Month: May 2020

STANTIFA – Why ANTIFA Must Be Shut Down Where It Started – In Our Universities

NOTE: This is an old, unfinished article from LAST SUMMER, which dug into some troubling aspects of the origins of ANTIFA in America, and particularly the roots in academia. It is FAR from complete, and I have no desire to finish it, but I decided to publish what is there, RIGHT NOW, as ANTIFA is being declared a terrorist organization, because I believe researchers looking into ANTIFA will benefit.

ANTIFA is being HELPED by academics, and those incubator institutions and “bad shepherd” academics need to answer for what they created. THIS will help us return freedom of thought to universities, IMO, because the radical student footsoldiers of uniform leftist thought and mind control will lose their backing by Marxist and crypto-Marxist professors and administrators.

Some editorial comments are added in bold.

Whether one considers my neologism of “STANTIFA” to come from ANTIFA-encouraging, “Stef”-Halper-producing, “Two-Door”-Ford-backing STANFORD UNIVERSITY, or the notorious and frankly dubious ANTIFA-defending professor STANISLAV VYSOTSKY – who may have actually GIVEN BIRTH to Portland ANTIFA – it is all about what falls out of the following video.

EDIT: A video which was apparently REMOVED by ANTIFA-backing YouTube Menshevik Susan Wojcicki and her clan of crypto-radical enablers of the radical left.

Gabriel Nadales: I’m a former Antifa member and enough is enough — Antifa must be stopped

https://youtu.be/ojoOlwmKTGc

If you don’t have time for the video, consider this summary from the video’s page on YouTube.

EDIT: Fortunately, I kept this transcript:

The video showing Quillette reporter Andy Ngo being savagely attacked by Antifa at a demonstration in Portland, Oregon, last weekend has rocked the nation. The footage of masked thugs beating him with blunt objects and throwing “milkshakes” allegedly filled with quick-drying cement is shocking to many. But I’m not surprised by this horrific behavior—I was once behind the mask.

PORTLAND POLICE SEEK OTHERS TAKING PART IN VIOLENT ANTIFA ASSAULTS, AS MORE DETAILS OF ATTACKS REVEALED 

I first became involved in Antifa in 2010 while I was in high school, and over the course of two years I participated in several demonstrations throughout Southern California. Although I never hurt anyone, I yelled obscenities, I destroyed property and I am ashamed of my actions. While I walked away from the movement over seven years ago, I have been following its growth and today’s Antifa members are far more brutal, thuggish and bold than anything I experienced.  How did it get to this?

Antifa has been encouraged and allowed to thrive on our college and university campuses. Police are often forced to work with their hands behind their backs, as we saw from the footage of Ngo’s attack, and administrators have failed to hold those who commit acts of violence and intimidation accountable. We are now seeing it spill over into our communities.  Antifa will only grow more aggressive if it is not stopped, and we must target it where is has found fertile ground—our college and university campuses.  The seeds of this violence have been planted and are encouraged by leftist professors in the classroom.

Over the last few years, there has been a growing trend of extremist professors advocating for violence and intimidation to force leftist ideology onto society. Examples can be found from coast-to-coast:

— Mark Bray, a visiting scholar at Dartmouth College, is a staunch defendant of Antifa’s use of violence and even wrote “Anti-Fa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook,” in which he claims that ‘violence is a “legitimate response” to groups with incendiary views.’ 

— Then there is Assistant Professor Stanislav Vysotsky at University of Wisconsin – Whitewater who writes in an op-ed that: “On America’s Streets, Antifa’s Militant Anti-fascism Isn’t Terrorism – It’s Self-defense.” 

— Professors at Purdue and Stanford Universities, have worked to create a “Campus Antifascist Network” (CAN) to bring together “anyone committed to fighting fascism.” 

— Unsurprisingly, students are following the guidance of their teachers. Just a few weeks ago, Campus Reform reported that the Autonomous Student Network at the University of Texas Austin threatened to doxx incoming first-year students if they join Young Conservatives of Texas or Turning Point USA chapters. 

Make no mistake, Antifa’s violence is being fueled by professors in the classroom who incite their students to enact political violence against others. That is not preparing the next generation of leaders, it’s preparing the next generation of thugs. Universities ca……

Gabriel Nadales, alleged former ANTIFA member

There is more in the video, and I encourage you to watch and read it (the text appears as captions IN the video).

The above video finally prompted me to make this post, rather than just make comments to the effect of what you are about to read, as I have been doing.

I have been sitting on some explosive research which – in my opinion – backs up what this person is saying – that university “professors” are the ones who are actually behind ANTIFA. In fact, I believe there is circumstantial evidence that Portland ANTIFA was actually ginned up by the very same communists who are pushing the propaganda meme of:

  • “Trump supporter” equals
  • “white & nationalist” equals
  • “white nationalist” equals
  • “white supremacist

It’s a rather cunning meme, and to see this meme being PUSHED into the American law enforcement community by an ALLEGED CRIMINOLOGIST is – quite frankly – shocking.

Speaking of law enforcement, there is ANOTHER THING which pushed me to make this post – today’s news about an ANTIFA fire-bomber “martyring” himself at an ICE facility, and now being LAUDED by ANTIFA THUGS.

https://twitter.com/generalissima_/status/1150216298413953024

[EDIT: Tweet gone but residue stuck in WordPress – saving as an image in case the above remainder is lost.]

There is a lot of breaking news about Willem van Spronsen, and before I get on with this, I call on ALL HONEST RESEARCHERS to begin looking for connections of him to any of the following:

  • Russian expats and descendants in Washington State
  • Known communists or “red diaper” families
  • European ANTIFA and other global anarchists
  • Portland ANTIFA
  • Stanislav Vysotsky or his various contacts in ANTIFA or academia
  • Professors, grad students, and other potential Seattle-area “ANTIFA creators” starting in 2006 – particularly in 2007-2010 – until the present time
  • “Friends” who encouraged van Spronsen’s martyrdom complex, possibly by regular phone calls of consistent length

You will understand WHY I am suggesting these things, by the END of this post.

The fact that ANTIFA is now clearly being ginned up to “defend open borders” – the same open borders that are being rushed by RUSSIA-CHINA-CUBA-VENEZUELA-backed migrants – tells me that this is INTERNATIONAL – that ANTIFA in America has OVERSEAS ORIGINS.

Mandy and I have discussed the appearance of ANTIFA in America, and I expounded on two theories of it – (1) that the German, Stalinist, KPD-connected ANTIFA of the 1930’s never really went away, and (2) that it died out after World War II, and was ginned up anew in the United States. In that discussion, I postulated that European anarchists may have provided some form of continuity and encouragement to the early movement in America. Indeed, one frequently sees pictures of VIOLENT EUROPEAN ANTIFA being posted either mistakenly, or as a kind of disinformation, in discussions of American ANTIFA.

If that sub-theory of European ANTIFA providing a bridge is correct, then violent ANTIFA activist Willem van Spronsen seems like a potential fit.

AND – if Willem van Spronsen was a LINK between Soviet / Communist backers of ANTIFA and its origins in the United States – as in maybe Willem van Spronsen was a WITNESS or POTENTIAL WITNESS – well, sure would be convenient for those backers if he DIED. Right? And maybe was a martyr for the cause at the same time?

You starting to see this?

So let’s begin. The discussion will take two parts. The first part centers on ANTIFA violence in general, and Willem van Spronsen in particular. The second part concerns Portland ANTIFA, its origins, and its close relationship with Stanislav Vysotsky.

