“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.
I Will Accomplish What I Intend
We’ve read about God’s higher thoughts, and that those thoughts translate into actions, His ways. But, do God’s ways always work out? Maybe Satan’s schemes or the evil in men will nullify those actions. Maybe God gives it His best shot, but somehow, with all the resistance from mankind and the devil, things just don’t seem to work out the way God intended.
I hope you’re thinking “Yeah, right,” because that’s the right response to the possibility of God being unsuccessful in His actions. God is all powerful, all wise, and He knows everything that was, that is, and that ever will be. There is nothing anywhere, anyplace or anytime that has even the slightest chance of making anything happen that is not the will of God.
“As the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, . . . So shall My word be that goeth forth out of My mouth: it shall not return unto Me void” (Isaiah 55:10–11).
So, what does it mean that the Word of God won’t return void?
The word void means “empty.” The remainder of verse 11 explains what it means to “not return void,” saying that God’s Word “will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.”
Rain and snow are part of the water process cycle. Precipitation comes on the earth, soaks into the land, and produces great benefit in the growth of crops, the refreshment of souls, and the sustaining of life. Rain and snow come from above and do not return back above without accomplishing their purpose. God compares His Word to the rain and snow because, like precipitation, God’s Word always fulfills His good purposes.
When God says that His Word will not return to Him void, we can know that He has an intention for His Word. God’s Word is from above. He “breathed out” His words to us, and they were recorded in the Bible (2 Timothy 3:16). Every word He gave humanity is purposeful and was given for a reason. Like the rain and snow, God’s words bring forth life (John 6:63) and produce good fruit in our lives. Through His Word, we know that God loves us and that Jesus died to free us from sin and death; we also learn how to live in light of those truths.
When God says that His Word won’t return to Him void, we are encouraged to abide in His Word, allowing it to flow into our lives, with us soaking it up as the ground soaks up the rain and snow. The truth won’t return void since our hearts are changed. God’s Word rebukes us and corrects us when we’re wrong, and it trains us in godly living (2 Timothy 3:16–17). His Word is a light guiding us in this dark world (Psalm 119:105). It is relevant to every pressing and practical problem. God’s Word will always accomplish what He desires, whether it is teaching, correcting, training, leading us to Him, revealing our sin, or some other good and profitable end.
When God says that His Word won’t return to Him void, we understand that God is Sovereign. The promise is that God’s Word will accomplish what He wants it to, not necessarily what we want it to. We may share the Word with the purpose of changing someone’s mind—and the person’s mind doesn’t change. Was God’s Word void? No, but our personal goals may have been different from God’s. Like the wind that “blows wherever it pleases,” the Holy Spirit moves in mysterious ways (John 3:8). And God may use His Word in surprising ways, at surprising times, and in surprising people. We can’t predict exactly how God will use His Word any more than meteorologists can predict with certainty the rainfall and snowfall.
God’s Word won’t return void. It’s too powerful. When God said, “Let there be light,” the immediate result was that “there was light” (Genesis 1:3). When Jesus said, “Peace! Be still!” the wind ceased and the sea calmed (Mark 4:39). God’s Word will always prosper; God will succeed, and those who receive His Word will be overcomers as well (1 John 5:4).
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.”
The situation is unchanged. His Fraudulency continues to infest the White House, we haven’t heard much from the person who should have been declared the victor, and hopium is still being dispensed even as our military appears to have joined the political establishment in knuckling under to the fraud.
One can hope that all is not as it seems.
I’d love to feast on that crow.
Justice Must Be Done.
The prior election must be acknowledged as fraudulent, and steps must be taken to prosecute the fraudsters and restore integrity to the system.
Nothing else matters at this point. Talking about trying again in 2022 or 2024 is hopeless otherwise. Which is not to say one must never talk about this, but rather that one must account for this in ones planning; if fixing the fraud is not part of the plan, you have no plan.
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.)
Spot Prices
All prices are Kitco Ask, 3PM MT Friday (at that time the markets close for the weekend).
Everything is up…except rhodium which dropped over $5,800. However, lately these prices have been bouncing round inside a range (gold has sometimes been under $1700), so this is deceptive; things are at the top of the range today, they were lower in the range last Friday.
I don’t know if there is such a thing as a rhodium futures market, but if so, I imagine anyone who trades in it needs tranquilizers.
Rhenium
Rhenium is our next precious metal to be discussed. It lies to the left of the block of six “platinum group metals” so it’s something of an outlier in the group of nine precious metals (silver, gold, the six PGMs…and rhenium).
[A bit left of center in the table below, you’ll see it, #75, symbol Re. The PGMs are the 3×2 block to its right (44-46 and 76-78), silver and gold (47 and 79) are to the right of the PGMs.]
Rhenium was one of the last stable elements–i.e., one of the last you can find out there and own–to be discovered. (Just for instance the eighteen elements we know of past fermium (100), all discovered in the last 60 years or so, probably don’t even exist right now. Perhaps, though, someone is running an experiment and creating some of them right now, but if so, they’ll be gone within minutes of the experiment’s conclusion.)
In 1914, the period table was looking like it was filling up. What was missing was the blue squares in the diagram, plus #72. Also no one knew of anything past 92; such a thing hadn’t even been imagined.
Henry Moseley had validated the concept of atomic number the year before, so we now could assign numbers to elements and know they either were, or were not, adjacent to each other with no undiscovered element between them. We already could tell this, for the most part, with most elements but couldn’t be sure with the rare earths–and the discovery of the noble gases had revealed an entire column of the periodic table we had no notion of beforehand (the rightmost column in the table above). We really couldn’t know there weren’t more undiscovered columns, until Moseley did his work.
So there were six known holes in the table: elements 43, 61, 72, 75, 85, and 87. We expected 85 and 87 to be radioactive, and it probably wasn’t much of a surprise when they turned out to be hard to find because only a few trillion atoms of them existed all over the earth at any given time…and not the same trillion as there were yesterday. They were found around 1940, by a technique totally unimagined in the teens and twenties. But 43, 61, 72, and 75 should have been findable; they didn’t seem to have high enough numbers to be radioactive.
