Category Archives: General Interest

September 15, 2022 · 8:04 pm

Beware of “zero”

The first far-left “zero” movement I was aware of was the zero population movement, which gained popularity in the 1970s. My youngest brother bought into that completely. so I heard all I ever want to hear about that topic. When people get on board these far-left movements it becomes like a religion to them and they invariably zealously try to convert the entire world to their cause. Failing that, they try to force cultural and political change to impose their views on everyone.

That zero population movement is still enmeshed in the far-left mishmash of ESG (equity, sustainability and governance) goals, although most people, who aren’t leftists, probably weren’t paying much attention to the far-left movements beyond hearing about the green-deal, laughing at AOC or they remember a bit further back that the Obama administration pushed the green dreams.

In 2013, there was another leftist movement that I remember writing a blog post about – the global zero movement, which set as its goal the elimination of all nuclear weapons by 2030. President Obama supported this movement. In 2015, the UN General Assembly passed the 2030 Agenda and all of these fringe far-left movements, from the green-energy to the other zero movements, to the gender movements became neatly packed into the ESG framework that’s going to build the highway to Net Zero utopia.

With the green-energy transformation, the green movement now has Net Zero. Here’s an explanation of the term net zero from the University of Oxford (https://netzeroclimate.org/what-is-net-zero/):

“Net zero refers to a state in which the greenhouse gases going into the atmosphere are balanced by removal out of the atmosphere.” 

“The term net zero is important because – for CO2 at least – this is the state at which global warming stops. The Paris Agreement underlines the need for net zero. It requires states to ‘achieve a balance between anthropogenic emissions by sources and removals by sinks of greenhouse gases in the second half of this century’.” 

While the Biden administration flunkies keep yammering on about electric cars, the ESG goals include forcing people to completely change how they live – from what they eat, how much they eat, what temperature they keep their homes, how much they travel, how they travel, and it’s about forcing people to change what they think or be forced into compliance – to reach that magical Net Zero.

Where we’re headed is a Zero Freedom world, as the “experts” formulate what’s the perfect sustainable balance with their zero movements. If you think the zero population growth and the global zero movement to eliminate nuclear weapons by 2030 (that magical 2030 UN Agenda date again) disappeared, I think you’re wrong. With the war in Ukraine, back in July, Steven Pinker, a prominent Harvard scholar, was tweeting that Europe should unilaterally eliminate it’s nuclear arsenal. Here’s a quote from a Washington Examiner article:

“Those suggesting major changes to NATO nuclear deterrence might first want to consider Russian nuclear strategy.”

“Former Costa Rican President Oscar Arias and Jonathan Granoff of the anti-nuclear weapons Global Security Institute fail this test. Seeking a negotiated end to the war in Ukraine, Arias and Granoff call for NATO’s preparation to withdraw “all U.S. nuclear warheads from Europe and Turkey, preliminary to negotiations [over the war in Ukraine]. Withdrawal would be carried out once peace terms are agreed between Ukraine and Russia.” Chiming in on Monday, Harvard scholar Steven Pinker suggests that this is a “bold idea” because nuclear weapons are “militarily useless, ineffective deterrents … [and] recklessly dangerous.”

Back in July, you might also remember President Biden stating that there was zero inflation…

Zero holds some mystical power among the left. Even with that zero population growth movement, it wasn’t just about trying to control the number of births. There were people in that movement wanting to have some controls on death too, which opens up a whole other kettle of fish.

All of these leftist “zero” movements involve allowing a group of experts/central planners to drain the lifeblood out of personal choice. If I hear any liberals mentioning “zero,” I cringe and know they’re going to be proposing another radical program that makes absolutely zero sense. My ears perk up, though, because zero with them also means they want to nullify all of our personal liberty and leave us with zero power whatsoever.

Definitely, beware of “zero.”

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September 11, 2022 · 7:33 pm

Some critical needs to survive

This post is going to be about a few things I think might become critical needs to survive and thrive, as the green-energy transformation (collapse of the world economic systems as we know them) speeds up. My list isn’t your usual list of food, water, and ability to defend yourself, your family and your home. There are literally dozens upon dozens of online sources and books on emergency preparedness, survival, gardening, and farming available that can provide better information on those topics than I can. The things I’m going to talk about again, don’t cost anything, except working hard to develop critical-thinking skills.

Information

Reliable and actionable information is vital to help us make decisions and respond, especially in a crisis. The first thing I’m going to mention again is learning to critically analyze information. According to polling and viewership stats on public trust in news media, across the board, trust in news media is at an all-time low.

Yet, just as people say they don’t trust certain news media, most people still get news from various news sources and this holds true across the political spectrum.

For instance, many Trump-supporters completely distrust mainstream (liberal) media and they’ll rush to distrust FOX News or any right-leaning news source, if that news source reports anything negative about Trump. Often, Trump will tout some new right-wing news media source and many of his supporters will gravitate there. Some people on the right get their news only from certain right-wing online sources or pundits, whom they trust.

On the left, this same phenomenon plays out with choosing news sources too. Recently, CNN’s new management fired some big name people, who were rabidly and openly anti-Trump. One of those people was a hard news reporter, who tweeted hate-filled anti-Trump diatribes for several years. Many liberals are outraged at CNN for firing these very biased CNN personalities. People on the left, who hate Trump, likewise gravitate to only left-wing online sources and the more they hate Trump, the further left they move in their news source choices.

If you gather your news only from sources that align with your partisan politics and trust them completely, that’s called confirmation bias. In a rapidly changing environment, relying only on information that feeds your own prior beliefs and values can leave you very ill-informed and it can lead you to make important decisions based on inaccurate or totally false information. It can also leave you blind to a whole lot of other events and information that could better inform you about what’s happening.

