By Charlie Johnston
Up until I was in my late 40’s, I could not wear a watch. If I tried, within three days it would stop. Every time. If I took it off, after a few days it would start running again. But if I put it back on it would rarely last an hour. My doctor examined me when I was in my teens and told me my body produced excessive electrical energy, which would magnetize and stop the inner working of watches. He added it should wear off in my 20’s. Made sense because it turned out my Dad had the same problem until he was 17. But it held on much longer in me.
Some of my buddies in school thought it was ridiculous and told me I was making it up. On an extended road trip with two of them in 1975, we were at the Smithsonian Institute and came upon a machine that would measure the electrical energy in your body. It had two sensor pads and an oscilloscope. Hoo-whee…my buddy, the late Dana Powers, was thrilled. Now he was going to show what poppycock it all was. He and my other buddy went first to establish a baseline. When each of them put their hands on the sensors, spiky lines appeared. Now it was my turn. I put my hands on the sensors. No spiky lines appeared. Rather, the screen suddenly resembled an old TV test pattern in the midst of a violent explosion. Then the machine started making a low, rumbling growl that kept getting louder. Finally, my buddy, Dana, conceding defeat with some Star Trek humor said, “Get your hands off, captain, or it’s going to blow.”
It was impressive. But it annoyed me that I could never wear a watch. Finally, it seemed to level out. From my late 40’s until recently I had no problems.
Now it’s back. Fortunately, though, it runs in a much longer cycle. It takes me three to five weeks to magnetize a watch until it stops running. Instead of getting rid of my watch, I just got a second one. Now, every Sunday I switch watches. It gives the one resting time to de-magnetize. It is a little annoying that my watches need to take a break from me on a regular basis. But with my new system, I always know what time it is.
It’s always nice to figure out how best to play the hand you were dealt.
*********
Clowns on the activist left, including corporate media and Democrat officials, constantly and absurdly compare current American policies as bearing a striking resemblance to the run-up to the Nazi takeover of Germany. Only complete historical illiterates and intellectual frauds can make that ridiculous leap.
There are some eerie cultural parallels to the run-up to the Russian Revolution that are giving me pause, of late, though. I have been saying for some time that the Triumph of the Immaculate Heart is visibly on the horizon, but that it is up to us and how we act that will determine whether it is just a few years – or more than a few decades – away. Increasingly I am coming to believe that our midterm elections in America will serve as a barometer to tell us how far we must travel and how deeply we must suffer to get there.
First, a brief synopsis of the Russian Revolution and its prelude. In the late 1800’s Russian culture was undergoing profound changes. Pressure was rising for reforms in land distribution, the treatment and legal status of serfs, and localizing greater authority in zemstvos – town councils and groups of village elders. There was a rising tide of intellectuals who were determined to have a socialist democracy. Tsar Alexander II was exactly the sort of reform Tsar one would think they were pushing for. But he was assassinated by the revolutionary “intellectuals” in 1881, which led to a crackdown on the liberal reforms he had championed.
From about 1880, revolutionary pressure simmered and bubbled constantly beneath the surface of Russian society. It boiled over into an abortive revolution in 1905. Again came a crackdown. Tsar Nicholas was a weak, largely gentle ruler who did not seem to much like being Tsar. Very deferential to his wife, Alexandra, he allowed the madman Rasputin to take on ridiculous influence over the royal family and, later, affairs of state. (Rasputin is often called the “mad monk,” but I have never seen any evidence he was a monk at all – just the Russian version of a talented grifter. The gift that cemented Rasputin to Alexandra, in particular, was his ability to ease the suffering of her hemophiliac son, Tsarevitch Alexis.)
The volatility of Russian society generally, wedded to the uncertain, mercurial rule of the shy Nicholas proved a formula for disaster. After the abortive revolution of 1905 Russia seated its first national legislature, the Duma. It was a weak body that the Tsar could prorogue anytime he saw fit, but it gave the Russian people their first effort at a real grassroots national body. The downfall of the Tsarist system was probably ensured in early 1915 when Nicholas personally took charge of the Russian army and departed for army headquarters on the German front in the early days of World War I. This left Empress Alexandra and, in effect, Rasputin in charge of the Russian government. A parade of top officials were continuously relieved of duty and replaced according to Alexandra and Rasputin’s whims. (Don’t assume that the two were having an affair. There is no evidence of that. Rather, Alexandra was emotionally dependent on Rasputin for the relief he gave to her son, Alexis.)
Paradoxically, as volatile intrigues rocked the royal court constantly after Nicholas’ departure for the front, life got much easier in the rural provinces. At least until the disastrous harvest of 1916, which caused Russia to enter the winter months with serious shortages of food. This led to the February Revolution in early 1917. The Duma seized power and demanded the abdication of Tsar Nicholas. Nicholas abdicated on the train headed back from the front. This left Russia solely controlled by the Duma which was constituted of deputies primarily from the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party (SDLR).
The SDLR had several major factions, the largest of which was the Mensheviks. Though all the SDLR was Marxist, the Mensheviks were for broad membership, participatory democracy, and reform of existing institutions along socialist lines. The Bolsheviks were much smaller – and also much scarier. They believed in having a small cadre of professional revolutionaries running everything, imposing their agenda on an often unwilling proletariat. They gloried in direct action, force and violence to achieve their aims. But they had little initial effect on the Duma – and most SDLR members did not expect this small, pushy minority to ever have much influence, however much trouble they caused.
Alas, through a great food crisis throughout 1917, the greater SDLR dithered, obsessed by legalisms and processes. The people were getting no relief from their newly empowered, but nearly impotent, Duma, which busied itself arguing over abstractions while people starved. Then came the October Revolution. Vladimir Lenin, leader of the Bolsheviks, had been exiled under the Tsar – and the newly ruling Duma had no desire to let him back in. The Germans, formally the enemy of Russia at the start of World War I, snuck Lenin back into Russia on a train – hoping that he would add to the chaos that paralyzed Russia. It was a great success for them.