Really aggravating was the fact that 43 and 75 are in the same column of the periodic table, right below manganese. Those two elements should be chemically very similar to each other, and in fact element 73 (two columns to the left) had been discovered by poking through the ores of element 41, its upstairs neighbor. If we could find element 43, we’d probably find element 75, for the same reason, but we couldn’t fricking find element 43 either! With no element 43 ores, we couldn’t search those ores looking for element 75. A basic catch 22 (titanium).
[72 was indeed found in 1925 by looking through samples of element 40 (zirconium). It turned out to be so chemically similar that almost every sample of zirconium had anywhere up to 5 percent hafnium in it…and we had had no idea. Even today, they usually don’t bother removing the hafnium from zirconium, because it’s a cast iron pain in the ass to do so, and assays of zirconium will say something like “99 percent pure as long as you ignore the hafnium” (paraphrasing). But it turns out zirconium was great for sheathing nuclear fuel rods, because it didn’t absorb neutrons, and halfnium was great for control rods, because it absorbed neutrons like a sponge…so we had to learn how to separate the two elements for nuclear applications lest they degrade each other’s performance. It’s still a pain in the ass, but sometimes it’s gotta be done.]
In 1908, Masataka Ogawa claimed to have discovered element 43. We now know he really had discovered element 75, but back then he was simply disregarded. In 1922, however, another trio of researchers, Walter Noddack, Ida Noddack and Otto Berg discovered element 75, and realized it was element 75, and this time it stuck. In 1925 they reported that they had seen the element in platinum ore and a few other minerals. In 1928 they were able to extract a gram of it by processing 660 kilograms of molybdenite. (An ore of molybdenum, element 42, from the next column to the left.) And we still had no idea where in the bloody hell element 43 was!
They named their element 75 discovery rhenium, after the river Rhine.
Rhenium was considered ultra-rare back then (because there really aren’t any good ores of it) and is still pretty rare stuff. It is, however, used not for jewelry. It’s more like those workhorse elements like molybdenum, and vanadium, and niobium…the sorts of things that get put into steel so you can buy tools with funny names ending in “ium” on them at Home Depot. And indeed, it’s used in superalloys, the sorts of alloys that show up in jet engine turbine blades. In pure form rhenium can be heated and cooled, over and over again, and not show any stress from the process–untrue of other metals. It has been called the perfect metal for that reason, and has even found use in rocket motors, despite the fact that it is very, very heavy (which is hell on spacecraft design, as every ounce of additional weight means many pounds of extra fuel, which means bigger boosters).
A cubic centimeter of rhenium (like the cube shown in the photo above) weighs 21.02 grams. The same amount of water weighs one gram, in fact that’s how they originally defined the gram. Osmium, iridium and platinum come in higher than rhenium’s density. Nothing else does. It’s almost twice as heavy, volume for volume, as lead (11.9 grams per cubic centimeter), and is twice as heavy as silver (10.5).
I’ve had a hard time running down its spot price (an indication there probably really isn’t one), but it seems to cost about $1200 per kilogram. Yes, the price is quoted per kilogram, not per troy ounce. Which is roughly 35 dollars a troy ounce. Given how rare it is, that’s a low, low price.
But it has a very high melting point, which means it’s hard to find as bars. Not impossible, but hard. Once company, Luciteria, does make troy ounce square bars of the stuff but they charge well over $200 for them which seems steep to me.
In the fullness of time, it turned out that element 43 was hard to find because there isn’t any of it to speak of. All of its isotopes are radioactive, with half lives of two million years or so, so any that was on Earth when it was created is long gone, and unlike with something like radium, there’s nothing long lived that decays into it to keep renewing it. (The occasional uranium atom fissions and one of the pieces will turn out to be technetium, but that’s very rare in nature, and could never have been detected in 1922.) In fact, element 43 was discovered in 1937 when we inadvertently artificially created it from element 42, molybdenum, and it was named technetium as a result.
Masataka Ogawa got the last laugh, long after he died. His proposed name for his discovery was nipponium, symbol Np. Well Np as a symbol ended up going to neptunium–when we started creating elements artificially, neptunium was readily created from uranium. Decades later, when a Japanese team created element 113, it got the name nihonium, symbol Nh, and the team was very consciously honoring Ogawa, who had discovered rhenium without realizing it, with this choice.
(And as long as Neptune has slid into this sideways into this discussion of unrecognized finds, I’ll point out that Galileo did see Neptune back in the early 1600s. But he had no idea that it wasn’t just another star; we only know he saw it because he drew a diagram of some of the “stars” he saw and one dot on his diagram could only have been Neptune. Someone finally recognized Neptune for what it was in 1846, having been told where to look for it by analyzing unexpected perturbations in Uranus’s orbit.)
Obligatory PSAs and Reminders
China is Lower than Whale Shit
Remember Hong Kong!!!
Whoever ends up in the cell next to his, tell him I said “Hi.”
中国是个混蛋 !!! Zhōngguò shì gè hùndàn !!! China is asshoe !!!
China is in the White House
Since Wednesday, January 20 at Noon EST, the bought-and-paid for His Fraudulency Joseph Biden has been in the White House. It’s as good as having China in the Oval Office.
Joe Biden is Asshoe
China is in the White House, because Joe Biden is in the White House, and Joe Biden is identically equal to China. China is Asshoe. Therefore, Joe Biden is Asshoe.
But of course the much more important thing to realize:
Joe Biden Didn’t Win
乔*拜登没赢 !!! Qiáo Bài dēng méi yíng !!! Joe Biden didn’t win !!!
Gab is inevitable. Our community has grown to the point where the GOP can’t simply pretend we do not exist anymore as they have for five years. Now they must attack and defame us like the left does. Our community will primary every last one of you in 2022. Every last one.
This was all in response to Gab being somewhat stupidly criticized by Governor Abbott during a photo op with two state reps touting an antisemitism bill.
As I’ve said before, NOTHING has done more to wash out the antisemites at Gab, than the massive influx of normies simply seeking free speech.
Addressing Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s Statement About Gab
Every month 30 million people use Gab’s services to get access to the free flow of information online. Gab is the home of free speech in a world where Big Tech oligarchs have censored, deplatformed, and demonized tens of millions of good, honest, and decent people with whom they disagree politically.
Gov. Abbott’s statement will likely not sit well with the nearly 800,000 Texans who have visited Gab.com in the past 24 hours alone. What is even more strange is that the Texas GOP itself is on Gab with a verified account.
