Where is Merrick Garland when churches are attacked?

 Sen. John Kennedy says the Justice Dept. has not responded to his complaint in 2020 about attacks on churches. More than 80 attacks have occurred since his first letter urging the Justice Department to step in. Is Merrick Garland too busy ferreting out terrorist parents to pay attention to real anti-Christian crimes?

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2022/mar/2/sen-john-kennedy-urges-merrick-garland-crack-down-/

Francis Fukuyama on Ukraine and the U.S. problems

I don't know if Francis Fukuyama is a liberal or a conservative, but he is an anti-Trumper and an academic who will not give Trump his due. From a Bari Weiss round table podcast with Niall Ferguson, Walter Russell Mead ,and Francis Fukuyama on Ukraine: he was alarmed by Trump supporters who believe he won in 2020, but apparently not alarmed by the chaos of BLM and Antifa taking over cities controlled by Quisling Democrats in 2020. So he thinks our divided nation is a weakness exploited by Putin (and I'd agree). Here he barely condemns Biden's weakness on protecting Ukraine, yet blames Trump for saying Putin was tough, smart opponent.

"FF: I think that many American presidents have a role in bringing us to where we were. I think that we should really begin with the Bucharest summit in 2008 [he leaves out Clinton's role], when Ukraine was first promised a NATO membership [U.S. says no, that's Putin's interpretation]. At the time, I thought that was a big mistake, because we couldn’t actually fulfill that promise. That was under George W. Bush. And I would agree with the criticisms of Obama: I think his refusal to sell weapons to Ukraine and not observing the red line in Syria were bad moves.

But I think that you guys have let Donald Trump off the hook. It’s not just that he was upset about Russiagate [which was all a hoax, but FF apparently believed the Democrats and doesn't know Hillary was behind it]. He has been issuing statements supporting Vladimir Putin from well before he was elected president [he says complimentary things about all international opponents]. Even after the invasion, he talked about Putin being a genius and very savvy. He gave a speech just a few days ago at CPAC where he attacked who as a global tyrant? Justin Trudeau—not a single word about Vladimir Putin. [Yes, we were all alarmed at what was happening in the country closest to the U.S. and Biden said nothing.] He and his followers on the right have a real affinity for strongman leadership [as opposed to the leftist 2-faced Democrats?]. That’s really what is at stake. When you go to Helsinki and you say, “I believe Vladimir Putin more than my own intelligence community,” that’s giving aid and comfort [no, it's the truth--his own intelligence community was part of the deep state]. That’s close to being treasonous, in my view [perhaps FF's favorite theories have been blown up too?].

There is good reason for Putin to think that America is weak under Joe Biden—partly because Trump hasn’t gone away after January 6, and a significant part of the Republican Party believes this lie that the election was stolen. [And Hillary still believes she was elected in 2016.] The country is seriously divided because of the failure of the Republicans to concede the peaceful transfer of power [it was divided long before that--remember when Bush was being called Hitler?]. And so if you’re Putin, you’re thinking that you can rely on your Republican friends to soften any blow. [That's ridiculous, and another lie of the left wing media who can't accept what a joke the Biden-Harris team is.]

Finally, on Biden, yes, I think that he did not do certain things [like helping Putin finance this war by not shutting off his oil]. I was very disappointed when he pulled back on trying to cancel Nord Stream 2. Really, four presidents [don't forget Clinton]  have contributed to this image of American weakness and have made mistakes on policy. But where we are right now, I think, is pretty good given, you know, given that legacy.

Dyscalculia in Adults--difficulty with math

https://www.additudemag.com/dyscalculia-in-adults-symptoms-signs-and-statistics/

• Frequently late, occasionally missing important events altogether
• Finds it difficult to remember names
• Often drives too fast or too slow, or vastly misjudges how long it will take to drive somewhere
• Needs to write down a phone number immediately to remember it
• Gets lost easily; misplaces objects around the house frequently
• Struggles to keep score in games; often loses track of whose turn it is
• Slow to tell time on an analog clock
• Poor memory for anything number-related, like dates or facts

A friend said that sounds like the signs of Alzheimer's Disease and I said, well if it is, I've had AD since I was 5 years old, including math anxiety.

Poland is taking in Ukrainian refugees

When Trump went to Poland in 2017 and praised that country for its culture, Christian history and outstanding citizens, Vox and other leftist media said Trump sounded like an alt-right manifesto. When Biden praises Ukraine for its brave people defending their culture, the leftists swoon. They lied about Trump every chance they had and praise Biden for sitting on his butt buying oil from Russia while Putin surrounded Ukraine.

