Category: Current Events

These are posts in which I comment on events which are happening right now. They may or may not fit into any other specific category.

“Vengeance is Mine, I Will Make You Pay”, says Donald Trump

Roger MitchellLeave a comment

“An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. That way the whole world will be blind and toothless.” — Tevye, from Fiddler on the Roof

“Repay no one evil for evil. Have regard for good things in the sight of all men. If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men. Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay,’ says the Lord.” — Romans 12:17-19 NKJV

Contrast those sentiments with the words coming out of the mouth of the one who thinks he can do anything because he is the president of the United States.

“They’ve [Venezuela] treated us badly. I guess now we’re not treating them so good.” — Donald Trump

https://twitter.com/i/status/1999565449093169515, at about 51 seconds in.

During the entire history of Christianity from the very beginning 2000 years ago, one of the points of the message has been that retaliatory vengeance, the repaying of evil with evil, is not to be tolerated. Instead, God claims vengeful authority for Himself alone, and any instance where Man is allowed to exercise power in that area of the realm is by designated permission which is constrained by clearly marked parameters and boundaries. In fact, the legal basis for restraining one from taking vengeance goes all the way back to the early days of the Hebrew nation, e.g., among others,

  • Deuteronomy 32:35 “Vengeance is mine, and recompense, for the time when their foot shall slip; for the day of their calamity is at hand, and their doom comes swiftly.”
  • Leviticus 19:18 “You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.”

The amount of ink spilled onto paper concerning the so-called Christian roots of America is voluminous and even today there are those who call America a Christian nation (or at the very least, call for America to return to its Christian beginning). Yet, in all of this, where are the voices of prominent Christians who tell Donald Trump to change his course, to cool down his rhetoric, to take it easy where it concerns his belligerent words and actions?

Chuck Baldwin comes readily to mind, but there are not a lot of others that I know of.

I am not surprised by Trump. He is promoting his own religion, one of unilateral power, wealth-gathering, and self-importance which incorporates many aspects of religious worship but cannot rightly be called Christian. The ones I am constantly in amazement of are those who call themselves disciples of Jesus Christ, but who flock to Trump’s banner and idolize him as the modern, visible incarnation of the anointed messiah, despite the clear commands of Scripture. In many circles within American society today, criticizing the man about anything he might have said or done is swiftly met with vituperative condemnation.

The questions before us are the same as those posed by the prophet Elijah to the people of Israel at Mount Carmel in his head-to-head confrontation with the prophets of Baal. Who is the god you will worship? Whose word is true? What are you going to believe? These, and others like them, have to be answered in the hearts and minds of all of us and it would be best to settle them, once and for all, before fire rains down from heaven…again. This time, it could be nuclear.

Beating Swords into Plowshares, Montana Style

Roger MitchellLeave a comment

A few days ago, I posted a short article about a bill, HR 6508, introduced into the House of Representatives by Thomas Massie (R-KY), which if passed into law would require the White House to begin proceedings to remove the US from the organization known as NATO. A companion bill, S 2103 has been introduced into the Senate by Mike Lee, R-UT. In addition, the White House has released its National Security Strategy which basically calls for a moderated withdrawal from a hegemonic attempt to control the world into a more manageable position of ruling the Western Hemisphere with an iron fist. Conversely, it could be an admission that the US cannot rule the world due to the rise of significant resistance and must pull in its horns somewhat. It’s all relative, depending on your viewpoint.

These events, even if they take twenty or thirty years to accomplish, can be seen as positive steps toward a better future for the world, like the first faint glimmer of light breaking through the darkness after a long, dark night. We should be aware, though, that nothing is guaranteed and that international tensions could continue to escalate as modern-day society breaks down into uncontrolled chaos, with the ever-present specter of full-blown nuclear war still only a heartbeat away.

[Note: I wrote this at the request of an editor at Western Montana News who asked how it could relate to the local area in the case that events of this sort did unfold.]

I am extremely skeptical about anything which comes out of Washington, regardless of its source (Thomas Massie, excepted) and understand that evil, like the multi-headed hydra of Greek literature, will not be easily dispatched. These things take time to mature and we should not expect to see an immediate end to hostilities even as we hope and believe that world-wide peace will be the eventual result.

Putting aside our disbeliefs and assuming the best, let’s take a look at what might be long-term effects for Montana and the surrounding regions if, and I stress if, NATO is disbanded and the US does pull back from its long-standing policy of never-ending wars to fill the coffers of the military-industrial complex which Eisenhower warned about long ago. Keep in mind that this is only an exercise of hopeful possibility, not a prediction. Your guess is as good as mine.

  1. NATO is abandoned and disappears. The US and Russia come to an understanding of peaceful co-existence. The European Union, a supra-national organization, disintegrates and reverts once more into a continent of national states, each of which is beset with its own peculiar problems, none of which is capable of exercising massive power outside its borders. In such a scenario, it is possible that the number of nuclear warheads which the US and Russian states control and use as threats against each other might be negotiated down from an insane level to one where the Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) policy does not cause nightmares in fearful people. If that were to happen, would the missile silos at Malmstrom Air Force Base eventually be decommissioned and filled with concrete? It is, according to the premise of this article, at least theoretically possible. If that was the only development which came out of this, it would be a good thing.
  2. Trillion dollar “defense” budgets would become a thing of the past. Without an existential threat constantly looming over our heads, there would be no need to break the bank any longer for the ostensible purpose of keeping the “barbarians” at bay, fighting them over there so we don’t have to fight them over here. Instead of pouring that money into weapons systems to kill and destroy, some of it could be used to rebuild Montana’s deteriorating infrastructure–roads and bridges, schools, hospitals, e.g., among others.
  3. Peace is deflationary. Inflation is necessary to drive the financial engine which waging war requires. Without the “need” to destroy the dollar to protect “national interests”, the printing presses which lubricate the political machine in Washington could be wound down to a more moderate level at the very least. The wages which local Montanans earn would go further and purchase more, enabling a general rise in the standard of living.
  4. Massive numbers of young men and women would no longer be needed to fill the ranks of “cannon fodder” in wars which America has no business involving itself or occupying military bases in foreign countries where they are not needed. Instead, they could become highly productive citizens here, raising future generations in an era where soldiers dying in combat might be an anomaly instead of a fixture.

I could go on but you get my point. Western Montana (and the world) has much to gain from the cessation of wars, especially those in which the threat of nuclear annihilation always looms just ahead.

In conclusion, I point to Isaiah 2:4, which says,

“He [Word of God] shall judge between the nations and rebuke many people; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.“

If this prophecy is true, then it is inevitable that war will cease to exist. All of us should be working toward that goal whether it comes to pass in our lifetimes or not until far into the future.

The bronze sculpture “Let Us Beat Our Swords into Ploughshares,” was created by Soviet artist Evgeny Vuchetich, and presented to the United Nations on 4 December 1959 by the Government of the USSR. The sculpture, depicting the figure of a man holding a hammer aloft in one hand and a sword in the other, which he is making into a ploughshare, is meant to symbolize man’s desire to put an end to war, and to convert the means of destruction into creative tools for the benefit of mankind. It is located in the North Garden of the United Nations Headquarters. 1/Oct/2001. UN Photo/Andrea Brizzi. http://www.unmultimedia.org/photo/

The Narrative is Shifting: Foreign Policy Course Corrections Ahead

Roger Mitchell2 Comments

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/regenerative-farming-just-went-mainstream-heres-why-it-matters

Whether you are a “farmer” growing food or not is not important. The underlying message in this article is that significant changes which become known do not usually happen overnight but occur as a result of hard work over a long period of time by dedicated individuals. The author explains the process quite well.

This can be favorably related to Thomas Massie’s (R-KY) recent bill introduced into the House to require the US to withdraw from NATO. A companion bill, S2152, by Mike Lee (R-UT) can also be seen in this light. Slow, gradual progress is the order of the day, eventually producing enough weight and momentum to push the idea forward to success.

A society, large or small, rarely changes direction dramatically and sharply as a discontinuous event. Instead, like a supertanker or aircraft carrier, the change of course begins with the unseen turning of a rudder, overlooked by nearly everyone until the new direction becomes obvious.

