The Upcoming Sequel

The pandemic is long over. The virus itself has gone into the endemic phase, continuing to mutate into ever more variants—occasionally more contagious, but never more virulent than what it mutated from.

Therefore, the existence of more “variants of interest” ought not to be news; it just is. So when we see a rather large uptick in—not symptoms of the illness, but stories about it—that ought to gain our attention. Something’s going on that may not be a threat to your health, but is likely a threat to your well-being.

Roman Balmakov, on Facts Matter, reports on return of Covid-related mandates.
screenshot from here

The first item on my radar was the weekly county update. The total county death toll has sat at 8,680 since June 15, but last Thursday it jumped to 8,797 (and remained there yesterday as well).  Does that mean we suddenly had 117 new deaths in a week? Probably not. We haven’t had reliable death counts from day one. This might be a cumulative change since mid-June, or related to nothing actually real. This might mean they wanted to attribute some deaths to the count, so they updated a number that hadn’t on its own changed in a long time.

The Harris County COVID-19 death toll had a sudden rise
after two months of no change

The first news piece that got my attention was this one from InfoWars. I’m not a regular viewer; it was passed along to me. I don’t like the alarmist tone of Infowars and Alex Jones, but that doesn’t mean he’s always wrong. In fact, he probably has a much better track record for accuracy than the MSM. Still, one story from there isn’t going to get me worked up.

Alex Jones speculated about the reason being related to next year’s presidential election—which is only “winnable” by the cabal if they cheat, which they were able to do last time because of main-in ballots, which they were able to institute in places where main-in ballots hadn’t been widely used previously, because of fear of COVID-19. So, to repeat that “success,” they need to gin up the fear again.

Alex Jones says to spread the word so enough of us are onto their game, so we won’t comply; we won’t let them get away with it. First link below is the video, and then the link to the written story:

·      “EXCLUSIVE INTEL: Federal Officials Blow the Whistle on Biden’s Plan for New COVID Lockdowns” The Alex Jones Show, August 18, 2023 (6:00 PM) 

·      “EXCLUSIVE: Biden Admin Preparing to Bring Back FULL Covid Restrictions, Rollout to Begin Mid-September” Infowars.com  August 18, 2023. 

Here’s the beginning of that story:

Whistleblowers from the TSA and Border Patrol have raised the alarm to Infowars that the Biden administration is setting the stage for full Covid lockdowns that will begin with incremental restrictions like masking TSA employees and other government employees in mid-September.

The first source, a high-level TSA official confirmed and known to Infowars, reached out to Infowars and cited a Tuesday meeting in which TSA managers were told new memorandums & policies were being completed that would reimplement masking, starting with TSA & airport employees as early as mid-September.

The TSA official also said next week they will receive new guidelines on how the policy will escalate: by mid-October, mask-wearing will be required by pilots, flight staff, passengers, and airport patrons.

The story links to two stories about the “new Covid variant hysteria”:

·        About the Eris variant: “As the new Eris Covid variant spreads across the world, here’s what we know so far” by Jenni Reid for CNBC, August 15, 2023. 

·        About variant BA.2.86: “WHO, CDC tracking new lineage of virus that causes COVID” by Timothy H. J. Nerozzi for Fox News, August 18, 2023. 

So that was the first story that got my attention. But then the next day, I start hearing about cases increasing in Canada, and a variant they’re looking at in Israel. Joshua Philipp on Crossroads talked about that one: there were six cases worldwide. No one is saying these cases are severe or deadly, only that they are variants of COVID-19 and should be watched.

Joshua Philipp on Crossroads reports about the increased concern 
over COVID-19 variants, screenshot from here

This one, below, is from Wednesday, August 23, with a bit more updated info (behind a paywall, but may be available on YouTube or Rumble). Add another from EpochTV’s Facts Matter, also from Wednesday:

·      “Push for New Vaccines, Mask Mandates: Conservatives Call for Civil Disobedience” Joshua Philipps, Crossroads, EpochTV, August 23, 2023. 

·      “It's Really Happening: Vaccine and Mask Mandates, Contact-Tracing RETURN” Roman Balmakov, Facts Matter, EpochTV, August 23, 2023. 

As I looked at my viewing history, I came across an EpochTV Facts Matter piece from June, which gave the alert to this new attention on a variant or two, which was causing alarm for no apparent reason. It didn’t catch my attention then like the news buildup now is. He mentions that the new variant of concern is essentially the same as Omicron and other variants—like a mild cold—but with the additional symptom of pinkeye. For this, the WHO is pushing vaccine passports. He links information in the description, so I’ll include those below:

screenshot from here

·        “New COVID Variant Has Unusual Symptom; WHO Launches Global Vax Passports” Facts Matter, Roman Balmakov, June 26, 2023. 

·        Info about pink eye here and here. 

·        CDC numbers here. 

·        WHO passports here and here. 

