For Hate of Country

Imagine a fictional scenario:

Caesar's murder enactment
image found here

A person gets into the potentate position in a fictional country that he loathes. He has loathed this country all his life, all while working his way up the power hierarchy, with the sole intention of bringing this country down. So now, with that power in his hands, he has to do all the damage he can before enough people catch on and call him out, leading to his removal—by exile or execution, whichever. That is how these stories go, historically.

There has been some planning along the way up. He has maneuvered to weaken the country’s international power at every opportunity. Remarkably, the country-hating power monger has been able to propagandize his weakening maneuvers as “I have the most experience in international relations.”

Not alone in his hatred of his home country, there’s a wealth of propagandists willing to aid and abet. These people misinform the public about daily events and their meaning. And more of these people misinform students, so they grow up naturally hating their country, feeling ashamed of it.

On the first day in power, this fictional person sets out to open the border, weakening the nation’s sovereignty. He frames it—with help from the propagandists—as compassion.

a similar real-life scenario in Roma, TX
image from Reuters/Go Nakamura, found here

And he hikes up spending—on what, it doesn’t matter. Just spending, spending, spending—money created out of thin air, never expected to be repaid. It would have to be dealt with by some future generation anyway, so not a concern. The purpose is to collapse the money system, to make it so people aren’t willing to trade with this money that isn’t based on work, but is based on an imaginary promissory note. Devaluing the money will significantly weaken the country in international trade.

Meanwhile, he wants to reduce the natural freedoms the people in the nation have heretofore enjoyed. He must stop them from being able to speak freely, or worship freely, or meet together freely. He might have to have an excuse, something he can fearmonger—like maybe a virus. That’s a good one. It will keep them locked up at home, losing jobs, losing income, becoming ever more dependent on government to take care of them. That means he must squelch any possibility of treatments, because that would interfere with the overall plan. So he censors—and uses propaganda to call the censoring “protecting the public from misinformation.” The “misinformation” scam works well on any topic he chooses, actually.

a similar real-life scenario, SARS-COV-2
image from Wikipedia

This medical crisis is a really useful tool. What if they came up with some kind of injection—not something that actually gets rid of the virus, because that isn’t what he wants, but something that would never pass muster in a less fearful environment? Something that maybe helps a little bit, but not enough, so the fearmongering can continue endlessly? (And danger from the injection—yet another thing to censor. That’s a bonus.) But, what about lives lost from his efforts to prevent treatment? No problem. Higher death count means more fear to monger.

Now, he’s got to reduce the power of actual nation-sustaining forces: military and police. Start with the military. He must label and divide. He implements screening to weed out the patriotic and loyal. He praises and trains toward useless things like racial diversity, sexual deviance, and an alternative history that the country has been morally wrong from its inception—while allowing the propagandists to call this “strengthening our military.” And anyone who disagrees with this new dogma is labeled a dissident and loses their rank and standing. He promotes power seekers while demoting or eliminating strategists, clear thinkers, and especially lovers of country.

Then he puts the military in an untenable position. He takes a place where they have been maintaining peace, with a minimal force and no recent loss of life, against a backwater medieval rabble of terrorist guerrilla fighters. A place where women are now free to work, and are kept safe from marauding males, and children are allowed to be educated as others in the world. OK, he gets that pinpointed. So, next step is to propagandize this as an “endless war” with no purpose. And he announces a date to leave, encouraging the rabble forces to gather and threaten, in reaction to which he shrugs and claims he is “keeping his word,” disregarding the enemy’s failure to keep theirs.

similar real-life scenario
image found here

Then he closes down the military base in the middle of the night, without announcement, and without even removing military equipment. This is an excellent way to arm the enemy. When things go catastrophically wrong, he claims it’s all because of the arrangements made by his predecessor, which tied his hands. And he claims he was misinformed by intelligence and military—all of which had warned and forewarned but were ignored, of course.

Having things go wrong is part of the plan. It causes people to get all upset and insist he send in forces to rescue the people, both military and civilians—plus that place’s people who had helped us against the rabble enemy. So much chaos. So much emotion. All useful, whatever the outcome.

Then he suddenly turns and says the guerilla terrorists are our allies—despite the fact that they’ve been killing and beating this nation's countrymen and preventing their evacuation.  Also, behind the scenes, he prevents evacuation by private individuals—by simply telling other countries not to take them in, even to land their planes temporarily (similar nonfiction scenarios here  and here).  Yes, all this is ideal—for weakening the country he hates.

What a delight that, just days before the final deadline for removing citizens, a terrorist bomb kills soldiers and civilians around the airport they’re using!  More emotion is a great tool. And fewer people—did he mention that lowering the population is a personal preference? So, no problem.

similar real-life scenario in Minneapolis
image found here

About the police—he has spent some time lying in wait for an episode that can be exploited. It didn’t have to be actual evidence of police wrongdoing; something that looks bad would do. Once he finds such an incident, he claims that it is a systemic problem; it can’t be solved by a little training or discipline. The whole system must be shut down. He foments anger and protests, claiming it’s righteous indignation when riots erupt and people and property are damaged. All for the ultimate goal of weakening the country.

