Let’s discuss a few ethically controversial medical procedures and concepts that have recently been in the news

Xenotransplantation: Animal to Human Transplants | PKD Foundation Blog

A few months back, the world’s first Heart Transplant involving a genetically modified pig heart was successfully done in the United States. The patient, who was of advanced age volunteered to be Patient Zero for the historic and controversial transplant surgery.

The patient would not have been eligible for a human organ transplant due to their age and their health issues. The surgery was successful and the patient lived for almost two months before dying anyway from unrelated but known health issues which was expected. This transplant was done basically to ascertain weather this kind of transplant surgery is a viable option and now the world knows that it is.

What they did was they genetically modified a pig embryo with the human DNA and human stem cells before putting it into a surrogate female pig for gestation. The resulting pig-human chimera is then born with organs compatible with humans and could then be transplanted into humans. A pig pregnancy is about 4 months and is usually a litter. What this means is you could have a litter of pigs with human organs born that could then be used to help a lot of people at once.

Do you know what the most needed organ worldwide is? The Kidney. Right now, almost 2 million people worldwide are on dialysis and almost a third of them–a little under 600,000–are in the United States. Like I mentioned in the previous blog post, organs don’t last very long once removed from the donor’s body. Kidneys actually last the longest with a lifespan of 24 to 48 hours once removed from the donor’s body. The Heart and Lungs have the shortest window with 4 to 6 hours max on average in comparison.

By now you’re probably thinking “People can live with one kidney. Why don’t more people just donate one of theirs?” The problem–and this is also the reason I made the decision to take my name off the donor registry almost 10 years ago–is what if you have health issues yourself that may not make organ donation a viable option even if it’s done after you die? That’s the case with my heart, lungs and kidneys in particular. I once had kidney failure as a kid and I was born with a heart condition. I also have asthma which means I can’t donate any of those organs even if it’s after I’ve died but I digress.

All that said. From what I was able to find online, priority consideration for Animal to Human transplants would mostly be for those who are terminally ill and would die within 12 to 18 months otherwise. Obviously, that’s just for right now. That would presumably be upscaled over time.

Oh and for those who don’t like the idea of genetically modified pig organs being transplanted into you, the same tech is being used with Sheep for those who may have cultural and religious aversions to accepting pig organs. It didn’t take long for animal rights groups like the Humane Society and PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) to voice strong opposition to this new tech saying it’s not right and soforth and so on.

Speaking of “playing God”. That brings me to Head Transplants.

Here’s the full video by Brain Bridge and fair warning, some may find it disturbing to watch:

 

 

Are you thoroughly freaked out yet? Well you’ll be relieved to know that this is 100% conceptual as of now. Dr. Hashem Al-Ghaili, who also concepualized an AI-powered Artificial Womb Factory called EctoLife–more on that in a bit–is behind this ultra sci-fi concept.

To be clear: His projected 8-year window from performing the world’s first Head Transplant is 100% aspirational. As of now, there is no Patient Zero and no surgeries have been publicly announced. It does sound like this is deep in the R&D Phase which is the biggest reason he made the video: To recruit scientists and doctors for Brain Bridge.

That goes back to the big second question that I mentioned in the previous blog post: Should we trying to do this?

The ethical and moral issues are one thing let alone the theortical medical science techniques the video leans hard into. Let’s get into that:

 

  • Based on what I could piece together, the entire surgery would likely take at least 4 to 8 hours. The pre-op phase involves putting both the recepient’s body and the donor body under unaesthetic. Once they are completely under, a traecheotomy is performed on both bodies to keep them alive during and after the head separation phase. Let’s assume both are done within an hour total. After that, both bodies’ core body temperatures are lowered via IV ahead of the separation phase. Let’s assume that takes 2 to 3 hours. Both bodies are then positioned before the A.I.-powered robots and we’re now at the point of no return for the recipient. Let’s assume the Head Separation Phase takes 20 minutes, draining all the blood from the recipient’s head takes another 20  minutes and attaching it to the donor body takes another 20 minutes for an hour in total. We’re now at 3 hours total. After attaching the recepient’s head to the donor’s body, the video shows a face transplant is done. The donor’s jaw, facial tissue and facial muscles excluding the tongue are swapped with the recepient’s. Let’s assume that takes another hour for a total of four hours. I get why you’d want to do the Face Transplant after grafting the recipient’s head to the donor’s body while it’s still viable but to me, that should be a separate surgery. Let’s assume the Face Transplant surgery adds another 3 to 4 hours. Currently, Full Face Transplant Surgery takes 10 to 30 hours to perform and is usually spread out over a time for that reason. I can see A.I. Robots doing it in 3 to 4 hours though.
  • After the surgery is completed, the patient is placed in a medically induced coma for the next 4 to 5 weeks to allow patient’s newly merged head and body to heal from the surgery without moving as well as allow the patient’s brain to sync with their new body. An A.I. microchip implanted into the spinal cord of the donor’s body acts as a secondary conduit to help the recipient’s brain quickly establish neural pathways and connections with its new body ahead of the patient eventually being brought out of the medically induced coma.
  • After the initial 4 to 5 week comatose phase has ended, the patient begins intensive physical therapy to learn to use their new body. I caught the Neurolink technology currently being used by someone get mentioned and that is not fiction. A man who became paralyzed from the neck down in a diving accident had a microchip implanted into his brain that allows him to use technology with thought alone. The hope is once this technology is scaled up, a second chip could be implanted into his spine. That would then grant him the use of his arms and legs once again. Brain Bridge is clearly assuming that tech will have advanced enough to make this part of their road map possible.
  • In addition to intense physical therapy, the patient would also undergo psychiatric care to help them come to terms with the life-changing procedure they went through and adjust to their new identity. That’s a given but I would hope the patient would also be required to undergo a psychiatric evaluation BEFORE the procedure is greenlit. The patient needs to be made to understand the moment their head is separated from their body, they are legally dead by decapitation. Yes the machines will work quickly to attach the patient’s head to the donor’s body within an hour’s time but during that one hour, they are clinically dead. At the very least they should settle their affairs and draw up a will in the event something goes wrong either during the procedure or during post-op recovery. Like any transplant surgery, you’re taking immune-suppressing drugs for the rest of your life to keep the native body’s white blood cells from attacking the transplanted tissue (more commonly knowing as Rejection) which is rightfully perceives as a foreign organism.

 

All that said, let’s back up a bit to the parts that I know everyone is probably thinking: Who would willingly agree to allow their brain dead loved one’s body to be used for this kind of surgery (and will they get it back when the recipient dies?)? What happens to the recipient’s body after the procedure is done (Are the organs harvested for organ donation if they’re usable?)?

 

Most importantly: Who is held liable or legally responsible if things don’t go as intended? What happens if the patient dies during or after the procedure is completed? What if the patient doesn’t come out of the medically-induced coma? What if the patient’s brain is unable to sync with their new body and is thus in prettymuch the same or worse condition than they were before the surgery (sweet irony)?

On that note.

The price tag for this procedure is “tenatively” set at $13 Million. Mind you, there isn’t even a guarantee the patient actually survives the surgery. I’m also going to assume Brain Bridge makes the patient and their family sign legal paperwork stipulating they agree not to sue them if something goes wrong or the patient dies.

…I assume insurance would not be willing to cover any of that either.

 

That brings me to Dr. Hashem Al-Ghaili’s other more imfamous concept:

 

…Are you thoroughly freaked out again yet? Well, you’ll be happy to know that such a device does not actually exist AND is not currently in development.

It IS true that researchers have successfully created and tested an artificial womb with sheep embryos between 2015 and 2019 in the UK and U.S. What they did was they surgically removed a sheep fetus from a pregnant sheep and put it in the artificial womb. The device sustained the sheep fetus for the rest of its gestation and it was born alive.

The hope with the artificial womb is that it could be used in premature births to help finish a premature baby’s gestation in a more sterile environment. In a sterile environment much closer to a human womb than existing incubators, a premaure baby could finish its gestation period without worry of infection or the outside environment.

As for EctoLife Factories, the potential for misuse is made plain in the video and that’s aside from the obvious genetic editing components. I mean the idea of mass producing people like that. Imagine someone or a country willing to commit 20 to 30 years creating an army of genetically powerful people. I mean a literal army. There’s already a lot of conspiracy theories involving IVF (InVitro Fertilization) out there as it is. Imagine someone creating a few hundred-thousand people using this tech just to harvest their organs.

This is why ethical and moral guard rails need to be in place. It’s also why researchers pivoted hard away from human cloning and ended up making breakthroughs with Stem Cells. That was considered more ethically acceptible because it did not involve embryos and instead involved studying the placenta and blood from umbilical cords after birth but I digress.

The EctoLife factories would be powered with Nuclear Fusion and you would apparently also have the option of bringing one into your home. I’m not sure how exactly that would work given the world’s first Nuclear Fusion test happened just two years ago. Nuclear Fusion generators don’t exist yet and a working prototype is expected to be 8 to 15 years away (barring a breakthrough of course).

Tech like this absolutely needs to be HEAVILY regulated BEFORE it’s made commercially available to the public. Aside from the example I mentioned above around creating people just to harvest their organs, another issue when combined with IVF are genetic siblings. Genetic diversity helps protect populations–and future generations–from certain genetic and heredetary diseases and ailments. There are limits to how much genetic editing can “fix” and genetic siblings is one of them.

One aspect of of that video that I found disturbing is basically, EctoLife wants to eventually make pregnancy socially unacceptable. That’s literally population control. We’ve seen what that looks like in Science Fiction enough times in recent decades to know how bad an idea it is to turn human reproduction over to machines. The video markets the idea as “more convenient than pregnancy” but it would be all about making pregnancy socially unacceptible: “Why would you choose to go through a pregnancy where anything could happen to you or the baby when you can just use an artificial womb that will remove most of the risks and all the pain?” It’s not hard to see where that could quickly lead to but at the risk of this veering too hard into conspiracy theories, I’ll stop there.

 

The Surprising Future Of Artificial Organ

 

Last but certainly not least, let’s get to artificial organs.

The two biggest benefits to getting artificial organ implants are you don’t have to worry about the body rejecting them and more importantly, they’ll likely last for the rest of your life.

The world’s first artificial heart transplant took place about 6 years ago. The patient, who was experiencing kidney failure as well as heart failure was deemed too sick to receive a donor heart at the time. He volunteered to be Patient Zero for the world’s first artificial heart transplant. He is still alive now but is in hospice care since he’s also on dialysis.

Aside from no longer having a heartbeat, he does carry a small duffel bag doctors use to monitor the mechanical heart. So far, there’s been no serious issues 6 years later and at least 4 other people have since volunteered to receive an artificial heart. Researchers are working to redesign and miniturize it for future patients since so far all who’ve received one are in hospice care because they’re all seniors with serious health issues.

Researchers are hoping to start doing the surgery on younger patients soon to help many of those currently waiting for a donor heart. Ever since the first successful heart transplant was performed almost 60 years ago, it goes without saying the only way someone can receive a donor heart is if it comes from someone who has just died. It’s still considered a controversial surgery for that reason. You have to walk that balance between trying to save a life and being sensitive to the family of a potential match who declines donating their deceased love one’s organs.

