THE WHOLE WORLD IS LISTENING TO YOU: What would you say if you knew every human being on Earth was listening? Fifty-four years ago, Apollo 8 astronauts Frank Borman, James Lovell and William Anders had exactly that opportunity.

REMEMBER THE ‘I’M PRO-LIFE PERSONALLY BUT’ DEMOCRATS? The Washington Stand’s Ben Johnson points to the emergence of the “I’m Pro-Marriage Personally But” Republicans.

SLEEP TIGHT TONIGHT, FOLKS, YOUR CONGRESS IS ON THE JOB: Illegal immigrants are flooding across the border, China is kicking our butt around the world, the government faces a $31 trillion debt and today Congress is working getting rid of gendered pronouns from the U.S. Code.

ELECTORATE PLAGUED BY MASS SCHIZOPHRENIA: Four out of five voters say they are unhappy with their congressional representation and three-fourths of them say the country is headed in the wrong direction. Ben Wilson of the Washington Free Beacon wonders why then, for the first time in a century, every Senate incumbent seeking re-election won.

WHAT THE JAMES WEBB AND FRANK CAPRA SHARE: If you are of a certain age, you have likely watched Frank Capra’s classic film “It’s A Wonderful Life” more than once during Christmas seasons past. But did you know, as HillFaith informs us this morning, that the movie and the telescope have an image in common?

OKAY, YOU FOUND IT, NOW WHAT? It’s that thing. You know, the Truth thing. There’s a problem with it. John Unger, a friend of HillFaith, explains what that problem is and how to solve it.

Warning: John originally wrote in response to a post in Discourse Magazine. I read it and liked it so much that I asked him for permission to publish it on HillFaith. He said yes, and you ought to read it. It’s a little deep into philosophy but not so much that nerds like us can’t get through it.

WHO ARE THE MOST GENEROUS AMERICANS? HillFaith reports that the latest edition of the American Bible Society’s annual “State of the Bible” survey of more than 2,500 demographically representative Americans pretty decisively shows followers of Jesus Christ as the most generous givers to charitable causes.

SCHIFF PICKS FIGHT WITH WRONG GUY: Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), teller of tall tales and purveyor of fabulous telephone transcripts, isn’t happy with Elon Musk’s management of Twitter’s historical documents, The Lid’s Wes Walker reports.

So Schiff launched another of his trademark falsehoods aimed right at what he supposed to be Musk’s weak spot, toleration of “hate speech.” Ooh, bad mistake. Do not miss the video of Schiff taking out his frustration on a punching bag.

COULDN’T HAPPEN TO A MORE DESERVING BUNCH: Turns out the Biden years have not been good for The Swamp’s hometown newspaper, as the Washington Post has lost 20 percent of its subscribers since Joe was sworn-in. At 20 percent per year, “Four More Years” could be a death sentence for a once-proud journalism outfit.

EL SALVADOR NOW A CRIME-FIGHTING MODEL: El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele is likely the most popular democratically elected leader in the world, with an approval rating in the 80 percent bracket, according to Liberty Unyielding’s Hans Bader.

Why? Because Bukele promised in 2015 to put the criminals then plaguing El Salvador in jail, then he did it. The results have been stunning: Crime is down by 75 percent and the murder rate has been halved.

The key is longer sentences that keep the killers out of the general population. Imagine that! If the bad guys are in the slammer, they aren’t able to inflict their evil on the rest of us. We get peace, order and civilization, they get justice. Democrats, are you listening?

300,000 KIDS SEX-TRAFFICKED IN TEXAS: Given that fact, the urgent demands for tough action at the border that marked the introduction earlier today by 23 Texas Republican House members make sense.

STATE DEPT HIDING INFO ON ATHEISM GRANTS: Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.), the chairman of the House Republican Study Committee (RSC), and several of his House GOP colleagues held a recent conference call with Biden State Department officials to discuss U.S. tax dollars being awarded to protect atheism overseas.

But, as is happening with increasing frequency with all GOP congressional requests since the November 8 election, none of the information sought was provided. Meanwhile, Biden and his cronies on the Hill are pushing for passage of one of the most destructive bills in recent memory regarding freedom of religious expression and practice here at home. Check out my latest PJ Media column. 

NOW COMES THE MORNING-AFTER HEADACHE: Two of the 47 House Republicans who voted for the Respect for Marriage Act in July have now recanted that vote, according to The Washington Stand’s Ben Johnson.

