KMAG 20250528 OPEN TOPIC plus Transnational Corporations

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There are Important Notifications from our host, Wolf Moon; the Rules of our late, good Wheatie; and, certain caveats from Yours Truly, of which readers should be aware. They are linked here. Note: Yours Truly has checked today’s post for any AI-generated content. To the best of her knowledge and belief, there is none. If readers wish to post any AI-generated content in the discussion thread for today’s post, they must cite their source. Thank you.

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Morgenthau Plan – Wikipedia

The Morgenthau Plan was a proposal to weaken Germany following World War II by eliminating its arms industry and removing or destroying other key industries basic to military strength. This included the removal or destruction of all industrial plants and equipment in the Ruhr. It was first proposed by United States Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau Jr. in a 1944 memorandum entitled Suggested Post-Surrender Program for Germany….

That sure sounds like what was done to the USA via ‘leveraged buyouts’ in the 1980s thanks to Reagan’s laissez-faire attitude towards monopolies. According to Source Watch a long list of industries now have over 50% foreign ownership.

I worked for one of the targeted AMERICAN corporations. Here’s how they ran their business. Compare these methods to those of current corporations:

Personnel were hired for the long term & for their ability to grow into other jobs.
The corporation paid for continuing education and would even give time off for critical courses if you were going for a degree.
NO CORPORATE DEBT
SELF INSURED HEALTHCARE provided to the employees
American owned
Matching-funds if you bought corporate stock up to 10% of your salary. [This is why they succeeded in fighting off the first few hostile take-over attacks… Until the CEO mysteriously died of a heart attack at his desk. – A CIA hit maybe? Given what I know now it is not as far-fetched an idea as I first thought.]
Committed to QUALITY, Religion & the USA.

What allowed the buyout of US corporations? Mutual Funds & Pension Funds held stock in them. The stock, purchased using YOUR MONEY or pensions and was held in YOUR NAME. But you didn’t vote it as a stockholder. Instead, the stock was VOTED by Fidelity, Vanguard, Blackrock, State Street and other financial institutions. They are the ones who voted to allow the leveraged buyouts.

Do not forget 401K plans. They are another control transfer mechanism.

Americans held approximately $7.3 trillion in 401(k) plans as of June 30, 2021, according to the Investment Company Institute. And the typical wealth held in an American family’s 401(k) has more than tripled since the late 1980s…

In 1974, the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) was enacted, [There is that 1974 date again. — GC] creating a governmental body that oversaw and regulated company-sponsored retirement and health care plans for workers.

ERISA temporarily halted IRS plans to severely restrict retirement plans through regulation in the early 1970s, according to the EBRI. The Act created a study of employee salary reduction plans as well, which the EBRI credits for influencing the creation of the 401(k) later on in the decade….

The modern 401(k) originated in earnest in 1978 with a provision in The Revenue Act of 1978 which said that employees can choose to receive a portion of income as deferred compensation, and created tax structures around it.

Section 401 was originally intended by lawmakers to limit companies creating tax-advantaged profit-sharing plans that mostly benefited executives, according to the ICI. Thanks to the interpretation of the section by businessman Ted Benna, the language evolved into the basis of the modern 401(k), as it enabled profit-sharing plans to adopt CODAs.

The law was signed by President Jimmy Carter and became effective at the turn of the decade….

Is it any wonder that ‘the little guy’ now has very little influence over the big corporations?

….

But it gets worse. In 2010 the Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United v. FEC allowed corporations and unions to spend unlimited amounts of money on political advertisements and other forms of independent political expenditures. The founders, who hated corporations, must be rolling in their graves. SEE: What The Founding Fathers Thought About Corporations

Supreme Court decisions that paved the way for big money in politics

Supreme Court Decisions

Believe it or not, before some recent Supreme Court decisions the American political system was not always so skewed in favor of the wealthy and powerful. In fact, dating back to the Tillman Act of 1907 and the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947, Congress limited the ability of corporations and labor unions to make contributions or expenditures in connection with political campaigns.

The influx of money from corporations, unions, and ultra-wealthy individuals in recent decades is due largely to a few poorly reasoned Supreme Court decisions. The best way to understand how our campaign finance laws became so horribly dysfunctional is to understand those decisions, which are explained in detail below.

Buckley v. Valeo (aka The Court’s First Big Mistake) (1976)

First National Bank of Boston v. Bellotti (aka The Citizens United of the 1970s) (1978)

Federal Election Commission v. Massachusetts Citizens for Life (aka The Nonprofit Case) (1986)

Austin v. Michigan Chamber of Commerce (aka The Good One) (1990)

Citizens United v. FEC (aka The Worst Decision Since Dred Scott) (2010)

Arizona Free Enterprise Club v. Bennett (aka The Public Financing Case) (2011)

McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission (aka The Nightmare Continues) (2014)

The article goes through what each decision did to our election system.

One of the biggest problems as SourceWatch showed, is these corporations influencing our elections are no longer even AMERICAN corporations but are instead TRANSNATIONAL CORPORATIONS run by FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS – AKA the Banksters using the Mercantile system. However if an international corporation has offices in the USA, they can donate to political campaigns or run ads. So much for ‘American only’ influence in our political campaigns.

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H/T to Barkerjim who brought us this last Tuesday from Badlands.

WILTED IVY: The Death of Prestige and the Rise of Sovereignty

…Carroll Quigley, a historian with privileged access, wrote in Tragedy and Hope, [1966]

“The powers of financial capitalism had another far-reaching aim… nothing less than to create a world system of financial control in private hands.”

Harvard, in this view, acted less as a neutral educator and more as a strategic hub.

They didn’t just teach economics.
They reinforced orthodoxy:

Orthodoxy of narratives.

Orthodoxy of institutions.

Orthodoxy of “experts” upholding the prevailing system.

Graduating from an Ivy League school was less about critical thinking, and more about credentialing for access into the upper tiers of an increasingly globalized control system.

This is why the collapse of their perceived invincibility isn’t just symbolic, it’s tectonic.

Because if Harvard can fall, the entire scaffolding of manufactured consensus can fall with it.

If Harvard shaped minds, BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street shaped markets.

These three asset managers didn’t merely participate in corporate governance, they dominated it. Their collective control over trillions of dollars made them the unofficial enforcement arm of the globalist order….

Good old Commie central. I lived near there in the Combat Zone. The area leans so far left, that three decades ago a friend, originally a card-carrying communist , had to register as a Republican and work the polls so Cambridge MA could hold their elections!

Also whenever a small company, such as the one I worked for or Spags, suddenly had problems from major changes in the way they did business and then went under, Hubby & I would say they had been HAVAAAAD business schooled. The method was to cut needed expenses such as ongoing maintenance so the bottom line looked really good for a couple years and then move on to the next victim.

The Spags case was special. The store was not open on Sunday because the Borgatti family was religious. The old man dealt in CASH ONLY, no checks or credit cards. Thus he could also get really good deals on merchandise by paying THAT DAY and NOT paying 3 months later as most stores do. Also since Massachusetts taxed inventory in warehouses but NOT goods in transit, he stored his merchandise in trailers in his lot. His retail store was a no-frills warehouse with the merchandise on warehouse racks in cut open boxes. (No additional stock boys.) When he died his kids hired a Harvard business grad. They started taking credit cards (5% paid to the card company by the vendor) fancied up the selling area ($$$$) got a warehouse ($$$$) and the business went under in a few years and was sold.

Today, those asset managers DO NOT LIKE TRUMP’S TARIFFS. Thus you are going to see price gouging such as bananas going from $0.39 to $0.59 in ONE WEEK. Allowing the Fake news arm of the globalists to jump in and BLAME TARIFFS.

5/23/25 – Volvo Cars CEO says its customers must pay for rising tariffs | Reuters

So TOUGH, buy a Chevy or a Dodge…

Trump will destroy world trade, but democracies can defend themselves — and each other | the Guardian UK

by Anders Fogh Rasmussen

We need a trade block, a D7, that would mirror Nato. An economic attack on one would be an attack on all

Anders Fogh Rasmussen is a former prime minister of Denmark and former secretary general of Nato

[He writes:]

The postwar global economic order, with the United States at its centre, has created more prosperity than any other period in human history. [by sucking the USA dry. –GC] Yet as Donald Trump takes a sledgehammer to that economic order, America’s democratic allies face a choice. We can accept the new cost of doing business with the US. We can follow the US down a path of mutually assured economic destruction with an ever-escalating trade war. Or we can find new avenues to keep free trade alive.

[FREE? You have GOT TO BE KIDDING ME! –FREE to the EU but NOT to the USA that is getting raped via multiple methods. -GC]

My proposition? I believe we need a new platform for economic cooperation between the world’s seven leading democracies. Call it the “Democratic 7”, or “D7”. The EU, the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and South Korea represent roughly 25% of global GDP and account for about 35% of global trade volume. Together, these democracies can help to shield each other from the threats of economic nationalism and coercion – while also championing democracy, the rule of law, and market economics…

GEE, the EU, the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and South Korea… What do they all have in common? WHY THE US MILITARY GUARDS THEM!

What happens if the USA under Trump joins BRICS?

This problem was also identified by Angelo M. Codevilla (may he rest in peace) in July of 2010.

America’s Ruling Class—And the Perils of Revolution

…The only serious opposition to this arrogant Ruling Party is coming not from feckless Republicans but from what might be called the Country Party—and its vision is revolutionary.

As over-leveraged investment houses began to fail in September 2008, the leaders of the Republican and Democratic parties, of major corporations, and opinion leaders stretching from the National Review magazine (and The Wall Street Journal) on the right to The Nation magazine on the left, agreed that spending some $700 billion to buy the investors’ “toxic assets” was the only alternative to the U.S. economy’s “systemic collapse.” In this, President George W. Bush and his would-be Republican successor John McCain agreed with the Democratic candidate, Barack Obama. Many, if not most, people around them also agreed upon the eventual commitment of some 10 trillion nonexistent dollars in ways unprecedented in America. They explained neither the difference between the assets’ nominal and real values, nor precisely why letting the market find the latter would collapse America.

The public objected immediately, by margins of three or four to one.

When this majority discovered that virtually no one in a position of power in either party or with a national voice would take their objections seriously, that decisions about their money were being made in bipartisan backroom deals with interested parties, and that the laws on these matters were being voted by people who had not read them, the term “political class” came into use. Then, after those in power changed their plans from buying toxic assets to buying up equity in banks and major industries but refused to explain why, when they reasserted their right to decide ad hoc on these and so many other matters, supposing them to be beyond the general public’s understanding, the American people started referring to those in and around government as the “ruling class.” …

The Republican Party did not disparage the ruling class, because most of its officials are or would like to be part of it.

Never has there been so little diversity within America’s upper crust. Always, in America as elsewhere, some people have been wealthier and more powerful than others. But until our own time America’s upper crust was a mixture of people who had gained prominence in a variety of ways, who drew their money and status from different sources and were not predictably of one mind on any given matter….

Today’s ruling class, from Boston to San Diego, was formed by an educational system that exposed them to the same ideas and gave them remarkably uniform guidance, as well as tastes and habits. These amount to a social canon of judgments about good and evil, complete with secular sacred history, sins (against minorities and the environment), and saints. Using the right words and avoiding the wrong ones when referring to such matters — speaking the “in” language — serves as a badge of identity. Regardless of what business or profession they are in, their road up included government channels and government money because, as government has grown, its boundary with the rest of American life has become indistinct. Many began their careers in government and leveraged their way into the private sector. Some, e.g., Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner, never held a non-government job. Hence whether formally in government, out of it, or halfway, America’s ruling class speaks the language and has the tastes, habits, and tools of bureaucrats. It rules uneasily over the majority of Americans not oriented to government.

…The two classes have less in common culturally, dislike each other more, and embody ways of life more different from one another than did the 19th century’s Northerners and Southerners — nearly all of whom, as Lincoln reminded them, “prayed to the same God.” By contrast, while most Americans pray to the God “who created and doth sustain us,” our ruling class prays to itself as “saviors of the planet” and improvers of humanity. Our classes’ clash is over “whose country” America is, over what way of life will prevail, over who is to defer to whom about what. The gravity of such divisions points us, as it did Lincoln, to Mark’s Gospel: “if a house be divided against itself, that house cannot stand.”….

And thus the Tea Party was formed and ATTACKED by both the Democrats (LINK 1 and LINK 2) followed by the Republicans — Chamber of Commerce to Spend $100 Million to Destroy Tea Party. I guess the big transnational corporations did not like the idea of the serfs organizing.

