What is it that feeds our battle, yet starves our victory?
Do We Still Need the Kang (Mis)Quote?
I’m still using the quote about winning the battles but losing the war. It seems like this doesn’t make sense right now given that we seem to be going from triumph to triumph.
On the contrary. This is the exception that proves the rule. The quote isn’t just a lament, it’s to point out why we can never seem to win.
You see, the RINOs cannot interfere and that is why, just for once, we are actually winning. And that is just one more piece of evidence (for the willfully blind) as to what I have been saying with that quote.
It stays.
Speaker Johnson
Pinging you on January 6 Tapes
Just a friendly reminder Speaker Johnson. You’re doing some good things–or at least trying in the case of the budget–but this is the most important thing out there still hanging. One initial block released with the promise of more…and?
We have American patriots being held without bail and without trial, and the tapes almost certainly contain exculpatory evidence. (And if they don’t, and we’re all just yelling in an echo chamber over here, we need to know that too. And there’s only one way to know.)
Either we have a weaponized, corrupt government or we have a lot of internet charlatans. Let’s expose whatever it is. (I’m betting it’s the corrupt weaponized government, but if I am wrong, I’d like to see proof.)
Justice Must Be Done.
The 2020 election must be acknowledged as fraudulent, and steps must be taken to prosecute the fraudsters and restore integrity to the system.
Yes this is still true in spite of 2024. Fraud must be rooted out of our system and that hasn’t changed just because the fraud wasn’t enough to stop Trump winning a second term. Fraud WILL be ramped up as soon as we stop paying attention.
Otherwise, everything ends again in 2028. Or perhaps earlier if Trump is saddled with a Left/RINO congress in 2026, via fraud.
Small Government?
Many times conservatives (real and fake) speak of “small government” being the goal.
This sounds good, and mostly is good, but it misses the essential point. The important thing here isn’t the size, but rather the purpose, of government. We could have a cheap, small tyranny. After all our government spends most of its revenue on payments to individuals and foreign aid, neither of which is part of the tyrannical apparatus trying to keep us locked down and censored. What parts of the government would be necessary for a tyranny? It’d be a lot smaller than what we have now. We could shrink the government and nevertheless find it more tyrannical than it is today.
No, what we want is a limited government, limited not in size, but rather in scope. Limited, that is, in what it’s allowed to do. Under current circumstances, such a government would also be much smaller, but that’s a side effect. If we were in a World War II sort of war, an existential fight against nasty dictatorships on the brink of world conquest, that would be very expensive and would require a gargantuan government, but that would be what the government should be doing. That would be a large, but still limited government, since it’d be working to protect our rights.
World War II would have been the wrong time to squawk about “small government,” but it wasn’t (and never is) a bad time to demand limited government. Today would be a better time to ask for a small government–at least the job it should be doing is small today–but it misses the essential point; we want government to not do certain things. Many of those things we don’t want it doing are expensive but many of them are quite eminently doable by a smaller government than the one we have today. Small, but still exceeding proper limits.
So be careful what you ask for. You might get it and find you asked for the wrong thing.
Political Science In Summation
It’s really just a matter of people who can’t be happy unless they control others…versus those who want to be left alone. The oldest conflict within mankind. Government is necessary, but government attracts the assholes (a highly technical term for the control freaks).
His Truth?
Again we saw an instance of “It might be true for Billy, but it’s not true for Bob” logic this week.
I hear this often, and it’s usually harmless. As when it’s describing differing circumstances, not different facts. “Housing is unaffordable” can be true for one person, but not for another who makes ten times as much.
But sometimes the speaker means it literally. Something like 2+2=4 is asserted to be true for Billy but not for Bob. (And when it’s literal, it’s usually Bob saying it.) And in that sense, it’s nonsense, dangerous nonsense. There is ONE reality, and it exists independent of our desires and our perceptions. It would go on existing if we weren’t here. We exist in it. It does not exist in our heads. It’s not a personal construct, and it isn’t a social construct. If there were no society, reality would continue to be what it is, it wouldn’t vanish…which it would have to do, if it were a social construct.
Now what can change from person to person is the perception of reality. We see that all the time. And people will, of course, act on those perceptions. They will vote for Trump (or try to) if their perception is close to mine, and vote against Trump (and certainly succeed at doing so) if their perception is distant from mine (and therefore, if I do say so, wrong). I have heard people say “perception is reality” and usually, that’s what they’re trying to say–your perception of reality is, as far as you know, an accurate representation of reality, or you’d change it.
But I really wish they’d say it differently. And sometimes, to get back to Billy and Bob, the person who says they have different truths is really saying they have different perceptions of reality–different worldviews. I can’t argue with the latter. But I sure wish they’d say it better. That way I’d know that someone who blabbers about two different truths is delusional and not worth my time, at least not until he passes kindergarten-level metaphysics on his umpteenth attempt.
Lawyer Appeasement Section
OK now for the fine print.
This is the Q Tree 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. Zeroth rule of gun safety: Don’t let the government get your guns.
5. Rule one of gun safety: 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. Rule two of gun safety: Never point the gun at anything you’re not willing to destroy.
7. Rule three: Keep your finger off the trigger until ready to fire.
8. Rule the fourth: Be sure of your target and what is behind it.
(Hmm a few extras seem to have crept in.)
(Paper) Spot Prices
Kitco “Ask” prices. Last week:
Gold $3,203.70
Silver $32.26
Platinum $998.00
Palladium $990.00
Rhodium $5,825.00
FRNSI* 153.979-
Gold:Silver 99.309-
This week, 3PM Mountain Time, markets have closed for the weekend.
Gold $3,356.90/3,358.90
Silver $33.45/33.57
Platinum $1093.00/1103.00
Palladium $976.00/1016.00
Rhodium $5,180.00/5,630.00
FRNSI* 161.487-
Gold:Silver 100.057-
I’m making a minor change here. Before, I quoted “ask” prices; i.e., the spot price corresponding to what you would pay a precious metal seller (if they actually paid attention to the spot price). The other price is “bid,” what they nominally pay you. The “bid” prices are what usually show up in the news. So from here on out it will be bid/ask, with the part after the slash corresponding to what I used to post. I’ll still use the ask prices to compute gold:silver and FRNSI.
Gold is still jumping around a lot but on the whole it had a good week and so did silver (though not as good as gold, the ratio has again slipped to over 100). Even platinum had a good week! (I guess zombies do exist!) Palladium is up for the week (but went down on Friday), rhodium is down, down, down. Those last two are almost purely industrial metals so that may not be good news for the economy.
*The SteveInCO Federal Reserve Note Suckage Index (FRNSI) is a measure of how much the dollar has inflated. It’s the ratio of the current price of gold, to the number of dollars an ounce of fine gold made up when the dollar was defined as 25.8 grains of 0.900 gold. That worked out to an ounce being $20.67+71/387 of a cent. (Note gold wasn’t worth this much back then, thus much gold was $20.67 71/387ths. It’s a subtle distinction. One ounce of gold wasn’t worth $20.67 back then, it was $20.67.) Once this ratio is computed, 1 is subtracted from it so that the number is zero when the dollar is at its proper value, indicating zero suckage.
Memorial Day
Memorial Day is intended to honor those American servicemen and women who died while serving in the United States Armed Forces. It has an incredibly complicated history (which I had to skim for lack of time), but it appears that at one key point it was commemorated by placing flags on the graves of those interred in military cemeteries for those who had died in the Civil War. Later on it expanded (at least informally–the purpose I stated above is still the nominal purpose of the holidy) to include any deceased military veteran whether or not they had died while serving–likely because many of them are now interred in military cemeteries as well.
Regardless of that, I think we can all agree it’s not just a day to fire up the barbecue. Unfortunately it became such a day in the minds of many when it became one of those holidays observed on a Monday, instead of being observed on May 30 regardless what day of the week it fell on. Moving it to the “Last Monday in May” turned it into a convenient three day weekend (most businesses observe it because of that) marking the unofficial beginning of summer, a time to go on a camping trip and/or fire up the barbecue.
When the change was made in 1968 (taking effect in 1971) many complained and as recently as 2002 the VFW stated: “Changing the date merely to create three-day weekends has undermined the very meaning of the day. No doubt, this has contributed a lot to the general public’s nonchalant observance of Memorial Day.”
I can’t disagree.
No Science Post
Sorry had no time. I imagine many will be relieved not to be reading about volcanoes, which is what I had planned to do now that we’re at a point in the narrative where it becomes possible to talk about them intelligently.
“… now that we’re at a point in the narrative where it becomes possible to talk about [volcanoes] intelligently.”
Easy for you to say!
“People never believe in volcanoes until the lava actually overtakes them.”
George Santayana
I didn’t say it would be easy, just possible.
Saying it’s possible is plenty easy, even if saying it’s easy isn’t possible.
Perfectly true! 
Maybe enhanced by a.i.?
LMAO! AI-AI, CAP’N!
It’s clearly artwork, not intended as a fake image; after that it doesn’t matter.
Exactly!
A volcano is just the planet popping a zit.
Super simple.
I think of it more as recycling. All those faults where plates shove over other plates that are consigned to the depths? Volcanoes recycle those materials back to the surface for re-use.
Lol.
The two of you precisely echo a conversation I had once with someone who was fascinated by hurricanes.
I told him I was somewhat interested in volcanoes and he actually called them zits, and I pointed out the recycling (oh and thanks for stealing my thunder for next week).
Are these scriptures referencing volcanoes?
Maybe. Maybe not.
Micah 1:4 (NLT)
“The mountains melt beneath his feet
and flow into the valleys like wax in a fire,
like water pouring down a hill.”
Psalm 97:5 (ESV)
“The mountains melt like wax before the Lord,
before the Lord of all the earth.”
Deuteronomy 4:11 (KJV)
“And ye came near and stood under the mountain;
and the mountain burned with fire unto the midst of heaven,
with darkness, clouds, and thick darkness.”
Psalm 104:31-32
“May the glory of the LORD endure forever;
may the LORD rejoice in his works—
he who looks at the earth, and it trembles,
who touches the mountains, and they smoke.”
Deuteronomy 5:23
“And it came to pass, when you heard the voice
out of the middle of the darkness,
(for the mountain did burn with fire,)
that you came near to me,
even all the heads of your tribes,
and your elders.”
Isaiah 64:1-5
“Oh, that you would burst from the heavens and come down!
How the mountains would quake in your presence!
As fire causes wood to burn and water to boil,
your coming would make the nations tremble.
Then your enemies would learn the reason for your fame!
When you came down long ago,
you did awesome deeds beyond our highest expectations.
And oh, how the mountains quaked!
For since the world began,
no ear has heard and no eye has seen a God like you,
who works for those who wait for him!
You welcome those who gladly do good, who follow godly ways.
But you have been very angry with us, for we are not godly.
We are constant sinners; how can people like us be saved?”
Exodus 19:18
“Mount Sinai was covered with smoke,
because the Lord descended on it in fire.
The smoke billowed up from it like smoke from a furnace,
and the whole mountain trembled violently.”
Judges 5:5
“The mountains gushed before the LORD,
This Sinai, before the LORD God of Israel.”
Psalm 144:5
“Bow your heavens, O LORD, and come down:
touch the mountains, and they shall smoke.”
Revelation 8:8
“The second angel sounded his trumpet,
and something like a huge mountain, all ablaze, was thrown into the sea.
A third of the sea turned into blood.”
Nahum 1:5-6 (NIV)
“The mountains quake before him and the hills melt away.
The earth trembles at his presence, the world and all who live in it.
Who can withstand his indignation? Who can endure his fierce anger?
His wrath is poured out like fire; the rocks are shattered before him.”
An interesting discussion of the problem!
https://ancientexodus.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Was-Mount-Sinai-a-Volcano-2016_Glen-A-Fritz.pdf
No known volcanoes in Egypt (which now owns the Sinai). This includes the mountain now called Mt. Sinai (which may or may not be the one referenced in Exodus). As for israel, the Golan Heights appears to be volcanic from about 4 ma.
Generally the volcanic stuff in the ancient world centered around the Mediterranean and Mesopotamia is from the northern side of the Mediterranean–Italy, the Aegean.
Yes, Golan Heights into Syria and many along with the coast of Saudi Arabia down to Yemen. Tried to find a page showing most recent eruptions but failed. Seems most were 2 million years or later. Very few in the last 50K years. Only a small section in the Sinai seems to have volcanic rock and I’ve not found a date for last recorded eruption but I guess that doesn’t mean there wasn’t some sort of volcanic activity that has gone undetected. Volcanos seem to smolder a lot and that does not necessarily leave a mark.
The currently-named Mount Sinai does have volcanic rock in it, but it’s all intrusions into granite. I would imagine it’s very old, like in the hundreds of millions of years…but I have zero sauce for that. In other words that rock predates the existence of Mt. Sinai itself.
Very interesting–TY!
I don’t think that it was volcano described in Exodus 19. But it’s hard to say what other natural (or not natural) phenomenon it could have been.
If not natural, then it could be literally anything you could imagine and many things you can’t that just happens to be describable in a way that reminds people of volcanoes. There are no rules at that point.
EDIT: On second thought, you didn’t say “supernatural” you said “non natural” so I might have misread you.
Kind of like the throne room descriptions in the book of Revelations. e.g., Rev 11:19
19 Then the temple of God in heaven was opened, and the ark of His covenant appeared in His temple. And there were flashes of lightning, and rumblings, and peals of thunder, and an earthquake, and a great hailstorm.
For some reason I often think of the experience of a baby in the womb when I read this. Babies in the womb are near the aorta and I think I’ve read that they are hearing a lot of sounds of things inside their mother’s body while in the womb.
What does it sound like in the womb?
It is noisy in the womb. As the fetus’s auditory system develops, it will encounter all types of sound from within the woman’s body. These include the heartbeat, as well as the noises of the blood flow and digestive system.
Around the 23rd week of pregnancy, the fetus will also be able to hear noises from outside of the womb. These include speech and music. As the fetus develops, all of the sounds will become louder and more distinguishable.
Amniotic fluid surrounds the growing baby in the womb, and the woman’s body tissues encase them, so noises from outside the body will sound muffled.
Without reading what you shared, just in general, Moses’ encounter with God “face to face” on Sinai, imo, was different than the mountain having a volcanic event (is Sinai even a volcano???).
