The American Spirit Bubbles Up

Posted on by charliej373
Freedom-of-Speech_HiRes_9med
Freedom of Speech – Norman Rockwell

By Charlie Johnston

A colleague reported this delightful story to me:

A small town. The Mayor (who is a medical professional) decides that continued lockdown orders are unconstitutional, given what we now know about the Coronavirus and its actual dangers. The Mayor decides the citizens of the town are responsible and smart enough to take proper precautions without being quarantined. So the Mayor decrees that businesses in town, including the restaurants, can open up again. They do. Ah, but the county health department is not pleased that mere citizens dare defy their orders. So they call the restaurants telling them they will have them shut down later in the day. The Health Dept. calls the County Sheriff – who tells them it is not their jurisdiction. So the Health Dept. calls the local police, ordering them to defy the Mayor and go in and shut the restaurants down. The local police refuse. Later in the day, local cops are found cheerfully eating in one of the restaurants…though their banter is a little loud because they are practicing social distancing.

Across America, the nannies and nags are losing the narrative. In Michigan, a judge ruled against their insane governor‘s assertion of plenipotentiary power to shut down a poor man’s barber shop. The local sheriff has refused to carry out Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s order to shut it down (joining six other sheriff’s departments in refusing, generally, to enforce the governor’s arbitrary orders). In Seattle, Officer Greg Anderson was fired for refusing to take down a post he put up which protests illegal arbitrary orders – even as the governor was threatening to starve people who refuse to cooperate with “contact tracing.” We do seem to be turning a corner. Those police officers who were willing to be eager little brownshirts, enforcing whatever absurd orders their masters (like the red queen) came up with before breakfast, are getting a lot more pushback from their more sober colleagues. The steady hands in law enforcement understand that if they alienate ordinary people, whatever support they get from the shrieking harpies will be temporary and ephemeral.

Meantime, as people increasingly ignore the nonsense coming from blue state officials and local nannies, those officials increasingly resemble Cartman from South Park demanding that people respect their “authoritay” even as those people laugh him to scorn.  Americans willingly give authorities the benefit of the doubt when real emergencies develop, but also have a pretty good schiff detector. The loons who are making up arbitrary authoritarian rules are undercutting, not enhancing, their own authority. And I, for one, am proud to see Americans rejecting nonsense as nonsense.

On the other hand, some folks who put a premium on liberty and common sense risk losing the narrative, themselves. Some are demanding that those who are legitimately concerned for the health of themselves or their family dismiss those concerns entirely. For the same reasons that I object strenuously to officials arbitrarily trying to starve and destroy their own populations against their will, I object equally strenuously to people who agree with me on that point demanding that others, who are concerned for their health, put themselves at what they believe to be at risk. I am not willing to be bossed around by the Karens, but I am not interested in imposing my will on anyone, either. I am glad to see the spirit of American independence reasserting itself, but let us remember that that spirit was largely animated by the idea that I don’t have to agree with you to support your right to do what you think is best, so long as it does not infringe on my liberty. Thus, you have full freedom to swing your arm without comment from me. But your freedom to swing your arm stops at the tip of my nose – and my liberty.

 

228 thoughts on “The American Spirit Bubbles Up”

  1. President Trump casually mentioned at a press briefing today that he’s been taking Hydroxychloroquine and Zinc for the past week or so. He must have read SteveBC’s comments here about HCL+Z’s effectiveness as a prophylactic drug combo to ward off COVID-19. 😉

    Liked by 9 people

  2. I’ve been praying and thinking about this mess we have ourselves in. One of the things I hear a great deal is that local and rural hospitals may be on the brink of bankruptcy, because they eliminated all elective surgeries, their main revenue stream. (In contrast abortion clinics remaining open.) Another thing I have been reading and hearing repetitively is that this shut down is causing many small churches to also be on the brink of bankruptcy. Is this part of the plan? The longer the delay, the more of these little churches may be eliminated. Also, it seems that Evangelicals are leading the charge on standing up for no Church services. Where are the Catholic voices? It was wonderful to read that “Thomas J. Tobin, the Catholic bishop of Providence, Rhode Island, has challenged the authority of the state to shut down the religious worship of its citizens.” In California our Governor has said that churches are not to open up until phase 3, which is 2-3 months from now. Is it time for the lay Catholics to speak up? Is this part of our responsibility? St. Padre Pio said that we could more easily survive without the sun, than without the Mass. It has now been about 2 months since there were any public Masses in CA. I hope you will have them in your states and counties soon.