Gab is not an “anti-semitic” platform. We protect the political speech of all Americans, regardless of viewpoint, because in this age of cancel culture nobody else will. That means unpopular viewpoints may be found on the site.
The enemies of freedom smear us with every name in the book because they hate America and they hate free speech. It’s a shame to see a GOP politician fall for this trap when conservative values are under sustained attack all over the country.
People smear Gab for the kinds of people we host. They never smear Gab for the kinds of people we ban. That’s because we don’t have political tests for our users. Ban decisions are made on an individual basis. Our test for political speech is whether it is legal or not. Pretty simple rule.
There are many Jewish Gab users and customers, whose lawful speech we protect with just as much zeal as we would protect the lawful speech of any person of any faith, ethnicity, or creed.
This is what America used to be like: a place where The People could speak freely regardless of their faith, ethnic background, or beliefs. This is the America Gab is fighting to preserve.
Apparently Gov. Abbott doesn’t agree.
Andrew Torba CEO, Gab.com March 10th, 2021 Jesus is King
It’s Fight Like a Flynn Friday at Wolf’s Pub. Welcome back! I think you would agree there is freedom, and then there is FREEEEDOMMM!
What does it mean to be truly free? Can the body be imprisoned but the mind free? How does one free the mind? Are there things worse than death? Is freedom worth dying for? How do we learn freedom?
I believe the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of the United States and the Bill of Rights attempted (and mainly succeeded) in enumerating how a self-governed nation would operate. Maximum freedom of religion, speech, self-defense, assembly, and then freedom FROM unlawful search and seizure and so on.
General Flynn had a compelling op-ed in the Western Journal a couple days ago that is worth taking the time to read and ponder. This stood out to me:
“Though the battle for the soul of America is fierce before us, we cannot afford to look away in hopes of finding retreat. There will be none.”
Speaking of the soul…for your listening pleasure, here is Loreena McKinnett singing “The Dark Night of the Soul”, a poem by St. John of the Cross, a 16th century Spanish mystic. It speaks to the time preceding the union of the soul with God, when the darkness within drives the soul to leave earthly things and seek God. I would say union with God is true freedom.
Lyrics:
Upon a darkened night the flame of love was burning in my breast And by a lantern bright I fled my house while all in quiet rest
Shrouded by the night And by the secret stair I quickly fled The veil concealed my eyes while all within lay quiet as the dead
Chorus: Oh night thou was my guide of night more loving than the rising sun Oh night that joined the lover to the beloved one transforming each of them into the other
Upon that misty night in secrecy, beyond such mortal sight Without a guide or light than that which burned so deeply in my heart That fire t’was led me on and shone more bright than of the midday sun To where he waited still it was a place where no one else could come
(Chorus)
Within my pounding heart which kept itself entirely for him He fell into his sleep beneath the cedars all my love I gave From o’er the fortress walls the wind would brush his hair against his brow And with its smoothest hand caressed my every sense it would allow
(Chorus)
I lost myself to him and laid my face upon my lover’s breast And care and grief grew dim as in the morning’s mist became the light There they dimmed amongst the lilies fair there they dimmed amongst the lilies fair there they dimmed amongst the lilies fair
In honor of the Spanish mystic, our special tonight is the Spanish Tempranillo wine, a bold tasting and vibrant grape that may have been brought to Spanish shores by the Phoenicians thousands of years ago.
You can learn more here with the added bonus list of 40 of the top-rated Tempranillo wines from Spain. Unfortunately, a good Tempranillo can be hard to find. The ones in the local grocery store are usually the lower end of quality, with bitingly sharp tannins and sometimes murky overtones.
That said, if you can find a good Spanish Tempranillo wine, it will often be a reserva (aka more expensive). We happen to have all 40 of the top-rated wines on hand tonight (wink, wink), so feel free to browse through the list and order a bottle for your table.
HOUSE RULES
Before we get back to Fight like a Flynn Friday, let’s review the rules. Make nice. Easier said than done in these trying times but give it your best shot. In case you feel like getting ugly, there’s the Utree. The Utree has more than one purpose, too. It is also a rendezvous place in case something happens to this site. Thanks Coothie, for reminding us that we have another place to gather in the event we can’t gather here.
Now, back to Gen. Flynn’s op-ed in the Western Journal. He describes how our nation was founded on faith in God as the bedrock of our freedoms.
“Faith and freedom can never be separated
from one another.”
General Michael Flynn
And then he begins to urge us to take in hand and read again our founding documents and the writings of the Founding Fathers.
“Anyone can learn more about our nation’s founding. Start simple. When was the last time you read the Constitution or the Declaration of Independence?
We tend to forget just how easy it is to read the Constitution from cover to cover. President Obama’s Affordable Care Act was more than 314,000 words long, but the document that frames our entire system of government is only 4,500 words in length. The average American can read it in half an hour.
Of course, if we really want to get into the mindset of our Founding Fathers, we must dig deeper. “The Federalist Papers,” de Tocqueville’s “Democracy in America,” Paine’s “Common Sense” and the writings of John Locke are all well worth the read.”
He goes on:
“There is a reason why the forces of darkness are trying so hard to eradicate the family as we know it. They see how powerful the bond of family can be, so they want to redefine it, water it down and replace it with a dependency on the state. We cannot allow them to destroy the family. As long as marriages and families are strong, freedom will always have a fighting chance. Never concede to those who say they know how to raise your children better than you do. God entrusted the care of children to parents, not to governments.”
General Flynn mentions the importance of friendship and the will to fight against the forces arrayed against America. He asks us:
“Will you join the fight?
For the sake of our children and grandchildren, I pray you will.”
Tragically, most of our children have not learned what it means to be free and the cost of it, and the history of it. They’ve been fed a load of crap in our schools for several generations now. Let’s face it, we have been allowing the enemies of freedom to indoctrinate our children for decades.
I found this video of five libertarians (as near as I can tell) enjoying a wide-ranging discussion about educational alternatives. It’s an hour and a half, but it discusses so many issues, mentions so many good resources, and addresses so many of the facets of educating one’s own children and grandchildren, that I urge you to give it a listen.
“But if recent findings are any indication, Americans’ acquaintance with the founders’ principles and practices seems to be at a nadir. According to a report of the American Council of Trustees and Alumni, a majority of college graduates can’t recall “the substance of the First Amendment, or the origin of the separation of powers.” Perhaps most alarmingly, “nearly 10% say that Judith Sheindlin—‘Judge Judy’—is on the Supreme Court.” A big part of the problem seems to stem from the fact that of the 1,100 “liberal arts colleges and universities” surveyed, just “18%” require students to take a course on American history or government before graduation.”