If you place your trust in personalities, by trusting only certain pundits or online influencers and make decisions based on their advice, it could easily lead to some disastrous decisions in a crisis. Many pundits and online influencers engage in a whole lot of confirmation bias too, but they also make money hyping stories, that are speeding down the internet superhighways, to attract an audience. Drama attracts viewers and keeps them coming back for more.

In the old days many people relied on a trusted family friend or someone locally, when making major financial decisions, but millions of people now trust online influencers or popular pundits over people in their own lives. In a crisis, local events happening can be way more critical and important in your daily life and how well you survive and thrive, than listening to news sources, who have no idea exactly what’s happening where you live. It’s important to figure out some local news sources and try to build some local community.

Developing a wider circle of information-gathering might be useful too. I think it’s wiser to gather information from across the political spectrum, compare it and also work to develop local sources. I also try to completely read through news articles, rather than react to headlines, because often important information is buried deep in news articles. Often, I jot down notes of things I want to look into a bit more.

Survival is local

Local news can be harder to find these days, since local newspapers are a dying entity, but even talking to neighbors, the guy at the gas station or people at local businesses might be more useful than news sources from across the country or across the world. When I was growing up in rural PA, the local diner was the information hub and my father liked to stop by there almost daily to hear about what was going on.

Finding reliable local information will be more valuable than knowing about some global shortages and all the global events playing out. Finding the supplies and things we need to survive closer to home in a global financial crisis will be critical. We’ll all likely have to shorten our own family’s supply chain a great deal in a global economic crisis, as big corporation supply chains we rely on sputter and falter.

Knowing about events that are happening closer to home matters immensely with personal and home security decisions. For instance, if major civil unrest breaks out in some urban areas, but things in your area are calm and safe, then reacting as if it’s unsafe to go out in public where you live or deciding it’s time to hunker down would not be an informed decision. It would be overreacting to media hype and a failure to gather reliable and actionable information for your location. Remaining as resilient and able to move about freely, rather than rushing to hunker down, makes more sense than self-limiting your personal liberty based on fear and lack of reliable local information. I suspect with the pandemic craziness there will be some people, who voluntarily live hunkered down, out of fear, for years to come.

Know Thyself

In life you’ll encounter many types of people and it’s much easier accurately assessing other people’s personality, character flaws and behavior than it is our own. The road to self-awareness is hard and most people, avoid being completely honest about their own short-comings, failures and mistakes.

It’s a continual work in progress to face up to your own mistakes and flaws. It’s even harder to work to change them. And it’s much easier to assess blame on other people and events rather than face the truth. Learning to face the truth is hard.

Most of us like to be right and we like to be vindicated when other people challenge our views or criticize us. A lot of people will do a circle the wagon approach, trying to find a group that uncritically supports their views and they in turn will do the same thing for them. In the online world, just like the real world, there are cliques (communities), where no disagreements or criticisms are tolerated and even saying you disagree with anything is deemed “trolling.” Often others will rush to condemn the “trolls,” but when I read comment sections it’s like all or nothing – any comment that isn’t 100% in lockstep is labelled trolling and there’s a circle the wagon attitude.

Surrounding yourself with only people who agree with you completely can lead to a failure to honestly assess yourself, your ideas, your plans. It’s fine to find like-minded people to try to work together on things that matter to you. Even I would look for someone interested in needlework to form a sewing circle, but insulating yourself from other ideas and views can lead to stagnation in your thinking. It can also make you weak and unable to adapt to chaotic times. Being open to new ideas and being willing to admit you were wrong are two important survival habits to develop.

A couple years ago I made a statement to my youngest daughter that I am a very flexible person. She told me there are lots of words she’d use to describe me, but “flexible” isn’t one of them. She was being totally honest and once I thought about it, I knew she was right.

I am very set in my ways, very hard-headed about “following the rules,” have very strong opinions on right and wrong and often I cling to ways and things whose time has passed. I am still clinging to my landline phone, still clinging to my older TVs, that aren’t smart TVs and therefore using cable. I am thinking about buying a newer TV and ditching cable, but I’m still very attached to my landline phone. I do have a cell phone, but hate using it. I prefer to use a hand grater rather than my electric food processor and the list goes on. I’m like this about many things – I don’t want to adapt rapidly and in truth, I’m definitely not very flexible. Being flexible can be a very good trait in rapidly changing times. And, yes, I know I can be too judgmental too, as my family tells me regularly, especially when I reject completely the latest liberal culture war crap they tell me about (ok, I believe rejecting that is a good thing – that’s where I stand and I won’t change).

Avoid the drama

Finding some calm and inner-peace, even in bad times will help you weather the worst storms. My late husband had this totally irreverent sense of dark humor that would end up making me laugh, even in really bad times. A lot of soldiers are like that and that ability to find ways to relieve stress helps people through the hard times.

Social media and news media overflow with drama, distractions and endless rabbit holes to grab our attention and never let go. Finding ways to limit our news consumption and social media consumption can be hard, but working on breaking free of the drama and distraction will give us more time to think about other more important things. I struggle with this too, because of my being a news junkie. And unless you want to live like Alice in Wonderland, it’s best to avoid rabbit holes, especially the most alarmist, the-sky-is-falling ones.

The media is also full of soap opera news that can waste your time and energy. I didn’t watch even one minute of the Johnny Depp/Amber Heard trial and what I did learn was from my adult kids wanting to tell me about it. I told them I don’t care about it at all and I still don’t care.

