No Easter Without Good Friday

by Norm Beznoska Jr., Contributing Author: The road to Calvary and the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ spanned a period of less than 24 hours from the time of the Last Supper, the Jewish Passover meal on Thursday evening, to Friday afternoon at 3:00 PM when Jesus breathed his last. But, the story of His death and resurrection still echoes down the hill side of Jerusalem throughout history. His story is just ‘alive today’ as it was when it happened at the place of the skull, ‘Golgotha’ in Jerusalem, some 2000 years ago.

Preceding His crucifixion, Jesus suffered hours of unimaginable torture; facial beatings at the hands of Temple guards in the sham courtroom of Caiaphas; brutal scourging ordered by Pilate, by two Roman soldiers with flagrums of nine leather thongs fitted with lead balls and sharp pieces of bone, that caused over 240 deep lacerations from the back of His neck to the soles of His feet, leaving a mutilated mass of torn muscle and hanging flesh; and a tremendous loss of blood causing hypovolemic shock. To further mock and humiliate Him, Roman soldiers fastened a “Crown of Thorns” with branches (from a wild hawthorn bush with long, sharp, hard thorns) to cover His entire scalp. The thorns penetrated the skin, and were driven more and more deeply into his head when He was struck repeatedly. A comedy of mock adoration was played out as the Romans and crowd yelled, roaring with laughter: “Hail, King of the Jews!” Yet, Jesus uttered no rebuke and accepted their vile treatment without response.

Carrying the heavy wooden cross opened severe wounds on His shoulders and more bleeding; He fell three times, breaking His nose, so breathing became almost impossible. Reaching His destination with the help of Simon the Cyrenean, He fell atop His cross. His arms were literally pulled out of their sockets by Roman soldiers to match the holes 9-inch nails would be driven through His wrists and ankles to hold Him fast to the cross. His executioners and the Scribes and Pharisees expected Him to cry and scream from the excruciating pain. They were sure the same man who preached “love your enemies’, and “do good to those who hurt you” would forget His own words and curse them. What they got instead, was “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.” Forgive the very people who hate and are trying to kill you? Honestly, there’s no way I could.

Then, in that final, terrible moment when He was dying on the cross, taking on all the sins of the world, Jesus cried out like we do when we feel a sense of abandonment: “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken me?” Questions I have asked “If God is so loving, why is there so much evil? Why didn’t He answer my prayers? Why did God take my Mother after weeks of suffering before she could her me say “I love you” one last time? Why? Jesus stands at the door and knocks, but the latch is on the inside; only we can open it.

For the last three hours on that “Good Friday’, Jesus had been about His Father’s business. His passion and death avail us nothing unless we take up our cross and follow Him. Unless there is a ‘Crown of Thorns’, there will never be a glorified body; unless there is the thirst, there will never be the Heavenly refreshment. Jesus work is finished, but is ours? For unless there is a “Good Friday’ in our lives, there will never be an Easter Sunday.
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Norm Beznoska Jr., aka Navyman Norm, is a Strongsville, OH resident . He contributes to the ARRA News Service via articles and Letters to the Editor. Note: Norm provided this excellent article last in 2014 and it is being shared again on this Good Friday - 2020 by Dr. Bill Smith, Editor, ARRA News Service.

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Local Officials Try to Curb Easter Cars

Church Closed

by Tony Perkins: Some pastors call it the Super Bowl of their year: Easter Sunday. It's not just the holiest day on the calendar, it's also one of the biggest opportunities churches have to bring new people to Christ. And, for the first time ever, almost the entire world will be celebrating outside of their normal pews.

They'll be in cars, on sofas, huddled around their kitchen tables. It's the new normal in the age of the coronavirus, and leaders everywhere are trying to make the best of it. So you can imagine their frustration, in a handful of places, when local officials step in to ruin even that.

The email hit inboxes on Tuesday evening. To the pastors in San Bernardino County, it was a shock. Five days out from Easter, when most churches' services were already set, Supervisor Curt Hagman's staff had decided that any plans for drive-in worship or Easter pickups would have to be canceled. "We understand that this is an important time for Christians around the world... Right now, however, is a critical time for our country and our community..." the statement said. "People may not leave their homes for driving parades or drive-up services or to pick up non-essential items such as pre-packaged Easter eggs or bags filled with candy and toys at a drive-thru location."

It was like a church business meeting gone bad for county churches, who'd spent hours coming up with alternative plans that respected the CDC's guidelines. Some of them were counting on those drive-through services as a way of bringing congregations together on an important day, while not putting anyone at risk. And now, just days out, local bureaucrats wanted to change all that?

"It's alarming," Brad Dacus, president of Pacific Justice Institute told me on "Washington Watch." "They just suddenly pronounced that churches couldn't hand out Easter baskets to people, who were just driving up from the church... [and yet], people can drive up to get a Big Mac at McDonalds's drive through and pick up food." The hypocrisy is astounding. Not to mention the discrimination. How is it that you can leave restaurant carryout open, but not churches? "This is really serious," Brad said, "because it could also play into the ability for people to drive up to get communion, for example, or drive up to confession. We've seen churches that do that as well."

Here's the thing, Brad pointed out, "This is a new area that we're in [in terms of the law]. This is a circumstance that we've not really been in before as a nation. So we can't guarantee that a judge is going to rule one way or the other... but that said, looking at it objectively and comparatively, it makes no sense. And that's why, at the very least, from a public policy perspective and public pressure perspective, I think this is something that people need to be on the phone talking to their local legislators [about] -- or, in this case, county supervisors in San Bernardino."

Turns out, people did get on the phone. Within hours, the supervisors' office in California was inundated with complaints. And I don't blame people. Churches have been put in a tough spot -- along with everyone else in America -- and they've complied with all of the requirements. Now, suddenly, local officials want to change them? And not for everyone, but just for churches? That's where tyranny starts, my friends.

Fortunately for San Bernardino County, they have a supervisor who listens. After a full day of pushback, the county board relented, issuing a new guidance Wednesday reversing course on the Easter drive-ins. Pastor Jack Hibbs, one of FRC's Watchmen Pastors, who talked to Chad Hagman himself, said he had to give credit where credit was due because the supervisor "was most encouraging and optimistic about working with our community and to do what is needed to get us up and running." As for churches, a new press release went out, walking back the order for churches. "Organizations that have planned such services for the coming weekend should proceed with those services if they choose to do so and make every effort to prevent contact between congregants."

Unfortunately, not every jurisdiction is so lucky. Lawrence County, Indiana -- near Bedford -- used the virus to crack down on churches even further. "The Lawrence County Health Dept does not recommend any kind of church services at this time. We do not recommend in-church services, parking lot, or drive-in church... If you have to ask permission, then you probably should not do it."

