ACTUALLY Draining the Swamp

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2022/05/drain_the_swamp.html

 How to actually drain the swamp even with a Democrat in the WH. Don't fund all the federal agencies under one big "porkulous" bill that nobody reads. String them out, fund the ones we need, don't fund the ones we don't. Separate the wheat from the tares! 

The first task for Republican leadership is to pass “spaghetti appropriations.” That’s right, string them out rather than dumping them all into an omnibus bill. Fund DOJ in its own bill and send that to the Big Guy’s desk. Dare him to veto it. Ditto for State and the military. Don’t allow anything for any other department to creep into each of the bills.

 The article is not that long, it CAN be done!

NY Governor Kathy Hochul Sends "Apostles"

Governor Hochul: "I need you to be my apostles. I need you to go out and talk about it and say, we owe this to each other. We love each other. Jesus taught us to love one another and how do you show that love but to care about each other enough to say, please get the vaccine because I love you and I want you to live, I want our kids to be safe when they're in schools, I want to be safe when you go to a doctor's office or to a hospital and are treated by somebody, you don't want to get the virus from them. You're already sick or you wouldn't be there. We have to solve this, my friends. I need every one of you. I need you to let them know that this is how we can fight this pandemic."https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/rush-transcript-governor-hochul-attends-service-christian-cultural-center

Talk about separation of church and state!

Since we had it and recovered, we are living in sin, and apparently a lot of healthcare workers in Pennsylvania are as well, due to the heresy of a hospital chain.  

A hospital chain in Pennsylvania announced a revised policy that seems like a reasonable recognition that certain employees who caught and fought off COVID-19 might not want to get vaccinated, and prefer to stick with natural immunity. 

"Liberals" have always had "ideas so good they must be mandatory", since they are the "smart ones", and the "deplorable, bitter clingers" are just not not smart, moral, etc enough  to follow "the word" from their betters. 

So far, no problem seen here by "Americans United For Separation of church and state",  but they did have this helpful  quote: 

Right now, religious extremists and their lawmaker allies are trying to force everyone else to live by their beliefs and to use religion as a license to harm others. They threaten our freedom to live as each of us chooses, which widens inequality in our communities and country. Our nation promises everyone the freedom to believe as they want, but our laws cannot allow anyone to use their religious beliefs to harm others. That’s why Americans United for Separation of Church and State brings together people of all religions and none to fight in the courts, legislatures, and the public square for freedom without favor and equality without exception. "AU will never stop doing all we can to protect your right to live and believe as you choose,"--Rachel Laser, CEO

Got that? Being the sort of "extremist" who defends peoples right to choose what goes into their bodies are seeking a "licence to harm others". 

 As we ought to have learned from the National Socialists in Germany, National Socialists  are all about "the freedom to choose" -- between following their mandates or death. 

As we can see from the Hochul speech, the religion of the state is National Socialism, and you have received "The Great Commission" to get out there and save the sinners! 

Trump's Vaccine Fails!

 https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2021/09/covid-deaths-in-the-u-s-are-higher-than-last-year-at-same-time.php

COVID deaths are a little higher than they were last year at this time - of course you don't hear much about that. 

If Trump was president (as he would be if the election was fairly held), it would be a "crisis of malfeasance"! As would Afghanistan in the unlikely case that the withdrawal went even half as badly as it has under Biden. 

Last fall, both Biden and Kamala suggested any vaccine that rolled out under Trump would be highly suspect, and Kamala was clear that she would not take it (not that one can have ANY trust in what she or Joe says). Is it "better" that Kamala likely knows what she is saying? 

The media called for Trump to be tested for Alzheimer's for pretty much his whole term, and then when he was and passes, they questioned its accuracy.  

Any questions why my faith in the media is ZIP? 

Bonhoeffer, Metaxis

 Since I read this on Kindle, here is a link to my highlights and notes on Goodreads.

Here is a link to decent review of the book.

A major part of the book is documenting Bonhoeffer's deep theological challenge of living our faith in Christ. His question of "What is the church"?  is directly applicable today. Is the church a social organization of people that gather together on Sunday to be entertained, to be identified as "virtuous", "woke", etc or is it a set of committed, confessing, devoted followers of Christ who humbly seek to live their lives increasingly in his example of being wholly human and wholy holy (spiritual)?

The very troubling part of the book is how easy it is to map Nazi Germany to "America" today -- which is much the same as Nazi Germany not being "Germany". We are clearly no longer the Constitutional Republic that we were founded as. We are largely a fascist pagan state. Hitler killed 6 million Jews, our holocaust of abortion has killed 60 million babies.  

In Nazisim, the ideology of Fascism -- massive government bureaucracy, media control, church control, big business cronyism, the judicial system, education all collaborating to create creeping totalitarianism; was combined with nationalism, racism, paganism, and idolatry (for the swastika and the person of Hitler). 

