“We do not believe any group of men adequate enough or wise enough to operate without scrutiny or without criticism. We know that the only way to avoid error is to detect it, that the only way to detect it is to be free to inquire. We know that in secrecy error undetected will flourish and subvert.” –J. Robert Oppenheimer
This Stormwatch Monday Open Thread is VERY OPEN – a place for everybody to post whatever they feel they would like to tell the White Hats, and the rest of the MAGA/KMAG/KAG world (with KMAG being a bit of both).
Yes, it’s Monday…again.
But it’s okay! We’ll get through it.
Free Speech is practiced here at the Q Tree. But please keep it civil. Discussion of Q is not only allowed but encouraged. Imagine that! We can talk about Q here and not get banned.
Please also consider the Important Guidelines, outlined here. Let’s not give the odious Internet Censors a reason to shut down this precious haven that Wolf has created for us.
Our President is fighting for us night and day…please pray for him.
Wheatie’s Rules:
No food fights.
No running with scissors.
If you bring snacks, bring enough for everyone.
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For your listening enjoyment, I offer this collection of compositions conducted by Peter Pejtsik and performed by the The Budapest Film Orchestra:
If we’re lucky…we may get to punch a Karen or two.
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Wheatie’s Words of the Day:
Learnt vs Learned
Learnt and learned are both used as the past participle and past tense of the verb to learn. Learned is the generally accepted way of spelling it in the United States and Canada, while the rest of the English-speaking world seems to prefer learnt for now.
Why for now? The American English tendency toward making irregular verbs into regular ones has started influencing British English, which is why the -ed variant is becoming increasingly used around the world. Soon learned might be the most common form everywhere.
There is an exception, though, when learned is the only option. That is when it is used as an Adjective…for example, when you say that someone is learned. And then we pronounce the word as two syllables: LER-ned.
Personally…I use ‘learned’ whenever I need to say: “I learned something.”
Because to say…”I learnt something.”…sounds like hillbilly jargon.
Before I get too far into this post, because there is A LOT to say, I would like to acknowledge the contributions of a number of QTreepers who helped shape this compilation: MichaelH, eilert, razorbak, Aubergine, The Boss, and more. There are many more. But these people’s contributions are in tabs waiting to be added to the post.
…the famous words of newly elected President John F. Kennedy in his inaugural address, on Jan. 20, 1961, 60 years before our next president will be administered the oath of office, in January 2021.
Kennedy said, “And so, my fellow Americans: Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country. My fellow citizens of the world: Ask not what America will do for you but what together we can do for the freedom of man.”…
Here’s how Kennedy opened that address: “The world is very different now. … And yet, the same revolutionary beliefs for which our forebears fought are still at issue around the globe—the belief that the rights of man come not from the generosity of the state but from the hand of God.”
And from XVII:
703 Feb 10, 2018 3:33:29 AM EST Q !UW.yye1fxo ID: 237dde No. 324395
“Rest in peace Mr. President (JFK), through your wisdom and strength, since your tragic death, Patriots have planned, installed, and by the grace of God, activated, the beam of LIGHT. We will forever remember your sacrifice. May you look down from above and continue to guide us as we ring the bell of FREEDOM and destroy those who wish to sacrifice our children, our way of life, and our world. We, the PEOPLE.” Prayer said every single day in the OO.
JFK – Secret Socities.
Where we go one, we go all. Q
As a quick recap on what this writer believes about “The Plan,” it is a THEORY (this one really is a theory) which is constantly morphing based on a chan post that disappeared some time back that what we are seeing unfold now is the product of DECADES worth of planning and thinking through contingencies beginning either during or in the aftermath of the Korean War.
It became obvious to somebody, somewhere in the Pentagon, and possibly even President Dwight Eisenhower while he was NATO Supreme Commander that the people in the background of what Ike termed the “Military Industrial Complex” on his way out of the White House in 1961, were then (and still are) hellbent on bankrupting America using two tried and true ways of bilking money out of a treasury: lending us our own money at interest via a central bank (the Federal Reserve) and keeping us in a constant state of war.
How that was to be accomplished, I believe, lies in the creation of at least two entities created by the secret societies who want to enslave us via the means described above: CIA (1947), and the United Nations (1949). Those are the two bodies that got us into the Korean War and through which battle plans were sent for approval. In the field, the Americans were getting slaughtered…until they sent false plans to the UN, and proved that the UN was sabotaging the effort.
In 1952, in a move so secret, it was decades before the existence of “No Such Agency” was admitted, President Harry Truman signed into being the National Security Agency (NSA). From that time, behind the scenes, the Central Intelligence Agency (a definite contradiction in terms), and the NSA were at odds, and most likely still are today. (Maybe, some of the Snowden reveals put that in question.)
Our beloved XVII claims that the current effort of executing “The Plan” was started by President Kennedy, but….
What if Kennedy was actually in the same role as President Trump is: the front man for a military operation so meticulously planned that it is unfolding next to a plan of the same size and scope with exactly the opposite goals and objectives. What if the first attempt to make this happen was stopped on November 22, 1963 in a VERY public way, and the planners regrouped knowing they had to find another front man, and a way around what we call “mockingbird,” the C_A’s gaslighting and propaganda operation, in order to ensure the freedom of the people of the world could be achieved by taking out the cabal at the top of the food chain in the secret societies via exposure and creating the demand for it to happen.
What if that is what we are beginning to see today.
What if the 2020 election was and is the mechanism by which the opposition wanted to finally enslave the people, and the planners are countering by exposing the plot using their front man, President Donald Trump, and the mainstream media work around known as the internet (social media).
These are the thoughts I have had since the election was over. I can’t change them, no matter what information comes to me.
There appear to be two options, and two only, for what is currently happening.
1) President Trump, knowing vote fraud was coming, telling us over and over again that vote fraud would happen, used the ENORMOUS power of the Presidency, not to mention the power of lots of money, to somehow set up a way to catch the cheating and expose it, winning reelection and bringing down the fraudsters. Doing this in a very public way ensures that it can never happen again and new laws and safeguards for elections will be the order of the day.
2) President Trump, knowing voter fraud was coming, telling us over and over again that vote fraud would happen, did NOTHING with the power of his office or money, allowed the cheating he knew was coming to happen, and fecklessly spent millions of dollars on a campaign there was no hope of winning. Doing nothing ensures that we will definitely be a Socialist country, and never have a fair election again. Everything we have believed about Trump for the last five years was a fantasy. The Emperor truly has no clothes.
Looking at the situation through this stark lens has brought me a lot of peace. I BELIEVE the only possible answer is number ONE. If for some reason I am wrong and have been completely fooled for five years, I have exactly ZERO control over current events, and will have to live with whatever comes, for however long I live.
As I see it, these are the two options, and there really are no other choices. I don’t see a third option, no matter how hard I look.
I believe there is a third option which includes your first option:
The Plan called for this and used their recruited front man, President Donald J. Trump, to explain to the public how it was going to go down.
None of the people really pulling the strings behind the scenes have the name recognition or star power to make it happen, IMO.
I’m now seeing this as one of the most sophisticated operations ever attempted based on the Shakespearian 5 act model. We’re currently in Act III, unless I miss my guess.
And that’s the crux. No matter which side of this mess one finds his or herself, this is the climax; this is Act III; this is where the set up culminates and where the real action begins.
At the risk of it being too early on a Saturday morning when so many people are headed to capitols, both state and federal, to express their displeasure with the election aftermath, I would like to share this from GAB, and will comment below the post itself.
𝔻𝕖𝕞𝕠𝕔𝕣𝕒𝕔𝕪4𝕌𝕊•𝔸𝕃𝕃 @mysticphoeniix
9h · Staggering fraud. Includes governors & Secretaries of State. Multiple, US & global elections. Organized crime throughout all media. It’s deeper than we ever thought. I’m going to expose every one of them
Massive criminal investigations coming, covering *multiple elections*. If any states are stupid enough to certify, they’ll be set aside by fraud. The President won this election in a landslide.
