A Message For Christians About Donald Trump

Here's a famous joke about God and how he talks to us.
"A deeply faithful Christian man is stuck on roof at home with massive flooding up to the 2nd floor. Rowboat comes. He says "No, I'm waiting for God. I prayed and I know he's coming."  2nd Rowboat. "No, I'm waiting for God." 3rd Rowboat. "No, I'm waiting for God."
Water rises. The man drowns. Now he's meeting God in heaven. The religious man says, "Where were you God? I prayed. I was faithful. I asked you to save me. Why would you abandon me?"

God says, "Hey, I sent you 3 rowboats."

Did you ever consider Trump is our rowboat?

Maybe God is trying to tell us something important--that now is not the time for a "nice Christian guy" or a "gentleman" or a typical Republican powder puff. Maybe now is the time for a natural born killer, a ruthless fighter, a warrior. Because right about now we need a miracle, or America is finished. Maybe the rules of gentlemen don't apply here. Maybe a gentleman and "all-around nice Christian" would lead us to slaughter.

Or do you want another Mitt Romney, Bob Dole, John McCain, Gerald Ford or Paul Ryan? Did any of them win? Did they lead the GOP to "the promised land?" Did they change the direction of America ? No, because if you don't win, you have no say.
Paul Ryan couldn't even deliver his own state, Wisconsin!     Nice, but obedient. I mean Paul Ryan. . .not my dog. My dog is actually a pretty good defender and loyal.

Maybe God is knocking on your door loudly, but you're not listening. Maybe God understands we need a "war leader" at this moment in time. Maybe God understands if we don't win this election, America is dead. It's over. The greatest nation in world history will be gone. Finished. Kaput. Adios.

And with one last breath, maybe what we need to save us at the last second, is someone different. Someone you haven't ever experienced before-- because you weren't raised in rough and tumble New York where nothing good gets accomplished unless you're combative, aggressive, outrageous, on offense at all times, and maybe just a tad arrogant too.

Someone with a personality you've never seen on stage at your church. Maybe, just maybe, being a nice gentlemanly Christian would not beat Biden and his billion dollars, and his best friends in the media who will unleash the dogs of hell upon the GOP nominee.

I guess you think God is only nice and gentlemanly. Really? Then you've missed the whole point of the Bible. When necessary, God is pretty tough. When necessary, God strikes with pain, death and destruction. When necessary, God inflicts vengeance.

Maybe you think God couldn't possibly be associated with someone like Trump. Trump is too vicious, rude and crude.

When we won WWII, was God "nice?" Were we gentlemanly when defeating Hitler? Were we gentlemanly when firebombing Germany? Were we gentlemanly when dropping atomic bombs on Japan ? Is God ever "nice" on the battlefield? Or does he send us vicious SOB's like General George S. Patton so the good guys can defeat evil?
It's pretty clear to me God sends unique people to be "war leaders." That's a different role than a pastor or church leader. God understands that.

And maybe it's time to re-define "nice." Maybe Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan aren't nice at all--because they led us to defeat. And losing again would mean the end of America . And God can't allow that. Maybe Romney and Ryan mean well, but the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Or maybe they're just jealous they had their chance and blew it. Maybe they'd rather help elect Biden than allow a Trump victory that would make them look weak, feckless and incompetent.

"Even the youths shall faint and be weary, And the young men shall utterly fall, But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint." (Isiah 40:30-31)
God is about miracles. We don't need a "nice guy" or a "gentleman" right now. It's the 4th quarter and we're losing 14-0. We need a miracle.

So let me repeat my message to Christians: "YOU'RE MISSING THE BOAT."I believe Trump is our miracle. I believe Trump is our rowboat. Except he's more like a battleship!

No one is saying Trump is perfect. No one is saying Trump is a perfect conservative. But he is a patriot. He is a warrior. He is a capitalist. He is the right man, at the right time.  Yes, he's a bit rude and crude and offensive. But that may make him the perfect warrior to save America , American exceptionalism, capitalism and Judeo-Christian values. The choice should be easy for Christians.
It's Trump...or it's the end of the American dream.

I can’t be positive of the origin, but I think it’s Wayne Allyn Root. https://townhall.com/columnists/wayneallynroot/2016/06/24/a-message-for-christians-about-donald-trump-n2182796

The battle of the masks.

I do wear a mask--although there's no evidence that a bandana folded on an angle and tied behind my head then pulled up over my nose (2 layers of cloth) will protect me from anything except the flying bugs I meet on my morning walks. I passed 3 men running on the lakefront path this morning, splattering as they went. I read the research. What I see is that medical quality/grade masks worn properly, fitting tightly by medical staff are somewhat effective in blocking viruses, but those made for the general public offer very little protection, plus they cause us to touch our faces more. Nor have I read of any effort to make medical masks for the general public available even though all the experts agree those for the general public are next to useless.

Here's the statement on the box of my most recent purchase of washable, reusable 100% cotton masks, breathable, with adjustable nosepiece. "Not recommended for use in a surgical setting or where significant exposure to liquid, bodily or other hazardous fluids may be expected." "Shall not be used in a clinical setting where the infection risk level through inhalation exposure is high." Then in teeny-tiny print there is something about Covid. First, it has, "not been FDA cleared or approved." Then on the next line, "This product has been authorized by FDA under an EUA (emergency use authorization) for use by HCP as PPE to help prevent the spread of infection of illness in healthcare setting and by the general public to help slow the spread of the virus during the Covid19 pandemic." And then it cites section 564(b)(1) of the Act, 21 U.S.C. Section 360bbb-3(b)(1) unless the authorization is terminated or revoked sooner.

Meanwhile it has been a very useful method to keep Americans fighting amongst each other, even here in peaceful idyllic Lakeside, instead of taking back their country, churches, and freedoms.

Also, you can do your own research.  Don’t take my word for it. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/

A world from Bill

We went to high school “together,” although I don’t think we ever spoke.

“The Republican party still has not learned they did not win.  Trump won.  With out Trump they would just be the looser party who spends all their time bitching at the Dems in office.  That is all the Republican party did after Reagan left office. Republicans just talk and get nothing done.  That is why Trump has been so refreshing.  He gets things done in a big way. A big example, talker and no action guy is Lindsey Graham.  The entire press including Fox news is on the war path to rid of Trump.  I have said for years if you want to see the USA  in 20 or 30 years, just look at France.  If Biden wins you will see France immediately as Biden has been forced to support the far left as that is all the Dems have left.  And make no mistake the American voter is not very well informed as they will not spend the effort to understand..  I was always amazed at the European voters.  They seemed to really understand all the issues.  I just could not agree with them on their goals. It is very possible that Biden wins.  If you want to see chaos it will be a real eye opener.  You will not recognize the country in less than four years, “

Dark money for Biden

“A staggering $5.7 million—96 percent—of the $5.9 million bankrolling Victory 2020, a new pro-Biden super PAC, came from a single leftist “dark money” donor: the Sixteen Thirty Fund. The Sixteen Thirty Fund is the lobbying wing of the $635 million empire run by Arabella Advisors, according to its FEC filings.

It’s a startling revelation for a group used to operating in nearly total anonymity, but for anyone familiar with the Sixteen Thirty Fund it’s par for the course for the Left’s best-kept secret.

Last year we broke the story on the secretive, half-billion-dollar nonprofit network run by Arabella Advisors, a little-known consulting firm in DC run by Clinton administration alum Eric Kessler. Our report The Shadow Over America went even deeper—exposing the now $635 million behemoth’s roots in the infamous ACORN and its vast reach in American politics.

Sixteen Thirty is the tip of the spear in the Left’s anti-Trump “resistance.” It spent hundreds of thousands of dollars lobbying against the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh in 2018 and has poured rivers of money into left-wing activist groups—with almost no reporting by the media until our exposé revealed the nearly 15-year-old scheme.”

https://capitalresearch.org/article/arabella-advisors-dark-money-backs-biden-expect-even-more/? Capital Research Center

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2019/09/17/unmasked-secretive-arabella-advisors-really-behind-grassroots-protest-movement-opposing-trumps-judicial-nominees/ Breitbart

https://www.influencewatch.org/for-profit/arabella-advisors/

“Several election-focused PACs received large sums from Sixteen Thirty, according to FEC filings. The pro-Biden Unite the Country PAC, liberal operative David Brock's American Bridge PAC, and a joint fundraising venture between the two groups hauled in a combined $11.4 million from the fund last month. Priorities USA Action, the largest Democratic super PAC, received $3.5 million. The Black PAC, a progressive group focused on black voter turnout, received $2.25 million from the dark money entity—nearly all of the $2.5 million the committee raised in June.”

https://freebeacon.com/2020-election/dark-money-network-conceals-20-million-in-liberal-election-spending/ Free Beacon

Evidence for cloth masks? Not much

I’m still looking for peer-reviewed research that recommends universal face mask use by the general public using non-medical grade masks.  Doesn’t seem to be any.  Only suggestions for more research.