Right now the news media is in a Royal Frenzy. I admired Queen Elizabeth II in many ways, but I’m not into monarchy. I wrote two blog post on King Charles III, because he’s relevant in relation to the great reset events and I wanted to be clear that despite the media gushing about him, his history is that of being closely connected with Klaus Schwab and a committed green-agenda zealot, in my opinion. I don’t care about the minute-by-minute royal reporting and I don’t care one iota about Harry and Meghan or William and Kate or any of the other royals. I do admire Kate’s fashion sense though.

We’ve had a lot of rain where I live and I’m more concerned about paying attention to the weather right now than caring about what’s going on with the royals.

If I want to escape, I’m planning to get back to my crafting and needlework, plus I have piles of books I want to read.

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September 10, 2022 · 9:42 am

Another architect of the Great Reset

In my short post on King Charles III and his being an ardent environmentalist and supporter of the WEF Great Reset, it was more than just John Kerry, President Biden’s climate czar, showing up in Scotland this past week that led me to that conclusion. Here are a couple links to King Charles III, then the Prince of Wales, throwing his full support behind the WEF’s Great Reset plan since 2020, before the Schwab book was even published. He was involved in the WEF circle formulating the Great Reset plan and he’s very influential among the climate change elites, as is his brother, Prince Andrew. Here are a couple links to news articles from the past few years about his views:

From Vanity Fair, May 22, 2020: Is Prince Charles Using the Pandemic to Take on Capitalism? Here’s a quote from this article:

“In January, Charles started a partnership with the organization called the Sustainable Markets Initiative, and he used a panel discussion at Davos to talk about how he thought capitalism needed to “reset” in order to prevent the worst effects of climate change. Now he’s applying that same logic to the aftermath of coronavirus.”

“According to the Telegraph, Charles has been working with Klaus Schwab, the WEF’s founder, on projects to help shape recovery from the pandemic.”

From The Guardian, June 3, 2020: Pandemic is chance to reset global economy, says Prince Charles.

Here’s a link to Sustainable Markets Initiative, which Charles started in January 2020. And here’s the link to the partners page: https://www.sustainable-markets.org/about/partners/

So, once again timelines matter. The WEF and elites were planning this Great Reset before the global pandemic, as this Vanity Fair article states that Prince Charles was working with Schwab on a “Great Reset” in January 2020. When the pandemic started, it sure looks to me, like they decided to use that crisis as a means to accelerate their great reset plan.

Here’s a Bank of America newsroom notice from September 21, 2020 : The Sustainable Markets Initiative Launches RE:TV: “Speaking today at Climate Week 2020, HRH The Prince of Wales launched RE:TV, a new platform to showcase solutions working to accelerate a more sustainable future.”

So forgive me if I’m not getting on board with the media-driven gushing, the pomp and circumstance of a royal funeral, and the media effort to hype King Charles III, as some great stabilizing force in the UK. He’s an environmental extremist, who will wear the crown of one of the most influential monarchies in the world, and he was closely involved in the creation of the WEF Great Reset plan. In fact, he’s part of the inner-circle of influential elites, who came up with this plan.

Instead of “God Save the King,” I expect very soon many British people will be opining, “God Save Us from this Environmental Extremist.”

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September 9, 2022 · 9:42 pm

Fearless embrace of progress

I’m kind of torn with how to write this blog post, but I want to write it and try not to be disrespectful about Queen Elizabeth II passing away.

I admired Queen Elizabeth II in many ways, but her children not at all. Her passing seems very much like the passing of a generation and the close of an era.

Today, King Charles III gave his inaugural address and it was well-written, dignified, carefully constructed and delivered. In that speech he said, “In her life of service we saw that abiding love of tradition, together with that fearless embrace of progress, which make us great as Nations.”

King Charles III has been a zealous environmentalist and green dream proponent for years, so it will be interesting to see how the green proponents try to use the British national sentiment about the queen passing and try to channel it toward embrace of going along with the green energy transformation. It will also be interesting to see if the new king takes a decidedly more overt posture in pushing the green agenda, by trying to sell it as not political or ideological and more as patriotic duty.

Here’s a quote from an ABC report:

“John Kerry, the U.S. special envoy for climate, said he hopes Charles will continue speaking out about climate change because it is a universal issue that doesn’t involve ideology. Kerry was in Scotland to meet with the Prince of Wales this week, but the session was canceled when the queen died.”

I expect Hollywood-type productions trying to sell the great reset in the UK by tying it to being like the late queen and her “fearless embrace of progress.” Here’s John Kerry:

Climate change is very much political and ideological and it’s an issue being pushed by globalist zealots. I suspect King Charles III and others in the royal family may push the green-energy transformation in ways the late queen would never have considered.

I’ve made a mental note of that phrase, “fearless embrace of progress,” because I expect iterations of that to be repeated a lot in the UK by people pushing the great reset agenda.

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September 9, 2022 · 12:06 pm

Short PA historical note

In my first militia post, I mentioned my direct ancestor being “tasked” to recruit men for a militia. The reason my ancestor was tasked was because in PA, as the frontier expanded, setting up legal jurisdictions was a high priority. First there were a couple forts set up in that area, then the Northampton County Court was erected and townships were established. One of the first officials appointed in those newly established townships was the Constable, who was responsible for administering law and order. My direct ancestor was appointed the first Constable of Chestnuthill Township. So, when there was a need to raise a militia, the Constable was tasked with that duty.

Each colony had its own quirks and rules, but establishing law and order and a structure for the “common defense” under the rule of law was of the utmost importance.

That ends my PA history lesson. Have a nice day.

