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

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

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

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

Please show respect and consideration for our fellow QTreepers. Before hitting the “post” button, please proofread your post and make sure your opinion addresses the issue only, and does not confront or denigrate the poster. Keep to the topic – avoid “you” and “your”. Here in The Q Tree, personal attacks, name-calling, ridicule, insults, baiting, and other conduct for which a penalty flag would be thrown are VERBOTEN.

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

Please also consider the Guidelines for posting and discussion printed here: 
https://www.theqtree.com/2019/01/01/dear-maga-open-topic-20190101/

On this day and every day –

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

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

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

God’s Mysterious Ways

[Not my 1st person narrative.]

Several times recently I have been reminded that God’s ways are not our ways (Isaiah 55:8). God’s ways and thoughts are indeed higher than ours (Isaiah 55:9). While I have ultimately surrendered to God and recognize that He is not obligated to explain His ways to me, I still often wonder why He so often works in mysterious ways. Why did He do _______ that way? Why did He use _______ method to accomplish this?

I do not question His judgment. I do not doubt His wisdom. I absolutely do not think I could fully understand His ways even if He explained them to me. But, I sometimes still wonder why He accomplished something a certain way.

Why did He use a bunch of misunderstandings, personality conflicts, and bad attitudes to close a door, leading to a different door, which was the right door all along? Why not just divert us from the first door to begin with? Why not move us away from the wrong door earlier in the process? Why not convince us that it was the wrong door without us having to slam the door shut due to our own sinful attitudes and choices?

Why does God sometimes use a conflict over the color of carpet in a church building to split a church, creating a new growing and thriving church in a different area, instead of simply motivating some people in the church to go plant a new church?

Why did God allow Paul and Barnabas to split, apparently in anger, over a disagreement, instead of simply causing them to recognize that their outreach could be multiplied if they went separate directions (Acts 15:36-41)?

Why does God answer with “wait” to a continual prayer request over 20+ years of time and then grant the prayer request once the person isn’t even 100% certain he/she wants it anymore?

Why does God seem to provide a great solution to a difficult situation, with everyone agreeing that it is the perfect solution, only to later unravel the solution to everyone’s dismay?

Why does God sometimes work in mysterious ways?

The answer, ultimately, is “I don’t know.” Learning to trust God when you don’t understand why He allowed something or why He chose a particular means to accomplish something is a key spiritual growth issue in the Christian life. Are you, like Job, able to praise the Lord whether He gives or takes away (Job 1:21)?

“Hindsight is 20/20” is not a biblical saying, but it is very true. There are many things God has done that I used to wonder about, that I now understand, or at least think I understand. There are numerous other things, though, that I definitely still do not understand and cannot imagine how the mysterious way in which God worked was the best way.

Yes, of course, God works all things together for good (Romans 8:28). Yes, absolutely, God uses the mysterious things that happen in our lives to mold us into the image of Christ and transform/renew our minds (Romans 12:1-2). But I still wonder why, when it was within His power to do so, God didn’t accomplish the same thing without using a plan that resulted in physical, emotional, and spiritual scars that won’t be fully healed this side of eternity.

Whether I ever receive the answers, whether such things ever make sense to me, I will continue to trust God and His Word. Why? If you think God’s ways are mysterious, just imagine what things would be like if I was in charge!
xhttps://www.gotquestions.blog/mysterious-ways.html

I thought this Colonel Towner video was interesting for a couple of reasons. First, the Trump Admin’s targeting of universities like Harvard. Second ALL the foreign students, esp Chinese that are brought into the USA as foreign students and then STAY. And last, because one of the courses I took in the mid 1970s was at a college well KNOWN for it’s CIA ties. The course was excellent BTW.

I am going to start with this because it is part of the whole picture.

☕️ SOARING HOPE ☙ Monday, October 13, 2025

…🚀 Trump didn’t just throw out the rulebook— he locked the State Department and the CIA middlemen in a closet and built a new peace process on the fly. Every other president since Eisenhower was held hostage to “the interagency process,” a glacial fog of murky memos, mind-numbing meetings, policy papers, and soul-crushing career diplomats whose main purpose is to make sure nothing too interesting ever happens.

