“We do not believe any group of men adequate enough or wise enough to operate without scrutiny or without criticism. We know that the only way to avoid error is to detect it, that the only way to detect it is to be free to inquire. We know that in secrecy error undetected will flourish and subvert.” –J. Robert Oppenheimer
“I will be in Georgia on Saturday.” -President Trump
BUT WAIT……
WHAT THE ACTUAL FRACK!
No, the 2020 Election was a total scam, we won by a lot (and will hopefully turn over the fraudulent result), but we must get out and help David and Kelly, two GREAT people. Otherwise we are playing right into the hands of some very sick people. I will be in Georgia on Saturday! https://t.co/1ziqFq9S6O
I’m calling B.S. on NewsMax and “Trump supporters”! DUPES and CONTROLLED OPPOSITION!
Saved as an image, useful now for those of us who turned off Twitter embeds…..
Here is the deal.
Yeah, it is becoming very clear now how the DNC, the globalists, China, FACEBOOK, treasonous IC, and GEORGIA RINOs created a “comfortable RINO surrender in the middle”, whereby Georgia enabled CHINA to not only attempt to take out Trump, but to have an “insurance policy” on the Senate – that if the Democrats and RINOs conceded to a Trump win, they could STOP TRUMP with a typical UniParty undermining job on the two Georgia seats in the US Senate.
Oh, those DASTARDLY CHINESE COMMUNISTS ARE TRICKY!
Obviously, this has put not just President Trump, but Leader McConnell, in a very tough spot.
TREASONOUS RINOs? TREASONOUS social media? TREASONOUS MSM?
Thankfully, that PLOT has became completely apparent very early, enabling OUTRAGE by the base.
In a vary typical and Alinsky way, the UniParty has tried to respond to that outrage by pushing it to absurdity – i.e. – a badly intended BOYCOTT.
FUGGEDDABOUDIT!
No way.
NOW is the time to pour all our firepower on Georgia.
I can sense that the KRAKEN has broken a logjam. Dirty Dems and Deep State know that trouble is coming, and that the STEAL ON TRUMP will not go down. And it could be EVEN WORSE for the Deep State, due to Trump’s beautiful Executive Orders.
Rumors of Biden being talked into concession by the Deep State Fake Elections Intelligence Community Apparatus strike me as real. If Biden-Harris calls it off, maybe their allies don’t all GO DIRECTLY TO JAIL as the FIRST STEP of election reform.
Trump just spilled the beans in a radioactively and correctly aging tweet:
Biden can only enter the White House as President if he can prove that his ridiculous “80,000,000 votes” were not fraudulently or illegally obtained. When you see what happened in Detroit, Atlanta, Philadelphia & Milwaukee, massive voter fraud, he’s got a big unsolvable problem!
This big fight is to not only save the PRESIDENCY – it is to not only TAKE THE HOUSE – it is to under absolutely no circumstances yield the SENATE.
Georgia needs to be caught in a CROSSFIRE by both Sidney Powell nailing them on The Dominion Treason, and by the RNC on winning races and keeping China and Zuckerberg from stealing the Senate!
We will deal with him until he is BEHIND BARS. In fact, HE is our ticket OFF WORDPRESS. We are going to go after this Chinese SPY until he FORCES WORDPRESS to kick us off.
BYE-BYE, MARK THE SPY!
Ready for the fight?
BE AT YOUR PROTEST ON SATURDAY! TODAY!!!
It’s even BETTER if you’re not in Georgia, because we are going to bring so much pressure from OUTSIDE GEORGIA that…..
I start these posts by going back and grabbing the post from five weeks ago (since I currently have five different eagle banners), copying it, then editing. The old post is from before the election (October 24) and talks about Biden’s performance in the third debate.
Yes, that was fresh news only five weeks ago! And now we are in the middle of a horrific fraud mess and an almost-as-horrific refusal by lower level judges to even touch the issue. I’m not sure if the Third Circuit’s decision was proper or not given the lower court’s action (sometimes the normal rules of jurisprudence lead to perverse results), but Pennsylvania will be going to the SCOTUS for sure.
But so much has been going on, and so much has been said by people here about what is going on, that I almost feel like anything I could say would be simply superfluous.
Which isn’t going to stop me from saying something anyway.
My new pet peeve: 2024 offered as a chance for President Trump to come back, if this somehow doesn’t work out. Sometimes it’s even dangled as fruit to get him to concede for the good of the country.
The people pushing this line are either idiots, or they think we are.
