Our mission, as God-fearing and God-loving patriots, is to defend this Constitutional Republic and to increase its greatness, in all good things and ways, by using our voices in free but courteous speech, by discussing the happenings of the world and coming to a profound understanding of those things, and by sharing and promulgating these Truths on both this platform and others.
He who believes in Him [Jesus] is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil.
This Superlative Sanctuary Sunday Open Thread, with full respect to those who worship God on the Sabbath, is a place to reaffirm our worship of our Creator, our Father, our King Eternal.
It is also a place to read, post and discuss news that is worth knowing and sharing. Please post links to any news stories that you use as sources or quote from.
In the QTree, we’re a friendly and civil lot. We encourage free speech and the open exchange and civil discussion of different ideas. Topics aren’t constrained, and sound logic is highly encouraged, all built on a solid foundation of truth and established facts.
We have a policy of mutual respect, shown by civility. Civility encourages discussions, promotes objectivity and rational thought in discourse, and camaraderie in the participants – characteristics we strive toward in our Q Tree community.
Please show respect and consideration for your fellow QTreepers. Before hitting the “post” button, please proofread your post and make sure you’re addressing the issue only, and not trying to confront the poster. Keep to the topic – avoid “you” and “your”. Here in The Q Tree, personal attacks, name calling, ridicule, insults, baiting and other conduct for which a penalty flag would be thrown are VERBOTEN.
In The Q Tree, we’re compatriots, sitting around the campfire, roasting hot dogs, making s’mores and discussing, agreeing, and disagreeing about whatever interests us. This board will remain a home for those who seek respectful conversations.
Let’s not give the Internet Censors a reason to shut down this intellectual haven that Wolf has created for us.
The Storm is upon us. Please remember to Pray for our President.
AND WHAT TIME IS IT? TIME TO DRAIN THE SWAMP!!!
Our movement is about replacing a failed and CORRUPT political establishment with a new government controlled by you, the American People. ~ Candidate Donald J. Trump
Also remember Wheatie’s Rules:
No food fights.
No running with scissors.
If you bring snacks, bring enough for everyone.
And,
On this day and every day –
God is in Control . . . and His Grace is Sufficient, so . . . Keep Looking Up
Hopefully, every Sunday, you can find something here that will build you up a little . . . give you a smile . . . and add some joy or peace, very much needed in all our lives.
“This day is holy to the Lord your God; do not mourn nor weep.” . . . “Go your way, eat the fat, drink the sweet, and send portions to those for whom nothing is prepared; for this day is holy to our Lord. Do not sorrow, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”
From the time that Joshua died until Saul took the throne of Israel, the Hebrew government was not a monarchy like most surrounding nations. Theologians refer to it as a theocracy—”God-rule.” The Lord ruled over Israel, issuing His decrees and governing through prophets and priests. Each major region looked to a judge for what most other cultures would expect from a king. He (occasionally, she) led the people in battle, decided civil cases, and enforced God’s laws.
Samuel judged all Israel with God reigning as king over the Hebrew people. In this way, the Israelites were like no other nation on earth in that they could claim God as their leader, the invisible Creator, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the Almighty One who crushed Egypt, parted the Red Sea, and conquered Canaan. But, much in the same way that the wandering generation tired of manna, the people grew tired of the theocracy. Three factors drove their desire for a king.
First, Samuel was old and no longer able to keep pace with the demands of the nation. Second, his sons had disqualified themselves by losing the respect of the people. And third, “we want to be like all the nations.”
This was a pivotal moment in the life of Israel. Take special note of the Lord’s assessment of their decision. “They have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me from being king over them [8:7].”
In effect, the Lord said, “You are determined to go down this path—one that will certainly cause you sorrow—and I will not stop you. You have rejected My way for your own. Therefore, you will lie in the bed you have made.”
You will lie in the bed you have made. Sow the wind and reap the whirlwind
“If you follow my decrees and are careful to obey my commands, I will send you rain in its season, and the ground will yield its crops and the trees their fruit. Your threshing will continue until grape harvest and the grape harvest will continue until planting, and you will eat all the food you want and live in safety in your land.”
“I will grant peace in the land, and you will lie down and no one will make you afraid. I will remove wild beasts from the land, and the sword will not pass through your country. You will pursue your enemies, and they will fall by the sword before you. Five of you will chase a hundred, and a hundred of you will chase ten thousand, and your enemies will fall by the sword before you.”
“I will look on you with favor and make you fruitful and increase your numbers, and I will keep my covenant with you. You will still be eating last year’s harvest when you will have to move it out to make room for the new. I will put my dwelling place[a] among you, and I will not abhor you. I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be my people. I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt so that you would no longer be slaves to the Egyptians; I broke the bars of your yoke and enabled you to walk with heads held high.”
“But if you will not listen to me and carry out all these commands, and if you reject my decrees and abhor my laws and fail to carry out all my commands and so violate my covenant, then I will do this to you: I will bring on you sudden terror, wasting diseases and fever that will destroy your sight and sap your strength. You will plant seed in vain, because your enemies will eat it.I will set my face against you so that you will be defeated by your enemies; those who hate you will rule over you, and you will flee even when no one is pursuing you.”
At this time Israel was under the Law, and God was clear through Moses, Prophets, Priests, Kings, and His written Word, what He wanted Israel to do, the rewards of obedience, and the consequences of disobedience.
We are under God’s Grace now, but He is no less clear that we are to obey Him, and the benefits of that obedience, and the consequences of disobedience.
And this is His [God’s] commandment: that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another, as He has commanded.
Jesus replied, “The work of God is this: to believe in the One He has sent.”
Whoever believes in the Son of God has this testimony within him; whoever does not believe God has made Him out to be a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has given about His Son. And this is that testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life . . .
And the two greatest commandments . . . Love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind. Love your neighbor as yourself.
And a top level list of the character traits God wants Christians to have . . . . . . the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
And yet, these days, wherever we look, we see Leftists in their roles of disrupters, looters, attackers, arsonists and anarchists, aided and abetted by corrupt Leftist Mayors, Governors, District Attorneys, Judges, Representatives and Senators exhibiting, on a daily basis, none of the desired character traits. By their fruit you will know them.
And, since the consequences of those Leftist’s actions have a large possibility of greatly negatively affecting our lives, we tend to spend a significant amount of time involved in those matters, either actively or passively.
As difficult as it might be, as this episode of life unfolds, let’s be sure we keep our main focus and hopes for the future firmly focused on things above, for “Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails” and “In their hearts humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps.”
I guess I should stop and think about that. Hmm…well my response is still:
Bring it on!!! We’re not tired of winning. Far from it:
We haven’t even begun to win!
Time for some long overdue winning on the Justice Front!!!
Our movement is about replacing a failed and corrupt political establishment with a new government controlled by you, the American People...Our campaign represents a true existential threat, like they’ve never seen before.
Then-Candidate Donald J. Trump
Lawyer Appeasement Section
OK now for the fine print.
This is the WQTH Daily Thread. You know the drill. There’s no Poltical correctness, but civility is a requirement. There are Important Guidelines, here, with an addendum on 20191110.
We have a new board – called The U Tree – where people can take each other to the woodshed without fear of censorship or moderation.
And remember Wheatie’s Rules:
1. No food fights 2. No running with scissors. 3. If you bring snacks, bring enough for everyone. 4. Zeroth rule of gun safety: Don’t let the government get your guns. 5. Rule one of gun safety: The gun is always loaded. 5a. If you actually want the gun to be loaded, like because you’re checking out a bump in the night, then it’s empty. 6. Rule two of gun safety: Never point the gun at anything you’re not willing to destroy. 7. Rule three: Keep your finger off the trigger until ready to fire. 8. Rule the fourth: Be sure of your target and what is behind it.
(Hmm a few extras seem to have crept in.)
A Cautionary Tale, in Lieu of the Mandatory Coin
Now it wouldn’t be one of my posts without a coin, would it?
Well, I guess this must not be one of my posts, then, because this is not a coin.
This is the climax of the worst inflation the world has ever seen.