Every frauded ballot is a federal felony !!
@LouDobbs Release the Kraken: @SidneyPowell1 vows to expose the Silicon Valley and left-wing corporations that are using their power to help Democrats steal the election from @realdonaldtrump. #MAGA #AmericaFirst #Dobbs 3:35 PM · Nov 13, 2020
DePat comment:
The “Swamp” is nationwide. It’s not just Foggy Bottom in Washington. It’s the entire system top to bottom. All of it needs to be cleaned out, not just the federal government as in the Cabinet and Congress. ALL OF IT. State houses, local party operations, even down to county executives and mayors – and please, take mine, including my state rep.
Nothing this big, as in election fraud which is most likely systemic since the vast majority of Americans only participate in the form of actually voting rather than being poll watchers or taking vacation time to work at the polls, just happens. It’s been in place for DECADES if not a couple centuries. I seriously doubt we’ve ever had honest elections at this point – and interestingly enough, the decentralization of it may have played into hiding the fraud since there are so many places that need to investigated. Limit it to just a few precincts, as Karl Rove has said about winning an election, and it can be hard to detect when you have to go through several states with uncooperative actors to find it.
Remember: 3-4 years ago when a federal commission was set up to clean up the voter rolls, the states refused to cooperate. We the people may have been on the Trump train, but the people in the state houses weren’t always.
This time around when it came to election fraud, the sheer size and scope of the steal turned out to be the mechanism by which it was exposed. There was simply too much from coast to coast to keep it hidden, especially when there had been observers out there watching for the last few elections seeing what we saw last week on a smaller scale.
We are in the exposure phase of The Plan, I’m convinced. The fraud is being SHOWN to the public to create the DEMAND that something, anything be done about it. The trick is to make sure it never happens again, and that means cleaning out the system from top to bottom, and getting corporate interests out of the influence business, i.e., lobbying.
Lobbyists will need to be viewed as abortionists once were: the dregs of polite society.
The other thing that *needs* to happen (without being read into the plan, this is a personal opinion) is that the vaunted alphabet agencies be subjected to the same microscopic inspection as is happening with the election system, if one can call the clusterf#@! we’re watching fall apart a system, and just dismantled. I have a feeling that’s where this is going, but some people had to be caught in the trap, first.
Exposure is always the precursor to demand. That’s where we are. And the “intelligence” people may just be next. We don’t know.
The question, though is what is being exposed. It’s not just election fraud:
For reference on the Oceans 11 concept, this is the scene that explains where the money is:
In the movie, all of the money was kept in one place…and what we are now finding out is that via the voting machines (Dominion, GEMS, etc.) voter information – who we all are and HOW WE VOTE, FOR WHOM WE VOTE, AND WHAT INITIATIVES WE VOTE FOR OR AGAINST – all gets dumped into a a single server in a foreign nation owned by a company known as “scytl.”
Please see Aubergine’s post on the taking down of that company last week.
The letters “scytl” were bugging me, I mean one of those mental nags that just won’t go away, until I realized in the dark of night that the lower case “l” could be an “I” in some fonts, and rearrange the letters and you get:
If you look at it a certain way, with the head being at the top and the tail at the bottom, the bug does resemble a quilt pattern I have for surf fish using triangles.
That may just be spitballing, but….
So, back to what Patrick Bergy was getting at with his tweet. If all of the voter data – legal and not – is dumped in one place, and ballots actually do have identifying marks on them, which I have wondered for a long time since ours have always been numbered and representatives from both parties have to sign for them, are the people who want to enslave us collecting our voting habits and patterns, something that really should only be between a voter and God?
And how much of this is influenced by foreign governments?
Remember, if we are in the climax of a five act play (and Shakespearian plays are LOOOOONNNGGGG), the eye of the storm, if you will, then everything up to now has been prelude. Even this:
This story begins with the little-known executive order signed into existence on September 12, 2018, by President Donald J. Trump. That order, available at Whitehouse.gov, is entitled, “Executive Order on Imposing Certain Sanctions in the Event of Foreign Interference in a United States Election.”
In that executive order, which almost no one has covered since the day it was signed, President Trump declares a national emergency. That emergency is still in play to this day, and the 2020 election was conducted under this state of emergency, which is a crucial point to understand what’s coming next.
“Unauthorized accessing of election infrastructure”
In the EO, the President also states that people and organizations located, in part, outside the United States are known to be able to, “interfere in or undermine public confidence in United States elections, including through the unauthorized accessing of election and campaign infrastructure or the covert distribution of propaganda and disinformation.”
If you’re starting to see how this ties in to CNN, the NY Times, the Washington Post and MSNBC, you’re not alone. All those organizations, as you’ll soon see, have been caught under this emergency declaration of “foreign interference” in U.S. elections, aided by complicit corporations on U.S. soil.
The EO further states that this foreign interference in U.S. elections, “constitutes an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States.”
Why is this relevant to anything we’re seeing right now with the massive election fraud carried out by the Democrats and the deep state? Because Dominion Voting Systems is a Canadian company. And Scytl is run out of Spain.
That’s right. Dominion is a foreign-owned company, which makes Dominion-based election theft a “foreign interference issue.”
I’ll have grounds More relative than this—the play’s the thing Wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the King.
Hamlet, Act 2, Scene 2, 603-305
The XVII team and President Trump set the trap, and the other side fell right in. The cheating, fraud and brazenly claiming that the Biden/Harris ticket won was supposed to be the climax for the parallel plan (Act III in their play) resulting in routing out those of us who would give them trouble, and – OOPS – the sleeping giant woke up thanks to MAGA, and all those rallies.
We’re not buying it.
And now that all is being exposed with the American people awake – FINALLY – well, for the most part anyway, the system that has held us in check for over a hundred years will be dismantled by the will of the people whether the other side likes it or not.
Top to bottom.
And for them it’s a tragedy.
For the people of the United States and the world beyond our borders, it will be a triumph.
We’re watching the movie extravaganza of the year play out in all its ugliness, including a host of villains that well deserve the gallows and a tidal surge of putrid swamp ‘Rats that can easily engulf the unwary. The futures of our country and families are of paramount importance in this constitutional crisis that, understandably, consumes the attention of anyone who is aware of the possible ramifications.
But . . . is this the overwhelming crisis of the day? Well, no it isn’t. That designation continues to belong to the overall battle between good and evil in this world. Our current political battle for survival is but a skirmish in world-level hostilities. . . . hostilities in which we must choose sides and thereby the future of our very souls. There is no middle ground. We can’t choose not to choose and thereby not align ourselves with one side or the other. We must choose one side or the other and either suffer or enjoy the consequences of losing or winning.
This is the paramount battle, a spiritual battle, and a constant reminder that we are not of this world, but, as Christians, are permanent and eternal residents of a different location.
We are but sojourners and exiles and “our citizenship is in heaven, from where also we await for our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our body of humiliation, so that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working of His power even to subdue all things to Himself.”
This is a perspective that we must keep well in mind as the current crisis attempts to drag us through the mud, rocks and ditches of our path here on Earth, because our real war has been won and we are more than conquerors on our way to our eternal victory celebration.
We should be feeling a strong sense of dissatisfaction with our temporary position among the struggles here on earth and also a longing to come home to our family in its rightful spiritual dwelling.
Those feelings remind me of a couple of old-time songs that have, for many years, portrayed the same feelings.
This World Is Not My Home
This world is not my home, I’m just a passing through My treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue; The angels beckon me from heaven’s open door, And I can’t feel at home in this world anymore.
They’re all expecting me, and that’s one thing I know, My Savior pardoned me and now I onward go; I know He’ll take me thro’ tho’ I am weak and poor, And I can’t feel at home in this world anymore.
