“Draining the Swamp” – How President Trump is making true on his promise

Posted on by depatridge

GAB | The Global Anticorruption Blog

“Drain the swamp” was one of Donald Trump’s battle cries in the election. Many writers on this and many other blogs have expressed deep skepticism that Trump has any interest in fighting corruption, and assert to the contrary that Trump seems poised to preside over one of the most corrupt administrations in U.S. history. But that’s not how Trump’s core supporters see things. In their view, Trump is making good on his promise and weeding out the deeply connected interests of US government officials, businesses, media, and civil society—what they view as the “corruption” of U.S. institutions. While most readers of this blog probably find that perspective baffling, it is important for all of us to understand how this constituency thinks about the problem of “corruption” and interprets the reporting on President Trump’s administration in light of that perception.

When Trump’s core supporters think about “corruption” in the U.S.—when they…

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Zechariah 4

Posted on by depatridge

Arlin Sorensen's Thoughts on Scripture

Zechariah 4 has an angel awakening the prophet to reveal a vision of a golden lampstand.  Zechariah asks the angel what the lampstand and its parts was all about.  The angel describes a very unique lampstand with lamps that were self filling as they were directly fed by connections to olive trees.  That would be a very unique lampstand – as one of the duties of the priests doing temple service was to keep the lamp stands filled with pure olive oil.  That was a tedious and constant part of their job, but this vision showed a very different way.

The angel also gave Zechariah a word to tell Zerubbabel, who was a leader in Jerusalem and was responsible to finish the work of rebuilding the temple.  God gave these powerful words: “Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of hosts”.  In…

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