Weakening all existing institutions is part of the plan. For example, in order to get into the potentate position, he violated the election process so badly that both sides—his supporters and his opponents—lost faith in elections. When his supporters were saying (intending to support him) that all was well, he convinced them that all efforts to shore up election security were meant to limit his supporters’ right to vote.

He corrupts the judicial system. This has been underway for many decades in preparation. He makes it so “the law” becomes simply the political outcome he wants. He manages to release true, dangerous offenders, saying this is necessary because of overincarceration or perhaps racial unfairness, whatever he wants to call it. He incarcerates non-offenders who are political opponents, such as anyone who participates in a patriotic rally, and keeps them imprisoned as terrorists or insurrectionists, without bothering to charge them. Both sides lose faith in the law and in the process, which is the goal there.

Media is so corrupt, he hardly has to do a thing. He puts out the word on a particular topic, and they propagate it. He’ll simply silence any alternative source. Starting with his predecessor.

Family is a challenging institution to destroy, but that work has been going on for decades as well, and progressing nicely. He removes parental authority, empowering “child protective services,” schools, and some corrupt judges to destroy the very concept of marriage as bigoted, and parental authority as a “danger to the child.” The propagandists’ willingness to help in this effort is something he would praise, if he wanted the plan to be known.

Yes, within months of becoming the potentate, he has caused his country to lose the trust of its allies, lose its status on the world stage, suffer military humiliations, and cause ever-increasing division at home. Complete collapse is foreseeable, if not inevitable. Oppressive efforts of surveillance, control, and censorship must continue, but he’s feeling satisfied.

_____

You thought I must be referring to Joe Biden? No, I’m not. Joe Biden is, as a mother of a soldier slain last week put it, a “feckless,dementia-ridden piece of crap.” No, I’m not referring to the guy who can barely read a few sentences on a teleprompter before saying, “I’m not supposed to take questions.”

Joe Biden checks his watch during ceremony to
receive bodies of fallen troops
screenshot from Fox News video, found here

I’m referring to whoever it is—someone behind the scenes—who tells the president of the United States when he can take questions, which reporters he should allow to ask questions, and what his answers should be. I’m referring to the puppetmaster who is actually making the decisions that are doing so much damage.

I’m sure there’s speculation on who this is—Obama, the Clintons, some multi-billionaire, Emperor Palpatine. I don’t know who it is. Biden is clearly one of the most evil, corrupt individuals to ever occupy the office. And he will deserve whatever judgment God gives him for the evil he has wrought. But right now, he’s just a tool, being wielded by someone we absolutely did not elect. And I’d sure like to have the curtain pulled back to reveal who that is.

Whoever this essence of evil is, this power monger hates America, and more—hates freedom, hates prosperity, hates civilization. Whoever it is, they are the enemy.

Until the revelation and extirpation of this power monger, I will keep resisting, working to do good in my small circle, to reinforce our beloved Constitution—to work toward freedom, prosperity, and civilization. Because, if enough of us do that, his eventual demise is inevitable.

History While It’s Happening

There’s a story told, I think, in Lake Wobegon Days, where Garrison Keillor talks about writing a short story that gets lost in transit. And he can’t recover it. And it haunts him as possibly the best story he ever wrote, now lost to the world.

So, I attempted to write this blog last week, not quite a week into the debacle happening in Afghanistan. I couldn’t finish on Thursday, because of overscheduling myself. So I work on Friday night, after all the Friday tasks. I was just finishing and getting ready to copy to post when Word stopped responding. It was molasses slow. So was everything on my computer. I couldn’t even get the screen that tells me program usage to come up. I knew the file had saved—it’s typically on auto-save mode. So I turned off the computer to reboot.

When I tried opening it, the file was corrupted. I went through all the possible ways the various messages told me to try to recover it. Nothing worked. I couldn’t even find previous versions on my online drive. Mr. Spherical Model started some programs to look for malware or problems. That eventually turned up nothing.

Sometimes you just have to cut your losses. Finally, I set about recovering what I could. I’m using a lot of links in this post, so I went through my online history to find all the URLs I’d visited. And I wrote a quick outline of the points I’d made, while I could still remember them.

So I’m trying again today. Did I lose the best post ever? Frankly, I was still in the mode of gathering information and trying to process it. My purpose was to record the history in live time, suspecting it will be important to remember in the future. And, who knows, maybe the things I’ve come across over the weekend are a worthwhile addition.

 

Rep. Dan Crenshaw and Rep. Mike Waltz
image from the podcast

Two Views

There are two views about the past 20 years in Afghanistan. I don’t know which is correct. When I listen to the arguments, I tend to agree—while I’m listening. And then I hear the other side and feel pulled a different direction. Neither of the views ought to have led to what is happening.

