From Amir Tsarfati's e-mail newsletter: I also write this newsletter to remind you that God is at work around the entire globe. Sometimes, it is difficult to see His hand amidst all the chaos. Sin is rampant and the news is filled with stories of those who have bought into the deceptions of the devil. However, we know through Scripture that God has a plan that He is carrying out. And it is because of the assurance of that magnificent truth that we can look at what is happening today through the lens of God’s redemptive timeline and find hope. So, as you read this edition, let these stories remind you of God’s love, wisdom, and power, and let them move you to intercede, lifting up in prayer those who are hurting and praying against the schemes of the enemy. As Iranian Protests Continue, Leadership Makes Contingency Plans Russia Readies Nuclear Missile Capable of Hitting US and UK World Cup Bribery Scandal Hits the European Parliament European-Based Moroccans Riot After World Cup Loss Commentary: EVs Were More Popular Than Gas Cars a Century Ago, But They Couldn't Avoid This Big Problem: “… There is no new thing under the sun.” Ecclesiastes 1:9. So it is with electric vehicles. EVs gained popularity some 120 years ago but range, lack of infrastructure, and purchase price stifled them. But in 1899 there were more electric vehicles recorded in the U.S. than gasoline-powered, 1,575 vs. 936, according to Quartz. Now, driven by government mandate, climate hysteria, and perhaps some aspects of consumer status, EVs are on the scene again. But they still have essentially the same big problem they did around the turn of the last century: The infrastructure of the country is not set up to accommodate them, because they don’t fit the needs of the country nearly as well as gasoline-powered vehicles. Right about the beginning of the 20th century, horseless carriages were emerging as novelties, transports for the rich, and quickly adopted as necessities for doctors making urgent home visits. Three forms of automobile engines vied in that era for dominance: electric, steam, and gasoline. Steam was also considered because, given its decades-long success on railroads and in marine and industrial applications, it was familiar and tested. But one could not just jump in a steam car and go – it could take perhaps 45 minutes to raise the needed steam pressure and there would be frequent stops to replenish the water supply. But several developments brought the soon demise of the EV. First was price — Henry Ford introduced the Model T in 1908 and four years later it sold for an unheard of $650 compared to an electric car at $1,750. Also, in 1912, the inventor Charles Kettering came up with the electric starter, thus removing the hazardous need for hand cranking and one of the attractions of the EV. Discovery of massive Texas oil fields made gasoline available to rural areas, many of them without electricity. Major aspects of a petroleum distribution system were already in place stemming from monopolistic Standard Oil’s earlier production of kerosene for lighting. With the low cost of a Model T and developing highways and fuel distribution systems, rural drivers could only consider internal combustion engines for cars, trucks, and even tractors. It was petroleum that powered most of the 20th century’s automobiles, trucks, trains, barges, and aircraft. Now, we’re told, we will all be assimilated into the EV future, whether it makes sense or not. California, of course, is leading the way, as it usually does in such things, banning new gas-powered vehicles by 2035. There may be suitable EVs for limited urban applications, such as mail and parcel carriers and short, local passenger car trips. And hybrid cars can provide gasoline savings in stop-and-go city driving. Otherwise, free markets should allow internal combustion engines dominance. They can keep the world moving until careful long-term research not driven by ideology might provide new technology to generate power, distribute it, and perhaps use it to make cars and trucks go. But the current problems with EVs can be seen by looking back 100 or so years. As so often happens, there is nothing new under the sun. Twitter Files: FBI Kept Busy Censoring Conservatives Instead of Chasing Crooks: In the sixth installment of the Twitter Files, journalist Matt Taibbi revealed that Twitter had a “one-big-happy-family” partnership with the FBI to censor content on its platform. Taibbi released the sixth installment of the Twitter Files document dump, which he dubbed “TWITTER, THE FBI SUBSIDIARY.” "The #TwitterFiles show something new: agencies like the FBI and DHS regularly sending social media content to Twitter through multiple entry points, pre-flagged for moderation,” Taibbi wrote. For example, Taibbi revealed that former Twitter Trust and Safety chief Yoel Roth exchanged “over 150 emails” with the FBI between January 2020 to November 2022. Further, Taibbi noted that a “surprisingly high number” of the FBI’s correspondence with Twitter were “requests by the FBI for Twitter to take action on election misinformation, even involving joke tweets from low-follower accounts.” “Instead of chasing child sex predators or terrorists, the FBI has agents — lots of them — analyzing and mass-flagging social media posts. Not as part of any criminal investigation, but as a permanent, end-in-itself surveillance operation,” Taibbi tweeted. “People should not be okay with