If anyone has the patience to open the link. There is a short article and a nearly two hour video showing how the 2020 election was stolen. It would be interesting to hear what others think. If Americans don't take action, their country is gone Venezuala style. Ironically like Maria Esperesanza (spelling?) forecast. I did find the video annoying because the sound is not together with the on screen talking. But very interesting while it is still available. https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/20...fraud-theft-america-enemies-foreign-domestic/
I will try to watch the video tomorrow, we are expecting a big coastal snowstorm on Sunday so I will probably be homebound. I confess I don't know much about Maria Esperanza, but I agree that her mention of Venezuela is remarkable.
An opinion article in the Los Angeles Times Column: What can you do about the Trumpites next door? By Virginia Heffernan Feb. 5, 2021 3 AM PT Oh, heck no. The Trumpites next door to our pandemic getaway, who seem as devoted to the ex-president as you can get without being Q fans, just plowed our driveway without being asked and did a great job. How am I going to resist demands for unity in the face of this act of aggressive niceness? Of course, on some level, I realize I owe them thanks — and, man, it really looks like the guy back-dragged the driveway like a pro — but how much thanks? These neighbors are staunch partisans of blue lives, and there aren’t a lot of anything other than white lives in neighborhood. This is also kind of weird. Back in the city, people don’t sweep other people’s walkways for nothing. Maybe it’s like what Eddie Murphy discovered in that old “Saturday Night Live” sketch “White Like Me.” He goes undercover in white makeup and finds that when white people are among their own, they pop free champagne and live the high life. As Murphy puts it: “Slowly I began to realize that when white people are alone, they give things to each other. For free.” Hezbollah, the Shiite Islamist political party in Lebanon, also gives things away for free. The favors Hezbollah does for people in the cities Tyre and Sidon probably don’t involve snowplows, but, like other mafias, Hezbollah tends to its own — the Shiite sick, elderly and hungry. They offer protection and hospitality and win loyalty that way. And they also demand devotion to their brutal, us-versus-them anti-Sunni cause. Some of us are family, the favors say; the rest are infidels. The same is true with Louis Farrakhan, who currently helms the Nation of Islam. While the Southern Poverty Law Center classifies him as a dangerous anti-Semite, much of his flock says he’s just a little screwy and unfailingly magnanimous. To them. When someone helps you when you’re down, or snowed in, it’s almost impossible to regard them as a blight on the world. In fact, you’re more likely to be overwhelmed with gratitude and convinced of the person’s inherent goodness. You might end up like the upper-middle-class family I stayed with in France as a teenager. They did not attend a citywide celebration for the 100th birthday of Charles de Gaulle, the war hero who orchestrated the liberation of his country from Nazi Germany in 1944. They did have several portraits of Philippe Pétain, Nazi collaborator, on their wall. When I screwed up the courage to ask how it was for them during the occupation, the lady of the house replied, “We were happy because the Nazis were very polis.” I didn’t know the word, so I excused myself to consult a French-English dictionary. I was in tears when I found the entry: “polite.” So when I accept generosity from my pandemic neighbors, acknowledging the legitimate kindness with a wave or a plate of cookies, am I also sealing us in as fellow travelers who are very polis to each other but not so much to “them”? Loving your neighbor is evidently much easier when your neighborhood is full of people just like you. What do we do about the Trumpites around us? Like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), who spoke eloquently this week about her terrifying experience during the insurrection at the Capitol on Jan. 6, Americans are expected to forgive and forget before we’ve even stitched up our wounds. Or gotten our vaccines against the pandemic that former President Trump utterly failed to mitigate. My neighbors supported a man who showed near-murderous contempt for the majority of Americans. They kept him in business with their support. But the plowing. On Jan. 6, after the insurrection, Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) issued an aw-shucks plea for all Americans to love their neighbors. The United States, he said, “isn’t Hatfields and McCoys, this blood feud forever.” And, he added, “You can’t hate someone who shovels your driveway.” At the time, I seethed; the Capitol had just been desecrated. But maybe my neighbor heard Sasse and was determined to make a bid for reconciliation. So here’s my response to my plowed driveway, for now. Politely, but not profusely, I’ll acknowledge the Sassian move. With a wave and a thanks, a minimal start on building back trust. I’m not ready to knock on the door with a covered dish yet. I also can’t give my neighbors absolution; it’s not mine to give. Free driveway work, as nice as it is, is just not the same currency as justice and truth. To pretend it is would be to lie, and they probably aren’t looking for absolution anyway. But I can offer a standing invitation to make amends. Not with a snowplow but by recognizing the truth about the Trump administration and, more important, by working for justice for all those whom the administration harmed. Only when we work shoulder to shoulder to repair the damage of the last four years will we even begin to dig out of this storm. .
That is so condescending. Where are the facts on the damage caused by the Trump administration? How can there be any real unity if liberals still feel the storm is caused by conservatives?
I've been realizing lately that our only road to take as Christians in response to the situation, has been the same road we have always been called to take. We must love our enemies. Our opportunities to love Christ in the face of our enemy have grown. Perhaps that's a good thing. And in the face of an enemy that is so blinded by propaganda as to equate Trump with Hitler, and Trump followers as NAZIS? -- The only way to reach their brain is through their heart, by confusing their blinded brain with our actions of love. We see here how confused this author is. You see the wheels slowly beginning to turn. But it shouldn't matter how our neighbor responds to us. We are always called to love and serve them, and to do what is right.