The war against Ukraine by Melissa Mackenzie

Remember, blog friends and Democrat lurkers and scrollers, we can't trust Biden and our media. We've been lied to for years, long before Trump called them out making him the #1 enemy of the deep state. And never forget the Democrat lies for 5 years of Russia, Russia, Russia! when it was their own party and candidate who did the set-up. Remember it was the Democrats who didn't want Trump to even talk to the president of Ukraine. We need some thoughtful, sane people in Washington, and so far, none have dropped from the sky to help us sort this through. Democrats are thirsting for a world war just after fleeing our responsibilities in Afghanistan and leaving behind millions in military equipment that could be sold to Russia. They are using the Ukrainian people to get to war. A good war should cover for all the fumbling, bumbling of Biden and steal even more of our freedoms. Read this column by Melissa.

"A time of universal deceit... by Melissa Mackenzie

The first casualty of war is the truth -- Hiram Johnson, U.S. Republican Senator from California in 1918

Have we learned nothing? On the heels of multiple deception campaigns by the United States government and media (but I repeat myself), comes a potential world war that is being cheered on by some very, very unserious people.

Caution is being thrown to the wind. This is exceedingly dangerous when nuclear fallout might be the next thing floating through the breeze.

Think that's impossible? Well, a lot of smart people told us that what is currently happening in Ukraine is impossible. Ukraine is winning the propaganda war. How nice. Meanwhile Russia is on its way to Kiev. We are only a couple days into this "military action."

At this writing, Ukraine applied to become a member of NATO. What this is, is an indirect request to have the United States join the war against Russia.

How about a no-fly zone? Again, is anyone considering the full ramifications of doing something like this? What happens when American pilots shoot down a Russian plane?

The United States needs to start production of our own drilling and OUR OWN PIPELINE. But Biden and his minions are not doing that. In fact, the U.S. government just halted drilling. John Kerry was flapping his gums about the climate -- as if that's the main concern and not DEAD Ukrainians.

There are stories coming out that Putin is "crazy." Boloney. Putin is many things: calculating, brutal, murderous, etc. but he is not crazy.

There are rumors floating from guys like Marco Rubio that Putin is sick. Maybe. And if he is, maybe with cancer or something, that makes him more dangerous because he feels like he has some business to finish before he dies.

DON'T FORGET CHINA. In the last few days, she's been harassing Taiwan again. Has anyone considered what a China-Russia alliance looks like for the world?

Anyone?

So please, friends, hold onto your healthy skepticism. Watch warily and realize that much of what you're seeing in the media, on social media, is DESIGNED to make you feel a certain way, adopt a certain position, and to inflame your senses.

What is needed is cool, calculating, heat-lowering rhetoric and actions.

War is evil and we should not enter one, especially a worldwide one, lightly.

Meanwhile, watch your six [watch your back]. While you're looking at the propaganda, what are you not seeing? Today, the House and Senate are trying to pass a bill so that women can abort a baby throughout pregnancy and negating any state and local laws on it. There are lots of news stories afoot that aren't being covered, but are life-changingly important.

Discernment is what is needed now. Wisdom to see not just what we're told to look at but the whole picture.

Russia has a convoy rolling toward Kiev. Is this the "minor incursion" Biden envisioned? Do you trust that Biden knows what's going on?

Remember the lies of the last few years. The same people who promised that masks worked, there was Russian collusion (turns out that it was Hillary), 14 days to stop the spread, etc. are now pushing for World War III in the media.

These people are not to be trusted.

-- Melissa

Oil from Russia, or how Biden put us in danger

 

What in the world is GERD?

A relative has been ill with GERD since a few days after the Super Bowl, so about 2 weeks. She's really feeling yucky and hasn't been able to get in to see her doctor. Ouch. So I looked it up. Don't you love it when you're told to talk to your doctor?

"Nearly everyone has heartburn now and then. But heartburn is also the most common symptom of gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), so talk to your doctor if:

• Your heartburn happens 2 or more times a week
• Your heartburn gets worse
• Your heartburn happens at night and wakes you from sleep
• You’ve had heartburn now and then, but for several years
• You have difficulty or pain when swallowing
• Your discomfort or pain interferes with your daily activities"

We've Facetimed a little and she seems beyond those symptoms. Here's some additional signs. She definitely sounds like she has laryngitis.

"Chronic heartburn is the most common symptom of GERD. Acid regurgitation (refluxed material into the mouth) is another common symptom. But numerous less common symptoms other than heartburn may be associated with GERD. These may include: Overview: Symptoms of GERD - About GERD

• Belching
• Difficulty or pain when swallowing
• Waterbrash (sudden excess of saliva)
• Dysphagia (the sensation of food sticking in the esophagus)
• Chronic sore throat
• Laryngitis
• Inflammation of the gums
• Erosion of the enamel of the teeth
• Chronic irritation in the throat
• Hoarseness in the morning
• A sour taste
• Bad breath"

Living Water John 7:37-52

UALC Lytham Road Sermon and questions. February 27 | UALC Sermons | Lytham Road Campus - YouTube

1. Reread John 7:37-52. Jesus caused division between people who believed him and people who rejected him. Why do you think he caused such strong reactions?

