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Behind Africans Thirst for Prophecy; Confusion about the Present and Anxiety about the Future

Late last year, the Ghana Police Service issued a statement in which it warned those it referred to as doomsday prophets to desist from prophesying or face prosecution and a term of imprisonment of up to five years. It reminded the Ghanaian public that it is a crime for a person to publish or reproduce a statement, rumor or report which is likely to cause fear and alarm to the public or disturb the public peace, where that person has no evidence to prove that the statement, rumor or report is true. The statement stirred a heated debate, with not a few commentators wondering how a prophecyan event that has yet to occurcan be shown to be true, and whether a threat by law enforcement is the best strategy to deal with an issue that, technically speaking, lies beyond the purview of the law. Nonetheless, many shared the authorities concern about growing public faith in prophetic statements by major religious figures and in the figures themselves.

Ghana is not the only African country where prophecy has ruffled the social matter. In Nigeria, where Pentecostal pastors similarly enjoy tremendous social prestige, the end of the year and the beginning of a new one, understandably a time of anxiety for many families, tends to be dominated by pastoral proclamations on what to expect in the New Year. Such prophecies typically cover the gamut: from extreme weather events to untold airplane crashes, winners of forthcoming elections and major sporting tournaments, tragedies involving members of the political elite, and the fate of the economydomestic and global. With a few exceptions, they tend to be as broad and as ambiguous as possible. For instance, among the prophecies for 2022 released by 79-year-old Enoch Adeboye, general overseer of the Redeemed Christian of God (RCCG), Nigeria, were gems of exactness, such as, more than 80 per cent of projects starting in 2022 will succeed; in spite of everything happening (sic), this year will be a year of some massive breakthroughs [in science and in finance]; infant mortality rate will drop by at least 50 per cent; and the issue of migration will take a new turn in the new year.

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For his part, Daniel Olukoya, Adeboyes counterpart at the Lagos-based Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministries asked his congregation to pray against inflation and starvation and against massive political instability, which will put a lot of people in disarray (sic). According to the Nigerian National Bureau of Statistics, food inflation in the country rose by 17.2 percent in November 2021. The United Nations High Commission for Refugees estimates that there are more than 3.2 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Nigeria, mostly victims of the yearslong Boko Haram insurgency.

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The deliberate ambiguity of most prophecies is a matter of prudence, for a precise prophecy is an invitation to trouble, especially if such fails to come to pass. In 2020, the late Temitope Balogun (T.B.) Joshua of Synagogue, Church of all Nations (SCOAN) had a lot of explaining to do following his prophecy that God has spoken to me; Coronavirus will end by March 27, 2020. He later apologized that the Holy Spirit had misled him and that his message of an end to COVID-19 was meant only for Wuhan, China, where the outbreak was first reported. The Chinese authorities imposed a lockdown on Wuhan and continued to battle COVID-19 after 2020. The same Joshua had ended up with egg on his face following his prophecy that Hillary Clinton would defeat Donald Trump in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Following Trumps unexpected victory, he reversed himself, saying that his prophecy in fact referred to the winner of the popular vote.

What explains the increasing popular fascination with prophecy across Africa, mishaps such as the foregoing notwithstanding?

In the first place, prophecies, tracking the Pentecostal explosion of the past three decades, speak to popular perplexity amid an acute and persistent hunger for meaning. For many people, prophecies regarding strange deaths, inflation, starvation, and political stability resonate precisely because these are matters of pressing and ongoing concern. In this sense, prophecies function as a kind of social text, useful for keeping track of where the shoe pinches the rump of civil society. A prophecy concerning migration makes sense in a country like Nigeria where emigration provides an out for young people who increasingly feel stuck.

Nor is belief in prophecies separable from trust in their purveyors, the ubiquitous Men of God who, as I argue in my forthcoming book on the subject, have stepped into the vacuum created by the degradation of higher education and the retreat of the intelligentsia from public life. As yesterdays Man of Letters has ceded his authority to todays Man of God, informed economic forecast and political analysis have given way to pastoral prognostication. To be a respected Man of God in many parts of Africa today is to exist almost beyond law or sanction. Erstwhile university academics who morphed into Men of God, Adeboye and Olukoya enjoy social respect approaching sanctification.