Lately, Zimbabwe has been famous for its One Hundred Trillion Dollar notes, that were never worth anything in foreign exchange (yet are worth a score or two of US dollars in the collector’s market). I once got to see a display of something like twelve different denominations in the series, the uppermost were 10, 20, 50, and 100 trillion dollar notes.
Inflation is not an increase in prices. That’s a symptom. It’s an increase in the money supply. If the increase happens to be faster than actual economic growth, then money becomes less valuable (a widget is now worth more units of money), which since we think of money as the measuring rod, looks like an increase in prices, when the real issue is that our “ruler” is shrinking.
OK, so I showed you a Hungarian note from just after World War II, and said it was worse than 100 trillion (Zimbabwe used toilet paper) dollars.
The note says it’s a “milliard b-pengős.” Well if you don’t happen to know a few things I am about to explain, you might imagine, well, “milliard” is just a foreign word for “million” and a B pengő is maybe a different pengő from an A pengő. So how is a million of something worse than a hundred trillion of something else?
Because it isn’t, actually, a million of something.
Most people are unaware that there are two distinct ways of reckoning large numbers. There’s the “short scale” and the “long scale.” In the United States, we use the short scale. On continental Europe and all of their former colonies (except Brazil), they use the long scale. The United Kingdom formerly used the long scale, but they were increasingly using the short scale in speech (thanks to Yankee cultural influence, most likely) and in 1974 their government finally gave in and formally adopted the short scale.
The short scale and the long scale both have the same definition of a thousand, 1,000, and a million, 1,000,000. The short scale goes on: 1,000,000,000 is a billion, 1,000,000,000,000 is a trillion. Add three zeros, move up one more Latin prefix before “-llion”: quadrillion, quintillion, sextillion, septillion, octillion, and so on. If someone tells you the Earth’s mass is 13 septillion pounds, and you’re wondering how many zeros that is, translate “septi” into 7, add one to it (8) and multiply by 3, to get 24 zeros. 13,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000.
But you’d better be sure they’re operating on the short scale, because the long scale is quite different. On the long scale, 1,000,000 is a million also, but then 1,000,000,000 is called either a thousand million or a milliard. Only after you add another three zeros, 1,000,000,000,000, do you bring out the word “billion.” Add three more zeros, 1,000,000,000,000,000 and you have, believe it or not, a billiard. Then a trillion, then a trilliard, and so on. In a way, you can think of it as using groups of six zeros, not three zeros. How many zeros in a trillion (long scale)? Turn “tri” into 3, multiply by six, done: 18 zeros. So an old-school Brit might claim the Earth’s mass is 13 quadrillion pounds, which after all is 6 x 4 = 24 zeros. (In many ways, this is cleaner and makes more sense than our short scale, but the short system is what we’ve got, and I’ll use it.)
Anyhow, you probably already see part of the answer to the mystery of the 1 milliard B-pengő note, I telegraphed it pretty strongly. It’s not a million, it’s a billion, which they called a milliard, B-pengős. Milliard isn’t just some weird Hungarian word for million. (Leaving aside the issue of whether any Hungarian word will ever seem normal to a speaker of any Indo-European language, and vice versa.)
And looking around a bit, you will see that Germany issued milliarden mark notes during its inflation in the 1920s, those too are nine zeros, what we call a billion. Germany is on the European continent and uses the long scale. (Apparently Russia uses the short scale. And so does Zimbabwe.)
If you ever listened to the G. Gordon Liddy show, he regularly used “thousand million” for nine zeros (short billion), and “million million” for twelve zeros (short trillion, long billion). That is unambiguous, no matter which system you’re used to, and it can also be clear to the innumerate who think a billion is “what, maybe two million?” (No, I’m not kidding.)
OK, getting back to that Hungarian note: You may be thinking, “ok so it was a billion b. pengős; that’s nine zeros, still a lot less than a hundred trillion, which is fourteen zeros!”
But the B, it turns out, stands for “billion.” A B pengő is not some new improved A pengő, it’s a billion pengős. Their billion, with twelve zeros, not our puny little nine-zero billion.
So a milliard B pengős was 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 pengős. Twenty one zeros.
Now there are places that have inflated their money just about as much. Yugoslavia devalued its currency multiple times between World War II and the late 80s, if you stack that up, and look at the 500 billion (our billion) notes at the end, yeah, they were up to twenty five or twenty six zeros of their original dinar. But that took decades.
Hungary went from three to 21 zeros in just over a year, and that’s just their paper money. As we’ll see below, the exchange rate against the dollar tacked on 28 zeros in almost exactly a year. This utterly annihilates what Germany went through in the 1920s, and we’ve all heard those stories, wheelbarrows full of money, people being paid at noon and the end of the workday so they could immediately spend their pay before it became worthless.
Pengő derives from peng, an onomatopoeic word for the sound of ringing, as in the sound silver coins make. The pengő was adopted in 1927 as the Hungarian currency, it consisted of 100 fillér, and replaced the…um…korona (crown). But it wasn’t until after World War II ended that the pengő jumped into the toilet, reached out of the bowl, and pulled down on the handle.
In order to cut down on zeros, the milpengő was introduced. This allowed them to use the same paper money designs again, then the b. pengő after the milpengő became as valueless as the pengő was when the milpengő had been introduced. Note the the paper money above has a colored background with a B cut out of it, and pengő is replaced by B. pengő.
Here are the regular milliard, and milliard milpengő notes to compare.
Milliard milpengő note (let’s see now…that’s, um, 15 zeros). Date is June 3, 1946
Notice that they are essentially the same, they just had to change the text in the middle. And of course running it off in a different color is as simple as changing the ink on the press. They didn’t even have to change the value in the “counter” on the left.
(Did you ever wonder why they always put the numbers inside fancy spirograph-like patterns on paper money, known as counters? It’s to make it harder for some unscrupulous schmuck to change the number. He can’t just scrape a one off and put a five in its place without leaving obvious holes in the pattern. (The ink on paper money rests on the surface of the paper and can be scraped off, anything left over can be bleached.) This was quite an issue in the early 1800s when banks issued their own notes and the designs rarely were standardized. Some guy in Gasoline Alley, Michigan might not know that the ten dollar bill from the First Bank of Outer Slobbovia, Delaware, was really a one dollar bill “raised” to a ten by a counterfeiter, because in Gasoline Alley, no one knew what Outer Slobbovia bank notes were supposed to look like. This lesson [put your denominations in counters] was learned the hard way in the early 1800s. And later, banknotes became standardized so they all had the same design with different lettering, and under strict government oversight.)
Anyhow, note that both the milliard milpengő and the milliard b-pengő were issued–or at the very least, authorized legally–in June of 1946, on the same day, the third. Two notes, one worth a million of the other, issued the same day! The implication is that they already expected that money would drop in value by a factor of a million in short order. Can you imagine that hundred dollar bill in your wallet on June 1 being worth 1/100th of a cent at the end of the month? Or imagine a “strap” (banker’s bundle) of one hundred, one hundred dollar bills on June 1st not being worth picking up off the ground at the end of the month, because it’s only worth what a Lincoln head cent was on the first of the month.
Of course we can’t really know from this issue date alone that it took a month to drop to a millionth of its prior value.
Maybe it was even faster.
Taking a look at the exchange rates allows us to fill things in. On the first of January 1927, when the pengő was introduced, the US dollar was worth 5.26 pengős. On the 31st of March, 1941, it was 5.06 pengős (the pengő had gone up, unsurprising because the dollar had been devalued by Roosevelt when he confiscated the gold). By the 30th of June, 1944 it was 33.51 to the dollar. Not too bad for an Axis country losing the war. At the end of August, 1945, it had slipped to 1320. So in a bit over a year, it had become worth about 1/40th what it was worth the year before. Bad for anyone who had pengős stuffed in his mattress because he didn’t trust banks, but people could adapt to this if they had to.