Covid-19: What is the evidence for cloth masks?

BMJ 2020; 369 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.m1422 (Published 07 April 2020) Cite this as: BMJ 2020;369:m1422 

https://www.bmj.com/content/369/bmj.m1422

“A preprint of a rapid systematic review has assessed the current evidence on respiratory illnesses and the use of face masks (mainly surgical paper masks) in community settings.4 The paper, yet to be peer reviewed, included 31 studies, of which 12 were randomised controlled trials. The researchers reported that “wearing facemasks can be very slightly protective against primary infection from casual community contact, and modestly protective against household infections when both infected and uninfected members wear facemasks.” However, they said that many of the studies “suffered from poor compliance and controls.”

They concluded, “The evidence is not sufficiently strong to support widespread use of facemasks as a protective measure against covid-19. However, there is enough evidence to support the use of facemasks for short periods of time by particularly vulnerable individuals when in transient higher risk situations.”

Commenting on these findings, Simon Clarke, associate professor in cellular microbiology at the University of Reading, said, “There is only very limited evidence of the benefits of wearing face masks by the general public, no evidence that wearing them in crowded places helps at all, and no evidence at all yet related to covid-19 . . . The authors also acknowledge that mass face mask wearing by the public would likely cause shortages among people who genuinely need protective equipment—healthcare workers on the front line in our hospitals.” “  Another researcher in virology says if the aerosal droplet hits the weave instead of a hole, there is some protection.

Washington Post lied and was sued

A huge victory for equal justice under the law. "Hate" hoaxes, Fake News and false narratives must stop. After marching for life on a winter day, Catholic teenagers were intentionally framed by Leftist group(s) and media using decontextualized video. It was immediately promoted by Washington Post, Sojourners and many repeaters. Nick's lawyers filed a defamation suit for $250 million. It is one of six suits against media. Final settlements are undetermined. No more lying. Justice matters. Every human life matters to God.”   (Kelly Monroe Kullberg)

https://thepostmillennial.com/breaking-washington-post-to-pay-covington-student-nick-sandmann-after-250-million-lawsuit?

It is the fear that endangers us

“You will not fear the terror of night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness, nor the plague that destroys at midday.” (Psalm 91:5-6)

“We have been through tough flu seasons before without shutting down the country. I remember in 1968 — a terrible year for many reasons — the Hong Kong Flu was raging; 100,000 Americans died from the flu that year. My grandfather was a doctor and warned us about it, but neither the country nor the world shut down. The sick were isolated; the vulnerable were given heightened protection. I remember seeing “Quarantine” signs on the doors of some of the houses in my neighborhood. If someone had the flu, the entire household was ordered to stay inside for two weeks, and that very visible sign was placed on the front door. Meanwhile, the healthy went about their work, and life continued. Yes, the death toll was high, but everyone understood that life had to go on. Years ago, there were so many dangerous illnesses to be afraid of — cholera, smallpox, tuberculosis, polio. It takes courage to live, and people of the time had that courage.

In the current pandemic, which is admittedly severe, we have quarantined the healthy along with the sick, the resilient along with the vulnerable. Crippling fear has seized so many people, and at some point, fear begins to feed on itself. We have shut down our economy, depriving many of their livelihoods and of the dignity that comes from working, from using their talents and from providing for their families.” https://m.ncregister.com/blog/msgr-pope/be-not-afraid?

And I remember the polio seasons of the 1940s and 1950s. I remember the Asian Flu of 1957.  The healthy were not crippled and locked inside. Why did people in a less safe time react more bravely?

Bill DeBlasio is an open Communist

NYC Mayor Bill DeBlasio claims it's OK to quote Karl Marx, and says the business community doesn't matter so much, that he's concerned about the "working" people. Who do those people work for, other than the government? Restaurant owners--working people. Theater owners--working people. Hotel owners--working people. Tour companies--working people. Sports teams--working people.

In the early days of the Soviet Union, Lenin killed the Kulaks--if you even owned a cow, you were part of the bourgeoisie capitalist crowd. When Russia ran out of food, he blamed the lazy Kulaks. That's what DeBlasio is doing to the formerly great NYC.

https://nypost.com/2020/07/24/de-blasio-quotes-communist-karl-marx-in-nyc-radio-interview/

“Kathy Wylde, president of the Partnership for New York City, said that de Blasio “suggests that the business community somehow does not represent working people, which is an ideological position and not an accurate representation of our city’s highly diverse private sector.”

“This crisis is a moment to bring the people of New York together, not to divide them,” said Wylde, whose organization represents businesses that collectively employ 1.5 million New Yorkers.

Jay Martin of the Community Housing Improvement Program, which represents 4,000 building owners, accused de Blasio of having “done nothing to improve the living conditions of tens of thousands of [public-housing] residents.”

“He talks about a Marxist utopia and demonizes the very businesses that fund his progressive pet projects, while many of his constituents live without hot water because of his incompetence,” Martin said.”

Remembering our “golden” past of the 1950s

It’s interesting that even liberals who see everything in the 21^st century as dark, racist and the fault of the GOP, can think of the 50s-60s in Mt Morris, Illinois (or Oregon, or Polo, or Columbus, Ohio) as a time of a golden era. I read a lot of blogs, and that misty, foggy view is common among 70-80 year olds. My husband whose high school was larger in acres and people than Mt. Morris, thinks the same thing. Of course, it’s not true; go through your high school annuals and you’ll see people who were white, but were marginalized because they were fat, or ugly, or low intelligence or unathletic or who never got the help they needed or who dropped out of school after 7^th or 8^th grade at age 16 or 17.

(I think this is 1954, confirmation class Trinity Lutheran for 1957 graduates) 

The U.S. in 2020 is so much less racist, less unfair, with more opportunity and ladders to success for the poor than we enlightened folk of the 50s could have ever imagined. We had devoted, but poorly paid teachers, and today the average hourly wage for a public school teacher is over $67/hour—far more than accountants, architects, librarians, farmers, and muffler repairmen. And statistically, there are far fewer poor and marginalized all over the world. Unfortunately, there’s something about being human – enough is never enough. We’re greedy and ungrateful to God for all he supplies. Slavery is also a bigger trade in the 21^st century than it was in the 18^th yet, U.S. and Europe are expected to take the blame for what happened 300 years ago. Life will never be fair. Some things at the micro-level are better, but the macro tells a more ominous story. And people still use the specter of slavery to grab power as well as to build your smart phone.

The U.S. federal social statistics are difficult to read because they always move the goal, but in 1959, families in poverty in the U.S. were 20.8%, and families headed by women were 49.4% (that was a much smaller numerical figure then). In 2018, the last year for compiled stats, poverty for families was 9.7% and for families head by women 26.8%. https://www.census.gov/data/tables/time-series/demo/income-poverty/historical-poverty-people.html The federal government aid has done a lot to dismantle the economic model of the family, but a lot of economic aid is poured into that mistake, and the female headed households are not the victims they used to be, despite the gap. And as I’ve noted before, I still remember the first time I saw a black man in a TV series (Bill Cosby, I Spy) and the first time I saw a black man as a retail clerk in a major chain (Penney’s, Champaign, IL, early 1960s).

So let’s keep some perspective. And watch for the power grabs of today, much of it happening very quickly in the fog of the pandemic.

Conspiracy, plan or coincidence—the results are the same

This piece in quotes below is circulating the internet, or being reported in a variety of ways. I didn't write it--not sure if there is an author or just an editor/compiler. Is it a plan, or just a perfect storm? We’ve seen what the “stand down” orders have done to down town Columbus, Ohio. We know someone on the CPD and get the inside story. Those businesses will probably never return. We’ve seen the recent uptick in national unemployment and the drop in all the good signs and indicators as people were ready to reopen. You probably don’t believe in conspiracies, but does it matter if this was planned or just a freak accident of history? Does it really matter if Big Tech and Big Entertainment are being controlled by a Master Puppeteer and have gone completely WOKE? By only listening to ONE narrow field in medicine (public health) our government leaders from top to bottom from Republican to Democrat to Libertarian have played into the hands of the totalitarians, whoever they are. Yesterday we cancelled the reception planned for after the memorial/interment of ashes for our son Phil here at Lakeside, a summer Chautauqua community. The service was open air, but the reception was to be inside a large hall adequate for social distancing. Yet, most of our friends and neighbors, in the 70-80s age group, many with health challenges, are still too intimidated by the scare stories to even leave their cottages.

"The US Population is 330,000,000 and in 5 months the number of deaths [from Covid19] was 130,000. The number of deaths as a percent of the population is 0.03939 %, compared to the number of cancer cases diagnosed in 2019 (1,762.450) and 607,000 deaths.

This doesn’t seem far fetched because it is happening before our eyes.

A very well-orchestrated plan, or an unimaginable set of events that just fell into place ... with the United States front and center. You tell me!!