All those issues disappear if artificial organ transplant surgery can be ramped up and upscaled to meet the demand. That’s the goal obviously.

Like I mentioned earlier, the most needed organ is Kidneys. I’ve heard researchers in a few countries are working on developing both artificial kidneys and portable dialysis machines. The hope with developing portable dialysis machines is people would be able to use them in the privacy of their own homes.

For those who don’t know what dialysis machines do–and hopefully you never have to find out–they do what your kidneys do by filtering out impurities and carbon dioxide from your blood. The entire process takes 3 to 5 hours on average, usually depending on the size or height of the patient. You also typically need to go in for dialysis at least three times a week. Blood comes out the body through one tube for cleaning and goes back into the body via a separate tube. Life expectancy on Dialysis in 5 to 10 years but it’s becoming common for people to live up to 30 years on dialysis. This is to say nothing of various health issues common in those who undergo dialysis.

…Take care of your kidneys, ladies and gents!

Moving on. Researchers confirmed about 20 years ago the Liver can and does  regenerate when injured or damaged like skin. As long as at least a third of the Liver is healthy, it can handle the work the body needs. What this means is if someone wants to donate liver tissue, doctors will only take up to half from a living donor. The remaining half will grow back to full size within half a year’s time. This is also why the demand for Livers has started to decline in recent decades.

I could go on and on but hopefully by now you learned a lot of stuff. I do think Animal to Human Transplants will be upscaled and utilized case by case. I also think we’ll start to see artificial organ transplants become common in the near future.

As for the Brain Bridge and Ecto Life concepts, they’re 100% fiction and are also 100% conceptional. Like I mentioned before, both videos highlight tech not currently available and probably won’t be available in the near future. I’ll just put it like that.

 

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There is a bit of irony in Apple’s Controversial New iPad TV Ad two media outlets touched on

iPad Pro (2024) debuts with M4 chip, OLED display, slimmer design, more

 

For those who may not have seen it, this is the ad in question:

 

 

Due to the public backlash largely from actual artists, musicians, actors and even some politicians Apple pulled the ad from TV. As you can see, it can still be viewed on Apple’s YouTube channel (with comments disabled for obvious reasons).

For those who are unable to play the video, here’s what is shows. A hydraulic press destroys thousands of dollars worth of musical instruments, art supplies and various pop culture items such as an arcade cabinet, a statue and even an Angry Bird ceramic. When the hydraulic press raises, all that’s left is the iPad Pro 8.

It’s the fact Sonny and Cher’s All I Ever Need Is You is playing as all this is going on that really hits home the point Apple knowingly made when they decided to put this ad together. It also makes plain the disconnect Big Tech and Silicon Valley have with something so simple and basic. I’m talking about the Human Touch.

It was just last year most of the world was rightfully raising concerns and sounding alarm bells around Artificial Intelligence. Sometimes, there is wisdom in exercising restraint even when you don’t want to or don’t feel it’s necessary. While the question with new technologies and new ideas has long been “Can we do this?”, a second question that must also now be asked just as vigorously is “Should we be doing this?”

One of the things the recent explosion in A.I. development exposed is laws and regulations worldwide on the tech need to be created and/or updated on it to help ensure companies like OpenAI, Google, Meta, Microsoft, Apple and others don’t monopolize the tech first and the public is protected second. Not for the companies’ sakes but the public’s. Companies and researchers have been keeping ahead of laws and regulations on new technologies for quite a while now and that needs to stop.

I’ll get into this in a separate post–because I have a lot to say about it–but the brainchild behind the concept of an artificial womb factory called EctoLife recently shocked the world when he introduced the world to a separate new startup company called Brain Bridge. The new company boldly declared via a short video introducing itself online that they plan to perform the world’s first head transplant within 8 years. Yes, really.

This is one of those “Should we be doing this?” kinds of ideas. The ethical and moral issues around that aside–and there are A LOT–you basically approach it the same way you would a heart transplant: Someone has to die for someone else to live. The donor body’s next of kin would need to sign off on it which also means they would be performing a funeral without a body.

Things are raised in this kind of surgery because from the moment your blood vessels, nerves and spinal cord are severed, you’re legally dead. The brain CAN survive for up to an hour without blood or oxygen at low temperatures which is being factored into the surgery. This is also part of the reason why operating rooms are always cold on that note.

Spine Anatomy - Goodman Campbell

Basically, you have to remove both the recepient’s head and the donor body’s head very quickly. The conceptual video shows both being done at the same time. The spine is severed below the C2 disk. The donor body’s severed head is then raised and moved out of the way while the recepient’s head is moved into position on the donor body in tandem. Separaration and reattachment both happen within the space of an hour.

In case you’re wondering, a pair of A.I.-guided automated robots perform the surgery at high speed. Honestly, that’s probably the only way this could actually be done successfully within the time limit. That aside, I do think we’ve reached the point where A.I.-guided automated robots performing surgeries should start becoming standardized but I’ll save that for the separate article.

 

The Future is Here: Six Of Today's Most Advanced, Real-Life Cyborgs

All that said.

We’ve definitely entered the age of Human Cybernetic Augmentation. You can’t talk about Robotics without also talking about Cybernetic Implants. At least not anymore. Hand transplants are starting to become routine in Europe, North America and China. The problem is like a donated heart, the donor hand has to come from a corpse that recently died.

There have been recent breakthroughs in medical science that allow disembodied hearts and limbs intended to go to a recipient who needs it to last a bit longer. Currently, a heart intended for donation can last 4 to 6 hours once removed from the deceased donor’s body and put on ice. A new technique developed by a Cardiologist a few years ago allows the heart to last up to 12 hours once removed by having it beat continuously, keeping it warm and feeding it blood.

About five years ago, a man in China was in a construction accident in which his right hand was amputated and his right forearm was severely damaged, making immediate reattachment impossible. The medical team that treated him managed to save his hand by surgically attaching the blood vessels in his hand to the blood vessels to his left thigh. That bought the time they needed for them to surgically reconstruct his right forearm and let it heal enough to reattach his right hand. The man has since made a full recovery but I digress.

Getting back to Cybernetics. Elon Musk’s NeuroLink would be the gateway to full cybernetic limbs. What’s currently being looked into for the latest prosthetic arms are having them powered with rechargable ion lithium batteries. Users would be able to use the prosthetic throughout the day and just have them charge overnight. I’d imagine some could be built with a solar panel so they can automatically charge during the day or something.

There is a huge push in making prosthetic limbs as close to the real thing as possible to meet the demand to say the least. Especially for children. There’s nothing wrong with that as long as they’re affordable and ideally, the costs can continue to decline. A basic prosthetic leg costs $10,000 while the more high-end ones you can control with your nerves and muscles will run you at least $70,000. Insurance will only cover some of the costs on that note.

Finally–and this is speaking in general–there need to be guard rails in the form of laws and regulations to ensure people are not at the mercy of new and emerging technologies. The danger we are in right now is someone through folly or foolishness creating and unleashing technology they can’t control that ends up being an existential threat to all life on earth.

 

 

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The current generation of young adults has clearly been manipulated into being Antisemetic…and worse

An Unlikely Event — the Israel-Hamas War — Could Finally Spark DAF Reform

 

I don’t say this lightly but as some such as Malcolm Nance noted right after it happened, the events of 10/7/2023 exposed a lot of deep-seated antisemitism among young Progressive Democrats we didn’t know was there. Honestly, it speaks to the fact today’s young people are easy to emotionally manipulate largely thanks to social media platforms, Memes, Hashtags and so on.

The fact that they don’t even realize that they’re being manipulated into being political ammo for the GOP speaks to their lack of organization or understanding into what their actions will mean for the causes they claim to advocate for. This is to say nothing of the paid chaos agents who always show up at the protests that get a lot of media coverage and embed themselves with the protesters.

On that note. During the Spring and Summer of 2020, there were nationwide protests in response to the murder of George Floyd. We know for a fact there were chaos agents–paid and otherwise–who showed up for the sole purpose using the protests as a cover to cause chaos knowing the media was there anyway.

Their plan to turn people against the protesters ultimately failed largely thanks to the cellphone footage recorded by Daniella Frazier, who witnessed what Minneapolis PD initially described as “a Medical Incident”. Such a blantant effort to whitewash a modern-day public lynching–and proof that’s exactly what happened–is the reason things ultimately played out the way they did both nationwide and in court the following year.

Now let’s talk about ANTIFA since the Right Wing Media is once again name dropping them in regards to the Anti-Israel protests. I’ve talked about the REAL ANTIFA three years ago on this blog. There’s a lot of misinformation and malinformation being pushed by Right Wing talking heads again. None of it is coincidence either. Like I said earlier, deep-seated antisemitism among young Progressive Democrats we didn’t know was there has been exposed through these anti-Israel protests.

This also plays to the narrative the GOP has long pushed for decades that the “Far Left” promotes antisemetism. As we’re seeing in real time, it’s also making the overwhelming majority of Democrats who are Left of Center look real bad which is also part of the plan. The GOP has been working hard since the midterms to show their base–and the world–that the Dems are not as united as they want people to think which actually IS true. More importantly, it also exposes Progressive Dems as being emotionally driven–just like most of the GOP is.

Attacking Biden directly hasn’t been working as well as they expected so this pivot to retargeting Progressive Dems comes as no surprise to me. The uneasy alliance between corporate Dems like former Senator Joe Manchin and Left of Center Dems like Biden fell apart during the first two years of Biden’s term because of the army of lobbyists representing corporations forcing the Congresspeople they bought to put their interests first.

Meanwhile, the uneasy alliance between Progressive Dems like Congresswoman Ilhad Omar and Left of Center Dems like Biden started to unravel way back in 2016. Most Progressives backed Bernie Sanders and would have voted for him if he ran as a third party. Left and Center Dems continue to deny this but did not have the popular support of the entire party and more so after she got Obama to involved to force Bernie Sanders to not only drop out but support her.

At least a third of those who voted for Trump in 2016 did so out of spite not realizing at the time elections have consequences that can last long after a candidate leaves office. The main reasons Biden won in 2020 were Trump proved himself incompetent, largely allowed COVID-19 to freely spread in the U.S., encouraged people to be their worst selves and most importantly Biden was someone with decades of experience in politics.

I plan to approach the 2024 presidential election the same way I approached 2020–more so given it’s a rematch: Assume nothing, hope for the best and plan for the worst case scenario. I won’t digress further though I think I’ve made some important points.

 

Students around the world suffered huge learning setbacks during the pandemic, study finds | PBS NewsHour

Getting back to college campuses though. The GOP, White Nationalists and Christian Nationalists have all openly declared war on Education as an institute. Their so-called “war on wokeness” is nothing more than code for wanting BITE: Behavior, Information, Thought and Emotional Control via the levers of government.

If Trump was in White House now or someone like hime was governor of a state where campus protests getting a lot of media attention was taking place, they would’ve simply sent in the U.S. military with shoot to kill orders to the campuses for “anyone who appears to resist arrest”.

The reason we haven’t seen ANY of that even with law enforcement is because colleges are exercising a LOT of restraint and they’re not getting the credit they deserve for that. Most of the colleges where these protests are happening are private property meaning if there is not a crime in progress, law enforcement can’t step foot on campus unless the school requests their assistance.