But Hungary was allied with Germany, and had lost the war. The Soviets demanded huge reparations, and were plundering Hungarian industry. (Communists rarely produce anything; they subsist by looting others. See any downtown Democrat-run city for evidence that this continues to be true today.) The US actually had custody of Hungary’s gold reserves; the puppet communist government the Soviets were setting up couldn’t use that.
Three months later at the end of November, however, it took 108,000 pengős to buy a dollar. Yowza, almost a hundred fold loss in three months. But you ain’t seen nothin’ yet. And that’s what the pengő was now worth: nothing! By the end of March, 1946, 1,750,000 pengös to the dollar. One month later–one month later— it was 59 billion pengős to the dollar, 59 followed by nine zeros. A month after that it was 42 quadrillion pengős, 42 followed by fifteen zeros. (And yes these are all short scale, “Murrican” numbers.)
The next datapoint on Wikipoo is 10 July 1946. 460 octillion pengős to the dollar. That’s 27 zeros after the 460, or 28 after the 46. In forty days, May 30 to July 10, not a million, but more than a ten trillionfold (thirteen zero) loss in value had occurred, from 15 zeros after a 42, to 28 zeros after a 46. That’s equivalent to a dollar becoming worth a dime in three days, and then the cycle repeating itself twelve more times. A millionfold loss in a month? Ha, ha, ha! What an unicorn-fart-sniffing optimist I was!
That note I started this off with had 21 zeros built into it. It would have taken 460 million of these notes to equal one dollar. But there weren’t 460 million of them. Hungary, after all, doesn’t have all that many people in it, so why produce so many notes of one denomination?
It turns out these notes were produced but never issued–the 100 million b. pengő, one tenth the nominal value, was the highest note actually issued. I suspect by the time they were made they had already been overcome by events and become worthless, so why bother?
At the very end, every single paper pengő in existence, put together, was worth less than a tenth of a US cent. Now all of the pengős put together had become…nothing.
The pengő was replaced by the forint (also of 100 filler) on August 1st 1946. One forint was worth 400 octillion pengős. But that is a fictitious exchange rate since every pengő in circulation put together was worth one thousandth of a forint. No one was going to buy so much as a single forint with pengős. I remember seeing pictures of littered streets in Budapest…the gutters strewn with what had once been money. I looked just now and found this:
When money becomes garbage, because it was never really anything else in the first place
But the forint, at least was comparable to a dollar (460 octillion pengős).
The government had learned its lesson and the forint was relatively stable. In 1992 eighty forints were roughly worth a dollar. Which is not as good as it sounds, because the dollar had itself inflated quite a bit since 1946, but still a far, far cry from what happened in 1946.
There was just one more problem left for Hungary. They had used up so much good quality security paper printing pengős that they had trouble finding any to make the new forint. But this problem could be solved.
Zimbabwe was so badly off when it ran out of paper, it had to stop printing money. No one would sell them any more. And just like that the Zimbabwean inflation stopped.
Could this happen here?
Yes. If we don’t get government spending under control, something will break. Either we default on our debt or we print money to cover it, or our government really tightens its belt.
I suspect I will live long enough to hear people talking about quadrillion dollar federal debts, deficits and budgets. We’ve gone from a trillion dollar debt to almost 27 trillion in about 40 years, that’s a 27 fold increase and one more of those puts us at 729 trillion bucks, almost a quadrillion. Bush and Obola both doubled the debt. Trump will likely do the same (sorry, but that’s the truth, and yes, it is partially his fault), making it eight times as large as it was just 24 years ago. One projection says 78 trillion in 2028. Sigh.
All debts are paid. Either by the person who owes the money…or by the person who lent it. Or if the government cranks up the printing presses someday, it will be paid by third parties who have no choice in the matter. Inflation is theft.
Maybe it wouldn’t be 1946-Hungary-bad if our government took the inflation route…but it would be bad. I heard the stories of suffering in Russia during its much-less-severe inflation after the Soviet Union collapsed; many many people were on a fixed income. Hmm, $5000 a month won’t sound so hot when every dollar in existence put together won’t buy you a dust bunny.
I don’t know much about this alleged monetary shift some people talk about being imminent, but I hope it’s nothing like this, because, folks:
We don’t want this.
Disclaimer: Neither these, nor any other coins or paper money I post, are mine. With older coins, I’m going to find the best pic of one on the internet, so even if I should happen to have one, it’s not the nicest one on earth and I’ll show another…and some coins are worth more than my net worth so I certainly won’t have those!
PS: Precious metals closings, 21 August 2020 (all values are Kitco Ask):
Gold $1943.40 (it has bounced around a lot this week but was fairly steady on Friday), Silver $26.92, Platinum $926 (on sale!), Palladium $2219, Rhodium $12,200.
Remember that gold was once $20.67 by definition, and look at today’s price, and see what has happened to the dollar…it’s worth barely a 1913 cent. In fact gold actually hit $2067.20 one day not too long ago. Inflation walks among us, mostly unnoticed, but piling up as time goes on.
Another PS: You might wonder what the Hungarians used if they never issued the milliard b pengő note, and clearly they’d need huge denominations, T pengős, Q pengős, and so on. Well they had created an adópengő, literally “tax pengő” for budget planning purposes, but it became a real piece of money in July, worth 2 of those bills I started with apiece. It was supposed to hold its value. It didn’t but it fell much less rapidly than the regular pengő. When the 100 million b. pengő note became worthless, the adópengő took over…for the rest of the month.
Important Reminder
To conclude: My standard Public Service Announcement. We don’t want to forget this!!!
Remember Hong Kong!!!
https://youtube.com/watch?v=L3tnH4FGbd0%3F
I hope this guy isn’t rotting in the laogai somewhere!
中国是个混蛋 !!! Zhōngguò shì gè hùndàn !!! China is asshoe !!!
This Stormwatch Monday Open Thread is VERY OPEN – a place for everybody to post whatever they feel they would like to tell the White Hats, and the rest of the MAGA/KMAG/KAG world (with KMAG being a bit of both).
Yes, it’s Monday…again.
But it’s okay! We’ll get through it.
Free Speech is practiced here at the Q Tree. But please keep it civil. Discussion of Q is not only allowed but encouraged. Imagine that! We can talk about Q here and not get banned.
Please also consider the Important Guidelines, outlined here. Let’s not give the odious Internet Censors a reason to shut down this precious haven that Wolf has created for us.
Our President is fighting for us night and day…please pray for him.
Wheatie’s Rules:
No food fights.
No running with scissors.
If you bring snacks, bring enough for everyone.
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
For your listening enjoyment, I offer this composition from AShamaluevMusic, titled ‘Cinematic Piano Ambient’:
Then He [God] said [to Elijah], “Go out, and stand on the mountain before the Lord.” And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind tore into the mountains and broke the rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a delicate whispering voice.
This Superlative Sanctuary Sunday Open Thread, with full respect to those who worship God on the Sabbath, is a place to reaffirm our worship of our Creator, our Father, our King Eternal.
It is also a place to read, post and discuss news that is worth knowing and sharing. Please post links to any news stories that you use as sources or quote from.
In the QTree, we’re a friendly and civil lot. We encourage free speech and the open exchange and civil discussion of different ideas. Topics aren’t constrained, and sound logic is highly encouraged, all built on a solid foundation of truth and established facts.
We have a policy of mutual respect, shown by civility. Civility encourages discussions, promotes objectivity and rational thought in discourse, and camaraderie in the participants – characteristics we strive toward in our Q Tree community.
Please show respect and consideration for your fellow QTreepers. Before hitting the “post” button, please proofread your post and make sure you’re addressing the issue only, and not trying to confront the poster. Keep to the topic – avoid “you” and “your”. Here in The Q Tree, personal attacks, name calling, ridicule, insults, baiting and other conduct for which a penalty flag would be thrown are VERBOTEN.
In The Q Tree, we’re compatriots, sitting around the campfire, roasting hot dogs, making s’mores and discussing, agreeing, and disagreeing about whatever interests us. This board will remain a home for those who seek respectful conversations.
Let’s not give the Internet Censors a reason to shut down this intellectual haven that Wolf has created for us.