Scare people with a virus, force them to wear masks and place them in quarantine.

Count the number of deaths every second of every day, in every News Headline. By the way, ninety-nine and eight-tenths of the people who get the virus, recover. About one to two-tenths of one percent who get the virus, die. Most of them have other medical problems. Did you catch that ? Less than 1/2 of a percent die.

Close businesses = 35,000,000+ instantly unemployed.

Remove entertainment and prohibit Recreation; Closing parks, gyms, bars, restaurants, sports.

No dating. No touching. Isolate people. Dehumanize them.

Close Temples and Churches, prohibit worship. Create a vacuum and let depression, anxiety, hopelessness, and desperation set in.

Then... ignite hatred and civil unrest, creating Civil War.

Empty the prisons because of the virus and fill the streets with criminals.

Send in Antifa to vandalize property, as if they are freedom fighters. Undermine the law, Riot, Loot and Attack all Law Enforcement, but tell the government to order a stand-down.

Then... Defund Law Enforcement and abolish Police. We are all being played by those who want to destroy America! This is how you destroy a Nation from within and in a very short order. Will it work, I guess that depends on you and me."

To mask or not to mask

I keep looking for research on the safety and efficacy of the masks used by the general public. This isn't it, but it's the best we've got. This is observational, not clinical, and it is for health care workers, not you and me. The article even says, "in the absence of data" [for the masks worn by the public] this will have to do. It also is one of the few articles (it's an editorial, not research) that says there are 2 purposes--one is it protects the wearer. Which is why I wear a mask. Why is no one putting together a study on the masks the general public uses? It couldn't be that difficult. There are all sorts of fabrics, thickness, filters, countries of origin (including China!). So far, it is observational, anecdotal, and opinion. Many states are making policy on this issue, and people are having fights. Let's do the research!,

In Ohio, the governor has now mandated masks outside our residences.

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2768532?

The hypocrisy of the Left

The epicenter of the deaths and infection rate of coronavirus is NY and NJ. Both governors and Mayors have discriminated against religious groups and small businesses to favor a Marxist group, Black Lives Matter (BLM doesn't deny this). Mayor DeBlasio claimed 400 years of American racism was more important than religious services for Jews and Christians or upset store owners losing their livelihood. Gov. Phil Murphy was probably worse, congratulating BLM activists as being in a different orbit than nail salon owners. Their hypocrisy is not only sickening, it demonstrates horrible government over reach.

And even other states and cities not hit as hard by this virus have pastors and priests who cowered in fear and let their churches be designated non-essential. Again, government over reach and the public's lack of knowledge about the constitution.

Biden and China

"China and the US are now in a true cold war situation for years to come. If Biden is elected it will be China as supreme in a few years. Russia and the EU are now sideshows. The entire geopolitical set of relations and interactions for the world will never be the same after the pandemic. The next few years are most likely to be chaotic and potentially violent, as China tries to gain advantage, and as the newly poverty stricken wage war or terrorism, or other disruptions." (from an investment newsletter, 7/19/20)

Read that. Now read it again. Do you really want to vote for Biden given his fondness for and softness on China and with so many in his party rioting in the streets protesting capitalism and chasing after Communism?

Where did all this divisiveness and anger come from? Academe.

Got problems? Look at academe. Every protest you see today--race, gender, homophobia, gaps--all begin in academe. She warned us with this book in 2018, it was oozing and boiling then and most of us ignored it or laughed at the snowflakes. It's also affecting how the Covid19 virus is being handled.

https://youtu.be/l9URgeqIF-o

MS-13

The racism charges against Trump loomed large when he accused MS-13 gang members of being scum and thugs. I think it was Pelosi who defended them. She confused them with her Mexican gardeners (they are Honduran). Because of Covid and the general hate Trump news 24/7, I missed this. "The president also reported that, during his first term, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has deported over 16,000 gang members and arrested over 2,000 members of MS-13.” If you don't feel safer now, you get your level 3 "Hate-Trump" patch for your brown shirt. Next, your black Antifa uniform. Why the Left want more gang members in the U.S., I don't know.

"President Trump and U.S. officials with the Department of Justice, including Attorney General Bill Barr, held a press conference Wednesday in the Oval Office announcing the arrests of dozens of high-level members of the gang known as “MS-13.”

General Barr revealed “Project Vulcan” as a sting operation which was launched as part of President Trump’s directive to “destroy MS-13” which Barr labeled “a death cult.” "

https://thehayride.com/2020/07/trump-admin-announces-arrests-of-high-level-ms-13-gang-members/?

Bye-bye freedom of speech—The Cancel Culture

So you don't believe in the Cancel Culture run amok? You think it isn't happening? How about Cancel People? Here's a list, and I don't know this site or the one she quotes. Most of these are liberals (or appear to me to be that), or so low on the totem pole they shouldn't matter. One emergency room doctor in Ohio was dismissed after publicly speculating about why blacks have been hit particularly hard by Covid-19. Another was accused of "white privilege." Some work for liberal organizations or media and are accused in purges of racist ideas or statements. The Leftists take over, they eat their own.

https://elizabethjnickson.com/2020/06/27/list-of-people-canceled-in-post-george-floyd-antiracism-purges/

Where are the names and public funerals for these black lives?

I'm waiting to see the names and funerals of the 3 teens killed in Columbus, OH, week-end of July 14 announced nationally, because, their black lives mattered too. Will white liberals show up to show compassion and support for their families? In fact, one 15 year old (the only name I could find) was the son of someone killed in gun violence when he was a baby. Our mayor Ginther is verbally suggesting less violence is the answer, yet in actions, supporting the looting and burning by having police stand down. Such a wimp. Look at this sweet face. Probably wouldn't put a toddler in a time out chair. 

BLM is a Marxist Organization

A dialogue is not the intention of BLM, the organization. It is a Marxist group, organized by black radical feminists and now controlled by whites, with the usual shout them down and humiliate reasonable people until they submit.

Got a virtue signaling sign in the yard? Look out. They know the softies. Have you attended a "non-violent protest" in the last few weeks? Honey, you've been had. There are hundreds of examples over the last 100 years on what happens to people who submit. 100,000,000 killed by their own governments.  Fascism and Communism and flip sides of the same coin.  You can’t get a piece of dental floss between them.

These people are totalitarians. They are already taking out the first layer of "liberals" and "independents" who dare to have a non-anarchist opinion, or who question who has taken over the Democrat Party. God help the people who think all lives matter, or who think they have a right to cover the graffiti which BLM and the mayor smeared on city owned streets.

Academe loves mindfulness (Hinduism)

Ohio State University pays for and supports "mindfulness," another word for Hinduism blended with various other eastern techniques and healthiness methods to control stress. That's not unusual--it's a fad in most of academe. Why aren't other religions represented? Where's that "separation" of church and state that liberals love to honor? Oh, it's not a church? Good. Then you should have no problem with OSU staff teaching the Rosary, or Litany of the Hours or using Luther's writings on the Psalter. Maybe if an awkward position on the floor were incorporated they would qualify? Those rich sources are also relaxing, but they are mind filling rather than emptying. Content matters. Christians need to speak up--they've declared our churches non-essential, don't let them override our devotional practices.

"JamesCare for Life Presents Mindfulness in Motion, an 8-week research-based program combining guided mindfulness meditation, community sharing, gentle yoga-inspired stretches and relaxing music. This course, developed by Dr. Maryanna Klatt, has been shown to significantly improve perceived stress, resilience, and quality of sleep for cancer survivors."

The gaslighting of a nation

The whole nation was united in the Floyd case, before the rioting and looting. So we know something is afoot there. The Left does not want us to be unified on anything, especially not a race issue. That said, there was also no evidence that Floyd's take down and death were based on race. It's what we were told--from every source. If the cop had been black or Floyd white, I suppose some trouble makers might have screamed, "Police Brutality," or take a knee, but the racism charge would have slid off the table. After a day or two, it would have been business as usual. Same drug user committing same crime, and a cop's knee on the neck of perp. Nor do we have all the information--just a slice of a video. Now all we have are pundits, politicians and priests all soberly denouncing racist cops while also pushing the alarms to encourage tearing up cities.

Folks, is there a term for national gaslighting?

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/here-there-and-everywhere/201701/11-warning-signs-gaslighting

From little to big, from narrow to wide, from thin to fat, from minor to major, from cold to hot, from bright to dim, from friend to foe, from known to unknown

It is all such a mess. I’m as angry at the insignificant as I am the overwhelming.  When I look at my church website I see no order or sense, only glitz and programs I don’t care about. When I walk down the street I see a carelessly tossed empty can or sandwich wrap.  When I open the refrigerator I see nothing healthy or life promoting, just crumbs and crap. When I put on a shirt, it doesn’t fit, is the wrong color, or I didn’t notice a spot when I hung it in the closet. When I pull up my mask, I can’t breathe, and don’t really think they block anything.

