“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
With this part and the next we will follow our article on Benjamin Franklin and go deeper into the lives of other patriot founding fathers that were from the Keystone State of Pennsylvania. The Keystone name originated from its geographic location in the center of the 13 colonies as well as from its “key” contributions to the economic, political and social fabric of our young nation. Its location touches the Mid-Atlantic, Northeast Appalachia, and Great Lakes regions. As a result it has been multi-cultural and diverse since it was given in a royal land grant to William Penn in 1681.
To say it has been the site of American history in all of its glory, rage and everything in between is an understatement. Pennsylvania has been the seed planter of this great nation in Independence Hall as well as a literal and figurative battlefield from the 1700’s through today, especially with its political theatrics. Yet, when it was first settled it was considered to be a peaceful colony with settlers coexisting well with native American Indian tribes as well people from other nations such as Sweden, Germany (the Pennsylvania Dutch), and others who had major influences on the area.
Just a note at this point; I refuse to use the woke term “indigenous peoples” in reference to our native American Indian fellow citizens. It is historically inaccurate. Treaties, land grants, legal documents, Congressional records, etc. that were executed and referenced with the native American Indians in the development of our nation all state the term “Indian” in it. I have some Appalachian Cherokee blood running through my veins. I am not going to play the word games of the leftists. Right or wrong, God can judge, this world has always worked on the ancient Roman adage of, “To the victor goes the spoils.” The idgits who want to play the victims and reparations games can go pound sand.
It was into this great melting pot of people with patriot and loyalist blood in their veins that liberty was seeded. Pennsylvania’s prominent place in our nation’s history will be forever noted. I will not delve into its history as it would take too long for this series. The links below should help those who desire to know more. First there is a good bullet point style summary,
Now on to the next Declaration signer from the Keystone State.
George Clymer
George Clymer is a founder that many know very little about, yet, was one of the more important.
Clymer was born in Philly in 1739 and was orphaned at age seven. He was apprenticed to his maternal aunt and uncle. They were childless and agreed to raise, educate, and train young George into their merchant occupations. His uncle was also a friend of Benjamin Franklin. George received no formal education, but loved to read and learn. His grandfather left him some wealth in his will at age eleven. George continued working in the family business and became its accountant. He used his wealth to start his own trading business with his uncle’s blessing in 1759. When his uncle passed away he left the family business to George and with it, more wealth.
He married his wife, Elizabeth Meredith, in 1765. She was the daughter of the second wealthiest merchant in Pennsylvania. The couple went on to have nine children together with five surviving. One adult son later died in the Whiskey Rebellion. They were of the Episcopalian faith, which caused Elizabeth’s disownment by her family as they were Quakers.
George was a strong early backer of the independence movement. He served on Philadelphia’s Committee of Safety and was soon elected to serve its Common Council for six years. He was appointed a justice of the peace and later, an associate justice of the City Court despite not having a law degree. During the 1760’s he became even more involved in the patriot movement by authoring articles and pamphlets, leading a boycott of the Townshend Act, and adding his name to a 400 merchant public signing of the anti-importation stance against the Stamp Act. He was opposed by Quakers and loyalists who preferred a more conciliatory approach to Great Britain. He had great opposition to his adamant support for independence from the majority of citizens in the area, yet, they respected him so much he continue to ascend politically.
In 1773 he visited Boston in search of medical assistance for a chest ailment. While there he met and became good friends with John Quincey, an attorney who along with John Adams successfully defended the British soldiers in the Boston Massacre trials. Quincey was a big backer of Samuel Adams and John Hancock. This only encouraged Clymer more and he became an ardent supporter of the patriots in Boston.
He was very successful in his businesses in the Philly area and being popular was elected as a representative to the Second Continental Congress. After signing the Declaration of Independence he resigned in 1777. He remained there and ran his businesses during the ensuing battles in the area and the move of Congress until they could safely return. He was very generous with his wealth in his support of the military and other needs. At a crucial time during this period with funds low for the military, he and other local business leaders chartered the Pennsylvania Bank to assist in the effort. It served as a model for a national bank envisioned by Alexander Hamilton later. During the period he contributed to the war effort by serving on the Board of War and Treasury Board.
A few years later he was elected to the Philadelphia legislature where he served until he was requested to go to the southern states to increase manpower subscription for military and government service as well as soliciting funding. He returned to take part as a representative to the Constitutional Congress. In so doing he became one of only six who signed both the Declaration and the Constitution.
Clymer was a devoted Federalist and key supporter of Washington and his efforts. Washington called him into service in national financial roles as needed. He was also sent to Georgia to negotiate a treaty with the Creek and the Seminole as he had good relationships with native Indians. This resulted in peaceful relations with America and a move by the tribes away from the Spanish trading influence in Florida. He also did a mission to the Cherokees to improve relations in 1796.
He continued holding political office and running his businesses until his death in 1813. Elizabeth died two years later. They had been married 47 years. As a man of strong opinions he had an admirable way of relating to those with different perspectives that created harmony. As a result, despite his Episcopal faith and Elizabeth being disowned from her Quaker family, he was buried in a Quaker cemetery in Trenton, NJ. However, Elizabeth’s burial site is unknown and she is unlikely to have been buried by her husband.
For someone with zero formal education who had been orphaned as a child, George Clymer became a brilliant businessman, politician, judge, patriot, husband and father. He had one quote that stood out to me as it is applicable for our current times, which means it was applicable during his days over two centuries ago.
“A printer publishes a lie: for which he ought to stand in the pillory, for the people believe in and act upon it.”
Yup, fake news was influencing even back then. Fortunately, a growing majority of citizens do not fall for their garbage today. However, the sentiment is still applicable in regards to the use of the pillory against them as it might be appropriate as retribution.
Please remember Wolf’s rules for our community. In general that means to be respectful to each other and to pull no shenanigans that your mom might find offensive or otherwise cause jail time. That said, free speech is honored here.
This Rejoice & Praise God Sunday Open Thread, with full respect to those who worship God on the Sabbath, is a place to reaffirm our worship of our Creator, our Father, our King Eternal.
It’s also a place to read, post, and discuss news that is worth knowing and sharing. Please post links to any news stories that you use as sources or quote from.
In the QTree, we’re a friendly and civil lot. We encourage free speech and the open exchange and civil discussion of different ideas. Topics aren’t constrained, and sound logic is highly encouraged, all built on a solid foundation of truth and established facts.
We have a policy of mutual respect, shown by civility. Civility encourages discussions, promotes objectivity and rational thought in discourse, and camaraderie in the participants – characteristics we strive toward in our Q Tree community.
Please show respect and consideration for our fellow QTreepers. Before hitting the “post” button, please proofread your post and make sure your opinion addresses the issue only, and does not confront or denigrate the poster. Keep to the topic – avoid “you” and “your”. Here in The Q Tree, personal attacks, name-calling, ridicule, insults, baiting, and other conduct for which a penalty flag would be thrown are VERBOTEN.
In The Q Tree, we’re compatriots, sitting around the campfire, roasting hot dogs, making s’mores, and discussing, agreeing, and disagreeing about whatever interests us. This board will remain a home for those who seek respectful conversations.
God is in Control . . . and His Grace is Sufficient, so . . . Keep Looking Up
Hopefully, every Sunday, we can find something here that will build us up a little . . . give us a smile . . . and add some joy or peace, very much needed in all our lives.
“This day is holy to the Lord your God; do not mourn nor weep.” . . . “Go your way, eat the fat, drink the sweet, and send portions to those for whom nothing is prepared; for this day is holy to our Lord. Do not sorrow, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”
Unity in Christ
Unity is a state of oneness and harmony. All believers in Christ are united in Christ. We are in a relationship that unites us with Him and with every other believer.
Jesus prayed for His disciples—all who would believe in Him for all the ages—“that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you” (John 17:21). Some look at the great divisions among Christian denominations and refer to this as Christ’s great “unanswered prayer.” However, Scripture is clear that all believers are united with Christ because of our relationship with Him and with all other believers. We are all in the same family, even it at times we do not act like it. Therefore, unity in Christ has two aspects—one is objective fact, and one is subjective experience.
Objective and subjective unity can be true for any number of groups, teams, or even families. All the members of a football team are unified by their membership in the group. They do not win or lose games individually. The individuals contribute to the group, but it is the group that wins or loses—that is the objective fact. However, there may be times that the team does not act in a unified way. Selfishness and rivalry may creep up, and, when it does, it is impossible for the team to act as a unit—this is the subjective aspect. The behavior of individuals on the team is not matching the fact of their unity with every other member of the team.
All who believe in Christ are part of His body, the church. The New Testament is clear on this. Ephesians 5:30 says it plainly: “For we are members of his body.” Whether a Christian feels like it or not, he or she is part of Christ’s body and therefore unified with every other believer. Paul uses the analogy of the body in 1 Corinthians 12:12–21:
“Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.
“Now if the foot should say, ‘Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,’ it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. And if the ear should say, ‘Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,’ it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body.
“The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I don’t need you!’ And the head cannot say to the feet, ‘I don’t need you!’”
The human body is a unified whole. If one part does not work right, the whole body suffers. If a person smashes his thumb with a hammer, it is not just the thumb in isolation that hurts. Other parts of the body may hurt, too, and the functioning of the whole body is impaired. This is true even when a person does not know about the malfunctioning part. If an internal organ is not functioning properly, damage may be done to the body before any pain or obvious illness is present.
In the same way, the church has unity in Christ. As part of His body, each member has a particular job to do and a place to belong. When any individual member is not fulfilling his or her purpose in the body, the whole body suffers. All the members are united, and because of that unity, when one acts in an individualistic or selfish manner (i.e., acts as if he is not part of the body), the whole body suffers because, regardless of his actions, the individual member is still in unity with all the others in the body.
Many of the commands in the New Testament direct Christians to live up to their position and demonstrate their unity in Christ. Christians are not commanded to become one in Christ—that is already an objective reality. Christians are told to make their subjective experience match the objective fact. Paul pleads with the Philippians for this kind of unity: “Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others” (Philippians 2:1–4). If Christians, who are members of the same team, see themselves in competition with each other, then they are not playing as teammates. They are not living in light of the unity that exists.