I have a loving Savior up in glory-land, I don’t expect to stop until I with Him stand, He’s waiting now for me in heaven’s open door, And I can’t feel at home in this world anymore.
Just up in glory-land we’ll live eternally, The saints on every hand are shouting victory, Their songs of sweetest praise drift back from heaven’s shore, And I can’t feel at home in this world anymore.
O Lord, you know I have no friend like you, If heaven’s not my home, then Lord what will I do? The angels beckon me from heaven’s open door, And I can’t feel at home in this world anymore.
Wayfaring Stranger
I’m just a poor wayfaring stranger, I’m trav’ling through this world below; There is no sickness, toil, nor danger, In that bright world to which I go.
I’m going there to see my father, I’m going there no more to roam; I’m just a going over Jordan, I’m just a going over home.
I know dark clouds will gather o’er me, I know my pathway’s rough and steep; But golden fields lie out before me, Where weary eyes no more shall weep.
I’m going there to see my mother, She said she’d meet me when I come; I’m just a going over Jordan, I’m just a going over home.
I want to sing salvations story, In concert with the blood-washed band; I want to wear a crown of glory, When I get home to that good land.
I’m going there to see my brothers, They passed before me one by one; I’m just a going over Jordan, I’m just a going over home.
I’ll soon be free from every trial, This form will rest beneath the sod; I’ll drop the cross of self-denial, And enter in my home with God.
I’m going there to see my Saviour, Who shed for me His precious blood; I’m just a going over Jordan I’m just a going over home.
In spite of the present troubles and strife, may we keep these comforting thoughts as foremost in our minds.
I have resisted this story pretty strongly since I first saw the Tweet in German about a server being seized by US forces in Germany, from a company named Scytl. I was afraid it was just another internet rumor. But when Louis Gohmert and Sydney Powell are talking about it, I figured I had better take a closer look. I posted most of this information in a comment, but I didn’t want what I found to get lost in the other news of the day. I think it is important. There is something here.
I found this translation of the original German Tweet:
Something big is coming. The Spanish software company Scytl, which offers election manipulation software worldwide that was used in the USA, is right in the crosshairs.
The server for the manipulation was in Germany (Frankfurt). Shamed be he who thinks evil of it. Tonight the US army confiscated the surfers with a huge contingent.
According to Gateway Pundit, Scytl put out this statement about this incident:
“Fact Checking Regarding US Elections: Debunking Fake News November 13, 2020 | General
Following several erroneous statements that have been published in digital and social media, Scytl would like to clarify the following:
The technologies implemented by Scytl in the US are both hosted and managed within the US, by a local subsidiary, SOE Software, based in Tampa, Florida.
We do not tabulate, tally or count votes in the US
We do not provide voting machines in the US
We did not provide online voting to US jurisdictions for the US elections.
We do not have servers or offices in Frankfurt
The US army has not seized anything from Scytl in Barcelona, Frankfurt or anywhere else
We are not owned by George Soros and have never been connected to him
We are not tied to Smartmatic, SGO, Dominion or Indra
LIE 1) “We do not tabulate, tally or count votes in the US” and “We do not provide voting machines in the US”
“Founded in 2001 in Spain, Scytl organized 12 state-wide implementations, and its technologies were used in another 980 U.S. jurisdictions in 28 states, during the 2016 General Election.”
The way they claim there in not a LIE in this is that their activities are not BASED in the U.S. They also don’t provide voting “machines” but SOFTWARE. They are probably not lying that they don’t tabulate or count HERE, it is done overseas.
LIE 2) “We do not have servers or offices in Frankfurt”
They really DO think we are stupid. They crashed their website so you can’t find the information on it, but all I did was look at the REFERENCES on their Wikipedia page, and found this:
“”Election Night Reporting2019” (PDF). Scytl.com. June 2019. p. 3. “Scytl’s team began preparing nine months in advance. Over this time, we conducted 3 separate trial runs, 5 user acceptance tests, and we set up the data collection center in Barcelona, as well as an emergency back-up center in Frankfurt.””
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scytl
LIE 3) “We are not owned by George Soros and have never been connected to him”
The connections from Scytl to Soros are detailed in this article from 2013:
LIE 4) “We are not tied to Smartmatic, SGO, Dominion or Indra”
If they are connected to Soros, they are de facto connected to Smartmatic and Dominion.
LIE 5) “We have no ties with Russia either”
Not so fast. They took down their website, but we still have the Wikipedia references:
“”Russia’s first online participation platform powered by Scytl“. Scytle.com. 26 November 2012. “Scytl’s cryptographic security technology will ‘power’ Yopolis, Russia’s first online participation platform. Yopolis was launched in a public event in Moscow on November 22nd by renown businessman Maxim Nogotkov with the objective of becoming the main social network for local e-democracy in Russia. The online platform includes a variety of features to foster and facilitate citizen engagement and participation in local issues for all Russian municipalities. Scytl’s CEO Pere Valles attended the launching event in Moscow and explained Scytl’s security contribution to the platform which, among other benefits, will allow citizens to verify the integrity of the results of any voting process that takes place in Yopolis.””
I have been resisting this story as a pipe-dream, but it is beginning to really look like something HUGE. Prayers up that this is the SMOKING GUN. The fact that their website has been taken down COMPLETELY is a huge red flag.
Anything you find about Scytl and this purported raid, please post it here.
Yeah, we’re definitely in a shitstorm right now, and we’re starting to respond to the other side’s opening salvos.
Assuming things go as we hope (and for the most part, expect) this will be looked upon as one of the pivotal points in history we will consider ourselves lucky to have witnessed. (On the other hand if we get a nasty surprise, it will be looked on as a pivotal point in history we wish we hadn’t seen.)
This is for ALL OF THE CHIPS. They are “all in.” We are “all in.”
If the Enemy wins, we will never, ever, ever have another chance at this without a hot civil war, and the enemy will have the full weight of the Federal Government on their side. Because we haven’t managed to drain the swamp, and they can certainly either co-opt or get rid of the few good people Trump has managed to install.
Trump having to leave office next January would be a catastrophe, and everything he has accomplished will be undone in a matter of months…if not weeks…if not days. To the applause of the minders of our culture and our educational system.
Welcome to the American Socialist State (ASS). Maybe that’s why the Dems have that as their mascot?
If Trump wins the work has just begun. The swamp MUST be drained, it must become his TOP priority. I’ll be honest, I think it should have been kicked into higher gear a long time ago, but then…I do NOT know what the Generals know, and I also don’t know what they DON’T know. Maybe by delaying, he’s pulling an Alexander I, giving Napoleon a long enough supply line to hang himself on. Seriously, I am reminded of this. Alexander was risking being deposed because the Russian army would not meet Napoleon head on. But in the end it was worth it. Napoleon didn’t just fail to conquer Russia, he himself ended up being chased all the way back to Paris and being deposed.
I wrote most those words last week, and can’t improve on them, at least not without pulling a Biden and plagiarizing someone.
[Which is what sunk Hiden’s candidacy in 1988, of course now who on the Left would care enough about things like that? Or remember Gary Hartpence a/k/a Hart, the carpetbagger nominally from Colorado who ran for President for the second time that same year, but was sunk by having an affair? It didn’t take too long for the Dems to decide that should pose no obstacle…]
On Messing With Patriots
And of course, that talk about the War of 1812 caused me to remember a certain piece of music and I posted it and analyzed it to make my point. That’s always kind of risky for me, I will form associations with a piece of music that others will not share; but in this case I was mostly in line with Chaikovskiy’s intent.
The 1812 Overture from last week was written long after the fact, in 1880, and is properly but never here referred to as the “Year 1812 Solemn Overture.”