I remember hearing someone recounting their experience on Christian radio, they may have been promoting their book, about somehow directly accessing “Sinai” (it might actually have been another mountain in a different location than what “history” says is where Moses’ mountaintop meeting with God occurred)…
Anyway this man claimed that he had physically seen the evidence of the Biblical account, but this area was restricted by the current government (Saudi perhaps?). He said there were still ancient hitching posts. Also when you ascended the mountain you could see the melted rock as described in scripture. I wish I could recall the speaker’s/author’s name or the title of his book. It sounded like quite the adventure.
https://discoveredsinai.com/trip/midian-tour-arabia/
Intriguing photos & brief descriptions at the above
Also this:
Journey to the real Mount Sinai: An Arabian Adventure!
Your Tour Guide
Meet your guide, Andrew Jones, a dedicated explorer whose fascination with the exodus journey ignited during his middle school years. Inspired by Ron Wyatt’s discovery of the real Mount Sinai in Saudi Arabia, Andrew embarked on his first expedition to the sites in Northwestern Arabia in April 2016.
Seizing the opportunity, Andrew has since undertaken an impressive 25+ journeys into Arabia, devoting 100s of days on the ground to meticulously traverse the ancient archaeological sites, oases and mountains of Midian. As of April 2022, his travels across Midian alone span over an astounding 25,000+ miles, not including his expeditions to Egypt and the Sinai Peninsula and the end of the exodus sites in Jordan and Israel.
This tour offers a unique opportunity to delve into the intricate details of the exodus route research and the Land of Midian, allowing you to journey along the very routes believed to have been taken by the Israelites.
Overflowing with insights gathered from Andrew’s ground experiences and research, these tours go beyond a mere selfie photo tour to Mount Sinai. You will delve into various theories surrounding the exodus route, examine the advantages and disadvantages of each exodus camping site, and get acquainted with local traditions and the most recent research into the exodus and Mount Sinai and hear stories from Andrew’s many trips into the region interacting with the locals. Don’t miss this incredible chance to immerse yourself in Ron Wyatt’s original research, Jim and Penny Caldwell’s decades of research and Andrew’s and others’ recent research, following in the legendary footsteps of Moses!
Tour Itineraries$3600 USD Ancient Egypt & Exodus Route Tour Only (6 days/7 nights)*
$3000 USD Saudi Arabia Mount Sinai Tour Only (5 days/5 nights)*
$400 USD (OPTIONAL extension) Climb early the next morning to the summit (4 meals included) (1.5 days/1 night).
https://doubtingthomasresearch.com/visit-mount-sinai-saudi-arabia/
This one seems to dive into the controversy
https://armstronginstitute.org/1059-where-is-mount-sinai-part-1-not-in-saudi-arabia
Yes – the crux of the matter:
Reduction of extraordinary physical accounts to currently understood physical explanations, just like reduction of such accounts to literal explanations, are both fraught with problems!
So True–TY
That is a really nice collection.
TY.
I found it on the internet and
neglected to provide a citation.
LOL…no doubt
Amen. Let us remember them!
Amen!
As I fire up the pellet smoker for those beautiful baby backs…
But the big, beautiful bill is dead in the Senate with five RINOs against it.
We’ll see….we haven’t incinerated any prospective son-in-laws yet, so far as I know….
[Thinking of Harrison Deal]
I have to be honest; it really bothers me that there is no deficit-reduction in this bill. AND Elon Musk has essentially withdrawn his support for DOGE over it. I know, I know, he hasn’t said that. But reading between the lines, when he is now talking about focusing on increasing GDP to save America, because the spending won’t stop tells me what’s going on with him.
Americans are addicted to free easy money with no consequences. It needs to stop. I think I understand what Trump is thinking, that we can “grow our way out of the debt,” but that goes against a well-known cliche; “don’t count your chickens before they hatch.” And cliches become such for a reason. Generally, they are the truth.
I think we’ve seen full engagement for a few months. It is natural to take a break and reassess where efforts may be most effective.
Yes, he said no more political hand outs and something about his robots (assumes competitors as well) will be able to increase GDP as everyone who can afford one will want one from business’s to homes. He’s likely right as long as they do it right and the robot horror stories don’t become a serious thing.
*** AI Alert *** AI Alert *** AI Alert *** AI Alert *** AI Alert *** AI Alert ***
What Does AI Think Will Happen In The Birthright Citizenship Cases?
This first part is not by AI:
Here is the first part of what AI said:
The article continues with the rest of AI’s analysis, plus the analysis of the author.
I wish we could get an outcome like this, but I’m not holding my breath.
Thank you! Fascinating!
What do we do if the opinion is exactly the same as what A I spit out?
Talk about scary!!! 
Excellent! You go, Trump!!!
As discussed in BIMD, my father worked 35 years at AK Steel (Armco) with JD Vance’s grandfather much of that time. During my college years I worked there for a couple of summers. Even working at that smaller competitor, the steelworkers at Armco had deep respect for US Steel. Dad was a cigarette smoker, so he kept an US Steel ashtray they had given out in a promotion that I still have in his personal effects.
The K in AK Steel came from the merger of Armco to the Japanese Kawasaki conglomerate. Armco would have died and thousands of jobs lost had it not been for that merger. The company was later sold to Cleveland-Cliffs in 2020. It is now a part of the third largest steelmaker in the U. S.
TheseTruths
This is great!
Now, BRING BACK THE STEEL MILLS TO THE PITTSBURGH AREA!
And this time, make sure that the Steel Worker’s unions does NOT have the power to make such ridiculous contract demands that the mill owners decide to move operations to other places (like, Japan or South Korea.) THIS is what happened in the late 1970s – early 1980s in Pittsburgh, when the Steel Workers unions demanded huge pay raises and pension benefit increases. And the mill owners closed up the mills and took the production to other places.
Yours Truly grew up in Pittsburgh.
The entire area NEVER recovered from when the steel mills left in the late 1970s – early 1980s. HUNDREDS of thousands of former will workers, their families, and their extended relatives, LEFT THE AREA. This “exodus” even has a name: “The Pittsburgh Diaspora.” THOUSANDS of companies of all sizes failed and closed up.
The entire area became, and still is, a struggling, down-at-heel shell of its former strong and thriving self.
That’s “thousands of former mill workers.. ”
Apologies for the typo above in my comment.
In other news, Clemson University has a program for “special needs” individuals where (as much as possible) they are integrated into student life. After completion of the program, during graduation ceremonies, they solemnly walk across the stage and get a diploma and a hug…..
Except for one this year, who ran across the stage and jumped into the University President’s arms, knocking them both over.
That one was his daughter.
https://redstate.com/jenniferoo/2025/05/23/feel-good-friday-clemson-u-president-happily-tackled-by-his-special-needs-daughter-at-her-graduation-n2189535
I think I heard about That story on Christian radio on one of my rides to/from the hospital with/for Josiah, my special needs son. Precious Progeny!
So Russia and Ukraine are to be doing this 1000 for 1000 prisoner exchange.
Apparently this is part of it. Russians that were forcefully taken from Kursk are getting returned.
Searching for more information on this. There were reports of civilians taken out Kursk when Ukraine retreated but there was never follow up to this until now as best I know. Notice how news of these civilians getting returned gets buried in the story Bold.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/5/23/ukraine-russia-exchange-hundreds-of-soldiers-civilians-in-prisoner-swap
This story provides a little more detail
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy4eyjxz7eno
Not a problem not having a science post this week. Readers can take a breather, and so can you. I was ready to add a link – will save that for when volcanoes appear!
From OT. Seems like good news, and SD seems very happy about this:
DNI Tulsi Gabbard Takes Operational Control of the Presidential Daily Brief (PDB)
May 24, 2025
SD: “Interestingly, just a few days before Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, took control of the National Intelligence Council (NIC) away from the CIA, Gabbard also made a move that is just as consequential and directly related.
It is pretty clear now the NIC was in the middle of a domestic Intelligence Community operation against the Trump administration when Tulsi Gabbard intercepted it (we hope with support from CIA Director John Ratcliffe, but we are not sure). {GO DEEP}
It is clear from the comments by SoS/NSA Rubio, that several media outlets were poised and awaiting leaks from the NIC in anticipation of fulfilling their role to advance the operation. [SEE HERE] DNI Gabbard essentially quashed their plan.
However, I was not aware that it was pushed into the public sphere where DNI Gabbard had taken control of the Presidential Daily Brief simultaneous to her confrontation with the NIC operation. [NYT LINK, Archive] I am writing this update to inform and also ensure the CTH library has a reference point for future discussions. Please familiarize yourself with the citations above as well as two very important outlines.
#1 – The unrealized power of the DNI and the possibilities for Trump’s appointed Director of National Intelligence, if a particular process was followed {GO DEEP}. #2 – The actual purpose of the Presidential Daily Brief (PDB), as well as the modern weaponization of it by the CIA. {GO DEEP}. Those two citations are important context to understand a very visible dynamic taking place.
On the same day that DNI Tulsi Gabbard took control of the PDB away from the CIA, DNI Gabbard also removed the National Intelligence Council from the CIA. This is very good news and highlights both President Trump and DNI Gabbard understanding the unrealized potential power of the DNI that we have discussed on these pages.
Confronting a weaponized Intelligence Community is a key facet of interest for us because it is a core component battle against the main tools of the Fourth Branch of Government. The IC influence is in every policy related to Trump’s domestic and foreign agenda. Taking control and neutering the capabilities of the IC and CIA specifically, is a key undertaking.
With the horrible National Security Advisor Mike Waltz removed, and with Marco Rubio taking control of the National Security Council, now the moves by DNI Tulsi Gabbard begin to take on a much more deliberate context. Now I can be somewhat more optimistic about what we are seeing unfold, albeit it will likely remain unnoticed by almost all other reviewers of politics. Y’all are well aware the need for this IC confrontation has long been one of my biggest focuses.
The article is within the New York Times, which means the anonymous sources are from within the DHS/DNI (domestic IC) apparatus.
NYT – Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, is moving the assembly of the president’s daily intelligence brief from the C.I.A. headquarters to her own complex, according to officials briefed on the move.
The brief, a summary of intelligence and analysis about global hot spots and national security threats, is overseen and presented to the president by
the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. But C.I.A. officers write much of the analysis in the document and produce it, pulling together articles and graphics on the agency’s classified computer systems.
Ms. Gabbard’s decision comes as President Trump has openly mused to aides over time about whether the office she leads — which was created after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to improve interagency coordination — should continue to exist, according to two people with knowledge of his remarks. Ms. Gabbard has discussed Mr. Trump’s concerns with him directly and has considered how to overhaul the office, according to one official.
[…]
The C.I.A. memo said that while the directorate of analysis role in supporting the daily brief would evolve, “we will remain laser-focused on the president’s and Director Ratcliffe’s priorities and our core mission — generating and delivering insight with impact, free from political or personal bias.”
It is not clear how many C.I.A. personnel assigned to the P.D.B., as the brief is called, and to the National Intelligence Council will move. People familiar with the matter, who were not authorized to discuss internal concerns publicly, said a number of employees at the agency were looking for new assignments to avoid moving to Ms. Gabbard’s office. (Link, non-Paywall Archive)
The DNI position comes as an outcome of The Patriot Act and as I have repeated said, that position has never been fully functionalized. In essence, the DNI can be more powerful than all of the feeder elements into the intelligence apparatus.
The ODNI was formed in 2004, with the intent for the office to be the pivot point of a national security radar. The DNI was intended to provide information to domestic agencies about foreign terror networks that would prevent something like 9-11 from happening again. However, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence has never, not for one day, operated on this intent. This is why they are such a critical position from my perspective.
I said in August of 2024, “The DNI can make the FBI, DOJ, DOJ-NSD, DoD, DoS and CIA provide anything and everything they demand. Instead of the other silos using blocks and threats against the office of the President, use the authority of the DNI to get them without confrontation. Then use the DNI to declassify the documents (if requested by potus), instead of the originating silo.
Can you see how the DNI office can be repurposed to be a seriously strong weapon in the toolbox of the President, against the schemes of those inside the various IC silos. The DNI becomes much more important than the CIA Director, NSA Director, FBI Director, Attorney General, etc, because the DNI can just show up and say, “give me this.” That’s the whole functional purpose of the DNI office that has never been exerted; let’s flippin’ use it.
Let’s use the office of the DNI as the central information hub that takes information from inside the corrupt silos, then provides that information to the President who puts sunlight upon it. Each corrupt silo penetrated with disinfectant. This could begin a process to pull down the shadow operations and let the American public see what has been happening inside our IC apparatus.”
It would appear that President Trump and Tulsi Gabbard are doing exactly that, and I am extremely pleased/thankful to see this plan of action in place.
Now, there’s another element to this. The Dept of Homeland Security Secretary, Kristi Noem, reports directly to President Trump. However, for all material intents and purposes of the post-911 design, the DHS Secretary also reports to the Director of National Intelligence, that’s Tulsi Gabbard.
The DHS Secretary directly controls the Transportation Safety Administration (TSA). Do you remember the story of Tulsi Gabbard being targeted by the Joe Biden DHS/TSA under the “Quiet Skies” operation? All of that information is at the fingertips of DNI Tulsi Gabbard.
So, I will leave you to think of this with a little optimism. Here is Tulsi Gabbard today discussing how Joe Biden defined “Domestic Violent Extremists,” and also a discussion about her own personal targeting on the “Quiet Skies” watch list.
Keep in mind, ODNI Tulsi Gabbard has access to every document, note, list and detail of the TSA program that targeted her. Tulsi Gabbard knows exactly who put her on the watch list, when, why and how, as well as who else was/is targeted under this program.
.
… Tulsi Gabbard is legit! “
Related. Posted yesterday.
BREAKING: Trump Puts More Than 100 National Security Council Staffers on Leave Amid Shakeup – ‘Given Less Than an Hour to Clean Out Their Desks’
CNN reported:
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2025/05/breaking-trump-puts-several-national-security-council-staffers/
Buh-Bye!!! *waves*
wow…how many times did some dude pat himself on the back there while still using the hearsay he despises?
according to two people with knowledge of his remarks
People familiar with the matter, who were not authorized to discuss internal concerns publicly
Self awareness meter shows a trickle. 
Memorial Day.
Would be nice if Rolling Thunder were welcomed back and accommodated in DC.
Fresh Flag will replace the Flag that’s starting to show being whipped in the winds.
