“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
Happy Valentine’s Day, QTreepers! Welcome to Friday and the Daily Open Thread. Special treats for Valentine’s Day! Volume UP! Expanded holiday version!
President Ronald Reagan jumped out of his limousine to stop in a local pharmacy to buy Nancy a Valentine’s Day card. It’s tough to shop for your sweetie when you’re the leader of the free world.
We don’t believe in political correctness at QTree. Free Speech is practiced here. ENJOY IT. Use it or lose it. Important Guidelines are outlined here in the January 1st open thread, with an addendum on 20191110. In other words, please keep it SOMEWHAT civil. We have a new board – actually a new SITE – called The U Tree – where people can take each other to the woodshed without fear of censorship or moderation. This board will remain a REFUGE for those who need civility, either some or all of the time. We’re glad you’re joining us for Valentine’s Day. Come and Get Your Love!
QTree has grown. Have you noticed? We are the news now. It’s a wonderful thing. No, You’ll Never Find……….. another site like Q Tree. We’re the ones who loves you, and there’s no one else!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCW1i5HQ0o0
It’s Valentine’s weekend and time for a special meal, little bit of tenderness, with those you love most. Remember, when we were kids, we had to give Valentines to the WHOLE class. Play nicely. Let Your Love Flow!
Although….. there is not a whole lotta love going on in New Hampshire this week after the primary. We said goodbye to Duval Patrick, Andrew Yang, and the Governor Bennett, as they dropped out of the race. Guess that’s One Less Bell to Answer, or maybe we should just Kiss and Say Goodbye, or maybe we should just Turn Them Loose. Can we add Nervous Nancy and Cryin’ Chuck to the list? :
Of course we do get Hope Hicks back to the White House, announced this week.
Heaven Must be Missing an Angel named Hope Hicks, but When You’re In Love With A Beautiful Woman…… it’s hard. Yet, Hope is easy to be around. She’s happy, competent, with razor wit when it comes to protecting our President and dealing with the media. Hope is sweet, she’s kind, nice, ….. She’s Our Candy Girl. We’re just happy she is home.
Yes, the Trump White House is blessed with beautiful women who are far more than a mere pretty face. None is more spectacular than Melania. What a breath of fresh air she brings to the country.
It’s been a long time since we’ve had such an elegant First Lady, and “We Can’t Take Our Eyes Off of Her”. She’s just too good to be true, pardon the way that we stare.
SPEAK THE FIVE WORDS BOLDLY TO OUR PRESIDENT!, “I AM PRAYING FOR YOU!“ He needs our prayers and help more than ever before! ….. and unlike others, we mean it!! The moment I wake up, before I put on my makeup, I say a little prayer……..
Of course, this Valentine’s Day we’re reminded of how much we love our President. Have you seen the stock market lately, the economy, the new business starts, the employment numbers, the way the country is working more efficiently? “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
He came along and everything started to hum………….. BUT ~~~~ The best is yet to come. Yes, we’re ready for 2020! President Trump did it HIS WAY! He takes those slings and arrows for us. And our Hearts Are on Fire. The love for our country is ALIVE!
Special tribute to all the men of QTree! We love you guys. Glad you are here, rock solid, as our base. You’re still the ones that make us laugh, still the ones which are our better half….. We’re still havin’ fun, and you guys are still the ones!
Don’t you wish we could all vote tomorrow?
Remember Wheatie’s Rules:
No food fights.
No running with scissors.
If you bring snacks, bring enough for everyone.
See you all on Saturday morning at Wheatie’s Treehouse!
UPDATE 2: U.S. House Ignores Constitution to Vote for ERA! UPDATE: Deadline 9:45 AM CST 2/13/20 Ask your Rep to vote NO on ERA! Capitol Switchboard: 202-224-3121 More Details from Eagle Forum at the end of this Post!
At the request from singularzoe I am reposting some content from yesterday’s Daily Thread:
This is extremely important. Thank you for posting it, and may I suggest you post it again tomorrow early in the day on the daily thread in case some do not see it this evening? Many do not realize how dangerous the ERA is. Some are too young to know its history or the hidden agenda behind it.
Many washed up 1970s feminists have been dreaming of an epic “do-over” on the Equal Rights Amendment. Astute QTree observers during the 2019 State of the Union noticed that the ERA pin had been revived in the attire of the Democrat women present. This is despite the ERA being as dead as a door nail.
What is the ERA? The following is from Wikipedia, with my minor edits:
The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) was a proposed amendment to the United States Constitution designed to guarantee equal legal rights for all American citizens regardless of sex. It seeks to end the legal distinctions between men and women in matters of divorce, property, employment, and other matters.
It sounds so beautiful, so wonderful, who could be opposed to such a thing?
Phyllis Schlafly, of course! She saw through the ruse that in fact this would destroy many of the privileges and rights that women enjoyed, and wreck havoc on families. Through her tireless efforts, the amendment was successfully defeated in 1982 when the deadline for states to ratify passed three votes short.
Yes, the ERA is dead.
However, leftists are never ones to be bothered by little things like “rules” and have asserted that they can simple revise the deadline in the legislation and voilà, like magic, the amendment is ratified!
Given the radicals behind the “Green New Deal” and the “Blue New Deal” (radical immigration reform) are also pursuing the “ERA New Deal” it is worth reviewing the history and where things stand, not to mention what the future goals of the left are in a revived ERA. In short, the goal of the revived ERA is to prevent Roe vs. Wade from being overturned in the courts by (presumably) enshrining it in a constitutional amendment.
To quote Sylvia: Evil never sleeps it is simply relentless.
No wonder she keeps a shovel beside her bed.
AFA Sounding the Alarm on the ERA
Tell Congress to vote NO on Equal Rights Amendment resolution
Wednesday, February 12, 2020
The U.S. House of Representatives is expected to vote tomorrow on a resolution, H.J.Res.79, to remove the June 30, 1982 deadline for state legislatures to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). Obviously, the deadline has expired, but this isn’t preventing members of Congress, primarily Democrats, from attempting to remove the deadline and advance pro-abortion and pro-transgender rights enshrined in the ERA.
Pro-abortion activist group NARAL Pro-Choice America supports the ERA resolution stating, “With its ratification, the ERA would reinforce the constitutional right to abortion by clarifying that the sexes have equal rights, which would require judges to strike down anti-abortion laws because they violate both the constitutional right to privacy and sexual equality.” Contact and urge your member of Congress to vote no on the ERA resolution.
The ERA was a proposed constitutional amendment introduced and passed by the House (1971) and the Senate (1972). Originally, the ERA would have to be ratified by 38 state legislatures prior to the original deadline of March 22, 1979. But proponents of the ERA realized it would not be ratified by the necessary 38 state legislatures by that deadline.
Therefore, pro-ERA advocates pressured Congress in 1978 to extend the ratification deadline to June 30, 1982. Now, the House is wanting to pass H.J.Res.79 to extend the deadline, again.
If the House passes the resolution, it will face a near certain death in the Senate. That’s not the only hurdle congressional Democrats are facing in their attempt to remove the current 1982 deadline. First, there’s the legal challenge. The Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Office of Legal Counsel issued the following opinion on January 6, 2020:
The ERA Resolution has expired and is no longer pending before the States. Even if one or more state legislatures were to ratify the 1972 proposal, that action would not complete the ratification of the amendment, and the ERA’s adoption could not be certified under 1 U.S.C. § 106b. In addition, we conclude that when Congress uses a proposing clause to impose a deadline on the States’ ratification of a proposed constitutional amendment, that deadline is binding and Congress may not revive the proposal after the deadline’s expiration.
The other challenge would be in the U.S. Supreme Court. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a liberal on the court and a supporter of the ERA, recently indicated the clock has run out on ratifying the ERA. In reference to the state of Virginia’s recent vote to ratify the ERA, Ginsburg said, “I would like to see a new beginning. I’d like it to start over. There’s too much controversy about late comers.” She then referred to Virginia’s move coming “long after the deadline passed.” Justice Ginsburg’s comments follow and bolster the DOJ opinion against changing the ERA deadline.
Regardless of the hurdles the ERA will face, it’s important you contact and urge your representative to vote against removing the deadline for ratifying the ERA.
Sincerely,
Rob Chambers, Vice-President
AFA Action
Warnings by the Susan B. Anthony List
Pro-abortion members of Congress are trying yet again to massively expand abortion access and make YOU pay for it.
This time, they’re using the Equal Rights Amendment to do so. “Equal rights” sounds nice, right? Well, it’s anything but…
Planned Parenthood, NARAL and the ACLU, to name just a few, want the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) passed because they say it would guarantee a right to abortion, funded by YOU — the taxpayers.
In fact, the New Mexico Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the state’s ERA requires taxpayer funding of abortion! We must STOP this madness to protect the lives of unborn babies across America.
When Congress was debating the amendment when it was proposed back in the 1970s, pro-abortion members of Congress rejected efforts to make the amendment abortion-neutral.
If you think it’s strange that we’re talking about an amendment that Congress considered in the 70’s, you’re not alone.
Over four decades ago, Congress passed the ERA and sent it to the states for ratification. But not enough states ratified the ERA, the deadline passed, and the amendment died.
Even the Department of Justice issued a memo on the ERA, saying that it is in fact dead, and cannot be ratified retroactively. But today, pro-abortion politicians have decided to pretend the amendment never died.
Three more states voted to ratify the expired ERA, and pro-abortion members of Congress are pushing forward with a vote in the House on a resolution erasing the deadline that expired four decades ago!
Since Roe v. Wade, abortion has been the cause of death for an estimated 60 MILLION unborn children, of which approximately 30 MILLION were unborn little girls. An amendment to create a constitutional right to abortion on demand would lead to the deaths of untold millions more, paid for by American taxpayers. This is NOT equality.
Not only is this process completely illegitimate, but the ERA would also install a sweeping legal mandate for abortion on demand, funded with taxpayer dollars, into the Constitution of the United States.
So please, tell your representative to vote NO on H.J.Res. 79 to stop the ERA from ever becoming law.
For LIFE,
Hon. Marilyn Musgrave
Vice President of Government Affairs
Susan B. Anthony List
Deplorable Patriot is the News Now!
Deplorable Patriot posted the following piece immediately following the 2019 State of the Union. I’m only going to quote part of it, and like all other QTree posts is rich with insightful comments.
Mrs. Schlafly’s primary concern in opposing the ERA was not to stop women from being who and what they were meant to be, she did go back to school to get a law degree after all, but to protect the American family. At the beginning of her fight in the early 1970s, Mrs. Schlafly predicted that with the passage and ratification of the ERA, several social changes would occur that would be detrimental to the future of the nation.
