According to the latest betting odds, Biden is still significantly favored to win, although the President is gaining some. We will see!

Good morning and welcome to Tuesday, August 25, 2020. First, the democrats and their convention, and, now we have the republicans and their show. The ratings for the democrats on live TV were down significantly, but, many folks watched online and there were notable exceptions. President Obama and vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris had a better audience, Michelle Obama did well, and the most-watched was the Joe Biden acceptance speech. Biden had been bumbling around making gaffe after gaffe, forgetting where he was, and misspeaking left and right, therefore, the expectations for his performance had been ratcheted down as in lowering the bar. He made a good speech for those who were looking for him to falter because he proved he could read from the teleprompter. His ability to do that 'live' gave rise to some who postulated how the bumbling Biden may have been a ruse. At any rate, people were falling all over themselves about his great speech when it pretty much used just about every political cliche known to humanity such as light is stronger than darkness, love is stronger than hate, and on, and on, and on. There will be no lowered bar for our sitting President. He will be judged based on the meter that gauges how much hate and negative responses can be thrown at him from the mainstream media. This doesn't make him a good president. It makes him the opponent of the candidate who is doing his best to talk from the middle but actually represents front and center the radical leftists that dominate democrat party policies today. (Some outlet showed some of the daily meetings of the democrat party convention, not the prime time speeches, more or less what goes on behind closed doors, and, the leftist agenda was prominently in view in every committee meeting.) This is a 'just so you know' type of my view from here. I commend everyone to check things out for themselves. For me, I am praying for a huge silent majority becoming a vocal majority on the election day, but, if that's not what happens, we will trust God to work it all out according to His perfect plan and will. Amen.

Sorry to run a little long on the opening but it is part of stuff vying for priority consideration these days. Along with our Mr. Bentley. We have always laughed about him not understanding his identity as a canine, but, the further we go it is the more spoiled he becomes. He actually has come to believe he deserves attention when and where he wants it to be provided. If he gets bored he wants someone to do something about it. He is about a lovable as a pup can be but he has recently become so vocal in voicing his demands. Okay. I hate to say it but he is mostly acting like a strong-willed child. Some would say perhaps obedience school. At 18 months, that train may have already left the station. It seems I get most of the credit for him being so spoiled. Yes. I do feed him bits and bites off of my plate. Yes. I do typically cave in to his demands to go outside even when all he wants to do is to go sit on our front walkway. He just wanted a change of scenery. He does seem to enjoy getting his way. He does. He really does.

About five weeks into the Constitutional Convention of 1787 when they were attempting to draft the U. S. Constitution, their efforts were a signal failure. As things were beginning to break up and delegates return home to their states, Franklin challenged them and called them to prayer. He told them: ~ In this situation of this Assembly, groping as it were in the dark to find political truth, and scarce able to distinguish it when presented to us, how has it happened, sir, that we have not hitherto once thought of humbly applying to the Father of Lights to illuminate our understanding? In the beginning of the contest with Great Britain, when we were sensible of danger, we had daily prayer in this room for the Divine protection. Our prayers, sir, were heard, and they were graciously answered. All of us who were engaged in the struggle must have observed frequent instances of a superintending Providence in our favor. . . . And have we now forgotten that powerful Friend? Or do we imagine we no longer need His assistance? I have lived, sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth – that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid? We have been assured, sir, in the Sacred Writings, that “except the Lord build the House, they labor in vain that build it.” I firmly believe this; and I also believe that without His concurring aid we shall succeed in this political building no better than the builders of Babel. . . . I therefore beg leave to move that henceforth prayers imploring the assistance of Heaven, and its blessings on our deliberations, be held in this Assembly every morning before we proceed to business. ~ (Source: WallBuilders website.)  Amen. ....More later.