By Charlie Johnston
Manassas, Virginia The titans of the big tech and media establishment have spent over a decade frantically drilling a hole in the boat we’re all in with the hope that we rubes would drown. Now massive layoffs are hitting big tech, social media, and corporate media – and the drillers are complaining about how unfair and cruel it all is. We never expected you self-proclaimed titans of the universe to be geniuses: only smart enough to know that if you sink the boat, you’re going down, too. While you’ve been maniacally plotting our destruction, we have quietly been building ways to survive without you or the institutions you have ruined. So, what are you going to do from here? Welcome to the party, pal.
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Our own Sheryl Collmer, editor of the CORAC National Newsletter and our accountant, had a great article published in Crisis Magazine last week. It speaks of the growing shift in the tide on the Covid narrative. It is a marvelous piece. Despite all the government, media, and public health efforts to suppress the horrifying facts, too many people now know someone who was injured or died because of the Covid shots. Truth is shooting up like a balloon being held under water after it escapes its handler’s grasp.
Once again I encourage you to get the Brazen Serpent Prayer. We sinned through hubris and fear – and dark forces in government, media and the health professions encouraged the sin by their hubris. God does not want our destruction; He wants our reclamation. Above all, this prayer is about returning us to right relation with God, particularly in our approach to health and wellness.
It would also be good to look at the 21st Chapter of Numbers, and consider the wages of rebellion against God – and His mercy in healing us anyway when we repent. The Brazen Serpent story is a minor one in the Old Testament, but it is certainly a story for our times.
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My astronomy professor in college was Dr. J. Allen Hynek. You may be familiar with him because he headed the Air Force’s Project Blue Book, an investigation into the phenomenon of UFO’s. I was delighted when he made a cameo appearance near the end of the 1977 movie, “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.” A few years back there was a TV miniseries about Project Blue Book. I only watched one episode. The actor they got to play Hynek looked the part but he was a dour, unpleasant man. In reality, Hynek had a lively, wry wit. He was the epitome of the absent-minded professor. I think Hynek purposefully put on some of the absent-mindedness as a form of the ironic humor that so delighted him.
What I remember him best for, though, is coming up with one of the most delicious phrases I have ever heard. It is one I still use on occasion. It came during a lecture he was giving about the controversies surrounding his study of UFO’s outside of class. He noted that some critics denied the phenomenon because they insisted there could not be life on other planets. That, he said, was putting the cart before the horse. The proper way to approach it was to investigate the phenomenon, determine whether it is credible or not, and only then start trying to figure out what it is. To think that the only possible explanation for such a thing was aliens and then deny the well-attested phenomenon because you don’t believe in the possibility of aliens is, he said, the product of a peculiar “temporal provincialism” – which cannot imagine any explanation for the phenomenon other than one they reject. Such a mindset prevents inquiry into a subject altogether, thus foreclosing the very possibility of ever getting answers.
Contrary to what many think, Professor Hynek never suggested that aliens were the source of UFO’s. He concluded that the phenomenon was genuine, that he didn’t know what the cause of it was, but that he would like to know, which is why he studied it.
We live in tumultuous times. We need to liberate ourselves from the temporal provincialism that afflicts our own capacity to analyze the world and events around us. Things are happening in our world that have never happened in our comfortable lifetimes – and in ways they have never happened in those same lifetimes.
We all work from a template we have developed over the course of our lives for the purpose of analyzing the information we take in. Some people trust nothing and assume that everything is a hoax or an effort to manipulate them. The problem with this approach is that it is a sucker for every conspiracy theory that comes along and is incapable of recognizing truth at all, because it believes everything is a hustle. It is not at all the same thing as questioning everything. It is a handicap which prevents one from seeing anything as it is. Others trust everything, particularly if told them by a purportedly authoritative source. This approach is incapable of seeing when authoritative sources start to go off the rails (and often even when they lay in fiery ruins). Oddly, people who adopt either approach think they are unusually smart when, actually, their approach makes them slaves to other people’s narratives.
When an era is passing experience turns traitor. Most people’s experience encompasses their own lifetime and locale – and little else, regardless of how sophisticated they think themselves to be. This is why Jews in 1935 Germany thought what was happening was just another of the periodic pogroms that they faced in both Europe and Russia. It is why, in both France and Russia, just a year before their respective revolutions, Monarchs dismissed instability and occasionally violent eruptions of protest as the mere occasional disruptions of malcontents. Systemic failure looks very similar to transient failure in the early stages. It takes an intimate acquaintance with historical currents and with philosophy and logic to discern the difference between the two. Yet understanding the two is critical. A flat tire is a transient failure; a blown engine is a systemic failure. It does not matter how smart you are or how vast your experience is. Late-stage Rome thought the pesky Germanic tribes that would ultimately overcome the Empire were the usual lot of feckless barbarians who made a lot of noise but accomplished nothing. At the beginning of the 20th century, England’s high brain trust of statesmen and military commanders thought that the eruptions of Arabs seeking independence in the Middle East was a Jewish plot. I kid you not. Policy was made from that false predicate to the sorrow of the British Empire. The Mercantile and Industrial class of Germany thought Adolf Hitler was a dull-witted rabblerouser who, given a little appeasement, would be easily bent to their will. Understand first that, when eras change, the experience which had always been your faithful ally can become your greatest enemy, blinding you to the new reality unfolding.
Just recently Ben Shapiro conceded he had been dead wrong about the Covid shots. That was admirable, but he had spoken long and sneeringly about the ignorance of people who questioned and resisted the establishment narrative. What possessed him to be so smug and insufferable, pretending to a vast intellectual superiority over common folk, while touting something that was completely wrong and making it clear that he thought any who disagreed with his initial take was just an idiot and a rube?
