Offsite Post: ‘What Speaker Johnson Can Learn from Saint George’

 

The checklist of Speaker Mike Johnson’s betrayals has grown fairly lengthy in just a short time.  Jeff Crouere gives a good summary:

At one time, Johnson was regarded as a staunch supporter of the “Make America Great Again” (MAGA) movement. In fact, his nickname was “MAGA Mike.” His lifetime Heritage Action voting record was 90%, but, in this session of Congress, it has plummeted to 53%.

 

As House Speaker, Johnson supported the horrific omnibus spending bill, which fully funded the Department of Justice and the FBI, which has been weaponized against President Donald Trump and MAGA supporters. He was the deciding vote in extending FISA powers, allowing our intelligence services to spy on Americans without a warrant.

 

Previously, Johnson had railed against omnibus spending bills and extending FISA surveillance powers, but, in a stunning twist, his positions changed as House Speaker.

 

In his latest betrayal, Johnson supported a $95 billion aid package for Taiwan, Israel, and Ukraine. The bulk of the package, $61 billion, was targeted to assist Ukraine fend off the Russian invasion, which began in February of 2022.

 

Previously, the United States has authorized $113 billion for Ukraine, more than the rest of the world combined. Once again, Johnson had previously opposed such funding. He also vowed to make sure that our border was secure before sending billions of dollars to secure the border of another country.

 

Sadly, on Saturday, with the help of Democrats and a minority of his Republican colleagues, Johnson rammed through the foreign aid package, which supported other countries, while providing zero assistance to our Border Patrol.

 

The spectacle disgusted Brandon Judd, President of the National Border Patrol Council. He told Bill Melugin of Fox News, “We are beyond disappointed that the House would give aid to secure the borders of foreign countries but gave nothing to allow the Border Patrol to secure the safety of the United States. There’s nothing more backwards.”

 

In the raucous aftermath of the vote, Democrats celebrated the passage of the foreign aid package and the exclusion of border funding by waving Ukrainian flags on the House floor. This disgusting display just reinforced the feeling of many Americans that Congress is more concerned about foreign nations than American citizens.

 

At least some Republicans in Congress denounced this outrageous exhibition. U.S. Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) tweeted, “Ukrainian flags fly in the chamber of the UNITED STATES House of Representatives as they vote to send more of your hard-earned money to a corrupt foreign regime. And just like that they shout “UKRAINE! UKRAINE!” while happily working to secure Ukraine’s borders, not ours.”

 

Congressman Thomas Massie (R-KY) also condemned the Ukrainian flag celebration, referring to it as “the U.S. House of Representatives under the direction of Speaker Mike Johnson. Democrats are celebrating his total capitulation with no victory for securing our border.”

There have been numerous stories now about his being captured by the Deep State.  That is horrid enough.  Yet there is something worse about all of this.  Speaker Johnson has trumpeted his Christianity quite loudly over the years:

Johnson -- a supporter of former President Donald Trump and a 2020 election denier -- told a Baptist newspaper when he was running for Congress in 2016, "I'm a committed Christian and my faith informs everything I do." In an interview that aired Thursday night on Fox News, Johnson told host Sean Hannity that "Someone asked me today in the media, 'People are curious, what does Mike Johnson think about any issue under the sun?' I said, 'Well, go pick up a Bible off your shelf and read it. That's my worldview."

His capitulation on the issues touched on above give the Christian Faith he proclaims a bad reputation:  Here is yet another very public figure who says he is a committed Christian but who then betrays that Faith by his duplicitous actions.

This is not the boldness for Christ that we see in the heroes of the Faith throughout Church history:  from the Holy Apostles themselves to the New Martyrs under the Soviet communists in the 20^th century.

Recall how bold and defiant the Apostles were toward the Jewish authorities when the latter ordered them to stop preaching about the Resurrected Christ:  ‘We must obey God rather than men’ –

 . . .

The rest is at https://thehayride.com/2024/04/garlington-what-speaker-johnson-can-learn-from-saint-george/.

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Holy Ælfred the Great, King of England, South Patron, pray for us sinners at the Souð, unworthy though we are!

Anathema to the Union!

Offsite Post: ‘Building on a Foundation of Sand’

 

The 13 colonies of England gained their independence at an inauspicious time.  Christianity was at a low ebb in much of the world:  In western Europe, Roman Catholics and Protestants were continuing to have violent quarrels.  The Orthodox Christians of eastern Europe, the Middle East, and northern Africa were under the heavy yoke of the Muslims, while the Orthodox in Russia were being oppressed by Empress Catherine II.