And I came across this story about ongoing panic in schools, which never had any danger from the disease among children. In Runge, Texas, in Karnes County, not too far from San Antonio, the district had 10 cases across the district, so they shut down for the week. Imagine if you didn’t call it COVID; imagine that there are 10 cases of a mild cold in the district, so they shut down for the week. It sounds crazy.

·      “School district in South Texas temporarily closes due to uptick in COVID-19 cases” KSAT.com News, August 23, 2023. 

So there is growing concern. But not that there’s an illness about to wipe us out if we aren’t sufficiently panicked.

The concern, specifically, is that the US ruling regime (what they refer to as Democracy, but it doesn’t mean that) is getting desperate, so this is their attempt to repeat what they did in 2020. This likely ties in with the worldwide ruling elite. I should note that, as I look at these stories, nearly a year post-pandemic, they are still erroneously labeled with a warning about COVID-19 misinformation.

Tom Woods, however, believes we already have enough people awake and aware that there’s no way they could get away with it again. Who would comply after all the lying these “experts” have done?

Woods has passed along a fair amount throughout the pandemic and beyond. (This page has a lot of resources.) But it all adds to the surety of what we know. Nothing supports going back to mask wearing. Here are two of his emails from this week. The first has some charts showing the lack of evidence that mask wearing made a difference. The second is his response to someone advocating giving in on mask wearing.

·        Tom Woods email (with charts): 

·        Tom Woods email (response to masking being no big deal): 

All this means that, if authorities go back to mask mandates, it has nothing to do with maintaining public health. It has everything to do with asserting control over the people. The antidote, the cure, for what they afflict on us is to not comply.

Meme found on Facebook, shows opposition to what is coming.

Some states put forth legislation to block authorities from mandating such things as mask mandates, lockdowns, or vaccine mandates. The states who didn’t should have. But individuals can have a big influence. People have stopped shopping at Target, buying Bud Light, attending woke Disney films or even going to their theme parks. We can simply live our lives without regarding those so-called authorities.

Whether the cabal can get away with it or not depends on our willingness to give in to them. So I thought this might be a good time to remind us of what we know—most of which we knew early on but were censored for saying, but which is now widely accepted as fact.

·        Masks don’t work. (Links to data below.)

·        Lockdowns don’t work, but they cause a great deal of misery; quarantines are for the sick, not the well.

·        Contract tracing doesn’t work. It has no purpose beyond the first, earliest days of a disease outbreak in order to prevent spread; once an illness is widespread, it is pointless.

·        More people have died from the “vaccines” than from the disease, which was not a vaccine, not safe, and not effective.

·        The people who lied to us about vaccine safety and efficacy also lied about the lack of safety and efficacy of low-cost easily available well-known generic drugs, plus supplements. Doctors were fired for prescribing these remedies, and pharmacies refused to fill prescriptions.

·        Recommendations from “experts” were the exact opposite of what would have been recommended by doctors left to their own devices, and was exactly opposite of what was found to be effective.

·        The disease itself was not as deadly as the fearmongers insisted; allowing it to go through the healthy population while protecting the most vulnerable would have gotten us through the pandemic and on to endemic quickly, providing us a population with natural immunity.

·        It is hard to know motivations, but it appears those who wanted money from pharmaceuticals and/or power over the population manipulated the situation—causing millions of deaths, the vast majority of which could have been prevented.

·        If there is any use for a vaccine in such an easily treatable illness, it would be with the most vulnerable; no young healthy person should risk taking the vaccine, which is more likely to harm them than to prevent harm.

 

As Mark Twain is often quoted these days,

“It is easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled.”

Or, to quote his actual words:

“How easy it is to make people believe a lie, and how hard it is to undo that work again!"

So, providing the data, the studies, the evidence of truth might not overcome the “mass formation” we witnessed during the past few years, it still might solidify us against this attempt at a sequel.

Just Facts put together a definitive collection of the studies and conclusions regarding masking—which were mostly obvious from the beginning and known by the “experts”—or should have been, if they were actual experts—from early on. This compilation is from September 2021.

·      “Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Masks, and the Deadly Falsehoods Surrounding Them” by James D. Agresti for Just Facts, September 13, 2021. 

I’ve seen more data come in since then. Just Facts has this one from February 2022:

·      “Coming To Grips With the Facts About Masks” by James D. Agresti for Just Facts, February 1, 2022. 

Just to make sure you have this, the protocol for prevention and treatment of COVID-19 and associated variants is here. (For even more, see "Have a Plan," from 2021.)

Keep the data someplace handy. But know, it’s mainly for yourself and like-minded friends and family. Anyone who isn’t yet aware of the overwhelming, killing lies of the “experts” intends to keep their mind closed. But, you never know. Pray for them anyway. 