The Storm is upon us. Please remember to Pray for our President.
AND WHAT TIME IS IT? TIME TO DRAIN THE SWAMP!!!
Our movement is about replacing a failed and CORRUPT political establishment with a new government controlled by you, the American People. ~ Candidate Donald J. Trump
Also remember Wheatie’s Rules:
No food fights.
No running with scissors.
If you bring snacks, bring enough for everyone.
And,
On this day and every day –
God is in Control . . . and His Grace is Sufficient, so . . . Keep Looking Up
Hopefully, every Sunday, you can find something here that will build you up a little . . . give you a smile . . . and add some joy or peace, very much needed in all our lives.
“This day is holy to the Lord your God; do not mourn nor weep.” . . . “Go your way, eat the fat, drink the sweet, and send portions to those for whom nothing is prepared; for this day is holy to our Lord. Do not sorrow, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”
GOD ANSWERED JOB FROM A WHIRLWIND, AND
MT SINAI QUAKED GREATLY WITH GOD ON IT, AND
GOD LED THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL FROM EGYPT IN A PILLAR OF FIRE
GOD SPEAKS AS THUNDER
BUT, ALSO
Does God speak in a gentle, quiet voice?
There is only one place in Scripture where God is said to speak in a “still small voice,” and it was to Elijah after his dramatic victory over the prophets of Baal (1 Kings 18:20-40; 19:12). Told that Jezebel, the wife of Ahab, king of Israel, was seeking kill him, Elijah ran into the wilderness and collapsed in exhaustion. God sent an angel with food and water to strengthen him, told him to rest, and then sent him to Horeb.
In a cave there, Elijah voices his complaint that all of God’s prophets had been killed by Jezebel and he alone had survived.
God instructed him to stand on the mountain in His presence. Then the Lord sent a mighty wind which broke the rocks in pieces; then He sent an earthquake and a fire, but His voice was in none of them. After all that, the Lord spoke to Elijah in the still small voice, or “gentle whisper.”
The point of God speaking in the still small voice was to show Elijah that the work of God need not always be accompanied by dramatic revelation or manifestations. Divine silence does not necessarily mean divine inactivity. Zechariah 4:6 tells us that God’s work is “not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,” meaning that overt displays of power are not necessary for God to work.
Because He is God, He is not confined to a single manner of communicating with His people. Elsewhere in Scripture, He is said to communicate through a whirlwind (Job 38:1), to announce His presence by an earthquake (Exodus 19:18), and to speak in a voice that sounds like thunder (1 Samuel 2:10; Job 37:2; Psalm 104:7; John 12:29). In Psalm 77:18 His voice is compared to both thunder and a whirlwind. And in Revelation 4:5, we’re told that lightning and thunder proceed from the throne in heaven.
Nor is God limited to natural phenomena when He speaks. All through Scripture, He speaks through His prophets over and over. The common thread in all the prophets is the phrase, “Thus says the Lord.” He speaks through the writers of Scripture.
Most graciously, however, He speaks through His Son, the Lord Jesus. The writer to the Hebrews opens his letter with this truth: “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world” (Hebrews 1:1–2).
The difference between God speaking through the thunder and the whirlwind, than through the still, small voice, can be also considered as showing the difference between the two dispensations of law and grace. The law is a voice of terrible words and was given amidst a tempest of wind, thunder, and lightning, attended by an earthquake (Hebrews 12:18–24), but the gospel is a gentle voice of love, grace, and mercy, of peace, pardon, righteousness, and the free gift of salvation through Christ. The law breaks the rocky hearts of men in pieces, shakes their consciences, and fills their minds with a sense of God’s fiery wrath and the punishment they deserve, and then the gospel speaks gently to them of the peace and pardon available in Christ.
It is less important how God speaks to us than what we do with what He says. God speaks most clearly to us in this day through His Word. The more we learn it, the more ready we will be to recognize His voice when He speaks, and the more likely we are to obey what we hear. https://www.gotquestions.org/still-small-voice.html
Perhaps the Clinesmith thing will turn out–at long last!! to be the fatal crack in the damned dam.
As for that fraudster Sundance…it sounds like he’s delaying now. His bluff has been called. Well, putting it that way assumes Barr is actually paying attention to the pipsqueak.
We need to get going on Justice.
A Reminder Of Today’s Issues.
Our movement is about replacing a failed and corrupt political establishment with a new government controlled by you, the American People...Our campaign represents a true existential threat, like they’ve never seen before.
Then-Candidate Donald J. Trump
Needs to happen, soon.
Musical Interlude
When I was in exile in the People’s Respublik of Kalifornia (PRK), I came to associate this bit of music with my beloved home state of Colorado. No obvious reason for it but to at least one friend of mine at the time it made perfect sense.
Lawyer Appeasement Section
OK now for the fine print.
Please note that our menu has changed, please listen to all of the options.
This is the WQTH Daily Thread. You know the drill. There’s no Political correctness, but civility is a requirement. There are Important Guidelines, here, with an addendum on 20191110.
We have a new board – called The U Tree – where people can take each other to the woodshed without fear of censorship or moderation.
And remember Wheatie’s Rules:
1. No food fights 2. No running with scissors. 3. If you bring snacks, bring enough for everyone. 4. The first rule of gun safety: Don’t let the government take your guns. 5. The gun is always loaded. 5a. If you actually want the gun to be loaded, like because you’re checking out a bump in the night, then it’s empty. 6. Never point the gun at anything you’re not willing to destroy. 7. Keep your finger off the trigger until ready to fire. 8. Be sure of your target and what is behind it. 9. Social Justice Warriors, ANTIFA pukes, BLM hypocrites, and other assorted varieties of Marxists can go copulate with themselves, or if insufficiently limber, may substitute a rusty wire brush suitable for cleaning the bore of a twelve or ten gauge.
(Hmm a few extras seem to have crept in.)
Coin of The Day
As a coin collector, I have a superpower.
I can make change for a cent. Not that I ever would, not this way.
Yes, there is such a thing as a half cent. And it weighed in at 84 grains (yes, the same grains as bullets and powder), pure copper. Our current cent, before mid-1982 when it suffered the ignominy and debasement of being made out of zinc with a copper coating on it, weighed 48 grains, making the half cent 1.75 times as massive as the old “small cent.”
So if you own two of these, you can break a cent, but you’d be ill-advised unless the cent is a very valuable one.
Before 1857, the United States had what collectors now call “Large Cents” (in contrast to the current “Small Cent”) and these half cents. Many collectors specialize in these coins, especially the large cents, to the point where there’s even a sizeable club (Early American Coppers) dedicated to collecting them. They’ll collect them not only by date, but by variety–every die that was used to make these had minor (and sometimes not so minor) differences, and people have studied those for at least a hundred and fifty years. And if you think those people surely have no lives, how about the ones who specialize in one die pair and try to collect coins from when that die was new versus when it was falling apart and had to be retired?
Collectors consider large cents to be totally different from small cents. A reference book on US coins, which is typically divided into chapters by denomination, will of course distinguish between the silver dollar and the gold dollar as well (and the silver three cent piece, and nickel three cent piece, and the half dime and the copper-nickel “nickel”). But even though large cents and small cents are (er…dammit until 1982) largely made of copper, they get separate chapters.
Half cents are not collected as avidly as large cents, and are thus considerably less expensive even though there are many fewer of them out there. (Should there suddenly be a great interest in them, their values will climb, quite a bit.)
The problem that these coins faced when they were current, was their weight. 168 grains for a large cent is more than midway between the weight of a (silver) quarter and a (silver) half dollar, yet the bugger was only worth one cent. They saw little use outside of major cities, but even that demand was enough that the mint cranked them out, every year between 1793 and 1857, except for 1815 when no copper was available. People didn’t care for the weight, but they really had no alternative.