    Liked by 8 people

    1. yes Deon a sad state of affairs in CA. Last week about 60 of us prayed and held signs out front of the Archbishops Cathedral. He put out a letter that he and his fellow Bishops are talking to each other and to the local authorities to work out a plan to reopen. When? When they let us.
      In the meantime, clandestine priests are finding a way to feed their flock. Praise Lord Jesus Christ. May MORE courageous clergy do the same.

      Liked by 7 people

    2. Amen Deon!!!

      My thoughts exactly! I have been pleading with my Bishop to open up.

      There seems no end in sight 😢

      I keep praying for miracles. We desperately need them to hearten the faithful. When darkness is so thick.

      When is the Triumph of Immaculate Heart suppose to happen?

      Liked by 4 people

        1. I wonder what St. Anne thought of the timing and place of Jesus’s birth. Surely she would have wanted to be with her daughter to help her. It strikes me as an inconvenient time, yet it was God’s perfect time.

          Liked by 5 people

  3. JESUS = GOOD NEWS! 😉

    https://www.crisismagazine.com/2020/may-you-live-in-interesting-times

    https://stream.org/atheists-in-praise-of-christianity/

    https://www.crisismagazine.com/2020/another-plague

    https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2020/05/19/the-covid-lockdown-ends-when-we-the-people-withdraw-our-consent/

    https://stream.org/the-mainstream-medias-great-trick-ridiculing-people-into-silence/

    https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/05/19/revealed-amazon-funding-partners-with-far-left-hate-group-southern-poverty-law-center/

    If you need an example of Berserker Trump Derangement Syndrome you need look no farther than Hydroxychloroquine, just ’cause Trump, early on, mentioned that this drug might be helpful in the China Plague fight HCQ has become a, despised by The Usual Suspects, “member” of Trump Deplorables ….. Madness (Fear) On Parade!
    https://townhall.com/tipsheet/bethbaumann/2020/05/18/pelosi-trump-shouldnt-take-hydroxychloroquine-because-hes-in-the-morbidly-obese-class-n2569047

    https://www.breitbart.com/the-media/2020/05/18/neil-cavuto-stunned-by-trump-taking-hydroxychloroquine-it-will-kill-you/

    In case Ya missed? HCQ has been used SAFELY for over 60 YEARS in a number of applications.

    https://galganov.com/2020/05/18/walk-a-mile-in-his-shoes-just-try-it/

    GOD SAVE ALL HERE!

    Liked by 6 people

  4. I hope Desmond doesn’t mind I post this here! It’s just too mind blowing not to!!! Maybe you all knew this already but I didn’t…they were talking a lot on Catholic radio yesterday about how St Faustian was to “prepare the world for Christ’s second coming,” and St Pope John Paul 2…so I asked Desmond what is difference from second coming and middle coming!!! Whoa!!!! Here’s his response!!!! Really opened up something for me in my head and my ❤️ heart!!! Thank you again, Desmond aka aquinas!!! I thought you all would like to meditate on this! Maybe you knew already? I did not!

    ”The time of Mercy’ spoken of encompasses the time between Jesus fist coming in the manger, and his 2nd coming at the very end of the world and its time,

    This is made clear in St. Paul and other sacred writers in the New Testament. I’ll give you but one example from St. Paul on this. Herein he is speaking of the “new man” who is created in us during the reception of the Sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation.

    In Paul’s letter to the Romans, he tells his flock in Rome, “I appeal to you therefore brethren, BY THE MERCIES OF GOD, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.” [Romans, 12:1]

    There are many places in the New Testament wherein it is announced that the time of Mercy began with the arrival and passion, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. That mercy lasts till the end – when the Justice side of the Reign of Jesus Christ comes in.

    The Middle coming is associated with that entire time of the time of Mercy, As Pope John Paul II points out in one of his books.

    John Paul defines with complete thoroughness and accuracy what the ‘Middle Coming’ is all about. That term was created by St. Bernard of Clairvaus, a Doctor of the Church. JP II, who was a consummate theologian, references that terms source as being in St. Bernard, and goes into great depth as to what it is, when it occurs and how it comes about.
    Please read this word for word text of JP II’s’ carefully. It has thoughts and commentaries for every day throughout the Liturgical Year.