Trump scrapped it all.

He decided Foggy Bottom and Langley were part of the problem: too CYA-focused, too compromised, too self-interested, and too addicted to “managing” conflicts instead of ending them. So he benched both agencies and handed the wheel to Jared Kushner and real-estate mogul Steve Witkoff— men whose combined diplomatic résumés could fit on the back of a business card.

Just imagine the breathtaking courage it takes for a sitting president to ignore the “expert conclusions” painstakingly produced by legions of professional diplomats and intelligence analysts — conclusions drafted in think tanks and embassies over decades, at a cost of millions, maybe billions, all to explain why peace was impossible. Trump glanced at the binders, saw the problem, and did what no one in the modern presidency has dared: he trusted himself more than the system.

Trump understands that, when everyone agrees something can’t be done, it usually means nobody’s tried doing it the right way….

Actually it is a lot worse than incompetence, the failures ARE BY DESIGN!

Remember all those pro-Palestine protests at colleges and Universities? How about the pro-Israel vs questioning Israel treatment of Gaza controversy within the MAGA base that has suddenly blown up. And not just here.

Before I get into this video, I want to make a couple of background points. Stay with me to the punchline.😉

A brief history of the British Royals and their alleged Nazi connections 

The Duke of Windsor, former King Edward VIII, fourth from left, and the Duchess of Windsor, third from left, visit German Chancellor Adolf Hitler, fifth from left, at his home in Berchtesgaden in the Bavarian Alps, Germany.

The Mitford Sisters, daughters of the 2nd Baron Redesdale

Unity Mitford was a girlfriend of Hitler and visited him many, many times. I can no longer find the article, but the writer thought she may have been a conduit between some in the British aristocracy and Hitler. For example Mosley’s second wife was Unity’s sister. He was the  leader of the British Union of Fascists.

…Mosley and Cynthia were committed Fabians in the 1920s and at the start of the 1930s. Mosley appears in a list of names of Fabians from Fabian News and the Fabian Society Annual Report 1929–31. He was Kingsway Hall lecturer in 1924 and Livingstone Hall lecturer in 1931…

Mosley Memorandum[

Realising the economic uncertainty that was facing the nation because of the death of its domestic industry, Mosley put forward a scheme in the “Mosley Memorandum” that called for high tariffs to protect British industries from international finance and transform the British Empire into an autarkic trading bloc, for state nationalisation of main industries, for higher school-leaving ages and pensions to reduce the labour surplus, and for a programme of public works to solve interwar poverty and unemployment…

The Mosley Memorandum won the support of the economist John Maynard Keynes, who stated that “it was a very able document and illuminating”.[38] 

Keynes also wrote,

“I like the spirit which informs the document. A scheme of national economic planning to achieve a right, or at least a better, balance of our industries between the old and the new, between agriculture and manufacture, between home development and foreign investment; and wide executive powers to carry out the details of such a scheme. That is what it amounts to. … [The] manifesto offers us a starting point for thought and action. … It will shock—it must do so—the many good citizens of this country…who have laissez-faire in their craniums, their consciences, and their bones … But how anyone professing and calling himself a socialist can keep away from the manifesto is a more obscure matter.”[39]

From the Archive version of Wiki. And the newer version delivers the punch line,
Oswald Mosley – Wiki

Since 2022 Mosley’s grandson, Louis Mosley, has been head of the UK division of US tech firm Palantir Technologies. [131]

Part of Antony C. Sutton’s Trilogy that Colonel Towner often cites is available as a 148 page PDF.

Wall Street and the Rise of Hitler

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

The following Operation Gladio video sheds some light on the deliberate splitting of Americans into pro vs anti Israel camps as well as WHY Charlie Kirk had to die.

This video is 1 hr 45 min long so there is no way I am going to do a transcript. Instead I will do time stamps and highlights. As usual, this is based on the books and stuff Colonel Towner has read. Alpha puts up on the screen info from the internet that supports what the Colonel is saying.