2. In the sermon this week we learned about traits we might share with the Pharisees who said “no” to Jesus. One trait was the temptation to care too much about outside appearances. How or where in your life do you experience this temptation? How does our culture encourage this obsession with image-management? Why does this draw us away from Jesus?

3. The Pharisees also got tripped up by “categorizing” people. (He would know “what kind of woman she is (Luke 7:39).” Or He eats with “sinners.”) Is this a struggle for you too? What’s the understandable reason we do this? What’s the danger?

Other sources

What does John 7:38 mean? 

"During the Feast of Booths, Israel remembered God's miraculous intervention during their time in the wilderness. As part of the celebration, priests would carry water to the altar in the temple, recalling God's provision of water from the rock (Exodus 17:1–7). On the last, most important day of the festival, priests would circle the altar seven times with a container of water. This is the moment Jesus makes this claim, which began in verse 37. These words continue a theme Jesus has used before, including with the Samaritan woman in Sychar (John 4:10–13), and the people near the shores of Galilee (John 6:35).

Jesus' reference to the Scriptures here probably includes more than one single verse or passage. Proverbs 18:4 and Zechariah 14:8 involve similar themes. Given the priestly ritual's connection to the story of water from the rock, Jesus might have had Psalm 78:12–16 in mind. Likewise, the idea of life, or God's truth, being a stream or spring is common in the Bible. The imagery implies something living, pure, and life-giving (Revelation 22:1–2).

As used by Jesus, this internal spring, or stream, is indicative of the Holy Spirit, which comes to live inside all who come to faith in Christ. This indwelling, however, will not begin until after Jesus' ascension (Acts 2:1–4), a point made in the next verse.  https://www.bibleref.com/John/7/John-7-38.html

Got Questions? Rivers of Living Water

Earlier, Jesus had told Nicodemus that one had to be born of water and the Spirit in order to enter the kingdom of God (John 3:5). Most likely, Jesus’ reference to water here was simply to physical birth, in contrast to spiritual birth (John 3:6). In John 4:10 Jesus tells the Samaritan woman that He could give her “living water.” This was in contrast to the physical water that the Samaritan woman came to the well to retrieve. That physical water would run out, and she would need to continually return to get more. But Jesus offered the woman water that would never run out—water that would become within the believer “a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (John 4:14). Jesus later would return to this theme when He stood up in public and said, “If anyone is thirsty let him come to Me and drink” (John 7:37). In this way, He was again offering Himself as the water of life and telling all they could come to Him and receive that never-ending life.  https://www.gotquestions.org/rivers-of-living-water.html

Read the hard parts, Living Water

John 7:38 is not an exact quote from the O.T.  Yet it clearly refers to the Holy Spirit, a reference to the Trinity a word not used in Scripture. Author examines Old Testament prophecy. https://readthehardparts.com/rivers-of-living-water-john-7/

This California author finds a social justice message in Galilee reference

This is where my thoughts go when I read John 7. In John 7, Jesus finds himself with a group of people who do not believe in him, who whisper behind his back, who plot to kill him all because they believe that the Messiah could not possibly come from Galilee. The Messiah could not have come from Galilee some say because Galilee was not Jerusalem or Bethlehem. Galilee may have been a place of social dissent and political protest. Some believe the people there engaged in social banditry, taking from the rich to give to the poor. It isn’t clear, but it is suspected that some of this dissent and protest took violent forms. So Jesus could not be the Messiah because the Messiah could not engage in economic, political and social protest.

In the midst of this unrest, Jesus speaks and says, “Stop judging by mere appearances, but instead judge correctly.” Jesus is saying don’t look at me and where I’m from and draw the wrong conclusion. Don’t assume that I am not the Messiah, do not assume that I don’t have value, don’t assume that I can’t change the world. Jesus continues to challenge us this way today. When we meet someone who doesn’t look like we do, or believe like we do or worship like we do, or that does not have what we have, I hope that we will hear Jesus shouting in our ear, “Stop judging by mere appearances, but instead judge correctly.” My creation has value, my creation can change the world, and I often use those from the least likely places to teach humanity how to love.

When Jesus later says, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them. By this he meant the Spirit,” I suspect that he meant those who are thirsty to know how to judge correctly, will have their thirst quenched.

Let’s pray that rivers of living water flow from us, that we judge all of our neighbors correctly. Let’s listen for Jesus’ voice in unexpected places, for rivers of living water to come from our most unfamiliar neighbors.