In October, to almost everyone’s surprise, the Bolsheviks seized control from the Duma by taking over St. Petersburg – with the help of the Russian Navy. The Mensheviks did not go quietly. They fought in a Russian Civil War as the Whites while the Bolsheviks campaigned as the Reds. Though the Mensheviks had far more territory and more people, the Bolsheviks had more ruthless will and were organized more tightly. By 1921 the Bolsheviks had prevailed, and Russia’s long national nightmare began. Ironically, the food crisis got worse. Communism provides little but misery and shortages despite its promises.
Except for a relatively small (but loud) cadre of ruthless ideologues, almost all the revolutionaries from 1880 on dreamed they would end with a western style democracy. They dreamed of the sort of freedom and prosperity they saw in much of Western Europe and in America. They chose socialism because, superficially, it seemed more representative and fair to them. What they got was Lenin’s “dictatorship of the proletariat.” Within a year many party advocates started grumbling openly that it was actually a dictatorship of one man – Lenin. Shortly before he died, hobbled by a stroke, with Josef Stalin taking strong control, Lenin wrote that he feared that only his brutal tactics would remain under Stalin, without the idealistic ends he had hoped to use those brutal tactics for.
No one expected that the most violent, brutal, overmatched minority faction would prevail. In America we are in a similar situation right now. Most Republicans are rejoicing at the Democrats’ civil war. I am, too, yet I can’t help but recall that, just over a century ago, an annoying and violent minority that few thought could ever prevail seized power. It led to the murder of over 100 million people over the next century and the terrifying enslavement of the Russian and many other peoples for 74 years. It was not just because few took it seriously – but that was a major contributing cause.
Of course, Russians had been conditioned over centuries to submit to authorities and suffer stoically. For all the left’s yowling, America is not and has not been inclined to submit willingly to authoritarians. Admittedly, Old Joe Biden and the left gave it the most serious go in our history at the beginning of this decade. But it didn’t work out for them. Frankly, I think the left should be thanking their lucky stars that Trump won. If he hadn’t, we would be on the verge of or already in the midst of a shooting civil war. Americans do not cotton to being pushed around by uppity politicians and bureaucrats who, truth be told, are actually just America’s clerical help. So there are plenty of differences as well. But as Mark Twain said, “History doesn’t repeat itself. But it rhymes.” The rhyme here is a little too spooky for me.
In a larger sense I think we are in the final battle between the city of man and the City of God. The American Revolution was the last major such revolt that acknowledged and submitted to God, building their new society according to Judeo-Christian principles writ large under natural law. A little over a decade later came the French Revolution, which insisted that man is the only god there is. This kicked off the orgies of blood and brutality that have followed ever since, each hideously proclaiming itself to be for the “rights of man” as its leaders slaughtered all actual men who crossed them. Such revolutions are only for the rights of the men who aspire to rule everyone else.
In modern times, a big sector of our polis – and an entire major political party are arguing seriously over absurdities that, a generation or two ago, would have been swatted away, dismissed as beneath the dignity of a serious people. Can a man become a woman? Should children be able to decide to have themselves mutilated? Should we punish violent crime? Should people who refuse to go through the process to lawfully immigrate remain unmolested? Are people who attack law enforcement to protect criminals heroes or criminal themselves? Should the government have the power to decide what medicines you must take and what views you cannot speak? Is a man entitled to the fruit of his own labor?
Natural law, the founding doctrine of America, posits that all rights come from God, that the government grants no rights, but is tasked with protecting and defending those rights that come from God. It is the most basic test of legitimacy for any government. Yet the elitists in one party and the bulk of our establishment media do not understand such a basic concept at all. Just a month and a half ago, MS NOW hostess Katy Tur ominously asked a panel if House Speaker Mike Johnson was putting God over the Declaration of Independence by asserting that all rights come from God. Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) aptly noted that Johnson was literally quoting the Declaration, which, itself, put God over it.
We have high officials claiming seriously that we should not allow there to be such a thing as a trillionaire. What business is it of anyone how much I should be “allowed” to create? A man such as Elon Musk should be a source of inspiration because of all he has created, not a target of rage by people who have created little or nothing and will not rouse themselves to do so.
The conservative definition of equality is that we all begin from the same starting line. Then, by our creativity, intellect, and industry, are guaranteed opportunity to accomplish what we may. The leftist definition of equality is that we must all finish at the same point simultaneously regardless of those qualities – and it requires an army of commissars to pull anyone down who shows any notable initiative. All in the name of “fairness.”
Modern leftism is founded on seven pillars:
- Pride – You all know this one. Perverse sexuality. We are just finishing up a month devoted to it by those who would be our secular masters.
- Envy – All things are owned by the government, the collective, and distributed at their pleasure or indulgence. If anyone exhibits superior performance, they must be humbled and stripped of the fruits of their labor.
- Greed – Favored groups of people are allowed, nay, encouraged to defraud ordinary citizens of their tax dollars by mounting massive fraud in every government program to their own benefit. Create a “Quality Learning Center” to strip the people of tens of millions of dollars without helping anyone but yourself, if you are a favored group, it is the ordinary people who complain of and try to stop it who must be punished, not you.
- Lust – Every unnatural or perverse sexual act must be celebrated by all – and any ordinary heterosexual behavior, contained in the institution of marriage, must be sneered at, if not prohibited. This, of course, is closely connected with Pride.
- Gluttony – to eat, drink, and act to excess without any regard for the sensitivity or needs of others. You can see it in abundance at any “mostly peaceful protest” mounted by Antifa and other leftists.
- Wrath – The sheer and constant rage of people who are “offended” by something that does not affect them and is offensive to no reasonable person is ubiquitous in the modern left. They seem to get up in the morning only to mount a desperate search for something to be offended by and rage against it, all the way up to and including violent mayhem.