Do they seriously believe…or do they just hope we are foolish enough to believe, that the cheating won’t happen in 2024 and Trump will have a fair chance to try again? On the contrary, after four years of Biden/Harris (mostly Harris methinks), the cheating will be baked into the system absolutely everywhere. There will probably be federal guidelines for elections by then, mandating the use of the new Hack-o-matic Voting Systems. (No doubt we will be reassured by the explanation that the name is in memory of Hitlary’s cough.)
But what is even worse, is that whoever runs in 2024, it almost certainly wouldn’t be Trump. He will be in jail long before then, and more than likely Epsteined. They have been calling him a criminal for over four years; once he is out of office they WILL prosecute. It will be as bogus as General Flynn but no one in the government will be allowed to care about that.
I have said it before, and I will say it again, this is for all the Chips. After this, GAME OVER. If we lose this, to such blatant fraud, 2024 won’t matter. Trump won’t matter. Politically speaking, nothing on Earth will matter. There will be no recourse within the system.
A Reminder Of Today’s Big Issue.
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
Needs to happen, soon.
Lawyer Appeasement Section
OK now for the fine print.
Please note that our menu has changed, please listen to all of the options.
This is the WQTH Daily Thread. You know the drill. There’s no Political 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 first rule of gun safety: Don’t let the government take your guns. 5. The gun is always loaded. 5a. If you actually want the gun to be loaded, like because you’re checking out a bump in the night, then it’s empty. 6. Never point the gun at anything you’re not willing to destroy. 7. Keep your finger off the trigger until ready to fire. 8. Be sure of your target and what is behind it. 9. Social Justice Warriors, ANTIFA pukes, BLM hypocrites, and other assorted varieties of Marxists can go copulate with themselves, or if insufficiently limber, may substitute a rusty wire brush suitable for cleaning the bore of a twelve or ten gauge.
(Hmm a few extras seem to have crept in.)
Coin of The Day
The Dime
“Dime” is not a nickname, like “nickel” or “penny.”
In fact, the five cent piece we call a nickel was the third US coin to get a nickname alluding to the nickel in it, and of course, there are collectors who will scold you for calling the one cent piece a “penny.”
But the dime is not such a word; it’s the real name of the coin and the denomination. Look at one, if you’ve got one, and see that the coin says “ONE DIME” on it. This has been true since 1837 so I felt pretty safe in writing the previous sentence. (A smart-aleck would have to have dug up a capped bust or draped bust dime to give me crap about it.)
Five weeks ago I quoted Section 9 of the mint act of April 2, 1792, in talking about the eagle. Continuing on from where I left off, it gives the specifications of dollar coins, half dollars, quarter dollars, and dismes.
Dismes–each to be of the value of one tenth of a dollar or unit, and to contain thirty seven grains and two sixteenths parts of a grain of pure, or forty one grains and three fifths parts of a grain of standard silver.
Act of April 2, 1792, Dection 9
The “grains” in question are the same grains you use at your reloading desk and the same grains bullets are weighed in. 1/7000th of a avoirdupois or “grocery” pound, but in this case, with silver, the troy pound, which was the original pound, is still used, and there are 5760 of the same grains in one of those.
(24 grains = a pennyweight, 20 pennyweights or 480 grains equals a troy ounce, 12 troy ounces or 240 pennyweights to the troy pound, and it is not a coincidence that there were also 240 British pennies to the British pound sterling before “decimalisation” in the early 1970s.)
37 2/16ths grains of pure silver in 41 3/5ths grains of coin metal (the remainder being copper) of course works out to that abominable 1485/1664ths fine standard we used until 1837. (Multiply both numbers by 40 to see this.)
But the most notable thing about what I quoted was the word “disme.” Not only does that make the word legal, it means we apparently don’t spell it right today! What’s with that S?
I’m not sure, to be honest, where that S came from. French? My one quick poke on the internet says disme comes from an “old” English word for “tenth” which in turn came from “old” French. I put old in quotes there, because “Old English” has a very specific meaning–the English language before 1066 and the Norman conquest, and I doubt my source meant that. (For one thing, no self-respecting Englishman from 1065 would ever borrow a word from the French, though he might be willing to borrow from Scandinavian languages.) So I think it’s better to call it an “archaic” English word for “tenth” that we probably borrowed sometime before 1500, bringing it into “Middle” English. (Shakespeare and the King James Bible, by the way, are both written in early Modern English, believe it or not, though many of the usages in the KJV were a bit archaic even in 1610; they deliberately chose to do that to make the work sound more impressive, and they succeeded. As for real Middle English, if you want a sample, read Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales in the original and recognize that most of the vowels don’t sound the same as they did back then.)