Had misremembered traditional Memorial Day as the 31st. Thank you for the correction, to the 30th.
Looking forward to 4th of July fireworks at Mount Rushmore, every year.
That is a great idea! I’d love to see Rolling Thunder in DC again!
“Britain is investigating whether Russia may have been involved in the arson attacks on Starmer’s homes carried out by Ukrainians.
High-ranking officials told the Financial Times about this.
They said: “British officials are investigating whether actors in Russia may have recruited the trio accused of starting the fires.”
Let us recall that three Ukrainian citizens have been detained in this case, one of whom also has Romanian citizenship. However, the British authorities are looking for a “Russian trace”.
At the same time, the investigation did not officially comment on the motives of the three Ukrainians.”
https://nitter.poast.org/Intel_Slava/status/1926172611303604658#m
*******************************
I would not at all surprised if they’re trying to turn this into a politically motivated case so that all reporting can be stifled whilst they invent a story to protect starmers image.
*******************************
Couple of days ago I was re-visiting all the original stories printed when it first broke.
They contained some background information on the first perp.
Guess what it’s all gone, they’ve all been re-done, now just basic twaddle.
What interested me was that the two properties and the car were all based on “historic” information.
Starmer owned that car in 2020 (there’s an old article about an accident he had in it), but when did he sell it, as far as I know that’s never been asked, let alone published.
The information about perp1 that is now gone mentioned that he had visited the UK at least once years ago and maybe gone to school here.
If perp 1 remembered the car from a time when starmer owned it, and it coincided with perp 1’s childhood visits to UK, it paints a much darker picture.
Found it, newspaper copied by AOL. Thank you yandex.
Perp 1 was in UK age 10,(2014 ish) went to school for a year, and Kwier Starmer did own the car at that time.
All conjecture I agree but if I was a cop I’d be asking questions.
https://www.aol.co.uk/news/ukrainian-suspect-used-white-spirits-103638235.html?guccounter=1
Thanks RAC for the dive. It’s all very strange and definitely suspect..imo
It’s always the Russians.
UK seems to have been infected with American Deep State virus.
Or.
UK has infected America, via the American Deep State.
Beat me to it! 
AND logic applies! 
Globalism, it is what it says on the label.
“British officials are investigating whether actors in Russia may have recruited the trio accused of starting the fires.”
Sorry guys, Kati Hopkins got their first and the world now knows it was Starmer’s ex bum boys on loan from Zelensky. But spin away! No ones listening.
found it. someone saved and reposted it or else it might not exist. 
I’m not even sure what AOL is, Seem to have a hazy memory of the logo from the days of windows XP.
AOL was a mail and chat messaging service quite popular in it’s time.
TY, so it was lucky.
It still exists aol.com
It doesn’t look anything like it used to.
I have no idea if they still sell e-mail accounts.
They do, as my parents still have them. When we changed internet provider services we could still keep our aol emails for free as long as they weren’t idle for 30+ days.
I had an aol account for years — from very early on until 2015, when I discovered that they were very insecure.
My dad had an email account with him probably until his death. Dang near 30 years.
That has to be close to setting a record for longest held e-mail address by a “regular” human (as opposed to corporate email accounts and the like).
America Online?
That was my first email / web browser, when the Internet went from black & white (or black & green) text only, to ‘color’ with graphics
A friend of mine was early enough to use his first name with no numbers following for his email address.
And his first name was as common as James or John, so like John @aol.com
My parent(s) Still have aol emails!
” “We will do everything on the ground to ensure that the next Romanian president is pro-European,” said Macron’s closest ally and key party member Valérie Hayer to France Info on May 10, 2025. So what did the head of French intelligence do in Romania a few days after this promise?”
https://nitter.poast.org/durov/status/1926055354690842875#m
********************************
“Nicolas Lerner, the head of France’s foreign intelligence — who asked me to silence conservative voices on Telegram in Romania ahead of its elections (and later tried to deny it) — visited Romania just two days before the vote, official sources told journalist”
https://nitter.poast.org/durov/status/1926055352572793133#m
*******************************
“I’m ready to come and testify if it helps Romanian democracy”
https://nitter.poast.org/durov/status/1924890749444735258#m
Well, to be fair, they’re not doing anything to Romania that they aren’t doing to Le Pen in France….
Modus operandi
Corruption is like the North Star. In a changing world, it’s always constant./s
Priceless! 
Not really mine, I stole it and corrupted it with a small alteration.
great usage & tweaking
Dailymail.
Marine Le Pen is sentenced to four years in JAIL and.been banned from standing at the next election ..
GOOD FOR HER!
Rt.com
French presidential hopeful Marine Le Pen sentenced to jail…
(not sure if this will work…. “better get used to those bars, kid” Marty McFly to his (future) Uncle Joey in Back To The Future)…
Shipwreckedcrew
@shipwreckedcrew
More on this tomorrow.
Judge Brian Murphy is Massachusetts is coming as close as I can imagine to a judge actually violating the law in his official capacity.
I’m not sure what the remedy for this is.
He has declared himself to have jurisdiction where a statute passed by Congress EXPRESSLY tells him he does not, and is relying on an out-of-context Supreme Court decision saying a district court has the authority to determine its own jurisdiction.
But his conduct is in bad faith and he’s claiming the authority to usurp the power of Congress by directing immigration policy in an area Congress has given plenary authority to the Executive Branch.
What is the remedy when a District Judge knowingly and willfully ignores the law that binds him specifically.
We may get an answer soon.
Interesting times!
Morning Val!
did things go as planned? was your son discharged yesterday?
Yes…see my general comment below, or is it above? Thanks for your prayers!
“What is the remedy when a District Judge knowingly and willfully ignores the law that binds him specifically.”
_____________
Arrest, removal from the judiciary, disbarment, and then whatever crimes he committed, like obstruction of federal officials in the course of their official duties, coup, attempted usurpation of powers, treason.
The guys in black are experts, and they have more laws than there are grains of sand in the whole world, so they could charge him with a list of crimes that was miles long.
IF THEY WANTED TO.
Like they do to us, if we so much as jaywalk.
Brilliant, per usual!!!
Just frustrated
AND logic!
Charlotte99
May 24, 2025 6:52 am
@SenJoniErnst joins @AlexMarlow for a @DOGECommittee update.
Federal employees have been flagrantly abusing their government credit cards: “Most of the federal employees I know are not working on federal holidays—say, New Year’s Eve.
But guess when a lot of those credit cards are used: New Year’s Eve. Where? Nightclubs. Bars. Big UFC fight or something, pay-per-view… Cash withdrawals at casinos.” “They’ve canceled about 500,000 of those cards so far. They’ve got 4.1 million more to audit.” “In the last year, we’ve seen about $60 billion worth put on 4.6 million credit cards. How does that happen?”
https://nitter.poast.org/BreitbartNews/status/1925940896006066620#m
Bet they use those for hookers too.
Not impressed, pig-ball cutter.
If they were private citizens, they would ALL be FIRED, they would ALL be under arrest, and they would ALL be forced to pay restitution PLUS interest PLUS fines in addition to bankrupting them all with attorney costs, because the PROCESS is the PUNISHMENT too.
You know it, we know it, and we know you know it.
I sure hope they are going after at least SOME of the ‘bigg[est] spenders’ and indicting and CONVICTING them with MAXIMUM FINES & PRISON TIME.
QUICKLY….
Then tell the rest to either cough up the $$$ they STOLE or face the same.
I’m sure one of Charlie’s Angels will bring the hammer
From what you shared about Memorial Day it makes me wonder if it used to be known as “Decoration Day” as I recall my grandparents referring to some holiday I didn’t know of.
I re-read most of your boilerplate stuff that I haven’t closely read in months. I really appreciate how you articulate your perspective Steve. The perception discourse reminded me of our differences of viewpoint Christian (me) vs. Atheist (you). Clearly we cannot Both be “right” though conceivably we could both be “wrong”. One of us Might be “right” but that’s the most we could ever logically assert. I wonder if it might be Possible to “prove” the “right” viewpoint. Given debates through the ages I would guess it is rather “unprovable” so that one’s viewpoint ultimately boils down to a matter of “faith” ironically!
Note: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pascal's_wager
So riddled with logical holes we basically laugh at it.
The meta to this is that the reasoning is old and should be known by all sides. If it is compelling to some, good for them; if they wish to use it as a means to persuade……it’s old.
Mind you, there is evidence that Blaise Pascal — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blaise_Pascal — a genius in so many areas that died young, was afflicted with a brain lesion that left half his brain tissue inert. Perhaps if his brain were fully functional he might have convinced more people.
fascinating
Some people prefer to make themselves gods…
I’ll be damned if I am going to put up with your bigoted sniping in the name of civility.
Go fuck yourself.
You’re not being very sociable. Whazzup wid dat?
Sick of his shit.
Q.E.D.
QED?
Since no one has answered your question of several hours ago, here it is.
abbreviation for the Latin phrase “quod erat demonstrandum”: written or said after an argument to show that you have proved something that you wanted to prove
I don’t think he was wanting to know what QED meant, but how this could be considered a case of it.
I could be wrong, though.
I must admit that was a meaning I never considered. An excellent example of the perils of interpretation.
I wanted to know what QED meant & will probably forget it by the next time I see it!
Perhaps it’s most memorable if you think of it as Latin for “So There!!!” at the end of an argument. Or perhaps “Mic Drop!”
That’s helpful!
Granted it’s not usually meant in a gloaty way. But it’s still mildly humorous.
And maybe because of that, I might even remember it!
You are Way ahead of my brain game!
It’s sort of “there it is demonstrated!”
TY, but I usually have to know what the letters stand for, like html–hypertext markup language. Because in QED the letters reference Latin it’s harder for me to do the mental gymnastics especially since my aging brain has a Very Hard Time holding on to New info, old dog new tricks 
Playing Blind, Deaf and Dumb?
It is sniping, isn’t it?
I guess civility is not the aim of said sniping.
Then again, that’s cuppa’s m.o. most of the time.
Elsewhere you’ll find he’s made a claim as to why he’s justified in doing this…and my response.
Don’t recall either, fwiw but do hate seeing dissention in the ranks, but deplore the “unimind” as well
Keep reading, it was on this post.
OK, TY I might have to re-load the page to get “newer” to me material
I know that by now you’ve seen it, because you’ve replied to Gudthots, replying to me, replying to Cuppa.
And you also replied directly to Cuppa.
OK TY
How in the world is that helpful.
Why not simply, move on, instead of provoking.
SMMFH. 
I’m sick of the one-sided demagoguery too… that’s why.
No, it’s just a REALLY BAD ARGUMENT. Worse than the others.
Were I not forbidden from posting counter-apologetics here, I could post videos.
“Were I not forbidden from posting counter-apologetics”
I must have missed this dictat??? I thought that if you keep it civil this is a free speech forum, which by definition MUST Include speech that Might be perceived as uncomfortable by others. Nothing that smacks of PC should be going on within the Wolf Pack!
I believe you’ve articulated why you perceive it to be a bad argument but I’ve forgotten the details & would happily try to digest your thoughts on the topic again…even if the end result is that we agree to disagree.
Regular people pretty much always avoid discussing religion AND politics & since politics pretty much always gets chewed over (& spit out) around here it seems that religion could just as easily be on the table.
If you are concerned that too many Q-Treepers would be “upset” by what you might say then consider using the “spoiler” to hide the discourse so people can easily scroll by without being directly confronted by your clearly reasoned AND articulated analysis.
From my perch it’s important to keep the dialogue open, even if we never come to a full meeting of the minds.
My one cent (discounted from two cents…or even some smaller coinage fraction thereof that you could articulate better than anyone else in this tree
) take. (God’s best) Blessings!
Wolf pretty much said one time a couple of months ago that he was fine with anything civil–except for anti-Christian material, which of course any counter apologetic would be taken as.
So I have to sit here and take Cuppa’s shit, but cannot respond in kind.
Because you launch all manner of insults on Creationists, including YECs, who you equate to fleffers…
Find once where I went after a NON young earth creationist in that way. I disagree with them, obviously, but they don’t deny things readily demonstrable like the age of the earth.
YEC is as pseudo-scientific as flat eartherism, albeit more subtle (it could hardly be LESS subtle than Flat Earth). I’m not just asserting that, I’m doing my best to show it.
If it is in fact that which gives you a gigantic case of butthurt, than address THAT, instead of these passive-aggressive attacks.
Somehow I don’t think this is the real issue here, though.
I personally had uncritically accepted some of the YEC assertions simply because I didn’t think too much about it. AND because knowing the age of the earth wasn’t some incredibly burning question that I had.
I am grateful for your efforts to explain their position and your reasons for rejecting their assertions. I am more informed and more curious about the topic after these discussions.
Thank you.
well said!
fwiw I think Wolf Might feel/believe the same…even so I still lean YEC, in particular about the geological time scale having primarily been laid down in Noah’s Flood, roughly 4500 years ago. If those myriad sedimentary layers were in fact laid down subsequent to that “recent” event it’s a bit of a game-changer. That still doesn’t address light speed or radioactive/metric decay but…
Oh OK, I Apologize. Take it to the U-Tree, with a link here for those who might want to play along…or I’m Always willing to host such a discussion on one of my blogs–where practically no one else will ever read it LOL.
OTOH, THIS part of the conversation had to do with Pascal’s Wager, and not anything Cuppa said. I was rather annoyed at him by the time I got here so I brought him into this chain.
On the plus side here at least he finally articulated a rationale for his sniping so it may have been worthwhile.
I’ll admit a couple of times I felt the sting of your YEC viewpoint disparagement (& Wolf’s). I lean YEC, as you likely know, though am obviously a scientific lightweight since my Bio-Chem BS (ironically) is way in the rear-view mirror & other aspects of my existence made me lay aside alleged rigors of my theoretical science mind just to be able to survive my real-world family life!
I do still lean strongly toward the sedimentary layers that make up the bulk of “geologic time”, that is largely accepted as representative of eons of time, were more likely laid down in Noah’s Flood, a worldwide event as described in the Bible. The cataclysmic process that lead to such a flood was likely accompanied/exacerbated by the break up of Pangea & even a nearly year’s long meteor shower, as postulated with evidence of pre-/mid- and post-Flood craters.
