“We do not believe any group of men adequate enough or wise enough to operate without scrutiny or without criticism. We know that the only way to avoid error is to detect it, that the only way to detect it is to be free to inquire. We know that in secrecy error undetected will flourish and subvert.” –J. Robert Oppenheimer
This man, making Christmas calls from the White House, believes the world is a sphere. And he has even flown around it! So has our beautiful FLOTUS, who happens to be his wife!
Truth and common sense must be valued by us, as individuals, in order to lastingly disempower the authoritarian fake news media. This includes the perniciously smarmy science media, which never answers for its errors and lies. I believe that the media has been responsible not only for leftist pathologies like scientism, medical fascism, and radical gender ideology, but also for reactionary movements like modern flat Earth, rejection of all medicine, and Biblical geological literalism.
Just as Wheatie’s Stormwatch Monday Open Thread was created as a place for people to openly express their thoughts and opinions, so, too, is this Thank God Thursday Open Thread, where honest but civil discussion of all topics is encouraged. This thread is also to be known as Theistic Evolution Thursdays, due to the author’s expected “pontification” about his scientific, religious, and political opinions. You are welcome to pontificate back! Free speech matters!
Please label all AI-generated content as being such, unless it is patently obvious (e.g., humorous AI images). It is important that we as individuals not begin to pretend that socially derived artificial intelligence is actually our own, as this form of stealthy social information averaging and feedback would be one more pretense and deception between people, in service of stupid Marxist socialism, and of those who wish to substitute their communally protected lies for actual truth.
The source of alleged truth matters, not for the truth itself, but for validation.
And yes, it’s THURSDAY…again.
And that’s it. We’re done stealing from Wheatie.
OK – maybe her rules need to be posted.
No food fights.
No running with scissors.
If you bring snacks, bring enough for everyone.
Other rules may be derivable from these, and that conjecture is left for discussion.
If there is nothing beyond the “W” below, then this is a placeholder. For health reasons, I can’t always post a timely opinion before each Thursday, but I will try. Otherwise, you have this placeholder post, where YOU provide the content. Enjoy!
W
So – what is happening on YouTube? Four samples!
(1) Check this out and let us know what you think. Yeah, it’s clickbait, with a clickbait thumbnail image.
SO – is this AI-generated anti-human propaganda – or nasty truth – or both? You can read the comments on the video, too.
(2) Chicks With Tats – How to Deal With Them
(3) Chick with XY blueprints and XX construction – in other words, transed by nature, so to speak.
I had heard of this genetic anomaly – rare but real.
The TRANS-pusher left uses the existence of such people to justify their ideology, but the clear truth is that leftists are using medical sympathy to normalize sterilization of kids, and the medicalization of human sexuality.
I also have a theory about why “they” are pushing TRANS in Utah – and why the CIA basically set up camp there. I believe that they are trying to push the “right side” of the Overton Window on TRANS. The left is already stretched so far, as to have reached a breaking point. They need CONSERVATIVE buy-in on their “progress” agenda. The Mormons are a captive institution now, and can be used like a giant Charlie Manson or Jim Jones cult to lead the way on the CONTROLLED RIGHT. Much CIA research on converting conservatives goes on in Utah, IMO.
If this is correct, there should be other examples of this strategy, to say nothing of the “fake conservatives” on CNN.
(4) Big asteroid flyby today – with room to spare – so no need to be worried. Still, I’m glad they’re keeping an eye out for these things!
This new post is being created for us to collect newer Ukraine history, background, details on the actors on the stage, corruption, shadow government evil-doings, and so on. There are older, related posts on this site by Daughn, here, and here, and a detailed timeline here.
But for today’s focus, let’s start with this interview of an American lawyer who is deeply involved in working to right the wrongs being done to the good Christians of the region.
Bob Amsterdam lays it all out with both compassion and unusual clarity from his viewpoint. NB: he is a liberal and seems to be conflating “right wing” and Nazism. Wolf would likely want to call them Jazis. Amsterdam would probably have no idea what that could mean.
The effort to right the wrongs is documented at this site: Save the UOC. It certainly seems worthy of our attention and our prayers.
May God show kindness and mercy to His people struggling under the oppression that is today’s corrupt government of the Ukraine.
Michaelh thought I should turn a recent comment into an article. LINK So I am going to buff up and expand that comment. As I said in my De-Population series, the years around 1970 were an inflection point, a pivotal time period in American history.
Please at least skim the other articles for the historic background surrounding this article. I have tried to show the point of view of the Cabal, and not the propaganda we are fed.
SETTING THE STAGE
The late 1960s and early 1970s saw a major period of cooling. In 1969, grain stores had decreased drastically and by 1972 had plummeted to crisis levels, that, according to the CIA, country leaders went to great pains to hide. In 1970, Broecker, using new radioactive decay dating methods (oxygen isotopes) identified and dated five full ice age cycles. He stated his work was in agreement with the 1911 Milankovitch cycles. (Hays and Shackleton expanded on this, publishing in 1972.) Kukla and Matthews alerted President Richard Nixon that the Holocene could be ending (12/03/72.) Kukla STILL asserts all Ice Ages start with a period of global warming. They’re the harbingers of new Ice Ages. (That warming has now ended.)
*In 1974 a CIA report warned ”…there is considerable evidence that these empires may not have been undone by barbarian invaders but by climatic change…. has tied several of these declines to specific global cool periods, major and minor…” To the Cabal that was a serious OH! SCHIFF! However this crisis could be used to scare world leaders into falling in line with the Cabal’s plans for population control and a world government, and that is exactly what happened.
DEPOPULATION SERIES:
This explains WHY the cabal may think the Holocene is ending and they are running out of time.
THE ATTACK ON THE FOOD SUPPLY SERIES AND OTHER ARTICLES: PAGE 1 and PAGE 2 and PAGE 3.
THE 1970S SHORT HISTORY:
If we go back in time to the 1970 inflection point, we can see that the plans were already being put in place to ‘De-industrialize’ the USA. By 1970, thanks to the stimulus from WWII, US manufacturing was really humming, while Europe was still recovering from WWII and Russia and China were suffering mis-management under Communism. In 1970 the percent of the workforce employed in manufacturing was 26.4% In 2013, it was about8.8 %at which point the government quit keeping track. In 2013 the USA had close to ~23% unemployment rate and that goes for the entire eight years prior to that date. In spite of the government numbers, GDP in 2013 had actually been below zero according to ShadowStat. By the time of Obama, the USA had become a ‘Service Economy’ selling cheap Chinese crud to each other. The only reason we did not have soup lines is because of the invention of EBT cards, the FED printing money and the 2 trillion dollar underground economy.
If you have read the earlier articles you will see Nixon was a critical figure when it came to implementing the Cabal’s depopulation plans here in the US. He also played a major roll in ‘de-industrializing’ the USA. Nixon is the president who gave us the EPA (December 4, 1970.), OSHA, (December 29, 1970) opened the US market up to strengthen Mao’s Communist China (1971-72), and closed the gold window (August 1971) since foreign banks had stripped all the ‘good deliverable gold’ from Fort Knox. This lead to massive devaluation of the dollar, followed by the OPEC cartel hiking the price of oil. Remember ARAMCO was a Saudi-Rockefeller enterprise “..There was a phony “nationalization” of Aramco in the 1970s… the Saudi government took over Aramco, formally, but then immediately turned around and granted the Aramco-Rockefeller consortium the exclusive contract to “manage” the operation…”LINK Any bets the Rockefellers were behind OPEC?
However it was Reagan’s Administration, the Era of the Hostile Takeovers aka Leverage buyouts, that really gutted the core of the USA. — Our Manufacturing.
Before I get into the moves President Reagan made, I am going to look at what happened before Reagan made his moves and then the comment that prompted this article.
ROCKEFELLER:
John D Rockefeller — New York Daily News
Rockefeller insider, Dr. Richard Day (1905-1989)
On March 20, 1969, Dr. Richard Day, the National Medical Director of the Rockefeller-sponsored “Planned Parenthood” told a meeting of the Pittsburgh Pediatric Society that the US will be de-industrialized..
3 A massive campaign must be launched to restore a high-quality environment in North America and to de-develop the United States. De-development means bringing our economic system (especially patterns of consumption) into line with the realities of ecology and the global resource situation. Resources and energy must be diverted from frivolous and wasteful uses in overdeveloped countries to filling the genuine needs of underdeveloped countries. This effort must be largely political, especially with regard to our overexploitation of world resources, but the campaign should be strongly supplemented by legal and boycott action against polluters and others whose activities damage the environment. The need for de–development presents our economists with a major challenge. They must design a stable, low–consumption economy in which there is a much more equitable distribution of wealth than in the present one. Redistribution of wealth both within and among nations is absolutely essential, if a decent life is to be provided for every human being..
THE FEDERALIST SOCIETY:
A comment on the Q-tree by Phoenixrising added this important piece to the puzzle.
…This reform will change the nature of Israel completely. It is openly supported by two think tanks, the Kohelet Policy Forum and the Law and Liberty Forum. The latter is inspired by one of the groups that make up the Federalist Society in the United States; the association that secretly drafted the USA Patriot Act and imposed it on the occasion of the September 11 attacks [1]. The Law and Liberty Forum is funded by the Tikvah Fund, which is chaired by the US-Israeli neo-conservative Elliott Abrams (known for his role in the Iran-Contra affair and in numerous coups in Latin America) [2].
…The Federalist Society and the Law and Liberty Forum’s strategy is to change jurisprudence by changing judges [3]. Over a period of 30 years, the Federalist Society has succeeded in legally justifying neo-liberalism, limiting the possibilities of recourse against big business, deconstructing the way in which the Democratic Party had imagined the fight against discrimination and for the right to abortion, preventing the USA from joining a number of international treaties and, finally, transforming the balance of power in the USA so that the president can wage whatever wars he wants and practice torture.