The War of 1812 isn’t called “The War of 1812” by the Russians; it’s not even called by that phrase translated into Russian. It is, rather, “Отечественная война 1812 года” or, romanized, “Otechestvennaya voyna 1812 goda.” That’s pasted in from Wikipedia, which does a minor disservice here because they didn’t spell out the Russian for “1812,” which (from memory of Russian classes decades ago) would be something like “odin tysich vosyemsot dvyenadtsat.” (It looks a lot harder to pronounce than it actually is.) Anyhow, the entire translation of the name of the war is: “The Patriotic War of the Year 1812.”
This parallels what we are dealing with right now: We’re heading for the Patriotic war of 2020…in fact, if you count “cold wars” we’re already in it. A civil war between patriots and…er…traitors (whew, managed to restrain a profanity or six).
But hearing the phrase “Patriotic War” in a Russian connection might remind some reading this of a different war.
World War II in Russia is known as “Великая Отечественная война” Velikaya Otechestvennaya Voyna , or the “Great Patriotic War.”
This started when Hitler turned on his erstwhile ally, Stalin, in June of 1941.
(Never let anyone forget that the Soviets and Nazis were allies for nearly two years. They collaborated in carving up Poland in September 1939, and as far as the United Kingdom was concerned, the Soviet Union was the enemy, until Hitler invaded the Soviet Union.)
The Soviet Union, of course, was an empire just as much as the Russian Empire was. It was run largely by Russians, and hundreds of conquered peoples were basically just so much crap on the bottom of Russian shoes–a status relieved only when those people adopted some Russian culture.
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was supposedly a union of co-equal countries all striving towards a glorious communist future (but merely socialist for now). If you believe that, then I have a bridge to sell you. Russians dominated in daily life, they got the good jobs in the military, and so on, though at least in the very uppermost echelons of leadership belief in Marxism-Leninism was more important than ethnicity. In fact as of 1941 the leader of the USSR was a Georgian, not a Russian. (Georgia, by the way, is called “Sakartvelo” by its own people, who call themselves the “Kartveli.”) Stalin’s original name was Jugashvili, which ends in shvili, which is one of those endings, along with -adze and -ia, that screams “This dude is a Kartvelian!” to those who recognize it.
Stalin, of course spoke Russian, but with a very thick Kartulian (Georgian) accent.
What did he do when Hitler unexpectedly attacked him? (Yes, unexpectedly. For whatever reason, Stalin, as paranoid as he was, didn’t expect Hitler to stab him in the back before Stalin would be ready to stab Hitler in the back.)
Well at first he was too stupefied to respond, and the Soviet military, seriously weakened by Stalinist purges in the late 1930s, fell back, and fell back, and then tried something different: they fell back.
Stalin eventually came out of his shock and began to rally his slaves.
Did he do it by appealing to the great glorious quest for communism? No. He appealed to Russian patriotism! Which is why they called it the Great Patriotic War. Why not evoke images of 1812?
Imagine the irony of a guy with a thick Georgian accent appealing to Russian patriotism on the radio.
There were songs written for the Great Patriotic War, and the most famous of them was first published three days after the invasion. It’s titled Священная война Svyashchennaya Voyna “Sacred War” or страна огромная! Vstavay, strana ogromnaya, “Arise, Great (Vast) Country!” It was written by Alexander Alexandrov, the same man who wrote the Soviet national anthem.
It’s a kick-ass song, and here is a kick-ass video of it chock-full of footage from the front lines, restored and colorized. (I know the color is not original, because I have seen many of the same clips in black and white in documentaries.) It even shows von Paulus surrendering at Stalingrad!
(Note: If you go directly to youtube and try to play this, it will ask you to sign in to prove your age. Apparently you can get around that by copying/pasting the URL.)
The lyrics, as you will soon see, say not one word about socialism, but plenty of words about kicking the fascist scum the hell OUT. As such it’s worth a look despite its origin.
Here is a literal translation (think New Revised Standard Version) on the left, and a looser paraphrase (think Living Bible) on the right. The right hand column even has the same meter as the music; you could sing it if you ever have to drive Nazis out of your country.
Chorus: (2x) Let noble wrath Boil over like a wave! This is the people’s war, a Sacred war!
We shall repulse the oppressors Of all ardent ideas. The rapists and the plunderers, The torturers of people.
Chorus
The black wings shall not dare Fly over the Motherland, On her spacious fields The enemy shall not dare tread!
Chorus
We shall drive a bullet into the forehead Of the rotten fascist filth, For the scum of humanity We shall build a solid coffin!
Chorus (2x)
Arise, you mighty motherland Arise for Sacred War To crush the evil fascist hordes Unite and drive them back!
Chorus: (2x) And noble anger leads us To victory against the fascist scum Arise, our mighty land Arise for Sacred War!
Let’s crush the mad oppressors And save our mighty land From rapists, thieves, and plunderers, These slaughterers of men!
Chorus
The black fascist wings of death Shadowed our sacred land But her spacious fields and streams They never shall defile
Chorus
Behold, fascist insanity You now face your doom The plague of humanity Shall be driven to its tomb!
Chorus (2x)
The appeal to patriotism rather than socialist glory worked…eventually. After a few years and 25 million deaths.
If you’re like me, you have mixed feelings about the fact that the Soviet Union beat Nazi Germany in World War II. (And you’re no doubt wondering why the hell I am posting Soviet patriotic music here.) Couldn’t they both have been annihilated? Pretty please?
But that’s exactly my point. The Soviet Union was a disgusting stain on the world, it was a mammoth prison, it was a mammoth slave plantation, it was the most evil thing on Earth for decades. And yet the people there had a sense of patriotism that could be dredged up in 1941, the depth of Stalin’s rule, even after over two decades of propaganda against the notion of being patriotic to a country, rather than being international socialists.
So (now finally returning to America) when someone proposes to mess with a country that is not only worthwhile, but the greatest ever in history, what are its people going to do?
This is something the Left cannot imagine. And they will continue to not imagine it as it blows up in their ugly faces.
There’s no ambiguity here. There’s no situation where an outside observer should want both sides to lose, like there was with World War II. The Left deserves to lose, and America deserves to win. Hopefully it won’t come to a shooting war, but if it does, perhaps, given the Left’s hatred of America and our love for it, it will be known as the Patriot’s War. Will we end up with a song for this? Perhaps, perhaps not. But really, do we need another one? We already have our anthem. We have America the Beautiful. We have My Country Tis of Thee. We have God Bless America. We have God Bless the USA. We have The Battle Hymn of the Republic.
The other side cannot lay claim to any of those, because they hate America. In fact, they have nothing but their own misguided hate for America to guide them through what is about to come.
And they are about to learn what happens when they threaten something people love.
Justice Must Be done.
Our movement is about replacing a failed and corrupt political establishment with a new government controlled by you, the American People...Our campaign represents a true existential threat, like they’ve never seen before.
Then-Candidate Donald J. Trump
Lawyer Appeasement Section
OK now for the fine print.
This is the WQTH Daily Thread. You know the drill. There’s no Poltical correctness, but civility is a requirement. There are Important Guidelines, here, with an addendum on 20191110.
We have a new board – called The U Tree – where people can take each other to the woodshed without fear of censorship or moderation.
And remember Wheatie’s Rules:
1. No food fights 2. No running with scissors. 3. If you bring snacks, bring enough for everyone. 4. Zeroth rule of gun safety: Don’t let the government get your guns. 5. Rule one of gun safety: The gun is always loaded. 5a. If you actually want the gun to be loaded, like because you’re checking out a bump in the night, then it’s empty. 6. Rule two of gun safety: Never point the gun at anything you’re not willing to destroy. 7. Rule three: Keep your finger off the trigger until ready to fire. 8. Rule the fourth: Be sure of your target and what is behind it.
(Hmm a few extras seem to have crept in.)