OPERATION GLADIO – CHAPTER 73 – “CIA – UNIVERSITIES – DRUGS” – EP.467

6:45 Charlie Kirk goes to the heart of the CIA operations on college campuses. The CIA uses college campuses for many purposes. They grow their foot soldiers there using professors who are CIA agents. I will go into that in-depth.

The CIA targets people like Charlie who are coalition builders. I have mentioned these people in the past and they all end up DEAD. Usually by Assassination...I want people to understand how pervasive this is.

7:45 The CIA has had a long standing relationship with US educational institutions back to it’s founding in 1947. All kinds of different roles from recruiting into the CIA to funding “research” – Air quotes – because they are funding colleges to write papers that will be used to justify future actions. It was done covertly by funneling money (from drug sales) thru foundations. It did not start with Soros.

9:20 The CIA also funded real research — Think MKUltra. And used Unis for training and for surveillance esp if they found an effective group like Turning Point. We learned of the ADL’s association with this effort too. So the CIA will fund organizations to make hit lists of the groups the CIA wants to disrupt and then have their thugs like ANTIFA disrupt their events hosted on college campuses. ADL has been making ‘hit lists’ for the government for 80 years. It did not start with Comey. [Think Southern Poverty Law Center too. -GC]

Ryan DeLarme — How to Rent a Riot – The History of ‘Nonviolence’
How CIA-Adjacent Institutions Strategically Steer Activists and Agitators

11:30 Declassified Docs & historical accounts reveal the CIA recruited from about 150 universities & colleges. They had intel assets at those institutions looking for intel leads from FOREIGN STUDENTS. This is why we have so many foreign students. The CIA ‘flips them’ and sends them back to spy.

13:10 Critics included the Assoc of University Professors who were concerned about the CIA’s involvement because it thwarted freedom & openness by creating this secret presence that corroded trust in REAL research. When something comes out of Harvard or Yale or Georgetown, you have no idea whether it is CIA produced [propaganda] or legit. Some of these universities have so much CIA stink on them, that almost everything they write is CIA propaganda.

14:00 In the 1970s it was discovered [CFIA] Harvard’s Center for International Affairs (est 1958) was a CIA front. Now called Weatherhead Center for international affairs. It was funded by the CIA and co-founded by Henry Kissinger.

A weatherhead is a waterproof cap covering ALL the power and communication lines going into a building.🤔

Weatherhead Center for International Affairs – Wiki

This center would ‘produce’ the ‘product’ saying a country, the oligarchs wanted to overthrow, was a communist country. [Now they use Islamic terrorism.]

Weatherhead Center for International Affairs

16:20 In 1985 there was a scandal about undisclosed $150,000 grants by CIA to Harvard’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies. What were we doing in the Middle East in 1985? Oh that’s right We getting ready for the switch from Communism to Islamic Terrorists as the new threat. This center produced a lot of the ‘product’ used at the national Security level of the US government.

Center for Middle Eastern Studies

Congratulations, 2024-25 CMES Graduates!

(Worth a look see at the dissertations.)

Look American don’t they?

2025 — Harvard Dismisses Leaders of Center for Middle Eastern Studies | News | The Harvard Crimson

Interim Harvard Dean of Social Science David M. Cutler ’87 dismissed the faculty leaders of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies on Wednesday, according to a faculty member familiar with the situation — a dramatic shakeup at a center that has come under fire for its programming on Israel and Palestine.

The CMES’ director, professor of Turkish Studies Cemal Kafadar, and its associate director, History professor Rosie Bsheer, were both forced to leave their posts, according to the faculty member.

Global Health professor Salmaan A. Keshavjee — the center’s interim director while Kafadar was on leave — will continue to hold his post.

The departures come after the CMES has repeatedly faced public criticism from Harvard affiliates who have alleged that some of the center’s programming has been antisemitic and has failed to represent Israeli perspectives…

I was going to quit here and then the Colonel came up with this goodies.