Part I – ANTIFA Violence and Willem van Spronsen

https://twitter.com/Oathkeepers/status/1150210709621547014

https://www.theepochtimes.com/69-year-old-anti-fascist-dies-after-attacking-immigrant-detention-facility-on-eve-of-planned-deportations_3001511.html

https://ussanews.com/News1/2019/07/14/confirmed-terrorist-who-was-killed-attacking-migrant-detention-center-was-affiliated-with-antifa/

CONFIRMED: Terrorist Who Was Killed Attacking Migrant Detention Center Was Affiliated with ANTIFA

LINK: https://bigleaguepolitics.com/confirmed-terrorist-who-was-killed-attacking-migrant-detention-center-was-affiliated-with-antifa/

Dope killed attacking ICE detention center was ANTIFA

LINK: https://iotwreport.com/dope-killed-attacking-ice-detention-center-was-antifa/

LINK: https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2019/07/13/armed-activist-hurling-molotov-cocktails-at-ice-facility-shot-killed-by-police/?like_comment=7187379

LINK: https://linxonline.co.pierce.wa.us/linxweb/Case/CriminalCase.cfm?cause_num=18-1-02480-5

LINK: https://pugetsoundanarchists.org/we-are-the-fire-that-will-melt-ice-rest-in-power-will-van-spronsen-olympia-wa/

ARCHIVE: https://archive.fo/IwAen

LINK: https://ninetymilesfromtyranny.blogspot.com/2019/07/grand-jury-indicts-portland-antifa-who.html

LINK: https://defensemaven.io/bluelivesmatter/news/grand-jury-indicts-portland-antifa-who-beat-elderly-man-with-weapon-58-XZD-16kmd-Qypmuh2xg/?replyPage=1

LINK: https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2019/07/tacoma-ice-facility-terror-attacker-ided-as-antifa-activist/

LINK: https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/crime/tacoma-police-armed-man-throwing-incendiary-devices-shot-outside-ice-detention-center/?amp=1&__twitter_impression=true

Part II – Portland ANTIFA and Stanislav Vysotsky

THIS is the article that really woke me up to the fact that “ANTIFA professors” were a far deeper problem than just Eric Clanton swinging a bike lock.

https://www.wweek.com/portland/article-11048-anti-fascist-front.html

Because this article – excellent journalism, I might add – received IMMEDIATE push-back from ANTIFA and allied socialist forces, when it appeared, I am frankly surprised it’s still around. Since it will very likely be pulled down soon by leftists, once I expose it, I have made sure to locate an archived copy:

https://archive.fo/NL6rt

While this article provides an EXCELLENT window into ANTIFA and its enemies in late 2009, the real importance, is that it demonstrates how closely current ANTIFA defender Stanislav Vysotsky was working with the group when it was still quite young:

Rose City Antifa was founded in 2007, when anti-racists organized to shut down a meeting of the neo-Nazi Hammerskin Nation set for the Sherwood Elks Lodge (see “Skin Cancer,” WW, Oct. 3, 2007). The group posts cards and fliers at the Red Black Cafe, the Black Rose Collective Bookstore and other places where anarchists and the far-left gather, but its total membership is unknown.

On Saturday, Sept. 19, the group set up a recruitment table at a punk concert in North Portland benefiting the volunteer group Portland Books to Prisoners. Stanislav Vysotsky, a Willamette University sociology professor who studies anti-racist groups, was at the table laying out anti-fascist literature next to a sign that said “Rose City Antifa.”

Vysotsky denied he’s a member of the group. But he defended its tactics in an interview with WW.

Vysotsky says publicly outing one’s enemies—including publishing their home addresses and pressuring their employers to fire them—is a widely accepted practice by progressive social movements. (It’s also used by the right wing, which publishes addresses of abortion doctors on far-right websites.)

“The strategy is to shut them down.” Vysotsky says. “Someone can’t be active if they are out looking for a job, and homes are their base of operation. If you put yourself in the shoes of a movement member, there is very much a logic to this.”

https://www.wweek.com/portland/article-11048-anti-fascist-front.html

My impression, reading this article, is that it was simply good, balanced, old-school journalism, digging for small facts and larger issues on both sides of the natural controversy of the story.

And – clearly – that was going to get it in trouble.

The Willamette Weekly article, published on September 22, 2009, received a published response, two days later, on September 24.

http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2009/09/394348.shtml

Again, just in case this gets taken down, there is an archived version here:

https://archive.fo/61wmH

I simply let these articles stand for themselves. It is obvious that the reporter of the first article, at the time of the reporting AND the writing, was at least motivated to ASK if Stanislav Vysotsky was in fact a member of Rose City ANTIFA, taking note of (and clearly refusing to spike) the fact that Vysotsky was seeming to help the group hand out flyers.

Let the facts speak for themselves.

Sadly, I can only get a limited amount of information about Vysotsky and his academic writings. I don’t have the massive academic resources of a professor (it’s all very “pay to play”), nor do I have the commercial information resources of a journalist. I pretty much have the same thing as you all – an increasingly censored internet, controlled by the leftists who control SEARCH.

However, I am going to share whatever solid information I CAN get, in hopes that others with more resources take up the case. There is enough here to see that:

“Portland, we have a problem.“

For starters, Vysotsky’s curriculum vitae is – quite frankly – damning, in terms of his time in Portland. Timeline his arrival and academic history, and you will see the rise of ANTIFA in Portland correlating very strongly with those things.

https://uww.academia.edu/StanislavVysotsky/CurriculumVitae

Because there is some risk that it will be taken down, I have preserved the evidence as images:

There is also a true wealth of academic references. Because I refuse to buy into the bizarre alternative universe of “ANTIFA-think” propaganda as academia, which gerrymanders reality into an assortment of racial and historical grievances (which just happen to advance Soviet communism in America, but please don’t notice THAT), you won’t even see me arguing with “Vysotsky-think”, other than to state the following:

  • it is ALARMING that Stalinist thinking is being uploaded into CRIMINOLOGY
  • I suspect Vysotsky’s writings may ORIGINATE this thinking in academia
  • the primary effect looks like NORMALIZATION of “ANTIFA-think” in ACADEMIA
  • the secondary effect looks like NORMALIZATION of “ANTIFA-think” in NEWS

The latter point comes from the fact that Vysotsky gets interviewed by the news media, and the result is a bizarre framing of radical leftist talking points as “news”. Or, if not news, opinion.

https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/.premium-antifa-in-america-militant-anti-fascism-isn-t-terrorism-it-s-self-defense-1.7425726

About which, I apparently wasn’t the only person thinking it might need to be archived:

https://archive.fo/LyrEB

I really don’t have to say anything here. There are people who buy into this stuff, and to me it’s just as contorted and nonsensical as the ginned-up opposite of the national socialists.

Socialists – national socialists – anarchists – international socialists – democratic socialists – WHATEVER. I let them speak for themselves. and I really don’t need to do much more.

READ THE ARTICLE. NORMALIZATION OF RADICALIZATION.

So THERE YOU HAVE IT.

Now – this is not all the information we have. There is MUCH more on Stanislav Vysotsky’s background that is, quite frankly, very damning, but we lack the resources to get a SECOND SOURCE VALIDATION which would pin things down. Thus, we encourage journalists with MORE RESOURCES to publish what THEY have, and we may then chose to VALIDATE if our information agrees.

ANTIFA did not form in a vacuum. DIG DEEPER.

W

Dear KMAG: 20200531 Open Topic

Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality.

This Superlative Sanctuary Sunday Open Thread, with full respect to those who worship God on the Sabbath, is a place to reaffirm our worship of our Creator, our Father, our King Eternal.

It is also a place to read, post and discuss news that is worth knowing and sharing. Please post links to any news stories that you use as sources or quote from.

In the QTree, we’re a friendly and civil lot. We encourage free speech and the open exchange and civil discussion of different ideas. Topics aren’t constrained, and sound logic is highly encouraged, all built on a solid foundation of truth and established facts.

We have a policy of mutual respect, shown by civility. Civility encourages discussions, promotes objectivity and rational thought in discourse, and camaraderie in the participants – characteristics we strive toward in our Q Tree community.

Please show respect and consideration for your fellow QTreepers. Before hitting the “post” button, please proofread your post and make sure you’re addressing the issue only, and not trying to confront the poster.

Keep to the topic – avoid “you” and “your”. Here in The Q Tree, personal attacks, name calling, ridicule, insults, baiting and other conduct for which a penalty flag would be thrown are VERBOTEN.

