Monday, December 19th, in the year of our Lord 2016
By Adam McManus
Attempts to Change Electoral College Vote
The 306 Republican electors who are supposed to cast their votes today for President-elect Donald Trump have been subject to intense campaigns orchestrated by anti-Trump forces to convince them that they alone can block him from the White House. For example, the Washington Post reports that one Republican elector named Rex Teter, a 59-year-old music teacher and preacher, received about 35,000 emails and 200 letters urging him not to support Donald Trump.
A group known as the Hamilton Electors have been organizing efforts to contact electors in hopes of changing their minds. They believe the goal to deny Trump seems reachable if not probable. The group needs to identify just 37 Republicans willing to vote for some other candidate, at which point the choice of president would shift to the U.S. House of Representatives.
Leftists are getting desperate now, as illustrated by filmmaker Michael Moore’s comments on MSNBC’s All In with Chris Hayes.
MICHAEL MOORE: Listen, we are hours away now from the Electoral College coming together on Monday. This needs protest, this needs people’s voices. You can go to Vigils For America, I think it’s dot org, and they have a list of all the state protests at the state capitols this weekend and on Monday. People need to have their voice heard. Don’t say to yourself, oh, what’s the use? How do we — nothing’s going to happen. You don’t know that. You don’t know that. That’s why we have to keep fighting. We have to fight all the way to inauguration day and then be ready for them to start the day after the inauguration passing law after law after law.
CHRIS HAYES, MSNBC: And you think protesting on Inauguration Day — Protesting, obstructing, disrupting, civil disobedience. I mean, the man has no right to enter that house.
Trump Promises to Repeal and Replace ObamaCare
According to The Washington Examiner, President-elect Donald Trump wants to sign a bill to replace the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare, within the first few months of being inaugurated.
Republicans may go for a more piecemeal approach and introduce reforms gradually which will perhaps be more palatable to Congressional Democrats, most of whom support Obamacare. But Trump voters want to see the GOP exercise their political muscle now and repeal and replace Obamacare in one fell swoop.
China Returns United States Drone
The Pentagon said Saturday that China will return a $150,000 U.S. Navy drone seized in the international waters of the South China Sea, reports Fox News. Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook said, “We have registered our objection to China’s unlawful seizure, of a U.S. unmanned-underwater vehicle. Through direct engagement with Chinese authorities, we have secured an understanding that the Chinese will return the UUV to the United States.”
The drone was seized while collecting unclassified scientific data near the Philippines in the South China Sea, which China claims virtually in its entirety, the U.S. Navy said Friday.
There also have been increased tensions over Beijing’s ongoing military buildup in the South China Sea, mainly the development and militarization of man-made shoals and islands aimed at extending China’s reach in the strategically vital area through which about $5 trillion in global trade passes annually.
Hope for Imprisoned Canadian Pastor in North Korea
There appears to be hope for Hyeon Soo Lim, the 62-year-old South Korean-born Canadian pastor who was sentenced to hard labor for life in December 2015 for what North Korea absurdly claims was an attempt to overthrow the regime, reports Reuters. Diplomats from Canada paid a rare visit to North Korea last week and were able to see the Canadian pastor last week.In January, Lim told CNN he spends eight hours a day digging holes at a labor camp.
Middle School Football Coach Not Allowed to Kneel to Pray
A middle school football team’s coach near Tallahassee, Florida was reprimanded for kneeling along with his team while his players prayed, reports Fox News. This time. . . the Grinch behind the brouhaha was the atheist group, the Freedom From Religion Foundation. An October 7th video shows coach Eddie Metcalf “taking a knee” in the pre-game huddle. Coach Metcalf said, “The prayer in question was a student-initiated prayer, and I was kneeling with them. I didn’t know I couldn’t … But since then, I ‘ve been instructed on that particular situation, when the kids start to pray, I have to walk away and turn my back.”
Acts 5:29 says, “We must obey God rather than man.”