- Sloth – A whole sector of our modern leftists do nothing but act as professional, raging, protestors. They create nothing, they help no one, they just “rage against the machine.” They claim their sloth as righteousness.
These are the signal virtues of the modern left. Through most of our history, they have been known as the seven deadly sins. Modern empiricists insist there is no such thing as sin – or God – only offenses against the collective (which vary by the day).
This is the ultimate battle between the city of man and the City of God for supremacy. Modern elitists, such as the Mayor of New York, the Squad in Congress, the new Democratic Socialists who are eating away at the old Democratic Party consider themselves enlightened for supporting a system that has failed every time it has held sway, murdering over a hundred million innocents in just over a century and oppressing many more that that. They don’t even seem to be aware of its history – not feeling the need to actually learn anything to be violently certain that they are right and that they should rule over lesser beings.
Eighteen years ago, I declined an opportunity to serve as a communications consultant to the Republican National Committee, telling my recruiter that I feared that the stupids might have become the majority in this country. If that was the case, we would inevitably crash and burn – and some of us must work to survive that we might rebuild civilization from the ashes the leftists leave behind them.
I have come to think that America’s mid-term elections are the world’s spiritual Groundhog Day. If leftists who believe there is NO power greater than themselves prevail, even by the skin of their teeth, we have decades of grinding strife, mayhem, and misery left before we will be sufficiently chastened to become a people God can work with. If not, and we rededicate ourselves to the principles of faith, family and freedom, we are only a few years away from glorious renewal. I think we will prevail, but it is a much closer thing than I would like.
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 X at @JohnstonPilgrim
The Corps of Renewal and Charity (CORAC)
18208 Preston Rd., Ste. D9-552
Dallas, Texas 75252
A Sign of Hope 
Appreciate the history lesson, Charlie. This piece is sobering, chilling to the bone.
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Can you increase the font? I can’t read this and I can’t change the font!Thanks Sent from my iPhoneOn Jun 30, 2026,
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No, I can’t Peggy. But you can. If you are on a Microsoft-based computer, go to the three dots at the upper left and click it for the dropdown menu. Look for the “Zoom” function. With that, you can increase or decrease the font as you will. I don’t know how you do it on a Mac, but all computers have a Zoom function on them.
I sympathize…I, too, have more trouble as I age with normal font sizes.
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Thanks! Got it! Sent from my iPhoneOn Jun 30, 2026,
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I agree with Beckita. Yikes! 🙏🏻🙏🏻
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Thank you, Charlie!
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Charlie, your knowledge of history is amazing! The more we put God in the back seat, the more we drift into socialist/Communist tendencies. Does anybody really know what time it is?
Jerry McFadden
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I haven’t read this whole piece yet but instinctively I think your electric powers are associated with your connection with God!!! I’ve only seen you personally a few times in my life and I was always so nervous because I totally believe you and get you and every single time I left you I was so mad at myself because I always realized I should’ve asked you for a blessing!!! Ha! Drats!!! My guess is you probably have healing ❤️🩹 capabilities either physically or spiritually !!! 😫next time I’m going to remember to ask you !!! lol 😂 THERE!!! lol 😂
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I don’t know about that, Linda, but it was a hoot when I was in my 20s. The static electricity in my body was so off the charts in wintertime that as I moved by, plants would lean in to me. Folks would notice and I would put on a show, waving my hands, and drawing the branches of indoor plants to me and making them dance, following my hand movements. A few understood after I told them, but some insisted I was some sort of wizard.
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I know about it!!! lol 😂. I’m sure my suspicions are correct!!! lol 😂 so be warned the next time I get the pleasure of seeing you again!!! 🥳🙏😂
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my brother Joe had the static effect on watches also. When he was in the monastery in Europe he learned to use a divining rod to find water. Instead of a forked stick, The guy who taught him used a large spinning spring he held between his hands that would reverse direction when he encountered water underground. Seems like this electrical effect serves a neat purpose for those that needed to dig a well and actually find water,!
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Had Trump not made that mistake to attack Iran (influenced by crazy protestant Christian Zionists and Jewish lobby surrounding him (even his daughter Ivanka Trump converted to Orthodox Judaism), Democrats would have close to zero chance winning the upcoming mid-terms. Based on very low gas prices and economic recovery. Now my bet is Democrats will likely win, unfortunately. And judging on the recent peace agreement memorandum, so far Iran politically is winning, even though they lost their almost entire navy and a lot of military assets. So in the end attacking Iran most likely will make that country a regional superpower that proved they strategically outplayed the USA and in the meantime the attack increased gas prices and inflation as a consequence in the USA giving sinking Democrats a lifeline.A Pyrrhic victory indeed.
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Pawel, I am truly sorry to see you so black-pilled. You are seeing as man sees and not as God sees. If we are a people who would punish a man who removed a terrorist and growing nuclear threat because it briefly involved moderately higher gas prices, we deserve to suffer for several more decades, for we are clearly NOT the people we should be. You sound like the early Gideon…sure Lord, I’ll help, as long as it doesn’t involve any serious personal risk.
I have thought well of you for a very long time. I am more disappointed than could imagine that you have seen so much and understood so little.
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Thank you Charlie for your kind words, I know I sound pessimistic, but of course it is perhaps a short-term view. I might be influenced be geopolitical yet right wing brilliant Polish commentators (Pawel Lisicki, dr Leszek Sykulski) that share that view. Of course,everything is in the hands of God and it may take not decades but centuries for the renewal and we being in the midst of all that storm react accordingly emotionally. It took hundreds of years for Old-Testament to flee Egypt, then 40 years of circling in the dessert to achieve the destination…Yet, the nuclear Iran’s compounds were destroyed last year not this year, and this year’s attack on Iran was apparently Netanyahu’s bidding with zero good for the USA, only negative consequences – as mentioned temporary (hopefully) much higher gas prices, increased inflation and prices of everything plus giving Democrats a solid ground for midterms. I might be black pilled, yet I might be just realistic. For me it is a tossup. I hope I am black pilled and wrong, anyway. I will be so happy I was wrong.
