Happy Wednesday and the start of Lent!

We have a mighty tall cup to pour. So let’s get to it.

Asbury and Rush to Declare Dead the Living

A man suffering cardiac arrest in Clearwater, Florida, was declared dead last week by two paramedics, who then left the scene.

One problem. He wasn’t dead. Thomas Maxwell was still breathing. Daughter Phoebe tells WFLA, “I was yelling my dad wasn’t dead!” But the paramedics dismissed her pleas before departing, calling Maxwell’s breathing just “the body releasing gases.”

A Pinellas County Sheriff’s deputy came to investigate this “death,” only to discover Thomas was, indeed, alive. He was rushed to the hospital. While still in intensive care, suffering from slowed speech, and the long term effects off his being literally left for dead are unknown, Thomas Maxwell is very much alive!

We came across this story shortly after Faith McDonnell sent her beautiful ode to Asbury, “Asbury Revival 2023: When God Once Again Uses Students to Wake the Church.” Faith notes the curious timing of this move of God at Asbury University with the release of Jesus Revolution, which depicts the birth of the student-driven Jesus Movement in the ‘70s.

Time magazine did a cover story on the Jesus Revolution just a couple years after their famous cover story declaring “God is Dead.” He is very much alive.

And when the sun rose two Wednesdays ago, it would have been tempting to wonder if the American church was dead … at the very least dead to the younger generation. Polls show Gen Z wanting little to do with the church. Dr. Michael Brown just did a whole column on it. With Satan openly celebrated at the Grammys three days before, who wouldn’t wonder if the church was flat-lining.

But at Hughes Chapel at Asbury University that Wednesday morning, God showed up in a mighty way, and the continued outpouring of the Holy Spirit has been a wonder to see. With young people leading the way.

Are we paying attention? We are never to be like the Clearwater paramedics. We cannot rush in and declare dead anything of God’s. We must be like Thomas Maxwell’s child, shouting “My Father is Alive!”

He is alive indeed.

Took Three Weeks, but EPA Finally Takes Charge of Clean-Up, and Buttigieg May Be on the Way

Apparently the EPA finally realized the E and P stand for “Environmental Protection.” After three weeks of a lackadaisical response, the EPA is suddenly springing to action, as if they’d been shot up with whatever his keepers give Biden before big speeches. The EPA ordered Norfolk Southern to clean up the East Palestine derailment site and foot all the costs. In fact, the EPA will now be overseeing the cleanup.

I wonder why the sudden change of heart?

Benny Johnson is reporting Mayor Pete is going to East Palestine today. He suggests the appearance is timed to overshadow Trump’s visit.

🚨BREAKING SCOOP 🚨

A top-level security source has just confirmed to me that Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg will be traveling to East Palestine, Ohio TOMORROW.

The source tells me this move is intended to directly overshadow Donald Trump’s visit.

— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) February 21, 2023

If this is true, Buttigieg must think the people of East Palestine are idiots. A couple days ago, Mayor Pete was dismissing the accident as one of the 1,000 we have every year. Couldn’t be bothered. Too busy bemoaning white construction workers. Now, after Trump confirms his visit, he’s suddenly admitting he “should have spoke out sooner”? Suddenly showing up?! And he doesn’t think residents won’t call him out on it? That’ll be epic: “You’re only here because Trump’s here!”

Oh, and by the way: Love him or hate him, can anyone think of a time when anybody overshadowed Trump?

Project Veritas Strikes Back Against O’Keefe … While Insisting They Don’t Want Him to Go

I hope I’m wrong, but the break-up between James O’Keefe and Project Veritas is looking to get as messy as Johnny Depp and Amber Hearst.

Monday evening, after O’Keefe detailed how he had been forced out as CEO and stripped of all authority and was leaving the organization he founded, Project Veritas struck back.

The Board posted a statement saying, “We did not fire him, nor do we want him to resign. We would like to continue conversations with James to resolve internal matters rather than litigate them publicly.” This at the end of a lengthy laundry list of alleged misdeeds and financial misappropriations on O’Keefe’s part. (So much for not litigating publicly.)

A preliminary review at this time indicates that James has spent an excessive amount of donor funds in the last three years on personal luxuries. More is still being uncovered during the ongoing review at this time. Contrary to many reports from today, James was suspended indefinitely pending the resolution of a fulsome investigation and clarity which will need to be provided by a third party investigative audit report.