In The Q Tree, we’re compatriots, sitting around the campfire, roasting hot dogs, making s’mores and discussing, agreeing, and disagreeing about whatever interests us. This board will remain a home for those who seek respectful conversations.

Please also consider the Guidelines for posting and discussion , outlined here. Let’s not give the Internet Censors a reason to shut down this intellectual haven that Wolf has created for us.

The Storm is upon us.
Please remember to Pray for our President.

Our movement is about
replacing a failed and CORRUPT political establishment
with a new government
controlled by you, the American People.

~ Candidate Donald J. Trump

Also remember Wheatie’s Rules:

  1. No food fights.
  2. No running with scissors.
  3. If you bring snacks, bring enough for everyone.

And,

On this day and every day –

God is in Control
. . . and His Grace is Sufficient, so . . .
Keep Looking Up

Hopefully, every Sunday, you can find something here that will build you up a little . . . give you a smile . . . and add some joy or peace, very much needed in all our lives.

“This day is holy to the Lord your God; do not mourn nor weep.” . . . “Go your way, eat the fat, drink the sweet, and send portions to those for whom nothing is prepared; for this day is holy to our Lord. Do not sorrow, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”

by Pastor Chuck Swindoll
Scriptures: Revelation 21:4; 22:3, 5
Scriptures: 1 Corinthians 15:19–22

Our Wondrous Hope!

What gives a widow courage as she stands beside a fresh grave?

What is the ultimate hope of the disabled, the amputee, the abused, the burn victim?

How can the parents of children who have brain damage or physical handicaps keep from living their entire lives totally and completely depressed?

Why would anyone who is blind or deaf or paralyzed be encouraged when he or she thinks of the life beyond?

How can we see past the martyrdom of some helpless hostage or devoted missionary?

Where do the thoughts of a young couple go when they finally recover from the grief of losing their baby?

When a family receives the tragic news that a little daughter was found dead or their dad was killed in a plane crash or a son overdosed on drugs, what single truth becomes their whole focus?

What is the final answer to pain, mourning, senility, insanity, terminal diseases, sudden calamities, and fatal accidents?

The answer to each of these questions is the same: the hope of bodily resurrection.

We draw strength from this single truth almost every day of our lives—more than we realize. It becomes the mental glue that holds our otherwise shattered thoughts together. Impossible though it may be for us to understand the details of how God is going to pull it off, we hang our hopes on fragile, threadlike thoughts that say, “Someday, He will make it right” and “Thank God, all this will change” and “When we’re with Him, we shall be like Him.”

More than a few times a year I look into red, swollen eyes and remind the despairing and the grieving that “there’s a land that is fairer than day” when, as John promised in the Revelation,

“He will wipe away every tear . . . there will no longer be any death . . . any mourning, or crying, or pain.” . . . There will no longer be any curse . . . any night . . . because the Lord God will illumine them; and they will reign forever and ever. (21:4; 22:3, 5)

Hooray for such wondrous hope!

Just imagine . . . those who are physically disabled today will one day dance in beautiful coordination and leap in ecstatic joy. Those who spend their lives absorbed in total darkness will see every color in the spectrum of light. In fact, the first face they will see will be of the One who gives them sight. And those precious souls whose minds and emotions are limited by mental disability, disease, or old age will enjoy to the full unhindered and uninhibited relationships. It’s enough to put a smile on any weary face. There’s nothing like the hope of resurrection to lift the agonizing spirits of the heavyhearted.

Unless, of course, it’s all a cruel hoax.

That’s Paul’s whole point in 1 Corinthians 15:19. Remember how he put it? If bodily resurrection is only an empty dream, then “we are of all men most to be pitied.” All our preaching has a hollow ring to it, our faith is worthless, the dead have perished, and we are still under the condemnation of our sins (15:14, 16, 18). What a deplorable state of affairs! It’s enough to make all of us run and hide!

But wait. That hypothetical argument hinges on a conditional presupposition . . . if. “If there is no resurrection of the dead” (15:13), then we’re out to lunch. But there is a resurrection with all its promised hopes. It is as sure as we’re alive at this moment.

How can we be so certain that we will be resurrected? What is the source of our assurance? What gives us unshakable confidence in the face of death? The fact of Christ’s resurrection.

Because He has been raised, we too shall rise. As Paul stated in that same section of Scripture, “Christ [is] the first fruits, after that those who are Christ’s at His coming” (15:23). That’s us! Jesus Himself promised, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies” (John 11:25).

No wonder we get so excited every Easter! No wonder we hold nothing back as we celebrate His miraculous resurrection from the grave! It’s a double-barreled celebration: His triumphant hurrah over agony and our ultimate and eternal hooray.

How can I keep from singing?

My life flows on in endless song;
Above earth’s lamentation
I hear the sweet though far off hymn
That hails a new creation:
Through all the tumult and the strife
I hear the music ringing;
It finds an echo in my soul—
How can I keep from singing?

What though my joys and comforts die?
The Lord my Savior liveth;
What though the darkness gather round!
Songs in the night He giveth:
No storm can shake my inmost calm
While to that refuge clinging;
Since Christ is Lord of heaven and earth,
How can I keep from singing?

I lift mine eyes; the cloud grows thin;
I see the blue above it;
And day by day this pathway smoothes
Since first I learned to love it:
The peace of Christ makes fresh my heart,
A fountain ever springing:
All things are mine since I am His—
How can I keep from singing?

~ Robert Wadsworth Lowry

2020·05·30 KMAG Daily Thread

Back to Space!!

Obola made a mistake when he killed NASA’s manned spaceflight capability.

But perhaps not in the way you’re thinking.

We’ve been having to hitch rides to the ISS on Russian boosters ever since the Space Transportation System (the “Space Shuttle”) was decommissioned in 2011. At the time Obola said it was to encourage private enterprise to take up the slack, and NASA should concentrate on exploration…Lunar and Mars missions, unmanned exploration; the sorts of things NASA excels at.

This is actually a stated rationale I can agree with. (Settle down…I know it wasn’t the real reason.) If we are to become a truly spacefaring people…should we be leaving regular transportation to the government? The same government that couldn’t build an Obolacare website or that takes twenty years to widen an interstate?

And let’s face it, when Trump is no longer in charge, that’s the government we’ll have–grossly incompetent or grossly slow and cautious.

No. Get out of the way, and let innovative companies take it on. And so we have SpaceX and Boeing building transportation systems, the Dragon and the CST-100 Starliner, respectively. NASA contracts with them for ISS transportation. But unlike past NASA contracts, where they buy the equipment (Atlas, Delta, or Titan boosters, etc) from somebody but then manage it themselves, NASA is letting SpaceX run the show today.

It’s the same structure as buying airline tickets.

If space travel is ever to become routine and common–if we are ever to become a spacefaring species on anything more than an ad-hoc basis–this is the way it’s gotta be. Private companies running a service, that the government can buy–or not. They expect to have other customers.

This is what Obola dangled in front of us as he canceled the Space Shuttle [Edit–no, he canceled the system that was supposed to replace the shuttle]. He was almost certainly pulling a bait-and-switch of some sort. There’s be some reason not to put people on the SpaceX Dragon2 and the Boeing Starliner, some excuse…delay, delay. Just like how we knew he wanted to cancel the Keystone XL pipeline but had to clothe it in ordinary procedural bullsh*t.

In neither case did he bargain on his successor being a loyal American.

But that happened, and now we stand on the threshold of private manned orbital spaceflight. People are even booking tourist flights with companies planning to use the Dragon2!!

Alas it’s still only for people with huge amounts of cash…but it’s happening nonetheless.

https://letreasonreign.files.wordpress.com/2020/05/bearded-dragon-appears.jpg
Dragon2? They named it after ME? Cool!!!!