The half cent was also bulky for its value, but the denomination itself was nearly useless, so the mint made them only sporadically. Consider the time spans of the different designs: Liberty Cap (1793-1797) to Draped Bust (1800-1808) to Classic Head (1809-1836) to Braided Hair (1840-1857). There are gaps between all but two of these designs when no half cents were made. None were made from 1812-1824. And the first ten years of Braided Hair half cents were only proof specimens made for collectors, none for general use.
One technological change partway through the series was that in 1831, the mint started using a new press that would actually put the coin in a collar while being struck, instead of letting the thing squeeze out between the dies while being struck.
The mint only made operating profit by making cents and half cents. Silver and gold coinage was specified to be of full intrinsic value, but the copper in a large cent, at least initially, was worth less than a cent. But as the 19th century proceeded, that profit became smaller and smaller, and eventually it was decided to do something different.
And now for the rest of the story…
Midway through 1857, the small cent was introduced, and the old coppers, both of them, discontinued, but it wasn’t quite the small cent you knew as a child. It was considerably thicker, and was 12% nickel. That nickel additive had the effect of making it much more difficult for the cent to tarnish; even today they are all a light tan color. However the metal was harder, meaning it was more difficult to strike into coins. The cent weighed in at 72 grains (an extra 50% in weight compared to the pre-1982 cents we grew up with), and bore a flying eagle on its face.
They were instantly popular with the public, and ironically coin collecting got a considerable boost (almost nobody collected coins before that date) as nostalgia for the large cent and half cent increased and people decided to save them.
That was changed in 1859 to an Indian head, the reverse wreath changed the next year, and finally, in 1864 the cent was made thinner and the nickel was removed from the alloy, bringing it to its “modern” spec of 48 grams of copper (with a small admixture of zinc and, usually, tin). The cent stayed in that form with two major design changes until 1982. (In 1909 Lincoln replaced the Indian and wheat ears replaced the old wreath on the reverse, and in 1959 the Lincoln Memorial replaced the wheat ears, both events in celebration of major anniversaries of Lincoln’s birth in 1809). There was one exception; in 1943 the cent was made of galvanized steel to save copper for the war effort (unfortunately, it was too easily confused with a dime in that color).
The lowly cent, disregarded and now suffering the shame of being made out of a metal regarded as the very epitome of “cheap,” indeed has a long and honorable past, even including a time when it had a lesser sibling, the half cent.
Standard disclaimer: Neither these, nor any other coins I show here, are ones I own. In some cases (but by no means all or even most of them) I own a similar coin or coins. But even when I do, it’s not as nice as the pictures I find on the internet.
Obligatory PSA/Reminder
Just one more thing, my standard Public Service Announcement. We don’t want to forget this!!!
Remember Hong Kong!!! And remember the tens of millions who died under the “Great Helmsman” Chairman Mao.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=L3tnH4FGbd0%3F
I hope this guy isn’t rotting in the laogai somewhere!
中国是个混蛋 !!! Zhōngguò shì gè hùndàn !!! China is asshoe !!!
For my money the Great Helmsman is Hikaru Sulu (even if the actor is a dingbat).
19th Ordinary Sunday August 9, 2020 “Escaping to God”
1 Kgs 19:11-13 Rom 9:1-5 Mt 14:22-33
My Brothers and Sisters in the Lord –
How do we deal with the hardships of life? What is our attitude, our response, or reaction when life becomes extremely difficult? How do we react when our life is threatened or in imminent danger? In other words, how do we cope with the things that threaten to harm us or to destroy us?
We all want to live and to have the best life possible. The human race has progressed a great deal since Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon times. We have also learned that we are composite creatures – we have a body and a soul or spirit. Furthermore, while we know our body will die, most know, intuitively, that our soul lives on in some way.
Hardship and danger can take its toll and break us down physically and spiritually. While our bodies can endure a great deal of pain, real suffering takes place in our soul and spirit. Most can sustain physical hardship as long as they can maintain a positive and hopeful soul and spirit.
But even the spirit can break down if we don’t have the right tools to sustain it and keep it healthy. How we have been affected by the on-going COVID-19 pandemic is indicative of how well we are – or are not – coping. Fortunately, the scriptures for today can be a great help for us as we face our present hardships.
The prophet Elijah lived a vocation of hardship. God commissioned him to convert the Chosen People and their king from the pagan gods and the pagan ways they had embraced instead of God and His ways. Elijah did some truly marvelous things. He foretold a drought and famine – He brought down God’s fire from heaven with subsequent rain – He beheaded hundreds of false prophets – But his words went disregarded and unheeded. There was a price on his head.
He considered himself a failure as a prophet, so he ran away!
Actually, Elijah made a pilgrimage to the sacred mountain where Moses encountered God. And there, Elijah himself encountered God. God asked him why he ran away. Why did he leave the land of his work? And Elijah responded that he was tired; he was discouraged, and didn’t want to go on as a prophet the king wished to kill.
Consequently, God gave Elijah a tremendous demonstration of His almighty power – as well as where Elijah could truly find God.
But God was not in the tornado – He was not in the earthquake – He was not in the raging conflagration! Instead, God was best found in the stillness and in the silence. God could be heard in Elijah’s inner, spiritual self! Only then, with that inner power, could Elijah go back, find a successor, and ultimately go home to God and into a better world!
In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus needed a break. He needed time alone with God. He had been thwarted in his first attempt to do so by the thousands of people seeking cures and his words. So, after feeding the multitude, Jesus went off alone – finally able to be with God.
However, the disciples were in dire straits. Separated from Jesus, they were losing out against the storm. Then during the fourth watch, the darkest hours before the dawn – the very time when satan was believed to be most at work – Jesus came to them!
The terrified disciples thought it was a ghost! Nevertheless, Peter had courage.
He believed it was Jesus, and was willing to risk walking out to him. But like ourselves, when we face great hardship, Peter began to falter; he began to doubt; he felt powerless against the wind and the waves. But Peter’s faith helped him. He cried out to Jesus for help. And Jesus saved him – Jesus grasped Peter; he eliminated the danger and he stilled the storm!
Brothers and Sisters, what do we do when we feel overwhelmed? Where do we go when life becomes impossible? Do we go to God? Do we call upon Jesus? Do we find a quiet place? Or do we curse and swear? Do we run to pseudo escapes or material distractions?
What we do and where we go, will depend upon what we have cultivated in our soul and spirit. Have we made time for God alone? Have we a quiet space within ourselves to be safe and still when the storms, the earthquakes, the infernos of life beset us?
If not, it is time to start or to renew what we had before. Time alone with God – listening to what God has to say to us – letting peace of heart transform our tired bodies and minds!
O Lord, our God, help us to become more aware of you at every moment of our life – May we become especially aware of you when we are in danger and most at risk!
Amen.
Msgr. Russell G. Terra, Parish Homilies, Saint Joseph Roman Catholic Church, Redding, CA
This Superlative Sanctuary Sunday Open Thread, with full respect to those who worship God on the Sabbath, is a place to reaffirm our worship of our Creator, our Father, our King Eternal.
It is also a place to read, post and discuss news that is worth knowing and sharing. Please post links to any news stories that you use as sources or quote from.
In the QTree, we’re a friendly and civil lot. We encourage free speech and the open exchange and civil discussion of different ideas. Topics aren’t constrained, and sound logic is highly encouraged, all built on a solid foundation of truth and established facts.
We have a policy of mutual respect, shown by civility. Civility encourages discussions, promotes objectivity and rational thought in discourse, and camaraderie in the participants – characteristics we strive toward in our Q Tree community.
Please show respect and consideration for your fellow QTreepers. Before hitting the “post” button, please proofread your post and make sure you’re addressing the issue only, and not trying to confront the poster. Keep to the topic – avoid “you” and “your”. Here in The Q Tree, personal attacks, name calling, ridicule, insults, baiting and other conduct for which a penalty flag would be thrown are VERBOTEN.
In The Q Tree, we’re compatriots, sitting around the campfire, roasting hot dogs, making s’mores and discussing, agreeing, and disagreeing about whatever interests us. This board will remain a home for those who seek respectful conversations.
Let’s not give the Internet Censors a reason to shut down this intellectual haven that Wolf has created for us.