Today, massive government bureaucracy, media, liberal churches, big business, the judiciary, the educational system, etc are combined in censoring ("cancelling") alternate views, paganism through "wokeism", and increasing idolatry through symbols like rainbows, BLM, the earth (environmentalism), masks, etc. covered here. 

So far we are missing the "strongman focus, our "Hitler", who the mass of the population worship. Is that a requirement?, or will worship of wealth, pleasure, etc, and the people who embody those (Musk, Bezos, Gates, etc) suffice? 

Some interesting quotes from the book: 

You cannot claim you believe something if you don’t live like you believe it. God is not fooled by our claiming to believe the words of some well-crafted statement of faith—or by our dutiful church attendance—any more than your neighbors are fooled by it, or the devil is fooled by it.

Silence in the face of evil is itself evil. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act. God will not hold us guiltless.

God is the one who invented reality, and reality can only be seen truly as it exists in God. Nothing that exists is outside his realm. So there are no ethics apart from doing God’s will, and God—indeed, Jesus Christ—is the nonnegotiable given in the equation of human ethics:

Hitler must be called a Nietzschean, although he likely would have bristled at the term since it implied that he believed in something beyond himself. This clashed with the idea of an invincible Führer figure, above whom none could stand. Still, Hitler visited the Nietzsche museum in Weimar many times, and there are photos of him posed, staring rapturously at a huge bust of the philosopher. He devoutly believed in what Nietzsche said about the “will to power.” Hitler worshiped power, while truth was a phantasm to be ignored; and his sworn enemy was not falsehood but weakness. For Hitler, ruthlessness was a great virtue, and mercy, a great sin.

Here in the early 21st century it is an important book for us to "read and weep" as we ponder it's message. Is our silence violence? 

Bully Pulpit, Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism

https://www.spectator.com.au/2013/12/the-bully-pulpit-by-doris-kearns-goodwin-review/ 

The link will give you an idea of what is covered in the book ... often with much more detail of the political nuts and bolts, how the wives impacted their husbands (pretty natural for many women, it goes back to Eve) and most of all, the worship of "progressivism". 

The assumption is "progressivism is good" of course. We are "progressing", but towards what exactly? In many ways, we have never moved from the age of the "Bully Pulpit", except the press has become even more biased, and of course we have a lot more technology than was present then. 

While the book really never mentions the vast influx of immigrants (legal then), but only the result - exploitation, low wages, slums, crime, unionization, etc. Why did they come and stay? Obviously because the conditions they found here were much better than the conditions they had in Europe, in which opportunity was very limited,  and in some cases (Irish) so bad that starvation was an issue. 

As is always the case when there is a massive influx of poor, there was exploitation by business and moderately wealthy, through low wages, poor living conditions, and the exploitation of their vulnerability by political machines. 

Today, we have massive illegal immigration, and the results are the same -- low wages, poor living conditions, and limited opportunity (they are illegal after all). However, business and the moderately wealthy (remember "Nannygate" in the Clinton years). Why do they come? Because as bad as we see conditions for them here, they are way better than where they come from. 

Today, press bias is even more celebrated than it was then. However at the turn of the centruy, the bias was declared, as it is often denied today. Income disparity today is greater than it was then, and the Davos elite, Google, Amazon, WalMart and the massive Deep State keep the "deplorables" in relatively hopeless conditions -- albeit with more entertainment in their increasingly isolated masked homes. Back then at least they mostly had church, family, and ethnic unity/traditions. Today, isolation and increasing government dependence make their lives more meaningless, often with the result being lonely addiction and suicide. 

On page 445, Teddy is quoted as saying "...to see the nation divided into two parties, one containing the bulk of the property owners and conservative people, the other the bulk of the wageworkers and the less prosperous people generally; each party insisting upon demanding much that was wrong, and each party sullen and angered by real and fancied grievances". 

We have "progressed" so far in 100 years! 

In 1906, power and fame had not fully corrupted Teddy and he still had some grasp of reality: 

"I must represent not the excited opinion of the West but the real interests of the whole people". Those interests would be ill served he curtly rejoined by turning the operation of the railroads over to government employees for "he knew better than anyone else could how inefficient and undependable they were". 

One might think that Amtrak would  have finally proven that point, but in 100 years, half the country still thinks more government, and even socialism is a "bully idea". 

I much enjoyed learning a lot more about Taft. The saddest part of the book is how Teddy's lust for power and narcissism destroyed their friendship, although somewhat like Jefferson and Adams, they did reconcile before death. 

As always,  unforeseen events affect history. On April 10, 1912, Major Archie Butt, a friend and go-between between Teddy and Taft was killed when the Titanic sank. He was a great support to Taft, and his loss during the incredibly rancorous election of 1912 added to Taft's pain. 

There are good many parallels between Teddy and Trump -- both upper class, willful, often nasty, extremely popular with the "masses", and quite shallow and unrealistic about what they could accomplish against "the system". 