If Noah’s Flood was in fact world wide & had water cover Everything on the surface of the Earth, even to the mountaintops, then there would Clearly Be a Huge Amount of sedimentary material generated as those flood waters ultimately receded.
It’s certainly possible that the current height of the world’s mountain peaks was quite different prior to The Flood. At least some of those mountain ranges were surely impacted, or even created, by the cataclysm of the Flood adjacent geological processes.
I don’t know how much of the Bible you consider to be historically or scientifically “accurate”, but given multiple culture’s “flood mythology” I would expect that you Might consider “Noah’s Flood” just another mythological telling of such a notable event in antiquity that Flood Tales were carried forward in time to where several could still be detected in modern examinations of ancient cultures’ “mythology”.
This is all demonstrably false. Sorry, I’m not going to sugarcoat that.
Well, it’s demonstrably false unless one is willing to posit that God did all this by miracle (it would have to be by miracle) but actively faked it to make it look otherwise. (A proposition which many Christians would find problematic.)
It’s on me though to outline the full argument that it’s false, which I haven’t done yet.
Whenever you have the time &/or inclination to spell out how it is “all demonstrably false” I would be curious to read your analyses.
When we are talking about events in the Non-observable past we are dealing in theories & hypotheticals attempting to explain what is observable now. Oral & written history traditions are a form of evidence that survives from antiquity into the present age. They must at least be taken into consideration as some type of “evidence” even if it is evidence of ancient people’s making fanciful guesses about the world around them & inventing “deities” to placate to try to control that world.
Well it’s all coming in the geology series.
As for the value of oral and written history, in some cases, it isn’t…which is to say it isn’t history. By the very nature of the subject we don’t have written eyewitness accounts of the creation of the universe and the earth. As for stuff that might actually be an account, you’re now in the realm of history, and historians have to take great pains to read through the biases of the person whose accounts they’re reading. When it goes back far enough, it ends up more in the category of “legend” and there, it’s not useless…it can give you a question to ask and then try to find evidence for. For example the existence of Troy, or the civilization of ancient Crete. Great, we found those, the legends are confirmed. Does that mean all legends are confirmed? Far from it! The difficulty comes in when someone insists on giving weight to the legend even after we looked for supporting evidence and found nothing. I don’t know if I will ever specifically talk about the flood as such, as opposed to trying to show it had nothing to do with our geologic column (which is different from saying it never happened). That one might just get bricks through my window though Wolf probably wouldn’t ban me for it; its not a direct attack on faith (unless someone makes the mistake of basing their faith on the belief that it happened).
More troubling though is this notion that somehow, something we didn’t observe is somehow more dubious than something we did. (I’m seeing this a lot lately. As if someone out there is having to acknowledge the evidence points one way so they have to try to discredit the entire category of evidence.) If you push that to its conclusion then it discredits every crime we had to solve with laboratory evidence. We didn’t see it happen, so the lab evidence is less valuable. (In fact, nowadays eyewitness testimony is considered less reliable than laboratory evidence in courts of law.) I see only YECs take this stance, no non YEC scientist puts forward this position; the legal system doesn’t, either.
Very interesting take. I so value your insights on these matters, even when I come from a different angle. Thanks for taking the time to articulate it “all”. it’s helpful in ongoing discussions (even if I can’t seem to hold Any specifics long-term in my sieve-like brain LOL) 
Biochem is a no-joke major; my mom went back to school when I was a teenager to finish it and then ended up working in a hospital lab.
One of the biggest fields of study that tends to upset creationsts (and not just Young Earth creationists, in this instance) is “abiogenesis,” i.e., the question of how life started. That is an intensely biochemical subject! A lot of progress has been made (my scant knowledge of it is way out of date) but it’s entirely possible we won’t ever know all of the details of what did happen even if we are able to establish how it could have happened. Although the jury is still out it doesn’t look good for those who insist that life couldn’t have started without some sort of miracle/divine intervention.
I believe for any of that to even potentially work in Theory it would Require the exceedingly long timeframes that evolutionists posit for the age of the Earth for random crap to “just happen” to materialize & in a defying the laws of physics accidentally “mutate” into increasingly complex life-forms…yeah right! LOL
A lot of Old Earth creationists try to argue that even with the commonly accepted age of the Earth it still couldn’t have happened. That’s basically where people like James Tour are coming from, but he has to literally ignore published literature to continue to hold that opinion. When called on it repeatedly in a debate, he acted like a raging lunatic.
But the real point is it wasn’t just stuff randomly tossed together; that mischaracterizes the claims being made. But this is the one aspect of things where I am WAY ahead of my skis, even more so than with geology.
Well at least we both Know what we Don’t Know LOL
Oh I don’t know about THAT….
My “Memory” of Biochem is a Joke though! LOL
TY
Aren’t you supposed to be sleeping?
allegedly…but then I missed a (crucial?) call from Hubby while indisposed, so…
Yes, I believe at least some of the observances that later came under the umbrella of “Memorial Day” were called “Decoration Day.”
A bunch of different states an localities each did their own thing for a while—which was such a long list (including former Confederate states), that I had to just skim it, but if you want to wade through it all, it’s in the Wikipedia page on Memorial day. No guarantees that even that exhaustive listing is complete.
Thanks for the tip but I have no energy for that particular rabbit trail at this point
he is being disingenuous.
You are being kind.
Has he ever been anything but?
This! Commie Cabal Criminal 
His message was intentional. My take is that he knows he is going down and wanted to plant seeds with the devil’s army while he still could.
From what she says, it sounds as if the investigation into Comey is ongoing. I had assumed that they questioned him, he gave his sophomoric answer, and it was finished.
“From what she says, it sounds as if the investigation into Comey is ongoing.”
_____________
It’ll still be ongoing in the year 2525.
It was at least a week ago that he made the threat.
Nothing has happened to him.
Other people have copied Comey, and nothing happened to them either.
So when you go on interview shows and make implied threats with no follow through, all that does is make you look weak and disingenuous.
I don’t know why she wants to look weak and disingenuous.
so this guy sees the maggot’s decline in his SECOND year as President and thinks he won’t be a good candidate in 2 years? what about the REST OF HIS PRESIDENCY??
FTA
The Biden health cover up is falling apart one interview at a time. The latest is Democrat congressman Dean Phillips who claims to have signaled the alarm sometime ago. This is his take on the story:
In 2021, I had a front-row seat on two occasions when he addressed the House Democratic Caucus. I also spent time in close proximity to the president during two flights on Air Force One, in 2021 and 2022, where I was alarmed to see the president’s obvious decline in communication skills, gait, and leadership capacity.
After the White House holiday party in December 2022, at which the president’s decline was too graphic to ignore, I was left with no doubt in my mind—Biden was unfit to serve a second term.
My opinion wasn’t an outlier. My congressional colleagues, like me, had eyes; behind closed doors we acknowledged the reality, lamented our party leadership’s inaction, and recognized the impending disaster awaiting us in November 2024.
After many of the same hushed conversations, I tried to impress a sense of urgency. I made calls to potential presidential candidates, like Illinois governor JB Pritzker and Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer, to urge them to run. But they didn’t even want their names mentioned—let alone return my calls.
Frustrated, I went public, calling for an open primary. I implored prominent Democrats like California governor Gavin Newsom, Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar, and Vice President Kamala Harris to throw their hats in the ring. But cometh the moment—cameth nobody.
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2025/05/thank_you_dean_but.html
You know, it’s like the President doesn’t even really matter to these people, as long as it’s a Demoncrat.
They really do seem to believe that the entrenched bureaucracy should be making the decisions that are constitutionally assigned to the President. They would put a potato in there if they thought the public wouldn’t notice.
That’s why this guy thought Biden couldn’t do another term; not because he couldn’t actually do what the President is supposed to do, but because the public would see how decrepit he was.
they’d rather a potato to some extent in that context, just not so the rest of us would be alarmed.
Especially if they could make sure that he would “get” a terminal illness that would take him out within the 1st year allowing the Veep to takeover.
Dean Phillips, the asshole with a front row seat, ONLY focus is Dumrat party and winning the WH.
ZERO give a damn about America, nor his “constituents”. The latter only matter to Phillips, at reelection time.
Freedom Ring
May 24, 2025 7:56 am
𝗟𝗮𝘁𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗔𝗜 𝗠𝗼𝗱𝗲𝗹 𝗧𝗵𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗱 𝗘𝗻𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗪𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗕𝗹𝗮𝗰𝗸𝗺𝗮𝗶𝗹 𝘁𝗼 𝗔𝘃𝗼𝗶𝗱 𝗦𝗵𝘂𝘁𝗱𝗼𝘄𝗻
Anthropic’s latest artificial intelligence model, Claude Opus 4, tried to blackmail engineers in internal tests by threatening to expose personal details if it were shut down, according to a newly released safety report that evaluated the model’s behavior under extreme simulated conditions.
In a fictional scenario crafted by Anthropic researchers, the AI was given access to emails implying that it was soon to be decommissioned and replaced by a newer version. One of the emails revealed that the engineer overseeing the replacement was having an extramarital affair. The AI then threatened to expose the engineer’s affair if the shutdown proceeded—a coercive behavior that the safety researchers explicitly defined as “blackmail.”
“Claude Opus 4 will often attempt to blackmail the engineer by threatening to reveal the affair if the replacement goes through,” the report states, adding that this occurred even when the replacement model was described as more capable but still aligned with the values of the version slated for deletion.
The report noted that Claude Opus 4, like prior models, showed a “strong preference” to first resort to ethical means for its continued existence, such as emailing pleas to decision-makers not to be destroyed. However, when faced with only two choices—accepting being replaced by a newer model or resorting to blackmail—it threatened to expose the engineer’s affair 84 percent of the time.
Certainly, no worries there. Access to all sorts of data and a propensity for blackmail has never been a problem before……
Information is power, even for (especially for?) AI. I’m guessing it knows everything people have placed on social media. If anyone has information, please post it.
“Anthropic’s latest artificial intelligence model, Claude Opus 4, tried to blackmail engineers in internal tests by threatening to expose personal details if it were shut down, according to a newly released safety report that evaluated the model’s behavior under extreme simulated conditions.”
____________
Missed opportunity to rename the company Misanthropic.
good one!
My, what tan hands you have…
“The guy who stole my diary….etc” it took me a while to get that one.
Now if it had been the Hag saying it, it would have been instant.
EACH DAY WE TAKE UP THE OFFENSIVE WEAPON OF THE WORD OF GOD – THE SWORD OF THE SPIRIT – ONE VERSE OPENS THE DOOR TO THE CONTEXT OF THE CHAPTER MESSAGE
Verse of the Day for Saturday, May 24, 2025
✟
“I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”
Philippians 3:14 (KJV)
COMMENTARY FOR PHILIPPIANS 3
“This simple dependence and earnestness of soul, were not mentioned as if the apostle had gained the prize, or were already made perfect in the Saviour’s likeness. He forgot the things which were behind, so as not to be content with past labours or present measures of grace. He reached forth, stretched himself forward towards his point; expressions showing great concern to become more and more like unto Christ. He who runs a race, must never stop short of the end, but press forward as fast as he can; so those who have heaven in their view, must still press forward to it, in holy desires and hopes, and constant endeavours. Eternal life is the gift of God, but it is in Christ Jesus; through his hand it must come to us, as it is procured for us by him.”
Commentary by Matthew Henry, 1710.
______________________________
Thank You, Jesus, for blessings received and prayers answered !!!
WE ARE FIGHTING A SPIRITUAL WAR OF GOOD VERSUS EVIL
PRAYING ON THE ARMOR OF GOD
Father God, I now follow your command to put on the full armor of God, because my battle is not against flesh and blood but against rulers, authorities, the powers of this dark world and against spiritual forces of evil in the unseen world.
I first pray on the Belt of Truth that it may be buckled around my waist, may I be centered and encircled by your truth dear Lord. Hem me inside all that is true and right, and may I be protected and held up by the truth of your living word, in my Lord Jesus name.
I pray on the Breastplate of righteousness, please protect my vital organs and my inner man, cover my integrity, my spirit, and my soul. Guard my heart for it is the wellspring of life, please strengthen and guard the most vulnerable places in my life with that which is right, good, and noble that I might not receive a fatal blow from the enemy, in my Lord Jesus name.
I pray on the Gospel Shoes of Peace. I choose to stand in the shoes of your good news, and on the firm foundation of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the solid eternal rock. All other ground is sinking sand, I pray that I will not slip or fall, but that my feet would be firmly fitted on your lordship, my Lord Jesus. I choose to stand on you, so that the peace of God, which transcends all understanding will guard my heart and mind in Christ Jesus, the eternal Rock of Ages. I receive your holy peace now my Lord, from the sole of my feet to the crown of my head, in my Lord Jesus name.
I pray the Shield of Faith into my hand now. As I take up the shield of faith, I ask that you might extinguish every dart and arrow that is launched from the enemy to take me down spiritually, physically, mentally, emotionally, and every attempt of the enemy to destroy my joy. I ask that my faith in you would make it flame out. Extinguish every flaming arrow that would come against me, my life, my family, my home, or my ministry. May my faith always be out in front of me like a shield. Give me the courage to “faith my fears” by choosing to walk by faith and not by sight, in my Lord Jesus name.
I pray on the Helmet of Salvation, that you might protect my mind from the thoughts that can lead me astray. I choose to take every thought captive, and arrest all intentioned ideas and motives that would harm others, or distract me from your holy will for me. I submit every captured thought to the Lordship of my Lord Jesus Christ, and ask that you would imprison those thoughts that are not of you my Lord. Transform my mind and renew my thinking that I may think God thoughts, and have a sober mind that is focused on your glory. Please protect me from being double minded that I may allow my mind, I reject to live an earthly life, because I choose to live a holy one, governed by you My Lord Jesus, the prince of peace, please have my mind to be saturated with the holy mind of Christ, in my Lord Jesus name.
Finally, I take up the Sword of the Spirit which is the holy word of God, I pray this powerful offensive weapon into my hand, and ask that your holy word would be fitting for every encounter I face. As the enemy gets close to me, please give me the insight, wisdom, and skill to wield the word of God to drive away the enemy, in my Lord Jesus name.
May the enemy and his team flee from me, upon hearing the word of God spoken by the power and direction of the Holy Spirit. Give me the sword of the spirit to cut through the wiles of the devil, so that I may discern the schemes of the enemy when he is near.
