“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 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.”
Grace & Gratitude
There’s a lot going on these days that has a very serious impact on Americans. The depth and breadth of corruption in our politics, government and media is staggering. The cooperation of ordinary citizens with this corruption is equally staggering. Since it appears to be becoming apparent that “We have it all”, we are at a point now where we are eagerly waiting for the public revelation of the corruption in our recent Presidential election.
If you’re anything like me, you’re beginning to feel a sense of relief that this election won’t be stolen by the Democrats and we can anticipate four more years of a President who most surely will prove to be one of the greatest Presidents in our history.
As our outrage grows against the seditious, even traitorous, Democrats, and as the current events unfold, we can begin to feel an expectation that a large number of very guilty people will be identified. Hopefully, most will be subjected to a penalty that provides at least some reasonable recompense for their heinous actions.
As I get caught up in the enormity of this drama, I find that my attention is being pulled away from “things above” and is focused more on the affairs of men. Specifically, as I live my life, I want to be constantly aware that I owe everything I am and have, including my eternal future, to the grace of God. And I want to have a constant awareness of my gratitude to God for His grace.
And so, the following is a gentle reminder of God’s grace and my gratitude.
In all the debates about our role versus God’s role in sanctification—our growth in holiness—we’d stay on the right track if we’d remember the grace-gratitude dynamic. The more we understand how kind God has been to us and the more we are overcome by His mercy, the more we are inclined to love Him and to serve Him.
Yet we can’t get the grace-gratitude dynamic right if we aren’t clear on what grace means. What is grace? The catechisms many of us learned as children give us the answer: “Grace is the unmerited favor of God.” The first thing that we understand about grace is what it’s not—it’s not something we merit. In fact, if that is all we ever understand about grace, I’m sure God will rejoice that we know His grace is unmerited. So, here’s our working definition of grace—it is unmerit.
Paul’s epistle to the Romans sheds light on what we mean when we say that grace is unmerit. In 1:18–3:20, the Apostle explains that on the final day, for the first time in our lives, we will be judged in total perfection, in total fairness, in absolute righteousness. Thus, every mouth will be stopped when we stand before the tribunal of God. This should provoke fear in the hearts of fallen people, as condemnation is the only possible sentence for sinful men and women: “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (3:23).
But those who trust in Christ Jesus have hope, for if we are in Him by faith, we have been “justified freely by His grace.” Note that justification is accomplished not by obligation, but freely through grace on account of the redemption purchased by Jesus alone. There’s no room for boasting, for we are justified not by our works but by grace alone through faith alone.
Paul goes on to cite Abraham as the preeminent example of one who was justified by faith alone and therefore free from God’s sentence of condemnation. If the basis for Abraham’s salvation, his justification, was something that Abraham did—some good deed, some meritorious service that he performed, some obligation that he performed—if it were on the basis of works, Paul says, he would have had something about which to boast. But Abraham had no such merit. All he had was faith, and that faith itself was a gift: “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness” (4:3; see Eph. 2:8–10).
Romans 4:4–8 is a key passage here:
Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness, just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works: “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.”
That’s grace. Paul couldn’t say it any other way. To him who works, it’s debt; if you merit something, it means that someone is obligated to pay you. If I hire you as an employee and promise to pay you one hundred dollars if you work eight hours, I must pay you for working the eight hours. I’m not doing you a favor or giving you grace. You’ve earned your pay. You’ve fulfilled the contract, and I’m morally obliged to give you your wages.
With respect to the Lord, we are debtors who cannot pay. That’s why the Bible speaks of redemption in economic language—we were bought with a price (1 Cor. 6:20). Only someone else—Christ—can pay our debt. That’s grace. It’s not our good works that secure our rescue but only the works of Christ. It’s His merit, not ours. We don’t merit anything. He grants us His merit by grace, and we receive it only by faith. The essence of grace is its voluntary free bestowal. As soon as it’s a requirement, it’s no longer grace.