Why “STOP ERA”? Phyllis Schlafly traveled across the U.S. throughout the 1970s calling for opposition to the ERA because it would lead to the following, most of which pro-ERA lawyers argued were not actually real threats from the ERA:
Homosexual marriages: traditional gender roles were, Schlafly argued, essential for preserving the family.
Women in combat: women, Schlafly argued, would weaken the military’s combat strength, and serving in the military would violate traditional gender norms.
Taxpayer-funded abortions: Schlafly, a … Catholic, ardently opposed abortion.
Unisex bathrooms: one of the best-known of the arguments Schlafly promoted, this was likely meant to create fear of losing a safe space. Schlafly argued that the ERA would also remove laws that depended on gender to define a sex crime, and that it would weaken laws about rape.
Elimination of Social Security benefits for widows: she believed women should not be in the paid workforce (though she herself was paid a salary) especially if they had young children, and so a Social Security benefit for women who had not earned their own benefits was essential to the mother’s ability to stay home.
Hurt families: She argued that the ERA would abolish a husband’s legal responsibility to support his wife and family, and making child support, that it would alter child support and alimony laws to make them gender neutral. In general, she argued that it would undermine the authority of men over women, which she saw as the proper power relationship for well-functioning families.
Many of these claims about what the ERA would do are disputed by legal scholars. On the other hand, some of these results evolved after the 1970s to become public policy, accepted by a majority of the electorate. The Eagle Forum and so-called states’ rights groups warn that the ERA would transfer a great deal of power from state to federal governments.
Amazing isn’t it, that many of her predictions came true whether the ERA passed or not.
All these years later, Mrs. Schlafly’s ability to think logically down stream, as it were, and sound the alarm on so many issues that the people of the United States have been fighting in recent years did inspire Bloomberg, at least, to admit she was correct.
So if she was correct, and the ERA would have been a disaster for American women frankly by putting us on the same legal footing as men (can be drafted into the military, etc.), and it was defeated by the deadline imposed by Congress in 1982, why were the women in white pushing support for the long ago departed?
Basically, because they don’t believe it is dead.
“I am prepared to do everything I can to make sure the will of Virginians is carried out and women’s equality is enshrined in the Constitution.”
— Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring, upon the Virginia General Assembly’s passage of a resolution purporting to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment, January 15, 2020.
Politics today is not much different than entertainment. So much of what happens at all levels of government is about pleasing special interest groups, making constituencies feel good, or making rivals look bad. Sometimes, as with a resolution commending a winning sports team, this is harmless. But other times, the “show” costs dearly in terms of time, money and civic understanding.
The ERA has cost valuable time in the state legislatures that purport to have “ratified” it in recent years.
The current hubbub about the Equal Rights Amendment is a good example of political grandstanding that exacts a high price on our Republic. It has cost valuable time in the state legislatures that purport to have “ratified” it in recent years. It will cost precious funds in pointless lawsuits. But perhaps the greatest cost of all is what it detracts from people’s understanding of a valuable constitutional process.
Article V — the Constitutional Amendment Process
Article V of the U.S. Constitution is one of our founding document’s lesser-known provisions — and one of its most important. It outlines the process for amending the Constitution.
Article V prescribes two ways in which amendments can be proposed. Congress can propose them when two-thirds of the House and the Senate agree. Amendments may also be proposed at a convention upon application of two-thirds of the states. Regardless of which body proposes an amendment, it must be ratified by three-fourths of the states (38) before it can be added to the Constitution.
Unfortunately, much confusion surrounds the second option for proposing amendments. The “convention of the states” process was familiar to the founders, but has fallen out of use in modern times. This lack of modern experience, combined with the lack of procedural detail in the text of Article V, has led a number of otherwise smart people to conclude that we have no idea how a convention for proposing amendments would operate.
That suggestion is nonsense. We know all the important aspects of convention process from the wealth of historical precedents and founding-era writings.
When it comes to the more familiar process of Congress proposing amendments, citizens who might like to understand are now stymied by activists who refuse to concede points of law that are well-established.
Those well-established principles include the following (among many others):
Congress may set a deadline for states to ratify a proposed amendment.
Once Congress sets such a deadline, it is binding. Congress may not change the deadline in the middle of the process.
States may rescind their ratification of a proposed amendment up until ratification is actually achieved.
Each of these points has been decided by the courts. Each is relevant to the current effort to add an “Equal Rights Amendment” to the U.S. Constitution.
The Life and Death of the Equal Rights Amendment
Congress proposed the ERA in 1972. It set a 7-year deadline for the necessary 38 states to ratify it. When Congress saw that the deadline would not be met, it tried to extend the deadline to 1982. A federal court ruled that this was illegal — that Congress is not permitted to change the ratification process once it has begun.
No court has ever ruled otherwise. Simply put, there is no serious grounds for suggesting that the beleaguered ERA is anything but dead as a doornail.
But wait! There’s more! Even supposing that the states or Congress could ignore the original deadline, the ERA would still not be ratified. Why? Because a handful of states that initially ratified it later rescinded their ratifications.
Thus, as Article V expert Professor Rob Natelson describes it, the ERA campaign would have us believe “That every ratification counts, no matter how late; but that no state rescission counts, no matter how timely.” Sorry, but this doesn’t pass the straight face test.
ERA advocates can hold their press conferences, dance their victory dances and tie up the courts in frivolous lawsuits, but the ERA is dead. I, for one, am not sorry. The proposal is both unnecessary and poorly-drafted.
While politicians and special interests continue to beat their long-dead horse, I can only hope that their efforts will result in a new conversation about Article V. Let’s talk about amendments that we really do need in America today, and how we might actually obtain them.
ERA Ratification Status
As a quick aside, I want to highlight the status of the ERA ratification.
Note the color scheme: Red: Ratified Orange: RESCINDED Green: Ratified in one house of legislature (Only PARTIAL ratification) Blue: Not Ratified
This causes the map to be, well, confusing – and maybe that was the POINT…
Nevertheless, the BLUEon GREENstates have never ratified the ERA.
And importantly, the ORANGE STATES BAD have RESCINDED their ratification. It’s hard to have a movement to ratify a constitutional amendment when losing ground… so naturally, the ad hoc lawfare solution is to deny that states have the right to rescind their vote. Does that mean that the constitutional amendment ending Prohibition is likewise invalid? Hmm.
There is precedent for repealing an amendment, and the notion that a state could not rescind a ratification is on incredibly thin legal ice.
Not that legal protocol matters to leftists. If they get full control of the courts they’ll do whatever they want regardless – lawlessness.
States that have not ratified the amendment:
Alabama
Arizona
Arkansas
Florida
Georgia
Louisiana
Mississippi
Missouri
North Carolina
Oklahoma
South Carolina
Utah
Virginia
Despite a vigorous effort by women’s rights advocates, a push to pass the ERA in Virginia died in the state legislature in February [2018]. Similar efforts also failed [in 2018] in Arizona and Florida.
The following is a September 9, 2016 article on Phyllis Schlafly – my comments in RED. Phyllis was the public face of the movement to stop the passage of the ERA. Frankly, without her effort it likely would have been fully ratified. It is impossible to overstate her contributions. The article below outlines the history and how Phyllis Schlafly took on one of the most powerful political juggernauts in American history almost single-handedly, created a giant political movement, and won.
Does this sound like someone we know?
To put this in chronological perspective, Phyllis Schlafly passed away during the 2016 election season, at the time when Operation Crossfire Hurricane was moving at top speed again Candidate Donald Trump. A time when literally all the heaviest forces of government were being abused to prevent Donald Trump from becoming President of the United States. And he still won. How Phyllis Schlafly profoundly changed America
She created the modern pro-family movement and was its greatest activist
Her book changed the Republican party
What most pro-family conservatives today probably don’t know
September 9 2016
Phyllis Schlafly, who passed away at age 92 this week [Sep 2016], actually created the pro-family movement. She was the greatest and most successful pro-family activist in its history. That is not hyperbole; it is fact. Everyone else is miles behind. …
Unfortunately, most pro-family conservatives under a certain age really don’t know that much about her, or appreciate the enormity of her contributions, which continued up until her death. In our opinion, the numerous obituaries in the conservative and mainstream media about her haven’t done her justice. A revolution within the GOP
She broke into national prominence in 1964 by publishing a book. Titled “A Choice, Not an Echo” It brilliantly described how for decades the GOP establishment and donor class had been selling out the principles held by average Republican voters and controlling the political process. It’s chilling to realize how similar it was to the situation that has fueled the rise of Donald Trump’s campaign in 2016. She saw the problem clearly back in the 60s.
At first she felt no publisher would take the book, so she sold it out of her garage. It really caught on, eventually selling over 3 million copies. It changed the history of the Republican Party.
“A Choice Not an Echo” is credited by many with igniting much of the Republican voter base and propelling Barry Goldwater’s nomination for president in 1964 over the will of the party establishment, and opening the door for Ronald Reagan’s run. Her book was that powerful.
Barry Goldwater for president campaign button.
Stopping the radical ERA from transforming America
But Phyllis (everyone we know called her by her first name) is best known for her work stopping the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) in the 1970s and early 1980s.
Today, many pro-family activists take on big causes. But no one else ever took on anything like the ERA single-handedly and won.
Constitutional amendments must pass two-thirds of both houses of Congress, and then three-quarters of the state legislatures (38 states) within seven years after that.
The Equal Rights Amendment was considered by everyone to be impossible to stop. In 1971 it blew through the US House of Representatives by 354-24. It then passed the Senate by 84-8. In 1972 was sent to the states for ratification. Within the first year, 30 state legislatures had ratified it. It was on a very fast track to become a Constitutional amendment.
Phyllis could see that the ERA was being sold to Americans as a noble “equal rights” cause, but it was really a Trojan horse being pushed by the most radical elements of society, particularly lesbian activists.
In her correct analysis, the ERA would be used to draft women for the military, force taxpayer-funded abortions and homosexual “marriage”, promote a constitutionally mandated breakdown of Judeo-Christian morality, push a new sexual revolution, re-write divorce laws, and much more. Far from helping women, it would make women’s lives much, much worse.
Women are different from men, she said, and “feminism” is a false ideology that tries to make man and women the same. Straight talk. A key part of her attack was that unlike the wimpy mainstream pro-family movement of today, Phyllis was willing to tell the sordid, uncomfortable truth about the ERA and forces behind it – calmly, unemotionally, and fearlessly – refusing to water it down into mushy platitudes. This infuriated the Left and annoyed the establishment Republicans. She was definitely not “politically correct.”