“My record shows that I am a long-standing advocate against discrimination of all types. I, however, cannot support any effort that undermines religious liberties by failing to provide legitimate safeguards for faith-based organizations that object based on their deeply-held religious beliefs,” Johnson quotes Rep. Mario Diaz-Belart (R-Fla.) announcing Monday.

The first of the recanters was Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.), chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, who attributed his original vote to confusion and how Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) rushed the bill through to the floor vote.

ABOUT THAT PALE BLUE DOT: Is it proof Earth — and every one of us — are here by chance or by design? Which one, Carl Sagan, astronomer/scientist, or J. Warner Wallace, cold-case detective/Christian apologist, got it right, based on the evidence?

MUSK BOOTING CHILD PORN PURVEYORS OFF TWITTER: As expected, the Left is up in arms about Elon Musk exposing the activities of the Democratic censors who formerly controlled Twitter. But guess who else is getting unwanted exposure, thanks to Musk? Child pornography distributors, according to Issues & Insights:

“This is what the left and woke companies are freaking out about? Cybersecurity firm Ghost Data reported over the weekend that Twitter had nearly doubled the number of accounts it is suspending each day that were sharing child pornography.

“’In the past 24 hours, Twitter started to step up its efforts and took down 44,000 suspicious accounts, including over 1,300 profiles that tried to bypass detection using codewords and text in images to communicate. Zero tolerance,” said Ghost Data founder Andrea Stoppa, who has been monitoring this, in a tweet.”

And it turns out that Twitter knew more than a year ago that child pornography being distributed via Tweets was growing “exponentially,” but the company’s investment in resources needed to counter that growth was all but nil. Expect the Left screaming to get louder in the days ahead as Musk continues sweeping the piles of manure out of the stalls.

Transparency is great when it’s applied to the Right, but now we see what the Left actually believes about transparency as it is being applied at Twitter.

THEN THERE’S JENNIFER GRANHOLM: Biden’s energy secretary is lauding her department for awarding $200 million to Microvast Holdings to aid its construction of a new lithium battery factory in Tennessee. Hooray for the emerging American clean-energy industry, Granholm said, promising that the grant and factory will  “supercharge the private sector to ensure our clean energy future is American-made.”

But guess what Alana Goodman of the Washington Free Beacon found after a little perfunctory digging?

“While the DOE described Microvast as a ‘majority U.S.-owned company, traded on NASDAQ’ and ‘headquartered in Stafford, Texas,’ financial records show the company operates primarily out of China.

“Microvast itself says the Chinese government ‘exerts substantial influence over the manner in which we must conduct our business activities and may intervene, at any time and with no notice.’ The company was also recently added to a Securities and Exchange Commission watchlist of Chinese companies that are on track to be delisted from NASDAQ for failing to comply with U.S. auditing requirements.”

In other words, Granholm (and, unless he fires her, her boss as well) just plain flat-out lied to America.

HARD TIMES AHEAD FOR ABRAMS: Turns out that somebody has been asleep at the wheel in the compliance department of the foundation founded by twice-failed Georgia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacy Abrams.

“State laws across the country prohibit charities that have not filed required financial disclosures with the IRS from soliciting donations. But the New Georgia Project, which missed the Nov. 15 deadline to file its Form 990, is still raising money through a nationwide campaign hosted by the online fundraising platform ActBlue,” report the Washington Free Beacon’s Andrew Kerr and Joseph Simonson.

“Representatives at the relevant agencies in Tennessee, Mississippi, and North Carolina, where the New Georgia Project’s charity license has expired, told the Free Beacon that the group could face fines ranging from $25 dollars to $25,000 for violating their state’s charity laws. Some of those fines could be issued for each donation the group accepts,” Perhaps Abrams will claim those registrations were stolen.

COMER TO DIG INTO BIDEN’S SECRET ENERGY DEALS: Incoming House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky) is laying the groundwork for a systematic investigation of Biden’s work to increase foreign oil production while striving to kill it here in the states.

ROCKIES MAY CRUMBLE, GIBRALTAR MAY TUMBLE: But Democrats (and not a few Republicans as well) will keep right on trying to legislate our way back to the Garden of Eden, according to Daniel Oliver, writing for American Greatness. You WILL follow orders!

SMOKING GUN’S TRIGGER IS PULLED: Former Eco-Health Alliance Vice President Andrew Huff claims to have worked directly with researchers at China Wuhan lab in developing the Covid virus.