The very fact that these two bills, along with the recent release of the National Security Strategy (NSS) by the White House detailing foreign policy changes show that there is some significant movement underway which most people will not see nor recognize until it bursts onto the scene, perhaps in a cataclysmic manner, akin to a dam bursting and the subsequent release of a large amount of water resulting in the destruction of everything downstream caught in its path.

The system we have lived with and under for decades is giving way and a new one is about to be implemented. It is important to keep in mind that neither of these above-referenced bills are guaranteed passage, however, both add to the weight and pressure building on the existing structure which is trying to maintain the status quo.

Do not discount the significance of Massie’s bill.

The Ghost of Jeffrey Epstein Lives!

Roger Mitchell2 Comments

When I got up from my late-afternoon nap a little while ago, I pulled up ZeroHedge to see what was going on in the world and was shocked, shocked, absolutely stunned, I tell you to see this article pronouncing that both the House (expected) and the Senate (completely out of character) had approved the release of the Epstein Files, and sent it on to The Donald for his long, drawn-out signature. What really blew my mind, however, were the margins in the votes, 427-1 (House) and unanimous (Senate).

Naturally, being the sort of person I am, I immediately started ruminating on the meaning of these lop-sided decisions and, being the suspicious, skeptical sort of person I am, latched onto the idea that one of two things had just happened:

  1. The Federal Government, as exemplified in its two august bodies, had just had a “coming to Jesus” moment and, henceforth, would be working for truth, righteousness, and the American Way.
  2. The American people were just snowed…again.

I have to hand it to Thomas Massie, a republican representative from Kentucky, who along with Ro Khanna, a Democrat from California, has been pushing and pushing for months to get this “list” published. Massie, for his efforts, has been subjected to serious “trouble” from the White House, but has emerged victorious. I think. Maybe. We’ll see. No telling what this will lead to. Nevertheless, take your victory lap, Mr. Massie. You have earned it.

On July 10, 2025, I posted an article, https://poorrogersalmanac.com/2025/07/10/officially-confirmed-epstein-didnt-kill-himself/, which included the paragraphs below.

“There is one other similarity between JFK and Epstein. The case is closed. Closed. Officially closed. There will be no more investigation, no more fact-finding ventures, no more questioning, no more publicity, no more “conspiracy theorizing”. The administration of Donald Trump and Co. has issued its last report and there will be no release of any files pertaining to the matter. In due time, it will all be forgotten….Except that it won’t be. There is simply too much about this that doesn’t pass the smell test. Anyone with a sense of reason, common sense, and a nose for the truth can discern that we have been lied to…again, this time with vehemence, bigly, as Trump would say.”

Which, once more, brings up the question: Are we being snowed again? Suspicious minds want to know.

  • While on the campaign trail, Trump vigorously promoted the promise that the files would be released as soon as he became president.
  • In February, 2025, barely a month after Trump took office, his AG Pam Bondi, declared that the “list” was on her desk, impatiently waiting for her review and release.
  • In July, 2025, barely four months later, the White House held their famous (infamous?) press conference during which it was averred, avowed, and aggressively asserted that “there was no there, there”. The List had somehow vanished, the evidence had been mysteriously flushed down the toilet, there were no witnesses to the alleged crimes, the whole thing was a hoax (a Democrat hoax to get Trump, mind you), and on, and on, and on…
  • In July, Massie and Khanna introduced their resolution named the Epstein Files Transparency Act, seeking to gain 218 co-signers which would force the House to take up the measure. Around that time, Trump declared war on Massie, vowing to “primary” him in 2026 with someone more “suitable” and unleashing a virtual river of vicious invective against him.
  • In early August, Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s girl Friday, was transferred from a high-security prison in Tallahassee, FL, to a low-security Federal Prison Camp Bryan in Texas, where she has received preferential treatment. Around the same time, it was revealed that Donald Trump had never, ever, done anything wrong with Epstein. Not even once.
  • Initially, Mike Johnson, the Republican Speaker of the House, resisted the EFTA resolution and refused to bring it up for a vote until it became apparent that it was going to happen, at which time he allowed it. It is noteworthy that Johnson also kept the House in a state of recess for months so as to avoid seating Adelita Grijalva (D-Ariz.), who was elected in a special election in August and who had sworn to sign on as the last needed co-sponsor.
  • Claiming “we have nothing to hide”, Trump caved in on Nov. 17 and gave his “blessing” to the vote, which was apparently the last straw on the camel’s back.

Something here is not right. It stinks to high heaven. Either there was nothing there to begin with OR there is something which TPTB are desperately trying to cover up. Considering that Trump and Team have been bouncing back and forth between two opinions, depending on who they are trying to please, it is not hard to believe that some VERY SERIOUS SHENANIGANS did actually happen, that Epstein had something to do with them, and that it will cause some extreme embarrassment on the part of some VERY IMPORTANT PEOPLE should the truth about the whole sordid affair come out. Larry Summers is only the first one to fall.

Final Answer: Let the truth be told and the chips fall where they will.

An Afternoon to be Remembered

Roger MitchellLeave a comment

This is not my typical post. I’ll be back. I promise.

On September 26th, a perfectly beautiful, wonderfully gorgeous day, I had the satisfying experience of hosting a “local gathering” of people where we ate grilled chicken (Le Chef Moi) and varied delectable and delicious potluck dishes brought in by others, washed it down with good beer (some of us, anyway), and expounded our favorite theories about the way the world SHOULD WORK all afternoon. This was brought about, of course, by sticking my neck out and inviting CJ Hopkins and Hugo Fernandez to make a pit stop in their America Tour while they were traveling through.

The Official Touring Car

This came about because I cannot resist temptation when it is staring me in the face. It all began when I noticed in CJ’s published itinerary that they had nothing planned for Big Sky Country,

“Big Sky Country — No idea yet where we’re going to stop. Basically, we have six days to get from Kansas City to Portland, so … Wyoming, Montana, Idaho maybe. Again, if you live in this part of the country, and have suggestions or invitations, please let me know.”

Just a big, fat void of emptiness, so I jumped at the chance and sent him an email inviting them in for some of my world-famous BBQ’ed chicken and an opportunity to sit for an interview with my good friend, Dan, who is building a digital radio station out of the Bitterroot Valley. Needless to say, almost before the ink had a chance to dry in my email missive, CJ replied that he would be delighted to join us and…well, the rest is history.

I had invited numerous (80-100 people), friends, neighbors, acquaintances, to participate, and in the end about 25 actually showed up. The ratio is probably typical–invite three times more than you want, although I was hoping for better, but it was what it was. As far as I could tell, everyone had a fantastic time of it, at least no one has yet told me they didn’t, and considering that some decided to stretch the afternoon well into early evening hours, tells me that they were really into the spirit of the day.

The only fly in the ointment, the thing that really has me upset, is that I didn’t get any photographs of CJ and Hugo. I have no excuse for the lapse except that the thought never entered my mind. That being said, these will have to do, and please read the running commentary as well. This is not Playboy, after all. You don’t come here just for the pictures.

https://cjhopkins.substack.com/p/america-road-trip-project-week-three

https://cjhopkins.substack.com/p/america-road-trip-project-week-two

https://cjhopkins.substack.com/p/america-road-trip-project-week-one

All in all, an incredibly positive moment. I was blessed to be in the right place at the right time and I will always look back on this event with special fondness. Thank you to CJ and Hugo (I persist in using the Spanish pronunciation of his name), to Dan (see the link above to his interview), and also to everyone else who helped to make this a smashing success. We are better off for it.

Murder on the High Seas: Coming Soon to a City Near You–A Hypocrisy of the Most Personal Order

Roger Mitchell2 Comments

It has only been a few weeks since the cold-blooded murder of eleven crew members on a fishing boat in the Caribbean by the US military machine, headed up by none other than Donald Trump who gave the order, essentially pulling the trigger himself. Between then and now, there have been two other instances in which the same action has been taken, with three men killed in each event, thus bringing the total killed in an extra-judicial action to seventeen persons.

Supposedly, these men were running drugs from Venezuela into the United States with the intent to destroy American society, but there is no proof that this is the case, and no legal precedent for the action taken to prevent that from happening. Instead, Trump and his henchmen, beginning with Pete Hegseth and Marco Rubio, simply decided unilaterally that they were going to blow the boats out of the water without ever referring the matter to the Dept. of Justice (I use that term loosely) for criminal prosecution.