The Mandatory Coin
I found out that the Russian Empire issued a number of coins to commemorate the War of 1812, more specifically the battle of Borodino.
In 1839, a memorial was constructed at Borodino, and this ruble was issued that year (sorry about the crappy photography).
http://www.omnicoin.com/coins/901753.jpg
The portraits on both coins are of Alexander I, who was tsar at the time (1801-1825), rather than Nicholas I, his younger brother, who was tsar in the 1830s (1825-1855). In fact, if you want a portrait of Alexander I on a ruble, you have to get one of these coins; he did not put his own portrait on his coins while he was alive. Neither did Nicholas, nor Paul, Alexander’s father (1796-1801), nor Alexander II, Nicholas’s son (1855-1881).
(Maybe monarchs don’t have such a big ego after all–given a precedent of not putting their image on coinage, these absolute monarchs were all happy to keep it that way.)
Finally in 1912, to commemorate the centenary of the Patriotic War of 1812, we have:
https://en.numista.com/catalogue/photo16517.jpeg
I’ve had some trouble translating that inscription on the reverse. It runs something like “this glorious year has passed, but the deeds done in it will not pass” though I’ve seen very different renderings. “This glorious year has passed but the deeds done in it will not be forgotten” probably is a better rendering.
Obligatory PSAs and Reminders
Just two more things, my standard Public Service Announcements. We don’t want to forget them!!!
How Not To Find Yourself In Contention For The Darwin Award (Nothing to do with bearded dragons)
It has been pointed out that all of the rioting is nominally on account of criminals who resisted arrest in one form or another, and someone suggested schools ought to teach people not to resist arrest.
Granted an “ass kicking” isn’t the same as being shot, but both can result from the same stupid act. You may ultimately beat the rap, but you aren’t going to avoid the ride.
China is Lower than Whale Shit
Remember Hong Kong!!!
https://youtube.com/watch?v=L3tnH4FGbd0%3F
I hope this guy isn’t rotting in the laogai somewhere!
中国是个混蛋 !!! Zhōngguò shì gè hùndàn !!! China is asshoe !!!
Appendix: The lyrics in Russian
For anyone interested, here is Sacred War in Russian, with a transliteration.
Вставай, страна огромная, Вставай на смертный бой С фашистской силой тёмною, С проклятою ордой.
Припев: (2x) Пусть ярость благородная Вскипает, как волна! Идёт война народная, Священная война!
Дадим отпор душителям Всех пламенных идей, Насильникам, грабителям, Мучителям людей!
Припев
Не смеют крылья чёрные Над Родиной летать, Поля её просторные Не смеет враг топтать!
I Believe the Will of God Will Be Done in the Election
There are many conditional promises in the Bible. God will do this if we do that. God will relent if we repent. God will answer if we pray.
Perhaps the most famous example of this in the Scriptures in 2 Chronicles 7:14, spoken by the Lord to King Solomon after the building of the first temple in Jerusalem.
Starting in verse 13 for context, it reads, “When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command the locust to devour the land, or send pestilence among my people, if My people who are called by My name humble themselves, and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”
Now, we cannot make a direct application of this verse to the U.S.A., since America is not chosen in the sense that Israel was chosen, and God does not call our entire nation “My people.”
Yet, since there are tens of millions of His people in America, to the extent we humble ourselves and repent and pray, I believe that God will answer from heaven and mercy on our nation.
When the Results Come in, Can We Say, Regardless of the Outcome, “God’s Will Was Done”?
How, then, does this apply to the outcome of the elections? And, when all is said and done and the votes are fully counted, can we say, “The will of God has been done”?
I believe the answer is yes, we can say, “God’s will was done,” regardless of the outcome.
I say that because for much of this year, there has been a steady stream of prayer ascending to heaven.
The impeachment hearings drove us to prayer. The pandemic drove us to prayer. The protests and riots drove us to prayer. The elections drove us to prayer. We’ve Seen Prayer Movements for Our Nation
Even now, as I write on the evening of November 2, 24/7 prayer vigils are taking place around the world — and I mean prayer vigils for America. Millions have been crying out for mercy, for God’s intervention, for His will to be carried out in our land. On September 26 alone, there were two massive gatherings in D.C., Franklin Graham’s Prayer March and The Return. Another large gathering took place on October 25, also in D.C., focused on worship and prayer, including a special prayer meeting outside the Supreme Court.
Pastors and leaders who never prayed together have been gathering for regular online prayer meetings focused on repentance and abasement and seeking of mercy. Churches that have gathered together despite the pandemic have devoted time in their meetings for prayer. Another major event in D.C. culminated immediately before I started to write this article, with seasoned participants saying that they never seen such a prayer emphasis in their lives.
That’s why I truly believe that whatever the outcome of the elections, we will be able to say, “The will of God was done.”
God’s Multiple Purposes in Trump’s Presidency
I know that there are some who believe that, when it comes to the leader of a nation, the will of God is always done. In other words, they believe that God sets up one leader and brings down another. And, despite the fact that we get to vote for our presidents here, they still say, “The president is the one whom God appointed to be president.”
But when Trump was elected in 2016, against all odds and with so many prophetic words saying it would happen, I wrote an article titled, “Donald Trump, President of the United States by the Sovereign Intervention of God.”
It seemed to be a clear example of God’s sovereign hand. Outside of His working, I could not see this happening.
This doesn’t mean that there was only one divine purpose involved. As David G. noted on Twitter, in his view, the Lord’s raising up Trump has been “a mercy, a judgment, and a test.”
I concur with this, recognizing multiple divine purposes in the Trump presidency.
When it comes to the outcome of the 2020 elections, with the amount of prayer and fasting that has taken place, whoever the winner is, I will be convinced that God’s will was done.
Would We Go Back to Complacency If Our Candidate Wins?
That being said, it’s possible that His answer will be the opposite of what we wanted in the short term, only to lead to greater good in the long term. To be sure, it is possible that He will answer with great mercy, giving us time to mend our ways while our liberties remain protected.
But it’s also possible that He will answer with judgment, something to humble us and drive us to an even deeper place of contrition. Have we really gotten to the place called for in Joel 2, where we rend our hearts, where we weep and wail, where we grieve deeply over our corporate and personal sins? Could it be that, with an outcome that is to our liking, we will return to our complacent state?
Only God knows the answers to these questions. But I truly believe that He has heard our prayers for intervention and that His purposes will come to pass.
Should Trump be reelected, I will focus my energy on calling for ongoing prayer, repentance and obedience, leading to revival in the church and awakening in the nation.
Should Biden be elected, I will focus my energy on calling for ongoing prayer, repentance and obedience, leading to revival in the church and awakening in the nation.
Either way, I will not point to a biased media or to voter fraud or to low (evangelical?) voter turnout as the decider of the elections.
I will point to the one who sits enthroned in heaven. He is the King, after all.
This Stormwatch Monday Open Thread is VERY OPEN – a place for everybody to post whatever they feel they would like to tell the White Hats, and the rest of the MAGA/KMAG/KAG world (with KMAG being a bit of both).
Yes, it’s Monday…again.
But it’s okay! We’ll get through it.
Free Speech is practiced here at the Q Tree. But please keep it civil.
Discussion of Q is not only allowed but encouraged. Imagine that! We can talk about Q here and not get banned.
Please also consider the Important Guidelines, outlined here. Let’s not give the odious Internet Censors a reason to shut down this precious haven that Wolf has created for us.
Our President is fighting for us night and day…please pray for him.
Wheatie’s Rules:
No food fights.
No running with scissors.
If you bring snacks, bring enough for everyone.
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
For your listening enjoyment, I offer this composition from James Paget, titled ‘The Hero Within’:
‘Jactation’ is a noun, which means…a boastful declaration or display; bragging; (pathology) extremely restless tossing and twitching; inability to rest or relax or be still.