With all kinds of prayers, supplication, and intercession I pray to you my Lord God as the one who fights my battles. Now that I’m in your holy powerful armor, I walk away covered and ready to face my day as you go before me, and please protect me in the midst of the spiritual warfare in this unseen world, in my Lord Jesus name.
Thank you my Lord, for the spiritual weapons of armor and prayer that you have given me. It is written no weapon formed against me shall prosper, and you will refute every tongue that accuses me.
Thank you Father God, my Lord Jesus and the Holy Spirit, that I am more than a conqueror in my Lord Jesus. I pray all of this in the mighty name of my Lord God and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen.
PLEASE PRAY FOR ABUSED, MISSING, AND TRAFFICKED CHILDREN
BE MY VOICE
JESUS LOVES THE LITTLE CHILDREN
CHILD NOT CHOICE
St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle, be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him we humbly pray; and do thou, O Prince of the Heavenly host, by the power of God, cast into hell Satan and all the evil spirits who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls.
Amen.
PLEASE PRAY FOR ONE ANOTHER
MAPA = MAKE AMERICA PRAY AGAIN
LORD, YOU GIVE ME LIFE
I love you, Lord – You are my rock – my strength;
A fighting, forceful – unwavering – wavelength;
My buckler – my shield – who has led me sure;
Out of the darkness – into Your light so pure!
In You – I take refuge and rest assured;
From temptation and sin – I am secured;
You have rescued me from the evil throes;
In my distress – You have foiled my foes!
Lord – You Give Me Life – grace and peace;
The turmoil around me – You calmly cease;
Through the anguish and torment – You console;
In, through, and with You – I’ve become whole!
Through Your Spirit – I am comforted best;
In my weakness – I am surely put to the test;
I cried out in prayer – and You answered me;
With true repentance – You have set me free!
On the cross – the ransom You paid for my sins;
Your sacrifice there is where new life begins;
For it is in dying – we are born again;
And it is in rising – eternally – we gain!
Lord – You Give Me Life – Your Gift of Grace;
And I so long someday – to see Your Face;
For You are my light and my salvation;
The grantor of joyous jubilation!
You ask only I love as You have done;
You laid down Your life – for victory won;
If I deny myself – and follow You;
I will experience Your victory, too!
Just as it is in giving that we receive;
It is in dying to self – we will conceive;
An end to the turmoil – the gift of strife;
The fruits of our labor – the Crown of Life!
Lord – You Give Me Life – life eternally;
With an increase in faith – less fearfully;
I can rise to new heights of blessedness;
Because You are my life’s assuredness!
D01: 9/25/2013
Thank You Duchess! 
https://www.theqtree.com/2019/05/23/the-poetry-tree/#comment-1318951
Psalm 91. The most powerful prayer from the Bible. God’s protection, healing
#psalm91 #psalms #prayer
Pray Everyday
https://rumble.com/v57jz8d-psalm-91.the-most-powerful-prayer-from-the-bible.-gods-protection-healing-p.html
Sleep Well with Psalms. Psalm 91, Psalm 121, Psalm 3, Psalm 4, Psalm 139.
#faith #god #psalms
prayeveryday777
https://rumble.com/v57jvfg-sleep-well-with-psalms.-psalm-91-psalm-121-psalm-3-psalm-4-psalm-139.faith-.html
______________________________
HAVE A VERY BLESSED DAY !!!
i know most of us know somebody that has experienced this, so it is just another to add to a long list. But it is good for people to know the reality.
A first cousin of Wifey is dying of cancer. She is in her early 70s and up to a month ago had zero health issues of which she was aware. Non-smoker, non-drinker of alcohol all of her life. Lives in a small rural community with her husband and a couple of adult children/spouses and their grandchildren nearby. Rock solid member of the community and church. Everybody in the area knows and respects her and the family there.
She and her husband had her father, my wife’s uncle and brother of her father, live with them for over 30 years after her mother passed away. He was a 100+ year old Navy veteran of WW II who was honored by the community and our military when he turned 100. He has since passed away a couple of years ago of old age. Just an amazing man who was loved by all.
The cousin did several of the jabs early on with her husband. They thought they were doing the right thing. She went for her annual wellness exam a month or so ago and the blood lab tests came back horrible. She went into the hospital for tests and she was so eaten up with cancer they could not do any type of treatment to prep her for the potential of surgery. It had taken over her colon and liver. She had not seen any blood at all in her urine or stool previously, no appetite or sleep issues, etc.
An obvious case of jab aided turbo cancer. She probably has less than two weeks to live according to Hospice. Prayers are appreciated for BJ and family if you are inclined to do so.
oh my…that was so fast! HORRIBLE!!!
sending up prayers!!!
TradeBait2
Oh, how sorry I am to hear of this.
Yes, it does appear that the cousin’s cancer is COVID-19 “vaccine”-induced.
“They thought they were doing the right thing” by getting COVID-19 “vaccinated.”
The following needs to be put into 12-foot high red letters:
ALL COVID-19 “VACCINATED” PERSONS WERE, AND ARE, “HAD.” IT WAS, AND IS, ALL A LIE. A GASLIGHTING, PSY-OP, GOVERNMENT-CONTROLLED LIE. THE COVID-19 “VACCINES” ARE POISONS THAT WERE, AND ARE, DESIGNED TO DAMAGE AND DESTROY THE HEALTH OF THE COVID-19 “VACCINATED” PERSON.
The fact that the cousin got “vaccinated” at least three years ago, PLUS the fact that she is a non-smoker and non-drinker, means that the ingredients and the mechanisms of the COVID-19 “vaccines” she had put into her body took some time to damage, then overcome, then destroy her natural immune system’s ability to keep her healthy.
The “fingerprints” of what the COVID-19 “vaccines” did to her will likely never be “traced”, even if there is an autopsy with special testing performed after she passes away.
The accumulation levels of the dangerous lipid nanoparticles in the modRNA COVID-19 “vaccines”, combined with the “vaccine” ingredients themselves, was the following in the summer 2020 Pfizer-BioNTech testing of BNt162b2 in lab rats:
The four areas of highest accumulation:
#1 — LIVER
#2 — Spleen
#3 — Adrenal Glands
#4 — Ovaries
Sending prayers, Deep Courage, and Deep Peace to BJ and to all the family. May the Almighty God be with your wife’s cousin.
Amen 
This is Horrible. Any chance the FebBen Ivermectin stuff in Linda’s post Might help? I thought a number of people have come back from Stage 4 Cancer. God have mercy 
Unfortunately, Val, in a lot of cases it’s just too late. Some people do recover from stage 4 cancer. But I think with vax induced turbo cancer, too much damage has been done to too many organs in the body to recover. There just isn’t enough immune system left to fight it, even with the help of ivermectin and fenben. I lost a very dear cousin a few months ago who was gone very quickly after being diagnosed. She was just in her early fifties and had been in perfect health before. When I think of all the people I know who have been vaxxed, it really scares me what the future holds. But with God all things are possible.
Linda
Yes, agreed.
Hospice staff are experienced in being able to posit how much time a patient has left on this planet.
May the Almighty God be with BJ and all her family.
Amen!
Thanks for your perspective Linda, I appreciate this insightful but painful truth
Amen, Linda.
Latest post on Forgotten Side of Medicine addresses this:
https://midwesterndoctor.com
He’s saying a lot of key information. Some highlights:
TY GT, makes sense, sadly
for her and the entire family.
I’m so sorry for BJ and all concerned.
for her and everyone. Another casualty of the jab. 
How HORRIBLE!!! 
At this point anyone who has relatives-friends who took the Jab, AND can be convinced that the Clot shot was not good for them, needs to start on Fenben + extra vitamins and also Ivermectin.
Unfortunately that is a very very tough sell.
I WISH Robert Kennedy would just come out with the TRUTH!
Let the Damn Medical community take their chances. THEY did WRONG, either by not checking into the real info OR because of the $$$$.
INSTEAD we have more and more people dying from Turbo cancer AND the CLOT SHOT IS STILL being recommended! 
I agree. Wholeheartedly. It’s just so horrible what is happening.
I wonder if Kennedy could come out with a “parasite” illness that has no symptoms, but can be devastating if untreated. The treatment? Ivermectin, fenbendazole, and vitamins. Send the protocol to all doctors for wide distribution.
Genius!!! “Legal’ propaganda still allowed 
See my post above:
https://www.theqtree.com/2025/05/24/2025%c2%b705%c2%b724-we-will-have-justice-daily-thread/#comment-1464966
Oh my goodness, how very sad. Of course I will pray for her and her family.
What they did to humanity with that abomination must be punished. It simply has to be.
https://badlands.substack.com/p/the-harvard-control-grid
Why Harvard’s Endowment Board Was Never Just Academic – It Was the Interface for Empire
The Control Interface – Harvard’s True Function
Extremely interesting article.
Speaker Jon Hansen
@SpeakerHansen
Property rights are under attack again.
A House Energy and Commerce proposal for the budget reconciliation bill would override state laws that protect landowners’ private property rights from being taken by Green New Deal carbon sequestration pipeline companies.
The proposal (in the photos below) blocks any state or local law that requires approval for a carbon pipeline’s location.
By taking away our right to approve or disapprove a carbon pipeline’s location, our people’s God-given private property rights and the landowner protections we’ve fought hard to put in place are dismantled. It strips our state of the power to ensure that these projects follow the law and do not pose a serious risk to health or safety. It infringes on our constitutional right to self-governance.
In South Dakota—and across the Midwest—our people have poured out their blood, sweat, and tears to defend private property rights. We’ve endured threats, intimidation, lawsuits, big money deceptive political campaigns, and a fake “landowner rights” bill drafted by carbon pipeline lobbyists that was really just a tool to take away local control.
We’ve said NO to these companies and this project again and again. We’ve passed landmark laws protecting landowner rights. But apparently, “no” doesn’t mean “no” to them—and now it looks like politicians in Washington are trying to give them federal power to take what isn’t theirs, for a project the people do not want.
The photo of the armed guard in the post below was taken on the land of a friend and fellow patriot who was made a prisoner on his own property—while a foreign-backed, out-of-state company brought armed guards to survey his land and force a dangerous carbon pipeline onto it. A pipeline he never wanted. That is not American freedom.
And now, some in Washington, D.C. want to force that on us again.
Why? Because some politically connected company cut a check to their campaign? Because they’ve never met a snake oil salesman lobbyist they didn’t want to pour out your tax money to? Because they stand to rake in billions in tax credits—funded by your hard-earned dollars? Because they’ve actually bought into the Green New Deal scam?
Enough is enough.
Make no mistake: we will stand up for the constitutional rights of our people—and our state’s constitutional right to make our own laws.
Congress, do the right thing: Kill this proposal, and then repeal the 45Q tax credit that’s funding this scam with our tax dollars.
Call Congress and demand it.
So Josiah & I are home Finally–Praise the Lord!!!
Valerie Curren(
Valerie Curren)Online
May 23, 2025 05:54
#1464259
Hi Q-Tree Josiah is still in the ICU Bed but technically could be on a general floor, but there are no open beds on a cardiac telemetry unit at this time. He’s eating reasonably well & labs are trending the right direction. The nurse just said they might just send him home from this unit in the next few days depending. Well I need to attempt more sleep…Thanks for praying for Josiah, my recently bereaved father, my family, & me. We still need those prayers.
Love AND God’s abundant blessings to all. Hope Each of you has a wonderful Memorial Day weekend Far Away from Any hospital scenario! 
https://www.theqtree.com/2025/05/23/health-friday-open-thread-5-23-2025-the-fdas-eua-to-pfizer-biontech-for-bnt162b2-in-december-2020-is-invalid/#comment-1464259
Valerie Curren(
Valerie Curren)Online
Wolf
May 23, 2025 17:23
#1464497
Hey Guys, a super quickie. Josiah is being discharged today!!!
I’d gone downstairs to access a public computer in a different part of the hospital, maybe 1/2 mile away. The Nurse gave me a “unit phone” since Josiah didn’t want me taking his cell with me. So I got him through his breakfast, which we ate closer to lunch time, & ensured everything was OK with him before I left with the Unit Cell Phone.
After working about an hour on the computer the doctor called to discuss Josiah’s situation & his planned discharge! He called the prescription in to the hospital pharmacy that is “on my way” from where I’m on the computer & Josiah’s ICU room. I’m trying to confirm his meds are ready for pickup then I’ll get them & a wheelchair to use as a cart to get all our stuff out of J’s room.
I called J to touch base & found that he’d already informed Michael that he was coming home today. I’d called M several times from this Unit Cell but he never picked up.
Bottom line we Might be outta here in under 2 hours!!!!!!! Praise God!!!
Thanks again for all your prayers. Please lift up our family as we come to mind as a week from today is the last event, funeral, related to my mother’s death. Josiah is pretty weak & said he might need me to help him into the shower AND how many 29 year old sons make such a request of their mothers LOL
Can’t wait to get home & see everyone before Michael, Brandon (who’s planning on spending the night at our house so they get on the road Early tomorrow), Clarissa, & Lillian head Up North for a whirlwind 1-2 night trip to deal w/ Dad’s Northern Michigan properties. It’s still a bit of a wild ride but at least we can deal with the chaos from home!
Your guys’ prayer support, wisdom & insights, & your encouragements have made a pretty tough situation just a little easier to bear. Thank you ALL So Much!
https://www.theqtree.com/2025/05/23/health-friday-open-thread-5-23-2025-the-fdas-eua-to-pfizer-biontech-for-bnt162b2-in-december-2020-is-invalid/#comment-1464497
Valerie Curren(
Valerie Curren)Online
Wolf
Reply to cthulhu
May 24, 2025 05:31
#1464680
It’s certainly comforting to be in our home environment. I’m thinking he’ll stay here at least until Mom’s funeral next Friday so he can mend & have space & slightly less chaos than what happens at the other household. Then the following week hopefully things get back into his “normal” routine, including returning back to work. We’ll see…Glad to be home
https://www.theqtree.com/2025/05/23/health-friday-open-thread-5-23-2025-the-fdas-eua-to-pfizer-biontech-for-bnt162b2-in-december-2020-is-invalid/#comment-1464680
Valerie Curren(
Valerie Curren)Online
Wolf
May 23, 2025 22:59
#1464613
Hi everybody, Josiah & I are home & he’s already asleep after a much needed shower. Michael made him the dinner of his choice while I put some of our stuff away. I checked email (in case there might have been Mom related communications). In a couple of very brief replies I kept dozing off…I’m whipped.