Grace should never cease to amaze us. God has an absolute, pure, holy standard of justice. That’s why we cling with all our might to the merit of Jesus Christ. He alone has the merit to satisfy the demands of God’s justice, and He gives it freely to us. We haven’t merited it. There’s nothing in us that elicits the Lord’s favor that leads to our justification. It’s pure grace.
And the more we understand what God has done for us as sinners, the more willing we are to do whatever He requires. The great teachers of the church say the first point of genuine sanctification is an increasing awareness of our own sinfulness. With that comes, at the same time, an increasing awareness of God’s grace. And with that, again, increasing love and increasing willingness to obey Him.
When we truly understand grace—when we see that God only owes us wrath but has provided Christ’s merit to cover our demerit—then everything changes. The Christian motivation for ethics is not merely to obey some abstract law or a list of rules; rather, our response is provoked by gratitude. Jesus understood that when He said, “If you love Me, keep My commandments.” If I may have the liberty to paraphrase: “Keep My commandments not because you want to be just, but because you love Me.” A true understanding of grace—of God’s unmerited favor—always provokes a life of gratitude and obedience.
. . . He who raised up the Lord Jesus will also raise us up with Jesus, and will present us with you. For all things are for your sakes, that grace, having spread through the many, may cause gratitude to abound to the glory of God.
It’s Thursday evening in Colorado, Friday morning on the East Coast (you know, the place where the people think we’re just their frigging backyard live). So as I write this, I have no idea what happened on Friday. Hopefully the Kraken left some footprints around with tiny little squashed swamp dwellers in the bottom.
(Well, now the Kraken can get crackin’.)
So the hottest news in the last couple of weeks was the press conference, mainly by Rudy Giuliani and Sydney Powell, with a bit of YSM bashing by Jenna Ellis.
They mostly stated they had evidence, without actually showing it (which is entirely proper); though Giuliani read some affidavits from some brave people. So there is evidence. There is absolutely evidence.
And yet the YSM simply continues to assert there is none, and even Fox has shown itself to be controlled opposition, now.
Giuliani, and Powell, and Ellis all took those YSM ratfuckers to the woodshed.
There are tens of millions of people who will believe them, because they have seen nothing else.
They’re not evil, just ignorant.
I am reminded of some of the stories I heard about the collapse of the Soviet Union. Now, everyone in the USSR knew the media bullshitted them a lot. They’d read Pravda (Правда) back to front to glean real information. For instance, once there was a time when an airliner had crashed while taking a bunch of Communist Party mucky-mucks home from a Party Congress. The crash was never announced (socialist planes never crashed, you see), but the obituaries in the back, suddenly a hundred prominent people, gave it away. Now the point isn’t that Soviet airliners crashed. The point is that the people over there were so used to their media bullshitting them they had developed tricks to counteract it. They also had a joke, that there is no truth in Izvestia, and no news in Pravda. Izvestia, of course, is the Russian word for News, and Pravda is the Russian word for Truth.
So they thought they had a handle on the bullshit, because they could see the over-the-top propaganda (that we once-upon-a-time would satirize).
But the far more subtle propaganda was beneath their notice. They had been taught, every day in school and every day as an adult, about how the United States was evil, poorer than they were, and everything they saw supported that. So they didn’t question it. They’d question specific news items, but they didn’t question the things that everyone knows.
Just like tens of millions of Americans don’t question what the news feeds them every night. Trump has been portrayed as a pompous buffoon, an asshole who never admits defeat, and won’t admit he lost this election. And he has been portrayed, over the last five or six years, as having those personality traits. It would never occur to these people to question it. Because everyone knows Trump is a reality TV buffoon!
So going back to the ex-Soviets. What was their response when they realized just how deep and pervasive the lying was?
Absolute fury and outrage.
What will our YSM Bubble People’s reaction be?
Keep in mind that the YSM Bubble People don’t even have the sense that the jurinalists lie to them at all. They’re not like Soviet citizens, aware of lying but not comprehending how much and about absolutely everything. They are completely ignorant of the lies.
If and when they finally see the truth, be prepared for some very serious “I’ve been betrayed” outrage. Many of us will be tempted to laugh, but I would venture to say that would be the wrong reaction ninety percent of the time (the other ten percent of the time would be those specific people we have tried, unsuccessfully, to redpill).