The Dragon2 capsule that (we hope) will go into orbit today can hold up to seven people, but typically is set up for four, with the remaining space given over to cargo that can’t be exposed to vacuum. It can run autonomously, or it can be controlled by astronauts. (Some of the space tourism flights are slated to have no human pilot.) Shots of the interior look “clean” rather than crammed full of instruments and controls–imagine the cabin of an airliner, not the cockpit, though even the passenger space on an airliner can look a bit “busy.” It does look a lot more spacious than cattle class on an airliner.

That’s the pressurized capsule. There’s an non-pressurized “trunk” right behind it, a cylindrical section that can carry cargo that need not be pressurized, in other words, cargo that can withstand vacuum. The trunk is abandoned before returning to Earth.

The Commander of the flight will be Douglas Hurley, joined by Robert Behnken as Joint Operations Commander. Hurley was also the pilot on the very last Space Shuttle mission, on the Atlantis. I’ll bet he’s looking forward to this! The spacecraft’s name should be announced today (if the mission is not again scrubbed).

They’ll dock with the International Space Station on Sunday. Before then they will test the spacecraft in orbit. The mission is otherwise expected to be automated, with the crew only taking over if something goes wrong.

The stage lifting the capsule will return to earth and land on a barge out in the Atlantic ocean, ready for re-use. This is something SpaceX has been doing for a few years now.

Once at the ISS, the crew will spend 30 to 90 days up there, and return in the same capsule for a splashdown in the Atlantic. The capsule, too, is intended to be reused.

If this launch doesn’t happen, (and the weather does look about as iffy as it did on Wednesday) then the next window is on Sunday, shortly after 3 PM ET. As in seven seconds after 3 PM.

These launch windows are exact, because the ISS is moving at 4.75 miles per second, 17,100 miles per hour, and it does little good to get to orbit when the ISS isn’t in the right location. Missing by a minute means missing by 285 miles, about the “height” of Colorado on a map. Fuel would have to be expended to change the Dragon2’s orbit, then change it back once it has synced up with the ISS. And that fuel would cut into payload. And it’s called a payload because it, and only it, is what the customer is actually paying for.

The estimates are that there is one chance in 276 that the crew won’t survive the mission, and one chance in 60 that the mission will fail with the crew being safe. (This is actually a better safety record than the Space Shuttle had–let’s hope that in the years to come we exceed it by a huge margin.)

It has been nine LONG years, but we’re going back to space, in a way that long-term will be vastly better than clunky government projects that take decades. It was painful, but I believe 20 years from now we will look back and say “it was worth it.”

So what was Obola’s mistake? As I alluded to before, he was probably trying to kill US manned spaceflight permanently. Turning NASA into nothing but an SJW advocacy organization.

Instead, he has done us some good.

Which can’t possibly be what he intended.

Oops! Sorry, Shithead! And no do-overs, not while in prison.

The Future

Space travel is expensive, and will continue to be expensive. We’re no longer throwing away the entire spacecraft after every flight, but they must still go through expensive refurbishment after every flight–and then the launch vehicle has to be re-assembled. SpaceX is doing this more cleanly than NASA, but even so, it’d be soooo much nicer if we could get to orbit with one stage. “Single State To Orbit” (SSTO) is the holy grail of space travel. It’s just out of our grasp, but close isn’t good enough.

Imagine if that spacecraft could be turned around and reused in a week…or a day.

That was the aim of this program…a valiant effort that fell short.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonnell_Douglas_DC-X

Add to that the fact that if you can get into and out of orbit…you can go anywhere on Earth in less than an hour, because a round trip in orbit is about ninety minutes. Imagine the Space Force delivering commandos to…well, fill in the blank! On an hour’s notice. Of course, that’s a lot harder, because you’re unlikely to be able to gas the sucker back up in hostile territory. Doing TWO orbits and reentries on one tank of gas is well beyond us. So far. But assuming a friendly destination, imagine what we can do if we can deliver something to (say) Diego Garcia in an hour.

And actually going to orbit will be significantly cheaper. As routine as the Pan Am flights in 2001? Maybe!

Of course the real answer is the space elevator, but that’s totally beyond our capabilities right now. We basically need SSTO before we can even think about building something that ambitious in orbit. The fundamental problem is we’re stuck “down here,” and have to get not just ourselves but everything we need to function, “up there.” But with a space elevator…it takes nothing but electricity to get “up there.” And once in orbit, the rest is easy.

Related Post

I wrote this on Apollo 11, for the 50th anniversary of the first landing of men on the Moon.

https://wqth.wordpress.com/2019/07/20/apollo-11-a-triumph-of-man-living-in-freedom

The Riots

Honestly, I wanted to focus on something positive today…so I’ll say nothing beyond that I’m sure this will not have the intended effect of bringing Trump down…or long distracting him and us from the quest for Justice.

But I will post my by-now standard quote, just to keep us “centered.”

Our movement is about replacing a failed and corrupt political establishment with a new government controlled by you, the American People...Our campaign represents a true existential threat, like they’ve never seen before.

Then-Candidate Donald J. Trump
The Point of The Movement

By one interpretation (the likeliest one, I think), the current unpleasantness is just yet another tactic by that corrupt political establishment, to prevent the President from doing to them, what they badly need to have done to them. (Though I doubt POTUS really intends to use 12 gauge wire bore brushes on them.)

Memorial Day (Traditional)

Memorial Day wasn’t always the last Monday in May (sliding bears and all), it was once the 30th of May and did not move. So Saturday/Today is the “real” Memorial Day, if you want to look at it that way.

Lawyer Appeasement Section

OK now for the fine print.

This is the WQTH Daily Thread. You know the drill. There’s no Poltical correctness, but civility is a requirement. There are Important Guidelines,  here, with an addendum on 20191110.

We have a new board – called The U Tree – where people can take each other to the woodshed without fear of censorship or moderation.

And remember Wheatie’s Rules:

1. No food fights
2. No running with scissors.
3. If you bring snacks, bring enough for everyone.
4. The gun is always loaded.
4a. If you actually want the gun to be loaded, like because you’re checking out a bump in the night, then it’s empty.
5. Never point the gun at anything you’re not willing to destroy.
6. Keep your finger off the trigger until ready to fire.
7. Be sure of your target and what is behind it.

(Hmm a few extras seem to have crept in.)

Today’s Coin

Now it wouldn’t be one of my posts without a coin, would it?

And yes, there’s one appropriate to our theme…a coin that depicted, allegorically, one of our proudest achievements. We put men on the Moon. So far, no one else has. And maybe we will again, soon. Unfortunately Eugene Cernan, the last man on the Moon, who surely must have hated holding that record, passed away in 2017 and did not live to see us go back. But soon, I think. During Trump’s third term.

https://www.usacoinbook.com/us-coins/1971-s-eisenhower-dollar.jpg
The Eisenhower Dollar, 1971-1978 (In 1975 and 1976, it was issued with a different reverse, to celebrate the bicentennial of the American Revolution.) This particular coin was produced in San Francisco in 1971.
The reverse is our focus here, as it is an adaptation of the Apollo 11 patch. In 1971 we were still taking trips to the Moon, and of course we were justifiably proud of the achievement.

“The Eagle Has Landed,” indeed.

The Eisenhower Dollar was the last full-sized “silver” dollar to be issued; in 1979 we went to the “Carter Quarter,” the Susan B. Anthony dollar, a coin just a bit larger than a quarter, and at a casual glance indistinguishable. Those were produced until 1981, then again in 1999, after which we went to the Sacajawea “golden dollar” which was the same size but colored quite differently.

Ike dollars are readily available at coin shops, they will charge a little bit over a dollar for them (they do have to make a living) but probably well under two dollars unless you want an uncirculated one…or a SILVER one.

Yes, some were made in silver for collectors, both in regular and proof finish, but alas not 90% silver like the older real silver dollars, but rather a 90% layer on each side surrounding a much-less-pure silver/copper alloy in the center, for a net 40% silver content. (Kennedy half dollars from 1965-1970 are like this too.) As long as the coin doesn’t start to tarnish, however, it will look like silver even on the edge, whereas our dime, quarter and half dollar today have that red-turning-to-brown edge on them. That solid silvery edge looks nifty.