Another thing colleges are not getting credit for is in many but not most cases they are asking District Attorneys to not press charges against any students who are arrested for peacefully protesting. All bets are off if you break the law obviously–law enforcement found a stockpile of blunt weapons when they cleared out barricaded protesters in UCLA Thursday morning. Most of those arrested were not student of staff meaning they were there for the sole purpose of provoking clashes with law enforcement.

As I said earlier, the young people at college campuses are largely ignorant of the real world. The world is not as black and white as societies and politicians want people to think they are. What’s going on now is also what happens when Civics, American History and World History are no longer being taught or emphasized in grade school for the last few decades. I worked in education during the last two decades. I know what I’m talking about.

We now have a population of young adults, teens and children in America who are largely ignorant of just the last 100 years worth of history. This is to say nothing of also having a population of young people who due to the influences of Social Media and the political discourse in the U.S. right now are not only anti-authority but are anti-structure and anti-order.

 

Can We Still Trust The Polls After The 2020 Election? | 1A

If it feels like there’s mass manipulation going on, that’s exactly what it is. It’s like I said before: Most of these college students–I mean the REAL ones, not the paid chaos agents who’ve embedded themselves with the college students specifically to clash with law enforcement in front of the media–have no clue they have been manipulated into being a part of the controlled opposition for the GOP and their allies in the Far Right.

The timing for all this is no coincidence and it’s why I referenced the Spring and Summer of 2020. The anarchists, Dominionists and their foreign allies are manufacturing crisis after crisis not just to make Joe Biden look bad but more importantly, get as many people as possible across the political spectrum to just not vote in November. Let’s be honest, most people don’t vote in local elections these days and this has been the case for decades now.

You wanna know the easiest way to kill a Democracy? Create a perception over time that elections are rigged, “all” politicians are corrupt and turn the population against itself. Russia and China have known this for some time obviously and it’s why both have been working remotely and through American assets in the U.S. to weaken, undermine and dismantle the American Democracy from within. If ANY of this sounds familiar regardless of your political beliefs, it should. We’ve been played by manipulators for decades. Not the last 10 years but at least the last 60 to 70 years.

Honestly, I am convinced at this point we might just be in the final 6 months of the American Democracy. I’ve been talking to people across the country and in every region of the country, the consensus I’m getting is a combination of “I’m skipping the election”, “I’m afraid of what might happen to me if I try to vote” and “I’ve heard about things being planned for people in my area who dare try to go vote”.

Yes. In America. In 2024.

This is the kind of stuff you didn’t openly hear about after the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Yet the enemies of America foreign AND domestic have figured out ways to circumvent that entirely.

Like I said to two people recently, the American Democracy surviving after this year would be a bonafide miracle. Literally and figuratively.

 

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Since Mainstream Media is clearly afraid to tell America about White Christian Nationalism, here’s an update on the Seven Mountains Dominion Mandate and Project 2025

Church and State Separation Is Breaking Down Before Our Eyes

 

Before I begin, I need to correct something I’ve repeatedly said about these and related topics: The Dominionists and Christian Nationalists working to turn America into an Autocratic Theocracy are not operating in the shadows. They are all out in the open front and center. They are telling their audiences what their intentions are and have for decades.

The loudest people promoting the NAR and Project 2025 agendas are charismatic personalities, celebrities and politicians. Not in secret meetings but in front of audiences. They want everyone to know what they have in store for America so that later you can’t say you didn’t know.

I left this out of the post I made about Corporate Media the other day but the Dominionists are taking advantage of the fact historically, the media has long gone out of its way to avoid even sounding critical of any religion–especially a Christian-based faith–for fear of being accused of violating the target’s Freedom of Religion.

This is one of the big reasons organizations like The Heritage Foundation and The Family have made it a point to register themselves as a “Church” organization to shield themselves from media, government and even public scrutiny. This in turn allows them to operate openly while keeping their agendas a closely guarded secret. It also allows them to endlessly fundraise openly and more so since they have tax-exempt status.

It’s an abuse of the 501(c)(3) nonprofit designation but I’ll get to that a bit later in this blog post.

 

WHAT IS PROJECT 2025? – THE WATCHDOG

In recent weeks, Project 2025 (or Projecr ’25 for short) has been all over social media. The media referring to it as “Trump’s vision for America” is laughable given it’s not Trump’s idea. This is a plan that’s been almost 70 years in the making. It’s also not accurate to call it a “Far Right Conspiracy” because it’s only being co-opted by the GOP.

Go to their website and see for yourself. Project 2025 is basically the endgame plan Dominionists have for the American Democracy once they are able to get a Republican president aligned with their interests in the White House. Trump is the Republican nominee and is a useful idiot. He already gave them the Supreme Court and Mike Johnson, who is an unapologetic Dominionist himself is the current Speaker of the House. They have one and a half branches of the federal government under their control and they are going all in to take the White House this Fall.

Here’s a short list of what Project 2025 plans to take away or resrict at the national level should Trump (or another Republican) get in the White House:

 

  • Abortion (currently outlawed in almost half the country)
  • Women’s Reproductive Healthcare (currently restricted in states where Abortion is outlawed)
  • Contraceptives
  • IVF (See the previous blog post!)
  • Gestational Surrogacy
  • LGBTQ+ Rights (Overturning Obergafel v. Hodges is a top priority)
  • Government Assistance Programs (SNAP/Food Stamps, SSI/SSDI, WIC, etc.)
  • The Affordable Care Act (What’s left of it anyway)
  • Freedom of Religion (They want to make Christianity the State Religion)
  • Freedom of Speech

 

That’s just a short list and again, they are being open about this from now. See and listen to what they are telling everyone yourself. Again: They are playing for keeps.

With Trump’s campaign clearly imploding, it’s obvious they are working on some contingency plans of their own that will either help get Trump back in the White House or in the words of Mike Flynn, ensure there isn’t an election in November.

The third party candidates Trump was riding on taking away enough votes from Biden for him to win by default have so far proven to be unviable. There is ongoing litigation from the last time Trump’s campaign tried to use fake electors so that’s clearly not a viable plan this time.

That brings me to THE option Project 2025 would happily capitalize on should it happen: Armed conflict. I’ll get into that at the end of this article but what I will say for now–and I’ll say again later–is people should probably start stocking up from now. We did it when the Pandemic broke out so…yeah.

 

The 7 Mountains Explained | Ray Edwards

 

Now here’s an update on the NAR’s Seven Mountains mandate. I’m not going to do these in the same order shown in the image above but I will cover all of them.

Before I forget, the name and theme of the Seven Mountains Mandate comes from Dominionists’ twisted interpretations of a few Bible verses:

  • Daniel 2:44: It’s actually the end of a very long explaination about the four empires that directly impacted ancient Israel (Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece and Rome). This is referenced again in Revealation. Dominionists have cut out this verse by itself and use it to mean a Christian America will stand forever.
  • Revealation 17:9: It’s actually the beginning of a long description of what the First Beast Power is and its characteristics (Rome and the present day Roman Catholic Church). Dominionists have cut out this verse by itself and interpret it this way: The woman is America and the Seven Mountains are Seven Mountains of American Culture.
  • Mark 11:23: Dominionists use this verse to reinforce the Seven Mountains Mandate.
  • Isaiah 45:2: Dominionists use this verse to reinforce the Seven Mountains Mandate.

 

The first two being twisted and repurposed by the NAR is easy to see through for anyone who knows their Bible. Not the ones who only open it in church but those who take the time to read through the Bible. Sadly, it IS a fact most Christians don’t know the Bible as well as they think they do. This is a fact ALL Charismatic Evangelists–most of whom support Project 2025 and the Seven Mountains Mandate–are aware of. Naturally, they also know how to rile up their audiences as well.

I know those last two verses might not seem like much but in the context of Dominionism, they matter. Project 2025 is their endgame plan for after they have conquered the government on that note. Remember: In their minds, they are doing God’s will. Emphasis on “In THEIR minds”.

Ok here we go. As a reminder, keep ALL of the following in mind:

 

  1. The root causes of the societal and cultural problems in America are as the Dominionists see it because “America has turned its back on God” and “lacks strong Christian leaders”. By that they mean they want elected officials who are willing to be partial to their religious beliefs even when it means disenfranchising others.
  2. The “solutions” Dominionists have come up with and plan to implement are largely either based on their own interpretation of certain Biblical passages–often intentionally misconstrued or out of context–OR to disenfranchise certain populations. Or a combination of both. Basically, it’s the typical “Only our solutions matter” so prevalent in Autocracies and Dictatorships.
  3. ALL of these seemingly unrelated “mountains” are part of the much larger plans that they have in store for America. We should never EVER forget the Dominionists played the long game with Roe v. Wade.
  4. The Dominionists are working in tandem with White Nationalist Militia and Foreign enemies (Russia, China, etc.). They all have the same core desire: Ending the American Democracy. Period. That’s what unites these three factions.
  5. Even the GOP is WELL aware that it’s a Federal offense to have a second but separate Federal government running at the same time. It would automatically be considered treason. It’s why they and Dominionists are very careful in their public statements in making sure their talk of turning America into a Theocratic Autocracy is “future tense”. Make no mistake they have already built the infrastructure and personnel to “flip the switch” should Trump or another Republican willing to work with them gets in the White House.

 

Now that you understand a bit about what’s driving the Dominionists, let’s get to those Seven Mountains.

 

Family

Families Divided! | Truediscipleship

 

No area have the Dominionists given such a focus than the family. I’m sure most of you remember 20 years ago Evangelists started harping and crowing about “Traditional Marriage” being “under attack” by Same Sex Relationships, a rising interest in the occult, women’s reproductive rights and…contraceptives. Yes, really.

The centerpiece of the Dominionists’ plans largely involvesl legally making women second-class citizens and the property of their husband. In other words, just how it currently is in Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, India, Sudan and Saudi Arabia. Womens’ Sufferage was sparked in the UK 100 years ago and it has since become an integral part of all Democratic societies.

It’s interesting to note the Bible points out in various places–and is often intentionally ignored–God created Man and Woman equally. Men and Women have their distinct reproductive functions obviously but they were always intended to treat each other equally.

Not to the Dominionists. They think a man’s wives are or should legally be the property of their husbands for life. They believe husbands can and should be able to physically, emotionally and sexually abuse their wives as much as they want without legal repurcussions. The problem is that’s anathema to the teachings of the Bible on how married couples should treat each other.

What about Divorce? Only if the husband wants it. In fact, you can’t get divorced in some states without the husband’s signature. No exceptions for documented cases of domestic violence or domestic abuse either. I’ve talked to a lot of people in recent years who fled abusive relationships but found someone else. Since they’re still legally married ot their abuser, they can’t get married again and the new relationship becomes a common law marriage.

The Bible gives two allowed grounds for divorce which Jesus himself clarifies. The first is if there is an affair. The offended partner can elect to forgive the affair but if not, they are allowed to get a divorce. The other is if two unbelievers get married, one of them converts and the other doesn’t want to convert. In that case, divorce is allowed.

Everyone 35 and older might remember that time in the early 2000s when Brittany Spears and Justin Timberlake got married…and divorced within 2 hours of each other. They were both drunk and got married in Las Vegas. It was after they sobered up and realized what they did that they immediately got divorced. The incident made national headlines and pissed off conservatives nationwide. I don’t don’t fault them for realizing they made a mistake when they were intoxicated personally.

