Political Pistachio
By Douglas V. Gibbs
My wife and I pray together a number of times per day. Like most people, I used to pray when the boat was rocking, but not so much when it was smooth sailing. As we have gotten older, praying and being in The Word daily have become important habits. Prayer, however, is not something we see much of in the average public square, or in mainstream media. Prayer, like Christianity, is usually tucked away inside the four walls of a church, and that’s the way the newsrooms and Satan likes it. Except, lately, something has shifted.
The shooting at a Catholic church in Minneapolis in August, followed by the assassination of Charlie Kirk in September, cracked open a cultural fault line. The pendulum swung at a time when The Church has been under worldwide persecution, and even being a Christian in America has been under attack. Suddenly, prayer is no longer a private act. It has become a public controversy, and Christianity is growing as a result.
The Bible reveals that the message of Christ spreads greater when under threat. Persecution often means growth, and sometimes the persecutors themselves become warriors for God. The Book of Acts tells us just that kind of story, when Saul became Paul.
As Faith grows in America, the voice of the opposition has grown louder, declaring prayer irrelevant. Jacob Frey, mayor of Minneapolis, dismissed it outright after children were murdered while praying, saying, “We don’t need any more prayers.” Jen Psaki, former White House press secretary, scoffed, “Prayer is not freaking enough.” These remarks were not just flippant. They were indictments of faith itself.
As the fire has raged from the mouths of the opposition, the faithful have responded. Pastors, commentators, and everyday believers have pushed back. As Christians, they followed Christ’s example and responded not with rage, but with reason. They reminded us that prayer is not a placebo. It’s not a sentimental gesture. It’s communion with the living God. And if we’re going to talk about prayer, we must first talk about God.
God exists. If He didn’t, then the whole American Experiment was based on a lie. God-given Natural Rights do not exist if there is no God. Liberty, if God does not exist, is a fraud. God does, however, exist. And He DID, two thousand years ago, take the form of a human being in the name of Jesus Christ, and was sacrificed on a cross for the sins of the world. And That Changes Everything
The existence of God is not a leap into the dark. It’s a rational conclusion. The argument from causality is simple and profound: everything material has a cause. The universe is material. Therefore, the universe must have a cause beyond itself. That cause is God. It’s not blind faith. When we use our critical thinking we realize that it is logical necessity. To believe the universe popped into existence uncaused is not science. It’s superstition dressed in lab coats that requires much more faith than believing the Story of Christ.
Then there’s morality. If there is no God, there is no objective good or evil. But we know that not to be the case. Inside we understand the truth. As Thomas Jefferson explained in the Declaration of Independence, “these truths are self-evident.” We recognize good and evil instinctively and viscerally. We know in the deepest part of our soul when things are wrong because God wrote the law on our hearts. The murder of innocent children is evil. Not subjectively evil. Objectively evil. That moral clarity points to a moral source. And that source is God, who is goodness itself.
Knowing God is not just something one believes. It is not some kind of religious ritual. Knowing God is a relationship, and prayer is a key part of that relationship.
The God who created the universe didn’t remain distant. He revealed Himself. Christians believe that Jesus Christ is God incarnate, and that God is a Trinity; a perfect relationship. Made in His image, we are wired for relationship too. That’s why prayer matters. It’s not magic. It’s not manipulation. It’s the pursuit of communion with the One who made us.
We pray not to bend reality to our will, but to align our hearts with His. God is not some Genie in a bottle there to grant wishes, but a member of an all-important relationship who loves us and wants the best for us as it aligns with His Will. We pray because we are dependent on God for our breath, our blessings, our being. We pray because we are not meant to be alone.
Science is catching up to what the faithful have known for centuries. Prayer reduces anxiety, stress, and depression. It activates the same parts of the brain used in human conversation. Daily prayer calms the mind, lowers anger, and strengthens attention. It even helps guard against dementia.