Obligatory China Truth Bomb

Just one more thing, my standard Public Service Announcement. We don’t want to forget this!!! The President sure hasn’t. With the Chinese full takeover of Hong Kong…I sure hope this guy is doing OK.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=L3tnH4FGbd0%3F
I hope this guy isn’t rotting in the laogai somewhere!

中国是个混蛋 !!!
Zhōngguò shì gè hùndàn !!!
China is asshoe !!!

DECLAS Central: 20200529

May 29, 2020

From Senator Grassley’s office: Presenting the Flynn-Kislyak transcripts.

_______________________________________________________________

May 8, 2020

Thanks to acting Director of National Intelligence, Richard Grenell, a number of previously withheld behind closed doors questioning transcripts are now available for public viewing. As with many deposition type documents, they can be long, but hopefully will be informative. Here’s the list with live links.


The United States Intelligence Community (IC), at the bipartisan request of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI), reviewed 53 transcripts for classification. The IC made appropriate redactions, lowering the classification level of all 53 transcripts to UNCLASSIFIED. Each transcript can be accessed by clicking on the names below.

1. Alexander Nix

2. Anatoli Samachornov

3. Andrew Brown

4. Andrew McCabe

5. Benjamin Rhodes

6. Boris Epshteyn

7. Brad Parscale

8. Corey Lewandowski (Jan 2018)

9. Corey Lewandowski (Mar 2018)

10. Daniel Coats

11. David Kramer (Dec 2017)

12. David Kramer (Jan 2018)

13. Diana Denman

14. Donald Trump, Jr.

15. Evelyn Farkas

16. FBI Special Agent

17. Felix Sater

18. Hope Hicks

19. Ike Kaveladze

20. Jake Sullivan

21. James Clapper

22. Jared Kushner

23. Jefferson Sessions

24. Jeffrey Gordon

25. John Carlin

26. John Podesta (Dec 2017)

27. John Podesta (Jun 2017)

28. Jonathan Safron

29. Keith Schiller

30. Loretta Lynch

31. Marc Elias

32. Mary McCord

33. Matthew Tait

34. Michael Caputo

35. Michael Cohen

36. Michael Goldfarb

37. Michael Sussman

38. Peter Fritsch

39. Rhona Graff

40. Rick Dearborn

41. Rinat Akhmetshin

42. Rob Goldstone

43. Roger Stone

44. Sally Yates

45. Samantha Power

46. Samuel Clovis

47. Shawn Henry

48. Stephen Bannon (Feb 2018)

49. Stephen Bannon (Jan 2018)

50. Susan Rice

51. Thomas Catan

52. Walid Phares

53. Yared Tamene

________________________________________

From the Judiciary Committee webpage as of April 29, 2020:

The Senate Judiciary Committee released an additional declassified transcript between George Papadopoulos and an FBI confidential human source (declassified on April 24, 2020). (document)

__________________________________________

Previously, on this page (link to April 16 post):

As of the evening of April 16, 2020, the Senate Judiciary Committee has begun declassifying the documents that we’ve all been waiting for: The FISA warrant applications used to spy on members of the 2016 Trump Campaign for president.

First up on the Judiciary Committee website: documents relating to spying on Carter Page.

  • Confidential human source transcripts related to the Crossfire Hurricane operation
    • Transcript of George Papadopoulos and FBI Confidential Human Source (declassified March 13, 2020) (document)
    • Transcript of George Papadopoulos and FBI Confidential Human Source (declassified April 1, 2020) (document)
  • FISA Warrant Application for Carter Page and Three Subsequent Renewals
    • FISA Warrant Application for Carter Page (document)
    • FISA Warrant Application for Carter Page, Renewal One (document)
    • FISA Warrant Application for Carter Page, Renewal Two (document)
    • FISA Warrant Application for Carter Page, Renewal Three (document)
  • A July 2018 letter from DOJ to the FISA court alerting the court to some of the significant errors and omissions in the Carter Page FISA applications (letter)

The links are live to the documents that have been declassified. WARNING: most of them are REALLY long, as in over 80 pages, so for those whose bedtime reading is not legal documents, this thread will serve as a place to gather what the anons have been finding and sharing online in addition to what any of us find.

Please, post any findings, Tweets, images, emails, etc., found in the space below, and they will be added to future posts as the documents are made public.

As this declas effort is new, and will likely be dribbled out for proper public digestion, there will be new posts regularly sharing updates. It all depends on the volume of information, and the intensity as to whether or not this will recur daily, weekly, or as it happens.

In the meantime, happy digging y’all.

WWG1WGA

Is History Destiny? Maybe So, for Dianne Feinstein

We all know Di-Fi-Chi-Spy, the villainous Senator from California, had a Chinese spy as her office manager/driver for twenty years. But did you know her ties to China may have started before she was even born?

The genesis of this research was a posting scott467 made on 08 May 2020, here:

https://wqth.wordpress.com/2020/05/08/dear-kmag-20200508-open-topic/comment-page-1/#comment-490952

scott467

May 8, 2020 at 03:15

Just saw this at NeonRevolt… if true, hard to believe it was a secret until NOW!

https://gab.com/NeonRevolt/posts/104129159584004057

Ho-lee crap on this one, Anons!!

Dianne Feinstein’s mother was born in Harbin, China

The thing Anon doesn’t realize, however, is that Harbin is basically a border city with Russia. I know because I visited there once, and the people there are something of an admixture, by and large, with Russians coming down pretty regularly.

Given the timeframe and the name – I wouldn’t be shocked at all to learn that Betty Rosenberg Goldman were a Russian spy.

https://fr.findagrave.com/memorial/141328214/betty-goldman

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dianne_Feinstein

­———————————————

The Findagrave memorial page for Dianne Feinstein’s mother Betty Rosenberg Goldman, does indeed list her birthplace as Harbin, Heilongjiang, China.

The problem with Findagrave is that ANYONE can add information to it, pretty much. It’s kind of like the Wikipedia of the dead! I never trust information I can only find there. In this case, on top of all the other strangeness I discovered, the listing for Betty Goldman is managed by someone/thing that goes by the acronym FOIA (Freedom of Information Act?). The way Findagrave works is people go out and photograph in cemeteries and make listings for the graves they find. Anyone can sign up and do it. You can USUALLY contact the person who “manages” the listing for any grave if you need further information. BUT, FOIA at Findagrave is shown as “Not Accepting Messages.” Why would that be? Who is FOIA? FOIA maintains almost 24,000 listings. Who knows what I would find if I could research them all?

Since Findagrave can have information from anyone, unaccompanied by references or documentation, it has to be confirmed with other more reliable documents, so I went looking. And whoo-boy, I found another origin story full of strange! None of the dates add up, places of birth are different on just about every document, and names were Americanized, which is not uncommon, but it does make tracing a family harder. Something about this story made the hair stand up on the back of my neck, I have to say.

I got this message from Wolfmoon after I posted in a comment a few things I found in a quick look into this origin story:

“Take your time – no immediate rush – and better if it becomes authoritative b/c zero errors. There is obviously a bunch of BS, lies and cover – very expected – but WOW. Top commie has top lies.

I’m also interested if there are ties to the Autonomous Jewish Region [Oblast] near the border with China. This is where the Rosenberg’s (Julius and Ethel’s) silent partner George Koval came from, when he returned as an “American” to infiltrate the Manhattan Project in Oak Ridge and Dayton (polonium triggers).

Is there a “Rosenberg” connection? Unlikely, but who knows. Still, there may be a BIG PICTURE that comes out of this stuff.

Pinning down her past may explain a lot. Even if she wasn’t strong diaper, choosing an anti-diaper cover story says a lot.”

WOLFMOON

—————————————–

There was an obit for Betty Goldman in the NY Times in 1983:

“Betty Goldman, the mother of Mayor Dianne Feinstein, died Tuesday at a nursing home after a long illness.