That aside. The rise in domestic abuse–between heterosexual married couples to be clear–since the late 1970s has made it necessary for laws on divorce to be relaxed in some U.S. states to make it easier for predominantly wives to get away from their abusers. I’m sure everyone’s at least heard of some local stories involving husbands murdering their wives or at least trying to without a second thought.

I have met women who came out of abusive relationships missing fingers or often wear dark glasses to hide the black eye(s) their abuser gave them. They literally had to flee for their lives, often with their children. In some cases, their abuser is arrested or imprisoned–as they should be–but more often than not they simply find another woman and repeat the cycle.

If the Dominionists get their way, all of the nonprofit safety nets created to help women trying to escape their abusers would likely be shut down overnight. This is to say nothing of contraceptives and abortion both being banned nationwide. It’s all about basicallt turning all women/wives into Broodmares. For those who are not familiar with that term, it’s a female horse used for breeding. If that reminds you of A Handmaid’s Tale, it should.

 

Business

ShindelRockIRS advises business owners to follow these steps when closing a business | ShindelRock

Here we have one of the areas that attracted the Dominionists to Trump. To be clear, it’s not that they thought Trump was a good businessman. I’m pretty sure they knew his history as a conman, a cheat and a swindler. What attracted the Dominionists to Trump in 2016 was the public perception he built via his celebrity status that he was a wealthy businessman. He fit the criteria they were looking for in a presidential candidate.

Anyone who’s ever visited or attended a church that’s being led by a wealthy pastor probably already knows this but they amassed their wealth by scamming their congregations. Only a very small fraction of the “donations” they collect every week actually goes to community outreach and missionary work. The majority of it goes right into the pastor’s pockets with kickbacks to church members who are in on it. They do set aside just enough money to keep the church open though.

It’s a blatant abuse of the 501(c)(3) tax exempt status places of worship and religious organizations enjoy. More problematic than that is even when the fraud is exposed, more often than not the offender just moves somewhere else and starts over.

This brings me to why Dominionists have such a vested interest in this “mountain”: Money. They want the legal right to defraud people without pentality. In the aftermath of Shinzo Abe’s assassination, Japan started passing legislation aimed at stopping the Unification Church–in reality, it’s the Moon Cult–from blantantly scamming unsuspecting Japanese citizens.

Basically, the Moon Cult used spiritual blackmail to get mostly elderly Japanese citizens to give them the equivalent of thousands of money. The former Prime Minster was assassinated by a man who thought Abe was affiliated with the Moon Cult. The assassin’s mother had been scammed and he thought Abe was connected to them in some way. It turns out Abe’s mother once worked with the Moon Cult when he was a child but not Abe himself.

All that said. Dominionists are all for deregulating everything as long as they get kickbacks. It would basically be a combination of the Properity Doctrine and Trickle-down Economics but scaled up. The Prosperity Doctrine means “God wants you to be Financially wealthy” and “Rich people were blessed by God”. Trickle-down Economics–also known as Reaganomics means all the wealth is concentrated to a small handful with the hope some of it will “trickle down” to everyone else. Ronald Reagan championed it in the 1980s.

If you think poverty in America is bad now, just look at countries like Haiti, Nigeria and The Philippines where 70% to 85% of the population lives in extreme poverty. A little known fact about The Philippines is it’s one of the top five countries in Southeast Asia where many people sell their organs to the Black Market. Yes, really.

THAT’S how bad and depserate things could get in America overnight should the Dominionists seize control of the government. What about Unions? They hate Unions. Don’t even get me started on Unemployment and Severance Pay either. They will get rid of all of those.

“Those who don’t work, don’t eat” as far as they’re concerned. What’s that? You can’t work because you’re hurt, sick, pregnant or have a preexisting condition? “Suck it up get lost” as far as they’re concerned.

 

Education

Abandoned School - Boston, IN — Ronny Salerno

This is one “mountain” the public knows more about than they realize largely thanks to Republicans’ overt efforts to gradually kill Public Education in recent decades.

Why do Republicans hate the idea of “education for all” so much? Wanting a population dumb enough to control is just a part of it. The bigger reason is they feel they have a political mandate to reintroduce segregation in schools based on race and religion. They already succeeded in killing a major part of Affirmative Action several years back.

As for why Dominionists have a vested interest in education, having taxpayer-funded Christian Schools and reintroducing Bible Study in Public Schools are only two parts of it. The rest we’ve started to see in the experiment phase in Texas and Florida in particular. I’m talking about the book bans at not just school libraries but public libraries too.

To understand why the Dominionists are lockstep with the GOP on Behavior, Information, Thought and Emotional Control–yes, I just referenced The BITE Model there–all you need to do is turn back the clock to The Dark Ages. For nearly 1,400 years, The Roman Catholic Church essentially ruled Europe with an iron fist. Whatever the Vatican didn’t approve of or understand was dismissed and branded as heresy or witchcraft. Anyone who dared to challenge The Vatican’s power and authority head-on was branded as a heretic and had the full weight of the government they had influence over brought down on them.

For the overwhelming majority of Americans who don’t know the history of European Politics from the early rise of the Roman Catholic Church to The Enlightenment in the late 18th Century, it’s this: For almost 1,400 years the Roman Catholic Church literally and metaphorically held the keys of life and death for generations of people in Europe. Free thought was discouraged while superstition abounded among the common people. The rich and privelaged who could get a formal education helped reinforce the class system of “Commoners” and “The Noble Class” of people.

One of the reasons Education is held in such high regard in Europe now is because they know their history. For centuries, economic disparaties barred most of the population from even learning how to read and write their own language. This is to say nothing of the Roman Catholic Church barring the Bible from being printed in any language except Latin (“Who but The Church  and clergy could read and understand The Scriptures?”).

Education is the way to combat ignorance and superstition. Dominionists are well aware of this and it’s why they’ve spent decades working to weaken and dismantle Public Education in the U.S. In addition to this they have joined forces with the purveyors of conspiracy theories in attacking and discrediting experts, historians and scholars.

In order to get as many people as possible to buy into the worldview they have to offer, they attack all other views or ideas as “misinformed”, “deceptive”, “evil”, “worldly”, “woke”, “demonic”, Satanic” and so on. In order to be able to brainwash and indoctrinate people en masse, Public Education and the profession as a whole needs to be dismantled and ultimately be replaced with “Christian” Education.

I’ll get into this in a separate post but as a former Educator, I have become very concerned by the fairly recent–I mean with the last 10 years–propaganda campaign from not just Dominionists but mainline Protestant denominations pushing families to pull their kids out of Public Education and home school their children if they can’t afford to send them to a Christian School.

The four biggest reasons they push for this are as follows:

  1. To teach your childen “Biblical Values”
  2. To shield your children from “Mainstream Propaganda”
  3. To be “free” of Vaccine Mandates
  4. To not have your children exposed to “Mainstream Propaganda”

 

The first one is the big thing Dominionists feel they have the political capital to pull off with little resistance especially from older Americans who remember when Bible Study was still in Public Schools. Before Roe v. Wade in 1973, there was Schempp v. Abington in 1963. The Schempps were Unitarians who sued the district saying requiring all students to read 10 Bible passages every morning and to recite The Lord’s Prayer violated their First Amendment Freedom of Religion. Their case was escalated to the Supreme Court which ruled 8-1 in their favor.

The Schempp ruling actually came down a year after the Supreme court ruled in a similar case. The Engel v. Vitale ruling in 1962 brought an end to school school-led prayers. The Engels, who were Jewish sued the district saying the mandated schoolwide prayer violated their religious views. The SJC ruled in their favor 6-1. The Schempp case happened the following year in 1963.

Combined, both cases were supposed to have ended the practice of Bible reading and prayer in public schools. Notice I said “supposed to have ended” there. Anyone who lives in a conservative community knows that these ruling are ignored and in many cases are not stopped in such places until they’re sued. usually by or with the assistance of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). A ruling in 2000 was supposed to have banned school-led prayer at high school football games but it’s a fact that it is still openly practiced in many places.

The Dominionists and their allies in the current SJC will move to throw out those two rulings at the Federal level like they did Roe v. Wade. They’ll then mandate Bible reading and prayer in schools which sounds really nice to well-meaning Christians who’ve said for decades “everything was better when Bible study and prayer was still in Public Schools. At least kids learned morality and the fear of God”. Last I checked, the Bible makes it clear that’s the PARENTS’ first and foremost. Not their teachers’ job and certainly not the government’s job for that matter.

 

Moving on. By “Mainstream Propaganda” they largely mean the influences of the LGBTQ+ community. Those are the three big reasons they push and the intention is largely to have a generation of children who are indoctrinated to only have one worldview. THAT is what the Dominionists want for ALL of America.

There’s also what I mentioned earlier about Education being a privilage for children of the rich and well connected for centuries. These decades-long efforts from the GOP to defund and dismantle public education are entirely toward that end goal. More so after openly attacking the Desegregating of Public Schools became politically toxic by the mid-1970s.

Before I forget. These efforts to whitewash U.S. history by the GOP–literally and figuratively–plays into narratives pushed largely by white nationalists and their allies in the GOP. They allege efforts being made to teach grade school kids America’s WHOLE history–including the lows such as The Trail of Tears, the internment of Japanese Americans during WWII, Jim Crow and the bombing of Black Wall Street–is “reverse racism” or “teaching (white) kids to hate America”.

As a former educator, I am personally offended by those assertions that have since been championed by the likes of Ron DeSantis. To an extent, these assertions have also been co-opted by many Black Republicans in recent years who present themselves as outspoken proof “America is not a racist country (anymore)”. The problem is the facts say otherwise and they know it but I’ll get into the topic of Black Republicans in a separate post.

 

Arts & Entertainment

Free Stock Photo of Empty Art Gallery in Museum | Download Free Images and Free Illustrations

Puppet Master Marionette - Vintage String Puppets' Throw Pillow Cover 18” x 18” | Spreadshirt

We saw a pretty good preview of what would happen here when the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan a few years ago: Freedom of Expression, Free Thought and Creativity died immediately. People rushed to paint over murals in public displays and remove advertising displays they knew the Taliban would have deemed offenses punishable by death. In Iran and other Islamic Theocraric governments, non-Islamic books are required by law to have a sticker indicating they do not promote Islamic values.

In China, the government reviews all foreign movies and TV shows for content they either disagree with, is critical of their values as a country or makes portrays the country in a negative light. American movie studios and American companies going out of their way to not piss off the Chinese government has become a big topic of conversation in the entertainment industry and pro sports over the last 10 years.

In Russia, you can be arrested or worse for saying anything critical of Vladomir Putin or government policies even if it’s said during a comedy show or in a satire. Yes, really. During Trump’s presidency, Alec Baldwin played Trump in Saturday Night Live. Baldwin got weekly death threats from Trump supporters because of it. Then the Rust shooting incident happened. Many Trump supporters saw the legal trouble Baldwin was in as payback for his work playing Trump on SNL. While the incident was clearly nothing more than a tragic accident, that hasn’t stopped some Republican politicians from pressuring New Mexico investigators to take prosecute Baldwin largely to “punish” him for his SNL work.