Nor do I even know how “disme” was pronounced. A lot of people go with “deem,” and others say it was just like “dime”, either way that pesky S was silent. Otherwise it would sound like “Disney” with an M.
Did we ever issue a coin that says “Disme” on it? Sort of. In 1792 about 1500 “half dismes” were issued, and those are very controversial coins. Technically the US mint couldn’t issue silver that year because there were no people there who had raised the required $10,000 (!) bond to handle gold and silver. This should be unsurprising as this was a yuge amount of money back then. (This wasn’t solved until 1794 by amendment to the act of 1792, lowering the bond to a smaller amount, probably $5000 but my sources are unclear.)
So what was the US doing issuing silver half dames in 1792? Apparently they were done under the authority of an act passed under the Articles of Confederation. But this is being argued over presently. One side maintains those half dismes were illegal.
Also some people regard those half dismes as pattern (experimental) pieces rather than regular issue coins
There are also three known examples of full “Dismes” issued at about the same time, these are universally regarded as patterns. Another fifteen made out of copper are known as well; those are definitely patterns. (Patterns were often made out of a cheaper metal than a normal coin would be.)
Once we got past the bond issue, though, surely dismes could be issued with alacrity, though, right?
Well, they could be. But they weren’t.
The Mint was run as a public service in those days. You brought some raw silver in (or old coins from some other country, or silverware). You deposited it. A couple of weeks later you could go back and pick up silver coins, very likely made from your silver. This was done free of charge. If you wanted coins immediately, you had to pay a fee (less than one percent), because you were basically bumping yourself to the front of the line and getting someone else’s silver. But the point is, if you deposited silver, you could specify how you wanted it. (After 1795 the mint could charge a fee for dealing with below-standard gold and silver, and could refuse small deposits.)
And apparently almost no one wanted dismes. The first silver dollars were made in 1794. The first dimes were made in 1796-1797 and they had that “cormorant” Eagle on the reverse.
These coins were approximately 19mm in diameter, compare to our modern dime’s diameter of 17.9 millimeters. (Also compare this to our modern nickel’s 20.5mm diameter.) I say approximately 19mm because no two coins were exactly the same diameter, nor would they necessarily be perfectly circular, because there was no “collar” in the press. The collar (when present) surrounds the rim of the coin and prevents it from “squishing” out as the press compresses the blank silver round. Today the collar puts the reeding into the coin. Back then any reeded or lettered edge had to be put on the blank with a castaing machine, before the coin was struck. (This was true of all of our early coins, which is why early coins all tend to be wider than the same denominations from later years.)
Then in 1798, 1800-1805, and 1807 you had heraldic eagle reverses, and the 1798, 1805 and 1807 are much more common than the other years.
Needless to say this isn’t to the same scale as the previous picture!
Then there was another design change, to the capped bust design, and dismes were issued less frequently, at least at first, in 1809, 1811, 1814, 1820-1825, and then finally with some consistency from 1827 onwards.
Note the very uneven strike on this, parts of STATES is a weak impression,
Starting in 1828, the mint introduced a new piece of high-tech equipment, a press that struck the coins “in collar.” At that point the dime assumed its modern 17.9 mm diameter.
Capped Bust dime, last (partial) year of issue. During 1837 the Liberty Seated design began and the words “ONE DIME” were prominent on the reverse.
But none of these dismes had the denomination spelled out. Many had no indication of denomination at all (you weighed the coins to determine what they were), others just said “10” or “10 C.” As surprising as the idea of not putting a denomination on a coin (even Russia was doing that back then) was the idea of making no dismes for five solid years (1815-1819 inclusive).
(Maybe, though we shouldn’t laugh too hard. We seem to have had problems with dime supplies recently–the Walmarts here would not let you pay with cash, or get cash back in the self service checkouts for months, apparently because they simply couldn’t find any dimes to put into the machines…and like a crappy printer that won’t print a black and white document because it’s out of magenta ink, they therefore wouldn’t even give you twenties as cash back.)
I don’t know when the disme became the dime, because the entire period from 1793-1837 left us with no coins on which we could see the word abbreviated, much less spelled out. (And half dismes/dimes are no help for the same reason.) I have found no reference to the denomination in any mint act between those two dates, which might help pin it down.
The Liberty Seated series has no less than six sub-types, the first is this one with no stars on the obverse.