Of course some small number of them are truly dedicated ideologically to Leftism, and will be OK with the lying since it was “necessary.” I’m not talking about them; I’m talking about the people who would be on our side if only they had any real knowledge of the world.
We don’t know when, or even if, the YSM’s grip will ever be broken. I just know these next couple of months are one of the most likely times for it to happen. And when it does, a lot of good people are going to need comfort and reassurance. Be prepared.
But by all means piss on the dedicated Leftists when THEY are outraged because their sheeple are furious with them. If you can arrange to pee red fuming nitric acid, so much the better.
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’m going to step back a bit from coins.
The United States issued Continental Currency during the Revolutionary War, and issued some interest bearing notes during the War of 1812. But for the most part, we avoided government issued paper money until the Civil War.
Private banks could and did issue paper money, backed by their own financial soundness. You could, if you had a bank note from Mulligan’s Bank and Grill (h/t L. Neil Smith, who loathes the concept of paper money and not without a lot of justice), you could walk into that establishment and exchange it for silver and gold. As long as not too many people decided to do this the system worked; people confident in being able to exchange the banknote for real money at any time were happy to use the notes. Yes, there were more notes out there than there was real money at the bank; what backed the notes was the value of the assets of the bank; i.e., the loans the bank had made (money owed you is an asset, though getting your hands on it Right Now is problematic).
Of course, the further away you got from Mulligan’s Bank and Grill, the fewer people would accept the note, since they didn’t know the bank and they were too far away to just casually cash the note in. Or they’d take it at a discount, charging you eleven Mulligan bucks for a $10 item. Worse, if Mulligan went belly up, people far away from it might not know it. And if people had never heard of the bank before, who was to say it was till in business.
And even worse, there was no standardization of designs. The banknote you were being presented might not even be genuine, or it might have been raised (altered to show a higher denomination). If you are presented a ten dollar bill with a train vignette on it from Mulligan’s Bank and Grill, how likely are you to remember that Mulligan’s put the train on their one dollar bills, but not their tens?
A lot of the headaches can be alleviated with standardized designs and clearing houses that know the notes from far away and will accept them at par (providing the bank is in fact solvent).
This is one of the things the Federal Government started doing in 1862, when paper money was created, and this time it was here to stay. “National Bank Notes” were of standardized design with only the name and charter number of the bank differing, they were printed by the Federal Government, and their issuance was strictly regulated. The Federal government also issued demand notes, backed by nothing but a promise to eventually redeem them (which they eventually did do), and a host of other things.
[Of course, there are people who collect paper money. It tends, in general, to be far, far rarer than coins, because a piece of paper would wear out quickly. Large denominations ($50 and up) from the 1800s tend to be extremely rare, with deep-into-five figure pricetags the rule rather than the exception, with, in some cases, no known survivors and pictures you see in catalogs are off of specimen notes. In many cases, because the government tracked them when they were redeemed, we have upper limits on the number of notes that still exist (i.e., we know how many were never turned in), and in many cases even for fairly “common” stuff there are only a few hundred out there.]
Before I continue, I should mention something you may not know. Before 1928, US paper money was of a larger size than it is today. In fact, it was the same size as those old “computer cards” (or Hollerith Cards). Or rather, the other way around; the cards were the same size as the paper money. When Hollerith invented his cards, he made them the same size as the paper money, so the same machinery that banks used to handle the notes could be adapted to handle his cards. No dummy, he!
Another thing they began to do, in 1878, was issue silver certificates. (There were also gold certificates, identifiable by bright orange/yellow (not green) print on the back.)
Each silver certificate was essentially a receipt for silver dollars deposited in the US treasury. As such they were 100% backed by real money, unlike a bank note, that was backed by loans on the books of the bank. (Of course, by 1878 the price of silver had fallen so far that a silver dollar itself wasn’t worth a dollar intrinsically, but those, in turn, were backed by gold, which was itself by definition equivalent to dollars at a certain ratio.)