I read an article that proclaimed (and inspired this article): Twelve minutes a day. Eight weeks. That’s all it takes to begin rewiring the brain toward peace. Fear damages the mind. Prayer restores it. And in that restoration, the human heart rediscovers its worth. All of this is not some magical random accident. It is true, and it exists, because that is the way The Creator established it through His beloved creation.
It is not a coincidence that God’s opposition uses fear, and God provides hope. Prayer is tied to that hope. Therefore, prayer is not useless. It is not something to be scoffed at. It is not naïve. It is not a relic of a bygone age. It is an essential part of living in a relationship with the God who speaks, listens, and loves. It is the act by which the human soul remembers who it is and the human spirit operates in its enlivened state when a person accepts Jesus Christ into their life. It is communication with the God who made everything.
Without prayer there is no hope – there is only fear.
And that is why we pray.
— Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary
By Douglas V. Gibbs
The current government shutdown has now reached 28 days, making it the second longest in U.S. History. Without approval for appropriations non-essential spending is halted until the latest funding bill is approved by both Houses of Congress and signed by the President. The House of Representatives passed the current bill, but the Senate Democrats have blocked the GOP-led spending bill 13 times.
Under President Trump the current group of Republicans are not the establishment bunch of old who acted like they were Democrat-light or believed that compromise meant giving in. The Democrats have never supported government shutdowns, but they’ve never had to because the GOP always gave in. Now, they are playing chicken with a champion at the game, and the Republicans are on board with Trump’s firm position.
The Republicans, to help Americans who are being negatively affected by the government shutdown, be it federal employees or those who receive benefits, have tried to put in place temporary bills that would pay for these things while the battle continues, but the Democrats has refused. When asked about how the Democrats are going against their own history on shutdowns, the answer is always the same: TRUMP.
In the latest Senate vote it was 54-45, which means not a single Democrat that has been voting against the bill have budged. And to be honest, I’m surprised, because for most officeholders, reelection plays into their decision making. The Democrats are losing in the polls with each passing day, and there is no end in sight. Do they not see that with the Mid-Term Elections on the horizon this could spell doom for them? Under Senator Chuck Schumer they aren’t budging, despite the looming problems for them if they continue to refuse to give up their stance on illegal alien benefits, and the unconstitutional Affordable Care Act.
Republican Senate Majority Leader John Thune has called the Democrats irresponsible, especially when it comes to food stamp funding which is set to run out on Saturday. Twenty-five Blue States are suing the administration over food stamps, as if it’s not their own political party’s fault this is going on.
The bill is not even a long-term fix, it was designed to fund the government through November 21. Only Democratic Senators John Fetterman (PA), Catherine Cortez Masto (NV) and Independent Angus King (ME) who is an independent who caucuses with Democrats have been voting in favor of the bill. Schumer said that the only way this will end is if expiring Affordable Care Act insurance subsidies become a part of the conversation. The open enrollment for the health insurance marketplace under the Affordable Care Act begins November 1.
While the Democrats claim that the Republicans are taking away healthcare for millions of Americans, the reality is the impact on Americans is much smaller than they claim. In fact, according to The Daily Signal, some of the premium tax credits put into law by the Affordable Care Act under then President Barack Obama will continue under the new bill. President Joe Biden signed a bill in 2021 which expanded those credits to higher earners and boosted their benefits – and some of those too will continue to receive a tax credit. So, what are the Democrats screaming about?
After the subsidies expire the Taxpayers will still pay 80% of the premiums, but higher earners whose income is above 400% of the federal poverty level who are currently entitled to the tax credit would lose their tax credit entirely. Many of those who are self-employed would, however likely be eligible to deduct premium costs on their tax returns. The lowest earners who receive the credit currently have zero-dollar premiums, but they would be on the hook to pay up to 4.19% of their income for their premium should the boosted credit expire.
In short, those in poverty will go from paying nothing to paying up to under $5.00 per week for their healthcare coverage.