Here is an example of the types of articles you would see in academic circles.

A Nation Dispossessed: The Tea Party Movement and Race — 2011

Leonard Zeskind

Institute for Research and Education on Human Rights, USA

Critical Sociology 0(0) 1–15 © The Author(s) 2011 Reprints and permission: https://uk.sagepub.com/en-gb/eur/journals

Abstract

This analysis combines both qualitative information and quantitative data. The author reviewed numerous first person reports of Tea Party rallies, conferences and meetings from every corner of the country, and read most of the movement’s own literature. The Tea Parties are described as a unique movement appearing at a specific historical moment. The movement encompasses constituent national networks, core members and more loosely aligned supporters. Its supporters are overwhelmingly white and middle class. Matters of race and national identity motivate many Tea Partiers as well as a sense of dispossession from their place of privilege in the racial order. This analysis takes at face value the movement’s dress, symbols and invocation of the constitution, as well as its claims to embody the aspirations of a narrow body of ‘real Americans’. By making an exclusionary claim on the nation’s founding moments, they actually set themselves apart from other Americans.…

Conclusion
Social movements do not last forever. More often than not, they have one or another or a combination of three fates. One, they are either victorious and decline after reaching their goal. Two, they are defeated outright. Three, they are co-opted by some larger institution.

The militia movement that emerged in the 1990s, for example, was defeated following the
Oklahoma City bombing in 1995 by a concerted campaign of civic opposition and government repression. Militia groups have reappeared, but the movement itself is gone as of now. To go back further in history, the Ku Klux Klan and other white-minded thugs that emerged during the Reconstruction period after the Civil War were essentially victorious in re-establishing the system of white supremacy in the former Confederacy, and the Klan dissolved effortlessly into the Democratic Party before the end of the century. The Klan in the 1920s may have suffered from the scandals surrounding its leadership, but the movement did not die until after it won a change in the 1924 immigration law that protected Anglo-Saxon hegemony for another generation. After that it basically closed up shop, except in the Deep South. The Klan, the Citizens Councils, the Birchers
and the segregationists in the 1950s and 1960s were decisively defeated by the black freedom movement, and they were left standing with empty hands after Governor George Wallace’s independent presidential campaign in 1968. Only the Republican Party gained after it adopted its infamous ‘Southern Strategy’.

The decisive moments that will decide the Tea Parties’ fate have not yet occurred. The movement’s sights are set squarely on November 2012. If they win back the presidency for the Republican Party, the movement might or might not dissolve into squabbling factions. If they perceive that they have lost that election, or the Republican primaries before it, an internal power struggle may or may not split it irrevocably apart. Win, lose or draw, however, the Tea Party movement has already left important markers on America’s political landscape: First, in the current debate over economic policy and the national debt, they have moved the discussion toward fiscal restraint and de-regulation. They stand in the way of environmental protection and other measures by which the federal government might promote the common good. Of more long-term consequence, however, will be its legacy in the arena of race. Please consider that the Tea Party movement may be a precursor of an even larger revolt by supposedly dispossessed white people as the expected population and demographic shifts occur in the decades to come.

Keywords Tea Party, Tea Party movement, nationalism, racism, white dispossession, white majority fears, white nationalism

Good Grief the Tea Party was NEVER, EVER about RACE. It was about the Federal Reserve, Fractional Reserve Banking, TOO MUCH TAX and not enough FISCAL RESTRAINT! By ignoring the complaints and driving the Tea Party underground the Globalists forced the birth of MAGA.

…..

Wolf Moon in a comment thread gets into more of this information and its connections to today via Jack Smith.

I did research this. What I know is that his name is John L. Smith, where L is weird and I forgot what it is.

And he was indeed an attorney for the ICC/ICJ in the Hague – even Politico fact-checks this as TRUE, with lots of details.

But THIS is the most important part.

I did a Twitter thread on the guy, last year.

The Hague is a city in the Netherlands that is the home of U.N.’s International Court of justice and the International Criminal Court. So Jack Smith worked for the Globalists. — GC

The entire problem of "John Smith" (yes, that's his real name) as special counsel is explained by this great article on Smith's insane war against the Tea Party movement. The guy will relentlessly push bad theories until other people get into trouble.https://t.co/gvmzpn1jsT
— Wolf Moon (@WOLFM00N) June 28, 2023

You can see the entire thread using this URL: https://xcancel.com/WOLFM00N/status/1674123794301046800

TEXT from the first few tweets.

The entire problem of “John Smith” (yes, that’s his real name) as special counsel is explained by this great article on Smith’s insane war against the Tea Party movement. The guy will relentlessly push bad theories until other people get into trouble.

Jack Smith’s Tortured History With Republicans in Congress

This guy John Smith is literally, personally, WHY there was a Tea Party IRS scandal. Without him, no scandal. He’s the one who pushed the IRS into criminal persecution of conservatives. His DOJ then had IRS people pleading the Fifth to hide crimes against American citizens. [VIDEO]

Wolf Moon@WOLFM00N

28 Jun 2023

IMO, dirty judge Merrick Garland and Obama DOJ handler Lisa Monaco chose Smith not to win the case, but to drive Trump out of politics. Smith did exactly that to John Edwards. Smith LOST his case against Edwards, but drove him out of politics for good.

Trump special counsel Jack Smith lost the John Edwards case — what might that mean?

Wolfm00n gives more examples of Smith’s sucessful lawfare cases used to destroy political opponents.

….

So, getting back to Angelo Codevilla’s article, WHERE did all that 2008-9 bank bailout money actually go??? Why to our European Masters of course. SEE: The Federal Reserve’s Covert Bailout of Europe And the American Tax Payer got stuck with the TRILLIONS in debt AS USUAL.

It is interesting that POTUS Trump is FINALLY going after the EU that has been taking advantage of the USA since WWII. FINALLY, the US might stop hemorrhaging wealth and lives.

…

TRANSNATIONAL CORPORATIONS

The Network of Global Corporate Control

…we find that only 737 top holders accumulate 80% of the control over the value of all TNCs [Trans National Corporations] …This means that network control is much more unequally distributed than wealth. In particular, the top ranked actors hold a control ten times bigger than what could be expected based on their wealth…

…In detail, nearly 4/10 of the control over the economic value of TNCs in the world is held, via a complicated web of ownership relations, by a group of 147 TNCs in the core, which has almost full control over itself. The top holders within the core can thus be thought of as an economic “super-entity” in the global network of corporations. A relevant additional fact at this point is that 3/4 of the core are financial intermediaries….

Exposing the Financial Core of the Transnational Capitalist Class

Introduction

In this study, we decided to identify in detail the people on the boards of directors of the top ten asset management firms and the top ten most centralized corporations in the world. Because of overlaps, there is a total of thirteen firms, which collectively have 161 directors on their boards. We think that this group of 161 individuals represents the financial core of the world’s transnational capitalist class. They collectively manage $23.91 trillion in funds and operate in nearly every country in the world. They are the center of the financial capital that powers the global economic system. Western governments and international policy bodies work in the interests of this financial core to protect the free flow of capital investment anywhere in the world…

The Transnational Capitalist Class (2000), Leslie Sklair argued that globalization elevated transnational corporations (TNC) to more influential international roles, with the result that nation-states became less significant than international agreements developed through the World Trade Organization (WTO) and other international institutions.8 Emerging from these multinational corporations was a transnational capitalist class, whose loyalties and interests, while still rooted in their corporations, was increasingly international in scope. Sklair wrote:

The transnational capitalist class can be analytically divided into four main fractions: (i) owners and controllers of TNCs and their local affiliates; (ii) globalizing bureaucrats and politicians; (iii) globalizing professionals; (iv) consumerist elites (merchants and media). . . It is also important to note, of course, that the TCC and each of its fractions are not always entirely united on every issue. Nevertheless, together, leading personnel in these groups constitute a global power elite, dominant class or inner circle in the sense that these terms have been used to characterize the dominant class structures of specific countries...

This is why the Supreme Court decisions to give these TNCs control of our political campaigns was so detrimental to the USA. It explains why the Republicans and Democrats are globalists and not patriots.

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And in the GOOD NEWS DEPARTMENT:

TRADING MAYORS ☙ Tuesday, May 20, 2025 ☙ C&C NEWS

A Major Hat-tip to barkerjim for introducing me to C&C News.

… Rounding out today’s accountability trifecta, on Sunday the Washington Post ran an intriguing story headlined, “Trump Justice Dept. considers removing key check on lawmaker prosecutions.” The “key check” is a Biden-era rule that forbids Attorneys General from investigating public officials for corruption without first getting permission from the DC field office. You can guess how often that happens.

According to leakers (“three people familiar with the proposal”), federal prosecutors across the country may soon be able to indict members of Congress without pre-approval from “lawyers in the Justice Department’s Public Integrity Section,” or PIN, which is safely settled in Washington, DC where politicians can keep a wary eye on them.

Even better, under the new plan, FBI investigators and prosecutors would also be freed from having to ‘consult’ with the section’s attorneys “during key steps of probes into public officials.” In other words, even when the DC office did green-light an indictment, it still micromanaged the whole investigation.

Currently, the DOJ’s manual requires that PIN’s attorneys must approve —not just be consulted on— any charges against members of Congress. It doesn’t happen often, to say the least.

WaPo, probably intentionally, missed the painfully obvious point: a special oversight privilege for public officials provides them with a special tier of justice that other Americans do not enjoy. WaPo whined that the Public Integrity Section’s role was to “ensure that cases against public officials are legally sound and not politically motivated.”

But … what about us? Wouldn’t it be better and fairer to ensure that cases against all Americans are legally sound and not politically motivated, and not just public officials?

The ironically named Public Integrity office has already “dramatically shrunk” during the Trump administration, plunging from around 30 prosecutors by the end of the Biden administration to fewer than five today. One was fired, some rage-quit over the dismissal of the DOJ’s case against New York’s Democrat Mayor Eric Adams, while others have been “detailed to different sections in the department,” such as the division of Indian Affairs. In Trump’s first week in office, he fired PIN Director Corey Amundson.

It sure makes you think. Say you were planning to initiate wide-scale investigations into members of Congress, maybe for NGO abuse, insider trading, or general self-enrichment. This kind of thing would probably be your first move. Just saying.

C&C News on Tariffs

DULY PROCESSED ☙ Saturday, May 17, 2025 ☙ C&C NEWS

President Trump and his team appear to have no intention of losing Congress in next year’s midterms. And after seeing Trump’s scorched-earth tariff plan, imagine what similar kind of comprehensive strategy they might be deploying to completely destroy the Democrat brand. That is what I believe is happening.

The Democrats are getting further and further behind.

Here’s a thought experiment. Imagine that the next 18 months sees a steady series of increasingly damning disclosures about Biden’s lack of a real presidency plus the mounting evidence of 2020’s stolen election?

Remember, just like they gained access to the Biden Audio, the Trump Team now has access to all that information, too. They have receipts….

Whoopsies! Sorry, experts. This week, Politico ran a story headlined, “Tariffs have little impact on prices, defying forecasts.” Unexpectedly!

On Tuesday, the Labor Department reported that prices only rose at an annualized rate of 2.3 percent, the smallest increase since 2020— before the pandemic. And that was in spite of tariffs. It’s almost like Trump’s tariffs have had the opposite effect the experts sagely predicted.

An honest media would call the experts to account, and require them to explain why they were wrong. But Politico’s story lavishly applied the passive voice (“prices were expected to climb”), obscuring who was wrong, generously giving unreliable experts a pass. Oh well.

From Shadow Stat Alternate Inflation Charts

….The CPI-U (consumer price index) is the broadest measure of consumer price inflation for goods and services published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

While the headline number usually is the seasonally-adjusted month-to-month change, the formal CPI is reported on a not-seasonally-adjusted basis, with annual inflation measured in terms of year-to-year percent change in the price index.

In the charts to the right we show two SGS-Alternate CPI estimates: One based on the pre-1990 official methodology for computing the CPI-U, and the other based on the methodology which was employed prior to 1980.

Please note: Our Data Download is currently only providing the 1980-Based numbers, but 1990-Based numbers will be introduced shortly.

2025·05·10 We Will Have Justice Daily Thread

We should all remember Deplorable Patriot and Wheatie as we push forward with the fight. This is NOT over by any means.

Fight! Fight! Fight! Because JUSTICE must be served on those who foisted the “Vax” shit on us. And for all the other things they have done to this country.