Creative Expression has actually been under attack from Conservatives since at least the mid-1970s. Coincidentally, that was also when the modern rise of Liberalism in the U.S. really began. In the backdrop of the U.S.’ messy exit from Vietnam, the end of the miltary draft, the end of Jim Crow and the massive popularity of Rock & Roll young adults felt empowered to step out of their parents’ shadow and live for themselves.

The older generations didn’t take what they viewed as “counter-culture” among young people very well to say the least. In the minds of Dominionists and Christian Fundamentalist groups, anything that prevented them from controlling or  manipulating others was “evil” or “Satanic”. That’s basically anything other than what they want people to focus on.

The irony is the Bible promotes free thought and the freedom to choose for or against its teachings. I won’t digress further though.

 

Media

What Are Press Conferences? How to Plan Briefings Like a Pro

Like I said in a recent post, the Fourth Estate (The Media) has fallen. It corrupted itself after Reagan got rid of the Fairness Doctrine and let media outlets start cannibalizing each other. We got a pretty good look at how the Dominionists plan to weaponize the media during Trump’s term.

It was no accident or coincidence Fox “News” was a part of the Trump Administration’s Media kit. His relationship with Fox “News” soured when they preemptively but correctly called Arizona for Biden during the 20202 election. Trump went to OAN and Newsmax for a bit and Rupert Murdoch finally had woke up to the fact Trump was insane.

The only reason Fox “News” as well as Mainstream Media outlets are still doing everything they can to prop up Trump as a “legitimate candidate” to the public–behind closed doors, they know he willl not win in November–is entirely self-serving: For ratings and ad revenue.

Contrary to popular belief–and I haven’t outright said this on this blog until now actually–both the mainstream media outlets AND the Right Wing media outlets in the U.S. are NOT owned or controlled by the U.S. government. They are all 100% privately owned, operated and financed.

The mainstream outlets are subservient to special interests and sponsors while the Right Wing Media caters exclusively to people who identify as largely Conservative and/or Evangelical. While it is true that until very recently CNN and MSNBC largely catered to people who identify as Liberal and/or Progressive, they’ve both started catering heavily to those who traditionally watch Fox “News” since mid-2021.

Some of you may remember shortly after the Pandemic shut the world down ads by Franklyn Graham and other Evangelicals suddenly started airing daily on all the cable news media outlets. That was no coincidence. Neither are those “Jesus Gets Us” Ads that have been airing on occaision during sports games broadcast on TV. Dominionists are behind it and they are setting the stage for what’s to come once they are in power.

Why build a new media ecosystem when you can simply take over and repurpose that one that already exists? Basically, we’ll have what Putin has in Russia: Propaganda and ONLY propaganda 24/7. Any journalist who dares to speak the truth in Russia is declared an enemy of the state. We saw this in the early weeks of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. One journalist was charged for holding up a message critical of the Russian government but she managed to flee the country.

Even more terrifying than that would be the media being weaponized by Dominionists like it was in Rwanda 30 years ago. In fact, we already know the seeds are being planted in the Right Wing Media ecosystem in terms of a nationwide propaganda machine categorizing and dehumanizing minority populations (Immigrants, LGBTQ+, Democrats, Atheists, etc.).

The genocide museum in Rwanda stresses this point: People didn’t just wake up one day and decided to start butchering their friends and neighbors out of the blue. That happened after years of propaganda from political figureheads who one day said “The time has come, start killing the people from this tribe and any who aids them”.

When the Rwandan Genocide finally ended, it wasn’t just the survivors of the extermination campaign who were traumatized but the ordinary people who participated in the killings. They had been told they “had a duty to cleanse the nation of filth” and show no mercy to the other side. I recently talked to people whose parents, aunts or uncles participated in the massacres. Their relatives told them it couldn’t control themselves but they knew what they were doing.

The Far Right in the U.S. been ramping up their genocidal rhetoric in recent months and it has crossed into the mainstream media outlets. Dominionists would likely just use the media to tell people–especially their base–that they have the legal right to discriminate against people who are not like them.

 

Religion

18 Abandoned Churches and Synagogues You Have to See

I almost made this the last one but changed my mind.

This is the one “mountain” that may actually be the Dominionists’ downfall and more so when there is serious infighting which is pretty likely. The reason is simple: There are many different Christian denomimations. There are at least a few dozen in the U.S. alone.

The Dominionists and their allies in the GOP underestimate how strongly Christian faith leaders across all denominations who oppose their plans will mobilize their congregations to resist them for as much as possible and for as long as possible. I’m seeing signs on Xitter, Facebook, Instagram and other platforms right now that tells me a growing number of faith leaders are starting to speak out very forcefully against Christian Nationalism. Not just in the U.S. but especially in the U.S.

Why? Because REAL Christians not only know and understand Jesus himself opposed the idea of forced conversion but they recognize the damage these anarchists using Christian vernacular have caused for decades. The advent of the internet and social media have made it far easier for Christian Fundamentalists and Charismatic faith leaders to indoctrinate millions a day for free.

Honestly, I’ve become VERY concerned with the political apathy that has set in among Christians in America over the last few decades. I know most of the talking points like to focus on Trump in 2016 to now but the modern Christian Fundamentalist movement goes back decades. They were simply waiting for the right people to come along and help them advance their agendas. They got it in 2016 with Trump but clearly they are looking to get rid of him at the earliest convenience at this point but I’ll get into that in separate post.

All that said. It’s not hard to see the Christian Nationalists will silence and imprison dissidents as soon as they seize power. I’m not speculating or being hyperbolic. They’ll simply say any Christian denomination that doesn’t pledge support of them is apostate or heretics. Not just people or churches but whole denominations. It will be about asserting power and dominance over any who might challenge their authority.

They’ll also have the backing of a very powerful ally in Europe: The Vatican.

It is conspiracy fact that The Vatican has wanted nothing more than to have political influence within the most powerful country in the history of the world for over 200 years. Should America become a Theocracy, watch how quick The Christian Nationalists become The Vatican’s lapdogs. How so?

Simple: “One God. One Faith. One Nation. One Church.”

Suddenly, it won’t just be non-Christians anymore but Christian denominations such as the Seventh Day Adventist Church that will be aggressively persecuted by the Theocratic America.  They’ll be jailed and worse for refusing to compromise their beliefs for the sake of “unity”.

I’ve been open about this on this blog but I was raised as an Adventist so I can speak a lot to this particular topic. One of the core things Adventists are taught and made to understand has to do with a certain prophecy highlighted in Daniel and Revealation. Basically, there will come a time when Church and State become one in America and certain religious mandates will be imposed on Americans.

The idea of America becoming a Theocracy was laughable let alone unthinkable just 20 years ago. Not anymore.

Adventists are often accused of Legalism for observing the original Sabbath known today as Saturday. Most of the Christian world observes Sunday despite the fact there is no Bible passage the explicitly notes a change. This is to say nothing of a passage that notes “some will think to change times and laws”. Coincidentally, only one of the (original) Ten Commandments is both a time and a law: The Fourth Commandment and it is not only the longest but begins with the word “Remember”. I won’t digress further on that point.

Do I think that will come if the Dominionsts seize power later this year? No and more so given the massive resistance they will face for just trying. I’ll get into this in the next and final section but the Dominionists’ hostile takeover will not be taken lightly or quietly as they’re hoping.

 

Government

Sunset At Unites States Capitol Building, Washington DC by Mike Deutsch

In order for the Christian America House Speaker Mike Johnson wants to see to rise, the existing government must fall.

Remember the imfamous admission at CPAC a few weeks ago: They want to end the American Democracy.

Over the last few decades, they’ve made a lot of progress in that endeavor. I went over a lot of the big ones over the last 6 sections. Let’s go over some more, many of which you likely noticed and may have thought to yourself “Is this just politicking or is there more to this than we realize?”

First, let’s review the fact the Dominionists and their allies in Congress are intentionally only allowing short-term spending bills when a Democrat is in the White House. They push a wedge issue such as Immigration, the boarder, crime or some trivial matter to justify holding the country hostage until they get the political win they want.

As for the Supreme Court, its standing as an apolitical branch of the government was shattered when they decided the 2000 presidential election (Bush v. Gore). Well, it turns out Al Gore actually did win that election but by the time that was confirmed it was already too late. The Right turned on the SJC when they ruled in favor of Obergafell in 2012, legalizing Gay Marriage nationwide. Then Trump packed the SJC with three justices whose main job was overturning Roe v. Wade. We all know how that turned out but I won’t digress further.

For the second time in eight years, one of two very unpopular candidates will win the presidential election this fall. One is the former president who’s prepared his base for a repeat of the aftermath of 2020 when he loses again.The other is the current president who has not only been largely uninspiring but has also been taking a lot of heat politically–largely unfairly on that note–over the conflict between Israel and Hamas.

The media is largely omitting this but so far, voter turnout has been low in the primary elections to date. In 2020, the election was decided by about 150 million votes. This coming November, I’ll be shocked if it’s two thirds that number. As in I am expecting even less people to vote than in 2020. Low voter turnout is exactly what countries that run sham elections like Russia and Venezuela use to justify rigging the system in the autocrat’s favor.

The Dominionists will control who is allowed to be a political candidate at all levels. Whoever they don’t approve of is not only not allowed to run for office but is threatened and pressured–along with their loved ones of course–to withdraw. Political theatre with the illusion of choice won’t be that hard to present since the media has had decades of experience pushing false equivalencies and bothsidesism.

The literal definition of an Autocratic Leader is someone who can’t be voted out of office. We have one political party–the GOP–that is all about installing people who will have their position for life and prettymuch can’t be removed unless they die or resign. I refer to Supreme Court Justices and Federal Judges on that note but if they get their way, this will also legally apply to people who occupy the other two branches of government too.

 

You can always count on Americans to do the right thing - after they've tried everything else." -Winston Churchill [1680x1020][OC] : r/QuotesPorn

…America is in an extremely vulnerable state politically right now to say the least. It’s also the biggest reason why myself and others have been saying on Xitter in recent weeks Political Apathy has set in.

Churchill said this quote in regards to America entering World War II two years after it formally started. America got involved in WWII after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 but the war had actually begun two years earlier.

After WWI, America adopted a strict isolationist policy. This is actually where the phrase Trump coiled “America First”–code for “America Only”–first came from on that note. After WWI, Many Americans believed America had no business getting involved in Europe’s problems militarily. More so when the Great Depression happened. Ironically, it was WWII that helped turn America into the world’s first Super Power. Not just militarily but economically and culturally.

It’s worth noting in the 1930s and even through America’s involvement in WWII, some Americans were smitten with Hitler and Hitlers Xenophobic ideologies. This is also where the idea of the American Nazi Party first came from. It’s since morphed into the Neo Nazi Party, a political movement all White Nationalist groups past and present subscribe to at least partially.

The Dominionists oppose everything America is about including the Constitution and especially the very idea of there being a separation of Church and State. You just finished reading through this entire post which highlights in detail how they plan their plans for a hostile takover of the government and what they have in store for everyone here. This is not conspiracy theory but is conspiracy fact.

With everything going with the U.S. politically and mainstream media largely ignoring these threats in plain sight, it falls to ordinary Americans to educate themselves on what is going on.