The only group that would completely lose their healthcare coverage under the current schemes would be illegal aliens.
The shutdown, in short, is primarily about whether or not illegal aliens, who are not supposed to be in the country in the first place, continue to receive federal benefits like healthcare paid for by the American Taxpayer.
As for the SNAP benefits which will be the next program unfunded when the first of the month comes, nearly 42 million Americans receive those benefits. Commonly known as food stamps, the program assists about 1 in 8 Americans to buy groceries. The average payment is $350 per household. 83% of those households include children, a disabled person, or an elderly person. Most of the people on food stamps, however, aren’t even from this country.
“45% of Afghanistan immigrants are on food stamps.”
“42% of Somali immigrants, 34% of every immigrant from Iraq, 23% of Haitians.”
“59% of ALL illegal aliens are collecting food stamps, meaning that most of the people getting food stamps from the U.S. Government and the U.S. Taxpayer are not even Americans.”
Millions of illegal aliens are now collecting food stamps from a program funded by hardworking American taxpayers.
Meanwhile, there are no paychecks as a result of the shutdown for active-duty troops, air traffic controllers and border patrol agents. The Democrats think they are using the shutdown as leverage – they are willing to leave people without paychecks and cripple the infrastructure for illegal aliens, and they believe it is leverage when in reality they are doubling down on what caused them to lose in 2024. And along the way the Democrats have rejected one-off bills to pay the troops, certain federal workers, air traffic controllers and fund the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
As Speaker of the House Mike Johnson has pointed out, there are four simple facts about the government shutdown:
- Democrat votes are required to open the government.
- Democrats have voted 13 times to keep the government closed.
- Democrats refuse to budge unless Republicans restore left-wing projects.
- Democrats admit to using “pain” as leverage and boast it’s working.
The bill requires cloture (60 votes) in order to be passed in the Senate, an internal rule designed to allow the minority party to have the ability to influence debate and the vote. The GOP has 53 Republicans in the Senate, so the vote in favor of the bill by some Democrats is needed to end the government shutdown. According to Johnson, the Democrats are “demanding a ransom to reopen the government” and what they are demanding are “really crazy things.”
- They want $200 billion in health benefits for illegal aliens and non-citizens.
- They want billions of dollars in wasteful programs to be returned to foreign countries.
- They want half a billion dollars to go back to left-leaning news organizations.
- They want to cut $50 billion from the rural hospital fund the GOP got passed July 4 to prop up healthcare in rural areas (which also tend to be Republican-leaning regions).
- They want $4 million for global LGBTQI+ awareness campaigns around the world.
We’re not doing that. And the Trump led Republicans understand that the way to Make America Great Again is not to give in every time the Democrats hold the American people hostage for ridiculous unconstitutional federal actions. The cracks are surely on the horizon. A few Democrats have got to be realizing the damage this shutdown is causing the Democrats. The longer it takes for them to give in, the more damage they are causing in future elections.
— Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary
By Douglas V. Gibbs
The No Kings protesters want you to believe that they are a part of a grassroots movement that is genuinely upset that President Trump is, as they put it, a dictator-wannabe. Except, it’s all a lie. It’s orchestrated, produced, and funded by the political machine behind the Democrat Party’s latest lurch leftward. Their movement isn’t about saving democracy (much less the constitutional republic), or their warped version of the Constitution. It’s all about the Democrat’s eternal tantrum over losing control and power. They can’t stand that the American people rejected their twisted agenda twice (and perhaps, three times). So, now they’re out in the streets, waving signs, chanting slogans, and pretending that they’re the guardians of liberty. But, they are actually screaming that they don’t like who the American People elected, and they are going to stomp around lurching toward violence until they get their way.
No Kings? It’s a scam. These are the same people who worship unelected bureaucrats, activist judges, and socialist globalist institutions. They want a king, but they prefer that the king wears a mask of progressivism and rules by government regulatory fiat.
