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Pray For the Peace of Jerusalem Ruins of Megiddo, Northern Kingdom (Old Testament) 2 Kings 17 Hoshea Last King of Israel 17 In the twelfth year of Ahaz king of Judah, Hoshea son of Elah became king of Israel in Samaria, and he reigned nine years. 2 He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, but not like the kings of Israel who preceded him. 3 Shalmaneser king of Assyria came up to attack Hoshea, who had been Shalmaneser’s vassal and had paid him tribute. 4 But the king of Assyria discovered that Hoshea was a traitor, for he had sent envoys...

U.S. consumers spent more in July than economists expected, the federal government said on Thursday, as retail sales rose 0.7% vs. the 0.3% estimated. Excluding automobile sales, a more volatile component, retail sales rose 1% — double what economists anticipated. Why it matters: Consumers were largely unfazed by the increasing economic uncertainty in July, defying other indicators that point to a global slowdown or recession. The data also comes as Walmart, one of the world’s biggest retailers, posted strong financials for its most recent quarter.

A former Google employee has gone public with claims of election manipulation, intimidation, and political bias at the hands of the tech giant, including the “blacklisting” of certain websites, including The Christian Post. On Wednesday, investigative journalism group Project Veritas released an interview in which whistleblower Zachary Vorhies reveals he delivered roughly 950 pages of documents to the Department of Justice’s Antitrust division demonstrating that Google manipulated its algorithms in a way that biased its search engine against conservative media, Christian media and nonprofit groups, and Republicans.A Google employee for eight years, Vorhies — who refers to his situation as...

President Trump has repeatedly promised, "America will never be a socialist country." Since Franklin Roosevelt began expanding government in the 1930s, the United States has increasingly adopted big-state policies associated with socialism. We may not be at the stage Bernie Sanders would advocate, but more millennials appear to favor a system under which they have never lived. Free stuff is appealing until one realizes its costs. In an attempt to reach Generation Z -- those in their teens and 20s -- a new organization is starting this month to combat socialism's appeal. It's called Young Americans Against Socialism (yaas.org), according...

Will Benjamin Netanyahu cancel the Pallywood version of Vacation? After his government shrugged its shoulders at a planned visit by fierce Israel opponents Reps. Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar a month ago, the Associated Press reported this morning that the prime minister might have changed his mind. The day before the pair are due to arrive, Netanyahu has been meeting with consultants to determine whether he can block their entry into Israel: Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was holding consultations with senior ministers and aides on Thursday to reevaluate the decision to allow two Democratic congresswomen to enter the...

When tragedy strikes, as it did in two mass killings earlier this month, there is always the urge to pressure the government do something. Governments are animated by the belief that doing something -- any demonstrable overt behavior -- will show that they are in control. I understand the natural fears that good folks have that an El Paso or a Dayton episode might happen again, but doing something for the sake of appearance can be dangerous to personal liberty. When the Constitution was written, the idea of owning arms and keeping them in the home was widespread. The colonists...

In a video and article published on Wednesday, ex-Google employee Zach Vorhies speaks with the antitrust investigators at Project Veritas about the thousands of internal Google documents he recently released to the public.  Among the cache of information is a list of sites that Google has blacklisted with an algorithm developed to alter users' search results.  American Thinker is one of them. The highlighted photo below is from frequent contributor Steve McCann It wasn’t easy for Vorhies to break away from his lucrative Google salary and come forward with the trove of information that shows a huge political bias...

The person who claimed Epstein's body was described only as an "Epstein associate."

The city of Springdale, Arkansas became the latest to declare support for the rights of unborn babies on Tuesday in resistance to the radical pro-abortion agenda that is being pushed on Americans. In front of a crowded room, the Springdale City Council voted 6-1 in favor of the pro-life resolution, the Arkansas Democrat Gazette reports. The resolution declares Springdale to be a pro-life city. It also tells the abortion chain Planned Parenthood that it is not welcome there, according to the report. Though the statement does not have any legal weight, it sends a message that Springdale supports life, said...

The script scoffs at the idea that power and prosperity come to those who merit them, even when it is dealing with Dorothy herself. She kills one Wicked Witch by crash-landing a house on her, and kills another (Margaret Hamilton) by splashing her with water. In both cases, the killings are accidents, the results of pure chance rather than Dorothy’s bravery or virtue. (Any water-soluble witch who leaves buckets of the stuff sitting around her castle is asking for trouble.) But in both cases, Dorothy is instantly hailed as a conquering heroine, just as the Wizard was when he touched...