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An intelligentsia in retreat is just a part of the problem. Historically negligent of common welfare, the state remains largely absent from many peoples lives, visible only when it mobilizes violencea capacity that, as it happens, it can no longer claim absolute monopoly over. In varying degrees, the states traditional role has been assumed by sundry nonstate and religious entities, which explains why pastoral power and its announcements have become more relevant to the public than state power. One way in which the pastorate lays claim to legitimacy is through prophetic proclamations, and the scarier those proclamations, the greater the Man of Gods control of the publics imagination. Hence Ghanas doomsday prophecies.

Finally, growing uncertaintyabout politics, the economy, life itselfheightens the thirst for prophecy. When the only certainty that people have is that things will get worse, prophecy can offer assurance that their situation is not beyond redemption.

In seeking to regulate prophecy, the Ghana Police Service is not so much wrong as it is misguided. The problem is not that there are doomsday prophecies. The issue is that the distrust of the state and other secular authorities is so deep, people would rather take their chance with prophets. They have nothing to lose but their credulity.

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Behind Africans Thirst for Prophecy; Confusion About the Present and Anxiety About the Future - Council on Foreign Relations

Scandal watch: Hillary Ties to Russiagate?

Indictments and new court filings indicate that Special Counsel John Durham is investigating Hillary Clintons 2016 campaign for feeding false reports to the FBI to paint Donald Trump & Co. as Kremlin agents, reports Paul Sperry at RealClear Investigations. Clintons role in the Russia hoax remains elusive: What did she know and when did she know it? Documents, video footage and comments by key officials now suggest possible links between an operation to damage Trump and top Team Clinton officials, including Clinton herself. How credible is it to suppose that Hillary herself wasnt in the know, one ex-FBI agent asks. With each new indictment, warns Sperry, Clinton moves closer to the center of the scandal.

From the left: Pandemic Censors Follies

TK News Matt Taibbi takes on a new attack on Substack, for letting vaccine-skeptic writers earn big bucks. Substack, meanwhile, hosts tens of thousands of writers (including Taibbi), a diversity like the Internet as a whole. Indeed, The companys real crime is that it refuses to submit to pressure campaigns and strike off Wrongthinkers. And: The most dangerous misinformation is always, without exception, official. During COVID, the FDA, CDC, the NIH, as well as the White House (both under Biden and Trump) have all been untruthful, or wrong, or inconsistent, about a spectacular range of issues from masks to lockdowns to school closures. And this two-year clown show of lies and shifting positions by officials and media scolds has created a groundswell of mistrust thats a far bigger threat to public health than a handful of Substack writers. Plus, If you wipe out critics, people will immediately default to higher levels of suspicion.

Libertarian: Schools Fail With $30K a Year Per Kid

When I hear the phrase the underfunding of schools, my head explodes, gripes Reasons Nick Gillespie: Its a demonstrably false idea that schools are being starved for resources. Case in point: In New York, where I live, real per-pupil revenue has increased by a mind-boggling 68 percent between 2002 and 2019. Public schools in the Empire State are now shelling out more than $30,000 per kid. Yet these public schools are still as terrible as the Mets, the Jets, and the Giants, with only a third or fewer of students up to grade level in eighth grade reading and math. Fact is, $30,000 a year puts the lie to the argument pushed by unions and progressives that more money will fix schools.

Court beat: Bidens SCOTUS Pledge vs. Reagans

With the retirement of Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, President Joe Biden was immediately challenged by Democrats to make good on his pledge to only consider black females for his first vacancy on the Court, observes Fox News Jonathan Turley. When he made that pledge, some of us raised concerns that he was adopting a threshold racial and gender qualification for the Court. But liberal commentators now insist that Biden did exactly what Reagan did in 1980 when he pledged to appoint a woman to the Court. But Reagan never pledged to only consider women and in fact considered non-female candidates. Biden is categorically ruling out non-female and non-black applicants.

Pandemic journal: Joes Oblivious Omicron Rx

Scolding the unvaccinated left left President Biden unprepared for Omicron, charges David Gortler at Newsweek. The prez adopted a strategy of scaring Americans into getting vaccinations and boosters and vastly overstated the COVID vaccines ability to keep most everyone from getting the virus. But case numbers show vaccines and boosters did little if anything to slow the spread of Omicron. Even Bidens own agencies note the vaxxed and unvaxxed alike can spread the variant. Despite these findings, the president has continued to scold and belittle Americans who have chosen not to take a vaccine or booster rather than release evidence-based public-health recommendations that might have actually helped control the spread.