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September 7, 2022 · 2:54 pm

I can’t believe I’m writing about militias

This post is going to be about militias in America and my thoughts on a topic that’s being bandied about a lot lately – “civil war.” I might end up breaking this into more than one post, because I’ve got a lot of thoughts on this subject and although I might step on a lot of male egos, my intent isn’t to criticize any particular person, it’s to speak about ideas and approaches here. My intent also isn’t to try to silence anyone, because I’m rather a free speech zealot.

Lately, some Dems and even top level FBI officials have been labeling right-wing Americans as “domestic terrorists,” and the Biden administration has been spouting this all-encompassing term, “MAGA Republicans,” to broad-brush Americans with right-wing political beliefs as a threat to democracy. That demagoguery is totally reprehensible. Reacting to that and also to the Biden administration big green-energy/great reset transformation going on, I’ve seen some ideas that I think are total crazytown stuff being floated among some online right pundits/preppers/survivalists and most of it comes from men.

I believe some of the ideas on the right, although being hinted at and floated wrapped in euphemistic language, would be as destructive as the left’s green-energy/great reset crazytown policies. None of these more extreme ideas, from the left or right, leads to saving our republic or saving our democracy, or whatever euphemisms people choose to use to describe saving America. They lead to more chaos, irreparable divisions, and a destruction of both our republic and the representative democratic norms we value. They don’t lead to return to some bygone halcyon days of glory, the right dreams about or to the utopian system where equity, sustainability and ideal governance (ESG) people on the left blabber on about. I’ve written about the left’s insanity, so this post is going to be about some right-wing ideas I’m concerned about.

My interest in militias in America began in my teens, during the American Bicentennial. I’ve mentioned in other posts how 1976 ignited my interest in early American history, the American Revolution, and the formation of our constitutional republic.

A direct ancestor of mine was a captain of a militia in the Northampton territory in northeastern PA. Around 1774 he was tasked with recruiting 82 men, which he did without a problem. When my ancestor moved into that area of PA, it was a move over the Blue Mountain to an area that was an ancient Lenni Lenape (Delaware Indian) village, called Meniolagomeka, and the natives were forced out.  As a teen, a history I read, translated that village name as meaning the “fat-lands,” and it was rich farmland.

I think there’s a lot of misunderstandings about those early militias, because they weren’t just random people decided to form a militia. They were organized through governmental structures in the American colonies. The British colonies operated under a charter system decreed by the King of England. Even the earliest British settlers were financed and governed through various set-ups, but they were all under the British charter system. In previous posts, I’ve mentioned the first volume of the John Marshall set, The Life of George Washington, as an excellent history, full of details on the settlement of the American colonies. These early militias operated under the rule of law.

Here’s an article from the Revolutionary War Journal, History of Early Colonial Militias in America, which explains the how and why militias were utilized in early America:

“It was what the English government chose to do from the first chartered settlements in North America. England did not have the manpower or money to provide for the protection of her growing colonies on the mainland.  She was stretched thin, maintaining her growing fleet and by garrisoning her island colonies in the West Indies from the threat of her old rivals, France, Spain, and The Netherlands. Add the strife of civil war with the Cavaliers and Roundheads who were literally bashing heads, and the new American colonies quickly became low on the British agenda. However, the threat from intrusion on the mainland by England’s enemies, including the indigenous peoples already habituating the land, was a concern. A solution was sought and found in the very first settlements.  The charters of the Royal Providences, which would ultimately become the thirteen colonies of the Americas, were given authority to organize for their own defense.  Henceforth, the militia, organized and managed by local provincials, emerged in the shadow of British oversight and blessings.”

Settling the American West in the late 1800s and early 1900s presented more dilemmas for the defense of those early settlers, with the scarcity of law enforcement, and the vast spaces between homesteads and “towns,” which in many cases were just a few buildings. Challenges came in many forms, from battles between settlers and Native Americans, range wars and feuds over control of open ranges, water rights disputes and the US Army was deployed to far-flung forts on the frontier, to help protect settlers. There are many accounts of vigilante justice in the settling of the American West, but as soon as some law and order could be established through a governmental system, settlers embraced that.

Fast forward to modern history and back in the 1990s, there were three major “militia” type events, the Ruby Ridge siege (1992), the Waco siege (1993) and the Oklahoma City bombing (1995), that sparked a focus on right-wing extremism. in America. The Janet Reno run DOJ, in the Clinton administration made hunting down right-wing militias a top-tier FBI mission, while the 1993 World Trade Center bombing perpetrated by an Islamic radical was downplayed by the Clinton administration.

When 9/11 happened, the Bush administration focus shifted to Islamist terrorists, but within the FBI, I’ve often wondered if they ever shifted away from that 1990s “right-wing extremism” focus, of acting like there were right-wing militias around every corner and behind every tree in flyover country.

During the Obama administration, the DOJ shift in focus went back to seeing dangerous right-wing extremists everywhere and of course, there was Janet Reno’s DOJ sidekick, Eric Holder, now running the DOJ. It became all too common when an Islamist-inspired terrorist attack to occur in the US for the FBI to go to great pains to insist the motive was unknown, yet they had been aware of that person before the attack. Then we kept hearing about “lone wolf” attacks, as if these homegrown Islamist terrorists just became radicalized out of thin air. Added to this there was a concerted political messaging effort in the Obama administration and liberal media to pretend these Islamist-inspired attacks had nothing to do with a radical religious ideology.

So, it was no surprise really in 2016, when Hillary Clinton was running for president that all of a sudden some new and dramatic “right-wing threat” was being hyped by the Clinton campaign and liberal media – the looming threat of the “alt-right.” A few fringe far-right loons suddenly were being hyped by Hillary Clinton and the liberal media as being a massive threat and Hillary deliberately tried to paint all Trump supporters as Deplorables” and “alt-right extremists.”