“Don’t Tread On Me,” it says.
You failed to pay attention to this advice.
You went out of your way to do the opposite.
You chose to rub our faces in it,
imprison those who dared complain,
and even to kill our people.
Now you shall pay just a tiny fraction of the real price, Ratfuckers.

What is it that feeds our battle, yet starves our victory?

RINO scum. Like Murkowski and Collins.

That’s OK. We go around ’em for now.

January 6 Tapes Reminder

OK…I’m sick and tired of reminding you to no effect, Speaker Johnson, so I’ll do the more emotionally satisfying thing and call you a cowardly, lying, fraudulent sack of diarrhetic monkey shit.

Johnson, you are a cowardly, lying, fraudulent sack of diarrhetic monkey shit!

A Caution

Just remember…we might replace the RINO candidates. (Or we might not. The record is mixed even though there is more MAGA than there used to be.) But that will make no difference in the long run if the party officials, basically the Rhonna McDaniels (or however that’s spelled–I suspect it’s RINO), don’t get replaced.

State party chairs, vice chairs, secretaries and so on, and the same at county levels, have huge influence on who ultimately gets nominated, and if these party wheelhorses are RINOs, they will work tirelessly to put their own pukey people on the ballot. In fact I’d not be surprised if some of our “MAGA” candidates are in fact, RINO plants, encouraged to run by the RINO party leadership when they realized that Lyn Cheney (and her ilk) were hopelessly compromised as effective candidates. The best way for them to deal with the opposition, of course, is to run it themselves.

Running good candidates is only HALF of the battle!

Justice Must Be Done.

The prior election must be acknowledged as fraudulent, and steps must be taken to prosecute the fraudsters and restore integrity to the system.

Nothing else matters at this point. Talking about trying again in 2022 or 2024 is hopeless otherwise. Which is not to say one must never talk about this, but rather that one must account for this in ones planning; if fixing the fraud is not part of the plan, you have no plan.

Kamala Harris has a new nickname since she finally went west from DC to El Paso Texas: Westward Hoe.

Lawyer Appeasement Section

OK now for the fine print.

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

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

And remember Wheatie’s Rules:

1. No food fights
2. No running with scissors.
3. If you bring snacks, bring enough for everyone.
4. 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

All prices are Kitco Ask, 3PM MT Friday (at that time the markets close for the weekend). (Note: most media quotes are for the bid…the price paid by the market makers, not the ask, which is what they will sell at. I figure the ask is more relevant to people like us who wish we could afford to buy these things. In the case of gold the difference is usually about a dollar, for the PGMs the spread is much wider.)

Last Week:

Gold $3,241.60
Silver $31.96
Platinum $971.00
Palladium $977.00
Rhodium $5,700.00
FRNSI* 155.812+
Gold:Silver 101.427-

This week, markets closed at 3PM Mountain Time Friday for the weekend.

Gold $3,325.30
Silver $32.81
Platinum $1,009.00
Palladium $1,002.00
Rhodium $5,675.00
FRNSI* 159.861+
Gold:Silver 101.350+ (Again, Yikes!!!)

Gold managed to push up into the 3430s (at least) on Monday/Tuesday night/morning. Apparently the Chinese markets were closed May 1-5. The Chinese markets tend to boost gold while the European and US markets push it down.

That said gold was back down to the low 3300s by Thursday evening, and seems to have settled into that range once again.

*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.

Leading Up To The Big Revolution In Geology

As of the late 1950s geology had made tremendous strides in about two and a half centuries. Geologists had come to understand a lot about rocks, how they were made, how they endured (or didn’t), and had used this understanding not just to reconstruct a lot of Earth’s past, but also life‘s past.

But a lot was missing, too. We knew, for instance, that land rose and fell; we had obvious ancient sea floor in what is today nosebleed-high mountain ranges. And we knew that it wasn’t because the water had risen, but rather that the land had risen afterwards.

What we didn’t know was why. Why was terrain being uplifted from time to time?

Geologists had won their argument with the astronomers over how old the Earth had to be, but that win left them with another aspect of this problem. If the Earth were indeed hundreds of millions of years old (as, by about 1900 at the latest they figured must be the case), then why did we have continents at all? They should have eroded away long ago!

Another mystery was volcanoes. They happened a lot in some places, and not in others. Why? No idea. I had access to an outdated book on volcanoes (probably written in the late 1950s) as a kid in the early 1970s. It asked this question and gave no answer beyond, essentially, “we don’t know.”

Today we know the answers to all of this. And indeed looking back on it, the geologists who lived through what can only be described as an Awakening (and yes, some of them are still alive), realize that geology made no sense without the answer. Oh, the little stuff made sense; mountains erode, volcanoes erupt, streams silt up, until you dug a bit deeper and realized there was no rhyme or reason to it when you tried to put together a big picture. Why were the mountains there to erode? Why weren’t volcanoes in New York State?

There really wasn’t a big picture.

And then, in not much more time than it takes for a Trump attorney general to be confirmed, there was a big picture!

What a glorious time it was to be a geologist!

I’m not guessing at this; I’ve heard many of them talk.

Plate tectonics brings order and sense to geology. Much like the periodic table brings order and sense to chemistry, gravitation brings sense to astronomy, and evolution brings sense to biology.

(You might want to argue with that last one. You’d be wrong. I’ve heard biologists talk too. Biology literally would make no sense–it would be a jumble of miscellaneous facts–without evolution to tie it together.)

So this is going to be the story of how we came to recognize that plate tectonics exists, and how it works. And it will probably take several posts to cover.

But first…some background. (You should have seen that coming.)

Igneous Rocks

There are three broad classes of rocks, igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic. (I hope this is a refresher to you, as I’ve covered this before.) Igneous rocks were certainly the first kind to exist, since those are the kind of rock you get when lava or magma cool and solidify. Then there is sedimentary rock, formed from bits of other rocks (of any of these types), that erode, are transported downhill, and (usually) end up at the bottom of a body of water where they become sandstone, or limestone, and things like that. Metamorphic rock results when any rock is subjected to high temperatures and pressures and undergoes chemical and structural changes without going all the way to melting and re-solidifying. Marble and flint are examples of metamorphic rock.

We’re going to concentrate on igneous rocks.

Magma and lava are typically mixtures of different chemicals, and as they cool the chemicals crystalize (and become minerals). You can tell how quickly an igneous rock cooled; if it cooled very slowly you get large crystals; if it cooled quickly you may have very small crystals, perhaps small enough you need a microscope to study them. In extreme cases there may be no crystals at all and the rock is considered a volcanic glass, like obsidian.

(A rock with crystals large enough to be seen by the naked eye is “phaneritic” while others are “aphaneritic.” As a side note to this side note, “phaner-” also appears in the name “Phanerozoic,” which is a hint as to where it got its name; the Phanerozoic is the eon where life was big enough to see. Though that’s a bit of a misnomer now since the Ediacaran period, right before/below the Cambrian and thus not in the Phanerozoic eon, also had life big enough to see. But that discovery post-dates the naming of the Phanerozoic.)

Lava being out on the surface cools quickly and generally has very small crystals, whereas intrusive rocks (like dikes and sills), and gigantic bodies of magma called “batholiths” are underground and cool very slowly; leading to big crystals. In fact, geologists will distinguish between extrusive (lava) and intrusive (the others) igneous rocks as the “mode of occurrence.”

There is also, independent of that, another distinction, a chemical one. Magmas in general are mostly silicon, oxygen, aluminum, sodium, potassium, calcium, iron and magnesium; these all go together to form silicate minerals, which make up at least 90 percent of all igneous rocks. Silicate minerals are made up largely of silica, SiO₂ (as I tried to explain the one time I dared to take up mineralogy), but not entirely. Different magma bodies have different proportions of these materials.

Felsic rocks have the most silica, and end up consisting mostly of quartz and feldspar, with other things thrown in like mica. The dividing line seems to be 63% or more silica makes it a felsic rock. And the result is either granite (intrusive, slow cooling from magma) or rhyolite (extrusive, quick-cooling from lava, fine-grained). These rocks are usually fairly light in color, and have a relatively low density compared to the other sorts of igneous rocks. (That low density has very important consequences, so don’t forget it!)

Below, some of the minerals that appear in felsic rock, plus a picture of some granite from an obscure location that I picked totally at random (right).

Intermediate rocks are 52-63% silica, and the intrusive version is diorite while the extrusive one is andesite. You might ask, “intermediate between what, and what?” Well, intermediate between felsic and…

Mafic rocks are 45% to 52% silica. The intrusive, coarse-grained type is gabbro, while the fine grained type is basalt. In general, these rocks will have a lot of pyroxenes, olivines, and calcic plagioclase in them.

Anything less than 45% silica is ultramafic. The coarse grained, intrusive example is peridotite, while the fine grained ultramafic rocks are komatiite.

If you do a deep dive there are further and further fine-grained (sorry. OK, no I’m not) ways of classifying igneous rocks.

The average adult has heard of granite. He may have heard of basalt. The other six broad kinds of igneous rock are probably foreign to him.

Most lava flows are basaltic in nature. Most rocks that form deep underground (known as plutons) inside mountain ranges are granitic. So there’s both a compositional and textural distinction between lava and plutonic rock. At least, usually. The exceptions are notable when they happen.

(Every once in a while I hear a tourist opine that Pikes Peak must surely be a volcano. No…it’s made of granite–see the picture above–much like the Appalachians. Granite doesn’t happen in volcanoes (or if it does, it’s very rare). Tour guides must be really tired of this one.)

The Earth’s Crust

(More background)

The Earth has a layered structure. The below diagram shows (lower left) to scale, and the notional “pie wedge” at upper right is not to scale. (We have some notion of these layers because we can “watch” seismic waves curving and refracting at the boundaries between the layers. The liquid outer core, in fact, blocks some kinds of seismic waves completely. I have described this before.)

The crust is on average 35 kilometers thick (out of a total of 6371 (average) or 6378 (max) kilometers to the center of the Earth). There is also the lithosphere, the top 60 or so km of the Earth (note that the crust is part of the lithosphere). The mantle lies directly underneath the crust and goes down 2900 km or so; it’s divided into an upper and lower layer about 660 km down.

Most of the mantle is solid but does flow over time; the very topmost layer of it is a lot more rigid which is why it is grouped with the crust into the lithosphere.

In fact the boundary between crust and mantle is where there is a sudden shift in the speed of seismic waves; this is the Mohorovičić discontinuity which for some reason I can’t fathom gets abbreviated to “Moho.”

In some cases upper mantle material has ended up on the Earth’s surface, and it’s generally 55% olivine, 35% pyroxene and 5-10% calcium oxide and aluminum oxide minerals such as plagioclase, spinel, and garnet. In other words, the mantle is mafic. It’s also much more dense than the Earth’s crust, which means that over time the crust is likely to stay “up there” essentially floating on the mantle.

One other thing that the diagram does is to distinguishes between “continental” and “oceanic” crust. Other than the fact that the oceanic crust is a lot thinner than the continental crust, does it really make a difference? Both are largely silicate, but it turns out the ocean floors are, underneath the sediment layer, largely made of basalt, diabase, and gabbro. In other words the ocean floors are mafic. They’re also only about 5-10 km thick.

Continental crust on the other hand is mostly felsic and can be anywhere from 25-70 km thick. (Note that the continental crust includes the continental shelves; geologically speaking they’re part of the continents, not part of the oceans.) Some really thick areas of continental crust are the Tibetan plateau and the Altiplano next to the Andes, where the crust can be as thick as 80 km.

So continental crust is lighter and thicker than oceanic crust. One would think the composition would be about the same everywhere, and likely less difference in thickness too, but no we have these pronounced differences and it turns out we now know it’s for a very good reason.

Note that the difference in thickness is greater than the distance from the top of mount Everest to the ocean floor, This implies that where there are continents the continental crust drops further into the Earth than the oceanic crust.

In fact it ought to remind you of icebergs, floating on top of a liquid medium with with a large portion beneath the surface, or sticking into the mantle layer.

I recall reading somewhere (I can’t confirm it) that if (say) ten feet were to erode off the top of Pikes Peak, then (given a lot of time) the mountain would “bob” up about nine feet for a net loss of elevation of a whole foot. Clearly to erode the entire thing away (it sticks up about 8000 feet above the surrounding terrain), 80,000 feet or sixteen miles would have to erode away–not just 8000 feet.

Below is a diagram with contour lines of the thickness of Earth’s crust.

And now, with today’s ramble plus prior ones, you have the background to understand the story of the great geological revolution.