Pro Life Action League Brings Message of Peace on Christmas
For the 13th consecutive year, the Pro Life Action League organized the “Peace in the Womb” Caroling Day, bringing the Christmas message of peace and joy to the darkness of abortion clinics in 60 cities across 28 states, reports Life News.
Eric Scheidler, the Executive Director, said, “We will never truly have peace as long as unborn children are not even safe in their mother’s wombs. Christmas is a time of reconciliation. Jesus was born to reconcile the world to Himself, and it is our hope that every mother will be reconciled to her unborn child, no matter how difficult the circumstances.”
Fuel Tanker Explodes in Maryland
A fuel tanker slid over a concrete wall, burst into flames, and exploded early Saturday due to an ice storm and slick roads on Interstate 95 through Baltimore, Maryland, reports WTOP Radio. The explosion resulted in a 67-car-pile-up and three fatalities.
Judge Sides With Constitution On ‘Homosexual Workplace Order.’
Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards, a Democrat, went too far in April when he issued a homosexual workplace executive order, according to Louisiana Judge Todd Hernandez’s ruling last Wednesday, reports World Magazine. The judge sided with Republican Attorney General Jeff Landry who claimed the order went too far by demanding organizations compromise their beliefs on marriage and sexuality as a condition for winning government contracts.
U.K. Evangelicals Will Be Generous on Christmas
A new study conducted by the Evangelical Alliance in Britain finds that nine out of 10 evangelicals in the U.K. will either volunteer or give to charity during the Christmas season. That’s about 8X the generosity found in the wider population.
Jesus said, “It is better to give than to receive.” (Matthew 20:36)
Family Adopts 5 Foster Children Not Wanting Them to Be Separated
Curt and Brenda Heuer of Prescott, Arizona opened their home and hearts to numerous children in need over the past decade, fostering 52 children, CBSNews reports. But when the couple adopted five of those children — four girls and a boy ranging from ages 2 to 9 — to keep them from being separated by the foster system, that made news.
It came as a Christmas blessing in the midst of dire circumstances. Their father had been killed, their mother severed ties with the family years ago and relatives were unable to care for so many children.
Brenda explained their motivation, saying, “Due to the circumstances, knowing these children would likely be separated, and that’s all they had left in this world is each other – it’s just heartbreaking. We didn’t want to see that happen.” Christmas 2016 will always be remembered by these five young people when they got their forever family.
On the average day, 415,000 children are in the foster care system. And 60,000 children are waiting to be adopted.
Muslim Businessman Shows Solidarity With Persecuted Iraqi Christians
A Muslim businessman in Iraq has put up the tallest Christmas tree in the city in a surprising show of solidarity with Christians, reports the Associated Press.
Yassir Saad said that he wanted to come together with “our Christian brothers in their holiday celebrations and helping Iraqis forget their anguish, especially the war in Mosul.”
The tree is 85 feet tall and 33 feet wide and stands in Baghdad’s al-Zawra Park. It costs about $24,000, Saad said.
Boy Saves Home From ‘Deer Invasion.’
15-year-old Ryan Manchester says he thought someone was trying to break into his Frederick, Maryland home on December 5th when he heard banging at the door, reports the Frederick News-Post. Instead, he found a fully grown deer dashing, not through the snow, but behind the Christmas tree and through the living room as he tried to break out through a window.
The deer won’t be helping Santa deliver any gifts this Christmas Eve since Manchester got his father’s gun and shot the animal between the eyes from behind his living room couch. Now there’s a conversation stopper.
Inventor of Life Saving Choking Maneuver Dies at 96
Dr. Henry Heimlich, the inventor of the Heimlich Maneuver to aid choking victims dislodge the offending piece of food in the blocked airway, died Saturday at the age of 96 in Cincinnati. Heimlich was director of surgery at Jewish Hospital in Cincinnati in 1974 when he devised the treatment for choking victims that made his name a household word.
And that’s the World View in Five Minutes.