Across Washington State, Governor Jay Inslee (D) is banning drive-in services altogether. Kansas Governor Laura Kelly (D) tried that -- shutting down all religious services -- only to be overridden by the state legislature. The state's attorney general, Derek Schmidt (R), piled on with a statement afterward, warning that any attempts to stop responsible in-car worship was "unconstitutional." "In our view," he said, "Kansas statute and Kansas Constitution's Bill of Rights forbid the governor from criminalizing participating in worship gatherings."

Churches across the country, with very few exceptions, are trying to be compliant. And in terms of health and safety, there's a big difference between a pastor like the one here in Baton Rouge outright defying common sense by having normal in-church services with hundreds of people -- and parking lot services, where people stay in their cars at a respectable distance. Only an anti-religious zealot, Brad said, would try to snuff out the law-abiding alternatives. "That's a classic example of local governments overstepping their boundaries... and [we] would not hesitate to defend any church or individual that was being attacked."
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Tony Perkins (@tperkins) is President of the Family Research Council . Article on Tony Perkins' Washington Update and written with the aid of FRC senior writers.

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Cal Thomas: News Media Needs to Be Saved, Especially From Itself

by Cal Thomas: I confess to a certain self-interest in today’s column. The media, especially newspapers, are in trouble. Conservatives like myself have been relentless in attacking their collective bias over the years, but as more of them fold or reduce staff, it is crucial the institution be saved.

Margaret Sullivan, a columnist for The Washington Post, has suggested that federal bailout money should be allocated to newspapers. That is an amusing suggestion since the world’s richest man, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, owns the Post. He could infuse some of his own money to prop up that reliably liberal paper.

In an age when fewer schoolchildren are taught civics, it is useful to recall that the press is the only profession mentioned in the Constitution’s First Amendment, which specifically forbids Congress from “abridging” freedom of the press.

The Founders were aware of newspapers’ tendency to print inaccurate, even outrageous, stories, but as Benjamin Franklin noted: “I am … for freedom of the press, and against all violations of the Constitution to silence by force and not by reason the complaints or criticisms, just or unjust, of our citizens against the conduct of their agents.”

Newspapers then—and one could argue since, along with modern television—have been full of factual errors, innuendo, and slanted coverage (check out the corrections section of The New York Times over the years, and those are only the mistakes they admit to), but no country has a freer press than the United States.

Notice that the first entities totalitarians seek to shut down or take over are newspapers and television stations, which ought to tell us something.

In a lengthy Vanity Fair article titled “Can the News Industry Survive Coronavirus?,” Charlotte Klein quotes New York Times media columnist Ben Smith, who advocates “a painful but necessary shift” for saving the news business.

Smith writes, “Abandon most for-profit local newspapers whose business model no longer works, and move as fast as possible to a national network of nimble new online newsrooms.”

Facebook has pledged $100 million to help struggling news outlets weather the financial storm caused in part by advertisers not buying ads because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Financial subsidies are only a partial solution, like quitting smoking but refusing treatment when diagnosed with lung cancer.

The real problem for the major media is the perception that their reporters are biased. It doesn’t matter how many times they deny their biases or the frequency with which it’s pointed out to them, especially by conservative organizations. The point is that as in any business, if customers aren’t buying your product, denying the reason why only prolongs your company’s downfall.

A 2018 Columbia Journalism Review story reported on a Knight Foundation-Gallup Poll:

A majority of those who were surveyed said they had lost trust in the media in recent years, and more than 30% of those who identified themselves as being on the conservative end of the spectrum said they had not only lost faith in the media, but they ‘expect that change to be permanent.’ According to a separate Gallup poll from earlier this year that tracked trust in major institutions, newspapers, and television news were among the lowest, exceeded only by Congress.Among the solutions would be for the major media to address the perceived bias by including more conservatives and serious religious people on their staffs as part of “diversity” campaigns. No industry that ignores the concerns of large numbers of the public can long endure.

It is vital to a free society, as the Founders believed, that a vibrant, free and, yes, responsible press endure, but the media can only save itself.

That salvation will come, if it comes at all, not through financial aid alone, or even mainly, but by media owners coming to their senses and honestly addressing the concerns of people who no longer believe their message.
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Cal Thomas (@CalThomas) is a syndicated columnist, author, broadcaster, and speaker with access to world leaders, U.S. presidents, celebrities, educators, and countless other notables. He has authored 12 books, including his latest, “What Works: Common Sense Solutions for a Stronger America.” Visit his site at CalThomas.com. H/T The Daily Signal for article.

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Another 6.6 Million Jobs Lost To Chinese Coronavirus, Up To 19.6 Million Lost And Counting

. . . But Main Street Will Reopen Very Soon

by Robert Romano: Weekly unemployment claims in the U.S. were up another 6.6 million, bringing the total jobs lost since the Chinese coronavirus pandemic to anywhere from 16.6 million to 19.6 million as federal and state government closures continue to in order to stave off the virus and protect the elderly and those with underlying conditions, more than doubling the jobs lost during the Great Recession.

That puts the effective unemployment rate 15 percent, pretty much the highest since the Great Depression, with an overall 22 million to 26 million out of work and rising as Americans continue to engage in social distancing. Recall, about 5.8 million were already jobless when the outbreak began when unemployment was just 3.5 percent, a 50-year low, with the worst likely yet to come.

President Donald Trump has requested Congress increase funding for small businesses by another $250 billion bringing the total up to $600 billion, even while others say there should be no cap. In the meantime, the Federal Reserve appears to be opening a secondary market for these small business loans that it will be purchasing as banks make the loans, freeing up more capital to keep the lending going. The April 8 Fed release stated, “To facilitate lending to small businesses via the Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), the Federal Reserve will establish a facility to provide term financing backed by PPP loans. Additional details will be announced this week.”

The biggest challenge for these lending programs is probably letting small businesses know they exist and that these loans are available, and convincing them that retaining payroll is more advantageous than laying off employees while much of the economy is still closed and is expected to be for several weeks more while the virus runs its course.

Already, Vice President Mike Pence reports more than $98 billion loans have been made to hundreds of thousands of small businesses. Is it enough, though?

On one hand, one can make a case for a swift rebound, that as soon as the closures end and states reopen their economies, all the businesses will open their doors quickly and Americans will swiftly get back to work.

On the other, as I was noting earlier this week, in analyzing the 10 recessions since 1948, on average, it takes about 11 months for all job losses to be realized in a recession, and then on average another 16 months to get those jobs back. Sometimes it’s longer sometimes it’s shorter. The longest cycle took 7 years with the Great Recession. The shortest was the 1970-1971 recession that took 12 months.