Unity in Christ means that all believers are in a relationship with Christ and, by extension, to every other believer. All believers are united with each other whether they know it or not, like it or not, or feel like it or not. The challenge of Christian unity is to live up to the truth of that reality. Since we are all members of one body, we need to live like it. This means subordinating our individual needs to the needs of the body at large and using our individual gifts for the good of the whole body.
Unity in Christ does not mean that all differences between churches or denominations need to be abolished. Individual churches and denominations can keep their individual distinctives and emphases while still working together in areas where they agree. For instance, an evangelical Baptist church and an evangelical Presbyterian church will be in agreement on the gospel and the essentials of the faith, but because of different beliefs about baptism, it would be impossible for these two churches to simply unite as one church. It might be possible for a church to take a neutral position on infant baptism; however, it is hard to see how a church could teach that parents should baptize their babies (as do Presbyterian churches) and simultaneously teach that parents should not baptize their babies (as in Baptist churches). While these two groups could never unite as a single local church or denomination, they can still cooperate in other ministry endeavors, and individuals within each local body can fellowship with and love each other. xhttps://www.gotquestions.org/unity-in-Christ.html
The above free image of physicians conferring is courtesy of LovePik and Google Images.
Health Friday is a series devoted to information about Big Pharma, vaccines, general health, and associated topics. As today’s offering speaks to the disaster of the COVID-19 “vaccines”, Yours Truly dedicates it to all those persons, of whatever age or location, who have come down with “vaccine”-induced injuries, illnesses, or disabilities, as a result of the COVID-19 “vaccines” (Bioweapon Toxin Injections) that they had put into their bodies; and, also, to all those persons, of whatever age or location, who have passed away from the negative effects of the COVID-19 “vaccines” that they had put into their bodies.
There are Important Notifications from our host, Wolf Moon; the Rules of our late, good Wheatie; and, certain caveats from Yours Truly, of which readers should be aware. They are linked here. Note: Yours Truly has checked today’s offering for any AI-generated content. To the best of her knowledge and belief, there is none. If readers wish to post any AI-generated content in today’s discussion thread, they, must cite their source. Thank you.
Yours Truly has written extensively on this board regarding what she calls Establishment Medicine. Establishment Medicine can be found in multiple areas, among them: The teaching of “consensus-centered” medicine (otherwise known as “the science is settled” medicine) in medical schools (this appears to be the approach in medical education currently); the “suggestion” or “advice” that physicians who choose a specialty in which to practice (for example, Internal Medicine) “need” to become board-credentialed by a private medical credentialing board (for example, credentialing through ABIM (the American Board of Internal Medicine, https://www.abim.org/); physician membership in the American Medical Association https://www.ama-assn.org/; and, “adherence” to the “recommendations” of the “routine vaccination schedules” of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC, https://www.cdc.gov/); and, the “endorsed vaccination schedule” of the American Academy of Pediatrics (https://www.aap.org/); the “routine guidance” of the FDA (Food and Drug Administration, https://www.fda.gov/); and, the “rules” and “regulations” of the State Medical Licensing Board in the state in which the physician resides, and which physician’s License to Practice Medicine must be secured prior to starting medical practice, and which License must be renewed after a certain period of time). Yours Truly will make it clear at the outset that there are many caring, perceptive physicians — in hospitals, in medical clinics, in stand-alone private physicians’ offices, and so on — who likely do not blindly ascribe to the “diktats” of Establishment Medicine. Perhaps there are physicians among this number who understand that the COVID-19 “vaccines” are dangerous and deadly. Perhaps there are physicians among this number who observing that their COVID-19 “vaccinated” loved ones, patients, or colleagues are presenting with COVID-19 “vaccine”-induced injuries, etc. Perhaps there are physicians among this number who would prefer to speak the truth about the COVID-19 “vaccines”, but refrain, due to concerns that they could be “disciplined”, or lose their License to Practice Medicine, by their state Medical Licensing Board.
Until very recently, all was going well for Establishment Medicine — its control over the health of the American public was “unchallengeable” — then, two important things happened: One, that the American public in general began to realize the dangers and deadliness of the COVID-19 “vaccines”; and, Two, the confirmation of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., as the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) of the new administration under the forty-seventh President of the United States, Donald J. Trump, a few months ago.
On 9 June 2025, the seventeen then-current members of the CDC’s ACIP committee (Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices) were fired by Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. (https://www.hhs.gov/press-room/hhs-restores-public-trust-vaccines-acip.html, “HHS Takes Bold Step to Restore Public Trust in Vaccines by Reconstituting ACIP”, 9 June 2025.) Please see the screenshot from this announcement, below:
The reason? — Corruption of the ACIP committee members. The United States Congress reported on this corruption back in 2000: https://www.thefocalpoints.com/p/decades-of-corruption-congressional, “DECADES OF CORRUPTION: Congressional Report Confirms CDC’s ACIP Has Been Compromised Since the 1990s”, by Nicolas Hulscher, MPH, 10 June 2025. Please see the screenshot from this article, below:
One of the most-compromised (now former) members of the ACIP committee was Dr. Paul Offit.
And, of course, there was a large outcry from all over Establishment Medicine. One example: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/rfk-jr-removes-members-cdc-immunization-advisory-committee-acip/, “RFK Jr. removes every member of CDC vaccine advisory committee”, 10 June 2025. Please see the screenshot from this article, below, and keep it in mind for later on regarding today’s offering:
The ACIP Adult Immunization Schedule that was issued in May 2025 is found here (the actual CDC website no longer lists this schedule): https://www.dph.ncdhhs.gov/news/press-releases/2025/06/03/cdc-updates-covid-19-vaccine-schedule. The ACIP Adult Immunization Schedule that was issued in May 2025 has several changes; among them, the previous CDC “recommendation” that all pregnant women get COVID-19 “vaccinated.” The May 2025 schedule, instead, encourages “shared clinical decisions” between the physician and the pregnant patient. And this is where “the rest of the story” begins.
Then, on 9 June 2025, when HHS Secretary Kennedy, Jr., fired the seventeen then-current ACIP members, he replaced them with eight new members: Dr. Joseph Hibbeln, MD, ABNP, CAPT USPHS (Ret.); Martin Kullorff, PhD; Retself Levi, PhD; Robert W. Malone, MD; Cody Meissner, MD; James Pagano, MD, FACEP; Vicky Pebsworth, PhD, RN; and, Michael Ross, MD. Their biographies are here: https://www.cdc.gov/acip/membership/roster.html. (Dr. Ross withdrew from the ACIP committee due to “financial holdings” reasons.) Establishment Medicine countered with hue and cry that none of these medical professionals were “experienced in vaccines”, and so on.
The June ACIP meeting was held on 25-27 June 2025, with the now-seven new members in attendance. Even while the meeting was going on, Establishment Medicine was “sounding the alarm” over the new committee and what they would do. Please see: https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/adult-non-flu-vaccines/vaccine-public-health-advocates-warn-fallout-acip-meeting, “Vaccine, public health advocates warn of fallout from ACIP meeting”, by Chris Dall, MA, 27 June 2025. Please see the screenshots from this article, below:
Keep the above statement from the AAP in mind, as it is pertinent what happened in early July 2025. It appears that, while Establishment Medicine was making statements about how they opposed the new ACIP members, the new ACIP vaccine schedules and the new CDC policies, they were also making behind-the-scenes preparations for suing HHS Secretary Kennedy, Jr. And, in fact, this is what occurred: on 2 July 2025, several Establishment Medicine groups filed suit against HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., to force HHS to reinstate the former ACIP recommended vaccine schedules: https://www.thefocalpoints.com/p/breaking-medical-cartel-sues-rfk, “BREAKING: Medical Cartel Sues RFK Jr. for Pulling COVID Shot Recommendations for Kids and Pregnant Women”, by Nicolas Hulscher, MPH, 7 July 2025. Please see the screenshots from this article, below:
Note: The blue hyperlinks in the Hulscher article (one needs to go The Focal Points website for the Hulscher article link) lead to scientific articles about the dangers of the COVID-19 “vaccines”, and to the AAP, et al., lawsuit against Secretary Kennedy, Jr.
The AAP statement regarding the lawsuit, here, https://publications.aap.org/aapnews/news/32580, “AAP suing HHS over vaccine policy”, 7 July 2025, also has the link to the filed lawsuit against Secretary Kennedy, Jr. Please see the screenshot below from the AAP statement:
Screenshots of portions of the forty-two page lawsuit document are below:
In other words, in Yours Truly’s opinion, the AAP and the other medical organizations listed in the screenshot above want to force Secretary Kennedy, Jr., to “go back to the good old days” of the “old ACIP and the old CDC” — the same entities that “recommended” the dangerous, deadly COVID-19 “vaccines” without first demanding complete, detailed, and analyzed data from “clinical trials” for these injectables. Back to the “good old days” when every state legislature, every pharmacy, every medical clinic, every hospital, and almost every licensed physician, blindly followed the CDC “recommendations” regarding vaccinations of children and of adults. Back to the “good old days” of “the science is settled” — and those physicians who boldly told the truth, and continue to tell the truth, about the dangers and deadliness of the COVID-19 “vaccines” (for example, Dr. Peter A. McCullough, MD; Dr. Ryan Cole, MD; Dr. Pierre Kory, MD; Dr. Charles Hoffe, MD; and, Dr. Robert Malone, MD) were belittled; were marginalized by their medical specialty organizations; were fired from their jobs; were prosecuted by their Medical Specialty licensing organizations; were prosecuted by their state Medical Licensing Boards — were “disciplined” by these Boards, or had their License to Practice Medicine “restricted”, or even revoked, by these Boards. Back to the “good old days” when Establishment Medicine was the sole arbiter of health in the United States.
In Yours Truly’s opinion, the lawsuit by Establishment Medicine against HHS Secretary Kennedy, Jr., is the culmination of months of negative reactions regarding his nomination as the new HHS Secretary; regarding his confirmation for the position; regarding what appear to be some ambiguous and/or conflicting statements he has made since his confirmation; and certainly regarding his actions as HHS Secretary to attempt to rein in the tyranny of Establishment Medicine in HHS decisions. In some ways, the AAP, et al., lawsuit against Sec. Kennedy, Jr., may be similar to liberal “Judicial Establishment” actions against President Donald Trump 47 regarding blocking his efforts to deport illegal aliens in the United States.