Compiled by The Post Editorial Board

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Hillary Clinton ties to Russiagate and other commentary - New York Post

The dinner party is not dead, despite assaults on all sides. Come pandemic, come people who believe dinner parties are boring, you cant kill the impulse to host, or the impulse to show up with a bottle of Merlot thats just one notch above the lowest price point in exchange for a nice meal (hopefully) and some good conversation (fingers crossed).

TMZ reports with some grainy, forensic-like photographs that on Tuesday, Kim Kardashian and her ingenue Pete Davidson went to dinner at Jeff Bezoss Los Angeles home. They spent several hours there, per the tabloid.

Its natural to wonder what kind of conversation befell the Bezos table? Did Hillary Clinton, Kardashians coffee companion last weekend, get a mention? I cant explain why, but it seems bad for her if she did not come up at this particular table. Hours is probably enough time to add up their respective fortunes and compare notes, or maybe play bore on the floor (an equally psychologically debilitating, but slightly different version than boar on the floor, the game played in season two of Succession.) Hours is probably enough time to have Davidson try some new material from some forthcoming stand-up set, while Kardashian says, Honey, tell them the one about Staten Island.

More than what was spoken into this rarified air, Im wondering what does a billionaire bring to a billionaires house as a gift for the host? What is the billionaires equivalent of the bottle of Merlot thats one notch above the lowest price point? Probably just a bottle that is 1,000 notches above the lowest price point, right? But maybe its something morea complete set of his-and-hers Skims so everyone can get comfy for a post-dinner cognac? Donations to their preferred philanthropic organizations? A senator? After all, the best gifts between two billionaires are traded favors.

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From Coffee With Clinton to Dinner at Jeff Bezoss House: Kim Kardashian Is Making the Rounds - Vanity Fair

By David Toscano

As a strong supporter of Hillary Clinton in 2016, I was deeply disappointed when she lost. But I also believe in the peaceful transition of power, and even had a bit of optimism that Donald Trump, because of his independent streak, might do some positive things for the country.

Boy was I wrong!

And while I was an equally strong supporter of Terry McAuliffe in his run for governor this past fall, I was willing to give Glenn Youngkin a chance that he would separate himself from Trump, governing instead as a moderate conservative, respectful of the traditional role of the legislature in the making of law, and fiscally responsible in his approach to budgeting. It is still early, but I fear I am wrong again.

Youngkin has been dealt a good hand, and he could easily have defined himself as a moderate like Marylands wildly popular Republican governor Larry Hogan. While his margin of victory was not large, his Trump vote was significant enough that no further consolidation of it is necessary. His purported support of schools appealed to suburbanites, thereby giving him an immediate strong position from which to govern. And Ralph Northam left him a significant budget surplus that could allow both new investments and tax relief, the bread and butter of politics.

In his first two weeks of office, however, the new governor has become mired in a series of actions that appear driven more by ideology and sound bites than by policy.

His very public announcement that he intends to fire the present commissioner of the state Board of Elections, a man respected by Republicans and Democrats alike, is little more than a stoking of the Trump base still obsessed with the big lie and searching for election fraud that remains virtually nonexistent.

He can legally install his own people in key positions (elections matter) but any efforts to effectively clean house would mean terminating numerous civil servants with the experience necessary to continue our reputation as one of the best states for election fairness and integrity. And his executive order preventing schools from teaching critical race theory prompts further concern that sound policymaking will take a backseat to ideology. Moreover, his creation of a so-called tip line where Virginians can report divisive practices in our schools prompts worry that this will undermine teachers and limit creative thinking in the classroom.

In addition, the new governor continues to generate a series of oops moments in his policy moves. First, he issues an executive order that purports to remove Virginia from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a consortium of states helping to reduce CO2 emissions while bringing needed revenues to the commonwealth. His only problem is that joining RGGI was a legislative action. And the last time I read the Virginia Constitution, it is the legislature not the executive who makes laws.