Stop judging by mere appearances, but instead judge correctly . . . Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them. By this he meant the Spirit. (John 7:24 and 37b-39a) 

 https://magnifications.org/magnifications/2015/06/05/can-the-messiah-come-from-galilee

The Pharisees react to Jesus' words

The affairs of the temple were carried out by hundreds of Levites, all with specific jobs. There were various classes of priests who administered not only the sacrifices, but others who were gatekeepers, janitors, singers, musicians, and guards who were subordinate to the ruling officers. 7 The guards or officers, when questioned by the chief priests and Pharisees for not doing their job, replied "Never man spake like this man." It was not a small thing to refuse to carry out the orders of the temple rulers. Jesus' preaching was so powerful that these men sent to apprehend him were powerless to do so, being overcome with might of his words and person. The Pharisees were extremely angry and belittled these officers by suggesting they had been deceived by Jesus as were many of the people. The point is clear, these temple officers should have followed their leaders and known better than let Jesus' words sway them. They belittled them by supposing that no Pharisees had believed in him. However, that was not true. Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathaea had believed, but not openly.

They implied that the reason many of the people were believing in Jesus was because they were the ordinary people who did not know the law as the rulers and thus were cursed by their ignorance. Two things are apparent in their statement. First, the Pharisees generally had contempt for the common man who they considered the lower class who did not have the wealth, education and position they enjoyed. As the superior elite of Israel they saw masses as inferior, execrable and worthy of damnation. Second, the Pharisee, chief priests and rulers believed that Jesus was threatening their lucrative position as the rulers in the temple and controller of the temple monies. Jesus warned the people of them in Matthew 12:38-40. Jesus said they loved wearing long distinctive clothing and being addressed with titles. They loved the seats of honor in the synagogues and feast rooms, and worst of all these vile rulers swallowed up the property of helpless widows while they prayed long prayers for them. If you turn on your TV to the religious channels you will see their descendants are around even today. If the people believed Jesus and followed Him, their position and income would greatly suffer. Note that these were the people who opposed Jesus Christ, accusing Him to the people.

 
The Pharisees had just condemned the people because they "did not know the law," but they were conveniently ignoring a principle rule of their law by condemning Jesus before letting Him defend Himself. Jesus had not appeared before the Sanhedrin and thus their condemnation of Jesus was based on second hand information. Also, many thought Jesus was a prophet and some referred to Him as "the Prophet" the one prophesied to come as mentioned earlier. Yet, no one had attempted to apply the rule of law stated in Deuteronomy 18:9-22 which God said was to be used to test if man was truly a prophet of God. These rulers were so incensed by Jesus they were letting their emotions rule their actions. Further, there was widespread belief that Jesus might be the Christ based on His miracles, claims of coming from God the Father, forgiving sin, and statement of His deity. This posed a direct threat to their biblical knowledge and leadership. Throughout the events that followed, the temple officials never followed the law and through illegal trials they condemned Jesus.

They were greatly surprised when Nicodemus, who was the Pharisee who had spoken to Jesus personally, spoke up and defended Him. (John 3) He reminded them of the law they supposedly knew and piously followed. The law of Moses provided that a man must be heard before he could be judged. Therefore their prejudicial judgment of Jesus was clearly illegal.

The Jewish rulers had an open contempt for their fellow countrymen in Galilee. The Galileans were liberal and their society was heavily influenced by Greek culture. The Judean Jews saw themselves as superior to the Galilean Jews because they lived in the city of David, the capital of Israel. Those who were condemning Jesus quickly replied with an insulting question which suggested that Nicodemus was a Galilean, even though they knew he was not. Scornfully they challenged the validity of Jesus' claims by exclaiming... "Search, look for no prophet ariseth from Galilee."

Gilead, our March book club selection

To avoid watching the news and the mess Biden has made of our lives, I've been reading the March book club selection while on the exercycle. Gilead by Marilynne Robison promises to be an interesting read, and I believe it's the first of a series. So I've looked for a few reviews. Her first novel was "Housekeeping" but it was about 24 years before she wrote her second.

But Gilead, a book about fathers and sons, where Housekeeping was a book about girls and women, and fragmentary where one of Housekeeping's achievements was its fluid narrative completeness, takes an opposing narratorial position with a protagonist whose insider credentials could not be stronger. In Genesis, in the story of Joseph, Gilead is the casually mentioned place left behind by the merchants who bought Joseph from his brothers. Robinson's Gilead is a small American town in Iowa in 1956. John Ames, a preacher in his mid-70s whose heart is failing him, is writing letters to his only child, now aged six, so that when the boy reaches an adulthood his father won't see, he'll at least have this posthumous one-sided conversation: "While you read this, I am imperishable, somehow more alive than I have ever been."