The forces that lined up aggressively promoting the ERA were overwhelming. This included the full Democratic and Republican establishments, including enthusiastic support from Presidents Gerald Ford and later Jimmy Carter, and their wives. It included virtually all of Hollywood, with major TV and movie stars doing endorsements, support from major corporations, and of course aggressive support by the entire mainstream media.
Like many conservatives, Phyllis was hated by the Left with a visceral passion. During her anti-ERA battle she was screamed at, sworn at, spat on, had things thrown at her, and even had pig’s blood poured on her. The infantile emotions of liberals haven’t changed at all. The fact that she routinely out-debated them made it even worse!
It had eerie similarities to today’s huge “culture war” battle. This is the part that struck me most:
In 1972 Phyllis began her fight to stop the ERA. She was not only an incredibly articulate writer, speaker, and political thinker, but she was also an unbelievable organizer. She brought together and mobilized a very formidable army of thousands of women, mostly housewives, from across the country. This was before the Internet or even fax machines existed! And she taught them how to go to their state legislatures and lobby strategically and effectively despite the opposing them. Legislators had never seen anything like it. You see that? Unbelievable organizer. Not some fly by night community organizer either.
Barnstorming state legislatures across America.
She also created hard-hitting pamphlets, wrote countless newspaper columns, gave speeches across the country, and appeared on numerous television interview shows — usually against a stacked deck, but still coming out on top.
Over the next eight years, five more states ratified ERA. But also during that time five other states – under pressure from Phyllis and her forces – rescinded their ratifications. DO YOU SEE IT? BOOM!!! They RESCINDED their ratifications! Can that strategy work today? YES IT CAN!!!
A year before the 1979 deadline Congress voted to extend the ratification deadline three more years, until June 30, 1982! But it didn’t work. The Schlafly army kept enormous pressure on any other states from ratifying it.
In the end, the ERA fell short by three states.
The larger story of this impossible victory is really fascinating for activists today. In 2009 Phyllis made this exciting video discussing it in detail. (It’s 43 minutes long, but worth watching.)
Creating the modern pro-family movement in America
The ERA battle and was the beginning of the modern pro-family movement in America.
Then as now, the Left had enormous, seemingly limitless funding. Phyllis and her group, called the Eagle Forum, had only what the members could pull together. They paid for their own travel and supplies.
Phyllis had an almost supernatural ability to focus on success. This is a quality that is almost completely lacking in today’s pro-family movement, which seems to fold its tent at the first sign of trouble.
In the 1980s, the Moral Majority, Christian Coalition, Focus on the Family, and other groups organized nationally and took on political battles – and more large national pro-family groups blossomed in the 1990s. But Phyllis had paved the way. And none of those other groups has changed America the way she did.
Phyllis’s list of other accomplishments over the years is monumental. You can read about most of them in this Human Events article.
The Eagle Forum
After the stunning victory over ERA, Phyllis Schlafly’s Eagle Forum organization blossomed. It has chapters across America and at one point, according to reports, had nearly 100,000 members. Over the years, Phyllis would tirelessly visit chapters around the country and speak at their banquets and work with their leaders.
Interestingly, the chapters had and still have a reputation for being much more “moderate” and non-confrontational in their approach to political action than Phyllis herself, although they are completely loyal to her ideas and philosophy and do not compromise on core pro-family principles.
This is probably because the women who take on the chapter leadership positions tend to be more “organizers” rather than firebrands, and are often married to wealthy husbands who can help with the chapter’s expenses. This is completely understandable, but has sometimes caused confusion to other conservatives expecting a more aggressive approach. And as a result, the chapters have rarely been as successful as Phyllis herself in stopping destructive liberal forces.
We believe that her independent approach also allowed Phyllis to build an independent fundraising network outside of the unreliable and mushy “mainstream” pro-family donor community.
Making the Republican Party pro-life
A lot of people today just assume that the Republican Party has always been pro-life. But after the Supreme Court abortion decision in 1973, the GOP establishment had little interest taking a stand. The pro-life platform was predominately due to the force of will of Phyllis Schlafly, who attended every GOP national convention since 1952, and got her people on the platform committee.
Phyllis and today’s national pro-family movement
As the “culture wars” began to heat up in the 1990s, Phyllis never seemed to fit in with the emerging national pro-family establishment in America. And she was rarely invited to their national conferences or asked to participate in major events or planning sessions. We consider that a mark of high distinction for Phyllis. It appears to us that she recognized that the national pro-family movement had become like the GOP establishment – a double-dealer to its supporters. Over time the pro-family “establishment” has consistently compromised the core principles of the larger base. It’s happened on homosexuality, civil unions, gay marriage, comprehensive sex-ed, and most recently transgenderism. They do it to appease the more moderate conservative donor class and avoid confrontations with the LGBT movement and the liberal media. Phyllis has consistently refused to play that dishonest game.
That “mild” approach would never have won the ERA battle. Phyllis never wavered on her core principles on any of the increasingly incendiary “culture war” issues. Instead, she held her own annual pro-family conference where she took on the issues she felt important, honored the politicians who deserved honor, and did it her way. Skipping to the end of the article:
An intellectual dynamo until the end
Most people slow down when they become elderly. But Phyllis was an exception. She never missed a beat. Through her eighties she continued to be a forceful and dynamic speaker on the college circuit – often taking considerable abuse from “liberal” audiences while continuing to dish it out.
Right up until her death she continued to write books, columns, and articles that were simply outstanding. And it’s utterly amazing to watch the videos her interviews of her sharp analysis of current events from even weeks before her passing.
And the liberals hated her even in death. The Boston Globe called her “polarizing.” The wave of hateful and odious tweets and posts from the mindless liberal pundits and celebrities is a testament to her power over them.
There will never be another Phyllis Schlafly. She was the best. RIP.
The End?
To quote Sylvia: Evil never sleeps it is simply relentless.
The moral battle against the wickedness of leftism will not end. The leftists do not let little things like “laws” and “rules” get in the way of achieving their objectives.
Despite their preening that “the arc of history bends towards [NeoMarxist] ‘justice'” reality is an unforgiving teacher. History is there for anyone to learn from, and see the mistakes of others, and gives us a path on how we can move forward, if we allow ourselves to lose the self-righteous chronological snobbery that somehow, by magic, the youngest least educated and least experienced among us are the enlightened ones who will lead us into a new golden era. Idealists always believe their own rhetoric, even when faced with towering mountains of undeniable contrary evidence.
UPDATE!
Deadline 9:45 AM CST 2/13/20 Ask your Rep to vote NO on ERA
Since last April, Eagle Forum has been tracking the Equal Rights Amendment in the U.S. House of Representatives. Democrats and ERA activists have falsely claimed only one state is left to pass the ERA.
Upon passage in 1972, the ERA was sent to the states for ratification. 38 states needed to pass the amendment within seven years. In that time frame, only 35 states passed the ERA and 5 states rescinded their ratifications (Nebraska, Tennessee, Idaho, Kentucky, South Dakota). The ERA failed ratification and in 1982 the Supreme Court in NOW v. Idaho ruled that the ERA was dead.
To validate their belief that the ERA is still eligible for ratification, the House is attempting to pass H.J. Res. 79, which retroactively removes the ratification deadline. Removing the ERA’s ratification deadline in this manner would be like Congress voting today to overturn a veto by President Carter. In addition, this maneuver sets the dangerous precedent that Congress can legislate away pieces of law that prevent them from furthering their political agenda. To add to this, Congress is undermining the will of the people in Nebraska, Tennessee, Idaho, Kentucky, and South Dakota, who all rescinded ratification, by counting these five states as part of the original 35.
Consistent with the decision in NOW v. Idaho, the Department of Justice released an opinion on January 8, 2020. The DOJ stated: “Congress may not revive a proposed amendment after a deadline for its ratification has expired. Should Congress wish to propose the amendment anew, it may do so through the same procedures required to propose an amendment in the first instance, consistent with Article V of the Constitution.” Upon the release of this opinion, Representatives Maloney (D-CA), Speier (D-CA), Reed (D-NY), and Fitzpatrick (R-PA) released a joint press release. They said: “Virginia’s vote and the outpouring of support from Americans –men and women – across the country have shown that it is finally time to affirm women’s equality in our Constitution and that there is no timeline or expiration date when it comes to achieving it.”
It should concern everyone that these ERA supporters call the deadline “arbitrary” and believe that the Constitution doesn’t already protect all people, including women, when indeed it does.
To add to this, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously in Dillon v. Gloss (1921) that Congress has the power to choose a reasonable time frame for the states to consider amendments. Amendments should have a “contemporaneous consensus” or a time frame that protects the Constitution and Americans from amendments that are no longer relevant to the current day. Most would agree that we’ve come a long way since the 1970s.
Even if the deadline hadn’t passed, the ERA is still a bad policy that harms women. There are many unintended consequences of not distinguishing between biological males and females. The clause “on account of sex” will surely be interpreted to provide for men identifying as women. Indeed, at the Federal level, the Equality Act and the Violence Against Women Act include provisions allowing men to take advantage of women’s only institutions, like women’s prisons, shelters, sports teams, restrooms, and locker rooms.
In addition, the amendment removes all protections for women merely because men don’t need those same protections. These include workplace practices that accommodate pregnant women, state labor laws for women who do heavy and manual work, government programs that support mothers, like WIC, and laws and presumptions that support women in the areas of alimony, child support, and the requirement of husbands to pay the medical bills of dependent wives. The ERA is sex neutral.
More importantly, the ERA will expand abortion. In both New Mexico and Connecticut, the state’s ERAs were used to overturn abortion restrictions and mandate taxpayer funding of abortion (N.M Right to Choose/NARAL v. Johnson, Doe v. Maher).
The ERA is dangerous and threatens the well-being of women and unborn children. Please ask your Representative to vote NO on H. Res. 79.
Click here for more information on the ERA. Capitol Switchboard: 202-224-3121
Today the House voted to remove the ERA’s 7-year ratification deadline (H.J.Res. 79). For Members of the House supporting H.J.Res. 79, this was a purely symbolic vote. The ERA doesn’t give women anymore protections than they already have. The 14th Amendment, as well as many other laws like Title IX, the Equal Opportunity Act of 1963, the Equal Employment Opportunity Discrimination Act, the Pregnancy Discrimination Act, and the Equal Pay Act provide women equal rights.