And then there are the invading termites, ants and armies in our culture wanting to tear it all down from Confederate statues to language to schools with silly yard signs in our 99.9% white community. The world wide pandemic has our churches closed has become political and an economic crisis that makes the president’s enemies happy, rubbing their hands with glee at our suffering. The FBI swamp creatures knew the dossier was phony even before the misery of the impeachment disaster. Millions of school children will lose another year and do-gooders will accept grants to study the “gap.” All forms of sexuality have been normalized by our so-called “conservative” Supreme Court as our nation spits in the face of history and God.

Yes, it all looks like my church website or empty refrigerator, little or big.

Plessy v. Ferguson and BLM

The SCOTUS decision of Plessy v Ferguson perhaps didn't seem a big deal in 1896. It upheld "separate but equal" but really entrenched Jim Crow, the legal segregation of the races--rest rooms, drinking fountains, seats on trains and busses, housing, and jobs. It took years for SCOTUS to undo that mistake. Much of that progress since integration is now seen as racist and some radicals want to reinstate the separateness for some Americans.

Today #Blacklivesmatter, the organization, is the new Plessy v. Ferguson. To use another example from the past, it's the new McCarthyism. It's not a law, or a court decision, but it's being treated that way by "woke" corporations, CEOs, schools, businesses, and churches. BLM is not looking for "equal" but for privilege and special treatment based on race just like the Plessy decision. The founders of #BLM are radical, Marxist feminists, and as we've learned, Marxism is not about equality, ever. It's totalitarianism with special privilege for a few at the top.

At this time, the new BLM/Plessy v Ferguson is going after Democrat controlled states and cities, because they are the softest target. They have already elected to their local councils, courts and mayoral positions leftists who will toss a bone or two to minorities while passing restrictive environmental (greenish) regulations that hurt them, or raising minimum wage which in the long run cause entry level workers to lose jobs and businesses that hire them to fail. Now those administrations are falling in line with "defund the police," causing more pain and deaths in black communities. BLM are counting on the growing frustration and anger from the people who can't protect themselves for more riots and looting.

Columbus mayor fails to protect the citizens

Although we don't live in the city of Columbus, those of us in the suburbs feel their pain. The mayor, like many in major cities, is dismantling the protection and security of the residents. BLM and ANTIFA have made the downtown a mess. The protests have nothing to do with George Floyd, and the mayor has simply rolled over and is playing dead. White virtue signalers from the 'burbs prop him up. The Democrats steal and borrow votes to get in and then abandon the people who elected them. It's that way in all large cities. Population: 922,000, metro: 2,200,000, growth in last decade, 17% (expect that to drop under this mayor). 59% white, 28% black, 13% other, with the majority of new residents foreign born. I wonder why most of the black lives in Columbus don't matter to the mayor? 116,000 residents are foreign born, and probably left their homelands to escape the chaos the mayor is now offering in order to please his radical base. https://www.dispatch.com/news/20200713/teenrsquos-death-becomes-fourth-homicide-over-weekend?

Four dead (3 teens) and many others wounded this past week-end. Why don't their lives matter? Where are their televised funerals--they probably didn't even have any prison terms to glamorize like Floyd did.

The young are always messed up

I found another "Little Library" on my walk this morning. Good thing because the librarians our taxes pay for are cowering behind their computers (like our pastors). I picked out "Give war a chance" by P.J. O'Rourke, c. 1992, now almost 30 years old. Wow. He's not a favorite writer, but I did see one essay that I found interesting--at least the opening paragraph. He's an aging boomer from Ohio who doesn't like Trump. He's now like a pet for the liberals who don't realize that their country has been stolen from them. Anyway, this paragraph was right on, as we said in the 70s.

SECOND THOUGHTS ABOUT THE 1960s

What I believed in the Sixties

"Everything. You name it and I believed it. I believed love was all you need. I believed you should be here now. I believed drugs could make everyone a better person. I believed I could hitchhike to California with 35 cents and people would be glad to feed me. I believed Mao was cute. I believed private property was wrong. I believed my girlfriend was a witch. I believed my parents were Nazi space monsters. I believed the university was putting saltpeter in the cafeteria food. I believed stones had souls. I believed the NLF were the good guys in Vietnam. . . and so forth . . . With the exception of anything my mom and dad said, I believed everything." p. 90

The usual stuff kids think, but that was somewhat revolutionary in the 60s, even looking back with a little tongue in cheek snark. Those 60s guys are now the grandparents of the ones roaming the streets with detailed plans to break windows, close businesses, hit police with baseball bats, and demand recognition for auto zones. O'Rourke's generation almost sounds charming, because in our minds' eye we know they finally matured after the grown ups stepped in.

Not today. The screaming, hysterical white college-educated women who have joined in with the gang thugs and Antifa to make no lives matter are not about to back down or go home to mommy. Those born in 1997 are a very different ilk from those born in 1947 like O'Rourke. These charmers have grown up with the schools tearing down everything the boomers thought they had to rebel against. In order to rebel against anything, by the time they get to college, it all has to be torn down to the last statue, church and Broadway musical so the latest totalitarian dictator can take over. And not by voting--that's so 1960s--it must be violence.

Finding research on medical masks for the public

This is what non-medical mask research looks like. There's not a lot out there. None of my masks have filters, and none fit well, two important points. They might block air pollution to my lungs, but probably won't do much on droplets coming from me. This article is from 2010 and the last pandemic, but should give you an idea what to look for. When I want to see controlled research, not the opinion of a doctor or a news writer who does medical stories, or a politically charged harangue, I put "NCBI" in the search strategy. That will get the medical articles. This is a "review article." That's another good thing to look for because you'll get a whole group of studies rolled into one and save a lot of time. Some have abstracts, and some are full text. Most articles conclude with, "further studies are needed."

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20092668/

“Face masks to prevent transmission of influenza virus: a systematic review” Epidemiol Infect  2010 Apr;138(4):449-56

Go to the bottom of the page and look at additional sources.

College educated, hysterical, mostly white women

"If Biden is elected, the Marxists behind Black Lives Matter, Defund the Police, the de-incarceration of prisons, the end of bail, and every other entropy causing initiative will be in the driver’s seat in America. People will be amazed, in a terrible way, about how fast the road is to becoming the Mogadishu of the northern hemisphere. The end will come only when true totalitarianism appears on the scene because the strength of totalitarianism is the only thing that will stop the violence — and so the American people, ultimately, will embrace the tyrant that comes to claim them."

Bookworm Room. https://www.bookwormroom.com/2020/07/13/defund-the-police-the-speed-of-degradation/?

Goya CEO supports Trump (gasp)

We've seen shortages of toilet paper, hand sanitizer, bleach, disinfectant wipes and most recently, liquid hand soap in a pump dispenser. Now it will be Goya products as Trump supporters discover the industry and product that is a U.S. success story. They'll buy up every thing Goya creating a temporary shortage. (Where I live Goya is available at Marc's, or was last week.)

Robert Unanue, Goya CEO since 2004, has been demonized by saying we have been blessed for having Trump as our leaders.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/goya-foods-ceo-robert-unanue-not-apologizing-praising-trump/

https://www.rt.com/usa/494322-goya-hispanic-food-trump-cancel/

White liberals are still calling the tune on race

We have a white liberal problem, not a black problem, not a race problem. Liberal whites — not minorities — are setting the tone on race issues. White liberals will report that Trump's wall is racist; white conservatives do not think that. In earlier administrations, it was bipartisan, and we have Clinton and Obama on video stating the importance of border security to protect the nation and our values. When Obama was in office, white liberals' perception of racism soared--they found it everywhere and acted accordingly. Nasty. White conservatives' views on race barely budged.

It seems liberals have moved their focus from class to race. Whatever, the Man is still in charge and setting the rules.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/18/opinion/race-america-trump.html?

The Trump presidency is unprecedented

“Many aspects of the Trump presidency are unprecedented; he is the first president never to have sought or held a public office, elected or unelected, or a high military command; and this is the first presidency, at least in living memory, in which almost the entire national political press have completely and constantly misreported the president’s public remarks and policies.

The former newspaper of record, the New York Times, has been commendably forthright in declaring that it was opposing rather than just reporting on the Trump administration. Mr. Trump delivered the greatest speech of his career on Friday evening at Mount Rushmore, devoted altogether to celebrating the idealism of the American Revolution, the suppression of the Confederate insurrection in the Civil War and the abolition of slavery, and the enactment — albeit tardily — of the Jeffersonian promise, renewed by Abraham Lincoln at Gettysburg, that all men are created equal. The Washington Post editorial board declared that he had reached “new depths of depravity.” This is an outrage worthy only of the press of a totalitarian country describing an opposition figure.

With few exceptions, the United States is now served by a national political media that is incapable of reporting about the president accurately, that baits him at press briefings with disgusting insolence, and that is extraordinarily negligent in ignoring or downplaying anything that reflects poorly on the president’s other enemies, the media’s allies in the war against the president. “

https://www.nysun.com/national/press-now-plumbs-its-own-depths-of-depravity/91183/?