All of this together helped create a spiritual vacuum in the West, which was filled by new atheistic and humanistic theories (i.e., the Enlightenment).  Among them was the one that has become central to the United States, that the unhindered exercise of freedom here in the world is the sine qua non of human existence, that history unfolds as the quest of humanity towards greater, more expansive liberty.

But Christianity teaches us something different.  St. Seraphim Rose of Platina, California, says in the first lecture of his Orthodox Survival Course:

 

If you read the Old Testament, you will find a remarkable history which is different from the history of any other country. In other countries there are rulers [who] rise and fall: there is tyranny, there are democratic paradises, there are wars, sometimes the righteous triumph, sometimes the unrighteous triumph; and the whole of history is extremely sceptical. Historians will tell you their chronicle of crimes and savagery — and no meaning. And what happens to come out is some chance event which no one can see any meaning for. But in the History of Israel we see a very deep thing which is the history of the chosen people of God which is now following God’s commandments, and now falling away; and its history depends upon how it is, whether it’s following God or falling away from Him. . . .

 

The whole history of Israel is this history between belief and unbelief, between following God and turning away from God. And the history of Israel becomes in the New Testament the history of the Church, the new Israel. And the history of humanity from the time Christ came to earth until now is the history of the Church and of those peoples who either come to the Church or fight against the Church, or come to the Church and fall away from it. World history, from that time to this, makes sense only if you understand there is some plan going on, which is the plan of God for the salvation of men.

History, according to the Church, is about the peoples of the world accepting or rejecting the salvation made available to man through the incarnation, birth, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ, the God-man.  This is actually the essence of what it means to be human – to be united to the Lord Jesus and to His Church, to acquire fully the Grace of the Holy Spirit, not simply the exercise of freedom.

But since the peoples of the States have divinized human freedom, they have also necessarily divinized the political system in which that freedom is exercised.  This has led to an interesting reversal:  When Christian faith was strong, adherence to the teachings and traditions of the Holy Apostles was paramount, and every deviation was strongly contested.  Hence the intense doctrinal debates from the 4^th to the 8^th centuries, that led to the Seven Ecumenical Councils, those gatherings of the bishops from throughout the Christian world that established the dogmas of right belief about the Holy Trinity and other matters.  But now when Christian faith is weak and humanistic faith is strong, adherence to the proper political traditions has become paramount, with corresponding anathemas and denunciations of heretics who hold to this or that ‘false teaching’ about constitutional matters; meanwhile, one may believe whatever he likes about religious matters with hardly a care by anyone.

Thus we have created in a real sense in the States a substitute church for that of Christ’s, and we diligently preach the gospel of this church around the world:  not that of Christ crucified for our sins, but of mankind’s liberation from tyranny through constitutional government, with its holy trinity of legislative, executive, and judicial branches, man’s salvation being in the mutual antagonism (rather than mutual love) of these three towards one another.

George W. Bush admitted as much in his second inaugural address in 2005:

 . . .

The rest is at https://thehayride.com/2024/04/garlington-building-on-a-foundation-of-sand/.

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Holy Ælfred the Great, King of England, South Patron, pray for us sinners at the Souð, unworthy though we are!

Anathema to the Union!

Offsite Post: ‘Meta Won’t Be Hiring Many Richlanders for Its AI Center’

 

Big Tech firms like Apple, Microsoft, Meta, and others are often touted as US entrepreneurial success stories.  It is strange, then, that they have such an aversion for hiring natural-born citizens of the States to work for them.

Even the most MAGA-supporting of them, Elon Musk’s Tesla, is eager to hire cheaper foreign workers using H-1B visas:

‘It’s no secret that Elon Musk is a big fan of the H-1B program, which puts him at odds with the core principles of the America First movement. Don’t get us wrong—we’re incredibly grateful for everything Elon has done to support Trump and fight for free speech. He’s made some amazing contributions, and we’re not taking anything away from that. But we can’t just gloss over the fact that hiring foreign workers over Americans is a real issue. To ignore it would fly in the face of everything America First stands for.

‘The fire started when Amanda Louise, an America First advocate, called out Musk and Tesla when she happened upon several job listings for the company in a newspaper. She suggested that Elon was “hiding” these jobs from Americans, so they could hire more foreign workers.  . . .

‘Elon Musk has done incredible things for innovation and free speech, but his support and use of the H-1B program don’t exactly line up with the America First agenda. Let’s be honest—prioritizing foreign workers over Americans is the kind of globalist mentality that got us into this mess in the first place. If Elon truly wants to be a champion of the American spirit, he should embrace every part of the America First movement, especially foundational issues like hiring American workers’ (‘Did Tesla hide job listings in newspapers so they can hire H-1B visa workers?’, revolver.news)

Some statistics from various Big Tech firms confirm their disdain for the citizens of the US:

‘Employers are using H-1B visas to hire foreign workers at significantly lower wages, displacing qualified U.S. workers. Recent statistics show that while mass layoffs have disproportionately impacted American-born workers, foreign workers continue to be hired, undermining job opportunities for U.S. citizens. In 2022, 65% of H-1B visas went to computer occupations, specifically, the tech industry.