So, bare minimum, small businesses will need at least a year or more of support to survive. The CARES Act includes up to $6 trillion from the Federal Reserve. Already, the Small Business Administration and Treasury are working with the Fed to expand payroll protection lending.

The expansive nature of the program is not unsurprising. In 2008, Congress passed the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program to buy privately issued mortgage backed securities from banks, but it instantly became obsolete when the Fed took over AIG and derivatives markets. Additionally, the Fed then purchased the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgage backed securities directly off the banks’ balance sheets, totaling trillions. That’s because no matter how big Congress thought the problem was, it was in fact larger. Much, much larger.

For the Trump administration to accomplish what they’re trying to do to save 30 million small businesses, the backbone of the economy, it could require trillions of dollars. Congress already created the vehicle for doing so by expanding the Fed’ mandate, recognizing that in an emergency like this, only the Federal Reserve will have enough firepower to deal with the magnitude of the damage being caused by the pandemic-induced government closures.

Additional tools the Fed should consider will be to weaken the dollar relative to other currencies, even as interest rates collapse — yes, both are possible simultaneously, look at 2009 and 2011 when dollar bottoms coincided with labor market and housing market bottoms — amid heightened demand for U.S. securities including treasuries, which can help hasten the recovery and, critically, stave off deflation that must be a real threat with demand completely collapsed at the moment.

So, hope for the best, but prepare for the worst.

Right now, we are witnessing the flight to safety as financial institutions stock up on treasuries, which with unemployment still rising sharply, is expected. That won’t last forever but it will probably go on for a good long while. Like the virus, there is a light at the end of the tunnel. First things first, kill the virus and that will give the confidence states and businesses need to reopen sooner rather than later.

But, simultaneously, we have to make sure there’s an economy to return to.

The next few weeks’ unemployment claims reports will bear out the extent of the damage that has already been caused and as can be seen, it is quite extensive. The key thing to understand is that the damage may not be reversible in the short-term even with the program Congress created. But that does not mean that the program is not ultimately necessary. Quite the contrary. That lifeline will be the reason we get out of this much, much faster than might have been otherwise possible.

By now, any notions about getting back to 3.5 percent unemployment anytime soon have probably been dispelled, but with the decisive action being taken today by President Trump and Congress, we can shorten the duration of the job losses and speed the recovery. Main Street will reopen soon, it’s only a matter of time.
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Robert Romano is the Vice President of Public Policy at Americans for Limited Government.

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Here We Go Again, The Revealing Pattern, Growing Resistance

Gary Bauer

by Gary Bauer, Contributing Author: Here We Go Again

This morning brought the grim news that 6.6 million Americans filed for unemployment benefits last week. That means that in the past three weeks, more than 16 million Americans have lost their jobs.

Meanwhile, the Paycheck Protection Program, the federal loan program for companies and small businesses, is rapidly running out of the money that was initially allocated by the "Phase 3" coronavirus relief legislation Congress passed at the end of March. But there are obviously still many businesses that need help.

President Trump, Senate Majority Leader McConnell and many economists agree that it is imperative that more funds be appropriated to meet this urgent demand. Ideally, businesses won't lay off more employees if these funds are approved.

Sen. McConnell had hoped for a unanimous vote today to add an additional $250 billion to the program. On the Senate floor this morning, McConnell begged his colleagues, "Please, do not block emergency aid you do not oppose just because you want something more."

But guess who essentially told McConnell, "Over my dead body!" Speaker Nancy Pelosi is saying there is no way that legislation providing money only for small businesses will pass the House. She's got a lot of other priorities that she insists must be funded too.

So, here we go again. This morning, Senate liberals blocked McConnell's simple amendment, and demanded twice as much spending on a host of progressive priorities.

This is the sad situation: President Trump and America's producers and entrepreneurs have every reason to move smartly and quickly with targeted funds to save this economy, while fighting the virus and aiming for a date – sooner rather than later – that Americans can get back to work.

Speaker Pelosi, much of the political left and their media allies have every reason to keep the economy on its back as long as possible because they believe it will hurt Trump. So they have every reason to delay and obfuscate.

They have every reason to exploit this crisis as a means of passing parts of their radical agenda that would never otherwise stand a chance of passing. They have every reason to make the president and conservatives appear as if they don't care about you.

While President Trump gets up every day trying to figure out how to defeat this virus, Pelosi and her progressive gang gets up every morning trying to figure out how to defeat the president and our free market system.

My friends, this election will be the most bitter and most consequential in modern history. Will we remain a nation committed to individual liberty and free markets? Or will we turn hard-left and go down the path of big government socialism? The stakes could not be higher.

The Revealing Pattern
Every day I am talking to the men and women who are part of the great miracle machine of the U.S. economy. I spoke with a car dealer the other day who told me, "Gary, we have got to get the country opened back up!"

I also have a lot of interactions with working-class people – barbers, owners of diners and the people who work there. Their comments are always the same. "This can't go on much longer," they insist. "I don't want the government sending me checks; I want to get back to work!" I am reading the same frustration in your emails every day.

At the same time, I read columns in major newspapers and hear commentators on CNN, MSNBC and CNBC. Virtually every one of them is saying, "There's no way we can even begin to think about opening things back up. And when we do, it's going to take months to reopen the economy. This is our new normal."

In the last 24 hours, I've heard a couple of billionaires suggest that we should stay closed for many more weeks, if not months.

I've noticed a difference between those who want to get back to work and those who want to delay. The ones on CNN, CNBC and MSNBC are getting paid. They could work out of their closets if they had to.

They don't produce anything. They don't create anything. They don't lift anything, they don't do anything. They just talk.

And while every talker is getting paid, millions of Americans who make a living by doing something are not getting paid.

Donald Trump took office by pointing out how the global elites and big talkers had gutted our manufacturing base. I have complete confidence that he will end this secession of economic activity and get us moving again at the earliest possible moment he can safely do so.

And I can also safely predict that the left will try to destroy him for it. They are already blaming him for "tanking the economy." And they blamed him for wanting to reopen by Easter. And they will blame him for anything that happens no matter what he does.

The Growing Resistance
As more and more states attempt to crack down further on the coronavirus, more and more people are getting irritated and they are pushing back.

For example, when the Democrat governor of Michigan announced that she wanted to extend her stay-at-home order for another 70 days, she hit stiff resistance in the state legislature.

The state Senate opened its session Tuesday with the majority leader singing, "It Is Well With My Soul." Both chambers then rejected the governor's request and approved an extension for just 23 days – through the end of the month.