WE ARE RUNNING OUT OF EXCUSES
The folks in the video above talk about a plethora of educational options for getting your kids out of the government schools. We talk freedom, but the government schools (yours included) have been teaching servitude, and our children have been learning to LOVE IT.
At the end of the book by Viktor E. Frankl, “Man’s Search for Meaning”, Sigmund Freud is quoted. Freud basically believed that the primal urge of hunger would bring uniformity to a diverse group of people. Frankl writes:
“Sigmund Freud once asserted, ‘Let one attempt to expose a number of the most diverse people uniformly to hunger. With the increase of the imperative urge of hunger all individual differences will blur, and in their stead will appear the uniform expression of the one unstilled urge.’ Thank heaven, Sigmund Freud was spared knowing the concentration camps from the inside. His subjects lay on a couch designed in the plush style of Victorian culture, not in the filth of Auschwitz. There, the “individual differences” did not blur but, on the contrary, people became more different; people unmasked themselves, both the swine and the saints. And today you need no longer hesitate to use the word “saints”: think of Father Maximillian Kolbe who was starved and finally murdered by an injection of carbolic acid at Auschwitz and who in 1983 was canonized.
You may be prone to blame me for invoking examples that are the exceptions to the rule. ‘Sed omnia praeclara tam difficilia quam rara sunt’ (but everything great is just as difficult to realize as it is rare to find) reads the last sentence of the Ethics of Spinoza. You may of course ask whether we really need to refer to ‘saints.’ Wouldn’t it suffice just to refer to decent people? It is true that they form a minority. More than that, they will always remain a minority. And yet I see therein the very challenge to join the minority. For the world is in a bad state, but everything will become still worse unless each of us does his best.
So, let us be alert—alert in a two-fold sense:
Since Auschwitz we know what man is capable of.
And since Hiroshima we know what is at stake.” (My bolding above)
As we now face a global enemy that seeks to deprive us of every one of our God-given freedoms, of even mental autonomy through the great evil of transhumanism; that seeks to control our movements, our medical decisions, our financial and political decisions, we have no choice but to join the fight with Gen. Flynn.
The Cult of Globalism believes
REASON IS TREASON
Let us fight for our freedom and for our children’s freedom by freeing their minds of the poison of globalism, socialism, progressive theories, and communism. The ruling elites are eaten up with a soul sickness that will not hesitate to reach beyond the depths of the Holocaust.
WE KNOW WHAT THEY ARE CAPABLE OF. We have seen them kill off thousands of vulnerable seniors and others through the CCP virus. We know of the trafficking of children and women, of the vaccine injuries inflicted thoughtlessly on African children by psychopaths like Bill Gates. THEY WON’T STOP. The only way to stop them is for the United States of America to remain FREE. The battle must be engaged. Search your soul and find where God will take you in this battle. And then get to it. Politics, education, religion, agriculture, business—whatever your bailiwick—turn it to the battle for freedom.
Well, here we are. Another Thursday…and up until an hour ago, I had no clue what to write in this space.
Then, I gave in to the Couch Commando and went and got Chick-Fil-A for dinner.
Holy smackentire.
So, our local Chick-Fil-A is sandwiched between two shopping centers/strip malls, with a number of big box stores. It’s on a hill, and looks down into one parking lot from the drive thru lanes. Well, they’ve taken the empty parking lot where patrons USED to park to dine in, and have turned it into a four lane order center. Each lane had its own person taking orders, and then everybody drove into a single line to receive their food.
Talk about making lemons out of lemonade. That’s what the American experience is all about: solving problems caused by the government.
Well, and doing just about everything in our cars, like a friend who spent a whole lot of time in France discusses with laughter on a regular basis.
So, at any rate, at least on that sort of thing, we’re more united than divided.
Division is never good, and as we wait for the conclusion of the show we’re watching, impatience is taking it’s toll…sort of like the Goonies who turned on Mikey when they found the pirate ship, but didn’t find the gold right away.
Can’t find a decent clip of just that scene in the movie, either. (Another American classic that will eventually be targeted for “cancel culture” thanks to some stereotypical characters.)
Alright, with all luck Pat will stop by, and we can dance since the weather is going to turn to crap here.
_______________________________________________
Please review our HOST and site owner’s Guidelines for posting and discussion for this site. Wolf is kind enough to put up with *most* of us and our antics after thorough vetting. Violators of the baiting and deliberately attempting to divide the group rules WILL face consequences.
The discourse on this site is to be CIVIL – no name calling, baiting, or threatening others here is allowed. Company manners are appreciated. Those who are so inclined may visit Wolf’s other sanctuary, the U-Tree, to slog out discussions best saved for a wrestling mat. Say hi to anyone who is actually hanging out there for the rest of us. If, for some reason, this site is not available, head over to the UTree and visit the post at the top of the list.
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Be careful in expressing thoughts as we would all like to think well of the rest of the group, and ill-thought out comments have a way of wrecking that for everyone.
Fellow tree dweller Wheatie gave us some good reminders on the basics of civility in political discourse:
No food fights
No running with scissors
If you bring snacks, be sure they are made with bacon
Auntie DePat’s requests as we are all supposedly adults and not perpetual high school sophomores or the back row of the soprano section in any big chorus:
If you see something has not been posted, do us all a favor, and post it. Please, do not complain that it has not been done yet.
The scroll wheel on your mouse can be your friend. As mature adults, please use it here in the same manner you would in avoiding online porn.
Thank you so much for any and all attention to such details. It is GREATLY appreciated by more than one party here.
14Now he was casting out a demon that was dumb; when the demon had gone out, the dumb man spoke, and the people marveled. 15But some of them said, “He casts out demons by Be-el’zebul, the prince of demons”; 16while others, to test him, sought from him a sign from heaven. 17But he, knowing their thoughts, said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and a divided household falls. 18And if Satan also is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? For you say that I cast out demons by Be-el’zebul. 19And if I cast out demons by Be-el’zebul, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they shall be your judges. 20But if it is by the finger of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. 21When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace, his goods are in peace; 22but when one stronger than he assails him and overcomes him, he takes away his armor in which he trusted, and divides his spoil. 23He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters.