Used in a sentence:
The jactations of the forces of darkness and their enemedia operatives, in declaring a win for Biden, will not stand and their lies will be exposed.
Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness.
This Sanctuary Sunday Open Thread, with full respect to those who worship God on the Sabbath, is a place to reaffirm our worship of our Creator, our Father, our King Eternal.
It is also a place to read, post and discuss news that is worth knowing and sharing. Please post links to any news stories that you use as sources or quote from.
In the QTree, we’re a friendly and civil lot. We encourage free speech and the open exchange and civil discussion of different ideas. Topics aren’t constrained, and sound logic is highly encouraged, all built on a solid foundation of truth and established facts.
We have a policy of mutual respect, shown by civility. Civility encourages discussions, promotes objectivity and rational thought in discourse, and camaraderie in the participants – characteristics we strive toward in our Q Tree community.
Please show respect and consideration for our fellow QTreepers. Before hitting the “post” button, please proofread your post and make sure you’re addressing the issue only, and not trying to confront the poster. Keep to the topic – avoid “you” and “your”. Here in The Q Tree, personal attacks, name calling, ridicule, insults, baiting and other conduct for which a penalty flag would be thrown are VERBOTEN.
In The Q Tree, we’re compatriots, sitting around the campfire, roasting hot dogs, making s’mores and discussing, agreeing, and disagreeing about whatever interests us. This board will remain a home for those who seek respectful conversations.
Let’s not give the Internet Censors a reason to shut down this intellectual haven that Wolf has created for us.
The Storm is upon us. Please remember to Pray for our President.
AND WHAT TIME IS IT? TIME TO DRAIN THE SWAMP!!!
It’s time to replace a failed and CORRUPT political establishment with a new government controlled by you, the American People. ~ Candidate Donald J. Trump
Also remember Wheatie’s Rules:
No food fights.
No running with scissors.
If you bring snacks, bring enough for everyone.
And,
On this day and every day –
God is in Control . . . and His Grace is Sufficient, so . . . Keep Looking Up
Hopefully, every Sunday, 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.”
Praise for the LORD’s Mercies
With all the garbage that’s being flung about now, especially in consideration of the monumental impact that will result from the decisions made in the near future, I thought it’d be a good time to sit back and let God’s Word do its work to focus our attention upward on a matter of eternal importance.
This Psalm stands well on its own with no expert explanation or commentary needed. It reminds us of who God is, who we are, all that God has done for us, and the absolute appropriateness, if not necessity, of praising Him from the very depths of our souls.
Psalm 103 – A Psalm of David.
1 Praise the LORD, O my soul; And all that is within me, praise His holy name! 2 Praise the LORD, O my soul, And forget not all His benefits:
3 Who forgives all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases, 4 Who redeems your life from destruction, Who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies, 5 Who satisfies your mouth with good things, So that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
6 The LORD executes righteousness And justice for all who are oppressed. 7 He made known His ways to Moses, His acts to the children of Israel.
8 The LORD is merciful and gracious, Slow to anger, and abounding in mercy. 9 He will not always strive with us, Nor will He keep His anger forever.
10 He has not dealt with us according to our sins, Nor punished us according to our iniquities. 11 For as the heavens are high above the earth, So great is His mercy toward those who respect Him; 12 As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us.
13 As a father pities his children, So the LORD pities those who respect Him. 14 For He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust. 15 As for man, his days are like grass; As a flower of the field, so he flourishes. 16 For the wind passes over it, and it is gone, And its place remembers it no more.
17 But the mercy of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting On those who respect Him, And His righteousness to children’s children, 18 To such as keep His covenant, And to those who remember His commandments to do them.
19 The LORD has established His throne in heaven, And His kingdom rules over all. 20 Bless the LORD, you His angels, Who excel in strength, who do His word, Heeding the voice of His word. 21 Praise the LORD, all you His hosts, You servants of His, who do His pleasure. 22 Praise the LORD, all His works, In all places of His dominion.
Praise the LORD, O my soul!
A Psalm of David. –Doubtless by David; it is in his own style when at its best, and we should attribute it to his later years when he had a higher sense of the preciousness of pardon, because of a keener sense of sin, than in his younger days. His clear sense of the frailty of life indicates his weaker years, as also does the very fainess of his praiseful gratitude.
As in the lofty Alps some peaks rise above all others so among even the inspired Psalms there are heights of song which overtop the rest. This one hundred and third Psalm has ever seemed to us to be the Monte Rosa of the divine chain of mountains of praise, glowing with a ruddier light than any of the rest. It is as the apple tree among the trees of the wood, and its golden fruit has a flavour such as no fruit ever bears unless it has been ripened in the full suushine of mercy.
It is man’s reply to the benedictions of his God, his Song on the Mount answering to his Redeemer’s Sermon on the Mount. Nebuchadnezzar adored his idol with flute, harp, sacbut, psaltery, dulcimer and all kinds of music; and David, in far nobler style awakens all the melodies of heaven and earth in honour of the one only living and true God.
Our attempt at exposition is commenced under an impressive sense of the utter impossibility of doing justice to so sublime a composition; we call upon our soul and all that is within us to aid in the pleasurable task; but, alas, our soul is finite, and our all of mental faculty far too little for the enterprize.
There is too much in the Psalm, for a thousand pens to write, it is one of those all-comprehending Scriptures which is a Bible in itself, and it might alone almost suffice for the hymn-book of the church.
(And how not to spend it curled up in fetal position saying “Oh, shit!”)
Yeah, we’re definitely in a shitstorm right now, and worse (for our morale) is that our side hasn’t really answered the other side’s opening salvo. However, even a skeptic/pessimist like me can see we are gathering our forces for the counterattack. There are some unknown factors in play, but the only thing we can do is plunge in.
This is for ALL OF THE CHIPS. They are “all in.” We are “all in.”
If the Enemy wins, we will never, ever, ever have another chance at this without a hot civil war, and the enemy will have the full weight of the Federal Government on their side. Because we haven’t managed to drain the swamp, and they can certainly either co-opt or get rid of the few good people Trump has managed to install.
Trump having to leave office next January would be a catastrophe, and everything he has accomplished will be undone in a matter of months…if not weeks…if not days. To the applause of the minders of our culture and our educational system.
Welcome to the American Socialist State (ASS). Maybe that’s why the Dems have that as their mascot?
If Trump wins the work has just begun. The swamp MUST be drained, it must become his TOP priority. I’ll be honest, I think it should have been kicked into higher gear a long time ago, but then…I do NOT know what the Generals know, and I also don’t know what they DON’T know. Maybe by delaying, he’s pulling an Alexander I, giving Napoleon a long enough supply line to hang himself on. Seriously, I am reminded of this. Alexander was risking being deposed because the Russian army would not meet Napoleon head on. But in the end it was worth it. Napoleon didn’t just fail to conquer Russia, he himself ended up being chased all the way back to Paris and being deposed.
Which just reminds me of a particular piece of music.
1812 Overture with Chorus.
That piece of music is about the war of 1812 between France and Russia, not our war of 1812, but nonetheless we’ve adopted it for our Independence Day (maybe having cannon used as a musical instrument had something to do with that). It’s replete with the Marseillaise theme as well as the old Russian Imperial anthem (neither of which was in use in 1812, but give Pyotr Ill’ich Chaikovsky some artistic license). I found this recording a few months ago and like the period paintings AND the fact that the choral part is included. (You can hear them sing God Save The Tsar towards the end, 15:00 or so.)
There are two parts of this where there is canon fire. One string of five shots at about 12:30, then a minute or so later at about 13:35 the music kicks into high gear, the bells ring, the same hymn that starts the whole piece is sung again, and there’s the big volley, and on July 4th you have fireworks too. When that hymn starts up, I think of it as “Mother Russia is awake, she’s riled, and she is going to bring an ASS KICKING with her.” (The one disadvantage of this recording is this doesn’t have the punch it does with an instrumental recording.)