Kearns Goodwin is a leftist "progressive" ideologue and the book is absolutely written from that perspective. What is left out (massive immigration at the time being a major example), and near total blindness to the downsides of mob rule, need to be considered if one chooses to dive in. It is overly long for what it covers, but decently written, and gives a good one sided view of the turbulent turn of the 19th to 20th century time.

Remembering Rush

 https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2021/02/a-word-from-rush.php

The linked PL post brought me back to this post from 2018 celebrating 30 years of Rush. https://privatemoose.blogspot.com/2018/10/thirty-years-of-rush.html

I didn't listen to Rush very much ... too much entertainment vs information for my taste, but I did appreciate that for a whole lot of "salt of the earth" Americans, he validated what they knew in their hearts and the MSM disparaged. 

Reagan got rid of the "fairness doctrine" which was really the doctrine that made American media the equivalent of "Pravda". If you put on a show that presented a view different from the media deep state complex, it required you to provide "equal time" to the opposing view -- which nobody would listen to, since they already had CBS, NBC, ABC, NPR, etc. Cancelling the "fairness" doctrine made Rush possible. 

It will be a pleasant surprise if the left doesn't bring back that doctrine -- it is essentially what we see on the internet now with "de-platforming" and "canceling". 

I'd put Reagan and William F Buckley in the same class as the excellent Boswell quote from the PL link. 

“He has made a chasm, which not only nothing can fill up, but which nothing has a tendency to fill up. Johnson is dead. Let us go to the next best. There is nobody. No man can be said to put you in the mind of Johnson.”

Rand Paul Stands Up

 https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2021/01/voter-fraud-nothing-to-see-here.php

A good little clip to watch in the PL link. Stephanopoulos is certain that voter fraud was not a factor in 2020. I wonder if he was as certain that Russia did not interfere with the 2016 election. 

Rand appears to have a backbone. 

Bezos, Amazon Oppose Mail-in Voting

https://beingbeliefbehavior.blogspot.com/2021/01/behold-biden-all-things-have-become-new.html

The link takes to to the Seattle Times, the only "mainstream" source I could find reporting this ... albeit in a rather "coded" way.  

The important quote is: 

Jeff Bezos — a strong Democratic supporter — and Amazon are aiming to postpone a unionization vote at one of its warehouses in Alabama, the Wall Street Journal reports. Interestingly, Amazon has requested that the National Labor Relations Board reconsider allowing mail-in voting, claiming that the mail-in voting process has “serious and systemic flaws.”

For which you have to go to "right wing" sources like this. 

One reason we are divided is because of what is NOT reported -- if you only listen to the MSM, you never hear this. You believe that "all reasonable people accept mail in voting is safe and secure". Counter claims are "without evidence". 

Certainly none of the "elite" would think it has "serious and systematic flaws"! 

One would have to be some sort of deplorable Trumpist to think that!!! 

The Prince of Darkness

 https://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/19/books/review/Shafer-t-2.html

Naturally, the NYT review is biased, though it does give a "liberal that don't know they are liberal" view of the book. 

A better short description of the book is "The story of a conservative reporters journey from being a moderate liberal the manner of Scoop Jackson to being a moderate conservative in the manner of Ronald Reagan". 

It is a "nice", though hard hitting remembrance of the times from the 1950's to the Obamanation end of America. It gives a view of American culture and daily life from the perspective of an actual journalist that knows he is biased, and has a decent handle on his biases. 

It covers more detail than necessary (understandable given his "involvement") on the "Plame Affair" ... Joe Wilson went to Niger because his wife, CIA employee Valerie Plame,  recommended him. Wilson brought back a non-committal report on Saddam attempting to get yellowcake (for nuclear purposes). Richard Armitage told Novack about it -- which he reported, including his wife's name -- wich was listed in "Who's Who In America" as Wilson's wife (so not a "secret"). 

The media, the Democrats and the Deep State (but I repeat myself) used this to claim that the "leaker" was Dick Cheney, possibly directed by Bush to "get back" at Wilson for his "report" that Saddam did not deal with Niger. 

Like much of our Fake News today, it was a totally a manufactured "scandal" -- a likely case is that it was manufactured by the CIA and blown out of all proportion by the media and the Democrats, but given what we know now about the media/deep state/Democrat effective singularity, it matters not. With the advantage of hindsight, we can see it was all fake. Like the Russia hoax. The message is "Republicans are EVIL" ... and when the hoax is outed, the media ceases reporting on it and never says "our bad" ... and then it is on to "Ukraine" or something else. 

I thought it read well, because I enjoyed his writing style and his chronicling of the massive drinking, smoking and general "hard" lifestyles of the late 50's and 60's.  

He matter of factly covers the vote fraud that "elected" Kennedy, and he used his being a registered Democrat and sneaky journalist skills to personally observe the massive voter fraud in Daley's Chicago. You know, the thing that never happens and you have to be a racist crazy to claim it does! 