My mask collection

My scarf/mask collection. Inexpensive bandanas. I fold in an angle, tie in back and twist and tuck under my chin. I wash after each use. I'm not kidding myself. I've looked at the "science," and there is nothing that says what the general public uses as a mask, whether commercially or home made, stops a virus. Good for a sand storm, maybe. Or will keep a cough under control, just like any hanky. Satisfies the governor, however.

The Democrats can finally sleep—power balance restored

Before the Soros funded days of rage in 2020, blacks were exceeding whites in rate of college enrollments, crime rates had fallen by half for blacks, they were entering the top 20% quintile in income very quickly, life expectancy at birth had increased more for African Americans than for Whites, and the biggest gaps in all indicators were between black males and black females, not between blacks and whites. The unemployment for blacks was the lowest since they'd been keeping records, and blacks taking the initiative to start small businesses was soaring under this president.

Something had to give. Trot out the big lie of systemic racism and police killing black men for no reason other than being black while assaulting the police. Democrats were frantic, but it worked. They are much more comfortable now--blacks out of work, their neighborhoods looted and burned, babies and children being shot. Fancy Nancy can finally get some rest. And Joe Biden can come out of the basement and mumble.

HERES WHAT NO CASH ACTUALLY MEANS Copy and Pasted

A cashless society means no cash. Zero. It doesn’t mean mostly cashless and you can still use a ‘wee bit of cash here & there’. Cashless means fully digital, fully traceable, fully controlled. I think those who support a cashless society aren’t fully aware of what they are asking for. A cashless society means:

* If you are struggling with your mortgage on a particular month, you can’t do an odd job to get you through.

* Your child can’t go & help the local farmer to earn a bit of summer cash.

* No more cash slipped into the hands of a child as a good luck charm or from their grandparent when going on holidays.

* No more money in birthday cards.

* No more piggy banks for your child to collect pocket money & to learn about the value of earning.

* No more cash for a rainy day fund or for that something special you have been putting £20 a week away for.

* No more fivers on the side because your wages barely cover the bills or put food on the table.

* No more charity collections.

* No more selling bits & pieces from your home that you no longer want/need for a bit of cash in return.

* No more cash gifts from relatives or loved ones.

What a cashless society does guarantee:

* Banks have full control of every single penny you own.

* Every transaction you make is recorded.

* All your movements & actions are traceable.

* Access to your money can be blocked at the click of a button when/if banks need ‘clarification’ from you which will take about 3 weeks, a thousand questions answered & five thousand passwords.

* You will have no choice but to declare & be taxed on every pound in your possession.

* The government WILL decide what you can & cannot purchase.

* If your transactions are deemed in any way questionable, by those who create the questions, your money will be frozen, ‘for your own good’.

I could write lists for 5 days & still not finish explaining how utterly awful a cashless society would be, for everyone. Even for the goody two shoes who wouldn’t dream of not declaring £500.

Forget about cash being dirty. Stop being so easily led. Cash has been around for a very, very, very long time & it gives you control over how you trade with the world. It gives you independence. I heard a story where a man supposedly contracted Covid because of a £20 note he had handled. There is the same chance of Covid being on a card as being on cash. If you cannot see how utterly ridiculous this assumption is then there is little hope.

If you are a customer, pay with cash. If you are a shop owner, remove those ridiculous signs that ask people to pay by card. Cash is a legal tender, it is our right to pay with cash. Banks are making it increasingly difficult to lodge cash & that has nothing to do with a virus, nor has this ‘dirty money’ trend.

Please open your eyes. Please stop believing everything you are being told. Almost every single topic in today’s world is tainted with corruption & hidden agendas. Please stop telling me & others like me that we are what’s wrong with the world when you hail the most corrupt members of society as your heroes. Politics & greed is what is wrong with the world; not those who are trying to alert you to the reality in which you are blindly floating along whilst being immobilised by irrational fear. Fear created to keep you doing & believing in exactly what you are complacently doing.

Pay with cash & please say no to a cashless society while you still have the choice.

Zuby’s podcasts

Zuby has Nigerian parents, was born in Britain, grew up in Saudi Arabia, and attended Oxford. He’s a rapper and a podcaster personality.  But he has an American accent and is easy to listen to. In this edition, he interview Charrise Lane.

Charrise Lane is an American student and social media personality who comments on politics, culture and racial issues from a conservative perspective. We discuss growing up in a Christian household and how it's shaped her views, why she wants to get involved in politics, the cases for and against reparations, what it means to be 'pro Black', and much more!

https://www.zubymusic.com/podcast/episode/262c3949/097-charrise-lane-pro-black-pro-god-pro-life

A returning student comments on campus brain washing

“As someone who has gone back to college for the last few years, now age 40, I would say it has not stopped on the college campus. It now just has no one pushing back against these ideas, they are mainstreamed. It is accepted truth, and emailed out by the head of my institution. We live in a rape culture, an irredeemably racist and sexist society. It is broadcast all over my campus, and when I first went back after such a long hiatus, I was, an continue to be, appalled. They had young women making puffy paint sweatshirts documenting how many times they have been gang raped. Which if was actually true, no one was encouraged to go to the police. No, they were encouraged to wear their shirts as a badge of honor. All over campus are posters pointing out that society is racist and must been torn down and rebuilt. I have friends of all ethnicities whom are appalled but don't dare speak up. The professors are fearful of the students, it is a sea change from the first time I was in college.”

This was a comment left at a discussion on racism in our culture. I certainly believe him—I was on campus in the 1990s, and it was bad then. There was a list of 50 organizations to help women posted in the women’s restroom even in the 1980s. This was then called victim mentality.  Now it’s a mental illness, and it’s apparently catching.

So you see, George Floyd riots really weren’t about bad cops, or a murder, they were/are about years and years of conditioning impressionable young people, they graduate, and move into society.

How to take advantage of the pandemic to promote your own cause

In reviewing the OnCampus on-line newsletter for Ohio State University, I noticed two offerings under health, which I am assuming qualifies for some sort of special grant money to fight Covid19, since they are listed under that heading. The first concerns a dialogue, a favorite word for "you keep quiet and I'll talk"; the second an ethical obligation to become an ally of people confused about their sexuality.

It's impossible to imagine there is a "dialogue" in the traditional and accurate sense of the word if offered by IED, which doesn't promote diversity of thought, or the inclusion of conservatives but does promote equal outcome for unequal effort. IEDs exist in all colleges and universities and in the various departments--they are part of administrative bloat.

The "ethical" obligation for social workers to become an ally for LGBTQ is similar in planned outcome. "You will be with us, or you are against us."  We also know that the shift in emphasis is to the T, even within the BLM movement. The T and the G should be at odds with each other, but are lumped together.  The T says there is no such thing as a defined biological sex and therefore logically the G could be heterosexual if so desired.  To qualify for pandemic money, "safe spaces" training is included.  3 continuing education units for social workers. Sweet.

Preparing for an Effective Dialogue (Part 1)
Many staff and faculty members are interested in hosting dialogues around race and social injustice. Dialogue can lead to more insightful and well-supported decisions and can allow individuals to feel heard. But effective dialogue is not always easy to achieve. The Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Facilitators Committee is hosting a two-part panel discussion series on preparing for an effective dialogue session. Part one is July 15 at 10 a.m.

New online course on being an LGBTQ+ Ally
The College of Social Work offers “The Ethics of Being an LGBTQ+ Ally,” a new asynchronous course that will provide participants a better understanding of the ethical obligation social workers have to advocate for and become an ally to the LGBTQ+ community. The course includes how to develop safe spaces for clients identifying as LGBTQ+. Three CEUs are available.

Candace Owens interviews Kingface

Two blacks discuss problems with the black culture.  If whites discussed it this honestly, they'd be charged with hate crimes and white supremacy.  He says BLM uses emotions to control Blacks. They get money and support through the death of blacks.  When have they ever saved a black life, he asks. They discuss the death of George Floyd and his nine prison sentences.

 https://www.prageru.com/video/the-candace-owens-show-kingface/

Katie Hopkins from UK warning America.

https://youtu.be/ToDsfkwvikw

Do-gooders think they are helping migrants when in fact they are helping traffickers and criminals organized to make money from people's misfortune.  She has interviewed them.  All the old conflicts emigrate with the refugees. Charities aren't always charities. Media mocked Trump for "Sweden has fallen."  But she was in Sweden where she was the only white person.