In 1878 and 1880, two different series of silver certificates were issued, of very similar design (denominations 10, 20, 50, 100, and $500). Another, quite different issue came out in 1886 (1, 2, 5, 10 and $20). This one is famous for actually showing five silver dollars on the reverse of the five dollar note.
1886 $5 Silver Certificate (back). Note: Multiple thousands of dollars in very fine grade or above.
There yet another series in 1891 with the same fronts as 1886 where possible (in 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, and $1000), and then there was another series in 1896.
This series was only issued in $1, $2 and $5 notes. And it is famous. They are called the “Educational” notes. They have the most magnificent artwork ever to appear on US paper money. And this is our destination tonight.
The notes’ artwork actually has names. This one is “History Instructing Youth.” The woman is a personification of history, and under her foot you can see the name of the work of art.
This note should endear itself to us all. It’s loaded with detail. In the background the capitol, and the then-newly-constructed Washington Monument. There is a fasces, this was about forty years before the Fascists stole the symbol and tarnished it forever. The names in the wreaths are politicians, generals, and writers, and a couple of inventors.
It’s worth right clicking and opening the picture in its own window. But in case you can’t, from lower left clockwise, they are: Longfellow, Sherman, Lincoln, Irving, Cooper. Fulton, Calhoun, Clay, Jacksonson, Adams. Jefferson, Washington, Franklin. Hamilton, Webster, Marshall, Perry, Morse. Hawthorne, Bancroft, Grant. Farragut and Emerson. A veritable who’s who of American history up to that time.
And, just to top all of that, what is History pointing to? That open book. What’s in the book? It’s the preamble and part of the first article of the United States Constitution. And–I’ve seen this with my own eyes–it is perfectly legible under a magnifying glass! How about that, a note that puts it in your face that the US Constitution was written by people who had studied history and learned many lessons from it. Which they did, so any Leftist lurker reading this wanting to argue about those men can just fuck right the hell off.
The back of the note is a pair of portraits of Martha and George Washington, not terribly interesting (usually the backs of those old notes are more interesting than the fronts, but not in this case).
The $1 is much more affordable than the $2 and the $5, you should have no trouble finding a presentable specimen for well under a thousand bucks.
[And one good thing about paper money is that the grade is mostly applied to the condition of the paper. Having been folded once is a huge penalty, for instance. But the artwork doesn’t become seriously impaired until you go all the way down to very fine or maybe even fine (12-35 on a scale of 70). You can pay BIG money for the nosebleed grades, but the design won’t look all that much better. Just avoid paper that has turned dark. Since a large part of my motivation to own coins and paper is to be able to see the designs, that means I typically collect uncirculated coins–the design is the first thing to go on a coin–but I will happily take unstained circulated notes with no significant damage to the artwork.]
OK, so here is the $2 1896 “Educational” Silver Certificate.
$2 1896 Silver Certificate, “Science Presenting Steam and Electricity to Industry and Commerce”
This one isn’t as rich in little details as the $1 note, but the message is nonetheless profound. (OK, we’re here because of politics, and this is not politics. The $1 is cooler. I understand.) It is probably about ten times rarer. It’s not hard to find the $1 at a coin show; you’ll have to walk a lot more to find a $2.
A century earlier, the Industrial Revolution was just getting underway. There were people alive in 1896 who remembered what it was like not to have railroads. And scientists and engineers had tamed steam power, making it possible to cross the continent in days, and ship goods worldwide in a timely fashion. Just a few decades earlier, in 1861, they had “cracked” electricity, learning how to turn motion into electricity (generators) and electricity into motion (motors). The effects of steam power had already proven to be profound; electricity had made communications almost instantaneous and since 1878, was expected to light the nights as never before. But electricity was just getting started; think of the profound effects computers have had on the world in the last 30 years–all dependent on electricity.
The reverse is portraits of Fulton and Morse, indeed two inventors who worked with steam and electricity. And the two who were named on the $1 note.
$5 1896 Silver Certificate, “Electricity Bringing Light To the World.”
Being able to flip a switch and have light. A commonplace thing today. The dawn of a new age, then!