Removing the 7-year ratification deadline doesn’t bring the Amendment any closer to ratification. For 24 of the states that passed the ERA, their votes to ratify the ERA explicitly expired on March 22, 1979. To add to this, in 1982, the Supreme Court ruled in NOW v. Idaho that ERA failed ratification and was effectively dead. Earlier this year, the DOJ released an opinion supporting this decision.
On Tuesday, a Vox headline said, “Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has “…dealt a fatal blow to the Equal Rights Amendment.” According to Justice Ginsberg, the ratification process must start over for the ERA to become enshrined into the Constitution. Phyllis Schlafly and RBG agree: ERA is dead on arrival.
The article went on further to say that, “Ginsburg’s comments are likely to be the death knell for the ERA. Without Ginsburg’s vote, it’s tough to imagine that five members of the Supreme Court would agree the ERA was properly ratified.”
“Congress should heed RBG’s advice instead of passing a Resolution removing a deadline that can’t be removed. In doing so, these Members have failed to protect the many women who’ve elected them.” said Eagle Forum President Eunie Smith. “Under the guise of “women’s equality,” the ERA will remove every distinction between the sexes and enshrine abortion into the Constitution. The ERA is not about protecting women. The Senate will be wise to not consider the measure.”
Eagle Forum’s Washington, D.C. staff, Tabitha Walter and Kirsten Hasler, were able to witness the vote in the House Gallery.
For more information on the ERA, please visit Eagle Forum’s website and listen to episode 6 of our podcast, Engage with Eagle Forum. Kirsten Hasler, Tabitha Walter, and Anne Schlafly Cori have also written on the harms of the ERA.
Please consider this the DOJ pro/con sound off thread. PLEASE read Scott467 response comments (highlighted at the bottom) which are right up there with Wolfie’s Roller Coaster essay. Well done, Scott! It’s time to sound off!
QTreepers can follow a story faster than a sneeze. Impressive! What was a fairly boring news day following the machinations of the NH Primary, was rocked by news coming out of the DOJ.
Jussie Smollet indicted on 6 counts by a Special Prosecutor in Chicago (which could have dominated a news cycle by itself).
News of 4 DOJ Prosecutors, 3 of them on the Mueller Special Counsel, resigning after the dust up on Roger Stone sentencing…. sending DC media into a firestorm. (WaPost said it was a ‘break glass moment at the DOJ’, the WaPost is running out of incendiary headlines)
News of Jessie Liu, former US Attorney to DC, nomination to the US Treasury being pulled…suddenly.
and silence fell over the land……… something was “up”.
By late afternoon, the President gave an Oval Office presser and commented on the Roger Stone sentencing. PDJT was not happy. Then we received news from the DOJ that the sentencing recommendation was NOT what was discussed within the hierarchy, which sets up a HUGE problem. Barr acted, pulled the recommendation and four prosecutors resigned….. and the MSM went wild. Comments across media, from Nadler and Schumer implying a conspiracy within the WH/DOJ to subvert justice. Oh, they’re ready to impeach the President AGAIN. But it was just beginning…..
By 7:00pm, we had Lou Dobbs with a segment about Jessie Lu, who left the US Atty slot in DC because she was promised a plum job at US Treasury. Her nomination hearing is supposed to take place in the Senate this week…… and the nomination was pulled. Made everyone’s head spin. FLEP has great details on this, won’t bother you with them here.
Devin Nunes spoke to Dobbs later about the problem of Liu and James Wolfe, Senate Intel Committee (see FLEP for video) but it instantly reminded us of the Geico Commercial……. Yeah, Jessie Liu almost had that plum job at Treasury but was faked out. OOooo, she almost had it!
By mid-evening, the NH Primary was old news. Everywhere we turned, folks were talking about the DOJ, “Are we finally getting some justice?” to “Why has it taken so long to get justice?”. Heck, I woke up in the middle of the night to let the dog out…. and people were talking about DOJ/JUSTICE on the a Blueberry Muffin Thread!! Don’t get me wrong, not complaining, we all post stuff on different threads……. it was a good thing because I found a golden nugget, The Muffin Thread is where I found this GEM from Scott467. By the time I finished reading Scott’s comment, I was wide awake, cheering. Scott nailed it. Here it is:
I just don’t know why ANY of the games are necessary. I don’t even know who all the games are FOR. They’re certainly not for OUR benefit, Sleepy Joe Public certainly isn’t keeping track of any of the palace intrigue. And the bad guys certainly don’t give a flip about the perception game.
It all reminds me of the arguments (such as they were) I used to have with Sundance about his insistence that Washington exists in a virtual alternate reality, a place where law means nothing and perception is all that counts. He could never explain it, or even try. We were just supposed to swallow it whole, like mm-mmm good dogma.
The Left doesn’t worry about ‘awakening’ the public, or public support, or even concern itself with whether the public lives or dies (preferably dies, from their perspective). They just arrest whomever they want, prosecute whomever they want, railroad whomever they want, smear whomever they want, violate whomever’s rights they want, simply because they have the power to do so and the WILL to do it. Because NOBODY is going to stop them. Like nerds with chips on their shoulders the size of Mount Everest.
But when on extremely rare occasion the ‘good guys’ are in a position to purge and wipe the slate wholly clean, they don’t. Instead, they play an elaborate game, taking YEARS, ostensibly in the effort to win public support for simply enforcing the LAW. Apparently failing to realize that they don’t need any permission to ENFORCE the freakin’ LAW.
If people are committing treason, don’t tell us about all the clues and evidence… you have the power to arrest and convict them… so DO it already. Nobody is going to stop you, just like nobody ever stopped the lawless tyrants. I know, I know, the government is filled with dirty prosecutors and judges who will see to it that the bad guys are never actually convicted. So arrest the dirty prosecutors and judges.
It’s not rocket science.
When bad people do bad things, the people granted power and authority to enforce the Law have a responsibility and an OBLIGATION to take control of the situation and ENFORCE the LAW. It doesn’t matter if the public understands SQUAT about it (they don’t, and they won’t, and they never have!). The public is simply NOT relevant to the enforcement of the LAW.
EQUAL JUSTICE UNDER LAW.
What part of that does law enforcement NOT understand?!?
If I run a traffic light, and a cop sees me, he doesn’t go on TV and try his case in public, to win public support, so that maybe, 3 years down the road, he can issue me a traffic ticket. He USES his lawful authority to pull me over and give me a ticket right then and there. It could even happen in the middle of the night, on the highway, with NO witnesses! The public would NEVER find out about my traffic ticket, and yet I would still have to pay it, or the state would begin using its power and authority to compel me to pay it, one way or the other. They always do, because they know EXACTLY how to exercise power… when they WANT to. People in positions of power always do.
But now we’re in alternate reality land, where the people who ARE awake must be convinced that the Public who mostly couldn’t care less must be ‘awakened’ (but never actually are awakened) before the Cops can ever do their job.
The whole thing is a farce.
In fact, it’s disrespectful to the word ‘farce’ to compare the ongoing insanity to anything so noble as ‘farce’.
Our guy, Scott467.
It gets better. Scott was just getting started. Scott is tired of excuses and so are we. A few folks chimed in and pleaded for patience which is understandable. I know, I know, wheels of justice grind slowly but exceedingly fine….. we’re playing by the rules while the other side is trashing the rules. It’s frustrating. We’re ready to mop up this mess.
PGroup and Ozzie were fabulous, calm, and rational! Scott continued and by the time he was done, I was ready to nominate HIM for Atty General. PGroup commented he was in awe of the “slick move” to eradicate Jessie Liu. Scott responded brilliantly…… Watch. (Edited for space, emphasis is mine, Scott’s words are powerful, full comment here: https://wqth.wordpress.com/2020/02/11/about-those-blueberry-muffins/ )
……. We the People OWN this country, it is OURS. We are NOT hostages to traitors, unless we allow ourselves to be. And if we do, that’s just sick……..A lot of wasted energy and wasted time. Justice delayed is justice denied. We don’t have to reinvent the wheel, and there’s not a single person in Washington on either side who doesn’t know how to exercise power.
The only mystery is why nobody will DO it.
But I’m not in awe, I’m in pain. Every day. And I’m in grief over the lawless ruin our country has become. That doesn’t leave much room for ‘awe’ at slick maneuvers. What is needed, what has been needed from day one, and what we all thought we were getting was a man of ACTION.
YES, I know the script, I know the great ‘hope’, I know ‘the plan’ we’re all supposed to be following (but which no one ever actually articulates). It starts to ring a little hollow after 1,100 days and counting…..
It means the Constitution was created for OUR benefit, to serve US — it was NOT created to serve the interests of TRAITORS seeking to DESTROY us. And if it should be that the Constitution was either destroyed or twisted by Traitors, such that We the People and the Republic are in danger of being lost, not only are we NOT obligated by the Constitution, but contrariwise, we have a duty far above and beyond the remains of the Constitution to do whatever is necessary to SAVE the Republic.
The Constitution didn’t start this country. This country and our People existed long before the Constitution did. The Constitution was established to protect US (We the People) FROM the very tyrannical government we now face. We are NOT obligated to self destruct, to lose the Republic to Traitors within, because lawyers have twisted the Constitution and the laws against us……
The Constitution exists to SERVE us. Not only would the president have been well within his Rights and lawful Authority to do so, but he has a Duty and Obligation and Oath of Office requiring him to do so. But 3+ years later, we’re still playing games about how to ‘trick’ people into leaving their positions of abuse in government. Meanwhile the People continue to suffer — year after year after year. Our rights remain trampled upon and the enemy continues to encroach with abandon. Traitors at the highest level in the history of our Republic remain free. The rule of Law remains dead and buried.
“SD’s Big Ugly has begun. And there’s nothing anyone can do to stop it or slow it down.” I hope so.
The thing is, we shouldn’t have to be relying on ‘hope’.
There IS an overwhelming feeling of frustration with our current double standard of justice. If we don’t discipline the toddler, the toddler demands cookies for dinner. Not being an Eeyore to call it out. Hillary/Obama buddies have gorged themselves on too many cookies. There must be consequences. We can’t ignore it nor pretend the problem does not exist. It’s time for indictments.
Think I’m over-reacting?
Good heavens, the political opposition has smeared the President of the USA, his family, and ALL of his associates, PLUS those who voted for him, for FOUR YEARS. They almost impeached our President on a false whim and didn’t even allow him to defend himself within the Congress of the United States…….
The problem with the double standard of justice and lack of objectivity in the media and in the DOJ cannot possibly become any MORE severe than our current state of affairs. Are we fearful of offending the other side? Are we waiting for the slow grind of the wheel of justice? Why are we sitting on our hands? What are we so passive and accommodating to those who are ruining our country, our culture, and our legal system?