In his Annual Message to Congress in 1862, President Abraham Lincoln warned that no “personal significance, or insignificance…” could spare the people of his era from their duty to history and the country. It was a stinging rebuke to the hubris that says you must believe what I believe or you’re an idiot. In fact, the concluding words of his message are well worth deep contemplation in these times:
“…The dogmas of the quiet past, are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise — with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew, and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country.
“Fellow-citizens, we cannot escape history. We of this Congress and this administration, will be remembered in spite of ourselves. No personal significance, or insignificance, can spare one or another of us. The fiery trial through which we pass, will light us down, in honor or dishonor, to the latest generation. We say we are for the Union. The world will not forget that we say this. We know how to save the Union. The world knows we do know how to save it. We — even we here — hold the power, and bear the responsibility. In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free — honorable alike in what we give, and what we preserve. We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best hope of earth. Other means may succeed; this could not fail. The way is plain, peaceful, generous, just — a way which, if followed, the world will forever applaud, and God must forever bless.”
We must endeavor, then, to see things as they are, not as we wish them to be or as our experience has told us they once were. I respect Ben Shapiro for admitting he was wrong but since he did not address his insufferable arrogance in insisting that what was objectively wrong was right, in the first place, I cannot know whether he has done anything to recalibrate the flaws that led to that error. So his haughty sneers about the stupidity of people who disagree with him on anything in the future without addressing their questions will leave me – and those people – cold.
It is a paradox that in the same tumultuous times when there are the most actual conspiracies the most absurd conspiracy theories march in tandem with them. In fact, actual conspiracists love absurd conspiracy theories for the camouflage it gives their machinations.
There are many things happening now that, if they happened as recently as a decade ago, I would quickly dismiss as conspiracy theories. Given our experience of the last seven years, the last three in particular, many conspiracy theories have turned out to be spoiler alerts. On the matter of government manipulation of social media sites the Twitter Files revealed that the reality was far uglier and more extensive than the worst conspiracy theorists had posited.
The key, then, is to see things as they are without letting our analytical ruts deceive us.
Let us apply Professor Hynek’s method to a minor current controversy, the shortage of eggs and the unusual stoppage of hens laying. First, is there such a phenomenon at all? The price of eggs and the universal attestation to the phenomenon by all sides and raw data confirm it. Second, what is causing it? Those who trust nothing suggest it is a government plot to disrupt our food supply. Given the Covid experience of the last three years AND that powerful people, including Bill Gates, Klaus Schwab and much of the Democratic Party have publicly stated they want the world population drastically reduced by an order of magnitude or two, that is not an unreasonable suspicion. But is it the cause? Those given to normalcy bias note, properly, that hens lay much fewer eggs when the weather gets colder. As much as it vexes global warming advocates, we have had an unusually – maybe even historically – cold winter across the entire country this year. It is entirely possible that there may be elements of truth in both positions. Then the question becomes what to do about it? If it is just the cold weather, it will take care of itself soon enough. Some people began to suspect that something was different about this year’s feed that was causing the disruption. A little edgy, but Bill Gates DID intentionally support and issue vaccines in Africa a decade ago that, also, surreptitiously sterilized the women who took them. Thus, the theory is not outside plausible reason or even recent experience. Some chicken farmers changed the feed they were giving their chickens and the hens started laying again. Those given to normalcy bias, while largely conceding the efficacy of this method, argue that as average temperatures rise, the reason is not that there was anything wrong with the feed, but that the change shocks the chickens’ systems back into a sort of reset that gets them laying again. I don’t know what the answer is and, frankly, I don’t care enough to devote even a fraction of the sort of time I did to Covid research. Both explanations have a basis of plausibility to them. In the end, I am a pragmatic man and I approve of any solution so long as it is licit. Since changing the feed has had such good results in so many cases, I am in favor of it for those who prefer it regardless of whether it is a coincidence of timing or because of a taint to existing feeds.
The key in these tumultuous times is to recognize the point of those who have come to a different conclusion than we have. If you are given to conspiracy theories, understand that it can progressively rob you of the capacity to recognize what is true – and even the existence of objective truth. If you are given to normalcy bias, know that in these times, while your experience is a great ally it is also – and at critical moments – a great liar and a traitor. We must think anew and act anew, disenthralling ourselves of our own brand of temporal provincialism that blinds us to critical aspects of the reality unfolding around us. Above all, bear with each other as we work to find solutions to the depredations that increasingly plague us.
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I have not publicly appealed for donations to CORAC since late last September. Thank heavens, many generous people stepped up to help us continue the work to connect people across the country and give them the tools they need to survive and thrive in good times and bad. But now we need your help again, so I ask you, if you can, to donate to CORAC so we can continue the good work we have embarked on. God bless you all.
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This Saturday, February 11, we will have a meeting beginning at 10:30 a.m. in Townsend, Delaware. I will speak at 10:30, we’ll break for lunch at noon, and then we will do a Q & A and at two, Regional Coordinator Kirby Bowling will give a talk on sustainability and self-defense while Larry Wescott will give a demonstration on radio communications. It will be at:
630 Taylor’s Bridge Rd.
Townsend, Delaware 19734
Of course, it is also the Feast Day of Our Lady of Lourdes. And it is the 12th anniversary of my departure on my pilgrimage across the country.
If communication goes out for any length of time, meet outside your local Church at 9 a.m. on Saturday mornings. Tell friends at Church now in case you can’t then. CORAC teams will be out looking for people to gather in and work with.
Find me on Twitter at @Charliej737
The Corps of Renewal and Charity (CORAC)
18208 Preston Rd., Ste. D9-552
Dallas, Texas 75252
A Sign of Hope 
I love this: “While you’ve been maniacally plotting our destruction, we have quietly been building ways to survive without you or the institutions you have ruined.” And it seems to me that for whatever else God may allow in order to discipline us, the globalist bigwigs and those in cahoots with them in our institutions will ALL have to contend with the trials and tribulations, so here’s to another round of: Welcome to the Party, Pals!!
Brava, Sheryl!!