The first view is that we are better off fighting the enemy overseas than on our own soil. My US Rep. Dan Crenshaw expresses this very well. In a podcast a week ago, August 15, he spoke with former Army Ranger US Rep. Mike Waltz. Here’s something I learned: The war in Afghanistan has been in a peaceful stasis for some time—18 months without a casualty. Calling what we do there an endless war, or nation building, while ignoring multiple other places where we keep a military presence to maintain peace is more political than strategic. This view is definitely worth listening to:

·         “The “No More Endless Wars” Crowd Got Exactly What They Asked For” Dan Crenshaw podcast with Rep. Mike Waltz, August 15, 2021. 

The other view is that we should avoid all international entanglements, a view led by Sen. Rand Paul. But there are nuanced views of that, including that we needed to take out the Taliban, but then we needed a quick end to that mission. Jason Buttrill, chief researcher for Glenn Beck, was deployed to Afghanistan right after 9/11. He gives this view:

·         “Former Marine: Afghanistan FAIL should result in 'MASSIVE' Biden admin resignations” Jason Buttrill with Glenn Beck, August 17, 2021. 

With some time passing, I’m not always sure where to credit details. But somewhere in what I heard there is polling that shows over 70% of Americans have wanted us out of Afghanistan. Pres. Trump made that promise and set up a timeline, along with agreements the Taliban would have to keep in order to make it happen. Another 70% say Biden botched the exit, which seems obvious to the whole world—except maybe the president, his close staff, and the US State Department.

 

Losing the Peace

Americans know how to win wars. We did it spectacularly in World War II, so well that, as Great Britain saw the end of its global imperial period, it felt content stepping back on the world stage, because the United States was there to step up.

But what we now know is that the US cannot be trusted to “help” any country in its fight against tyranny—because at some point Democrats will get elected and lose the peace. And break our promises.

We won Vietnam. Democrats got us into the fight. Then Republicans struggled through the tough part, and we won. Then Democrats in Congress refused to fund the support we had promised in order to keep the peace. The local people struggled on against communist insurgents for two years before the fall of Saigon.

Joe Biden in the 1970s
image found here

Incidentally, Joe Biden has been around Washington that long. Back in 1975 he was the leading voice insisting that the US should not evacuate a single Vietnamese who had helped the US during the war, feeling no compunction about leaving them to be tortured or killed at the hands of the communists. (See also.) 

In 2010, he told a US diplomat, who had asked him about our duty to avoid a humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, "F--- that, we don't have to worry about that. We did it in Vietnam. Nixon and Kissinger got away with it."  

Who knew he could be so consistent about anything? Well, not totally. In 2015, he was in favor of inviting in Syrian refugees—especially if we didn’t vet them. 

Anyway, Democrats subjected Vietnam to decades of communist tyranny. Those who escaped, the many Vietnamese boat people, are among our neighbors. And they've been good neighbors. But they lost their home country.

In the early 90s, when we won the first Gulf War in Iraq, quickly and decisively, the Democrats gave that victory away by refusing to hold Saddam Hussein accountable to the terms of the cease fire. Bill Clinton kept letting them cross one red line after another, until finally, as a way to distract from the Lewinsky affair, he bombed what turned out to be an aspirin factory, rather than one of several actual arms production facilities we were supposed to be able to freely inspect.

We won again in Iraq starting in 2003, when they were a key state sponsor of terrorism. We took out Saddam Hussein this time, and worked to help the people recover from his tyranny, for which they were grateful. (I heard this from them myself.)  But Obama managed to lose that semi-stable peace, giving rise to the ISIS caliphate. Nothing we could do about that but take in unvetted refugees, he insisted. Until President Trump got elected and then wiped out ISIS swiftly. Done.

So, in Afghanistan, we had won a peace, and kept the Taliban at bay for two decades. No more 9/11-style terrorist attacks on our soil. Their numbers were minimal, and the few remaining were hiding out in caves or hovels just over the border in Pakistan. If you need to review the history, I recommend Lawrence Wright's The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11.

I don’t know whether Trump’s intention to pull out of Afghanistan emboldened them. That is possible. But Trump’s plan was to make our leaving contingent on their keeping the terms of peace. If they didn’t, they should expect to feel the full weight of the US military. Some think that means he would have kept a minimal force there indefinitely.

Biden’s interpretation of an exit plan was to bug out of Bagram Air Force base in the middle of the night, not even giving notice to the Afghani commander, who showed up the next morning to that eerie emptiness. 

During our relative peace there, contractors were hired to do work in Afghanistan. The people Biden left there were tens of thousands of Americans—many along with families—doing work the US Government had urged them to do. Plus there were the many tens of thousands of Afghanis who had helped the US, as interpreters or otherwise, in the effort to build their infrastructure, military, and government—making them de facto enemies of the returning Taliban. These are the SIVs, the special immigrant visas.

A month ago the international terrorist threat was quite low, arguably the lowest it had been since 9/11. Now, with the Taliban claiming triumph over the US, recruitment and numbers are surging, and al-Qaeda, maybe even ISIS, are making a reappearance—incidentally while Biden has kept the southern border open to all comers.