This one is comprehensive in content with a number of links. So it may be TL;dr for some. Be patient. I have made posts for a couple of years on here about this subject. This interview happened just this past week. Key people are now getting up to speed and taking steps to address within the Trump administration. Ignore the title in this O’Keefe interview of Marla Maples – this is about our air being chemically contaminated.
I want to personally thank PAVACA for taking this (among other subjects) on. I appreciate authors and posters bringing other controversial subjects for discussion. None of us are required to agree with the analysis or thoughts about the subject matter, just consider and post your thoughts on subjects of interest. That is how we inform and learn from each other. With that said, I am expanding the discussion on chemtrails.
It agitates my spirit to see critical dangers to our population blown off by otherwise caring and intelligent people.
My FIRE! series was an attempt to draw attention to the systematic use of wildfires and other calamitous events to clear areas for corporate and governmental interests. The properties are ravaged, their subsequent distressed sales to well heeled piranha are virtually guaranteed, and the Build Back Better mission is fulfilled at the expense of the oppressed. Think it through; this has been played out with wildfires alone in America for a couple of centuries.
However, not every geographic area is subject to wildfires. Which leads to the primary subject of today’s rant that ties into chemtrails – hurricanes.
Situation
Why do we know that nuclear war would be bad despite some criminally minded idgits suggesting that nukes could be tactically used without fear? Well, we may have seen videos and photos or read accounts of a very small example of what primitive atomic bombs could do 80 years ago in Japan. The results were horrible. It caused a radical nation of fierce warriors to become quite subdued and averse to international conflicts in the decades that followed. They decided they best surrender and over time become buddies with the folks that dropped them.
So what do we think advanced nuclear weapon technology could do to life on this planet today within seconds of being unleashed? Sort of a no brainer, right? That’s why POTUS Trump and the patriots did what they did to Iran’s nuclear sites. Add in the feat of dropping 15 ton, ground penetrating bombs on a 3′ by 3′ target from high altitude and speed without being detected in a journey from half the world away indicates there must be serious intelligence, planning, technology, and scientific understanding in play.
There (is) may also be similar serious brain power in use that might even know how to seed and enhance a storm. In fact, it (is) may be child’s play to them with the use of some of the world’s most effective computing power over the past 30 years that just so happens to be located in federally staffed and controlled national laboratories and defense installations.
Even so, knowing that technology exists to wipe out all life forms on the planet in short order, many still do not want to believe that atmospheric seeding (weather engineering) was successfully used 65+ years ago by our government. In addition, geoengineering (climate and environment – the latter includes in-ground activities) have been introduced in recent decades here and abroad. If these flat earther type negas did believe they might even conclude more advanced technology and methodologies with chemicals and other contaminants are in development and potentially in use.
Major Paradigm Shift
So while I am ranting and with the subject being related primarily to PAVACA’s article, the evil doers messed up big time with Hurricane Helene. They have lost what support they still had in the southeast from the hillbillies and rednecks. That is a very good thing for America. There were a good number who were raised in the pull the donkey tail family legacy belief system.
Boomerang.
My qualifications for making that statement and other statements you will read stem somewhat from the following personal observations on the ground over the past half century.
I worked relief efforts after Katrina on the gulf coast twenty years ago as some know from my BIMD series. I know how far inland the damages were felt along the MS to LA coast with only an occasional levee to stop its roll on the flat land and swamps. We did not see anything like what we saw at far greater distances inland with Helene. Friends of our family’s in law enforcement live in Thibodaux, about 50 miles from the LA coastline and the storm’s landfall. We know what we know.
Close family members lived through Andrew in Miami-Dade County, FL, so we saw the damage post storm on the beach and flat land in 1992. One of those family members was a general residential and HVAC contractor who owned a dozen rental properties. Also in those days one of my business customers was a general contractor who built and maintained facilities on Homestead Air Force Base; the Base that was nearly a total loss after Andrew hit as a Category 5 with nearly 170 MPH winds. I am well aware of the storm’s impact on it and the surrounding area.
We vacationed in the lowcountry area south of Charleston, SC post-Hugo in 1989. The area we were in had received only a glancing blow of high winds, light flooding and minimal surge as the storm followed the Atlantic gulf stream up the coast to the Charleston area 60 straight line miles away. Family members owned rental properties within an hour’s drive north of its landfall that experienced severe damages. Hugo had developed into a Category 5 in the Caribbean, moving up the coast line along the Atlantic gulf stream before suddenly veering due west into the SC coast around Charleston (Sullivan’s Island) as a Category 3. Despite a storm surge of 10-20′ the effects on many areas of the lowlands from flooding was less than expected as only one area had as much as 8″ of rainfall with most all other areas under 3″. However, significant damage to timber that would be harvested for the construction industry was felt as far as 100 miles inland from SC up into NC.
Even as a teenager my family and I rode out the outer bands of Camille in 1969 in a beach motel while on vacation at the Gulf in Pensacola. A week later we went on to visit New Orleans in its aftermath to see the effects on it and the surrounding flat land and swamps, which was primarily impacted by flooding. We had to drive inland somewhat around the primary affected coastline areas. It made landfall in the same general MS coast area as Katrina.
In fact, in recorded American history per the NOAA and other government sources there are no hurricanes that had the geographic scope and done anywhere near the level of damage that far inland than Helene did; much less that occurred into and on top of a mountain range. Over $200 Billion and counting in hurricane caused damages says something nefarious probably happened even if one adjusts for the current value of money versus past periods.
Some twenty years later and using today’s dollars, Katrina’s financial cost is in the $180 Billion range per the NHC. Helene is already calculated in excess of $200 Billion within the first year which is anticipated to climb to over $300 Billion. It is where the primary damages occurred that reveal the dubious nature of it all. Katrina made its initial landfall near New Orleans before bouncing toward the MS coast. It caused massive property damages as well as deaths due to flooding in the urban area of New Orleans, which is the area where much of the costs arise. In contrast, Helene made landfall in the sparsely populated and developed Big Bend of FL. The major costs associated with Helene’s damages were accumulated over 300 miles away from landfall.
Some might say Katrina might also have been seeded in the Gulf since the tech existed back then. The effects of that storm served a big political purpose for the ushering in of the O’Satan era. Or have you forgotten how the fake news used the FEMA incompetency to beat the drums against W and the GOP?
The anticipated final cost of Helene makes our nation’s past financial commitment to Ukraine’s destruction look like chump change.
Messing With Mother Nature
It is highly probable that the skies have been chemically treated for various purposes for many years. There are many relevant articles available to consider such as the following,
For those who are unaware, I use the website linked below to follow storms during hurricane season. I really do not need Jim Cantore show time weather actors telling me what to expect. The NOAA’s NHC site is also used by nearly all of the weather forecasters to “predict” the related storms. It has a wealth of historical information as well.
I watched Helene with interest at that time since it might affect our annual Fall Frolic to HHI that was scheduled for two weeks later in October. It was a trip we went ahead and took post storm (2 weeks later), driving through much of the affected areas on two different routes going and returning home. I posted on here in openers about the pain in the azz travel that took us through Georgia from the TN border down to Macon and on to Savannah. That was the quickest and safest alternative route since Helene’s floods had wiped out a 12 mile section of I-40 in the gorge at the TN/NC border in addition to many bridges on routes around the gorge in the areas between Knoxville and Asheville.
The wind and tornadoes had uprooted trees and sheered timber for over 100 miles of travel on I-16 from Macon east to Savannah. The fields were full of downed trees and debris. Those that fell on the road had been cleared for travelers, however, they lined the road in stacks the entire way. We had similar observations in areas from the Spartanburg, SC area all the way to Erwin, TN on I-26, which had fortunately reopened to two lanes at the affected bridge areas in Unicoi County, TN. Asheville was an absolute mess, but passable by that time about 5 weeks after the storm. We did not tour east of Asheville, which was extremely hard hit with floods and landslides. Smaller communities were literally washed away. It has been the slowest area for rebuilding due to the magnitude of the destruction and terrain per on-going reporting post storm.
Helene was an Atlantic disturbance that showed little signs of becoming what it did while meandering around in the southern Gulf for days until it suddenly became a high Category 4 that was greater in size than 90% of the past hurricanes to hit America in recorded history per the NHC. It remained an abnormally strong tropical storm long after it passed over land at Perry in the Big Bend and crossed through the middle of GA with the eye still easily discernible as far away as Macon, GA, some 195 straight line miles inland. It then continued across GA into SC and the mountains in SC from east to west, then north into NC and TN.
It spawned dozens of tornadoes along with high straight line wind speeds that destroyed property and untold numbers of trees in its path along with horrific flooding rains that ranged from 15 – 30 inches in many areas. This caused Asheville, NC city streets, highways and bridges to buckle and float down river as it also did in other mountain area communities. The continuous avalanche of water went into TVA dammed lakes, which breached into tributaries, which in turn breached levees and flood control waterways, which then flooded towns anywhere near its path.
Lake Lure in western NC is still having debris removed with water levels kept low. The clean up continues in all of TVA managed lakes and rivers.
None of what I described above is remotely “normal” for even the strongest hurricanes.
Consider that the Asheville, NC MSA population exceeds 400,000 people in a four county area and that it sits at over 2100 feet above sea level. It was well developed with good infrastructure to support its population and the tourism industry. In addition to its elevation we also know that Asheville is about 300 straight line miles from Perry, FL. I have not reviewed every hurricane reported on the NHC site, however, it seems obvious and I would bet that there are none that caused even a fraction of the physical damage in mountains that far away from landfall. Just sayin…
If you are serious about wanting to know what that city faced just in providing water to residents, read the link below.
So how safe do you think drinking well water has been for residents in the affected areas? How about residents down stream into east TN? How safe is the agriculture of soybeans, corn, tomatoes and tobacco that are cash crops for farmers in the areas that were most affected in east TN? It was a $1.3 billion hit to just those farms according to the Department of Agriculture. The DOA has just commissioned research on food safety and land viability for farming in that area. As one of the researchers stated in a TV interview, “There are now rivers where there were none prior to Helene.”
There have been ample articles, photos, and videos issued chronicling the massive destruction in NC, Unicoi County in east TN, and other areas that are still available on the web. There are some more photos within the NHC link of the Helene report below.
It all seems too ridiculous to even consider that the storm was not intentionally enhanced. My personal Bullshit Meter goes off when anybody suggests there is nothing to seeding the atmosphere with chemicals; especially when I read comments like the following that is found in the NHC report on Helene on page 28.