It bugs me when he is talking about "murderous contempt" and then talks about truth, as if it is them who, through their patient condensation, are to get us to recognize the truth of Trump as evil?
A very generous attitude, heartMary. One thing we need to keep in mind is that a decent percentage of Trumpers aren't Christians in the full sense of the word. I've seen some pretty lethal comments from "our side" of the table when looking at responses to articles. We can't become complacent with an us vs. them agenda. We are called by the Lord to always speak truth and act in charity!
What struck me is that I cannot imagine this column having been published in the Los Angeles Times at any other time, even at the end of the Bush presidency. Looking back, there was hatred, but not at this level. This column wouldn't have been mainstream then. Now it's completely acceptable!
Good points, Christy1983. Thank you for sharing the article. If I may add this observation about George W, despite his lack of progressive credentials, Bush was part of the established GOP political system, he was an elite member of the Political Class. The press may have disdained Bush's intelligence, and disagreed with Bush's policies. But he was a member of the established ruling class, therefore an Elite. When Bush left office his administration were given sinecure positions at universities, Conservative think tanks, and media outlets like the National Review. In contrast, Trump, did not start any new Middle -East wars, he tried to bring back all of our soldiers, ending almost 20 years of wars in that region; and he was the first US president to attend the March for Life Rally. In other words, Trump's political sin is that he was above all a pro-life president. It is a tragedy, that in the U.S. being pro-life is the ultimate sin for anyone. Victor Davis Hanson: ‘In a Fair and Just World,’ Trump Would Be Winner Dr. Victor Davis Hanson told Breitbart News Sunday on November 8 that “in a fair and just world,” President Trump would be rewarded for his many great accomplishments with a showing of overwhelming support at the ballot box. He added, “But not the way these elections are run.” Host Joel Pollak highlighted that Trump supporters showed up “70 million strong” for the November 3, 2020, election, then added, “The Republicans turned out supporters, and the Democrats turned out envelopes.” Hanson responded, “There was massive voter fraud. I believe that. But, nonetheless, this shouldn’t even have been close–the margins in places like Michigan or Wisconsin, even Minnesota or Pennsylvania, given what he had done for the country.” Hanson observed, “But who did [Trump] have in his corner? Maybe talk radio … maybe Breitbart, maybe half of the Fox team, maybe not. … Hoover Institution was not for him, National Review was against him. Most of the mainstream Republican establishment [was against him]. Big Tech was against him. Wall Street was against him. Big Money, the universities, professional sports, entertainment, everybody was against him, yet he overcame all that, almost.” He said, “In a fair and just world, people have probably found a way to show support, but now the way these elections are run. When you have, in my district, 85 percent mail-in ballots and only 15 percent are showing up at the polls, and we know what happened in 2018, with massive voter fraud in here in California in the 21st District, it’s something we’ve never seen before. And let’s not even get into the question of a state like Georgia adopting an entirely new computer system, that was subject to malware and problems with glitches, not six months before the election.” Victor Davis Hanson: 'In a Fair and Just World,' Trump Would Be Winner (breitbart.com)
Mario your post reminds me of the message our deacon gave this Friday regarding standing up for what is right whether it be the truth regarding abortion, gay marriage, oppression of the poor or what have you. He reminded us that it is our blood that should be spilled should it come to it in acts of love, charity and truth. It was a moving homily on the memorial of Saint Agatha and first Friday. Very fitting for our time.
For our struggle is not with flesh and blood but with the principalities, with the powers, with the world rulers of this present darkness, with the evil spirits in the heavens. – Ephesians 6:12 Our rosaries are our only weapons for the conversion of our neighbors. We must pray for the conversion of the author of the article. That may be Christ's mission for us Trumpers... How Do We Even Begin to Love Our Enemy? JEANNIE EWING How Do We Even Begin to Love Our Enemy? (catholicexchange.com)
Has anyone heard about this recent vpn issue in the US? This YouTuber explains it started on Feb 1, right after the elections, and that only the backbone internet companies (the ones that ultimately control the internet infrastructure, such as AT&T) could be doing it. He claims this only makes sense if they are up to sth, such as a government backed China style firewall. Apparently Dems pre 2016 wanted to introduce so called ‘net-neutrality’ policies to govern the internet but Trump rejected the idea. The video is a bit technical but I can understand it even though I know nothing about vpns, or isps.
Today, Tuesday it appears the democrats are going for their Trump dump (impeachment). To destroy him for good. It appears they will vote anonymously so senators can vote to impeach Trump without the voters knowing what their senator voted. This will mean the voters will not know which senators to deselect after their traitorous behaviour. I hope the Republicans will not vote with democrats on this, for their own integrity,,,,what is left of it.
Thank you Brian for your vigilance It is needed now, as so many heresies abound and we must all be vigilant! God be with you as you fight for Christ's teachings in the Catholic Church and as you fight against all heresies! Amen
Listen to James Clapper in the video interview here: https://www.stltoday.com/news/world...deo_29310141-7972-5e52-b52d-42c9dfbe2cb7.html I’m not convinced the “James Clapper interrogation” audio currently going around the internet is actually his voice?