“From Christ to Emancipation,” Townhall.com Wednesday, July 8

From Christ to Emancipation, the mob is determined to erase history Blinded by their rage, the Left targets Christ, Grant, and Lincoln in the name of the revolution By Bishop Aubrey Shines We’ve all heard the phrase, “the road to hell is paved with good intentions,” but, as I’ve watched the unrest that continues to play out in our cities, I think it’s safe to say the “activists” who have taken over left the good intentions behind some time ago. First, they came for only the Confederate statues. Then they came for our Founding Fathers, and now they’re coming after President Lincoln, General Grant, and even our Savior Jesus Christ. In case you don’t know what I’m referring to, last month Shaun King, who is a prominent voice in the Left’s Woke class, called for the removal of any statues of Christ with European features because, apparently, those too are now a symbol of white supremacy. As a minister, it pains me to see such an asinine and narrow view of the Messiah. Not only is it shortsighted, but Mr. King is missing the entire point of Christ; what he may or may not have looked like doesn’t matter, but his message about love and reconciliation with others does. Christ walked the earth 2,000 years ago. None of us can ever know what the Savior actually looked like. Logically, it’s reasonable that different cultures would depict Him in a way they would know. White Europeans aren’t any guiltier for depicting Jesus as a white European in Renaissance art than Africans or Asians are for portraying Him as an African or an Asian in their artwork. Moreover, the Messiah’s message has nothing to do with the pigmentation of one’s skin. In His time on earth, Jesus extended God’s love to both Jews and Gentiles; Samaritans, Romans, it didn’t matter. Furthermore, what Mr. King suggests is the next step on an already dangerous path. Statues of Christ are found on the grounds of churches, and churches are separate entities from the government (look it up, it’s in the Constitution). This means Mr. King wants his Antifa friends to trespass on private property to destroy other private property. I would be shocked, but these people see themselves as revolutionaries; they live by their own rules, and no amount of reasonable discourse will stop them. And if statues of Christ that look too white have to come down, how long will it be before statues of Abraham, Moses, or Jacob have to come down if they look too white? Does this mean Michelangelo’s historic sculpture of King David needs to be destroyed because it looks too white? How long will it be before any white statues come down, regardless of whether or not the person in question enforced white supremacy? I fear that last question is already being answered. We’ve already had a statue of General Grant ripped down. Didn’t he bring an end to the Civil War by forcing Robert E. Lee to surrender? He, if anyone, should have a thousand statues up for every one Confederate statue; Grant ended the war and saved the Union. But because he is a 19th century white man with a beard in a military uniform, he must come down! So say the misguided who ignore their own history. The statue of Teddy Roosevelt, one of the greatest conservationists in American history, is being removed from in front of the New York Museum of Natural History. The reason? Roosevelt is apparently more prominent than the adjacent statues of a Native American and African American. This must mean Roosevelt only stood for imperialism and the patriarchy, never mind the fact we would not have our national parks were it not for him. Oh, and he was the first president to entertain a black man for dinner in the White House, namely Booker T. Washington. The mob even wants to attack the legacy of Abraham Lincoln, without whom there would be no Emancipation Proclamation. The Emancipation Memorial, a statue of Lincoln helping a freed slave to his feet, has stood by the White House since 1876. The mob’s excuse for this one is that the statue endorses “white saviorism,” even though the statue was funded by ex-slaves. If they stopped screaming and listened for a moment, maybe the misguided young folks trying to trample President Lincoln’s legacy would realize this. If Mr. King and his ilk insist on this path of destruction, I ask him to remember that Christ’s message is about forgiveness. He and the Antifa thugs tearing our country apart will always have a chance to be forgiven, even as they try to erase our history. I hope he knows this. I will be praying for him to understand it. Bishop Aubrey Shines is the founder of Glory to Glory Ministries and chairman of Conservative Clergy of Color.  Bishop Aubrey Shines, is available for comment on this op-ed. To schedule interviews with Bishop Aubrey Shines of Conservative Clergy of Color, please contact Will Hadden at whadden@sbpublicaffairs.com or call 703.739.5920

Greg Gutfeld to Juan Williams on Fox The Five and how Left politicizes the pandemic

“Let’s face it. Number one, they [the lapdog media] politicized hydroxy. Remember that? They were so happy to find that one bad study that said it didn’t work, now they go strangely silent when you hear that it might work and in fact we all kind of knew that it might work. In terms of a strategy, it was well-tolerated among people. We knew there was promise, but the media didn’t like that.” [referring to Henry Ford Health System study showing significant success with hydroxychloroquine treating Covid19 patients] . . .

“Two, the rest home deaths. The media bent over backward to cover up for the Cuomos, right? They didn’t want that to be a big story, but that was a big story, OK?” [Gov. Cuomo forcing nursing homes which weren’t prepared to accept 6,5000 Covid19 patients] . . .

“And let’s not forget the travel ban, right? Which, many in the media — Juan — said that was stupid and said that it was racist, but that probably did a large part in preventing a lot of death.”

Gutfeld concluded by saying that “the media and those that politicize this need to be ignored.”

https://www.westernjournal.com/fed-greg-gutfeld-blasts-juan-williams-nearly-2-minutes-straight-savage-covid-takedown/?

There are never enough statues. . . now Hamilton the musical

"Hamilton," created by Lin Manuel Miranda, tells the story of Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton, with an almost all non-White cast. The musical, which was first performed in 2015, won 11 Tony Awards and has had several tours."

The musical was the darling of liberals and leftists--mainly, I think, because by making its cast culturally assume the roles of whites, they thought they were poking conservatives in the eye. Vice President Pence was booed when he attended. Not so. They just were not "woke" enough for the change global forces had put in place.

“They’re sort of trapped. It’s like Stockholm Syndrome if you’re a liberal and you’re caught in this woke revolution. You can’t believe that you’re on the wrong side of history,” [Miranda] Devine said.

https://www.foxnews.com/media/miranda-devine-hamilton-backlash-disney

The Surge in the Positive Rate Fallacy

"A July 8, 2020 Columbus Dispatch headline helps explain how this fallacy works. It screams, “Ohio’s spike continues with fourth-highest number of daily cases!”

But what the Columbus Dispatch and the DeWine administration fails to report is that this increase in cases simply reflects the fact that Ohio has significantly ramped up its daily testing numbers. For example, on July 2, 2020 Ohio reported a whopping 1,265 new cases. But what they didn’t tell us is that on July 2, 2020 Ohio also performed a whopping 20,613 COVID19 tests, one of their highest totals to date. In fact, it took until June 30, 2020 before Ohio was able to even perform 20,000 tests per day! . . .

A surge in new reported cases is only happening because Ohio has quadrupled its daily tests over the past several months. We aren’t seeing an increase in the actual percentage of positive tests. To say that these new cases are the result of a surge, is simply fake news."

https://ohiostatehousenews.com/2020/07/ohios-coronavirus-surge-is-fake-news-and-we-can-prove-it/?

Columbus abandoned by city council and mayor

BLM and ANTIFA have made Columbus, Ohio, unsafe by demeaning police and promoting destruction in downtown. The Democrat party leadership has done nothing, and the Republicans are wimps. Churches play with technology and academics look for grants to publish articles about racism. Who will save our cities?

https://ohiostatehousenews.com/2020/07/dark-and-dangerous-times-ahead-for-city-of-columbus-said-cpd-veteran/?

“[James ] Scanlon recently called out Ginther and city council members at a council meeting on June 29 for waging an “on-going assault” on Columbus police by “demonizing officers and misinforming the public.”

“It is shameful how you and other city officials have demonized these officers and misinformed the public into believing they are a group of ‘rogue, racist cops.’ All of you have relentlessly and falsely accused the Columbus Division of Police, and its officers, of being complicit in a culture of systematic racism. Due to my 42-year involvement with the Columbus Division of Police, I know that you are spreading falsehoods,” Scanlon told them.”

I blogged about this on June 30. https://collectingmythoughts.blogspot.com/2020/06/facts-matter-in-current-racism-debate.html

It’s just a mask

It's just a mask.
It's just two weeks.
It's just non-essential businesses.
It's just to keep from overwhelming the hospitals.
It's just until cases go down more.
It's just to keep others from being scared.
It's just for a few more weeks.
It's just communion or singing you don’t have to meet.
It's just until we get a vaccine.
It's just a few side effects.
It's just a bracelet.
It's just to let people know you're safe to be around.
It's just an app.
It's just to let others know who you've been in contact with.
It's just a few more months.
It’s just a video.
It’s just an email account.
It's just for protecting others from hate speech.
It's just a few people.
It's just a credit card company. You can use cash.
It's just a few places that don't take cash.
It's just a little chip.
It’s just for medical information and paying for things.
It’s just so you can travel.
It’s just so you can get your driver’s license.
It’s just so you can vote.
It's just for a few more years.
It's just a statue.
It's just a building.
It's just a song.
It's just a few words.
It’s just a piece of paper.
It's just a book.
It's just a movie.
It's just a flag.
It's just a piece of cloth.
It's just a blood test.
It's just a scan.
It's just a chip.
It's just a clump of cells.
It's just the bad people.
It's just the undesirables.
It's just the Jews.
It's just the men.
It's just the Christians.
It's just the people that don't think like we do.
It's just... wait...
It's not just a mask.