This sort of behavior reminds me of The Mouse’s Tale in Alice in Wonderland. “I’ll be judge, I’ll be jury, said cunning old Fury. I’ll try the whole cause and condemn you to death.”

The American Experiment has come full circle and now this deadly attitude is being practiced openly without any attempt to hide or excuse it. Judge, jury, executioner. Because we can. Because the president can do anything. No longer is anyone deemed to be innocent until proven guilty and convicted by a jury of his peers (not that this was ever really a valid concept, but at least it presented a moral face). Today, all that is necessary for me, you, or any other person, to be “eliminated” is to cross the path of The Decider and engage his ire. As Donald Trump put it in his own words truthfully spoken, probably among the few truthfully spoken words of his life,

“He did not hate his opponents, he wanted the best for them,” Trump said, before breaking from his prepared remarks to add: “That’s where I disagreed with Charlie. I hate my opponents, and I don’t want the best for them, I’m sorry.”

Yes, he sure is sorry. A sorry sight, indeed. Knowing how he treats those who oppose him, it would be a good idea to watch your back if you are one of those. And the crowd of adoring, hero-worshipping, fanatical followers who call themselves “Christian” cheered and applauded, hating his (and presumably their own) opponents as well, even though the action goes against every principle taught by Jesus the Christ.

The hypocrisy of those who claim to be good and against evil is staggering and reeks to high heaven. Or the high seas, whichever is closer. Consider this.

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/china-ups-pressure-control-disputed-waters

Just a few days earlier, China’s newest aircraft carrier, the Fujian, sailed through the Taiwan Strait for the first time while still undergoing sea trials ahead of expected commissioning later this year. Japan’s military also reported spotting the Fujian near the disputed Senkaku Islands on Sept. 11, sailing with two destroyers.

Beijing claimed the carrier was en route to the South China Sea for training and scientific tests, insisting the transit was routine and not aimed at anyone. However, the move carried symbolic weight as the CCP asserts its claims over both the Taiwan Strait and Taiwan.

Around the same time, the U.S. destroyer USS Higgins and the British frigate HMS Richmond transited the Taiwan Strait, prompting sharp warnings from Beijing, which condemned the move as undermining regional stability and deployed naval and air forces to monitor them.

Washington and London countered that the operation was lawful and routine under international law, stressing that the strait lies beyond the territorial waters of any state and that freedom of navigation must be upheld.

Did you get that? Freedom of navigation beyond the territorial waters of any state MUST be upheld, that is, as long as it is not Venezuelan fishing crews or Chinese aircraft carriers who are doing the navigating. Donald Trump (who stands in for God and the Deep State) forbid that anyone except “our” national interests be allowed to sail with impunity, whether in the bathtub of the Caribbean or halfway around the world in deep waters near their own homeland. Such shenanigans are not to be tolerated and steps will be taken to enforce “the rule of law”, as we see fit. We, of course, meaning the ones who wield the power in the halls of Washington, D.C.

International law? Pffffttt! WTF is that?

Murder, the aggressive, unjustified killing of another person(s), has become accepted as normal in American society. We used to be shocked and outraged at the senseless slaughter of innocents, but have now become inured to it. Murder is increasingly seen as the means to advance and achieve one’s own goals and if that happens to cross over the line of traditional morality, so what? As long as I can get what I want, who cares, even if someone else has to die for it? If I have the power, as Trump does, to determine who shall live and who shall die, then why shouldn’t I be allowed to use it?

Well, for starters, once this type of thinking becomes pervasive throughout society, then no one is safe. Once murders happen because…(you fill in the blanks), then there is no protection from any unexpected assault, whether it be from a knife (Iryna Zarutska), a rifle (Charlie Kirk), or a Hellfire missile (Venezuelan fishermen). The really sad thing about all this is the immense number of (alleged, supposed) Christians, those who profess faith in the teachings of Jesus Christ on love for others, who wholeheartedly and fervently express their support and adoration of Donald Trump. After all, he is fighting on our behalf and will shortly reconstitute and resurrect America from the absolute mess it became at the hands of decades of liberal, progressive policies orchestrated by unhinged, lunatic, deranged Democrats and Communists!

Right? Of course, right. Which is the mental attitude fostered and believed by so many who claim to be disciples of the King of Kings, yet cannot fathom their own misguided faith in a system which promotes and encourages chaos, mayhem, and murder. As long as Trump is the Executioner, we are OK with it. He is one of us. God damn the evil Russkies and the transgenders! Revive and defend the moral code according to our own lights and truths, and let us write it on tablets of stone, if that becomes necessary!! Just so that everyone knows who is handing down the decrees from on high.

We have a problem.

“For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate me…” — Exodus 20:5b

Donald Trump, who can do anything, hates his opponents, especially the One Who rules international law. We have been warned.

The Wages of Sin is Death–Official or Not

Roger MitchellLeave a comment

In the last few weeks, there have been three high-profile instances of deliberate murder in which those killed had no warning that they were going to die. Life was good, until all at once it was over.

  1. Eleven crew members of a small Venezuelan boat in the Caribbean which was destroyed by a Hellfire missile.
  2. A 23 year old woman, Iryna Zarutska,1 stabbed in the neck repeatedly by a man behind her while riding home from work in Charlotte, NC.
  3. Charlie Kirk, shot in the neck while speaking at a rally at a Utah university.

Other than the fact that they were completely unexpected, do these murders have anything in common? It could be argued, I suppose, that the boat’s crew members were “known to the State of US” to be violent gang members running drugs, therefore the takeout was justified. It could be argued that Charlie Kirk brought it on himself by opposing the “woke”, progressive, liberal agenda and being extremely vocal about his beliefs. It could be argued that Iryna’s murder was caused by decades of insane policies of refusing to treat criminal cases harshly without any serious consequence for the perps.

Yet, during his first term in office, Donald Trump gave the order to assassinate an Iranian general2, Qasem Solemani, while he was traveling to a peace conference in Iraq, done without warning solely because it was possible. While Barack Obama was president, numerous persons were simply killed via drone strikes3 because they happened to get on the wrong list, including an American citizen, Anwar al-Awlaki, and his 16 year old son, Abdulrahman al-Awlaki. How many innocent people have been killed because of the aggressive wars waged by the American State and society? It is safe to assume that they number in the tens of millions and probably most of them were not aware that they were in imminent danger until it was upon them.

We have a problem and it is not going to be easily solved nor overcome. America, the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave, has always been a practitioner of violence, often deadly. We still are, and there does not seem to be any groundswell of movement on the part of the grassroots population to bring the official killings to an end. Instead, if the Venezuelan State sank one of the US Navy ships in the area, citing defense, this country as a cohesive unit would issue a full-throated roar for vengeance and destruction, regardless of who started the whole mess or whether it was legal or right. We love our violent Hollywood movies and PlayStation video games in which we can vicariously “live” the victorious life. Or die trying, except that we get to come back another day and fight again.

“Kill them all. Let God sort them out.”

Why are we shocked when something like Charlie Kirk’s assassination or Iryna Zarutska’s cold-blooded murder occur, but pooh-pooh any notion that the killers were only following the examples set by their own government? Why is murder excused, even lauded and honored, when it is practiced by a government for political purposes, but individual murders cannot be tolerated, even though they might be done for political purposes? Why do we tolerate “black on black” murders which constitute the largest part of the killings in the US and try to justify “black on white” murders as, well, “correcting racial imbalances”? Why do we treat “white on black” murders as worse than any other, especially if a police officer is the one doing the killing?

Why? Why? Why? These are the hard questions we need to honestly explore and try to answer in order to make some sense of the situation, and the first place to start is with ourselves, in our own innermost being, the one which drives and defines everything we are. Am I a supporter of government led and sponsored wars and extra-judicial “executions”? Do I think it is right for my government to declare war on other countries without cause? Would I join the military and kill some person I never knew simply because someone else told me to? Do I hate my neighbor and wish evil on him? And on, and on, and on…

We are at this point in history because, as a nation and a people, we have either explicitly abandoned the moral imperatives of God or made light of them, ignoring them when convenient, and/or trying to substitute our own man-made rules which seem right and just to us. Today, and increasingly so in a rapidly disintegrating future, we are (and will) reap the consequences of our actions and behaviors. The only way out is to seek forgiveness for our own sins and change the way we think, which will change the way we act. This is called repentance…and it works. It is the only thing which will work. Everything else is nothing more than a Band-Aid® slapped over a blood-gushing wound.