Stars were added, and then more drapery was added to Liberty’s elbow. This was not done simultaneously, though, the stars were added during 1838 and the drapery during 1840, so there are “with stars no drapery” coins out there as well (I’ll spare you that one)
This coin has little arrowheads on either side of the date. This was done to mark a weight change in 1873, and continued in 1874. (The weight change was early in the year, so you will see some 1873 dimes with no arrowheads. A 1873 dime made without the arrowheads in Carson City sold for hundreds of thousands of dollars a few years ago.) There was another time this was done in the 1850s, with coins from mid 1853 through the end of 1855 sporting the arrowheads as well.
After this point we went through coins I have covered already, the Barber dime (1892-1916), the mercury dime 1916-1945, and of course we all know the Roosevelt dime (1946-1964 silver, 1965-today clad crap).
Obligatory PSAs/Reminders
Just one more thing, my standard Public Service Announcements. We don’t want to forget any of these!!!
How not to get your ass kicked by the police. Chris Rock in 2007
Granted an “ass kicking” isn’t the same as being shot, but both can result from the same stupid act. You may ultimately beat the rap, but you aren’t going to avoid the ride.
Remember Hong Kong!!! And remember the tens of millions who died under the “Great Helmsman” Chairman Mao.
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 !!!
For my money the Great Helmsman is Hikaru Sulu (even if the actor is a dingbat).
NOTE: Although this after-dinner well-wishing was delayed due to a long list of post-Thanksgiving-dinner chores and duties, performed meticulously and faithfully, it’s still Thanksgiving in California, so here we go.
I just wanted to take this opportunity, after a great Thanksgiving dinner, [Trump supporters all, complete with two pilgrims, an Indian of friendly but mysterious nature, a recent immigrant, and a shaggy dog, maybe not a crowd, but surely in violation of some ridiculous COMVID / SQUADPOX / CHINA VIRUS mandate], to say THANKS TO GOD for our arrival on these EPIK New World shores!
Indeed, as we sat down to our Thanksgiving dinner this evening, we almost “dove in” per the customs of one anonymous diner, were it not for my insistence that we should STOP FIRST to name the things for which we were thankful.
[You will see that, as a PRAYER WARRIOR, I’m LAZY but CUNNING. It’s part of being OLD.]
The personal things went first – lives spared, diseases healed – and then the allegedly bigger things – peace preserved, wars averted. A few generalities – good health and economic blessing. But then the biggie, on which all agreed.
Four years of President Donald Trump. Four years of the greatest president in our lifetimes, against the will of every villain on Earth.
Everybody else seemed ready to say THAT was it – we’re THANKFUL – now let’s eat!
But I could sense that people were worried – that it was “just” four years of President Trump, so I said “WAIT!”
I don’t remember my exact words, missing a few articles and prepositions, and decidedly shortened for the mixed English abilities of our motley American troupe. Half words – half facial expressions – half intuition and half innuendo – as some languages actually are. However, rest assured that these words were both intended and in fact received as the following message.
“It is by the POWER of our THANKS TO GOD for the PAST, that the FUTURE BRIGHTENS. It is by our PRAYERS OF THANKS for what we have RECEIVED, that we might be blessed with MORE. If we want FOUR MORE YEARS of President Donald J. Trump, then – by all means – we must be THANKFUL for the FOUR GREAT YEARS that we have already had!“
With that, we all – quite spontaneously – smiled and held forth our clasped hands, earnestly in prayer, in our somewhat “diverse” faiths in God. I could feel the quiet spirit of true MAGA working among us, and with great confidence, we bowed our heads toward each other, and smiled in full faith. Thankful for the past. Confident in our future. Even our “dive-in diner” uttered a vocal prayer rarely heard.
Note that I did NOT say “we must vow to endeavor to persevere more years of THE BAD CHIEFS OF THE SWAMP.”
Rest assured, Pilgrims and Patriots. America – like God – is with us.
W
PS – There is a hidden joke in here which may not become apparent for a long time. If you figure all or part of it out, just smile! Thanks to Nor’easter for the inspiration of the “endeavor to persevere” theme!
What a week. The Kraken was released. Sidney Powell made good on her promise. The wailing and gnashing of teeth as the Fake News Media reacted was epic.
Her lawsuits in Georgia and Michigan caused Hack Dorsey to wrench down on censoring the filings. Good Lord, what a stinking loser. Pathetic. These tech lords haven’t stopped the truth. We are the news now.
Rudy kicked butt at his Pennsylvania hearing. The brave patriots who spoke out about voter fraud made me proud to be an American.