So, now with this Biden administration/liberal media hype, smearing Trump supporters with an even broader brush, as “MAGA Republicans,” it feels like we’re right back to 2016 Dem spin mode. What’s disturbing though is it seems to me that the FBI has gone along with facilitating the Dem spin smear games – for decades. Current FBI director, Chris Wray, has consistently downplayed Antifa and left-wing domestic violence and focused on domestic right-wing extremism. And certainly, the FBI has left no stone unturned trying to track down every person who was at the US Capitol on Jan.6 2021.

I’m going to end this post here, because I want to delve into J-6 a bit more and the current things, that made me decide to write about militias in America.

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September 2, 2022 · 12:11 pm

There’s still hope left

This is going to be a long politics blog post. The bad news takes up most of this post, but there’s a bit of good cheer at the end. Recognizing the magnitude of events unfolding can feel overwhelming and it’s important to realize that big picture part, but it’s also important not to let that hamstring you or discourage you from just working harder to remain positive and proactive in your own life.

Last night President Biden gave a dark speech warning about the threat MAGA Republicans pose to democracy:

That’s what I believe was going on with Biden’s blood red speech last night in Philadelphia, PA.

I’m going to rehash the pandemic response around the world in 2020, because there’s something that’s been bugging me, after reading the Klaus Schwab book, COVID-19: The Great Reset. The “experts” and “elites” pushing all the COVID mitigation efforts on us already knew after the first few months, that this pandemic, in historical terms, would be mild and they knew all along which groups of people were most at risk, yet they deliberately opted for some of the most extreme economic, social and political measures all to condition people for this Great Reset (green-energy transformation,) they were already planning in the Spring of 2020. They planned the economic turmoil that devastated millions of small businesses across America, they planned the social mitigation efforts and they planned the political measures, using the pandemic as cover, I believe. Here’s a quote from Schwab’s book (I highlighted the last sentence, which has been bugging me since I read it):

“There is no denying that the COVID-19 virus has more often than not been a personal catastrophe for the millions infected by it, and for their families and communities. However, at a global level, if viewed in terms of the percentage of the global population effected, the corona crisis is (so far) one of the least deadly pandemics the world has experience over the last 2000 years. In all likelihood, unless the pandemic evolves in an unforeseen way, the consequences of COVID-19 in terms of health and mortality will be mild compared to previous pandemics. At the end of June 2020 (at a time when the outbreak is still raging in Latin America, South Asia and much of the US), COVID-19 has killed less than 0.006% of the world population. To put this low figure into context in terms of lethality, the Spanish flu killed 2.7% of the world’s population and HIV/AIDS 0.6% (from 1981 to today). The Plague of Justinian from its onset in 541 until it finally disappeared in 750 killed almost one-third of the population of Byzantium according to various estimates, and the Black Death (1347-1351) is considered to have killed between 30% and 40% of the world population at the time. The corona pandemic is different. It does not constitute an existential threat, or a shock that will leave its imprint on the world’s population for decades.”

Schwab, Klaus; Malleret, Thierry. COVID-19: The Great Reset (p. 247). Forum Publishing. Kindle Edition.

This book was published in July 2020 and many of the world leaders, WEF crowd, and UN crowd invested in the green-energy transformation, had already planned how to use the COVID pandemic to set the stage for their green-energy transformation. So, all the phony laments about “trust the science” were cynical mass psychological warfare being used against the American people by our leaders and health officials, I believe. We were being conditioned to accept doing what we were told was for the common good, as decided by politicians, elites and experts, who made those decisions for us. All that public virtue-signaling and the public-shaming efforts were orchestrated to target people who refused to do what they were told by the elites (the experts).

In America, President Trump, presented a huge obstacle to the western leaders’ green-energy grand plan. Under Trump, America, for the first time in my lifetime was actually energy independent, despite the chaotic ways he ran his presidency, his character flaws, his spending so much time on his reality show presidency. The truth is Trump’s actual policies, like freeing up American oil and gas production, promoting American business, and his unwillingness to just green stamp policies coming out of the G-7 crowd, who were completely committed to turbo-charging the green-energy transformation on the back of the COVID pandemic, made Trump the #1 target of the global elite “green dream” crowd.

The current economic turmoil was planned – it’s not an accident. The same group of world leaders and elites who orchestrated the COVID mitigation chaos are deliberately orchestrating this economic collapse. They believe they can manage this collapse and the conversion to not only green-energy, but to forcing the world into a new ESG-centric world, where people are forced to downsize, not only their energy consumption, but every aspect of their lives, to conform to groups of unelected global elites forcing people to do as they’re told or be ostracized and basically cut off from everything – from energy, from goods and services, from medical care, from employment. It’s a total control program to force people to give up their personal freedoms… all for the “greater good of the world”… as decided by a bunch of elites.

Since the largest business leaders in the free world are already on-board with the ESG/green-dream policies and have been pushing ESG compliance for several years now, unfortunately most of the leaders on the right in America, either didn’t take the green transformation effort seriously and dismissed it as just far-left activist kooks or they opted to quietly just go along to get along and continue to make a lot a money. The green-energy train has not only left the station, it’s racing around the world now. At this point, the moves have already been made to impose the green-energy transformation on the West and the areas of the world the West can exert pressure on. China, Russia and their allies might pay lip service to the green-energy transformation, but nothing China and Russia have done with their efforts to bolster their fossil fuel capacity, leads me to believe they care one iota about the green-energy transformation, besides hoping it will collapse the West – and it might. There are a myriad of tentacles in this transformation, beyond just “green energy.” There are global currency upheavals, and it moves down to even what type of foods and how much people will be allowed to consume, what goods and services will be available, what temperature you have to keep your thermostat set on, how much you can travel, etc.