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2005/apr/16/fiction.alismith

"GILEAD is better than a good book. It is a slim, spare, yet exquisite and wonderfully realized story that will long stand as one of fiction’s finest reflections on the sacramental dimensions of life, especially the Christian life lived in the routines and wonderments of prayer. It is, like a good sermon, a passionate meditation.

The book is slender only in the number of its pages — a mere 247. Otherwise, it is a fuller, richer and more deeply textured novel than most contemporary fiction twice its size. Robinson makes use of a form — the epistolary novel — that is classic but one of the most difficult to pull off well. It can often seem forced and cumbersome and — to the contemporary reader more attuned to e-mail and instant-messaging rather than the carefully considered craft of composing a letter — irritating in its deliberate pace.

Robinson’s epistle takes the form of a letter from 76-year-old John Ames, a fourth-generation Congregationalist minister, to his just-about-seven-year-old son. Ames is suffering from heart disease, and his letter, written in 1956, is a summing up of the past sprinkled with anecdotes and advice and sketches of the present, especially of his son and his wife and his best friend, also a minister."https://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/2005/03/18/march-18-2005-book-review-gilead-by-marilynne-robinson/4232/

Putin invades Ukraine

Let's pray that NATO is up to the job, because Biden sure isn't. He left billions in matériel behind for ISIS, he's crippled our energy supply by shutting down Keystone, he's created the worst inflation in 40 years, he's weakened our military with wokeism, and did nothing but chatter and pout as Putin used Hitler's game plan of 1939. Those of you who voted for this because you didn't like Trump's strength, resolve and patriotism have helped create this disaster.

Huckabee is alarmed by Trudeau's tyranny, U.S. silence

 

"Can we see the tyranny that's already here? by Mike Huckabee

Perhaps, for Americans, the most shocking thing about the autocratic power-grab in Canada is the failure of our own government to speak out –- forcefully –- against it. Instead, the current administration is engaged in a similar process of trampling dissent, right here in the good old U.S.A.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau didn’t simply adopt temporary “emergency powers” to clear the streets of big rigs, as much of an overreach as that was. What he did appears to be even more serious, as he's shown no intention of relinquishing those powers now that the protest has been broken up.

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/ottawa-blockades-over-but-canadas-trudeau-says-emergency-powers-still-needed-01645469116?siteid=yhoof2&yptr=yahoo

In an update to the above story, the leftists in the Canadian parliament have shown themselves to be accomplices of this tyrant, voting to allow him to extend his “emergency” powers AFTER the emergency is over. Read this and be shocked.

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/canadian-parliament-votes-to-extend-emergencies-act-for-30-days/#slide-1

And Robert Spencer at PJ Media has a must-read commentary on what has just happened there. Note especially the new regulations for crowdfunding and payment platforms. He’s right: this is how democracies die, by starving dissenters financially.

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/robert-spencer/2022/02/20/democracy-dies-in-canada-trudeau-government-to-make-some-of-their-new-authoritarian-measures-permanent-n1560716

On Monday, Tucker Carlson interviewed a man who'd been repeatedly kneed by police in Ottawa after cooperatively climbing down from his rig, kneeling before police and putting his hands behind his head. Ironically, this man, named Csaba Vizi, had come to Canada after fleeing Communist Romania. Video of him inside his truck shows him calmly describing to police how he’s going to surrender peacefully and get on his knees. Then he does so, and waits for them to take him away. But as he tells it, he heard someone yell, “Arrest him! Arrest him!” and he was pushed down onto his stomach. They piled on top of him. We see from other video taken from farther away that one cop very forcefully kneed him, over and over, as he lay on the ground. “I feel like I was beaten, but I took it like a man,” he said.

Yes, they had injured him, he said. “They break my body a little bit, but not my spirit.”

He said that when he came to Canada from Romania, he loved it there, especially the friendly people. He was “so happy.” It was like that for 20 years, but the last couple of years have been different. “It’s impossible to live here anymore,” he said.

https://video.foxnews.com/v/6298431733001#sp=show-clips

A quote from George Orwell featured Monday on Instapundit seems apt: “I have no particular love for the idealized ‘worker’ as he appears in the bourgeois, but when I see an actual flesh-and-blood worker in conflict with his natural enemy, the policeman, I do not have to ask myself which side I am on.”

It’s a shame to see a policeman treat a compliant ‘worker’ such as Csaba Vizi as a natural enemy. Those chilling video images depict an unforgivable abuse of power.

By coincidence, that Orwell quote led into discussion of an article by Glenn Greenwald that I was already planning to highlight in today’s commentary. Greenwald has a new piece on Substack called “The Neoliberal War On Dissent in the West.”

Greenwald comes from what used to be the political left; he would call himself a classical liberal, someone who believes in freedom and free thought, religious freedom, civil rights, equality under the law (as opposed to “equity”), and a government limited by the Constitution. But in the 21st century, classical liberalism has given way to “progressive” authoritarian neoliberalism, with its rigid beliefs, two-tier “justice” system and strict censorship. He knows these people well. And he has a big reality check for us.