DEAR MAGA: Open Thread 20250501 & Fear Not

^Welcome.
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2024 Presidential Election Map by County. (an uncertain credit)
**Let us Never Forget: our VOTES gave the Trump Administration a Mandate to FIX IT ALL.**

Do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.

For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore,
and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. — Galatians 5:1

We got our miracle.
America is back.

Let us dedicate ourselves to the cleansing, healing, and rebuilding of our beautiful nation.

God will guide us.
Prayers & thanks to God for our President, Donald J. Trump.

Fear Not.

In the biblical record of heavenly encounters, often the first thing spoken to a person (who has already fallen face down in awe) is, “Fear Not.”

Revelation 1 (KJB), John’s Vision on Patmos

9 I John, who also am your brother, and companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was in the isle that is called Patmos, for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ. 10 I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet, 11 Saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last: and, What thou seest, write in a book, and send it unto the seven churches which are in Asia; unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, and unto Pergamos, and unto Thyatira, and unto Sardis, and unto Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea.

12 And I turned to see the voice that spake with me. And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks; 13 And in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle. 14 His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire; 15 And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters. 16 And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth went a sharp twoedged sword: and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength.

17 And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, FEAR NOT; I am the first and the last: 18 I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death. 19 Write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter; 20 The mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in my right hand, and the seven golden candlesticks. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches: and the seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches.

Reasonable Fear.

It is the human condition to face fears in our lives that are truly reasonable fears. But, when we have done all we can to prepare and protect, we still find our power is not sufficient to remove all sources of threat.

Psalms 127

1 Unless the LORD builds the house,
            They labor in vain who build it;
            Unless the LORD guards the city,
            The watchman keeps awake in vain.

  2 It is vain for you to rise up early,
            To retire late,
            To eat the bread of painful labors;
            For He gives to His beloved even in his sleep.

May the truth of God’s provision and protection calm the fears of those who belong to him.

Psalms 91 (TPT)

1 When you abide under the shadow of Shaddai,
you are hidden in the strength of God Most High.*

2 He’s the hope that holds me and the stronghold to shelter me,
the only God for me, and my great confidence.

3 He will rescue you from every hidden trap of the enemy,
and he will protect you from false accusation
and any deadly curse.

4 His massive arms are wrapped around you, protecting you.
You can run under his covering of majesty and hide.
His arms of faithfulness are a shield keeping you from harm.

5 You will never worry about an attack of demonic forces at night
nor have to fear a spirit of darkness coming against you.

6 Don’t fear a thing!
Whether by night or by day, demonic danger will not trouble you,
nor will the powers of evil be launched against you.

7 Even in a time of disaster, with thousands and thousands being killed, you will remain unscathed and unharmed.

8 You will be a spectator as the wicked perish in judgment,
for they will be paid back for what they have done!

9-10 When we live our lives within the shadow of God Most High,
our secret hiding place, we will always be shielded from harm.
How then could evil prevail against us or disease infect us?

11 God sends angels with special orders to protect you wherever you go, defending you from all harm.

12 If you walk into a trap, they’ll be there for you
and keep you from stumbling.

13 You’ll even walk unharmed among the fiercest powers of darkness, trampling every one of them beneath your feet!

14 For here is what the Lord has spoken to me:
“Because you loved me, delighted in me, and have been loyal to my name, I will greatly protect you.

15 I will answer your cry for help every time you pray,
and you will feel my presence
in your time of trouble.
I will deliver you and bring you honor.

16 I will satisfy you with a full life and with all that I do for you.
For you will enjoy the fullness of my salvation!”

*boxed notes, above, are from The Passion Translation footnotes.

Our Turn.

We can make a difference.
And we must make a difference.

May God bless and guide you
as you pray and take action for our nation.

Twitterati, etc.

May I recommend to you @DowdEdward. Edward Dowd is the founder Phinance Technologies and author of Cause Unknown: The Epidemic of Sudden Death in 2021 & 2022.

Prayer.

God Bless America,
Land that I love.
Stand beside her, and guide her
Thru the night with a light from above.
From the mountains, to the prairies,
To the oceans, white with foam
God bless America, My home sweet home.

DEAR MAGA: Open Thread 20250424 & Exodus Jubilation

^Welcome.
^{Please visit this post for our long-standing site rules.}
^{### Kindly identify all AI products, per warning in the header ###}

Do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.

For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore,
and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. — Galatians 5:1

We got our miracle.
America is back.

Let us dedicate ourselves to the cleansing, healing, and rebuilding of our beautiful nation.

God will guide us.
Prayers & thanks to God for President Donald J. Trump.

Exodus Jubilation.

This is the first week of the Eastertide season.

Eastertide (also known as Eastertime or the Easter season) or Paschaltide (also known as Paschaltime or the Paschal season) is a festal season in the liturgical year of Christianity that focuses on celebrating the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.

The church refers to this period of time after the resurrection as the Paschal Season. What are they referring to?

It’s all about the Passover.

…the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus comes clothed to us in the imagery, symbolism, and language of the Jewish Passover. In fact, the name these early Christians give to their Easter festival is the Greek word pascha. Pascha is a Greek translation of the Hebrew Pesach, which is the Hebrew name for Passover. The Latin church picks up this usage and calls Easter in Latin as pascha as well. And from that Latin origin, modern European romance languages get their name for Easter: French: Paques, Spanish: Pascua, Italian: Pasqua. — Gordon Lindsey, The Bible is in My Blood

Drawing parallels between the exodus and the resurrection, Christians see the Exodus as a type, a foreshadowing of the massive jailbreak when Christ frees the righteous dead from the shadow-lands of the underworld, leading them in triumph from darkness into His light. And Christ’s defeat of sin and death is indeed, Good News.

This parallel is highlighted not only within the Gospel accounts themselves, but throughout the New Testament.

For Christ, our paschal lamb, has been sacrificed. Let us, therefore, celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
— 1 Corinthians 5:6-8

Rejoice!

Easter’s message rings out in the traditional greeting; one says, “Christ is risen!” and to which the response is, “He is risen indeed, Alleluia!” There is joy in the air. An exuberance, a jubilation, as believers celebrate the defeat of their enemy, and the triumph of their Savior.

Christ is risen from the dead,
trampling down death by death,
and upon those in the tombs
bestowing life!
— Paschal troparion, Christos anesti

In the book of Exodus, after witnessing the Egyptians absolute defeat by the hand of God, the people of Israel, led by Moses, break into song–not only singing–but dancing in celebration. Finally, they are beginning to believe that they have been freed from their oppressors.

We see a people filled with exuberant jubilation rejoicing over the utter defeat of their enemy, and the stunning triumph of their saving God.

And we are right there with them in this Eastertide season. God has mightily delivered us. Let us rejoice!

The Song of Moses

Then Moses and the Israelites sang this song to the LORD:
(Exodus 15:1-21)

I will sing to the LORD, for he is gloriously triumphant;
horse and chariot he has cast into the sea.

My strength and my refuge is the LORD,
and he has become my savior.
This is my God, I praise him;
the God of my father, I extol him.

The LORD is a warrior,
LORD is his name!

Pharaoh’s chariots and army he hurled into the sea;
the elite of his officers were drowned in the Red Sea.

The flood waters covered them,
they sank into the depths like a stone.

Your right hand, O LORD, magnificent in power,
your right hand, O LORD, shattered the enemy.

In your great majesty you overthrew your adversaries;
you loosed your wrath to consume them like stubble.

At the blast of your nostrils the waters piled up,
the flowing waters stood like a mound,
the flood waters foamed in the midst of the sea.

The enemy boasted, “I will pursue and overtake them;
I will divide the spoils and have my fill of them;
I will draw my sword; my hand will despoil them!”

When you blew with your breath, the sea covered them;
like lead they sank in the mighty waters.

Who is like you among the gods, O LORD?
Who is like you, magnificent among the holy ones?
Awe-inspiring in deeds of renown, worker of wonders,
when you stretched out your right hand, the earth swallowed them!

In your love you led the people you redeemed;
in your strength you guided them to your holy dwelling.

The peoples heard and quaked;
anguish gripped the dwellers in Philistia.

Then were the chieftains of Edom dismayed,
the nobles of Moab seized by trembling;

All the inhabitants of Canaan melted away;
terror and dread fell upon them.

By the might of your arm they became silent like stone,
while your people, LORD, passed over,
while the people whom you created passed over.

You brought them in, you planted them
on the mountain that is your own—

The place you made the base of your throne, LORD,
the sanctuary, LORD, your hands established.

May the LORD reign forever and ever!

When Pharaoh’s horses and chariots and horsemen entered the sea, the LORD made the waters of the sea flow back upon them, though the Israelites walked on dry land through the midst of the sea.

Then the prophet Miriam, Aaron’s sister, took a tambourine in her hand, while all the women went out after her with tambourines, dancing; and she responded to them:

Sing to the LORD, for he is gloriously triumphant;
horse and chariot he has cast into the sea.

God Wins.

Prayer.

God Bless America,
Land that I love.
Stand beside her, and guide her
Thru the night with a light from above.
From the mountains, to the prairies,
To the oceans, white with foam
God bless America, My home sweet home.

DEAR MAGA: Open Thread 20250417 & Sovereignty

^Welcome.
^{Please visit this post for our long-standing site rules.}
^{### Kindly identify all AI products, per warning in the header ###}

Do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.

For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore,
and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. — Galatians 5:1

We got our miracle.
America is back.

Let us dedicate ourselves to the cleansing, healing, and rebuilding of our beautiful nation.

God will guide us.
Prayers & thanks to God for President Donald J. Trump.

Sovereignty

Sovereignty. Souveraineté.
What does this word, sovereignty, mean?
It seems to mean different things to different people.

This Kind of Sovereign?

Judging by a paper called, “A QUICK GUIDE TO SOVEREIGN CITIZENS,” by the UNC School of Government, there are some people that think they can become free by resisting the governmental structures currently in place in our nation. In brief, the paper tells us:

“Sovereign citizen” is a catchall phrase referring to a variety of anti-government individuals and groups who share some common beliefs and behaviors. The organizations to which many sovereign citizens belong have a variety of names… In one way or another, though, all sovereign citizens, whether tied to an organization or not, adhere to a view that the existing American governmental structure, including the courts and law enforcement, is illegitimate and that they, the sovereign citizens, retain an individual common law identity exempting them from the authority of those fraudulent government institutions.

Hmmmm.
Maybe this isn’t the kind of sovereign we were looking for.

A Different Take on Sovereignty.

We’ve already had some discussion recently on this essay, but you might not have read far enough down to reach this fantastic claim:

… Still, their eyes were always looking forward, toward a moment when the government wouldn’t just digitize its services but its sovereignty. Enter DOGE. The Department of Government Efficiency didn’t materialize in a vacuum. It was seeded during the Obama years, whispered into existence by those who knew that the real power would come not from Congress, but from a system nimble enough to move faster than legislation, and quiet enough to reshape infrastructure without fanfare. It began as the United States Digital Service—a small team of technocrats who fixed websites, sure, but more importantly, mapped the internal circuitry of American bureaucracy. They weren’t patching holes. They were creating access points. And then, just as quietly as they arrived, they left the back door open.

Sounds interesting. But I’m not sure exactly how to respond. The author provides three hypothetical outcomes of the end of Act III. The second outcome, narrative fracture, doesn’t look good. The first outcome, sovereign reset, is just about what most people seem to want. But that third outcome—if it is even possible—the revelation state, I think people with a heart to be free might want an outcome like this:

It’s not just about controlling the machine—it’s about purifying it.
The Sovereign Reset without accountability is stable, but cold.
The Narrative Fracture without vision is chaotic and likely irreparable.
But the Revelation State?
That’s the rarest kind of government:
One that awakens, without collapsing.
One that confesses, without capitulating.
One that still serves, even after seizing control.

However, does this path return us to the intentions of the Founding Fathers of our nation?
I wonder.

Popular Sovereignty.

The Bill of Rights Institute offers some bracing clarity regarding those intentions:

Popular Sovereignty: “We the People”

The Declaration of Independence affirmed the republican principle of popular government. The people were the source of all sovereignty, or authority, in the representative government. They gave their consent to their elected representatives to govern them. The document stated, “That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving [receiving] their just powers from the consent of the governed.”

The Preamble to the Constitution outlined that the new constitutional government was also to be based on this principle of popular sovereignty. It stated, “We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union.” This meant that the people of the United States, through their representatives, established this new government. The previous government under the Articles of Confederation (1781–1789) did not have sufficient power to govern the nation because the states were sovereign.