Words of Delight

Sometimes it’s worthwhile to take time out from the news of the day and enjoy something culturally lovely. So today we’re doing a bit of a book review. No spoilers. This will be mostly a sampling of the language that delights but does not greatly affect the plot.

the premium illustrated edition of Tress of the Emerald Sea
by Brandon Sanderson, illustrated by Howard Lyon

The book is Brandon Sanderson’s Tress of the Emerald Sea. Sanderson is one of the most prolific writers I am familiar with. He’s known for finishing the Wheel of Time series, but also multiple series of his own, connected as part of what he refers to as the Cosmere, a universe with some similarities to our own, but also many apparent supernatural differences. The various powers are different in the different series, which may become related in some future book or series. Only he knows.

During the COVID-19 shutdown, Brandon Sanderson did what he does when not distracted by going out and meeting the public: he wrote. A lot. One secret book. Then another, and another, and another. Then he came out with a Kickstarter campaign to get them all printed. (Video of the announcement here.) If there is one thing valuable that came out of the pandemic shutdown, it was Sanderson’s good use of the time.

Tress of the Emerald Sea was the first of the Kickstarter novels, which he wrote as a secret novel for his wife, but which she said needed to be shared with the world (we thank her). It is a stand-alone novel, in the Cosmere, but not related to any other series. Except that it is told by Hoid, the storyteller, often called Wit, which was also his job title as a sort of court jester. Hoid is a character who shows up, often just briefly, in the other series—because he needs to be wherever the important action is taking place. This is the first time we’re getting a story from his point of view. Sanderson has hinted that there will be a future one, providing us more of Hoid’s back story, so this was a kind of practice for him.

Hoid is—not his normal self in this book. He has been cursed. It’s one of the most entertaining curses I’ve come across in literature. He explains it thus:

p. 79 Yes, I said I lost my sense of taste to the Sorceress’s curse. You thought…you thought I meant that sense of taste? Oh, you innocent fool.      

She took my other sense of taste. The important one.

               And with it went my sense of humor, my sense of decorum, my sense of purpose, and my sense of self. The last one stung the most, since it appears my sense of self is tied directly to my wit. I mean, it’s in the name.

               As a result, I present you with Hoid, the cabin boy.

Let’s just say sequined shorts worn with socks and sandals are a minor symptom.

The story itself is about a girl named Tress (the name related to her rather lovely but wild hair), who is on a quest to rescue the love of her life, Charlie, which will require confronting the sorceress. And that will mean Hoid, a minor character, except for being the narrator, will need to come along to confront the sorceress as well, to somehow overcome his curse.

The story is sweet and clean and lovely throughout—despite a lot of really difficult and dangerous challenges: facing a sea of deadly spores, facing an evil pirate captain, facing a dragon, facing the betrayal of a friend, and all this on top of leaving home and family for the first time in her life.

Much of the adventure takes place on a pirate ship, on a sea that is not water, but deadly spores that flow down from the various colored moons. Sanderson played with the idea of fluid that is not water—and explored the physics of it in a video collaboration with Mark Rober, showing how it can actually work, which adds to the fun.

Brandon Sanderson and Mark Rober test out waterless fluidity.
screenshot from here

That’s enough of the story, which is charming. What I really want to share are the bits of language that delight. Aside from Terry Pratchett, who provided a quip per paragraph pretty endlessly in his Disc World series and probably everything else he wrote, I don’t know when I’ve encountered so many words I wanted to save. This has been a book that used up a couple of packets of sticky tags so I could find these gems again.

I recommend using the premium illustrated edition, which is indeed beautifully illustrated. I started with a library copy, with only one illustration, which confused me when I heard from others about the gorgeous illustrations. Then my daughter sent me the illustrated version for my birthday. It is indeed a beautiful treasure.

It turns out the pagination is different between the editions, so, while I collected page numbers with the quotes, it’s probably better to ignore them and just enjoy the words.

I collected somewhere around 20 pages, once I typed them up, so really I can only share a sampling. (I expect I’ll do a draft here and then have to go back through and delete a third or so. And this piece will still be too long.) I’ve categorized the ones I’m sharing, but I’m sure there could be many other categories. I suggest just reading the book. But, for now, let’s just enjoy the some wonderful words.

Tress, still on her home island called The Rock

 

Family Life

One thing I adore about this book is that Tress’s family is not a disaster and hardship. They have hardships. But they are basically decent people and good parents. They figure only in the very beginning, since the adventure takes Tress away from home and family. I could maybe mention that Tress, at home, helps support the family as a window cleaner at the palace and other places. And she manages to cook scrumptious meals out of whatever ingredients she can find available on their budget. This talent become important later in the story.

p. 33  First though, Tress went to talk to her parents. (Something more people in stories such as this should do.)

 

p. 33  Once she’d finished, Lem [Tress’s father] asked for seconds. It was a two-pie type of predicament. Ulba [her mother] only finished half of her meal, sitting back and leaving the rest untouched. It was also a half-pie type of predicament.