We need to brace for the backlash from the NWO cabal, though. They aren’t going down without a final fight. They are all in, and that means a fight to the bitter end.
But I can feel that familiar feeling of…WINNING. It never gets old, and we have our great President Trump to thank for that.
And, not so incidentally, our President pardoned General Mike Flynn. Sidney Powell reacts. This was an indication to me that the Kraken has been set free to crush the cheating Dems. This decision came from a position of strength. Perfect timing. And the pardon was phrased in such a way that General Flynn can serve in government again. Innocent!
Well, I say we should drink a toast to Sidney. I’ll be hoisting a Brandy Milk Punch, a favorite of that patriot and Founding Father Benjamin Franklin. Recipe here.
First though, just a reminder about our house rules. Make nice. Craziness belongs over at the UTree, not here at the QTree. Civility reigns. Rules here if you need a refresher or are new. We may be opinionated, but we do it with the highest regard for our fellow patrons and we never wish to cause the slightest worry to our patron, Wolf.
Back to Ben. Franklin was known for his admonishments to temperance, but the man enjoyed a drink, like many of the founding fathers. He liked his wine, and according to one article, “A brewer and distiller in his own right, he’s also famous for coming up with The Drinker’s Dictionary, over 200 euphemisms for getting tore up. Among my favorites: “Piss’d in the Brook,” “Wamble Crop’d,” and “Been too free with Sir John Strawberry.”
Heck, our first President, George Washington, had a still from which he produced 11,000 gallons of whiskey in 1799. He was known to put away four bottles of wine during an evening of dancing.
Thomas Jefferson imported thousands of bottles of wine from Europe. And can you say Sam Adams, who brewed his own beer? The colonials did not have access to clean water, so much of what they drank was alcoholic, from beer to mead to wine to hard cider and whiskey. Even kids drank a low alcohol content beer.
Remember the Tea Party? Ya gotta read this article. Is it possible that our revolution wasn’t kicked off in honor of tea so much as alcohol? Hmmm…that would make for some fun research.
At any rate, pubs (or taverns as they were called) played a big part in communications during revolutionary times. A tavern was a hotel, a bar, a restaurant, a post office, often a dancing hall, and an all around meeting place during colonial times. Interesting that Gov. Andrew Cuomo and other Democrat (commie) governors have been keen to shut down bars and dining establishments during the Year of the Covid, the NWO’s kick-off to their plan for complete world dominance. Cue Mike Myers, please.
And speaking of the New World Order, I remember former President George H. W. Bush. I found a video where he gives four speeches (the vid shows just the snippets) that mention the New World Order. Good God in Heaven, were we all just snoozing when this jerk was talking about this stuff?
https://youtube.com/watch?v=94gcYXDwIOI
I can’t help but think of his last years. Confined to a wheelchair, the old coot would grab women’s rears and grin like a demented monkey. A fitting end for someone who has done such harm to our Republic. May he forever be a potent reminder of the foolishness of the so-called elites, who sought to recreate the Tower of Babel in our time.
Our President is revving things up for getting rid of Section 230. It will be terribly sweet to see Twitter and the other tech giants get their comeuppance.
For purposes of National Security, Section 230 must be immediately terminated!!!
And just to finish up, wasn’t it so fitting and just in time for Thanksgiving that the Supreme Court slapped that insane clown, Andrew Cuomo, down? Freedom of religion!
Sorry for the delay. Here’s a REALLY quick and dirty daily.
Since the Center for Disease Control went all Footloose on us, and decided that we needed to tone down the singing, dancing and drinking this Thanksgiving, how about some good old fashioned defiance.
Seriously, my mom always says if it’s not sinful, immoral or fattening, why not?
And singing, dancing, and a little drink is more Biblical than not.
So….
https://youtu.be/FGl5ReYunoY
Please, add your own dance favorites in the comments.
_______________________________________________
As usual, this is the daily thread, the place to put all information that needs to be out there – Q drops, Q drop decodes, riot information, rumors about MAGA rallies starting up again, news flashes, Chy-na flu updates, fashionable mask photos, satire, memes, and of course cute animal videos.
In the meantime, the short and sweet version of “THE RULES” is here borrowed from Tuesday:
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:
No food fights – IN HONOR OF OUR PAT, SUSPENDED FOR TODAY ONLY
No running with scissors.
If you bring snacks, bring enough for everyone. ALSO FOR TODAY ONLY, BYOB – BRING YOUR OWN BOURBON. That stuff is headache in a bottle.