#WakeUpAmerica

Christians—please reject further lockdowns and closing—for the children’s sake

At the K-12 level, the risk of Covid to children is low. The Wall St.  Journal’s Andrew Duehren and Alex Leary report today: The Trump administration is pressing the nation’s school systems to educate children in-person this fall, preparing to offer safety guidelines for reopening, as lawmakers on Capitol Hill search for an agreement to provide schools the federal aid they say they need to do so. Team Trump is encouraged by a recent statement from the American Academy of Pediatrics which notes the negative impact of lockdowns as well as the relatively small Covid risks faced by children. The organization says it “strongly advocates that all policy considerations for the coming school year should start with a goal of having students physically present in school. The importance of in-person learning is well-documented, and there is already evidence of the negative impacts on children because of school closures in the spring of 2020.” The statement adds: Lengthy time away from school and associated interruption of supportive services often results in social isolation, making it difficult for schools to identify and address important learning deficits as well as child and adolescent physical or sexual abuse, substance use, depression, and suicidal ideation... Policy makers must also consider the mounting evidence regarding COVID-19 in children and adolescents...Although children and adolescents play a major role in amplifying influenza outbreaks, to date, this does not appear to be the case with SARS-CoV-2. Although many questions remain, the preponderance of evidence indicates that children and adolescents are less likely to be symptomatic and less likely to have severe disease resulting from SARS-CoV-2 infection. In addition, children may be less likely to become infected and to spread infection. Policies to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 within schools must be balanced with the known harms to children, adolescents, families, and the community by keeping children at home.

You never know someone else's pain

Marcia, a very friendly, smiley gal, a little younger than me whom I’ve known about a decade here at Lakeside stopped by to chat on the porch, but she hadn’t heard about the death of our son Phil.  When I told her she responded that she and her husband had 2 children who’d died, a baby and a 17 year old son.  I was so shocked, since I’d never heard her mention it.  So I asked her how the 17 year old died, and she told me it had been a murder.  She then told me the details, and I was just speechless.  They live in suburban Toledo, and her son Matthew was shot and killed by a black gang member when he was at a private party in 1992. She said even almost 30 years ago the media kept the racial aspect of the murder very quiet, because the black gang had singled out all the whites in the group, beat and terrorized them, leaving all the black teens at the party alone.  The people at the party were all friends, and none knew the gang. Then within the year, both her parents died and then the murder trial started. Anyway, you just never know the grief someone else is dealing with. That will never go away. She said her other son, 11 months younger than the deceased, never really recovered as they were best friends.

What a child needs to hear

Joan’s opinion on BLM, guest blogger

“The organization calling itself Black Lives Matter has nothing to do with blacks or their lives. They are simply one more instance of a seditious group USING a minority group's legitimate pain to further their own agenda. Thinking people of all colors recognize that this movement is racism at its worst. People who really value black people and their lives are building up not tearing down. People who truly value black lives also value the lives of people of other colors. People who truly believe that black lives matter are offering educational and employment opportunities; they are offering friendship and fellowship in working toward some common good for society. If you really believe that all lives matter and that color of skin does NOT matter, live your life treating all God's children as if they matter - because they DO. What is happening in our nation has little to do with race; it is insulting that this organization thinks Americans can be manipulated in such an obvious way to participate in their own destruction.”

Richard Bartlett, Texas physician

https://youtu.be/eDSDdwN2Xcg Good news for Covid19 treatment. Cheap and quick. Nebulizer treatment for asthma, generic budesonide. Early treatment. All his patients with Covid have survived, but need to be treated immediately.

No one will make a fortune over this cure; but you can set up the study to fail--wait too long to use it. Early detection, early treatment.

President Trump helped blacks more than other presidents

“. . . Back home in the US [New Year's Eve 2019], African Americans were experiencing the best economy we have ever seen: Unemployment for our racial group was the lowest in recorded history, black wages were rapidly increasing for the first time in decades, and people who’d been out of work long-term were being hired and suddenly able to take their families on vacations for the first time in years.

The Trump policies made it possible. Tax cuts and rocketing GDP growth meant companies were feeling financially stable for the first time in a decade and public confidence in our economy had never been higher. Trump’s re-election was on cruise control. Even Democrats were willing to admit that the chances of Trump losing were slim.

No one could have predicted what would happen next."

https://nypost.com/2020/07/04/trump-not-biden-has-helped-make-black-lives-better/?

Leave George Floyd in the dust

The despots and tyrants who oversee the BLM have been very clever. Notice how it's no longer about Blacks? No longer about George Floyd? Now it's offensive statues, conquistadors, the color of Jesus in art, microaggressions and capitalism. For the goal of massive, incapacitating white guilt, that's a narrow field. Maybe the expansion into the kitchen sink was natural, maybe planned, but it's no longer about the black experience. White liberals have been the biggest suckers. Silence is compliance--with the myth.

“The only difference today is that social-justice activists have found great success in convincing leftist whites, especially white women, that America is systemically racist to its very core. And, again, people pay good money to hear this drivel. As The Federalist’s Tristan Justice notes, “In February, the Guardian reported that woke white women, who seem to be leading the recent mob protests gripping the nation, are dishing out upwards of $2,500 a night to host a pair of activists to tell them how they’re all racist. The service, titled ‘Race to Dinner,’ was co-founded by Regina Jackson, who is black, and Saira Rao, who is Indian American, for the sole purpose of informing white women of their inherent racism. People can also consult with either Jackson or Rao for $300 a session to be told how they hate minorities.” " https://patriotpost.us/articles/71901?

Do Christian Lives Matter?

Christians are being killed all over the world, and for the last 2,000 years, particularly in the 20th and 21st century. And here in America where we have the First Amendment to protect us from government, we accept the title, "non-essential." They won't stop at statues now that they've seen what cowards we are.

Fr. Rutler's Weekly Column
July 5, 2020

Stalin, killer of at least 20 million people, said “A single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic.” In mid-nineteenth-century China, the civil war known as the Taiping Rebellion cost upwards of 30 million lives.

The feast of Saint Augustine Zhao Rong and his 119 companions, on July 9, is a reminder that the persecution of Christian missionaries and native Chinese, begun in the mid-17th century, continues into our time. Augustine had been a soldier assigned as a prison guard for the French missionary bishop, Louis Gabriel Dufresse, whose martyrdom in Chengdu moved Augustine to request baptism, after which he became a priest and was tortured and killed in 1815. Later, in the Boxer Rebellion, 30,000 Christians would be slaughtered.

There are magnificent witnesses in China today, among whose champions is Cardinal Zen, indomitable at the age of eighty-eight. The insouciance with which some timorous Western ecclesiastics have cast a blind eye to the persecution of the Catholics in China, will be remembered as a dark blot on the history of our time.

Mao killed at least 40 million. His “Cultural Revolution,” which executed upwards of 3 million, excited mobs of youths as agents of government repression. Monuments of ancient culture were destroyed. These included nearly 7,000 priceless works of art in the Temple of Confucius alone as part of the frenzied attack on the Four Olds: Old Customs, Old Habits, Old Culture, and Old Ideas.

In our own country, the debutantish radicalism of hysterical youths whose misguided idealism makes a venomous brew when mixed with poor education, is exploited by more sinister strategists. James Madison described such mobs as: “united and actuated by some common impulse of passion, or of interest, adverse to the rights of other citizens, or to the permanent and aggregate interests of the community.”

Young people eager to condemn the immorality of forebears, while exulting in their own undisciplined lives, recently pulled down a statue of Saint Junípero Serra. It evoked the attack on the Franciscan mission in Alta California on November 4, 1775, when 600 native warriors pierced the friar Father Luis Jayme with eighteen arrows as he called to them: “Love God, my children!”

Staff Sergeant David Bellavia, the one Iraqi combatant to receive the Medal of Honor, has said that our universities are turning out “Peter Pan” adolescents who would profit better if they joined the Army where they would be taught how to be men and women.

After the destruction of the statue of Saint Junípero Serra, the wise Archbishop of San Francisco did not engage in polemics. He simply went to the site of the vandalism and said the exorcism prayer of Saint Michael. “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” (Ephesians 6:12).

Faithfully yours in Christ,
Father George W. Rutler

Why didn’t 8 years of Obama fix this?

This is not difficult to answer.

The riots of 2020 are political, and although one white liberal goal had been achieved by electing a Black man who was acceptable to many whites--he had no ties to the African American experience of slavery, the KKK and Jim Crow. All foundations of the Democrat Party. But for liberals, he was the right shade. Not too dark. Even Joe Biden made a reference to how acceptable and "clean" he was. Good looking, well dressed. Haaavaard. Not like street fighter Jesse Jackson who had been running forever, was dark, and didn't speak pretty Harvard English.