“…Helene marked the first time NHC had forecast a disturbance to become a major hurricane before the system became a tropical cyclone.”
😡
So why was this the “the first time”? Reports have been published since 1958 per the archives. That seems like it was pretty intentional decision if it was the first time they had done it in 66 years.
What happened with Helene is not how hurricanes generally work. Again, the next largest catastrophic hurricane in American history in terms of overall wide affect on land mass was Katrina, which might have been enhanced as well. Flatland population centers were minimal to moderately affected 75-100 straight line miles away. Worked there, saw it. Yet, with Helene a well built metropolitan area 2100′ above sea level 300 miles from storm landfall experienced disastrous effects. Traveled there, saw it.
Below is the archived comprehensive report of the NOAA’s weather scientists and researchers on Helene. You can read archived reports going back decades on hurricanes. They periodically update and revise reports as new information is learned.
I am still trying to mentally digest all of the information in this report. Please pay special attention to wind speeds, rainfall stats and graphs, reconnaissance missions, storm surge, discussions on floods and landslides on the east side of the mountains, and the additional photos.
Current Legislative Situation
The situation in Tennessee as well as in Florida recently, with potentially more states in the future, is that we no longer have chemtrails since legislation was signed into law almost a year ago. Clear skies and naturally occurring clouds now dominate. I have verified that with friends in both the Nashville and Memphis areas as well our east TN area. Will see how it goes in Florida as well as when other states join in with the the clear skies crowd.
That chem trails can be removed from skies at all should reveal something to the less informed.
Another consideration along the depop lines is that there are statistical truths being exposed post storm despite fake news media attention waning. In Helene’s case how could there not be an uptick in the storm’s influence relating to medical conditions of those who live and work in the affected areas; especially when relief workers and related construction workers as well as the general population have experienced significantly greater numbers of health problems due to excessive mold, fungal, and chemically induced infections that cause diseases? See links below.
Could it be that the states of TN and FL have enough sense in their government leaderships to see and care about what has been happening; then have the fortitude to do something about it for their citizens? Since my state started the ball rolling I guess us hillbillies and rednecks may be a bit smarter than the stereotypes suggest. Recent reports on other states jumping on the bandwagon are below,
The hillbillies and rednecks within this 5-6 state region who had not yet accepted that elements within the federal and state governments along with their globalist cabal controlled leadership were willing to indiscriminately kill them, their families, and their neighbors – are no longer all that trusting. In fact, most hate the government now. It runs deep like the effects of the Civil War here in the southeast.
Who they do trust more now are people like the Amish, veterans, and regional relief groups of area residents who have selflessly given of themselves and their resources to help the affected since it happened. They also trust PDT, cabinet and America First MAGA supporters more. All of the groups are still there, nine months later, aiding the affected people quietly and without fanfare.
People have noticed that PDT controlled federal agencies have quietly kicked into high gear on infrastructure projects that have accelerated the rebuild. Thankfully, HUD grants for rebuilding have been forthcoming since the election. But the patriot federal government’s physical resources have been stretched thin by the vermin’s attack on America nationwide.
This situation is just one more reason why the Big Beautiful Bill needed passed. The entire psyche of America changes with the inking of that bill. Politicians that voted against it are traitors to We the People in my book. I will never forget them and teach my grandchildren that as well. If anybody wants perfection in government they will need to wait until/if they go to Heaven. The bill helps We the People overcome the evils within.
Economic considerations arevery pertinent to this rant. Anytime the enemy can spawn widespread fear porn panic and physical destruction a portion of our nation’s revenue stream goes toward its elimination and repair, which weakens the overall economy. State and local governments also lose revenues necessary to provide services citizens demand. The enemy seeks to find and probe as many weaknesses as possible in their attempt to take control of our people, money, and land. That is the motive for doing the dirty. Geoengineering is one their tools to getting that done.
POTUS Trump, cabinet, most GOP elected officials, and all of MAGA are about America and Americans First. They know we cannot be a rising tide to lift other boats if we are being drained. Hence, the Big Beautiful Bill is now the law of the land. The authority and manpower commitment to enforce the laws and fair play has been solidified.
Now To The Helene Conspiracy
I dunno, but the recon flights thingy with Helene sure appears sketchy. Some examples of NOAA/NHC reports on it and other storms are in order.
Linked below is Hurricane Beryl’s report with recon mission flights and other information, data, and graphs. It hit a few months earlier than Helene and was a Category 5 that glanced off the same Mehico’s Yucatan and going into Texas. Page 6 comment:
There is substantial uncertainty about Beryl’s intensity at landfall on the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico. The last Hurricane Hunter mission before this landfall showed that the storm was quickly weakening, with the central pressure rising from near 962 mb to near 971 mb between 0000-0600 UTC 5 July, along with decreasing flight-level and surface winds.
Now look at the recon flight data graph on page 62. So Beryl and other storms of equal and greater intensity in the same area can hit land mass and weaken, but not Helene? Don’t attempt to use different weather and climate factors as the excuse. It doesn’t wash based on history in the archived storm reports. There is a pattern with developing tropical disturbances and cyclones that does not vary all that much during hurricane season, especially when they hit land masses.
Add in any unreported flights by federal and military operations with any of these storms going back to the 1960’s.
Something ain’t right here. They recon the southern Caribbean and Yucatan area to death from every angle while meandering around far away from its eventual “destination” and before it even becomes a named tropical cyclone While a few months before with Beryl they conducted orderly recon on a storm with a normal path that had already been deemed a cyclone followed by hurricane status well before it entered the gulf.
There is the question to consider of whether the planning and experimentation could have been stepped up the year before Helene in 2023 with Hurricane Idalia. That storm started developing in a similar area of the Caribbean south of Cuba and moved west toward the Yucatan before shifting north and becoming a Category 4. As it neared the same Big Bend region of FL it declined to a Category 3 with a storm surge of as high as 12′ and produced 4-10″ of rainfall into south and central GA on an initial similar path as Helene. They had added recon mission flight data graphs beginning in 2023 and Idalia’s is found on page 33.
The path of Idalia remained normal for gulf storms in that region and it progressed northeast toward the Atlantic coastline. The same was true for Milton that formed in the gulf near Mehico after Helene in 2024. It progressed into a Category 4 and made landfall in the Tampa area before quickly moving across the state and out to the Atlantic without turning more northward until it hit the Atlantic gulf stream.
So far I have not found any other hurricanes that made landfall in the FL gulf or Atlantic east coast that turned more north and west over any mountainous terrain, much less with 2.5 feet of rainfall in those mountainous places as Helene did. That Helene followed the path it did and remained a tropical storm over 400 straight line miles inland over the Great Smoky Mountains into east TN to the Kentucky border should at least inspire a healthy curiosity.
Conclusion
It appears to me that something really bad and probably quite intentional happened with Helene. The bread crumbs keep leading in that direction. The timing and storm path weres just too conveniently good for the Dems/RINO’s in particular. The Dems’ Build Back Better initiative, corrupt personal investing practices, federal elections timing and so on suggest the possible existence of foul play. As an example, maybe you missed this pre-election link below.
There will be at least a decade of repercussions relating to infrastructure, property ownership, water supply, and medical challenges of residents. Property insurance premiums have increased dramatically. Proposed property tax increases are on the ballots and pushed by local governments in the area to make up for lost revenues. Businesses and jobs were lost. Recreational areas have been savaged. People lost ownership of homes, land, timber, and farmland. Activities relating to government acquisitions of property, sometimes through imminent domain, along with globalists acquiring mineral rights have all increased significantly per reports in the area.
Oh, that’s right – screw We the People, MAGA, and Trump. Build Back Better. Important minerals including rare earths and potential tourism venues are there. Duh.
This rant has ended, but the story will continue. This isn’t over. There will be a sequel down the road as observations and evidence lead the story. For example we have a horrific Texas storm and flood to cover. However, there are now informed, powerful people who are beginning to wake up.
Please remember Wolf’s rules for our community. In general that means to be respectful to each other and to pull no shenanigans that your mom might find offensive or otherwise cause jail time. That said, free speech is honored here.
Hope all of you had a happy Independence Day. Our elected officials who put We the People first for a change deserve a special note of appreciation. Let them know when you get time.
This Rejoice & Praise God Sunday Open Thread, with full respect to those who worship God on the Sabbath, is a place to reaffirm our worship of our Creator, our Father, our King Eternal.
It’s also a place to read, post, and discuss news that is worth knowing and sharing. Please post links to any news stories that you use as sources or quote from.
In the QTree, we’re a friendly and civil lot. We encourage free speech and the open exchange and civil discussion of different ideas. Topics aren’t constrained, and sound logic is highly encouraged, all built on a solid foundation of truth and established facts.
We have a policy of mutual respect, shown by civility. Civility encourages discussions, promotes objectivity and rational thought in discourse, and camaraderie in the participants – characteristics we strive toward in our Q Tree community.
Please show respect and consideration for our fellow QTreepers. Before hitting the “post” button, please proofread your post and make sure your opinion addresses the issue only, and does not confront or denigrate the poster. Keep to the topic – avoid “you” and “your”. Here in The Q Tree, personal attacks, name-calling, ridicule, insults, baiting, and other conduct for which a penalty flag would be thrown are VERBOTEN.
In The Q Tree, we’re compatriots, sitting around the campfire, roasting hot dogs, making s’mores, and discussing, agreeing, and disagreeing about whatever interests us. This board will remain a home for those who seek respectful conversations.
God is in Control . . . and His Grace is Sufficient, so . . . Keep Looking Up
Hopefully, every Sunday, we can find something here that will build us up a little . . . give us a smile . . . and add some joy or peace, very much needed in all our lives.
“This day is holy to the Lord your God; do not mourn nor weep.” . . . “Go your way, eat the fat, drink the sweet, and send portions to those for whom nothing is prepared; for this day is holy to our Lord. Do not sorrow, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”
Who Do You Follow?
A denomination is a church organization that unites congregations of similar beliefs and practices. Examples of denominations include the Presbyterian Church in America; the Lutheran Church, Missouri Synod; and the American Baptist Church. Denominationalism, then, is a devotion to one’s own denomination (“I’m a Methodist and proud of it”) or, more negatively, an emphasis on denominational differences to the point of being narrowly exclusive (“If you’re not a Methodist, then you’re wrong”). The negative type of denominationalism could be called sectarianism, and it is overly divisive.