Since it is almost the weekend, the reminders are in place to not swing from the chandeliers, wash your hands and face, and be nice to the liberals whether they deserve it or not. Making your bed, OTOH, is optional.
11On the way to Jerusalem he was passing along between Sama’ria and Galilee. 12And as he entered a village, he was met by ten lepers, who stood at a distance 13and lifted up their voices and said, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” 14When he saw them he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went they were cleansed. 15Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice; 16and he fell on his face at Jesus’ feet, giving him thanks. Now he was a Samaritan. 17Then said Jesus, “Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? 18Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” 19And he said to him, “Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well.”
This discussion is PRIMARILY for the GEEKS, but not exclusively. Non-geeks are welcome to comment, but I ask that you keep your comments 100% on topic – the features, functions, content and security of the new website. Our migration per se – not the long train of abuses which led to it.
This discussion will get long, and I don’t want to sort through ANY news about the election, The Steal, etc. Words of encouragement, prayer, blessing and spiritual protection are welcome, but keep them lean and mean.
This thread is 100% business.
If you’ve made prior comments on tech on other threads, that you feel are still relevant, feel free to REPOST THEM HERE. I don’t have time to do this myself.
NOW – down to business.
I have obviously rescinded my prior request that we not upload new header images – and as the first to violate that request, I invite other authors to follow suit.
Not only that, I am going to let authors begin following Flep’s latest posts, and just post all their images in the site media bucket. We have 50% left. I think that gives us plenty of time to move the site.
I REPEAT. Authors no longer need to store their images elsewhere. Use this site’s media bucket, as much as you want. This applies to ALL images – header and non-header.
I will reimpose the moratorium on new pictures when we do the final transition to the new site – not before then.
This process will be longer than expected, so I’m giving up on a SHARP transition, in favor of a SMOOTH transition.
The header image I have used on this post is a screen capture of the new site, which is actually functional right now. Here is a bigger picture of the home page.
Our new site is a WordPress site much like here, except none of YOU ALL are members yet, because I have not yet approved your first comments.
If you – as a currently approved commenter on this blog – want to spin the wheels, please feel free to visit, leave a comment, and let me approve it.
There are technical reasons why I’m limiting this to currently approved posters for the moment.
I am not guaranteeing that this test site will remain, but we will see. I am hoping that what I have there now is sufficient. Obviously I haven’t even modified the “Sample Page” stuff in the corner, but no biggie.
Don’t leave any “essential information of historical import” on the new site – it may not be saved. Better to leave it on THIS THREAD, which will be saved if at all possible.
Our current theme here is called Independent Publisher 2. I ended up using this theme for The U Tree, too, because it is a great theme and people HERE love it. Sadly, that theme was “deprecated” even back then, and now it appears to be GONE from what is available to me on our new host, which is very close to or exactly “latest version” WordPress.
Instead, the new site is currently using something called Draftly.
We will deal with THEME stuff later. Right now, we need to get MIGRATION and IMPORT to work.
It is important to understand that a WordPress administrator on WordPress.com is only an ADMIN inside the WordPress framework. On this site, I have NO POWERS outside the WordPress API. I can even delete the site, as part of the API, and I can create new sites, but I have no powers outside what WordPress.com allocates to me though THEIR IMPLEMENTATION of the WordPress software.
Now – that is still a LOT of power, but it gives me only one choice in terms of exporting the old website.
Exporting our site from WordPress.com creates XML files of data – in our case an astounding 1.5 GB of XML data, broken into 8 huge XML files, between 67 MB and 388 MB. All of this was received in a ZIP archive of about 167 MB.
Note that the unpacked XML data is about the same size as our media bucket – roughly 1.5 GB.
The exported XML files include a lot of private data from our users – they will not be shared. HOWEVER, the beginning of the first one is interesting:
I am still working on importing this data via the new WordPress API – which is not exactly as described in the XML above. Things are thus not working exactly as specified in the XML above. I will be more specific in comments below – it’s an active mess.
BUT – bottom line – we have a new site up, and it will be wickedly hard for us to be deplatformed from it. Our first boats are on the shore of the New World.
“I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people—for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness.” 1 Timothy 2:1-2
Is there any point in politics where all Christians can come together and agree? No matter our background or political bent, or our stance on issues we passionately believe in, is there anything that draws us together as Christ-followers that is neither Republican, nor Democrat, or Independent?
