Good morning, and welcome to the weekend. It’s Kentucky Derby Weekend – so if you’re at the Derby, enjoy – here’s your official fashion guide.

This will be a shorter post, since I’ve been on vacation this week with my family and have intentionally not read many articles. That being said, significant things happened, and I have thoughts on them…

The big political news of the week was, of course, that both Sen. Ted Cruz and Gov. John Kasich dropped out of the presidential primary campaign. This leaves Donald Trump a clear path to the nomination of the Republican Party.  It didn’t take long for Hillary’s first attack ad…and it’s brutal.

I’ve had several “friends” directly message me, complaining of my support of John Kasich, claiming that Kasich submarined Cruz’s bid. This, of course is nonsense. Ted Cruz lost for the same reason Kasich did – neither could win enough support to best their rivals. It’s as simple as that.

Several others have asked whether I will support Trump or what I will do now.  My thinking at the moment is basically this: Donald Trump – as well as many of his supporters – absolutely disgusts me on many levels. But their is a worthy consideration, albeit a pragmatic one, that we have to really mull over as Americans, that is the fate of the Supreme Court. We know that Hillary Clinton will radically transform the Court with horrific judges and horrific results. That is a certainty.  Even Trump, who Ted Cruz rightly called “amoral”, probably has better odds of picking decent justices.

The reason I bring this up is because as a Christian I really want to see a country where justice prevails. The Republic is slowly being dismantled, and a purer form of Democracy is being installed. Andrew Sullivan has an interesting article explaining this that you need to read through at least some of (this is what I’m scrolling through this morning, and its really worth a gander). Right now the choice is between the left (Hillary) where a small minority of loud Hollywood LGBT and Pro-Choice Feminist elites will rule the masses who disagree with their un-American philosophy, OR Donald Trump on the extreme right (not policy wise, but style-wise) who is using the anger (perhaps understandable anger) of the masses to amass his own power and remake an America that is ‘Great Again’ yet will lack all of the constitutional fundamentals (checks on power) and morals (sexual and ethical) that made the nation great in the first place.

As a side note in the broader conversation here, there was a story in the Washington Post this week entitled ‘Atheist group to sue House chaplain’.  He’s essentially upset that, as an atheist, he is being denied the opportunity to “solemnize the house” in prayer. The obvious question was never brought up in the WaPo article, which is: why in the world would he want to pray, and who would he be praying to???  This is the kind of nonsense that we’ll continue to see more and more of, and what is missing seems to be the appeal to common sense.

This story in the NY Times a week or so ago caught my attention: ‘In an Age of Privilege, Not Everyone Is in the Same Boat.’ One of the things stirring American indignation on both the left and the right is the way in which the disparity between the very rich and the everyday American seems to be growing in this country. It’s hard to argue this is not occurring, and this article (and others) prompted more thought on the matter.  I believe it is mainly because of the corruption in government in two ways: 1. the elites can afford lobbyists, have relationships with lawmakers, have teams of accountants helping them pay as little as possible etc. and 2. the middle classes, many of whom are small business owners, are having the government ruin them by overburdensome regulation. In a sense, it is tyranny by the poor and the rich, where the government is the tool but not the cause. Immoral indolence is the cause. The poor want the government (every other citizen) to pay their way so they don’t have to work, and the rich don’t want to pay their taxes either – many pay much less percentage wise than the middle class, simply by sheltering the money off shore etc.  The thing that bothers me is that the playing field in America used to be (more or less) level. Anyone could be anything – now when we say that phrase, the thought that pops up is the transgender “revolution.”  Maybe you disagree, or have additional ideas – feel free to share them!

On to other matters: A.I.  Jon Bloom writes, “some experts are predicting that sooner than we may expect, perhaps only 25–40 years from now, we may reach the era of Artificial General Intelligence(AGI), where an AI attains the rough equivalent to human intelligence (think C-3PO). And it’s this that has numerous prominent AI thinkers waving yellow and even red flags.”

R.C. Sproul writes an article titled ‘God is the Lord of History’, and this seemed an appropriate time to share this. I’d encourage you to thoughtfully read through what he has to say, though it doesn’t quell concerns, it does remind us of our hope.

That is all I have for you, I hope you have a great weekend. I’ll close with a reminder that was graciously (and timely) sent my way by Pastor Nick Nye this week:

The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the LORD; he turns it wherever he will. (Proverbs 21:1 ESV)

PJW