The originality of the Federalist Society’s approach was to reinterpret the principles of Anglo-Saxon law. Drawing on the writings of the philosopher Leo Strauss, it substituted “natural law” for “positive law. For example, during the 1980s, President Ronald Reagan wanted to deregulate the economy, but he was constrained by law and could not. A Federalist Society theorist, Professor Richard Epstein, argued that property was not a matter of positive law, i.e., conventions drawn up by legislators, but of natural law, i.e., that it was instituted by God. Now, any regulation of an economic activity consists in limiting the way in which certain owners behave. Therefore, any regulation is an expropriation that requires compensation.
Thus, if a law, in the interest of the community, requires industrialists to produce only products of a certain quality, it limits their property rights, and they must therefore be compensated. This interpretation of the law allowed President Ronald Reagan to deconstruct all pre-existing economic regulations…
[4] Proceedings of the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy Symposium : American Exceptionalism and Human Rights, Michael Ignatieff, Princeton University Press (2005).
The references in the above article on the Federalist Society led to this article:
When reading this article remember the Cabal’s use of ‘Women’s Rights’ (the right to work, have access to birth control and have abortions) as just a means of population control to them. It is mentioned in NSSM-200 — the 1974 Kissinger report.
Defining Exceptionalism:
Since 1945 America has displayed exceptional leadership in promoting international human rights. At the same time, however, it has also resisted complying with human rights standards at home or aligning its foreign policy with these standards abroad. Under some administrations, it has promoted human rights as if they were synonymous with American values, while under others, it has emphasized the superiority of American values over international standards….
Thanks to Eleanor and Franklin Roosevelt, the United States took a leading role in the creation of the United Nations and the drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948.[1] Throughout the Cold War and afterward, few nations placed more emphasis in their foreign policy on the promotion of human rights, market freedom, and political democracy. Since the 1970s U.S. legislation has tied foreign aid to progress in human rights; the State Department annually assesses the human rights records of governments around the world. Outside government, the United States can boast some of the most effective and influential human rights organizations in the world. These promote religious freedom, gender equality, democratic rights, and the abolition of slavery; they monitor human rights performance by governments, including—and especially—the U.S. government. U.S. government action, together with global activism by U.S. NGOs, has put Americans in the forefront of attempts to improve women’s rights, defend religious liberty, improve access to AIDS drugs, [a major POISON developed by Fauci according to Dr Judy Mikovits -G.C.] spread democracy and freedom through the Arab and Muslim worlds, and oppose tyrants from Slobodan Milošević to Saddam Hussein….
The legal left has a money problem, a history problem and—maybe worst of all—a big-idea problem.
…What’s going on? One explanation is historical: The Federalist Society is simply older, with deeper roots. Those trace back some years before its founding, to a 1971 memo written by Lewis Powell, shortly before his nomination to the Supreme Court, in which he argued that the “𝗔𝗺𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗼𝗺𝗶𝗰 𝘀𝘆𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗺 𝗶𝘀 𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝗯𝗿𝗼𝗮𝗱 𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗮𝗰𝗸”—𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗱 𝘂𝗽𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗨.𝗦. 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿 𝗼𝗳 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗲𝗿𝗰𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗯𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱 𝗶𝗻𝘀𝘁𝗶𝘁𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲 𝗽𝘂𝗯𝗹𝗶𝗰 𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗶𝘁𝘂𝗱𝗲𝘀, 𝗲𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗮𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗮𝗺𝗽𝘂𝘀 𝗹𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗹. The Powell Manifesto, as it came to be known, foreshadowed the development of today’s roster of powerful conservative think tanks—the Heritage Foundation, the Manhattan and Cato Institutes, and the Federalist Society…
Note the differences in the explanation of the origin of the Federalist Society. Melding the two you have Industrialists like the Rockefellers (remember their link to Chicago University via John Dewey) LOOKING for groups they can use. John D. was KNOWN for hiding his moves behind surrogates.
THE ORIGIN OF NGOs:
Rockefeller’s man, Maurice Strong, was Chair of the First Earth Summit in 1972. He started the CAGW movement. Strong is the guy who said “…current lifestyles and consumption patterns of the affluent middle class…are not sustainable. A shift is necessary toward lifestyles less geared to environmentally damaging consumption patterns….” in his opening remarks at Earth Summit II in 1992. Strong’s web site in google states: “Maurice Strong globalized the environmental movement.”
In brief Maurice Strong worked in Saudi Arabia for a Rockefeller company, Caltex, in 1953. He left Caltex in 1954 to worked at high levels in banking and oil. By 1971, he served as a trustee for the Rockefeller Foundation, and in 1972 was Secretary-General of the U.N. Conference on the Human Environment. He was Co-founder of the WWF and Senior Advisor to the World Bank, the UN AND the World Economic Forum.
Strong’s early work with YMCA international “…may have been the genesis of Strong’s realization that NGOs (non-government organizations) provide an excellent way to use NGOs to couple the money from philanthropists and business with the objectives of government.” LINK
“Very few of even the larger international NGOs are operationally democratic, in the sense that members elect officers or direct policy on particular issues,” notes Peter Spiro. “Arguably it is more often money than membership that determines influence, and money more often represents the support of centralized elites, such as major foundations, than of the grass roots.” The CGG [Commission on Global Governance] has benefited substantially from the largesse of the MacArthur, Carnegie, and Ford Foundations…. LINK
NGOs USED to REPLACE VOTERS in USA
By Presidential Executive Order the USA was divided into ten regions. These regions are governed by an unholy mix of unelected government bureaucrats and NGOs. The regions were set up by President Nixon but the implementation of the “regional governance concept began in earnest with the Clinton-Gore administration. “On the heels of the President’s Council on Sustainable Development , came the President’s Community Empowerment Board, chaired by Vice President Al Gore,” – LINKThese quasi-governmental regional authorities are slowly transforming the US from representative government to government by United Nations and foundation sponsored and directed NGOs and appointed bureaucrats.
PRESIDENT REAGAN:
Well that certainly explains why Reagan did not use the anti-monopoly laws on the books to prevent the Transnational Corporations from a massive take over of American owned mid-sized corporations. It also explains why our ‘Conservative’ Judges did nothing to stop him.
In the 1980s, the Reagan Administration drastically altered American antitrust policy, virtually eliminating Section 2 cases involving monopolies. This chapter provides a context for that decision by tracing the efforts that the federal government made since 1890 to reconcile an opposition to highly concentrated economic power with the even stronger enthusiasm Americans have always had for the economic success they associated with the nation’s largest enterprises. In this setting, judges and government lawyers struggled over the years to come up with a clear concept of monopoly. In the global economy of the late 20th century, the Reagan policy innovation solved that problem and proved to be timely and significant. The new policy allowed American firms to get up to global scale, either through strategic alliances or through mergers that would not have been allowed under previous administrations.
..In January 1982, former US Secretary of the Treasury William Simon and a group of investors acquired Gibson Greetings, a producer of greeting cards, for $80 million, of which only $1 million was rumored to have been contributed by the investors. By mid-1983, just sixteen months after the original deal, Gibson completed a $290 million IPO and Simon made approximately $66 million.[9]
The success of the Gibson Greetings investment attracted the attention of the wider media to the nascent boom in leveraged buyouts.[10] Between 1979 and 1989, it was estimated that there were over 2,000 leveraged buyouts valued in excess of $250 billion…..
US Secretary of the Treasury started the sellout of our economy. Reagan through his laissez faire attitude did nothing to stop it. Now I finally understand WHY.
…Both economic and regulatory factors combined to spur the explosion in large takeovers and, in turn, large LBOs. The three regulatory factors were the Reagan administration’s relatively laissez-faire policies on antitrust and securities laws, which allowed mergers the government would have challenged in earlier years;
the 1982 Supreme Court decision striking down state antitakeover laws (which were resurrected with great effectiveness in the late eighties); and deregulation of many industries, which prompted restructurings and mergers. The main economic factor was the development of the original-issue high-yield debt instrument. The so-called “junk bond” innovation, pioneered by Michael Milken of Drexel Burnham, provided many hostile bidders and LBO firms with the enormous amounts of capital needed to finance multi-billion-dollar deals….
Without intervention by the government or courts, greed took over.
Corporate takeovers became a prominent feature of the American business landscape during the seventies and eighties. A hostile takeover usually involves a public tender offer—a public offer of a specific price, usually at a substantial premium over the prevailing market price, good for a limited period, for a substantial percentage of the target firm’s stock. Unlike a merger, which requires the approval of the target firm’s board of directors as well as voting approval of the stockholders, a tender offer can provide voting control to the bidding firm without the approval of the target’s management and directors…..
Because it allows bidders to seek control directly from shareholders—by going “over the heads” of target management—the tender offer is the most powerful weapon available to the hostile bidder. … Although hostile bidders still need a formal merger to gain total control of the target’s assets, this is easily accomplished once the bidder has purchased a majority of voting stock.
Hostile tender offers have been around for decades, but they were rare and generally involved small target firms until the midseventies. Then came the highly controversial multibillion-dollar hostile takeovers of very recognizable public companies. By the late eighties there were dozens of multi-billion-dollar takeovers and their cousins, leveraged buyouts (LBOs). The largest acquisition ever was the $25 billion buyout of RJR Nabisco by Kolberg Kravis and Roberts in 1989. [Editor’s note: this was written in 1992.] ….
This is the result of the 1980’s leveraged buyout feeding frenzy.
