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.

Preparing and Being Ready

There’s an eclipse coming up on Monday, which you may be aware. We’re planning to celebrate with kids, who live not far away but in the path of totality. There are predictions of cloud cover, but that’s life. We will experience the daytime total darkness regardless.

image is screenshot from this KTVB7 News story

Warning Sign

Does it have meaning? Is it a warning? Maybe. In fact, I think it likely does have meaning, although its exact predictive meaning evades me—and most of the various YouTubers offering their speculations.

I have a few favorites:  

·        Christian Homestead (see his Signs in the Heavens playlist) 

·        Christian Fire Poppy (hers are full of connections she’s made, often looking at constellations, using the online tool Stellarium; I recommend her first one, together with Christian Homestead, and there are three with "Revelation 12 sign" in the title from September-October 2023, plus more as we approach the eclipse)

·        Allie Duzett (she has an entire playlist for the 2024 eclipse; hers is astrology, but looking at the energetic types of influence from the stars and planets, rather than predicting future events; much is puzzling to me, but I love her positive and practical attitude and approach)  

Even if this eclipse is just a stunning natural event in the sky, it still might be a good time to prepare. We're already in times of chaos, so it seems prudent to prepare for any eventuality we can think of.

Every location has its risks. Here in Houston we have hurricanes and tornadoes, and floods (Hurricane Harvey combined these), and power outages, which we get with frequent brief technology failures, and with hurricanes, but we’ve also experienced them with a rare severe freeze. There are certain things we know to do now. Although, my husband says if we have another hurricane with power outage, he’s going to send me away to stay with kids, because that’s easier on him than worrying about me.

Disaster Preparedness

On Wednesday night, Glenn Beck’s program was “Prepping 101: The Step-by-Step Guide to Surviving Global Chaos” (also on YouTube), complete with multiple chalkboards. He was talking mostly physical preparedness—storing food and water, having tools and ammunition, keeping some money on hand (or gold, or something tradeable).

First up in his show, he talked about the electric grid. There are three in the US: east, west, and Texas. Yes, Texas has its own. We prefer that. In that failure we had during winter storm Uri, in 2021, that happened for reasons that would only be magnified by US-level control: windmills froze and wouldn’t turn, so no power from them; solar doesn’t provide power during a storm that blocks the sun (or when it’s night). Some things were offline for repair or inspection at a critical time. There were other reasons that all lined up, as things tend to do. But there have been some improvements and protections since that disaster.

It’s true, though, that an attack on the power grid would put a majority of people in the US at risk of death, if not immediately, then within weeks or months. (I wrote about this here and here.) It’s a bit scary to be that vulnerable.

screenshot from Glenn Beck's "Prepping 101" program

There are so many ways we’re vulnerable, it’s hard to list them. Nor do we want to tempt fate. But there are some principes of survival. First up, that Glenn showed, were what is called the Rule of 3s, because so many things relate to that number:

You can survive:

·        3 minutes without air.

·        3 hours without shelter in bad conditions.

·        3 days without water.

·        3 weeks without food.

·        And you have 3 days to get out of a perilous situation and get to safety.

screenshot of one of Glenn Beck's chalkboard lists

Home Preparedness

Next up, Glenn put up a chalkboard with 6 basic steps to prepping. (He’s something of a prepper himself, and often foresees disasters coming—sometimes he’s right.)

So here are the steps:

1.      Build a solid personal finance and health foundation (money in various levels of availability, plus medicines, first aid, etc.)

2.      Get your home ready for two weeks of self-reliance. (Food, water, fuel, and any essentials to shelter in place for a couple of weeks.)

3.      Know when to “bug out.” Have “go bags.” (Essential food, clothing, meds, water to get you through about 72 hours away from home. It may be a good idea to have one packed for each member of the family, and update frequently.)

4.      Prepare for emergencies away from home. (If you can’t get home, do you have essential meds, first-aid kit.)

5.      Learn core skills—and practice! (Here’s where he suggests camping, and maybe hunting, as good practice for cooking and cleaning away from home.)

