Wrapping Up the Year

2024 has been quite a year.

It has become something of a tradition to end the year with an explanation of the Spherical Model, an alternative to the right/left model of ideas. The Spherical Model is three dimensional, with freedom in the northern hemisphere and tyranny in the southern hemisphere, with east and west divided into levels of interest, from very local, to state or region, to nation, and on up to world. You can find explanations at these links:

·        The basics (medium version) 

·        The website (long version) 

·        The video (short version) 

The Political, Economic, and Social Spheres of the Spherical Model

For the rest of this post, we’ll whoosh through some of what happened in this very strange year, within the political, economic, and social spheres—and the interrelationships among those spheres.

 

Early in 2024

Last winter we were looking at a lot of censorship, and things that were just wrong. Prisoners were still being held because of J6, even nonviolent “offenders.” The first three posts in January point out some of these injustices:

·        Predicting the Future: More Bad or Good at Last, January 5, 2024 

·        What We Know Now, Three Years Later, January 12, 2024 

·        Censor, Indict, Execute, January 18, 2024 

Then there’s concern over the border. Texas Governor Abbott wrote a letter calling out the Biden administration for dereliction of duty in failing to secure the southern border, and declaring Texas’s right to self-defense. The Biden administration went about thwarting Texas’s efforts, which included cutting razor wire fencing. 

 

Primaries and Conventions

The intensity of an election year got well underway in February, with the Primary Elections here being held the first Tuesday of March. I had to campaign to maintain my precinct chair position; I’d never had a challenger before:

·        Primaries and Conventions in Texas, February 9, 2024 

·        Primary Ballot Picks, February 17, 2024 

·        Lowest Level Primary Election Campaign Debrief, March 8, 2024  

Right after the Primary Election, the convention season started, first with precinct conventions, then district (or county) conventions, and state and national levels. After three convention cycles of editing the state platform, I passed that duty along this year, and only helped a bit before and after the convention. So I was just a regular delegate at the state convention. I walk through one idea, school choice, through our district convention. (I spoke, but not very well, on this issue in the state platform education subcommittee in May.)

 

Nature: Eclipse, Derecho, and Hurricane Beryl

We had some signs and wonders this year. In April was the total eclipse, which we got to experience in Waco, in the path of totality.

The derecho went west to east, and Hurrican Beryl
went south to north, both right over us.

In May, a derecho (tornadic, straight-wind storm that traveled hundreds of miles) passed right over us. And in July, Hurricane Beryl also passed right over us; X marked the spot right over our house. But, except for being without power for 6 days in May, we were essentially unaffected, while roofs, trees, and fences were down all around us. No AC, no freezer/refrigerator can be life threatening in Texas temperatures; we had a small generator for the appliances, and I slept with an ice pack for the heat—and then left town after 5 days, for the state convention.

 

Presidential Election Season

It was a very strange presidential election season. Biden chose to run again, even though four years ago signs of dementia were already present. (Naomi Wolf wrote about this in her book, Facing the Beast, in which she talks about her ostracism for doing her job as a journalist and noticing Biden’s decline, which I wrote about in April.) In late June, Biden debated Donald Trump, and performed disastrously badly. The debate was before either national convention nomination, and was late in the evening, making it possible to speculate he was set up to fail in time to allow a substitute. Despite concessions to make things easier for Biden, he was obviously cognitively impaired.

The iconic moment of Donald Trump, after being shot in the ear,
before being ushered offstage, photo credit to Evan Vucci/AP

Two weeks later, an assassination attempt grazed President Trump’s ear, but he was miraculously spared. (A second assassination attempt was thwarted on September 15.) And a week later, July 21, despite protestations up through just the night before, Biden stepped away from the race (but not the presidency, supposedly) and endorsed Kamala Harris. She had never been anyone’s choice. But the Dems made a go of it, and tried to make their convention exciting. There was a debate, in which she did badly, but maybe not as badly as expected, because expectations were so low. Meanwhile, Trump did long-form podcasts all over the place, allowing many new demographics to see him without the filter of the lying media.