The core purpose of the Declaration of Independence was to establish a just political order that recognized human equality in natural rights for all persons. “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable [impossible to take away] Rights.” This meant that the equality of all people would be the basis of any American system of government. This promise, though not fully realized, has guided American political debates ever since.

This was recognized in the Preamble, which stated simply that one of its main goals was to “establish Justice.” Justice meant that all were equal under the law and equal in their rights. Individuals would be able to pursue their own happiness and have equal opportunity to work hard and keep the fruits of their labor. James Madison noted the importance of justice in Federalist No. 51 when he wrote, “Justice is the end [purpose] of government. It is the end of civil society.”

God as Sovereign.

On this Maundy Thursday of the Christian Holy Week, it seems fitting to reflect on how Jesus the Christ, and our Lord, presented his sovereignty in the last hours before laying down his life for those he came to redeem.

From the Gospel of John 18:33-19:22 (AMPC):

So Pilate went back again into the judgment hall and called Jesus and asked Him, Are You the King of the Jews? Jesus replied, Are you saying this of yourself [on your own initiative], or have others told you about Me?

Pilate answered, Am I a Jew? Your [own] people and nation and their chief priests have delivered You to me. What have You done? Jesus answered, My kingdom (kingship, royal power) belongs not to this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My followers would have been fighting to keep Me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, My kingdom is not from here (this world); [it has no such origin or source].

Pilate said to Him, Then You are a King? Jesus answered, You say it! [You speak correctly!] For I am a King. [Certainly I am a King!] This is why I was born, and for this I have come into the world, to bear witness to the Truth. Everyone who is of the Truth [who is a friend of the Truth, who belongs to the Truth] hears and listens to My voice.

Pilate said to Him, What is Truth? On saying this he went out to the Jews again and told them, I find no fault in Him. But it is your custom that I release one [prisoner] for you at the Passover. So shall I release for you the King of the Jews?

Then they all shouted back again, Not Him [not this Man], but Barabbas! Now Barabbas was a robber. So then Pilate took Jesus and scourged (flogged, whipped) Him. And the soldiers, having twisted together a crown of thorns, put it on His head, and threw a purple cloak around Him. And they kept coming to Him and saying, Hail, King of the Jews! [Good health to you! Peace to you! Long life to you, King of the Jews!] And they struck Him with the palms of their hands.

Then Pilate went out again and said to them, See, I bring Him out to you, so that you may know that I find no fault (crime, cause for accusation) in Him. So Jesus came out wearing the thorny crown and purple cloak, and Pilate said to them, See, [here is] the Man!

When the chief priests and attendants (guards) saw Him, they cried out, Crucify Him! Crucify Him! Pilate said to them, Take Him yourselves and crucify Him, for I find no fault (crime) in Him. The Jews answered him, We have a law, and according to that law He should die, because He has claimed and made Himself out to be the Son of God.

So, when Pilate heard this said, he was more alarmed and awestricken and afraid than before. He went into the judgment hall again and said to Jesus, Where are You from? [To what world do You belong?] But Jesus did not answer him.

So Pilate said to Him, Will You not speak [even] to me? Do You not know that I have power (authority) to release You and I have power to crucify You? Jesus answered, You would not have any power or authority whatsoever against (over) Me if it were not given you from above. For this reason the sin and guilt of the one who delivered Me over to you is greater.

Upon this, Pilate wanted (sought, was anxious) to release Him, but the Jews kept shrieking, If you release this Man, you are no friend of Caesar! Anybody who makes himself [out to be] a king sets himself up against Caesar [is a rebel against the emperor]!

Hearing this, Pilate brought Jesus out and sat down on the judgment seat at a place called the Pavement [the Mosaic Pavement, the Stone Platform]—in Hebrew, Gabbatha. Now it was the day of Preparation for the Passover, and it was about the sixth hour (about twelve o’clock noon). He said to the Jews, See, [here is] your King! But they shouted, Away with Him! Away with Him! Crucify Him! Pilate said to them, Crucify your King? The chief priests answered, We have no king but Caesar!

Then he delivered Him over to them to be crucified. And they took Jesus and led [Him] away; so He went out, bearing His own cross, to the spot called The Place of the Skull—in Hebrew it is called Golgotha. There they crucified Him, and with Him two others—one on either side and Jesus between them.

And Pilate also wrote a title (an inscription on a placard) and put it on the cross. And the writing was: Jesus the Nazarene, the King of the Jews. And many of the Jews read this title, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and it was written in Hebrew, in Latin, [and] in Greek. Then the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, Do not write, The King of the Jews, but, He said, I am King of the Jews.

Pilate replied, What I have written, I have written.

Prayer.

God Bless America,
Land that I love.
Stand beside her, and guide her
Thru the night with a light from above.
From the mountains, to the prairies,
To the oceans, white with foam
God bless America, My home sweet home.

DEAR MAGA: Open Thread 20250410 & Vigilance

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Do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.

For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore,
and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. — Galatians 5:1

We got our miracle.
America is back.

Let us dedicate ourselves to the cleansing, healing, and rebuilding of our beautiful nation.

God will guide us.
Prayers & thanks to God for President Donald J. Trump.

Vigilance.

Here we are. We are living through some of the most amazing days in the history of our country. And yet we can sense an uneasiness. An awareness that we need to remain vigilant. A feeling that the enemies of what is good and right are still hard at work trying to interfere, disrupt, overthrow, yes and even murder those building a better future for our nation.

Being Warned in a Dream.

It has been rare, but there have been times in my life when I needed to be warned about something, and it seemed that a dream was given. A dream that would shake me deeply. And then I would ponder, pray, seek insight, and face whatever the warning seemed to be about. Then I would try to respond appropriately in the circumstances.

Two days ago I awakened out of a dream with a grave sense of imminent danger. It was so disturbing, but I couldn’t really make out the full meaning. I will try and tell the details here as I remember them:

I am looking out over a freeway which is just below me in a canyon. At the edge of the canyon there are couple of people sitting at a table, maybe sharing a meal and talking. Beyond them, off in the distance, I can see a large silver airplane flying low over the city. It is apparently having mechanical trouble. I sensed great cry of prayer going up to God for the plane. The plane steadies, there is a sigh of relief. But then there is a distraction. I am still watching the plane. Suddenly it upends and then goes down hard, crashing. I run from where I witnessed the crash over to the airport. The wreckage is on the runway, but there is no fire, no emergency response crews, no activity at all at the crash site. I look around and see that there are people working in other parts of the airfield. They are focused on their work. Work that seems to be related to organizing or preparing to create chaos, not just protests, but also other kinds of disruptions and destruction. In the dream I picked up the sense that these are the kind of people that intend to harm our country—and it’s people—in any way they can.

Needless to say, reading Gail’s post yesterday did not do anything to calm my heightened sense of needing to be on alert. Alert in prayer. Alert in the world around me.

Nehemiah the Builder.

One of my early Bible teachers taught us to face difficult situations by praying and asking, “Where am I in the Bible now?” Perhaps the example of Nehemiah—rebuilding a nearly destroyed people and nation while facing danger and threats from those who hated and opposed his success—might just be a good fit for today. May pondering this story strengthen us to work at the tasks set before us with wisdom, humility, strength and courage.

For those that might appreciate a quick video overview:

An Inquiring Heart.

The story begins with Nehemiah in captivity, serving the king of another nation. But his heart is back home with his people. He questions his brothers that had just returned from Judah about of the state of his homeland. They reply, “Those who survived the exile and are back in the province are in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates have been burned with fire.” (Ne 1:3, KJV)

A Broken & Contrite Heart.

The response of Nehemiah reveals his tenderness and compassion for his people. “When I heard these things, I sat down and wept. For some days I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven.” (1:4) Nehemiah doesn’t stand in judgment over others, he sits among them in his prayer:

“Lord, the God of heaven, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love with those who love him and keep his commandments, let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer your servant is praying before you day and night for your servants, the people of Israel. I confess the sins we Israelites, including myself and my father’s family, have committed against you. We have acted very wickedly toward you. We have not obeyed the commands, decrees and laws you gave your servant Moses.

“Remember the instruction you gave your servant Moses, saying, ‘If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the nations, but if you return to me and obey my commands, then even if your exiled people are at the farthest horizon, I will gather them from there and bring them to the place I have chosen as a dwelling for my Name.’

“They are your servants and your people, whom you redeemed by your great strength and your mighty hand. Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of this your servant and to the prayer of your servants who delight in revering your name. Give your servant success today by granting him favor in the presence of this man.” (He was cupbearer to the king.)

Artaxerxes Sends Nehemiah to Jerusalem

Nehemiah succeeds in his plan to get King Artaxerxes’ support in returning to Judah to help rebuild. He gets the authority from the king to do this work. The king authorizes materials and military protection as well. However, some of the local officials are “very much disturbed that someone had come to promote the welfare of the Israelites.”

Nehemiah quietly checks out the situation after he arrives and then goes to the leadership of Jerusalem with his plan and the good news concerning the king’s support. They agree to begin rebuilding.

The Opposition’s Response #1

Their first response is to not only mock and ridicule the Israelites, but to also accuse them of rebellion against the king. Nehemiah answers them by (1) identifying God as their hope for success, (2) noting their submission to God as his servants, (3) declaring their undeterred decision to keep rebuilding, (4) pointing out the opposition’s lack of claim or historical right to their city.

The Opposition’s Response #2

As the work begins, the opposition becomes more incensed. The opposition leader airs his ridicule in front of his associates and the army of Samaria. “What are those feeble Jews doing? Will they restore their wall? Will they offer sacrifices? Will they finish in a day? Can they bring the stones back to life from those heaps of rubble—burned as they are?” Then his sidekick piles on, “What they are building—even a fox climbing up on it would break down their wall of stones!”

At this point Nehemiah has nothing left to say to their enemies. He goes straight to God with his appeal. “Hear us, our God, for we are despised. Turn their insults back on their own heads. Give them over as plunder in a land of captivity. Do not cover up their guilt or blot out their sins from your sight, for they have thrown insults in the face of the builders.”

The Opposition’s Response #3

The work continues to make good progress, and when the opposition hears about it, their anger grew to the point that “They all plotted together to come and fight against Jerusalem and stir up trouble against it.”

Nehemiah’s response again was to pray “to our God” and this time he “posted a guard day and night to meet this threat.”

Internal Discouragement

The workers start to report that their discouragement, and their fear of attacks by their enemies. Nehemiah’s listened to their reports. He takes direct action to fortify the protection for the families working on the wall. Again, he personally looks over the situation and speaks to the people directly.

I stood up and said to the nobles, the officials and the rest of the people, “Don’t be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your families, your sons and your daughters, your wives and your homes.” When our enemies heard that we were aware of their plot and that God had frustrated it, we all returned to the wall, each to our own work.

Remaining Vigilant

Nehemiah then reports on the new level of vigilance provided to protect those working:

From that day on, half of my men did the work, while the other half were equipped with spears, shields, bows and armor. The officers posted themselves behind all the people of Judah who were building the wall. Those who carried materials did their work with one hand and held a weapon in the other, and each of the builders wore his sword at his side as he worked. But the man who sounded the trumpet stayed with me.

Then I said to the nobles, the officials and the rest of the people, “The work is extensive and spread out, and we are widely separated from each other along the wall. Wherever you hear the sound of the trumpet, join us there. Our God will fight for us!”

So we continued the work with half the men holding spears, from the first light of dawn till the stars came out. At that time I also said to the people, “Have every man and his helper stay inside Jerusalem at night, so they can serve us as guards by night and as workers by day.” Neither I nor my brothers nor my men nor the guards with me took off our clothes; each had his weapon, even when he went for water.

Correcting Internal Exploitation

At this time there is a famine and the people are being (illegally) charged interest and are having their crops and lands siezed by the wealthy. When Nehemiah learns of this he beomes very angry for this injustice. He calls a public meeting and speaks directly to these wealthy leaders:

So I continued, “What you are doing is not right. Shouldn’t you walk in the fear of our God to avoid the reproach of our Gentile enemies? I and my brothers and my men are also lending the people money and grain. But let us stop charging interest! Give back to them immediately their fields, vineyards, olive groves and houses, and also the interest you are charging them—one percent of the money, grain, new wine and olive oil.” “We will give it back,” they said. “And we will not demand anything more from them. We will do as you say.” Then I summoned the priests and made the nobles and officials take an oath to do what they had promised. I also shook out the folds of my robe and said, “In this way may God shake out of their house and possessions anyone who does not keep this promise. So may such a person be shaken out and emptied!” At this the whole assembly said, “Amen,” and praised the Lord. And the people did as they had promised.