We in America have no problem recognizing tyranny across the globe: A Chinese tank sitting ready to crush a lone protester in Tiananmen Square. An East German wiretapper spying on the lives of others behind the Berlin Wall before it fell. The censorship and even criminalization of all dissent. “Re-education” camps. Journalists silenced. We know it when we see it if it’s someplace faraway.

But when it’s right here in front of us, in a DEMOCRACY, we might have a little more trouble recognizing it for what it is: the same kind of tyranny. And if we do see it, there’s still something faintly heretical to some of us about admitting it out loud. It’s as if the idea of this happening in a Western democracy were so absurd it can’t be real. I’d liken this situation to one in which a horrendous crime has happened in your own neighborhood. “This just doesn’t happen HERE,” you likely think. Your neighborhood has always seemed...different. When it happens somewhere else, you take notice, but when it’s two houses down, you’re in shock.

When we were children and pledged allegiance to the Flag, and said “one nation under God,” we took for granted that the freedom given to us by God would always remain, that America was special, shielded by Divine power. It had existed for about 200 years, which to a child is an eternity. As we grew older, we knew there were wars and that freedom can be taken away by other human beings, but, other than the vague atomic threat from faraway Soviet Russia, we still had that feeling of comfort and safety inside our own borders. This was America.

We assumed that the Bill Of Rights protected us as individuals, even if we disagreed with the majority. Our country was set up as a democratic republic, not a pure, majority-rule democracy that might be prone to “popular” uprisings that squelched the rights of the minority. And it has lasted that way for a long time.

But now, even in America, we’re seeing despotism. It’s easy to point to situations in which “due process” doesn’t even apply. In civil asset forfeiture, for example, the government will seize your assets before you’ve even been charged with a crime, let alone convicted. It’s blatantly unconstitutional. Justin Trudeau has done something similar in Canada, freezing assets not only of the protesters but even of people who donated a few dollars to buy them meals. When we witness such tyranny in, say, Russia, we see it for what it is. IT’S THE SAME THING HERE.

Greenwald cites the decade-long repression of Julian Assange as another example. Then-Attorney General Eric Holder, after investigating for years, failed to find evidence of criminality, but financial institutions such as MasterCard, VISA, PayPal and Bank of America were pressured by the Senate Homeland Security Committee into terminating WikiLeaks’ accounts, crippling it.

Financial pressure is a standard weapon these days, with the government joining forces with corporations. GoFundMe tried to steal---I mean, divert, millions in donations intended for the truckers. When GiveSendGo raised millions more, Canadian courts blocked their distribution. The financial system is being used to crush dissent.

Greenwald notes recent protests against the Spanish government by people in Barcelona who wanted more autonomy. The government came down hard on the protesters, treating them like terrorists, seditionists and insurrectionists. (Sound familiar?) Protesters were treated violently, arrested en masse, charged with terrorism and sedition and given long prison sentences.

And when Julian Assange spoke up about how wrong this was, Ecuador rescinded his asylum at their London embassy. They cut off his internet access. Then they allowed London police to come and arrest him.

Anyway, Greenwald makes a critical point: The despotism we so easily recognize around the world is becoming entrenched right here, right now. We can't permit it. https://greenwald.substack.com/p/the-neoliberal-war-on-dissent-in?utm_source=url

Outwitting history, by Aaron Lansky, April book club selection

 https://www.judaismunbound.com/podcast/episode-203-aaron-lansky

  

A fascinating book--passing it on with supplementary material today to another Book Club member.  Hope I can remember it all by April. 

The rich, entitled, and egged

"Nearly 5,000 people have signed up to throw eggs at Jeff Bezos’ superyacht when it sails through the Dutch city of Rotterdam this summer. The planned protest comes in the wake of news that the billionaire Amazon founder’s $500 million vessel would require the dismantling of a historic bridge in order to reach open waters."

https://www.geekwire.com/2022/scramble-the-fighters-thousands-of-protesters-sign-up-to-egg-jeff-bezos-yacht-at-dutch-bridge-site/?

Hypothyroidism

https://www.terrytalksnutrition.com/DBfiles/InTheNewsFile/46859.pdf Michael Edwards.

I had no idea! Here's a comprehensive list of symptoms indicative of hypothyroidism in alphabetic order. I noticed my pathology report for thyroid lumps said hypothyroidism, so I looked it up. I don't know what's left.