Denominations vary in their creeds, practices, and traditions. Denominationalism clings to the particular creed, practice, and tradition of one denomination and rejects all other groups as unworthy of association. While there is nothing wrong with having denominations, per se, we should strive for peace within the church. Paul writes, “I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another in what you say and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly united in mind and thought. . . . What I mean is this: One of you says, ‘I follow Paul’; another, ‘I follow Apollos’; another, ‘I follow Cephas’; still another, ‘I follow Christ.’ Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized in the name of Paul?” (1 Corinthians 1:10–13). The Christians at Corinth were dividing themselves into groups based on the personality and practices of their favorite teachers. Paul rebukes this early denominationalism as wholly unnecessary and damaging to the unity of Christ. Christians are to follow Christ, and the church is to be of the same mind and of the same judgment because we follow a God who is One and who does not change (Deuteronomy 6:4; James 1:17).
On at least one occasion, Jesus had to deal with a sectarian attitude among His disciples. John came to Jesus one day and said, “Teacher . . . we saw someone driving out demons in your name and we told him to stop, because he was not one of us” (Mark 9:38). This was before the church began, so John’s attitude cannot be properly called denominationalism, but it was a prototype. Jesus rebukes John: “Do not stop him. . . . For no one who does a miracle in my name can in the next moment say anything bad about me, for whoever is not against us is for us. Truly I tell you, anyone who gives you a cup of water in my name because you belong to the Messiah will certainly not lose their reward” (Mark 9:39–41).
Applying this incident to the church age, we can say that, first, denominationalism is wrong because the Lord can use others who are not involved in our denomination. Further, denominationalism is wrong because the Lord may have works in progress that we know nothing about, and He doesn’t need our approval to use someone not associated with our organization. Denominationalism is countered by Jesus’ words “whoever is not against us is for us.”
We cannot assume that other Christians are not “really” serving the Lord simply because they don’t belong to our denomination or run in our circles. Service in Christ’s name will be rewarded. We should allow the Giver of all good gifts to hand out the rewards as He sees fit. Paul acknowledges that not everyone who preaches the gospel is someone he would approve of: “It is true that some preach Christ out of envy and rivalry, . . . out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing that they can stir up trouble for me while I am in chains. But what does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. And because of this I rejoice” (Philippians 1:15–18). What matters is not whether or not everyone agrees. What matters is that the gospel is being proclaimed.
While we are to strive toward unity in the Spirit, there are biblical reasons for the people of God separating themselves from other groups and maintaining doctrinal distinctives. Paul warns that there is strong judgment for those who distort the gospel (Galatians 1:6–9; cf. 2 Peter 2). The truth matters, and the gospel is of supreme importance. The gospel must not be watered down or altered. We must “contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to God’s holy people (Jude 1:3). Believers must separate from those who deny the truth about Jesus and pervert the gospel: “If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not take them into your house or welcome them” (2 John 1:10).
Denominations spring up for various reasons: mode of baptism, frequency of communion, use of musical instruments, etc. Even cultural and ethnic differences can give rise to different denominations. Despite the abundance of denominations today, we must remember that that gospel is paramount. When there is agreement on the Person and Work of Christ in salvation, then lesser differences take a back seat and denominationalism is stymied. Christians in one denomination should try to respect those in other denominations and focus on spreading the gospel to a needy world.
Evangelist D. L. Moody steered clear of denominationalism. During his evangelistic crusades, Moody enlisted cooperation from all local churches and evangelical church leaders, regardless of their denominational affiliations. Moody cared nothing for what denomination a person claimed; he just wanted the message of Christ to be heard. The result was that over 100 million people heard the gospel plainly preached in his lifetime.
Born-again believers in Jesus Christ should “stand firm in the one Spirit, striving together as one for the faith of the gospel” (Philippians 1:27). We can avoid denominationalism by allowing God’s Spirit to work in us, for peace is a fruit of the Spirit of Christ (Galatians 5:22). “Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace” (Colossians 3:15).
What is it that feeds our battle, yet starves our victory?
January 6 Tapes?
Where are the tapes? Anyone, Anyone? Bueller? Johnson??
Paging Speaker Johnson…this is your conscience calling you out on broken promises.
Evading Reality
Many things the Left believes are simply not true. Right now the focus is on the size and scope of our government, and the many many billions of dollars the government has been spending on no-one-knew-what. None of that money is going to a key role of government. Which, after all, has the sole purpose of protecting rights.
And if you, Leftist Lurker, want to dismiss this as dead white cis-male logic…well, you can call it what you want, but then please just go fuck off. No one here buys that bullshit–logic is logic and facts are facts regardless of skin color–and if you gave it a moment’s rational thought, you wouldn’t either. Of course your worthless education never included being able to actually reason–or detect problems with false reasoning–so I don’t imagine you’ll actually wake up as opposed to being woke.
As Ayn Rand would sometimes point out: Yes, you are free to evade reality. What you cannot do is evade the consequences of evading reality. Or to put it concretely: You can ignore the Mack truck bearing down on you as you play in the middle of the street, you won’t be able to ignore the consequences of ignoring the Mack truck.
And Ayn Rand also pointed out that existence (i.e., the sum total of everything that exists) precedes consciousness–our consciousnesses are a part of existence, not outside of it–therefore reality cannot be a “social construct” as so many of you fucked-up-in-the-head people seem to think.
So much for Leftist douchebag lurkers. For the rest of you, the regular readers and those lurkers who understand such things, well here we go for another week of WINNING against the Deep State.
I confess that the novelty has not worn off.
Justice Must Be Done.
The prior election must be acknowledged as fraudulent, and steps must be taken to prosecute the fraudsters and restore integrity to the system.
Yes, we won this time around. Not only did we win, we got to KEEP that win instead of having it stolen from us.
But no one should imagine that that’s the end of electoral fraud. Much work needs to be done to ensure it doesn’t just happen again next time around. And incidentally to rescue those states currently in the grips of self-perpetuating fraud, where the people who stole the last election, make sure it’s easier to steal the next one.
This issue, though it’s not front-and-center right now, is not going away, and if we ignore it, we’ll pay the price. See the article above about the consequences of evading reality.
Lawyer Appeasement Section
OK now for the fine print.
This is the WQTH Daily Thread. You know the drill. There’s no Poltical correctness, but civility is a requirement. There are Important Guidelines, here, with an addendum on 20191110.
We have a new board – called The U Tree – where people can take each other to the woodshed without fear of censorship or moderation.
And remember Wheatie’s Rules:
1. No food fights 2. No running with scissors. 3. If you bring snacks, bring enough for everyone. 4. Zeroth rule of gun safety: Don’t let the government get your guns. 5. Rule one of gun safety: The gun is always loaded. 5a. If you actually want the gun to be loaded, like because you’re checking out a bump in the night, then it’s empty. 6. Rule two of gun safety: Never point the gun at anything you’re not willing to destroy. 7. Rule three: Keep your finger off the trigger until ready to fire. 8. Rule the fourth: Be sure of your target and what is behind it.
Everything up this last week…Silver gaining slightly against gold. Platinum has not been this high since 2014 (it peaked today about $5 higher than it was at close).
*The SteveInCO Federal Reserve Note Suckage Index (FRNSI) is a measure of how much the dollar has inflated. It’s the ratio of the current price of gold, to the number of dollars an ounce of fine gold made up when the dollar was defined as 25.8 grains of 0.900 gold. That worked out to an ounce being $20.67+71/387 of a cent. (Note gold wasn’t worth this much back then, thus much gold was $20.67 71/387ths. It’s a subtle distinction. One ounce of gold wasn’t worth $20.67 back then, it was $20.67.) Once this ratio is computed, 1 is subtracted from it so that the number is zero when the dollar is at its proper value, indicating zero suckage.
The above image is courtesy of Lincolnton, NC, and Google Images.
Health Friday is a series regarding Big Pharma, vaccines, general health, and associated topics.
There are Important Notifications from our host, Wolf Moon; the Rules of our late, good Wheatie; and, certain caveats from Yours Truly, of which readers should be aware. They are linked here. Note: Yours Truly has checked today’s offering for any AI-generated content. To the best of her knowledge and belief, there is none. If readers wish to post any AI-generated content to today’s discussion thread, they must cite their source. Thank you.
Today’s offering is slightly different from others in this series. It is an honor and a privilege for Yours Truly to present today’s post on this day, 4 July 2025, the 249th birthday of the representative republic known as the United States of America.
Facsimile of the United States Declaration of Independence made by William Stone in 1823.
The above image of Declaration of Independence is courtesy of iStock and Google Images.
Our good TradeBait2 has posted many articles on the board regarding the signers of the Declaration of Independence. These amazing men understood what it meant to sign a document in which they stated, “And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.” They were not perfect individuals, but they understood how high the stakes were. They were ready to deal with whatever would happen to them. Many of them lost their own lives, the lives of family members, their land, their homes, and much more, because of the document that they signed. We, the citizens of the United States of America today, honor and remember them for their courage and for their sacrifices in laying the foundation for breaking the tyrannical stranglehold of British Monarchy in order to create a new and free country. It is the responsibility of American citizens to fight enemies, “both foreign and domestic.”
Regarding health, the United States of America is beginning to recover from the disaster of the lab-created bioweapons called COVID-19 virus itself and the COVID-19 “vaccines”: a disaster that was unleashed on the globe in the fall of 2019, and in the development of which both the United States Defense Department and the United States National Institutes of Health were involved. Millions of Americans became infected with the virus; thousands died from the complications and from “hospital protocols” (the use of Remdesivir, ventilators, Paxlovid, molnupiravir, and so on.) Thousands more have died from the dangerous, deadly effects of the COVID-19 “vaccines” that were injected into their bodies. Millions of Americans have COVID-19 “vaccine”-induced injuries, illnesses, or disabilities (https://openvaers.com/.) People are seeing their COVID-19 “vaccinated” loved ones, friends, and colleagues succumb to the dangerous, deadly effects of these injectables. Thankfully, more information and confirmation regarding the dangers and deadliness of these “vaccines” are coming into public view by the day. The American people are indebted to many courageous medical professionals who have labored, and continue to labor, to expose the truth about both the COVID-19 virus itself and the COVID-19 “vaccines” — Dr. Robert Malone, MD; Dr. Ryan Cole, MD; Dr. Peter A. McCullough, MD; Dr. Pierre Kory, MD; Dr. Stephanie Seneff, PhD; Dr. Jessica Rose, PhD; among others. The United States Department of Health and Human Services, under the current Secretary, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., is taking steps to curtail the imposition of these “vaccines.” The cheap and effective preventative and treatment for COVID-19, Ivermectin, is finally being made available to the public — now, it needs FDA approval, which it still does not have. Many persons involved in the lab-creation of the COVID-19 disaster must be held to account.