She was 76 years old. Deputy Mayor Hadley Roff said Mrs. Goldman had been “gravely ill” from a chronic brain syndrome for seven years. The daughter of a Czarist army officer, Mrs. Goldman was born in St. Petersburg, Russia. The family fled during the 1917 revolution by driving a haycart across Siberia to Shanghai, then emigrating to Eureka, Calif.”

There is definitely some weirdness here, and storytelling going on, as there is documentary evidence which disproves almost everything in this short obituary. I am not going to speculate on the meaning of any of this information; I am just going to give it to you straight as I found it. I report, you decide.

The Rosenberg family immigrated to the U.S. in 1910. This contradicts information found in Betty Rosenberg Goldman’s obituary, which claims the family fled the 1917 revolution. But immigration papers don’t lie, and before the “story” in the obit, comes the actual record:

Rosenburg passenger list 1910-b

The family is stated in the record to have emigrated from VLADIVOSTOK. The family was originally listed as Russian, but there is a strikeout of that, with “German” written over it. The “Last Permanent Residence” was originally “Harbin, Manchuria” but it, too, was struck and replaced by “Vladivostok, Siberia.” The “Nearest Relative in Country of Origin” is a brother-in-law in Ussury, Siberia, which is right on top of Vladivostok on the map. It is unclear whether there was some misunderstanding of where the family had come from, or if they were only transiting through Vladivostok on their way to America, but I would speculate that they were not in Vladivostok very long.

As Wolfmoon asked, I looked but didn’t find direct connections to the Oblast George Koval came from. It was formally established in 1928, and is about 300 miles from Harbin. However if, as I suspect, Betty Rosenberg’s father traveled along with the Trans-Siberian Railway as it was being built, it runs through the Oblast to Vladivostok. A spur line runs to Harbin, when Betty was born. Koval’s family immigrated to the U.S. from Belarus in 1910, the same year the Rosenbergs came to America from Vladivostok. David Rosenberg, Betty’s father, is stated to have been born in Riga, Russia, which is confirmed by his headstone. This is on the far western (European) side of Russia, about 200 miles from Belarus. Riga is 5700 miles from Vladivostok.

Every male on the immigration page with David Rosenberg was stamped with the occupation “farmer,” but many were struck out and something else written in. David’s was not, but I don’t assume that means he actually was a farmer. Was he a Czarist Army officer, as Betty Goldman’s obituary claims? The obit is full of falsehood, so there is some reason to doubt he was.

Since the listed relative in Russia was a brother-in-law in Ussury, Siberia, it is reasonable to speculate (but uncertain) that his wife, Efenia on this document (later Americanized to Helen), was born in Siberia. How David got from Riga to Ussery is unknown, but many Jews migrated along the path of the Trans-Siberian Railway, begun in Vladivostok in 1891. It was completed by working from both ends, the other end being Moscow. There are still today Jewish settlements all along its path.

https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=Jews+and+the+Trans+Siberian+Railway

The family left Russia to immigrate to America, arriving in Honolulu, Hawaii aboard the Tenyo Maru on 30 April 1910. They continued on to California, arriving in San Francisco in May 1910:

Name:                       David Rosenberg

Gender:                     Male

Birth Date:                abt 1870

Age:                          40

Arrival Date:             2 0 May 1910

Port of Arrival:          San Francisco, California

Ship Name:               Tenyo Maru

Port of Departure:     Hong Kong, China

The National Archives at Washington, D.C.; Washington, D.C.; Customs Passenger Lists of Vessels Arriving at San Francisco; NAI Number: 4478116; Record Group Title: Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, 1787-2004; Record Group Number: 85

David Rosenberg died in 1914 in Eureka, California, only four years after arriving in the U.S.:

David Rosenberg headstone

Efenia changed her name to Helen sometime after arriving in the U.S. The family appears in the census in 1920

1920 United States Federal Census

Name:                                Helen Rosenberg

Age:                                   42

Birth Year:                         abt 1878

Birthplace:                         Russia

Home in 1920:                   San Francisco Assembly District 21, San Francisco, California

Street:                                 Missouri

House Number:                  293

Residence Date:                 1920

Race:                                  White

Gender:                              Female

Immigration Year:              1909

Relation to Head of House:     Head

Marital status:                     Widowed

Father’s Birthplace:            Russia

Mother’s Birthplace:           Russia

Native Tongue:                  Russian

Able to Speak English:       Yes

Home Owned or Rented:   Rented

Naturalization Status:         Alien

Able to Read:                     Yes

Able to Write:                    Yes

Neighbors:

Household Members:

Name                                       Age

Helen Rosenberg                     42

John Rosenberg                       22

Phillip Rosenberg                     19

Bessie Rosenberg                     15 (This is Betty)

Anna Rosenberg                      14

Nellie Rosenberg                     19 [daughter-in-law] (John’s wife)

Year: 1920; Census Place: San Francisco Assembly District 21, San Francisco, California; Roll: T625_132; Page: 1A; Enumeration District: 9

In the 1930 census, Betty Rosenberg lived with her mother Helen, in San Francisco. She again stated she was born in Russia. Don’t get hung up on the estimated birth year, all the names from the Findagrave for Betty Rosenberg Goldman, including the siblings appear here. Son Phillip has disappeared in this census. He doesn’t appear on the census in California that year. He may have moved out of state, or left the country, but I can’t positively locate him:

Name: Betty Rosenberg
Birth Year: abt 1904
Gender: Female
Race: White
Birthplace: Russia
Marital status: Single
Relation to Head of House: Daughter
Home in 1930: San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA
Map of Home: View Map
Street address: 28th Ave.
Block: 240
House Number: 655
Dwelling Number: 217
Family Number: 356
Attended School: No
Able to Read and Write: Yes
Father’s Birthplace: Russia
Mother’s Birthplace: Russia
Language Spoken: Russian
Immigration Year: 1910
Naturalization: Alien
Able to Speak English: Yes
Occupation: Model
Industry: Cloak and Suit
Class of Worker: Wage or salary worker
Household Members:
Name Age
Helen Rosenberg 55
John Rosenberg 32
Betty Rosenberg 26
Annie Rosenberg 24

THEN, in 1940, Betty claims she was born in CALIFORNIA, and Dianne Goldman, who will become Dianne Feinstein, appears:

Name: Betty Goldman
[Betty Rosenberg]
Age: 34
Estimated birth year: abt 1906
Gender: Female
Race: White
Birthplace: California
Marital status: Married
Relation to Head of House: Wife
Home in 1940: San Francisco, San Francisco, California
Map of Home in 1940: View Map
Street: Fillmore
House Number: 3672
Inferred Residence in 1935: San Francisco, San Francisco, California
Residence in 1935: Same Place
Resident on farm in 1935: No
Sheet Number: 62B
Attended School or College: No
Highest Grade Completed: College, 2nd year
Weeks Worked in 1939: 0
Income: 0
Income Other Sources: No
Neighbors:
Household Members:
Name Age
Leon Goldman 36
Betty Goldman 34
Diannne Goldman 6
Yvonne Goldman 3

The Social Security Death Index lists Betty Rosenberg Goldman’s date of birth as 25 Jun 1907, as do other documents where she would have been the declarant. This doesn’t match her headstone. It states she was born 25 Jun 1906. We’ll assume SHE knew her date of birth, and the headstone is incorrect.

Curiously, the Findagrave listing for her husband, Leon Goldman, states that the couple divorced in 1963. However, they are buried together:

Betty Goldman headstone

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/141327983/leon-goldman

Leon Goldman died in 1975, eight years before his ex-wife.

———————————————-

So, that still leaves the question I began my quest with. Was Betty Goldberg born in China, Russia, or California? All of these places have appeared somewhere in her history. BUT, her naturalization document tells the tale:

Betty Goldman Naturalization

This document CONFIRMS Betty Goldman’s birthplace as HARBIN, CHINA. Betty was THIRTY-THREE when this document was filed, so she absolutely knew what year she immigrated as a child. If she told her own children otherwise, it was deliberate, not accidental.