Yeah, this is the sound-off thread.
What happens when we ignore the problem or choose not to prosecute? We get guys like this…..
PASADENA, CA – JANUARY 15: Jussie Smollett attends the 49th NAACP Image Awards at Pasadena Civic Auditorium on January 15, 2018 in Pasadena, California. (Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images for NAACP )
While we’re waiting on New Hampshire primary results, and because there is no other news besides New Hampshire, I figured it might be time for a story.
The story is not hard to imagine. It’s a method of self-deprecation I used throughout my life, to allow others to make the decision…. after I have made a gentle suggestion. I usually throw my hands up, surrendering, “I just make the muffins, it’s really your decision”. It all started almost 40yrs ago.
I was a shallow, self-absorbed, female teenager, constantly late…. until I got fired for being late and then….. was never late again. In my foolish arrogance, I was convinced I would be come a successful executive and therefore, didn’t need to learn to cook….. I could hire a cook. My parents, Dad and Step Mom, both excellent cooks and entertained lavishly and effortlessly. They laughed at me, shook their heads and waited for the passage of time to correct my view of the world.
On a fluke, I was hired as a hostess for a hotel restaurant and promoted to manager by the end of the week. There, I learned……… every one had to eat (Imagine my surprise! Why are we so dumb when we’re young?)…….. there was money to be made in food (that was the good part)…….. being the host meant networking (I am a social creature)…….. and more power (I really liked that part)…… and finally, GOOD FOOD has strange powers of coercion (most beneficial)…… Almost overnight, food took on a whole new meaning for me. I knew I had a lot to learn but became obsessed with learning to cook and the fine art of entertaining. Kind of strange that I should end up owning a B&B, eh?
In the early years, friends and relatives were my guinea pigs as I worked my way through cookbooks. Business led me to NYC and a choice of transfer landed me in Miami at 22yrs old. In the final interview with my new boss, I asked him how he got started with new client development. Our company strongly relied upon repeat business. I knew the corporate office (I came out of the corp office in NYC) wanted their national reps to focus more on NEW business. The General Manager for all of South Florida, a mass of a man, a man’s man, thought about my question and glibly replied that he took doughnuts to all the Fire Dept Inspectors/Chiefs, thus creating friendships. Therefore, he got a peek at the drawings/specifications before anyone else.
I remembered what he said. Yet, I was a young exec, just starting out with a new apartment. I had to buy an ironing board and shoe trees, pots and pans. Doughnuts were expensive and there were 45 municipalities in my area. Do you have any idea how many doughnuts 45 fire departments can eat? I needed another option……. enter, Blueberry Muffins.
I shopped on Saturdays and cooked on Sundays, hundreds and thousands of muffins. It worked. I got to see the plans and specifications. I was “in the room”, at least, and south Florida was booming in the 1980’s.
One day, typical day, I was in the room with a Fire Dept Inspector/Chief who was on a call to the Architect in Atlanta. He waved me into his office and I put the muffin basket down on his desk. He grabbed for one, ripping apart the paper, disregarding the idea that he was on the phone with food in his mouth. He put the phone on speaker, telling the Architect that the ADT Nat Rep for Security System hardware/design was in the room. No response from the Architect. The Chief was a little intimidated by the “big” Architect in Atlanta. I could tell. Yet, the Architect in Atlanta was dismissive of my “friend” the Chief, and I didn’t like it. The building was a high rise, about 30 stories, and the architect had a bad case of “the big head”. As the conversation went on, the more condescending the Architect became.
I grew up at the knee of my Dad. There were building plans and concept models in my nursery as a baby. His team invented high speed elevators, and I was on the job site for installs at Sear’s Tower, Hancock Building, Amoco, The Superdome, etc. Their architects bounced me on their knee. Their union heads built my swing set. Let’s just say……. a pissant Architect from a swamp town like Atlanta (compared to Chicago and NYC) with a piddly-little-30-story-condo didn’t intimidate me at all. Truth was, most of all, I was mad he was not respectful to my friend. He wasn’t talking to the Chief like an Architect would talk to my Dad. He was looking down on the Chief…….. and it pissed me off.
Every set of drawings has errors. It’s a given. It would be impossible to create a set of drawings for any small home or a half-bath, let alone a 30 story building, without errors. Discovery of an error usually leads to a phone call from the engineer or contractor back to the Project Architect, as in, “What do you want to do about… XYZ?” It’s usually no problem at all, because it happens all the time. Anyone with any amount of experience in the industry knows this. How an architect reacts to the phone call speaks VOLUMES about the kind of fellow he is. For most of the conversation between the Chief and the Architect, however, I remained dutifully silent.
As the two men got ready to close the conversation, the Architect asked if the Chief had any questions. The Chief looked at me, open palmed, “You have any questions?” I nodded and moved closer to the speaker phone. Innocently… , like a little bird chirping, I asked about a few of the errors, which I CASUALLY found, that would hamper our install of the security system for each unit, fire system for the building, and CCTV. Note: these were not small errors, they were HUGE errors, and would significantly change my bid price on the project. The architect damn near came through the phone, demanding to know who I was….. Yep, spoke volumes.
In that moment, a key moment, everything moves in slow motion and we remember the fine details which reveal much. The Architect’s reaction was over the top, defensive for no reason. He was an ass with a chip on his shoulder, which obviously had nothing to do with the Chief or me. In a flash, I could tell by the look on the Chief’s face, he was used to being treated this way by Architects….. which was a bad sign. Yet, the way the Chief set his jaw, leaned forward in a primal way, was instantly protective of me….. that was a good sign of an honorable man. I was his buddy, and a young woman who brought him sweets. Beyond that, my question was valid…. and I knew it. After all, I was the bored young upstart with nothing to do late at night except look at building plans. The Chief, who was no electrical engineer but had superior working knowledge, reached for his set of plans immediately to check on my questions. All of this happened in what must have been a 3-second-pause on a long distance phone call. I opened my mouth to respond to the Architect….
And out it came…….
“Hey, I’m just the lady who makes the blueberry muffins for the firehouse, but it seems to me… that if you did ABC……. then XYZ would be easier. And it would probably save a lot of conduit, time, cost for the client, and the install would go faster…….. and I’m guessing……. the electrical contractor would kiss you and send you a great Christmas present…….and YOUR client would be happy with the time and money saved……short pause…… but what do I know….. I’m just making muffins……. you’re the Architect and you would know best.”, paraphrasing, that’s about what I said. Dead silence on the phone line from Atlanta…….
Knowing how to WAIT for an answer, silently, the Chief broke out in a Cheshire Cat grin. He knew exactly what I was doing, and he was laughing about it. I was all of 22yrs old. I had no business getting into a pissing contest with a 45yr old Architect from Atlanta and a 60yr old Fire Chief who definitely didn’t need lil’ ole me to defend him. Yet, hard to say it, but I knew I was right. The Architect countered with an argument about length of runs, placement and design of the chase system….. I was still right.
Within 3 days, the Chief received “additions and revisions”. As we discovered more errors (because it’s bound to happen), it became a running joke between the Chief and me. I loved that man…. like an uncle. He tucked me under his wing and ensured my success. And it started with Blueberry Muffins.
Blueberry Muffins became a mainstay in my life.
Flash forward….. I left ADT, joined a brokerage firm, loved it, cashed out, moved home, started the B&B, and got married……
I found a recipe for a German Pancake which I altered and became a winner for the B&B. I grew tired of making the same dish and changed up the menu after a few years. Unknown to me, one of my best corp clients flew in with a bunch of big shots he was trying to persuade…….. The whole flight in, he talked about my Blueberry pancakes…… and I didn’t serve them that morning. Whoops! He was crushed. I had to remake breakfast…. just for those sweet boys/men/powerful men/Capitalist Gods. From then on, when the blueberries ripen, late July, I order 20 gallons of them. The plastic bins cover every kitchen counter and the whole house smells like a great big blueberry. It’s wonderful.
Again, blueberry pancakes and muffins were the key to my success.
A few years later, I was at least 8 months pregnant…………. and the subject of muffins, actually, blueberry pancakes, came up again in a key moment. I was making breakfast, minding my own business, hanging out in the kitchen. In the Dining Room were the Mayor of our little town, the State’s Econ Development Director, and four Corp Execs who were in the final stages of negotiation for a 200 million dollar facility in our town, employing hundreds. The corp execs and our town/state had worked on the project for months. The execs had become friends, and completely outfitted my soon-to-be newborn in Nittany Lion gear from their home town. In other words, I knew everyone there and knew them well. They had the site plans stretched all over the dining table, and I had a hard time serving them, weaving in and out, while they gesticulated. They were arguing……..
Problem was, the agreed upon building site was under water. We had a “500yr rain” the day before the corp execs came in and the site was flooded. They were hesitating and considering another site in a competing town. They went back and forth. The guy in charge, Corp VP was about 6’3″, and our Mayor was about 6’4″ and their egos were getting in the way. The Mayor said, “Well Captain, I don’t believe I can help you.”, which I’ve heard before from him. It meant he was ready to walk away…. and lose the project. We were stuck.
It was really none of my business.
I was familiar with the building site, as my stepson played soccer in the fields at the end of the new “industrial park”. The building site opposite the proposed site was TOO HIGH, and required an enormous amount of grading for parking and truck access (and had a reduced price because of the elevation problem). I called my first husband, who was a contractor. I asked him how much it cost to move a cubic yard of dirt, if I supplied the dirt, equipment, diesel, and labor, to move it across the street. Off the top of his head, he said $1.69/yd. I did the math on a kitchen scroll usually used for the grocery list……… and walked into the dining room with a proposed solution.
And I started……
“You know fellas, I just make the blueberry pancakes here, but it seems to me, the site across the street is too high, and this one is too low, so if you move the dirt from one to another……. I’ve done the math……. I’m coming up with about $67K on a 197 million dollar project…… so it looks good to me……. but you should check my figures…….. cuz you would know better than me……. and the City should pay for the $67K (Mayor frowned at me)…… but the cost would be recovered because price for land across the street could be increased!……….. but you guys know more about this stuff than lil’ ole me…..
It was a win for the Corp Execs as they got the land improved at no cost. Ego assuaged. It was a mild capitulation for the Mayor, but he ended up raising the price of the land across the street another $120K, making money on the NEXT deal (which was also resolved over my dining room table). My first husband got the contract to supervise the excavating and soil testing. Win-win, all around.
And it worked.
Again…….
And again………..
And again……….
It’s all about a gentle suggestion, allowing those in control to come to their own conclusions, with a little bit of coercion in the form of Blueberry Muffins or Pancakes….. and for those in the know, Chocolate Chip Cookies work just as well.