When the Democrat governor of Kansas issued an order prohibiting all religious gatherings of more than 10 people, she faced stiff resistance. The state attorney general disagreed and wrote that governor's order was unconstitutional. The state legislature also voted to overturn the governor's order.

I know reasonable people can disagree on this, but we should be very careful and very reluctant when it comes to closing houses of worship during "emergencies."

In Virginia, Gov. Ralph Northam inexplicably ordered the state to shut down until June 10th. He's facing at least one lawsuit for closing churches. I have also heard from some people who have said, "This is crazy! I'm reopening my business."

The vast majority of Virginia's 8.5 million residents have been deprived of their livelihoods, while 109 people, each one a tragedy, have died from Covid-19.

By the way, a record 123 pedestrians were killed in Virginia in 2018. No one thought about issuing "stay-at-home" orders then, although I'm certain pedestrian deaths this year will be much lower.

And just think about this for a moment: The blue state governors who want to shut down churches also refuse to shut down abortion clinics. Isn't the "emergency" due to the fact that we're trying to save lives?

Abortion involves at least three people – the woman, her child, the doctor and maybe one or two assistants, all of whom are clearly violating social distancing rules. But the left is okay with that as long as one person dies.

In North Carolina recently, several pro-life activists who were following social distancing rules were arrested by the police for violating the Democrat governor's ban on gatherings of more than 10 people.

So the gathering inside the building to kill babies was okay, but the gathering outside peacefully protesting abortion was illegal.

Lastly, here's something I saw this morning that I found to be chilling. I remember seeing this once before when the coronavirus was sweeping through Wuhan. China's communist authorities were flying drones through major cities and zeroing in on anyone breaking the rules laid down by the Chinese Communist Party. The drone had a verbal warning telling individuals to return to their houses.

Talk about Big Brother and the control of a totalitarian society!

That's why it was so disheartening to see drones being used in the same way now in parts of the United States.
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Gary Bauer (@GaryLBauer)  is a conservative family values advocate and serves as president of American Values and chairman of the Campaign for Working Families

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Democrats Block Attempt To Swiftly Deliver More Relief To Small Businesses And Workers

The Country Cannot Afford Unnecessary Wrangling Or Political Maneuvering. Treating This As A Normal, Partisan Negotiation Could Literally Cost Americans Their Jobs’
SENATE MAJORITY LEADER MITCH McCONNELL (R-KY): “Soon I will ask unanimous consent to increase the funding for the Paycheck Protection Program to a new total of $600 billion. I’m not talking about changing any policy language that both sides negotiated together. I am literally talking about deleting the number 350 and writing 600 in its place. A completely clean bill. I want to add more money to the only part of our bipartisan bill that is currently at risk of running out of money.” ((Leader McConnell, Remarks, 4/09/2020)

• LEADER McCONNELL: “So I was surprised to see this simple proposal met uneasily by the Democratic leadership. The distinguished Democratic Leader and the Speaker of the House sought to use this crucial program to open broader negotiations on other topics, including parts of the CARES Act where literally no money has gone out the door yet. The Democratic leadership has suggested they may hold Americans’ paychecks hostage unless we pass another sweeping bill that spends half a trillion dollars doubling down on a number of parts of the CARES Act, including parts that have not even started to work yet. The country cannot afford unnecessary wrangling or political maneuvering. Treating this as a normal, partisan negotiation could literally cost Americans their jobs. … To my Democratic colleagues — please, do not block emergency aid you do not even oppose just because you want something more.” (Leader McConnell, Remarks, 4/09/2020))

Headlines: ‘Democrats Block McConnell Push To Boost Small Business Aid’
BLOOMBERG NEWS: “Democrats Block McConnell Push to Boost Small Business Aid” (Bloomberg News, 4/09/2020)

FOX NEWS: “Dems block McConnell bid to swiftly approve $250B more for small business fund” (Fox News, 4/09/2020)

CNBC: “… Democrats block McConnell’s bid to add $250 billion in small business aid” (CNBC, 4/09/2020)

AXIOS: “Senate Democrats block Republicans' $250 billion PPP injection” (Axios, 4/09/2020)

CNN: “Democrats block a GOP-led funding boost for small business aid program” (CNN Politics, @CNNPolitics, Twitter, 4/09/2020)

CBS: “Senate Democrats block $250 billion expansion of small business loan program” (CBS News, 4/09/2020)

WASHINGTON EXAMINER: “Senate Democrats block urgent small business package and demand bill with larger scope and cost” (Washington Examiner, 4/09/2020)

NBC: “Senate Democrats block GOP bid for $250 billion in small-business funds amid impasse over coronavirus aid” (NBC News, 4/09/2020)

AP: “Democrats stall Trump’s $250B business virus aid package” (The Associated Press, 4/09/2020))

‘Lenders Started Taking Applications Friday And The Demand Has Been So Overwhelming That The Administration Has Asked Congress’ For More Funding But ‘Democrats Blocked An Effort By Senate Republicans To Approve By Unanimous Consent An Increase In Funding’
“Senate Democrats on Thursday blocked a Republican push to unanimously pass a bill to put $250 billion more into a loan program for small businesses devastated by the coronavirus pandemic. With only a few senators in the Capitol, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell tried to approve the measure by a unanimous vote. Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., objected to the request, stalling the legislation.” (“Senate Adjourns Until Monday After Democrats Block McConnell’s Bid To Add $250 Billion In Small Business Aid,” CNBC, 4/09/2020)

• “A Republican attempt to add $251 billion to a popular coronavirus response fund for forgivable small-business loans by unanimous consent was blocked Thursday, as Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin, D-Md., rose in opposition.” (“Senate Blocks Small-Business Aid Bill,” Roll Call, 4/09/2020)
• “Democrats blocked an effort by Senate Republicans to approve by unanimous consent an increase in funding for a small business loan program set up to deliver relief amid the coronavirus crisis …” (“Senate At Stalemate Over More COVID-19 Aid After Republicans And Democrats Block Competing Proposals,” CNN, 4/09/2020)
• “The partisan impasse throws the small-business funds into limbo until at least Monday, when the Senate is next expected to be in session.” (“Senate Blocks Dueling Coronavirus Relief Plans,” The Hill, 4/09/2020))

“The Paycheck Protection Program in the third economic rescue package gave the Small Business Administration $349 billion to distribute through private lenders to small businesses that keep paying their workers during the coronavirus shutdowns…. Lenders started taking applications Friday and the demand has been so overwhelming that the administration has asked Congress for another $251 billion.” (“Congress Works On SBA Aid Bill Amid Overwhelming Demand,” Roll Call, 4/09/2020)