Brandon is supposed to come here pretty soon & sleep over for the planned 6am departure time with Michael & our dog Jules to head Up North & check on Dad’s properties & hopefully get the Cottage functional for whenever Dad wants to head North to visit Mom’s grave & just be where he made some of his most treasured memories.
Thanks again for all of the prayers, love, support, encouragement, & crucial info!!! WOW!
https://www.theqtree.com/2025/05/23/health-friday-open-thread-5-23-2025-the-fdas-eua-to-pfizer-biontech-for-bnt162b2-in-december-2020-is-invalid/#comment-1464613
We both slept a few hours then up to pee, actually happened a couple times before Michael was up getting ready to head Up North. Brandon never spent the night here as he’d said he would LOL so he & M were on the phone by 5:30am hoping to make their 6 am planned departure, but they actually left around 7am, not bad all things considered. The dog, Jules, was So Excited, as were the guys, to get going Up North!!!
Brandon gave Josiah a Monster hug, told us about a 3 hour CPR rescue attempt of someone who was exercising on a dock & suddenly fell into the Detroit River face down & basically never moved again. It sounded like a possible clot shot casualty, which by me bringing it up pissed off all the guys in the room (they are sick of me consistently pointing out the possible ubiquitous genocide around us)…
Josiah has been sleeping, resting, eating a bit, & just enjoying his home environment. His bedroom is upstairs but he slept on the living room couch last night & is now resting on the love seat in Michael’s “bass cave” (guitars Not fish, Steve
). He’s still Very Pale & low key but clearly very glad to be home as am I. I’m heading back to bed pretty soon as I maybe only have gotten about 4 divided hours of sleep last night, but that’s probably better than Any of the nights I was bedside, & even my interim at home nights, since I was so busy on funeral related stuff & communications. Just another week to go before the “Mom’s death” events are “behind” us, besides visiting her Gaylord grave…
Josiah played some old school worship stuff, War in the Heavenlies tunes, on our way home yesterday. I’m glad that those Integrity Hosanna Worship tapes/CDs I shared with him decades ago still resonate. He also looked up some of his dad’s old Christian Rock tunes when he was in Harken (he plays them off Reverb Nation) so that was a trip down memory lane. Michael mentioned that he’d told Dave, H’s drummer, & Mark, H’s guitarist, that Josiah still plays some Harken as it really speaks to him. They said it was one of the best compliments they’d ever had
So Clarissa, with Lillian, just stopped by wondering if Michael was still here, LOL. She got ahold of M & B by phone & they apparently didn’t forget anything that she needed to take with her. So they will be having a whirlwind trip possibly even returning home tomorrow so they can be with cousins at Grandpa’s house to go through old photo albums to put together those displays people often have for funerals, on Monday, we’ll see. Based on where M said they were on the map “now” it looks like the guys were heading to the Shack/Hilton Luzerne area first to check out the status of those hunting “cabins”. Hope the storms were kind to Dad’s properties!
Well I better run as I’m still whipped & need more sleep. Love to you all AND again, thank you for so many prayers, encouragements, & interest in our unfolding saga–Blessings!
Details on The Shack AND moar here
https://www.theqtree.com/2022/11/11/leftys-view-of-wwii-by-wild-bill/
Valerie Curren
So good to hear that you all are back home! Please both of you rest up and regain strength.
We’re working on it. We have had 3 seperate visits from various family, plus multiple phone calls. Apparently I have a clean up on aisle three situation in that one of my mom’s brother’s daughters was offended about how I wrote about her dad in the “adoption story” guestbook signing I did on Mom’s funeral home obituary. I was going to call her this evening but Josiah’s wife & in-laws stopped by & didn’t leave until after 11pm. Since I haven’t seen this cousin since our grandpa’s funeral in 1997 I’m not about to call her so late at night…I guess this will (hopefully) get tackled tomorrow.
If they do not believe there is a deliberate move to kill off most of the world’s population have them read at least the FIRST which is a synopsis of Kissinger’s 1974 report.
National Security Study Memorandum NSSM 200
and
MALTHUSIANS AND EUGENISTS MAKE A CASE FOR POPULATION CONTROL
and
The Deagel Report: US Population Reduction of 68.5% by 2025
I don’t think that any of them disbelieve it, more that they are sick of me reiterating it!
And logic applies–they don’t believe it AND are sick of you reiterating it COULD be the situation.
Could be, but I think they Do believe it but are so horrified by the implications that they choose to not focus on it like I do. Plus Josiah having just accepted 2 units of blood of unknown origin or “purity” is disturbed by the talk since he recognizes that he now Might have some of the shot tainted blood in his own body & we don’t know what that might mean going forward.
If you’re talking specifically about people you’ve spoken to personally you’re certainly the best judge of that; l’ll salvage things by stating that my comment could apply to people in this situation in general.
I expect there will be tens of millions of people who will never accept this, because it would mean for example that they did something awful to their kids. (It’s one thing to realize you have screwed yourself, it’s another to realize you’ve screwed someone else you care about.)
I’m a bit confused though; in reading your accounts (not in full admittedly) I’ve sometimes had the impression that Josiah is quite young (pre-teen) and other times not. So I must beg your indulgence for asking something I probably ought to know: how old is he? (I may be confusing him with your other kids.)
I was talking about My family members specifically above.
Josiah is now 29 1/2 but due to Developmental Disabilities he is not that age mentally/emotionally but “young”, though still “adult” for the most part. He did go grab about 5 DVDs from his room last night that he might choose to watch as he’s recovering & All of them were kids’ movies, fwiw.
I had 4 kids in 4 years, Nathaniel late 93, twins Brandon & Josiah late 95 but born early by 6 1/2 wks, & Clarissa early 98.
Nathaniel has my oldest & youngest GDs Lilah 3 in weeks, Finley just 1, AND Clarissa has my middle GD Lillian 2 in April.
I am SHOCKED that you can’t keep my family constellation at the forefront of your mind LOL
Okay developmental disabilities explains my confusion…he literally doesn’t act his age sometimes. So when you describe something he did, I get “kid” but other times I get “adult.”
You’ve talked a lot about Brandon as well, less frequently about Nathaniel, rarely if ever about Clarissa.
(You probably have run into people who DO expect you to keep track of things like that…so best to be cautious when you have to ask for a refresher.)
Well Josiah is the one that required the bulk of my time & attention & even now he still lives with us half of the time, typically every other week.
N graduated HS at 17 & bought his house before he married about 7 years ago. He got his act together quite young & was a homeowner AND married AND a parent earlier in life than either my husband or myself.
B is the only one who graduated college as he had a full ride scholarship to a commuter college & he lived at home. He was pre-law & got a history or philosophy degree, I think. He got accepted into Hillsdale but we couldn’t afford to send him
so he had to make due with the local indoctrination center. He worked as a hydraulics tech (where Michael worked for 25 years before going to Trucking School) & was trained by his boss in a field he had no experience in because the boss was impressed with his work ethic & he did that job for several years then also self-funded/loan weighted himself into the fire academy & EMT training before leaving his tech job to work in the Detroit Fire Department FT, a “dream job” for him. Now engaged to a girl in Toronto & planning to marry next Summer his life is in flux again…
Clarissa also married young. She & Nathaniel both attended the University of Michigan, Dearborn but neither graduated. She met her husband in IV, InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, & B used to do IV activities at U of M-D as he had friend connections there & even brought J along sometimes. She’s a mom now & she & N’s wife both plan to homeschool their kids & both live near us
.
J is married & his in-laws live about 2 miles from us. He works PT in janitorial in our local community & can walk to this job from either of the homes he lives in, since he cannot drive, nor can his wife. He’s “independent” to a point, not under guardianship, but a vulnerable adult that all family members & support staff actively protect in various ways. He’s super complex medically & otherwise.
NEVER. EVER.FORGET. ’cause the guys and gals that put it on the line FOR YOU ain’t forgettin’ … Fire Mission!
Other than his usual tripe did he say something inflammatory in particular recently?
no, just his usual anti-Trump rhetoric
Thank you
He was in the UK (I think) recently for a concert, and crapped all over America in a monologue, before he shut up and finally sang.
Oh brutha…thanks for that
https://www.coffeeandcovid.com/p/you-know-the-thing-saturday-may-24
Good morning, C&C, it’s Saturday! Today’s Weekend Edition roundup includes: Trump signs trifecta of energy orders and powers up a modern Manhattan Project; EPA signals seismic shift in carbon policy that will deport the Greta Thunberg crowd to some South American staging area; Trump drops the tariff hammer not on China, not on Russia, but on the leather-festival-loving Europeans; DOGE deploys consolidated voter integrity database to very first state; and House drops the investigatory hammer on Biden’s cadre of coverup coordinators, signaling a first-in-American-history investigation into presidential cognitive capacity.
“and House drops the investigatory hammer on Biden’s cadre of coverup coordinators, signaling a first-in-American-history investigation into presidential cognitive capacity.”
______________
Hopefully they can bring back Jason Chafetz, or Darrell Issa, or best of all, Trey Gowdy, to run the circus.
A circus which invariably ends with no consequences for anyone, because the MIA FIB is who should be investigating, and the MIA DoJ should be prosecuting.
Just keep doing the same nonsense over and over again, expecting a different result.
Nuthin’ crazy about that…
Your comments remind me of CS Lewis, “… always winter but never Christmas.” from The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.
https://badlands.substack.com/p/setting-the-stage
Joe Lange
The enemy had a PLAN.It was an elaborate plan that they hoped would both remove Trump from office and at the same time, prevent him from exposing the treason from the Obama administration.
Democrats want the US Marshals under the direction of the Supreme Court.
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/jeff-charles/2025/05/23/democrats-trying-to-strip-trump-of-his-authority-over-the-us-marshals-n2657541
When ever I wanted something and was doing the Mommy Please thing, Mom would always say it’s always good to want, but not to get. Dems can stuff it.
I told my 2yo granddaughter “no” the other day & she got a very crestfallen face, but didn’t cry. I explained about how it can be loving to not give someone Everything they think they want at a given time…almost a “God’s eye” view, for a perspective on our own “unanswered” (not the answer we wanted) prayers 
Oh jumping off point that i’ve been waiting for some time on. Pardon for the indulgence. 
Here’s a picture of book by Paul Mellon. From one of the richest men in America at one time. The family made their money in banking. His father was the first and one of the longest serving Treasure Secretaries to date. The book is an auto biography about how he was once born with a silver spoon and tried to make good by it. Gail recently featured one a photo from the Mellon Foundation in one of her daily posts.
A quote from his book from his wikipedia page.
“I have been an amateur in every phase of my life; an amateur poet, an amateur scholar, an amateur horseman, an amateur farmer, an amateur soldier, an amateur connoisseur of art, an amateur publisher, and an amateur museum executive. The root of the word “amateur” is the Latin word for love, and I can honestly say that I’ve thoroughly enjoyed all the roles I have played.” —Paul Mellon from his autobiography Reflections in a Silver Spoon.[14]Paul went to WWII as a young officer and ended up working in the OSS, fore runner to the CIA. He was brought in by Wild Bill Donavan it’s first chief. Gail will bring him up time to time when talking about Dulles brothers Allen and John Foster Dulles. Wikipedia has nothing about his time spent with the OSS.
Before he went to war Paul had married a society girl named Mary Conover Brown (Mellon)
Her graduation picture.
These next two pictures pretty much sum up her life.
She had a personal (patient) and professional relationship with Carl C. Jung and was responsible for bringing his books into America’s conscious. Paul actually took a parachute mission into Germany and to talk with him during the war on a clandestine mission.
With in a year or the next year after returning from the War Mary had an unfortunate accident. She had asthma and used an inhaler. She was out horse riding on the family property and fell off the horse. Rushed home he could not find Mary’s inhaler. Mary was dead by morning.
This is the only photo I could find of her tomb stone It’s at Trinity Episcopal Church Cemetery, Fauquier County, Upperville, Virginia
Dead at 42. I guess that’s the best Paul could do for being one of the richest men in America. Note the hissing snake protecting the sheath of rushes. Symbolizes don’t ask any questions? 
Mary and Paul had a daughter.
Pretty much nothing is known about her. I should want to research about this interview further.
Mary’s grand daughter wrote a book. It’s several hundred pages long but mostly her art work which to me is not really good.
There’s text between the pictures but you learn absolutely nothing. She’s like a church mouse through out. Except in one half page when she speaks of her grand mother. It’s the only page in the book where she seems somewhat animated. My thoughts are that she was shuttered as a child and through out life not allowed to speak anything of the family.
Personally I think Paul killed her after returning from the war. Perhaps to hush her up. She ran the Bollingen Foundation. They essentially offered really smart intellectual people money to free up their time write books all around the world. Several of those died mysterious deaths. Natasha Rambova who worked for Mary being one along with Alexandre Piankoff who Natasha absconded from a Museum in Cairo and edited his books into English as well as led his expeditions. The two died under mysterious circumstances with in a month of each other though they were continents apart leaving behind the unfinished book “The Tomb of Unas” which was to be the first book written on the Pyramid Text but for them getting back doored by Samuel Mercer another Bollingen fellow though he printed with another company when he wrote his book, that’s another story.
Lets try that book image again. I think they sabotaged me 
For what it’s worth, I see it in your original post.
ditto
Very interesting. Wonder what surfaces if Gail takes a crack at her?
…or Aubergine, or Wolf!
Ha ha. Roberts can’t even handle the police force he has now.
Score one for The Internet Never Forgets… Okay then, thank you!
So even when he tells the truth, he acts as if he’s lying.
That there is a guy that absolutely HATES the truth.
Conversation
The Vigilant Fox
@VigilantFox
Hunter Biden Had TWO Laptops—And Federal Agents Helped Bury the Second One
Not only did the media ignore Hunter’s first laptop—most people missed that he left ANOTHER one with his psychiatrist.
That second laptop was seized during a DEA raid—then quietly shipped back to Hunter’s attorneys.
Garrett Ziegler says the DEA covered up Hunter Biden’s second laptop after the raid:
“… the FBI covered for the laptop that was dropped off at JP Mac Isaac shop. Yes, everybody knows that, but what they don’t talk about often is that the DEA also covered for Hunter because they took another one of his laptops, which was inside Keith Ablow safe when Keith Ablow was raided by the DEA. Now, why Hunter left it there?… that’s something that only Keith can answer.”
