders.”
He also provides some history. “James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and the other visionaries who wrote the US Constitution foresaw that States should not be left to the mercy of a lawless president who does nothing to stop external threats like cartels smuggling millions of illegal immigrants across the border.”
Critics rightly point out that people walking into the US cannot be termed an invasion. Nearly every court has interpreted that to mean “an armed hostility from another political entity.” James Madison labeled invasion an attack by one state on another. The Constitutional Convention debates connected the power to repel invasions with the power to raise armies.
While it cannot be called an invasion, the impact may feel just about the same. When the Supreme Court ruled recently that the Biden Administration could remove razor wire from the border, one pundit asked a different question. Instead of an army crossing the border, what about a gang of drug dealers and cartels dealing in human trafficking? They may not be an invasion in the legal sense, but it is doing great damage just the same.
Whatever the definition, American voters know there is a problem at the border. The most recent Harvard CAPS-Harris poll asked voters their top policy concern. Immigration was first, and inflation was second. Border security and immigration are likely to be the most discussed issues in this campaign.

Penna Dexter
There are better ways to encourage literacy among children than exposing them to male transvestites at Drag Queen Story Hours.
Drag Queen Story Hours feature flamboyant drag queens reading stories to children mostly in libraries, schools, bookstores, and sometimes bars.
One parent says these performances expose kids to “beautiful people.” Gender queer academic Harris Kornstein said, “Drag queens can teach kids how to live queerly.” He said Drag Queen Story Hours foster “a queer rationality between adult and child.”
Christopher Rufo dug into what he describes as “the real story behind this bizarre modern ritual” and has produced a short film. Find it at christopherrufo.com.
The film takes us back to the 1969 Stonewall riots, when drag suddenly became political. Two drag queens who participated in the riots formed the Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries. They created a list of demands, including:

“the right to self-determination over the use of their bodies”
“the right to be gay any time, any place”
“the right to physiological change and modification of sex on demand”

Chris Rufo explains that, after the 60’s, cross-dressers were no longer just engaging in entertainment, but were “revolutionaries who wanted to overthrow the system through sex.”  Drag became a political weapon underpinned by queer theory, a discipline created to deconstruct and disorder human sexuality, liberating the fetishes of transsexuals, sadomasochists, prostitutes, and even pedophiles.
The film introduces lesbian theorist Gayle Ruben who advocated normalizing “the eroticism of those who transgress generational boundaries — in her words ‘boy lovers’.”
Gender studies scholar Judith Butler posited the postmodern idea that man/woman sexuality is a social construct that could be reshaped via performance. Drag queens were the “perfect vehicle.”
 So, in 2015 the Drag Queen Story Hour was created. A Los Angeles-based queer activist organized the formation of chapters across the country.
Chris Rufo warns that these activists have been “remarkably successful.”
Governments and philanthropies who sponsor and promote this should stop: Now. 

Kerby Anderson
Swatting has become a major problem in America. In case, you are not familiar with the term it is a form of harassment that occurs by calling in a fake report to law enforcement that often requires a SWAT unit to go to the victim’s home. It may involve a false report that shots have been fired or that a family member has been taken hostage.
Swatting only got the attention of corporate media when Maine’s Secretary of State was swatted after she ruled President Trump was ineligible to be put on the primary ballot. Many of the news accounts, and even a recent op-ed in the New York Times, makes it seem like only Democrats have been targeted with this criminal action. That is not the case.
For example, Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene was swatted on Christmas Day. She reports that she had been swatted eight times before that. She is frustrated that law enforcement can’t seem to figure out who is responsible. Representative Brandon Williams is a Republican member of Congress who was also swatted on Christmas Day. He posted his thanks to the Deputies and Troopers, who left with homemade cookies and spiced nuts. Republican Senator Rick Scott has also been swatted and expressed his frustration about this wasted time and resources of law enforcement. He also added that it terrorized his family.
John Paul Mac Isaac is the computer repairman who exposed Hunter Biden’s laptop to the world. His home was swatted by the Wilmington Police Department. He applauded them for their professionalism.
Swatting is not only a waste of time and money. It is dangerous. One man was killed a few years ago, and another tragic accident could easily take place again. This is a crime that has flourished because there is no significant deterrent. It is time to pass a law against swatting.

Kerby Anderson
When I first mentioned that banks were urged to flag purchases of Bibles and religious material, I think most of my friends and listeners thought I was making this up. I wish I were. For anyone still skeptical, you merely need to read a few articles or tweets to see what is now being investigated.
Representative Jim Jordan is the chairman of the House Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government. Two weeks ago, he sent a letter to the former director of the Treasury’s Division of Financial Crimes Enforcement Network.
His subcommittee has obtained documents asking financial institutions to look for persons of interest. These materials included a document suggesting that banks look for terms like “TRUMP” and “MAGA” or other indicators of extremism. They were to flag transportation and the “purchase of books (including religious texts) and subscriptions to other media containing extremist views.”
The subcommittee also discovered that certain federal law enforcement agencies also were looking for data on transactions at sporting goods stores like Cabela’s and Bass Pro Shop.
In a recent tweet, Jim Jordan wrote, “We now know the federal government flagged terms like ‘MAGA’ and ‘TRUMP’ to financial institutions if Americans completed transactions using those terms.” He then added, “What was also flagged? If you bought a religious text, like a BIBLE, or shopped at Bass Pro Shop.”
I have been joking that I might be in trouble since this last year I purchased a Bible in a bookstore and bought a sleeping bag at Cabela’s. The typical response is this investigation is merely limited to investigating people at the January 6 riot. But if you look at the documents, “no specific time frame, frames, or limitations” are listed. That’s why this investigation needs to continue.