Please consider this the thread for the NH Primary for Tuesday. Who do you think will win? Do you think we’ll get a result? Should we start a pool?
I’m not even sure who is still running on the Dem side. Why is Tulsi still there? Their platforms are all pretty much the same and no way to distinguish them except for minor differences.
The polling is all over the place. Is Bernie still in the lead? Is Amy surging? Is Biden on the ropes? What happened to Pete’s momentum? Why can’t Tom Steyer buy a new tie? Why won’t they let Yang talk? Why is Tulsi STILL THERE???? And oh…….. we forgot about Warren. Bet that happens to her quite a bit.
Results will begin to stream in in less than an hour as Dixville Notch citizens gather at midnight and vote en masse. This peculiarity brings media attention to Dixville Notch every four years. Good for them.
Yet, tomorrow is the BIG DAY for the Dems. The chance for Media Pundits to work their way out of the doldrums and do their favorite thing in the world……. talk about themselves. Look for them to be PERKY in the morning on CNN and MSDNC. They will probably seek to use the NH primary to change the narrative after the whippin’ they took from President Trump last week. We know they’re going to talk about President Trump all day long.
There seems to be great stress on the part of the Dems. From Politico today:
“The campaign (Trump’s campaign) doesn’t have to do anything but sit back and watch the Dems destroy themselves. It’s like a dream scenario.”
Politico, via FOX, February 10, 2020
Gosh, wonder whatever gave them them that impression?
Trump Rally in Manchester, NH, February 10, 2020
Does anyone here think our President might find a way to step all over the news cycle today? I mean….. I’m just guessing….. but what do I know….. And President Trump’s Admin has been cleaning house, vindicated after the Acquittal. President Trump has the wind at his back, gathering steam, his political enemies are on their heels…… and President Trump doesn’t strike me as the kind of guy who would let an opponent get up off the mat…… but what do I know….. And President Trump has been talking incessantly about how hard the past few years have been on his family; they were treated unfairly. Does anyone think, maybe, he’s looking for a bit of payback? I’m thinking he’s ready…… but what do I know…….
Gosh, I might have to make a LOT of Blueberry Muffins today.
See you all in the morning! It will be a busy news day full of desperation and liberal tears.
Full replay for those who missed it the first time.
It’s 37 degrees in Manchester, NH, with a light rain. By rally time, it should be 31 degrees and cloudy. You guys ready for a MAGA Rally? The first Rally since President Trump’s Acquittal and the demise of the Dems in Iowa? Ready for President Trump to wade into New Hampshire and bust up the news around all remaining Dem Presidential candidates? Throw on a ski jacket and some gloves, we’re headed to New Hampshire for the “First in the Nation Primary”!
The little town of Dixville Notch is the first to report in Tuesday’s primary. Their polls open on Monday night/Midnight/Tuesday morning, where all voters gather and are tallied. THEY report first!
New Hampshire citizens take their politics seriously. This is a “Live Free or DIE” kind of a state. Rain, sleet, or snow, will not dissuade them from campaigning.
With the overwhelming disaster of the Democrats Iowa Caucus, New Hampshire is taking the chance to crap all over Iowa, as in, “Iowa picks corn, New Hampshire picks Presidents”.
The Democrats will fight it out in the NH Primary, but we all know, President Trump will have the biggest rally of them all. Supporters are already in line in Manchester.
AMAZING! It's 35° and Raining in New Hampshire But That Doesn't Stop Trump Supporters from LINING UP 2 DAYS EARLY for Manchester Rally! https://t.co/aPXtluhbIh via @gatewaypundit
Manchester is the biggest city in the states of NH, VT, or Maine, about 110K within the city proper and almost 500K in the metro area. Manchester is only 18 miles south of the State Capital of Concord, south of Manchester is Nashua……. and Manchester is only 53 miles, straight up I-95 from downtown Boston. Therefore, we get one continuous metro region, sprawling from Boston to south central New Hampshire.
The city is gorgeous, full of rich history, divided by the Merrimack River and lined with enormous red-brick mills which used to make the underwear and garments for your grandparents. Perfect location to the major metro of Boston, river for a water power resource and transportation of finished goods….. how many times have we seen this formula repeated all over the world?
The “Mills of Manchester” generated so much wealth, that the town of Manchester has some extraordinary architecture. Yet, the mills also welcomed “child labor” for legal immigrants coming to the USA. “Bad working conditions” and “exploitation of children and women” made Manchester a hot bed for worker protests….. Eventually, the mills were moved overseas, due to “failure to adapt to changing societal conditions” ….. where other countries exploit their women and children under similar working conditions.
The Amoskeag Manufacturing Company was unrivaled in quality and quantity of production. The story of the mill is fascinating. It was the largest cotton textile plant in the world. What was accomplished here was nothing short of an industrial miracle. And they were PROUD of what they did for the nation and the world.
Largest Flag in the USA, unfurled in from of the Mills in 1914.
Here is the story, and it’s a valuable lesson for us all:
Back in 1807, Samuel Blodgett completed a system of canals and locks at Derryfield, allowing his ships to bypass the Amoskeag Falls on the Merrimack River. Remember, we’re in New England, coming out of mountains and back to sea level, so many of these rivers “rush” because of the fall of the land. Blodgett’s project allowed boats passing from Concord (north of Manchester) to Nashua (south of Manchester) to travel safely to Boston…… Imagine that? A big infrastructure project opened up the whole region for development!
At the time, Manchester England was a hubbub of industry in England. The new “opportunity zone” between Concord and Nashua was perfect for industry. The town of Derryfield was renamed “Manchester” in 1810.
Starting in 1810, “Benjamin Prichard and others incorporated the Amoskeag Cotton & Woolen Manufacturing Company. He and three brothers—Ephraim, David and Robert Stevens—had purchased land and water power rights the year before on the west bank of the Merrimack near Amoskeag Bridge, where they built a mill.” (according to Wiki) but the mill passed through several owners. In April 1826, Dr. Dean moved to the site and oversaw construction of the new Bell Mill, which was named for the bell on its roof to summon workers.
Also erected was the Island Mill, located on an island in the Merrimack. Boarding houses and stores were built, creating the factory village of Amoskeag. The three-mill complex prospered, becoming known for its excellent “sheetings, shirtings and tickings,” especially the latter. Success attracted investors. With capital of 1 million dollars, the business was incorporated on July 1, 1831, as the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company. Offices were established in Boston, where the treasurer de facto ran the firm, with an agent (manager) in Manchester to oversee personnel and operation of the mills.
A full mill town was planned by the company. Consequently, most of the land on the east side was purchased in 1835, where property holdings would eventually encompass 15,000 acres (61 km2). It would also purchase all nearby water power rights to prevent competition (Imagine that? Guaranteeing access to resources necessary). A foundry and machine shop were established to make and maintain mill machinery. In 1838, Manchester was laid out and founded. In 1839, Stark Mill No. 1, an Amoskeag affiliate with 8,000 spindles, was completed, together with six blocks of boarding houses for employees. (Because employees have to live somewhere!)
Manchester, NH, about 1840.
All the mills were made from the same red brick…… because the company owned the brickyard upriver in Hooksett. Smart…. own the supply chain.
Wait until you hear this one, it’s the story of America.
In 1842, the trains came to Manchester because of a need for speed of supply. Had to transport southern cotton to mills in Manchester. One customer would be Levi Strauss, whose riveted blue jeans were made with cloth from the Amoskeag Mills. The trains then connected the mills to distribute finished cloth all over the country. It’s how America grew.
Incorporated in 1846, Manchester was intended to be a model of utopian factory-city planning, as Lowell, Massachusetts, had been. (Imagine that! Elites from Boston planning Utopian cities for the minions of worker bees) William Amory, the cultured company treasurer, together with Ezekiel A. Straw, the first Amoskeag agent, influenced the style of Manchester’s urban design. It had broad avenues and squares (“reserved for public promenades”) graced by fine schools, churches, hospitals, fire stations and a library.
This is Elm Street, with the White Tower of Manchester City Hall on the left.
According to Wikipedia: “Everything in the company town seemed influenced by the benevolent paternalistic management—including the moral and physical habits of the help. Women in particular were monitored both at work and home in accordance with the Lowell System.” Does that statement seem a little eerie to anyone here?
Eventually the labor movements came to town. Immigrants from Sweden, Greece, Ireland, Canada had arrived in Manchester, each settling in a particular part of the city. Divisions in culture stoked the flames (Sound familiar to anyone?)
The company, worried about labor movements within the company in the wake of the 1912 Bread and Roses Strike in Lawrence, Massachusetts, attempted to prevent unionizing activities and promoted the “Americanization” of the workforce through benevolence activities and the construction of Textile Field (now Gill Stadium) in 1913. Child labor was not uncommon—Lewis Hine‘s photographs of child laborers at Amoskeag in 1909 have become famous—nor were injuries and fatalities rare in the mills.” Lewis Hines photos of children of Amoskeag, taken in 1909, became famous and tugged at the heartstrings of parents.
Amoskeag peaked by World War I, supplying the federal government with military-related materiel. It employed up to 17,000 workers in 74 textile departments, with 30 mills weaving 50 miles (80 km) of cloth per hour. It’s an extraordinary feat, even by today’s standards. It was the might of American Manufacturing.
Statistics:
Number of looms—24,200
Number of spindles—662,000
Length of cotton & worsted cloth woven per annum — 237,000,000 yards (217,000,000 m)
Number of bags woven per annum—1,500,000
Number of turbine water wheels—30
Power furnished by wheels — 16,290 hp (12,147 kW)
Number of boilers—185
Rated horsepower of boilers—27,750
Number of steam engines—12
Power furnished by engines — 15,100 hp (11,260 kW)
Number of steam turbines—5
Power furnished by turbines — 26,678 hp (19,894 kW)
Number of alternating current generators—14
Power developed by generators — 41,175 hp (30,704 kW)
Number of electric motors—583
Power of motors — 27,702 hp (20,657 kW)
Oil consumed per annum—75,000 US gal
Size:
Floor space in buildings — 5,844,340 sq ft (542,957 m2)
Floor space in buildings — 137 acres (0.6 km2)
At the end of WWI, the USA had a recession, decreasing need for cloth from the mills. Then Parker Straw, agent and grandson of Ezekiel A. Straw (Notice the controlling interest is still in the same family), posted a notice that as of February 13, 1922, all departments would receive a pay reduction of 20 percent, with running hours increased from 48 to 54 hours per week. The United Textile Workers of America persuaded millworkers to strike when the new arrangements were to take effect. They did, and the city’s entire economy suffered.