On that last point. DON’T assume just because your favorite news media outlet isn’t talking about something that “it’s nothing” or “not something to be concerned about”. Like I said earlier as well as in a recent post, The Fourth Estate (the News Media Industry) has largely fallen. Unfortunately, the only thing the Mainstream News Media industry learned from social media is to lean hard into clickbait headlines and sensationalism but I won’t digress further on that.

Getting back to Churchill’s quote and in closing. All I can really say is times have changed. The social and political apathy in America didn’t just happen overnight. It happened over the course of decades. I’m talking about over half of registered voters in America who will be staying home in November largely in protest of both candidates.

The Dominionsts are WELL aware of this and in their minds, it justifies the Minority Rule that they are all about setting up. They’ve already rationalized it to their base and their allies by basically saying “Divine Right” but with many more words than that. This is exactly why people like that should NEVER be allowed anywhere near the levers of government.

…Unfortunately, the table is being set in plain sight as we speak for their hostile takeover. Trump is less important than the people behind him or no longer see any value in letting him or his base think he can get back in the White House. They know Trump has no real chance of winning the election but letting his supporters continue to think his becoming president again is a foregone conclusion suits their interests for the time being.

…It will make his exit from the stage that much more beneficial to them and I’ll get into that in the very next post.

 

 

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The foundation’s being laid for someone to make a direct attempt on Trump’s life

Exit Stage Left

 

The irony is I first speculated this in January on Xitter.

I knew it was only a matter of time before Trump’s usefulness as a distraction for the media would run its course. Now his handlers are openly talking about Trump being taken out. They’re setting the stage for a false flag operation that will likely be carried out by this summer. By “they” I mean Trump’s handlers who the media is largely ignoring.

Instead, the media wants America to know the more important for everyone to know is they are giving Trump free publicity and campaign coverage to offset his court appearances which are starting to keep him off the campaign trail. Contrary to what many Democrats and even most anti-Trump Republicans might feel, Trump has made going to prison is a part of his campaign strategy and plays into his grieviance politics.

Trump has also rationalized being sentanced and going to prison in his head knowing his handlers are working behind the scenes to overthrow the government. He’s putting everything on their success as it’s literally his only hope at this point. This is also why he’s incorrectly been comparing himself to South African’s Nelson Mandela. Mandela went from political prisoner during Apartheid for 27 years to the first president of South Africa. Trump legit believes that he will have a Mandela-like “restoration” to the White House if he’s sent to prison. The reality is even if his handlers are successful in overthrowing the government, the only reason they’d let him out of prison would be to publicly execute him.

Trump is a symbol to a lot of people in America, most notably Dominionists and White Nationalists. Like I mentioned in the previous article, there’s chaos agents embedded with those college protesters. It would not be hard for Trump’s handlers to arrange for someone posing as a Biden supporter–and I’m sure they have a list of people in mind for that role–to violently attack or incapacitate Trump in front of the media’s cameras. It would instantly become the biggest story in not just America but the world.

Trump’s base would instantly become enraged and many will start committing acts of violence. The hope of the anarchists is for Biden to do what Trump ultimately didn’t do in 2020 (despite wanting to) and getting Biden to declare martial law before the election. The only reason Trump ultimately didn’t do it is because he was told he would be held responsible for everything and Trump never accepts responsability for anything that would make him look bad or weak.

That aside, it goes without saying the nominee of one the two major political parties being incompacitated just before the election would be a massive crisis for America. Even worse is the truth won’t matter and this is where having an insider do the deed comes into play. They’ll fabricate the insider’s entire identity. If they get help from Trump supporters in Congress they could even fabricate motives for why he did what he did. Once the insider’s done their job they’ll likely either be disposed of sent into hiding if they’re not arrested on the spot.

This is all speculation on my part but like I’ve been saying a lot lately, a lack of imagination is why America is in its current situation.

That aside, the absolute last thing we need or want is something happening to Trump before the election. All bets are off after it but until then, I’d put the man in protective custody if need be.

 

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It’s Official: A controversial Alabama Supreme Court decision has ended IVF Treament statewide literally overnight

Alabama Supreme Court rules frozen embryos are 'children' under state law :  NPR

Just like that, IVF is now effectively illegal in the state of Alabama.

Why?

Because the Alabama Supreme Court ruled 8-1 legally, fertilized eggs are children.

For context, a couple undergoing IVF treatment in the state learned three of their unused embryos were destroyed by mistake. They sued and their case was elevated to the Alabama Supreme Court which ruled Wednesday morning 8-1 frozen embryos are children and are entitled to the same legal protections as live children.

As a reminder, Alabama also outlawed abortion after Roe v. Wade was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court. That fact was used to decide this case at the state level. It’s obvious the Dominionists in the Alabama Supreme Court is daring the defendant–an IVF company–to appeal to the SJC knowing they have a 6-3 super majority there.

As many have pointed out online, this ruling is a giant middle finger to who knows how many people in Alabama who were spending thousands of dollars out of pocket on IVF treatment that insurance doesn’t cover to now find out it was a wasted effort if they don’t go out of state. Oh and this outcome was 100% intentional.

Dominonists and Christian Nationalists hate IVF not because as they claim scientists are “playing God” but because in truth, they want to be able to control women’s bodies. The judge who read the ruling cited his religious beliefs as the basis for his decision. We may be in the final year of the American Democracy and that’s becoming more obvious now.

The Dominionists are aggressively working to install their people in the FDA and pharaceutical companies for the sole purpose of banning drugs used for abortion as well as ban contraceptives of all kinds. Yes, really. They’re not hiding their intentions either.

As of now, any state with abortion outlawed could end up like Alabama with IVF services ending without warning or noticed. If you or your partner is currently undergoing IVF treatment in a state with Abortion outlawed, you might want to consider at least temporarily moving to another state for the time being. Either that or give up on having a baby.

Oh and don’t waste time or money looking for a surrogate in a state that has abortion outlawed either since Dominionists want to get rid of that too. They don’t like Gestational Surrogacy in general because they consider it–even when it’s family helping family–to be human trafficking as well as “playing God” because of the IVF components involved. So, your only options would then be to give up on having a baby…or temporarily move to another state.

Pick one.

Women’s Reproductive Rights are under attack by Christian Fundamentalists who are playing for keeps. They won’t stop until America is a Christianized version of Iran and the Taliban-run Afghanistan. Google Project 2025 and see for yourself.

 

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It can no longer be denied: The American News Media Industry is doing everything it can to help domestic chaos agents destroy America

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The New York Times dropped this article online and they have rightfully been taking a lot of public backlash over it.

For context, over the weekend Trump publicly said if he becomes president again he will pull the U.S. out of NATO. That’s not even the worst of it. He later doubled down and said Russia should attack NATO countries. Yes, really.

This morning, he said the U.S. shouldn’t “give” money or aid to other countries but should give loans instead. Trump said this in reaction to the backlash the media is largely downplaying over his comments about NATO countries and U.S. allies around the world.

As a reminder, the whole world is and has been following the political situation in the U.S. very closely for some time. Most of the world celebrated Biden’s victory in 2020. Do you know who wasn’t happy to know Biden would be the new president in 2021? Putin, Xi and Kim Jong Un.

Biden made it a point to publicly tell America about a private interaction he had with Xi when they were Vice Presidents of their respective countries several years back. Xi views the American Democracy as the biggest threat to China culturally and politically more than anything else. That’s because people in China want the same freedoms we take for granted in the U.S. and other democracies. This is to say nothing of Russia’s Alexei Navalny.

As for why the media is deadset on pushing the idea “A second Trump presidency might not be so bad” lately, it’s because for all the hate he directed at their industry, he wasn’t “boring” for them to cover. Biden is boring for the news media to cover because unlike Trump, Bush 43 and Clinton, he’s not “exciting” or “edgy” and neither is his cabinet.

Obama was exciting for a while but by 2013, they started their pressure campaign to push Trump run in 2016. Then when they eventually got what they wanted–and regretted it behind closed doors–they dedicated almost all of their airtime to Trump. Despite everything Trump did as president–and especially during his exit–the media STILL wanted him back.

This is also why despite the fact they know Trump’s White House bid is now legit dead–I’ll get to that later–they’re still talking about him as if he still has a viable shot at winning the election. Not just Right Wing Media but most grievously, mainstream media outlets.

The whole news media industry needs to tell people the truth and the WHOLE truth. Decades of clearly biased reporting and spin is why we now have a generation of young people who don’t watch or read the news. They don’t watch or read news media largely because in their minds, what they see shared on Social Media is either more up to date or more likely to be true. I don’t just mean politics but news in general.

 

Pell Center report highlights media distrust, news avoidance among Americans - Rhode Island Current

 

This brings me to Western societies feeling largely overwhelmed by daily headlines saturated with often rapid-fire negative news stories. We’re talking things from Mass shooting events to natural disasters to acts of violence to some conflict-triggered humanitarian crisis somewhere in the world.

Eventually, people get apathetic and numb to what’s going on. That’s exactly what started happening in the U.S. in particular over the last 30 years. People will then naturally look for escapes from reality. Escapes the entertainment and leisure industries in particular were all too happy to provide.

“Live in your world. Play in ours”.

A sad irony is we now have at least three living generations of people Democracies who want someone or something else to do all the thinking and decision-making for them. I mean in general, not just politics. People don’t want to think for themselves. People want to be told what to think and what to believe without having to put in the effort themselves because it’s “easier”.

And the media is explioiting that. Even more so now.

Before I move on, at this point it’s probably fair to say we need to build a new media industry. One built on facts, fact-finding and impartiality. Those who are on the side of common sense and speaking truth to power no longer have a place in Corporate Media. It’s beyond redemption at this point as a whole and especially in the area of politics. Enough’s enough.

No more billionaire-controlled media outlets. We need to go back to the smaller regional media organizations that built their credability and reputation on facts and integrity. More so given too many sold out in the name of money and influence in recent decades.

When it comes to politics AND current events, NONE of the existing media outlets can be trusted at face value. Not CNN, not MSNBC, not the New York Times, Not the Washington Post and certainly not Fox “News”. Social media platforms–especially Xitter–are no exceptions.

 

Most Top News Sites Block AI Bots. Right-Wing Media Welcomes Them | WIRED

For the majority who probably don’t know, Right Wing Media predates the rise of Fox “News” in the early 1990s. It predates Rush Limbaugh’s radio show which started in the 1980s.

The concept of a separate news media ecosystem that specifically catered to Conservative Politics came about in the 1970s by those who felt “their” ideologies and values weren’t being represented in news media outlets. More so in the aftermath of the Civil Rights era and Roe v. Wade. So, they spent decades building the Right Wing Media and now Social Media ecosystem we see today.

I’ve said this before and it’s become much more obvious now: There is and never was a Left Wing Equivalent to the Right Wing Media ecosystem.

For almost 30 years Conservatives and Republican talking heads long accused the Washington Post, CNN, MSNBC and the New York Times of being “Leftist”. Ironically, now they all look no different from Fox “News” in terms of how they characterize coverage of people from both political parties.

At this point, Corporate Media or Mainstream Media (MSM)–they’re both the same industry–is beyond redemption. What some call Fourth Estate and what others call the unofficial Fourth Branch–in reference to the American media industry–has fallen. It’s more than fair to say that now.