Sort of like we feel about this election.
That first volley represents the Battle of Borodino. That was when the Russians did, in fact, make a stand. Borodino is a few score miles west of Moscow. The Russian Army and Napoleon’s Grand Armee faced off and twenty five thousand soldiers died.
This is one of the bloodiest single-day battles in history. In fact, it was at the time the second worst ever, second only to the utter annihilation of five Roman legions by Hannibal at Cannae.
For comparison, the Allies lost about 4400 men on D-day.
Napoleon was nominally the winner of this battle, but it drained his capabilities tremendously, and he had not decisively beaten the Russians, so the victory he was seeking continued to evade his grasp. (He specialized in crushing his enemies utterly in one stroke, and the Russians understood this and never gave him the opportunity.)
The Russians continued retreating towards Moscow. They reached it, and the soldiers marching along were waiting for the command to stop, and take their stand. Surely Moscow, the ancient (but not current) capital, the beating heart of Old Mother Russia, had to be defended! But they waited for the stop command in vain, they marched completely through the city and out the other side, giving it to Napoleon. They did, however, arrange to set the city on fire, leaving Napoleon with nothing…and winter was coming.
Hundreds of thousands of troops, French and allies, entered Russia. Almost none of them survived to retreat back out of Russia. An ass kicking indeed. And he was pursued all the way to Paris and deposed.
I think right now we’ve just fought our Battle of Borodino, and we will soon see who wins the war. There’s a hard deadline. The electors cast their vote on December 16, which means we must know before then who they are–Dopey Joe’s people, or Trump’s people.
And if it’s Dopey Joe’s people in too many cases…well, life will get very nasty, brutish, and interesting.
OK enough of that. To the immediate matter at hand. Unfrauding.
Unfrauding is getting out from under the electoral fraud. (I was about to coin the word “defrauding” but then I realized it already exists and means the exact opposite of what I would want it to mean. It must be one of those “flammable”/”inflammable” things.)
I am hoping there is indeed something to the one pixel dot identifiers. Actually, I do know there is something to it; that HP printer over to my left undeniably uses them. The question is whether the Big Honking Machines that printed off all those mail in ballots months ago also do this. A home/office printer is one thing, this other thing is an industrial printer you could probably print dead-tree books and magazines on.
If they do, then great: We can certainly discern whether a ballot was or was not printed on those machines and toss those out (unless, of course the counterfeiters were clever/able to change their machines to match–unlikely but not totally impossible–if it really was in China, big resources were in play and I’d expect someone over there to at least try).
But it’s important to remember how many different ways to commit fraud there are, and that this won’t catch all of them. For example, we know for a fact that many of those ballots printed on the perfectly legit machine were mailed to people who are dead, or who have moved away. Any of those “harvested” and filled out will have the correct dot pattern on them. Also, legit ballots with votes for Trump can be, and have been thrown away, and the correct dot pattern on those won’t prevent them from hitting the dumpster.
And there is a third factor. I’ve mentioned in the past that Colorado is mail-in only…but you can vote in person in Colorado; I did so on Monday. I had to go to one of about ten places in my county, fill out paperwork giving my name and address (and affirming that I am a citizen). They then looked me up, and on the spot, a big machine the size of an office copier but with a big attachment on top, printed my ballot.
I tried to explain this to someone, that Colorado prints legal ballots on the day of the election, and he simply denied it. Well, I saw it happen the day before the election on my behalf and I know people who voted on election day the same way.
Now this machine presumably prints the dots. And the dots encode a time stamp. But what happens if they run off a ballot or two during a slow time of day and vote them? Well, with THAT there is an audit trail; the number of ballots will be off from the number of people who voted, but I can think of ways around that, and the dot pattern will not, by itself, save us from that form of fraud.
Basically, folks, as useful as the dot pattern is…it had better not be the only thing in our quiver, and I’m 99 percent sure it isn’t.
A Reminder Of Today’s Big Issue.
Our movement is about replacing a failed and corrupt political establishment with a new government controlled by you, the American People...Our campaign represents a true existential threat, like they’ve never seen before.
Then-Candidate Donald J. Trump
Needs to happen, soon.
Lawyer Appeasement Section
OK now for the fine print.
Please note that our menu has changed, please listen to all of the options.
This is the WQTH Daily Thread. You know the drill. There’s no Political correctness, but civility is a requirement. There are Important Guidelines, here, with an addendum on 20191110.
We have a new board – called The U Tree – where people can take each other to the woodshed without fear of censorship or moderation.
And remember Wheatie’s Rules:
1. No food fights 2. No running with scissors. 3. If you bring snacks, bring enough for everyone. 4. The first rule of gun safety: Don’t let the government take your guns. 5. The gun is always loaded. 5a. If you actually want the gun to be loaded, like because you’re checking out a bump in the night, then it’s empty. 6. Never point the gun at anything you’re not willing to destroy. 7. Keep your finger off the trigger until ready to fire. 8. Be sure of your target and what is behind it. 9. Social Justice Warriors, ANTIFA pukes, BLM hypocrites, and other assorted varieties of Marxists can go copulate with themselves, or if insufficiently limber, may substitute a rusty wire brush suitable for cleaning the bore of a twelve or ten gauge.
I made a joke Thursday, telling the left not to make me go Ivan the Terrible on them. Wolf appreciated it, which got me to thinking about him (Ivan, not Wolf). He was the fourth grand duke of Muscovy named Ivan (and the ones before him all had nicknames too, Ivan Moneybags, Ivan the Red (or Ivan the Fair), and Ivan the Great). He flourished in the late 1500s, and was the grandson of Ivan the Great. Ivan the Great had defeated the Mongols, which is how he got to be called the “Great”, and Ivan the Terrible, his grandson, capitalized on that to assume the title “Tsar” (a derivation of the word Caesar). Russia at that point (in 1547) became a “Tsardom” with Muscovy becoming its most important constituency.
His reign started out promisingly in 1533, and he managed to conquer the Khanates of Kazan (1552) and Astrakhan (1556) on the Volga, and made the first inroads into Siberia (50s-1580).
But then something happened, and he became erratic in the 1560s, starting a rather “Red Guard” like force called the Oprichnina. He eventually (1570) turned them loose on Novgorod, one of his own cities, and it was as if an invading army were sacking it, murdering and pillaging. Novgorod at the time was second only in importance to Moscow. It never regained that level of prominence.
He also built St. Basil’s cathedral on Red Square in Moscow (that’s the one with all the onion shaped domes on it).
His sobriquet isn’t really “the Terrible” in the sense of “awful, horrific.” The word Terrible made sense as a translation back then, but its meaning has changed over the centuries and now the Russian word groznyy is a bit difficult to translate, it’s somewhere between fearsome, formidable, dreaded, and awesome (as in awe-inspiring, not excellent). To be “terrible” in the modern sense of the word, to a Russian, a ruler would have to allow the country to descend into anarchy or lose a major war or something like that. Ivan Groznyy did none of those things. he kept a tight grip, he expanded Russia’s borders…basically, you didn’t fuck with him.
That first picture of him shows him robed with a walking stick. But that walking stick is actually a spear. He was not above literally pinning someone’s foot to the floor with it.
(“Mommy, mommy, why do I keep walking around in circles?” “Shut up or I’ll nail your other foot to the floor.” — from a compendium of sick jokes I read as a teenager, the natural market for such books.)
Ivan beat one of his pregnant daughters for dressing immodestly in 1581, she ended up miscarrying (probably as a result of the beating), then his son, Ivan junior, got into an argument about it, and Ivan beat him with his staff, and Ivan junior died.
A very famous painting by Repin of Ivan immeidately after killing his son. Talk about “Oh, Shit!!!” moments.
Ivan Groznyy finally died in 1584.