Senate Republicans: ‘We Have Days, Not Weeks, Until PPP Runs Out Of Money’ ‘Allowing This Fund To Run Dry And Letting Countless Small Businesses Fail Would Be One Of The Most Unconscionable Things Senator Schumer And Democrats Could Do’
SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R-FL), Senate Small Business & Entrepreneurship Committee Chairman: “While funds for other programs in the CARES Act have not even been disbursed, the demand for the Paycheck Protection Program remains incredibly high…. We are seeing a rate of $3.5 billion an hour on a nearly $350 billion program. We have days, not weeks, until PPP runs out of money. Today’s unemployment numbers remind us that now is not the time for congressional horse trading or partisan politics. Small businesses are being forced to lay off employees and close their doors. I really hope my Democratic colleagues will reconsider their decision to block more money for PPP.” (Sen. Rubio, Press Release, 4/09/2020))

SEN. TIM SCOTT (R-SC), Senate Small Business & Entrepreneurship Committee Member: “Just so everyone knows, Senate Democrats just objected to extending funding for the Paycheck Protection Program. More games keeping more workers from getting paychecks.” (Sen. Scott, @SenatorTimScott, Twitter, 4/09/2020)

SEN. ROB PORTMAN (R-OH): “Small businesses are suffering and need our support. CARES Act helps but we must do more. This is no time for partisan wrangling. Let’s come together and get this done ASAP.” (Sen. Portman, @senrobportman, Twitter, 4/09/2020)

SEN. THOM TILLIS (R-NC): “Very disappointed to see a unanimous request to provide small businesses w/ an additional $250 billion was blocked. Small businesses in NC desperately need this help before existing funding in the PPP runs out. Both parties must work together and get it done.” (Sen. Tillis, @SenThomTillis, Twitter, 4/09/2020)

SEN. KELLY LOEFFLER (R-GA): “I’ve said this time and time again, now is not the time for politics. Democrats are continuing to play political games at the expense of American workers.” (Sen. Loeffler, @SenatorLoeffler, Twitter, 4/09/2020))

SEN. JOHN CORNYN (R-TX): “The Democrats’ insistence on holding this relief hostage for extraneous funding that isn’t needed is unfathomable. Coronavirus relief is no place for partisan politics, but Senator Schumer just can’t help himself. Very soon this fund, which has been a lifeline to Texas small businesses, will run out. Allowing this fund to run dry and letting countless small businesses fail would be one of the most unconscionable things Senator Schumer and Democrats could do.” ((Sen. Cornyn, Press Release, 4/09/2020))

SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX): “Shameful that Senate Dems continue to play politics instead of helping the millions of small businesses hurting badly because of gov. policies to combat COVID19. This crisis *should not* be an excuse to advance your partisan wish list. It *should* be a reason to come together.” (Sen. Cruz, @SenTedCruz, Twitter, 4/09/2020)

SEN. RICK SCOTT (R-FL): “Today, [Senate Democrats] BLOCKED more $$ for small businesses. It’s pure partisan politics during a crisis. Small businesses are the lifeblood of our economy & many are suffering. I believe we need oversight of the PPP, but it’s working & money is getting to people who need it.”< (Sen. Scott, @SenRickScott, Twitter, 4/09/2020)

SEN. JAMES LANKFORD (R-OK): “Small businesses & nonprofits are the backbone of this country. Since the Paycheck Protection Program is quickly running out of money for small biz & nonprofits, we should provide additional funding--all Republicans have agreed, but we are waiting on Senate Dems to sign off today” ((Sen. Lankford, @SenatorLankford, Twitter, 4/09/2020))

SEN. JOHN BOOZMAN (R-AR): “I’m disappointed the Senate wasn’t able to provide additional Paycheck Protection Program funding. Small businesses in Arkansas and across the nation are clamoring for this lifeline. [The Small Business Administration] needs this increase to help improve and expand the program to save jobs and livelihoods.” ((Sen. Boozman, @JohnBoozman, Twitter, 4/09/2020))

SEN. KEVIN CRAMER (R-ND): “Here we go again. Lest they let the country forget about their disgraceful acts just weeks ago, Minority Leader Schumer & [Senate Democrats] are once again holding help hostage and exploiting COVID19 to advance Speaker Pelosi’s extreme, left-wing ‘vision.’” (Sen. Cramer, @SenKevinCramer, Twitter, 4/09/2020)

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Bernie’s Defeat Shows Why Socialism Doesn’t Work

. . . Socialism is about ego and greed, not helping people.

Bernie Burned OUT

by Daniel Greenfield: Senator Bernie Sanders, berated his staff, forced female staffers to sleep in the same rooms as men, exposed them to sexual harassment, spread hate, allied with terrorists, all to win two elections he lost.

The only thing the socialist got out of his failed campaigns was membership in the 1 percent.

That and memories of flying around the country and the world on private jets, and his three homes, and bulging bank accounts paid for by an army of gullible idiots who believed in his cause more than he did.

Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren could be locking up the Democrat nomination right now. Instead they wasted $300 million and lost to a crooked senile hack who can barely complete a sentence.

The two socialist candidates had raised the most money directly and through PACs, $182 million for Bernie, $151 million for Warren, had the most passionate supporters, and the best media coverage.

Why then did these two sprightly septuagenarian socialists lose? Because they’re socialists.

Socialists believe in redistributing other people’s things, but fiercely cling to their own. The greediest people in the world are lefties. The two socialist senators were full of big ideas for what to do with other people’s money, but don’t touch their homes and their millions. And don’t redistribute their voters.

When other Democrats dropped out and united behind Biden, Bernie and Warren couldn’t make way for each other. Even when Warren dropped out, she refused to endorse Bernie, dooming him to defeat.

Bernie and Warren were running on the same basic issues. When Warren refused to endorse Bernie, it was a suicide bombing that not only blew up his campaign, but took down her own platform with it.

It wasn’t about the issues. Bernie and Warren were really motivated by greed and ego.

Neither Warren nor Bernie could do what all the other candidates in the race did, drop out and endorse somebody else. The socialists stayed in and doomed each other in a political suicide pact because they were too petty and greedy to overcome their differences for a higher cause. That’s how socialism dies.

Socialists pretend that they want everyone else to sacrifice for the greater good, but they never do.

The Soviet Union’s Communist leadership reacted to Chernobyl by moving radioactive dairy products away from Moscow and to other parts of the country. China’s Communist leadership dealt with the coronavirus by lying to their people and to the rest of the world to maintain their regime’s credibility.