Prayers for the nation, the salvation of humanity, and all of us here – lurkers and members – as well as our families, are welcome.
A couple of things that came up yesterday you might have missed.
I want to warn people that it’s just be brought to my attention that a coordinated centralized push is underway to silence influencers in the vaccine skeptic community.
…at the same time that there are signals emerging that many people are being hurt by the vaccines.
Yikes!
— Zach Vorhies / Google Whistleblower (@Perpetualmaniac) March 9, 2021
After witnessing what the LGBT movement has turned into, Milo comes out as straight. https://t.co/Wgr4BsIK1H
[If HOPIUM is needed, please ask for directions to the nearest Hopium Den. We’ll be happy to help you out.]
I was looking for a copy of a clip from the movie “Spies Like Us” where one character says to another about a question asked, “That information is given out on a need to know basis, and right now, you don’t need to know.” I couldn’t find one.
BUT that DID inspire today’s movie theme. “Dave” is a movie from almost 30 years ago where the REAL president has a stroke while in bed with his mistress, and a body double is used to cover for the fact that the real president is in a coma while succession plans are put in place.
Amazing, isn’t it, the number of hopium topics have actually been in the movies over the years. This one was actually done by Warner Brothers, not Castle Rock, but those set designers…talented bunch.
And now for the obligatory message from our sponsors:
Here at the Q tree we believe in the concept of CIVIL open free speech and the discussion that fleshes out ideas. When commenting and participating in the OPEN discussion on this thread all comments MUST NOT CONTAIN personal threats, baiting, name calling, or other anti-social words fomenting hate, violence or destruction. Our host Wolfm00n has strict rules about that.
Fellow tree dweller Wheatie gave us some good reminders on the basics of civility in political discourse:
No food fights.
No running with scissors.
If you bring snacks, bring enough for everyone
Please, stock up on blanks for celebratory gunfire, be ready to swing from the chandeliers…and no messing with the nuclear weapons.
Please remember to remain locked and loaded and ready for trouble should the insurrectionists try to invade your space.
Those who have things to say that do not fit the generally accepted limits of “civil” discussion, Wolf has provided a venue known as the UTree. You’re welcome to visit over there and say hi to anyone hanging out over there. The “Rescue Thread” is also over there. In the event a rendezvous of the tree is needed, please check it out.
Auntie DePat’s requests as we are all, ahem, adults, not uncivilized pygmies:
If you see something has not been posted, do us all a favor, and post it. Please, do not complain that it has not been done yet.
The scroll wheel on your mouse can be your friend. As mature adults, please use it here in the same manner you would in avoiding online porn.
Thank you so much for any and all attention to such details. It is GREATLY appreciated by more than one party here.
One other vital note:
Please, review these rules that our host Wolfm00n outlined toward the beginning of the growth of the tree itself. it won’t take long.
17“Think not that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets; I have come not to abolish them but to fulfil them. 18For truly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. 19Whoever then relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but he who does them and teaches them shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
As always, prayers for the fight against that which seeks to enslave us are welcome.
Please include: President Donald Trump, the Q team, our soldiers in the field, special forces, tactical units, first responders and those working behind the scenes…and any and all people with family members in the hospital, COVID or not.
Cover image: From the Pearl Buck foundation, “Spring” by Edward W. Redfield. Full image:
In the last week, a transcript of a series of depositions taken from a whistleblower presented by attorney Lin Wood was published, and in it were a number of revelations – some of them VERY disturbingly graphic – regarding a small group that called itself “The Dirty Tricks Squad.” The reality on these people – former VP Mike Pence, former Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein, former Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court John Roberts, and more – is maddening enough, but there was one case of “future proves past” that has been overshadowed, and should not be.
The whistleblower talked about a woman named Molly McCauley, and what she knew about the use of satellites in rigging elections. What happened to Molly? Now that the incident has resurfaced, new stories are being written about her.
[Author note: that tweet is the start of a thread. The body of the news story is below.]
Dr. Molly Macauley was an “internationally renowned” researcher of economics, known especially for her expertise on the economics of satellites. “One of the most prominent space economists” in the world, she was one of only a few that specialized in satellites and the space program.
On the night of July 8, 2016, she was discovered at about 11pm on the sidewalk around the corner from her home. She had been stabbed while walking her two dogs. She was taken to an area hospital but would be pronounced dead soon thereafter.
Energetic with unparalleled drive, colleagues described her as being universally respected, with both her professional and personal advice sought after….
It is now alleged that Dr. Macauley was killed because she had discovered – and begun to let it be known – that satellite technology was being used to alter votes in state and national elections.
The bombshell revelation is being made by a whistleblower who is working with attorney Lin Wood on exposing the truth about this, and other plots. The whistleblower, who says his own life is under constant threat, remains anonymous, but goes by the alias @Johnheretohelp.
Whether or not the whistleblower is really “John Here to Help” is somewhat beside the point. The reality is that ANOTHER whistleblower was murdered for spreading the word on one of the tools the globalists tried to use to steal the 2020 election.
Maria Strollo-Zack, Chairwoman of Nations in Action, a government accountability organization has been working with Italian law enforcement authorities for several months on bringing evidence to light that interference in the U.S. election took place in Italy.
“In 2016 – actually, before that Molly – Molly had discovered the satellites were being used to manipulate elections, and it was used in 2016 – huge – just like we’ve seen recently. And then they lost control of that when President Trump won,” John says.
“So, in 2018 a lot of that had already been transferred overseas – Iran, Italy, China. And then I wrote about that a couple years ago, about what they had done. So, they had already exposed all that. It had already gone over there,” he added.
This is not exactly hopium from a bong or hookah or anything else. This is a proof that the truth is known if we just look for it. The discovery of the use of satellites to alter the outcome(s) of elections has been known for years.
In addition to that revelation, there was quite a bit on Judge Emmett Sullivan who had the General Flynn case as well as the goals of those who do all the honeypots and blackmailing. Simply, they corrupted the judiciary branch to the point that it cannot function. Showing the people this is the case is going on now with all the dismissals of the election fraud lawsuits at all levels of courts.
The fix was in, we just didn’t know how deep the swampian effort went. The more that comes out, the more obvious the deviousness becomes.
The truth is out there. It’s just going to take some time for it all to be revealed.