Perhaps 1 Timothy 2:1-2 speaks to this in urging us to pray for all those in authority over us. No matter if you support or oppose our President, or your Governor or Mayor, or Police Chief or other government official, the Bible is clear we should pray for them. When you pray, consider asking God:
For wisdom. Pray that our leaders have great wisdom and patience in their decisions. Pray for godly counsel to surround them to give good advice. Pray that the issues they deal with will have clear solutions and that they will always keep in mind their service to the people that elected them.
For their character. Pray that our leaders would be upright in their speech and actions with others, and that they would show respect and kindness to those they interact with. Pray for their honesty, integrity and moral foundation. And pray that God would expose leaders whose character is in question.
For their spiritual growth. Pray for our leaders to be Christ-followers. Pray that God will open opportunities for those who are not Christians to hear the Gospel and come to know Jesus. Pray that they would make God’s Word and His will the underlying foundation for their public responsibilities and their decisions and actions.
At our church, following each election, we have made it a tradition to take time in worship to get on our knees and pray for our elected leaders—no matter who wins or loses. This time is not about taking sides, but about obeying God’s Word to pray for our leaders. We should and do earnestly desire for their leadership to come from a strong relationship with Jesus, and with all godly wisdom and Christ-like character.
Best bad special effects movie EVER with one heck of a cast. It did need a decent script, though….
Okay, so with all the election drama surrounding us and threatening to put just about all of us in asylums given the way things SEEM to be going, I thought it would be useful to remind our tree dwellers that this week we celebrate a holiday that is technically all about the triumph of capitalism over communal living among those who are not members of religious orders. (Even they have difficulty with it sometimes.)
The popular fairy tale about Thanksgiving since its formal enshrinement in the American holiday annual cycle somewhere around the Civil War is that the Pilgrims who survived the first winter celebrated their survival with a big feast, and we commemorate that.
Technically…okay, yeah, there was a big feast somewhere around the harvest of 1621 after an uneasy peace with the local Native Americans was negotiated with a Native American not of that tribe/nation known as Squanto helping out, but the truth was that the majority of Pilgrim deaths that winter were actually due to scurvy, and the malnutrition issues that come with it. The personal journal of William Bradford, the administrator of Plymouth Plantation, tells of that.
What it also tells that tends to get left out depending on who is doing the relating of the story is that in 1623, the remnants of the original settlers threw off the system of governance that the Mayflower Compact established before they landed (communal living) in favor of land ownership and what we now call capitalism.
The first successful settlement in New England was something of an accident. By 1617 the Pilgrims had determined to leave the Netherlands, where their youth were supposedly being corrupted by the “licentiousness” of even the Calvinist Dutch, who, for example, persisted in enjoying the Sabbath as a holiday rather than bearing it as a penance.
Oh, how…Catholic…of them. (Catholics even turn lunch after a funeral in to a party.)
Deciding to settle in America, the Pilgrims were offered an opportunity to settle in New Netherland, but preferred to seek a patent from the South Virginia Company, which would provide an English atmosphere in which to raise their children. The Pilgrims formed a partnership in a joint-stock company with a group of London merchants, including Thomas Weston, an ironmonger, and John Peirce, a clothmaker. The company, John Peirce and Associates, received in 1620 a grant from the Virginia Company for a particular plantation in Virginia territory.
In this alliance, each adult settler was granted a share in the joint-stock company, and each investment of 10 pounds also received a share. At the end of seven years, the accumulated earnings were to be divided among the shareholders. Until that division, as in the original Virginia settlement, the company decreed a communistic system of production, with each settler contributing his all to the common store and each drawing his needs from it — again, a system of “from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.” Just over a hundred colonists sailed from England on the Mayflower in September 1620. Of these, only forty-one were Pilgrims, from Leyden, Holland; eighteen were indentured servants, bound as slaves for seven years to their masters; and the others were largely Anglicans from England, seeking economic opportunity in the New World.
There’s that passage from Acts of the Apostles given a try without a vow of poverty again.
Bound supposedly for the mouth of the Hudson River, the Mayflower decided instead to land along what is now the Massachusetts coast — outside Virginia territory. Some of the indentured servants began to grow restive, logically maintaining that since the settlement would not be made, as had been agreed, in Virginia territory, they should be released from their contracts. “They would use their own liberty, for none had power to command them.”
To forestall this rebellion against servitude, the bulk of the colonists, and especially the Pilgrims, decided to establish a government immediately, even though on shipboard. No possible period without governmental rule was to be permitted to the colonists. The Pilgrim minority straightway formed themselves on shipboard into a “body politic” in the Mayflower Compact, enabling them to perpetuate their rule over the other majority colonists. This, the first form of government in the New World established by colonists themselves, was by no means a gesture of independence from England; it was an emergency measure to maintain the Pilgrim control over the servants and other settlers.