    This is the third (Middle) coming of which the Fathers speak. It is the “interior advent,” which was analyzed theologically and ascetically by St. Bernard: “In the first coming the Word was seen on earth and mingled with mankind when, as He Himself affirmed, they saw Him and hated Him. In the last coming every person shall see the salvation of God, and they shall look on him whom they pierced. But the intermediate coming is occult, in it only the elect see him within themselves, and their souls are thereby saved.” (De medio Adventu et triplici innovationne).
    THIS INTERIOR ADVENT is brought to life through constant meditation on and assimilation of the Word of God. It is rendered fruitful and animated by prayer of adoration and praise of God. It is reinforced by constant reception of the Sacraments, those of Reconciliation and the EUCHARIST in particular, for they cleanse and enrich us with the grace of Christ and make us “new” in accordance with Jesus’ pressing call: “Be coverted.” (cf. Mt 3:2; 4:17; Lk 5:32; Mk 1:15).

    I’ve copied this text directly from my copy of Pope John Paul II’s book, ‘Prayers and Devotions from Pope John Paul II’. It was Published by Regnery Gateway in 1984. The quote is from JP II’s writings for Dec. 20, on page 32.

    I.e., The Middle Coming is an Interior Coming which John the Apostle speaks of in his Gospel. All those who truly love Jesus, and keep his commandments … the Father will also love. St. John promises us the Jesus and the Father will come and make their abode is the heart of the faithful believer.

    THE MIDDLE COMING OCCURS THROUGHOUT THE TIME OF MERCY – THE TIME BETWEEN JESUS FIRST COMING IN THE MANGER TO HIS SECOND COMING AT THE END OF TIME.

    Does that answer your question?”

    It sure did!!!🤗❤️🙏🌹😇📿⛵️🐿🐇💐🔥

    Liked by 5 people

      1. Somehow my mind, heart & soul wasn’t ripe yet for it…😂😂😂 my poor little brain🤯 hahaha!!! I’m Johnny come late!!! I’ll probably be late for my own funeral!!! Lol. But I’m gonna order that book on jp2! Do you remember link on Desmond piece last year Beckita?

        Liked by 3 people

        1. You’re doing great, Linda. Your post was the reminder to look back. If you click on the purple colored words “this piece” it will take you to Desmond’s piece. (edited my comment to name the correct words in purple)

          Liked by 4 people

          1. Thanks so much Beckita!!!🤗😘❤️🙏😇🌹 you rock my world! I’ve been thinking 🤔 about something I heard awhile back…someone said…maybe it was Desmond? That in heaven you never stop learning!!! Ha!!! I like that very much and I bet we all do (no presumption on my being in heaven…just hope)

            Liked by 6 people

              1. Ah yes!!! I just LOVE HER!!!❤️❤️❤️😇 her movie on heaven is WONDERFUL!!! Thank you dearest Lord for our modern day mystics!!! Aka fellows with strange jobs!!!🤗🙏😇🌹📿❤️

                Liked by 2 people

      2. This is great, Beckita, a wonderful review of what we read previously! It shows me how much we need to re-read important items. I could not have described accurately what the “middle coming” is although I have read about it more than once! Thank you for the reminder!

        Liked by 4 people

      3. Thanks Beckita I got it re-read it and posted it! Funny thing is first time around it didn’t really make sense to me!!! I guess God is pruning us because this time – especially without the daily bread – it really clicked!!! Actually I’m starting to notice little things lately… like the birds singing, rolling clouds, blades of grass!!! 😂 On reflection…when this piece came out about the middle coming I was still working, still into “buying” things we don’t need, still seeking ways to comfort self rather than letting God comfort which this pandemic has BEGUN to teach me personally! I remember Charlie saying awhile back that the rapids will burn off the “dross” in our persons. I imagine this is some of what he meant! Anyhow…just wonderful!!!🤗❤️🙏😇🌹📿

        Liked by 2 people

  5. I am so grateful that there are Masses here in NE. This was my favorite virtual one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7D4erS9_Wk&t=116s
    (Mass starts at 5:24)
    I feel as though the viral timeout is the opportunity needed for a new beginning, a blessing– a tsunami deluge of the Holy Spirit this Pentecost. https://www.romancatholicman.com/pentecost-novena-asking-god-for-a-priestly-pentecost/
    Discouragement is the satan’s favorite tool.

    Liked by 1 person

  6. An initiative to ban late-term abortions is a few thousand signatures short of qualifying, but they have about two weeks more to get the required number. The Archdiocese of Denver is backing the effort.