The Storm is upon us. Please remember to Pray for our President.
AND WHAT TIME IS IT? TIME TO DRAIN THE SWAMP!!!
Our movement is about replacing a failed and CORRUPT political establishment with a new government controlled by you, the American People. ~ Candidate Donald J. Trump
Also remember Wheatie’s Rules:
No food fights.
No running with scissors.
If you bring snacks, bring enough for everyone.
And,
On this day and every day –
God is in Control . . . and His Grace is Sufficient, so . . . Keep Looking Up
Hopefully, every Sunday, you can find something here that will build you up a little . . . give you a smile . . . and add some joy or peace, very much needed in all our lives.
“This day is holy to the Lord your God; do not mourn nor weep.” . . . “Go your way, eat the fat, drink the sweet, and send portions to those for whom nothing is prepared; for this day is holy to our Lord. Do not sorrow, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”
The Christian life is supposed to be a life lived by faith. It is by faith that we enter into the Christian life, and it is by faith that we live it out. When we begin the Christian life by coming to Christ for forgiveness of sin, we understand that what we seek cannot be obtained by any other means than by faith. We cannot work our way to heaven, because nothing we could ever do would be sufficient. Those who believe they can attain eternal life by keeping rules and regulations—a list of do’s and don’ts—deny what the Bible clearly teaches. “But that no one is justified by the Law in the sight of God is clear, for, ‘The just shall live by faith’” (Galatians 3:11). The Pharisees of Jesus’ day rejected Christ because He told them this very truth, that all their righteous deeds were worthless and that only faith in their Messiah would save them.
In Romans 1, Paul says that the gospel of Jesus Christ is the power that saves us, the gospel being the good news that all who believe in Him will have eternal life. When we enter into the Christian life by faith in this good news, we see our faith grow as we come to know more and more about the God who saved us. The gospel of Christ actually reveals God to us as we live to grow closer to Him each day. Romans 1:17 says, “For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: ‘The righteous will live by faith.’” So part of the Christian life is diligent reading and study of the Word, accompanied by prayer for understanding and wisdom and for a closer, more intimate relationship with God through the Holy Spirit.
The Christian life is also supposed to be one of death to self in order to live a life by faith. Paul told the Galatians, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20). Being crucified with Christ means that we consider our old nature as having been nailed to the cross and we choose to live in the new nature, which is Christ’s (2 Corinthians 5:17). He who loved us and died for us now lives in us, and the life we live is by faith in Him. Living the Christian life means sacrificing our own desires, ambitions, and glories and replacing them with those of Christ. We can only do this by His power through the faith that He gives us by His grace. Part of the Christian life is praying to that end.
The Christian life is also supposed to persevere to the end. Hebrews 10:38-39 addresses this issue by quoting from the Old Testament prophet Habukkuk: “Now the just shall live by faith; But if anyone draws back, My soul has no pleasure in him.” God is not pleased with one who “draws back” from Him after making a commitment, but those who live by faith will never draw back, because they are kept by the Holy Spirit who assures us that we will continue with Christ until the end (Ephesians 1:13-14). The writer of Hebrews goes on to verify this truth in verse 39: “But we are not of those who draw back to perdition, but of those who believe to the saving of the soul.” The true believer is one who believes to the end.
So the Christian life is one lived by faith in the God who saved us, empowers us, seals us for heaven, and by whose power we are kept forever. The day-to-day life of faith is one that grows and strengthens as we seek God in His Word and through prayer and as we unite with other Christians whose goal of Christlikeness is similar to our own.
Trump advancing (not retreating) to a forward command post. He says we won’t be seeing him for a while. Whirlpool. And so on, covered thoroughly by you all on Friday.
I dunno, I’ve been disappointed so many times in the past…but this might really be IT.
You all have been analyzing and speculating on this quite a bit, so I’ll just add an editorial statement:
Bring it on!!! We’re not tired of winning. Far from it:
We haven’t even begun to win!
And so we could well, this very weekend and upcoming week, begin to see THIS last big item finally be addressed.
Our movement is about replacing a failed and corrupt political establishment with a new government controlled by you, the American People...Our campaign represents a true existential threat, like they’ve never seen before.
Then-Candidate Donald J. Trump
Lawyer Appeasement Section
OK now for the fine print.
This is the WQTH Daily Thread. You know the drill. There’s no Poltical correctness, but civility is a requirement. There are Important Guidelines, here, with an addendum on 20191110.
We have a new board – called The U Tree – where people can take each other to the woodshed without fear of censorship or moderation.
And remember Wheatie’s Rules:
1. No food fights 2. No running with scissors. 3. If you bring snacks, bring enough for everyone. 4. The gun is always loaded. 4a. If you actually want the gun to be loaded, like because you’re checking out a bump in the night, then it’s empty. 5. Never point the gun at anything you’re not willing to destroy. 6. Keep your finger off the trigger until ready to fire. 7. Be sure of your target and what is behind it.
(Hmm a few extras seem to have crept in.)
Mandatory Coin
Now it wouldn’t be one of my posts without a coin, would it?
But first I’m going to address the current situation with precious metals–the best basis ever found for real money. Well, maybe I will, somewhere in the ramble you’re about to read or skip.
I am involved in coin collecting, and there is a branch of the hobby that concerns itself with “primitive” money, except that’s not PC, so it’s now called other things, including “traditional” money. I’m talking about things people used for money before coins were invented (or before they had become aware of coins), such as cowrie shells, beads, obsidian, wampum, elephant tails (really!), Yapstones, and on and on.
Before there was money there was barter. I could trade you two chickens that I had raised for an arrowhead that you had made. The problem was getting both you and me to agree that an arrowhead was worth two chickens. Actually, it had to be worth less than two chickens to you (or you’d not want to give up your arrowhead for two chickens) and more than two chickens to me (or I’d not want to give up my chickens for an arrowhead).
What if we both think it’s more appropriate to trade one and a half chickens for an arrowhead? So basically a chicken is worth about 2/3rds of an arrowhead?
Then we’re stuck, because two thirds of a physical arrowhead isn’t worth a damn thing to anyone, neither is half a chicken to you if you want to use it for laying eggs, and even if you want to eat it, you’re going to have to eat that half a chicken tonight, and I’ll have to eat my half tonight too, rather than feeding it until next week.
If there were something we could use to represent half a chicken, I could pay you a chicken and that item, and we’d be square. You could come back to me later–next week, a month from now, and cash in two of those tokens for half a chicken each, and get a whole chicken.
That’s the function money serves. And, honestly, anything that serves that function is money. Gold and silver in pre-sized lumps can do it. Gold and silver not in convenient standard lumps can do it too. A “talent” of gold, or silver, in the Bible is not a coin–coins hadn’t been invented yet by the time of the Old Testament–but a talent was roughly seventy pounds, so the Bible was talking about a very substantial weight of gold or silver. But so can cowrie shells and wampum under the right circumstances. Our colonial forebears even resorted to using tobacco leaves since Mama England didn’t want us to have coins. And of course that elaborately printed paper in our wallets, backed by nothing other than the willingness of the government to accept it as a tax payment, is also money.
Here’s a definition of money, from one of those books on primitive traditional money (improving on a definition put forth by none other than Alan Greenspan): Anything used to make a payment that the recipient trusts can be reused to make another payment.
Using this, you may think you paid an arrowhead for two chickens, but if I am thinking I can’t buy something with this arrowhead, but I accepted it because I think I will find it useful, then the arrowhead is not money.
But then the Scythians, in the seventh to fifth century BCE, seem to have actually used arrowheads for money. Other cultures used ax heads, both stone and metal.
Metal works well as money, because it can be broken up into smaller and smaller pieces, which can be readily valuated (by weighing them). It will last a long time in storage, and it can’t just be produced without limit, especially if it’s gold, silver, or copper (or in ancient times…tin–very scarce, available in only a few places far from civilization, and absolutely essential to make bronze). And metals have uses in their own right, so they are valuable on their own. So it tends to hold its value.