Because he had killed his son, his dynasty, the Ryuriks (who had ruled in some form since the 800s) petered out after a nephew succeeded him, and Russia spent the time from 1598-1613 in the Time of Troubles, after which a more distant relative of Ivan, Michael Romanov, was asked to be Tsar, and he founded the Romanov dynasty, which endured for just over 300 years.
But this is the coins section, so you might be thinking I’ll show you some of his coins. And they must surely be fabulously expensive.
Half right. I’ll show you the coins. But they’re cheap. And not terribly impressive to look at.
Denga of Ivan the Terrible, while he was Grand Duke. (You can spot part of the word ВЕЛИКИЙ “Velikiy” in the lettering, Russian for “Grand” or “Great”)
These coins are considerably smaller than a dime. Dengas (I’ll explain that in a moment) were originally about a gram in weight but over time got debased down to 0.14 grams. A silver dime weighs 5.0 [edit: not 6.25] grams, for comparison.
Russian coins at this time were made by a very different process. A bit of silver wire was carefully measured and cut. If the wire had consistent thickness, the cut piece would have consistent weight. This bit of wire was rolled flat, resulting in a rather oblong shape. It would then be struck by hammered dies. The dies were much larger than the coin, meaning that the coin would never show the entire design. However, by examining hundreds of these bits of “wire money” one can assemble a composite and see what was on the die.
One side was the name and title of the tsar. The other had a man on horseback, fighting a dragon with either a spear or a sword. That man, of course, was St. George. And him fighting the dragon was the emblem of Moscow (and still is). If you’ve ever seen a double-headed Russian eagle emblem, it generally has a shield on its chest, and on that shield is St. George.
Ivan the Terrible wire money, this time as Tsar (ЦАРЬ, abbreviated ЦРЬ, upside down on the left at what should be the top).
Wire money is occasionally found in hoards (someone buried a pot full of them for safekeeping and never returned to dig it up). These sometimes have many hundreds of pieces and thus the coins aren’t rare and aren’t very expensive. They’re also generally not very attractive. It’s a rare collector who takes a fascination with them, but in principle you can buy a book that shows you all the dies we know of and figure out which one struck your coin. If it has the name of Ivan Vasilievich on it, it will either call him “Veliky Knaz” (grand duke, pre-1547) or “Tsar” (tsar, post 1547) and you’ve got a coin of Ivan the Terrible. (Pro tip. If the lettering contains an X, it cannot be anything other than a coin of Michael Romanov.)
They commonly came in two sizes; ones with St. George and a sword were called “dengas”, ones twice as heavy with St. George using a spear (in Russian, a kopye) were called “kopeyeks” and that is what ultimately led to the kopek. There was, occasionally, an “altyn” worth six dengas, and it got that name from the Tatar word for six. That fact right there should tell you how hard the Mongol/Tatar yoke sat on the Russians during the late middle ages. (Even “denga” is probably a Turkic word.)
Rubles at the time only had a theoretical existence. Centuries earlier there were cast silver ingots and ruble, from the Russian word for “to cut” was a cut-off piece of an ingot. But by the 1500s, no physical “ruble” existed, so rubles were a “unit of account” equal to 200 dengas.
Nice round coins like ours didn’t come to Russia until Peter the Great introduced them in 1700.
Standard disclaimer: I never show pictures of my own coins. I may or may not own coins like the ones I show. Burglars will be interested to hear that gold and silver aren’t the only heavy metals I have, and I have quite a bit of one with a heavier nucleus than either. And I keep it around a lot more than the gold and silver.
Obligatory PSAs and Reminders
Just two more things, my standard Public Service Announcements. We don’t want to forget them!!!
How Not To Find Yourself In Contention For The Darwin Award (Nothing to do with bearded dragons)
It has been pointed out that all of the rioting is nominally on account of criminals who resisted arrest in one form or another, and someone suggested schools ought to teach people not to resist arrest.
Chris Rock on a similar vein, in 2007
Granted an “ass kicking” isn’t the same as being shot, but both can result from the same stupid act. You may ultimately beat the rap, but you aren’t going to avoid the ride.
China is Lower than Whale Shit
Remember Hong Kong!!! And remember the tens of millions who died under the “Great Helmsman” Chairman Mao.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=L3tnH4FGbd0%3F
I hope this guy isn’t rotting in the laogai somewhere!
中国是个混蛋 !!! Zhōngguò shì gè hùndàn !!! China is asshoe !!!
For my money the Great Helmsman is Hikaru Sulu (even if the actor is a dingbat).
Years ago, I met a distant cousin who had researched one of our ancestors for many years. There were family stories and legends about him and even a newspaper story in 1903, but no one really knew how much of the stories was true. She had dedicated herself to finding out, and I joined the search to see what could be known.
This is the newspaper story about him. Many family researchers said it was made up, but we were able to prove that almost everything in it was true. Yes, there was some hyperbole; Edward Williams wasn’t with Washington at Valley Forge, that was the journalist adding something to spice up the tale. But the rest is really something, and true:
A SOLDIER OF THE WAR
In a quiet country cemetery down on Cheechero, lies the remains of Edward Williams, a soldier and drum-major of the American Revolution and War of 1812, with no other mark to designate his resting place than the letters “E, W,” cut on a rough stone. On his arm was tattoed his name, Coat-Of-Arms and the British Crown.
The old soldier was drafted in England to fight the Colonist, but when he landed in America he took up arms with the Liberty Boys and fought for American liberty to the finish. He was with Gen Washington in the battles of the Brandywine and Princeton and was a survivor of Camp Valley Forge.
When peace had been made between England and America and all had gone back to quiet living, every Fourth of July this old soldier would take his drum to the top of the highest mountain and “beat” the anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.
His desertion of the British army was not on account of crime but for the liberty that fired American’s heart and which burned in his also.
In 1812, when England began to press the American sailors into her service this old soldier again marched with the Americans against England, He was 107 years old when he died.
His dying request was that he be buried under the Honors of War. A company of local Militia carried the remains to the cemetery, then formed a circle around the grave and after each one had fired a blank load into it, they placed the old soldier in his last resting place while the ground was full of smoke.
That he was a drummer of much ability, can be proved by almost all the old citizens of Rabun who have heard him “beat” at the old Muster-Grounds, and it may be stated here that one of his posterity, J. H. Williams, of Alto, Ga., was drum-major under Gen. Lee in the Civil War.
The Clayton Tribune, Clayton, Georgia, March 26, 1903
Old Edward really did rejoin the military in 1812, when he was in his <b>70s</b>. His grandson was in the same unit, we found their pay records. Edward played the drum; I imagine that was all he could do at his age.
But he did it.
I can only imagine what Edward felt around 1811 as he realized the British hadn’t been defeated ENOUGH the first time, and were back for more. I can only imagine how he felt as they impressed American sailors into their ships, as he had been impressed and escaped before, because being “drafted” into the British Navy wasn’t done by choice. At over seventy years old, he saw his country under attack AGAIN by a relentless enemy, so he stepped up. I have no idea how he managed it. His family must have thought he was nuts.
This morning (after having my morning cry in the shower) I thought about Edward and the parallels to his story in our current situation. The British didn’t take NO for an answer the first time, and the BASTARD LIBERALS didn’t take NO for an answer from us the first time, either. One win for Trump was not enough to shut them down, they are back for a second try. They are desperate and over-confident, just like the British of 1812. They want to annihilate everything our ancestors fought and died for.
They must be DEFEATED, for good and all.
Today, when I feel trepidation, I will remember Edward. When I want to lay down my arms and give up, I will remember he picked up a drum. If I don’t want to march another step, I will pick up my feet anyway in his honor.
I am the legacy of Edward Williams, an American Patriot. So are we all. Let’s do him honor with our actions and words in OUR time of struggle against tyranny.