    If you have any friends in Colorado who might not have heard about this, please spread the word.

    https://www.frc.org/get.cfm?i=WA20E38&f=WU20E10

    Here is a website that shows where there are signature-signing stations set up:

    https://duedatetoolate.com/events

    Given the shutdown, including churches being closed, it’s amazing they have gotten this close. Let’s pray they can get the signature to qualify before the grace period expires.

    PRAYING for ALL HERE and GOD BLESS AMERICA !

    Liked by 4 people

    1. I sent to my Uncle in Colorado. He will email it far and wide to his friends!

      Please Lord, more than 10,000 signatures!!!

      Liked by 5 people

  8. Wow, this is always such a wealth of information. Thank you for sharing. It is truly amazing what God does with those who are open to Him.

    A quick question, does anyone know if this can be verified via another source? https://thenationalpulse.com/politics/exclusive-cnn-bbc-reuters-ccp-global-media-summit/
    It’s about the many US media sites and their involvement over the years in the Chinese Communist Party’s Global Media Summit.

    Liked by 2 people

    1. Just read it and it makes sense to me! Can’t verify however. We know the liberal media is a mouthpiece for Chinese propaganda; nothing new about that.

      Liked by 1 person

  9. JESUS = GOOD NEWS! 😉 … PM Edition.

    https://finance.townhall.com/columnists/charlesbowyer/2020/05/19/amazon-blocks-funding-for-christian-charities-how-to-fight-back-n2569076

    https://www.toddstarnes.com/faith/report-chicago-mayor-sent-police-to-tow-cars-block-church-parking-lot

    https://spectator.org/a-time-to-hate/

    https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/coronavirus/swedish-coronavirus

    https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2020/05/our-four-largest-states-compare-and-contrast.php

    https://www.churchmilitant.com/news/article/democrat-totalitarian-takeover

    https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/05/acts-treason-david-horowitz/

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/05/shocking-development-singapore-woman-linked-bill-gates-soros-china-flagging-removing-video-content-california-doctors-behind-viral-video/

    https://www.military.com/daily-news/2020/05/19/navy-sends-subs-sea-message-china.html

    https://www.forbes.com/sites/isabeltogoh/2020/05/19/trump-threatens-to-permanently-halt-who-funding-and-reconsider-us-membership-china-hits-back/

    GOD SAVE ALL HERE!

    Liked by 4 people

          1. Also from my FB friend who has been a longtime fighter for an end to abortion.

            I knew and loved Norma. She was a beautiful soul. She was prolife. She was a real Christian in the Catholic Church. She was just plain real, with a streak of kindness and human wit. It was a great privilege to know her as a friend.

            But she was also hurting with a lot of guilt and brokenness. 😔

            Towards the end she was not well, and not very healthy. 😥

            It broke my heart. 💔

            And perhaps, as members of the prolife movement and Church we could have done a better job of helping her with her struggles with darkness and sadness.

            This documentary should provoke an honest examination of conscience for each one of us. Are we really there for hurting people in their times of need? Do we care about them and for them?

            Poor Norma. 😥

            Im afraid she is now being *used* *again* by proabortion people who want to hijack her life and create a false narrative, forwarding an agenda she would have never supported. 😠

            I think she was amazing for her courage, sincerity, her sacrifices, all she endured personally, and for the heavy cross she tried to faithfully carry each day. ✝️

            May she rest in God’s Divine Mercy. 🙏✝️❤

            Liked by 4 people

  11. This is very serious, please pray. For those who don’t know Emmanuel = 2009 Lancet ““Principles For Allocation of Scarce Medical Interventions.” Joanne posted at length about the criminal nursing home deaths in Ny, CT, NJ, etc. I wonder if he is part of the consultants paid 2million that Sen Fasano said was done without legislative oversight?

    This is moving fast, my friends:

    http://connecticut.news12.com/story/42148450/officials-praise-connecticuts-response-to-coronavirus-as-state-prepares-to-begin-reopening-may-20
    Gov. Ned Lamont introduced two high-profile experts who have been consulting the state – Scott Gottlieb, the former commissioner of the FDA, and Ezekiel Emanuel, a renowned bioethicist and oncologist who worked in the Obama administration.

    and it’s being reported that we will start to be arrested for noncompliance, this as hospitalizations drop precipitously.

    https://portal.ct.gov/-/media/Office-of-the-Governor/Executive-Orders/Lamont-Executive-Orders/Executive-Order-No-7PP.pdf?la=en

    WHEREAS, state police and municipal police may enforce violations of orders issued pursuant
    to a civil preparedness or public health emergency and there is a public health need to add
    additional enforcement capabilities; and