 

p. 34  “With all that in mind,” Tress’s father said, “it must be the right decision for her to leave. She will have considered all other options. Leaving the island to rescue the man she loves might sound like lunacy, but if every other option has been discarded as impossible, then insanity might—in this case—be practical.”

 

p. 35  “Everything is extraordinary about you, Tress,” her mother said. “That’s why nothing in particular stands out.”

               Well, parents have to say things like that. They’re required to see the best in their children, otherwise living with the little sociopaths would drive a person mad.

 

p. 37  After she went upstairs, Lem retrieved his cane, put on his coat, and went out to do some advanced fathering.

 

p. 38  Now, you might say to me, “Hoid, this entire story has shown me the opposite. Lem’s family is always scrimping to survive.” And I would reply, “Please stop interrupting.”

               Lem was not poor, he simply didn’t have a lot of money.

 

p. 40  Word got around that night. Lem needed something, specifically from Gremmy, Sor, and Brick. Lem—the man with no debt—needed this favor so badly, he almost asked for it. In the language of men like these, that’s the equivalent of begging.

 

 

Descriptions of People

Apparently it is more fun describing bad and/or disgusting people. But the descriptions of good people, like Fort, are also memorable.

 

p. 36  This woman was always watching, swinging the rod she carried, searching for any excuse to deliver a punishment. She seemed too stern to be fully human. As if instead of being born, she’d been spawned—and instead of growing up, she’d metastasized.

 

p. 44  He had terrible breath, a crispy tan complexion, and stringy, matted hair. Imagine him as the answer to the question: “What if that gunk from your shower drain were to come to life?”

 

p. 64  Crow [captain of the pirate ship Crow’s Song] was…well, I’ve known a few people like her. She seemed too harsh. Too full of anger. She was like the first draft of a human being, before softening effects like humor and mercy had been added.

 

p. 104  She was, it might be noted, a perfect example of why the word jerk needs so many off-color synonyms. One could exhaust all available options, invent a few apt new ones, and still not be able to completely describe her. Truly an inspiration to the vulgar poet.

 

p. 117  Crow passed up opportunities to cause physical pain about as often as banks provide free samples.

Tress, learning to steer the ship

 

p. 67  It might seem that the person who can feel for others is doomed in life. Isn’t one person’s pain enough? Why must a person like Tress feel for two, or more? Yet I’ve found that the people who are the happiest are the ones who learn best how to feel. It takes practice, you know. Effort. And those who (late in life) have been feeling for two, three, or a thousand different people…well, turns out they’ve had a leg up on everyone else all along.

 

p. 68  He had wiry muscles, and that long neck and bald head hinted he might have a buzzard somewhere in his family tree.

 

p. 71  You’d be surprised how common the name is across worlds. Oh, some spell it “Dug” or Duhg,” but it’s always around. Regardless of local linguistics, parents eventually start naming their kids Doug. I once spent ten years on a planet where the only sapient life was a group of pancake-like beings that expressed themselves through flatulence. And I kid you not—one was named Doug. Though admittedly it had a very distinctive smell attached when the word was “spoken.”

 

p. 72-73  Fort wasn’t large like, “Hey, eat a salad” or even large like, “Hey, do you play sports?” He was large like, “Hey, how did you get through the door?” It wasn’t that he was fat, though he did carry a few extra pounds. More, he looked like a person built using a different scale from the rest of humanity. One could imagine that the Shards, after creating him, had said, “Maybe we went a little far in places,” and decided to cut ten percent off all other humans to conserve resources.

 

p. 176  Fort sat on his stool behind the counter, shoulders wide enough that they nearly touched both walls at once. He wore suspenders, as the last seven belts he’d tried to wear had given up on the spot—and I have it on good authority he’s been ordered by judicial mandate to stay at least thirty feet from any others as a judgment for past brutality.

 

p. 374  His [the dragon’s] voice was deep not in a musical sense, more in the way that the ground might vibrate with a profound resonance during a quake.

 

 

General Wisdom and Turns of Phrase

p. 42  But she was free. She’d escaped without a hitch. She wondered if maybe her other tasks would be accomplished with similar ease. She could wonder this because—lacking formal training in the arts—Tress had no concept of dramatic irony.

 

p. 68  Empathy is an emotional loss leader. It pays for itself eventually.

 

p. 82  If you wish to become a storyteller, here is a hint: sell your labor, but not your mind. Give me ten hours a day scrubbing a deck, and oh the stories I could imagine. Give me ten hours adding sums, and all you’ll have me imagining at the end is a warm bed and a thought-free evening.

 

p. 102  She hadn’t grown up knowing danger, but they were quickly becoming acquainted.

 

p. 105  There was a strength in being the one who steers. It was a freedom she had never before known, and had never before realized she needed. One of the great tragedies of life is knowing how many people in the world are made to soar, paint, sing, or steer—except they never get the chance to find out.