The EU has descended into infighting in every crisis, from Muslim mass migrant invasions to the coronavirus, over who has to make the sacrifices. New York City’s Mayor Bill de Blasio insisted on going to the gym, with an NYPD detail, while others were told to practice social distancing. Chicago’s Mayor Lori Lightfoot decided to get her hair cut even as the city’s small businesses were being closed down.

It’s easy for politicians to tell ordinary people to sacrifice while they live it up Masque of the Red Death style during a plague.

But what happens when a trolley problem of two top socialist politicians arrives, and they have to decide which of them makes the sacrifice for the greater good? The answer is deeply revealing.

Socialist leaders won’t sacrifice for each other. Not for the sake of their cause. Or for anything.

Ideology didn’t unite Bernie and Warren. Instead, one by one, the two socialist politicians were forced to drop out, leaving both of them alone with nothing. Socialism doesn’t unite us. It divides and isolates us.

Like the Chinese Communist virus.

Socialism doesn’t work because instead of the noble altruistic leaders the ideology calls for, it actually attracts mean spirited and greedy control freaks who use it to set up their own private fiefdoms. Once implemented, actual socialism never turns into a utopia of angels, disdainful of materialism, but descends into a hell of demons who fight each other over the last stale cookie on a tarnished plate.

That’s why idealistic revolutions end in cycles of purges fueled by ego, malice, and greed.

Bernie and Warren couldn’t put each other up against a wall, so they had to settle for the next best thing. He brought down her campaign and then she brought down his campaign. Neither would serve in heaven and won’t even have the opportunity, like Milton’s Satan, or Stalin and Mao, to rule in hell.

Before the two of them become footnotes in electoral history, there is a question they should answer.

How dare they demand that everyone else sacrifice for the greater good, when neither of them would? Where did these two socialists get the chutzpah to lecture Americans on everything from how much deodorant they use to how much taxes they pay? Where is their commitment to redistribution?

Bernie Sanders quadrupled his net worth since he began plotting to run for president in 2012. He made his millions from his national profile. And he also used that profile to funnel money to family members. Every time he ran for President on a platform of taking away everyone’s money, he came away richer.

Why did Bernie take so long to drop out? Because even ActBlue idiots wouldn’t go on paying for his private jets if he dropped out. It took a pandemic and the effective shutdown of the election for the scam to end. If it wasn’t for the Chinese Virus, Bernie would have dragged it out to the last million.

But there’s no private jet flights paid for by ActBlue donors to the Vatican in a pandemic.

Bernie’s campaign slogan, “Not Me, Us”, was the biggest lie since, “Hope and Change.”

It was always about “Me”. It was about Bernie, his book deals, his houses, his private jets, his interviews, and his fame. At his age, he knows that he will probably never run again and never cash in again.

None of that makes Bernie a hypocrite. Worse. It makes him a socialist.

Bernie Sanders has spent his entire miserable life figuring out a way to make money without working. The socialist lifestyle of collective farms wasn’t for him. He wanted to get into politics because he’s lazy, narcissistic, a control freak, abusive, greedy, and incompetent. Those character traits left him with two options: Hollywood and Washington D.C. And Bernie is a bad actor who can only memorize a few lines.

His career was built on pandering to the same radicals when he first got into politics and when he tried to crawl into the White House. Along the way he completely changed his views on any number of issues from immigration to gun control. But he never stopped figuring out how to cash in on his politics.

And now he’s done it.

Bernie leaves his great socialist crusade as a 1 percenter, a millionaire with three homes, despite accomplishing absolutely nothing. Socialism isn’t real for ordinary people, but it’s real for socialists.

“Not Me, Us”, Bernie claimed.

What have the “Us” gotten out of the Bernie campaign beyond the opportunity to pay for all his stuff? The same thing anyone gets under socialism: the privilege of paying for the lifestyles of their leaders.

Socialism isn’t about helping people. It’s about helping socialists.

Between the two of them, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, brought down the socialist cause. But nobody destroys socialism like socialists. It was the Communists who really brought down the USSR and if the EU and Communist China’s leadership fall to the pandemic, it will also be entirely their own doing.

Lefties have always been the great destroyers of their own movements. Bernie and Warren followed in that proud tradition, sacrificing their own movement to their greed and egos, and leaving the dumpster fire of their campaigns with millions in book payments from the very corporations that they condemn.

And if you think they were a grifting disaster, wait until Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez runs for president.
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Daniel Greenfield (@Sultanknish) is Shillman Journalism Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center and an investigative journalist and writer focusing on radical Left and Islamic terrorism.

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When Will the U.S. Reopen for Business?

... As another 6.6 million file for unemployment, America really needs a plan.

by Nate Jackson: The burning question on the minds of millions of Americans — particularly for the now 16 million who have filed jobless claims in the last three weeks — is “when will the U.S. reopen for business?” The China Virus pandemic has killed nearly 15,000 Americans to date, but we still need an economic exit strategy that will simultaneously prevent a later resurgence of the virus and keep our $22 trillion economy afloat.

Late in March, President Donald Trump famously expressed a desire to be “opened up and just raring to go by Easter.” Though he was mercilessly hammered by the Leftmedia for being so “naive,” Trump was merely voicing the hope of most Americans. His aspiration obviously did not become reality. In fact, many states have stay-at-home orders extending well beyond Easter (Virginia’s goes until June 10), meaning any kind of return to normalcy is still weeks away.

But there are also signs Trump wasn’t all that far off. “Some of these models are looking like Easter is going to be a very important date anyway because of the curve,” he said yesterday. “It’s hitting the top and it’s starting to come down.”

In any case, opening up the economy must take place in stages. “It isn’t like a light switch on and off,” said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease. “It’s a gradual pulling back on certain of the restrictions and to try and get society a bit back to normal.” He argued that we must first determine that we’re “going in the right direction” with the number of infections. National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow says he hopes for “four to eight weeks.”

Trump has floated a second coronavirus task force to focus on restarting the nation’s economy. What the administration must do is lay out a tentative plan, even acknowledging that the plan will be modified as dictated by events and that states and local communities will have a far greater say in enacting any plan than the president will. That’s the beauty of our federalist system.

Along those lines, economists Lewis Uhler and Peter Ferrara offer this plan: “Trump should work with governors from states that want to work. Start with West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Indiana. Voters in Virginia, Maryland and Illinois will wonder why they can’t work. Trump can work with willing governors, even county by county, informed by increased testing, freeing those testing free of illness to return to work. The economy can then be reopened southward and westward, to the extent state and local officials, under renewed political pressures, agree to participate.”

Indeed, any plan to send people back to work would need to involve extensive testing, which Dr. Fauci says is “in the hands of the private sector.” And returning to work would probably have to begin with young and healthy people, leaving older Americans and those with underlying health conditions to remain home for longer. Reopening would also have to begin company by company and community by community, rather than state by state.