By the time Amoskeag got back to work, many customers were lost…… (Think of China right now). New energy and oil allowed cloth to be manufactured closer to where it was grown, which saved shipping costs. In the south, the looms were newer, some were automatic, and wages were lower. Plus, southern states did not tax inventory, as New Hampshire did. Suddenly, there was competition for Amoskeag….. when the Great Depression began.
Again, the Unions brought about the demise. “Violent strikes in 1933 and 1934 required the intervention of the New Hampshire State Militia. When the picketing ended and work resumed, vengeful agitators sabotaged machines and products. The stricken business closed mill buildings one by one, laying off scores of employees when few jobs existed.”
On Christmas Eve, 1935, the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company abruptly closed its doors and filed for bankruptcy. A damaging flood the following year ended any chance of revival. Per order of the presiding judge, the vast complex was liquidated.
Everyone was gone. The Mills fell silent.
Today, the Mills of Amogskeag have been converted into office and restaurant space, home to Software companies, and even a branch of SNHU. Rehab and rejuvenation was slow but New Hampshire is coming back, even after the extraordinary hit from opioids.
People pose in front of an American flag outside a former textile mill building in Manchester, N.H., on Wednesday, June 14, 2017, to replicate a photo taken in 1914 of workers at the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company with the original “Great Flag” they produced. The event was organized by the building’s owner, Brady Sullivan Properties, which marked Flag Day by giving donations to the Manchester Historic Association and Liberty House, a veterans organization. (AP Photo/Holly Ramer)
Currently, the Governor of New Hampshire is Christopher Sununu, son of John Sununu, stalwart Republican and red-pilled Trump Supporter. Chris Sununu has done a wonderful job as Governor and is traveling TODAY with VP Pence aboard Air Force 2 as they barnstorm the state ahead of tomorrow’s primary.
Christopher Sununu, Governor of New Hampshire.
Expect to see Chris Sununu this evening at the MAGA Rally in Manchester!
I recall many years ago……… 2016………. a Trump Rally in New Hampshire…… where we had lines of tail lights 4 miles long………. trying to get into the Trump Rally.
And now he has a record to run on! We’ll be there!
MANCHESTER, NH – FEBRUARY 08: People show their support for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump during a campaign rally at Verizon Wireless Arena on February 8, 2016 in Manchester, New Hampshire. Democratic and Republican Presidential candidates are finishing up with the last full day of campaigning before voters head to the polls tomorrow. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. Romans 8:26
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’s also a place to read, post and discuss news that’s worth knowing and sharing. Please post links to any news stories that you use as sources or quote from.
Please show respect and consideration for your fellow QTreepers.
In other words . . .
. . . and when it’s time to not be nice, we have a companion site – called The U Tree – where all legal speech is allowed and where you can run wild and free with the Wolfpack.
Please also consider the Important Guidelines, outlined here. Let’s not give the Internet Censors a reason to shut down this precious haven that Wolf has created for us.
My apologies, if due. I’ve reduced the size of the intro because of the size of the topic.
The Storm is upon us. Please remember to Pray for our President.
Prayer
The Problem with Prayer
For many, there appears to be a problem with prayer. “It’s a one-way conversation.” “It doesn’t seem to work.” “God takes too long to answer.” “God does what He wants anyway.”
Crushed between the mortar and pestle of life, it’s easy to think there’s a serious problem with prayer: God. When God doesn’t answer according to our will, we can get frustrated. We can feel like our prayers are just floating around the galaxy, too insignificant to catch the Creator’s attention. In the midst of this disappointment, we’re often too slow to accept that the problem with prayer is not God, but us. The Problem of Misunderstanding Prayer I used to think that life would be a lot easier if God answered a few more strategic prayers — just a couple key petitions to remind us that He’s listening. I was convinced that a profound healing here and there would add spice to the life of the church.
Then God healed Karen.
Our Sunday school class gathered for desperate prayer the night before the surgery to remove a tumor from Karen’s brain. The surgery would probably render her unable to speak for a long time. Leading the prayer, I asked God to comfort her husband, daughter, and family at this time of crisis, to help the surgeons, to speed her recovery, and — if He willed — to miraculously heal her.
Of course, that last part was just for show. Although I believed God could heal Karen, I was certain He would use less glorious means. As we drove home, I even told my wife, “Karen will probably never be the same again.”
The next morning the tumor had disappeared.
I assumed Karen’s response would be just as profound as God’s answer to prayer. After all, when a person experiences the awesome intervention of the Almighty God, we should expect an explosive revival, right?
Less than a year later, Karen left the church and divorced her husband.
I had always thought answers to prayer would strengthen faith and ignite thanksgiving. Disappointed in Karen’s response, I was reminded that even the Israelites grumbled and rebelled in the midst of powerful answers to their requests (Numbers 11:1-4).
You see, the problem with prayer is not God, but us. The Problem of Abusing Prayer When I was a new Christian, I mistakenly followed the “prosperity gospel,” the “name it-claim it” theology that overwhelmed Christian television and bookstores — and continues to overwhelm today. “Don’t make negative confessions,” I was told. “If you’re sick, confess that you’re healed!”
On one occasion, I mentioned to a self-proclaimed “prophetess” that I was going bald. Instantly, she placed her hand on my head and shouted, “No you’re not — in the name of Jesus!” That “prophetess” treated prayer like a credit card she could whip out at any time to make major purchases.
We may not be as extreme as that woman, but we can all fall into the trap of abusing prayer. While we may tack on a halfhearted “Thy will be done,” deep down we think, “No! My will be done!” Yes, Christ said, “Ask, and it will be given to you” (Matthew 7:7), but his brother James reminds us, “You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives” (James 4:3).
Once again, the problem with prayer is not God, but us.
Correcting the Problem with Prayer After a dozen years in Bible college, seminary, and Ph.D. studies, I’d hoped to finally have a handle on prayer. I don’t. In fact, the more I pray, the less I understand its profound mysteries. However, I’ve come to several conclusions that might help correct our perceived problems with prayer.
First, we need to understand that the purpose of prayer is not for God to please us, but for God to change us. If a father constantly gives in to a little child’s whiny demands, we’d take him for a lousy parent. Why, then, do some think God’s a stubborn God when He doesn’t give us everything we want? We need to trust that God is wise and powerful enough to answer rightly — and right on time. 1 John 5:14 says, “This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.” That is, God won’t jump at every loose-lipped confession. Prayer offered up in true faith submits to His will — our sanctification (1 Thessalonians 4:3). God’s will is to change us, not please us.
Second, we need to accept that the power of prayer is perceived in even the smallest response. I’m convinced that humans don’t fully comprehend how little we deserve God’s love and grace. Consider that what we regard as “crumbs” of answered prayer may really be bountiful feasts once we realize that God owes us nothing (Genesis 32:9-10; Luke 7:6-9). When we adjust our attitude about our own unworthiness to receive God’s favor, we’ll never regard “small” answers to prayer as insignificant.
Finally, we need to acknowledge that the process of prayer is not as important as the attitude of prayer. When God chose in His sovereignty to heal Karen, He did so even though none of us expected it. Our feeble prayer was a simple act of faith — turning our worries over to God’s care (Philippians 4:6; 1 Peter 5:6-7). Christians can get hung up on method, worried that they haven’t said the right words, haven’t prayed hard or often enough, or haven’t believed deeply enough. That’s hocus-pocus, not prayer (Matthew 6:5-8). If you’re concerned about not praying with the right words or for the right things, memorize Romans 8:26 — God’s Spirit even helped Paul pray!
Of course these reminders are easy to read, but they’re not easy to live. To our finite human minds, we’ll always perceive “problems” with prayer. Are you struggling with your prayer life, not seeing results, wondering if God is listening? It might be time for an attitude change. It might be time to finally accept that the problem with prayer is not God, but us.
Adapted from Michael J. Svigel, “The Problem with Prayer,” Insights (October 2005): 1-2.
I realized that the deepest spiritual lessons are not learned by His letting us have our way in the end, but by His making us wait, bearing with us in love and patience until we are able to honestly pray what He taught His disciples to pray: Thy will be done.
The Dems are in complete disarray, we have no confidence in the Iowa results. Allegedly we have Pete at 564 and Bernie at 562, but Bernie won the “popular vote” by over 2,000. Note that Bernie won the popular vote over Hillary in 2016 as well, and Hillary didn’t complain about popular vote back then. Hmmmmm.
Dem Congressmen and pundits are calling for Tom Perez to resign because, “The Dem Party is in chaos”. James Carville is about to lose his mind. And Karl Rove told us 79 districts had MORE total votes in the 3rd round than the 1st round, which is impossible……. unless someone cheated.
Bottom line, Trump won Iowa. We also have a MAGA/KAG Rally on Monday night with a New Hampshire Primary on Tuesday.
Let’s hope the chaos in the Dem Party lasts the rest of the year.
We’ve talked about it for a long time. It all comes back to Ukraine! And the Greg Rubini thread dovetails perfectly. In Maidan, over 40 policemen were also killed. A government doesn’t kill their own police. Take a look at the whole thread as it all fits together.
5. There were SNIPERS at windows of tall buildings surrounding the square. Strategically placed.
The snipers from the buildings shot both at protestors, both at the police officers.
The 1.8 BILLION (remember that number) was sent from USA to Ukraine to stabilize THEIR banking system back in 2014. Funds were deposited into PrivatBank, major stockholder was Kolomoisky, also hidden major owner of Burisma.
Guess what? Money disappeared. Chief Prosecutor for Ukraine, Shokin, was investigating missing money when the money trail led to Hunter Biden. During investigation, Shokin wrote letter to George Kent (one of the witnesses in Shampeachment) inquiring about the missing 1.8 billion. George Kent wrote back (we’ve seen the letter from Kent), we’re not worried about it all – all funds, every dollar, accounted for. Made no sense, right?
Theory is that Kolomoisky was using the money to wage a private war with Russia. A war that was NOT approved by Congress. Obama Admin using Ukraine as a proxy in war with Russia. Kolomoisky, through money laundering, using IMF money, was heading up the war. At one point, for instance, Kolomoisky had a single battalion with over 2K men, and thousands more in reserve. CUZ THERE WAS NO UKRAINE military and Ukraine had no money.
Note: Kolomoisky was made GOVERNOR, by Poroshenko (the State Dept favorite guy) of the “state/province” of the region bordering Russia. Previously —- Kolomoisky was on a US Travel ban, because he was a bad guy….. accused of murder, beheadings, killing rivals with a chainsaw, hiring thugs to intimidate biz rivals with baseball bats, iron bars, etc. Magically, his travel ban was lifted when Hunter Biden took a job on the Board of Directors.