Another executive order, similar to those recently pronounced by governors in Florida and Texas, that compromises the ability of local school divisions to keep students and teachers in the classroom with policies to fight COVID-19 is now drawing fire, with seven school divisions filing lawsuits questioning his legal authority to issue the edict. Even the conservative Cato Center for Education Freedom questioned the Orders ambiguity and criticized it because it also applied to private schools. Finally, in contradiction of Virginias tradition of responsible budgeting, the new governor proposed $3.5 billion in amendments to Gov. Ralph Northams introduced budget without indicating how he will pay for them. This appears strange, coming from a governor with such a strong business background.

And it strikes the legislature as irresponsible and budgeting by press release.

The new governor reports that he is having a ball, and expresses surprise at the negative reactions to his initial actions. But the campaign is over, and it is now time to govern. Many Virginia governors have struggled to learn their job, eventually finding the proper way to interact with the legislature while understanding the reasonable restraints on their power. Hopefully, this new governor will find this balance, sooner rather than later.

David J. Toscano served in the Virginia House of Delegates from 2006-2020, including a seven-year stint as Democratic leader. He is the author of Fighting Political Gridlock: How States Shape Our Nation and Our Lives.

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Governing isn't the same as campaigning - Virginia Mercury

The Washington Post has recused its new national editor, Matea Gold, from the news organizations coverage of the FBI and Justice Department over a personal conflict of interest. A month before Gold was promoted, her husband, Jonathan Lenzner, was named FBI chief of staff.

A Post spokeswoman told RealClearInvestigations that the paper's managing editor, Steven Ginsberg, will be overseeing coverage of the Justice Department and the FBI. Kristine Coratti Kelly, the papers chief communications officer, said the decision does not reflect on Golds objectivity or credibility.

"We have every confidence in Mateas professionalism and high standards, Kelly said. She has recused herselffrom this area of coverage to avoid even the appearance of partiality.

The recusal means that, among other national stories, Gold will be cordoned off from guiding Post coverage ofSpecial Counsel John Durhams ongoing criminal investigation of the origins of the Russia probe of DonaldTrump, which the FBI and Justice Department initially opened under the Obama administration.

Durham's office secured the conviction of a top FBI lawyer last year and in recent months has indicted a top Hillary Clintoncampaign lawyer and a campaign subcontractor who provided most of the information in the discredited Steeledossier, which the FBI used to buttress its investigations of Trump and his advisers. In her previous role asinvestigations editor, Gold helpedoversee the Posts coverage of the Russia collusion accusations against Trump and hisadvisers, including former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn.

"For the last four years, Matea has served as the national political enterprise and investigations editor, running some of The Postsmost sensitive stories, including coverage of the Russia investigation, the Ukraine pressure campaign and President Donald Trumpsattempt to subvert the 2020 election results, the Post said in astory last week about her promotion. "Reporters and other editors gravitate to Matea for guidance and direction.

In the wake of Durhams findings, the Post has retractedor corrected inaccuracies in several stories about Trump and his team. Gold also will be restricted from directing coverage of the ongoing Jan. 6 investigation or editing stories aboutthe U.S. Capitol riot probe led by FBI Director Christopher Wray and Attorney General Merrick Garland.

The conflict posed by Golds husband, whose family has long been allied politically with the Clintons, was discussed last week during a staff-wide Post meeting, according to sources familiar with the development.

It is not uncommon for Washington journalists to be married to government officials, lobbyists and others who influence policy from various vantage points. But a review of Golds biography reveals a web of especially close connections to Democratic Party officials or activists.

Gold married Lenzner in 2006. Her husband is the son of the late private investigator Terry Lenzner, whoearned a reputation as President Clintons private CIA for digging up dirt on Clintons mistresses and otherenemies. He helped squelch a series of what were internally known as bimbo eruptions during the 1990s, reportedly with theapproval of Hillary Clinton. During the Clinton impeachment probe, Independent CounselKenneth Starr called him before a grand jury to testify about his aggressive investigative work on behalf of thepresident.

After Terry Lenzner retired in 2015, his son took over the Washington private-investigations firm he founded: InvestigativeGroup International, or IGI. Like his father, Jon Lenzner is a Democrat and a Clinton donor; he contributed atleast $1,700 to Hillary Clintons 2016 campaign, Federal Election Commission records show.