“We all work from a template we have developed over the course of our lives for the purpose of analyzing the information we take in… Most people’s experience encompasses their own lifetime and locale – and little else, regardless of how sophisticated they think themselves to be… Understand first that, when eras change, the experience which had always been your faithful ally can become your greatest enemy, blinding you to the new reality unfolding… We must endeavor, then, to see things as they are, not as we wish them to be or as our experience has told us they once were… We must think anew and act anew, disenthralling ourselves of our own brand of temporal provincialism that blinds us to critical aspects of the reality unfolding around us. Above all, bear with each other as we work to find solutions to the depredations that increasingly plague us.”
Amen. Amen. Amen!! And glorious!! I’m ever grateful for your words and counsel, Charlie, which encourage us to s-t-r-e-t-c-h-in becoming sharp-witted and nimble. (After all, we’re in the rapids now.) Ephesians 4:1-2 is woven into your counsel in this piece: “I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all lowliness and meekness, with patience, forbearing one another in love,”
And that closing meme though. So SO good!
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Thank you, Charlie!
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“We never expected you self-proclaimed titans of the universe to be geniuses: only smart enough to know that if you sink the boat, you’re going down, too.”
You observed that in many cases – that rules which have applied for a long time tend to “turn traitor” near the end of era’s. In general, I agree with that. There are however some consistent patterns about the end of eras and the concomitant beginning of new ones: In the cases of civilizations or cultures falling to violent/surreptitious takeovers
(e.g., 1) Julius Caesar establishing himself as Dictator or the Roman Empire, 2) Lenin observing that after you come to power the first people you must remove are other leaders types who got you there – because they’re the only ones who can dethrone you. If those opposed to you could have stopped you – they would already have done so. 3) The purges in the Russian/Red armies officer corp., etc., etc.
In most cases those dictators viewed their helpers – even at the highest levels – as useful idiots. Ergo, they are at a certain point dispensable, and are potential competitors.
Of course, in most such collapses of systems, civilizations or cultures, the vast majority of the people suffer immediate deprivations of one sort or another. Only those at the very top usually do not do so. Ergo, it is a constant source of amusement to me that the ‘useful idiots’ never seem to tumble to the fact that they will probably not avoid the ‘discomforts’ which they knowingly helped establish for everyone else.
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I occasionally note that in working to re-secure our rights, we are working to secure many of our opponents’ rights, as well. If the fellow travelers of today’s leading social justice warriors knew any history at all they would know the best-case scenario for them is for us to prevail – because if their side prevails, most of them will be put up against the wall before most of us will.
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Amen. But history teaches us that they are usually blinded by either their hubris, their diminuitivr IQ’s, or. A combination of both.
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And here I thought they couldn’t see it coming because they couldn’t spell or put together a proper sentence. But what do I know!? 😀 😀 😀
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“Your merchants were the great men of the earth, all nations were led astray by your sorcery. (Rev 18:23).
Tolkien defines “magic” as the abuse of God-given talents and powers fueled by the: “corrupted motive of dominating: bull-dozing the real world, or coercing other wills” by way of ideologies designed for the unmaking of the world as it is.
“…. (they) will rebel against the laws of the Creator — especially against mortality.” Possessiveness toward the things of this world alone or together with hatred of death and decay “will lead to the desire for Power, for making the will more quickly effective — and so to the Machine (magic).”
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Sheryl, your Crisis Magazine article was fantastic. Way to go! 🙂
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I concur! ❤
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Thank you, Charlie! As always, food for thought here.
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God sees all, even if I do not. Truths regarding many events of this temporal word are hard to discern these days. My faith is in Him and not in me. Christ is the faithful shepherd! Thanks be to God.
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Great piece Charlie!!! You mentioned “era,” twice (unless I missed another 🤔) and it made me think about the “era of peace!” I think we’ve been calling it the “era of peace,” for so long that we all might come to believe the “era of peace,” is something of an illusion of grandiose when in fact it might just be something very ordinary!!! Ha! Like Mayberry maybe??? This piece of yours here made me think about it and I don’t want to miss it wherever I end up😂. I pray to God you’re feeling better now!!! I’ve had candles 🕯️ lit for you for weeks and will light a new one for you this Friday if God so wills it to be!!! Thank you for this piece Charlie!!! And thank you for keeping us grounded and thinking!!! God bless and protect you always and all here🥰🙏🐶 🐿️
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FWIW, My chickens never stopped laying. My chickens PICKED UP laying immediately upon hearing the trouble their sisters were having! Before Christmas, I was collecting 3-4 dozen eggs a day. Now it is 5 to 7. And…they fly off my counter at $4 a dozen!
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Yum!!
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Forgot to say – our feed is NOT Purina or from Tractor Supply.
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Ah, Nance, that was my next question. It’s very disturbing that those who use those brands are the one’s having trouble. I heard that someone even switched to goat feed and their chickens started laying again. 🤷
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Us too, Nance. But our winter has been overall mild. No snow. Except for the Artic blast last weekend, milder temps.
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We had a wicked bad cold spell right before Christmas that killed everything in the garden except for kale, collards, turnips and onions. We had a minorly cold snap in October that reset our brassica to seed producers, so no vegetables for us, and another cold spell last week that killed (apparently) the winter stuff I had replanted after that Dec freeze. In between, warm weather. Chickens laid through it all, and the goats gave milk. Praise God for the animals!
