Everyone is thankful today that Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and three other Americans held in Russia were released. We rejoice for them and their families now that they are safely back home.
 
Of course, President Biden just had to use the occasion to attack Donald Trump for some bizarre reason. Biden essentially said that Trump couldn’t get the reporter out of Russia, but he did.
 
Well, here’s a fact check: Gershkovich was taken hostage in 2023 — under President Biden. Even Donald Trump can’t get prisoners out before they are taken hostage.
 
Unlike Barack Obama and Joe Biden, who traded five top Taliban terrorists for one deserter, Donald Trump got more American prisoners out of foreign jails without giving up anything to the bad guys.
 
But what did Joe Biden and Kamala Harris give up to get this “win” 96 days before the election? As usual, they gave up the store.
 
Vladimir Putin has been waging hostage diplomacy. He takes hostages and holds them as bargaining chips to get what he wants. In this case, he got a Russian assassin, and some of his best hackers returned to him.
 
Sadly, dictators know that taking hostages pays off when there is weakness in the White House. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris just guaranteed more pain and suffering for more families in the years ahead as more Americans are taken hostage and held by dictators like Putin.
 
 
 
Secrets Revealed
 
A courageous whistleblower inside the Secret Service has come forward to expose some of the secrets the agency has been hiding.
 
The whistleblower informed Senator Josh Hawley that Ronald Rowe, the current acting director who replaced Kimberly Cheatle, is responsible for significantly cutting back the Counter Surveillance Division (CSD).
 
CSD agents perform threat assessments before events. But the whistleblower alleges that CSD agents did not perform a threat assessment prior to the Butler rally and were not present on the day of the rally.
 
In a letter sent to Rowe on Thursday, Hawley wrote:
 
“This is significant because CSD’s duties include evaluating potential security threats outside the security perimeter and mitigating those threats during the event… if personnel from CSD had been present at the rally, the gunman would have been handcuffed in the parking lot after being spotted with a rangefinder.”
 
The whistleblower also told Hawley that multiple Secret Service agents have complained about inadequate security for President Trump for nearly a year, saying that Rowe’s cutbacks were jeopardizing the people they were supposed to protect. The whistleblower alleges that Rowe retaliated against the agents who voiced their concerns.
 
If true, any retaliation could well be a violation of federal law. Whistleblowers are supposed to be protected from retaliation in order to encourage people to come forward and report problems or any kind of wrongdoing. 
 
This new information raises even more questions. Did the Secret Service continue conducting normal site investigations for Joe Biden? Or were the CSD cutbacks limited to just Trump events?
 
Just as a reminder: In recent years, several rising political stars who have resisted globalism have faced assassination attempts. (Here, here, and here.) Is it just a coincidence that populist leaders seem to be most frequently targeted? It certainly seems odd to me.
 
There is a worldwide struggle raging against free societies led by radical Islamists, neo-Marxists, and the one world government crowd. We are watching the death of Western Civilization in France and Great Britain. Or the real possibility that both countries could devolve into civil wars.
 
 
 
Economy On The Brink
 
The stock market fell dramatically Thursday and was down even more Friday. It could just be profit-taking.
 
But the market is a predicting mechanism, and there is a growing consensus that the economy is not growing but slowing. Keep in mind that many families are hanging on by their fingernails.
 
The latest figures on the health of the economy were released Friday morning. The experts predicted that 175,000 new jobs would be created in July. Instead, we got 114,000 new jobs. The unemployment rate was expected to stay flat at 4.1%. Instead, it went up to 4.3%.
 
The bad news doesn’t end there. Once again, job creation for June and May was readjusted to be lower than previously reported.
 
Here’s another factor that is getting very little attention: An examination of job creation under Biden/Harris shows that most of the job growth has been in healthcare and government at all levels. Growth in those two areas is not how you remain a superpower.
 
 
 
Tune In To Family Talk
 
Please tune in to Dr. James Dobson’s Family Talk radio show. On today’s broadcast, former Congresswoman Michele Bachmann and I conclude our discussion on the current state of our union. We also discuss how God has protected the United States since our earliest days.
 
You can find station listings here. Or you can listen online here.
 
 
 
Good News 

• The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Texas can keep floating barriers in the Rio Grande River to deter illegal immigration. The Biden/Harris administration sued to stop Texas and to keep the border as wide open as possible. 

• The Biden/Harris administration dropped appeals in two cases challenging race-based “equity” programs, which had been ruled unconstitutional because of their obvious reverse discrimination. 

• The Nebraska Supreme Court upheld a law protecting young children from mutilating surgeries and sterilizing drugs. The ruling also upheld the state’s ban on late-term abortions. 

• The Lubbock City Council voted to cut $30,000 in funding from a local art center after it promoted an LGBTQ event with drag queens as “child friendly.”