In December, Wray appointed Lenzner as his chief of staff. The FBI did notrelease a press advisory announcing the major leadership change on the seventh floor of the Hoover Building, anddid not name the firm Lenzner helmed in his bio posted on the bureau's Leadership &Structure page of its website."From 2013 to 2018, Mr. Lenzner led a national risk advisory, corporateinvestigations, and crisis management firm in Washington, including three years as its CEO, the bio states. Asked for more details about Wrays decision to hire Lenzner, the FBI declined comment and would only provide a link to the same bio.

Lenzner filled the front office vacancy left by former FBI chief of staff Corey Ellis in December, after Garlandappointed Ellis interim U.S. attorney for South Carolina.

In 2016, the Clinton political operation also had a sympathetic figure working on the inside of FBI headquarters then-Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe who had influence over another investigation of Hillary Clinton. McCabe took control of the FBIs probe of Clintons mishandling of classified emails within months of McCabe and his wife meeting with then-Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe -- a Democrat and longtime ally of Clinton -- at the governors mansion in Richmond, whereupon McAuliffe agreed to bankroll the Democratic campaign of McCabes wife for the state senate. The FBI publicly closed the Clinton email investigation with no charges just three weeks before Clintons presidential nomination. Later, the Justice Department's watchdog investigated McCabe for political conflicts related to reports he used FBI email to promote his wifes campaign and wore a campaign T-shirt posted on social media.

IGI was the first investigative shop to launder payments for opposition research from political campaigns through law firms so that no record of payments to IGI showed up in Federal Election Commission disclosures. It first did this in 1994 while digging up dirt on then-Democratic Sen. Ted Kennedys opponents. In 2016, Hillary Clintons campaign employed a similar model in funneling more than $1 million in payments to private investigator Fusion GPS and dossier author Christopher Steele through the law firm Perkins Coie.

Its not known if IGI did any sleuthing work for Clinton or her campaign in 2016, but the firm has investigated Trump in the past. IGI did not respond to requests for comment. IGI has a number of connections to the Clintons. Jon Lenzners sister, Emily Lenzner, a Biden donor who sits on IGIs board, previously worked in the Clinton White House for Communications Director George Stephanopoulos and years later served as a production assistant for Stephanopoulos at ABC News.

After working in the White House for Hillary Clinton, Brooke Shearer, the late sister of Clinton operative Cody Shearer, took an investigative job at IGI. She was the wife of Bill Clintons close college friend Strobe Talbott, who sources say is a witness in Durhams mushrooming investigation. Durhams investigators have subpoenaed documents from the Brookings Institution, the Democratic think tank where Talbott served as president during the 2016 campaign and where the Steele dossiers primary source, Igor Danchenko, once worked as a Russian analyst. Talbottshoppedthe dossier tofederal agencies on behalf of Clinton. Cody Shearer worked on a second Trump-Russia dossier for Clinton duringher 2016 campaign, which was pitched to the FBI as a means to corroborate the now-debunked Steele dossier.

During the Nixon impeachment hearings, Terry Lenzner served as deputy counsel on the Senate Watergate Committee. Hillary Clinton worked on the impeachment inquiry as a low-level staff attorney. After Trump won the November 2016 election, Gold participated in a PBS panel on the White House transition: Trump Family Criticized for Conflicts of Interest. Theres going to be a lot of scrutiny about whether he is mixing his own business empire with his governmental actions, Gold opined.

In September 2017, Gold shared a byline on a Post story claiming that Trumps divisivepresidency was costing his golf clubs and resorts gala bookings and other business. The story repeated the shorthand and incomplete claim that "the president said there were 'fine people' among white supremacists, neo-Nazis andmembers of the alt-right protesting to preserve a Confederate statue [of Gen. Robert E. Lee] in Charlottesville.Actually, Trump specifically condemned white supremacists and neo-Nazis at therally.Im not talking about the neo-Nazis and the white nationalists, because they should be condemnedtotally, Trump stated at the time.

Although Gold has not contributed to federal political candidates, FEC records show both her parents are activeDemocratic donors, giving primarily to progressive candidates, including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Her parents alsocontributed money to Howard Deans failed 2004 Democratic bid for president while Gold covered Dean's candidacy as a reporter.

Gold met Lenzner on the campaign trail of former Democratic Sen. Bill Bradleys 1999 run for the WhiteHouse. Gold was covering Bradley, while Lenzner worked for him as a press aide.

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Conflict of Interest: New Washington Post National Editor Recused From FBI Coverage - Longview News-Journal