If you are interested in an insider's view of American politics of the 50's to Obama, this is a good book. If you are a liberal, you will like the NYTs review which will naturally put a left spin on it.  

After The Trust Is Gone

 https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2020/12/fact-checking-the-ga-fact-check.php

As I continue my reading of Anna Karenina, the issue of "trust" looms large. Prince Stepan "Stiva" Arkadyevich Oblonsky is the classic middle aged husband, tired of his wife, having an affair with a younger woman. Once the affair is discovered, the wife's (Princess Darya "Dolly" Alexandrovna Oblonskaya) trust in the marriage  is gone, but in the interest of the children, and her being convinced by others that "this is just how it is", the damaged marriage goes on. 

This is the outcome the Democrats are hoping the nation is willing to accept. Much like Hillary with Bill, even after years of known affairs, "other considerations" (power) demand the lie be continued. The 1960 election was handled this way ... the fraud was accepted as "the way things have to be". For Republicans, the acceptance of cheating is a mix of a desire for stability, greed for their investments, and of course wishful thinking that "maybe it isn't as bad as we know it is ... we still have a country". Accepting Original Sin, and the hope of God's intervention, makes us slow to anger. 

There is always a certain amount of fraud in human systems, as I blogged on in 2008 on the Madoff scandal in finance.   Galbraith called this "the Bezzle":

So, we have a crash, and when we have a crash, what John Kenneth Galbraith called "the Bezzle" comes out. Guys like Madoff (or Enron for that matter) and a whole bunch of others do GREAT as long as everything goes up. If things go down, the loss of the "shady billions" makes the bad situation worse much as it made the good situation SEEM better on the way up. The money Madoff "had" was double counted -- he claimed to have it, and all his investors thought they had it as well. Really, like the value of over inflated homes and stocks, it only existed as long as the confidence was there. That is why they call a lot of swindles "confidence games".

Now, the confidence is fast being unwound from the worldwide financial and business systems, and we have an incoming president that is a complete blank slate -- Bzero. Fed funds rate at zero, short term treasuries at zero -- how many zeros are we going to go for here?

In the world financial system, we "covered the Bezzle" with massive debt and largely hidden iflation, but that is a story for another day. 

Like the ongoing marital affair, or the Ponzi scheme, people "want to believe in what looks good to them". Even when it becomes obvious, even to themselves, they are afraid of what will happen if it "comes out", and they wishfully hope that will be "never".  In "Anna", Alexei Alexandrovich Karenin, Anna's husband is a great literary example of this -- ignoring the obvious, and then working hard to keep it from being known. 

Some of us lost confidence, or rather had complete confidence as Tolstoy did, that a core feature of humanity is wishful thinking coupled with our fallen mendacity, meaning we are always "flirting with disaster" on scales large and small. In this case, the future of our nation. 

So now we know. 

Republicans have been the witting and unwitting partners in the sham of American "elections" certainly since 1960, but really since long before -- Boss Tweed, Mayor Daley, and countless others. The faithless Democrats have maintained that "election fraud never happens" and fight  any attempts to insure that it didn't/doesn’t happen tooth and nail. In fact they continue to create new anenues for mail in “voting” to encourage it. The Bezzle is a core of their operation. Nobody really knows what will happen if/when the Beale comes out of the election system, but Democrats certainly fear what will happen, as they know it is there, and they know it is big. 

It desperately needs to be faced, even if that means a national divorce, war, a massive international crisis, or whatever "bad unknown". Like death, it is reality, and reality always wins. 

“Good” Ideas Must Be Mandatory! Anna Karenina Today

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2020/12/mask-jacobinism-runs-rampant.php

The linked article is about mask shaming and its use to deny freedom of association. Trust me, at least in on strange mind, there is a relationship. 

The picture indicates to me that it is hard for a "normal male"  (evil in these "woke" times)  not to notice pretty women confident in their femininity. Are conservative women in general are more attractive? Kristi Noem comes to mind, but a glance at the winning Republican congresswomen this cycle seems to indicate something of a general rule.

Yes, I know there are many physically attractive leftist women, however it seems that often their physical attractiveness is overshadowed by their screeching demands for fealty to their political beliefs, which are  in direct opposition to their exploiting their physical beauty while declaring at least male appreciation of such to be sexist. The fake is inherently unattractive when exposed. 

I'm finally reading Anna Karenina. I read a lot, but very little fiction, and even less romance. Psychology, culture, and especially the interplay between our physical and spiritual nature, are however of significant interest, and in those areas, Anna just kept showing up as a "must read" - it is easy to see why. 