 

p. 145  The moment stretched, pulled taut with anxiety, trembling and holding its breath.

 

p. 194  Worry has weight, and is an infinitely renewable resource. One might say worries are the only things you can make heavier simply by thinking about them.

 

p. 286  She grabbed the firing rod from its bucket. Then—grinning like an undertaker in a war zone—she fired.

 

p. 301  It should be noted that Tress would have made an excellent philosopher. In fact, she had already determined that philosophy wasn’t as valuable as she’d assumed—something that takes most great philosophers at least three decades to realize.

 

p. 305  Could the entire world have misjudged something so common? Though it seemed unlikely to Tress, it was true—and not that surprising. People consistently misjudge common things in their lives. (Other people come to mind.)

 

p. 315  We need purpose; it’s the spiritual conjunction that glues together human existence and human volition. Purpose is so integral to us that we see it everywhere.

 

p. 317 The Crow’s Song shook like the ice in a good cocktail, then tipped to the side like the person who’s enjoyed too many.

 

p. 333 A very strange, very desperate idea occurred to her. Probably nothing. Probably a useless whim.

               Notably, strange desperation is exactly the state that often leads to genius.

 

p. 338  Fun tip: Being told “I kept you in the dark to protect you” is not only frustrating, but condescending as well. It’s a truly economical way to demean someone; if you’re looking to fit more denigration into an already busy schedule, give it a try.

 

p. 357  She shook her head. “Please believe me.”

               They didn’t, of course. A boring truth will always have difficulty competing with an exciting lie.

 

p. 368 Could a day contain too many moments? Yes, the hours and minutes had been the same today as every day, but each of the moments inside had been fat, like a wineskin filled to bursting.

 

p. 381  When emotions start leaking, it’s best to give the body a good squeeze and force them right on out. Like lancing a boil.

 

p. 385  People want to imagine that time is consistent, steady, stable. They define the day, create tools to measure it, chop it up into hours, minutes, seconds. They pretend each one is equal to the others—when in fact some are clearly prime cuts, and others are full of gristle.

 

p. 386  This was perhaps what made the days pass with such elasticity—if the first part of her voyage had been the bow being drawn, now the arrow had been released.

 

Brandon Sanderson announces his Kickstarter,
after writing many books during the shutdown year.
Screenshot from here

 

The Longish Quotes

I didn’t manage to shorten this nearly enough. So I’ve placed the longer quotes here. I think they’re worth it, but for those who don’t read to the bottom, at least they get the quick, easy ones.

 

p. 129-130  Tress looked toward Crow. And then, Tress took the singular step that separated her from people in most stories. The act, it might be said, that defined her as a hero. She did something so incredible, I can barely express its majesty.

               I should consider this more, Tress thought to herself, and not jump to conclusions…

Perhaps you are confused at why I, your humble storyteller, would make such a fuss about this. Tress stopped, wondered if she’d jumped to a conclusion, and decided to reconsider? Nothing special, right?

               Wrong. So very, soul-crushingly wrong.

               Worldbringers like myself spend decades combing through folk tales, legends, myths, histories, and drunken bar songs looking for the most unique stories. We hunt for bravery, cleverness, heroism. And we find no shortage of such virtues. Legends are silly with them.

               But the person who is willing to reconsider their assumptions? The hero who can sit down and reevaluate their life? Well, now that is a gemstone that truly glitters, friend.

               Perhaps you would prefer a story about someone facing a dragon. Well, this isn’t that kind of story (Which makes it even more remarkable that Tress still does that eventually. But kindly stop getting ahead of me.) I can understand why you would want tales of people like Linji, who tried to sail around the world with no Aviar.

               I, however, would trade a dozen Linjis for one person who is willing to sit down for a single blasted minute and think about what they’re doing. Do you know how many wars could have been prevented if just one person in charge had stopped to think, “You know, maybe we should double-check; perhaps blinking twice isn’t an insult in their culture?”

 

 

p. 305  While a healthy measure of foolhardiness drove our ancestors toward discovery, fear kept them alive. If bravery is the wind that makes us soar like kites, fear is the string that keeps us from going too far. We need it, but the thing is, our heritage taught us to fear some of the wrong things.

               For example, to our ancient ancestors, strange and new people often meant new diseases and the occasional spear tossed at our softer bits. Today, the only things new people are likely to toss our way are some interesting curse words we can use to impress our friends….

               And when one abandons certain fears and assumptions, an entire world opens up.

 

 

p. 307-308  I love memories. They are our ballads, our personal foundation myths. But I must acknowledge that memory can be cruel if left unchallenged.

               Memory is often our only connection to who we used to be. Memories are fossils, the bones left by dead versions of ourselves. More potently, our minds are a hungry audience, craving only the peaks and valleys of experience. The bland erodes, leaving behind the distinctive bits to be remembered again and again.