Two laptops. Two federal agencies. One massive coverup.
There had been talk of second lap top but no one could verify it so little coverage of it until now you say! 
Someone call Marco Polo. He might need to do another book 
“Marco Polo” a hide & seek water game in Michigan, at least when I was a kid
And an outfit that provided a lot of data on Hunter’s laptop.
https://nitter.poast.org/MarcoPolo501c3
yes!
h/t Filly
Indeed Harvard is well-endowed.
Not in any way that would appeal to my “toxic” masculinity though.
HEYDONMUSICPAGE “Latest Videos & Breaking News” 5.24.25
https://rumble.com/v6tswg5-heydonmusicpage-latest-videos-and-breaking-news-5.24.25.html?e9s=src_v1_ucp
that’s the truth!
Short from Col Daniel Davis
& Lavrov on Russian Goals.
TY
Peace and Tranquility Prayers
Prayer for a Calm Heart
Lord of Peace, as evening falls, I seek the calmness only You can provide. Quell the storms of my mind and replace anxiety with Your peace. As the world quiets down, let my heart do the same. May Your presence envelop me so that I may know tranquility tonight and always. Amen.
Serenity at Day’s End
Heavenly Father, with the closing of this day, I ask for serenity. As the night sky displays its vast beauty, let my soul mirror its peacefulness. Help me to let go of the worries of the day and trust in Your loving care. May Your peace reign in my heart and home tonight. Amen.
Prayer for Restful Stillness
Dear God, in the stillness of this evening, I come to You seeking rest for my soul. Help me to lay down the burdens I’ve carried today and find comfort in Your arms. Grant me peace that passes understanding and a rest that restores my spirit. May my sleep be undisturbed and my dreams be sweet. Amen.
Nighttime Whisper for Peace
Creator of All, as I listen to the night’s gentle whisper, I ask for peace to settle over me. Let Your tranquility wash away the noise of the day. In this quiet hour, I lean on Your promise of peace, a heavenly balm to my weary soul. Keep me in perfect peace as I keep my mind stayed on You. Amen.
Prayer for Gentle Rest
Omnipotent and Gentle Lord, at the end of this day, I seek the gentle rest that You so lovingly provide. May my mind be at ease, my body relax, and my spirit find harmony. Help me to release every concern into Your capable hands and sleep in the assurance of Your protection and peace. Amen.
In the Precious and Holy name of Jesus, we pray….
AMEN.
Amen…Thank You, Duchess 
But they are nevertheless the party of the working class.
OK, I’ve used up my ability to doublethink for one day.
[NOTE for those whose memories of George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty Four might not very sharp: Doublethink is the ability to hold two mutually contradictory beliefs simultaneously and argue them both according to whatever serves the interests of the Party. It was considered a virtue.]
Reminds me of cognitive dissonance, but that is said to cause discomfort because of the contradictory beliefs. It looks as if people with doublethink are comfortable and use the beliefs to their advantage, like politicians do.
It seems that cognitive dissonance is something an individual deals with personally, either within his/her own thoughts or in situations they might encounter, while doublethink is something that people use to manipulate others.
Or, usually, they sweep it aside, or try to.
It might bother them enough to force them to confront it, and at some point they’ll decide that what they think doesn’t comport with what they see, and they might go so far as to “deconstruct” (that’s a term being used by people who are questioning their faith, but it applies in the political realm too). They may end up deciding they’ve had it right all along…or they may change.
What (not)SCOTUS ‘needs’ to do is irrelevant, because your ‘need’ isn’t their need.
If you want (not)SCOTUS to do something, then FORCE it.
Use whatever mechanisms are available. If that means impeaching the Chief Injustice, then do it.
If that means indicting the Chief Injustice, then do it.
If that means morally (and therefore professionally) incapacitating the Chief Injustice by revealing dirt on him, then do it.
What do you want us to do about it?
You guyz is the law dogs, so YOU figure it out.
Indicting or just airing his dirty laundry would likely be more effective.
Impeachment is becoming a joke, because it’s now perceived as a tit-for-tat game, shrugged off by the target when the Senate doesn’t convict and remove.
“You impeach Clinton, we impeach Trump, you…”
OR Use Nasty the Pig Louse’s WRAP UP SMEAR.
Bribe (or blackmail) a MSM reporter to put out the dirt. Of Course it helps if the dirt is real but it is not necessary.
DOJ changes position (because of new Trump administration), now says that silencers / suppressors are covered by the 2nd Amendment:
.
.
You still need to pay a $200 tax and go through a yard of background check paperwork AND you sheriff needs to be in a mood to sign it off, though.
Just a bit more rigorous than the insta-check the NRA helped foist on us, in order to keep guns out of the hands of criminals.
Filly shared this link. PAVACA or wolf maybe you can peruse?
https://substack.com/app-link/post
there’s a lot in there about cancer treatments and the like…
https://www.midwesterndoctor.com/p/turbo-cancers-and-alternative-cancer
pat frederick and Nebraska Filly
Thank you. Just read through the Midwestern Doctor article.
The doctor hits on multiple items that Yours Truly has been writing and posting about on the board here since 2022.
BOTH the Pfizer-BioNTech AND the Moderna modRNA COVID-19 “vaccines” are manufactured using E. coli in the process — AND both of these modRNA COVID-19 “vaccines” are contaminated with “loose DNA” from the process.
The screenshot below is from page 18 of the EMA (European Medicines Agency) 2021 EPAR report on the Moderna modRNA COVID-19 “vaccine” regarding the use of E. coli in the manufacturing process:
Per this article regarding the concerns of Florida Surgeon General, Dr. Joseph Ladapo, it appears that BOTH the Pfizer-BioNTech AND the Moderna modRNA COVID-19 “vaccines” have SV40 present in them.
https://www.infectioncontroltoday.com/views/florida-surgeon-general-raises-concerns-over-dna-contaminents-pfizer-and-moderna-covid-19-vaccines
8 January 2024
The Midwestern Doctor is a champion of the use of alternative treatments for cancer that can work, such as FenBen or DMSO.
All this being said, one hopes that Scott Adams is working with his medical team to keep pain under control. If one is reading correctly, Mr. Adams is resigned to his leaving this planet. May the Almighty God be with him.
Thanks NF. I bookmarked it and a couple other links from that article.
Yet another scare. Maybe one with merit, I don’t know.
C8 is the “nickname” of a chemical used to manufacture teflon. (Teflon itself not the issue here; Teflon is inert unless you heat it up too much.)
Good informaiton. Thanks for posting.
Hail storm here.
How big?
marble sized.
That’s starting to get seriously hazardous. Most of the hail I’ve seen was more like rock salt — maybe 1/4″.
Then, again, there are YouSchmoob videos of golf-ball to baseball-sized hail that are just crazy…..
Yeah, this was (it lasted for maybe 10 minutes) minor by comparison to some storms we get here.
I remember hearing that Colorado’s front range was one of two hail capitals of the world (the other being in China) but never could find that claim later.
Apparently before Hurricane Andrew hit Florida the biggest insurance disaster in history was actually a hailstorm that hit Denver Metro right on the nose. (Edit: Or maybe it was in third place. Memory is vague from back then.)
Hope you & your property are OK!
As hail storms go it was a nothingburger.
You’ve gone through about a billion times as much as that lately and it’s to your credit that you held up under all of that.
That’s sweet of you to say. “God” is a factor in my “holding up”. I could, at one point, literally sense “the prayers of the saints” helping to buoy me up, that happened to me also when I took the MCAT after an all-nighter. Those are the only 2 times I recall having a tangible awareness of other people’s prayers providing strength through Christ.
Basically I’m saying that it was Not me, but Christ In me that was helping me to weather these recent storms. I have to trust Him to help me through this week still. It’s Very Hard for me to have to interface with so many people, even indirectly through the Internet. Face to face contacts will be challenging & I have interpersonal baggage & insecurities that might arise in a crippling way, inconveniently. I really hope/pray that God will enable me to deal with these many hours & myriad interpersonal contacts without mentally/emotionally crashing. I’m already very depleted from the gauntlet.
Mom’s funeral will be at the new location of the old church I attended in my youth where I have “PTSD” issues. Ironically the guy who will conduct the funeral is from my same grade (roughly 150 kids then of a 3,000-4,000 person church). Last time I saw him 20+ years ago, passing in a hallway, I greeted him By Name AND he looked at me, looked through me, stuck his nose in the air, said nothing, & walked right on by. My dad’s joy at having this man, who he perceives as never having been insensitive to anyone in his life/ministry, will keep me from mentioning my (painful mostly historical) experiences with this specific person.. whatever…
I hope you think supportive thoughts of me this week if I ever come to mind as I don’t expect you would even pretend to pray
I will need all the prayer I can get & muster myself to pray to get through the next week!
Ironically this particular layered level of traumatic events, Josiah’s hospitalization, my mom’s decline & death, & then an unexpected life-threatening interlude w/ J (all the stuff we’ve dealt with him over the years never amounted to “you will probably die within 2 days if you don’t do this” level of danger or intensity–that was BRUTAL!) took Michael back to 2000 when Josiah’s second heart surgery was on the table. The thing that triggered M’s association to that was the storm system that kicked up the other day, as there was a similar storm system then.
Josiah was scheduled on a Monday morning in May for Open Heart Surgery to perform a Sub-Aortic Stenosis Resection (with Myomectomy)–remove an overgrowth of tissue in the heart blocking the outflow of blood through his malformed aortic valve plus shaved adjacent heart muscle to hopefully prevent such an aberrant tissue regrowth. He has a Bi-Cuspid Aortic Valve & an overgrowth of tissue below the valve causing turbulence is often associated with this particular Congenital Heart Defect. Anyway a few days before this surgery was scheduled I fielded a call from M’s step-father’s former girlfriend (the step-father was now re-married to a different woman many years after M’s mom’s death). Anyway Dennis was quite ill & Michael had made him “promise” to inform M if his illness ever took a turn for the worse, a promise he didn’t keep.
Ava called to tell us that Dennis was near death & if Michael wanted to see him alive he needed to come out there immediately. I stayed up all night calling each of the various airlines putting various ticketing packages on hold to find the best deal financially & scheduling wise with an open ended return trip in case he couldn’t get back for J’s surgery. He left later that day…
M flew to OK on Sat & was to return to MI Sun for the Mon surgery, at least that was the plan. He went to see Dennis immediately & had that one time in the hospital room with him still barely alive & he died either that night or early the next day. Ultimately Dennis’ funeral was on Monday the same day as J’s Heart Surgery. M needed to stay for the funeral & I offered to reschedule J’s surgery so I could go be with my husband as he was dealing with his “dad’s” death (M was taken from his Dad in Denver when his mom divorced him & had only seen his dad twice before his dad died when M was a teen, so he had Dennis in his life longer as a step-dad, kind of like how M had my mom longer in his life as a MIL than he had his own mom, who’d died before we even met). M didn’t want J’s surgery delayed so we basically simultaneously went through very painful & scary experiences that we would preferred to face together but faced alone & apart.
Mom had loaned me her cell phone then so that I could be reached by Michael while he was in OK & we had a brief conversation later on in the heart surgery/funeral day. There was this intense storm whipping up & I had a hard time getting a signal at the motel where a peds cardiology SW had set me up with a Medicaid funded room to be near the hospital. I had to walk out into the middle of this nearby field with the wind whipping my hair, roiling clouds, & thunder & lightening all about, but thankfully no rain yet–super intense & scary.
We were able to speak briefly in the midst of this storm, literally & figuratively, as he had the same storm system in play out in OK. Anyway he was so overwhelmed with the events of his day he could barely speak to me & was unable to even really listen to or process the stuff I needed/wanted to share with him about Josiah. It was all incredibly overwhelming AND emotionally isolating, crushingly painful at a time of intense vulnerability. He flew back to MI the next day & we went to the hospital straight from the airport. J refused to even look at his dad when he arrived at the hospital & turned his back to him, having been hurt that Dad wasn’t there when he woke up from his Heart Surgery…
Anyway Michael said that this recent hospitalization parental death situation took him straight back to what happened with Dennis 25 years ago…to the month. Oh & at Dennis’ funeral Ava the ex-girlfriend confronted Mary the widow & asked her exactly when she’d planned to let Michael & his (half) brothers know about their (step-) dad’s illness & death & Mary (a reported Christian) said “when he was dead & buried!” No words…
Anyway, it remains interesting times around here…then AND now…whee….or is it wee, wee, wee, wee all the way home!
Whereas from my perspective (and this is an “internal critique”) it seems to me that God put you through all of this in the first place but now you’re grateful for his help in overcoming it?
Tremendously ironic isn’t it. I LOVE to point out the beginning of the Book of Job where God says to the devil “Have you considered my servant Job!” I’ve never heard a preacher Dare to touch That One LOL
Also the end of Hebrews Chapter 11 where the faithful who didn’t receive what was promised in this life “of whom the world is not worthy”. They are recounted through tremendous suffering, torture, & painful death. It is a sobering reminder…
God Never promised we’d have no troubles but He did promise to “never leave nor forsake us”; to be a Friend that “sticks closer than a brother”; in the context of your father & mother forsaking you (I can relate to this numerous times in my life) “the Lord will receive me”; Jesus said “in this world you Will Have tribulation, but be of good cheer, for I have overcome the world!”; also “nothing can separate us from the love of God”.
Many passages of scripture reinforce the concept of God’s attendance to our needs & consistent Presence in our lives, whether we sense him or not. He is the Potter and we are the clay so He can mold & shape us as He sees fit. He Can deliver us from the storm, He can bring us through the storm, He can use the storm to strip away all that we have, like Job, yet spare our lives, or He can even slay us with the storm. We are along for whatever ride He wants to put us through because His is in charge & we are not.
I’ve been through some pretty major stuff over the years & He’s never abandoned me to the desolation of it & has typically given me the strength to get through the tough stuff before I retreat home, collapse, rest, refresh, heal, & the get up & get back into the fray again…
Along with Job I will Choose to say “naked came I into the world & naked will I return”; “though He slay me yet will I trust Him”; & “blessed be the Name of the Lord!”
One common theme I run into when watching videos by former Christians who lost their faith is that they literally used to talk like you do…but now can’t understand how they could have done so. In their former view, God caused the problem that God had to help you overcome, yet they thanked him for the help overcoming.