A paragraph that struck me is: 

Vronsky heard with pleasure this light-hearted prattle of a pretty woman, agreed with her, gave her half-joking counsel, and altogether dropped at once into the tone habitual to him in talking to such women. In his Petersburg world all people were divided into utterly opposed classes. One, the lower class, vulgar, stupid, and, above all, ridiculous people, who believe that one husband ought to live with the one wife whom he has lawfully married; that a girl should be innocent, a woman modest, and a man manly, self-controlled, and strong; that one ought to bring up one's children, earn one's bread, and pay one's debts; and various similar absurdities. This was the class of old-fashioned and ridiculous people. But there was another class of people, the real people. To this class they all belonged, and in it the great thing was to be elegant, generous, plucky, gay, to abandon oneself without a blush to every passion, and to laugh at everything else.

It appears that there is something like "human nature" that demands a class structure, and generally the pride/arrogance of the upper class.There can be the occasional just and moral king, but that is the exception.  There are similarities to the classes in Anna to the classes today. The lower class maps to at least the upper class imagination of the "deplorables". The upper class is much like today's "woke elite". The biggest difference is that the upper class  in 1878 Russia was not yet using the power of government to overtly oppress the lower class by removing their devotion to religion, morality, family and community, as the soon to come Communist party would quickly do. 

As I'm fond of saying as a computer scientist devoted to binary, "there are two classes, those who divide the world into two classes, and those who don't". 

In a more or less free and "natural" society people "sort" by a complex set of factors, some "good", some "bad" ... we won't go into that complexity here. The point is that it really isn't binary, there is lot more complexity than "two". 

As a culture shifts toward totalitarianism, it becomes more and more binary and the binary categories become  more and more mandatory -- as in the ideas that are declared to be "good" -- eg wearing/not wearing a mask, celebrating various sexual preferences, genders, etc, or not celebrating such, fealty to "The Party" (Democrat, globalist, woke, etc), or "deplorable", etc. 

The list goes on and becomes both more and more oppressive and foundational. Everything becomes political, and everything is mandatory -- thus in the mind of the oppressors, "good". 

"We are all in this together ... wear a mask".  

 

VDH: Chaos On Chaos

 https://amgreatness.com/2020/11/22/a-time-of-chaos-upon-chaos-atop-chaos/

Not one of VDHs best in my opinion, but these are certainly pretty much "the worst of times" ... at least until they get worse, so perhaps this is the best that can be done. It is a worthy read as a more detailed description of the current chaos ... but then, can chaos really be "described"? 

Meanwhile Trump’s once-solid ranks may be in danger of fracturing. Half believe that not just his long-term legacy, but also his short-term utility in winning Georgia are endangered by unsubstantiated claims of a stolen “landslide” victory of a 70 percent majority and 400-some Electoral College votes. Of course, Trump supporters are furious over the weaponization of polling, and the violations of the voting laws of state legislatures that led to irregularities, controversies, and suspicious data, endemic with massive mail-in voting. But they are not assured that either episodic or systematic skullduggery automatically translates into a provable case that Trump won the election, much less won by historical proportions involving fraud of the sort never witnessed in past elections.

The other half is convinced of just such a “landslide” victory taken from Trump by computerized trickery and engineered through a vast coverup and conspiracy, again the greatest political scandal in American history.

I would have hoped that the latest 3+ generations of Americans steeped in media exaggeration would be more or less comfortable with Trump's over promising. Certainly Democrats back to FDR have generally received accolades beyond all reason  ... admittedly, they generally didn't have to self promote since the global media'/fascist complectx did it for them. Can't we be smart enough to see that? 

Really, a Nobel Prize when BO had hardly got into office? Fawning accocades of BO being "the one"? Spare me. 

Anyway, a confusing and chaotic column, just like our times. 

Influencing Elections, MSM vs Russian Style

 https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2020/11/theres-more-than-one-way-to-steal-an-election.php

From the day Trump won in 2016, to April 18 of 2019 when the public saw the Mueller report, we were told by the MSM, Democrat / Deep State complex that the 2016 election was invalid because it was "influenced" by Trump / Russia "collusion". 

What was that "collusion" supposed to consist of? A very few false Facebook posts! 

Even though as far left a media source as the Washington Post now admits that for all the MASSIVE media coverage, there was no "there there". It really was a massive hoax perpetrated by the MSM/Democrat/Deep State, and they got caught -- without consequence. 

However, that fact is largely unknown to Americans. All the while though, there  really is MASSIVE misinformation influence in American elections. The media once at least claimed, and to a minimal degree attempted to be "unbiased". No longer. The MSM/Democrat/Deep State complex is a coordinated apparatus to advance the power of their collective  and suppress any who have differing opinions. 

While the MSM/Democrat/Deep State complex railed against the supposed but fake "Russian interference" that was never asserted to be anything more than some FB posts for years, they were and continue to be engaged in the most massive political influence campaign in history right before the eyes of what has to rank as the most complacent and ill informed populace in history! 

The link provides some documentation of how this works. 

Shapiro On "Unity"

 https://www.dailywire.com/news/shapiro-bidens-call-for-unity-means-shut-up-conservatives

My short answer to Biden's calls for "healing" is that he really means HEEL! 