               Painful or passionate, surreal or subline, we cherish those little rocks of peak experience, polishing them with the every-smoothing touch of recycled proxy living. In so doing—like pagans praying to a sculpted mud figure—we make of our memories the gods which judge our current lives.

               I love this. Memory may not be the heart of what makes us human, but it’s at least a vital organ. Nevertheless, we much take care not to let the bliss of the present fade when compared to supposedly better days. We’re happy, sure, but were we more happy then? If we let it, memory can make shadows of the now, as nothing can match the buttressed legends of our past.

               I think about this a great deal, for it is my job to sell legends. Package them, commodify them. For a small price, I’ll let you share my memories—which I solemnly promise are real, or will be as long as you agree not to cut them too deeply.

               Do not let memory chase you. Take the advice of one who has dissected the beast, then rebuilt it with a more fearsome face—which I then used to charm a few extra coins out of an inebriated audience. Enjoy memories, yes, but don’t be a slave to who you wish you once had been.

               Those memories aren’t alive. You are.

 

 

p. 348-349  Heroism is a remarkable thing, oft misunderstood. We all think we understand it because we want to see its seed inside ourselves. That is part of the secret, really.

               If you gather together stories of heroes—those who have risked their lives for others, those who have stood against overwhelming odds, those who have barreled heedlessly into danger with the aplomb of a champion diver leaping from the highest platform—you find patterns. Two of them, in fact.

               The first is that heroes can be trained. Not by a government or a military, but by the people themselves. Heroes are the ones who have thought about what they’re going to do, and who have trained to do it. Heroism is often the seemingly spontaneous result of a lifetime of preparation.

               But if you ask these heroes why they risked their ives, don’t do it on a stand in front of a crowd while you give them their medal. Because the truth is, they likely didn’t do it for their country. Or even for their ideals. Consistently, across cultures, eras, and ideologies, war heroes report the same simple motivation. They did it for their friends.

               In the frenzied anarchy of destruction, loyalty to causes and kingdoms alike tends to fall to the chaos. But the bond between people, well, that’s stronger than steel. If you want to create heroes, don’t give them something to fight for. Give them someone to fight for.

 

 

p. 388  We want to imagine that people are consistent, steady, stable. We define who they are, create descriptions to lock them on a page, divide them up by their likes, talents, beliefs. Then we pretend some—perhaps most—are better than we are, because they stick to their definitions, while we never quite fit ours.

               Truth is, people are as fluid as time is. We adapt to our situation like water in a strangely shaped jug, though it might take us a little while to ooze into all the little nooks. Because we adapt, we sometimes don’t recognize how twisted, uncomfortable, or downright wrong the container is that we’ve been told to inhabit.

               We can keep going that way for a while. We can pretend we fit that jug, awkward nooks and all. But the longer we do, the worse it gets. The more it wears on us. The more exhausted we become. Even if we’re doing nothing at all, because simply holding the shape can take all the effort in the world. More, if we want to make it look natural.

               There was a lot about being a pirate that did suit Tress. She’d learned and grown a great deal—but it had still been a relatively short time since she’d left the Rock. She was tired in a way that a good night’s sleep—or ten of them—couldn’t cure. Her mind didn’t have any more to give. She needed to allow herself a chance to catch up to the person she’d become.

 

Yet Another Indictment for Non-Crimes

We have a scripture reading schedule at church, and my husband and I do some daily reading to keep up. Thursday morning we happened to be on Acts 24, in which Paul is accused of sedition. Those bringing him before the authorities have no evidence to provide against him. They are prosecuting him mainly because of his beliefs, which differ from their own.

This was nearly 2000 years ago, but it looks an awful lot like current news headlines.

Fox News headline, but I got the screenshot from The Benny Show.

On Tuesday, law vlogger Robert Gouveia went through the indictment, reading major portions of it online, splashed with some of his commentary. [He’s been covering this every day. This is Wednesday’s, which was also good. You can get all the clips and sources he uses from his daily mind map, available on his website, RobertGouveia.com.] Most surprising, he points out, is that there is no charge for seditious conspiracy. There are members of the Proud Boys in prison right now, convicted of seditious conspiracy, who claim they were led by Donald Trump. But there’s no charge that Trump was conspiring with them or participating in any actual sedition.

Of course there’s the possibility that they’ll add that charge later in a superseding indictment. Nothing is past the government at this point.

But, in reading through what the charges actually are, it comes down to this: Trump was told by multiple people that the election was not stolen, and that his plan to have alternate electors considered was not legally sound. He therefore knew (had mens rea) that what he was saying about the election was not true, and that what he was asking for in the counting of electors couldn’t be done.

