The Alliance Wasn’t Always Grand

Britain’s declaration of war against Finland on December 5, 1941, was a typically humiliating moment of allied warfare. Invaded in November 1939 by Soviet forces, Finland fought tenaciously against overwhelming odds through a brutal winter. In a 1940 broadcast, Winston Churchill declared "Only Finland—superb, nay, sublime—in the jaws of peril—Finland shows what free men can do." Yet without aid, Finnish defeat was as inevitable as the harsh treaty Stalin imposed after his hefty losses. Was anyone surprised the Finns took the opportunity of Hitler’s invasion of Russia in 1941 to regain the territory it ceded and more? Yet this aligned Finland with Nazi Germany, a country that ironically had aided the original Soviet invasion. And, more irony, Soviet and British interests were suddenly aligned, with Churchill deciding Britain would do all it could to keep the Russians fighting. Among Stalin’s many demands was a declaration of war on Finland. The British government duly obliged.

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The prayers that shaped a nation can save it again



I’ve often wondered what our Founding Fathers would think of their great American experiment. Imagine George Washington strolling down the Las Vegas Strip, Thomas Jefferson riding the Tennessee Tornado at Dollywood, or John Adams catching a “throwed roll” at Lamberts in Missouri.

Would they be awestruck by the Independence Day fireworks in New York City? Or cheer at the Super Bowl? Would they marvel at the soaring Gateway Arch in St. Louis? Or the majesty of the Rocky Mountains? Would Betsy Ross wash down a Moon Pie with an R.C. Cola?

‘The greatness of America doesn’t begin in Washington,’ Ronald Reagan said. ‘It begins with each of you — in the mighty spirit of free people under God.’

On the last day of the Constitutional Convention of 1787, Benjamin Franklin was asked if we had a republic or a monarchy?

“A republic, if you can keep it,” he was said to reply.

Without a doubt, America is the most exceptional nation in the world. In the face of great adversity and insurmountable odds, we have overcome. And we have been blessed.

And that’s why I set out on a mission with my friend Michelle Cox to write “Star-Spangled Blessings: Devotions for Patriots.”

It’s a collection of stories about how God has lavished our country with a bounty of star-spangled blessings.

That’s not to say that our great nation has not been through some squabbles. We’ve had more than a few — and some were doozies. We’ve made lots of mistakes, but we’ve also righted many wrongs.

Perseverance is a word that has defined us over the years. Franklin Roosevelt announcing to the nation about a date that would live in infamy. Walter Cronkite relaying to the nation a shocking bulletin from Dallas. President George W. Bush standing on a pile of rubble at Ground Zero with a bullhorn.

Yet, amid great tragedy, our nation has always found strength in almighty God — our defender and our protector.

President Trump knows of that strength, that divine intervention. He survived not one but two assassination attempts.

“Many people have told me that God spared my life for a reason. And that reason was to save our country and to restore America to greatness, and now we are going to fulfill that mission together,” he said during a speech in 2024.

I vividly recall watching as the shots rang out in Butler County, Pennsylvania. My heart stopped as Trump dropped to the stage. But then, he rose up, and with blood streaming down his face, he thrust his fist into the air and shouted, “Fight, fight, fight!”

President Trump would then urge Americans to read their Bibles, to get back to church, and to pray.

“Let’s make America pray again,” he said.

The president caught quite a bit of grief from the atheists and the Democrats for that altar call.

“Religion and Christianity are the biggest things missing from this country, and I truly believe that we need to bring them back, and we have to bring them back fast,” the president said at the time. “I think it's one of the biggest problems we have. That’s why our country is going haywire. We've lost religion in our country. All Americans need a Bible in their home, and I have many. It's my favorite book. It's a lot of people's favorite book.”

Now, that’ll preach, as we say back home in Tennessee.

RELATED: The art of prayer: How to unleash its power

Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

Sure, we have lost our way in this country. We’ve been so focused on taking back Congress and the White House that we forgot to take care of our homes and our communities.

Ronald Reagan said it best in 1984 when he told the nation that “the greatness of America doesn’t begin in Washington. It begins with each of you — in the mighty spirit of free people under God, in the bedrock values you live by each day in your families, neighborhoods, and workplaces.”

As I write in “Star-Spangled Blessings,” we must return to the faith of our founders. A faith that compelled George Washington to pray on bended knee at Valley Forge.

A faith that compelled John Adams to petition the almighty to bless those who resided in the White House. A faith that compelled Franklin Roosevelt to ask Americans to pray for a spiritual awakening.

It’s that sort of American spirit that has resonated with people across the fruited plain. These are moments that define us as a nation.

Lee Greenwood, the singer-songwriter who penned “God Bless the USA,” is a friend of mine, and his anthem to the land of the free and the home of the brave still brings a tear to my eye as I write these words from the hills of Tennessee.

And I suspect that if America’s founders were here today, they would love this land from sea to shining sea. And they would join their fellow countrymen in asking God to bless the USA.