In the conclusion chapter of Schwab’s book, he writes:

“In Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s Chronicle of a Death Foretold, an entire village foresees a looming catastrophe, and yet none of the villagers seem able or willing to act to prevent it, until it’s too late. We do not want to be that village. To avoid such a fate, without delay we need to set in motion the Great Reset. This is not a “nice-to-have” but an absolute necessity. Failing to address and fix the deep-rooted ills of our societies and economies could heighten the risk that, as throughout history, ultimately a reset will be imposed by violent shocks like conflicts and even revolutions. It is incumbent upon us to take the bull by the horns. The pandemic gives us this chance: it “represents a rare but narrow window of opportunity to reflect, reimagine and reset our world”.[165]

Schwab, Klaus; Malleret, Thierry. COVID-19: The Great Reset (pp. 243-244). Forum Publishing. Kindle Edition.

I don’t think most people on the right, who get worked up repeating stuff they heard on right-wing media about the “Great Reset” quite grasp, that this green-energy/ESG global transformation effort is already well in progress. It’s not some future plan – it’s already been implemented and anyone who gets in the way will be silenced, destroyed, and cut-off from economic, not only opportunity, but even from the very basics of goods and services, we’re all used to. The controls over energy usage are already being rolled out, there will be controls on everything we consume – everything. The people driving this Great Reset believe they can manage a collapse of the world economic system without driving all of us off of a cliff and they have no “mitigation” plans to soften the fall for millions of people around the world.

Free speech poses a particular threat to the green-energy transformation agenda, so the social media word police games will escalate, but also, people who pose any sort of threat of disruption will be silenced, either overtly by being locked out of social media and online forums, to having their jobs threatened, to being doxxed. The Zuckerberg admission in the past week about being warned by the FBI about “Russian disinformation” stories right before the Hunter Biden laptop story broke in 2020, shows that “algorithmically” social media companies can (and did) banish accounts and stories into a literal internet wilderness, where no one would even see the stories. The FBI facilitated squashing that Hunter Biden laptop story in October 2020. And dozens of former intelligence officials went public dismissing the Hunter Biden laptop story as “Russian disinformation.” The public corruption runs very deep.

I see a lot of people fuss and fume about this or that story that hits the media and while being pissed off is understandable, it’s really counterproductive at this point. Squashing free speech in America is a top tier Democrat effort right now and somehow too many Republicans in Washington still seem to want to out meme Dems or own liberals on Twitter, when Democrats are making huge moves to silence opposing views, especially via their big tech friends. “Owning the libs” on social media isn’t a plan, it’s wasting time. I don’t have a solution or ways around this huge communication problem yet, but it’s been on my mind a lot longer than the green-energy transformation agenda’s been around. Liberals own the online spaces and they can work together to crush alternative platforms.

For instance, Trump was banned from Twitter and facebook in January 2020 and we’re now in September 2022. The first few Trump-friendly social media venues failed quickly, but finally Truth Social, a alt-tech social media company by Trump Media & Technology Group, launched in February of 2022. A couple days ago, I saw this: Truth Social’s Ban From Google Play Renews Calls for Apple to Remove App. There is an orchestrated effort to silence and demonize, not only Trump, but any Republicans or people who get in the way of the Great Reset transformation underway. There’s a big tech cabal working to destroy Truth Social and knock Trump offline again.

President Biden isn’t running anything, he’s doing what he’s told to do by the Obama apparatchiks, inside the Biden White House. They wrote that divisive speech he delivered last night; they staged that speech that way deliberately.

One of the hardest lessons I’ve struggled with is to not react in anger and develop more self-discipline and self-control – it’s hard, when something smacks you in the face as an affront to all the values you hold dear. However, working calmly and diligently to prepare your own family for coming economic upheavals, so you can, not just survive, but still thrive is paramount. Then finding positive ways to build bridges of helping hands with other like-minded people, to try to bolster a sense of community and networks across America is way better than fuming and ranting right now. People who are calm, positive and prepared will fare better than the millions of people who trust the Biden administration and Democrats to take care of them. What’s going to matter in the end of this, I believe is strong, competent, calm American leadership – not partisan politics.

This morning I was thinking about a blog post, Who Will Defend Our Castle?, I wrote in 2014. I mentioned a WWII story about the Battle of Castle Itter, one of the last battles in WWII. I still think this remains true about American leadership:

“The almost farcical nature of the characters and events in the battle for Castle Itter provides a quirky, yet almost emblematic view of  how in the unlikely circumstance of fighting for their lives, this castle’s curious mix of inhabitants, like people everywhere, can put aside national and personal loyalties, to unite in moments, because not much else mattered, except surviving.

The story centers on VIP French prisoners, whom the SS kept imprisoned in Castle Itter during WWII.  As the Americans advanced across Europe in the waning days of the war, a young American first lieutenant, John C. “Jack” Lee, Jr., made the mistake of volunteering to go secure the castle, after a surrendering German major arrived to tell the advancing Americans about the VIP prisoners held prisoner in nearby Castle Itter.  The young American officer sets off with 8 volunteers, plus 5 soldiers from the African-American Company, along with the surrendering German major and a truckload of his German soldiers.   The French VIPs, upon seeing their small rescue force, were unimpressed that such a paltry band of soldiers was sent to rescue their grand personages.  But quickly the scene changed as the castle fell under attack from SS troops.  The squabbling French VIPs (which included two French generals, who despised each other) and  the surrendering Germans all turned to the young American lieutenant to take charge of their castle defense.  To get the full impact of the absurdity of the events, read the full story of the battle for Castle Itter (here’s the link again).”