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With all due respect here, but I don’t see response to what Pawell actually noted other than high gas prices. Trump is surrounded by Zionists (ie Paula White) and his children married Kushner (who wants to build hotels over the dead in Gaza and buy a nice island in Albania) and DonJr married Epstein’s banker’s child…and it’s pretty well noted at this point we are here with Iran thanks to Bibi and co. Trump has claimed victory over 40xs and yet here we still are in this quagmire with no exit in sight. It is true that I am no fan of Israel and all of their crimes: Tens of thousands of innocent children dead in Gaza alone, setting up “internment”camps now, their official government ministers are on video calling for the elimination of Palestinians, the huge “bunker buster” bomb in Lebanon, blowing up innocents in hospitals/monasteries/homes, and the razing of Christian sites all over. Their crimes and death are recorded in 4K video for all to see. Worrying about an evil Iran while being silent on this seems counterproductive to put it mildly. If this is how we are claiming how God sees, He’d be wearing an eye patch. The Lord is with the suffering and victims.
I know you see Israel as counterattacking Hezbollah, but the victims I noted above would and have publicly disagreed. I’m talking patriarchs, nuns, innocent Christians who feel abandoned by the west while we claim some moral high ground.
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So what should Israel do, Luis? Just sit back and let the Palestinians murder their people at will? And yes, several groups (mainly of traditionalists) have given me their sad stories of how innocent Christians are being killed. Yep, Christians who do not have the good sense to evacuate a war zone – and then blame the attacked for counter-attacking while holding the murderous butchers of babies and intentionally targeted civilians blameless. Then there are the really bad Christians who intentionally try to give shelter to Arab terrorists in the war zone. I have little sympathy for that type of naivete or disingenuousness. If people who are Christian want to make themselves human shields for depraved murderers, they can come crying all they want about how horrible it is, but I am not impressed.
Now if you want to hate on Israel and accuse them of crimes for defending their people do this for me: tell me a realistic, genuine way they can get Palestinian Arabs to stop attacking and murdering them. Come up with that and you have a basis for discussion. Otherwise, you just want the Israelis to die like dutiful submissives. I’m not going to go along with that. And as much as I think of you, I will not allow this comment board to be perverted into a selective “hate Jews and Israel” board. When have you EVER criticized the Palestinians for their constant attacks on Israel and their commitment, since 1967, that the only solution they will approve is the complete evacuation of the land or slaughter of its people?
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So it’s the innocent people’s fault to not get out of the missiles paths? Those pesky monks and nuns. Why are the Palestinians either murderers who started it or too dumb to not leave? Who controls the exit/entry points to Gaza and West Bank? They have told them to go to another sector in the killing field.
But I will answer your question about how they can get the Palestinians to stop attacking- Israel can stop cornering them in Gaza and taking the land. The admitted Greater Israel project needs to end. A simple logic test of who was there when Israel was established as a state can make the case. The land wasn’t empty. Someone was kicked out of their homes and land. It’s been a sad and bloody back and forth ever since. That’s a simple yet ignored fact. So the attack vs counterattack argument goes back quite a bit.
I’ve spoken up against bus bombings in Jerusalem and such instances in the past. I don’t hate Jews. I know plenty who are good people. Some are even brave enough to speak out against this government. I hate murderous regimes. I was a supporter of Israel before the story holes in Oct 7th became clear and their actions since have been horrendous. You again note that Palestinians want it all and won’t settle for less when people like Ben Gvir in the actual government are calling for that very thing against Palestinians.
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That’s a little truncated and cockeyed history you got going there, Luis. You may have come by it innocently by taking courses on Middle Eastern studies in college – departments that for the last 40 years have been entirely funded by Middle Eastern Muslim nations. Let’s get a little more complete history:
1) Palestine has NEVER been a nation. It was a region in the Middle East containing both Arabs and Jews, similar to how the Great Plains is a region in America. It operated under mandate of the old League of Nations and was ruled by Great Britain under that mandate. The U.N. approved a partition with the creation of Israel in 1947, just after the holocaust ended, to give Jews a defensible homeland (that is the sum and substance of what is sneeringly called Zionism by Jew-haters). A substantial area of Gaza was reserved for Arabs.
2) Arabs WERE allowed to settle in Israel, provided they were loyal to the nation (not the religion). Now, Arabs form a substantial minority in the Israeli Knesset (legislature). Jews were not allowed to live in the Gaza area and no Jews have been allowed in the legislatures of any Muslim countries.
3) On the day the mandate expired and the British evacuated in 1948, Egypt and Gaza Arabs teamed to attack Israel, with Egyptian forces making Gaza the headquarters for their joint forces. To the surprise of many, Israel drove the attacking forces back to Egypt’s border, entirely conquering the territory of Gaza. As part of the Israeli-Egyptian Armistice, the land of Gaza was GIVEN BACK in its current reduced form by Israel after having honestly conquered it in an entirely defensive war. Gaza was ruled by the Egyptian military until 1967.
4) This period was interrupted briefly during the Suez Crisis of 1956. Egypt would not grant citizenship to the Arab refugees in Gaza after the 1948 war and so, some in Gaza started attacking Israel in hopes of regaining land that had been lost in the previous war they had initiated to exterminate Israel. Israel took the land again – and after more diplomacy, gave it back in toto under Egyptian rule once more.
5) In 1967 the Arab countries surrounding Israel joined to initiate a war of extinction against Israel once more. Once more, Arab aggression did NOT go well for the Arabs. Israel quickly won the war, including once more seizing all of Gaza. Over the next 25 years, Israel occupied and administered Gaza, preferring NOT to allow Egypt to use it as its forward base for a fourth effort to exterminate Israel. In 1987, rioting and violence broke out between Gazans and Israeli occupying forces. In 1994, Israel began a phased withdrawal, transferring administrative authority to the newly formed Palestine Authority under the Oslo Accords. Gaza would be administered by neither Egypt, nor by Israel, but by a Palestinian Authority of Arabs who lived there.