More to come…and it ain’t looking good. Murder is murder is murder, and it’s past time to recognize this fact. Time to raise our sights to a higher plane, one where the injunction, “Thou shalt not kill” still holds true.

  1. Notice that Wikipedia does its dead-level best (no pun intended) to mask the fact that the killer was a black male who had 14 convictions on his record and was still walking the streets. ↩︎
  2. To justify this action and call it “lawful”, read this. I do not agree with the conclusion. https://www.jagreporter.af.mil/Post/Article-View-Post/Article/2539536/the-killing-of-qassem-soleimani/ ↩︎
  3. https://www.brookings.edu/articles/holder-weve-droned-4-americans-3-by-accident-oops/ ↩︎

Jeffrey Epstein or Beating Up on Venezuela

Roger Mitchell3 Comments

Donald Trump, America’s peace-loving, peace-making president, is acting presidential again. No, he has not got the war in Ukraine settled after almost nine months of overtures, empty threats, and broken promises, one of which was that he would stop it in twenty-four hours as soon as he took office. Nor has he reined in the Insane Beast of the Middle East, Bibi Netanyahu and the Israeli State, on their wild, murderous rampage through Gaza. Neither has he stopped threatening Iran over its refusal to bow down and worship “the god that be”, that is, the puppet-masters and heavyweight policy-makers of the Western realm.

Instead, probably with the blessings and direction of his controllers (whoever they might be), he has virtually, unilaterally, declared war on Venezuela, a small, oil-rich country on the northern coast of South America. In fact, on Tuesday, September 2, following Trump’s direct order, a boat was fired upon by the US Navy off the coast of Venezuela in international waters, killing eleven crew members. This was done without warning, without any attempt to stop the vessel, any effort to arrest the crew and bring them to a court in the US where they could be tried and convicted of their crimes against humanity and receive “justice”. Note the quotation marks.

All on Trump’s say-so. Yes, very presidential, if I may say so myself. In this, at least, he was consistent with his own words, “I’m the president. I can do whatever I want.” Well, now he’s a murderer…on several counts, as are the men and women who colluded with him and those who actually pulled the triggers. Now, in response to Venezuela’s response in which two of its warplanes buzzed a US destroyer, Trump has just issued another threat. “Don’t do that anymore or I will shoot you down.”

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/trump-warns-any-venezuelan-plane-threatening-us-ships-will-be-shot-down

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/trump-deploys-f-35s-puerto-rico-airfield-after-pair-venezuelan-jets-buzz-us-warship

Supposedly, the boat which was fired upon was running drugs from Venezuela to…somewhere, and those drugs were guaranteed to find their way onto the streets of Miami, Baltimore, and Philadelphia, or points between and further afield. Supposedly, the drug runners were members of the “notorious” gang known as Tren de Aragua, vicious rapists and killers all, whose only goal was to degrade and destroy the fine, upstanding citizens of the above-named communities and points between and further afield. Yes, it is certain that, if Trump had not acted “presidentially”, the streets of America would have been thrown into chaos, confusion, degradation, and death, but today the people who live there can sleep peacefully at night, knowing that a heavily-armed SWAT team is not going to smash their front door in and shoot up the place, because there are no drugs inside. What a relief!

Yeah, we have to fight them over there, so that we don’t have to fight them over here.

OK, let’s cut to the chase here. This is America, the land of the free and the home of the brave. The land of innate human rights backed up by the Constitution, especially the Bill of Rights. All of us know this and we repeat it monotonously and mindlessly whenever the government, represented by the president (currently Trump), overrides The Supreme Law of the Land and tramples and abuses the citizenry. But, but, but…that’s not constitutional. That’s not allowed. That’s illegal. OK, tell that to your Congressperson or Senator the next time you see them…if you ever get a chance to see them, which isn’t likely unless they’re in your district stumping for re-election, at which time they will tell you anything to get you off their back AND get your vote in the upcoming election.

  1. Donald Trump, representing the US government, declared the crew members “criminal” and not worthy of life.
  2. Donald Trump, taking matters into his own hands, ordered them killed without recourse to any of the legalities which Make America Great.
  3. The boat was destroyed in international waters, on the high seas. This makes Trump a pirate, a modern-day one, to be sure, but absolutely no different in principle than other pirates throughout the ages.
  4. Trump has, in effect, declared war on Venezuela and its people, some of whom probably are vicious rapists, killers, and drug-runners. However, the highly-revered and worshipped Constitution insists that Congress must declare war and the president is bound by it. Despite this impediment, none of America’s wars since WW2 have been lawfully declared, they just somehow happened, usually because the president and his henchmen decided that they could do anything they wanted…and did, to the detriment of an enormous number of people world-wide, including Americans. Oh, and BTW, Congress which should have stepped in and stopped it, did nothing at all.

If Trump sends the troops and gunboats into Venezuela to “arrest and neutralize” the drug-runners, especially the top dog, Nicholas Maduro, it is likely to immediately resemble the situation in Viet Nam during the “war” (undeclared) there. Venezuela is an ideal spot for a protracted guerilla war with rough, mountainous terrain, steaming rain forests, huge rivers, and a poverty-stricken population which might conclude they have nothing to lose except their lives in the battle against an invading hegemonic power. Even though the US would quickly gain air superiority and maintain control of the coast with its warships, the place is not suited for tank warfare nor would it be easily overrun by large armies, which the US cannot afford to lose.

The best that Trump, representing the government, could hope for is that the Maduro regime (don’t you love that word, always used against our enemies, never our friends) would be destabilized and run out of town (or, better yet, into a maximum security prison in El Salvador), giving the US the opportunity to install a puppet government to its own liking, a proxy which would act as it was told to and would speedily sign over Venezuela’s vast mineral rights (oil) to ExxonMobil, Shell, and the like.

It would be wise, however, to remember that Venezuela’s neighboring country, Colombia, suffered from a decades-long struggle which pitted a weak, centralized government against dedicated opposing guerillas, until they finally were able to come to an agreement and end the fighting. Would Venezuela be any different? Would ExxonMobil or Shell care? Would The Powers That Be who have unleashed Trump and sicced him onto a “crappy little country” which is only fit to be picked up and thrown against a wall? Would Trump himself care?

What is really going on? I can think of three things without ever breaking a sweat.

  1. Trump and the West have lost the war (excuse me, Special Military Operation) in Ukraine. The Russians have won it. There is no stopping it without submitting to Vlad Putin’s demands, all of which have been known publicly for years.
  2. The war in Gaza (excuse me, Special Military Operation) is going badly for Israel and its constantly attentive, muscular, sycophantic groupie, the US State. Every day that Israel beats up, shoots down, tortures, rapes, and starves innocent people, mainly women and children, is another day in which world opinion increasingly turns against it. Like Ukraine, the war is lost but it cannot be admitted and will not be quit nor surrendered until the bitter end.
  3. Jeffrey Epstein. Ahhhhh! You thought I would never get there, didn’t you? It’s OK, you can exhale now. Yep, good ole Jeff is reaching out from beyond the grave (if he is actually dead which is not certain for sure) and causing havoc, panic, and consternation among the power-brokers who think that they had control of the narrative on this sordid affair. Do you believe that there is no list? Do you believe that Donald Trump is on that list? Do you believe that Ghislaine Maxwell is telling the truth? Do you believe that all the young girls who were supposedly seduced and manipulated willingly cooperated and that there were absolutely no victims among them? Do you believe that Thomas Massie is going to give up on his efforts to expose ALL the records held by the government?

What is more probable is that Trump and the cronies around, beneath, and over him are scared to death, terrified of being exposed, and doing what they do best to distract the public by creating a diversion, the best diversion, the one most guaranteed to turn the attention of the public away from the issue–war. A war which will accomplish its purpose, meant to take the heat off the current crisis which is threatening severe consequences on people who have acted with impunity for decades, believing like Trump, that they can do whatever they want.