….Of mergers and acquisitions each costing $1 million or more, there were just 10 in 1970; in 1980, there were 94; in 1986, there were 346. A third of such deals in the 1980’s were hostile. The 1980’s also saw a wave of giant leveraged buyouts. Mergers, acquisitions and L.B.O.’s, which had accounted for less than 5 percent of the profits of Wall Street brokerage houses in 1978, ballooned into an estimated 50 percent of profits by 1988…
THROUGH ALL THIS, THE HISTORIC RELATIONSHIP between product and paper has been turned upside down. Investment bankers no longer think of themselves as working for the corporations with which they do business. These days, corporations seem to exist for the investment bankers…. In fact, investment banks are replacing the publicly held industrial corporations as the largest and most powerful economic institutions in America….
THERE ARE SIGNS THAT A VICIOUS spiral has begun, as each corporate player seeks to improve its standard of living at the expense of another’s.
Corporate raiders transfer to themselves, and other shareholders, part of the income of employees by forcing the latter to agree to lower wages….
America has been quietly sold off piece by piece. This is a sampling of the industries with over 50% foreign ownership, according to Source Watch over two decades ago (2002.0
— Sound recording industries – 97% — Commodity contracts dealing and brokerage – 79% — Motion picture and sound recording industries – 75% — Metal ore mining – 65% — Wineries and distilleries – 64% — Database, directory, Book and other publishers – 63% — Cement, concrete, lime, and gypsum product – 62% — Engine, turbine and power transmission equipment – 57% — Rubber product – 53% — Nonmetallic mineral product manufacturing – 53% — Plastics and rubber products manufacturing – 52% * Other insurance related activities – 51% — Boiler, tank, and shipping container – 50% — Glass and glass product – 48% — Coal mining – 48%
A real eye opener isn’t it. But it gets worse. “…The Department of Homeland Security says 80% of our ports are operated by Foreigners and they are buying and running US bridges and toll roads…” http://www.alabamaeagle.org/issues.asp?action=form&formID=2105&recordID=131006 (Funny how that info has now been completely scrubbed from the internet including the Wayback Machine…)
…Foreign ownership of U.S. assets amounted to 33% of U.S. GDP in 1990. Today it is valued at over 70% of U.S. GDP. Foreigners own $2 trillion (19% of U.S. GDP) more in U.S. assets that the U.S. holds of theirs. Foreign ownership of the U.S. Treasury market is over 30%, over 23% of the corporate bond market, and 13% of the U.S. equity market. (Statistics courtesy of Bridgewater, Dec 13, 2002.)
The fate of the dollar now boils down to a question of confidence. But not the confidence of its own citizens, but of foreigners. Their holdings are now such a large percentage of the total that, if confidence in the U.S. falters and foreigners become sellers, there is grave risk to U.S. financial markets….
…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….
There may be 147 companies in the world that own everything, as colleague Bruce Upbin points out and they are dominated by investment companies as Eric Savitz rightly points out. But it’s not you and I who really control those companies, even though much of our money is in them. Given the nature of how money is invested, there are four companies in the shadows that 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 control those companies that own everything.
Before I reveal them, some light math:
According to the 2011 annual factbook from the Investment Company Institute, there is $24.7 trillion in all the mutual funds in the world (a little less than half from the US). Based on data from the ICI, $1.24 trillion of this is directly invested in index funds, plus another $992 billion in assets beyond that $24.7 trillion in Exchange Traded Funds, which aren’t mutual funds but are index funds. That means the bulk of that money is in “active” managed funds or fund of funds….
...the chief of hedge funds at a very large asset manager told me last week (alas, I cannot identify either) that an internal study his firm recently performed found that the vast majority of mutual funds defined as actively managed see 95% of the assets they hold determined by an index. That means just 5% of actively managed funds really are driven by the active manager’s judgment.…
So of the $25.69 trillion in worldwide assets we’ve identified, $2.23 trillion are directly in indexes (ETFs and index mutual funds) with another $22.3 trillion indirectly beholden to indexes (that 95% of actively managed fund holdings said to be determined by an index).
You can see where I’m headed here. That means the real power to control the world lies with four companies: McGraw-Hill, which owns Standard & Poor’s, Northwestern Mutual, which owns Russell Investments, the index arm of which runs the benchmark Russell 1,000 and Russell 3,000, CME Group which owns 90% of Dow Jones Indexes, and Barclay’s, which took over Lehman Brothers and its Lehman Aggregate Bond Index, the dominant world bond fund index. Together, these four firms dominate the world of indexing. And in turn, that means they hold real sway over the world’s money….
Just to be clear, if you invest in a mutual fund you are buying shares in the mutual fund (that you cannot vote) and theMutual Fundthen uses YOUR money to buy stock shares which it owns and controls. This allows much more consolidation of control. For example Edward C Johnson 3rd, chairman of the Fidelity Group voted the stock in Monsanto owned by several pension and mutual funds like FMR LLC, FIDELITY MAGELLAN FUND INC, FIDELITY GROWTH COMPANY FUND, and Pyramid Global Advisors. The Vanguard Group, aka John C. Bogle, owned another healthy chunk of Monsanto. In this way even more power is concentrated in the hands of a few. This explains the point made in the paper, Network of Global Corporate Control, that the amount of power is greater than the amount of wealth can account for.
So facts like “85% of Monsanto is held by mutual funds and Institutional (financial) Holders” while true in that the money originated from pensioners and other little people does not tell the whole story. Yet it is trumpeted by those who want to confuse those trying to follow the money and power trails and misdirect us into thinking the stock is held and voted by pensioners — a complete and utter falsehood.
Aug 15, 2022 Thanks to the surging popularity of its index funds, Vanguard is now the No. 1 owner of 330 stocks in the S&P 500, or two-thirds of the world’s most important collection of stocks, says an Investor’s Business Daily analysis of data from S&P Global Market Intelligence and MarketSmith. No other investor comes remotely close. BlackRock (BLK) is a remote second-top owner, ranking as the No. 1 investor in just 38 S&P 500 companies.
Not only does the Cabal use our saving and pensions to gain control over corporations, they also shifted the tax burden to the middle class. At the same time that corporate taxes and tariffs on imported good (excise) have gone down, taxes on personal income aka WAGES has gone up. ‘Tax the wealthy’ is a real joke because the wealthy ARE NOT PAID WAGES.
(Try finding that graph via a search engine today.)
REALLY? Should we take this criticism from an FBI agent?
Or is blaming Christians just more “Battered Christian Syndrome”?
More “blame the victim”?
Or are Christians SUPPOSED to actually risk some battering?
It’s certainly BRAVE to make this claim to fellow Christians.
And FBI?
Well…….
Complicated business.
I’ll be brief. This is a possibly tough or angering, but definitely necessary read, which argues very effectively that “pure politics” and “no politics” are not places where Christians should be. We must strive to CHANGE THE WORLD. It is our SLACK in doing so, which has led to the sorry state of the planet, with SATANISTS, SCOUNDRELS, and CRIMINALS in charge.
Yeah, that’s a tough message, after losing to CHEATING. But why are they cheating? BECAUSE THEY CAN and BECAUSE THEY WILL – and both of those are because we have not been culturally effective. This article actually “goes there in kindness” with the internal rightness and external wrongness of American Christianity’s “Church Lady” insularity, wrapped up in a slap of TURTLEHEAD McCONNELL.
So how can we integrate politics into Christian living without being corrupted by the mendacity and horror of current American politics?
Some of that may involve cementing and guarding the places where truth and justice are safe (the “Aubergine strategy” in real life, and the “Wolf strategy” in cyberspace), but some of it involves going out and winning the world for GOD, just like Paul did, armed with every weapon that CHRIST gave him.
Perhaps we have not been doing as much of the latter as we could.
And perhaps not “perhaps”.
I’m not saying I have the final answer, but I see that the region where the answer lies does NOT exclude POLITICAL SAVVY, SUBSERVIENT TO GOD.
We can whine about the lackluster results of the 2022 mid-term election cycle — there’s plenty of blame to share. Certainly top Republicans like Senator Mitch McConnell and Kevin McCarthy bear direct responsibility.
Republicans seem poised to wrest power from the totalitarian Democrats in the House. This victory should not be discounted, despite the thinner than hoped for margin. …
…American Christians have desperately tried to believe that politics can be left to secularists who besmirch themselves with temporal concerns — as good fundamental, Bible-believing Christians, we’ll just lock ourselves in our prayer closets, cloister ourselves in our sanctified communities, and pull up the draw-bridge in front of our Christian schools.
At the risk of being branded a heretic, I must assert, good Christian, your prayers are not enough.
For far too long we’ve whistled past the graveyard, dithering about the inconsequential virtues like skirts versus pants, blind to the reality that we’ve succumbed to the same sinful myopathy that possessed medieval scholasticists, who quarreled uselessly about how many angels could dance on the head of a pin.
All the while, the infernal forces of tyranny have marched forward, gobbling up the entire structure of American education, the arts, entertainment, and politics.
The Bible is replete with examples of men and women of what we would call political action. The Apostle Paul insinuated himself in the culture and, by extension, the politics of his time. …
…having arrived at Athens, Paul “disputed” with the Jews in their synagogues and “in the market daily with them that met with him.” (Acts 17:17) The Athens market would have been the equivalent of our public place of discourse.
That means, if Paul were still walking the face of the earth, you just might see his Twitter feed.
A suit and tie are ennobling things, but they are mere rags if they are a substitute for a monk’s habit. Far too many Christians mistake arrogance for piety and cowardice for meekness.
…..Christendom must rediscover the apostolic formula of prayer, piety, and action or watch liberty devolve into totalitarianism. Loosen your tie, hang up the frock, and become relevant again.
Christians have lost the culture, in part by lionizing “full-time Christian service.” Anywhere a Christian is called, is his or her place of “full-time Christian service.” There is no inherent virtue in teaching at a Christian school. Virtue lies in obeying the call of God, and what is sorely needed are men and women of faith in the “secular vocations,” impacting culture at its source. A wise man once said that for the Christian, “there is no difference between the sacred and the secular.”