6) In 2005, Israel completely withdrew from Gaza, leaving full autonomous governance entirely to the Palestinian Arabs there.
7) On three occasions, Israel signed on to UN proposals to give Palestinian Arabs a nation of their own in Gaza, just as Israel had been given a state in 1947. The only caveat was that the PA had to delete its primary goal of the complete destruction of Israel from its charter. All three times, the Palestinians refused. They would never give up their goal of killing Jews and destroying Israel.
8) Despite all this, Israel’s border with Gaza was far more porous than Egypt’s border with Gaza. Israel allowed Palestinian Arabs to work in Israel, crossing the border daily, though they had to go home at night. Egypt absolutely refused to allow any Palestinians to pass into their country. That was relaxed after the fall of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in 2011. Egypt let a little over 1,000 Palestinians per day cross into Egypt. As Egyptian society continued to get more volatile (with many Egyptians claiming the Palestinians were involved in the disorder), after the ouster of Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi in 2013, border crossings were reduced to less than a hundred per day and eventually closed entirely. Now the border between Egypt and Gaza looks like the triple razor-wiring of a prison because EGYPT absolutely wants no Palestinians getting into their country.
9) After Israel fully withdrew from Gaza in 2005, much of the world gave the PA huge infusions of cash to build desalination plants, power plants, and economic infrastructure. This was vital because Gaza was entirely dependent on Israel for its power and fuel – and largely dependent on it for sufficient food. Instead of using all this money to build needed infrastructure and economic development, Palestinian Arabs used it to build terror tunnels and buy rockets and munitions with which to attack Israel. Israel HAS several times cut off supply lines to Gaza when it was being constantly attacked from that strip. Egypt never had to cut anything off because, though bordering it in the south, Egypt wanted nothing to do with its old allies and gives Palestine squat.
So the only “back and forth” there has been there is that Palestine joins Arab allies in trying to wipe Israel off the map, loses the war and territory in the process – and Israel gives the land it has legally conquered back in hopes that the Palestinians will give up this deadly game. After watching Palestinian civilians cheering and celebrating a festival day as Hamas terrorists paraded mutilated and dead Jewish civilians through their neighborhoods in the aftermath of the October 7 attack of butchery on innocent civilians, I concluded there is no hope for peace in that region. All Israel can do is insist on unconditional surrender and occupation. At least that is what I would do. But the Israelis are significantly more gentle than I would be under such repeated and mortal offenses.
The only way anyone can conclude that this is a “both sides” issue is to know little of the actual history of this prolonged, sporadic conflict or to just hate Jews and Israel. Now if you want to argue that somehow not baring their throat to the murderous Palestinian terrorists is unfair to Palestine, have at it, but I will NOT suffer you to substitute anti-Israel fan fantasy for cold, hard history.
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I appreciate the history lesson, but I know Palestine wasn’t a state. I use the term Palestinians because that is what the people there are commonly referred to as. I’m aware the British Empire took over after the Ottoman fall in WW1 and the Balfour Declaration (behind the philanthropic Walter Rothschild and other family members) because Britain didn’t want the Jews in their turf.
As I simply stated in my last reply, the land wasn’t empty. There were Jews, Christians, and Muslims in the territory. The Jews were a minority and millions of Arabs were displaced. Land was bought at times and simply taken at other times. It wasn’t Jews kicked out, it was Arabs. This has been the thorn that has never healed. The first war kicked off immediately in 48 if I’m not mistaken. Any map of the expansion in Israel and the PA territories shows this expansion. Israel has won every war, yes I know. They give territory back, as in Gaza like you said, but still control the points of entry and utilities like water and electricity (which can and have been shut off at times).
I’m also aware that the Arab nations (with exception of Jordan maybe) have been indifferent at best and hostile at worst, of the Palestinians. It has been the largest refugee population. A people with no land or nation in the sad tale. My point earlier is that if you kick me out of my home and land, I won’t be a happy camper either.
Oct 7th (another time I spoke out against that cruelty and evil) was just the latest justification for more evil. The story of how Hamas got through that security perimeter makes no sense, a question that possibly led to Charlie K’s death but I digress.
This is your blog. You can post this or choose not to as is your right. The facts of current Israeli officials calling for eradication of its neighbors (labeling them Amalek as in the biblical *genocide*), the Trump admin connections, the Greater Israel project, and the blatant land grabs against Arabs (Muslim and Christians) are indisputable. Blowing up ambulances and that huge bunker buster in Lebanon are examples of just what is turning the world against a people. Despite implications made, I don’t want that. I want the madness to end. The old trick of simply labeling someone a terrorist to justify blowing them and everyone in their town up doesn’t work anymore.
I pray the bloodlust ends and just a chance for peace and rebuilding come about.
I know we vehemently disagree on this. I still keep you and all here in my prayers and hope the Lord enlightens us all. I’ll stop here and let you have the final say (if you even post this) as this is your page.
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Good response, Luis. I completely disagree with many of your points as I explained below – and Arabs were not kicked out of Israel if they pledged loyalty to their host nation. Israelis evacuated Gaza because if they didn’t, they would probably be killed. Israel did NOT return homes to many of those Gazans who lost them after the first attempted war of extinction against Israel. We have very different perspectives on this, but I appreciate your measured response. My memory of you is of a notably compassionate, good-hearted man.