And the truth is not the narrative(s) the dinosaur legacy media is pushing, that’s for sure.
In the meantime, President Trump made a trip to New York, something he hasn’t done in…years.
BREAKING: President Trump was spotted outside Trump Tower Sunday. Date: March 7, 2021 Credit: William C. Lopez/NYPOST pic.twitter.com/zLDdIkzrw6
— The TRUMP PAGE 🇺🇸 (@MichaelDeLauzon) March 8, 2021
The question becomes, WHY NOW? Why is it safe for him to travel to New York now?
Just sayin’.
Just a reminder:
Of course, this does not mean committing felonies, but standing up to the forces that want to tear this nation – and humanity apart. The very people XVII told us will be destroyed by the time this movie comes to an end are currently roaming the halls of power…supposedly. It’s a sickening sight.
And now for something completely different.
Your weekly reminder to take the pledge:
“I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter: So help me God.”
And now for the nitty gritty of the Q Tree 5 minute, stand up, Tuesday morning meeting version of the Daily Thread.
The discourse on this site is to be CIVIL – no name calling, baiting, or threatening others here is allowed. Those who are so inclined may visit Wolf’s other sanctuary, the U-Tree, to slog it out with anyone who happens to still be hanging out there. There is also a “rescue” thread there for members of the Tree to rendezvous if the main site goes kablooey.
This site is a celebration of the natural rights endowed to humans by our Creator as well as those enshrined in the Bill of Rights adopted in the founding documents of the United States of America. Within the limits of law, how we exercise these rights is part of the freedom of our discussion.
Fellow tree dweller Wheatie gave us some good reminders on the basics of civility in political discourse:
No food fights.
No running with scissors.
If you bring snacks, bring enough for everyone.
And Auntie DePat’s requests as we are all, ahem, adults…supposedly:
If you see something has not been posted, do us all a favor, and post it. Please, do not complain that it has not been done yet.
The scroll wheel on your mouse can be your friend. As mature adults, please use it here in the same manner you would in avoiding online porn.
Thank you so much for any and all attention to such details. It is GREATLY appreciated by more than one party here.
25In the fire Azariah stood up and prayed aloud: 34For your name’s sake, do not deliver us up forever, or make void your covenant. 35Do not take away your mercy from us, for the sake of Abraham, your beloved, Isaac your servant, and Israel your holy one, 36To whom you promised to multiply their offspring like the stars of heaven, or the sand on the shore of the sea. 37For we are reduced, O Lord, beyond any other nation, brought low everywhere in the world this day because of our sins. 38We have in our day no prince, prophet, or leader, no holocaust, sacrifice, oblation, or incense, no place to offer first fruits, to find favor with you. 39But with contrite heart and humble spirit let us be received; 40As though it were holocausts of rams and bullocks, or thousands of fat lambs, So let our sacrifice be in your presence today as we follow you unreservedly; for those who trust in you cannot be put to shame. 41And now we follow you with our whole heart, we fear you and we pray to you. 42Do not let us be put to shame, but deal with us in your kindness and great mercy. 43Deliver us by your wonders, and bring glory to your name, O Lord:
PSALMS 25:4-9
4Make me to know thy ways, O LORD; teach me thy paths. 5Lead me in thy truth, and teach me, for thou art the God of my salvation; for thee I wait all the day long. 6Be mindful of thy mercy, O LORD, and of thy steadfast love, for they have been from of old. 7Remember not the sins of my youth, or my transgressions; according to thy steadfast love remember me, for thy goodness’ sake, O LORD! 8Good and upright is the LORD; therefore he instructs sinners in the way. 9He leads the humble in what is right, and teaches the humble his way.
As always, prayers for the fight against that which seeks to enslave us are welcome. Via con Dios.
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/KAG/KMAG 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. We’re on the same side here so let’s not engage in friendly fire.
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.
Please pray for our real President, the one who actually won the election:
For your listening enjoyment, I offer this from Fearless Motivation; a mix of two compositions, titled ‘Day Of Dominion’ and ‘Next Level’:
Our beloved country is under Occupation by hostile forces.
We can give in to despair…or we can be defiant and fight back in any way that we can.
Joe Biden didn’t win.
I will keep saying Joe Biden didn’t win until we get His Fraudulency out of our White House.
Wheatie’s Word of the Day:
Vagile
Vagile is an adjective which means…able or tending to move from place to place; vagrant; wandering.
Used in a sentence:
Liberals are vagile creatures which will leave a place once they have sullied it and rendered it unlivable.
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,
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.”
My Ways are Higher . . .
Last week we took a look at what God meant when He said that His thoughts were higher than our thoughts. Well, it naturally follows that thoughts manifest themselves in action . . . what’s done as a result of those thoughts . . . God calls those actions His ways.
God works in ways that are often mysterious to us – His methods often leave people totally bewildered. Why would God tell Joshua and the children of Israel to march around the city of Jericho for a week (Joshua 6:1:4)? What good could possibly come from Paul and Silas being arrested and beaten without cause (Acts 16:22-24)? Why would God allow Joni Eareckson, a talented girl of seventeen, to break her neck in a diving accident and spend the rest of her life in a wheelchair? Why did God allow a fraudulent election to stand (so far) and permit legions of godless traitors to install themselves in positions of power?
God’s ways are far beyond what our limited human minds can understand. The Bible and the testimonies of Christians through the ages are full of stories of how God turned situation after situation, problem after problem, life after life, completely upside down – often in the most unexpected, astonishing, and puzzling ways.
So, what does God mean when He says, ‘my ways are higher than your ways’ in Isaiah 55:9?”
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways. . . . As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:8–9 says) God’s infinite thoughts are far greater than our limited ability to understand them. The psalmist exclaimed, “How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them!” (Psalm 139:17). God’s thoughts and His ways don’t always make sense to us, but we can rest in the knowledge that He is always good, and, therefore, everything He does is always good (Psalm 13:6; 100:5).
We’re filled with questions for God: “Why?” “When?” “How?” We often wrestle with faith because of those questions. How can we fully trust a God we don’t understand? How can we have faith when God’s ways seem even cruel at times? When we try to understand God’s ways, we can become frustrated. His ways are higher than our ways, and His actions often don’t make sense to our earth-bound minds. We question God’s ways when young people die, when tragedies strike righteous people, when the wicked prosper (see Psalm 73). So we beat on heaven’s door with our demand for answers, and no answer comes but this one: “My ways are higher than your ways.”
Our key to finding peace with ways that we don’t understand is in Psalm 131: “My heart is not proud, Lord, my eyes are not haughty; I do not concern myself with great matters or things too wonderful for me. But I have calmed and quieted myself, I am like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child I am content” (verses 1–2). A child doesn’t understand everything his mother does. She may correct him, take him to the doctor for vaccinations, and tell him “no” when he wants something very much.
And this is how we must be with God. We must rest on Him in complete humility and trust in His superior wisdom and provision, even though His ways are beyond our understanding.
If we try to understand God’s ways from earth looking up, we won’t find many answers. Instead, God left us a clue in the word higher. His ways aren’t merely different from ours, they’re higher. Better. Superior. They exist on a grander scale. He parted the Red Sea because it fit His plan for Israel (Exodus 14:21; Psalm 66:6). He made the sun stand still so Joshua’s army could defeat their enemies (Joshua 10:12–13). He sent an angel to let Peter out of jail (Acts 12:6–10), but He allowed James to be executed (Acts 12:2). God has allowed some of His faithful servants to suffer terrible fates, even though He could’ve delivered them if He chose (Hebrews 11:32–40). When we try to make sense of these events with our limited minds, we won’t get anywhere. Instead, God invites us to come up higher and learn to see life from His perspective.
From earth looking up, we see only confusion. But from heaven looking down, we see a plan unfolding. In Isaiah 46:9–11, the Lord lays out His sovereign plan to use the Persian king Cyrus: “I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me. I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say, ‘My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please.’ From the east I summon a bird of prey; from a far-off land, a man to fulfill my purpose. What I have said, that I will bring about; what I have planned, that I will do.” We may not know why God needs a “bird from the east” or why He would want to use a man like Cyrus. The man “from a far-off land” may not himself understand why he is moving across the world. But those who trust the Lord can rest in the confidence that God is at work. The Bible gives little room for the idea of coincidence (Proverbs 16:33; Psalm 37:23). In God’s “higher ways,” everything happens for a reason and is part of God’s good plan for those who love Him (Romans 8:28).
God’s ways are higher than our ways because His ways are always part of a bigger plan. We see only our small piece of the puzzle; God sees the finished work. When our desire is to live in step with His plan, we can have confidence that, even when bad things happen, God is still in control. He often takes what Satan meant for evil and turns it into good for the salvation of many (see Genesis 50:20). God’s priorities are the magnification of His glory and the expansion of His kingdom (Psalm 97:6; Luke 8:1). When God’s glory and God’s kingdom are our priorities, too, we learn to rejoice that His ways are higher than our ways (1 Corinthians 10:31).
March 4th, the old inauguration day before it moved to January 20th. For some reason I cannot understand, a lot of people were sure that meant something.
It didn’t.
The goal posts have moved again; all we find now that we’re here is yet another empty post hole.
Few…well honestly, most likely no one who is addicted to this crap will learn the obvious lesson, though.
How many times will it take before y’all wake up and realize you’re being had, over and over and over again?
Some Anti Trumper (by which I mean both “Never Trumper” and “Leftist Asswipe”) is probably laughing his ass off at you: Suckered again!
In fact, I think there’s a good chance someone over there is making this stuff up to get you to waste your energy on it.
Indictments after the 2018 election. The Huber Report. The Memo. Declass. Indictments after we’re done dealing with so-and-so’s funeral. Indictments after the election but before Trump Leaves Office, which of course he won’t REALLY do.
Please: Wake up and smell what you’ve been shoveling.
It has been wrong.
Every.
Single.
Time.
“Gee, Steve, if you don’t want to see it, then scroll on by.”
That’s beside the point. What are you doing to yourselves believing in bullshit?
After you get done being furious with me, please, please, ask yourself that. What can give you the confidence to continue breathlessly repeating this crap as if it’s God’s truth, when it has been wrong, every single time.
And if your answer in any way rests on hope being a virtue, I have to then wonder at the spectacle of someone who believes that even false hope is a virtue.
“How dare you tell me what to post?”
I haven’t told you what to post. I am begging you to think critically. and subject this stuff to a test. It’s been false every single time. Come to the logical conclusion. PLEASE. And no, you’re not critically thinking just because you disagree with the conventional wisdom about a few things.
It’s sad seeing such clearly intelligent people ensnare themselves in demonstrable falsehood again and again and again.
“Gee, Steve, you want us to quit fighting?”
No. NO!!I want you to start fighting. To the extent that you’re waiting on the next bullshit goalpost/deadline, you aren’t fighting, you’re waiting for someone to rescue you.
We’re not going to get rescued like that. We have to pull ourselves through this. Trump is continuing to fight; he’s not waiting for someone to miracle him back into the White House. And it should be pretty obvious by now he’s not providing the miracle himself. He has acknowledged that Biden is now the president, albeit not the rightful president.
It’s up to us, collectively and severally. Get off the hopium, sober up, accept that the current situation is exactly what it is, and figure out what to do about it. Because you aren’t going to do squat if you continue to delude yourself it will magically get fixed. If you think someone else is going to solve the problem, or that the problem is a bit of phony theater, you won’t, yourself, do anything to solve the problem.
And that is just what the Left wants you to do. And that’s why I am starting to suspect these wacky scenarios and deadlines are made up by the Left.
It’s a free Q tree. You can go on doing this. Really you can. But I really hope you’ll come to your senses someday.
That hope is my hopium, but I am realistic enough to realize how unlikely it is. Prove me wrong.
Justice Must Be Done.
The prior election must be acknowledged as fraudulent, and steps must be taken to prosecute the fraudsters and restore integrity to the system.
Nothing else matters at this point. Talking about trying again in 2022 or 2024 is hopeless otherwise. Which is not to say one must never talk about this, but rather that one must account for this in ones planning; if fixing the fraud is not part of the plan, you have no plan.
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.)
Spot Prices.
All prices are Kitco Ask, 3PM MT Friday (at that time the markets close for the weekend).
I talked a bit about rhodium last week (by the way, even though it’s higher than last Friday, it did drop a bit Friday.). I’m going to talk, this week, about platinum.