So now we know for certain. Dianne Feinstein’s connection to China began before she was even a thought in her mother’s head. Who knows how this family connection influenced her over the years. Did it make her merely soft-hearted toward the Chinese, and easily fooled, or complicit in their treachery?

I know what I believe.

Dear KMAG: 20200529 Open Topic

This FRIDAY THE JUNETEENTH open thread is OPEN – VERY OPEN – as in LET’S OPEN UP ALREADY – but don’t open up on a looter unless the LAW is on your side – a place for everybody to post whatever they feel they would like to tell the White Hats, and the rest of the MAGA / KAG! / KMAG world (KMAG being a bit of both MAGA and KAG!).

You can say what you want, comment on what other people said, and so on.

Free Speech is practiced here. ENJOY IT. Use it or lose it.

Keep it SOMEWHAT civil. They tried to FORCE fake Orwellian civility on us. In response, we CHOOSE true civility to defend our precious FREEDOM from THEM.

Our rules began with the civility of the Old Treehouse, later to become the Wolverinian Empire, and one might say that we have RESTORED THE OLD REPUBLIC – the early high-interaction model of the Treehouse – except of course that Q discussion is not only allowed but encouraged, and speech is considerably freer in other ways. Please feel free to argue and disagree with the board owner, as nicely as possible.

Please also consider the Important Guidelines, outlined here in the OLD January 1st , 2019 open thread. Let’s not give the odious Internet Censors a reason to shut down this precious haven.

SPEAK THE FIVE WORDS BOLDLY TO OUR PRESIDENT!

“I AM PRAYING FOR YOU!“

AND WHAT TIME IS IT?

TIME TO….

DRAIN THE SWAMP

Our movement

Is about replacing

A failed

And CORRUPT

Political establishment

With a new government controlled

By you, the American People.

Candidate Donald J. Trump

Also remember Wheatie’s Rules:

  1. No food fights.
  2. No running with scissors.
  3. If you bring snacks, bring enough for everyone.

Seriously – FRANCE just banned use of HCQ for treating COVID-19.

DUMB!

Looks like there is going to be a SCIENCE and MEDICINE FIGHT in the middle of RIOTS and DECLAS.

BUY GUNS. KEEP COOL. GET POPCORN.

W

Dear KAG: 20200528 Open Thread

To celebrate America’s return to space even if the weather didn’t cooperate, here’s a little launch music.

As usual, this is the daily thread, the place to put all information that needs to be out there – Q drops, news flashes, WuFlu updates, satire, memes, and of course cute animal videos.

In the meantime, the short and sweet version of “THE RULES” is here borrowed from Tuesday:

Guidelines for posting and discussion on this site were outlined by our host, WolfM00n. Please, review them from time to time.

The discourse on this site is to be CIVIL – no name calling, baiting, or threatening others here is allowed. Those who are so inclined may visit Wolf’s other sanctuary, the U-Tree, to slog it out.

This site is a celebration of the natural rights endowed to humans by our Creator as well as those enshrined in the Bill of Rights adopted in the founding documents of the United States of America. Within the limits of law, how we exercise these rights is part of the freedom of our discussion.

Fellow tree dweller Wheatie gave us some good reminders on the basics of civility in political discourse:

  1. No food fights.
  2. No running with scissors.
  3. If you bring snacks, bring enough for everyone.

Since it is almost the weekend, the reminders are in place to not swing from the chandeliers, wash your hands and face, marinate the ribs, and be nice to the liberals whether they deserve it or not. Making your bed, OTOH, is optional.

And now for a little weekend warm-up dance music to blare in the neighborhood or at the state capitol of your choice.

__________________________________________________


JN 17:20-26

Lifting up his eyes to heaven, Jesus prayed saying:
“I pray not only for these,
but also for those who will believe in me through their word,
so that they may all be one,
as you, Father, are in me and I in you,
that they also may be in us,
that the world may believe that you sent me.
And I have given them the glory you gave me,
so that they may be one, as we are one,
I in them and you in me,
that they may be brought to perfection as one,
that the world may know that you sent me,
and that you loved them even as you loved me.
Father, they are your gift to me.
I wish that where I am they also may be with me,
that they may see my glory that you gave me,
because you loved me before the foundation of the world.
Righteous Father, the world also does not know you,
but I know you, and they know that you sent me.
I made known to them your name and I will make it known,
that the love with which you loved me
may be in them and I in them.”

Here’s to avoiding speed traps and liberal Karens empowered by the nanny state who feel they must lecture the rest of us on proper social distancing and decorum.

5-27-20 Midweek Musings

Genuinely Humble

March 27, 2020 by Pastor Chuck Swindoll

Scriptures: Esther 6:1-12

The King Honors Mordecai

1  That night the king could not sleep. So one was commanded to bring the book of the records of the chronicles; and they were read before the king. 2 And it was found written that Mordecai had told of Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king’s eunuchs, the doorkeepers who had sought to lay hands on King Ahasuerus. 3 Then the king said, “What honor or dignity has been bestowed on Mordecai for this?”

And the king’s servants who attended him said, “Nothing has been done for him.”

4 So the king said, “Who is in the court?” Now Haman had just entered the outer court of the king’s palace to suggest that the king hang Mordecai on the gallows that he had prepared for him.

5 The king’s servants said to him, “Haman is there, standing in the court.”

And the king said, “Let him come in.”

6 So Haman came in, and the king asked him, “What shall be done for the man whom the king delights to honor?”

Now Haman thought in his heart, “Whom would the king delight to honor more than me?” 7 And Haman answered the king, “For the man whom the king delights to honor, 8 let a royal robe be brought which the king has worn, and a horse on which the king has ridden, which has a royal crest placed on its head. 9 Then let this robe and horse be delivered to the hand of one of the king’s most noble princes, that he may array the man whom the king delights to honor. Then parade him on horseback through the city square, and proclaim before him: ‘Thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delights to honor!’ ”

10 Then the king said to Haman, “Hurry, take the robe and the horse, as you have suggested, and do so for Mordecai the Jew who sits within the king’s gate! Leave nothing undone of all that you have spoken.”

11 So Haman took the robe and the horse, arrayed Mordecai and led him on horseback through the city square, and proclaimed before him, “Thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delights to honor!”

12 Afterward Mordecai went back to the king’s gate. 

Genuinely Humble

“What goes around comes around.” That popular saying has never been truer than it is here. Things have gone around for Haman—yet they finally come around for Mordecai. Sitting on that horse in regal attire, he was the most surprised man in the kingdom. That’s the beauty of the story. He was not a proud man. He was not a vengeful man. He was not whispering, “Say it a little louder. Eat your heart out, Haman.” According to what is written here, Mordecai didn’t utter a word.

I think that’s what I appreciate most in this whole episode: the silence of Mordecai. How rare are the people who can be promoted to a place of highly visible significance and not live for their own clippings or crave the spotlight or demand center stage. Soft-spoken, genuinely humble celebrities are extremely rare. Not convinced? Check the rank and file of today’s pro athletes. How refreshing (and unusual!) to find a modern-day Mordecai!

In fact, the next thing we read is that “Mordecai returned to the king’s gate.” A brief phrase, it’s easy to overlook. But isn’t it wonderful? “Mordecai returned to the king’s gate,” it says, rather than, “Mordecai accepted a major promotion.” And do you know why it’s significant? Because that’s where he’s been all the time. His honor has not gone to his head. He just went back to work.

Have you recently been promoted? Has God’s providence smiled on you so that your name is now honored in circles where you were once not even known? Have you come to a place of popularity and prosperity? Are you now esteemed in the eyes of others? If so, the real question is: Are you still comfortable at the king’s gate, or must you now live in the palace? Must you now be treated with special care and be given kid-glove treatment and not be bothered with everyday problems? Mordecai shrugged, “Just drop me off where all this started—at the king’s gate.”

No matter what happens to you, remember “the pit from which you’ve been dug.” You’ll find the best place on earth is still pretty close to your roots. Like the country song reminds us, “Look how far I had to come, to get back where I started from.”

Verses to ponder –

Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.

But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”

When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with the humble is wisdom.