It’s ironic that the whole No Kings thing is going on as we approach America’s 250th birthday, celebrating a quarter of a millennium since we defeated being ruled over by a – well – king. What is going on is not a protest. It’s a well-organized, well-funded provocation.
The leftist Democrats and their radical allies aren’t doing their worst because of liberty. It’s about power. They are trying to delegitimize a president they despise and a country they don’t understand because they love their power and leftist dogmatic ideology more than they could ever love America. But, the court of public opinion is seeing through it. We the People know what real kings are, and none of them are in the White House. They are in the media, the universities, and the bureaucracies.
The opposition of liberty and truth will try to convince you that their movement is sweeping the country through a grassroots wave of leftwing enthusiasm. They hide the fact that the turnout was tepid at best, and that their alleged movement is running on fumes despite the amount of corporate media cheerleading.
They fail to recognize that if we actually had a king, these protests would not be happening. They’d be banned, crushed, and buried under the weight of real tyranny. Kings claim to invite dissent, then round their opponents up to silence them. That’s what real authoritarianism looks like.
If President Trump was king these rallies wouldn’t be tolerated, they’d be obliterated. In fact, except for when they become violent and filled with illegalities against federal personnel, they’re protected.
And those folks out there for the No Kings rallies do not represent a majority of Americans. They are radicals, WOKEsters, and mostly pushing seventy and eighty. Many of them are the sixties hippies trying to regain their radical youth with a few kids dragged along by their activist parents, nodding dutifully while Grandma chants “No Trump, No Kings, No KKK” in a voice that barely rises above a whisper from her tired and aged vocal chords as she tries to channel Woodstock like it’s still relevant.
In truth, they are a cartoonish image of absurdity. Petty. The protests aren’t about principle. They are about pouting.
Meanwhile, President Trump is wheeling and dealing with Congress and the rest of the world, remaking America and the globe. He’s issuing executive orders tied to existing law and they’re all within constitutional bounds. The courts scrutinize them, the media screams, but the Supreme Court keeps affirming his authority because he is constitutionally executing the law, not rewriting it.
Trump is not a dictator. He’s not a king. He’s a president who doesn’t play patty-cake with the press or appease the rest of the leaders of the world. He’s gruff, firm, and unflappable. It drives the Left into hysterical temper-tantrums and all they know to do is scream, “Orange Man Bad.”
The Democrats in the end doesn’t hate kings. They hate losing power. Biden, Obama, and their hero FDR ruled like emperors. Their executive orders flew around like confetti, making law, modifying law, and refusing to operate in America’s best interest. Mandates. Lockdowns. Surveillance. Censorship. Obama even went tried to muzzle conservative media and Fox News. Obama practiced imperialism with a progressive smile.
No Kings? They mean, “No Trump.” They are fine with kings as long as they wear blue ties and worship their leftist dogma. Their complaint is not that Trump is a king, but that the tide is turning against them.
And while they stomp around and scream “No Oligarchs,” a true billionaire oligarch, George Soros, and his network of organizations, is doing what it can to help bankroll the “No Kings” protests. Soros’s organization Open Society Foundations, which oversees the Open Society Action Fund, in 2023 issued a two-year grant of $3 million to the progressive group Indivisible, according to public filings. Indivisible is the group managing participant data and communications for the “No Kings” protests taking place in cities nationwide. Soros’ foundations say they have distributed more than $32 billion globally to advance their ideological leftism, and according to Senator Ted Cruz, R-Texas, “There’s considerable evidence that George Soros and his network are behind funding these rallies, which may well be riots across the country…This politicized march is being organized by Soros operatives and funded by Soros money. No one denies these basic facts.” Indivisible, a Soros-backed group, is acting as the primary Central Hub of the anti-Trump “No Kings” protests. It goes way beyond groups like Antifa.
According to Seamus Bruner, research director at the Government Accountability Institute (GAI), “It’s not just Antifa…there is a whole ecosystem of radical, professional protesting organizations.”