And my guess is they didn’t drink whisky on Sundays like the Creoles around here in what was Louisiana/Luzianne Territory did before the Americans bought the land where they had settled from Spain, actually, even if the French got the cash in a three way trade…at least that’s the way the guide at Destrahan Plantation upriver from New Orleans explained it.
In mid-December 1620 the Mayflower landed at Plymouth. In a duplication of the terrible hardships of the first Virginia settlers, half of the colonists were dead by the end of the first winter. In mid-1621 John Peirce and Associates obtained a patent from the Council for New England, granting the company 100 acres of land for each settler and 1,500 acres compulsorily reserved for public use. In return, the Council was to receive a yearly quitrent of two shillings per 100 acres.
A major reason for the persistent hardships, for the “starving time,” in Plymouth as before in Jamestown, was the communism imposed by the company. Finally, in order to survive, the colony in 1623 permitted each family to cultivate a small private plot of land for their individual use. William Bradford, who had become governor of Plymouth in 1621, and was to help rule the colony for thirty years thereafter, eloquently describes the result in his record of the colony:
All this while no supply was heard of…. So they began to think how they might raise as much corn as they could, and obtain a better crop than they had done, that they might not still thus languish in misery. At length … the Governor (with the advice of the chiefest among them) gave way that they should set corn every man for his own particular, and in that regard trust to themselves…. And so assigned to every family a parcel of land … for that end, only for present use…. This had very good success, for it made all hands very industrious, so as much more corn was planted than otherwise would have been by any means the Governor or any other could use, and saved him a great deal of trouble, and gave far better content. The women now went willingly into the field, and took their little ones with them to set corn; which before would allege weakness and inability; whom to have compelled would have been thought great tyranny and oppression.
The experience that was had in this common course and condition, tried sundry years and that amongst godly and sober men, may well evince the vanity of that conceit of Plato’s … that the taking away of property and bringing community into a commonwealth would make them happy and flourishing…. For this community … was found to breed much confusion and discontent and retard much employment that would have been to their benefit and comfort. For the young men, that were most able and fit for labour and service, did repine that they should spend their time and strength to work for other men’s wives and children without any recompense. The strong … had no more in division of victuals and clothes than he that was weak and not able to do a quarter the other could; this was thought injustice…. Upon … all being to have alike, and all to do alike, they thought … one as good as another, and so … did … work diminish … the mutual respects that should be preserved amongst men…. Let none object this is men’s corruption … all men have this corruption in them…. (William Bradford, Of Plymouth Plantation, 1620–47, New York: Knopf, 1952, pp. 120–21.)
The antipathy of communism to the nature of man here receives eloquent testimony from a governor scarcely biased a priori in favor of individualism. Plymouth was destined to remain a small colony. By 1630 its population was still less than four hundred. Its government began in the Mayflower Compact, with the original signers forming an Assembly for making laws, choosing a governor, and admitting people to freemen’s citizenship. The governor had five assistants, elected also by the freemen. This democratic setup signified a very loose control of the colony by the Peirce company, which wanted to accelerate the growth of the colony, and saw the Pilgrim dominance as an obstacle to such growth.
And after the failure at Jamestown, they tried it again.
Let’s see…music…suspense? Drama? Nah. Just fight the communism.
Okay, I doubt actual nuclear weapons are on the current drawing boards. Although…given the Uranium One and Rosatom scandals….
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:
No food fights.
No running with scissors.
If you bring snacks, bring enough for everyone
Please, stock up on blanks for celebratory gunfire, be ready to swing from the chandeliers…and no messing with the nuclear weapons.
Please remember to remain locked and loaded and ready for trouble should the insurrectionists try to invade your space.
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. You’re welcome to visit over there and say hi to anyone hanging out over there.
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.
12But before all this they will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors for my name’s sake. 13This will be a time for you to bear testimony. 14Settle it therefore in your minds, not to meditate beforehand how to answer; 15for I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which none of your adversaries will be able to withstand or contradict. 16You will be delivered up even by parents and brothers and kinsmen and friends, and some of you they will put to death; 17you will be hated by all for my name’s sake. 18But not a hair of your head will perish. 19By your endurance you will gain your lives.
As always, prayers for the fight against that which seeks to enslave us are welcome.
Please include: President Donald Trump, the Q team, our soldiers in the field, special forces, tactical units, members of the Cabinet, first responders and those working behind the scenes.
And please add all the legal teams as they take our fight to court.