this.” Taibbi said he, Bari Weiss, and Michael Shellenberger “are moving into a variety of new areas now,” with more information about the previous Twitter regime to come “soon.” Comer on Twitter Files: ‘FBI Needs to Be Dismantled’ and Rebuilt, Starting with Its Budget, We Need to Probe Google, Facebook: On Friday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “Hannity,” House Oversight Committee Ranking Member Rep. James Comer (R-KY) reacted to the latest Twitter files release by stating that investigations of big tech will go beyond Twitter to Facebook and Google and also saying, “The entire FBI needs to be dismantled, we need to start all over. We need to enact strict reforms, and there need to be checks and balances at the FBI.” And that fixing the agency and holding it accountable begins with the budget process, which is why the push for an omnibus is aggravating. Comer stated, “My concern was that this was a rogue FBI employee or two…but what we found today is the FBI had its own ministry of propaganda.” He added, “This is serious, what else are they involved in at the FBI? The entire FBI needs to be dismantled, we need to start all over. We need to enact strict reforms, and there need to be checks and balances at the FBI.” The depravity of man's heart will always be a constant. That said, policies and safeguards need to be built in and have government answer to the people rather than be authoritarian and answering to no one but themselves! Again, depravity and delusion are so rampant that only the spirit of God can be effective! That won't ever happen until the thousand year reign! Only the spirit of God can save, not politics or religion! TR Intentional or Coincidence? Far-Left New York Times Publishes Crossword Puzzle Resembling Nazi Swastika on the First Day of Hanukkah: The far-left New York Times, known for spreading fake information. . . was criticized after its Sunday crossword puzzle resembled a Nazi swastika. The Sunday crossword puzzle in The New York Times drew widespread criticism after many people, including Donald Trump Jr., noticed the uncanny resemblance to a Nazi symbol, which was published on the first day of Hanukkah. “Disgusting! Only the New York Times would get Chanukah going with this is the crossword puzzle,” wrote Trump Jr. “One day after its editorial board published an OP-ED attacking Israel, this was today’s [New York Times] crossword puzzle,” wrote Israel National News, the largest news conglomerate in the Jewish world.
Iran is ramping up their response to the ongoing protests first sparked by the killing of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini while she was in custody of the morality police for improperly wearing her hijab. Many protestors are being arrested and tortured. The country’s judiciary has admitted to publicly hanging two men, both convicted of “enmity against God” for attacking members of the paramilitary Basij Resistance Force who had been employed to quell the protests. However, anti-government groups and human rights organizations insist that the confessions of the men to the crimes were coerced through torture. Expect the violence to increase as the unease of the regime’s leadership grows. In case of a revolution, representatives are already negotiating with Venezuela for asylum and a safe haven should Iran’s leaders have to flee. Let’s hope the Supreme Leader soon finds himself moving boxes into a new flat in Caracas.
Vladimir Putin’s military made a show of deploying a massive Yars nuclear missile at the Kozelsk military compound in the Kaluga region southwest of Moscow. This thermonuclear-armed device is capable of carrying multiple warheads and has a range of 7500 miles. It is estimated that there are 173 more of these missiles in the Russian arsenal either mobile- or silo-based. It seems that the Russian president wanted to remind the West that their capitals are well-within range of these weapons that are 12 times more powerful than what was dropped on Hiroshima.
For anyone who knows anything about the inner workings of the International Olympic Committee, it should come as no surprise that the World Cup has produced its own bribery scandal. European Parliament vice-president, Eva Kaili of Greece, was arrested for receiving money from Qatar in return for influencing other members of the governing body in favor of the Gulf country. Four other parliament members in her socialist party have been asked to step down from their positions, while four more people outside of the parliament remain in custody along with Kaili. The leadership in Doha have been strongly criticized for their human rights record particularly when it came to the protection of foreign workers. Estimates of those who died while building the stadiums for the World Cup are in the thousands.
Moroccan football fans have shown themselves to be overly rambunctious winners and sore losers when it comes to the World Cup. After their several surprising wins in the tournament, there was celebratory rioting in Belgium and the Netherlands. Then, when the team was trounced by France in the semi-final round, Moroccan fans in Paris, Lyon, Lens, Nice, and many other French cities violently expressed their displeasure. In Montpellier, a 14-year-old boy was struck by a car and killed when a group of Moroccan supporters descended upon a vehicle that was displaying a French flag. The driver of the car tried to escape, and the boy was run down.