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Interesting observation, Nance. I have a backyard flock of mixed birds, chickens, ducks and a turkey. Starting in November, egg production dropped off as it normally does. Egg production is now ramped up again with the longer days. My flock is free roaming during the day with them roosting at night in the chicken shed. the few times we thought that perhaps there was something to the mass media reports because it appeared egg production had stopped, within a few days we would find a large clutch of eggs hidden in the weeds or under a shrub or even in the greenhouse…
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JESUS = GOOD NEWS! … 😉 PM
https://getfed.catholiccompany.com/the-famous-american-hero-youve-never-heard-of
https://survivalmagazine.org/news/fbi-warns-against-radical-traditionalist-catholic-ideology-in-leaked-memo/
https://hotair.com/headlines/2023/02/08/too-ominous-to-check-fbi-infiltrating-rad-trad-catholic-masses-n529391
https://catholicvote.org/pro-life-leaders-react-to-the-2023-state-of-the-union/
https://catholicvote.org/bias-report-proof-the-media-buries-the-truth-about-womens-health-centers/
https://catholicvote.org/cv-explainer-debt-ceiling-catholic-social-teaching/
https://taylormarshall.com/2023/02/939-satanic-grammys-mocking-deserve-podcast.html
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2023/02/08/the-great-lou-dobbs-nails-it/#more-243072
Interesting ………………………
https://accordingtohoyt.com/2023/02/08/doing-the-arithmetic/
https://slaynews.com/news/elon-musk-names-worst-offender-in-us-government-censorship-and-media-manipulation-as-obscure-agency-called-gec/
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/
https://www.americanthinker.com/
https://newsbusters.org/
GOD SAVE THE REPUBLIC & ALL HERE!
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When I click on Charlie’s Twitter account it states “acct doesn’t exist” whereas it used to before.
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I simplified my screen name a week or so ago. Make sure you are looking for Charliej737. That is the new screen name.
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Now the FBI is after Latin Mass adherents!
“The FBI’s Richmond Division would like to protect Virginians from the threat of “white supremacy,” which it believes has found a home within Catholics who prefer the Latin Mass. An intelligence analyst within the Richmond Field Office of the FBI released in a new finished intelligence product dated January 23, 2023, on Racially or Ethnically Motivated Violent Extremists (RMVE) and their interests in “Radical-Traditionalist Catholics” or RTCs. The document assesses with “high confidence” the FBI can mitigate the threat of Radical-Traditionalist Catholics by recruiting sources within the Catholic Church.”
https://www.uncoverdc.com/2023/02/08/the-fbi-doubles-down-on-christians-and-white-supremacy-in-2023/
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🤦 Well, we have been expecting more persecution in the Church. 😔
First it was the pro-life group, now it’s the “rad-trads,” next it will be all Catholics and then all Christians. “How long, O Lord?”
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Here’s one in plain sight, kicker for the KC Chief’s, who is ‘known to serve at the traditional Latin Mass in his local church.’
https://aleteia.org/2023/02/01/discover-the-inspiring-faith-of-kansas-city-chiefs-harrison-butker/
(Incidentally, I can hear my late sister, who always attended TLM on the east coast, saying, ” We need some colorful sprigs of holly to place in our mantillas so the covert attendee can spot the radicals.”)
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In truth, that WAS pretty bad. Does the outrage help? I think I am getting blase’ and merely thinking, “What now?” and “Well, they said it would get worse…” Even when Pope Francis speaks, I just think this. and then go back to my Rosaries.
Perhaps we should feel the outrage, but it seems to me, that outrage is the Karen’s job; mine is simply to shrug my shoulders and tell myself, I KNOW who wins in the end. And say another Rosary.
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JESUS = GOOD NEWS! …;-)
https://catholicexchange.com/our-faith-in-jesus-makes-us-the-salt-and-light-of-the-world/
https://www.crisismagazine.com/opinion/becoming-a-good-man
https://catholicexchange.com/reflections-on-the-first-post-roe-march-for-life/
…… Come Lord Jesus!
https://www.lifenews.com/2023/02/08/democrats-wear-love-abortion-pins-showing-how-much-they-love-killing-babies/
https://www.catholicleague.org/inside-the-head-of-an-abortion-lover/
https://www.lifenews.com/2023/02/08/republicans-introduce-resolution-to-stop-biden-from-turning-va-hospitals-into-abortion-centers/
https://life-craft.org/much-better-than-saving-time/
https://www.foxnews.com/us/education-board-member-gets-booted-defending-constitution-speaking-socialism
Godless Green Re-Set Genocide! ….. Let’s Call-It what it is!!
https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2023/02/09/french-farmers-stage-mass-tractor-protest-in-paris-against-eu-green-diktats/
Race Everywhere–VICTOR DAVIS HANSON
https://reader.epoch.cloud/?publink=0d64057c1_134aa64
Yeah.. Right!! Remember that “Sloppy Staffer” Sandy Berger, AKA: Archives Burgler?
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2023/02/09/joe-biden-blames-sloppy-staffers-for-classified-document-debacle/
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2023/02/08/inside-baseball-stuff-about-the-house-oversight-committee-and-the-twitter-censorship-hearing/
https://www.foxnews.com/media/america-unrecognizable-brink-collapse-experts-warn-turning-own-legacy
https://www.theburningplatform.com/2023/02/08/dr-anthony-fauci-now-admits-the-mrna-covid-vaccines-hardly-work-and-might-not-be-approvable/
https://patriotpost.us/articles/94776-women-are-sacrifices-for-pfizers-greater-good-2023-02-08
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/who-is-the-sleeping-giant-now/ar-AA17dqWV
https://links.glennbeck.com/view/55d278157d0973635efe6258i5s0r.1wub/7392ae44
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/
https://stream.org/category/us/
GOD SAVE THE REPUBLIC & ALL HERE!
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Being in a farming community, I was told some egg farms reduced the flock because the chicken feed was too expensive. The USDA can/have put limits on farmers productions with their rules and regulations. The farmers that PRODUCE the feed effects the ability and pricing of the farmers that USE this feed. I’ve seen this in my turtle farm as the price of Aquanax has nearly doubled. My next move was to either reduce my herd or, if the market will bear it, increase my prices (which right now it won’t) .
I just read chicken egg prices have crashed.
We could be in for a shortage if feed prices don’t crash along with the egg prices.