If conservatives and Christians just roll over and celebrate abortion, transgender, gay "marriage", losing freedom of religion, destruction of the family, BLM, speech restrictions, loss of freedom of association, loss of the right to bear arms, ever expanding government, fake "elections", and one party rule -- then we will have "unity". At least for those that are not in the Gulag or dead. 

Ben's take ...

No, “unity” in the Biden formulation isn’t a recognition of what we have in common; it’s a demand that we silence ourselves in order to mirror Biden’s priorities. Unity, you see, can be achieved one of two ways: through recognition of the other, through a determination to understand those who think differently than we do; or through ideological domination. It’s rather obvious which pathway Democrats will choose. After all, social ostracization is one of their most powerful tools. Why disarm now?

So what is it that we have "in common? We breathe and bleed? 

When one tribe has lost respect for life, liberty and the pursuit of meaning (which requires a higher power that has created a purposeful universe), then what do we "agree" on outside of basic biological functions? 

Are we ONLY animals, "red in tooth and claw"? 

Corona Forever At Home

Think that just because you have had Corona and recovered you are immune? 

Not according to the CDC -- you have to read down a bit under this link, it is the 3rd + after "transmission": 

CDC is aware of recent reports indicating that persons who were previously diagnosed with COVID-19 can be re-infected. These reports can understandably cause concern. The immune response, including duration of immunity, to SARS-CoV-2 infection is not yet understood. Based on what we know from other viruses, including common human coronaviruses, some reinfections are expected. Ongoing COVID-19 studies will help establish the frequency and severity of reinfection and who might be at higher risk for reinfection. At this time, whether you have had COVID-19 or not, the best ways to prevent infection are to wear a mask in public places, stay at least 6 feet away from other people, frequently wash your hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds, and avoid crowds and confined spaces.

Therefore, if you have faith in the CDC, we are on perpetual masking and social isolation.  

So how far are Corona mandates going? In Pennsylvania they are going into your home.  

Masks are now required indoors wherever people from different households are gathered — even if they are physically distant, the state health secretary, Dr. Rachel Levine, said Tuesday. The order applies to every indoor facility, including in private homes, but Levine acknowledged that officials are relying on voluntary compliance rather than on enforcement.

"Voluntary compliance" ... so far. In an increasing totalitarian state, the "experts" ideas are just so good they have to be made mandatory -- naturally for your own good! 

In Minnesota, the "Time to HEEL" includes ratting your neighbors out.  

Minneapolis encourages people to reach out to the non-emergency 311 line if they see questionable social distancing.

I know this is hard to remember now, but the old country called "America" was "the land of the free and the home of the brave"! We now live in a fascist state, "Wokeistan". Even gere in Emmetsburg Iowa, the sheriff showed up and prevented a land sale at a large facility with lots of room. 

The fact that number of cases is what is most reported (nearly exclusively) tells us there is an agenda. An honest scientist / statistician would report the rate of deaths if/when you get Corona. It is a very infectious virus, so the vast majority of us will get it. Of course 100% of us will die of something, and our chances of death rise dramatically by age. Sometimes in panic, we forget the obvious. 

Amazingly, finding death rate by age is quite hard. I wasted a lot of time this AM on what in a rational non-paniced nation would be the chief reported number. Here is data on that from this source: 

Some believe that the shift in infections from old to young is the primary explanation for the drop in mortality. A recent medRxiv preprint concluded that the relationship between infection fatality rate and age may be exponential. The researchers found that the age-specific infection fatality rate was extremely low among children and young adults, measuring 0.002% at age 10 and 0.1% at 25. However, the rate progressively increased with age, growing from 0.4% at 55 to around 15% at 85.

 As rational people know, it is a Henny Youngman world: "How is your wife? ... Compared to what"? Data without comparison / context IS useless ... "I lost 50 lbs", GREAT news for me. Very bad news for a 100lb woman. 

So let's compare the Corona death rate to flu: 

So at 50 to 64 years (a range I'm strangely interested in), the death rate for flu is 10.6 according to this chart, compared to previous Corona chart rate of .4 at 55. Yes, I wish the granularity was better, and I'm sure the rate goes up as one gets closer to 65, but it seems an interesting data point. 

 I find that suspiciously high, I understand that if you go 65+ with no upper bound, of course it is 100%, it would be for ANY disease or injury ... say a stubbed toe. There are lies, damned lies, and statistics! That does not mean they are "useless" it just means that like driving, you must pay attention! 

So let's look at more data. Here is flu 2010-2011: 

In my similarly age group of interest 50-64, we are looking at 10.1, which again seems really high to me ... however, I might not be completely objective here for some strange reason!