For the Democrats in the U.S. Senate holding out during Schumer’s government shutdown, the “No Kings” absurdity is actually hurting their cause. The idiocy in the streets is opening the eyes of those watching the Democrat Senators holding out for demands for things that Trump was elected to end. And cracks are appearing. We now have three Democrats voting to reopen the government, and with elections on the horizon some of the others might be willing to break rank and end the Schumer Shutdown. If they don’t, the Mid-Term Elections may get even more Republican than they are already beginning to look.
— Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary
* The Fallbrook Vineyard Church, The Vineyard 1924, 1924 E. Mission Rd., Fallbrook, California, October 26 at 10:00 am
* Independence Hall Tour: Buena Park, CA; Knotts Berry Farm Independence Hall, October 27 at 10:30 am
* Meet and Greet with Eric Stalter, candidate for Riverside County Supervisor, District 5 (invite only)
* Pastor’s Appreciation Breakfast: San Diego, CA; Handlery Hotel, October 28 at 8:00 am (tickets sold out)
- Title Sponsored by Mr. Constitution Douglas V. Gibbs, Hosted by K-Praise, featuring guest Pastor Jack Hibbs and worship by Michael Sanchez.
By Douglas V. Gibbs
While the halls of Capitol Hill echo with partisan rhetoric and political theater, real Americans are bracing for empty paychecks and shuttered benefits. On Thursday, Senate Democrats voted down the Shutdown Fairness Act; a bill that would have ensured federal workers, including military personnel, TSA agents, and law enforcement officers, received pay during the ongoing government shutdown.
This wasn’t a bill to end the shutdown. It wasn’t a Trojan horse for Republican demands. It was a lifeline. It was a simple, targeted measure to pay those who are still showing up to work while Washington plays chicken with the American economy. And Democrats killed it.
The vote fell short at 54-45 in the U.S. Senate, just shy of the 60 votes needed for cloture to advance. Only three Democrats – Fetterman, Ossoff, and Warnock – crossed party lines to support the bill. The rest chose party over people.
Why?
Because for the Democrats suffering is leverage. Because missed paychecks and unfunded benefits are bargaining chips in a high-stakes game of political brinkmanship. Because the party that claims to champion working families is now using those same families as hostages in a legislative standoff.
If this shutdown continues, benefits programs like SNAP will not be funded come November 1. Millions of Americans who rely on food assistance, housing support, and basic services that the Democrats typically champion will be left in the cold while Capitol Hill debates optics and power.
Those political ideological hacks who voted against the bill are not representing the people who sent them to office. They are not governing as the voters want them to. The Democrats are committing political extortion, and they are doubling down somehow believing that this behavior is good for America – let me rephrase that: they believe it is good for them. They could care less about America, nor the people who sent them to office. This is all about their power. Pure and simple.
Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) introduced the bill, calling it a matter of fairness. The Shutdown Fairness Act would have paid those deemed “essential,” those still working, still protecting, still serving, while Congress sorts out its dysfunction. But Democrats objected, claiming the bill gave the President too much discretion over who gets paid. So instead of fixing that, they blocked the whole thing.
They voted for people to suffer because they hate President Trump so much that they wish to block him from doing things that their own guys in the past did with congratulations from these some of these very same Democrats.
The Democrats countered with a bill that would have paid all federal workers while also limiting the president’s authority, which is unconstitutional by the way. That bill was blocked by Republicans earlier in the week. Constitutionally, Congress cannot pass a law to tell the President he can’t do something that he is constitutionally afforded. Article II clearly gives the President of the United States full authority over all executive powers, which includes his position as head of the executive branch. He can hire, he can fire, and he can determine internal strategies regarding the movement of funding. Those duties are constitutionally granted to the President of the United States. But remember, the Democrats don’t truly care about the Constitution. All they care about is stopping the guy who has done the most to reduce their level of political power and control. And in response, the authoritarians of the Democratic Party seek to steal authorities constitutionally granted to the President of the United States.