What the charging document fails to note is that there were also multiple people, including very respectable legal counsel, telling him what most readers here believe: there was enough wrong with the election to suspect, or even assume, it was stolen. And one reading of the Constitution—which has historic precedence, and which the Democrats have attempted multiple times this century—is that when a state’s slate of electors are challenged, Congress can go into discussions and consider the claims of both sides. (Side note: there was enough confusion about what the VP had the power to do that a 2022 law clarifies it—meaning there was plenty of ambiguity in 2020.)

The various legal counsel with that opinion are now being called co-conspirators in an attempt to defraud the United States.

Charlie Kirk, on his Wednesday, August 2, podcast, interviewed attorney John Eastman and asked him whether he could confirm speculation that he was one of the co-conspirators. John Eastman verifies:

Yeah, well, it’s— It doesn’t take much to go from speculation to confirmation. They quote unindicted co-conspirator number 2; they quote a number of public documents of mine that are in the public realm. So, anybody that spends half a minute looking at this stuff knows I’m co-conspirator number 2. My attorneys put out a statement to that effect last night. But I suppose it’s good news, from my point of view, that I’m an unindicted co-conspirator rather than an indicted conspirator. I look forward to maybe being called as a witness, to come to President Trump’s defense.

Because, getting legal advice about contested interpretations of constitutional provisions is not and never has been and never should be a criminal action.

The most important point here is that getting legal advice about contested interpretations of law must not ever be considered criminal. You can think one way or another about Trump and still want the actual rule of law—rather than lawfare—to prevail.

This is both ridiculous and extremely dangerous. Legal counsel isn’t required to be right or else be punished with prison. Legal counsel is to give a plaintiff advice about ways to present a case. It is about presenting ideas and opinions in what is intended to be an adversarial system. You eliminate any balance of the scales of justice, if one side arbitrarily gets to decide it is right—before trial—and anyone disagreeing is not only wrong but illegally subversive.

from Wikipedia

John Eastman goes on to describe what we might call lawfare:

What’s really going on here is an attempt to prevent people who are unpopular with the elites in our country from having competent legal representation—from having any representation at all. The effort by the 65 Project to go after every one of the attorneys that was involved in any of these election challenges—they make no bones about it. They specifically said, “Our goal here is not just to have them disbarred, but to make them toxic in their firms and in their communities so that right-wing legal talent will never take on these election challenges again.” Of course, if that’s succeeds, then it clears the path for complete manipulation of election processes without anyone willing or able to step up to challenge it in the courts.

It takes a certain personality to engage in lawfare. Prosecutor Jack Smith is one such example. In a podcast (“Jack Smith - A Psychological Analysis” August 2, 2023) Mr. Reagan (Christopher Kohls) might be on the verge of name calling. But he calls out prosecutor Jack Smith as a nerd—a cool-guy wannabe who hasn’t grown out of his awkwardness even well into middle age. Smith exaggerates, uses dramatic emphasis in his delivery, and in every way verifies to us that he is unhinged by his hatred of all things related to Trump—and, by extension, all of us. His wife produced a documentary on Michelle Obama. There isn’t a chance Smith is unbiased or professional. He’s just a tool.

Humor helps in times like these.
meme found on Facebook

It has been a while since I read Orwell’s 1984. I remember the “memory hole” way of changing history. Check. And I remember the unwillingness to accept differing views. Check. I remember the protagonist, Winston, being subjected to something considered therapeutic to eliminate his unwillingness to submit to the state’s version of truth—until he finally comes out gladly proclaiming that 2+2=5. Let’s call that an attempted check so far. In the book, did they arrest and imprison people for disagreeing with Big Brother? Maybe they did. So, we’re either like the 1984 dystopia, or we’re worse.

I say this as I still freely write this and post it (albeit in obscurity). Because, at this point government power is attempting to be absolute, but the people have not yet submitted.

Two podcasts I listened to played a clip of one of Rush Limbaugh’s last broadcasts [The Benny Show and the Charlie Kirk podcast]. It’s worth quoting Rush here:

I know that they desperately want Trump gone. And I know that they desperately want it codified that Trump cannot run again, because, make no mistake, they remain scared to death of you, and they remain scared to death of Trump. Trump’s 75 million, 80 million votes. And I’m going to tell you, you’re not going anywhere. Even if Trump does, you’re not. They can’t separate you from Trump. And, more importantly, they can’t separate you from the ideas. They can’t separate you from MAGA. They can’t separate you from Make America Great Again—which I think remains one of our big campaign strengths going forward. They believe that they can destroy this bond that exists between you and Trump, if they somehow make Trump look bad, make Trump look like a reprobate, embarrass you about Trump. They can’t do it, because you came before Trump.

The great Rush Limbaugh, in one of his last shows.
Screenshot from here

Rush reminded us that their persecution of Trump is essentially a proxy war for their persecution of us—the ones with minds that they do not yet control. They can’t stand not controlling us. And Trump is in their way. Trump himself has said as much.

The enemy seems to have this misconception that, because our side is made up of law-abiding citizens, we must be scandalized by a federal indictment of a candidate. Trump must be bad if the feds have brought charges against him, right? But too many of us see this as it is: a political attack—on us, through him. So his poll numbers go up.