It’s great knowing you’re on the winning side, but countless battles still rage wherein nations may rise or fall. Quit acting like you’ve won the war when the enemy still rages across the battlefield.
…..Christians possess the most powerful weapon in cultural warfare, The Word of God. But, if you’re not engaged in the culture or in politics, you’ve no standing to complain about lousy results or cultural rot.
[Final judgment STRAIGHT FROM THE WORDS OF CHRIST.]
This is where I am now seeing the need to BRING OUR COMMS INTO THE REAL WORLD.
That means networking – not only with the LIKE-MINDED, but with the WINNABLE – and trusting that GOD will finish the job, using CHRIST and the HOLY SPIRIT OF TRUTH.
The TRUTH we gain here must be SPREAD to the world, and the NEEDS of the world must be brought back here to share among ourselves, and with our readership.
We need to be a reactor of TRUTH that IRRADIATES and ILLUMINATES a cold and dark world.
It’s time to let that radiation and illumination SHINE.
You will see more specifics from me as we move forward.
Our purpose is unchanged, but we WILL be more effective.
LIGHT INTO DARKNESS.
W
NOTE: This piece was written BEFORE Trump announced his 2024 presidential candidacy, and apart from minor editing for style and notation of John Nantz’s background, it remains almost unchanged.
As Election Day approaches, THE GLOVES ARE COMING OFF.
Ohio Governor Mike DeWine’s milquetoast stance on vaccines has muddled along, but as we watch vaccine mandates DESTROYING blue states, that tinge of purple in Ohio is looking more and more dangerous, with a WEAK LEADER in the capitol.
The man sure loves his purple ties. Is that ROYALTY, HILLARY, or XI?
Well, today that changed.
Is there salvation? It’s not too late.
Republican gubernatorial challenger Jim Renacci launched a salvo of emails with this message:
NO VACCINE MANDATES. PERIOD.
There’s not a lot of room there.
But if you’re uncertain about who to vote for, here is the full text of the letter.
Friend,
You get to decide what goes into your body – not the government.
Giving up your right to bodily autonomy is a slippery slope to losing other rights, like freedom of speechc and bearing arms.
That’s why Jim Renacci opposes vaccine mandates now and forever.
Just like President Reagan said, “If we lose freedom here, there is no place to escape to. This is the last stand on earth.”
While DeWine is stripping Buckeyes of their freedom, Jim Renacci is putting Ohio first. Renacci will make Ohio a sanctuary state and protect your right to refuse vaccinations.
The first step to preserving your freedom begins with firing DeWine. Team Renacci is working hard to make that happen, but we need all the help we can get. Please consider donating today.
Halloween is just around the corner, and DeWine is hoping he can trick you with HB 244. Don’t be fooled. It doesn’t prevent school vaccine mandates. Instead, it’s a backdoor that allows approved vaccines, like Pfizer, to be forced onto school children.
Renacci will never deceive or trick you. That’s why his message is clear:
NO VACCINE MANDATES. PERIOD.
Thank you,
Jim Renacci
Candidate for Governor of Ohio
I went to the Renacci website, and found this right at the top, about mask mandates:
Here is that video:
Digging deeper, Renacci has a statement on vaccine mandates HERE:
MIKE DEWINE REFUSES TO PROTECT OHIOANS’ FREEDOMS FROM UNCONSTITUTIONAL MANDATES
10/12/21
Cleveland, OH – Former congressman and candidate for governor Jim Renacci released the following statement on Mike DeWine refusing to protect Ohioans from unconstitutional mandates as other governors like Greg Abbott signed an executive order banning mandates of any kind in his state:
“It has been 33 days since Joe Biden announced his vaccine mandate for workers and Mike DeWine has still done nothing to shield Ohioans. DeWine continually proves he is a feckless leader who refuses to protect Ohioans’ from overbearing mandates that strip away our freedoms. We have seen throughout the pandemic other leaders like Ron DeSantis and Greg Abbott govern better than DeWine, who instead chooses to lead like Andrew Cuomo and Gavin Newsom. Every single day we see our freedoms eroded by DeWine’s policies and, if we do not have new leadership in Columbus soon, he will continue to be an emboldened tyrant willing to sacrifice our futures by living under his warped rule of law. As governor, I will protect all Ohioans from these mandates and ensure the government will never intrude on their ability to choose what is best for themselves and their families.”
There is a way to fight back against this stuff. FIRE milquetoast weakling Mike DeWine.
Every Ohio Republican MUST get out and vote for Jim Renacci. Even the Blystone people need to throw their votes to Renacci now, IMO. Get DeWine OUT. Otherwise, mandates are coming, and millions of Ohioans will be FLEEING Ohio to take up residence in saner states.
OK, to be honest I had Zero plans to write this post when I woke up “today”. In fact I’d been hoping to take advantage of my solo weekend to wrap up a post or two I’ve had in draft mode for months, but it appears that they’ll have to still wait. My hunters will be home soon…
This journey started out by reading Carl’s beautiful Sunday post.
Being very moved by the teaching he shared I wanted to look up the source material by John Piper AND finally came to a page that appears to contain much, or even all, that Carl shared, here:
In the course of searching for the actual message, & not just other people’s blog posts about Piper’s teaching that was apparently given at some type of conference, a few interesting links popped up. One looked to be addressing how seemingly Piper weighed in on the 2020 election & from the couple lines of text visible at the search may have spoken against Trump. I was curious so went to read that article too.
What a surprise to discover that the article was more about promoting the vax from the pulpit rather than steering people away from Trump during the stolen election. Hmmm
OK, so this post is NOT trying to attack John Piper as a man, a Christian, nor as a theologian. I’m trying to steer clear of my own biases, which is obviously impossible. In reading the search engine thumbnail descriptions it appears that Piper is affiliated with the Baptist church, which makes my “legalism radar” perk up. I’m just being honest, I have issues with legalism that go way back & have a (possibly misplaced) perception that Baptist takes might hover in the legalism domain…so grain of salt going forward here…
Here are a couple places where I’ve addressed legalism, & the other end of the spectrum, the prosperity gospel, for context on some of my thinking in these arenas…
So, back to the issue at hand. I like to think of myself as a Truth-seeker AND a Truth-teller. So let’s see if we can unearth some Truth in the controversy before us, namely shilling for the vax from the pulpit. Whom the Son sets free is Free indeed!
Let’s look into John Knox’s Not The Bee article a bit first. Per his opening remarks he appears to be a Conservative Christian, who is perhaps comfortable with MAGA & Trump’s leadership.
“I’m not here to slander John Piper. He’s a brother-in-Christ and a man who has, by all accounts, picked up his cross daily to preach the hope of Christ and Christ crucified to a broken world.
With that being said, Piper has come to some odd conclusions in recent years, starting most notably with the idea that voting for the worldly bravado of Donald Trump was just a [sic] morally wrong as the utter institutional corruption, unfettered support of abortion, and woke totalitarianism of Joe Biden.”
Let’s dive into Piper’s perspective without immediately referring to Knox’s take & see what might jump out…
Here is his opening & yikes he’s seeming like a Pro-vaxer from the outset, not just pro-freedom (in Christ).
“My aim in this article is to encourage Christians to be vaccinated, if they can do so with a good conscience and judicious medical warrant.
The people I have especially in view are those who are not vaccinated because of fear of being out of step withpeople they respect, and in step with people they don’t admire. My message to them is simple: You are free.
So, I am not talking directly to everybody. If the shoe fits, put it on, check your conscience, consult your doctor, and go get vaccinated. If it doesn’t, go tearfully and cheerfully on your way. Tearfully, because over 4.5 million people have died from COVID-19 worldwide (including over 700,000 Americans). And cheerfully, because Christ makes it miraculously possible to love people by being “sorrowful yet always rejoicing” (2 Corinthians 6:10).”
So I’m pretty close to an anti-vaxer for numerous reasons now. It would be nearly impossible to read consistently here at The Q Tree & not be Extremely Concerned about the many & manifold dangers of the so-called Covid vaccine. Obviously Piper is coming from a very different worldview, though we Might be somewhat similar in our Christian biblical foundational viewpoints. Some of what he said above strikes me as manipulative, which is a big red flag to me!
Below is a comment written before the Plannedemic was on the scene with some vaccine concerns I expressed elsewhere, for perspective, but we’ll just stick with the Covid “vax” concerns today:
So Piper cites a number of sources that all seem to show that being unvax’d is Way more dangerous than being vax’d. Obviously here at the Q-Tree we consider material much more wider afield & also take into account the numerous reports, medical, scientific, & anecdotal that expose Much of the danger of the clot shots. It appears that Piper is unaware of this alternative & alarming material. Here’s his take, shudder:
When people respond to this increasingly clear reality by pointing to untrustworthy and disreputable government and medical leaders, I respond, “That’s a non sequitur.” The team called “vaccination” just made a first down, even if monkeys are holding the chains. For friends around the world who don’t know American football, that means a win is a win even if all the coaches and referees are incompetent.
Piper’s take on freedom is interesting & I encourage you to read it for yourself. He then lists a series of considerations to ponder as one decides for the shot or not. He doesn’t elaborate on those issues, even the implications of fetal cell lines, though he does link to a YouTube video on the topic. I have no idea if Piper is a pro-lifer or not, but at least he brings up that fetal tissue issue, though by implication doesn’t apparently consider it an impediment to Christians taking the “vax”. He appears to have made up his mind to take the shot & seems to be freeing, or even persuading, his parishioners to do the same–concerning!
Now let’s consider Knox’s other cited material that is opposed to Piper’s take before returning to Knox.
James White, the author of the above, pulls no punches & calls Piper out for his writings AND remarks on the election & the shot! Here is White pointing out what many Q-Treepers might consider to be quite obvious.