 Allergic rhinitis

 Asthma

 Angina pectoris

 Atherosclerosis

 Conditions related to the cardiovascular system

 Carpal tunnel syndrome

 Carotenodermia (slight orange tinge to the skin, usually on the palms of the hands and soles of feet)

 Cold extremities, intolerance to the cold

 Coarse, dry, or thinning hair

 Constipation

 Decreased libido

 Dry, rough, and/or itchy skin

 Edema  Erectile dysfunction

 Fallen arches

 Fatigue

 Fibrocystic breast changes

 Fibromyalgia symptoms

 Headaches

 Hoarseness

 Infertility

 Hypercholesterolemia

 Hyperhomocysteinemia

 Hypertension

 Itchy and/or flaky scalp

 Memory loss

 Mood swings, irritability

 Muscle aches

 Menstrual irregularities (amenorrhea, oligomenorrhea, menorrhagia)

 Neck pain, stiffness, aches (especially in the back of the neck)

 Knee pain (due to fallen arches)

 Pallor (an unhealthy pale appearance)

 Pain in the trapezoid and/or neck area

 Psoriasis

 Poor mental concentration

 Polycystic ovary syndrome

 Postpartum depression

 Premenstrual syndrome

 Reactive hypoglycemia

 Recurrent infections

 Sluggishness, tiredness

 Shoulder pain

 Tinnitus

 Urticaria

 Vasomotor rhinitis

 Vertigo

Weakness

 Weight gain While weight gain, an inability to lose weight, and increased appetite can be sign

Do you like True Crime stories?

True crime and mysteries are genres I almost never read unless it’s on my book club list. However, a few days ago I heard J. Warner Wallace interviewed about his book, “The Person of Christ; why Jesus still matters in a world that rejects the Bible.” He tells about how using his skills as a detective he proves that Jesus is who he says he is—even without the testimony of the Gospels or New Testament (a cold case—no body). Talk about the glory of God in arranging things!   https://www.firstthings.com/blogs/firstthoughts/2022/01/a-detectives-case-for-christ? I’ve been a subscriber to First Things for years, and only recently found out about its podcast.

Wallace's story is amazing, beginning with his own—he was an atheist, didn’t even know very many Christians. But he and his wife decided to try a church because they thought maybe it would be good for the children. He heard the pastor say, Jesus was the smartest person who ever lived, and that set him on his journey. I can’t actually vouch for the book—haven’t read it—but thought the interview was great. https://www.amazon.com/Person-Interest-Jesus-Matters-Rejects/dp/0310111277/?

Political homelessness, those who've left the Left

 https://youtu.be/DQpic6cPwRY

Political homelessness

This discussion is co-sponsored by Tablet and is part of their monthly series called “The Turn,” which focuses on the political homelessness of our current moment. One guest says, "It gets hard to lie after awhile." I couldn't find the term "political homelessness" without finding dozens of articles on homelessness and politics. "When Tablet editor at large Liel Leibovitz saw the left giving up on everything he believed in, he changed politically, a shift he detailed in his recent article, "The Turn." Liel was joined in this video by writer Walter Kirn and Tablet's Editor in Chief Alana Newhouse for this December 27, 2021 conversation about The Turn and what to do next now that so many of us feel politically homeless."

"You may be among the increasing numbers of people going through The Turn right now. Having lived through the turmoil of the last half decade—through the years of MAGA and antifa and rampant identity politics and, most dramatically, the global turmoil caused by COVID-19—more and more of us feel absolutely and irreparably politically homeless. Instinctively, we looked to the Democratic Party, the only home we and our parents and their parents before them had ever known or seriously  considered. But what we saw there—and in the newspapers we used to read, and in the schools whose admission letters once made us so proud—was terrifying. However we tried to explain what was happening on “the left,” it was hard to convince ourselves that it was right, or that it was something we still truly believed in. That is what The Turn is about."

https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/the-turn-liel-leibovitz

Lockdowns had little affect on mortality

A-Literature-Review-and-Meta-Analysis-of-the-Effects-of-Lockdowns-on-COVID-19-Mortality.pdf (jhu.edu)

“A Literature Review and Meta-Analysis of the Effects of Lockdowns on COVID-19 Mortality” By Jonas Herby, Lars Jonung, and Steve H. Hanke

About the Series The Studies in Applied Economics series is under the general direction of Prof. Steve H. Hanke, Founder and Co-Director of The Johns Hopkins Institute for Applied Economics, Global Health, and the Study of Business Enterprise (hanke@jhu.edu). The views expressed in each working paper are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the institutions that the authors are affiliated with.

Lockdowns in the U.S. and Europe had little or no impact in reducing deaths from COVID-19, according to a new analysis by researchers at Johns Hopkins University.

The lockdowns during the early phase of the pandemic in 2020 reduced COVID-19 mortality by about 0.2%, said the broad review of multiple scientific studies. Sheltering in place, about 2.9%

“They have contributed to reducing economic activity, raising unemployment, reducing schooling, causing political unrest, contributing to domestic violence, and undermining liberal democracy,” the report said.