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I try to look at it from a pragmatic perspective. History is what it is and the people who live in the greater Israel area now have to live with that past, but more importantly have to figure out what to do now. Both Palestinians and Jews have good reasons to dislike each other and distrust each other. Israel is not and can’t afford to be a liberal democracy. Palestine, were it a state, would most assuredly not be a liberal democracy. I don’t agree with all of Israel’s tactics and I do think that overreach can backfire and lose them allies. But I also acknowledge that they are surrounded by neighbors that most certainly would wipe them out if they were able to. It is clear that Israel treats Muslims better within its border than any Muslim country treats Jews within their borders. The two state solution would be nice except it seems certain that the moment it could, Palestine would attack Israel. The ridiculous “Free Palestine” crowd in the West suffers from selective outrage and at least some anti-semitism. There are plenty of wars going on and lots of people being killed by war in the world, but the one they latch onto happens to be the one involving Jews. Many Jews also happen to be the rich they envy and want to tax into oblivion. I don’t think this is a coincidence. Again, I don’t like some of how the Israeli state is behaving, but I ask again what should they do? I don’t have many better ideas for them. If they gave their enemies equal voice in their country and let them rearm in Gaza, how long would they survive? I think we can see what happens when you give enemies too much freedom and too much of a voice in one’s country. Just look at the US and Europe …
Lake
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Charlie, it must be your “magnetic” personality stopping your watch. Ever consider a mechanical wind up?—- Sent from Doug’s Back PackYou can ignore reality, but you cannot ignore the consequences of ignoring reality.” – Ayn Rand
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It worked with wind-ups, as well, way back in the 60’s.
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Now that is truly astounding.—- Sent from Doug’s Back PackYou can ignore reality, but you cannot ignore the consequences of ignoring reality.” – Ayn Rand
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Ha, Doug…you should know, I never do anything halfway. When God decided my body should be designed so as to stop watches, He wasn’t playing. (In the early days of digital watches, I tried one. After a few days it just displayed random numbers).
The only thing that ever lasted for a while during this period were pocket watches, They weren’t entirely protected, but they would last for a while. But I just decided I was not a pocket watch sort of guy.
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When we built our cabin, the location for a drilled well is abitrary in the plans. Our excavator guy said he does “dousing” where he breaks off a branch into a “Y” shape and uses it to locate the best spot for a well. Since what is in the plans was arbitray, I told him to give it a try.He said he found a spot and it was the strongest he ever experienced when I showed up one afternoon at the construction spot. He broke off a fresh branch, made a “Y”, held it upside down and walked by the spot to show me. He held the Y tight and the branch bent right over towards the spot when he passed by. It was amazing to watch. No way to fake this. He said all his protestant folks he knows said it was from the devil. I said I am a Catholic Chritisan and don’t really know what the church teaches on this. I was not about to dismiss it as not legitimate.I told Bill Hammer this (we became good friends when we met on the DC trip with you Charlie). It turns out Bill personally knew Fr. Ripperger and asked him about Catholic teaching on this. Fr. Rippeger’s response was it is ok if it is in the natural order of things as long as it was not associated with the occult. My excavator guy is not associated with the occult. As it turns out, when the well was drilled, the refill rate was 10 gallons per minute and static water level about 15 ft. down. Wells don’t get much better than that. I can run two sprinklers all day long without losing water pressure.It reminds me when God told Moses to strike the rock once in the desert for water. Unfortunately, he struck it twice and got into trouble.—- Sent from Doug’s Back PackYou can ignore reality, but you cannot ignore the consequences of ignoring reality.” – Ayn Rand
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Interesting story, Doug. Bill and Fr. Ripperger are actually cousins. 🙂
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Hi Bekita, I forgot about that they were actually related. I hope you are well. One of my favorite pictures is that of Fr. Wang praying before the Blessed Sacrament when we visited. I will email you the picture. How is he doing? God bless you!—- Sent from Doug’s Back PackYou can ignore reality, but you cannot ignore the consequences of ignoring reality.” – Ayn Rand
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Somehow, Doug, I missed your comment. We are both well. The Padre must pace himself as he’ll be 98 in October. He’s still preaching with gusto and enjoying ministry work even while needing more breaks for refueling.
I remember the photo to which you refer. 🙂 Greetings to Lambzie as well!!
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Truly amazing. Attached the picture here cc’d to you as well. Lambzie says hi back.—- Sent from Doug’s Back PackYou can ignore reality, but you cannot ignore the consequences of ignoring reality.â – Ayn Rand
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Thank you, Doug!
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By the way Charlie, this was so beautifully written. It heartens me to see you as the watchman on the wall.—- Sent from Doug’s Back PackYou can ignore reality, but you cannot ignore the consequences of ignoring reality.” – Ayn Rand
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JESUS, I TRUST IN YOU! Happy Day 😉 Pray for Peace, The USA & Prepare!!
https://spiritdaily.org/blog/unpacking-our-ladys-urgent-call-for-our-entire-family-lineage/
https://www.ncregister.com/features/5-heroes-of-american-catholicism
https://catholicexchange.com/the-answer-to-our-anger-becoming-americas-holy-ones/
https://onepeterfive.com/every-bishop-act-now/
https://catholicexchange.com/the-life-and-death-of-blessed-jerzy-popieluszko/
https://www.catholicleague.org/males-cannot-crash-female-sports/
https://onepeterfive.com/forgotten-customs-of-the-precious-blood/
https://spiritdailyblog.com/news/back-to-the-future-or-sliding-back-to-middle-ages
https://crisismagazine.com/opinion/a-story-so-stunning-it-would-be-a-sin-not-to-share-it
https://onepeterfive.com/at-the-tomb-of-archbishop-lefebvre/
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2026/06/northern-ireland-historic-catholic-convent-near-st-patricks/
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2026/06/30/the-canadian-dollar-is-collapsing-heres-what-to-expect-next/
https://crisismagazine.com/opinion/life-in-hillarys-village .. https://townhall.com/tipsheet/mattvespa/2026/06/30/the-socialist-wave-has-crashed-into-colorado-n2678634
https://defendingtherepublic.substack.com/p/freedom-is-hard
https://gettr.com/post/p41gn3w1638
https://www.coffeeandcovid.com/p/inevitability-wednesday-july-1-2026
https://www.newoxfordreview.org/daily-news/
https://zeale.co/
https://thefederalist.com/
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/
https://thedailybs.com/news/
https://www.zerohedge.com
https://www.breitbart.com/
GOD SAVE THE REPUBLIC & ALL HERE!!