Plus, in 2008 he was the most radical, outrageous politician on the abortion issue. Born alive? Let them die. Now that's so common and mainstream Democrat it's hard to imagine it was controversial. It got him the support of white liberal women, even though it created carnage in the black community.

But 8 years of liberal goals didn't achieve the anarchist, over throw the government, goals. And one of those goals was to take over the Democrat party.  What was needed was 3 radical feminists to put their heads together and came up with  Black Lives Matter (BLM). Obama was NOT elected to help black people, he was elected to assuage white liberal guilt. It would take 1) virulent hate for Trump both on the right and the left, 2) an outstanding leap ahead for blacks, and 3) a pandemic to guarantee the weakening of the masses to set the stage.

Who is Black Lives Matter?

BLM's founders openly admit to being Marxist ideologues. Their self-confessed mentors include former members of the Weather Underground, a radical "leftwing" terrorist group that sought to bring a communist revolution to the United States in the 1960s and 1970s. BLM is friendly with Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro, whose socialist policies have brought economic collapse and untold misery to millions of people there." (Gatestone Institute)

BLM was initially created by 3 lesbian feminists, who want to do away with patriarchy (that's what feminists always say) and the nuclear family. In short, destroy the nation. Ironically, they've been responsible for the deaths of more black men and boys (riots in various cities including Baltimore and Ferguson) since they emerged after the Trayvon Martin killing, than just about any gang known to the police.

God Bless America, Kate Smith

https://youtu.be/_zF7a0wB-Lg

Grocery stores can stay open, but churches can’t?

I'm not sure I've ever shopped at a grocery store associated with Southeastern Grocers. Their web page has a statement I wish we'd seen from our churches. They stayed open--they were "essential." They also donated a lot of money to food pantries and are supporting a big fund raiser for July 4.
"We are committed to providing the safest and healthiest store experience for our associates, customers and communities.

We will continue to refine our processes and protocols in our stores, with health and safety as our guide, as long as this pandemic remains a threat. You can always count on us."
Southeastern Grocers, Inc. (SEG) is the parent company and home of BI-LO, Fresco y Más, Harveys Supermarket and Winn-Dixie grocery stores. It is one of the largest conventional supermarket companies in the U.S. and is located in 7 southeastern states.

8928 Prominence Parkway, #200 / Jacksonville, FL 32256 / Local: 904-783-5000 / Toll Free: 1-800-967-9105

Maybe they have a parking lot somewhere that a church could meet.

Trump haters lose again

Great success for hydroxychloroquine study in Michigan. "Patients with a median age of 64 were among those analyzed, with 51% men and 56% African American. Roughly 82% of the patients began receiving hydroxychloroquine within 24 hours and 91% within 48 hours, a factor Dr. Marcus Zervos identified as a potential key to the medication’s success."

I don't know why Trump haters wanted people to die. And this one has been around for years and is inexpensive.

https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/michigan/2020/07/02/michigan-henry-ford-health-study-finds-hydroxychloroquine-lowers-covid-19-death-rate/5365090002/?

Compare the costs of Remdesivir (about $3,120) to Hydroxychloroquine (about $1.00).

People are waiting too long for medical help

Here's how the virus kills--fear. In Michigan, 62% of the ambulance runs were too late--people feared Covid19 at the hospital. Stroke and cardiac coming in much too late.
(figure from radio report, but this article confirms)

https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2020/05/05/er-visits-plummet-amid-pandemic-we-know-more-people-dying-home/3067993001/

Let’s deny both history and art

Art has to say a lot, and be useful and meaningful years later. In this statue the black man is shaking off the shackles and rising. Democrats have battled this every step of the way, and still are. Now the art has to go. They are afraid too many are escaping their grasp.

Let it be known everywhere,” [Frederick Douglass, noted black abolitionist] declared, “[that] we, the colored people, newly emancipated and rejoicing in our blood-bought freedom, near the close of the first century in the life of this Republic, have now and here unveiled, set apart, and dedicated a monument of enduring granite and bronze, in every line, feature, and figure of which the men of this generation may read, and those of after-coming generations may read, something of the exalted character and great works of Abraham Lincoln, the first martyr president of the United States.”

https://www.faithwire.com/2020/07/01/boston-taking-down-lincoln-emancipation-statue-after-unanimous-vote/

Do not cower before naysayers

“Great works arduously built are also easily torn down.  But the destruction of a statue of George Washington, set aflame and pulled to the ground, does not redefine the man or the nation he helped found.  The violence only perpetuates the very hatred the destroyers purport to condemn.  Credit, rather, to the man who entered the arena, and who, defiant at the helm of an unsteady vessel, plunged through an ice-filled Delaware to forge a more perfect union founded upon an untried ideal.  Only if he had failed to try would he have failed as a man.  The ultimate success of our nation’s founders is entrusted to each new generation to safeguard and carry forward.

And as in the secular landscape, so in the eternal arena, success is not the final word.  Christ Himself lost in the arena.  He ended up on the Cross, his enemies gloating over his downfall and dividing up his garments.  Apparent victory, the acceptance of the moment, is not what ultimately matters.  The battle is not of this world, and the present arena is but the threshold to eternal reward.

Do not cower before the naysayers.  Theirs is a limited influence.  Do not let your life be defined by anything but your witness, the content of your character, and your reliance upon Almighty God.  Your face may be bloodied, your life’s work in pieces, you may end up seemingly defeated, but yours may be the effort Our Lord needs most.”

From Credit to the Man by Elizabeth A. Michell, July 2, 2020
https://www.thecatholicthing.org/2020/07/02/credit-to-the-man/?

Slaves in Paradise

"Slaves in Paradise." That's what Fr. Christopher Hartley called the Haitian workers in the Dominican Republic who work the sugar cane fields. Slaves who live right next door to the U.S. He worked as a missionary in the beautiful D.R. about 10 years (1997-2006) and exposed the cruelty, and was eventually expelled. In the interview I heard on the radio, he named the wealthy family, and he called the workers "slaves," although in all the articles I checked they are called "immigrants," and usually the family is not named. He is English-Spanish and grew up in luxury and at one time worked with Mother Teresa. If BLM really cared about people of color, they'd be doing something about modern day slavery which is world wide. I heard the interview on "Kresta in the afternoon," EWTN and Ave Maria Radio, June 29. Documentary is "Price of sugar."

"The people in Father Hartley's parish were lured across the border from Haiti into the Dominican Republic by the promise of good jobs. All of them had their identification papers taken from them so that they are now undocumented workers in the sugar plantations — basically they are slaves. They spend twelve hours a day, seven days a week, in the fields cutting cane with machetes. In the shanty towns built by the plantation owners there is no electricity, clean water, education, healthcare, or adequate food.

These Haitian immigrants are poorer and blacker than the Dominicans and they are hated as outsiders. Father Hartley has made it his personal mission to fight for their human rights. He has single-handedly taken on the wealthy family that owns many of the plantations and controls the media."
 https://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/films/reviews/view/17417/the-price-of-sugar

Are you a coward or just a racist?

Have you seen the hand lettered signs "Silence is violence?" It's the opposite of what it says. That means you aren't allowed to speak your truth at all, you can only bow and scrape. In fact, your silence is compliance and acceptance of the racism myth and that as a white person you are evil. "Silence is compliance." A Catholic priest in Carmel, Indiana, is the Bonhoeffer of our times. He's telling it like it is. He's not being silent. He actually called out the rioters and looters. Called them names! Melted a few snowflakes. Support him by not being silent about this insanity.

I realize you may not be retired like I am, you don’t have a monthly pension, so you're afraid to speak out--might loose your job. Or friends. It doesn't matter if my pastor sees my criticism of the church--he has no idea who I am. You tell me on the QT that you support everything I write but, . . you must be silent. I do understand, really, and thanks for the private messages. I'm not posting for glory or likes. I post the truth. But please stop being cowards. You are letting them destroy Columbus (or whatever city you live in). You know they won't stop with the removal of the Columbus statue, or the stand down order of the police, don't you? That just encourages them. It's like whacking a hornets nest--they won't go away. And NO, you are not safe in UA or Worthington or Hilliard.

When OSU or your high school says we need more staff for IED (Inclusion, equity, diversity) classes and more reprograming of your kids' minds, JUST SAY NO! Pull them out. Don't pay ridiculous tuition and fees. Do not let the Controllers of BLM/ANTIFA turn your children's minds to mush. Your life matters, too. Learn from history. How do you think a few overseers were able to control 50 slaves in the fields of the plantation if not through fear and intimidation? How were the Nazis able to round up thousands of Jews and keep them compliant?

No country in the world has offered hundreds of nationalities and religions and ethnic groups the opportunity to live side by side under a Constitution that says they rule the government, not the other way around. Stand up and be proud.

This isn't about slavery in the 17th century. It isn't about microaggression or unconscious bias. This isn't about Police. Those are tools they use against you. Don't let them reprogram you.

Silence is compliance. Don’t be a coward.