The kingdom of Lydia took the next step at about the time Scythians were making arrowheads, making standardized metal lumps and stamping them; people could be assured that those lumps had a specific amount of gold and silver in them because they had the king’s emblem on them, and were interchangeable. That was the birth of coinage and modern money that came in denominations.
And those first coins were made of a mixture of gold and silver (electrum), though later on there were gold issues, and silver issues.
http://www.dmudd.net/hist697/images/slide3or.jpg
The reverse isn’t a real design, it’s actually an inset of a punch, used to hold the silver in place while it was being struck. Some of the Greek city states had the same sort of thing on their coinage. MUCH larger than actual size.
The Lydian coins are available today, but it was Athens in the 400s BCE that really took this and ran with it, producing drachm coinage, most famously the four drachma piece, the tetradrachm. (Collectors of ancient money in the US pronounce drachm “dram” but it’s likely more like drakh-m, where the kh is like the ch in Bach. But we’re lazy and don’t pronounce the ch.)
Athens became incredibly rich as a result of owning a silver mine in Attica, and also collecting tribute from the Athenian League. This started out as a defensive alliance against the Persians–member city-states could contribute either ships (with crews) or money for their upkeep. But it turned into an empire when those ships were turned against city states that decided to quit paying.
A stunning example of an Athenian tetradrachm. I know (from having seen ones made with Athena’s head off center) that the die for the obverse includes a large crest on her helmet. The reverse is Athena also, in the form of an owl. The letters to the right read A TH E, for Athens, or perhaps for Athena.
Centuries passed, empires rose and fell, and during the Renaissance, bankers started accumulating vast amounts of coinage in silver (heavy) and gold (very heavy, more so than lead). They’d have to make payments to each other, and have to ship heavy, valuable crates of coins at great expense and risk, but…if they trusted each other, they could do things on paper. The paper came to represent the coins, in particular the metal in the coins, and this eventually developed into paper money. Which, if honest, can be good stuff…silver certificates being one example of an honest paper money.
The Chinese actually had paper money first…on arrival in China, you had to deposit your silver, you got a paper certificate that stood for the silver, and could be spent as though it were silver. You could get your silver back, when you left China. The system worked well, as long as you could trust the government not to just print up certificates in excess of the silver. And that is a hazard with bank notes (actually issued by banks) too, where they are supposed to be backed by something valuable (assets of the bank, be they coinage or loans), but might not be.
The United States, in the days of the gold standard, had paper money and actual coins (known as “specie”); before 1862 the paper money was issued and backed (or not!) by banks, after 1862, it was a combination of banks (heavily supervised and regulated) and the US government. As for the money–a gold coin was unadulterated money. Because a certain weight of gold was by definition a dollar. At the mint, even before the design had been stamped on, say, a $5 gold piece, it wasn’t just worth five dollars, it was five dollars. Great care was taken to ensure the proper weight of each individual piece. A room full of workers (women, because they were believed to have better attention to detail) would handle each blank coin, weigh it, and spin the edge against a file if it was overweight, or reject it if it were underweight–back to the melting pot. They got to be so good they could tell if the piece were over or underweight before they weighed it. Some tolerance was allowed–a little extra or a little under was OK, the government would treat it as being exact. Bags of coins were adjusted with the slightly under or overweight finished coins so the bag would average out precisely (and too much correction needed would condemn the whole bag). The precision of the scales that had to weigh heavy bags of coins was remarkable, the weight of a single scrap of paper could throw them off. (Very precise mechanical engineering and craftsmanship like this is becoming a lost art.)
The silver in, say, a dime, wasn’t worth as much as ten cents; it didn’t become ten cents until it was stamped. (After 1853, that is.)
Which finally, and most circuitously, brings me to the price of gold.
Between 1834 and 1933 the gold coinage was such that a troy ounce of gold either equaled (before we went on a full gold standard) or was $20.67. And a couple of days ago, when I looked at the price of gold, it was $2067.10 per ounce…a hundred times higher.
I’ve heard in the past, statements that gold holds its value, with the implication that gold is of constant value.
Bullshit. At least with regard to the constant part.
It’s just as subject to supply and demand as eggs, beef, cars, and beanie babies. In 1979-1980, gold skyrocketed from the low $300s to $850 in a few weeks, and most of that happening in the last few days (it went up sixty bucks in one day), and then it dropped again, just about as quickly as it had gone up.
Are you going to tell me that what was happening was that the dollar was plummeting (which I could and did believe)…but then it turned around and zoomed back upwards? Come on, this was the Carter administration; the dollar was in no way capable of skyrocketing under his (mis)management!
So no, gold is not of constant value, but it will always have great value, and the long-term average is fairly–though not perfectly–stable. A $20 gold piece would buy you a nice suit in the 1920s. Today, it still will, though today you’d certainly get change.
And even in the days of the gold standard, of specie being regarded as “real” money, gold could rise and fall, and so could silver, and they could rise and fall relative to each other. In the 1700s silver slipped from being 1/14th as valuable as gold, to 1/15; it slipped some more during the early 1800s and messed up our money supply; we had to remove some gold from the gold coinage in 1834 to compensate. Then gold was found in California, and it dropped relative to silver, silver started disappearing from commerce…until in 1853 we lessened the weight of silver coins (and from that point forward, silver coinage became worth less than face value, and was strictly controlled in quantity, since it was freely exchangeable for gold, which was worth its face value). Not a month ago, there was a day when it took 100 ounces of silver to equal an ounce of gold; and I remember that happening a couple of times in the late 90s too. Silver lately has gone up faster than gold, so it’s worth well over 1/100th as much as gold today. In fact, right now: Gold 2,017.70 and silver 27.58, ratio 73.158+ to 1. (Imagine if we had a bimetallic standard this last month, what chaos there would be as people dumped their gold dollars for silver dollars, or vice versa; you’d be going into shops and be offered a discount for paying in gold instead of silver, or vice versa, depending.)
In any case, sometimes people trying to buy some gold buy it in the form of old $20 gold pieces. These contain almost an ounce of gold. Some of them are common enough (especially in slightly circulated condition) that their price is basically today’s price of gold plus a small constant. Nevertheless, there are people who collect them, and they’re seeing the prices go up and up, not because they’re becoming rare, but because gold is becoming pricier.
Of course some gold coins are genuine rarities (or in top condition) and will sell for quite a bit more than the gold that’s in them–those prices aren’t affected much by the price of gold.
If memory serves, I’ve shown you both of the major designs of $20 gold pieces in the past. But why not a repeat? (You got your coin of the week twice over with the stater and the tetradrachm.)
Liberty Head, 1850-1907. The reverse shield style changed in 1866 when “In God We Trust” was placed within the circle of stars. Now I said 1850, but this is an 1849. This is the one and only 1849, produced as a “proof of concept” rather than for issue, and it’s now in the Smithsonian.
The St. Gaudens (named so because the artist who did the design was Augustus St. Gaudens, a very famous sculptor from the end of the era when fine art was still…art. (Not the greatest picture ever, but at least it is not subject to copyright issues.) In 1908 “In God We Trust” was added above the sun on the reverse. Also, in 1907 the first few thousand of these were struck in a much higher relief, a variant regularly called America’s Most Beautiful Coin.
OK…well, I’m not done yet. You’ll get a third coin today, in honor of Shitstorm Saturday.
What about platinum?
You can buy, today, platinum “eagles” in ounce, half ounce, quarter ounce, and tenth ounce sizes, just as you can with gold. This is what we call non-circulating legal tender (NCLT) because even though there’s a face value and the coin is legal tender, you’d have to be an idiot to spend an ounce of gold or platinum at the face value given on the coins ($50 and $100, respectively). There’s generally very little collector value in such coins; their value is tied to their content, much like in the good old days.
In the past, gold and silver were used as money, straight across, at face value, close to intrinsic or “melt” value. Was platinum ever used as money?
The answer, just barely, is “Yes.”