Then came their sampling of alleged misuse of funds. There are “hundreds” more, PV promised. (O’Keefe dealt with some of these in his statement to staffers.)

• $14,000 on a charter flight to meet someone to fix his boat under the guise of meeting with a donor.
• Over $150,000 in Black Cars in the last 18 months.”
• Thousands of dollars spent on DJ and other equipment for personal use.”
• $60,000 in losses by putting together dance events such as the Project Veritas Experience.

Would love to see the details on these. $60,000 for “dance events”? Plural? How many events they talking about? My wife was an event coordinator. People will blow 60 grand on one bar mitzvah. How many trips a week for how many journalists in those “black cars”? Did the $150,000 include the gas? Throwing these charges out there reeks of attempting to inflict damage. Or at best damage control.

Who knows? Perhaps O’Keefe did get careless with donor money … or even criminal. Perhaps the growth of Project Veritas gave him the big head … or expanded beyond his ability to manage properly. It’s even possible Project Veritas is serious about wanting O’Keefe to stay. (No doubt donors are screaming in their ear. They certainly are on Twitter. And a leaked email from the board suggests they’re pushing to employees how the organization will “thrive” without O’Keefe.)

And yeah, you must have an independent audit of the books, with the chips falling as they may.

For our part, we pray for truth, healing … and that the work of exposing the corruption and corrosion of the powerful will continue. Certainly this story isn’t over.

Don Lemon Staying at CNN … as Haley Racially Savaged by MSNBC Guest

Don Lemon won’t be fired over his sexist slur of Nikki Haley, CNN boss Chris Licht told employees Monday night. (Of course Lemon wasn’t fired. Haley’s a Republican. If he had said Kamala Harris, age 58, was past her prime, Lemon would have been tossed from the CNN headquarters rooftop.)

Instead, Lemon has been forced to “participate in formal training.” He’s scheduled to be back on the air today.

The Daily Mail reported that female staffers were threatening to quit if Lemon was allowed back. “There’s not one person at CNN who thinks that he should remain on air.” The network refused to comment on the claim that some female staffers are set to walk.

Meanwhile, over on MSNBC, Wajahat Ali of the Daily Beast went on a hate-filled rant against Haley, saying she uses “brown skin as a weapon against poor black folks and poor brown folks, and she uses her brown skin to launder white supremacist talking points. Ali declared her the “perfect Manchurian candidate for white supremacists and bigots.” All because she thinks for herself and doesn’t say exactly what progressives think women and people of color should say.

Yo, Ali. The Manchurian candidate was part of a squad that was brainwashed by communists to each say the exact same thing. Might want to look in the mirror, liberal.

Whoopi Goldberg mocked Haley for calling for a “new generation” of leaders. “You’re not a new generation, you’re 51,” Whoopi said. Hey, Whoopi. Compared to Biden, Pelosi, Feinstein and Sanders, the Golden Girls are “next generation.”

In Whoopi’s defense, she did also say “You can be as old as dirt if you’re getting stuff done for America.”

Vivek Ramaswamy Running for GOP Nomination

Looks like Trump and Haley have some company. Entrepreneur and anti-woke crusader Vivek Ramaswamy announced last night on Tucker Carlson Tonight that he is running for president.

Today I’m launching not just a political campaign, but a cultural movement to revive American national identity itself.https://t.co/LcDB04ihNQ pic.twitter.com/koRfznikcQ

— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) February 22, 2023

He released a video explaining his belief in American Exceptionalism and his hope to revive “The New American Dream.”

We’ve celebrated our “diversity” so much that we forgot all the ways we’re really the same as Americans, bound by ideals that united a divided, headstrong group of people 250 years ago. I believe deep in my bones those ideals still exist. I’m running for President to revive them. pic.twitter.com/bz5Qtt4tmm

— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) February 22, 2023

Along The Stream

The new Christian’s Engaged podcast is up! In part three of the series “Cultivating Leadership in America,” Bunni speaks to Hon. Dan Davis, a former missionary and Texas city councilman, on “Cultivating Leadership in Our Lives.”

 

Al Perrotta is the Managing Editor of The Stream, chief barista for The Brew and co-author, with John Zmirak, of The Politically Incorrect Guide to Immigration. You can follow him at @StreamingAl at GETTR, Gab, Parler, and now at TRUTH Social.