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If we think things are difficult-and I do-read Revelation 7 seals, 7 trumpets, 7 bowls. It gets MUCH worse before it gets better.
But I keep being moved by Psalm 37. My confidence must be in God. Plans an schemes opposed to Him fail and fail miserably. I need to remove my trust in anything that is not God. “If I just do (…) I’ll be OK. We aren’t promised “OK” in this life. We ARE promised that if we remain faithful to God, He will manifest His faithfulness to us – and that is always OK. Even in our service to one another it is to help that person trust in God – not us.
I am astounded by the hardness of heart as the veil comes off all evil. It doesn’t seem to horrify nearly enough people.
God is close to the broken-hearted because everything that is not God has betrayed them. They are now able to hear His voice.
While cancer has left me partially blind and not a little crippled I think He can use me as I am. He keeps His promises.
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It truly is horrifying, Vic. For so very long I prayed asking the Lord that if He would show everyone what He was showing me, surely all would repent and return to Him. I have been absolutely filled with horror at times seeing that as these things unfold in real time, many are not repenting, but doubling down. I was wrong about people’s dispositions.
For many years I thought that the Storm would lead all to repentance and everyone would be rescued. The Lord allowed me that folly because I so wanted it to be true. And then I realized we are going through a great winnowing right now – and that the chaff is going to be disposed of. It gave me a much deeper appreciation of the agony in the garden. I think the primary reason Jesus wept so copiously was because He knew that, despite the magnitude of what He was about to accomplish, many would still not turn to Him and be saved.
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I have always been a “the glass is half full” and “people are good at heart” kind of person, so this evil unveiling has broken my heart so…I weep with the Lord and unite my heartbreak to His. It’s so very hard.
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Such sadness, Charlie. But we will never stop begging Him for mercy for ourselves and those we love.
Keep on keepin’ on, Everyone. He will see us thru. TYG.
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“…the chaff is going to be disposed of.” I really cling to that, Charlie. I hope it’s not wrong of me to pray that those the Lord knows will never repent, are taken from this world, rather than remaining here to do more evil. I’m thinking of a time such as the illumination/warning when they are given a great opportunity to change!
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amen, amen to you both…r
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God bless you, Victor! May many souls be saved through your suffering and faithfulness!
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God is definitely using you as you are, Victor. Right now he’s using you to encourage all of us here by your words and example. Thank you, brother.
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I appreciate the discussion of mental models composed of experience and decisions and others bits of learning along the way, and how we interpret things in that lens. Not only that, but we interpret things how we want them to be instead of what our minds tell us they are. That should remind us all of just how dependent and clueless we are. My friend Chris Martenson over at Peak Prosperity talks about how it’s mainly an emotional impediment to seeing what is happening, not an intellectual one. For me that’s certainly the case. I like my life and lifestyle and am not anxious to give it up, even though it may come to that.
Those that claim to mistrust “the rich and powerful” and “the corporations” often seemed to believe everything the CDC and Pfizer said during Covid, despite acknowledging that both are run by the very people they mistrust. Intellectually that makes no sense, but they wanted to believe someone was rescuing us from Covid (or really from the trumped up nightmare created by the media and government using Covid as a subject). Now it’s the “climate emergency” where rational and smart people keep repeating the most radical estimates of doom, mass starvation and crop failures, etc. Do they even stop to think for a moment how exactly famines would be caused by warmer temperatures and longer growing seasons? Of course the actual science doesn’t show this because it’s insane. Rational people would be thinking about how to move people a bit further from the coast if sea levels are going to rise, not how to ban energy in 30 years and relegate people right to caves. Politicians are so busy assuming that everything they decree will just magically come to pass that they think actually solving the energy crisis involves just printing up some money and writing another law.
On the other side are the “conspiracy theorists” who believe, as Charlie said, that everything is rigged. However it’s not a conspiracy (or a coincidence) when the powerful say they want something to happen and then it happens. Very rich and powerful people in government, media and corporations tend to know each other and hang out. It’s not crazy to believe that some of those conversations are centered around how things should be and how they are going to ensure their own comfort and success as things get more difficult. In my opinion very few are fully malicious and desire the destruction of everyone but them. The bulk are people who happen to be rich and want to save their own skins, or are just dupes. One thing Catholics understand, however, that secular conspiracy theorists don’t is that there really is a superintelligence that wants the destruction of humanity and is actively working to achieve it. Isn’t that the ultimate conspiracy? Fortunately we also have the antidote: Faith and the Armor of God. Sure doesn’t make it easy though.
Lake
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Amen, Lake.
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“One thing Catholics understand, however, that secular conspiracy theorists don’t is that there really is a superintelligence that wants the destruction of humanity and is actively working to achieve it. Isn’t that the ultimate conspiracy?”
You bet USNLT.
“We wrestle not against flesh and blood”. It is also a (super)natural consequence for evil to exhaust and destroy itself. Once one willingly becomes associated with evil it becomes their master.
Dupes or not, they bit the Apple to try and find their own god and the wicked consequence insued. They in turn, follow its (un)natural consequence:
“In this life, based upon our choices, we already begin to manifest heaven or hell. “God told me that souls receive the “earnest money” of the next life while still on this earth. Those who do evil already experience the “earnest money of hell,” while the servants of the Lord “taste the earnest money of eternal life.”
“Already in this life, we begin to sing the song of the angels, or we begin to rage with the demons.”(St. Catherine of Siena in her Dialogue.)
“I have seen ruthless scoundrels, strong as flourishing cedars. When I passed by again, they were gone; though I searched, they could not be found” (Psalm 37).
Dispite this, Divine Mercy allows anyone a way out who so calls on His name.
“Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.” (Isaiah 1:18)
“I am love and mercy itself. … Let no soul fear to draw near to Me, even though its sins be as scarlet. … My mercy is greater than your sins, and those of the entire world …”
(Jesus to St Faustina).
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Amen.