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this post is spot-on. I recently traveled to Washington state, and the revelry in pride was everywhere. I felt a dark heaviness over an area where the beauty of God’s creation is breathtaking. My heart was grieved at so many who are doubling down because they do not know Jesus. In my community, there is a revival happening for Jesus. I’m not sure what will happen in November, but I do know that there is a deep hunger and thirst for God happening in our nation right now. I pray that the graces from the Consecration to the Sacred Heart jumpstart revival throughout our Land
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Charlie, I’m afraid you misspelled ‘Learing Center’. 😏
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You’re right…ah well, I reckon I’ll lear eventually. (Actually, autocorrect did it. If only Somalis could learn to use autocorrect).
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Gosh, Charlie, I wish someone had taught me history as you do; I would have loved it!This is a brilliant essay, and I should probably just send the whole thing to our kids. I’ll do a screenshot of at least part of it, to make sure they read some of it.
I’m hoping I’ll see the “Triumph”, but I won’t if it takes decades! Let’s pray the coming months go according to God’s Will.
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Interesting analysis of the 7 deadly platform bases of the radical Left; it seems spot on for a time when good and evil are reversed in the cultural poison fed to us by media and academia. I hadn’t researched the details of the Russian Revolution, yet I could tell that some parallels were developing. The Democratic Socialists of America are a dangerous organization composed of some combination of useful idiots and malicious actors. I’ve been following their messages on social media; they are rife with lies, and many are very much like the Mensheviks you mention. They constantly claim to have the same platform as the Norwegian Social Democrats, and that the Nordic countries are examples of how socialism works. In reality of course those countries are not socialist (as they repeatedly say), and the DSA is far to the left of Norway. It seems a very odd and willful blindness to not notice how European Social Democracy and American Democratic Socialism are not the same. Equally absurd is the declaration of socialist victory after 6 months of NYC not collapsing under Mamdani. Clearly, they are applying some band-aids for easy talking points (i.e. state funding and deferred pension payments to balance a budget, some populist posing, a couple social programs, a small taxation scheme on expensive realty), declaring a (very) early victory to get their candidates onto November ballots.
What is worrying about the situation is how easily momentum builds among those who fail to think and act only on emotion. Many leaders of this type of socialism are prototypical of dangerous fools throughout history: well spoken, possessing natural intelligence but terrible philosophy, using their minds in service to Satan. The Followers are people devoid of a cause, afraid of the future and lacking any divine protection. I recently read that a third of Americans have been involved in occult practices. Poorly taught by foolish professors, under pressure from AI and lying media, and without any spiritual armor there is little chance of resistance. If the Marxists take over the Democratic party (not a guarantee of course, as hopefully there are some sensible people left in the party), there will be a substantial number of democrats who will ultimately just go along with it because they are clueless and along for the ride. If they manage to then win high offices, there is a real chance that the Bolsheviks eliminate the Mensheviks again. The new Mensheviks are less brave and tough than the old ones, and even less likely to survive hostile Marxists. The question is are there enough Americans possessing of sanity to stop this from happening? Let’s hope.
Lake
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Dadgum, Lake, this is solid enough to be a stand-alone column, itself!
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JESUS, I TRUST IN YOU! Happy Day 😉 Pray for Peace, The USA & Prepare!!
https://crisismagazine.com/opinion/the-kapaun-virtue
https://www.wnd.com/2026/07/lefts-socialist-wave-will-come-religion-next-catholic/
https://onepeterfive.com/the-other-unauthorized-episcopal-consecration-in-california/
https://www.complicitclergy.com/2026/06/29/watch-archbishop-casey-bans-catholic-men-from-praying-on-steps-of-cathedral-during-pride-parade/
https://catholicexchange.com/heed-the-artists-warnings-in-the-machine-age/
https://onepeterfive.com/passing-through-the-storm-we-cannot-defend-the-faith-integrally-without-suffering/
https://www.catholicleague.org/in-a-real-world-test-usa-emerges-1/
https://www.markmallett.com/blog/the-hope-of-purgatory/
https://nypost.com/2026/06/30/science/ark-of-the-covenant-ruins-may-have-been-found-study-says/
https://www.pillarcatholic.com/p/costs-down-but-no-leo-bounce-peters
https://theacru.org/2026/07/01/an-un-supreme-decision/
https://jennasside.rocks/p/america-doesnt-have-a-socialist-problemwe
https://defendingtherepubliclawsplainer.substack.com/p/breaking-down-the-supreme-courts
https://zeale.co/
https://newsbusters.org/
https://justthenews.com/
https://www.americanthinker.com/
https://thedailybs.com/news/
https://www.zerohedge.com
https://www.whatfinger.com/
GOD SAVE THE REPUBLIC & ALL HERE!!
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JESUS, I TRUST IN YOU! … PS:
https://x.com/sfliberty/status/2072447065397825701 … Long before the term “Socialism” was invented, Rush @ Thanksgiving would tell us of The Rest of the Story & another earlier example of Socialist failure .. https://capitalisminstitute.org/rush-limbaughs-previous-holiday-message-resurfaces/
My G/G Grandfather, WO Wm. Sommerville, Conductor of Artillery was one of those Scots/Irish Guys .. https://afn.net/opinions/guest-commentary/2026/07/02/a-history-lesson-on-the-fiery-scots-who-helped-birth-our-nation/
https://x.com/MAHA_Action/status/2072440106896511219
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/amy-curtis/2026/07/02/elex-michaelson-ossoff-shapiro-2028-n2678741
https://hotair.com/david-strom/2026/07/02/the-immigrants-who-hate-america-n3816531
https://cowboystatedaily.com/2026/07/02/cheyenne-wont-take-data-center-wastewater-after-meta-company-contaminated-system/
https://patriotpost.us/opinion/128844-the-new-socialists-elite-ungrateful-and-toxic-as-ever-2026-07-02
https://www.coffeeandcovid.com/p/un-intelligent-thursday-july-2-2026
https://hotair.com/
GOD SAVE ALL HERE!