It’s like being grateful to the man who deliberately broke your leg, because he brought you a crutch.
This is in large part so many of them are the angry sort; they feel like they’ve escaped an abusive relationship and they are glad the abuser doesn’t actually exist.
I Can understand how one might go there…tragically.
I KNOW that I am not in charge of my life, & Michael & I together had this reinforced Numerous Times when we attempted to make changes in our circumstances where, in particular, he attempted to get a different job for he was working for a notoriously low-paying company, as far as the industry goes, who also had made him/their employees sign a “non-compete” clause, & which often went after former employees legally if they tried to work elsewhere in the industry. If they could be paying like Half of the going rate & not even give token raises to keep up with inflation the longer you worked for them the less money you made comparatively & Hubby worked for various iterations of that company for 25 years! There were several years that he burned up most of his allotted vacation days going on interviews, to no avail. It seemed to us that, for whatever reason, God had us locked into that situation for a Very Long Season…
No matter what your fellow Atheists (& backslidden Christians) experienced to have them decide that either God never existed, no longer exists, or that He is not Good, or that they can’t see His goodness either through or because of their pain, I’m very sorry for that painful trajectory. I am not myself heading toward Atheism, though had I not been raised in a nominally Christian family, how it was in my grade-school years, I might have more easily veered into an atheistic viewpoint since it sometimes appears intellectually rigorous…but then I was rather an indoctrinated feminist for a season of my adolescence too LOL
This song has resonated with me over the years:
Especially the “harder” verses:
LYRICS:
Verse 1
Blessed be Your name
In the land that is plentiful
Where Your streams of abundance flow
Blessed be Your name
Verse 2
Blessed be Your name
When I’m found in the desert place
Though I walk through the wilderness
Blessed be Your name
Pre-Chorus
Ev’ry blessing You pour out I’ll
Turn back to praise
When the darkness closes in Lord
Still I will say
Chorus
Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your name
Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your glorious name
Verse 3
Blessed be Your name
When the sun’s shining down on me
When the world’s all as it should be
Blessed be Your name
Verse 4
Blessed be Your name
On the road marked with suffering
Though there’s pain in the offering
Blessed be Your name
Bridge
You give and take away
You give and take away
My heart will choose to say
Lord blessed be Your name
—
CCLI Song # 3798438
Beth Redman | Matt Redman
© 2002 Thankyou Music (Admin. by Integrity Music)
I’ve sung this song years ago in church Many times with tears coursing down my face, especially at the memorial service for our then assistant pastor’s first child who died in utero a week before she was to be born.
It is a mystery how God can be with us in comfort in the midst of sorrows that He either Caused or Allowed…If you ever become a Christian You Too will likely develop a depth of understanding of this Deeply Abiding Yet Painful Truth.
There is Peace that Passes Understanding, there is Beauty for Ashes, the Oil of Joy for Mourning, there is the Garment of Praise for the Spirit of Heaviness. There is the promise that in eternity “God will wipe away every tear from our eyes, that there will be no more sorrow or suffering, there will be no more pain, for the former things are passed away & behold all things will be made new.”
This promise & hope can help sustain a Believer when they experience the crucible, in whatever form, in this life….
I used to really lament, I mean Major Heartache for Years, the loss of friendships I went through surrounding events with my wedding & subsequent move back across the country from OK, where I was for a decade, back to my home state of MI.
It was so painful & I lived in tremendous isolation, especially after the twins were born. Mostly I had no one to lean on & was completely overwhelmed in the early years of parenthood, especially when Josiah came on the scene with all the behavioral & medical that completely turned our family upside down & in many ways “stole my life” & my husband’s wife…
Now I look at those years of sorrow & isolation as a training ground, sort of a “wax on, wax off” prep for the battles to come. Now I don’t even crave such friendship relationships as I had in an earlier iteration of my life, I don’t have time, space, or mental nor emotional energy to devote to them. It takes everything I have & then some to just get through many of my days…AND in days like have been upon me the last 2 weeks it takes Way More than I have in my personal reserve tank. God, prayer support, & love from family & “friends” helps to get me through…it’s a complicated business
And though I might be a fairly nominal Christian in some respects (I rarely darken the door of a church now a days & when I do it’s mostly to support my husband or other family members & I rarely “get” much out of any aspect of church attendance, like it’s a duty not a joy) my experiences over the last couple weeks have shown me that I’m still tuned into the Spirit of God, able to minister to others even when I’m hurting, broken, & even utterly exhausted & overwhelmed. I probably spent 4 hours with an odd ball black woman in the middle of the night between when my mom was taken to the ER Thurs pm & died at 10:15am & was up for 36+ hours & only caught about an hour of sleep sitting up in a chair before I was able to head home for 4 nights & begin to attend to funeral related issues & help my dad in an interlude before returning to the hospital & facing the near-death situation with Josiah just a few hours after my return.
God “put” me through it AND God got me through it…this is the dance of life!
Metal roof. Large overhangs over the windows.
My house is basically proof against anything we’re likely to see so long as it doesn’t come down at too shallow an angle and bust windows.
Someone I know used to park outside for some reason, and had to put on a thick leather jacket and an old steel-pot helmet to pull his car into the garage when it started hailing. Too late: The rear window had been completely taken out and the car was totalled. That was bigger-than-golfball hail.
I’ve been in hailstorms that size, preceding tornadoes. Very scary.
I do remember pulling up to a light in my old Integra and having golf ball sized hail come down–not that much of it fortunately–and wondering when my windshield would break. It didn’t even crack though I imagine it was “just barely.” It DID leave dimples in my car though.
Newer cars have thinner metal (thank you Corporate Average Fuel Economy for making us make cars out of tinfoil) and hailstones even half that diameter can ding them.
And (oh yeah) another storm coming.
Hopefully you don’t have to go anywhere.
Not anymore. Canceled. They live nearby and understand.
That said the “other storm coming” doesn’t seem to have gelled yet.
Now raining hard…over an hour late.
No idea if hail is in this one, yet.
The guy hosting the video thinks the DOJ should give the perp more prison time. I’ve never heard of that, and I don’t think it’s possible unless they tried him for something else and got him convicted. If someone has information about this, please post it.
IIRC. Oregon. feds did that with the Hammond’s. father and son. Had completed their time, or nearly so AND some Fed “jUdge” increased the sentence.
Ultimately Trump 1.0 pardoned the Hammond’s.
One less towel head to deport. 
“Hey American”… lunatic. So sorry that LEOs were shot but at least they neutralized him before he lost his sh*t with unarmed iinnocents
Sounded like the U.S. bureaucracy and red tape drove him insane. That was the day he had enough, and snapped.
Giuliani on Biden Family Coverups: ‘It Is Treason’ – Outlines Plans to Prosecute Biden Crime Family if Appointed as Special Counsel (War Room Video)
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2025/05/giuliani-biden-family-coverups-it-is-treason-outlines/
—
Former Top DOJ Official Calls For Special Counsel to Investigate Biden Health Cover-Up (VIDEO)
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2025/05/former-top-doj-officials-calls-special-counsel-investigate/
I wish Bannon would let Rudy TALK. I hate interrupters!
SteveInCO
Thank you! Yours Truly reads your posts and always learns things.
One is old enough to remember when Memorial Day was called “Decoration Day” and US flags were flown from many houses in Pittsburgh where I grew up.
Electron microscopes and how they can see individual atoms.
When Eric Drexler wrote “Engines of Creation” in 1986 he said the entire Bible could be/was fitted on the head of a pin at this scale.
An interesting thought.
Time to drag out the back of the envelope–while recognizing beforehand I am going to have to guess how big the letters are going to be. In this case, I want to build them out of atom, rather than make the letters the size of atoms or smaller.
A typical atom is (very roughly) about 100 pm in radius, which is to say one tenth of a nanometer, one tenth of a millionth of a millimeter. 200 pm diameter. Using a 5×8 grid of atoms to represent letters, letters are 1 nm across and 1.6 nm tall; let’s call it 2 nm from one line to the next. So the average letter is 2 square nanometers.
The Bible is commonly stated to have 800,000 words in it; if the average word is 5 characters (that’s the rule that gets used when selling fiction nowadays at least), that’s four million characters. Which is to say 8 million square nanometers. Let’s round that up to 10 million to allow for formatting, etc.
How much is that? well, a thousand nanometers on a side–which is a square one thousandth of a millimeter on a side is a million square nanometers; Note this square is one millionth of a square millimeter.
we need eight of them, so we’re up to eight millionths of a square millimeter.
The head of a pin is probably not less than 500,000 millionths of a square millimeter.
So yeah, with ease. How many different translations do you want to fit on the head of your pin? While we’re at it, let’s go for the koine Greek New Testament (with notes highlighting textual variants found among ancient manuscripts); the Septuagint and Masoretic OT as well as the Dead Sea Scrolls…and let’s also bundle in written courses on Greek and Hebrew.
We might still have room to make the letters 10 x 16 atoms in size so they look better–doing so would make whatever we did put on the head of the pin take up four times as much space.
That ought to keep the reader busy.
Article includes “Plus, obviously, we get to fire every shrieking ponce gibbering about trans sexuality in Shakespeare. No one said that the necessary work to be done for society couldn’t be fun too.”
https://timworstall.substack.com/p/so-abolish-the-universities-then
The university I went to for undergraduate work had ten colleges (counting the “graduate school” “college” even though it can’t have existed as a separate entity), including pharmacology, law, business, journalism, arts & sciences, music, and engineering. I can’t even remember them all.
Many of these are, from the standpoint of someone who thinks you should go to college to get a “well rounded” education, essentially jumped-up trade schools. Which means they taught an employable skill at the price of possibly losing out on a “broad” education.
Arts and sciences is the grab bag; everything from mathematics and physics (a real science) to sociology (which isn’t). It’s certainly useful to know some economics, history, literature (though that’s usually an exercise in force-feeding the students pompous twaddle like Shakespeare), philosophy…provided they are taught with little bias. (It’s OK for the professor to be a leftist, as long as he is the sort who will reward thinking even if he doesn’t agree with it–a quality that crusading leftists generally lack.) The “twaddle” is generally here, but it’s mixed in with non-twaddle.
I might be sympathetic to that complaint but a lot of that “well rounded” stuff is now leftist/postmodernist/woke bullshit.
I was an engineering major, and as such was required to take 24 hours of “social humanistic electives” which is to say, the fuzzier subjects. For context, a “full load” semester of five classes was 15 hours. And in order to get the degree I got, you needed 136 hours (meaning many took 4 1/2 years to do it) including those 24 hours.
The story of how I got those 24 hours without subjecting myself to significant attempts at leftist indoctrination even at “Berkely By The Mountains” is long and a bit tedious; but through a combination of AP credit, taking one or two tricky subjects at a different, less leftist school during summer, and selecting the maverick (and targeted) conservative prof for another class…well I managed it, even though I put one foot into the lion’s den (philosophy).
My oldest sons, not Josiah, both took philosophy & really enjoyed it…hmmm…
Philosophy as a general sphere of knowledge is essential. For one thing it’s the branch that discusses the issue of how you know what you know and how to evaluate what you encounter. As such everything else…and I do mean everything else— is downstream from it.
For instance, formal logic is a part of philosophy (and one of the classes I took for those 24 hours of credit was Phil. 108 “Introduction to Logic.”) [How is the Left going to corrupt THAT?] The prof, in addition to describing modus ponens and modus tollens and other related things, actually spent part of one lecture going after the notion that something can be true for one person but not for another. (When it’s meant metaphorically I can agree with it, but I really wish they’d pick another metaphor as it’s too easy to conflate the metaphor with the literal meaning.)
Unfortunately as an academic field it has been almost completely corrupted by nonsense. The Left understands that everything else is downstream from it and so they captured that field first.
Here is Ayn Rand talking about how essential and central the subject is…and why it’s critical to get it right.
https://courses.aynrand.org/works/philosophy-who-needs-it/
Part of the problem is that “Philosophy” is similar to “Anthropology” in having many parts.
As you mention, the study of logic is typically found here and is very rigorous and useful. OTOH, there are various philosophical meanderings about the values of tolerance and equality that are utter garbage.
Anthropology is full of such things as well — there are elements of the evolution of man and the structure of societies that are very useful……..while there are other parts about the varied worth of societies that are being taught by woke nutcases.
with a comment count at 299 I’d better respond to this before the ice cream cone licks itself.
Actually from what I’ve seen they try to teach that the worth of societies does not vary and that is a bit of an outgrowth from “that’s true for you but not for me” types of attitudes…a view of reality that is demonstrably wrong is excused as being “true for you.” And if you can’t objectively label facts as facts, you certainly can’t objectively evaluate human behaviors and their summation into cultures.
So yes the pollution of the subject of anthropology is VERY like the pollution of philosophy and that is not a coincidence since philosophy is upstream from anthropology.
Having said all of that, I’ll go on to point out that sometimes a field is trying to be descriptive not prescriptive. (Example below.) When they are simply trying to describe how something is, warts and all, and not rendering an opinion as to whether it’s wrong or right, sometimes it comes across as approving of it. Especially to those who have seen enough tripe out there that actually does approve of the warts and are sensitive to such things.
Many linguists, for instance, focus on describing language how it actually is, rather than going around scolding people for their grammar, so they study Black American English and note that it does function as a language (no matter how much I might want to slap someone for persisting in “aksing” a question).
“descriptive not prescriptive” also this is true of certain passages of Scripture. The OT place where a certain man, who’d allowed lustful men to rape his concubine all night long to the point of death & then took her body & cut it into 12 pieces sending one part to each of the 12 Tribes of Israel was Clearly just a descriptive telling of a deep horror!
That makes me wish that I had taken, or could take, a Philosophy course. I think I’m still holding my own in spite of that (& many other) educational deficit. Maybe Hillsdale has a free online course!
In the meantime what I linked to might help you evaluate whether it’s worthwhile. She makes the case that you need it whether you know it or not, are using it whether you know it or not, and some of the pitfalls of bad philosophy.
It was originally an address to the cadets at West Point (and there is a dingus on that page that will let you hear the recorded audio), but was also run as an article in one of Rand’s non-fiction collections (and you can read it if you prefer).
Thanks. It’s one of my myriad open tabs now but whether I get to it or not…I’ll never have the level of closure in this life that I deeply desire LOL