Investment-banking giant Morgan Stanley put together a well-researched plan on reopening over the next 70 days or so. It lays out several important benchmarks for a return to normalcy: “Peak in new cases and deaths, fully staffed and equipped hospitals, and widely available high-capacity testing and surveillance.”

“Once those milestones are met,” Morgan Stanley’s report continues, the next round of objectives kicks in: “Determine who is immune, allow those who are low-risk to return to work, allow children back to school, increase surveillance for and containment of new cases, accelerate development and distribution of therapeutic treatments, and prioritize vaccine research and development.”

That is all very similar to the step-by-step approach Austria is taking in becoming the first European country to work toward what Chancellor Sebastian Kurz referred to as an Easter “resurrection.” Funny, but the Leftmedia didn’t seem to mind that allusion when it wasn’t Trump making it.

At Wednesday’s press briefing, a reporter asked: “Last week, your top experts were saying that we should expect 100,000 to 240,000 deaths in this country. You’ve been talking about how it looks like maybe things are plateauing. Are these numbers now being revised downward? I know you don’t want people to stop social distancing and that sort of thing, but what can you tell us about the numbers? Are they being revised down?”

Dr. Deborah Birx responded: “We believe that our healthcare delivery system in the United States is quite extraordinary. I know many of you are watching the Act Now model and the IHME model from — and they have consistently decreased the number, the mortality from over almost 90,000 or 86,000, down to 81,000 and now down to 61,000. That is modeled on what America is doing. That’s what’s happening.”

For the record, according to the CDC, that is about the mortality rate of the 2017-18 flu season. And notably, data from New York City health department indicates that the majority (65.6%) of those who have died there, had (serious underlying health conditions](https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/doh/downloads/pdf/imm/covid-19-daily-data-summary-deaths-04062020-1.pdf). Moreover, a third of the deaths (32.6%) are listed as “underlying conditions pending” with only 1.9% being listed as “no underlying conditions.”
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Nate Jackson is managing editor at The Patriot Post.

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Boozman Calls for Flexibility to Temporary Ag Worker Program to Protect Nation’s Food Supply

WASHINGTON — U.S. Senator John Boozman (R-Arkansas) — a senior member of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry — continued advocating for flexibility to agriculture employee programs in order to prevent a labor shortage and maintain an abundant supply of food and fiber in the United States.

In a letter to Secretary of Labor Eugene Scalia and Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf, Boozman and his fellow senators pushed for the development and implementation of guidance to provide flexibility in the H-2A program.

“Our nation is working around the clock to address the COVID-19 crisis, and our farmers are on the front lines of our country’s response,” the senators wrote. “We must ensure that our farmers can continue to rely on the H-2A program during this time.”

“Your agencies have equities in the functioning of our nation’s immigration system, and we urge you to adopt flexibilities that will protect our country’s food supply as you administer the H-2A temporary agricultural worker program during this crisis,” the senators continued.

Specifically, senators asked the departments to develop and implement guidance that will:

1. Allow approved H-2A workers at the end of a contract period to extend their contracts if they are impacted by travel restrictions imposed by the U.S. government or by the government of their country of origin;
2. Increase the maximum length of time for H-2A visas holders to stay in the United States to mitigate the effects of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services service center closures during the COVID-19 crisis; and>
3. Allow H-2A employers to share available workers among farms until the Federal government is able to resume normal operations.

The letter was led by Senator David Perdue (R-GA) and in addition to Boozman, signed by Senators Lamar Alexander (R-TN), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Richard Burr (R-NC), John Cornyn (R-TX), Mike Crapo (R-ID), Steve Daines (R-MT), Kelly Loeffler (R-GA), Martha McSally (R-AZ), Jerry Moran (R-KS), James Risch (R-ID), Mike Rounds (R-SD) and Thom Tillis (R-NC). The full letter is here and below:

 We write to request that you develop and implement guidance that will provide flexibility in your administration of the H-2A temporary agricultural worker program during the COVID-19 crisis. These processing flexibilities will protect our nation’s food security by ensuring that our farmers have the workers they need. We believe that providing these flexibilities in the H-2A program during this national emergency will allow farmers to continue to produce and maintain an abundant food supply for all Americans.

Many of our country’s farmers rely on the H-2A program for assistance in planting and harvesting operations. By law, our farmers can only receive H-2A workers if they certify that there are not “sufficient able, willing, and qualified U.S. workers available” and that “the employment of an alien in such labor or services will not adversely affect the wages and working conditions of workers in the United States similarly employed” (8 U.S.C. §1188 and 20 C.F.R. §655.1290) Through these necessary provisions, farmers will have access to additional workers, which are crucial to ensure timely crop production.

Our nation is working around the clock to address the COVID-19 crisis, and our farmers are on the front lines of our country’s response. The U.S. Department of State has already recognized the vital role our farmers play in our response efforts and has taken steps to provide temporary flexibilities in the H-2A program to make sure our farmers have the workers they need. These steps include:

• Expanding the categories of H-2 applicants whose applications can be adjudicated without an in-person interview;
• Allowing consular officers to waive the visa interview requirement for some first-time and returning H-2 applicants who have no potential ineligibility; and
• Increasing the period in which returning workers may qualify for an interview waiver.
  As the State Department noted in its fact-sheet announcing these changes: “The H-2 program is essential to the economy and food security of the United States and is a national security priority.” We commend the State Department for its efforts to uphold our food security and national security through these flexibilities.

President Trump is using a whole-of-government approach to fight the coronavirus. The State Department’s efforts will go a long way in protecting our nation’s food supply, but we believe that there is still more that needs to be done.

Your agencies have equities in the functioning of our nation’s immigration system, and we urge you to adopt flexibilities that will protect our country’s food supply as you administer the H-2A temporary agricultural worker program during this crisis.

These flexibilities will ensure that the components of our country’s immigration system will operate in harmony with each other as the Federal government responds to this crisis. We specifically ask that your agencies develop and implement guidance that will:

• Allow approved H-2A workers at the end of a contract period to extend their contracts if they are impacted by travel restrictions imposed by the U.S. government or by the government of their country of origin;
• Increase the maximum length of time for H-2A visas holders to stay in the United States to mitigate the effects of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services service center closures during the COVID-19 crisis; and
• Allow H-2A employers to share available workers among farms until the Federal government is able to resume normal operations.

We recognize that this guidance will require significant interagency coordination, and we ask that you prioritize this guidance as you continue your agencies’ work to lead our nation through this crisis. We must ensure that our farmers can continue to rely on the H-2A program during this time. It is important that we do everything we can mitigate the potential food shortage that could occur if these changes are not put into place.