Trump won, handily, in November, allowing so many of us tyrannized ones a sigh of relief, and he immediately began announcing his plans. The world is responding as though he is already the president. Biden, when not vacationing, continues to mess around in the background, but ineffectually. He has tried yet again, illegally, to forgive school debt. He has pardoned his son Hunter, and a long list of violent felons, and commuted the sentences of all but three federal death-row inmates. And we can reasonably speculate that he is trying to start WWIII before he leaves office.

 

Prophecy and the Beasts of Revelation 13

The sea beast and the land beast of Revelation 13.
This image is part of a larger illustration comparing
the beasts in Daniel and Revelation, found here.

There have been some events we might tie to prophecy—or, if not, then simply gain understanding through metaphor—from the book of Revelation and some other Bible prophecies. This list starts with one in March 2023, and then there are these:

·        The Propaganda Beast, August 10, 2024 

·        Concerning News, September 28, 2024 

·        The Propaganda Beast Is in a Doom Loop, October 31, 2024 

One hopeful point from this last days speculation is that we might be seeing better times, at least here in the near future. There are evidences for such hopefulness—besides the Trump win, and DOGE, and some other great cabinet picks. In Argentina and El Salvador, for example, things have gotten better suddenly.  And maybe that gives us courage to try those drastic but needed changes here.

 

Education

I’ve written a few times this year on education, including on our local school board, which is working hard and doing well under some trying circumstances:

·        The Short Answer Is Fear, March 28, 2024 (which I mentioned above) 

·        How’s That New School Board Doing? May 11, 2024 

·        The Costs of Standing Strong, June 21, 2024 

·        Real Education Choice, August 1, 2024 

 

SCOTUS

Supreme Court illustration from Epoch Times

I wrote only once (but it was long) on the Supreme Court’s session, in early July. It wasn’t a bad year overall. That’s probably why the Biden administration threatened to pack the court—adding justices to get up to 13, for “balance.” It does not appear they have the will or ability to make good on such a threat. There was a lot about lawfare this year, but I won't list them today.

 

Understanding the Constitution and Related Philosophy

There were a few posts related to philosophy, or understanding the Constitution:

·        What Does Populism Mean? (This includes some explanation about the Spherical Model), August 30, 2024 

·        Preserving the Constitution Includes Knowing What’s In It, September 12, 2024 

·        The False Prophet of the Great and Abominable Church, October 11, 2024 

·        Get Used to Living in Zion, November 7, 2024 

 

I Got Censored

I wrote earlier this month (December 7) about the House Subcommittee Report on that illness that was going around in 2020 and beyond. I got censored. Literally, this blogging platform removed the post. It seemed safe to talk about what a House subcommittee put into an official document. But that was deemed “Misleading Content.” Oddly, I have written on this topic literally dozens of times (55 previous times, by my count), and only now, when it is clear that I was telling the truth and the media and medical experts were the ones putting out “misleading content”—only now am I censored. I reread what I wrote. I don’t see where I was either misleading or untruthful—or even careless. I cannot, therefore, “review” the content and make it align with their policy, since their policy seems to me to be both arbitrary and averse to the truth.

I have not widely advertised this blog. It gets read, but I would assume mainly by friends and their friends (and some random people from around the globe who happen upon it). Obscurity has, I thought, kept me away from censoring eyes. I am not told why this post caught their attention—and just as we are going into a new Trump era, where we have hope that censorship will be done away. I was simply told by the Blogger Team that “it was flagged for us to review,” and they have “determined that it violates our guidelines,” so they deleted it.

I do not want to lose the 1400+ posts I’ve written on this platform. With that as a priority, I will be looking for alternatives in the coming year.

 

Looking Forward

One of my current prayers is that things will be made right soon. It looks possible now, that this prayer may be granted, or at least begin to be granted, in the coming year. I expect to continue chronicling things as they unfold. The writing helps me understand what’s happening more clearly, and I hope it helps readers as well.

Sudden Darkness

We were in the path of that crazy storm that swept through Houston Thursday evening, May 16^th. We had been walking the dog, and had stopped to talk with a neighbor for a while, taking more time than we’d planned. So I suggested we cut the walk short, head back through the park, and on home, instead of our full couple of miles.