Sleeping With the Enemy

If Martha Dodd Stern had been a minimally important or competent Soviet spy, her story would make a rip-roaring Hollywood movie. But despite Brendan McNally’s effort to inflate the damage she did to American interests—Traitor’s Odyssey: The Untold Story of Martha Dodd and a Strange Saga of Soviet Espionage—the fact remains that her career as a spy was relatively brief and largely unsuccessful. Soviet intelligence agencies had high hopes for her, mostly because of her society connections, but were disappointed enough that they eventually tried their best to fob her off on other communist countries.

Even calling her a traitor vastly misstates what she did. Martha never gave aid and comfort to enemies of the United States. Her most sustained assistance to the Soviet Union came in the mid-1930s when she regularly ransacked the Berlin office of her father, William Dodd, FDR’s ambassador to Nazi Germany, and handed confidential memos and letters to her lover, a low-level Soviet diplomat and KGB foot-soldier named Boris Vinogradov. It was surely espionage, but hardly treason. The Soviets were impressed, however. Lavrenti Beria sent news of her recruitment to Stalin himself.

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What They Learned From the Last War

When the First World War broke out, Joseph Stalin was as far from the corridors of power as it was possible to be. Exiled in Siberia, this penniless middle-aged Marxist with a flair for bank heists and political assassinations was a failure and he knew it. Likewise, in Germany, another nondescript and undistinguished misanthrope was scraping a living together as an artist. Adolf Hitler greeted the eruption of war with ecstasy, exploiting the chaos to transfer his allegiance from Austria-Hungary to Germany and marching off to the front. In Italy, an enigmatic socialist editor also used the outbreak of war to switch identities. After initially fulminating against the fighting, Benito Mussolini quickly flipped, emerging as an impassioned cheerleader for Italian intervention. When Italy joined the fray, Mussolini was enlisted and witnessed first-hand the catastrophic conflict that he had helped embroil his country in.

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Sixty Years Later, Reagan’s ‘A Time For Choosing’ Speech Casts Enduring Vision Of Conservatism And Freedom

Ronald Reagan's 'A Time for Choosing' envisions a principled conservatism that triumphs over tyranny and undergirds a lasting freedom.

When Lindbergh’s Dark Visions Took Flight

Abraham Lincoln had a ready rejoinder for wartime critics who accused him of shredding the Constitution. To the contrary, said Lincoln; confronted with domestic rebellion he was willing to temporarily suspend part of the nation’s organic law in order to preserve the entirety, and the nation with it. "Often a limb must be amputated to save a life," he observed drolly, "but a life is never wisely given to save a limb." Lincoln’s pithy logic recurred to me while reading America First, H.W. Brands’s timely reassessment of the fierce debates preceding Pearl Harbor and the United States’ formal entry into World War II.

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The Art of Mixing Business and Politics

Prolific author, historian, and former senior government official Tevi Troy is out with a new book about politics. This one takes a close look at 18 iconic CEOs—men like Henry Ford, John D. Rockefeller, J.P. Morgan, Bill Gates, Lee Iacocca, and Elon Musk—and their interactions with multiple presidents.

Troy (a friend) is the author of several insightful presidential books, including "Shall We Wake the President?", "Fight House," and "What Jefferson Read, Ike Watched, and Obama Tweeted." His latest effort, "The Power and the Money: The Epic Clashes Between Commanders in Chief and Titans of Industry," carries on the tradition of excellence while introducing new characters (business leaders) into his oeuvre.

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Proof the Democrat Party is just an 'organization for the American Marxist movements'



Joe Biden and the Democrat Party may say they care, but their actions only prove otherwise.

Mark Levin isn’t sure how any Americans can still support the party that hates America — especially right now.

“These people who are rioting in the street and violently attacking people and carrying signs talking about exterminating Jews,” Levin says, “they’re not voting Republican.”

All the Democrat Party really is, he explains, is a “protection racket,” an “umbrella organization for the American Marxist movements,” and the “infiltration in our country — in multiple ways — of Islamists.”

The Democrat Party is also behind our open border, which is fueling drug cartels and a fentanyl crisis that is killing thousands.

“This is intentional. This is man-made, the disaster, the inhumanity on the southern border,” Levin says.

Meanwhile, the people Democrat policies hurt are still voting Democrat.

“What has the Democrat Party done for them other than besmirch them? Other than smear them? Nothing. They’ve made their wages. They’ve made their lifestyles. They’ve made their finances poor and are in a very, very difficult situation in this country right now,” Levin continues.

While the Democrat Party supports groups with “fancy names” like Students for Justice in Palestine, they’re simply using them to “cover up their true purposes.”

“This is a Democrat Party that even in the face of what’s taking place in the Middle East and Israel,” Levin says, “keeps our border wide open.”

This leaves America open to terrorist attacks, but Joe Biden and his party don’t care.

“He doesn’t care about the well-being of the American people. He doesn’t care about the well-being — and I’ll say it — of the Jewish people, particularly in Israel,” Levin says, adding, “remember, Biden’s background is as a racist and a segregationist.”

“The Democrat Party does hate America, and that’s why America is losing its spirit,” he says.


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