America is heading to a very dark place and the media is not covering it. To be more specific, it’s avoiding talking about it. Why? Because of conflicts of interest first and fear of violent retaliation from the Right second. Don’t take my word for it on that second one. Just ask CNN.

 

Undue Influence: How it Happens and What You Can Do — Connecticut Estate Planning Attorneys Blog

All that said.

It is a fact people are being manipulated by the media. I learned about media literacy back when it was still being taught at the high school level about 24 years ago.

Now would be a good time for people to educate themselves on the ways mass media can and does use undue influence, mild hypnotism, redirection techniques and the power of suggestion largely for financial gain. THAT is what makes the news media so powerful…and dangerous when it utilizes everything it has to misrepresent and mischaracterize people they decide they don’t like.

That’s also what makes political Bothsidesism by the news media so dangerous. By pushing a false equivalency to appease one side, the media by extension given itself permission to not talk about the clear, present and active threat White Christian Nationalism is to America right now.

Most sane Americans have NO CLUE–NONE–we may be in the final 9 months of the American democracy. Why? Because the news media collectively decided years ago you don’t need to know what’s coming. I haven’t said this in quite a while but this is conspiracy fact.

Fortunately, there are people who are willing do the media’s job for them. I am one such person. Another is The Young Turks (YouTube). More recently there’s The Lincoln Project and MeidasTouch. Even the Hacktivist group collectively known as Anonymous is on the move. These, other grassroots movements and many people world wide and stepping up to try to give people a chance to prepare for what’s coming later this year.

I am well aware that I’m starting to sound conspiratorial at this point. The problem is unfortunately, failure of imagination is why America is in its current situation. The American traitors working to destroy the country from within are out in the open and they want everyone to know what they’re doing as well as why. They’re openly telling everyone.

If you want an idea of what we are up against, follow Jim Stewartson (@jimstewartson) and Steve Hassan (@CultExpert) on Xitter. Those two would be real good starting points. Dr. Hassan also has a popular podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and YouTube called The Influence Continuum on that note. I strongly recommend checking it out.

 

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The death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny is a dire warning to all Democracies sliding into Autocracy

Alexei Navalny, Russian Opposition Leader and Outspoken Christian, Reportedly Dead in Prison| National Catholic Register

While Ukraine continues to stand alone as the only Democracy willing to fight Russia head on, the only prominent Russian citizen who was willing to face Putin head on has just died in prison.

If you haven’t already, watch the 2022 documentary about him. It is worth noting when Navalny left Russia to get emergency medical treatment for Putin’s first attempted assassination via poisoning in 2019 he vowed to return to his homeland. He knew he would likely be arrested as soon as he got off the plane and that’s exactly what happened.

Prison officials claim he was sick when died while taking a walk but the problem is we have footage from the day before when he was in court. He’s clearly seen smiling and joking with the judge. That actually makes it much more obvious Navalny was likely poisoned.

Reactions from within Russia have largely been a mix of outrage, anger and mourning. In a video clip that’s gone viral on Xitter, an elderly woman said to undercover reporters she too many young Russians are terrified of the government and are afraid to speak out. She said they don’t understand how much power they really have and this is why the overwhelming majority of people who’ve taken to the streets have been elderly or clergy.

The elderly woman went on to say–quite bravely–that Putin is a liar and a murderer who’s responsible for the deaths of over 200,000 Russian soldiers and devastating Ukraine. She said Russia is isolated from the rest of the world because of Putin.

 

That brings me to Navalny’s last message in his documentary to his supporters in Russia:

“Listen, I’ve got something very obvious to tell you. You’re not allowed to give up. If they decide to kill me, it means that we are incredibly strong.” – Alexei Navalny

He said it first in English and then repeated it in Russian at his producer’s request.

 

In Moscow, Russians Mourn Navalny In Quiet Despair | Barron's

Did you know the Russian government is throwing people in prison for 15 days for daring to publicly mourn Navalny? Yes, really. The day after an orthodox clergy announced he would lead a public vigil for Navalny, Russian cops showed up at his church and arrested him. Even though he had the man killed, Putin is STILL afraid on Navalny. That should tell you how weak Putin really is.

By the way the above picture is the Wall of Grief National Monument in Moscow. Commemorated by Putin, the memorial was made to–wait for it–honor and remember the countless Russians who were persecuted and killed during Stalin’s reign of terror. Now local police are chasing away anyone who dares to linger at the monument to mourn Navalny for more than a few seconds. Likely on Putin’s orders.

You can only suppress a population the size of Russia’s for so long. Obama publicly warned Putin of the high (political) cost he would have to pay for repeatedly silencing the collective voices of the Russian people almost 10 years ago.

This brings me back to why Navalny felt so strongly about returning to Russia despite knowing what would happen to him. He believed real change in Russia must come from the Russian people. Now that he is dead, his widow Yulina and others have vowed to continue the work he started.

 

Experts React: Factors Shaping the Russia-Ukraine Conflict in 2023

February 24 will mark the two year anniversary of the start of the conflict in Ukraine. After four months of distraction sparked by the conflict between Israel and Hamas, Europe and NATO have started to return their full attention to supporting Ukraine. Right now, the only country not afraid to fight Russia head on is clearly Ukraine.

In the absence of military aid from the United States, a growing number of European countries are ramping up the speed and amount of aid they are providing to Ukraine. Despite Russia’s best efforts, Putin has largely failed to break the spirit of the Ukranian people.

The day before Russia announced Navalny’s death Zelensky said if the U.S. sends military aid, over 3 million Ukrainians displaced to other counties by the conflict will return home. That’s a pretty huge tell and by now the world should know he’s not bluffing.

Zelensky wants to retake Crimea which was annexed by Russia in 2014 and the Ukrainian military has already carried out a lot of successful surgical drone strikes on Russian military assets in the region. A MASSIVE military offensive is clearly being planned and momentum is on Ukraine’s side.

What does this have to do with the situation in Russia? It’s simple: When Crimea falls, it will set off a chain reaction within Russia. The fact that a military one fifth the size of Russia’s was able to defeat it will break morale domestically in Russia. More importantly, people will revolt in Russia.

Navalny’s death has started to unleash a lot of pent-up emotion within many in Russia. Most in Russia know by now Ukraine is where young Russians are being sent largely to die. It’s a massively unpopular war in Russia and despite Putin’s best efforts, the anti-war voices refuse to stay silent.

 

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Anti-Immigrant activists arriving at the U.S.-Mexico boarder in Texas are shocked to find nothing awaiting them

Parson to join Texas governor for southern border press conference | KBIA

 

For decades, the biggest lie the GOP and Right Wing Media outlets knew they could count on for DECADES during election years was the idea America is being “invaded” by immigrants throug the Southern Boarder.

This past weekend, conservative activists and White Christian nationalists from across the country have started to arrive at the U.S.-Mexico boarder. What have they found?

NOTHING. Absolutely nothing.

 

No caravans, no trucks packed with “illegals”. No traffickers. NOTHING.

What does this mean for those who for decades were told by Right Wing Media media America was being “invaded” by illegal immigrants? No idea but now that they’re seeing the truth with their own eyes, we’ll see.

I’m not expecting people to change their views overnight or anything like that but hopefully, these people will start thinking for themselves. This is also why I’m not bashing those who took the time to travel to Texas to see what’s going on for themselves. If that’s what it takes for people to understand they’re being deceived, more power to ’em.

 

Guardian Angels founder warns New York City is heading back to crime-ridden days of the 1980s amid surging violence | The US Sun

Anyone who’s lived in New York City or spent time there at night has likely seen these folks in red patrolling the streets. Founded in 1977 by Curtis Silwa, the vigilante group patrols the streets of New York City largely looking out of acts of violence and crime.

They have allegedly intercepted hundreds of attempted muggings and dozens of attempted sexual assaults in just NYC though they’ve expanded to other U.S. cities including Philadelphia, Denver. Chicago and Los Angeles.

I’d heard a lot of positive things about the Guardian Angels until about 16 years ago. I know a lot of people who live and work in New York City. I mean people who’ve had encounters with the Guardian Angels. They’re referred to as a vigilante group and a pack of thugs with good reason. There’s been documented cases of the Guardian Angels taking the law into their own hands–often at Silwa’s urging–and attacking people they suspect of having just committed a crime before they call the police.

The Guardian Angels like to publicly flaunt their friendly relationship with law enforcement but in truth they’ve become a nusiance to NYPD. Silwa had a few failed mayoral bids over the years and many now think he’s taking his political failures out on the people his group targets on a nightly basis. More so given Eric Adams–a former cop–is the current mayor of New York.

Last year, Silwa was recorded shouting anti-immigrant rhetoric outside of a migrant shelter. What made it shocking was the fact he did it while dressed in the Guardian Angels’ signature jumpsuit and some of his people present. To be fair, his group is made up of people from all background male and female but it’s clearly just for sake of appearances. People who’ve known Silwa for decades have long spoken out about his racist ideologies.

That brings me to last week. During Silwa’s interview with Fox “News”, members of his group suddenly turned and tackled a man he claimed was a migrant caught shoplifting live on TV. It was later revealed the man his group assaulted was neither a migrant or a shoplifter but the damage has already been done. The person who was assaulted can and should sue Silwa to say the least.

All that said. This incident is every black and brown person’s worst fear come true: Being targeted by groups like this because you look a certain way. Even worse is the self-justification people like Silwa like to use for arbitrarily doing that to others.

 

Off-duty officers kill female shooter at Joel Osteen's Lakewood Church in Houston; 2 victims injured - ABC News

That brings me to this past weekend’s shooting incident at prominent Televangelist Joel Olsteen’s mega church in Houston, Texas.

I’ve talked about this a bit on Xitter with a few folks but the more I look at that incident, the more it stinks of setup. It’s nothing more than speculation on my part but circumstances make it hard for me to believe that was a “mentally ill person” who randomly chose that location to target.

Union Stations' Guide to Your Perfect Day Trip to Kansas City
Hours before yesterday’s mass shooting event in Kanasas City happened, I was listening to the latest episode of Joe Trippi’s podcast. In the February 13 episode he had Simon Rosenberg as a guest. Rosenberg made a comment that really stood out to me: Republican voters in red state are really getting left behind.

For the second year in a row, Massachusetts was just named the most educated state in the country and with MassReconnect they might happen a third time next year. By “most educated” we’re not not talking about college or secondary education but primary education (K-12), Preschool/Pre-K (K-0-K2) and access to Museums and public libraries.
I live in Boston but I’ve seen the inside of public libraries in New Bedford, Chelsea, Athol and a few other places in Massachusetts. Despite retail bookstore chains like Barnes and Noble and Boarders going out of business in recent decades, Public Libraries have been and continue to be a constant here.
This is to say nothing of the fact life expectancy is much higher in “Blue” states compared to “Red” states. Yes, nationwide life expectancy is trending in the wrong direction but the reasons and causes for that are largely in Republican policies and ideologies. Even worse is culturally, they’re “proud” of their apparent “race to the bottom”.

This brings me back to the outrage machine that is Republican propaganda going back almost 100 years now. At the beginning, I talked about those who went to see the Southern Boarder in Texas for themselves seeing no sign of an invasion as they’d been told was happening by Right Wing pundits and politicians for decades.