God’s ownership of our bodies implies our own stewardship thereof, which is why many of us take serious issue with experimental genetic therapies with record-breaking reports of adverse reactions, including death, with no long-term studies relating to safety (cancers, fertility), for a disease with an average mortality age above life expectancy and a mortality rate of less than 0.5%.
Further from White, bold is my take:
…there is the arrogance of the secular worldview that actually leads man to believe he is wise enough, while remaining in rebellion against his Creator, to meddle with the very essence of his being (genetics). When such arrogance is joined with a lust for power and dominion, it becomes deadly.
So the bulk of the article, comprising numerous biblical citations about freedom, is not the issue. Instead, the problem is found in the section that reads like a Pfizer promotional advertisement, and then the application portion at the end.
White’s wisdom & Piper’s naivety are on display in this next quote from White (not italicised to preserve his presentation):
“From late October of 2020, as word about the technology that is behind the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines came out, I have stated that I would consider use of these vaccine [sic] once three and five year safety studies had been completed. Prior to 2020, this would have been considered a sober, even mundane position to take. You do not do genetic manipulation at “warp speed,” especially when the threat you are seeking to counteract is one that almost always requires multiple co-morbidities and results in an age of death equal to or above life expectancy. But we do not have such data, and with how this one particular disease has been handled, we have good grounds to wonder if we will ever have geniune [sic] data in the future. The VAERS database, maintained by the CDC, has catalogued record numbers of negative results from the vaccines, so it is now regularly dismissed as “untested” (the irony is palpable) by the media. The amazing reality that we are now counting deaths with the Covid-19 as the same as deaths from Covid-19 has resulted in massively inflated numbers, numbers Dr. Piper repeats without comment, and uses in his final argumentation as well. The fact is we are playing with dangerous and unknown long-term impacts with these types of experimental1 therapies. Dr. Piper does not even acknowledge this reality.”
Here is the material for the footnote #1 above & a reference to further work by White (an 8 page pdf). This appears to be a level of truth AND integrity to be much admired & emulated, yet too rarely seen!
1 Yes, they remain experimental. The FDA approved the Pfizer jab without public comment, fundamentally altering the entire process. Video exists of Anthony Fauci in 2019 (Milken Institute found on CSPAN2) lamenting how long it would take to get these kinds of vaccines approved. Given his own role in the Wuhan lab, gain-of-function funding, etc., the reality of the situation is clear.
“Many studies are now showing efficacy rates below 50% and dropping for these vaccines. But the UK report is even more dangerous. We are now seeing that the vaccines are inhibiting the natural ability to produce antibodies against not just the well-known “spike protein,” but against the shell of the virus as well. Our bodies provide not only a much more robust immunity (as all studies are showing, and which Dr. Piper misrepresented when he said natural immunity is “as effective as vaccination immunity” when it is actually 13 to 27 times greater), but it is a much wider immunity, responding to more of the structure of the virus. This study is telling us that vaccination degrades our natural immunity, leaving us even more exposed to future infection.”
And this treat from White on Piper!
“He then provides one of the most disappointing lines in the article: “You have pondered the likelihood and unlikelihood of conspiratorial conjectures.” Without defining his meaning, or providing examples, Piper does us no favors. Is the recognition of the cooperation of Big Tech and Big Pharma with the extreme leftists in political power resulting in the transfer of literally trillions of dollars of wealth a “conspiratorial conjecture”? Are the banishments from social media of medical experts who are warning about dangers fictional? We are not told.”
Winding down toward his conclusion White displays both insight AND wisdom:
“It is undeniable that the vaccines are not a solo issue. They are coming to us after mask mandates and church closures and pastoral imprisonments and before the next onerous demands from governments drunk on the power that inevitably comes from the rise of secularism. The secular state is far worse than the ancient pagan context of Rome (which was bad enough), for by its very definition it must be ultimate in all things as there is no Creator. Why Piper does not see the role the vaccines play in the overall demands of the newly empowered totalitarianism I cannot say, but it is not the first time he has missed the role a particular element plays in the whole. Mean, arrogant tweets are, in the overall scheme of things, significantly less important than the fact that the Biden regime is intent upon forcing your children to celebrate drag queens and likewise just as intent upon taking control of every aspect of your life to force you to live in denial of the lordship of Christ. What Piper has missed, badly, is the role these vaccinations play in a much bigger, much more basic movement into a technologically based, chemically and medically controlled secular totalitarianism.”
Obviously it is easier to resonate with White, at least for me. So let’s return to Knox. Piper is presented as
“…either unable or unwilling to see past the veneer of Everything is Fine™ that’s been peddled by the leftist politicians, the woke media, the “progressive” academy, and the neo-Marxist Big Tech offices.”
Knox reminds us to consider the source AND question conclusions drawn from faulty data & assumptions:
“As a math professor once told me, even if your calculations are 100% correct, your solution will be insanely wrong if your starting premises are off!”
Honestly I did enjoy reading all three pieces. Knox was my intro to the other two & his framing & take is invaluable. Piper was who I’d been searching for in appreciation of the Wonderful Teaching Carl shared with us today (now yesterday). Piper was shallow on facts but deeper on scripture in his writing compared to what the other two shared, but both Knox & White were addressing Piper’s factual fallacies more than his biblical prowess. Because I was reading Piper’s article as more of a vax skeptic, I found some of his scriptural insights to work on me in the opposite way than where he was going in his applications. White was factual, truthful, & masterfully insightful on both human nature & the creeping totalitarianism in our societies. I resonated with his take & hope to read further of how he also might “rightly divide the Word of Truth”!
I guess I would prefer to just hear from Piper on scripture, not social issues. Because White & Knox are seemingly aligned with my worldview they are more comfortable reads to me when addressing social &/or cultural concerns. Knox is an easier, quicker read, so he’s a good place to start. White dives in deep & dispenses truth, wisdom, & integrity quite liberally. Piper would do well to stick to biblical truth & could expand his sources of information so he has a better grasp of what is Really happening in the world today.
Now let’s turn to the reason for this post’s title, since many Shepherds (pastors & other leaders) are seemingly leading their flocks of Sheep to the metaphorical, if not literal, slaughter.
I’m going to share Ezekiel 34 in a moment, but this is how thinking along those lines developed, in the comments section on this excellent post by Wolfmoon:
There are markers in the vaccine, AND they are testing (using useless PCR) for infection, AND they are taking DNA.
All bases are covered. The sheep will see the “testing for viruses” part and be satisfied. The lions will see the markers and the DNA theft and walk majestically away.
They are flailing around trying anything they can think of to trick the lions into submission.
But I am a lion, and not subject to such gaslighting trickery.11 Reply
EXACTLY! That’s what I’m thinking. The small cheese was the vaccine in as many as possible. The BIG CHEESE was “everybody gives their DNA to the globonazis just to travel”. The really big cheese behind the scenes is “now we can modify and study every single person like a lab animal”. When we talked about being “controls”, they rubbed their hands in glee. “We can use that! We can surely use that!” The trick THERE is to foil that plan – to say “No, KlauSS. No DNA for you!”
One of the things they would surely be testing for would be immune function. Shedding. OMG. There is so much modification and study of us possible.
cleverly disguised as “peace and safety” for all !
and coming soon…
marker
sounds like mark.
but we’re not quite there just yet.
the UN’s Sustainablity crap + the 2030 Agenda + the WEF + the Vatican + the Covid/Climate Change tyranny…and the global compliance to all of that…is creating Alinsky style chaos.
they will need all the chaos they can manufacture…so that…
the machiavellian psychopath man of universal “peace” can show up, and quell all the chaos…
by then, ppl of the global village will have become rendered compliant enough so as to readily take the mark which will require, not just relinquishing our privacy, but something much worse : our souls.
to worship that man of lawlessness, perversion & lies.Last edited 7 days ago by smiley29 Reply
We would be stronger if the Church leaders around the globe including Pop would stand with God’s people. They are not for a second time in history the past 80 years. They failed God and humanity and will be judged more harshly for selling out God and Christ for a lousy bag of silver.4 Reply
The whole 34th chapter of Ezekiel is profoundly applicable Right Now!
Ezekiel 34 New International Version The Lord Will Be Israel’s Shepherd 34 The word of the Lord came to me: 2 “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel; prophesy and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Woe to you shepherds of Israel who only take care of yourselves! Should not shepherds take care of the flock? 3 You eat the curds, clothe yourselves with the wool and slaughter the choice animals, but you do not take care of the flock. 4 You have not strengthened the weak or healed the sick or bound up the injured. You have not brought back the strays or searched for the lost. You have ruled them harshly and brutally. 5 So they were scattered because there was no shepherd, and when they were scattered they became food for all the wild animals. 6 My sheep wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill. They were scattered over the whole earth, and no one searched or looked for them.
7 “‘Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord: 8 As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, because my flock lacks a shepherd and so has been plundered and has become food for all the wild animals, and because my shepherds did not search for my flock but cared for themselves rather than for my flock, 9 therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord: 10 This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I am against the shepherds and will hold them accountable for my flock. I will remove them from tending the flock so that the shepherds can no longer feed themselves. I will rescue my flock from their mouths, and it will no longer be food for them.
Let’s add the rest of Ezekiel 34 (that wasn’t included in my original comment above) for perspective:
11 “‘For this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I myself will search for my sheep and look after them. 12 As a shepherd looks after his scattered flock when he is with them, so will I look after my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on a day of clouds and darkness. 13 I will bring them out from the nations and gather them from the countries, and I will bring them into their own land. I will pasture them on the mountains of Israel, in the ravines and in all the settlements in the land. 14 I will tend them in a good pasture, and the mountain heights of Israel will be their grazing land. There they will lie down in good grazing land, and there they will feed in a rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. 15 I myself will tend my sheep and have them lie down, declares the Sovereign Lord. 16 I will search for the lost and bring back the strays. I will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak, but the sleek and the strong I will destroy. I will shepherd the flock with justice.