17:00 The CFIA assoc director was Kissinger. After the Cuban Missile crisis the CFIA routinely hosted CIA officials to include Ray Cline. [Ray S. Cline – Wiki]

Kissinger also directed the Harvard Defense Studies program where fast tract top military leaders were trained in months long seminars or a years long Senior Service School equivalent. The programs had CIA agents embedded.

The military has had a long standing program of sending Top military officers to Harvard. If you wonder why our General Officer Corp ends up participating in all of the CIA Ops like IranContra. THIS IS HOW!

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

NOW does placing an Army National Guard Captain like Pete Hegseth in as Sec of War make sense?

Boy does Wiki dislike the guy. I wonder why? Pete Hegseth – Wiki

Could this be this be reason?

Jo Nova — Founder says CIA & FBI control Wikipedia and made it “the most biased” encyclopedia

Now does Potus Trump’s attack on Harvard make sense?

Trump Administration Unveils New Attacks on Harvard | Harvard Mag

Government tightens financial oversight of Harvard, threatens to pull student aid.

MSNBC — Opinion | I prosecuted Nixon. Trump’s basis for his attack on Harvard was Eerily Familiar

I prosecuted Nixon. Trump’s basis for his attack on Harvard was eerily familiar.

The court premised its conclusion of an “ideologically motivated assault” against Harvard, in part, on Trump’s own admissions.

After President Donald Trump threatened Harvard with the loss of $2.2 billion in federal research funds and the exclusion of foreign students to extort the university into granting him control over its key academic functions, U.S. District Judge Allison D. Burroughs granted Harvard summary judgment in its civil action against the Trump administration for violating its rights under the First Amendment and various federal statutes.

The initial threat from the administration sought, among other things, to control who can teach, what subjects can be taught, how they may be taught, and which students can be admitted to Harvard…

This video also shows why so many lawyers, judges and prosecutors are anti-American.

The Colonel then goes into Kissinger and his direct involvement in various CIA-Military overthrows of foreign governments. (Do not forget that Kissinger was working NOT for the USA but the British Empire as the Gals at Promethium Action indicated and as he revealed at an Oxford talk.)

22:50 …Diplomats & ambassadors are part and parcel of the CIA. They are not two separate entities.

[This is WHY POTUS Trump has used Jared Kushner as his representative. It is why he was successful in the Middle East using NON-Diplomats. It is really tough to achieve peace when the actual goal of your representatives is war and strife. –GC]

23:30 Infamous Phoenix Program run out of University of Michigan. She goes into the use of Vietnam as a test for Smart Cities and tracking systems. It has all been declassified. Michigan State University was also involved in these “police” advisory programs.

26:30 CIA & Think Tanks. She mentions the John Birch Society and their involvement in Operation Golden Lily. [They are anti-communist which plays into the CIA excuses to over throw governments. -GC]
LINK 1

LINK 2

28:30 Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown Univ, one of the CIA’s favorite recruiting places.

29:00 Bush School of Public Service @ Texas A&M. Texas A&M is in the middle of a huge scandal with the Charlie Kirk assassination.

Mark Welsh – Wiki

Texas native, a former dean of the Bush School of Government and Public Service, and the 20th Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force, Mark Welsh resigns after ‘gender ideology’ controversy.

She then runs thru a lot of programs at various universities as well as the CIA program called Officers in Residence that places active & retired agents at universities. A book written in 2017 is called Spy Schools.

31:30 The Colonel goes into why there is some much CIA presence in Utah. The Mormons are a favorite CIA target because of their foreign missionary work and foreign language skills. Many know multiple languages.

33:00 Back to Kissinger

39:30 Tufts University Fletcher School Center for Strategic Studies

40:20 Charlie Kirk & Utah State Univ. Center for Anticipatory Intelligence – CAI. Has direct ties to CIA. A whole bunch of the staff is quote-unquote former CIA. It mirrors the Rockefeller foundation predictive analytical programs begun in the 1950s. It is another version.

Pioneering Masters in Anticipatory Intelligence was launched in 2023. Focus on threat forecasting, AI driving security & multiple domain operations. It is described as a lab school for the CIA.