There is one COVID-19 “vaccine”-related news item that Yours Truly will present in today’s offering: the coordinated plot by https://www.bio.org/ to remove current HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.; and, to “redesign” the FDA into the vassal of Big Pharma that it was for many years previous to January 2025, the start of the second administration of President Donald Trump47. BIO.org partners closely with the United States Defense Department in the development of vaccines and other technologies. Please see the screenshots below from the company’s website.
The Partnering with the Department of Defense webpage also has three embedded videos, related to “rapid development of vaccines” and “how to work with the DoD.”
Regarding the coordinated effort by BIO.org to remove Secretary Kennedy, Jr., and related items, please see the screenshots below. The first one is from Yours Truly on The Q Tree. The rest of the screenshots are from the PDF of the BIO.org Vaccine Policy Steering Committee meeting that occurred on 3 April 2025. The link to the Substack article by Dr. Rose is: https://jessicar.substack.com/p/the-plot-to-remove-rfk-by-big-pharma.
The BIO.org meeting was held on 3 April 2025. Yours Truly corrects a date mistake in The Q Tree comment screenshot, above.
It appears that BIO.org is making it clear that they want “the good old HHS and good old FDA back”, and will do all they can to have this happen. It also appears that BIO.org believes that Dr. Martin Makary (current Commissioner of the FDA) is “manageable.” This may be a result of Dr. Makary’s recommendation for pregnant women to get COVID-19 “vaccinated.”
This is the same Dr. Martin Makary and his FDA that granted “Fast Track” approval in April 2025 for the H5N1 Avian Influenza “vaccine”, ARCT-2304, a self-amplifying RNA (saRNA) “vaccine.” Please see: https://www.contagionlive.com/view/fda-grants-fast-track-status-to-arct-2304-for-h5n1-influenza-protection, 10 April 2025. Surely Dr. Makary understands that saRNA, once injected into the body, turns that “vaccinated” body into a “literal interior Xerox machine” for manufacturing the modRNA of an injected saRNA “vaccine”, and that this “literal interior Xerox machine” effect can be permanent?
It appears that BIO.org is planning to foment distrust and disagreement between President Trump47 and Secretary Kennedy, Jr.
It also appears that BIO.org is planning to “work with” the United States Senate in coordinating the removal of Secretary Kennedy, Jr.
It is Yours Truly’ opinion that every United States Senator needs to see the BIO.org meeting document from April 2025; either the document itself; or, the link to the Dr. Jessica Rose article, above.
It is up to We, the People of the United States, to stop the efforts of BIO.org, of Big Pharma, of the World Health Organization, of the United Nations, of the American Medical Association, and other entities and persons, in hobbling, let alone taking away, health freedom in America.
There are Important Notificationsfrom our host, Wolf Moon; the Rulesof our late, good Wheatie; and, certain caveatsfrom Yours Truly, of which readers should be aware. They are linked here. Note: Yours Truly has checked today’s post for any AI-generated content. To the best of her knowledge and belief, there is none. If readers wish to post any AI-generated content in the discussion thread for today’s post, they must cite their source. Thank you.
I really love this paragraph because Jeff Childers ‘gets it’
To say that London is the world’s globalization headquarters is like saying the Mouse lives at Disney World. London has been the velvet-gloved epicenter of globalism ever since the East India Company shipped spices and opium on the same manifest.
London’s financial class didn’t just benefit from globalization— they practically wrote the instruction manual. For them to start hand-wringing now about “mass immigration” and “no benefits from free trade” is a sign the ground is shaking beneath the WEF cathedral.
Colonel Towner did a recent dig on Iran. She is specifically looking at the SOVAK, [WIKI] a secret Police in IRAN originally trained by the Russians in the 1800s, [1879] It was taken over by CIA, MI6 & Mossad. And remained in place during ALL the regime changes in Iran. That would certainly explain why Mossad knows so much about Iranian leaders.
Oh and the guy we know as ‘The Shah’ was a really nasty fellow according to the Colonel’s research. Note that the ‘crown prince’ live quite close to CIA head quarters and do not forget all the recent ‘Regime Change’ chatter. The CIA has pulled regime changes in 90 countries when ever the country’s leaders did not allow the International corporations to exploit the raw materials without paying and used the natives as cheap (slave) labor.
[David is a member of Veterans for Peace, Saint Pete (Florida) for Peace, CodePink, and the Palestinian-led non-violent organization International Solidarity Movement. He provides references at the bottom of the article.]
The CIA already has their man ready. They have been grooming him since he was 17 years old. He lives not far from the CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia. He is Reza Pahlavi, the Crown Prince of Iran…
Reza Pahlavi, the eldest son of the last shah of Iran, and Israeli Intelligence Minister Gila Gamliel attend the opening ceremony of the Holocaust Martyrs and Heroes Remembrance Day at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem on April 17, 2023 [Tsafrir Abayov/AP]
From the Trump Administration
8/ Real-time crisis coordination:
Rubio (SecState + NSA), Vance, and Witkoff communicated with Iran "both directly and indirectly."
They used Qatar as intermediary while maintaining back-channel communications.
Special Envoy @SteveWitkoff: "One of the President's key objectives is that the Abraham Accords be expanded … We think we're going to have some pretty big announcements on countries that are now coming in to the Abraham Peace Accords." pic.twitter.com/a2vq4f99mz
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) June 25, 2025
Wherever the Four Horsemen gallop the CIA is close behind. [The Colonel said they are actually in the lead clearing the way for the multinationals.] Iran was no exception. By 1957 the Company, as intelligence insiders know the CIA, created one of its first Frankensteins – the Shah’s brutal secret police known as SAVAK. Kermit Roosevelt, the Mossadegh coup-master turned Northrop salesman, admitted in his memoirs that SAVAK was 100% created by the CIA and Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency that acts as appendage of the CIA.
For the next 20 years the CIA and SAVAK were joined at the hip when it came to matters of Persian Gulf security. Three hundred fifty SAVAK agents were shuttled each year to CIA training facilities in McLean, Virginia, where they learned the finer arts of interrogation and torture. [15]
Top SAVAK brass were trained through the US Agency for International Development’s (USAID) Public Safety Program, until it was shut down in 1973 due to its reputation for turning out some of the world’s finest terrorists. In 1963 when JFK was assassinated SAVAK Chief Hassan Pakravan joined the Shah in Tehran to celebrate Kennedy’s death. [16] CIA, MI6 and Mossad supported 30 paramilitary groups in Iran and provided support to Shah-loyalist groups.
Popular anger towards Big Oil, the Shah and his new police state resulted in mass protests. The Shah dealt with the peaceful demonstrations with sheer brutality and got a wink and nod from Langley. From 1957-79 Iran housed 125,000 political prisoners. SAVAK “disappeared” dissenters, a strategy replicated by CIA surrogate dictators in Argentina and Chile…
[The forty references for the chapter start on page 24]
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
PAUL SPERRY
TradeBait2(@tradebait2) on June 26, 2025 brought this to the Qtree.
….I found an interesting email waiting for me in my inbox from Matt Taibbi, the independent journo Elon Musk tasked with reviewing andreleasing internal Twitter documents about decisions to censor content and ban users from the platform.
White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan figures prominently in a grand jury investigation run by Special Counsel John Durham into an alleged 2016 Hillary Clinton campaign scheme to use both the FBI and CIA to tar Donald Trump as a colluder with Russia, according to people familiar with the criminal probe, which they say has broadened into a conspiracy case…
…Two U.S. officials briefed on the inspector general’s investigation of possible FBI misconduct said Comey was essentially “running a covert operation against” thepresident, starting with a private “defensive briefing” he gave Trump just weeks before his inauguration. They said Horowitz has examined high-level FBI text messages and other communications indicating Comey was actually conducting a “counterintelligence assessment” of Trump during that January 2017 meeting in New York.
In addition to adding notes of his meetings and phone calls with Trump to the official FBI case file, Comey had an agent inside the White House who reported back to FBI headquarters about Trump and his aides, according to other officials familiar with the matter….
Comey’s meeting with Trump took place one day after the FBI director met in the Oval Office with President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden to discuss how to brief Trump — a meeting attended by National Security Adviser Susan Rice, Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates and National Intelligence Director James Clapper, who would soon go to work for CNN…
Another interesting 2019 story from Sperry on June 6, 2019.
Roger Stone was not the only one ‘swatted’ by Mueller & the FBI. WND.com founder and editor Joseph Farah. “…Not long after the interrogation, the 64-year-old Farah suffered a stroke and is still incapacitated…” [the ten witnesses also included AG Jeff Session!!]
…The suggestion that Democrats now are suddenly concerned about nuclear secrets seems implausible, too, he suggested.
“Recall how Dems and MSM didn’t give a rip about ‘national security’ when President Clinton: — declassified tens of thousands of pages of secrets about our nuclear weapons program; — transferred dual-use missile and other technology to China; and, — kicked open the doors to Los Alamos and our other nuclear weapons labs to Chinese scientists. Beijing subsequently stole the designs to every nuclear warhead in the US arsenal, including MIRVs, according to the Cox Report, and now China can independently target Honolulu, Los Angeles and San Francisco with a single ICBM.”
He also reported the FBI paperwork authorizing the raid on Trump’s home allowed agents to seize any boxes “in proximity” to any targeted papers….
AG Garland's decision to raid a former president's home will go down as one of the most ill-advised decisions in DOJ history
Who was his counselor? Maggie Goodlander. Who's she? The wife of Biden's National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, who feared Trump had Iran nuke deal docs
The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a sociopolitical movement in the People’s Republic of China (PRC). It was launched by Mao Zedong in 1966 and lasted until his death in 1976…
Dr. R.J. Rummel tabulated the 169,202,000 Murdered by their own government, many under some flavor of “Socialism” during the last century.