17 “‘As for you, my flock, this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I will judge between one sheep and another, and between rams and goats. 18 Is it not enough for you to feed on the good pasture? Must you also trample the rest of your pasture with your feet? Is it not enough for you to drink clear water? Must you also muddy the rest with your feet? 19 Must my flock feed on what you have trampled and drink what you have muddied with your feet?
20 “‘Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says to them: See, I myself will judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep. 21 Because you shove with flank and shoulder, butting all the weak sheep with your horns until you have driven them away, 22 I will save my flock, and they will no longer be plundered. I will judge between one sheep and another. 23 I will place over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he will tend them; he will tend them and be their shepherd. 24 I the Lord will be their God, and my servant David will be prince among them. I the Lord have spoken.
25 “‘I will make a covenant of peace with them and rid the land of savage beasts so that they may live in the wilderness and sleep in the forests in safety. 26 I will make them and the places surrounding my hill a blessing.[a] I will send down showers in season; there will be showers of blessing. 27 The trees will yield their fruit and the ground will yield its crops; the people will be secure in their land. They will know that I am the Lord, when I break the bars of their yoke and rescue them from the hands of those who enslaved them. 28 They will no longer be plundered by the nations, nor will wild animals devour them. They will live in safety, and no one will make them afraid. 29 I will provide for them a land renowned for its crops, and they will no longer be victims of famine in the land or bear the scorn of the nations. 30 Then they will know that I, the Lord their God, am with them and that they, the Israelites, are my people, declares the Sovereign Lord. 31 You are my sheep, the sheep of my pasture, and I am your God, declares the Sovereign Lord.’”
Footnotes
Ezekiel 34:26 Or I will cause them and the places surrounding my hill to be named in blessings (see Gen. 48:20); or I will cause them and the places surrounding my hill to be seen as blessed
VC housekeeping note, footnotes from Bible Gateway show up as numbered here though they are lettered within the biblical text, please make adjustments (a=1, etc.).
I was going to expound on that passage but I think at this point it might be best for the Word of God to speak to your own heart as He wills…
Here is an example of a church that has gone overboard in the wrong direction, way beyond Piper’s vax persuasion. They wouldn’t allow the unvax’d to enter nor apparently work there, even those with medical or religious exemptions. I really hope the majority of the remaining flock got saline instead of the real clot shot!
Closer to home there have been disturbing trends. Our old home church seemed to go pretty overboard on Covid craziness. Earlier we visited to support a family member’s music ministry. At that time masks were strictly & personally enforced by deacons or elders, significantly impeding worship AND fellowship. They had Covid stations w/ hand sanitizer & masks positioned by entrances & strategically elsewhere in the building. Thankfully, over the summer the restrictions were relaxed as in people were encouraged to wear masks rather than “required”. At our daughter’s wedding there in August only a very small minority, like 2% of attendees, were pretty consistently masking.
My parents’ very large & prosperous church went through a season of only having online services. They spent exorbitant amounts of money to install various health measures including outfitting multiple gathering rooms w/ microbe killing lights, I believe. Since they also operate a Christian School they may have been proceeding with an abundance of caution. The online services were a blessing to my parents who may continue to do church that way when health or weather issues make attendance an hour away from home much more challenging. More churches having an online presence AND broadcasting services can be one of the seeming few positive changes since Covidiocy has mesmerized global sheep & tantalized totalitarians!
My husband has been very activie in music & leadership in a local church that might best be described as “seeker-friendly” & more youth oriented. This church is part of an extended church plant ministry in Michigan & most of the leadership are on the young side too. Michael, my husband, got one of our sons involved in music ministry there & our daughter-in-law was active in the children’s ministry. M & son got quite close to a Conservative Christian church employee who grew increasingly frustrated with various “woke” aspects of leadership that he was unable to sway whatsoever, even though he was on the church board. He finally moved out of state, largely to escape what was becoming toxic church culture.
Our son chose to leave because he couldn’t stand the mask mandates that were pretty heavy-handed for many months. Our daughter-in-law lost her motivation when they shut down all of the children’s ministry areas due to Covid lies. This church has had an extensive youth & children’s ministry & much outreach to the community. What had been a welcoming atmosphere, complete w/ complementary coffee & treats, turned into a desert of fear, in so many ways. Talk about serious mixed messaging…
My husband’s experiences with music there were becoming so frustrating compared to pre-covid freedoms. Significant enforced masking. No access to normal musician hang out rooms before or between services–much interpersonal ministry had occurred spontaneously in that environment previously. No longer were refreshments provided for the worship team (nor the church at large, for that matter). In fact they often had to wait in their cars when they weren’t on stage or in the service. Michael would hit a nearby drive-through & pick up cheap breakfast food to share with his team but it wasn’t even close to the same.
I attended service there at Easter & M had to RSVP so the church would have a head count & not get overcrowded. I’m not sure if they were attempting to limit numbers due to “social distancing” or what. Our son wasn’t able to make the RSVP cut so he stayed home on Easter, again. I refused to wear a mask & nobody called me on it, which was a relief. There were Many empty chairs so our son could likely have come too but the “restrictions” made the concept of joyfully coming into the House of the Lord pretty foreign–Tragic! Compared to the previous Easter, when virtually All Michigan churches were closed, this was an “improvement”. What a very twisted way to disrupt the celebration of Jesus’ Resurrection, the very lynchpin of the Church’s existence. Surely just accidental tyranny–NOT!
Although my husband Loves being a part of that music ministry AND has developed a number of quality relationships that have extended beyond just fellowship within the church walls, he has stated on numerous occasions that if that church ramps up the Covid crap again he is going to have to leave.
Churches bowing to government lies, tyranny, AND deception is transforming the natural areas of ministry that should be unfettered and subject to the leading of the Holy Spirit, Not the permission of The State! To see a pastor, like Piper, shilling for the death shots is beyond horrifying to me. Having ubiquitous masking & promoting fears & isolation & a lack of human contact (touch, hugging, holding hands to pray, shaking hands to greet others, laying hands on others in prayer &/or fellowship, facial expressions, etc.) are all destructive of the church & in effect are putting the Light of Christ under a metaphorical bushel.
Early in the Scamdemic when our dictator in the Governor’s mansion (Gretchen Half-Whitmer, to quote Trump) banned churches from being opened, or even people leaving their own households, we had a House Church service in our home. People from Four different households attended (family & pending family) and we were technically in violation of some illegitimate “mandate”. It was joyful, liberating, moving, godly, AND surreal. I wondered if we were, as a society, on the cusp of seeing the church driven underground, like in China or ancient Rome. Honestly our home church service was more meaningful & powerful with God’s presence than Any church building service I’d experienced in Many Years (my issues, not necessarily the church’s “fault”).
If driven underground The Church, The True Bride of Christ, will survive AND thrive…& suffer significantly…
In contrast to some of the above, other family members have been blessed to discover a vibrant & growing church about an hour away that did not bow the knee at Any level to the “pandemic” paralysis. Apparently this church has been on the front lines in fighting against illegitimate powers & even has some legal eagles in the congregation that have contributed significantly to clipping the Nazgul’s wings (Gretchen Whitmer). Standing up to tyranny may be One of the key factors why this church is growing so much right now.
I went to the church’s website to see if any of their Covid “activism” featured prominently, and it did not. Here is a link to an article from earlier in the scamdemic that quotes the pastor & gives context to his decision to keep their church open against manifest pressure from the system. It’s interesting given our hindsight view on much of what was happening then.
Another distant family member, on the other side of the state, has recounted how her small community church has fared during the Covid manufactured “crisis”. Her church stayed mostly open, didn’t mask, & didn’t do social distancing. Many people got sick AND now have natural immunity. Many congregants are well-versed in alternative healing approaches to Covid & have been helping to bring healing to their community whenever the illness kicks in. I’ve shared some of her approaches here before & hope to do so more fully in another post…eventually.
Alarmingly on Detroit area TV there are a number of pastors featured prominently in Michigan propaganda pieces trying to still convince the masses of the importance of taking the clot shot. Every time I see one I think of Margaret Sanger’s desire to keep the “uppity” “undesirables” from thinking for themselves & not getting abortions. Basically the de-population agenda is still finding “spiritual shills” to sell their snake oil!
OK I went looking at Michigan.gov to see if I could find an example commercial featuring a faith leader & found this document on fetal cells & the “vax”. At the bottom are links to various faith organizations statements on the topic. I would guess the state isn’t linking to anyone who objects to the “vax” but am not taking the time to check. All of the links say Catholic or Vatican except the Charlotte Lozier Institute.
It looks like in order to view one needs to download the file. The top one tries to convince pregnant women the shot is safe. The seventh video features one of the pastors lamenting people dying alone. From the second from the bottom on page 2, link below, there is a spot on “keeping the faith”.
Just even considering this material makes me feel like I need to take a shower. This is like the PR campaign to convince people to willingly enter the Nazi cattle cars & showers, bringing about their own destruction!
Here’s an example of the kind of pastoral leadership I would much rather see!
Here’s the larger scene preceding that one:
I’ve spoken/written numerous times about movie-quoting as a language in our family, including at my inaugural Q-Tree post immediately below. Comments are closed now, but well worth reading. If someone might care to comment there is a copy of that post on my main blog, Special Connections, also below.
Oh for a protective, patriotic pastor’s heart to arise in these dark days! Here is a possibility. I haven’t watched this video in full just share it for your consideration…It’s almost 2 hours & from earlier this month. Interestingly You Tube won’t allow that video to embed…hmm…just a glitch in the matrix surely!
Here is an appropriate warning from scripture for those who presume to teach others.
James 3:1 Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly
I went looking for some scriptures that might be applicable & encouraging in these dark days, here is truth!