6.      Share what you’ve learned, and build a base of like-minded friends. (Around here, we have people assigned at church to learn and share preparedness skills with us. So we know who the experts are, and we get info and learn from them pretty regularly—and maybe especially as hurricane season approaches.)

screenshot of another Glenn Beck chalkboard

The next chalkboard was for getting your home ready for a two-week shelter in place. Glenn Beck offers a pretty extensive list—but many of these things are what you have already. You just need to take inventory and add what you’re missing. The categories are:

·        Water—15 gal./person (1 gal./person/day)

·        Food—23,000 calories per person (1500 calories/person/day)

·        Fire—lighters matches, fire starters

·        Light—flashlights, candles, lanterns

·        Heating/Cooling—indoor heater, extra blankets, USB-powered fan

·        Shelter—beyond home, tarps for improvised shelter, or tents

·        Medical—create list of medical supplies

·        Hygiene—wet wipes, sanitizer, camp soap

·        Communications—ham and/or NOAA radio

·        Power—batteries, rechargers, solar charger (I would add generator to this list)

·        Tools—axe, shovel, work gloves, wrenches, zip ties, duck tape

·        Self-defense—guns and ammo

·        Cash—as much as you can afford to store

o   Bartering items (alcohol, cigarettes)

o   Precious metals

·        EMP proof home (I think this means grounding, as we do to protect against lightning strikes, but maybe this is more—like a Faraday cage, but I don’t know how you do that with your whole house.

screenshot of another Glenn Beck chalkboard

Glenn Beck has a quiz to assess your readiness for whatever, and I came out “better than most.”

We have a fair amount of food—most of which I cannot eat now, because of food sensitivities/allergies. So it would be challenging to eat just from the pantry and not the refrigerator or freezer.

We have a generator (since Hurricane Ike in 2008). It’s noisy. It takes fuel. And it’s not enough to handle the air conditioner or heater. But it’s good for lights, fans, recharging phones and batteries. In fact, we were able to help neighbors on both sides keep their freezers alive as well (with long extension cords).

We used to camp, when we lived in the northwest, and Mr. Spherical Model used to camp a lot even here in Texas, as a scoutmaster. Camping is good practice, to learn skills and think of better ways of doing things and learning to be resourceful. But I haven’t been willing to camp in the Texas heat with Texas mosquitos. I’m not much of a pioneer. Still, we do have a camp stove and some basic equipment.

There’s always more to do. And it’s better done a little at a time, as you can handle things with clear thought, without panic or urgency. The idea is to prepare so you don’t have to fear.

 

Spiritual Preparedness

Near the end of his program—too late to spend time on it, Glenn Beck suggested we also need to do some spiritual preparedness.

This, I would suggest, includes the basics: knowing how to pray, and how to hear answers and receive direction from God. It includes putting your life in order, daily repentance and improvement, refining—so that the Lord (and life in general) doesn’t force you into that refinement. And it includes learning to trust God.

A friend once gave me a lapel pin of a frog, with a note that it was a reminder to “Fully Rely On God.” I like that.

We have been practicing this for a while now—maybe through some of that forced refining. We’re not really ready—as the story of Joseph in Egypt goes—for a coming disaster such as seven lean years that have followed seven prosperous years. Because we’ve been depleting our stores the past seven years. We think we’re nearing the end, and rains that make the ground fruitful are about to come down on us—despite what an eclipse may portend. But this has really stretched our reliance on God, Who has been good to us throughout.

If you’re feeling less than fully prepared, or maybe just need a reminder of what the Holy Spirit feels like, I suggest tuning in to the worldwide conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints this weekend. Boosting your spiritual preparedness is what that’s all about. You can find it on BYUTV, on YouTube, or at ChurchofJesusChrist.org. There will be three two-hour sessions on Saturday, April 6, and two more on Sunday, April 7, just ahead of the eclipse. You can watch live, or come back later to watch; transcripts will be available a few days later. And, since it's a worldwide conference, it's available in many languages.