Platinum wasn’t even known to Europeans until close to 1700, when it was found during gold panning on the Rio del Pinto in South America. Gold panning exploits the density of gold to separate it from the other bits of sand in stream beds. Platinum, being slightly denser than gold, even, would also pan out, and since no one really understood what it was, and no one considered it valuable, the platinum particles had to be painstakingly separated from the gold. It was a nuisance! It was called “Pinto silver” for a while, and even today the name “platinum,” or especially the slightly older “platina” is cognate with “plata”–silver in Spanish.
(No one went screaming “Platinum! I’m rich!!!” It was more like “What the hell is this caca blanca doing in my oro?”)
Eventually some industrial uses–like sulfuric acid boiler tanks–were found for the stuff, even though we couldn’t build a furnace to melt it, and it became more valuable than silver, and less so than gold. [Any other metal besides gold would dissolve in the acid, gold was way too expensive and soft, and glass tended to shatter under pressure, which when dealing with sulfuric acid was really, really bad–shards of glass flying everywhere, with boiling sulfuric acid spraying with it to boot.]
Another deposit was discovered in the Ural mountains in Russia. Peasants had been finding the nuggets for years and using them for shot (!!!), blasting what today would be hundreds of dollars’ worth of platinum into waterfowl for dinner. Miners moved in, and started producing the metal, as well as the other allied platinum-group metals (rhodium, palladium, osmium, and iridium–ruthenium had not been discovered yet).
Russia’s monetary system was a bit of a mess. There were paper rubles, backed by the full faith and credit of the Tsar’s government…but they traded at four paper rubles to the silver ruble. In 1826, Nicholas I, newly on the throne, decided to do something about this. Part of this was to temporarily produce high denomination silver, but a silver five ruble piece would be unwieldy. But the Demidov family, a powerful family, owned the platinum mines, platinum was worth a bit more than silver so…the three ruble platinum coin was born. It was the size of a quarter ruble piece…but weighed twice as much. It was made out of platinum sponge (we still couldn’t melt the stuff)–in itself the coin is a technical acheivement. They tended to look kind of ugly because of it being sponge platinum…but some DID circulate.
Just a bit smaller than a quarter–and weighed almost as much as a half dollar. The inscription reads (in the center) “3 rubles in silver” and around the edge, “2 zol. 41 dol. [a weight in traditional Russian units] of pure Urals platinum” (It wasn’t. Pure, I mean–plenty of iron and iridium and since it was sponge the coin was probably about 5 percent air, too.)
The coins were guaranteed convertible into silver at face value, so they could take the place of paper money in “small” denominations (a ruble was a lot of money back then).
The same search I used to find this also showed images of ones that are worn and have undoubtedly been used in commerce. So yes, these DID circulate, a bit.
That coin appeared in 1828. It saw just enough use to encourage the Russian government to come out with a six ruble piece in 1829 and a 12 ruble piece in 1830, but those never got any traction. Russia would send them out to settle trade accounts and eventually get them right back again, so they just piled up in the treasury. (I guess you could say that outside of Russia, they were not money.)
The whole series was discontinued in 1845. Paper money was now on par with silver, so there was no need for these coins–and besides, they contained somewhat less than their face value in platinum, so they were targets for counterfeiters. The coins in the treasury were then sold for scrap, in fact the entire world demand for platinum was satisfied for years by these scrapped coins. Today, the 6 and 12 ruble pieces are all rarities, some excruciatingly so. Three ruble coins are expensive, but at least they’re much less than half as expensive as the six ruble pieces.
Platinum itself was eventually found to have many, many better uses than sulfuric acid boilers, and industrial demand made it more valuable, ounce per ounce, than gold by the early 20th century–at which point, then people wanted it for jewelry. Even today, it’s rarer. All the platinum ever mined would fit in a 26 foot cube–my house could handle it–while all the gold ever mined would need a 60 foot cube. But as of today, it’s less valuable. Supply and demand.
[End note: As much as counterfeiters are loathed, they did function back then to keep governments honest about the money they issued. Issue an undervalued coin, and it will be counterfeited. If it’s actually worth what it says its worth in precious metal, the counterfeiters have no reason to bother–unless they can fake the metal itself, which they did try to do…sometimes with the use of platinum, but that’s a very interesting story for another day.]
Disclaimer: Neither these, nor any other coins I post, are mine. With older coins, I’m going to find the best pic of one on the internet, so even if I should happen to have one, it’s not the nicest one on earth and I’ll show another…and some coins are worth more than my net worth so I certainly won’t have those!
Important Reminder
To conclude: My standard Public Service Announcement. We don’t want to forget this!!!
Remember Hong Kong!!!
https://youtube.com/watch?v=L3tnH4FGbd0%3F
I hope this guy isn’t rotting in the laogai somewhere!
中国是个混蛋 !!! Zhōngguò shì gè hùndàn !!! China is asshoe !!!
By request, here’s the live thread for Sally Yates’s turn on the hot seat in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee. This is just a quick and dirty. Will be back later.
This is the only live link I can find at the moment. Please, add more in the comments as they surface.
17th Ordinary Sunday July 26, 2020 “The Most Important Thing”
1 Kings 3:5-12 Romans 8:28-30 Matthew 13:44-52
My Brothers and Sisters in the Lord –
What is the most important thing in our life during the time we have here? As we develop and mature, it is likely that the most important thing will be modified in some way or even change. Certainly, children, teens, and young adults become increasingly more aware and focused upon what is most important to them as they experience more and understand more.
For some, relationships and family are the most important thing – For some, it is their education and, then, their profession – For some, it is their position in the community and the influence that this gives them. Sadly, for some, it is their egos which must be satisfied no matter what the cost. Finally, for some, it is to possess God by being possessed by God Himself.
Fortunately, God can be the most important thing in everyone’s life without sacrificing family, education, occupation, or position and influence. However, this is true provided that we focus upon and pursue those things according to God’s will and plan for us. In fact, God expects us to be the best we can be regarding those things which make up our time while we are here on Earth!
In the Book of Kings, Solomon was given the tremendous responsibility of ruling the Chosen People at a very young age. He had absolutely no experience at leadership. But he was God’s choice and he loved God. So, God came to Solomon and asked him what he wanted as he began his reign. Solomon asked for wisdom – for an understanding heart! He asked for the gift to be able to judge between right and wrong – between good and evil – so that he could better serve the nation.
Solomon put all selfishness aside, seeking to be God’s servant – And for this, God blessed him with all those other things for which he did not ask: a long life, wealth, and honor above all the kings of the surrounding nations.
Jesus takes up this same unflinching focus on what is, truly, most important in today’s passage from St. Matthew. A man finds a long-forgotten hidden treasure. He sells everything he has to purchase the land that holds the treasure – The gem merchant finds a pearl of exquisite beauty with an astronomical price. Nevertheless, he sells everything else just to be able to possess it and admire it!
What Jesus is teaching us is that God must be our hidden treasure and priceless pearl. We must be willing to sacrifice anything else that keeps us from God. Each of us is called to serve God in our own particular way. Our education, our job, our profession, our position, our family should each help us to serve and to love God. But like Solomon, we must have an understanding heart undergirded with humility. We must be able to judge between right and wrong, between the just and the unjust, between the truly good and the pseudo-good of evil.
The temptation we face will be to make small compromises which, in turn, lead to greater ones. Then it is not far from relegating God to a lesser place and inferior status in our hearts and lives!
At times, we will be asked to make great sacrifices. We will also be faced with great suffering and pain. Sometimes, this will be from the hands of others who would deter us, or derail us, in our efforts to serve God and keep Him first!
However, St. Paul has words of great encouragement for us in his verses from Romans. All things that happen to us – even the painful things and events – work together for the good of those who truly love God! God has a plan for us that will bring us, ultimately, to the same resurrection and the glory of Jesus in the eternal presence of God! What we must do is remain steadfast and undeterred in our quest for the possession of God Himself!
So let us pray, that each of us attain all that God can be for us – both in this life and in the next!
Amen.
July 26, 2020 Msgr. Russell G. Terra Msgr. Russell G. Terra, Parish Homilies, Saint Joseph Roman Catholic Church, Redding, CA