Pepe Lives Matter: How the CIA creates Lone Gunmen through the MK Ultra Program
“The CIA is capable of creating lone gunman in three to six weeks with a trained therapist and hypnotherapy.”

41:50 Cornell Univ….. CIA operations was exposed in a 1967 Ramparts article as a part of the exposure they were doing on Universities working with the CIA.

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

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

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

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

Please show respect and consideration for our fellow QTreepers. Before hitting the “post” button, please proofread your post and make sure your opinion addresses the issue only, and does not confront or denigrate the poster. Keep to the topic – avoid “you” and “your”. Here in The Q Tree, personal attacks, name-calling, ridicule, insults, baiting, and other conduct for which a penalty flag would be thrown are VERBOTEN.

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

Please also consider the Guidelines for posting and discussion printed here: 
https://www.theqtree.com/2019/01/01/dear-maga-open-topic-20190101/

On this day and every day –

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

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

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

One Nation Under God

In Western nations, America especially, we can see the Bible’s influence on many aspects of society. Everything from our laws to our work ethic to our view of marriage has been molded by a Judeo-Christian worldview. It has always been the case that the Word of God makes a difference in cultures where it is introduced. In first-century Thessalonica, a mob dragged some Christians through the streets shouting, “These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also” (Acts 17:6, ESV). It is only right that the Bible should have an influence on society, as it has an influence on the individuals within society.

God is the Creator of the world and the humans who inhabit it (Genesis 1). From the very beginning, God designed the world and people to “function” a certain way. When society doesn’t follow the principles that God gives us in the Bible, life simply doesn’t work as well. God’s the only One with the insight into how life functions to our best benefit, and He shares that wisdom with us in His Word. The Bible is described in Hebrews 4:12 as “alive and active.” This means, in part, that the Bible is as applicable and relevant today as it was when it was first written.

Looking back at the early stages of America, it is impossible not to see the influence the Bible had. Our government structure, laws, morality, education, and family values were all founded on principles that came directly from the Bible. The Founding Fathers, Presidents, and foreigners visiting a young America identified the key to the nation’s success as the biblical influence embraced by its society. When a nation honors God, it develops a respect for all of God’s creation. Where there is no honor of God, a society will fail to respect His creation, and people will suffer as a result.

From the beginning, people have had a choice whether to follow God’s way. But choices always carry consequences. The Old Testament history of Israel documents the societal laws and precepts God gave them. When Israel lived by God’s laws, their society functioned well, but when they deviated from God’s design, their society always went downhill. Attempts today to remove the Bible’s influence from society or to marginalize a biblical worldview reveal the pride of mankind that says, “We know better than the One who created us.”

None of this is to say that we should establish a theocracy such as ancient Israel had. God’s purposes in that system of government were for a certain time and place. However, when the Bible is properly understood, its influence on society can only lead to less crime, less divorce, less sloth, and more charity. As John Adams, the second President of the United States, wrote, “Suppose a nation in some distant Region should take the Bible for their only law Book, and every member should regulate his conduct by the precepts there exhibited! Every member would be obliged in conscience, to temperance, frugality, and industry; to justice, kindness, and charity towards his fellow men; and to piety, love, and reverence toward Almighty God . . . What a Eutopia, what a Paradise would this region be” (Diary and Autobiography of John Adams, Vol. III, p. 9). Scripture says it best: “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord” (Psalm 33:12).

Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people He chose for His inheritance.
From heaven the Lord looks down and sees all mankind;
From His dwelling place He watches all who live on earth—
He who forms the hearts of all, who considers everything they do.
Psalm 33: 12 – 15

“Obliged in conscience, to temperance, frugality, and industry; to justice, kindness, and charity towards his fellow men; and to piety, love, and reverence toward Almighty God”. To that list we can add joyfulness, peacefulness, patience, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

Contrast that list with the characteristics that come to mind if, for example, the European Union was to rule . . . or Muslims . . . or Marxists . . . or Democrats.

Not. Even. Close.