So here we are: two parties, two bills, and zero paychecks.
The Democrats have put their power, and their hatred for Donald Trump, ahead of America and We the People. They have put their ideology over doing what’s right. Democrats have put their demands ahead of serving the American People.
The Schumer Shutdown is a betrayal. Every unpaid worker, every unfunded benefit, every struggling family is a casualty of that betrayal.
The court of public opinion is watching, and the Midterm Elections loom on the horizon.
— Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary
Trump is Using the Militia, Not the Military
By Douglas V. Gibbs
President Trump is not sending the military into cities. On the rare occasions when the military has been present, it was to support the National Guard in exceptional circumstances. That distinction matters a lot. And it’s one that too many Republicans, let alone the media, fail to make.
At a recent Turning Point USA event at the University of Mississippi, a student asked Vice President J.D. Vance about the use of the military in Washington, D.C., and other cities. The question revealed a common misconception; one that needs to be corrected with constitutional clarity. The military is not being deployed in our cities. The National Guard is. And under the law, the National Guard is not the military. It is the militia. Citizen soldiers. Not standing armies. The opposition to President Trump keeps using the word military like they use the word democracy. We were not designed to be a democracy, we are a federal republic, and Trump is not using the military, he’s deploying the militia. The two are not synonymous with each other. Military versus militia is not just semantics. The distinction has legal consequences. It’s the law. It’s the Constitution. And President Trump is following it to the letter.
Article I, Section 8 of the United States Constitution gives Congress the authority “to provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions.” Despite the political progressive liberal left’s desire to broadly interpret everything in the Constitution, the reality is that the clause is not vague. It’s not up for interpretation. The constitutional language provides a clear constitutional mandate.
Once the militia is called into federal service, Article II makes the President the Commander in Chief of that force.
So when the National Guard is deployed to assist Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in enforcing immigration law, that’s not martial law. That’s not tyranny. That’s Congress’s enumerated power to “execute the Laws of the Union.” When the Guard is used to quell violent uprisings like the Antifa-led chaos in Portland, where the stated goal by Antifa is to be ungovernable and to overthrow the U.S. government, it is the constitutional duty of the President of the United States to deploy the militia to “suppress Insurrections.” And when the southern border is overrun by millions of foreign nationals, some of whom are Chinese operatives, jihadist infiltrators, or gang members dispatched by hostile regimes like Venezuela’s, that’s not just illegal immigration. That’s an invasion. And the Constitution doesn’t just allow the federal government to repel invasions, it requires it.
The Democrats prefer muddled language because then they can interpret it to mean anything they wish. And too many Republicans have allowed the left to frame the narrative. They hear “troops in the streets” and recoil, failing to distinguish between a standing army and a constitutional militia. But the Founders made that distinction for a reason. They feared a permanent military force used against the people, but they trusted the militia, made up of the people, to defend the republic.
That’s why the Militia Act of 1903 (and its subsequent amendments) codifies the National Guard as the organized militia. It is not the regular military. It is not the Department of War. It is a constitutional tool for domestic defense, law enforcement support, and emergency response.
So, let’s stop letting the media blur the lines. Let’s stop allowing the radical left to paint every lawful action as authoritarianism. And let’s stop being afraid to speak with constitutional confidence.
The more we know about the Constitution, the more we have Constitutional Courage. We need to understand what the original intent is, and then apply it to today’s politics. And if you understand original intent, you will come to what might be a surprising conclusion – Donald Trump is the most constitutional President of the United States in our lifetime.
President Trump is not using the military to occupy cities. He is using the militia to uphold the law, suppress insurrection, and repel invasion as the Constitution prescribes. That’s not tyranny. That’s fidelity to the Founding. It’s time Republicans remembered that. It’s time We the People recognized that. And it’s time we used that argument against the opposition.
— Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary