Categories
History Politics Science

Race?

Building on my last blog about Natural Selection and the genetic story concerning dogs, let’s look at how “race” developed amongst humans.  We are all the same species, but we do have many physical differences.  How did the races develop?

First, we need an incident that separated man across the face of the Earth.  If you are an atheist, you may want to attribute it to ‘wanderlust’.  If you are a believer, the obvious incident would be the Tower of Babel.

5 And the LORD came down to see the city [Babel] and the tower, which the children of men builded. 6 And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. 7 Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech. 8 So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city. 9 Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.

Genesis 11:5-9

Nimrod built the first, ‘great’ cities mentioned in Scripture. According to the Book of Jasher (chapter 9), the people intended to build the tower tall enough to access heaven, kill God, and place Nimrod upon the heavenly throne.  I’m not saying this is a great plan or that there was any chance of success – evil doesn’t always need to have a logical basis.

The Book of Jubilees confides that 600,000 men worked for 43 years to build it, so there was a very large group of people that were unified in the evil plans of Nimrod.

Yahweh “confounded” their language and the people presumably separated themselves into groups that spoke the same language.  People tend to do this when they find themselves in a foreign land . . . they tend to gravitate towards people with the same culture and language (e.g., Little Italy, Chinatown)

As a side note, all these people already had the same culture and the same religion, so after the confusing of the tongues, they maintained the same gods but their gods now had multiple different names.  This is why so many pagan religions appear to worship the same gods.

As was the case with our dogs, humans (all descended from Noah) moved to different areas with different climates and adapted to their new surroundings . . . or died. 

Adaptations like skin color (melanoma helps protect against the harmful effects of the ultra-violet rays of the Sun) and body mass (more padding is better in colder climates).

Over time, these genetic differences became identifiable traits for different groups of people, but it did not change anyone into a different species.  It did help to identify people as an ‘outsider’ making it easier to discriminate against them. 

People within the group (or race) were preferred to those outside the group.  Often, people inside the group openly manifested their dislike and/or distrust of the outsiders. 

Wars pitted different groups against each other, and because the other group was not as strong, they were thought of as an inferior race.  Since they are inferior, it is okay to kill them, loot them, and enslave them.

Race-based discrimination has multiple sources, many of which preceded Darwin, but evolutionary theory gave “a powerful push to a scientific version of racism that still impacts us today,” said John West, vice president and a senior fellow at the Discovery Institute. (Darwin’s Racism)

In other words, Darwin ‘scientifically’ legitimated racism.

Four decades after the United States outlawed slavery, Samuel Phillips Verner purchased a young Mbuti pygmy man named Ota Benga from slave traders in the Congo for the World’s Fair exhibit. In 1906, officials at the Bronx Zoo in New York City put Benga in a cage with an orangutan. When two African American clergymen raised objections to his inhumane treatment, The New York Times responded with an article assuring people that “the pygmies … are very low in the human scale.”

We are quick to cancel books, today, based on racism, but Darwin’s book, On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life (1842), is an exceptionally racist tome, but its principles are required learning in our schools.

In The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex (1871), Darwin claims that “the civilized races of man will almost certainly exterminate and replace the savage races throughout the world. At the same time the anthropomorphous apes . . . will no doubt be extertimated.”

The term “Anthropomorphous apes” is used to reference “the negro or Australian [aborigine] and the gorilla.”

Racism was no longer just a personal prejudice; it was now science and science embraced it wholeheartedly.

The Eugenics movement rose in the 1880s with a book by Darwin’s cousin, Francis Galton.  Inquiries into Human Fertility and its Development (1883) coined the term, “eugenics” which is Greek for “good in stock”

Eugenics sought to guide evolution through ‘planned’ selection rather than the randomness of natural selection.  The “higher races” would be more successful by harnessing the “overwhelming power of heredity.”

https://www.genome.gov/about-genomics/educational-resources/timelines/eugenics

Many countries adopted eugenic policies, intended to improve the quality of their populations’ genetic stock.  Such programs included both positive measures, such as encouraging individuals deemed particularly “fit” to reproduce, and negative measures, such as marriage prohibitions and forced sterilization of people deemed unfit for reproduction. Those deemed “unfit to reproduce” often included people with mental or physical disabilities, people who scored in the low ranges on different IQ tests, criminals and “deviants”, and members of disfavored minority groups.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugenics

Planned Parenthood arose from this movement.

In Mein Kampf (1924), [Adolf] Hitler quoted American eugenic ideology and openly displayed a thorough knowledge of American eugenics. “There is today one state,” wrote Hitler, “in which at least weak beginnings toward a better conception [of immigration] are noticeable. Of course, it is not our model German Republic, but the United States.”

Hitler proudly told his comrades just how closely he followed the progress of the American eugenics’ movement. “I have studied with great interest,” he told a fellow Nazi, “the laws of several American states concerning prevention of reproduction by people whose progeny would, in all probability, be of no value or be injurious to the racial stock.”

Hitler even wrote a fan letter to American eugenic leader Madison Grant calling his race-based eugenics book, The Passing of the Great Race his “bible.”

The Horrifying American Roots of Nazi Eugenics – History News Network

The brutality of the Nazi’s “Final Solution” brought discredit to the eugenics’ movement, but its goals are still being worked towards by groups like Planned Parenthood, who base 86% of their abortion clinics close to minority neighborhoods.

Belief in evolution does not make someone a Nazi, but you cannot be a Nazi (or a Communist, which killed many, many more people than the Nazis did) without belief in evolution.

The Christian or Believer stand should be that we are all the same race, the human race.  Science supports what Genesis told us thousands of years ago.

Scientists have long suspected that the racial categories recognized by society are not reflected on the genetic level.

But the more closely that researchers examine the human genome — the complement of genetic material encased in the heart of almost every cell of the body — the more most of them are convinced that the standard labels used to distinguish people by “race” have little or no biological meaning.

The criteria that people use for race are based entirely on external features that we are programmed to recognize.

Do Races Differ? Not Really, DNA Shows – NY Times, Aug 22, 2000

Maybe if we stop fixating on race?

But the genes that explain the phenotypic differences between populations only represent a tiny part of our genome, confirming once again that the concept of ‘race’ from a genetic standpoint has been abolished.

Dr Lluis Quintana-Murci of France’s National Centre for Scientific Research, Feb 4, 2008

With modern molecular evolutionary techniques, we can find over time genes in any one local area of humanity that are shared by all of humanity throughout time. There are no distinct branches, no distinct lineages. By this modern definition for race, there are no races in humanity.

Alan R. Templeton, professor of biology in arts and sciences at Washington University, Sep 1, 2011

Race is an industry that haters and dividers use to amass fame and fortune.  It is a political tool used to bludgeon opponents and the adherents of it are sought after to gain advantage by perpetuating lies that have been disproven for decades.

Democrats seek to intensify the lie through the teaching of Critical Race Theory (CRT) in our schools.  They are literally teaching that some children are sub-standard.  Darwin would be so proud.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. asked that his children be judged ‘by the content of their character and not by the color of their skin’.  He choose to say “color of their skin” rather than use the term, “race”.  Interesting.

This is definitely not the stand of the Democratic Party today.

We all have color in our skin.  A white man is not white in the same way a black man is not black.  We all have differing shades of brown and that is genetic.

So what shade were Adam and Eve?

If they were ‘white’, as depicted in numerous movies, then the ability to pigment to darker colors would not exist.

The same would be true if they were ‘black’, as is presupposed if man originated in Africa.  There would be no variation to produce light-skinned children

If the Creator gave them variety in their genes, then they would be able to produce children of many shades.

Because of this variety, parents can even produce twins of different shades.

Can we give a collective, “Awwwwwwwwwwwww”?

What the facts show is that there are differences among us, but they stem from  culture, not race.

We’re All the Same (Sep 10, 1998) – www. abcnews.com (ABC has since removed this article)

If someone tells you, “I don’t see color”, then they are being disingenuous (unless, of course, they are blind).

Even color-blind people see shades. 

We need to get to the point where we do look to the content of character rather than the color of skin.  Based on the content of the character of most politicians and their operatives, they can never allow us to reach that point, so they will continue to try to divide us by ‘race’.

You must decide, will you base your thinking on God’s Word or man’s imaginations?  In God’s Word, there are two races:  Believers and Unbelievers.  We get to choose which one we want to belong to.

26 For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. 27 For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.

Galatians 3:26-29

We are one in Christ who believe (have faith) and act according to His Word (“put on Christ”).

14 Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? 15 And what concord hath Christ with Belial [Satan]? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? 16 And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 17 Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, 18 And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.

2Corinthians 6:14-18

Stop believing the way the World wants you to believe.  Stand for something eternal and true.  Stand on God’s Word.

1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. 2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

Romans 12:1-2

Be reasonable – don’t be a bigot.  Renew your mind to what is good and perfect.

Categories
History Politics Science

Natural Selection versus Evolution

Seems like an odd title – we’ve been taught that they are the same thing. At least, that Natural Selection is the vehicle that makes Evolution possible.

An honest examination shows that Natural Selection actually disproves Evolution.

In previous blogs, I deposited that Darwinian evolution was an unproven theory that is being used to attempt to negate the idea that there is a Creator – It is past time to provide the evidence.

National Geographic defines natural selection as:

. . . the process through which populations of living organisms adapt and change. Individuals in a population are naturally variable, meaning that they are all different in some ways. This variation means that some individuals have traits better suited to the environment than others. Individuals with adaptive traits—traits that give them some advantage—are more likely to survive and reproduce. These individuals then pass the adaptive traits on to their offspring. Over time, these advantageous traits become more common in the population. Through this process of natural selection, favorable traits are transmitted through generations.

Natural selection can lead to speciation, where one species gives rise to a new and distinctly different species. It is one of the processes that drives evolution and helps to explain the diversity of life on Earth (https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/natural-selection/).

Disclaimer:  I am not disputing that “natural selection” takes place, nor that it can give rise to new species.  I will argue that natural selection is not a catalyst for the evolution of organisms to become different and/or better organisms.

Darwinian evolution teaches that man evolved over millions of years from primordial goo through several animal states.  This evolution had thousands of steps as that goo developed beneficial mutations that enabled it to better survive, which traits were passed on to each of its many ancestors, which also had beneficial mutations (or, as Kent Hovind states it, “From goo to you, by way of the zoo”).

Natural selection does not provide the actual mutation, it only determines what is better for the organism or worse, giving benefit or handicap to the organism. It then “selects” the better because the worse is more likely to die off sooner.  The definitive statement about variations fails to recognize that these variations are a loss of genetic material, not an enhancement of genetics.

Let us look at an actual scenario rather than unsupported claims.

The wolf is the ancestor of all domesticated dogs.  The Great Dane and the Yorkshire Terrier (which look nothing alike) are part of the same species, but the wolf and the coyote (which do look alike) are not of the same species.

The genetics of every organism have traits (e.g., large or small, dark or light) that they received from their parent organism.  Some genes are referred to as “dominant” (physically visible) and the others as “recessive” (present, but not physically visible if there is a corresponding dominant gene).

If we say that “A” (or “a”) is one trait and “B” (or “b”) is another, then we see that both of these fictional parents have dominant and recessive genes.  This is overly simplified since the number of genes that determine an organisms overall development is over a million.

Using just these three traits, we have 27 different gene combinations (3 x 3 x 3 = 27), of which only ten are depicted.  If you took all the million plus genes and did every combination, then you are looking at a rather large number.

Going back to our much simpler illustration, let us look at one trait – hair.  If two dogs have genes for both short hair (“S”) and long hair (“L”),

then the puppies have the possibility of several gene combinations.

The Short hair pup and the Long hair pup have less genetic variation than their parents have and the only way for their children to regain that variation is to mate them with another dog that has that variant.  Mating the Long hair dominant dog with another Long hair dominant dog will produce a long-haired dog.

This is the essence of dog-breeding.  Breeders mate specific dogs in order to eliminate certain traits.  Mating dogs with small tails, over time, eliminates the trait for long tails inside that breed.

This is obviously not Natural Selection since the Breeders (an intelligent designer?) made the selection, but in both cases, it is a choice that eliminates information, not adds information.

Atheists ask, “How could Noah have gotten all the thousands of species on the ark?”  The answer is, “He didn’t.”

19 And of every living thing of all flesh, two of every sort shalt thou bring into the ark, to keep them alive with thee; they shall be male and female. 20 Of fowls after their kind, and of cattle after their kind, of every creeping thing of the earth after his kind, two of every sort shall come unto thee, to keep them alive.

Genesis 6:19-20

“After their kind”. 

Kind: [H4327] (miyn / meen) from an unused root meaning to portion out; a sort, i.e. species:–kind.

Strong’s Hebrew Concordance

Noah wasn’t required to take great danes, poodles, and beagles.  He needed to take a ‘dog kind’ which became the ancestor of all the dog breeds we have today.

The next protestation is then, “How could we get all the dog breeds in only 4300 years?”  Breeders are able to get ‘pure-bred’ animals in only hundreds of years.  The varieties of dogs and their adaptation to their climates is simple to imagine.

Dogs have several litters of pups in a normal life span.  Those pups grow up and have several litters, most of which all have several litters, which continues for thousands of generations, culminating in lots of dogs.

The dogs obviously don’t stay in the same place (anyone who thinks so has never driven around their neighborhood for hours searching for a dog that escaped the yard).  As they moved to different climates, natural selection would favor the traits that gave it a better chance of surviving in that new climate.

Dogs that migrated into colder climates would be more successful with thicker, longer hair and dogs that migrated into hotter climates would be more successful with less, or shorter, hair.  The longer the dogs stayed in these areas, the less likely the other trait would manifest itself, until it was completely eliminated from the gene pool for those specific dogs.

Once, again, this is natural selection, but it is not evolution.  We are looking at a loss of information, not the gaining of new and/or superior information.

Natural selection requires lots of information, some of which is eliminated over time.  This is what the Biblical, creation model would suggest, but it is not compatible with the evolutionary theory proposed by Darwin that is still taught in our schools despite its many, substantial, flawed concepts (just one of scores of articles that can be found on the subject is at What Are the Top Three Flaws in Darwinian Evolution, as Taught Today in Public Schools? – Evolution News and Science Today)

The complete title of Darwin’s book, On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life, is a fairly racist sounding inscription.  Of course, it sounds racist because it is.

That is the topic for a future blog.

Darwin claims (and teachers teach) that his theory scientifically explains how species originated and improved over ‘lesser’ evolved species.  This is just not true (or as I like to call it, “a damn lie from the pit of hell”).

His example of big-beaked finches and small beaked finches benefiting from the climate of the Galápagos island group did not demonstrate what the finches evolved from. They were still finches – some with large beaks and some with smaller beaks. Just like human schnozolas.

Science introduces vast amounts of time to try to overcome the problems of evolving from a ‘lower’ to a ‘higher’ species, but that just compounds the problem of natural selection, loss of information, and gene mutation (which is almost never beneficial to the organism).

Natural Selection argues for a superior organism that changes over time to become a less diverse organism through the loss of genetic material.  This probably explains how the first humans were able to live as long as 900+ years.  It also argues for Yahweh’s instruction to not marry close relatives (if you believe the creation narrative, you believe we are all related) after over a thousand years of inter-marriage (ostensibly, Adam’s children marrying each other, Abram marrying his half-sister, etc.).

Darwin ignored Yahweh’s directive and married his first cousin (which was still commonplace among European ‘elites’).  The upper-class did not want to dilute the superiority of their progeny by marrying commoners.

With savages, the weak in body or mind are soon eliminated; and those that survive commonly exhibit a vigorous state of health. We civilized men, on the other hand, do our utmost to check the process of elimination. We build asylums for the imbecile, the maimed and the sick; we institute poor-laws; and our medical men exert their utmost skill to save the life of every one to the last moment. There is reason to believe that vaccination has preserved thousands, who from a weak constitution would formerly have succumbed to small-pox. Thus the weak members of civilized societies propagate their kind. No one who has attended to the breeding of domestic animals will doubt that this must be highly injurious to the race of man. It is surprising how soon a want of care, or care wrongly directed, leads to the degeneration of a domestic race; but excepting in the case of man himself, hardly anyone is so ignorant as to allow his worst animals to breed.

Charles Darwin, 1871

       The Darwin’s ten children were frequently ill and three did not survive to adulthood. Of the seven that did survive, some reports say that three were infertile.

       The couple’s son, Charles, passed away while just a toddler, daughter Henrietta was bedridden for years with digestive illnesses, and Horace and Elizabeth suffered from frequent convulsions. It seemed that every child had at least some malady, leading Charles to despair, “We are a wretched family & ought to be exterminated.”

https://allthatsinteresting.com/emma-darwin

Evolution and Natural Selection are not kindred spirits as atheistic scientists and other elites want us to believe.  Natural selection begs for an original, intelligent designer that created something ‘near perfect’ that corrupted over time.  That sounds too much like “God” to those that do not want to believe in a higher power or the laws that He has instituted.

Evolution must unquestioningly be taught in our schools because evidence of a Creator weakens their claim to a superior intellect as long as someone or something is substantially wiser.  Scientists, politicians, and other ‘influencers’ are the gods of this world and they do not want the next generation to believe otherwise.

They will, and have, use the media, the courts, and other means of intimidation to stop any questioning of their Darwinian religion. Exposing children to any legitimacy of the existence of God opens the door to Godly morality (which they do not wish to be bound by) and the promise of an afterlife (which evolutionary theory cannot account for).

Evolution is their religious dogma and must never be questioned – especially by facts and evidence.

Categories
Politics Prescribed Holy Days

Do You Remember?

As today is the last day of Sukkot (Festival of Booths), I wondered how does one retain the memory of an event that occurred 3500 years ago?

Sukkot commemorates the release of Israel (and others) from bondage in Egypt and Yahweh’s protection of them as they traveled to the Promised Land.  Can you name another event that is over 3000 years old that is memorialized by so many people?

Most of history fades and we fail to learn from the past.

Young people today are not taught the past and therefore are doomed to repeat it.  They embrace socialism because they are taught that capitalism is wicked – ignoring that capitalism is responsible for the life of relative ease and wealth (as compared to everyday life before the great innovators of the industrial period . . . that only happened in countries that embraced capitalism) and that socialism has always lead to extreme poverty and genocide.

We are not talking ancient history.  The evils of Hitler (12 million killed), Stalin (30 million killed), Mao (70 million killed), and Pol Pot (2 million – one-third of his population!) were all committed less than 100 years ago.  The evils of Castro, Chavez, and the Kims in Korea still exist today!

It is not that it hasn’t been done correctly, or by the right people, planned societies always fail because a central government cannot plan for every individual.  Where they do not fail is in the accumulation of wealth and power in the people who administer the government.  This is where the appeal comes from – those that cannot earn a fortune by producing goods and/or services that people want can grow rich by forcibly making you do what they want and buy what they want you to buy.

The people fleeing other countries and flooding across our border are not hoping we embrace socialism, they risked their lives and suffered great hardship to escape the effects of socialism in the countries they came from.

The contrast is best made by the photo of the two Koreas at night. 

One embraced socialism and the other embraced capitalism.  They are the same people with the same customs and history, but one manifests freedom and prosperity while the other manifests oppression, poverty, and hunger (except for the elites, who live and eat well).

Democrats are fervently trying to destroy and/or tarnish the history of this country so that people cannot make learned decisions about their future. 

When Democrats state that America’s original sin is slavery, they want you to think that America was the only country that embraced slavery rather than acknowledging that every country at the time embraced some form of slavery (including the people that inhabited the land that eventually became the USA). Many countries, including some in Africa, still embrace slavery.

Democrats state that the Constitution legalized slavery, but they fail to acknowledge that the U.S. Constitution, which did not ban slavery, did ban the importation of slaves, which was an important first step to the abolition of slavery. 

Democrats fail to acknowledge that slavery was abolished in the Northern, Republican states (the Republican Party was formed to abolish slavery) and that over 600,000 people would have to die in a civil war to force the Southern, Democratic states to free their slaves.

When Democrats state that Republicans want to suppress the Black vote through voter integrity laws, they fail to acknowledge that Republicans passed the Constitutional amendments that gave newly-freed Blacks the right to vote (with zero Democratic votes), while Democrats formed the Ku Klux Klan and enacted “Jim Crow” laws to suppress the ability of Blacks to vote.

Destroying statues of Civil War leaders is important to them because they are a remembrance that Democrats fought to maintain slavery.  They want to obliterate the remembrance of their history of absolute authority and accumulation of wealth through the efforts of others. 

How is this different from the Chinese model of today?

The elites want you to embrace China because they make the cellphones (and most other items) you cannot live without.  The elites want to emulate China, because the Chinese do not have to run for election in order to rule.

Before they can do that, they need to ensure you do not know of the atrocities, both past and present, of the Chinese Communist Party (like using slave labor to make many of the items our youth cannot live without) – atrocities that will be replicated in this country (and every country that adopts authoritarian rule) if we do not learn from the Chinese, Nazi, Soviet, Korean, Cuban (and many more) models.

How do we promote the memory of things and events . . . especially ones we have not lived through?  Do we have to live through troubled times in order to remember what troubled times are like?

This is impractical, dangerous, and often ineffectual. 

People often have false memories of something that happened in their life.  Even large groups of people will have the same false memory, which is called the “Mandela Effect”.

Blogger Fiona Broome coined the phrase “Mandela effect” in 2009. While attending a conference, she discussed the tragic passing of Nelson Mandela in the 1980s. Many people she spoke to also recalled the South African president dying in prison, and some even remembered watching news coverage of the event on TV. But Mandela was very much alive at the time of the conference, and when he died four years later in 2013, he was a free man.

According to Broome, the Mandela effect is defined as a false memory shared by multiple people. Though it seems like a freak occurrence, instances of the phenomenon are fairly widespread. Do you remember the Berenstein Bears from your childhood? How about the movie Shazam starring Sinbad as a genie? Or the iconic Star Wars (1977) line “Luke, I am your father?”

Psychologists blame the Mandela effect on the way our brains record and retrieve information. Memories aren’t perfect snapshots of moments as they occurred in real life. When we recall something, we may only have access to part of the true story, so our brains pull relevant information from different memories to fill in the gaps.

https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/649001/what-is-the-mandela-effect

One would think that especially traumatic event would reinforce memory, but this is not necessarily the case.

Many soldiers suffer from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) because of the horrific nature of war.  After Desert Storm, I suffered from ‘night terrors’ from the events I witnessed in combat.  I had vivid recollections of the battle at the Jalibah airfield, but decades later, my brother found a paper online that I wrote for the Infantry School about my unit’s involvement in the battle. 

Shortly after the war, I was assigned to investigate the fratricide that took place (which was a huge conflict of interest since my unit was one of the victims).  At the same time, all the field grade officers had been brought together to discuss the events (but none of the people that were fired upon were invited).  I knew a cover-up was taking place (which seemed odd since stupid stuff regularly happens in the ‘fog of war’).

I saved a copy of my report and submitted it to the Infantry school the following year because they had expressed an interest in printing it in the Infantry magazine.  I thought there were some important lessons in the action, but the magazine never used the article, and I went on with life.

Many years later, when my brother posted the article online, I reread it with incredulity . . . I did not remember the facts as they were printed, but they must have been correct, because I wrote them down shortly after the event.

Memories are both wonderful and wicked.  I have many, many fond memories of my life, siblings, parents, and friends.  Not everyone has had such a blessed life and their memories evoke pain and tears.  They wish to escape their memories and the torment associated with them.

Memory is very important.  If you don’t learn from a bad experience, you may replay the dreaded events . . . repeatedly.

. . . when experience is not retained, as among savages, infancy is perpetual. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.

George Santayana, 1905

Though attributed to Sir Winston Churchill, who improved on the original quote, George first encapsulated the importance of memory.

I have an electronic photo frame that rotates through hundreds of digital photos I loaded onto it – photos of my wife and I and our children through the course of their growing up.  Every one evokes sighs, smiles, and/or laughter as they prompt the memory of the moment.

So, it seems a trigger is important (says the infantryman).

Schools used to teach civics and personal finance.  They’ve been done away with (not everywhere) in the more ‘woke’ schools to teach inappropriate sexual practices and racial condemnation.  Children cannot remember what they have not been taught.  This is not by accident.

Prayer and Bibles were outlawed in the schools in the 1960s in order to set the stage for a curriculum shift that is more amoral and hate-filled.  Christian values generally conflict with those types of educational values.

The pledge of allegiance was done away with so that the new crop of up-and-coming adults would not be allied to the country of their birth, making change easier.  Symbols are important to activating memories.

Parades, fireworks, and other events have been minimized or even cancelled.  ‘The past is wicked, don’t celebrate it . . . let us change to something better.’  Instead of praising our forefathers and our nation for its virtues and learning from its vices, all must be condemned so that we can radically ‘build back better’ with no restraints from the vision and virtues of our founding and history.

Americans have coined numerous catch-phrases, like, “Remember the Alamo”, “Remember the Maine”, and “Remember the Titans”, but few know what they are supposed to remember concerning those phrases (Denzel probably remembers the third one).

I would venture to say that within a decade, “Never Forget” will be just another catch-phrase with no special meaning.  Our govt has given the Taliban (the folks who gave sanctuary to Al Qaeda) hundreds of billions of dollars of sophisticated weapons.  They have obviously forgotten.

Our Father wanted us to remember certain things and He set up triggers and systems to assist in that.

He wanted us to remember that there are no other gods like the one, true God, so after He showed the impotence of the many Egyptian gods through a series of plagues (each plague designed to show that each class of Egyptian god was powerless [an in-depth examination of the plagues can be found at the Berean Breadcrumbs website: Blood-in-the-Water and Fracturing-the-Faith-vol-5]), He directed the Hebrews to eat a specific meal on the night of the final plague . . . and to repeat the meal every year thereafter, on the anniversary.

Every year, for over 3500 years, millions eat a Seder meal and remember the supernatural deliverance of the nation of Israel (and the fellow sojourners) from the bondage of Egypt (Leviticus 23:5-8).  Christians that participate also remember the Passover lamb that was sacrificed 2000 years ago to deliver us from the bondage of sin.

Every year, millions inhabit temporary dwellings for eight days and remember what Yahweh did for Israel in guiding, feeding, providing water, and protecting them in the desert for forty years (Leviticus 23:33-43).  We also look forward to the day when Yeshua will lead us to a promised land that will protect us from the wrath to come.

Yahweh gave us His Law, but He personally voiced only ten of the commandments (Exodus 19:25 – 20:19) – ten that go a long way to helping man live with each other and with Him.  Interestingly enough, the one Commandment that begins with the word “remember” is the one that Christians have been taught to forget

8 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: 10 But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: 11 For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.

Exodus 20:8-11

If freedom is important to you, set up remembrances for you and your family to establish a heritage of freedom.  

If security is important to you, learn self-reliance and learn to protect yourself (a bullet is faster than the response time from a 911 call).  

If prosperity is important to you, teach and reinforce the values of ownership, trade, and entrepreneurship.

If the God’s Will is important to you, get in His book and learn what He has said to you.  People who tell you it is a fiction or does not apply to you have their own objective.  Your objective should be truth and your future.

If you’ve been taught your entire life (like I was) that the Old Testament, or even the whole Bible, was not written to you, then delving into its pages can appear to be intimidating.

A guide that can help (but not replace your own work) is my book, GRAFTED: Embracing Torah.  At 58 years old, I looked for a simple guide to help me and when I couldn’t find one, I wrote one.  The important thing is to get started – it is never too late.

Categories
History Politics

The Naked Communist (1

Falsies – The lies exposed in Dr. Falcie’s (Fauci’s) emails show that government agencies knew that Covid was a bioweapon unleashed from a Chinese bio-weapons lab (probably unintentionally but based on the Trump administration’s successes at curbing China’s global designs, it may have been intentionally leaked before it was fully ready) but were fully ready to use the crisis to destroy election integrity and advance a leftist agenda.

We now know, from his emails, that Dr Fauci lied to Congress and the American people when he stated that:

  1. The virus mutated from bats located 600 miles away from Wuhan and its bio-tech weapons lab and was passed to humans in a wet-market in Wuhan, not the bio-tech weapons lab (this even though some of the first people to get it worked in the bio-tech lab).
  2. That the virus (if caught by a normal person) was ten times worse than the normal flu (inflection and mortality are equivalent to the flu).
  3. That store-bought masks can be effective against the virus (always laughably false).
  4. Hydroxychloroquine is not effective or safe (has been both since WWII).
  5. Asymptotic spread is a real possibility.
  6. That a year-long, nearly complete lock-down was required to stop the spread (only two weeks were required to keep the hospitals from being overran).
  7. That schools must be closed to protect children (they are not likely carriers and infection rates at schools are lower than the general population).
  8. That States that “opened up” would face epidemic resurgences (States and countries that did away with lock downs and social distancing saw reductions in infections and death compared to States and countries that continued draconian lockdowns.
  9. That American tax-payer dollars were not being used in China to promote the weaponization of a virus (they absolutely were).

What other lies is the government telling us about any number of things to help consolidate their grip on absolute power?

Government was able to impose its will over religion, business, and families in a way thought unimaginable just five years earlier.

Leftists have continually pushed their agenda in all aspects of culture, faith, and business, but the connections have been unseen, until now.  The year 2020 was a rehearsal for the final push to crush all dissent against a one-world, socialist government.  They were amazed at how easily Americans were agreeable to the abolition of many of their freedoms and now they need just one last push to complete their decades-long agenda.

The agenda was spelled out in a book entitled, The Naked Communist (1958).

The following is a list of the 45 goals that were annotated in the 63-year-old book.  The goals are focused on the Russian threat at the time since the Chinese threat would not really materialize until the 1990s, when they found out how easy it was to buy U.S. Presidents.  The goals apply equally to the Russians, the Chinese, and American Leftists.

See how far we have come in the last two generations to abdicating our freedoms and our place on the world stage as a force for good. Will you continue to idly watch the erosion of freedom or will you use your voice, your vote, and your actions to reclaim this “shining city on a hill”?

1. U.S. acceptance of coexistence as the only alternative to atomic war.

    DONE- The Treaty on the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons (1970). It is important to note here that the effort was not one of peace in the world but an effort to weaken the United States’ military might worldwide as the Soviet Union at that time was far behind the US in technology and economy. The failed challenge during the Cuban Missile Crisis earlier in the decade was a signal to the Communist world that they would have to use other tactics.

2. U.S. willingness to capitulate in preference to engaging in atomic war.

    DONE – See the Stark Treaty, Cooperative Threat Reduction Program and Obama’s actions to undermine the missile defense system in Poland and elsewhere in Europe and to support Putin in his efforts to strengthen Russian power and reduce US influence. Witness Obama’s open mike where he told the Russian President to tell Putin to “be patient” and that he “would have more flexibility after the election.” Capitulation to Russia on Crimea and Ukraine and now in the Middle East.

The Iran Nuclear Deal assures Iran will have Nukes.

3. Develop the illusion that total disarmament [by] the United States would be a demonstration of moral strength.

    DONE – OBAMA declared he intended to reduce our nuclear arsenal by 80% and has stated he would not use nuclear weapons. Obama proposed Sequestration [independent committee proposed draconian cuts that would take effect if Congress failed to address these budget items in two years – a safe bet since Congress has not proposed an actual budget in over a decade].  Biden has essentially eliminated border security and his DOD is focused on the non-existent threat of White Supremacists.  The current attack against our 2nd Amendment by the Administration & UN could also fit into this category.

4. Permit free trade between all nations regardless of Communist affiliation and regardless of whether items could be used for war.

    DONE – US trades with China and Russia and we have a poor trade balance position with both that decreases the price of goods exported to them and increases the price of goods imported from them. This in turn make the value of the dollar go down in the US and up in terms of our growing debt especially to China. The U.S. payment of interest on the debt that the Chinese holds is more than their entire military expenditures – we literally fund the entire Chinese military budget.

Hunter Biden is the best known, but not the only American buying US Companies as a front for the Chinese, so they can more readily steal US military and business secrets.

5. Extension of long-term loans to Russia and Soviet satellites.

    DONE – Between 1997 and 2013, the Export-Import Bank of the United States, which is an agency of the Federal government, provided $1,946,035,918 in loans and long-term guarantees to banks in Communist China and Russia, according to the Ex-Im Bank’s annual reports. We could surmise that these long-term loans were put in place in order to help with the recovery of Russia however we cannot make such a claim for China, a nation that produces at a level second only the US.

The fact that these loans have continued is evidence that forces in our own government are intent on furthering the cause of Socialism in the US and across the planet.

6. Provide American aid to all nations regardless of Communist domination.

    DONE – United States foreign aid to Russia was in the billions. The current Administration continues to engage in talks with the Russian regime despite the fact they continue as supporters of our enemies like Syria and Iran and commit crippling cyber-attacks against our infrastructure. Congress has imposed sanctions after Russia’s takeover of the Crimea and incursion into the Ukraine however, they have proven largely ineffective as Russia has taken strategic locations that supply most of the oil for Europe and now have a stranglehold on these resources.

Obama sent aid to Brazil so they could drill for oil in the Gulf of Mexico, while banning such drilling by US companies.  Biden has approved Russia’s building of an oil pipeline into Europe while shutting down pipelines in America.  Germany has capitulated to Russia’s demands as they realize little support in this matter from the US.

7. Grant recognition of Red China. Admission of Red China to the U.N.

    DONE– not only are they in the UN, but they are also on the all-important Security Council.

8. Set up East and West Germany as separate states in spite of Khrushchev’s promise in 1955 to settle the German question by free elections under supervision of the U.N.

    DONE but thwarted when in 1989, the Berlin Wall and Iron Curtain fell and Germany was reunified largely due to the efforts of the Reagan Administration. The threat of socialist influence takeover is again imminent as the economic resources of the European Union falter and the nations of the EU fall one by one back into socialist practices.

9. Prolong the conferences to ban atomic tests because the United States has agreed to suspend tests as long as negotiations are in progress.

    PARTIAL SUCCESS was achieved with the signing of the Partial Test Ban Treaty in 1963, which banned nuclear tests in the atmosphere, underwater and in space. Neither France nor China signed the PTBT. However, the treaty was still ratified by the United States after an 80 to 19 vote in the United States Senate.

10. Allow all Soviet satellites individual representation in the U.N.

    DONE–but the former nations under the iron curtain were freed in 1989 with the collapse of the USSR.

11. Promote the U.N. as the only hope for mankind. If its charter is rewritten, demand that it be set up as a one-world government with its own independent armed forces.

    ONGOING – the Progressives in our Congress and the current Administration are constantly pressing for this – this is a primary goal of their chief benefactor – George Soros. Their efforts are being slowly achieved through regulations put into place by Federal agencies such as the EPA. The regulations now being put into place by these agencies are slowly steering the US toward control under the UN and a one world government. The Agenda 21 protocol is most certainly a part of this effort and we see the efforts on the left to engage these tactics at every level of our society.

12. Resist any attempt to outlaw the Communist Party.

    DONE – the Communist Party and the Democratic Socialists of America and many other Communist oriented groups are alive and well in America including our major Unions – see the book Barack Obama and the Enemies Within by Trevor Loudon. This is a classic tactic of the socialist/communist left. They use our freedoms against us i.e., free speech. Our leftist lawmakers protect these groups under the guise of free speech and legislators on the right fail to take on the responsibility of recognizing and dealing with destructive and undermining activities. This has now gone to the extreme in our nation as police are being slaughtered by anarchists across the nation.

13. Do away with all loyalty oaths.

    UNSUCCESSFUL – to date but trying hard with the help of the ACLU. Pretty obvious that BHO, his AG, Director of Homeland Security and other Constitutional officers are ignoring their oaths of allegiance to the Constitution.

14. Continue giving Russia access to the U.S. Patent Office.

    PARTIAL SUCCESS– there are international patent protections, but Russia, China and other countries conduct corporate espionage and can gain access to US patents. As mentioned earlier, China is buying US companies using cut-outs (stooges such as Hunter Biden) to steal prohibited technology and to infiltrate spyware in American technology products).  President Clinton allowed missile guidance system patents to be sold to China for a substantial campaign donation.

15. Capture one or both of the political parties in the United States.

    DONE -there are 65 members of the House Progressive Caucus who associate with the Democratic Socialists of America.  Most other Democrats in Congress are socialists and believe in the nanny state – every Democrat votes in lockstep with this caucus.  Progressives own the Senate including many RINOs that help the Democrats.

16. Use technical decisions of the courts to weaken basic American institutions by claiming their activities violate civil rights.

    DONE – The Supreme Court has made abortions legal, struck down the Defense of Marriage Act at the Federal Level and ordered that States with Protection of Marriage Laws even when in State Constitutions are unconstitutional. LGBT rights are now considered as a protected class the same as minorities. The attack on American Christianity and traditional customs, traditions and values continue – prayer has been taken out of schools and public events; attempts have been made to take God out of everything including the national Oath, coinage, National Anthem and religious symbols such as the Ten Commandments and Nativity scenes. Our morals and family structure have declined drastically as dysfunctional behavior increases. 40% of all babies are born out of wedlock (73% among blacks), marriage has declined to less than 50%, gang activity has increased, entitlement living has permeated at least 50% of our society who pay no taxes and illegal immigration continues at an alarming pace. Attempts to curb such behavior are met with cries of racism, bigotry, hate crimes, violation of women’s rights, an attack on women’s health care or some other civil rights violation. The UN has placed the United States on their list of nations with poor human rights records and our Attorney General has sued states trying to enforce immigration laws.

17. Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers’ associations. Put the party line in textbooks.

    DONE – there is no doubt our public schools K-1-12 & Colleges and Universities are bastions of liberalism and progressivism; our public schools no longer teach traditional values / character development nor the Constitution and often use revisionist history and social studies curriculums and textbooks. Our teacher unions and Fed Dept. of Education dominated education system fight attempts to provide voucher or charter school options; eliminate tenure or impose accountability standards. One of the 8 ways Sal Alinsky advocated to turn a country to socialism was #6) Education – take control of what people read and listen to – take control of what children learn in school. This is happening with Common Core, Critical Race Theory, and other Dept. of Education initiatives. Most Democrat majority states have over a 30% drop out rate from free public high school educations, another root cause of poverty.

18. Gain control of all student newspapers.

    PARTIALLY SUCCESSFUL – Most student newspapers/newsletters have a liberal and socialist slant. There is also tacit control of Textbooks by progressive College/University Professor authors which has slanted our student texts and often distorted or revised history towards a more liberal and progressive view of the world and life.

19. Use student riots to foment public protests against programs or organizations which are under Communist attack.

    ONGOING – look no further than the recent Occupy Wall Street, Chaz Autonomous zone in Seattle, and Portland anarchist activities supported by our President, Vice President and many Progressive members of Congress as well as some City Officials and other government officials such as the Mayors of New York, San Francisco, Milwaukee and Atlanta. Also look at the rise of student flash mobs to rob and loot in many of the Democrat controlled cities. On many college campuses, conservative speakers are not allowed, and those conservative students views are restricted to “speaking zones” as a result of liberal student protests.

20. Infiltrate the press. Get control of book-review assignments, editorial writing, policymaking positions.

    SUCCESSFUL – in poll after poll over 85% of the press corps admit to being liberal and voting for Democrats. Editorials and Commentaries across the country are unabashedly biased towards Democrat policies and the Current Administration as are so called news programs of the mainstream media. All the major networks were undeniably in the tank for Biden and the Democrats in the last election with 4 – 1 favorability ratios for Democrat candidates and 1 – 4 favorability towards Republican candidates. The liberal media throws softball questions at Democrat candidates and “gotcha” questions at Republican or Tea Party movement candidates.

21. Gain control of key positions in radio, TV, and motion pictures.

    SUCCESSFUL – There is no doubt that the mainstream Television media and Motion Picture industry and their productions are mostly progressive in nature and often show left wing political bias. Reporting is frequently slanted left as are commentaries and movies. The Obama administration pushed the “Fairness Doctrine” through the FCC but was not able to instigate it which would have destroyed the conservative and profitable radio talk shows. Big Tech has stepped into silence or “fact check” conservative speakers and writers.

    The left-wing entertainment industry have also decided that the Chinese market is of such importance that conservative actors and topics are blacklisted.  Numerous actors have apologized to and for the Chinese government.

22. Continue discrediting American culture by degrading all forms of artistic expression. An American Communist cell was told to “eliminate all good sculpture from parks and buildings, substitute shapeless, awkward and meaningless forms.”

    PARTIALLY SUCCESSFUL – Art is in the eye of the beholder, so you be the judge on this one.

23. Control art critics and directors of art museums. “Our plan is to promote ugliness, repulsive, meaningless art.”

    PARTIAL SUCCESS – There are many ugly and offensive, taxpayer supported, art pieces in many museums: a urine filled commode in which an American Flag was draped; “Piss Christ”, a highly offensive work which included a crucifix turned upside down in a container of urine. “Dung Mary”, a portrait of the mother of Christ made with elephant dung.

24. Eliminate all laws governing obscenity by calling them “censorship” and a violation of free speech and free press.

    SUCCESS – Even network television now uses words that were XXX rated 40 years ago.

Words and phrases criticizing the liberal agenda are labelled “hate speech” or “racist” and banned from being used in social media.  Denouncing Covid restrictions, vaccine hazards, Antifa and BLM violence is all taboo, but there is no restriction on calling conservatives and Christians any vile epithet that the Liberals can imagine.  Conservatives are banned from social media for questioning whether Covid came from a Chinese bio-weapons lab, despite overwhelming evidence that it did.

25. Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures, radio, and TV.

    DONE – shows on network, prime time TV today would have been rated XXX several decades ago. Nudity bordering on pornography, sexual displays, obscenity, violence, pedophilia, anti-Christian messages, progressive ideologies, etc. are the standard in most of the mainstream television, movie, and print media today. Remember, in order to have liberty a people need to have Freedom tempered by morality. The intent of our founding fathers upon designing our Republic was the assumption that Godly people would inhabit our nation and would govern themselves for the most part due to their adherence to the Word of God. The Communists are working hard to eliminate morality leaving us with un-tempered Freedom which is nothing but anarchy.

26. Present homosexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity as “normal, natural, healthy.”

    DONE – The Supreme Court repealed DOMA and ruled in support of the LGBT community demands. They are now free to legally marry, are featured in gay rights parades and in personnel policies of most major corporations as a ploy to convince American Society they are accepted and are a much larger percentage of the population than they really are. LGBT couples adopt children and School Districts adopt books featuring LGBT people as if they are normal.  Even though 33 states had marriage protection laws, 29 of which are inculcated in their Constitutions Federal Courts have now ruled these unconstitutional. The military’s “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” law has been repealed by Congress and replaced with an LGBT month and active recruitment of LGBTs. Already, the fastest growing trend of sexual assaults in the military are male on male; morale and good order and discipline have suffered under this social experimentation.  Twerking and sexually suggestive songs and videos target our youth and are given awards.

27. Infiltrate the churches and replace revealed religion with “social” religion. Discredit the Bible and emphasize the need for intellectual maturity, which does not need a “religious crutch.”

    PARTIAL SUCCESS – Black nationalist churches such as that of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright attended by the Obama’s for over 20 years are on the rise. Such churches often preach racists hate towards other races and anti-Americanism. The Unitarian Universalist, Humanist and Scientology movements are examples of “social” religion. There is ample evidence of the ACLU working hard to eliminate Christian traditions in this country. Our government also looks for their interpretation of “Separation of Church and State”, a concept not found in the Constitution but begun by a Supreme Court ruling, in order to prevent our churches from actively being involved in politics especially where church values conflict with government values. IRS tax rules also hamstring the ability of tax-exempt churches to be involved in politics – pastors, priests, rabbis, etc. are not supposed to spend more than 20% of their time talking politics from the podium or diesis. However, they look the other way when it comes to political activities of Al Sharpton, Jessie Jackson and Louis Farrakhan.

501(c)(3) churches teach that the Old Testament laws do not apply to Christians – that morality is a personal preference.

28. Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expression in the schools on the grounds that it violates the principle of “separation of church and state.”

    DONE – the law of the land has eliminated all prayer from schools and public gatherings. In 1962 the Supreme Court again declared that prayer in school was unconstitutional. In 1963 the Warren Court stopped schools from allowing Bible reading in classes. In 1980 the Supreme Court declared that posting the Ten Commandments in a school classroom violated the Constitution of the United States. Removing the belief in God from the Government and schools is #7 Religion – on Sal Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals to turn a country socialist.

29. Discredit the American Constitution by calling it inadequate, old-fashioned, out of step with modern needs, a hindrance to cooperation between nations on a worldwide basis.

    ONGOING – The interpretation of the Constitution as a “living document” is the mantra of liberals and progressive in Congress, the White House and the media. University Professors and others call for the elimination of our Constitution as outdated. Obama has said he has a pen and a phone and if Congress will not act on his agenda, he will continue to rule by fiat using Executive Orders, Memos and guidance to federal departments to emplace controlling regulations, recess appointments, etc. Biden signed 49 Executive Orders in his first two weeks. 

30. Discredit the American Founding Fathers. Present them as selfish aristocrats who had no concern for the “common man.”

    ONGOING – Progressives and the media rarely mention the accomplishments of our founding fathers and when they do usually to criticize one or more like Thomas Jefferson for being a slave owner, completely ignoring all his accomplishments. The 1619 Project teaches our children that our founding is illegitimate because of slavery (which was not unique to just the colonies at that time and which the Constitution sought to abolish over time). Since these men founded their beliefs in God’s natural laws and sincerely believed liberty and freedom came from God not government, they are in direct conflict with the beliefs of socialists, communists and progressives.

31. Belittle all forms of American culture and discourage the teaching of American history on the ground that it was only a minor part of the “big picture.” Give more emphasis to Russian history since the Communists took over.

    ONGOING – Traditional educators tend to be liberal and control School District Administrations and often School Boards. As such they control the textbooks used by the School District. Many school districts teach revisionist history from revisionist textbooks choosing instead to emphasize international history and multiculturalism. In many cases America is made out to be the bad guy in this process – a prime example being the nuclear bombs dropped on Japan during WWII. Civics, American History and the role of our Constitution in ensuring our freedom.

32. Support any socialist movement to give centralized control over any part of the culture-education, social agencies, welfare programs, mental health clinics, etc.

    DONE – our tax laws and other laws awarding welfare benefits as administered by Federal and State welfare agencies have changed the culture of the US to an entitlement state where 50% or more pay no taxes but get money back. Today, a record number of people are on Food Stamps; Housing Assistance; SSI disability & cash assistance; Medicaid; and other assistance such as free cell phones and cable television. The Federal workers Union is the largest of all the unions and the Teachers Union control our education system. Hundreds of socialist organizations and foundations now exist. Unions such as the AFL-CIO and the SEIU actively participate in politics supporting most liberal causes and transporting members across states to participate in bashing anyone trying to control spending that involves reduction in union benefits or workers paying more of a fair share.

    1) Healthcare –Control healthcare and you control the people.  This has started under the ever-changing law and rules of Obamacare.

    2) Poverty –Increase the Poverty level as high as possible, poor people are easier to control and will not fight back if you are providing everything for them to live. Instead of programs to defeat the root causes of poverty which is dysfunctional behavior the govt. and so-called minority leaders continue to blame society and racism. Instead, action should be taken on the real root causes including dropping out of HS; young, unwed mothers; drug use; gang activity, etc.

    3) Debt –Increase the debt to an unsustainable level. That way you can increase taxes, and this will produce more poverty. Obama added $10T to the national debt, doubling the amount of debt of every President in America’s history . . . combined!  Biden will have added another $10T in his first year in office.

 The Fed prints money under QE to artificially prop up the economy and keeps interest rates low to prop up the stock market which is headed for a huge correction.

    4) Gun Control –Remove the ability to defend themselves from the Government. That way you can create a police state. The 2nd Amendment is under constant attack with the latest push to force gun registration by those deemed to have some mental problems including PTSD. This could include hundreds of thousands of veterans. The next step after national registration is gun confiscation.

    5) Welfare –Take control of every aspect of their lives (Food, Housing, and Income) We now are a nanny state with more people on welfare than people working. Looking for work was removed by executive order as a requirement to receive unemployment benefits. Food stamps, SSI benefits, disability pay outs, govt. subsidized housing, free cell phones, etc. are at an all-time high.

    6) Education –Take control of what people read and listen to – take control of what children learn in school. Ongoing – newest method is Common Core; no child left behind legislation has also been reauthorized.

    7) Religion –Remove the belief in the God from the Government and schools –Christianity and Judaism are constantly under attack by intolerant liberals now joined by the Muslim Brotherhood and other Muslim groups all with the help of the ACLU.

    8) Class Warfare –Divide the people into the wealthy and the poor. This will cause more discontent and it will be easier to take (Tax) the wealthy with the support of the poor. Obama’s latest campaign is to push for income equality rather than opportunity meaning wealth redistribution a concept which will kill free market incentives and damage the economy. Progressives are calling for higher progressive taxes on the upper incomes and on corporations.

    . . . in short create a generation of dependent slaves.  The left in the US has shown to be quite effective at that while at the same time the right is afraid of being labelled as heartless or racist, making them ineffective at dealing with these tactics.

33. Eliminate all laws or procedures which interfere with the operation of the Communist apparatus.

    PARTIAL – Communism and its cells and offshoots are not illegal in the United States. This would also imply eliminating the 2nd Amendment as gun control (especially registration leading to confiscation) would eliminate a means by which the people are able to fight against government tyranny. Confiscation recently took effect in Australia. They first made everyone register their guns and then they held a mass confiscation which the citizenry largely obeyed without question.

34. Eliminate the House Committee on Un-American Activities.

    DONE – Abolished 1975.

35. Discredit and eventually dismantle the FBI.

    SUCCESSFUL – Federal agencies under the DHS are ignoring our Constitutional rights of habeas corpus (Jan 6 trespassers are still in jail with no charges) and the posse comitatus laws under the guise of the Patriot Act and NDA bill. Our people are much less trusting of Federal law enforcement agencies for these reasons as well as their huge purchases of ammunition, training using Tea Party movement as bad guys, militarization of equipment, etc.

Unfortunately, the FBI has been politicized as demonstrated by their failure to investigate & arrest groups involved (including FBI leadership) in spying on a political campaign for the benefit of the opposing campaign; the use of foreign spy organization to produce phony intelligence to frame a sitting President; and failure to investigate the IRS targeting of conservative groups.

36. Infiltrate and gain control of more unions.

    DONE – the most overt example is the SEIU – Service Employees International Union founded by Andy Stern, a co-founder of ACORN who visited the White House more than anyone during the Obama years. The SEIU gave over $61M to Obama’s 2007 campaign and many of its over 2M members have participated in thuggery across this country to disrupt Tea Party rallies and town meetings and to intervene in grass roots movements to reduce union benefit as a means of controlling out of control spending.

37. Infiltrate and gain control of big business.

    PARTIALLY SUCCESSFUL – Large Wall Street investment banking firms that were bailed out by the Obama administration contributed mega millions to his campaign.  Large Corporations and Big Tech assist the government in drafting legislation that protects their interests and punishes smaller firms, making it impossible for them to compete in the marketplace.

    Free market capitalism, proven to result in higher quality of life and greater degree of prosperity and liberty for a larger number of people than any other system in world history is frequently maligned by progressives, while socialistic, all-powerful nanny state has proven to delivery misery, corruption and serfdom throughout history, is celebrated.

38. Transfer some of the powers of arrest from the police to social agencies. Treat all behavioral problems as psychiatric disorders which no one but psychiatrists can understand [or treat].

    ONGOING -Certainly, the headshrinkers in our country have become more vocal and adept at classifying and identifying what they call mental illness. Like lawyers, psychiatrists and clinical psychologists have a language all their own that mystifies most Americans and their role testifying in our courts have grown exponentially. Also look at the role they now play in identifying learning disorders like ADHD and OCD among children and the integration of government special learning programs in our schools. One seriously frightening aspect of this process is the medicating of our children who display these “behavioral disorders”. It has become far too easy to diagnose a child as ADHD, ADD or oppositional defiant and begin on psychotropic medications which severely affect them mentally and physically to alter their natural behavior. Even more frightening is the parents’ willingness to accept medications for their child without question.

39. Dominate the psychiatric profession and use mental health laws as a means of gaining coercive control over those who oppose Communist goals.

    SUCCESSFUL – Even more frightening is the trend of so-called veterans help organizations like the VA that encourage them identify if they are suffering from PTSD and have a psychiatric exam. We then have pressure from government entities to make these discussions disclosed to government agencies. These agencies can then seize weapons from these veterans. Veterans who have experience with weapons, could use their training to train civilians interested in protecting themselves from a tyrannical government. The implications here are alarming.

40. Discredit the family as an institution. Encourage promiscuity and easy divorce.

    ONGOING -The breakdown of the core family and the ever-increasing divorce rates as well as decreasing rates of marriage and increases I births at a younger age and out of wedlock has certainly occurred. The family is no longer neatly defined as a married man and woman with children but now includes single parent homes; homosexual parents; unwed parents; and very young people as parents. The root causes of poverty are related to dysfunctional behavior. All this discredits the family unit. #2 on Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals is to increase the poverty level as high as possible. Poor people are easier to control and will not fight back if you are providing everything for them to live i.e., a generation of slaves.

41. Emphasize the need to raise children away from the negative influence of parents. Attribute prejudices, mental blocks and retarding of children to suppressive influence of parents.

    ONGOING – The importance of the positive role of 2 parents in nurturing and mentoring children has often been replaced with a lack of parenting and the adverse impacts on children.  Political strategists advise candidates to stick to fiscal issues and not talk about social issues, but taxpayers’ money is spent on 78 types of taxpayer handouts to deal with social problems, including 12 food programs, 12 social services, 12 educational assistance, 11 housing assistance, 9 vocational training, 3 energy and utility assistance, school lunch and even breakfast and 3 child-care programs. Nothing but marriage can cut these costs.

    It should be noted here that a common practice of communist controlled nations is to remove children from their parents at a very young age and educate/train them so that there is no chance to learn any other philosophy except that of the state. Organizations such as Head Start take children as young as three years of age and begin training them under the influences of the left – it is free, paid by taxpayers and usually targets children of color.

42. Create the impression that violence and insurrection are legitimate aspects of the American tradition; that students and special-interest groups should rise up and use “united force” to solve economic, political or social problems.

    ONGOING -One must look no further than the incidents of Flash Mobs, the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) and the Black Lives Matter movement to see this in action. Our current Administration has allied themselves with this movement invoking Marxist principles of “fairness” and “equity” to encourage income redistribution through more taxes on the affluent and on corporations. State and local Police are being marginalized by denigrating their importance, overemphasizing police brutality, defunding the police and a call for a national police force. The current move for gun control and limiting of the 2nd Amendment is even more dangerous in a society where the police are neutered.

43. Overthrow all colonial governments before native populations are ready for self-government.

    NA -The United States does not have colonies unless Puerto Rico and American Samoa are considered.

44. Internationalize the Panama Canal.

    DONE -President Carter, a progressive liberal insured we lost control of the Panama Canal.  China effectively controls operations at both ends of the canal making the movement of American fleets between the oceans more difficult.

45. Repeal the Connally Reservation so the United States cannot prevent the World Court from seizing jurisdiction over domestic problems. Give the World Court jurisdiction over nations and individuals alike.

    UNSUCCESSFUL – So far, we have resisted giving the WC power over US sovereignty despite UN pressure to do so.

Categories
History Politics

None Dare Call it Evil – 10th Amendment

“The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”

Tenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution

The American “Bill of Rights” were and are unique in world history.  In 1215, the British had Magna Carta (and, later, other similar documents that bore the same name) that periodically placed a check on some of the abuses of the English crown against its noblemen, but, for several centuries after, monarchs still ruled by decree with very little restraint.

We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Thomas Jefferson

The American Constitution was the world’s first governing document that expressly limited the power and the reach of the national government and spelled out the rights of the people.  It proclaimed that these rights were not given by government but were given to us by the God of the universe and the government was acknowledging that it had no right to infringe on what the All-Mighty had accomplished.

The issue today is the same as it has been throughout all history, whether man shall be allowed to govern himself or be ruled by a small elite. Thomas Jefferson

The Founders did not just make up a ‘nice’ list (as the French attempted to do in their “Rights of Man”).  The drafters of the Constitution applied their faith in the Word of God to codify what Yahweh had already accomplished.

Man had the right to speak truth, not because the government thought it was a good idea, but because Yahweh had given man His Word and Yeshua told them to go out at teach the nations. 

19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: 20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.    Matthew 28:19-20

The people had the right to bear arms, not because the government sanctioned it, but because Yahweh told man to build, but to keep their sword at hand for protection. 

16 And it came to pass from that time forth, that the half of my servants wrought in the work, and the other half of them held both the spears, the shields, and the bows, and the habergeons; and the rulers were behind all the house of Judah. 17 They which builded on the wall, and they that bare burdens, with those that laded, every one with one of his hands wrought in the work, and with the other hand held a weapon. 18 For the builders, every one had his sword girded by his side, and so builded. And he that sounded the trumpet was by me.    Nehemiah 4:16-18

The people had a right to their own property, not because government was benevolent, but because Elohim had made the Earth for man and decreed that personal property rights be observed (Leviticus 5 & 19; Deuteronomy 19, 22 & 24; and others).

When Israel settled in the promised land, they were unique in that they did not have a king – they were governed by people appointed by Yahweh as “judges” (see the book of Judges).  Eventually, Israel demanded that Yahweh name them a king (so they could be like the other nations), and He warned them against the abuses they would endure under a king (1Samuel 8:11-18).  The people persisted and Yahweh acquiesced – annointing them a king. They paid dearly for this mistake.  David was a good king, but absolute power generally degenerates to men like Ahab.

Our Founders also saw the error in having a king (though many thought that being like the European countries was desirable as long as that king was George Washington) because of the tyranny they had seen in George III and the long line of despotic kings in the Old Testament.

If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself.               James Madison

The Constitution concerns itself with the framework of the government.  It lists the powers the individual branches could exercise and expressly prohibited several acts would have led to an over-sized government that would eventually become tyrannical.

Government is best which governs least. Thomas Paine

The Federalists opposed the Bill of Rights because the Constitution did not grant the government the power to sanction against the rights of the people – it would be like saying, ‘don’t do what I just told you that you can not do’.  They also feared that stating protected freedoms would then exclude unstated freedoms from protection.  The Anti-Federalists were opposed to ratifying the Constitution without an enumeration of the rights of the people.

The ninth Amendment was a way of over-coming this disagreement.

“The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.”

Ninth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution

Though many are familiar with the first eight amendments.  The ninth and tenth amendments were the soul of American freedoms:

  • 9th – Just because a right is not specifically listed, the government cannot impose itself on personal freedom, and
  • 10th – Whatever is not specifically addressed in the U.S. Constitution is left to the individual States to govern, or, in the absence of State guidelines, to the people to decide for themselves.

These are two very powerful statements calling for the freedom of man, but they have been abused and ignored.

The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases.    Thomas Jefferson

Our Founders could not have imagined an America that relied upon elected ‘elites’ to instruct us in every aspect of life.  Government restrictions on the exercise of legal activities (e.g., the size of soft drink containers; the use of lightbulbs; and attending church services) is an exercise in authority that was once considered an unconstitutional acquisition of power.

The Constitution was made to guard the people against the dangers of good intentions. Daniel Webster

Our government has evolved from protecting our freedoms to ‘ensuring’ that we are all protected from their conception of harm.  Do certain ideas hurt your sensibilities, the government can place a ban through ‘hate speech’ legislation or ‘political correctness’

Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny. Thomas Jefferson

Are you a poor, single-mother?  Don’t want to ask for charity?  You can demand the taxpayers give you a stipend – the government is happy to help as long as you promise to never enter into a meaningful relationship that could provide your children with stability and parental role-models. 

Additionally, it costs tax-payers over twice as much, per recipient, as it would cost a private charity that doesn’t extort tax money to provide the service (Costs of Public Income Redistribution and Private Charity).  This does not include the cost of fraud, which is rampant in government bureaucracies,

The government solution to a problem is usually as bad as the problem.      Milton Friedman

Government picks winners and losers and controls your decisions by controlling your choices.  Government claims to want to protect the environment by subsidizing ‘clean energy’ (e.g., wind and solar) and punishing proven, reliable forms of energy (e.g., coal and nuclear).  Any promotion of ‘clean energy’ that ignores nuclear power is not a promotion of clean power, but rather the abuse of power.

When government bureaucrats demand that you buy insurance from them instead of from businesses that use actual actuarials; that health care decisions be made by government bureaucrats rather than doctors; and that school curriculums be mandated by federal bureaucrats rather than teachers and parents; then you have clear violations of our tenth amendment protections

The American people will never knowingly adopt socialism. But, under the name of 'liberalism,' they will adopt every fragment of the socialist program, until one day America will be a socialist nation, without knowing how it happened.       Norman Thomas

The government has a dismal record of making things work, because it is not the job of government to make things work.  Society is fraught with peril and we manage it as best we can – the government is to protect our right to manage within society, not dictate it.

Socialism, like the ancient ideas from which it springs, confuses the distinction between government and society. As a result of this, every time we object to a thing being done by government, the socialists conclude that we object to its being done at all . . . . It is as if the socialists were to accuse us of not wanting persons to eat because we do not want the state to raise grain. Frederic Bastiat

During the “Great Leap Forward” in China (1958-62), folks in the city were relocated to farms and harvest quotas were set by the government based on the increased manpower.  The new “farmers” did not know how to grow crops so the increases did not occur. 

Not wanting to expose the government’s plan as a failure, officials confiscated the projected “surpluses” leaving no food for the farming communes to eat or grain to plant a crop for the following year.  Fifty-five million were estimated to have died of starvation.

The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in the insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well meaning but without understanding. Louis D. Brandeis

Government cannot know or ever implement programs that meet the needs of all its citizens.  A government that tries to is a government that does not trust its own people to make their own choices.  The power to accomplish this enormous task eventually requires absolute power.

The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule.      H. L. Mencken

At the beginning of the “Covid crisis”, States were ordered to ‘lock-down’ all non-essential businesses and public events for two weeks to prevent hospitals and their staffs from being over-run. Over a year later, many States with liberal governors are still oppressing their citizens with draconian edicts that have crushed small businesses and condemned their elderly population to death (Yes I’m calling you out, Gov Cuomo and others)

There are men in all ages who mean to govern well, but they mean to govern. They promise to be good masters, but they mean to be masters. Daniel Webster

It was discovered rather quickly that the outbreak could be ‘managed’ without the restrictive lock-downs if people were free to take their own precautions. Countries and States that lifted the bans were vilified by the government coddling media, but their infection and death rates were substantially lower and private businesses survived,

In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem, government is the problem. It isn't so much that liberals are ignorant, it's just that they know so much that isn't so.  Ronald Reagan

President Biden has unveiled over ten trillion dollars in spending initiatives in his first 100 days alone.  Such massive spending has never been proposed in the history of our country.  Every dollar that the government takes from you in taxes is another loss of freedom to choose.

If a nation values anything more than freedom, it will lose its freedom; and the irony of it is that if it is comfort or money that it values more, it will lose that too. W. Somerset Maugham

Automobiles, airplanes, telephones, any number of consumer items were designed and improved on because Americans were free to choose, or not choose, where to spend their earnings.  Products got better and cheaper because business had to entice buyers. When government takes that money from the consumer, products do not come to market and improvements do not happen.

The USSR had one official automaker and two styles of cars – one for the masses and one for the elites.  Prices were oppressive and wait times for a purchase could take years because there was no incentive to be efficient or productive.

I hope we once again have reminded people that man is not free unless government is limited. There's a clear cause and effect here that is as neat and predictable as a law of physics: As government expands, liberty contracts. Ronald Reagan

The sheer size of the laws being proposed means that no one can know what is in them.  The initial ‘Covid relief bill’ was $1.9 trillion.  Only ten-percent of that spending went to Covid relief. The other 90% went to reward agencies and foreign countries that the elites approved of and diminished the tax-payers’ ability to contribute to charities that the individual approved of (which is often counter to what the government is funding).

It will be of little avail to the people that the laws are made by men of their own choice if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood. James Madison
The more numerous the laws, the more corrupt the government. Tacitus

The idea of limited government is now a fiction.  There is no area of life that is exempt from government regulation.  The 10th Amendment was intended to push power down to the people.  The Federal government, over decades, has eliminated any prohibitions against their exercise of power.

The liberals have built this structure over time and we ignored their work believing that Americans would never give up their freedoms.  We believed the Constitution would save us as we sat by passively and watched the government eviscerate every provision of it.

When a well-packaged web of lies has been sold gradually to the masses over generations, the truth will seem utterly preposterous and its speaker a raving lunatic. Donald James

Democrats and establishment Republicans (approximately 85 – 90% of the existing Congress) are drunk with power and are busy implementing voting laws (under the guise of protecting us from the ravages of Covid) that will ensure a return to a Constitutional Republic and a reversal of their unlimited power can never happen.

Experience teaches us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the government's purposes are beneficent. Louis D. Brandeis
The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, selfappointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny. James Madison

Whenever Socialist regimes come to power, they claim that freedom must be limited to avert an imminent threat.  When they take over industries, the production of those industries fails to meet the needs of the people.

They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.   Benjamin Franklin

China, the USSR, Cuba, Venezuela, North Korea (even the Plymouth Rock colony in America) saw massive starvation under Socialist policies . . . policies that are still embraced because the leaders of these Socialist states never share in the deprivations of the masses.

Those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. C. S. Lewis

We have lost our God-given liberties to a group of madmen who wish to rule and will not be denied.  You still have the freedom of individual thought even though they are bent on conforming you to their ethos.

Go to the Word.  Read it and keep it in your heart.  No matter what man may do to you, you will be rewarded at the Bema (judgment seat) for standing in faith on the one thing that has ever mattered in all history . . . the Word of Yahweh.

My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children. Hosea 4:6

This is not IQ knowledge.  Surround yourself with believers and speak the truth into one another (Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend – Proverbs 27:17) so that you will be able to stand on the Word when your test comes.  Be an example to those that are weaker in their faith.

Faith in anything other than the government threatens them. 

Be a threat. Robert Keck

If you are new to the Scriptures, or find that the establishment church leaves you unfulfilled, read my newly revised book (GRAFTED: Embracing Torah) on learning and keeping the Word.  Yahweh’s truths are true forever

Thy word is true from the beginning: and every one of thy righteous judgments endureth for ever.

Psalm 119:160

I cleaned up some of the grammar mistakes and provided new and/or improved on many of the existing examples I used to help explain many of the premises I share.  It is not a substitution for you going to the Word yourself, but it can be a great help to begin your journey

Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Lord Acton
Categories
History Politics

None Dare Call it Evil – First Amendment (Freedom of Speech / Press)

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution

“Without Freedom of Thought, there can be no such thing as Wisdom; and no such thing as public liberty, without Freedom of Speech.” Benjamin Franklin, 1722

When the U.S. Constitution was drafted, “the Press” consisted of numerous ‘independent’ publications.  The cost to purchase a printing press was excessive and the stamping of each page was very time-consuming.  This meant that each paper was probably owned by a person of wealth and the circulation was not very large.

“Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost.” Thomas Jefferson

Books were fine, but if you wanted to be up on the current news (based on where the news was coming from, “current” could mean “several weeks old, but we just got the info”) and scandals (the purpose of most newspapers was to attack the owner’s political and/or business rivals) one had to read a newspaper.

“Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech.” – Ben Franklin

Our Founders could have never imagined a world where every citizen was a potential journalist and that their blogs, vlogs, tweets,  whatever, could reach millions in just minutes.  Technology has blurred the distinction between Freedom of the Press and Freedom of Speech . . . and this is good.

Though they don’t mean the same thing they did in the late 1770s, the principle of the Amendment is still the same:  More speech is better and let the American people decide their own opinion concerning the information available.

A nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.  John F. Kennedy, 1962

The Constitution is a set of principles.  The laws are intended to clarify those principles. The principles, if valid, should not change.  The laws do change to meet the changing circumstances.

Freedom of Speech (Freedom of the Press is implied whenever I mention “Speech” because of their similarities and to save time) is under attack, again.  The people in power generally try to find ways to silence their opposition.

“The liberty of the press is essential to the security of the state.” John Adams, 1780

John Adams signed the “Sedition Act” of 1798.  It outlawed conspiracies “to oppose any measure or measures of the government.” And it made “false, scandalous and malicious writing” against Congress or the president punishable by fine or imprisonment.  This made political opposition of the Federalist Party illegal and probably cost Adams a second term as President.

Must I shoot a simple-minded soldier-boy who deserts, while I must not touch a hair on the head of a wily agitator [newspaper editor] who induces him to desert? I think that in such a case to silence the agitator and save the boy is not only constitutional, but withal a great mercy. Abraham Lincoln, 1863

President Lincoln suspended habeas corpus (unlawful detention where the defendant has not been sentenced or even charged with a crime) in 1861 over two years before Congress passed a law giving him the authority to do so.  He placed the Chief Justice of the United States under virtual house arrest for issuing a ruling that said Lincoln overstepped his legal authority in doing so.  He empowered the military to shut down opposition newspapers and jail their editors.

 I have always been among those who believed that the greatest freedom of speech was the greatest safety, because if a man is a fool, the best thing to do is to encourage him to advertise the fact by speaking. Woodrow Wilson, 1915

President Wilson signed the Espionage Act of 1917 which allowed the government to shut down newspapers that did not support the war effort and to jail individuals who spoke out against it.  The Supreme Court upheld the government’s actions during the war (compare this with the government’s reaction to the press during the Vietnam War and all conflicts after it).

Freedom of conscience, of education, of speech, of assembly are among the very fundamentals of democracy and all of them would be nullified should freedom of the press ever be successfully challenged. Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1940

President Roosevelt had an on-going feud with the Chicago Tribune, an adherent for winning the war but critical of the management of the war.  The Tribune refused to be a slave to the government’s flow of information and Roosevelt charged the paper with violations of the Espionage Act of 1917.  When the Tribune tried to print a daily in England for the soldiers that were stationed there, Roosevelt lobbied Churchill to deny the application.  Churchill did as requested.

Attacks on Free Speech are nothing new, but the ability of government, and its partnership with big tech media platforms, to oppress speech has reached a new level that previous governments could only dream of. 

If all mankind minus one were of one opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind.  John Stuart Mill, 1859

Technology has become such an essential part of American’s daily life that it has become child’s play to track and rate the speech of American.  If you have any electronic device that has Siri, Alexa, or any other type of speech recognition application, then it is listening to every word spoken within range of the device (how often is your phone outside the range of your voice?).

Since it is listening for a specific catchphrase in order to respond, it must listen to everything it can hear.  A report in 2019 stated that Amazon employees were listening to couples engaging in sex because Alexa was able to pick up the sounds of lovemaking.  What are they not able to listen to?

Fifty years ago, diaries had locks on them so no one could read the writer’s musings.  Today, people post every aspect of their lives online with Twitter and Facebook, including photos and videos.  Since over-bearing big tech has a relationship with the over-bearing government, agencies like the NSA are able upload all this information and analyze the appropriateness of individual thoughts and comments.

Goebbels was in favor of free speech for views he liked. So was Stalin. If you’re really in favor of free speech, then you’re in favor of freedom of speech for precisely the views you despise. Otherwise, you’re not in favor of free speech.  Noam Chomsky, 2021

China has a social-credit scoring system that determines whether every citizen is following government standards of thought and speech.  America is rapidly approaching a similar social construct.

There is freedom of speech, but I cannot guarantee freedom after speech. Idi Amin, 1971

The Secretary of Defense explains that they are monitoring social media (as is DHS, TSA, ICE, and others) to see whether there are soldiers who post ‘dangerous’ messages that align with the conservative messages advocated by the Trump Administration.

Loyalty oaths like the ones taken by German soldiers to the Nazi Fuhrer are no longer necessary since the administration can now tell whether you are loyal by a quick check of your digital footprint.  Suspect soldiers can be weeded out by refusing promotions and/or reenlistments.

States and Cities are doing the same with their police forces.

When even one American – who has done nothing wrong – is forced by fear to shut his mind and close his mouth – then all Americans are in peril.  Harry S. Truman, 1951

Government does not want to appear to be oppressing free speech, so their partners in Big Tech are helpful in monitoring and silencing Americans so the government does not have to.  Want to question whether the 2020 election was fraudulently decided?  Twitter will shut down your account.

The media spent two-years falsely accusing President Trump of being a Russian collaborator and stealing the 2016 election.  They had no evidence but they were still able to publish a mountain of headlines and hit-pieces – even winning Pulitzer prizes for false narratives.  Now they tell us that no one should question or investigate the 2020 election.

Repetition does not transform a lie into a truth. Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1939

Simon and Schuster refused to publish Senator Josh Hawley’s book (after inking a deal with him) because of his questions.  It used to be that government had to gather copies of a published book before they could burn them, but today, they can ban (burn) them even before they are published.

Personally, If I ‘knew’ the election was legit, I would sit back and let the deniers do their audits and let them look stupid.  If truth is on their side, why are they hiding the evidence?  Why doesn’t the media investigate so they can prove us wrong and reassure the public in the election process.  People that hide evidence have something to hide.

Believe in the Bible?  Prepare to have your business boycotted and ruined through judicial actions and massive legal costs.  Ditto, if you question alarmist climate exaggerations.  Mark Steyn has an on-going, twelve-year old lawsuit because he questioned the CO2 “hockey-stick” model used by environmentalists.

Freedom of speech means nothing to a people who are too weak in their convictions to speak out against the evil that is eating at the heart of the nation like a cancer.  Billy Graham, 1966

Want to question the Covid vaccine or the government’s ever-changing protocols for the pandemic?  Prepare to be branded as ‘anti-science’ and a fear-monger.  Bring up facts and figures to support your argument and your social media account will be censored or shut down.

Has a liberal voice ever been “fact-checked”?  If it has, it is the exception that proves the rule.

The Left has spent decades preparing for a time such as this and Conservatives have merely laughed it off, not believing anyone could ever take the radicals seriously.

With “political correctness” and “hate-speech” guidelines, the Left has been successful in framing arguments so that only their views are allowable.  Breaking our laws is illegal, but if you break the law by entering our country illegally, we are no longer allowed to call it illegal.  It is like going into a boxing match with only one arm.

“In those wretched countries where a man cannot call his tongue his own, he can scarce call anything his own. Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech; a thing terrible to publick traytors.” Benjamin Franklin, 1722

Our universities have abdicated their role in educating students by mandating that opinions that ‘hurt’ students’ feelings must be banned.  Students are indoctrinated with government approved thoughts and opposing thoughts no longer exist.

My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children. Hosea 4:6

If college professors or guest speakers are found to have views that are contrary to the liberal narrative, massive protests and destruction can be anticipated and the safety of the offenders cannot be guaranteed.  School officials have capitulated out of fear and the immense cost required to protect freedom of thought.

Being offended by freedom of speech should never be regarded as a justification for violence.  Alan Dershowitz, 2012

Despots have taken control of our government, our schools, and our media.  Opposition to them is being nullified.  Freedom is the first casualty – obedience will be enforced.

“Liberty is meaningless where the right to utter one’s thoughts and opinions has ceased to exist. That, of all rights, is the dread of tyrants. It is the right which they first of all strike down. They know its power. Thrones, dominions, principalities, and powers, founded in injustice and wrong, are sure to tremble, if men are allowed to reason of righteousness, temperance, and of a judgment to come in their presence. Slavery cannot tolerate free speech.”  Frederick Douglass, 1880

Don’t ever, ever, stop speaking – though it may cost you everything.  What is the value in embracing silence?  Robert Keck, 2021

Categories
Faith Politics

None Dare Call it Evil – First Amendment (Freedom of Religion)

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution

Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Religion, Freedom of the Press, and the right to peaceable assemble – it is a busy Amendment.

America is known for its First Amendment freedoms.  Many believe that most democracies have equivalent rights, but America is the only country that guaranteed these freedoms in its Constitution (at least it did).

America was first populated with fortune-seekers and those that wished to escape religious tyranny. When the British government began to regulate (without representation in the government) the freedoms the settlers had secured for themselves, the colonists began to rebel.

While the Founders sequestered themselves away to draft the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution, the pulpit is where those ideas were shared with the country. 

Christianity was the dominant religion and was a strong influence on the founders and the documents they draft, but they, unlike most every nation, refused to establish a state religion.  Individual states could (and some did), but they refrained from state-sponsored persecution of other faiths.  Persecution existed (e.g., the Klan targeted Blacks and Catholics), but it was not officially endorsed and died out over time as most prejudices do.

Churches provided the first schools in America; the first hospitals; and were the mainstays of most charities.  They filled the gaps left by a minimalist government.

Faith was the cornerstone of our judicial system and the moral code of the Bible was the basis for our laws.  When moving to a new area, one need not worry about the laws of the land. “Do not kill [murder]”, “Do not steal”, “do not lie”, would generally still be the basis of the law in the new area.

Interpretation of religion was a problem because it was used to justify some rather wicked stuff (by today’s standards), but the faith of the Bible eventually brought about movements that would end these evils (e.g., abolition of slavery, women’s suffrage, civil rights).

Christianity has an objective moral code that is in direct conflict with today’s moral relativism, which attempts to justify any behavior that contradicts God’s Law.  The church was initially used to push for social change and the liberalization of the culture, but when progressives pushed their agenda too far, a backlash began.  This is why the Christian church is under attack in the Western world today.

Want to kill babies so you can have unprotected sex with someone you don’t want to have children with?  Forget the sixth commandment and the multitude of state laws based on this moral premise.  Claim that it is a women’s health issue (approximately half the aborted children are female so not all women appear to have protected health issues) and that one life is not as important as another. This type of rationalization is how Communists got gulags, Nazis got concentration camps, and Americans got internment camps and reservations – but none dare call this evil.

It is not enough that progressives want to kill children, they want you to pay for it in America and around the world with the tax dollars they extort from you annually.  Condemn the unnecessary (abortion can be necessary to save the life of the mother) slaughter of millions of children every year and you can be ostracized and cancelled.  Churches can have their tax exemption revoked.

Of course, if you attend a church that is making politically-based decisions on whether they will have to pay taxes then you are probably not attending a faith-based church.

Want to have prohibited sex with children, relatives, animals and others listed in the Torah, claim that religion is an outdated construct and that “love” takes on many different forms.  Then proceed to hate those that stand on an objective moral standard (don’t argue that Christians do not follow their own code.  We know we can’t and don’t, that is why we embrace a savior other than ourselves or the government) and sue the denier and destroy their lives for not embracing your contrived standard.

Christians don’t brag about what goes on in their bedrooms, but progressives want Christians to applaud and energetically accept any hedonistic designs they decree to be appropriate.  They teach preschoolers and other preteens that any type of sex is acceptable (oh for the day when talking about sex with minors was a criminal act) and encourage them through repetition and imagery to ignore the moral guidelines of their parents – but none dare call this evil.

Want to riot and loot?  Forget the eighth commandment.  Today you have a right to destroy and take from those who have more than you if you can claim you are a “protected” victim (not all victims are protected – only those that embrace progressivism) – but none dare call this evil.

Don’t want to debate ideas that contradict your own?  Don’t even want to hear that there are ideas that differ from your own (“safe spaces” on campuses insulate students from ideas they don’t like – something that in no way resembles real life)?  Ignore the ninth Commandment and broadcast that someone you disagree with a racist (watch the Larry Elder movie, Uncle Tom, to see how conservative blacks are even called “white supremacists”), a homophobe (not embracing the LGBT agenda, based on biblical principles, is not the same as being afraid of LGBT folks), a nazi (dumbing down education is needed to have someone believe the party of ‘limited-govt’ is the same as a totalitarian regime – while the Democrats, who insist that government should run every aspect of your life is not the same as an authoritative regime), and/or an anti-semite (CNN called Ben Shapiro, an observant Jew, an anti-semite) and deny them the opportunity to speak or even earn a living because of your false-witness. The people who complained about “black-listing” in the 1950s enthusiastically practice it today and shame those that don’t participate in its destructive agenda – but none dare call it evil.

Democrats ban words and ideas (“hate speech”) so they do not have to debate ideas.  They change other words so that they do not have their millenniums-old meanings (e.g., marriage, gender, truth) so that language no longer can be used to counter ideas that they perceive are bad or even evil.

The campaign to ban Yahweh and moral objectivism is evil (speaking objectively, of course).  Declaring that our rights come from government rather than from God means that government can change our rights whenever it wishes.  Proclaiming that morality is relative or culturally based means nothing is ever truly good or bad – but none dare call it evil.

The lack of an objective morality is a way of saying that one can do whatever one wants, no matter the consequences.  My cultural norm may be that I can rape your daughter and take your car, but without an objective code, how are you to say I can’t?  Without this code, government can pass laws that legalize theft (also known as multi-trillion dollar stimulus packages that takes $14,000 for every $1400 it gives back – causing inflation which steals from every dollar saved), murder (abortion subsidies), pedophilia (progressive sex-ed programs that are being mandated in the schools).

Progressives declare that Christianity is evil, which begs the question, “By what standard?”.  If there is no moral objectivity, then how is what I believe “evil”?  They are against moral certainty while using it to attack their opponents.

We once believed that rational thought was good.  Mathematics and logic do not exist in the physical world but the evidence of them does . . . unless you deny evidence (Seattle Public Schools Say Math is Racist).  The Progressives’ protestations that an objective morality does not exists is equivalent to a blind person saying ‘color does not exist’.  Their unwillingness to regard the obvious does not negate the evidence.

What is the evidence of objective morality?  Most people believe that murder is wrong.  Where did this idea come from? Where do we get the proposition that human life has value without a deeper belief that it is worth living?  A mother cares for her infant and teaches it, over time, to fend for itself the best way she knows how.  A father makes sacrifices in his life to provide for the wife and child rather than spend all his income on his needs.

I’m not talking about the exceptions, which become more prominent as we debase and prosecute faith, but the vast majority of people who consciously and subconsciously attempt to do ‘good’ because they believe that good and evil actually do exist, despite being told that there is no hereafter where we will be judged.  Even atheists don’t walk around hitting people with hockey sticks or setting homes on fire because they instinctively know that this would be bad.

14 For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves: 15 Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another;) Romans 2:14-15.

Atheists and Progressives irrationally claim that whatever they do in the furtherance of social justice is allowable.  What if there is a change in what is “allowable” tomorrow?  Even ‘woke’ Progressives are finding themselves cancelled as the ‘morality’ of the Left metastasizes.

Christians actually have a more rational basis for affirming objective moral standards and duties.  They understand that denying thousands of years of history and evidence is disingenuous and dangerous.  They understand that a transcendent, moral law necessitates a transcendent, moral law-giver.

Therefore thou shalt love the LORD thy God, and keep his charge, and his statutes, and his judgments, and his commandments, alway.

Deuteronomy 11:1

What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.

Romans 7:7

Government does not like opposition or competition so incredible violations of the Constitution are now becoming commonplace.  Banning worship services while allowing casinos to operate is just one example of government choosing winners and losers based on regime morality.

Police in many states ‘raided’ church services (even drive up services that resembled a drive-in movie lot) and drove the congregates away . . . in some cases even jailing the pastor. 

In Canada (I know, they do not have a first amendment), 200 armed police officers descended on an Edmonton church, after they had jailed the pastor for 30 days, and put up barricades to deny access.  The police then occupied the church to ensure it could not be used for services.  The Mounties went so far as to imprison journalists who were reporting on the occupation.

We expect religious prosecution of Christians in China and Islamic countries, but not in the Western World.  It should be noted that no mosques were treated similarly . . . anywhere (except for China).  The Judeo-Christian moral code is the threat to big government and they are conducting trial runs on how to extinguish that threat – but none dare call this evil.

Laws must necessarily change over time due to changes in understanding and technology.  The moral basis of those laws cannot change or there is no morality . . . or law.  Government does not care as long as they have complete control over your lives.

Do you know and understand Yahweh’s Laws?  A revised, quick and easy guide to what the transcendent and moral Law-Giver has shared with us will soon be available.  The Code of federal Regulations (CFR) has over 170,000 pages.  Yahweh does not concern Himself with regulating every aspect of your life.  Check out what He does find important for you – read GRAFTED: Embracing Torah.

Categories
Politics

None Dare Call it Evil – Second Amendment

[Substitutions of certain words are used to slow down the censors and fact-checkers in their quest to block free speech. This will be a series of blogs to examine the dangerous erosion of our freedoms. I’m starting with the 2A because the rest of the Constitution depends on this one]

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed

2d Amendment – U.S. Constitution

The assault on the 2A continues,  This amendment is the reason that America was the freest, safest country in the world.

The Constitution was written to restrain the power of the government, not the freedoms of the people.  The Founders knew that government was a ‘necessary evil’ (you do not want to live under anarchy any more than you want to live under tyranny), but they wanted to try to restrain man’s inclination to tyranny.

The quote, “Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely” is attributed to 19th century British politician Lord Acton (he took what many others had warned of and made it more succinct and quotable).

The 2A was not written to protect sportsmen and hunters, it was written to protect ourselves from an over-reaching government.  This is why the first half of the amendment is ignored (“A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State,”).  The States were instructed to main a force to oppose the tyranny of a bloated and despotic federal govt.

Great Britain was the last country to send military forces against the United States (Pearl Harbor does not count because Hawaii was not yet a State) and that was in the early 1800s when our nation was still in its infancy.  No nation initiates war with a foreign nation it believes it cannot defeat.  Attacking American soil provokes the strongest military on the planet, but also the 70M legal gnu owners making it the largest military in the world (second largest is China with approximately 3M).

What does passing ‘gnu control laws’ actually accomplish?  Law-abiding citizens follow laws – law-breakers do not, by definition.  Therefore, any law that takes gnus away from Americans only accomplishes the taking away of gnus from law-abiding citizens, emboldening criminals who know that their victims are now less likely to oppose them.  It emboldens evil against good which none dare call evil.

Democrats used to tell us that the police would protect us (which they do), but their response time is much slower that an armed victim, and it is even slower in areas where local governments are defunding their police forces.  What kind of logic is required to take away a citizen’s right to protect themselves and their family while simultaneously defunding the police during a time of increased violence?  This is not logic, it is an agenda and the agenda is more important than public safety, no matter the death toll, but none dare call this evil.

Chicago Mayors (past and present) continually claim that gnu violence in their city (a city with some of the most stringent gnu laws in the country) is rampant because gnus are flowing across the border from Indiana.  Why does no one ask why Indiana does not resemble Beirut in the 1980s if the problem is the free-flow of gnus?  Indiana is relatively peaceful compared to Chicago because criminals in Indiana are unsure of whether their victims have weapons and whether they will shoot back (“an armed society is a polite society” – Robert A. Heinlein). 

Read More Gnus Less Crime by John Lott (2000) to see actual statistics concerning the ownership of gnus and the level of violence rather than depending on the hyperbole that spews from politicians with an agenda. Read anything written by JL, his research is meticulous.

Washington DC has gnu laws equally as harsh as Chicago, but the mayor has announced they want more federal gnu laws but that they do not want their felons prosecuted under those laws.  If the laws are vital to maintaining peace in our urban areas, how does non-enforcement of the laws help?  Why should new laws be enacted if the Democrats do not plan to enforce existing laws?

Why don’t Democrats enforce existing law?  Because the media does not report on Democrat inaction and this gives politicians the ability to demand more laws to further their agenda.  Democrats are actually encouraged by more gnu deaths – how else do you explain their actions (and inactions) as they further their agenda, but none dare call it evil.

Another thing the media does not report on is the thousands of lives that are saved and crimes thwarted by the use of a gun in the hands of what would have been a victim.

The 2A was written to protect us from our government.  Our government is ‘defunding’ the Constitution so that there will be no limit to their power.  They pass laws that would not have prevented the shooting that ‘prompted’ the new laws.  In many cases, the failure to enforce existing gnus laws is the reason the assailant was able to acquire a forearm, but none dare call this evil.

President Biden wants to ban “gnu-show loopholes” which do not exist.  It is not possible to go to a gnu show and buy a forearm from a dealer and not go through a background check.  Try it for yourself.  Dealers know that they share in the liability for crimes committed by the weapons they sell if they are used in a crime when a background check is not performed.

Felons are not going to go to a gnu-show to buy a weapon because they know they will not be able to pass a background check and, in many cases, they can be arrested for attempting to illegally purchase a forearm.  Criminals do not normally advertise that they are going to commit a crime.

The loophole, is that a private citizen can sell their own weapon in a private sale without having to do a background check – a gnu-show is not necessary to affect a private sale.  This is done by people who want to transfer ownership to an adult child, relative, or friend.  It is expensive and onerous for a private citizen to have to conduct a federal background check.  Law-abiding citizens do not knowingly sell gnus to criminals because they or their family could be the victims of the buyer’s future criminal activity.  The law is intended to provide the federal government with a database of where every forearm is located so it is easier for them to confiscate at a later date.

Be suspicious of entities that want gnus to protect themselves and their families (e.g., politicians and celebrities) but do not want you to be able to protect yourself and your family.  Be suspicious of people who want forces with gnus to protect their things (banks and homes) but demand that your children be protected by a sign that reads, “No Forearms Permitted”.  None dare call this evil.

Be suspicious when the laws apply to you but not to them.  Hunt B. lied on his background check – a federal crime; obtained a gnu – federal crime; had it unsecured in his vehicle – violation of the law; had it taken from his car and dumped in the vicinity of a school – a federal crime; and had Sec Serv personnel (to which he was not entitled to at the time) take steps to cover up the crimes.

The Word has numerous passages where Israel needed to take up arms against their enemies. Yahweh carried the day, but the Hebrews were expected to do their part, also. Even Yeshua, at the ‘last supper’ tells his disciples to sell their cloak and purchase a dagger [sword] if they had none:

Then said he unto them, But now, he that hath a purse, let him take it, and likewise his scrip: and he that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one.

Luke 22:36

The Romans practiced ‘sword control’. It was illegal to own a sword, but daggers or knives were permissible. It was easier to keep a foreign people subjugated if they could not effectively fight back.

The message to buy a weapon appears to conflict with Yeshua’s message in the Garden of Gethsemane, after Peter cuts the ear off of the servant of the High Priest.

52 Then said Jesus unto him, Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword. 53 Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels? 54 But how then shall the scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it must be?

Matthew 26:52-54

“for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword” is where we get the idiom, “he who lives by the sword dies by the sword”.

Yeshua’s words do not conflict with the Old Testament. Any substitution for the word “sword” proves its meaning. “Shoes”, “walking stick”, whatever . . . Yahweh is where we put our faith, not things. Things can be important, but we cannot obtain salvation through things – only Yeshua can save us. Having a weapon in a dangerous world can be helpful, though, and Yeshua knew that before the night was over, the disciples would be on their own.

The President is demanding that gnu manufacturers be held liable for criminal acts committed with their products. Name any other business that is held liable when their products are used illegally. The airlines would have been bankrupt after 9-11. Car manufacturers would be responsible for every injury and death caused by a driver who runs a red light and causes an accident. His proposal is an ‘end-run’ around the Constitution by changing established law to destroy a business he does not like.

President Biden was correct when he stated that America has banned gnus before.  The government banned the sales of gnus to blacks and Indians, arguably two groups who desperately needed them and the government desperately wanted to oppress.  If this is his context, who is he wanting to oppress, next?  None dare call this evil

Gnu control laws are not about gnus – they are about control.  The Constitution and the Bill of Right is unenforceable if the citizens cannot confront any entity that would trample it.  You are watching your freedoms disappear at an alarming right since this last election.  Tyranny will be complete once you can no longer protect yourself.

Categories
Politics

Silence

Are Paul Simon’s Lyrics the ‘Words of a Prophet’?

Paul Simon (the singer / songwriter, not the politician) had a very successful career in the 1960s and the 1970s as the creative half of Simon and Garfunkel and in his solo career after their breakup.

In 1964, “The Sound of Silence” was released on their debut album and as a single.  The song was a flop, selling less than 2000 copies.

Thinking that maybe a career in the music industry was not in their future, the duo looked to other ventures.  Meanwhile, producer Tom Wilson asked members of Bob Dylan’s band to add electric guitar and drums to “The Sound Of Silence” and the song soon became number one in the US . . . and Simon and Garfunkel became a fixture on the Billboard charts as well as the culture of a generation.

With a trove of massive hits like “Mrs Robinson”, “the Boxer”, “I am a Rock”, “Bridge Over Troubled Water” and many, many more, they spoke to the soul of their generation unlike the protest artists of the late 1960s.  Their lyrics were smart, not angry, and the tunes were catchy.  Even adults listened to, and enjoyed, the music

Like many people my age, I bought all their albums and made mix tapes of my favorite songs.  Their harmonies were exquisite and fun, introspective and touching, but they could also be haunting.

“The Sun is Burning” spoke to normal life under the sun, until the sun came to earth in the form of a nuclear explosion (which everyone feared since the 1950s).  “Richard Cory” was a song about a successful businessman that everyone wished they were – until he commits suicide for no apparent reason (as a side note – I went to Catholic Seminary and they taught this song . . . I was asked to leave for asking them to teach the Bible).

The most haunting song is that first single, “The Sound of Silence”. Paul Simon wrote the lyrics one line a day over a period of six months and they spoke to many people that felt they had something to say, but that no one wanted to hear them.

The lyrics were a little disturbing in 1964 – they are downright terrifying in 2021.  Paul’s ‘vision’ has come to realization in the age of social media, lockdowns, and cancel culture.

The Sound of Silence” (Click the Title to hear the song)

Hello, darkness, my old friend 
I've come to talk with you again 
Because a vision softly creeping 
Left its seeds while I was sleeping 
And the vision that was planted in my brain 
Still remains 
Within the sound of silence 

What is the “vision”?

In restless dreams I walked alone 
Narrow streets of cobblestone 
'Neath the halo of a streetlamp 
I turned my collar to the cold and damp 
When my eyes were stabbed by the flash of a neon light 
That split the night 
And touched the sound of silence

Neon lights are generally used to attract our attention to a business or a product.

And in the naked light I saw
Ten thousand people, maybe more
People talking without speaking
People hearing without listening
People writing songs that voices never share
No one dared
Disturb the sound of silence

It is not uncommon to see dozens of people in a single location and all of them having their faces fixed on their phone.  Tweeting and texting, but not conversing – saying things online they would never say in person.

"Fools," said I, "You do not know
Silence like a cancer grows
Hear my words that I might teach you
Take my arms that I might reach you."
But my words like silent raindrops fell
And echoed in the wells of silence

Our inability to ‘talk’ to each other is killing our society and the mandates to ‘social distance’ are killing the connection we have with humanity.  We are splitting apart as a community because we cannot hear what the other person is saying because we are engrossed in what the internet and the media are saying.

And the people bowed and prayed
To the neon god they made
And the sign flashed out its warning
In the words that it was forming
And the sign said, "The words of the prophets
Are written on the subway walls
And tenement halls
And whispered in the sounds of silence.

The sign (‘vision’) on our phones and our televisions is that anyone who does not believe, act, and speak as they tell you to is dangerous.  They are to be silenced and boycotted.

Difference of opinion is giving way to group-think and violent repression.  It has happened before . . . and the consequences are horrific.

There was a day when differences of opinion (even hateful opinions) were vehemently protected.  That is not the case today.  The Constitution is being ‘protected’ from Free Speech when it is the Constitution that is supposed to protect Free Speech.  Beware anyone who tells you that you cannot disagree with the ‘consensus’.  Beware anyone who promotes political correctness as a way of stifling opposition to their opinions.  Beware anyone who tries to silence, cancel and/or boycott someone for having contrary opinions.

  • ‘Following the Science’ to point out that the numerous climate models over the past fifty years have always been extraordinarily wrong and that basing policy on them has colossal, negative consequences for jobs and the standard of living throughout the entire world
  • Following the Science to say there is only two genders is insensitive.
  • Saying that biological males should not being using the same restrooms and locker-rooms as our wives and daughters, or that they should not be competing in sports against biological women is misogynistic.
  • Saying that, “if human life ends when there is no evidence of a heartbeat then human life begins when there is evidence of a heartbeat” is misogynistic – despite approximately half those heartbeats you are trying to save are female.
  • Saying that we should defend our borders and build a wall (for the same reason we put locks on our doors and windows) is xenophobic.
  • Questioning the election of 2020 is reason to harass and drive people from their employment (despite the fact that Democrats question every election they lose)
  • Questioning the science behind the arbitrary lockdown restrictions being imposed and opposing unconstitutional prohibitions of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” is met with fines and incarceration.
  • The police and the military are being scrubbed to remove people who believe in limited government but our voter rolls are not scrubbed to remove deceased people, non-residents, non-citizens, and duplicate voters.
  • Believing in the Bible and a Savior other than the government is hate-speech

Government is protecting Big Tech in their quest to stifle non-conforming speech – something the government itself is prohibited from doing.

Paul Simon’s warning is probably too late . . . the ‘cancer’ has metastasized.

“The Answer To Hate Speech Is More Speech, Not Less” – Nadine Strossen, the former head of the American Civil Liberties Union

Categories
Politics

What We Know(?) // What I Think(?)

My last four blogs have been about “Christmas” (Party Like a Pagan [Christmas]; Really, Awful Worship; Mark 7 ! ! !) and Hanukkah, so I am going to spend some time talking about the presidential election in America that is still ongoing.  There is a lot hyperbole out there and I would like to take a somewhat calmer and possibly realistic approach to what is happening.

This not so much a teaching as it is a long-winded rant, but there is some good information that is being ignored by the media and an analogy between the President’s fight for his political survival and our fight for spiritual survival. The President knows what he is up against . . . do you know what you are up against?

Caveats:

  1. I am 60 years old so I have seen a lot of elections and have lived through some tumultuous times (not like my parents who lived through the Great Depression and World War II – but definitely more tumultuous than today’s snowflakes who cry if they hear opinions that they think are wrong).
  2. I served 20 years in the U.S. Army and I am a combat veteran – I lived in a ‘cave’ for five months while waiting to invade Iraq during Desert Shield.  I have given up a lot for this country and am prepared to do what I can to preserve its greatness.  My oath to defend the country and the Constitution does not have an expiration date.
  3. Government is a necessary evil . . . but it is still evil.  It does not matter who is running the country,  both parties have a lust for power, though I believe the Democrats are more maniacal in their quest for absolute control.  The Republicans will drive this country over the cliff, but the Democrats have their foot on the accelerator and will accomplish the task much sooner.
  4. Politicians are not the source of America’s greatness, even though they all promise to save you from any number of evils, both real and fabricated.  I have a Savior in Yeshua Ha’mashiach (Jesus the Christ), so I do not need them to save me.  I need them to stay the hell out of my way . . . and that goes for their soul-crushing plethora of regulations, also.
  5. The media and big tech are the enemy of truth.  If you believe the media that lied to you for two-years about “Russian Collusion” and for one year during the impeachment for “Quid pro quo” (the transcript of the phone call was released and yet the media refused to inform its listeners to its content or even its existence) then you have been negligent in seeking truth, preferring to consume the poison being fed to you daily.  Media and big tech are erasing any narrative that does not align with their agenda.  You are responsible for seeking, not accepting (Matthew 6).
  6. If you have not read Atlas Shrugged or 1984 (shame on you for thinking that watching the movie is a sufficient substitute), you are not prepared to deal with what is coming.  These are both novels (there are any number of political treatises about the coming end of America and freedom – most are very preachy) so they are easier to stomach (Animal Farm is another good one).  If you do not read the Bible, you do not know that this is all prophesied (not every detail . . . the big stuff, one-world government, WWIII, genetic ‘enhancements’, elimination of morality, etc.) and you will not survive to enjoy the kingdom of Christ which will replace the despotism of today.
  7. There is a test coming.  You will be forced to denounce Yeshua and the Word of Yahweh or face severe consequences.  Nothing is more consequential than having a foundation in the Scriptures so you will not be deceived by the ‘leaders’ of this age. The ‘religious leaders’ rolled over when they were told to close their churches – they nor the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights will have your back when you really need them.

Back to the election.  There is no question that President Trump was on his way to an over-whelming victory on election day when something curious happened.  Several ‘battleground’ States suddenly stopped counting their ballots and told everyone to go home until morning.

In the morning, the President’s insurmountable lead was gone, despite the fact that counting was supposedly discontinued overnight. 

Numerous signs of fraud materialized almost immediately, but were discounted or ignored by the media and the leaders in the States where the fraud took place.

This does not include much of the statistical irregularities of the vote tallying that indicate the Dominion voting machines were adding, changing, and/or deleting votes.  Most States refuse to turn over their equipment for forensic analysis which does not help to allay fears of vote tampering.

Many in the media claim that any irregularities are not sufficient to overturn the result.  Where is their evidence?  They are admitting that fraud took place, but we are to ‘trust’ them that the fraud was not large or widespread.

Can you imagine the media keeping quiet if Biden had lost and the Republicans had done ANY of the things mentioned above?  The fix was in and Democrats knew it.  Hillary Clinton told Biden in August that he “should not concede under any circumstances” (https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/hillary-clinton-says-biden-should-not-concede-2020-election-under-n1238156).

No one questioned her about this, but the media rail against the President for not conceding when ample evidence of fraud is present.

Lawsuits have been filed (a majority of which have been rejected by the courts) and still continue to be filed.  The number of votes involved are staggering.

The Press have mocked the Navarro Report on the election irregularities, but have refused to print it or cite it.  You can find it here: https://bannonswarroom.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/The-Immaculate-Deception-12.15.20-1.pdf. It is a good summation of the many abnormalities that the President’s legal team has uncovered . . . so far.

There is not enough time in the electoral process to have trials that can ‘prove’ sufficient fraud. The Electoral College has voted and declared Joe Biden the winner of the 2020 election, but this is not the end of the process.  The House and the Senate still need to count and approve the Electors’ votes on January 6. “Alternative” Electors have cast ballots in these battleground States and Congress has to decide which slate of ballots to use (https://www.vox.com/22173990/electoral-college-trump-biden-stephen-miller).

This has happened before (In 1876 and a law was passed in 1887 to deal with this dilemma – https://www.cato.org/blog/presidential-elections-primer), so President Trump still has a slim chance of winning the election, which is why he has still not conceded.

If a Senator AND a Congressman object to an Elector’s vote, then debate over the objection is allowed (2 hours per objection, so this could become lengthy).  Mitch McConnell has begged the Senators to not object, but there are a few mavericks in the ranks. Further revelations of massive fraud could sway even McConnell before the Jan 6 deadline.

In 2017, dozens of objections were made by Democrats in a futile attempt to stop President Trump from winning the 2016 election.

The House cast their votes for the President, but it is done by State delegation – each State gets one vote which nullifies CA and NY’s large Democrat contingents.  Since Republicans control more State delegations, theoretically the President can win that vote.

The Senate cast their votes for the Vice President and since the Republicans hold a six member majority (GA Senate run-off races will not be decided until the day after the Senate votes), they will presumably cast their votes for VP Pence.  In case of a tie, it is assumed that VP Pence (still VP for two more weeks) will cast the deciding vote for himself.

If Democrats fear this might happen, they could raise their own objections to draw the process out even further so that on Jan 20, 2021, if there is no winner, the Speaker of the House of Representatives (presumably Nancy Peloski) would become President since she would be next in the line of Presidential succession.

Is your head ready to explode, yet?

President Trump is fighting the results because he can – legally.  Myself and 80M other voters voted for him because he stood up to the status quo (the “swamp”) which is something we have been begging the Republicans to do for decades.

Having said that, do I think the Republicans in the House and Senate would have the balls to object and change the corrupted results of the Electoral College?  Have they given any indication of having a spine in the last 30 years?  [‘crickets’]

The establishment Republicans (RINOs) hate the President almost as much as the Democrats do. His fight against both entrenched parties has left the President with few friends in Washington.

President Trump should fight the unjust results, even though his chance of success is small.  If someone stole something of value from you, would you not seek to get it back?

Joe Biden (he is not “President-Elect”, no matter what his letterhead says, until after the Congress confirms the Elector’s votes on Jan 6 or President Trump concedes – which he will never do) wants the country to “unite”, but that will not be possible when half the country believes the Democrats stole the election (https://www.politico.com/news/2020/11/09/republicans-free-fair-elections-435488).

If he wants to unify the country, Biden should demand a thorough investigation (which cannot change the results since the Constitution does not provide recourse for a stolen election) and institute policies that would negate the fraud in the future.

Since he benefited from the fraud, that is not likely to happen, resulting in even more blatant and wide-spread fraud in future elections.  No one will be brought to justice for committing fraud – in fact, they will be elevated to positions where they can more effectively, fraudulently affect future elections.

We are witnessing the end of America in real time. 

Fighting against this power will be futile, but you must stand for what is true and fight for it anyway . . . just as the President is doing in his fight over the election.

If you do not know what is true, do not go to the media for your answers, based on their history of partisan lies and distortions.  There is only one place where you can find THE truth.

You must find some friends who are steeped in the Word and learn what you can with the time you have left.  When you are asked to choose (and the decision could have life or death consequences) know where you stand in truth and choose Yeshua (Jesus).

My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.

Hosea 4:6

Yahweh is not condemning them for a lack of earthly knowledge – know Him or He will not know you when you stand before the Bema (Messiah’s throne)

Don’t ask “What Would Jesus Do (WWJD)?” – rather, commit yourself to “Do what Jesus Did”.  His decision to stand for the truth of the Word cost him his life (temporarily).  Your decision will be no less crucial to your future.

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