By the way, on Friday, August 13, just as the chaos was getting underway, Homeland Security's Alejandro Mayorkas put out a bulletin on the heightened domestic terrorism threat—coinciding incidentally, a week later, with the admission that there was no coordinated attempt at insurrection on January 6th, but claiming that ordinary people are terrorists nevertheless (not the first time).

In July, Biden claimed there was no chance of a repeat of Saigon, with people clinging to helicopters lifting off embassy roofs. I think he failed to say he was fine with people clinging to airplane landing gear taking off from the tarmac of the only airport people can escape from, which is surrounded by Taliban. Biden’s creation makes Saigon look like just an ordinary bad day.

So I think it’s time we conclude that we must look at every possible victory as something Democrats will follow up to un-win.

Five days into the Afghanistan chaos, Biden
does a press conference and takes no questions.
Tweet from Michael P Pregent August 18

It is hard to imagine that things could go as wrong as they have out of simple incompetence. I think it’s only possible if you combine massive incompetence with hatred of America—which I think will be the historical summary of the Biden presidency.

Biden was busy vacationing at Camp David while this chaos was underway in Afghanistan. Finally, five days into the chaos, he showed up, gave a statement, and took no questions. Later on Wednesday he did an interview on ABC (more below), saying he couldn’t imagine why anyone saw anything wrong. Thursday he did a presser, taking four pre-approved questions. VP Harris has been absent from beginning to end. One report said she was heard to be screaming, “They’re not going to pin this on me!” True? I don’t know. But conceivable. Without comment, she’s continuing plans for a trip to Singapore. This administration is feckless at best, more likely evil.

In last Wednesday’s interview with George Stephanopoulos (full transcript here), Biden said there were no mistakes; everything was going as expected, and he didn’t see how things could have gone better.

Joe Biden during the interview with George Stephanopoulos
screenshots from here

Biden said, “No, I—I don’t think it could have been handled in a way that— there’s a way to have gotten out without chaos ensuing. I don’t know how that happens.”

Let me help here, with the strategic plan that—absolutely everyone else in the world could come up with:

·         Get the people out first.

·         Then get your equipment out—anything you don’t want getting into the hands of the enemy.

·         Then get the military out.

Here’s some the technology the US Military has left behind to be reverse-engineered by whichever enemies partner with the Taliban.

Julian Ropcke tweet of weapons left behind
image found here

It wasn’t just Americans abandoned in this far-flung land. Our allies had people there as well. Biden lied and said he had contacted them all and they were in agreement with his plan. News is that British PM Boris Johnson was essentially put on hold for 36 hours before his phonecall would be taken by Biden. (Another story said 24 hours for Biden to make the phonecall to PM Johnson.) Our NATO allies are livid. They are considering sanctioning him. And they are scrambling to find ways to rescue people.

On the Mark Levin show, retired British Colonel Richard Kemp, former chairman of the Cobra Intelligence Group, said this: 

The whole world just became vastly more dangerous.  The US Government, President Biden humiliated the United States. He humiliated the United States Army. In my opinion—and I don’t say this lightly, and I’ve never said it about anybody else, any other leader in this position: People have been talking about impeaching President Biden. I don’t believe President Biden should be impeached. He’s the Commander in Chief of the US Armed Forces, who has just, essentially, surrendered to the Taliban. He shouldn’t be impeached; he should be court-martialed for betraying the United States of America and the United States Armed Forces.

I agree that impeachment is too good for him. However, I don’t see a legal path in the Constitution to court-martial our president. But removing him one way or another is looking likely. And sooner rather than later. Shaming him ought to bring about a resignation—except that he has no shame.

 

Turning Tide

The media—and Biden’s subordinates—are turning on him, pointing out the lies. An early indicator was CNN reporter Clarissa Ward, from on the ground at the airport in Kabul, showing the chaos—in stark contrast to everything Biden and his spokespeople say.

Stu Burguiere offers a collection of Clarissa Ward posts, around midpoint in this episode:

·         “The Afghanistan Evacuation Debacle: An American Embarrassment” Stu Burguiere, Ep 331, August 20, 2021. 

Tucker Carlson points out how odd this negative reporting is, along with the contradictions by military and intel sources. He says it has to be coordinated, and this shows they are now turning against him.

·         “Tucker Carlson Tonight 8/22/21” 

Journalist/Commentator Mr. Reagan (Christopher Kohls) offers his analysis of this sudden distancing from Biden, and thinks their timing might be off.

·         “Why Has the Media Turned on Biden?” August 22, 2021. 

And add this one:

·         “Liberal Reporters Turn on Biden, SLAM Him for Handling of Afghanistan” Glenn Beck on Facebook, August 20, 2021. 

 

Rescue

Jason Buttrill, on The Blaze program The News & Why It Matters, was discussing the difficulty of just telling people, “Make your way to the airport in Kabul.” He shared this map, from Michael P. Pregent, showing the difficulty people face.

Michael Pregent graphic of Afghanistan situation
shared on The News & Why It Matters August 17.
screenshot from here

So I looked for Michael Pregent’s twitter feed and found it to be a useful source for updated reporting, including good graphics. Pregent said, on August 18, that this is the worst foreign policy decision in his lifetime, and it may go down as the worst foreign policy decision ever.