    Liked by 2 people

  12. JESUS = GOOD NEWS! 😉

    We, with God’s help, need to be purging the demons from Church & State!
    https://www.ncregister.com/blog/FatherCush/i-know-who-you-are-why-demons-are-so-terrified-of-christ

    https://stream.org/how-to-fight-the-new-national-socialists-part-2-know-what-they-want/

    https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2020/05/20/Justice-Department-Californias-pandemic-plan-discriminates-against-churches/9721589957699/?sl=1

    https://stream.org/how-intensely-does-the-leftwing-media-hate-trump/

    https://www.foxnews.com/politics/planned-parenthood-coronavirus-stimulus-money-ppp-return

    https://townhall.com/columnists/johnstossel/2020/05/20/shutdowns-silver-lining-n2569099

    https://www.crisismagazine.com/2020/the-cure-for-coronavirus-is-not-more-government

    The below quote attributed to Marcus Tullius Cicero could easily be slightly modified to “explain” what’s going on before our very eyes in Church & State. ;-( …:
    “For this day’s work, lords, you have encouraged treason and opened the prison doors to free the traitors. A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and he carries his banners openly against the city. But the traitor moves among those within the gates freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears no traitor; he speaks in the accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their garments, and he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation; he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of a city; he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to be feared. The traitor is the carrier of the plague. You have unbarred the gates of Rome to him.”

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/05/one-unmaskers-general-flynn-obamas-treasury-department-wife-dem-rep-raskin-presented-unconstitutional-impeachment-senate/

    GOD SAVE ALL HERE!

    Liked by 4 people

  13. This is a very sobering piece from Fr. Dwight Longenecker:
    https://dwightlongenecker.com/introducing-the-new-threat-global-neo-paganism/

    “One of the takeaways from the Amazonian Synod was the materialization of a new religious identity in the world. When I say this is a “new religious identity” I do not mean to suggest that it is a new invention. It is, in fact, a religion that is as old and wide and powerful as the Amazon itself.

    I name it “Global Neo-Paganism” and this new manifestation of the old paganism is unique in certain ways and yet as predictable as a seance. Let me explain what I mean by “Global Neo-Paganism.”

    Liked by 2 people

  14. Good News friends!

    My priest is open to making an appt. with me for confession!!

    We are in the midst of setting it up! 😀

    Liked by 5 people

  15. I finished Sydney Powell’s “License to Lie”, I recommend everyone to read this book. The conduct contained within is reprehensible on all levels.

    Liked by 2 people

    1. I think my blood would boil if I read it, Sean. Another word aptly describe the crimes committed:
      trea·son
      /ˈtrēzən/ the crime of betraying one’s country, especially by attempting to kill the sovereign or overthrow the government.

      Liked by 4 people

      1. Infuriating is a word which came to mind. Another word: Evil! Satan lives within the USA Department of Justice. The entire organzation should lose all prosecutorial authority and capability. The cases presented for the past twenty years should be thrown out with any incarcerated persons remaining released.

        The culture within the DOJ is evil. They had ‘Brady’ evidence of exculpatory facts, omitted the wording, changed the meaning and passed onto the defense stating ‘this is all the defense material’ knowing the defendant Innocent. Then priceded to trial, leading the jury/Judge in falsehood and upon conviction, demanding the greatest prison sentence. Any appeal was fought with vigor, to thelast breath. Evil.
        Pure Evil.

        General Flynn’s case is a prime example of their conduct. Btw, the prosecuting attorneys did notlosetheir law licenses, still work in dc firms. I can’t fathom any firm knowingly employing these miscreant thugs.

        Liked by 3 people

    1. I see a lot of people being red pilled. At the same time, maybe God’s Plan does not include bringing Q’s particular plan – if it’s indeed authentic – to its intended finish. Time will tell.

      Liked by 1 person

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Published by charliej373

Charlie Johnston is a former newspaper editor, radio talk show host and political consultant. From Feb. 11, 2011 to Aug. 21, 2012, he walked 3,200 miles across the country, sleeping in the woods, meeting people and praying as he went. He writes on cultural, global and political issues from an orthodox Catholic perspective. He emphasizes that we find God most surely through the ordinary, doing the little things we should with faith and fidelity. His constant refrain is that, to live real joy, we must acknowledge God, take the next right step, and be a sign of hope to those around us. He lives in the Archdiocese of Denver in the United States.