Calm, unflappable, disciplined American leadership still matters and it can come in many forms and from unlikely places, from stepping up to the plate to organize and guide your own family, to working in your church or community to help others, to even figuring out how to handle emergency situations. Buying into believing we are powerless is the ultimate form of surrendering and giving up. There’s still hope left all around us.

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Filed under General Interest, Information War, The Great Reset

August 26, 2022 · 1:14 pm

News and some prepping thoughts

This post is just some thoughts on the disturbing political craziness in America lately. I wrote a few blog posts about the latest Trump drama with the FBI raiding Trump’s home, so I’m skipping that today. With the recent Democrat-created, Inflation Reduction Act (green-energy/healthcare plan), that President Biden signed into law last week and now the executive action this week, where Biden announced $10,000 per student college loan cancellation, I’m left wondering how soon our government’s financial house of cards will collapse. The Inflation Reduction Act was $750 billion dollars more in spending, just as the US passed two quarters of negative growth (a recession).

I went to college one year after high school and my parents struggled to pay for my first semester and I took out a student loan for the second semester. I dropped out of college and joined the Army and I paid off that student loan. One thing that seems obvious is “debt forgiveness,” like President Biden just doled out for student loans, won’t be coming for average Americans, who have racked up more consumer debt than they can handle. This was just a pre-election vote-buying effort. Plus, seeing that the Inflation Reduction Act includes expedited hiring of 87,000 more IRS agents, well, it’s obvious the Biden administration is gearing up to take every cent possible from hard-working Americans to help fund their green-energy dreams.

While the fiscal insanity in Washington should alarm all of us, Washington isn’t alone in crazy fiscal policy, because according to the figures of credit card debt in America, so are millions upon millions of Americans, who are racking up huge amounts of credit card and other consumer debt as inflation is soaring. According to this CNN report from August 2, 2022, “US household debt surpassed $16 trillion for the first time ever during the second quarter, the New York Federal Reserve said Tuesday.” This article also states, “Over the past year, credit card debt has jumped by $100 billion, or 13%, the biggest percentage increase in more than 20 years. Credit cards typically charge high interest rates when balances aren’t fully paid off, making this an expensive form of debt.”

It’s easy to fume about the government’s reckless fiscal policies, but each of can control our own personal finances. Too many people dig themselves into too much personal debt trying to achieve or maintain a lifestyle that is beyond their means. With inflation climbing, most people will have to make hard decisions and for many people that will require cutting out extras and streamlining their expenses to make ends meet. Unfortunately, a whole lot of people are racking up massive amounts of credit card debt to maintain a standard of living their means can’t cover with the rising cost of living.

I can only speak for my own small town’s grocery stores, but inflation is continuing to climb every time I shop. Shortages continue to crop up too – no potatoes yesterday, except for a few bags of red potatoes. I am glad I canned some potatoes, have instant and dehydrated, plus I have some frozen fries and tater tots in the freezer, but I can guarantee you, if the potato supply situation improves once this year’s potato crops make it to stores, I will be canning more potatoes. Nothing has really improved in the overall financial picture in my small area of America – prices on just about everything have continued to climb and while gas prices have dropped, that’s largely due to the Biden administration releasing over a million barrels of oil a day from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which is a short-sighted plan.

I mentioned in other blog posts that this move by the Biden White House can’t continue indefinitely, they have no concrete plan on replenishing the SPR and are recklessly leaving America unprepared for a serious crisis. Once they stop releasing that much oil into the market, gas prices could sky-rocket, but it would happen after the November elections this year – and that’s the whole point of their using the SPR. It’s a political gimmick geared toward the November election. The SPR release, the Inflation Reduction Act, which has nothing to do with reducing inflation or this student loan forgiveness plan are intended to buy liberal votes and energize Democrat voters to show up on election day. Here’s a letter from last week, that Energy Sec. Granholm, sent top oil refiners:

https://twitter.com/JavierBlas/status/1563178240197664768

Of course, economic collapse and massive upheavals seem likely to hit Europe before the US, but we definitely are positioned to be facing some unchartered political, economic, and societal chaos in the coming months. While I’ve come across all sorts of good emergency preparedness advice, it’s one thing being prepared for a limited emergency like a natural disaster vs. being prepared for a long-term emergency that ebbs and flows, which also has the potential to substantially impact our lives in ways we can’t even predict yet. I’m still struggling with figuring out my own preparedness plan in this situation.

I’ve been trying to continue stocking up food and other supplies, downsizing my lifestyle where I can, and trying to improve my gardening skills and other skills, like gaining experience with various food preservation methods, like home canning and dehydrating, but I also bought a book. Preserving Food Without Freezing or Canning, which explores several old-fashioned food preservation methods, like lacto-fermentation, preserving in oil, salt, sugar, alcohol, plus dehydrating.

I’m still following some news, but I’m more focused on trying to improve my own skills in several areas. Getting back to my sewing and needlework is on my list too, because I’d like to improve my darning and mending skills. I always loved working on decorative needlework, not fixing clothes and damaged fabric. My mother was very good at darning and mending. She used various stitches and techniques she learned growing up during the Great Depression and she never bought into the disposable clothing habits that took hold in America. My mother had her priorities right – master the important basic skills first, before the frivolous stuff.

Everyone’s preparedness goals will probably vary, but with all the ominous problems from disruptions in supply chains, economic crises, geopolitical instability in the world, serious droughts (here in America and abroad) things look gloomy. Add in the rancorous state of American politics, where President Biden just yesterday, once again smeared “MAGA Republicans” (however he defines that) as semi-fascists and the NY Post reported, “Gov. Kathy Hochul, who hasn’t proven shy about issuing orders, had one for the state’s Republicans this week — all 5.4 million of them: “Just jump on a bus and head down to Florida where you belong, OK?” she said. “You are not New Yorkers.” So much for President Biden being the president who would return us to normal and unite America.