The death of Jeffrey Epstein highlights an important reality underlying 21st-century American politics. Just 36% of American adults believe the official story that Epstein committed suicide. A ScottRasmussen.com national survey found that 30% think he was murdered, while 34% are not sure. As if that skepticism isn't enough, 9% think it's very likely Epstein faked his death, escaped prison, and is alive somewhere. Some might chalk that up to a nation that has seen too many TV shows like "Stranger Things" where the authorities present a fake body as part of a larger cover-up. But people are open to such...

A crowd outside a Philadelphia home taunted police as they battled an AK-47 wielding gunman accused of shooting six of their officers and holding another two hostage on Wednesday. The man finally surrendered after a dramatic standoff that lasted nearly eight hours. 'A major moment of disappointment this evening was watching a crowd of people taunt police officers, laughing and yelling at them in the midst of the gunfire,' tweeted CBS3 reporter Alexandria Hoff early Thursday morning.

Saudi Arabia has essentially been booted from Yemen after four years of bankrolling mercenaries at the cost of $200 million a day to crush impoverished desert tribesmen. As of mid-June, the Yemen Civil War that began in 2015 had seemingly settled into a stalemate after about 39,700 battles and the loss of about 91,600 lives, according to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED). But even with much less military movement, there were 4,900 armed incidents and 11,900 dead in 2019. Located in the southwest and comprising about 12 percent of the Arabian Peninsula, Yemen has a population...

Todd Chrisley is accused of trying to extort his own daughter with a sex tape, just a month before he and his wife were charged with federal tax evasion and bank fraud. Lindsie Chrisley reportedly told police her father tried extorting her to get her to lie about his tax issues as he faces potentially decades in prison. She has distanced herself from her family after father Todd, 51, and stepmother Julie, 48, were arrested Wednesday and appeared in court in Atlanta, Georgia, for 12 counts of bank fraud and federal tax evasion. The couple could face up to 30...

Israel has apparently decided to bar Reps. Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib from entering the country on Friday after fierce debates on the contentious matter involving Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and various ministers, according to a report Thursday. The reason cited for their ban is reportedly “suspected provocations and promotion of BDS,” a reference to the anti-Israel boycott movement, according to the Times of Israel, which cited a report by local Channel 12. Interior Minister Aryeh Deri made the decision to bar the US lawmakers from entering the country on Friday, according to the report. The freshman lawmakers — the...

In the hours before American equity markets open for trading, China sent a huge sell signal to the traders on Wall Street. Bloomberg reports: China called planned U.S. tariffs on an additional $300 billion in Chinese goods a violation of accords reached by Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping, signaling an American move earlier this week to delay some of those levies was not enough to stave off retaliation. The effects already are manifest: European stocks declined and U.S. equity futures fell. The Stoxx Europe 600 index moved lower while the three main American equity contracts dropped. President Trump...

Jeffrey Epstein’s autopsy determined the convicted pedophile suffered multiple broken neck bones, according to a report. One of the breaks was to Epstein’s hyoid bone, an injury that experts told the Washington Post is more common in homicide victims. The discoveries were disclosed to the paper by two people familiar with the findings of the autopsy, which was completed on Sunday, but warranted more information by the Medical Examiner’s Office before it makes a final cause-of-death ruling. “Today, a medical examiner performed the autopsy of Jeffrey Epstein,” said Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Barbara Sampson in a statement Sunday night. “The...

When my airplane dipped beneath the clouds, I could finally see the earth: interminable horizon, crisscrossing bands of interstate, the cities of the plains, home to more than 7 million souls. Landing in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex feels like drifting down to reality; if everything is bigger in Texas, it’s also more intense — the light brighter, the shadows deeper. I was particularly grateful for all that harsh relief in April, because I had come to take stock of a spiritual situation tailor-made to emphasize every challenge in the contest of conscience between heaven and earth. How are evangelical Christians...

When it was first reported that pedophile billionaire Jeffrey Epstein had died in a maximum-security prison, supposedly by suicide, the Internet was immediately ablaze with conspiracy theories. That's not so strange considering that several people had warned beforehand that Epstein had dirt on many important people; people who would be well served by his untimely death. An autopsy has now found, the Washington Post reports, that Epstein "sustained multiple breaks in his neck bones, according to two people familiar with the findings." And that's rather... interesting: Among the bones broken in Epstein’s neck was the hyoid bone, which in men...

Smithfield Foods, the world’s largest producer of pork products, has set its sights on the plant-based market. The company, which is a subsidiary of China’s WH Group, announced the launch of its first meat-free range today. The Smithfield-owned Pure Farmland brand mimics Beyond Meat’s and Impossible Foods’ “bleeding” plant meat products that have sparked a food revolution in recent months. Pure Farmland will launch with eight initial products including plant-based burgers, meatballs, breakfast patties, and ground beef style “protein starters”. Some of the items will also feature vegan cheese; a burger with dairy-free cheddar, and meatballs with dairy-free parmesan. It’s...