The Opposition’s Response #4

When the opposition hears that the wall has been completely rebuilt (but without doors in the gates yet). They try a new tactic. Four times they send letters to Nehemiah, attempting to persuade him to come out of the city and meet them in an outlying village. But their plan was to ambush him and cause the work to stop. Nehemiah refused.

The Opposition’s Response #5

A fifth time the opposition sends an unsealed letter (so others would know what was written) with lying accusations saying the Israelites were planning to revolt against the king. Nehemiah says about this latest attack:

I sent him this reply: “Nothing like what you are saying is happening; you are just making it up out of your head.” They were all trying to frighten us, thinking, “Their hands will get too weak for the work, and it will not be completed.” But I prayed, “Now strengthen my hands.”

Intrigue Within the Community

Nehemiah then elaborates on an incredible amount of intrigue where people inside of his own community try and trap or entangle him, are collaborating with their enemies due to alliances via intermarriage, are leaking information back to them and are lobbying to influence Nehemiah to see their enemies in a good light. Sounds familiar.

A Great Awakening

Chapters 8 through 12 of the book of Nehemiah recount a profound return to God by the people. Starting with fasting and confessing their sins, listening to Ezra read from the scriptures, repentance, and crying out to the Lord their God. The people then agree to obey the Lord by correcting wrongs, agreeing to obey the Lord’s instructions for offerings, worship, and consecrating the new wall in a large festival-like event. Things are going well for as long as their leader, Nehemiah was there to keep watch over the community.

However, in the final chapter of the book we learn that as soon as Nehemiah left to go back into service with the king, some of the people went back on their promises to God. When Nehemiah returns he again brings correction, helping the people to remain faithful to their God.

Keep Us Faithful, O Lord

Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, To the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen.
— Jude 24-25 (KJV)

Our Turn.

We can’t leave this to others.
We can make a difference.
And we must make a difference.

May God bless and guide you
as you pray and take action for our nation.

Twitterati, etc.

May I recommend to you toresays.com. A worthy follow.

Her latest post: You didn’t think there’d be an Act IV (thanks Wolf). Much to ponder in this one.

Prayer.

God Bless America,
Land that I love.
Stand beside her, and guide her
Thru the night with a light from above.
From the mountains, to the prairies,
To the oceans, white with foam
God bless America, My home sweet home.

2025·04·05 We Will Have Justice Daily Thread

We should all remember Deplorable Patriot and Wheatie as we push forward with the fight. This is NOT over by any means.

Fight! Fight! Fight! Because JUSTICE must be served on those who foisted the “Vax” shit on us. And for all the other things they have done to this country.

You failed to pay attention to this advice.
You went out of your way to do the opposite.
You chose to rub our faces in it,
imprison those who dared complain,
and even to kill our people.
Now you shall pay just a tiny fraction of the real price, Ratfuckers.

What is it that feeds our battle, yet starves our victory?

RINO scum. Like Murkowski and Collins.

That’s OK. We go around ’em for now.

January 6 Tapes Reminder

OK…I’m sick and tired of reminding you to no effect, Speaker Johnson, so I’ll do the more emotionally satisfying thing and call you a cowardly, lying, fraudulent sack of diarrhetic monkey shit.

Johnson, you are a cowardly, lying, fraudulent sack of diarrhetic monkey shit!

A Caution

Running good candidates is only HALF of the battle!

Justice Must Be Done.

The prior election must be acknowledged as fraudulent, and steps must be taken to prosecute the fraudsters and restore integrity to the system.

Kamala Harris has a new nickname since she finally went west from DC to El Paso Texas: Westward Hoe.

Lawyer Appeasement Section

OK now for the fine print.

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

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

And remember Wheatie’s Rules:

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

Paper Spot Prices

Last Week:

Gold $3,085.20
Silver $34.17
Platinum $993.00
Palladium $994.00
Rhodium $6,275.00
FRNSI* 148.247-
Gold:Silver 90.290-

This week, markets closed at 3PM Mountain Time Friday for the weekend.

Gold $3,038.80
Silver $29.56 (Yikes!!)
Platinum $931.00
Palladium $943.00
Rhodium $5,875.00
FRNSI* 146.002-
Gold:Silver 102.801- (Again, Yikes!!!)

There’s no sugarcoating things. All of the metals except gold took a beating on Thursday. Then on Friday things got simpler. All of the metals took a beating.

At one point on Friday, gold was down over 90 bucks. As it is, by the end of the day it was down $77.90.

Gold was up over 3100 earlier this week and even crossed the magic $100/gram line (equivalent to $3110.35). I noticed on Thursday it had slipped below that line just a touch, looked at it Friday morning, read something ending in 20-ish dollars, and thought it had blooped up over the line again…then I realized it hadn’t gone up ten bucks, it had gone down ninety.

Silver took a harder hit. Note that the gold:silver ratio is now OVER A HUNDRED.

As a side note at least sometimes I title this section Paper Spot Prices (or something similar to that) as the spot price is ultimately derived from the commodities markets, which in turn trade paper gold and silver; futures that you’re expected to sell to cut your losses (or realize a profit). Since most people are in that market to make a buck, there are huge amounts of silver or gold contracts out there that will never actually be executed. This is always true. It’s when someone decides, “no I am taking delivery” that life gets entertaining; sometimes a LOT of people do that and then the person on the sell side of the contract is legally obligated to deliver. So more than likely he has to go out and buy 1000 ounces of silver, or 100 of gold. (Or 50 of platinum, when that market isn’t in a coma.) Suddenly, outside of the futures market there’s panic buying; people desperate to get their hands on the commodity they shorted; often paying much more than the buyer is going to pay them.

This can often lead to the market price for physical metal being quite different from the spot prices; a few years ago you simply couldn’t get gold for less than $200 over spot (and that was when it was much lower than it is even after today’s beating).

In the meantime, Silver is on sale right now folks!

Not Giving A F*ck

Kalbo (and then others) brought this to yesterday’s daily:

BREAKING: A White House official comments on President Trump's current "thinking".

"He's at the peak of just not giving a f*ck anymore." pic.twitter.com/Fr0BbeDNJr
— Intel Tower (@inteltower) April 4, 2025

There are multiple ways to not give a f*ck. In this particular case Trump has decided he has a job to do, that 80 million Americans (at least) elected him to do that job, and if you don’t get out of his way you will be lucky if all that happens is you end up with his footprints all over you as he tramples you.

Flerfs Eat Their Own

Nothing like leaving a cult to get those left behind to pull out the long knives. And sometimes you don’t even have to leave, just be nearby when someone else does.

Mark Sargent (he’s probably the most famous Flat Earther to the general public; he’s the fairly clean-cut, blond guy with the baseball cap who gets interviewed a lot and showed up in documentaries) and Dave Weiss (Flat Earth Dave, the Potato, Dirth [his channel is DITRH], the guy with the leaky app), and two other prominent Flerfs who have not been named–have been sent “Cease and Desist” letters by lawyers for three ex-Flerfs for claims the flerfs have made about them. (Text visible at approximately the 5:50 mark). One of ex-Flerfs is Patricia Steeres, who was Mark Sargent’s co-host until recently, then she left. (Mark has characterized it as a “breakup” even though they never dated.) The other two are Robby Davidson and “Paul on the Plane.” (These two are not ones I am familiar with except I think Robby Davidson is known for having quit Flat Earth as soon as he realized Dave Weiss and Eric Dubay had no interest in going to Antarctica in spite of saying so earlier. Too obviously they were bluffing and their bluff had been called.)

Did they cease and desist? Well, no. MC Toon did a livestream over 4 1/2 hours demonstrating that Sargent, at least, did not do so. I’m going to link it but I certainly don’t expect you to watch it unless you are an absolute glutton for punishment:

[Another fun activity on these long MC Toon livestreams is he has people sign into the chat and try to warn people that Dirth’s app is leaky, just to see how fast their comments get censored and themselves get banned. Clearly Menagerie is in their employ. He will also call the Flerfs up and leave taunting voicemails when they don’t answer.]

Next…some Flerfs are going after Lisbeth Acosta. Lisbeth is the Flerf who won a free trip to Antarctica, which turned out to be a sham prize. Will Duffy was suckered into awarding it and then the donor turned out to be a Flerf troll. There was an INSTANT rallying of globers to contribute to pay for her ticket so she got to go anyway. Apparently what she saw did not convince her, though since she decided to be Mark Sargent’s co host when Patricia Steeres left. (McToon begged her not to take the job.)

Sticking with Flat Earth isn’t enough though, since Fkatzoid decided to go after her.

Apparently, Lisbeth was prostituted out to the other Final Experiment goers to get them to toe the Globe Earth line when they came back. Fkatzoid calls her the “Village Bicycle.” This too is worthy of a lawsuit, however Fkatzoid lives in South Africa and has no money. (His job is mixing paints.) Perhaps some of the others can be gone after.

So not only is this guy the absolute best evidence for the Dunning-Kruger effect that I have ever seen (remember he argued against Critical Think’s weight experiment, and also go into it with Will Duffy about the location of the south pole), he is an absolutely shitty individual who would deserve a throat punch and a curb stomp even if he wasn’t an idiot.

Isochron Dating

Recall from last time that uranium-lead dating done on zircons lets one assume there were no daughter lead isotopes in the zircons when the zircons were first formed. That’s because the zircon crystallization process rejects lead while accepting uranium. However, there’s always the possibility that after some period some of the daughter isotopes (the lead) will leach out of the zircon crystals, which will have the effect of making the dating result look younger than it actually is.

The fact that there are two different pairs of uranium-lead parent-daughter isotopes allows us not only to detect that that has happened, but to correct for it, by taking several samples out of the same igneous rocks and then plotting the results on a “concordia diagram” then drawing a straight line to intercept the curve plotted for ideal cases where no lead has been lost.

Zircons can often turn out to be much older than the rocks they are in; they melt at a very high temperature and granitic magma doesn’t typically get that hot. So if you find a zircon in an igneous rock, it might be much older than that rock.

So to use uranium-lead dating in other places (not zircon crystals) we need a way to account for the likelihood that there was lead present in the rock when it formed. Then uranium lead dating can be used in more situations. And we can use it for other sequences, for example the rubidium-strontium decay (rubidium-87 to strontium-87 by beta decay, half life 49,720 million years; rubidium is element 37, strontium is element 38) and the samarium-neodymium decay (samarium-147 to neodymium-143 by alpha decay, half life 106,000 million years; samarium is element 62, neodymium is element 60). (There is another isotope of samarium, Sm-146, that has a half life of 92 million years, decaying by alpha decay to Nd-142, which could conceivably be used, however, that half life is just short enough that we can no longer detect any natural traces of samarium-146…so that clock has run out.)

All three sequences–four, really since there are two uranium-lead sequences–can benefit from isochron dating. (Isochron comes from the Greek for “same time.”) They aren’t the only ones, but they seem to be mentioned most often when I find an article about isochron dating.

Isochron dating is done by taking multiple samples. It works so long as: the samples all have the same origin (minerals from the same rock, rocks from the same geological unit)–this ensures that all samples had the same initial isotopic composition. And we assume nothing leaks out of the rock over time (the opposite of the situation with the zircon crystals, which could lose lead over time).

Note that there is no assumption that the daughter isotope was absent from the rock initially.

One more thing that is needed, is a non-radiogenic isotope of the daughter element. For rubidium-strontium strontium-86 fits the bill; nothing decays into that isotope. And for samarium-neodymium, neodymium-144 is used. Again nothing decays into it. (However, it is very slightly radioactive with a half life of 2,290,000,000 million years, about 170,000 times the age of the universe. Not enough to matter; in fact so little of it has decayed so far we can’t even think of using it for dating in a hypothetical neodymium-cerium dating sequence; we’d get no reading at all.)

Let me put that into a handy-dandy table:

Method
Rb-87->Sr-87
Sm-147->Nd-143
U-238->Pb-206

Half-life (My)
49,720
106,000
4,468

Non-radiogenic or reference isotope
strontium-86
neodymium-144
lead-204

Rubidium and strontium are admittedly obscure to the man in the street, but they are workaday elements, appearing to some extent in many rocks. Rubidium is potassium’s big brother, somewhat rare but it will substitute for potassium in minerals. Strontium, similarly is calcium’s bigger brother. Calcium is very common in the Earth’s crust, and strontium atoms will occasionally substitute for them. These elements are stable, or thought of as being stable, but as it happens 27.8 percent of all rubidium is actually rubidium-87, so your typical sample of rubidium is actually weakly radioactive. The daughter strontium-87 isotope is 7 percent of all strontium, while the reference isotope Sr-86 is 9.86 percent of all strontium. (Almost all the rest of the strontium is Sr-88.)