So I'm neither a doctor or a statistician, so NOT an "expert" (eg always certain, frequently wrong). My conclusions: 

1. Unless you are quite old and/or have an underlying condition, Corona is a pretty mild flu. 
2. The reporting on Corona is absolutely tragic. "Cases" is useless metric, even if you accept the accuracy of the various tests (which very suspect.  For the fast tests, flipping a coin seems to be close to the same accuracy. 
3. The collateral damage from Corona is "large" in deaths, not just economics. 
4. Panic and fear cause a LOT of bad things. 
1. People rushing to the doctor because they are scared (who could blame them given the media/government reporting/reaction-- and the hospital is a dangerous place.  
2. Health workers being uselessly quarantined -- don't treat at risk patients for "some time" after a diagnosis, otherwise if you feel well, you ARE well. As indicated above, the CDC says you are not "safe" even after you had it! Not that I believe the CDC, but many do
3. Families, friends, communities being separated both physically and because of different views. We NEED to gather, for this level of risk, the "cure" is more damaging than the virus. 
4. Panic causing worse symptoms -- as a panic attack sufferer, I can testify that panic is not conducive to breathing. 

I could ramble on of course. I would like to think that the panic was caused because a lot of old people died very quickly, and it tore through nursing homes at an alarming rate. For little things like death, people tend to personalize and project. "A plane crash killed a lot of people, therefore it is dangerous for me to fly". 

Like a stock market bubble (or crash), people quickly lapse into mania, "I've got to get IN right now no matter how expensive it is! Followed by "I've got to get OUT right now to stop my losses!" 

While I sincerely hope that these very human reasons are the cause of the panic, the timing is at best concerning relative to politics and mass control.  

For practicing Christians, at least the Confessional sort, we are admonished to not follow the crowd, but rather step back and attempt to take an eternal perspective. We are eternally free, no matter how totalitarian the state becomes. (John 8) 31 So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

Our time here is short, and we have faith that to live is Christ, and to die is gain. If you are a practicing even 90 year old Christian, fear not! Enjoy the holidays with the family as much as you can, and judge not. If this life is all one has, adherence to what is currently proffered as "undeniable science" belief in that is one of the main "virtues" one has. In that case, then fear, masks, isolation, etc are very understandable. Show grace, be gentle in stating your views. 

One of my current prayers is that more people will realize that our (or our government, "experts") to "control" anything, including our next breath is an illusion. You WILL believe in something -- choose wisely!

 

Three Whiskey, An Eye For An Eye

 https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2020/11/podcast-the-three-whisky-happy-hour-milk-the-trump-dividend.php

I generally love this podcast, and think this one is especially worthy. The bottom line (even though they don't say it this way) is that we are back to Old Testament morality (and worse) in our culture. Republicans tend to be very leery of dealing with Democrats - and the Deep State/MSM, why be repetitive? Republicans tend to want to be "country club civil" and at least have the patina of "consistency", morality, and such -- the sort of thing that enlightenment, Constitutional, traditional, and other now defunct principles used to be respected by a large majority of Americans. 

We don't live there anymore. 

What is a Christian to do? I'm really not sure -- I think each case needs to be evaluated prayerfully. I covered some of this here. 

Hunter's Magical Mystery Laptop

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2020/10/how-do-we-know-the-hunter-joe-biden-documents-are-real.php

After 4 years of reporting every negative rumor, alleging MANY times that "the smoking gun" on Russia rigging the election for Trump in 2016, etc. the media are singularly uninterested in Hunter's laptop!    

Witness out in the open making statements ? Who cares! ... unlike Christine Blasey Ford whose words were GOSPEL, or a myriad of "whistle blowers" or "unnamed sources" who made many pieces of dirt "credible"! 

For one example ... 

Why, Trump called dead veterans "losers"! 

How do we know that?

Several observers told me that Trump is deeply anxious about dying or being disfigured, and this worry manifests itself as disgust for those who have suffered.

Will any of them go on record? Well no. 

However John Bolton, no friend of Trump, did say that the Atlantic story is false. 

There are number of others on record as well ... not that it matters to the Trump haters. 

HOWEVER. there MUST be absolute metaphysical PROOF before the MSM or apparently the Deep State "Justice" Department will look at the laptop! 

A Time To Heel

https://time.com/5908983/president-elect-joe-biden-vows-to-usher-in-a-time-to-heal-in-america/

As usual, Biden has his words mixed up -- he said "heal", but he meant "HEEL". 

As Reagan said, "A liberal will defend your right to agree with them to their dying breath". He was a really optimistic nice guy. Sadly, a "liberal" or better put, a "leftist" will defend that "right" to YOUR dying breath as well, as they have proven in the USSR, Nazi Germany, China, Cuba, etc ... they are always hard at work to "get it right" (get it left) by them having total control. 

"Liberalism/leftism" is about power. Many of their true believers think that it is about "progress" to a new "utopia" -- one of absolute "equality", economic "appropriate plenty" (fully green of course!), guaranteed "everything" -- healthcare, education, entertainment, happiness, etc. 