Psalms 2 tells what happens when kings, rulers, and nations get too big for their britches. It’s not a good place to be.

The Smell of Blood Money

Roger MitchellLeave a comment

Whoohoo! Happy days are here again.

Europe To Spend $100BN It Doesn’t Have, To Buy Weapons America Doesn’t Have, To Arm Soldiers Ukraine Now Lacks

This is the headline of an article on ZeroHedge which attempts to explain what happened in Washington yesterday between Donald Trump and the seven dwarves of Europe1 in their discussion of the situation in Ukraine.

Here’s what Trump had to say after the meeting.

Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
I had a very good meeting with distinguished guests, President
Volodymyr Zelenskyy, of Ukraine, President Emmanuel Macron,
of France, President Alexander Stubb, of Finland, Prime Minister
Giorgia Meloni, of Italy, Prime Minister Keir Starmer, of the United
Kingdom, Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany,
Friedrich Merz, President of the European Commission, Ursula
von der Leyen, and Secretary General of NATO, Mark Rutte, in
the White House, which ended in a further meeting in the Oval
Office. During the meeting we discussed Security Guarantees for
Ukraine, which Guarantees would be provided by the various
European Countries, with a coordination with the United States
of America. Everyone is very happy about the possibility of
PEACE for Russia/Ukraine. At the conclusion of the meetings, I
called President Putin, and began the arrangements for a
meeting, at a location to be determined, between President Putin
and President Zelenskyy. After that meeting takes place, we will
have a Trilat, which would be the two Presidents, plus myself.
Again, this was a very good, early step for a War that has been
going on for almost four years. Vice President JD Vance,
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Special Envoy Steve
Witkoff, are coordinating with Russia and Ukraine. Thank you for
your attention to this matter!

Yes, he should be happy and quite proud of himself because, just a few minutes later he said this in response to a question from a reporter.

“We’re not giving anything. We’re selling weapons,”

Spoken like a true hero and peacemaker, a very compassionate, loving way to make the stakeholders of the military-industrial complex (MIC) extremely happy. And richer than ever. Yes, the sale of weapons is really what counts in this matter. BLM! Bottom Lines Matter! The war in Ukraine can eventually be brought to an end–someday–AFTER we have milked this cash cow for as much as we can get out of it. Did it ever cross his mind that while he’s raking in the dough along with his cronies (partners-in-crime) that average, everyday people in Ukraine are being mercilessly slaughtered?

The fact of the matter is that Donald (Colonel Bombast) Trump could end the war in Ukraine in one day, just as he promised he would while on the campaign trail. All he would have to do is to declare that the US would no longer write any more checks to Ukraine, it would no longer allow US weapons to be transferred to Ukraine (whether they were given or paid for), it would no longer use its intelligence “services” to coordinate and work with Ukraine, it would immediately drop the sanctions imposed on Russia, and demand that the EU follow in lockstep with his directive.

Boom! End of war. But he won’t do that. We all heard that, right? “We’re not giving anything. We’re selling weapons.”

Ain’t it grand?

  1. Starmer (UK), Macron (France), Merz (Germany), Meloni (Italy), Stubb (Finland), Rutte (NATO), and the smallest of them all, Ukraine’s own, Vlad Zelenskiy, plus the fairy godmother, Ursula von der Leyen, the head honcho of the European Commission, who can’t resist the temptation to keep the war going at any cost. ↩︎

Colonel Bombast: “He Shouldn’t Have Said That.”

Roger Mitchell4 Comments

“AND I’M GOING TO SLAP HIM SILLY BECAUSE HE DID!”

On Friday, August 1, Donald Trump stated that he had ordered two US nuclear submarines to be “repositioned in the appropriate areas” as a response to a statement made by Dimitry Medvedev, one of Vlad Putin’s close advisors and a former president of the Russian state.

https://apnews.com/article/trump-nuclear-submarines-repositioned-medvedev-f8e9b870fa107f6b6209e7a22f8ada43

This is high-stakes theater at its most hilarious, or it would be if it wasn’t also extremely dangerous for the entire world.

So, really what did Medvedev say and why did Trump feel the need to respond so forcefully, not only with his rhetoric but also with the action described above?

“Trump’s playing the ultimatum game with Russia: 50 days or 10… He should remember 2 things: 1. Russia isn’t Israel or even Iran. 2. Each new ultimatum is a threat and a step towards war,” –Dimitry Medvedev

To which, of course Trump couldn’t resist answering.


“…tell Medvedev, the failed former President of Russia, who thinks he’s still President, to watch his words. He’s entering very dangerous territory!” — Donald Trump

All this culminated with his announcement that he had ordered the subs into position. What a joke! What a farce! What a circus! The comedy of this exceeds even that of the recent 12-day “war” with Iran which ended with the US strikes on three of Iran’s nuclear facilities and Iran’s subsequent strike on al-Udeid Air Base in Qatar, all of which were given advance notice so as to not let the situation escalate out of hand. Blow for show, in other words, akin to the ridiculous “sport” known as professional wrestling.

The only problem is that we might all be blown to smithereens if something goes horribly wrong.

  1. Trump ordered two nuclear subs into the “appropriate area”, just in case. Well, just in case, what exactly?
  2. Are these subs nuclear-powered or nuclear-armed? This is a big difference and highly crucial. Nuclear-powered subs with conventional weapons are not the same as nuclear-armed subs which can take out an entire country with one salvo.
  3. Did the Pentagon actually send these subs to their new coordinates or was this “order” simply ignored because wiser heads decided not to follow it and only played along with the game, stroking Trump’s ego so he could feel like he’s really in control?
  4. Has Russia responded to Trump’s “repositioning” by doing some of their own? Did they already have subs in position somewhere off the eastern seaboard of the Atlantic Ocean, say, 500 miles east of New Jersey, ready at a moment’s notice to take out Washington, D.C., New York City, Philadelphia, and Boston? Is this a legitimate possibility?

Trump, for all the good he has done in educating the average American about the dangers of being subservient to the Deep State, sounds like he has taken his own words to heart, believing that all he has to do is issue ultimatums, threats, and veiled insinuations at which everyone else, including his own closest enemies, will repent of their sins with fear and trembling. “B’God, those pesky Russians, especially Medvedev, had better shut their potty mouths and start listening to me. Or else!”

The major problem with this is that he has offered up so much bullshit in the past that he has no credibility left on the world stage when he speaks. Remember that he promised to end the Ukraine War in twenty-four hours once he had gained the Oval Office? Yeah, well, things aren’t quite as simple as they appeared when he was playing to throngs of adoring audiences on the campaign trail.

Trump, in my opinion, is increasingly seen as someone who can be ignored and sidelined. He is not consistent, does not act diplomatically, refuses to hold to his word even when it hurts, bluffs constantly, and does not hesitate to change course politically if he thinks it will benefit him. Compared to this, Vladimir Putin comes across as reasonable, calm, logical, unmoving, and steadfast.

But, then, what should I expect? After all, I did compare Trump to a wrecking ball, appointed only to destroy what already is to clear the way for what will be. With all due respect to that, I am not disappointed. It is happening. In real time. And we get to watch it unfold.

Hang on to your life. Trump isn’t going to.

Face it, MAGA! The Man lied to You.

Roger MitchellLeave a comment

And you still act like a groupie?

I am really confused. Why did Donald Trump spend so much time and energy on the campaign trail talking about releasing the Epstein files and then refusing to actually do it when he had the power to make it happen? Kash Patel and Dan Bongino are both small potatoes and it’s obvious that someone or something scared them s*itless. But Trump? He’s as big as they come and should have seen the way the wind was blowing, yet continued on with his endless, mindlessly bloviating promises to his supporters who ate them up like red meat thrown to a mad, ravenous pack of wild dogs. Something doesn’t add up, in my opinion. I don’t know what. Two things come to mind, though:

  1. Trump was completely clueless when he was on the trail and no one bothered to set him straight even though it was plainly evident he was going to triumph “bigly” over Kamala Harris and sweep into Washington with a huge, cohesive mandate to clean house, only to find out later, after the fact, that he couldn’t say anything at all, could not expose any of the putrid rotting stench emanating from the scandal, or,
  2. He understood all along what was going on and simply misled his followers (true believers, all), telling them what they wanted to hear, a.k.a., itching ears syndrome, knowing full-well that he would abandon them as soon as he could and do it in such a fashion that there would be no question about walking it back.