Downed tree limbs were everywhere. We escaped even that damage.
Our big oak tree had been trimmed with air flow in mind, and it stayed intact.

We were on the home stretch when our phones both got the emergency notice: tornado warning. Take shelter. It was overcast but not scary looking around us. Sometimes when there are tornado conditions, the sky and air around us starts to look green. This didn’t seem that unusual. We stopped at the mailbox and got home, but we didn’t hurry.

After we got home, Mr. Spherical Model wanted to show me the system he’d just set up that morning for the tomato vines, in the back yard. About a minute after we got inside, the storm hit. Strong winds, sudden darkness. It was crazy.

We took a minute, right there at the back door, to pray for protection.

The lights went out.

Plastic business signs did not fare well. This Sonic got hit twice; right in front,
and then, around the corner theirs was the only one take out.

I wasn’t feeling any panic. Usually when there’s a warning, I feel like sheltering in the tiny half bath, the windowless room you’re supposed to seek. I didn’t really feel the need, maybe because we’ve been through so many warnings over the years and really never saw anything. Well, we did see plenty in hurricanes Rita, Ike, and Harvey. But that was wind and water, not swirling wind. And there was a tornado warning up at Political Sphere’s house a few years ago, while we were visiting, so we ended up with the kids in their center bathroom. I was kind of worried that day, maybe because I didn’t feel the security of my own home.

Anyway, this latest storm didn’t appear swirling either; winds appeared horizontal straight, mostly, with some hard gusts along with a lot of strong steady wind, more like a hurricane. In the back yard, the wind was going north. It pushed our grill off the deck. It wasn’t a rolling grill; it was on a wooden frame (we inherited this as is from a neighbor when they were moving). The whole thing was picked up and dumped. We may recover it fully useful eventually, but we haven’t worked on that yet.

In the front yard later, we found branches from our neighbor to the north. So the wind must have been spinning—to be heading south in front of the house while heading north in the back. Probably there was swirling right over us that we couldn’t perceive.

Fallen power polls contributed to the power outages.

We have a large shed in back, and it was fine. As were the tomatoes, probably because of the new system to string them up, which gave them support. There was another small shed at the corner of the house, for a few standing tools and such. It got lifted up and moved a couple of feet, still upright.

Later, talking with neighbors, we learned that the house across the street from us had a metal shed in back that was lifted up over the back fence and landed two houses down, completely crushed.

A tree went down a half block away. And at first I thought, luckily it didn’t land on their roof. But then I saw it had landed on their car. Ouch! Later I learned that it landed on their three cars. Super ouch!

Mostly that’s the kind of damage we saw. Limbs and branches down in yards. Some fences down. A neighbor on the corner lost quite a few roof shingles, and another one in the neighborhood had blue tarps on their roof when we drove past after a couple of days.

The aftermath felt similar to after Hurricane Ike, but without the water damage. There was rain with this storm, but it was so brief, it wasn’t the multiple inches of rain we can get in a tropical storm or just a bad rainy day. This storm probably lasted only ten minutes. Maybe it was longer, but it seemed to pass surprisingly quickly. Like a tornado. Which, it turns out it was.

They’re calling it a derecho, which is an inland hurricane. We had winds up to 100 miles per hour here, with some gusts up to 110. And there were a couple of tornados that touched down, further northwest from here. Whatever whirled past us was more strong horizontal wind, with some hooking.

It’s unclear to me what hit downtown Houston. But it blew out skyscraper windows, raining debris all over the streets. I’ve only seen news photos; we haven’t ventured downtown.

Two views of Wells Fargo Plaza, downtown Houston,
screenshots from Instagram reel, found on Facebook 

The real challenge has been the loss of power. The power went out about 6:00 PM Thursday.

I had been about make dinner. We have a gas stove, so fortunately I’ve been able to cook. (Yet another reason not to let the Biden administration outlaw gas stoves.)

We’ve had a generator since Ike, when we were without power for eight days. My husband set it up Friday morning, to maintain our fridge and freezer mostly. We can also recharge phones and other devices. My phone is old, so it loses a charge pretty quick.

Fences were frequent casualties.