Light before that day involved outright open flame (candles, gas) or flame that was just barely protected, or rather, flame you were just barely protected from. Who can ever know how many disastrous fires were started by lanterns? Electricity was safe and cheap…and brighter. No more going blind trying to read and write at night!
Yes, electricity again.
I mentioned that scientists and engineers had “cracked” electricity in 1861-2. I’m referring of course to Maxwell who wrote equations relating electricity to magnetism, showing how magnetism could be used to create electricity, and vice versa. And then it turned out that light…plain old light…was actually an electromagnetic wave!
And chemistry turned out to be electrical interactions between atoms. Gravity doesn’t hold molecules together; it’s ridiculously weak for that task. Electrical forces do.
Those equations of Maxwell essentially govern everything that happens in your life, other than gravity. And unless you took a lot of math in college you will have no idea what they could possibly mean (I on the other hand took nine credit hours in college playing with them).
(I’m not sure why Wordpus did that to me). By the way the bold face is significant, and the fact that some things aren’t in bold face is significant, too. Oh and the X signs and dots don’t mean the same thing like you might think if you stopped after algebra.
Add to those equations a fifth one, Newton’s law of gravitation (much easier to understand), and you’ve got a handle on everything visible that happens in the universe. Except for the minor detail that these formulae don’t explain the existence of atoms other than hydrogen, and because they don’t explain that, they can’t explain why the stars shine.
In any case, I think those four equations should have shown up somewhere on that $5 bill.
So what happened? The hope was the elaborate artwork would deter counterfeiting. It actually had the opposite effect. People couldn’t drink in all that detail, so when counterfeiters didn’t supply it, few noticed. And bank tellers complained that the bills were so busy it would take an extra split second to identify the denomination, so they were hard to count.
One site claims Mrs. Grundy complained about all the scantily clad figures and that’s why the series was killed off after only a couple of years.
A $10 was in the works, but never actually issued. Apparently this is a picture of a specimen deliberately printed in the wrong color. I know nothing about it, other than its name is “Agriculture and Forestry” (along the bottom center of the design).
Standard Disclaimer: These are not my notes. In this particular case, though, I will admit to owning examples of all three of the notes that were issued.
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.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=uj0mtxXEGE8%3F
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
Important Reminder
To conclude: My standard Public Service Announcement. We don’t want to forget this!!!
Remember Hong Kong!!!
https://youtube.com/watch?v=L3tnH4FGbd0%3F
I hope this guy isn’t rotting in the laogai somewhere!
中国是个混蛋 !!! Zhōngguò shì gè hùndàn !!! China is asshoe !!!
When we look at Muh Russia’s endless accusations and hearings, the impeachment and now this huge voting fraud that the D’Rats have attempted, we might, not seeing any significant consequences, be tempted to think that these traitors have and maybe will escape scot-free.
As fulfilling as it may be to see justice meted out to them in good measure, that specific closure to these events is not guaranteed.
However, we are assured in Psalm 1 and in various other texts in God’s Word that the wicked will indeed face eternal consequences for what they have have earned.
We have trusted God with our eternal future by faith in His saving grace, and so we should put equal trust in all His promises. If you want to refer to “Promises made, promises kept”, God is the the perfect paragon of that action.
And so, as we see this latest ongoing chapter of treachery by the D’Rats play out to its ultimate conclusion, we may think that certain foul players in this tragedy have escaped punishment. Rest easy. God is the perfect dispenser of justice, and so shall it be done. Amen.
Psalm 1
1 Oh, the joys of those who do not follow the advice of the wicked, or stand around with sinners, or join in with mockers. 2 But they delight in the law of the Lord, meditating on it day and night. 3 They are like trees planted along the riverbank, bearing fruit each season. Their leaves never wither, and they prosper in all they do.
4 But not the wicked! They are like worthless chaff, scattered by the wind. 5 They will be condemned at the time of judgment. Sinners will have no place among the godly. 6 For the Lord watches over the path of the godly, but the path of the wicked leads to destruction.
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.
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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.