I find it difficult to believe the first option. If he didn’t know, he should have. Trump has been in bed, so to speak, with the muckety-muck, high-powered, extremely wealthy, movers and shakers all his life. He had the overt backing of Miriam Adelson, an ardent Zionist, to the tune of $100 million tossed into his campaign budget. He was closeted with numerous other Zionist proponents and made his intentions toward Israel plain, earning himself the derogatory nickname, “Zion Don”. To say that none of these well-connected persons, among many others, had an inkling about Epstein’s (alleged) connections to Mossad and did not caution him to tone down the rhetoric is unlikely. Either they knew and kept quiet or they were also clueless.

Given my opinion of government and political leaders, it is easier for me to assume, without proof, mind you, that he blatantly flat-out lied to gain votes and backing. Part of the game, you know. Anything goes. The end justifies the means. After all, the man does not have a reputation for honesty or honest dealing and has shown his utter contempt for anyone who dared to show even a smidgeon of resistance over his actions. Thomas Massie, for instance, the embodiment of America First, whom Trump has declared persona non grata over their differences on a budget bill. Or the millions of MAGA men and women he casually jettisoned when the notice on Epstein was given because they became upset at the news. Or the hundreds of J6’ers and their families that he let twist in the wind because it was convenient when he could have laid down the law and turned them loose forthwith.

No, I have no problem at all saying that Trump deliberately lied to “his” people, the very ones whom he rode into the White House for the second time, or maybe the third, depending on who you ask. The only thing that adds a jarring, discordant note to my theory is that he appeared to be visibly agitated and angry (watch Marco Rubio’s eyes speak volumes while he says nothing at all) at the hearing which broke the news that Epstein had no client list, that there was no evidence of pedophilia, no blackmail, and that there would be no more investigations on the subject. “It is finished”, thundered the verdict, sealing the box closed forever, much as the Romans hoped to do when they rolled a massive stone over the tomb where Jesus’ body was laid after his crucifixion. (Note: see here for more similarities between Jesus Christ and Jeffrey Epstein)

Why was Trump so angry? Why did he lash out at the reporter who dared to ask him a simple question about the files? If he was complicit with the scheme all along AND if he was an accomplished liar as I have asserted, it would seem logical that he would have simply blown this all off with a practiced air of aplomb and sangfroid. He most definitely was not as “cool as a cucumber” under the pressure. I cannot decide if his moral conscience was bubbling up to the surface and struggling to be let out or if he was truly livid at the fact that his word was being questioned and that the issue refused to die. Probably the second. If his name was Greta Thunberg, his response would have been “How dare you?”

If he didn’t know, he was incompetent. If he did know, he was complicit. Either way, he deserves to be turned out of office and relegated to the “dustbin of history”. Officially, this would happen after the 2026 elections IF the Democrats manage to scrape together a majority of Congress, but this is not certain because it appears they are actively trying to collectively commit suicide and destroy the party. Constitutionally, it could happen IF J.D. Vance were to depose him with the strong support of Trump’s cabinet via the 25th Amendment, Section IV, which we were introduced to during the waning days of the Biden Administration. It does look, at least to my untrained eye, like he has visibly changed and grown old in the last few months and his speech and actions increasingly seem to be schizophrenic and erratic.

Regardless, public trust in the federal government has been broken, probably irrevocably, and Epstein’s List may loom large in the history books as the straw that broke the camel’s back. I tend to agree with Charles Hugh Smith who seems to think so.

“Perhaps when we look back on the Epstein Affair, we’ll understand that it broke the back of Americans’ faith in their political and law enforcement institutions. A great many Americans are not party loyalists; they voted for Donald Trump as the independent “outsider” who vowed to clean house, an independent who used one of the parties as a convenient platform.”

“If even an “outsider” is incapable of cleaning house, then it’s hopeless, and if the two parties have failed us, then where do we turn? That is both an open question, and a taboo, for the corporate media is already churning out narrative control about the 2028 election being a “contest” (heh) between flimsy cardboard cutouts of failed ideological covers for systemic corruption.”

“America’s elites aren’t above the law; there is no law. But don’t say it out loud; it’s an unbreakable taboo.”

No, don’t say anything out loud. Just sweep it under the rug and hope that no one notices.

Face it, MAGA. You’ve been lied to. And you took it.

Jesus, Jeffrey, and Existential Paranoia

Roger Mitchell3 Comments

I have read that one of the reasons why Jeffrey Epstein’s (non-existent) list of wealthy, powerful men and women will not be released is that it would cause so much turmoil and chaos that the entire Western system of government could collapse. Under such a scenario, the Pullers-of-Strings who now control the corridors of power would be exposed to public ridicule, scorn, and hatred on such a level that they would be deposed and someone else would take their place, thus upending the entire apple cart.

God forbid! We can’t have that! This is America, after all, the land of the fraudulent and the home of the buffoons.

Well, bring it on. I’m down with that.

“It is preferable that one man should die than that the whole nation should perish.” — John 11:50

Two thousand years ago, the high priest Caiaphas used this argument to persuade his fellow priests and Pharisees that it would be better for the Jewish nation if Jesus Christ were to die, thus creating the rationale which they immediately pursued with single-minded zeal.

“Then from that day on, they plotted to put Him to death.” — John 11:53

In this sense, Jeffrey Epstein and Jesus Christ are alike and Donald Trump is acting like Caiaphas, trying his dead-level best to quell an uprising which might very well cause the overturning of the nation, the death of the current power regime. If only Epstein would just die and be dead and go away forever, everything would be MAGA for all eternity. In Donald’s view, that is. The rest of us might beg to differ.

The only problem is that Epstein, although being dead (?) for more than five years, simply won’t stay that way and his “resurrected presence” haunts The Powers That Be (whoever they might be, Trump is only a puppet on a string) to this day. Jesus was dead for three days and His resurrection and Presence have created consternation, worry, and fear among rulers and tyrants ever since.

The truth cannot be buried forever. Sooner or later, it will be brought to life and the agents of death have no power to stop that from happening. In fact, the more they try to suppress it, the more pressure is brought to bear on the issue. Eventually, all will be known. No telling how long it will take, but Jeffrey Epstein will “out” and the world will finally know what is actual and real about his “little black book”, whose names are written therein, and what their deeds amounted to. My guess is that once Epstein’s List has been made fully public, JFK, the USS Liberty incident, and 9/11 will follow soon after.

Like that of Jesus’ day, the world paradigm is changing. Trump, like Caiaphas, is fighting a losing battle.

There are a lot of “conspiracy theories” wandering around about Epstein’s cadre of associates, all of whom plausibly deny that they had sex with any of his girls, many of whom were under the legal age of consent. Take your pick. I’m not going to regurgitate them more than I already have (see the opening paragraph above). What I am going to mention is that someone, arguably more powerful than Trump, got to him and his staff in some “yuuge” way, enough so that they lied through their rattling, clattering, clacking teeth about the issue. Just watching their body language and the way they reacted to comments or questions was enough to convince me. The real question is “whodunit”? I don’t think it was a coincidence that Trump did a 180 turn as soon as he walked Bibi Netanyahu out the door of the Oval Office and kissed him goodbye. There are no coincidences in politics. Draw your own conclusions from that.

While there are no coincidences in politics, there certainly is irony, and what I find deliciously ironic is that history, which doesn’t repeat itself, appears to be rhyming. The Jewish leaders of Jesus’ day were the ones who openly schemed to have Him crucified, believing that He wouldn’t be able to “stir up” more trouble if he were dead and buried. Wouldn’t it be sweet if their modern-day compadres (those who will not be named, use your imagination to determine who I mean) were the ones to stifle and suffocate Epstein to death (even though he’s (allegedly) already dead), in the vain attempt to keep him (or at least his List) from creating extreme difficulty, hardship, pain, and suffering for them and their untold, unlimited riches and power.