Tweet from Michael P Pregent August 23, 2021

Afghanistan is a mountainous desert, riddled with mines and IEDs. And it’s now occupied by the Taliban, making death a likely outcome for cross-country travelers intent on getting to the only airport to exit. I don’t remember who to credit with saying, “Does Biden think you can just call an Uber?” Add to the danger, the Taliban is already threatening to kill all Christians in particular. They’ll kill any American, foreigner, or Afghani who helped the NATO allies, but they have a special hatred for Christians.

One story Glenn Beck passed along was from an American Christian missionary, in her mid-20s, who recognizes her life is threatened and she may not make it home. She contacted her family and let them know she is at peace with her impending death.

Last Wednesday Glenn Beck detailed the difficulty Christians are facing and asked his audience to help fund the rescue being planned by The Nazarene Fund, which has been successful in rescuing many Christians from Syria and other world hot spots. They estimated a cost of about $4,000 per individual, and they had a goal to rescue 3-5,000. $4,000 X 5,000 = $20 million. So that was the goal. In less than two days they reached $22 million. (We felt the call and added our comparative widow’s mite.) This morning, everything was ready, but the US State Department refuses to offer permissions or any other type of support. Department of Defense has been helping as they can, but the State Department seems to think if they help it’s an admission that the reality exists. 

·         “THIS Is The Reality Of Afghanis Today: ’30Minutes That’ll Change Your Life’ Part 1” and “Forget Government. YOU Can Be A LEADER: ’30 Minutes That’ll Change Your Life’ Part 2”  Glenn Beck Radio blog, August 18, 2021.

·         “Taliban reportedly going 'door-to-door' looking for Christians to kill them” Phil Shiver for The Blaze, August 19, 2021. 

·         “Glenn Beck's audience raises staggering $22 million in 2 days to rescue Christians trapped in Afghanistan” Sarah Taylor for The Blaze, August 20, 2021. 

·         Glenn Beck Radio Program, followup interview with Rudy Attallah, CEO of The Nazarene Fund, August 23, 2021. 

 

Keeping the Historical Record

The reports and commentaries I've collected this past week is mainly to keep the historical record. If we individuals keep the record, maybe we’re less subject to being deceived when we’re inevitably lied to.

I used The Blaze and The Epoch Times quite a lot, but there are certainly other good sources—like I said, even CNN reporting on the ground. So this is just a snapshot, mostly from last week, showing the vast distance between Biden administration claims and reality:

WEAPONS ABANDONED

·         “Shocking videos show just how many US military weapons are now in the hands of Taliban terrorists” Chris Enloe for The Blaze, August 18, 2021. 

·         “US Black Hawk Helicopters, Airplanes, Rockets Captured by Taliban; Refugees Coming” Facts Matter with Roman Balmakov, August 18, 2021. 

BIDEN VERSION

·         “President Biden indicates there was no way to exit Afghanistan 'without chaos ensuing'” Alex Nitzberg for The Blaze, August 18, 2021. 

·         “Biden claims military advisers never told him to keep troops in Afghanistan, but multiple reports say otherwise” Phil Shiver for The Blaze, August 19, 2021. 

·         “Democratic lawmaker says US military isn't responsible for getting Americans to Kabul airport safely” Chris Pandolfo for The Blaze, August 19, 2021. 

·         “Psaki has Total TRAINWRECK When Reporter Asks If Americans Will Make It Out of Afghanistan” press conference clip posted by Glenn Beck on Facebook, August 18, 2021. 

 

This guy giving a State Department update was
so pleasant and calming, I really hoped he would
tell the truth. But he didn't.
Tweet from Michael P Pregent, August 21

REALITY

·         “An internal State Department memo in July reportedly warned of Kabul collapse” Alex Nitzbeg for The Blaze, August 19, 2021.  

·         “Biden reportedly ghosted UK, ignored PM Johnson for 36-plus hours amid Afghanistan fallout” Phil Shiver for The Blaze, August 19, 2021. 

·         “Taliban militants fire into crowd to disperse protests, reportedly kill at least three people and injure dozens” Chris Pandolfo for The Blaze, August 18, 2021. 

·         “VIDEO: Desperate Afghani mothers throw their babies over barbed wire to allied troops in order to protect their children from Taliban” Sarah Taylor for The Blaze, August 19, 2021. 

·         “Taliban fighters are 'hunting down' journalists, carrying out revenge executions against Afghans who worked with the West” Phil Shiver for The Blaze, August 20, 2021. https://www.theblaze.com/news/taliban-fighters-hunting-down-journalists-revenge-executions

·         “Two Afghan stowaways who plunged to their deaths after clinging to US plane ID'd as teen brothers who scavenged from trash to care for mother: Report” Sarah Taylor for The Blaze, August 18, 2021. 

·         “What? - Americans Have To Pay For Their Trip Home From Kabul?” Donald Trump, Jr. post on Rumble, August 20, 2021. 

·         “DoD ADMITS Out Of 2,000 Evacuees, Only 300 AreAmericans” Dinesh D’Souza post on Rumble, August 19, 2021. 