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very well written…r
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JESUS = GOOD NEWS! … 😉 PM
https://www.lifenews.com/2023/02/09/police-arrest-catholic-priest-for-silently-praying-outside-abortion-clinic/
https://dailycaller.com/2023/02/09/fbi-recruiting-informants-spy-traditional-catholics-latin-mass-southern-poverty-law-center/
Worth a watch. Garabandal making sense now:
https://www.countdowntothekingdom.com/garabandal-now/
Birds of a Feather below ;-(:
https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/cdl-mcelroy-invokes-synodal-process-to-push-lgbt-agenda-during-university-address/
https://www.wnd.com/2023/02/witch-hunt-archbishop-canterbury-promises-lgbt-activists-root-opponents/
https://remnantnewspaper.com/web/index.php/articles/item/6371-fr-martin-s-bridge-pt-1-crossing-into-critical-queer-catholicism
https://www.streetchurch.ca/news/pastor-facing-10-years-in-prison-for-preaching-at-canada-trucker-blockade-protesting-vaccine-mandates/
https://spiritdailyblog.com/commentary/a-mystery-in-the-deep-past
https://amgreatness.com/2023/02/09/grassley-details-how-triad-of-media-fbi-and-dems-tried-to-thwart-investigation-into-the-biden-familys-corrupt-business-dealings
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2023/02/09/hostile-takeover-of-project-veritas-seeking-to-remove-james-okeefe-desantis-aligned-operatives-spearheading-effort-for-removal/
https://pjmedia.com/vodkapundit/2023/02/09/disney-actually-just-laid-off-2-4-million-people-including-me-n1669278
GOD SAVE THE REPUBLIC & ALL HERE!
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JESUS = GOOD NEWS! …;-)
Our Lady of Lourdes Conquers Scientism
https://mailchi.mp/jkmi/slut24zi1y-1068053?e=b654649ef1
https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/upcoming-calendar-highlights-february-10-22/
https://catholicexchange.com/righteousness-that-surpasses-the-scribes-and-pharisees/
https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/quick-hits-unseemly-dispute-over-pope-benedicts-private-thoughts/
https://www.catholicleague.org/western-world-at-war-with-catholics/
https://www.dailysignal.com/2023/02/08/whistleblower-docs-fbi-cites-southern-poverty-law-center-in-report-on-radical-traditionalist-catholic-ideology/
https://www.ncregister.com/interview/catholic-social-teaching-and-the-two-party-system-pro-life-democrat-dan-lipinski-on-pope-leo-xiii-partisanship-and-his-new-teaching-role
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/do-you-care-if-your-kids-stay-catholic/
https://www.ncregister.com/interview/belgian-archbishop-the-fundamental-teachings-of-the-church-are-currently-under-threat
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2023/02/09/South-Dakota-gender-affirming-care-kristi-noem/1861675987489/
https://legalinsurrection.com/2023/02/hillsdale-college-sees-53-increase-in-applications-as-more-people-reject-wokeness/
https://amgreatness.com/2023/02/08/the-mess-of-an-address/
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2023/02/09/new-jersey-mayor-city-council-switches-from-democrat-to-republican/
https://www.nationalreview.com/2023/02/hulus-slick-1619-documentary-cant-save-hannah-joness-shoddy-history/
Communist China’s Balloons Preview Its Hegemonic Ambitions–RICK FISHER
https://reader.epoch.cloud/?publink=0e7f8de77_134aa65
https://amgreatness.com/
https://links.glennbeck.com/view/55d278157d0973635efe6258i61or.1xm5/c4e1326e
https://www.americanthinker.com/
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/
GOD SAVE THE REPUBLIC & ALL HERE!
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This line slays me: “When an era is passing experience turns traitor.”
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YES! I copied that line myself. I’m going to use it too Charlie! ill give you full attribution! 😃🙏✝️❤️🔥
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ttps://www.thegatewaypundit.com/GOD SAVE THE REPUBLIC & ALL HERE!
JESUS = GOOD NEWS! … 😉 PM
Has anyone here heard of any other Catholic Bishops, besides Strickland, raising Hell about FBI/Feral Gubermint Over-Reach!!??
https://thefederalist.com/2023/02/09/fbi-retracts-memo-labeling-traditional-catholics-violent-white-supremacists-pushing-infiltration-of-christian-communities/
THEY recalled “Memo” but I’ll bet a C-Note that Traditional Catholic/Christian, Pro Life/Family/Constitution USA Producer Class Citizens are STILL in The cross-hairs of The DC Swamp Op that produced The Memo!!
https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/bishop-strickland-reacts-to-fbi-whistleblowers-bombshell-report-on-surveillance-of-traditional-catholics/
……. Sadly the House Investigations will only add to what we already know about DC Alphabet Agencies High Crimes & Misdemeanors and NOT result in ANY Justice &/or Accountability ’cause The Evil Doers run DC ;-(
https://patriotpost.us/articles/94861-fbi-under-fire-in-the-house-2023-02-10
https://www.foxnews.com/media/turley-fires-back-democrat-attacking-credibility-house-hearing-completely-absurd
https://dailycaller.com/2023/02/09/sen-ron-johnson-federal-agencies-corporate-media-hunter-biden-russia-collusion-trump-clinton-duped/
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2023/02/10/three-biden-family-scandal-revelations-first-house-weaponization-hearing/
https://www.wnd.com/2023/02/bill-come-due-alleged-biden-influence-peddling/
https://thefederalist.com/2023/02/09/top-10-questions-a-covid-commission-should-probe-about-the-united-states-pandemic-response/
https://www.wnd.com/2023/02/report-thousands-students-left-school-pandemic-vanished/
https://www.thefirsttv.com/twitter-house-hearings-are-not-silly-because-the-coverup-is-real-steve-berman/
Not news to most here I’d expect? THEY want WWIII! THEY want Worldwide Chaos, Disease, Death & Ruin to Build Back Godless with 2/3 less Humans!