Thank you for your leadership during this critical time as our nation continues to combat the coronavirus. We look forward to working with you to ensure food security in United States.

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Oops, Bad Science

. . . There is good reason to believe the Chinese wet-markets are causing dangerous viruses that spread around the world.

Editorial Cartoon by AF "Tony" Branco

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Mary Magdalene The Day Jesus Died

by Mario Murillo Ministries: One of the greatest cruelties—if not the greatest in history—was done to Mary Magdalene. She was once sold on the streets. She knew the special insanity of demon possession. She knew the yawning blackness of total despair.

Then Jesus rescued her. Jesus cast out seven vicious devils—devils she thought would never leave. Once deemed human garbage, she is now redeemed and planted into a family of indescribable love. Things would never be the same. Her nights of remorse, her days of futility, her shame, her emptiness, were now all distant memories.

For three years she lived a life she could have never imagined, crisscrossing Judea, hanging on Jesus’ every word, weeping gloriously over every miracle. Each morning, she awakened a more powerful and joyous woman of God! She thought that this would go on forever.

People use the phrase “nothing could be worse…” They use it before describing something unimaginably terrible. I will use it this way: Nothing could be worse than to be in hell, and then taste heaven, only to return back to hell.

Then on that fateful Friday, it all went horribly, horribly wrong. How could the One Who called the dead back to life and silenced a storm at sea, be arrested? How could the One Who gave words of exquisite beauty, love and wisdom, be tortured and killed? No one wanted to save Jesus more than Mary. No one felt more horror and helplessness than she.

That night, profound hope had given way to even deeper bitterness and disappointment. She must have thought, “If only I had never met Him. If only He had left me to die in the streets.” She slept only after exhaustion became more powerful than sorrow. Too wounded to go on living, and perhaps too tired to commit suicide…

Mary is of special importance to me today, because her testimony is the best one I can think of as we commemorate this Good Friday, in such a dark time as the one we are living in. Mary’s miracle is the miracle America needs now!

Here’s why: When the first shafts of Sunday morning light stirred her awake, she dreaded it. If ever a heart was broken beyond repair—if ever a soul would rage against the approach of hope—if ever a woman just wanted to go back to sleep and never wake up, it was Mary.

That is why she was shocked when she felt an odd energy coming over her. She soon felt an even stranger impulse—to go to the tomb where Jesus lay! How could she return to the only spot on earth that could reopen her wound?

What overruled her despair? What fuel was driving her so completely against her common sense and her broken heart? Paul answers that emphatically! “But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit Who dwells in you” (Romans 8:11).

Do you know any therapist capable of rebuilding the ashes and rubble of her soul? Can any drug, any teaching, any relationship, reassemble her heart the way the gentle but powerful influence could?

We all know about the power of the resurrection: it was the greatest display of power the universe has ever known; even greater than the alleged “big bang” that, theoretically, began the universe. The resurrection sent shock waves through the principalities and powers of darkness. It shattered Satan’s power and stripped him of the keys of death and Hell (Rev. 1:8). Jesus set the captives free in the bowels of the earth, and “led captivity captive” (Ephesians 4:8).

But, the first burst of resurrection power was much gentler. Mary was the first human to feel the power of the resurrection. Her eyes, which were red and sore from sobbing, were now refreshed and clear. Her arms which had hung limp from heartsick lethargy were now responsive, strong, and full of purpose. She sat up and found hope pumping through her veins. She wondered, “Why!”

A notion seized her, gently, but firmly. She knew she was to go to the tomb, and she immediately got going! Washing up, brushing her hair, and quickly getting dressed. All the while the expectancy of an indescribable ‘something’ was building in her soul. Before she knew it, she was out the door, and charging toward her worst fear. Only, now, she was not afraid.

She found the tomb vacant. Then she turned and saw Him whom her soul loved. Many awesome things happened that Easter, but none more wonderful than Mary reunited with her Savior.

In the genetically altered, politically charged, drug addicted, violent purgatory that is America today, Mary Magdalene stands as a poignant figure. She is the best testimony I can think of for our national dreams that have gone up in smoke. Our culture has wearied itself with perversion…hunting down everything natural and replacing it with a disfigured counterfeit. It has marched, protested, and boycotted the very color and life out of everything—to the point that everything is a cause for taking offense.

What happened to Mary, is proof that there is nothing better than the Gospel.

America! This is what you need!

“Now when He rose early on the first day of the week, He appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom He had cast seven demons” (Mark 16:9).

JESUS APPEARED FIRST TO MARY! He had never forgotten her. He knew she was suffering the most, so He healed this precious soul first!

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Mario Murillo is an evangelist Mario Murillo, minister, blogger.

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News, Bias & Winning

by Paul Jacob, Contributing Author: In late February, ABC News suspended a veteran correspondent, David Wright, after Project Veritas released video in which the reporter acknowledged he was a socialist and criticized his network’s political coverage.

“Oh yeah,” Wright responded, when asked if he were a democratic socialist. “More than that I would consider myself a socialist.”

He also critiqued his network: “We don’t hold [Trump] to account. We also don’t give him credit for what things he does do.”

“David Wright has been suspended,” ABC said in a statement, “and to avoid any possible appearance of bias, he will be reassigned away from political coverage when he returns.”

But what if ABC’s removal of the reporter were more about hiding bias than combating it?

That story came to mind while considering Sen. Bernie Sanders’ suspension of his presidential campaign. I was amazed at how — just when it seemed the Vermont senator might have an actual shot at capturing the Democratic nomination — a whirlwind of harsh media coverage was unleashed. Simultaneously, other candidates rushed to end their campaigns in a coordinated coronation of former Vice-President Joe Biden.

“Many of Sanders’ allies believe he was inundated with unfair attacks after his Nevada win,” The Boston Globe reported, with “some Democrats and pundits warning he would lose to Trump because he’s too far to the left.”

Meanwhile: “The Biden campaign is expected,” noted The New York Times, “to highlight a series of policy positions that show how he has moved closer to Mr. Sanders on healthcare and other issues.”

For Democrats and uber-progressive major media outlets, was Bernie’s problem that he’s a socialist? Or his openness and honesty about it?

Seems winning trumps everything. Pun intended.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
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Paul Jacob (@Common_Sense_PJ) is author of Common Sense which provides daily commentary about the issues impacting America and about the citizens who are doing something about them. He is also President of the Liberty Initiative Fund (LIFe) as well as Citizens in Charge Foundation. Jacob is a contributing author on the ARRA News Service.

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