‘From 2022 to 2024, the tech industry saw more than 569,000 layoffs across major companies like Amazon, Meta, Google, Microsoft, and Salesforce. Many of these layoffs were attributed to economic downturns, restructuring, or overhiring. However, despite these layoffs, these same companies continued to submit thousands of H-1B petitions, effectively replacing U.S. workers with foreign labor.

‘Amazon: Laid off 27,000 workers globally in 2023 but continued to file H-1B petitions, bringing in additional foreign workers through outsourcing firms like Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and Infosys.

‘Alphabet (Google): Despite laying off 12,000 employees in 2023, Alphabet filed more than 6,000 H-1B petitions, continuing to bring in foreign workers even as more U.S. workers were displaced.

‘Meta (Facebook): Laid off 21,000 workers between 2022 and 2023 but continued to file new H-1B petitions and to increase its reliance on foreign labor through the H-1B program.

‘ . . . Companies are exploiting the PERM [Program Electronic Review Management—W.G.] process by using fraudulent recruitment practices to bypass U.S. workers and hire foreign labor for permanent positions. This abuse results in the exclusion of American workers from jobs they are qualified for.

‘Several major legal cases have revealed how companies exploit the PERM process to bypass U.S. workers: Facebook settled with the DOJ for $14.25 million after being accused of systematically excluding U.S. workers from jobs reserved for foreign nationals under the PERM process. This case set a significant precedent, demonstrating how employers manipulate the system to favor foreign workers over Americans.

‘Infosys paid $34 million to settle claims of visa fraud, which included filing false job descriptions and misclassifying foreign workers to bypass recruitment requirements. The settlement revealed systemic abuse of both the H-1B and PERM programs, further underscoring the need for stricter enforcement’ (Institute for Sound Public Policy, A Call to Protect American Workers: The Need for Non-Immmigrant Visa Reform, pgs. 2-5; report available at instituteforsoundpublicpolicy.org/petition/).

One will note that Meta/Facebook figures prominently in the H-1B visa abuses and others.  This should give pause to everyone cheering the Meta AI data center announced for Richland Parish.  The narrative being presented to folks in Northeast Louisiana (NELa) is that this center will provide high-paying jobs for lots of people now living in the area.  Given the foregoing, it is more likely that only a few natives of Richland and surrounding parishes will be hired by Meta for positions at the data center, while the bulk of the jobs go to foreign workers brought in on visas.

And this injustice begets another:  the destruction of the conservative culture of NELa.  Generally speaking, workers from abroad who settle in the US lean Left politically:

 . . .

The rest is at https://thehayride.com/2024/12/garlington-meta-wont-be-hiring-many-richlanders-for-its-ai-center/.

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Holy Ælfred the Great, King of England, South Patron, pray for us sinners at the Souð, unworthy though we are!

Anathema to the Union!

Offsite Post: ‘The Long Martyrdom of the South’

April 9^th, a day adorned with many martyrs –

Abbot Hedda of Peterborough,

Abbot Theodore of Crowland,

And dozens of other English monks

Cut asunder by the Viking Danes;

Bishop Desan of Persia with companions

In the hundreds, sentenced by Sapor;

Massylitan Martyrs of northwest Africa,

Honored by saints, Augustine and Bede;

New Martyrs of Lesbos, monks Raphael

And Nicholas, cruelly tortured

By the Turks, the first sawn through the jaw,

The second died at the gruesome sight,

The children Eleni and Irene,

Mistreated and murdered, too:

Eleni beaten fiercely,

Irene lost an arm

And suffocated in a cask

With a fire blazing underneath –

Several more died with them.

On April 9^th hosts of martyrs

Finished their trials and received their crowns

From the Victor over Death, Christ our God.

On April 9^th the Southern people

Began their martyrdom at Appomattox,

A contest not quick like those of others,

But slow and subtle, full of cunning,

As Yankee apostates, devils, demons,

And other swindlers attempt to draw

Dixie’s folk away from the Soul-mender,

The Flesh-healer, her Savior Jesus Christ.

The weight of years presses upon us,

Many have fallen into the traps of temptation,

 . . .

The rest is at https://identitydixie.com/2024/04/18/the-long-martyrdom-of-the-south/.

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Holy Ælfred the Great, King of England, South Patron, pray for us sinners at the Souð, unworthy though we are!

Anathema to the Union!