Yep! We be watching Revelation unfold ….. Be Prepared!!
https://www.theburningplatform.com/2023/02/08/how-america-took-out-the-nord-stream-pipeline/
https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2023/02/10/same-sex-marriages-to-receive-blessings-in-the-church-of-england/
https://www.floppingaces.net/2023/02/10/the-week-in-radical-leftism-02-10-2023/
GOD SAVE THE REPUBLIC & ALL HERE!
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“…flesh and blood” do not save, but the Lord saves through those who are flesh and blood. – Cardinal Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI).
I have felt this conundrum with Mary. Growing up a cradle Catholic my growth in faith always included Mary but not so much the mystery of her role in salvation history which has been more fully revealed to the church over the centuries.
At times I had the feeling of her stealing thunder from her Son. I soon realized that this is natural she being intricately involved with her Son and as such, a very important person in His mission. Some have said she was kept hidden in the early years of the church for this exact reason that she would have been mistaken as equal to her Son and potentially worshiped as a goddess! St. Louis de Montfort said: “Mary is the great mold of God, made by the Holy Ghost to form a true God-Man by the Hypostatic Union and to form also a man-God by grace. In that mold none of the features of the Godhead is wanting.”
If by her own features, molded by God Himself to reflect His son through her, she might look like a goddess, the church did well to reveal these mysteries slowly and only after it became wiser throughout it’s history and her continued mission for the church. Several of her later apparitions have revealed this role more profoundly.
At Fatima she proclaimed that God wanted to start a devotion to her immaculate heart and that through this devotion a period of peace would be given to the world.
Garabandal and Medjugorje are profoundly Marian. St. Louis de Montfort taught that God wants to use Mary as His instrument of salvation in these end times.
We are supposed to be awed by her role in the church because through her life and role as the person who’s soul “magnifies the Lord” and as the “Handmaid of the Lord” she always leads us in every way to: “Do as He (Jesus) tells us!”
“The difficulty, then, is to find really and truly the most Blessed Virgin Mary in order to find all abundant grace. God, being the absolute Master, can confer directly by Himself that which He usually grants only through Mary. It would even be rash to deny that sometimes He does so.
Nevertheless, St. Thomas Aquinas teaches that in the order of grace, established by Divine Wisdom, God ordinarily communicates Himself to men only through Mary. Therefore, if we would go up to Him and be united with Him, we must use the same means He used to come down to us, to be made man and to impart His graces to us. That means is a true devotion to our Blessed Lady.”
(St. Louis de Montfort).
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De Montfort is a jewel, Phillip! Reading “True Devotion to Mary” many years ago was life changing for me.
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I just today made my re-consecratinon. Our Lady of Lourdes feast day is my choice, because between Jan 9 and today is the perfect slower time to pray and fast. Phillip, I also struggled with some idea of competition, but no more. Can I possibly honor Mary more than God does? And I llove not having to worry about all those who ask me to pray for them. ALL my prayers go to Mary, and SHE remembers everybody, so I don’t have to.
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Beautiful!!
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JESUS = GOOD NEWS! … 😉
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2023/02/10/anti-abortion-activists-sue-national-archives-smithsonian/4781676055282/
I’m sure The Biden Admin. & UN Human Rights Div. are On-It! …. Right!!??
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/253617/breaking-nicaragua-dictatorship-sentences-bishop-rolando-alvarez-to-26-years-in-prison
Does anyone here NOT believe that we are facing a Manifestly Evil Death Cult?
If THEY can’t kill-um in the Womb, THEY will kill-um in K-12 or on the Ball Field ….. & ALL the THEY Media are Banner Headlining IT!
https://www.politico.com/news/2023/02/09/cdc-adds-covid-19-vaccinations-to-official-immunization-schedules-for-children-adults-00082040
https://newstarget.com/2023-02-10-more-vaccines-baby-higher-likelihood-sudden-death.html
…. Alarming & Contrary EVIDENCE be damned! THEY are, STILL, Hell Bent to get mRNA ClotShots in every Human Arm & Farm Animals/their feed too! WHY?? …. & THEY want to SHUT-UP The Opposition!……. but THEY @ The Global Disinformation Index/Microsoft just gave US a Handy List of entities we should be reading/watching ;-(
https://www.wnd.com/2023/02/wnd-identified-target-leftists-based-false-claims-disinformation/
……. Get a Load of this:
https://hotair.com/david-strom/2023/02/10/nyc-schools-sent-fbi-fingerprints-of-teachers-who-refused-covid-vax-n529763
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/internal-atf-docs-show-zero-tolerance-guidelines-shutting-down-gun-stores
https://dailycaller.com/2023/02/09/immigration-and-customs-enforcement-republican-congress/
https://www.defenseone.com/ideas/2023/02/when-lippy-generals-challenge-civilian-control/382715/
…… One of the many reasons we have a Rainbow WOKE & BROKE USA Military, with drained War Reserve Stockpiles, in the toilet Retention/Recruitment Stats, worn-out Gear/Troops, Gold Plated Gear that don’t work and an alarming possibility of NOT prevailing in one major conflict …… IS we don’t have enough LIPPY LEADERS in the Feral Gubermint Alphabet Swamp…… but we got plenty of Revolving Door Butt Kissers EVERYWHERE and in the DOD plenty of Rainbow Quota Hire “Leaders” with War-Fighting not even on the first page of THEIR “Things We Gots to Do” ;-(
………….. Oh! Remember when much of this **** happened?
https://www.foxnews.com/world/two-war-doctrine-obama-pentagon-russia-taiwan-ukraine-china
…… we are short of Lippy CONSERVATIVE Leaders in Our Church too! ;-(
https://newsbusters.org/
GOD SAVE THE REPUBLIC & ALL HERE!