2 Samuel 22 New International Version
David’s Song of Praise
22 David sang to the Lord the words of this song when the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul. 2 He said:
“The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; 3 my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield[a] and the horn[b] of my salvation. He is my stronghold, my refuge and my savior— from violent people you save me.
4 “I called to the Lord, who is worthy of praise, and have been saved from my enemies. 5 The waves of death swirled about me; the torrents of destruction overwhelmed me. 6 The cords of the grave coiled around me; the snares of death confronted me.
7 “In my distress I called to the Lord; I called out to my God. From his temple he heard my voice; my cry came to his ears. 8 The earth trembled and quaked, the foundations of the heavens[c] shook; they trembled because he was angry. 9 Smoke rose from his nostrils; consuming fire came from his mouth, burning coals blazed out of it. 10 He parted the heavens and came down; dark clouds were under his feet. 11 He mounted the cherubim and flew; he soared[d] on the wings of the wind. 12 He made darkness his canopy around him— the dark[e] rain clouds of the sky. 13 Out of the brightness of his presence bolts of lightning blazed forth. 14 The Lord thundered from heaven; the voice of the Most High resounded. 15 He shot his arrows and scattered the enemy, with great bolts of lightning he routed them. 16 The valleys of the sea were exposed and the foundations of the earth laid bare at the rebuke of the Lord, at the blast of breath from his nostrils.
17 “He reached down from on high and took hold of me; he drew me out of deep waters. 18 He rescued me from my powerful enemy, from my foes, who were too strong for me. 19 They confronted me in the day of my disaster, but the Lord was my support. 20 He brought me out into a spacious place; he rescued me because he delighted in me.
21 “The Lord has dealt with me according to my righteousness; according to the cleanness of my hands he has rewarded me. 22 For I have kept the ways of the Lord; I am not guilty of turning from my God. 23 All his laws are before me; I have not turned away from his decrees. 24 I have been blameless before him and have kept myself from sin. 25 The Lord has rewarded me according to my righteousness, according to my cleanness[f] in his sight.
26 “To the faithful you show yourself faithful, to the blameless you show yourself blameless, 27 to the pure you show yourself pure, but to the devious you show yourself shrewd. 28 You save the humble, but your eyes are on the haughty to bring them low. 29 You, Lord, are my lamp; the Lord turns my darkness into light. 30 With your help I can advance against a troop[g]; with my God I can scale a wall.
31 “As for God, his way is perfect: The Lord’s word is flawless; he shields all who take refuge in him. 32 For who is God besides the Lord? And who is the Rock except our God? 33 It is God who arms me with strength[h] and keeps my way secure. 34 He makes my feet like the feet of a deer; he causes me to stand on the heights. 35 He trains my hands for battle; my arms can bend a bow of bronze. 36 You make your saving help my shield; your help has made[i] me great. 37 You provide a broad path for my feet, so that my ankles do not give way.
38 “I pursued my enemies and crushed them; I did not turn back till they were destroyed. 39 I crushed them completely, and they could not rise; they fell beneath my feet. 40 You armed me with strength for battle; you humbled my adversaries before me. 41 You made my enemies turn their backs in flight, and I destroyed my foes. 42 They cried for help, but there was no one to save them— to the Lord, but he did not answer. 43 I beat them as fine as the dust of the earth; I pounded and trampled them like mud in the streets.
44 “You have delivered me from the attacks of the peoples; you have preserved me as the head of nations. People I did not know now serve me, 45 foreigners cower before me; as soon as they hear of me, they obey me. 46 They all lose heart; they come trembling[j] from their strongholds.
47 “The Lord lives! Praise be to my Rock! Exalted be my God, the Rock, my Savior! 48 He is the God who avenges me, who puts the nations under me, 49 who sets me free from my enemies. You exalted me above my foes; from a violent man you rescued me. 50 Therefore I will praise you, Lord, among the nations; I will sing the praises of your name.
51 “He gives his king great victories; he shows unfailing kindness to his anointed, to David and his descendants forever.”
8 “But if I were you, I would appeal to God; I would lay my cause before him. 9 He performs wonders that cannot be fathomed, miracles that cannot be counted. 10 He provides rain for the earth; he sends water on the countryside. 11 The lowly he sets on high, and those who mourn are lifted to safety. 12 He thwarts the plans of the crafty, so that their hands achieve no success. 13 He catches the wise in their craftiness, and the schemes of the wily are swept away. 14 Darkness comes upon them in the daytime; at noon they grope as in the night. 15 He saves the needy from the sword in their mouth; he saves them from the clutches of the powerful. 16 So the poor have hope, and injustice shuts its mouth.
17 “Blessed is the one whom God corrects; so do not despise the discipline of the Almighty.[a] 18 For he wounds, but he also binds up; he injures, but his hands also heal. 19 From six calamities he will rescue you; in seven no harm will touch you. 20 In famine he will deliver you from death, and in battle from the stroke of the sword. 21 You will be protected from the lash of the tongue, and need not fear when destruction comes. 22 You will laugh at destruction and famine, and need not fear the wild animals. 23 For you will have a covenant with the stones of the field, and the wild animals will be at peace with you. 24 You will know that your tent is secure; you will take stock of your property and find nothing missing. 25 You will know that your children will be many, and your descendants like the grass of the earth. 26 You will come to the grave in full vigor, like sheaves gathered in season.
27 “We have examined this, and it is true. So hear it and apply it to yourself.”
I’m searching for scriptures based on the word “rescue” AND there are Many. Here are more that leap out to me: Psalm 18; Isaiah 35; & II Peter 2. Also the many shared below!
Psalm 35:10My whole being will exclaim, “Who is like you, Lord? You rescue the poor from those too strong for them, the poor and needy from those who rob them. ”In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations
Isaiah 46:4Even to your old age and gray hairs I am he, I am he who will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you. In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations
Isaiah 50:2When I came, why was there no one? When I called, why was there no one to answer? Was my arm too short to deliver you? Do I lack the strength to rescue you? By a mere rebuke I dry up the sea, I turn rivers into a desert; their fish rot for lack of water and die of thirst. In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations
Isaiah 51:11Those the Lord has rescued will return. They will enter Zion with singing; everlasting joy will crown their heads. Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away. In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations
Jeremiah 15:20I will make you a wall to this people, a fortified wall of bronze; they will fight against you but will not overcome you, for I am with you to rescue and save you,” declares the Lord. In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations
Ezekiel 34:10This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I am against the shepherds and will hold them accountable for my flock. I will remove them from tending the flock so that the shepherds can no longer feed themselves. I will rescue my flock from their mouths, and it will no longer be food for them. In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations
Ezekiel 34:12As a shepherd looks after his scattered flock when he is with them, so will I look after my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on a day of clouds and darkness. In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations
Ezekiel 34:27The trees will yield their fruit and the ground will yield its crops; the people will be secure in their land. They will know that I am the Lord, when I break the bars of their yoke and rescue them from the hands of those who enslaved them. In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations
Daniel 3:28Then Nebuchadnezzar said, “Praise be to the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, who has sent his angel and rescued his servants! They trusted in him and defied the king’s command and were willing to give up their lives rather than serve or worship any god except their own God. In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations
Zephaniah 3:19At that time I will deal with all who oppressed you. I will rescue the lame; I will gather the exiles. I will give them praise and honor in every land where they have suffered shame. In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations
Acts 12:11Then Peter came to himself and said, “Now I know without a doubt that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me from Herod’s clutches and from everything the Jewish people were hoping would happen.” In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations
Acts 26:16-18 New International Version
16 ‘Now get up and stand on your feet. I have appeared to you to appoint you as a servant and as a witness of what you have seen and will see of me. 17 I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles. Iam sending you to them 18 to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’
As you can see from the numerous scriptures shared above God’s Word is full of hope for us all! Please dive in for yourself & see how God might speak directly to you in your hour of need from His Word!!!
Here is the passage I was originally searching for, Absolutely Applicable to pastors, leaders, AND to us all!
Proverbs 24:10-12 New International Version
Saying 25
10 If you falter in a time of trouble, how small is your strength! 11 Rescue those being led away to death; hold back those staggering toward slaughter. 12 If you say, “But we knew nothing about this,” does not he who weighs the heart perceive it? Does not he who guards your life know it? Will he not repay everyone according to what they have done?
God grant us the wisdom, grace, AND strength to speak the truth in love AND to rescue those who are “staggering toward slaughter”.
Well God Bless you AND thank you for reading along with these thoughts today. I hope you are encouraged, inspired, AND challenged to go forth boldly proclaiming grace And truth. In Jesus Love, Valerie
VC note on use of AND throughout. This is a bit of an inside joke at The Q-Tree as Wolfmoon is fond of using the term “AND logic”, as in many times things aren’t either or but more like both AND…
PS, if this post has blessed you an earlier post reflecting on God’s intervention in our battles is below:
Please find more and better copies of this street-corner speech!!!
I will add them here.
Yeah, we know this stuff, but this is like the “check-mark red pill” that seals the deal and shows the URGENCY of turning this shit over. This old boy puts it all together in a way that simply cannot be denied.
We have to stop it COLD.
What I want people to do is to IDENTIFY all things we need to do RIGOROUSLY in order to save businesses and stop this process.
We have to begin IMMEDIATELY.
I want TWO classes of actions / inactions.
(1) What must WE as individuals do or not do.
(2) What must politicians do or not do.
The LATTER (and how it affects the FORMER) is how we will TEST the WHEAT from the CHAFF.
Better hope that TEAM TRUMP is paying attention. Because WE ARE.