I’m also looking around my house trying to decide which home repair projects I need to get done now and which can wait. I’ve been tackling some small things myself and asking my sons for help with a few things, but I have some bigger projects I’ll need to hire someone else to do.

Each little accomplishment matters and every act of kindness we extend to others or which are extended to us matter too. I’m trying to focus on not criticizing people (in person and online)- yeah, except for politicians, because I am still going to criticize them. We can’t change the world with some big swooping action, but all the little acts of kindness can add up and truly change hearts.

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August 24, 2022 · 3:53 pm

Gathering some facts in the Amish farmer vs. the feds case

Recently, I started turning on cable news during primetime again, after going many months without even turning on the TV. I had been watching news clips and videos online, but I wanted to get a longer view of what’s going on during primetime. I intend to watch CNN some nights too and I will attempt MSNBC, but MSNBC has felt like torture for years. MSNBC primetime veered off into far-left cuckoo-land a long time ago and being conservative, it’s difficult for me to sit through.

The thing that’s hard to admit for many on the right is FOX News primetime has often veered off into far-right territory too. If you’ve veered into that territory, it might feel just fine, but I expected the right to be calmer, care more about facts, study issues more. Despite there being a real need, CNN didn’t stake out some middle ground during its primetime, but turned into #Resist/anti-Trump and blabbing about what FOX News is airing.

There’s been a concerted effort among liberal media and Dems to pressure FOX news to remove Tucker Carlson off the air. I have never been a Tucker fan, even when he was on other cable news networks, but sometimes he gives voice to news or issues that I feel are important. I don’t want Tucker fired, but in this case, I wish his staff had done more research. He often plays into stories that have gained a lot of traction on right-wing online forums.

Tucker had on some journalist from Rebel News, to relate a story of the feds raiding and fining an Amish farmer, Amos Miller, in PA.

This case started in 2016, not during the Biden administration – that’s fact #1 that is wrong with Tucker’s story.

I had been following this story for a few years. The truth is this story isn’t about the feds just randomly targeting some poor Amish farmer. The case started back in 2016, stemming from an outbreak of listeria, where one man died. The CDC testing linked the likely source back to raw milk from Miller’s farm. I also read this information at a lancasteronline news site too.

From there Miller had agreed to comply with inspections, then failed to comply, tried to open another farming business under another name, tried to fire his attorneys, after listening to some “sovereign citizen” nuts, and he’s defied the court at every turn. Miller’s lawyers have tried to be removed from representing him too, once he got caught up in listening to sovereign citizen lunatics. He isn’t a victim. Here’s a Daily Beast rundown of events: Conservatives Milk Story of Amish Farm Tied to Fatal Listeria.

This Amish farmer story spreading on right-wing social media follows the same trajectory of the food facility fires hysteria. Granted, there have been many fires at food facilities, but there’s no evidence that these fires are arson or connected in some big conspiracy. And there are many other potential causes for a rash of fires from changes in work force at facilities due to the economic upheaval over the past few years, to faulty equipment or lax safety procedures at these facilities. Leaping to the conclusion that it must be some major government plot to destroy the food supply, without a shred of evidence seems premature. Yes, perhaps down the road some bigger conspiracy will be proved, but so far no one’s presented hard evidence of that. The same thing is happening with this Amish farmer case, trying to turn him into some victim of the Biden administration.

If you were to directly defy a federal court order, after agreeing to comply several times, the judge probably wouldn’t still be trying to work with you – you’d be in jail. Amish people need to abide by the food safety laws, just like everyone else who sells food. And one person died of listeria, so the federal government definitely should have jumped into action trying to trace that listeria strain back to a source, because a safe food supply matters to all of us.

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August 22, 2022 · 12:00 pm

A few updates

So, basically, I still have no idea what documents Trump had, that were so urgent a raid on his home was necessary. Furthermore, I have no idea what classification any of the documents seized are. Yes, I mock the Dem/liberal media spin attacks on Twitter, in hopes of “defusing” some of them, lol.

Now, on to the other topics. I’ve continued to dehydrate herbs and pressure can meat. I also pressure canned 16 pints of chili, 12 quarts of potatoes and 13 pints of carrots recently. This morning I am pressure canning 8 more pints of ground beef. I used store-bought potatoes and carrots, so I’m not waiting until I grow enough fresh vegetables to can. While I am wanting to continue stocking up food and supplies, in case the economy gets worse and a lot of things are either in short supply or very hard to afford, another goal is I want to build my skills with home canning. I could have purchased cans of potatoes and carrots at the store at a reasonable price, but I opted for buying fresh, then pressure canning them, to get more experience with canning. I already have dehydrated potatoes, both potatoes I dehydrated and ones I bought at the store. I keep working on learning more about dehydrating food too.

I planted some more cucumbers for my fall garden and so far they’re looking okay.

I have some plastic totes with cabbage and red beets started.

This red cabbage is supposed to be a compact type, suitable for containers, so we’ll see how it does.

In previous post I posted photos of the five pieces of succulents in this pot, so here you can see the babies growing at the base.

These are mascotte beans. I have 10 containers planted to try these.

In the spring I planted a pack of balloon flower seeds, which are a perennial. I have a lot of plants to figure out where to plant. I used to have one in the flower bed in front of my house for years, until it stopped coming up in the spring. I plan to take some to give to the nice lady, who gave me the succulent pieces.

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Filed under Gardening, General Interest, Information War, Politics