Huff’s book, “The Truth About Wuhan,” goes on sale tomorrow, according to Just the News’ Charlotte Hazard, who reports: “Huff, an epidemiologist and army veteran who worked for EcoHealth Alliance from 2014 to 2016, said it was China’s gain-of-function experiments — and shoddy biosecurity — that led to the lab leak at the U.S.-funded lab.”

That funny sound you hear tomorrow in the Mainstream Media will be crickets about Huff.

OMG, DEMS WANT ‘WILD IN THE STREETS’ FOR REAL: If you are of a certain age, you may recall a really bad movie in 1968 that revolved around the slogan “14 or Fight,” referring to the voting age. Just the News’ Aaron Kliegman reports on the gathering movement within the Democratic Party.

‘WEAPONIZATION OF LONELINESS’ IS A MUST-READ: Periodically, a book comes along that is essential reading in order to understand a particular period or movement in history. James Burnham’s “Suicide of the West” in 1964 for the inevitable decay of modern liberalism and Paul Johnson’s “Modern Times” for the spread of totalitarianism in the 20th century come immediately to mind.

Neither of those classics were the first products of their authors, both of whom were well-established as heavyweights in their respective fields. “The Weaponization of Loneliness” is, however, Stella Morabito’s first effort and it is a sterling one that is essential reading for anybody who hopes to grasp at the deepest levels why the decline of individual liberty and freedom of thought and belief has so accelerated in recent decades.

Morabito’s subtitle captures the heart of her analysis: “How Tyrants Stoke Our Fear of Isolation to Silence, Divide and Conquer.” As Morabito explains in her introduction:

“Americans have long sensed tyranny creeping into their lives. The disquiet hovered in the background for a long time, though most couldn’t put their finger on it. When signals surfaced — such as anti-speech codes written into federal law in the 1990s allegedly to curb hate — we tended to shrug them off.

“After all, wouldn’t acceptance of the code simply mean we were promoting civility over hate? It was too frightening to believe those speech codes could really lead to direct attacks on freedom of speech protected by the First Amendment.

“Other indicators of a new kind of authoritarianism multiplied over the course of decades, usually with the claim they were needed to ensure justice against racism or sexism. In the 1980s, multiculturalism took root, then morphed into identity politics and intersectionality.”

We all felt queasy about these trends, but, outside of those on the Right who pay particular attention to such issues and developments, for the most part we kept quiet. The signals kept coming but from so many different quarters — the campuses, Big Media, politicians in both parties, the corporate world — it was difficult to put a comprehensive label on it that succinctly conveyed the threat to the general populace.

Morabito observes that when a 2020 Cato Institute poll found 62 percent of the respondents admitting they held political views they feared to express in public, loneliness, isolation and alienation were advancing steadily and at an accelerating pace.

Then came Covid, the Pandemic and the seeming triumph of Wokeism.

“The whole Woke Revolution took controlled speech a giant leap forward by compelling speech, as with pronoun protocols that applied heavy penalties for ‘misgendering’ someone. All such agendas also carry a heavy dose of hostility against anyone who might disagree and enlisted social media mobs to enforce that demonization,” Morabito writes.

Totalitarianism at its root is the same regardless of when or where it manifests, but there is a unique quality to the Woke version that Morabito profoundly elucidates in a way that is imminently accessible to anybody with the slightest wisp of concern about where this country is headed. It is indeed essential reading for the present generation for the sake of those coming.

BIDEN THROWS DOWN AGAINST NETANYAHU: Secretary of State Anthony Blinken is headlining a conference later this week of a group that makes no bones about its hatred for recently elected Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Adam Kredo reports for The Washington Free Beacon.

“Multiple sources, both within and outside the State Department, who spoke to the Washington Free Beacon said Blinken’s decision to attend J Street’s conference is part of an effort by the Biden administration to undermine the new Netanyahu government and distance itself from the incoming prime minister’s conservative coalition,” Kredo writes.

No word on whether Blinken will be accompanied by close State Department aides Winken and Nod.

BILLY ‘WHITE SHOES’ JOHNSON WOULD NOT BE PROUD: Johnson scored a lot touchdowns for the old Houston Oilers, but scoring of a different sort happened at hundreds of white shoe law firms, according to Open the Books. Scoring of more than $800 million in PPP loans meant for struggling small businesses during the Pandemic, that is.

INTERNATIONAL MEDICAL JOURNAL UNMASKS THE MASKS: It’s taken several years but the evidence is steadily building that demonstrates requiring masks — cloth or N95, no matter — is an exercise in futility, if the purpose is the prevention of Covid spreading.