Platinum appears in some ancient Egyptian relics, but there’s no sign that the Egyptians themselves realized it was something different. It also shows up in some pre-Columbian artifacts produced in South America. I don’t know what they thought of it, whether they considered it different from gold and silver.
It first began to come to the attention of Westerners in 1557, when Julius Scaliger (who invented the Julian date used by astronomers, which is very different from the so-called “Julian date” used by some businesses which is simply the number of days since the prior new year). He noted it as an impurity in gold “which no fire nor any Spanish artifice has yet been able to liquefy.”
Now the Spaniards weren’t at all happy to find this stuff, at least not at first. Having a density actually a bit higher than gold, it would remain in the pan when panning for gold. It then had to be painstakingly separated from the gold, flake by flake. Because it was basically caca blanca.
In addition to being dense, more so than gold, platinum is even more resistant to acids. Which means that it will pass most of the easy tests for gold. You can scratch a gold-plated platinum item and give it the literal acid test, and it will pass. Fortunately, since it couldn’t be melted by any method known at the time, it was hard to make jewelry out of it to plate it, or, really, any solid mass.
Useless!!! They named it Pinto Silver (from the name of a river), and the later name “platina” is basically just a derivative of “plata”–silver.
But then it turned out that if you dumped platinum into molten gold, it would dissolve, just like salt dissolves in water. Once people realized this, mint workers had a new way to steal gold. By holding back some and swapping it with an equal weight of platinum, they could adulterate the coinage and pocket the gold. Meanwhile, no average person, prepared to test gold coinage to ensure it wasn’t gold plated lead, could detect it.
The Spanish government got wind of this. And they banned the possession of platinum. You had to sell it to the Spanish government, which would take it away and store it somewhere, to ensure it didn’t end up in their coins. (Later on, of course, they’d eventually decide to debase their own money with the platinum.)
In the mid 1700s chemists began to notice this stuff. The first chemist to look at it and decide it was a new element was Antonio de Ulloa, in the mid 1700s.
But a use for platinum did finally turn up, once someone figured out how to work it. By dissolving it in aqua regia (an acid that attacks gold as well as platinum), then precipitating it out of solution, one gets a powder; by compressing and heating it, you could, at least form it into shapes even though this was basically “sponge” platinum. People began to make crucibles out of it, it being handy for crucibles to withstand any amount of heat one could throw at it.
Another use was boilers for sulfuric acid. Take a flat sheet of platinum, bend it around into a cylinder. Solder the seam with gold (and begrudge every tiny bit of gold you have to use for the seam). Also weld on circular ends. You now have a pressure vessel, you can pour dilute sulfuric acid into it, boil off some of the water and concentrate it. Otherwise, you’d have to use a glass vat, and having a brittle glass vat explode with sulfuric acid inside…well, you don’t want to be around; if the glass doesn’t lacerate you, the acid will burn you. And if the glass does lacerate you, the acid will still burn you.
By the early 1800s platinum was, ounce for ounce, about six times as expensive as silver (and gold was about 15 times as expensive). And more deposits had been found in Russia.
Three things to say about the Russian platinum deposits. First, nuggets were found, and some of the locals would use them as birdshot!!! Imagine blowing platinum out of your shotgun!
Second, work was done on this platinum in England. A couple of chemists dissolved platinum with aqua regia, and there was some stuff in there that wouldn’t dissolve. Eventually Tennant and Wollaston concluded there were new metals there: rhodium, palladium, osmium and iridium. Because these metals (and a fourth, ruthenium, discovered in 1844) are always found together in minerals, they became known as the “platinum group metals.”
Finally, someone in Russia came up with the bright idea of minting coins out of platinum, and this was done from 1828 to 1845. The coins were the same sizes as the quarter, half and ruble (silver coins), but weighed twice as much, so their face values were 12 times as much.
A three ruble platinum coin. A bit smaller than a quarter…and twice as heavy.
Almost exactly 1/3 or a troy ounce, but the platinum is not terribly pure
When I said a couple of weeks ago there was no such thing as junk platinum because there were no platinum coins (with one exception) ever made for circulation, these were indeed the coins I was thinking of, but the problem is these coins are very valuable, especially the 6 and 12 ruble pieces. They’re worth far more as coins than they are as metal, which means they’re not “junk” in the way that “junk silver” is. So you won’t be finding this for “dirt cheap” or “just above melt.”
These coins were also made out of sponge. Pure platinum is about 21.45 times as dense as water; these coins tend to be about 20.5 times as dense. About five percent of these things is air! They’re also not especially pure; some effort was made to remove impurities (such as other platinum group metals), but much remained, and there’s also some small amount of iron in them.
Finally in the mid 1800s someone invented a furnace that could melt platinum, so we now had solid platinum to work with (and in fact, people make fakes of the Russian platinum coinage out of real platinum, but they never go through the trouble of making sponge out of the platinum. So the fakes tend to look better than the real ones, sponge platinum having a kind of ugly appearance to it.
Later on, platinum’s use as a catalyst gave it real value and most of those coins got scrapped and sold to Johnson Matthey, which is still today a major refiner of the platinum group metals.
Eventually platinum’s price exceeded that of gold, and then, people decided it would make good jewelry in its own right.
And so, when I was a kid, platinum was always more expensive than gold. It was in the 400s when gold was in the 300s, and when gold spiked to $850 an ounce one day late in the Carter administration, platinum was over a thousand bucks. I don’t recall when its price slid to below that of gold, but that situation has persisted for quite some time. It feels “wrong” to me.
Obligatory PSAs and Reminders
China is Lower than Whale Shit
To conclude: My standard Public Service Announcement. We don’t want to forget this!!!
Remember Hong Kong!!!
If anyone ends up in the cell right next to him, tell him I said “hi.”
中国是个混蛋 !!! Zhōngguò shì gè hùndàn !!! China is asshoe !!!
China is in the White House
Since Wednesday, January 20 at Noon EST, the bought-and-paid for Joseph Biden has been in the White House. It’s as good as having China in the Oval Office.
Joe Biden is Asshoe
China is in the White House, because Joe Biden is in the White House, and Joe Biden is identically equal to China. China is Asshoe. Therefore, Joe Biden is Asshoe.
But of course the much more important thing to realize:
Joe Biden Didn’t Win
乔*拜登没赢 !!! Qiáo Bài dēng méi yíng !!! Joe Biden didn’t win !!!