Why do governments create inflation? Milton and Rose Friedman

"Inflation is a disease, a dangerous and sometimes fatal disease, a disease that if not checked in time can destroy a society (long list of examples Russia and German after WWI, China after WWII, Brazil in 1954, Chile in 1973, Argentina 1976)  

"No government is willing to accept responsibility for producing inflation, even in less virulent degree.  Government officials always find some excuse--greedy businessmen, grasping trade unions, spendthrift consumers, Arab sheikhs, bad weather, or anything else that seems even remotely plausible. . . none of the alleged culprits possesses a printing press on which it can turn out those pieces of paper we carry in our pockets; none can legally authorize a bookkeeper to make entries on ledgers that are the equivalent of those pieces of paper."

"The more basic question is, why do modern governments increase the quantity of money too rapidly?  Why do they produce inflation when they understand its potential for harm?

From "Free to choose: a personal statement," by Milton and Rose Friedman,  p. 253-254, pb, 1990

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CARES_Act  The CARES act under President Trump

https://www.whitehouse.gov/american-rescue-plan/  is our best example of a government creating inflation.

https://www.ncsl.org/ncsl-in-dc/publications-and-resources/american-rescue-plan-act-of-2021.aspx

https://www.investopedia.com/american-rescue-plan-definition-5095694

When friends disagree about voting, guest blogger Nancy

You are describing your party. 

Your party has let over 1.2 million people from all around the world into our country illegally and those are only the ones they managed to stop temporarily. 

Your party is allowing them to vote in local elections in some states. 

Your party wants to let them vote in all elections in the future. 

Your party wants to send out ballots to all who they show are registered without cleaning the voter rolls of those who have died or moved or now have dementia and those who have not voted in years. 

Anyone at those addresses could vote in those other persons names because your party does not require ID. 

 Your party wants to allow people to collect as many votes as they can to drop in boxes in large bunches setting up possible vote buying. 

Your party wants to accept votes cast up to 2 weeks past Election Day. 

Your party brought out boxes of votes to count late on election night after they told observers to go home because the counting was done for the night. 

How the hell is the party that wants fair and honest votes the one who is trying to steal elections?!!!

Biden is president. Not Trump. I do not agree with the way Trump handled the aftermath of the election. Many of the lawsuits he filed should have been filed before the election to challenge the unconstitutional ways some voting laws were changed. They were thrown out because of timing. I believe with all my heart that the instigators of all the violence on the 6th were not Trump voters. I have seen evidence supporting my opinion. I agree that some in the crowd were far right loonies. But no Trump rallies were ever violent. In fact most of the crowds were quite friendly and even cleaned up after themselves.

Have you seen news of the latest Durham report? Filings that show proof that the Clinton campaign had the Trump campaign, Trump and the Trump presidency hacked? The filings also show how the Clinton Campaign paid to use those hacks to create the illusion of a Russia connection to Trump. Brings back memories of how she paid for the now proven false Russian collusion dossier.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/donald-trump-really-was-spied-on-2016-clinton-campaign-john-durham-court-filing-11644878973 

https://video.foxnews.com/v/6297460219001#sp=show-clips

https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/594126-durham-alleges-cyber-analysts-exploited-access-to-trump-white-house 

Truckers or the ladies in pink hats or the J-6 rioters: who is a bigger threat?

The truckers are 90% vaxxed as are most of the people supporting them. This has gone way beyond the vaccine. So now you hear all the media and political lies about Confederate flags, racism, and insurrections. I’m vaxxed too, although losing faith in it daily. Today I learned that a friend of mine who is vaxxed and boosted, has had Covid twice, which means she also has natural immunity, and she is extremely sick. (She also works with animals, and increasingly we see items about them being vectors). I have another friend who has had cancer, heart surgery, and hepatitis flares before 2020 when Covid started—she’s now had her fourth shot, which means they are rolling that out for the extremely immune compromised and we’ll all be next. She’s now having many incidents of A-fib, a known hazard/outcome for the vaccine. She’s 65, and in precarious health. I’m sure she decided to take the risk, but others should have that choice too without having their lives destroyed by the media and government. Also, although there are required vaccines in many places, there have been exemptions in the past, and also there definitely should be health exemptions, like young men with heart problems should be able to decide their risk. They know the natural immunity is real, they know there are test for natural antibodies, so why are the refusing to consider it. There are many things to protest. As in the 16th century. It's why millions of Christians are called "Protestants."

And it’s possible for 8,000 truckers to stop a government, but not a few hundred yahoos, unarmed in silly costumes. This “insurrection” and “take over the government” meme is just pandering to the worst sort of Democrats, the totally unhinged ones. Half a million women in pink hats on Trump’s inauguration day milling around and screaming in DC were far scarier.