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JESUS = GOOD NEWS! … 😉 PM
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/253550/meet-the-lone-survivor-priest-and-grunt-padre-author-whos-now-the-head-chaplain-of-the-coast-guard
https://stream.org/satan-is-beginning-to-show-his-hand-more-clearly/
https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/virginia-ag-leads-19-states-in-demanding-fbi-come-clean-about-anti-catholic-memo-church-spying/
https://wdtprs.com/2023/02/embarrassing-attempt-at-bullying-in-atlanta/
https://www.nationalreview.com/news/church-of-england-considers-shift-to-gender-neutral-god/
https://www.thefp.com/p/i-thought-i-was-saving-trans-kids
https://www.theburningplatform.com/2023/02/10/a-star-is-born/#more-293938
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2023/02/how_disney_fuels_racism.html
https://www.wnd.com/2023/02/national-archives-secretly-coordinated-retrieve-classified-docs-midterm-elections/
https://dailycaller.com/2023/02/11/jeffrey-epsteins-little-black-book-arrested/
ChinaJoe & Fidel’s Boy Defending North America …..??!! ….. ;-(
Laughing is better than crying!
GOD SAVE THE REPUBLIC & ALL HERE!
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JESUS = GOOD NEWS! …;-)
https://onepeterfive.com/
https://zistezesto.wordpress.com/2023/02/08/chapter-2-in-the-footsteps-of-st-paul-the-church-fathers-of-turkey-lystra-derbe-the-red-church-nazianzus-cappadocia/
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/253596/european-catholics-debate-final-outcome-of-synod-on-synodality-assembly-in-prague
https://www.nationalreview.com/2023/02/the-fbis-slander-of-traditionalist-catholics
…. HullyGee!!! Is The Vatican collaborating with The FBI!????
https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/new-vatican-move-against-latin-mass-with-or-without-canonical-authority/
https://onepeterfive.com/fbi-trads/
….. The FBI are building a new HQ bigger than The Pentagon … WHY!?? and where is The Producer Class Outrage!! …. Obama’s National Civilian Security Force!?
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2023/feb/11/fbi-should-focus-on-crime-not-law-abiding-citizens/
The Vatican Gang a bit Late to The Fight methinks!
https://spiritdaily.org/blog/news/pope-appeals-to-nicaragua
https://catholicvote.org/podcast/special-edition-loopcast-mark-houck/
https://www.foxnews.com/media/pre-k-teacher-attacks-idea-childhood-innocence-claims-toddlers-not-too-young-sexuality-discussion
https://thefederalist.com/2023/02/10/anonymous-sources-are-how-corporate-media-launder-smear-operations-as-news/
https://amgreatness.com/2023/02/11/the-forgotten-truth-of-war
https://www.floppingaces.net/most-wanted/persistent-delusion-among-the-american-and-nato-defense-establishment/
Elites who fly in Jets, drive in Limos, dine on Flilet Mignon/Caviar and live in comfort zoned Mansions whilst US peons are expected to ride bikes, eat Bugs and live within 50 kilometers of our Megaplexes temperature controlled to no more than 10 degrees cooler/warmer than ambient ;-(
https://www.breitbart.com/middle-east/2023/02/12/klaus-schwab-to-again-address-elites-as-he-joins-the-world-government-summit/
I’d a bet we had aleady “hit rock bottom” ……….?
https://www.wnd.com/2023/02/obscene-sexual-activity-girl-pressured-memorize-porn-takes-serious-action/
https://www.floppingaces.net/2023/02/12/sunday-funnies-729/
GOD SAVE THE REPUBLIC & ALL HERE!
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PS: JESUS = GOOD NEWS! 😉
https://nypost.com/2023/02/13/top-general-not-ruling-out-aliens-after-3-ufos-shot-down/
………My Goodness!!! Look Up! Aliens from Outer Space. Spend your free time Sky Gazing … Pay NO Attention to the DC Swamp High Crimes, Misdemeanors, Genocide, WOKE Madness, Gross/Criminal Incompetence &/or Dereliction of Duty! Oh! Never mind Crumbling Economy & Inflation too!!
YUP! We/Air Defenses are being probed by Our Worst Enemy whilst frittering away our Military Assets in Ukraine ’cause …. Why!?….Exactly.
One of my AF non-flying jobs was a Weapons Controller (Air Defense Scope Dope). As a Bomber Pilot I learned about how to avoid and counter Air Defense. It’s all ancient history but I can assure you that, like the rest of Our Military, Air Defense ain’t what it used to be ;-( …. and The Chinamen (Others) know it.
No doubt, THEY (along with others) have been probing US for years and have been testing various air/land designs and schemes to infiltrate our air/land space.
Air Defenses assume that enemy intrusion would be Fast Mover Bombers and Missiles. Radar Systems ,with a flip of a switch, can ignore slow speed contacts to avoid clouds, bird flocks and Cessna 150s. It seems now they are flipping that switch off. ……… Too Late methinks! How close is China to finishing THEIR D-Day Reconnaissance? ;-(
How many Enemy Agents have slipped through the Border? How many saboteurs and their gear have been smuggled into Our USA in the millions of Chinese/Korean/Asia Shipping Containers sent here? How tough would it be to get a river barge armed with a short range missile, topped with an EMP Nuke, to Kansas City? Perhaps that FOX AF Intel guy is RIGHT? These Enemy UFOs might well be launched from The USA!
Not to Worry 😉 Our vaunted DOJ will get Right On-It as soon as they round up all those Evil 6 Jan Trespassers, Pro-Life Christians, Parents who dare speak @ School Boards …. Oh!…. Let US not forget those Awful Catholics who enjoy The Latin Mass! ;-( ….. and make sure you get the Pronouns right … See!!
GOD SAVE ALL HERE!!
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Charlie, I hope you are starting to feel better. Thank you for yet another great post and round of comments! TY all and God bless!
ps- Crewdog, you are one prodigious reader! Thank you for all the links!
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