OK, back to the document. One of the charges suggests Trump is guilty of “conspiracy against rights,” whatever that means. Charlie Kirk explained it on his show:

Conspiracy against rights. What in the fresh heck is conspiracy against rights? 18 U.S.Code § 241. What in the heck is that? Conspiracy against rights?

Well, it was passed in the 1870s, known as the KKK Act. Not used very frequently. It’s hard to prove. But for those of you that watch our show closely and carefully, for those of you that take our warnings seriously, there was a test case.

Do you remember the young, innocent man, who we tried our best to raise legal support for? Who— Actually, I think Turning Point donated I think $10,000 to his legal fund. Douglass Mackey. Does that name ring a bell? Well, recently Douglass Mackey was sentenced—well, I don’t know if he’s been sentenced; he’s been convicted, awaiting sentencing—because he made a meme in the 2016 election. Remember that? Because he made a meme making fun of Hillary Clinton, the Biden DOJ goes and says, “We’re going to put you in federal prison.”

Now, we were infuriated about this. Tucker Carlson, to his great credit. By the way, there’s clear examples of Democrats doing the exact same thing. Douglass Mackey, being a white, conservative meme warrior, faces nearly a decade in federal prison. But it was a test case. Because they indicted him on 18 U.S.C. § 241, Conspiracy against rights, dusting off a KKK era bill, a law that allows the federal government to criminalize your activity, your constitutional rights, if it’s a threat to the regime—if they can convince twelve people to do it.

This is a well-orchestrated legal trial-and-error. They try it on Douglass Mackey to be able to use it against Donald Trump.

And a lot of people said, “Oh, the Douglass Mackey thing. He made a meme. How does that impact me?” Well, Douglass Mackey was patient zero. Douglass Mackey was patient zero of the dusting off of 18 U.S.C. § 241, Conspiracy against rights.

I looked up the meme. 

meme attributed to Douglass Mackey, found here

It’s clearly satire, mocking low-information Democrat voters. If someone lacks the intelligence to know that, without a well-publicized change in the law (see 2020, when such things as illegal voting process changes happened, but were definitely well-publicized), you have to actually vote in person, not by social media post, then that person lacks the intelligence to vote. Now, while we don’t have an intelligence test for voters (although there are times when that might seem like a prudent option to pursue), a real voter ought to know, among all the other facts, that there is more than one race on the ballot, so you actually need a ballot in order to vote. This satire didn't infringe on any actual person's right to vote. Nevertheless, Mackey is convicted, pending appeal.

The timing of the Trump indictment seems to be following a pattern. More than one person has pointed out the correlation between bad news coming out about Biden and new charges against Trump. [As an aside, there’s a similar correlation between bad Biden news and alien reports—called UAPs now instead of UFOs.] Trump attorney Alina Habba provides the list: 

The fact that I am standing here for the third time in five months is not a coincidence. This is the Biden political lawfare that we have seen time and time again. It is a deflection from everything that they have done. And if you don’t believe me, look at the facts:

·        On March 17 Hunter accidentally admits that it was his laptop from hell. The next day DA Alvin Bragg indicts President Trump.

·        June 8^th, an FBI document is released, showing that the Ukrainians paid the Biden crime family millions and millions of dollars. The next day, the Mar-a-Lago Raid, and the Mar-a-Lago indictment.

·        Last week Hunter Biden’s sweetheart plea deal fell through when the judge realized it had blanket immunity. The following day, a superseding indictment against Donald Trump.

·        July 31^st Devon Archer goes to testify in front of the House. That was only after they failed to put him in jail prior to the fact. What happens the next day? The January 6^th indictment that we’re here for today.

This is not a coincidence. This is election interference at its finest, against the leading candidate right now for president, for either party. President Trump is under siege in a way that we have never seen before. President Trump and his legal team, and everyone on his team, will continue to fight—not for him, but for the American people.

 In his Wednesday night special, Glenn Beck went over a number of things we’re facing. But there was something somewhat hopeful that he said:

You have to realize you have the power still. You have all of the real power. You just don’t believe it. The Deep State was forcibly exposed last week in court. Does that happen without people like you and me speaking out every time we see this stuff? I don’t think it does.

The exposure needs to continue, because, if we don’t, we will lose.

It’s hard to see times as bad as these and be hopeful. But companies who showed that they hate their customers have learned they need those customers more than the customers need those companies. This has been true for Budweiser, Target, Disney, and a number of others. We stop doing business with them, and the companies sink. We had more power than we realized.

We have that power—God given—in the political sphere as well. We used to think it was our collective votes that made us powerful, but they have mainly taken that from us. So it will have to be either recovering free and fair elections or some other way we can’t yet see. May God show us what to do, and when, so we can recover our constitutional republic!