The more I think about this, the more excited I get.

“Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming upon you! Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be a witness against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have heaped up treasure in the last days. Indeed the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out; and reached the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. — James 5: 1-4

“The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and against His anointed, saying, “Let us break Their bonds in pieces and cast away Their cords from us.” He who sits in the heavens shall laugh; the Lord shall hold them in derision. Then He shall speak to them in His wrath and distress them in His deep displeasure.” — Psalm 2: 2-5

I would not want to be in their shoes. Nothing would be worth that.

Epstein Revisited: Random Thoughts on the Debacle

Roger Mitchell1 Comment

“Some men’s sins are clearly evident, preceding them to judgment, but those of some men follow later.” –1 Timothy 5:24

Jeffrey Epstein is gone, so it is said, and he has been preceded by widespread judgment about his evident sins. There are those whose sins have not yet been made evident, but their time is coming. Those sins may be covered up and secreted away for a time, but sooner or later, the evidence will be brought into the light. They cannot be hidden forever.

How do these people sleep at night? With everything that is going on in the current Epstein saga, it would seem that they must be frantic, wondering how and when their own “sins” are going to be exposed for the whole world to see. This explains why there is so much time, effort, and expense being implemented to keep the whole affair under very tight wraps.

Donald Trump and his administration have lit a fire which will not be easily extinguished. My opinion is that it will not be, but will burn and burn until the whole landscape is scorched and blackened. Blatantly and deliberately lying about everything to do with this does nothing except add more fuel to the fire. Refusing to allow “transparency” to do its work does nothing except make people more curious and generates what might be called a feeding frenzy. Call it the Streisand Effect.

“The Streisand Effect, also known as the Barbra Streisand Syndrome, refers to the phenomenon where attempts to suppress, hide, or censor information result in increased public attention and dissemination of that information. The term originated from an incident in 2003 when Barbra Streisand sued photographer Kenneth Adelman and Pictopia.com for publishing an aerial photograph of her Malibu home, which inadvertently drew far more attention to the image than it would have otherwise received.”

“The effect is often attributed to psychological reactance, where people become more motivated to seek out information that is deliberately hidden or restricted. This phenomenon has been observed in various contexts, including legal battles, online censorship, and corporate attempts to manage public perception. For example, when companies or individuals try to remove content from the internet, it often leads to the content becoming more widely shared and discussed.”

“Other notable examples include the case of Sci-Hub, where the founder’s efforts to make academic papers freely available led to increased attention and support for the platform despite legal challenges. Similarly, attempts by organizations like the Church of Scientology to censor information about Tom Cruise resulted in greater public interest and dissemination of the content.”

“The Streisand Effect highlights the challenges of controlling information in the digital age, where the act of suppression can often amplify the very information it seeks to conceal.” — from a Brave AI search

No amount of frantic shoveling is going to bury this monster. Trump and his team would be better off if they just simply told the truth and let the chips fall where they would. The chances of this happening, of course, are slim to none, as these people, their associates, acquaintances, and handlers have no knowledge about the timeless wisdom which encourages people to,

“Confess your sins to one another…so that you may be healed.” — James 5:16

Who is the big winner in all this? Not Trump, Bondi, Bongino, nor Patel. They are tarnished forever. However, there is one person who appears (at least to me) likely to benefit greatly from this debacle and the visible rending of the MAGA movement: Thomas Massie. Remember how Trump vowed to “primary” Massie because of his resistance to the “Big, Beautiful Bill”? If Massie plays this right, he can parlay the anger, antipathy, and feeling of betrayal against Trump into another landslide victory. All he has to do is keep the incident openly in front of his constituents and encourage the “backsliders” to join with him. Between now and the 2026 primary, this will (should) play a “yuuuge” part in Massie’s campaign.

It was only a year ago that Kamala Harris was attacked from all sides because she did not call out Joe Biden’s obvious (evident) mental deterioration and take action to remove him from the office. How long will it be before J.D. Vance is roasted for the same “sin”, because it is clearly evident that Trump is rapidly losing it. He cannot maintain a coherent narrative or program, constantly changes his story or policy for no good reason, and appears to be increasingly schizophrenic. Trump is becoming completely unhinged and Vance, for the good of the country and the world, will have to step in, sooner or later, and guide him off the stage–calmly and quietly if possible, but forcefully if necessary.

If the Democrats regain control of Congress in 2026, impeachment proceedings against Trump will almost certainly follow and the likelihood that he will be run out of office increases dramatically. Vance, by acting pre-emptively could eliminate this possibility and set himself up in good shape for a 2028 presidential run. I have no doubt, politics being politics1, that he has considered this.

In spite of all this, many people will continue on with their worship and adulation of Trump, believing fervently that he is The Answer to all the problems which face themselves and America. What will it take to bring them to a point where they are able to see the light, to wash the mud out of their eyes, to confess their sins of idolatry? I do not know, but I suspect it will not be pleasant nor wealth-generating.

These are interesting times. May you prosper and succeed even as you live in them.

  1. I describe politics as the practice of getting what you want by manipulating other people and is always at their expense, to their detriment, which is an adaptation of this quote by Frederic Bastiat–“Government is the great fiction, through which everybody endeavours to live at the expense of everybody else.” — https://poorrogersalmanac.com/2024/10/19/the-practice-of-politics-continued/ See also here. ↩︎

Officially Confirmed: Epstein Did(n’t) Kill Himself

Roger Mitchell7 Comments

“Never believe anything (in politics) until it has been officially denied.”

By this time, you probably are aware that an “official” statement has been made concerning Jeffrey Epstein, the front-man of the criminal blackmailing scheme which (allegedly) video-taped numerous high and mighty men of “elite” status engaging in sex acts with (allegedly) under-age girls. According to this memo, Epstein did not traffic any under-age (or over-age, for that matter) girls or women. He did not blackmail anyone. There are no lists of clients who availed themselves of his “services”.

Officially, Epstein has been exonerated from all charges, rumors, insinuations, and any type of misinformation and disinformation which anyone might care to promote and expound on. Officially, he has been declared a saint and all efforts to sully his name will be squelched. Officially, that is. Actually, I’m quite surprised that they didn’t deny the existence of the “Lolita Express” which Bill Clinton, Bill Gates, and Prince Andrew, among others, including Trump, did not ride on.

Most importantly, according to this report, he really did kill himself, contrary to the headline of this article. Committed suicide. By himself. With assistance from no one. This, despite all the circumstantial evidence which shows that there is a three-day dead cat in the woodpile somewhere which stinks to high heaven. Video cameras which didn’t work in a high-security prison. Video which is clipped and cropped mysteriously at exactly the moment in question. Guards who fell asleep and did not check on him every 30 minutes in flagrant violation of the rules. Cellmates which were transferred to another location the day previous to the incident. Broken bones in his neck which are more representative of strangulation by force rather than voluntary suicide by hanging.

Nothing to see here, move on.

Donald Trump, AG Pam Bondi, FBI director Kash Patel and his right-hand man Dan Bongino have all come out and courageously verified what everyone knows deep down to be the truth, i.e., that THERE IS NOTHING TRUE AT ALL about the rumors and speculation surrounding Epstein and his girl Friday, Ghislaine Maxwell, who is actually serving a twenty year sentence for, get this, trafficking under-age girls for sex with powerful men who were on the list which doesn’t exist. No, there is nothing true about all this.

Now, that last sentence is absolutely true. The whole thing is a farce, a lie, a cover-up. It ranks at least as high as the JFK assassination in Dallas on November 22, 1963, in which Lee Harvey Oswald was the lone gunman and one of his bullets changed course abruptly in four different directions. The major difference between these two instances is that there are still many people who swear by the Warren Commission report about Kennedy, while today virtually no one believes the line about Epstein, even if they do parrot the “official” narrative and carry water for those who pull their strings.

There is one other similarity between JFK and Epstein. The case is closed. Closed. Officially closed. There will be no more investigation, no more fact-finding ventures, no more questioning, no more publicity, no more “conspiracy theorizing”. The administration of Donald Trump and Co. has issued its last report and there will be no release of any files pertaining to the matter. In due time, it will all be forgotten.