…Just to give perspective on this incredible murder by government, if all these bodies were laid head to toe, with the average height being 5′, then they would circle the earth ten times. Also, this democide murdered 6 times more people than died in combat in all the foreign and internal wars of the century….
After eight-years and almost daily reading and recording of men, women, and children by the tens of millions being tortured or beaten to death, hung, shot, and buried alive, burned or starved to death, stabbed or chopped into pieces, and murdered in all the other ways creative and imaginative human beings can devise, I have never been so happy to conclude a project. I have not found it easy to read time and time again about the horrors innocent people have been forced to suffer. What has kept me at this was the belief, as preliminary research seemed to suggest, that there was a positive solution to all this killing and a clear course of political action and policy to end it. And the results verify this. The problem is Power. The solution is democracy. The course of action is to foster freedom…
10. 7,474,000 Victims: Collectivization and “The Great Leap Forward”
11. 10,729,000 Victims: The Great Famine and Retrenchment Period
12. 7,731,000 Victims: The “Cultural Revolution”
13. 874,000 Victims: Liberalization
IMPORTANT NOTE: Among all the democide estimates appearing in this book, I have revised two upward. I have changed that for Mao’s famine, 1958-1962, from zero to 38,000,000. And thus I have had to change the overall democide for the PRC (1928-1987) from 38,702,000 to 76,702,000. Detailshere.
This might explain why those human rights violations were ignored. Not that the international corporations gave a flying F… about their foreign slave labor.
“By about the year 2000 Communist China will be a “superpower” built by American technology and skill.” — Antony C. Sutton, American Secret Establishment published 1984
Student Mao Zedong & Yale in China
“The fundamental difference between a “New World Order” under the United Nations and an independent United States are nowhere more clearly indicated than in our ‘Declaration of Independence’ affirmation that “men are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights.” The UN’s total exclusion of God means that rights do not come from God, (but) that they proceed from government, and government can take them away.
Skull and Bones reaches to all the leaders around the world and this may explain Bush’s obsessive support of China, regardless of the human rights violations and arsenol buildup.
“Skull and Bones is a secret fraternity at Yale University which restricts their membership to only fifteen per year. . The society was formed in 1832 by General William Russell, whose shipping firm later dominated the U.S. side of the China opium trade. Yale University was founded by Eli Yale, who made his fortune working for the opium smuggling British East India Company.”
Bush Sr of course was CIA. He was unable to get the World Trade Organization ratified. So just like with the Federal Reserve Act, it was handed off to a Democrat. Clinton, managed to get it ratified in the winter of 1994 and the WTO replaced GATT in 1995. Then Clinton “Negotiated terms for China’s entry into the World Trade Organization, with Permanent Normal Trade Relations.” China officially joined the WTO in 2001 at the end of Clinton’s term.
Washington would do well to take note of Chinese restraint as the situation with Iran grinds on for foreseeable future
On a visit to Shanghai some years ago, I asked a leading Chinese strategist how Beijing would view a war between the US and Iran… he shocked me by explaining that China would benefit from the US fighting yet another costly war in the Middle East, since that could mark the “end of US global hegemony.” The Chinese have indeed always considered the Middle East as “the graveyard of empires.”
While hostilities have subsided for now, there remains a grim possibility that the Israel-Iran ceasefire could break down and the US will once again face pressure to come to Israel’s defense. If China were to aid Iran, as it has Pakistan, with aircraft, missiles, and battle management technologies, that would mark a troubling escalation.
But now, Beijing remains cautious about wielding its military power abroad. Still, China will likely reap geopolitical benefits if the US continues to be on an adversarial footing with Iran….
In a significant shift in Middle Eastern geopolitics, Iran is accelerating negotiations with China to acquire Chengdu J-10C multirole fighter jets, a move prompted by the failure of a long-anticipated deal with Russia for Su-35 aircraft. The decision comes on the heels of a bruising 12-day conflict between Israel and the United States, which exposed critical vulnerabilities in Iran’s aging air force and air defense systems.
Tehran’s pivot to Beijing, reported by Iran’s Khorasan newspaper…
Honestly I don’t recall there ever being a deal between Iran and Russia for planes. Endless rumours but that is about it. @Slavyangrad
Do not ever forget the Uranium One deal under Obama and Hilary Clinton. OR Obama’s pallets of cash sent to Iran. Were they setting-up the USA, or Russia?
As one example of the CIA connections of these organizations, consider the disclosure by John Gilligan, Director of AID during the Carter administration (1977-81).
….Ann Dunham, had been associated during the 1970s and 80s — as employee, consultant, grantee, or student — with at least five organizations with intimate CIA connections during the Cold War: The Ford Foundation, Agency for International Development (AID), the Asia Foundation, Development Alternatives, Inc., and the East-West Center of Hawaii.[5] Much of this time she worked as an anthropologist in Indonesia and Hawaii, being in good position to gather intelligence about local communities.
As one example of the CIA connections of these organizations, consider the disclosure by John Gilligan, Director of AID during the Carter administration (1977-81). “At one time, many AID field offices were infiltrated from top to bottom with CIA people. The idea was to plant operatives in every kind of activity we had overseas, government, volunteer, religious, every kind.”[6] And Development Alternatives, Inc. is the organization for whom Alan Gross was working when arrested in Cuba and charged with being part of the ongoing American operation to destabilize the Cuban government…
In 2018, Mr Blum, born of Polish Jewish immigrants in NYC, was labeled an anti-Semite!
Israeli settlers from illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank attacked a Palestinian village, setting houses on fire while families were inside. Israeli soldiers then turned up & shot the Palestinians who were trying to rescue people from their homes.@nour_odeh reporting pic.twitter.com/W3115Urew8
The reality is that Netanyahu attacked Iran not primarily to prevent a nuclear weapon but to prevent a nuclear agreement between and . He was key in driving Trump to leave the original JCPOA deal, and now wanted to prevent a new one. https://t.co/SyeWrj0Mfl
This X22 Report LINK 1/2 way down has a lot of tweets about the conditions in Iran. For example.
Iran Foreign Ministry spokesman: "Yes, our nuclear installations have been badly damaged — that's for sure — because it has come under repeated attacks." pic.twitter.com/1e9bwcMh7c
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) June 26, 2025
From deceptive acts used in the the sausage making of legislation in our current days to the deception by an author with the use of pen names, this thread is also about one very prominent founding father. It is safe to say that without his dedicated efforts in a foreign land during the Revolutionary War we may not have a reason to celebrate our nation’s independence today.
As previously discussed the Federalists and Anti-Federalists used the media of that day to publish their views in an attempt to sway public opinion their individual direction. So it was with this incredible founder many decades before the patriot movement in the colonies, except he did not always have political motives with his written words.
Sometimes his tranny alter ego took over.
😂
Benjamin Franklin
Now you may ask, Trade, why would you disparage such an important American patriot? Brilliant Benjamin, or as he signed his name – B. Franklin, or “B” from this point on – was the master of using pseudonyms for his authorship. As a result he would sometimes choose fictitious ladies to write letters to newspapers by names such as Polly Baker and Silence Dogood. It was a way to get around the heavy censorship of the period, especially relating to subjects that were generally not accepted by society and political leaders.
Censorship in media inspired by government forces? Say it ain’t so! Yup, going back 300 years or so between these shores it was done in similar ways using whatever methodology they had available at the time. A reminder of Ecclesiastes 1:9 (NASB) is appropriate. “What has been, it is what will be, And what has been done, it is what will be done. So there is nothing new under the sun.“
In one of B’s letter stories it seems Polly was an unwed mother with several illegitimate children who would opine about separation of church and state matters. She believed that having children born out of wedlock was not sinful. She saw herself before a fictive court making a defense without benefit of a lawyer whom she could not afford anyway. She believed that she deserved a statute in her honor instead of the whipping that authorities wanted to administer. She was basically pointing out the double standard of society’s treatment of men and women. The satire used is really humorous.
Silence was the first of B’s cast of characters. She was a middle aged country widow of a minister who once went after society not providing the same opportunity for education for the poor that the wealthy had. She loved men and the clergy while having a particular penchant for reproving others satirically. B snuck letters from “her” into his older brother’s newspaper without his knowledge. 😂
Even the names he used for his women authors were funny. Besides Polly and Silence, there were Caelia Shortface, Martha Careful, Alice Addertongue and Busy Body all contributing. The latter penned gossip and a lot of hilarious looks at relationships between men and women.
His cast of names of men authors were noteworthy as well. Of course, most folks know that B used the name of Richard Saunders to produce Poor Richard’s Almanack as a young man. This publication continued for 26 editions and averaged around 10,000 copies issued per year. There also was the funny married life portrayals of Anthony Afterwit. Later in life in England he wrote under the pen name of Benevolus to dispel rumors about colonists that were being printed in the British press.
Needless to say B had an amazingly observant, creative, and intelligent mind. We should all be thankful he was a patriot because there was a long period of time before the war when he was a British loyalist. Some of those who did not care for him for a variety of reasons even accused him of being a British spy. However, as the oppressive Brits began to tighten down on the colonies, he flipped to being a full throated patriot. From his works we also see a founding father who was way ahead of his time when it came to seeking gender equality, access to education for all, scientific endeavors, and seeking fair dealings in all endeavors.
Biography
There is not enough time to detail B’s biography here. This extraordinary man left an incredible legacy in so many areas of life. I will not attempt to summarize, it would not do him justice. I have provided a shortened version of his bio in the first link below. The second link goes into a bit more information that hits the higher points of his life. I have followed that with a very good, more detailed version for those who want to know more in the format of an autobiography in the man’s own words that he chronicles to the year 1757.
Now that you probably know more about the man than you probably ever desired to know, we can focus on some of his more notable interactions and relationships during the founding years of our nation.
Will start with a political cartoon he published in his newspaper, the Pennsylvania Gazette, in May 1754.
He basically told the colonies to work together to become unified or die. The image was widely used leading up to the war.
He was a devoted freemason throughout his life. He joined in Philadelphia in 1730. It nearly cost his freedom and did damage his reputation for a time due to a stupid hazing incident that cost a man his life. B was dragged into the resulting negativity. Below is a published accusation, B’s response, and a witness statement. He testified in the criminal trial on behalf of the prosecution.