It’s very inconvenient to get email on my phone (because of the setup to categorize and save emails on my computer). And we have no internet. So I didn’t see emails until Saturday afternoon, when Mr. Spherical Model set up a temporary hot spot, giving me just enough time to download. I wasn’t able to send any.

Our internet company estimated we would get service back Thursday or so; I wonder if they’ll refund us a quarter of our monthly bill.

CenterPoint Energy, who is doing all the repairs, was cautious about giving estimates. Original counts were about half a million customers without power in downtown Houston, and another 300,000 or so in the Hwy 290 corridor, which includes us. There are some other areas as well: Katy (directly west of Houston, southwest from here), Fairfield and Tomball (both further north and west from here), and some south and south east areas. All told, over a million customers lost power.

We cheered whenever we saw these trucks.
That meant restored power is on the way.

Friday I was planning on grocery shopping, so we were inconveniently low on a lot of things. We tried Kroger first, the one a mile down the road. We were surprised to find it open. But it was nonperishables only. We were able to get a few fruits and vegetables, but not my normal supply.

Hurray for more utility workers!

This was a week for larger shopping at Sam’s Club. I didn’t think we’d find much. But from a little below Hwy 290 the traffic lights were working, and a Starbucks was open. They had power. Crossing 290, it was like nothing had happened. So we got our shopping done there almost as usual.

More fences down.

Saturday afternoon we ventured out further, to get an idea of what had happened where. Power was a bit further south, toward us then. We drove up toward Willowbrook Mall; after our zone of power outage, the world was going on as if nothing had happened. No plant debris in the roads. No demolished business signs. We went into the mall and walked around to get air conditioned for a bit.

Then we went further toward town on 290, exiting before the 610 loop. (Houston is laid out with circles and spokes. The inner circle is the 610 loop; Beltway 8 is the circle outside of that. 290 is one of the spokes, passing through the circles toward downtown.) I got the impression that there was this path—west to east, probably from Waller and Cypress, straight over us, and on into downtown. That main path was maybe five miles wide from north to south. The debris told you where that was. And the power outages also told the story—although pockets are getting their power back. The extensive area without power related to the transmission towers that got toppled.

Some areas seemed t get all the types of damage.

On Sunday church was canceled. Our building actually got power Saturday night, but so many people in the congregation didn’t have power, getting to church was going to be a challenge. I understand they turned our church parking lot into a station to give out water and ice.

Our church parking lot became a water and ice center.
Photo from Facebook

We did a little church meeting with a friend. Then we took our dog for a drive further out 290 and back through neighborhoods. We saw the transmission towers that were knocked over. I heard there was a demolished house in Towne Lake or Bridgeland area, but we didn’t see that. Mostly it was the debris like we saw near us. Unlike a hurricane, where an entire area is affected, this was oddly limited to that swath that we happened to be in the middle of.

I left town for the Republican Party of Texas Convention on Monday (temporary committees are underway). So I’m in air conditioning now. Mr. Spherical Model stayed home and maintained the generator, and took care of the dog.

Entrance to the exhibit hall for the RPT Convention, which
gets fully underway on Thursday. Monday through Wednesday
are the temporary committee hearings.

Our power was restored Tuesday evening between 7:00 and 8:00. That was five full days, plus an hour or two.

One of the things I thought, during the ordeal, was how instantaneously everything can change. This was a long time without power—but we were 8 days without power after Ike. It was rough sleeping when we couldn’t get the house under 84 degrees. It’s hard to plan, and cook, and clean. Everything takes thought, nothing automatic.

And then there’s work. When much of what you produce is digital—and you can’t even see it, let alone make progress on it, that’s a reminder of how different our lives are than when pioneers settled here.

I also was thinking about that scripture in Revelation that says Babylon will fall in a day. It would take more than a 5-10-mile swath. But the destructive power of nature can be very sudden and swift.

A podcaster talking on last days mentioned our storm, noting that it was at Pentecost, when the Spirit came as a mighty wind. Significant for our day? I don’t know. Maybe we ought to take just about everything as a sign or reminder that we need to depend on the Lord in all things, and not wait to turn to Him sometime later, when we get around to it. Because, you never know when the lights might go out on the world as we know it. And we will want to know where to turn for Light.