Samarium and neodymium are rare earth elements…yes, actually rare earths. They tend to be dispersed throughout the crust and there are few ores. Nevertheless, “rare” is a bit of misnomer; on average there is about three times as much samarium in the crust as there is tin. 15 percent of all samarium is samarium-147 (which means that samarium-147 by itself is roughly half as common as tin), but with a 106 billion year half life, you can probably think of it as just barely radioactive. The decay product, Nd-143, is roughly 12.2 percent of all neodymium, and the reference isotope, Nd-144, is 23.8 percent of all neodymium (and is very, very, very weakly radioactive).

So yes these isotopes can be found in rocks, fairly readily.

How Isochrons Work

Recall from last time we showed formulae expressing radioactive decay just showing the simple case where we started out with no daughter isotope. Here is a slightly more complex formula for the number of daughter isotope atoms:

This one has a D0 term, which is the initial concentration of daughter isotope atoms; i.e., what was in the rock when it formed. n is the present number of parent isotope atoms. The entire second term is the number of daughter isotope atoms that have resulted from the decay of the parent isotope, from the formation of the rock to the present day. Note that this formula is written in terms of the decay constant, not the half life. See the prior post for more information on this, but it’s 1 divided by [the half life multiplied by the natural logarithm of 2].

Since the isotopes are measured by mass spectrometry, it’s more convenient to deal with the ratios between the numbers, not the absolute numbers. So here is where we introduce the reference isotope (the non-radiogenic one); we’re going to divide all terms by that number, to get a bunch of isotope ratios.

The first term is the total amount of daughter isotope, divided by the total amount of the reference (non-radiogenic) isotope. This is something we measure. The second term is the initial amount of daughter isotope, divided by the amount of reference isotope. We don’t know this, because we don’t know the initial amount of daughter isotope. (But note, we’re not claiming this number is zero, as we were with the zircons.) The third parentheses surround the amount of parent isotope today, divided by the amount of reference isotope. This is something we can measure. The final bit is the proportion of daughter isotope generated by decay (so far) of the parent isotope; which depends on the age, which we don’t know.

But this is very very similar to:

y = b + xm

…which is the “generic” equation for a line (albeit rearranged a bit). b is where the line crosses the y axis, and m is the slope of the line. So if we substitute as follows:

y = D*/D_ref (we measure this)
b = D₀/D_ref (we don’t know this but it’s constant for a given rock)
x = P_t/D_ref (we measure this)
m = e^λt – 1 (we don’t know this but it’s constant for a given rock)

…well we might be able to do something about this. Note that in the line equation, b and m are supposed to be constants. Indeed for a specific rock, of some age (which we don’t know yet), D₀/D_ref (b) is indeed a constant; it should be the same everywhere within the rock. As should e^λt – 1 because every part of a given rock is the same age, this is m. Of course m is the slope of our straight line. Note that it gets steeper the higher t goes.

The two things that correspond to x and y are the things we actually measure. So we can plot our measured y against our measured x and now we have one point on this line. Well by itself one point isn’t useful. We expect m will be a positive number, and b will be above zero (since there is more than zero daughter isotope in the rock)

So take another sample, of a different mineral in the same rock. Then take a few more. Plot them, y versus x.

If all of those points fall on a straight line…we can draw the line and figure out m and b. The first will tell us how old the rock is (by solving for t), the second is actually going to tell you how much daughter isotope there was initially; information that might be interesting but doesn’t directly help us date the rock.

If the line is not straight, something probably happened to the rock after it formed, that invalidates our assumptions. If you have six points and only one is out of line, you can treat it as an outlier (but of course when you write up your paper, you point this out!).

Examples

Here’s a sample (apparently not a “live” sample but just an illustration). Note that different minerals from the same rock are all analyzed, as well as “whole rock”

The X axis is the present day parent (rubidium 87) – reference (strontium-86) ratio (matching what I showed above as being “x”), and the Y axis is the daughter (strontium 87) to reference (strontium-86) isotope ratio. The y intercept is labeled as being the initial daughter/reference ratio; that tells us how much daughter isotope there was originally. And the slope is our decay term, the steeper the slope, the higher the value of t is.

Here’s an actual plot from a real measurement. Note that three of the minerals tested are clustered very close together near the left hand margin, and the computed ratio of daughter isotope present at the beginning, to the reference isotope, is 70 percent. And finally notice the age: 609.5 million years (give or take 2.5 million years).

So the short version of this is, isochrons can help you identify and correct for the sorts of things that those with a little bit of knowledge of radiometric dating might bring up as objections, of the form “but what if there was some daughter isotope already present?” But it will only work if the rock hasn’t lost any daughter isotope since it was formed; if it has, the line won’t be straight. The good news is when this happens, the data says it happened, and if you’re alert you won’t be fooled.

A bit more of this (I want to cover potassium-argon dating in particular, and then discuss carbon-14 dating even though it’salmost totally irrelevant to geology) and we’ll get back to the main narrative.

DEAR MAGA: Open Thread 20250403 & Hearts of Courage

^Welcome.
^{Please visit this post for our long-standing site rules.}
^{### Kindly identify all AI products, per warning in the header ###}

Do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.

For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore,
and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. — Galatians 5:1

We got our miracle.
America is back.

Let us dedicate ourselves to the cleansing, healing, and rebuilding of our beautiful nation.

God will guide us.
Prayers & thanks to God for President Donald J. Trump.

Hearts of Courage.

Some grow in courage over time, others find their courage appears in the moment of need.

When is comes to hearts of courage, there are some who truly stand out for me. They have stood by their principles, even when judges let them know that their stand was going to get them thrown in jail. There are likely many more that deserve to be highlighted. But tonight, let us remember Gregg Phillips, Catherine Engelbrecht, and Tina Peters, who have done time for the stand they took.

Free Tina Peters.

And may all good hearts continue to earnestly pray for God’s protection, healing and vindication for Tina who is still locked up while her case is on appeal.

For the latest on Tina Peters, check out this article: “A Day of Reckoning Coming for Those Who Falsely Imprisoned Tina Peters” Guest post by Martel Maxim (March 7, 2025).

On Monday, March 3rd, the Deep State Dam began to crack open upon news the DOJ just filed a Statement of Interest in the case of Tina Peters. Read more commentary about that HERE. Accompanying this news was a spectacular throw down by Mike Davis from the Article III Project who revealed the corruption which led to the persecution, prosecution and imprisoning of Tina Peters for 9 years.

Now is the time for everyone to learn the real story about the dystopian abuse of Tina Peters. At the center of that is understanding why they would go to such extremes to frame, persecute, prosecute and imprison a near 70 year age Gold Star Mom who lost her Navy SEAL Son during service to his country. Without as much as a J-Walking ticket, or any ticket for that matter, the judge heartlessly sentenced Tina to what very well could be a death sentence for standing up and doing her sworn duty to preserve her election records. As described by Mike Davis, she was sentenced for “thought crimes”.

Well, it’s safe to say that the Deep State sure didn’t like Clerk Peters preserving those election records under her jurisdiction (all 29,000 of them) that they thought were successfully deleted at the direction of the Colorado Secretary of State. That deletion along with the other vulnerabilities are discussed on her website, https://tinapeters.us/ along with her forensic reports that delve into extreme detail on all the discoveries made by the forensic computer scientists.

Our DOJ, last month, has made a Statement of Interest (read more: The Gateway Pundit):

This review will include an evaluation of the State of Colorado’s prosecution of Ms. Peters and, in particular, whether the case was “oriented more toward inflicting political pain than toward pursuing actual justice or legitimate governmental objectives.”

Ms. Peters is currently incarcerated while pursuing a direct appeal of her underlying nonviolent convictions and combined nine-year sentence.

The application explains that Ms. Peters suffers from serious health issues and that, while incarcerated, her physical and mental health have deteriorated. Reasonable concerns have been raised about various aspects of Ms. Peters’ case.

These concerns relate to, among other things, the exceptionally lengthy sentence imposed relative to the conduct at issue, the First Amendment implications of the trial court’s October 2024 assertions related to Ms. Peters, and whether Colorado’s denial of bail pending appeal was arbitrary or unreasonable under the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments such that §2254 relief is appropriate.

Accordingly, the United States respectfully submits that the concerns raised in the Application warrant – at the very least – prompt and careful consideration by this Court (and, at the appropriate time, the Colorado appellate courts).

Parallel to these proceedings and Ms. Peters’ direct appeal, the Department of Justice is reviewing cases across the nation for abuses of the criminal justice process…

Our Turn.

We can’t leave this to others. We can get informed on what has been found, what is being done about it, and what more needs to be done.

We can make a difference.
And we must make a difference.

May God bless and guide you
as you pray and take action for our nation.

Twitterati, etc.

Speaking of hearts…

May I recommend to you Nicolas Hulscher, MPH, @NicHulscher. Click the posted image to watch the one minute video showing the heart damage. Nicolas is an epidemiologist and administrator at Dr. Peter McCullough’s Foundation (@mcculloughfund).

Nicolas Hulscher, MPH
@NicHulscher
Mar 19
NEW AUTOPSY STUDY – Cardiac Micro-Scars in Sudden Death Following COVID-19 Vaccination

Cardiac micro-scars (MMS) found in 3 patients who died of unexplained cardiac arrest—all had 5-6 COVID-19 booster injections.

Key findings:
Micro-scars in arrhythmogenic regions (pulmonary vein-left atrium junction) suggest a structural substrate for arrhythmias following COVID-19 vaccination.

Pre-death arrhythmias (atrial fibrillation & nonsustained ventricular tachycardia) occurred in patients with multiple booster doses.

Possible mechanisms: Spike protein production in cardiomyocytes, triggering immune activation, inflammation, microvascular injury, and fibrosis—leading to myocardial scarring and electrical instability.

Corroborates our prior research on COVID-19 vaccine-induced cardiac arrest, linking myocardial scarring, arrhythmias, and sudden death.

Prayer.

God Bless America,
Land that I love.
Stand beside her, and guide her
Thru the night with a light from above.
From the mountains, to the prairies,
To the oceans, white with foam
God bless America, My home sweet home.

DEAR MAGA: Open Thread 20250327 & National Security

^Welcome.
^{Please visit this post for our long-standing site rules.}
^{### Kindly identify all AI products, per warning in the header ###}

Do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.

For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore,
and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. — Galatians 5:1

We got our miracle.
America is back.

Let us dedicate ourselves to the cleansing, healing, and rebuilding of our beautiful nation.

God will guide us.
Prayers & thanks to God for President Donald J. Trump.

National Security!

It’s “their” very favorite playbook. They want to some how, some way, create another narrative that makes everything related to president, Donald J. Trump, into a “National Security Crisis!”

Well, do you know what a real national security crisis looks like? It looks like the election systems in all 50 states having a total loss of control.

“We identified, inside of the state’s official records about the 2022 and the 2020 elections, millions and millions of examples of what appear to be felony misconduct, according to the United States Department of Justice’s guidelines for prosecution of election offenses.” — Marly Hornick, in this interview

While we may need an Executive Order to act as a stop-gap for the 2026 Elections–which are nearly on top of us at this point–the real work of securing our elections must be done at the state level. And it appears state officials will only be motivated when they see that Federal prosecutions could be in their near future.

I very much appreciate that the E.O. deals with an issue found in some voting systems. A human readable ballot and a true paper trail are essential for a secure elections system.

“Above all, elections much be honest and worthy of the public trust. That requires voting methods that produce a voter-verifiable paper record allowing voters to efficiently check their votes to protect against fraud or mistake. Election-integrity standards much be modified accordingly.”

“… voting systems should not use a ballot in which a vote is contained within a barcode or quick-response code in the vote counting process … [with an exception for accommodating disabilities] … and should provide a voter-verifiable paper record to prevent fraud or mistake.”

The “follow the money” types amongst us are likely to be happy to see the E.O. provide direction for an audit of all Help America Vote Act (HAVA) fund expenditures.

“Following an audit of Help America Vote Act fund expenditures conducted pursuant to 52 U.S.C. 21142, the Election Assistance Commission shall report any discrepancies or issues with an audited State’s certifications of compliance with Federal law to the Department of Justice for appropriate enforcement action.”