In short, "utopia"! How could anyone be so evil to be against utopia?

The conservatives - the "right", which like everything in this modern house of mirrors is really more "left" ... it is really more accurately "Control vs Chaos". The "right" wants more freedom, which if overdone is chaos. The left seeks absolute control -- over what you say, over any of your "rights", eventually even over what you think -- see "1984".   Since the "left" is atheistic, because they want total control. To live in their "utopia", government must be "god". Your social media activity will be "fact checked", and if the left finds it to not be following their "truth", it will be suppressed.

After four years of "resistance", "not my president", "deplorables", "illegitimate" SCOTUS appointments, and on and on, now is the time for heeling. How unexpected! 

In the tradition of Monty Python,  freedom is "Not Yet Dead Yet" ... although it is on life support and fading fast. 

We know there is massive vote fraud, and Georgia may still give a liberty saving vote in the Senate. If you can't have Constitutional government, divided government is the next best thing. 

To continue the Python theme, if one is crazy enough to look on the bright side, one could believe that the SCOTUS would force investigation and prosecution of the vote fraud in 2020, and demand a secure system so elections could be trusted. We have trusted banking and trusted credit card systems, it IS possible. Anyone that believes in freedom will strongly support and demand such a system, those against such a system are defending "their right to cheat" ... this is absolutely a "Rule of Law" issue and the SCOTUS needs to step up and fix it! 

So why is the "right" not out marching, wailing, and talking about leaving the country as the left did in 2016? Some of the key reasons are: 

1. They have faith that God is in power, and at worst this life is but a breath compared to eternity
2. Government is down their list of priorities ... God, family, vocation, community (and theirs are usually small and real rather than virtual and largely fake), meaningful pursuits like hunting, fishing, working with wood, improving their homes, study, etc 
3. They know that although America is failing, it is still the best free choice available. They have nowhere to go. 
4. They are generally hopeful self reliant people. They believe that "there are always alternatives", as in my case, they can "move to red" -- if you look at the map, there is a LOT of red. 

One must respect the honesty of AOC -- "Is anyone archiving these Trump sycophants for when they try to downplay or deny their complicity in the future". I foresee a decent probability of many deleted Tweets, writings, photos in the future. "

For Christians, there are many verses that are a comfort to us even if we are hunted down and persecuted. 

Matt 5:11 "Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me."

Statement Of Faith Post Election 2020

I post something like this every once in awhile hoping I'm interpreting Luke 12:8 correctly "I tell you, whoever publicly acknowledges me before others, the Son of Man will also acknowledge before the angels of God." Naturally, given my strange brain, it might mean, "Bill, I want to make it clear that I acknowledge you as a bad example".  

After brain surgery and multiple seizures, God has finally shown me I control NOTHING. "I must decrease, Christ must increase" ... I have faith that my life in Christ will go on eternally, and fully agree that eternity could be less than a breath away.

 Christ says “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." John 14:6 "Whatever" is an eternal mistake. America turned from God, so we have no peace -- and we will not have it unless we return to God. "So letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death. But letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace. " Romans 8:6 

For the nation, as Reagan said: "If we ever forget that we are one nation under God, we will be a nation gone under". The idea that we can "fix it" without God is killing America.

Practice Christian faith. Christ is the eternal anchor. Without him, we have neither peace nor hope.

Why I Support Trump

 I've seen a number of back and forths lately (again, as in 2016) as to why Christians ought to stand the election out, or even vote for Biden. If you are interested in deep discussion (as I often am), I'd encourage you to read: 

• Veith on Piper 
• Gruden responds to Piper 

Both articles are good, Piper defends being lukewarm, something I see as eternally perilous. Siimple minds like mine need it simpler: 

1. As Christians, we are called to decrease while Christ increases. We are "in the world but not of the world". We are free to vote for imperfect candidates, fight in wars, serve in corrupt government, and much else. We are both "saints and sinners". Matt 5:13 "I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves." Be shrewd. 
   
   
2. Political candidates are always imperfect. Trump's policies are more Christian supporting - Pro-Life, Pro-Family, not persecuting Christian values ( two genders, marriage being man and woman, etc) . We also can't just be "ambivalent" -- Rev 3:16 "So, because you are lukewarm--neither hot nor cold--I am about to spit you out of my mouth." Choose life boldly.
   
   
3. We can't just "stand this one out: -- Matt 5:13 "You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot." We have to SHINE like Matt 5:16 "In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven." We can't hide in our basements. Be salty and shine! 

Much of what I see posted by "Never Trumpers", some claiming to be Christians, is blatant Virtue Signaling. As Christians, we claim no virtue, we confess we are filthy sinners. Virtue Signaling is pride, and typically it us coupled with proud judgement of Trump and Christians that support him. We can and should prayerfully "discern". Judgment is the Lords.  

If your fervent prayer for the best vote leads you to Biden, so be it, judgement is not mine. Peace be with you.