He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience . . .

Respect for the Lord is instruction in wisdom, and humility comes before honor.

He leads the humble in what is right, and teaches the humble his way.

Dear KAG: 20200527 Open Thread

Yep, it’s Wednesday again. This one is for Mr. Mika. Sorry, Joe, your mornings are no longer going to protect you.

And now for the obligatory message from our sponsors:

Here at the Q tree we believe in the concept of CIVIL open free speech and the discussion that fleshes out ideas. When commenting and participating in the OPEN discussion on this thread all comments MUST NOT CONTAIN personal threats, baiting, name calling, or other anti-social words fomenting hate, violence or destruction. Our host Wolfm00n has strict rules about that.

Fellow tree dweller Wheatie gave us some good reminders on the basics of civility in political discourse:

  1. No food fights.
  2. No running with scissors.
  3. If you bring snacks, bring enough for everyone.

In addition, it is requested that there be no swinging from the chandeliers, celebratory gunfire, messing around with the nuclear weapons, and, please, everyone wash your hands.

Please, do not forget to apply sunscreen after a sensible vitamin D bath and after swimming at a safe social distance from all the people in chlorinated pools, which must maintain enough chemicals to kill just about everything except the Wuhan Flu that somehow will travel six feet in densely hot and humid air.

If you must protest state governments, peacefully of course, it is only polite to point your rifle toward the ground. Thank you for thinking of the safety of others.

Those who have things to say that do not fit the generally accepted limits of “civil” discussion, Wolf has provided a venue known as the UTree which is currently going through its water cooler/canteen phase. Please, venture over there for any such thoughts and comments. This sort of thing is always a possibility on that site:

A few other vital notes:

Please, review these rules that our host Wolfm00n outlined toward the beginning of the growth of the tree itself. it won’t take long.

Ridiculing the other side, on the other hand…well….

__________________________________________________


ACTS 20:28-38

At Miletus, Paul spoke to the presbyters of the Church of Ephesus:
“Keep watch over yourselves and over the whole flock
of which the Holy Spirit has appointed you overseers,
in which you tend the Church of God
that he acquired with his own Blood.
I know that after my departure savage wolves will come among you,
and they will not spare the flock.
And from your own group, men will come forward perverting the truth
to draw the disciples away after them.
So be vigilant and remember that for three years, night and day,
I unceasingly admonished each of you with tears.
And now I commend you to God
and to that gracious word of his that can build you up
and give you the inheritance among all who are consecrated.
I have never wanted anyone’s silver or gold or clothing.
You know well that these very hands
have served my needs and my companions.
In every way I have shown you that by hard work of that sort
we must help the weak,
and keep in mind the words of the Lord Jesus who himself said,
‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’”

As always, prayers for the fight against that which seeks to enslave us are welcome. And this week, lots of prayers for those who have the virus, and those who have died due to it are part of daily prayer.

Enjoying the show?

Let Freedom Ring!

 

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Find that quote here: Revolutionary War and Beyond, where you can read a nice article on the history of the Declaration of Independence. Click to read Jefferson’s personal account of the writing of the Declaration from the same site. And here is a transcription of the Declaration of Independence from our government archives.

And now to rev you up for declaring and celebrating our freedom from tyranny:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VPpAZ9_qAw&w=560&h=315]

 

Right away, Independence Day was celebrated joyously. From PBS’ A Capital Fourth:

On July 8, 1776, the first public readings of the Declaration were held in Philadelphia’s Independence Square to the ringing of bells and band music. One year later, on July 4, 1777, Philadelphia marked Independence Day by adjourning Congress and celebrating with bonfires, bells and fireworks.

The custom eventually spread to other towns, both large and small, where the day was marked with processions, oratory, picnics, contests, games, military displays and fireworks. Observations throughout the nation became even more common at the end of the War of 1812 with Great Britain.

Ringing Bells.

Bands.

Bonfires.

Fireworks.

Music.

Picnics.

Oratory.

Military Displays.

Games.

Contests.

I think we all know how to celebrate this Civic Holiday. We all have memories of picnics and fireworks and parades. The importance of Independence Day celebrations in 2020 cannot be overstated. We are in a fight for the life of our beloved Republic. In that same PBS article, is a quote from Jefferson (his last letter) in which he wrote about the Declaration of Independence:

“May it be to the world, what I believe it will be … the signal of arousing men to burst the chains … and to assume the blessings and security of self-government. That form, which we have substituted, restores the free right to the unbounded exercise of reason and freedom of opinion. All eyes are opened, or opening, to the rights of man. …For ourselves, let the annual return of this day forever refresh our recollections of these rights, and an undiminished devotion to them.”

– Thomas Jefferson
June 24, 1826 Monticello

Back when my kids were small, we celebrated the Fourth of July with special outfits (my mom would sew matching patriotic outfits for my kids to wear) and we would pack a picnic and head off to watch fireworks. One year we were in Boston and headed out early to secure a place near the orchestra.

It was so exciting to be in Boston for an Independence Day celebration and listen to the Boston Pops on the Esplanade. The place was so crowded that our little blanket spot was trampled by fellow citizens trying to secure spots, or move from one spot to another!

People would actually step over our children on their way to some other place! I’ll never forget it. Human nature. 🙂 But once the music started and everyone settled down, it was wonderful. The fireworks were brilliant, even if the kids were sleepy and we were all exhausted.

What mattered is that thousands of Americans gathered together to celebrate our freedom. The energy and patriotism could be FELT. Celebrating our Civic Holidays is vital to maintaining a patriotic spirit.

Nowadays, our children take their kids to the fireworks displays in their locales. If they happen to be around, we head out to the back 40 and have a big bonfire and our own fireworks. The kids have sparklers and we share a summer picnic meal. We might even shoot off a few guns.

This year, I think I’m going to share a few good books with the grandkids and maybe watch some patriotic films. I want them to know that they have “certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed…”

If we don’t teach them, who will? Not the schools. Not even most churches. Certainly not a bloated bureaucratic state that seeks to tell us what meds we can and MUST take, and whether we have the right to leave our house without a face mask!

It’s time to declare our Independence Day! Just over four weeks away, the Fourth of July 2020 is on a Saturday. Let’s celebrate it like our freedom depends on it!

Resources

Wee Sing America (Toddlers to age 7, CD and book of patriotic songs)

The Fourth of July Story by Alice Dalgleish, (Ages 4-8, endearing story for young children)

The Story of the Statue of Liberty by Betsy Maestro (Ages 6-10)

A New Nation: The United States, by Betsy Maestro (Grades 3-5)

The Star-Spangled Banner by Peter Spier (Ages 3-7)

America the Beautiful by Katharine Lee Bates (Ages 3-7)

Presenting the Declaration of Independence puzzle

We The People Board Game

You’re a Grand Old Flag, by George M. Cohan, illustrated by Norman Rockwell (All ages)

This Land is Your Land, by Woodie Guthrie, illustrated by Kathy Jakobsen (All ages)

Yankee Doodle, A Song From the American Revolution, by Todd Ouren, a history of the song, lyrics and activities for children

Here is an exhibition from the Library of Congress called Declaring Independence: Drafting the Documents. It ha s a wonderful online exhibition with a timeline.

James Cagney film Yankee Doodle Dandy

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StDpLge_ITM&w=560&h=315]

The Patriot with Mel Gibson

Red Dawn with Patrick Swayze

Hacksaw Ridge

Independence Day with Will Smith

Patton with George C. Scott

The Green Berets with John Wayne

Sergeant York with the great Gary Cooper

To Hell and Back with Audie Murphy playing…Audie Murphy

Captain America, the First Avenger

Men of Honor with Cuba Gooding, Jr.

I could go on and on. I hope you all will share your own great films, books, recipes, traditions and memories. Let us celebrate our great Republic, its founders, and the freedoms we need so desperately to retain and pass on.

Previous Posts

Make Civics Great Again

Take Back Our History

Needed: An Army of Mr. Smiths

Grandparents of the World, unite!