·         “Shapiro Breaks Down What's Actually Happening in Afghanistan” Ben Shapiro highlights on Facebook, August 16, 2021. 

 

PERSPECTIVES

·         “Fed-up Sen. Sasse sends clear message to Biden about 'hostage situation' with Americans and allies trapped in Afghanistan: 'Go get them'” Chris Field for The Blaze, August 19, 2021. 

·         “WATCH: Details of Trump’s Afghanistan exit plan suggest it would ‘NOT have been this way’” BlazeTV staff, August 20, 2021. 

·         “Why Biden’s Afghanistan failure wouldn’t have happened under Trump” Glenn Beck Radio, August 17, 2021. 

·         “No, Biden Can’t Blame Trump for The Afghanistan Withdrawal Disaster” Margot Cleveland for The Federalist, August 16, 2021. 

·         “WW2 Heroism Exemplifies OUR DUTY To Help Afghanistan Today” Glenn Beck Radio, August 20, 2021. 

·         “Glenn: Biden’s IMPEACHABLE response to Afghanistan is NOT Us” Glenn Beck Radio, August 20, 2021. 

·         “Glenn is FIRED UP about Joe Biden’s SHAMEFUL embarrassment in Afghanistan” Glenn Beck Radio, August 20, 2021. 

·         “Actually, the Taliban are an enemy.” Ted Cruz posts clip of spokesman John Kirby refusing to call Taliban the enemy, on Facebook, August 20, 2021.  

Have a Plan

I’m not an expert. I’m not a scientist. But I am pretty good at gathering information and passing it along in a way that I hope is understandable. And I try to get my information from truthful, reliable sources, which is often very different from sources that never get censored. Mostly today I'll use information from government data sources and from doctors who are treating patients.

Here is some COVID-19 data, taken from what I hope are reliable data sources—worldwide, US, Texas, Harris County: 

As of August 16, 2021	Total Population	Total Immunizations	Total Cases	Total Deaths
Worldwide	7,886,704,175+	3,756,996,198	207,557,304	4,367,023
US	331,000,000+	169,304,497	36,741,697	621,876
Texas	29,145,505	13,111,970	2,813,831	53,100
Harris County	4,798,048	2, 186,864	454,009	5,151
My Zip Code	34885	19,079	3449	27

The data offers a look at progress toward herd immunity. It’s muddied up, because you get immunity from two sources: recovering from the illness or getting the “vaccines.” But the drive to get everyone vaccinated has not excluded those who already had immunity from their recovery. Also, total case data is a specific measure, based on official testing and reporting. Some areas add a measure called “probable cases.” In other words, you can’t use cases and deaths to measure fatality of the virus; it’s much lower, because of the additional cases not counted because they are not known. Nor can you add cases and immunizations and then divide by population to figure percentage of the population that is immunized. (If you could, though, Harris County would be at 55% of total population, including the under 12 who aren’t being vaccinated. My zip code would be at 65%.)

What we know, from data—and ongoing testing—is that immunity from recovery is relatively permanent. (There’s a good explanatory video from Dr. Mobeen Syed here.) And it extends to variants—on up and until the SARS-COV-2 virus becomes some other virus entirely. Variants of SARS-COV-2 are still SARS-COV-2. You will know when it becomes a different virus, because it will be called something new, like possibly SARS-COV-3. In the meantime, you’re covered.

Dr. Mobeen Syed discusses evidence that natural immunity to COVID-19 is long-lived.
screenshot from here

Are there breakthrough cases among the recovered? Yes. Some of them may relate to misdiagnosis during the first round—testing has been notoriously faulty—but there are still likely some real breakthrough cases among the recovered.

Among the fully vaccinated, according to data out of Israel, where a very high percentage of the population have been vaccinated and herd immunity was declared, breakthrough cases among the fully vaccinated are 6.72 times more common than among those with natural immunity. Over 50% of current cases are among the fully vaccinated. News from Iceland and other locations are seeing similar numbers.

For those who have been calling this recent wave the “pandemic of the unvaccinated,” CDC data says otherwise. In a Massachusetts analysis, for example, the CDC data shows that 74% of those who tested positive for Covid-19 had been fully-vaccinated.

Some say breakthrough cases are still rare (usually the same people who say vaccine injuries are rare, despite record numbers on the CDC VAERS site). My personal guess is that the Texas Democrats who ran away to Washington are probably typical: about 10% among the fully vaccinated contracted the illness. None were hospitalized. They all had mild cases, although there’s no guarantee of that outcome for all the vaccinated. It’s unclear in this case whether all were exposed. You don’t get the illness at all unless you’re exposed to it, which makes it difficult to gauge effectiveness.

While COVID-19 seems to be spreading in a “third wave” right now, that means more and more people are recovering and have lasting immunity. Add the somewhat marginal protection from those getting the vaccine, and it means herd immunity is nigh. Until another variant finds a way around that—the way the Spanish flu has become simply endemic, one of the ever-present risks we just get used to.