And for those of us who were concerned with the word “voluntary” in the Election Assistance Commission’s guidelines, it looks like there might be some teeth in the E.O. here:

“The Secretary of Homeland Security and the Administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, consistent with applicable law, shall in considering the provision of funding for State or local election offices or administrators through the Homeland Security Grant Programs, 6 U.S.C. 603 et seq., heavily prioritize compliance with the Voluntary Voting System Guidelines 2.0 developed by the Election Assistance Commission and completion of testing through the Voting System Test Labs accreditation process.”

That’s really all nice and everything, but is this going to be another here-today-gone-tomorrow news event? Well, rescinding all previous certifications of voting equipment based on prior standards sounds good.

“Within 180 days of the date of this order, the Election Assistance Commission shall take appropriate action to review and, if appropriate, re-certify voting systems under the new standards established under subsection (b)(i) of this section, and to rescind all previous certifications of voting equipment based on prior standards.”

There are also important sections on not counting votes cast after election day (duh!), validating that voters are citizens, preventing foreign interference and prosecuting election crimes.

The section on improving the security of voting systems reminds us that election infrastructure is designated as “Critical Infrastructure.” Note that non-citizens are not to be involved in the administration of any Federal Election. I wonder how many voting system contractors that you see at the local elections office are non-citizens. Do they even check?

The E.O. goes on to task Homeland Security with assessing the security of electronic elections systems and report on what they find. I suspect this doesn’t go far enough. If there are non-electronic procedures that are not subject to review for Federal Elections that allow for fraud, that should be addressed to. Maybe it’s in existing law and I missed it.

“Sec. 6. Improving Security of Voting Systems. To improve the security of all voting equipment and systems used to cast ballots, tabulate votes, and report results:

“(a) The Attorney General and the Secretary of Homeland Security shall take all appropriate actions to the extent permitted by 42 U.S.C. 5195c and all other applicable law, so long as the Department of Homeland Security maintains the designation of election infrastructure as critical infrastructure, as defined by 42 U.S.C. 5195c(e), to prevent all non-citizens from being involved in the administration of any Federal election, including by accessing election equipment, ballots, or any other relevant materials used in the conduct of any Federal election.

“(b) The Secretary of Homeland Security shall, in coordination with the Election Assistance Commission and to the maximum extent possible, review and report on the security of all electronic systems used in the voter registration and voting process. The Secretary of Homeland Security, as the head of the designated Sector Risk Management Agency under 6 U.S.C. 652a, in coordination with the Election Assistance Commission, shall assess the security of all such systems to the extent they are connected to, or integrated into, the Internet and report on the risk of such systems being compromised through malicious software and unauthorized intrusions into the system.”

As the introductory text reminds us:

Free, fair, and honest elections unmarred by fraud, errors, or suspicion are fundamental to maintaining our constitutional Republic. The right of American citizens to have their votes properly counted and tabulated, without illegal dilution, is vital to determining the rightful winner of an election. Under the Constitution, State governments must safeguard American elections in compliance with Federal laws that protect Americans’ voting rights and guard against dilution by illegal voting, discrimination, fraud, and other forms of malfeasance and error.

You can find the entire text at WhiteHouse.gov.

We have been told that our elections systems are insecure. But what does that really mean? Three weeks ago, Marly Hornik of United Sovereign Americans gave a powerful 15 minute speech on the Stern American podcast, explaining how truly bad America’s situation has become.

My name is Marly Hornick, founder of the national election validity Organization United Sovereign Americans, along with cyber and election security subject matter expert Harry Haury. We came here to warn our fellow Americans that we have a constitutional and legal disaster on our hands.

The current election process nationwide is an uncontrolled, unmonitored catastrophe that is false returns. The last bastion of freedom on earth is at risk of being destroyed as early as 2026.

Under President Trump’s decisive leadership, we see the proof that our own government has been selling out our kids’ future by stealing trillions of dollars per year from the American people and making us pay for their often twisted agenda.

Nowhere have officials betrayed us as badly as in our elections nationwide. USA is the first organization to measure election misconduct as defined under criminal law, to deeply study Supreme Court precedent and document the scale of defined election fraud nationwide.

After years of law enforcement meetings, official reports, legislative hearings, criminal referrals, and staggering trial-ready evidence, massive election fraud is still being illegally certified as accurate. Asking whether election officials are bad people is irrelevant. Their job is to prevent fraud, and they are legally required to prove it to us. That’s what we pay them for.

Twenty-one chief election officials have been fully briefed, nine have been sued in federal court, and every last one has proven disloyal to the sovereign they serve, the American people, and to the contract we made with our government, the United States Constitution.

USA has tracked tens of millions of individual felonies. We were the first to discover and document the algorithms and central vote manipulation. We filed our detailed data with the states, the FBI, Homeland Security, and the DOJ under the previous administration, and filed nine federal lawsuits demanding that election commissions follow the law.

And what did we prove? Every last federalized state election official believes that they are the sovereign, that they are the one who chooses our representatives. Every last one, they are perfectly content to continue violating our Constitution down to the root. It’s time to make it personal.

This is our land, from sea to shining sea, self-dealing bureaucrats and criminals did not create it, and they cannot have it.

(link to full Rumble video here & link to transcript here)

The top elections official of every one of our 50 states has been certifying elections that are run using equipment and processes that are deeply compromised. The courts, to this point, have refused to touch it. Pray.

Our Turn.

We can make a difference.
And we must make a difference.

May God bless and guide you
as you pray and take action for our nation.

Twitterati, etc.

May I recommend to you @PressSec. Karoline Leavitt is an Assistant to the President and the White House Press Secretary. She is always in top form, even on the day after DS tries to create another “National Security Crisis!” narrative on the thinnest of pretexts.

Prayer.

God Bless America,
Land that I love.
Stand beside her, and guide her
Thru the night with a light from above.
From the mountains, to the prairies,
To the oceans, white with foam
God bless America, My home sweet home.

DEAR MAGA: Open Thread 20250320 & Rural v. Urban

^Welcome.
^{Please visit this post for our long-standing site rules.}
^{### Kindly identify all AI products, per warning in the header ###}

Do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.

For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore,
and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. — Galatians 5:1

We got our miracle.
America is back.

Let us dedicate ourselves to the cleansing, healing, and rebuilding of our beautiful nation.

God will guide us.
Prayers & thanks to God for President Donald J. Trump.

Rural v. Urban.

Last week’s discussion of separatist movements was thin on the details regarding the motivations of those wanting to redraw the lines for their state. But the most common issue mentioned seems to be that nearly all of the time, the urban areas of a state are running the state without much consideration of the people living in the more rural areas.

Fourteen States – or more.

Will Trump will sew a 51st star on our flag?

From the article referenced last week, there are active separatist movements in at least 14 states: California, Colorado, Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas and Washington.

The goals aren’t the same in each place — and some movements are far more serious than others. Dozens of counties in Illinois and Oregon, for example, have already voted in favor of some form of separation from their current states.

The rural v. urban dynamic is called out in an essay from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, College of Law (2018), “Splitsylvania: State Secession and What to Do About It“

[Intrastate] secession is the true secession fever: Not the perennial postelection calls of losing parties to secede from a nation controlled by the opposition, but a growing movement for secession from states, with the parts of states (sometimes geographically very large parts of states) wanting to separate from the population-dense urban areas that essentially control state decisionmaking. Feeling ignored, put-upon, and mistreated, secessionists want to take their fate into their own hands. These movements are common, but not likely to succeed on their own, as intrastate secession is, though not entirely unknown (see, e.g., West Virginia) very difficult to pull off.

But these movements do indicate a widespread sense of dissatisfaction among (mostly rural) populations who feel that they are governed by people in distant urban centers who know little, and care less, about their way of life. Such sentiments, which in a way resemble those regarding Britain in the lead-up to the American Revolution, have probably worsened since the Supreme Court’s decisions in the line of cases beginning with Baker v. Carr weakened rural areas’ political position in favor of urban areas. This problem was, to a degree, foreseen by contemporary critics of those decisions.

In conclusion the author proposes:

In this short Essay, I have argued that allowing different standards for urban and rural areas in key subjectmatter areas, something that can be done by both state and federal governments without any constitutional changes, is likely to accomplish that goal. I believe that little of value would be lost by this approach, and much, potentially, might be saved.

An Example.

“Leave Illinois Without Moving – Demand a New State”

In Illinois, the proposal is for all but one county to leave the state of Illinois with essentially only Chicago (about 1/2 of the state population) remaining under the current state government of Illinois. The New Illinois organization will be holding their 7th Constitutional Convention in a little over two weeks from now.

The History of New Illinois

Not long ago, those of us who founded New Illinois were talking about moving away. Just like more than half the state’s residents, we found that in Illinois the taxes were too high, the opportunities limited, and the government corruption outrageous. Then one day the thought struck – Why should WE have to leave? Our families and our roots are here, going back to 1870. Why not stay and fight for our home? In June 2018, we formed New Illinois, a nonprofit organization with the mission of educating Illinoisans about their RIGHT, under the U.S. Constitution, to pursue the formation of a new state. Rather than moving away, we wanted to leave Illinois without moving.

Their vision is compelling for many others living in rural areas who feel out of step with the urban-centered governments running their states.

OUR VISION
New Illinois envisions a NEW State free from a tyrannical form of government, where residents will be able to experience a government representing their Constitutional Rights.

Our Turn.

We can’t leave this to others. We can get informed on what has been found, what is being done about it, and what more needs to be done.

We can make a difference.
And we must make a difference.

May God bless and guide you
as you pray and take action for our nation.

Twitterati, etc.

May I recommend to you @40daysforlife. Each year during Lent, all around the world, a 40 Days for Life prayer vigil is observed to pray for the protection of the unborn.

These prayers and outreach have made a difference. Since the start of 40 Days For Life to now, they have recorded 25,386 babies saved, 162 abortion centers closed, and (perhaps the most stunning) 268 abortion workers have quit, often being assisted in finding a new career through help from 40 Days For Life volunteers.

Prayer.

God Bless America,
Land that I love.
Stand beside her, and guide her
Thru the night with a light from above.
From the mountains, to the prairies,
To the oceans, white with foam
God bless America, My home sweet home.

Supreme Court Decisions

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

5/23/25 – Volvo Cars CEO says its customers must pay for rising tariffs | Reuters

Trump will destroy world trade, but democracies can defend themselves — and each other | the Guardian UK

A Nation Dispossessed: The Tea Party Movement and Race — 2011

TRANSNATIONAL CORPORATIONS

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

From Shadow Stat Alternate Inflation Charts

What is it that feeds our battle, yet starves our victory?

January 6 Tapes Reminder

A Caution

Justice Must Be Done.

Lawyer Appeasement Section

Paper Spot Prices

Leading Up To The Big Revolution In Geology

Igneous Rocks

The Earth’s Crust

Do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.

We got our miracle.America is back.

Fear Not.

Revelation 1 (KJB), John’s Vision on Patmos

Reasonable Fear.

Psalms 127

Psalms 91 (TPT)

Our Turn.

Twitterati, etc.

Prayer.

Do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.

We got our miracle.America is back.

Exodus Jubilation.

Rejoice!

The Song of Moses

God Wins.

Prayer.

Do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.

We got our miracle.America is back.

Sovereignty

This Kind of Sovereign?

A Different Take on Sovereignty.

Popular Sovereignty.

God as Sovereign.

Prayer.

Do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.

We got our miracle.America is back.

Vigilance.

Being Warned in a Dream.

Nehemiah the Builder.

An Inquiring Heart.

A Broken & Contrite Heart.

Artaxerxes Sends Nehemiah to Jerusalem

The Opposition’s Response #1

The Opposition’s Response #2

The Opposition’s Response #3

Internal Discouragement

Remaining Vigilant

Correcting Internal Exploitation

The Opposition’s Response #4

The Opposition’s Response #5

Intrigue Within the Community

A Great Awakening

Keep Us Faithful, O Lord

Our Turn.

Twitterati, etc.

Prayer.

What is it that feeds our battle, yet starves our victory?

January 6 Tapes Reminder

A Caution

Justice Must Be Done.

Lawyer Appeasement Section

Paper Spot Prices

Not Giving A F*ck

Flerfs Eat Their Own

Isochron Dating

How Isochrons Work

Examples

Do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.

We got our miracle.America is back.

Hearts of Courage.

Free Tina Peters.

Our Turn.

We got our miracle.
America is back.

We got our miracle.
America is back.

We got our miracle.
America is back.

We got our miracle.
America is back.

We got our miracle.
America is back.

We got our miracle.
America is back.

We got our miracle.
America is back.