There is some nasty freemason shiz in that accusation that led to a conviction of manslaughter for the offender.
He aligned more with Thomas Jefferson in his political, governmental, and societal views. Similar to Jefferson, he embraced the Age of Enlightenment in Europe and in particular in France. This philosophy led several leaders who formerly claimed to be Christians to becoming Deists. In Jefferson’s case it appeared he did not stay in the Deist camp later in life. The two shared much in common in their beliefs about humanity and governing. The link below describes the relationship and their times well. It is from the Jefferson Monticello organization.
B left for France as a traitor to Great Britain at age 70, just months after signing the Declaration of Independence. It is safe to say that the colonies would have never won the Revolutionary War and independence without France becoming fully immersed in the struggle and strongly supporting the efforts of the colonies. Which shows everybody how things can change over time on the world stage. Big bad France of those days is a mess today.
B was very famous and a celebrity in France the entire nine years he lived there. He was known throughout Europe to have discovered electricity and for his inventions such as the flexible tubed urinary catheter. His manner fit in well with leaders and aristocracy in the nation. As we now know he also designed the first known pair of bifocals upon his return to the states.
He was never in a hurry, he took time to visit and understand the people and their motives. He took every meeting that was requested of him while in France. As it applied to meeting the war time needs of the colonies he was very good at bluffing and blowing smoke up the rears of French leaders when it came to the military prowess of the colonist military. He was patient when it came to securing the needed assets to help the colonial war efforts, which drove many of his contemporaries back in America crazy. He did not push hard for assistance until he had something to sell, which turned out to be the colonist victory at the Battle of Saratoga and subsequent capture of Gen. Burgoyne and his men. Ironically, Benedict Arnold led the colonial forces that accomplished it. That victory was all that was needed for France to sign treaties of alliance and jump in. More good information is in the article below.
As discussed in the linked article and in my previous post, John Adams and B were not best buddies. B’s deliberate manner and celebrity status drove John Adams crazy. However, they tolerated each other to accomplish important work for America. After a time, Adams was sent to Great Britain as the war ended as previously noted in the post about him. He was much happier and more effective there as he fit in with the British royals and aristocrats with his background and manner. This was the opposite of B’s previous experiences in Britain. The British royalty and aristocracy never really accepted him despite his attempts to fit in. They respected his accomplishments, but having been a commoner with little standing in society and formal education, B was considered beneath them.
B. Franklin’s Family and Death
This is a good place to end this Part. B’s marriage and children reflected an absent husband and father who was not all that into family life. It just goes to show that famous legends in history sometimes lead just as wanky of personal lives as many of the rest of us. I cannot vouch for the accuracy of the grunge.com link below due to their spotty track record, although this article appears accurate compared to other historical accounts. They do reference Smithsonian documentation among other reputable sources in several spots. I have also linked the applicable Smithsonian one that applies to the following theory of the primary cause of the couple’s estrangement. If it is accurate, it sheds light on a brilliant, often times conflicted man who had a penchant for walking on the dark side at times in his life.
If the theory holds, B could never reconcile to wife Deborah’s refusal to inoculate for small pox their four year old son, Francis, from which he later contracted the disease and died. Long periods of time and distance apart did not make B’s heart grow fonder for Deborah and their daughter, Sarah, which made reconciliation less likely to occur. In fact, during Deborah’s latter years alive while B was in Great Britain he would send letters to her delaying his return even though he was well aware she was gravely ill. He waited to return until she passed away in 1774.
Cold, not only to her and Sarah, but also to older son, William, who was reported to be B’s from an extra-marital affair. William was well provided for and raised by the couple into adulthood. He was very close to his father for a time and considered Deborah his mother. There is speculation that Deborah actually was his mother, that William’s birth was from a period when she was estranged from her first husband. The couple were very secretive about William’s origins such that even his birth year was questioned. William went on to a distinguished career as an attorney, politician and soldier. However, he remained a British loyalist and became a nemesis to B and the founding fathers in his twenties. So much so that he was imprisoned at the start of the war for two years. He was released and immediately began organizing loyalists to fight the colonists. A few years later he was exiled to London and never returned.
Needless to say B harbored bitter resentment against Deborah, which may or may not have been founded on truth over a subject of vaccinations that is still a divisive issue centuries later.
Please note what this (restored as of 2016/2017) plaque near his grave states.
As it states, he wrote it earlier in life with no intention of it actually being used. Will leave you with one of B’s better American Patriot quotes of the ages to live by.
“Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.”
Please remember Wolf’s rules for our community. In general that means to be respectful to each other and to pull no shenanigans that your mom might find offensive or otherwise cause jail time. That said, free speech is honored here.
Have a happy Independence Day, folks. We have so much to be thankful for as we head into The Golden Age of America. Be blessed and go make something good happen!
This Rejoice & Praise God Sunday Open Thread, with full respect to those who worship God on the Sabbath, is a place to reaffirm our worship of our Creator, our Father, our King Eternal.
It’s also a place to read, post, and discuss news that is worth knowing and sharing. Please post links to any news stories that you use as sources or quote from.
In the QTree, we’re a friendly and civil lot. We encourage free speech and the open exchange and civil discussion of different ideas. Topics aren’t constrained, and sound logic is highly encouraged, all built on a solid foundation of truth and established facts.
We have a policy of mutual respect, shown by civility. Civility encourages discussions, promotes objectivity and rational thought in discourse, and camaraderie in the participants – characteristics we strive toward in our Q Tree community.
Please show respect and consideration for our fellow QTreepers. Before hitting the “post” button, please proofread your post and make sure your opinion addresses the issue only, and does not confront or denigrate the poster. Keep to the topic – avoid “you” and “your”. Here in The Q Tree, personal attacks, name-calling, ridicule, insults, baiting, and other conduct for which a penalty flag would be thrown are VERBOTEN.
In The Q Tree, we’re compatriots, sitting around the campfire, roasting hot dogs, making s’mores, and discussing, agreeing, and disagreeing about whatever interests us. This board will remain a home for those who seek respectful conversations.
God is in Control . . . and His Grace is Sufficient, so . . . Keep Looking Up
Hopefully, every Sunday, we can find something here that will build us up a little . . . give us a smile . . . and add some joy or peace, very much needed in all our lives.
“This day is holy to the Lord your God; do not mourn nor weep.” . . . “Go your way, eat the fat, drink the sweet, and send portions to those for whom nothing is prepared; for this day is holy to our Lord. Do not sorrow, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”
God’s Sovereignty & Man’s Free Will
It is impossible for us to fully understand the relationship between God’s sovereignty and man’s free will and responsibility. Only God truly knows how they work together in His plan of salvation. With this doctrine, probably more so than with any other, it is crucially important to admit our inability to fully grasp the nature of God and our relationship with Him. Going too far to either side results in a distorted understanding of salvation.
Scripture is clear that God determines who will be saved (Romans 8:29; 1 Peter 1:2). Ephesians 1:4 tells us that God chose us “before the creation of the world.” The Bible repeatedly describes believers as the “chosen” (Romans 8:33, 11:5; Ephesians 1:11; Colossians 3:12; 1 Thessalonians 1:4; 1 Peter 1:2, 2:9) and the “elect” (Matthew 24:22, 31; Mark 13:20, 27; Romans 11:7; 1 Timothy 5:21; 2 Timothy 2:10; Titus 1:1; 1 Peter 1:1). The fact that believers are predestined (Romans 8:29-30; Ephesians 1:5, 11) and elected for salvation (Romans 9:11, 11:28; 2 Peter 1:10) is clear.
The Bible also says that we are responsible for receiving Christ as Savior. If we believe in Jesus Christ we will be saved (John 3:16; Romans 10:9-10). God knows who will be saved and God chooses who will be saved, and we must choose Christ in order to be saved. How these facts work together is impossible for a finite mind to comprehend (Romans 11:33-36). Our responsibility is to take the gospel to the world (Matthew 28:18-20; Acts 1:8). We should leave foreknowledge, election, and predestination up to God and simply be obedient in sharing the gospel.
Along these same lines, the following are some excerpts from C. H. MackIntosh, a noted Christian theologian of the 19th century.
Charles Henry Mackintosh Born: October 1820 Died: 2 November 1896
[Many Christians] cannot see the rightness of calling upon the unconverted to “come,” to “hear,” to “repent,” or to “believe.” It seems to [them] like telling a crab-tree to bear some apples in order that it may become an apple-tree.
Now, we thoroughly believe that faith is the gift of God, and that it is not according to man’s will or by human power. And further, we believe that not a single soul would ever come to Christ if not drawn, yea, compelled by divine grace so to do; and therefore all who are saved have to thank the free and sovereign grace of God for it; their song is, and ever shall be, “Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto Thy name give glory, for Thy mercy, and for Thy truth’s sake.”
And this we believe not as part of a certain system of doctrine, but as the revealed truth of God. But, on the other hand, we believe, just as fully, in the solemn truth of man’s moral responsibility, inasmuch as it is plainly taught in Scripture.
[God] has not confined Himself within the narrow limits of any school of doctrine. He has revealed Himself. He has told out the deep and precious secrets of His heart. He has unfolded His eternal counsels, as to the Church, as to Israel, the Gentiles, and the wide creation. Men might as well attempt to confine the ocean in buckets of their own formation as to confine the vast range of divine revelation within the feeble enclosures of human systems of doctrine. It cannot be done, and it ought not to be attempted. Better far to set aside the systems of theology and schools of divinity, and come like a little child to the eternal fountain of Holy Scripture, and there drink in the living teachings of God’s Spirit.
Let us face Scripture as it stands, and reject everything which will not stand the test. We may well call in question the soundness of a system which cannot meet the full force of the Word of God as a whole. If passages of Scripture seem to clash, it is only because of our ignorance. Let us humbly own this, and wait on God for further light. This, we may depend upon it, is safe moral ground to occupy. Instead of endeavoring to reconcile apparent discrepancies, let us bow at the Master’s feet and justify Him in all His sayings. Thus shall we reap a harvest of blessing, and grow in the knowledge of God and His Word as a whole.
All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
Israel restarts bombing of Lebanon 
not primarily to prevent a nuclear weapon but to prevent a nuclear agreement between 
and 