If you thought getting vaccinated meant overcoming this disease, that was never realistic. There are only two diseases ever eradicated by vaccine: smallpox (assuming it never escapes from a lab), and rinderpest, a disease in cattle. We haven’t even eradicated polio, let alone measles, mumps, rubella, diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus….

And this mRNA “vaccine,” which isn’t actually a vaccine (see explanation here) by the traditional definition, is intended only to make a person somewhat less likely to contract the virus, and if contracted to be milder than it would have been. That is, if all goes well, without reaction.

If you’ve been pressuring your family, friends, and neighbors to get the vaccine—especially if you’ve been doing that regardless of their recovered status or risk of reaction to the shots—you’re not doing that for their health or yours; you’re likely doing it because you want everything to get back to normal, the way it was, which is understandable. And you’ve been willing to accommodate the powermongers who took away your freedoms in the hopes of making that happen. But that loss of freedom has very little to do with eradicating a disease and very much to do with tyrants asserting control over the populace.

For those of us who are trying to understand the situation and make wise decisions for ourselves, please do us the courtesy of trusting us to make the decision that is best for us. We could say, “My body; my choice,” to which you’ve been saying, “Not if you can spread it to grandma.” But, if I’m not ill, I can’t spread it to grandma or anyone else. And if I’ve managed not to spread it to a single person through three waves and counting, maybe I deserve to choose to keep doing what I’m doing.

It all comes down to this: there’s an ongoing risk of contracting SARS-COV-2, what we’ve been calling COVID-19. But there are ways to prevent it, or at least prepare for it. And since getting vaccinated cannot and will not eliminate the risk of contracting the illness and/or passing it along to others, no matter how many shots you’re willing to submit to, we really ought to be looking at how to treat it—which is information that has been available all along, and data and methods continue to grow.

So, here are some suggestions on how to be prepared.

 Have a Plan for before Infection—to Improve Your Immune System

·       Maintain or move toward appropriate weight.

o   Have a healthy diet; losing weight is stressful on the body, so consider that before doing a weight loss program during a pandemic. Emphasize healthful fresh foods high in nutrients.

·       Exercise regularly.

·       Get enough Vitamin D. (Dr. Ryan Cole talks about this here. Dr. Roger Seheult talks about this here.) 

o   20-30 minutes a day of sunshine—before putting on sunscreen.

o   Vitamin D supplement—4,000 IU daily is maximum without a doctor; but you may need 5,000-10,000 IU daily—get a blood test to identify your need.

o   Pretty much everyone needs to supplement Vitamin D in winter; no amount of sunlight will be adequate, especially northern areas. (Another discussion here.)

o   Vitamin D is fat soluble; it tends to hang out in fat cells where it is not easily accessible/useful. Overweight tends to coincide with low usable Vitamin D (unclear whether one causes the other). It appears supplementation can help.

o   Darker skin absorbs less Vitamin D from sunlight than lighter skin. Adjust according to your needs.

·       Get enough Zinc.

o   30-50 mg high quality zinc supplements daily.

·       Get enough Vitamin C.

o   1000 mg daily.

·       Find a doctor or treatment source that you know you can turn to for successful treatment options. (There are suggestions below, in the next section.)

·       Consider using low-dose (one pill a week or so) hydroxychloroquine or ivermectin prophylactically (as a preventative) for any crucial period of time (like before your child’s wedding, or some other time-sensitive event you don’t want to miss because of illness). You can probably do this safely for several months, or longer. But, still, since all medicines have side effects, less medicine is better when you have a choice.

·       You might want to add an oximeter to your first-aid kit; it can take a while to get one, so you’ll want to have it in hand before you need it. It’s for checking oxygen levels, to identify when you’re at a more serious stage of the illness.

 Have a Plan of Action in Case of Infection in the Household

·       Figure out how to isolate and sanitize yourself or a sick family member while still providing needed care for the sick.

·       Keep your food and supplies stocked up, so you don’t have to run to the store after you notice symptoms.

·       Contact your doctor-willing-to-treat and get tested.

o   If you don’t have such a doctor locally, try these online resources, which may even prescribe and ship medications:

§  FLCCC—Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance (Physicians list here.)

§  AAPSonline—Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (Physicians list here.)

o   Start medications right away; early treatment is key. And some of the most effective treatments are appropriate mainly during the first stage of the virus.

§  If you’re young and in very good health, you might fight this off just fine without treatment. The Delta variant seems more likely than previous strains to affect younger ages, but it is not more virulent. However, if you’re unsure about fighting it off on your own, the medicines being used have a very long safety history and growing clinical evidence of efficacy.

·       Try some pre-antibiotic (i.e., from before 1928) nursing treatments to boost your immune system.

o   Hydrotherapy—this is a hot water bath for about 20 minutes, with a cold wrap around your neck to keep your head cool; followed by about 5 minutes of cold bath. Then rest. Do this 3-4 times a day. Avoid aspirin and other anti-fever medicines; at this stage, you’re trying to allow the fever (plus the fever-boosting baths) to work as your immune system is designed to do. (Dr. Roger Seheult discusses this here. There’s more on this website. The original 1923 book by Dr. J. H. Kellogg is available to read online here.)

o   Get sunshine, at least 20 minutes a day, but rest outside in sunlight when possible. This boosts Vitamin D.

o   Keep up the Vitamin C and Zinc as well as healthy diet, etc., that you were doing to prepare your immune system.