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JESUS, I TRUST IN YOU! Happy Day 😉 Pray for Peace, The USA & Prepare!!
https://onepeterfive.com/jesus-carries-this-cross/
https://catholicexchange.com/america-250-the-most-patriotic-college-in-the-united-states/
https://www.catholicleague.org/why-america-is-still-free/
https://onepeterfive.com/feasts-lost-to-duplication-pope-st-leo-ii-st-anacletus-and-the-vanishing-of-double-feasts/
https://veilofveronica.blog/2026/07/02/that-thing-with-sspx/
https://spiritdaily.org/blog/poem-to-god/
https://spiritdailyblog.com/inspiration/just-joking
https://crisismagazine.com/opinion/the-theology-of-finger-pointing-the-sophie-cunningham-moment
https://www.theburningplatform.com/2026/07/03/burning-down-the-house-6/
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2026/07/02/former-dni-tulsi-gabbard-outlines-the-mechanics-of-the-deep-state/ .. https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2026/07/02/two-politically-pretentious-canadians-interview-u-s-ambassador-pete-hoekstra/
https://spiritdaily.org/blog/the-29-finalists-for-astronothe-29-finalists-for-astronomy-photographer-of-the-year/
https://pjmedia.com/david-manney/2026/07/02/the-fbis-georgia-probe-asks-the-question-2020-critics-tried-to-bury-n4954615
https://zeale.co/
https://www.whatfinger.com/
https://townhall.com/
https://thefederalist.com/
https://thedailybs.com/news/
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/
https://newsbusters.org/
GOD SAVE THE REPUBLIC & ALL HERE!!
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Absolutely, Beckita. What Charlie posted about Russia is the basic “stuff” that many of us, in secondary schools (high schools in your terms) back in the mid-70s learned in history class. History, over on this side of the big pond, was still studied by most kids back then. In my case, in the last 2 years before finals (i.e. about 15 to 17 years old) we used a great book by the British historian David Thompson called “Europe since Napoleon”. It was university standard, basically, and very text-heavy, but you were expected to take it in.
But then again, with English classes heavy on all the classics, starting with Chaucer, and a Shakespeare play compulsory, plus all the “greats”, from the Elizebethans on up to the moderns, kids had to take a lot on board. Not to mention mastery of grammar. Plus Latin and French, or German. And, in Ireland, we also had to study the Irish language. Which is difficult. We didn’t actually speak it well 😔 But we had to study it, and be able to write it for the exams.
Back then, there were so many great history programmes on the T.V., not dumbed-down, but of a standard that’s rarely seen now. And great historical drama. The BBC’s ” I Claudius” was a highpoint. I was in my final year at that stage,1976/77, and our Latin teacher (Father Moore, S.M., God rest his noble soul) would expound on it in class the following day. To our delight, as it wasted time on doing the real hard stuff of actually buckling down to tackle Livy, Cicero, Horace etc. 😎. And t.v. closed down at midnight. In Ireland, they played the national anthem at closedown. That would probably be termed “fascist” now 🙄
Sorry, rambling on here, but as a history buff your dissertation on the basic history we all had to know as teens struck a familiar chord. And we did know the difference between Fascists, Falangists and Nazis, not to mention Bolsheviks and Mensheviks. Or, we were supposed to …
Anyway, over here it’s already July 4th so may I wish all of you in the great U.S. a very happy 250th birthday. You have saved us over here twice in the last century, in blood, and kept the flame of freedom burning for Western Civilisation. Those of us of good heart don’t forget that.
God bless America.
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Jaykay, you made me cry with your “God bless America!” Too many Americans don’t ask God to bless us. 🥺 Thank you–and God bless you and Ireland too!
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Amen, J, and thank you. We’re in this together. I’m confident that God’s Plan will set things straight all over the world, while I’m praying that we respond to His particular call on each of our lives.
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Jakay, thank you for the birthday wishes and for remembering the Americans who gave their all in Europe. May the flame of freedom continue to burn for Western civilization and the Christian roots upon which it rests.
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JESUS, I TRUST IN YOU! Happy Independence Day 😉 Pray for Peace, The USA & Prepare!!
https://catholicexchange.com/the-fourth-of-july-and-divine-providence/
https://www.ncregister.com/commentaries/america-s-250th-and-the-weight-of-a-nation
https://onepeterfive.com/celebrating-america-250-happy-semiquincentennial/
https://www.thomasmore.org/this-fourth-of-july-proudly-celebrate-250-years-of-freedom/
https://patriotpost.us/references/81039-independence-day
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/07/01/american-independence-avoided-world-transformed/
https://crisismagazine.com/opinion/dear-mr-jefferson-a-letter-from-the-smallest-american
https://wallbuilders.com/resource/history-of-the-black-robe-regiment/
https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/john-peter-gabriel-muhlenberg-preacher-and-patriot.htm
https://townhall.com/columnists/marklewis/2026/07/04/can-we-restore-the-principles-of-1776-n2678804
https://www.ewtnnews.com/world/us/wyoming-catholic-college-student-wins-presidential-1776-award
https://adanestorwc.substack.com/p/a-daughter-of-the-revolution-two
https://zeale.co/
https://www.zerohedge.com
https://thedailybs.com/news/
https://freerepublic.com/tag/*/index
https://citizenfreepress.com/
GOD SAVE THE REPUBLIC & ALL HERE!!
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