I do think many will now start thinking for themselves and asking the right kinds of questions. It may not be obvious right now but we are seeing the beginning of the end of the current Republican Party. The media is not talking about the growing number of former Republican politicians at all levels who are making plans as we speak to campaign for Biden.

This is to say nothing of former MAGA people like ex-“MAGA Granny” Pam Hemphill who bravely infiltrate Trump rallies to try to talk to people and get them to start thinking for themselves. I’ve said this many times on this blog in 2023 but like it or not, the rest of us need to be willing and able to welcome those who’ve been subjected to in many cases generations of undue influence back into society. True reconciliation can’t happen otherwise.

I want to end with this and it is important. Just like most Democratic voters in Red states who don’t see a reason or need to move just because their political views are different from the majority, the same is also true of Republicans in Blue states. In most cases, they’ve lived in the state they live in all their lives and rightfully shouldn’t have to move just because their political views are different from the majority.
We also NEED Democratic voters living in Red States to stay where they are and not give in to pressure to move to a Blue state. The last thing we want to do is exaserbate the political discord by having a lot of people move en masse to or from states based on their political views. That certainly should be be discouraged to say the least.
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Developing Story: 15 GOP states jointly announce they are supporting Texas in its dispute with the Federal Government over Boarder security

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“All the Civil War talk is being overblown” indeed. Well, now it’s here.

Why the news media IS STILL downplaying the fact we are in a national crisis RIGHT NOW defies ALL logic. It’s not and should not be surprising though since Corporate Media went out of its way to downplay and normalize the last 8 years of political dysfunction in particular.

For the second time in four years, Donald Trump has incited armed rebellion against the Federal government. This time, sitting members of Congress are openly joining in including House Speaker Mike Johnson. Right Wing Media Outlets are characterizing it as Texas “Exercising its right to defend its boarder from ‘invasion’.”

First of all, Texas isn’t the only state on the Southern Boarder. Second, NONE of the other three states–California, Arizona and New Mexico–are making noise about the boarder. Third, Arizona and New Mexico–both GOP-controlled states–are not offering help or support to Texas. That should tell you everything you need to know about what is really going on.

Look at the second map above. 14 states announced they will be sending their respective national guards to Texas to assist the Texas National guard in its efforts to “defend the Southern Boarder” but more concerningly, to “stand up to the Federal government”.

Yes, really.

The GOP is literally pushing for armed conflict with the Federal government on Trump’s orders first, they along with Right Wing Media outlets are all about making decades-long anti-government narratives reality second and third, they think what they’re doing will ultimately be good for them politically.

Unfortunately for the GOP AND their allies foreign and domestic–but especially domestic–they’re going to find out sooner than later how badly they fucked up.

Speaking of, President Biden released this official statement Friday evening via Social Media:

For too long, we all know the border’s been broken. It’s long past time to fix it. That’s why two months ago, I instructed my team to begin negotiations with a bipartisan group of Senators to seriously, and finally, address the border crisis. For weeks now that’s what they’ve done. Working around the clock, through the holidays, and over weekends. Let’s be clear. What’s been negotiated would – if passed into law – be the toughest and fairest set of reforms to secure the border we’ve ever had in our country. It would give me, as President, a new emergency authority to shut down the border when it becomes overwhelmed. And if given that authority, I would use it the day I sign the bill into law. Further, Congress needs to finally provide the funding I requested in October to secure the border...

Biden and Kamala Harris have recently started to step up their respective presences on Social Media platforms. The White House announced they are giving Texas until midmight to remove barbed wire and let Federal Agents inspect the boarder.

The Senate passed a bill that will not only provide boarder funding but will also give Biden emergency authority to shut down the boarder if it becomes overwhelmed and as noted, he will exercise that power immediately. In response to this, House Speaker Johnson said the bill will be “dead on arrival” in the House. Why? Because as Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell admitted in a press conference the other day, Trump wants to run on the boarder “crisis” so the GOP in Congress is basically not allowed to pass anything that will “make Biden look good”.

Again: Yes, really.

Signs are everywhere this time, all their carefully laid plans and grifts are backfiring HARD. Don’t believe the noise coming from Corporpate Media or Social Media about Biden’s chances. It’s obvious by now he’s gonna smoke Trump AND anyone else in General Election at this point.

It’s gonna be a LONG 10 months for the GOP and more so now that MAGA is finally playing their hand with this Texas boarder standoff shit. Honestly and no joke, Greg Abbot needs to be impeached. NOW. I know it won’t happen since the GOP controls the state Congress in Texas but at the very least he should pay a steep price legally and politically.

This to say nothing of the idea most of the same 378 cops who were afraid of a SINGLE mass shooter in Uvalde two years ago thinks they can take on the ENTIRE U.S. Military. Don’t believe the Malinformation being aggressively spread via Xitter, Telegram and Discord by MAGA: U.S. Military personnel stationed in bases in Texas are NOT secretly OR openly negotiating defecting to the Texas National Guard. That would be a MASSIVE demotion first and we all know Abbot doesn’t have the money to pay them second.

Most importantly, Biden already called the GOP’s bluff and exposed them to the world–and more importantly sane Republican voteras–as the contrarian obstructionists they’ve always been for decades. They have no interest in actually governing. They want to rule, not govern.

 

Texas Border Convoy 'God's Army' Raises $138K, Wants to Stop Migrants

I almost posted this before last weekend but I held off on it so I could look into the various Right Wing and Christian Nationalist factions that are on their way to Eagle Pass, Texas which is the boarder town on the U.S. side of the boarder in Texas.

They plan to hold a rally on Saturday in support of the state’s governor but more importantly, “Texas’ sovreignity”. It’s worth noting local sherriffs have repeatedly told the so-called “Take Back Our Boarder” Convoy via media interviews “DO NOT COME TO TEXAS”.

Why?

Because they know the same thing everyone knows about these unapologetic anarchists’ REAL intentions. They are going there specifically to provoke a shootout with federal officials. Their hope is in doing that, they will have the public and political excuse they want to openly engaged in armed conflict against the U.S. government.

They believe doing this in an election year works to their advantage–or rather is a disadvantage to Biden–but the truth is it will simply give those who oppose their nonsense who may have stayed home good reason to vote for Biden in November. This is to say nothing about Trump literally and publically begging for an act of terrorism before the election. Yes, really. He he started doing that at campaign rallies after finding out last week that he has to pay E.G. Carroll $83.3 Million in damages from her defamation lawsuit.

That reminds me. Mike Flynn has started crowing more loudly and sharply about his doubts on America having an election in November. That tells me he may have something planned for this coming weekend. Like I’ve said on Xitter, Flynn will likely make his move sometime between March and August of this year. We’ll have to wait and see.

Trump to Hold Next Rally in Bunker | The New Yorker

 

It’s become almost impossible for even Right Wing Media to ignore the fact Trump’s campaign rallies are getting smaller and emptier. This is to say nothing of the fact people are leaving as soon as he starts ranting and raving about past grievances. It’s as Joe Trippi has been saying since the 2022 Midterms: Trump is FAR weaker politically than people think even with the help of Left of Center Media outlets.

Corporate Media has been doing everything it can to amplify the issues Biden is dealing with while downplaying Trump openly stating he will get rid of Democracy itself if he gets back in the White House.

Enough’s enough.

It’s already bad enough the overwhelming majority of the current generation of young voters source their news from social media platforms. This was an issue almost ten years before Trump became president though it is true he normalized attacking the unofficial fourth branch of the government when he became president.

Mainstream Media’s public trust deficit across the entire political spectrum in particular being through the basement is entirely their fault and it was built up over decades. I’ll get  into this in a separate post but Corporate Media’s systemic flaws were what provoked the creation of the Right Wing Media ecosystem several decades ago.

Getting back on topic though. At this point it’s become pretty apparent Trump himself has started to accept the reality that he is fucked politically as well as legally obviously. This is the real reason he is now pushing for his followers and allies to burn the U.S. government to the ground. It’s the only real card he has left to play at this point. He knows he lost–again–and wants to cause as much chaos and destruction as he can on the way down.

Right now, Trump is holding a proverbial gun to the country’s head . He’s once again trying to bluff his way out of the hole he dug himself into over just the last 8 years and this time he’s playing for keeps. More dangerous than Trump is of course the various anti-government groups who greatly benefited from Trump keeping the media distracted since 2012.

Mike Flynn is now openly talking about having Trump permanently removed from the stage. As in have him killed, likely publicly and in front of the media’s cameras. Trump’s served his purpose and has likely outlived his usefulness at this point. If Flynn’s ready to get rid of Trump at this point, clearly he’s ready to move on to the next phase of whatever he’s planning and it will not be good.

With everything going on with Steve Bannon legally, it’s looking more and more likely he’ll be going to prison in the near future. Trump and Bannon tried to run out the clock but now the long arm of the law has caught up to them and many others.

 

What Russia stands to lose in Venezuela | News | Al Jazeera

Before I end, I feel the need to point out there is a presidental election in Venezuela right now. The incumbent Nicolas Maduro used the levers of government to bar his popular challenger from running against him. Now the Biden Administration is threatening to cut aid and reimpose crippling sanctions if he does not allow his challenger to run against him.

In response, the Venezuelan government is accusing the Biden Administration of trying to is blackmail and election interferance if they give in and let Maduro’s challenger run against him fairly. Why that accusation against the U.S.? Because everyone knows that if the Venezuelan government allows the Maruro’s challenger to run against him, there WILL be a (much needed) regime change.

For both U.S. Government and Venezuela’s next door neighbor Guyana, a regime change will solve a whole lot of problems. For the U.S.–and by extension the rest of South America and Latin America–most of thr Venezuelan migrants who fled the country over the last few decades may actually WANT to return home. That’s the big one.

That aside, it’s no secret Maduro is a close ally of Russia’s Vladomir Putin. Putin has a vested interest in keeping Maduro in power so he has a reliable ally close near the U.S. If there is a regime change, the new president knows she would have a powerful ally in the U.S.

Maduro actually did win the last presidental election in 2018 but it was largely considered rigged by Maduro just like Putin does in Russia. To solidify his power as president, Maduro reshuffled the legislative and judicial branches by replacing them with people loyal to him. This time Maduro is refusing to allow his challenger to run against him largely because he knows he will lose and lose badly.

Putin did the same kind of thing to Alexei Navalny as a reminder. As of last month, Russian state media reported Navalny has gone “missing” from the penal colony Putin banished him to. My guess is Navalny has either died from illness or was killed in prison and the Russian government is covering it up.

All that said. You wanna see what a country with rigged elections REALLY look like? Look at Russia. Venezuela, Hungary, Belarus or Turkey. All are countries that rig elections and manipulate votes. In The Philippines, no one will vote for you unless you bribe them but that’s more of a societal problem than anything else.

This is to say nothing of countries like China that have had single party rule for decades now. There ARE other political parties but the Chinese Communist Party has absolute power at all levels of government. That is what the current Republican Party wants here in America and has wanted since The Red Scare of the 1950s ironically.

….Whew. I spent two weeks working on this one post. I have updates on a few things I covered but I’ll get to them in a separate post.

 

 

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