·       The likely early treatments might be hydroxychloroquine with zinc and azithromycin (all three); or ivermectin.

o   Dr. Peter McCullough and AAPSonline has a protocol and patient guide. 

o   FLCCC has a list of suggested protocols. 

o   Dr. Shankara Chetty has a protocol he has used in South Africa among the rural poor—with no hospitalizations or deaths. (He talks with Dr. Mobeen here.) 

o   Florida recently set up monoclonal antibody treatment centers. I’ve seen mixed comments on this treatment, but it is what Pres. Trump was given last October and seems to work quickly and prevents hospitalization.

Dr. Mobeen Syed talks with Dr. Shankara Chetty
screenshot from here

 

Have a Plan in Case Your Illness Worsens

·       Dr. Chetty suggests that on day 8 of the illness, some patients seem to move into a more difficult phase. He sees this as a histamine reaction. He treats with an antihistamine. He uses promethazine and/or montelukast, which is the generic of Singulair, an inexpensive and common prescription antihistamine. If needed, he may add a steroid.

·       Dr. Richard Bartlett in Texas, has a protocol for using nebulized budesonide. It’s a steroid that hasn’t suffered the antagonism that early treatments such as HCQ and ivermectin have. And he finds it useful at every stage—even hospitalized with severe breathing problems.

 

Have a Plan in Case of Hospitalization

·       Avoid hospitalization if you can. But if you do need a hospital, know that there are treatments. And you can ask for them. If they are legal, the hospital is supposed to accommodate you. So have a list of treatments you believe work. Budesonide, for example.

o   Carry a treatment plan from AAPSonline or FLCCC, or another doctor’s plan.

·       Some hospitals use remdesivir. There is some evidence of its effectiveness—very early, as in the first couple of days of symptoms. The way it works actually interferes with healing once the illness has progressed to a later stage. So, in the hospital, refuse remdesivir. (Read more here.)

·       Refuse—and make sure your family knows to refuse—any movement toward hospice—i.e., palliative care in expectation of death. Dr. Bartlett tells a story (in this panel discussion) of a woman who required her husband to promise her, when they took her to the hospital, not to give up, because her children needed her. The husband three times refused the hospital’s push to put her on hospice. When he finally learned to ask for budesonide, she immediately improved and was home to finish healing within a week.

Have a Plan in Case of Long COVID

·       Long COVID (sometimes called Long Haul COVID) means symptoms that remain well after the initial healing. These might include lung problems or heart problems, or an array of other symptoms brought on by the illness.

·       Long COVID can affect the young as well as the old. In fact, it often affects people who regularly exercise and eat healthy. If it is a histamine reaction, it is hard to predict who will be affected, just as it is hard to predict who will be affected by other common allergens.

·       One trigger for Long COVID appears to be exercise too soon. Dr. Syed Haider recommends waiting 4-6 weeks after healing before returning to exercise that raises the heart rate over 140 or so. It seems to be heart rate elevation that triggers the problem. (He discusses this in a video with Dr. Mobeen Syed.  )

·       Many Long COVID symptoms can be treated with the earlier drugs—ivermectin, followed by fluvoxamine (a serotonin reuptake inhibitor) some days later, for example. Budesonide, or possibly another similar steroid, seem to be bringing success, according to Dr. Bartlett. Or it can prevent Long COVID.

o   Dr. Mobeen Syed has developed a protocol for long COVID, in conjunction with FLCCC. 

·       Some vaccine injuries can be treated in the same ways as long COVID. If these are indeed an allergic reaction, as Long COVID appears to be, then treating for the reaction seems appropriate.

 

Have a Plan if You Face Repercussions for Not Getting the Shots

·       If society moves toward mandating the vaccines, there will be consequences. These might include hindering travel, entrance into certain spaces or gatherings, or other market privileges. While none of these pass the Nuremberg Code or the Constitution, freedoms are trampled nevertheless. Know that’s what you may be facing.

·       There are two legal defenses for refusing to get a mandated vaccine—if these shots become mandatory: health and religious belief.

o   There are valid health reasons. One is a previous vaccine reaction. A doctor seeing to your care may advise you not to get it, knowing your history. But don’t count on this. Doctors are pressured not to allow anyone to be exempted. And some are threatened with reprisals for making a no-vaccine recommendation.

o   Religious belief does not have to be based on the beliefs or statements of your religious affiliation. It is based on your personal religious beliefs. The most common objection to these vaccines—all three in the US, if I understand correctly—is that aborted fetal tissue is used in their production.

o   If you plan on using a legal defense, look ahead for good counsel. Robert Barnes provides a standard approach. (I wrote about it here. He has an “advice” letter on his locals.com site. There’s a good discussion with him here.)