Recall: Maidan uprising happened November of 2013-Feb of 2014. This ALL happened because Ukraine was being pushed to join NATO/EU, and Russia was threatening to turn off supply of LNG in the middle of winter. USA tried to take advantage of situation and place Ukraine in NATO basket, putting weapons right on the Russian border. The USA/NATO/EU under Obama offers Ukraine a sweet deal. Leader of Ukraine, Yanukovych rejected the deal, as Russia offered to rework Ukraine loans.
THAT pi$$ed off the State Dept. Recall Victoria Nuland’s conversation “F$ck the EU”. And thus began the Maidan uprising….. with enormous suspicion about WHO started it (Suspicion falls to a man named Eric Ciaramella, as he was attached to Biden, spoke Russian/Ukrainian fluently, but he CAME FROM CIA, via Brennan).
Victoria Nuland made 5 trips to Ukraine between November ’13-February ’14. We have video of her passing out cookies to the protesters, encouraging them to overthrow their government. We have video of McCain and Senator Chris Murphy encouraging protesters —- from the Oliver Stone Documentary, Ukraine on Fire: The True Story, listed in our QTREE Ukraine Master Time Line (it’s available on Amazon).
https://vimeo.com/252426896
Eventually, Yanukovych was overthrown and retreats to Russia. State Dept gets their guy in, Poroshenko. REMEMBER, Yanukovych was the Party of Regions guy which Manafort helped get elected. (Good reason to target Manafort, eh?) Hunter Biden joins board of Burisma in April of 2014 Travel ban lifted for Kolomoisky (how did that happen?) September of 2014, the 1.8 BILLION of IMF money is deposited into PrivatBank and disappeared. IMF money = US Taxpayer money (mostly)
PrivatBank was NATIONALIZED in December of 2016 (right after Trump’s election) Coincidence? IMF wouldn’t lend money to Ukraine because of “oligarchic structure” in Ukraine, but once bank was nationalized, IMF was more comfortable. Biden’s last trip to Ukraine was about January 10th, 2017….. why? Around January 17th-19th, ONE DAY before Trump’s inauguration, Mykola Zlochevsky, front man for Burisma, was cleared in Ukraine and makes a $250K donation to the USA Atlantic Council. In May of 2017, Atlantic Council holds their “Energy Conference” in Monaco, where Mykola had been exiled while waiting to be cleared. Burisma sponsored the Energy Conference (nice vacation in Monaco for the “inter-agency consensus”). Hunter Biden was there, and so was Rick Perry.
For years, all during “Muh Russia”, John Kerry and other Obama officials travel the world talking to diplomats, indicating Trump will be impeached and out of office……. soon…….. Flash forward to 2019.
July 24th, 2019: Mueller testifies to Congress, illustrating the complete failure of the Mueller Report and the scam of “Muh Russia”.
The NEXT DAY – Trump has phone call with Zelinsky on July 25th, mentions Crowdstrike, “think you’re surrounding yourself with some of same people”, Hunter Biden, etc…. puts a pause on the funds. Seems like they are unrelated, but what if they are all related?
(surrounding yourself with same people) Zelinsky was a comedian before running for office. His television show was popular, ………on a network owned by…….Kolomoisky. (Hunter Biden/Crowdstrike) We learn from the Arkansas court on the case of Biden’s baby momma, they reached a settlement at the last minute for child support. YETTTTT the arrangement can change if they find evidence of additional income. Court doc filed by momma’s investigators, page 6, states…… PrivatBank and Burisma involved in funding CROWDSTRIKE, Atlantic Council (in Ukraine), “rogue operations by USDOS”, FVEYEs……. did I mention Crowdstrike?
OMB email, from the actual guy who was responsible for releasing the funds, says USA is waiting on an “obligatory action”. What could that be? Was it that Trump wanted a CNN interview? Announcement of an investigation? Or something more serious…….?
May of 2019, IMF says they are ready to resume loans to Ukraine once Zelinsky government gets settled. Coincides with May 23 meeting in White House and Trump meeting with Senators just returning from Ukraine.
July 25th, 2019, Zelinsky/Trump phone call. SAME DAY, the IMF has a presser, announces readiness to proceed with billions in loans, will be in Ukraine to talk to them on Sept 10th.
We KNOW the IMF was on the ground in Kiev on Sept 10th, 2019 We KNOW Zelinsky met with Kolomoisky on the evening of September 10th, 2019. Special Forces RAIDED PrivatBank on September 11th……. of 2019. Seized all records. (We have it all) Head of OMB, the guy who actually released the funds, Email to himself includes a CNBC article about the raid of PrivatBank on Sept 11th (Here’s a Reuter’s article: https://in.reuters.com/article/ukraine-privatbank/police-raid-offices-and-seize-documents-of-ukraines-privatbank-idINL5N26244O USA release of funds on Sept 11th IMF released funds as well.
Whole thing, whole impeachment thing, MAYBE “Muh Russia” as well, was about hiding a failed proxy war with Russa, involving an illegal war, waged by Obama ADMIN, with no approval from Congress.
It all makes sense now. Remember when Biden threatened the gov’t of Ukraine to fire prosecutor? And Ukraine said, “You can’t do that”, and Biden said, “Call the President, go ahead” Well, it wouldn’t make sense for Obama to hold a billion dollars because of a need to save a corrupt Hunter Biden……. it had to be something bigger.
Shokin was investigating, following the money, the original 23 million was transferred from Ukraine to Cyprus, to Latvia, to the UK. The UK bank immediately froze the money. Shokin was digging…… when he received a letter from Latvia Anti-Corruption Money Laundering Agency…… about concerns of Hunter Biden being involved. Shokin kept digging.
Shokin traced money back to Cyprus, to 43 Shell Companies owned by Kolomoisky, which had “Loans” (the most effective way to launder money), in the amount of…….
…… take a guess….. I’ll wait……. 1.8 Billion dollars…… Coincidence?
THAT’s why Biden had to stop the investigation, THAT’s why the Obama Admin was desperate to fire Shokin, THAT’s why the Dept of State covered for Hunter Biden. It wasn’t just about Hunter Biden.
The money trail let straight back to the Obama Administration….. fighting an illegal war in Ukraine, responsible for 15K dead Ukrainians, far worse than Iran/Contra. We have an excessive amount of evidence leading up to this point. Without an official investigation, it will remain covered-up and the details will be hidden from the American people.
Welcome to the Friday OPEN THREAD at the QTree! What a week in Trump time. It’s the weekend and time to crack open a beer and put some steaks on the grill! We’re going to remember this week……for a long time………. Thank you for the Thursday hand-off TrumpIsMine. Thank you to Wolfie for keeping us all organized, up and running. What would we do without FLEP’s News Roundup to keep up? Thank you, Flep. Hat tip and a hearty thank you to all contributors and the lurkers!
President and First Lady walk into the Blue Room after the Presser on Acquittal. ShaMMMpeachment FAILED!
We don’t believe in political correctness at QTree. Free Speech is practiced here. ENJOY IT. Use it or lose it. Important Guidelines are outlined here in the January 1st open thread, with an addendum on 20191110. In other words, please keep it SOMEWHAT civil. We have a new board – actually a new SITE – called The U Tree – where people can take each other to the woodshed without fear of censorship or moderation. NOT HERE. This board will remain a REFUGE for those who need civility, either some or all of the time.
Make no mistake, we’ve been SMOKIN’ hot at QTREE this week. No peaceful classical music today, we need some rock and roll.
What a week we’ve had. How does President Trump do it all? We started with the ShaMMMpeachment for several days, but our team was terrific in DC, across social media, and banging the boards here. The Iowa Caucus was a disaster for the Dems and the Repubs turned out in force. We went into a President Trump SOTU which made us laugh, cry, and cheer, with a Nancy implosion at the end. The President was ACQUITTED on Wednesday. It’s been such a LONG TIME in coming….. and it’s over with. Time to turn up the volume on the media and political opposition.
Thursday we had a National Prayer Breakfast which made headline news AND a White House Presser on Acquittal which solidified our team. President was kind and gracious to give attribution where due, and deliberate when assessing blame. The President and the Repubs are enjoying their highest polling numbers in years and the Dems are falling apart. And Thursday night, we learned our Military and Commander in Chief have removed the Leader of Al-Qaida in Yemen. Poooooffff, he’s gone! The President is growing stronger and our team is growing bigger. Competent leadership gives us all Peace of Mind.
We learned more about the Coronovirus this week. Wolfie put the CV Thread on the sidebar and a special thank you to all who contribute and update. “Golden Week” in China has been extended for another week = no factory workers and about 80% of the country’s export production has shut down. The Hyundai Factory in South Korea has CLOSED due to lack of parts, and North American auto manufacturers estimate they have a few weeks of parts inventory remaining before drastic measures begin.
Tonight, the Dems have a debate, and I’m watching this one. We’re going to do a thread. The circular firing squad has already formed and it’s time to perform or drop out. Should be fireworks!
We also have a MAGA Rally in New Hampshire coming up! Let’s make sure we rest up this weekend in Wheatie’s Treehouse and hang out with BakoCarl on Sunday. We’re expected on the field in full uniform by Monday morning!
SPEAK THE FIVE WORDS BOLDLY TO OUR PRESIDENT!, “I AM PRAYING FOR YOU!“ He needs our prayers and help more than ever before! ….. and unlike others, we mean it!!
And remember….. it is time to drain the swamp in DC and LOCALLY. Please make a commitment in the new year to attend a LOCAL board meeting for your town or municipality or school board. Get involved and make your presence known. Put your local officials phone numbers in your cell phone and call them once a week (or more often).
“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
Remember Wheatie’s Rules:
No food fights.
No running with scissors.
If you bring snacks, bring enough for everyone.
Remember, the President likes Ice Cream!
Across Conservative social media, we’re detecting a change in the game plan going forward. Can you feel the shift? We sense a new offensive coming from the White House. The Storm is here. We ready. We’ll meet at the ole saw mill… We’re moving ahead towards prosperity. Don’t look back.The sun is shining and the clouds are breaking…… there’s no more time to criticize….. I see myself in a brand new way. Oh, the sun is shining and I’m on that road. Don’t look back. A new day is breakin’. It’s been so long since we felt this way!
Since most of us were BANNED for strange reasons from another website and found comradery here, found a song for us all. “We’re just another BANNED…..” out of America?
See you all on Saturday morning at Wheatie’s Treehouse!