At a critical time in our nation's history, we need fighters in Washington who not only love this country but love God. @JoshMandelOhio has made America First and God First an instrumental part of his platform. He is also a Marine and supports forensic audits – something (1/2) pic.twitter.com/63Dvt0UVOr
that is essential or we will never have free elections again. We need that kind of leadership in Washington. Therefore, I endorse Josh Mandel for United States Senate. Let's get Josh in. (2/2) pic.twitter.com/JKwpznejRa
NOW – while I do like one of Josh’s opponents – Jane Timken – she treads a bit lighter on the election fraud issue, although she does say President Trump was cheated (see HERE).
Josh, however, does not tread lightly. Josh is front and center on the cheating issue. SEMPER FI!!!
As you can see, Josh is the REAL DEAL on REAL VOTING.
I had hoped to report on this LIVE on Tuesday night, but as you know this site was brought to its knees for “whatever reason” in a timeframe which was precisely centered on this ELECTION INTEGRITY RALLY.
Do the math. IMO, the “global” forces behind FAKE ELECTIONS will stop at nothing to keep their scam going. They are particularly interested in controlling the FAKE NEWS CYCLE in WASHINGTON and other capitols. It is important to them that they control what the LEADERS are seeing.
They do NOT want certain narratives getting “out of control” and FAKE ELECTIONS is at the top of their list.
ANYWHO……
If you want to watch a recording of the rally, HERE YOU GO.
Please note that I am unable to embed the video here. Also, it is very long – about 3 hours. There are multiple excellent speakers, and you have to click around for them.
Here is a rough timetable for where to find the different speakers:
00:00:00 – Title frame (Rally)
00:35:00 – Video begins
00:36:00 – Welcome (Pastor Church, guest pastor from a church near Columbus, Ohio)
00:42:43 – Prayer (Pastor Jeff Evans)
00:45:00 – Pledge of Allegiance (Hawk Busby, kid speaker)
01:21:25 – Guest Pastor Intro of Matt Tierman (sp?)
01:23:45 – Matt Tierman (journalist / political analyst / conservative activist)
01:45:30 – Josh Mandel Intro of Wendy Rogers
01:48:00 – Wendy Rogers
02:13:50 – Josh Mandel Intro of Jenna Ellis
02:18:12 – Jenna Ellis
02:53:00 – Guest Pastor Intro of Pastor Alter
02:55:15 – Pastor Alter Closing Sermon
03:02:30 – Pastor Alter Closing Prayer
03:04:45 – Closing Credits (Josh Mandel)
03:05:09 – End
Josh, Wendy, and Jenna are all great speakers. I will try to emphasize some of the others, too.
The other side did NOT want this going live. If you watch this, you will see that America is FED UP with FAKE ELECTIONS. It is a POWERFUL overall message.
Standing ovations in a CHURCH have HUGE IMPACT.
The introduction by the guest pastor (Pastor Church) is quite excellent. Indeed, just like the other speakers, this would make a GREAT separate video.
It would really be nice to see all these talks as individual videos.
This kid speaker, though – OMG – he had ’em CHEERING!
Josh Mandel is great. You can really get a sense of who he is, and how much of a FIGHTER like Trump he is. The most important thing, IMO, is that he does NOT have to look at his watch to know what time it is. He does not have to check the polls. He can fire from the hip because he has DEAD AIM. He knows exactly where he stands. The other speakers all validate this point.
Josh’s friend Matt Tierman’s talk was POWERFUL. He’s the political analyst. He watched the steal. He knows it was stolen.
He has one of the BEST outooks on the race that has ever appeared. One of the most important reasons to listen to him is that he has a real grip on how utterly FAKE J.D. Vance really is. The man is a CONSTRUCT – he’s a HANDLE – he’s a WAY for the coastal elites to control us – to put words in our mouths – to PRETEND that they know us – when all they do is SHUT OUR MOUTHS WITH DIGITAL DUCT TAPE.
No. Matt Tierman has the truth. And JOSH MANDEL understands that we MUST have Truth.
Wendy Rogers has GREAT news from Arizona. She’s very impressive. Soft-spoken, but INTENSE.
Jenna Ellis has a message for the super-moms. Very powerful. And for all of us – be PROUD to be an American.
The closing sermon – WHOA!!! Must listen. This is a REVOLUTIONARY WAR pastor! This guy sets a high bar for a patriotic pastor.
The total time is about two and a half hours. Pick a few parts and listen. If you’re curious which one to listen to, ask me in the comments.
I was unable to find much media coverage of this rally, sadly. What coverage I found, I will list at the end.
In any case, take heart. Listen to some of these speakers, and listen to Josh, and you will understand.
If you read all the way to the end, the last three paragraphs are gold.
And I quote:
Many members of the military are heroic individuals, worthy of admiration and emulation. But many other members are not, and increasingly the worship of the modern American armed forces serves to distract from how wastefully American troops are used abroad, and the sinister way the Pentagon is transforming America’s security into a social science experiment.
Kyle Rittenhouse is braver and more admirable than most of the soldiers conservatives are reflexively trained to worship. The average American soldier fights in conflicts that have either no bearing on Americans’ safety and well-being, or a negative bearing on both. Rittenhouse, on the other hand, selflessly put himself in peril to protect his own community from marauding psychopaths. American troops are rewarded with college tuition, pensions, and affirmative action for millions of federal jobs. Rittenhouse’s reward for defending his fellow Americans is personal ruin, a potential lifelong prison sentence, and denunciations from cowards. If Black Rifle had an outlet in Kenosha, Kyle Rittenhouse would have risked his life to defend it. But Black Rifle won’t even risk unpopularity to defend him.
So what should patriots do going forward? Well, if you like coffee, buy coffee. If you can give money to a company that shares your values, or avoid giving money to one that hates them, even better. But stop tethering your identity to specific corporations, and stop being an easy lay for slick marketers who try to impress you by putting a gun on a coffee mug. Fundamentally, it is liberals who derive meaning from brand allegiance and living life as contrived stereotypes (this is why they are so attached to identity politics). Americans of all political affiliations must adhere to something greater: Family, traditional values, and enduring, inherited institutions that don’t treat them as marks from which to grift another dollar.
BRAVO!!!
Or BRAVA – the author is not signed.
To me, THIS is a moment to truly “unite the right” in a way that the phony Occupy Wall Street veteran and likely FIB informant Fake Kessler neither could nor would, with his media TRAP for foolish, unwary conservatives at Charlottesville.
It is not in DEFENSE of one more phony, counterfeit, sabotaged symbol propped up by the left as a trap, but in standing over the CARCASS of another such fake symbol – Black Rifle Coffee – that the GRIZZLED VETERANS of information warfare will find supernatural replenishment in the PURE, FRESH, and STEAMING AROMA of RELENTLESS TRUTH.
BANANA REPUBLIC COFFEE CORPS
Let me ECHO more deeply and in great detail, where this deep destruction of the military started – not counting all the earlier subversion. In my opinion, the most damaging subversion of the United States military began with the creation of the “unassailable vet card”, which could protect both HEROES and TRAITORS.
Heroes and traitors were REDEFINED by a treasonous media.
A card DEFINED BY TREASONOUS Democrats, operating under the cover of their own defense-savvy blue dogs, who could not deny the CHARLATANS like Chuck Schumer and Bill Clinton in their own party.
Helped by treasonous Hollywood, as a “victor” of Vietnam, with its ensuing “reeducation” that WE PAID FOR.
This goes back to the great wars of Maoist and Soviet demoralization of America – Korea and Vietnam. These wars had a purpose – WIN IN AMERICA. Because of our TRAITORS here, these conflicts were a done deal. Retreat was inevitable. One hand was tied behind our backs. But it’s not like what happened overseas would have really mattered. What happened HERE was the whole point.
The media, of course, made our inability to see this trick stick like glue. They marginalized, ignored, and ridiculed the few voices that SAW the reality.
Worse yet, these same tactics worked for DECADES.
When communist thug Robert Creamer – “husband” of Bolshivette Jan Schakowsky – joined Soviet brainwash job John McCain in trying to get us to enter another idiot conflict in Syria, it was all made clear to me – the concept of BAIT WARS. Obama led us to the gate, but WE had to enter the entrapment voluntarily. THAT is how they operate. The left needs COVER for their traps.
TRAITORS – both the despicable kind like Cryin’ Chuck Schumer, and the pathetic kind like Soviet psychological guinea pig John McCain – are the unbeatable ace that Bolsheviks use against us EVERY; SINGLE; TIME.
Remember how Hollywood helped Schumer and his ilk create the pooh-pooh, there-there of forgiveness for ALL veterans returning from Vietnam? This insanity, after the MEDIA had created the conditions in which it made sense, as the lesser of apparently available evils.
I find this particular image of Jeremiah Denton the most beautiful, because it demonstrates the utter disrespect that the left, including YouTube Menshevik diaperette Susan Wojcicki, holds for true heroes.
In contrast, let’s check John McCain around that time.
Do you see it now? Do you see how a treasonous media – operating at the edge of what they could get away with, made the evil of tolerating TRAITORS a condition of their own relenting on recognition of the betrayed HEROES of Vietnam?
Think long and hard, how the military was betrayed – not just by them – Democrats and “Mediatifa” – but by us. Yes, by us. WE THE PEOPLE.
Yes. There were a FEW civilians who resisted the psychological campaign by the media, but not many. I knew a very few conservative hardcores who never relented. I admit that I was not one of them. I sucked up all the propaganda, like most. It took me DECADES to undo the Vietnam programming which in folly betrayed the TRUE HEROES, and accepted the left’s revisionist version of patriotism.
We have to GO BACK IN TIME and CORRECT THE ERRORS.
And yeah. There appears to be a plan to help us, even though it – too – is imperfect.
Welcome to WAR.
It is my opinion that by analyzing our DEFEATS – things like Charlottesville, January Sixth, and Black Rifle Coffee – we become STRONGER.
Grizzled, SCARRED, and limping at times, but stronger. WILY AND WISE.
Rally to the flag, the REAL flag, again and again, because that is what THEY cannot truly do.