Except that it won’t be. There is simply too much about this that doesn’t pass the smell test. Anyone with a sense of reason, common sense, and a nose for the truth can discern that we have been lied to…again, this time with vehemence, bigly, as Trump would say. Just a few days ago, Trump aggressively reacted to a journalist who asked him a question about the sordid mess. Bondi testified to a “list of clients” which was on her desk in February waiting for her attention, but somehow it vanished within three months. Patel and Bongino went into office vowing to overhaul the FBI and cleanse it of corruption, but changed their tune as soon as they were installed.

And the beat goes on.

The one good thing to come out of this is that people who once would have believed whatever they were told by the authorities can now see the brazen lie for what it is. A brazen lie. We know that they are lying. They know that we know they are lying. We know that they know that we know they are lying. The beat goes on. However, with each passing day, as more and more people express their skepticism and disbelief, it becomes more difficult for those in power to maintain the farce. We have been lied to so much, so many times, about so many things that no one believes them anymore. My father had a story about a man he knew who had the reputation of a liar. If he came by and said, “Good morning”, you would go to bed, thinking it was night. This is where we are at today.

Remember Aesop’s Fable about the boy who cried, “Wolf!” and the beating he got when the townspeople finally got tired of his shenanigans? Why should we expect anything different to happen here?

Government and its attendant institutions have lost the trust of the American citizenry. Blind faith in the system has been shattered and will never be restored. Donald Trump has shot his bolt…and missed. From here on out, he will be increasingly irrelevant until he disappears like Pam Bondi’s “client list”.

“I have seen the wicked in great power, and spreading himself like a native green tree. Yet he passed away, and behold he was no more; indeed, I sought him, but he could not be found.” — Psalm 37: 35-36

Try as much as I can, I am unable to call to mind anyone at present who does not spread himself more than Donald Trump. When it comes to calling attention to himself, he has no equal. In his world, there is only One and He knows it. Reminds me of Nebuchadnezzar, who was also compared to a tree and was cut down to size. See Daniel 4 for the story.

No Going Back. The Rubicon is Behind Us

Roger MitchellLeave a comment

That didn’t take long.

On June 19, I posted an opinion that Donald Trump would not attack Iran and listed several reasons why I considered it possible, even likely. Less than three days later, my reputation as a geo-political forecaster lay in wreckage, much like the Fordow nuclear station in Iran after it was (allegedly) hit by numerous bunker-busters delivered by Trump’s B2 “stealth” bombers. My mistake, it seems, was supposing that Trump would act rationally and reasonably because America (meaning he) had too much to lose. Wishful thinking on my part. I threw the dice and wound up snake-eyes.

“In gambling, snake eyes is the outcome of rolling the dice in a game and getting only one pip on each die. The pair of pips resembles a pair of eyes, which is appended to the term ‘snake’ because of the long-standing association of this word with treachery and betrayal.” — https://gambiter.com/dice/Snake_eyes.html

Treachery and betrayal. After a few days of reading commentary from various sources, it appears to be quite certain that the DT1 has been quite adept at playing this kind of game over the last few weeks. First, after the Israeli attack on Iran which killed many top nuclear scientists and military leaders, came his admission that he knew about it beforehand, yet gave out that negotiations were still on track so as to deceive the Iranians into remaining complacent and letting their guard down. Second (this is where I made my bet), was when he proclaimed that he would make his decision known to the world within two weeks, giving the impression that he was allowing things to cool down, while all the time planning to send in the B-2 bombers and missiles.

Sucker punches! The whole thing reeks to high heaven of treachery and betrayal, and the one thing that Trump has just demonstrated to the entire world is that he is not capable of honest, above-board dealing. From now on, his word will be distrusted, as will that of those underlings who are close to him. With respect to this, America has lost its credibility and trust, even among its own “allies”, although without doubt, they (especially Great Britain) will follow his lead, doubling down on one disastrous move after another until the entire West is out of chips and retired from the game.

Constitutionally speaking2, Trump does not have the authority to declare war or to attack another country on his own initiative and say-so. Congress holds the constitutional responsibility to declare war, but has abdicated in every conflict since WW2 ended, beginning with the Korean War. There are noises, at least little grunts, being made about taking that back, including a war powers resolution introduced into the House by Thomas Massie, R-KY, and Ro Khanna, D-CA, but this is not likely to gain any traction and Trump will probably carry on virtually unimpeded. Impeachment for his “crimes” may occur if he loses and will not even be mentioned if he wins. However, the odds for impeachment rise dramatically if the Democrats retake control of the House in 2026.

The one sure and certain way that Congress could put a dent into the military ventures abroad would be to simply draw the purse strings tight, denying the administration (DOD, MIC, etc.) the necessary funds to support such endeavors. If representatives and senators exercised fiscal sanity and rectitude, they would just say “No”, and all this would come to an end.

Will this happen any time soon? Will pigs fly tomorrow? To ask these questions is to answer them as virtually every Congress critter is in the pay and thrall of the MIC or AIPAC, very likely both. Where is Jeanette Rankin when you need her? She was, after all, the only Congress(person) to vote against becoming involved in both WW1 and WW2, actually casting the only “No” vote in 1941 after the attack on Pearl Harbor, which ended her political career. Talk about sticking to principles regardless of cost!

BTW, Trump is far from the first president to “unofficially” sidestep the Constitutional restraints because they were too restrictive and confining. He certainly won’t be the last.

In 1953, President Dwight D. Eisenhower, a participant in aptly named Operation Keelhaul, had this to say in his Chance for Peace speech.

“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.”

Sometimes, at least twice a day, even a broken clock tells the right time and in this, Eisenhower spoke the unvarnished truth. Every dollar spent on war and war armaments is a dollar NOT spent on feeding and clothing those who are hungry and naked. Every dollar spent to visit destruction and death on others is not a dollar spent to alleviate the misery and heartache of the human condition. This is not to say that we should stop the funding the “Warfare State” in favor of the “Welfare State”, but simply a recognition that lavishly slathering the militaristic sections of society with obscene amounts of “grease” is not conducive to building up and maintaining the American Dream.

Unfortunately, there are too many people in these United States who profit mightily from the carnage. There are too many who may not profit financially but thrive in the smug belief that they, as part of the American Empire, are elevated above those who are debased. There are too many who simply believe that Donald (Cap’n Warp Speed)3 Trump is the new Messiah and can do no wrong.

America MUST be saved! MOVE OVER, JESUS, AND MAKE WAY FOR THE DONALD!!

In the end, though, Trump will only be with us a little while longer. When he is gone, who will take his place, or perhaps more importantly, what will be our condition when he vacates? Of one thing I am certain, it will not be pretty, gentle, nor compassionate. We should be prepared for THE REAL DEAL to be visited on us in all its brutal, tyrannical, vicious, and murderous ways because, as the Word tells us,

“Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” — Luke 6:38

Candidly speaking, America has “given” death and destruction to many, many others throughout its history and become, so to speak, drunk with its power to the point of reckless arrogance. Is there any reason to believe that our “generosity” will not be measured back to us in spades?

Jesus Christ does not share His throne or His Glory. With anyone. Donald Trump, kiss the Son while you still can. You might spare America an enormous amount of grief.

  1. DT is also an abbreviation of the term ‘delirium tremens‘, which refers to the symptoms suffered by an alcoholic subjected to abrupt withdrawal after a bout of heavy drinking. I tend to think that Donald Trump is only the first manifestation. ↩︎
  2. I am of the Lysander Spooner persuasion. I have never signed nor agreed to the stipulations of the Constitution, therefore, as a contractual obligation, I am not subject to it. Ted Weiland has a different take on it. You can read his viewpoint here. ↩︎
  3. I use this term because many people are aware of it and make the connection to Trump’s work to force the Covid-19 farce and fiasco on the world. Personally, I prefer to call him Colonel Bombast, which is a reference to the clownish power-mad character, Baron Bomburst, in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. If you can imagine Trump with a full moustache, the two would even resemble each other. ↩︎

Elon Musk: Honest Outrage or Play-acting?

Roger Mitchell3 Comments

Perhaps I was too hard on Elon Musk. Perhaps. Time will tell. But, he’s a big boy and can handle a little bit of honest opinion, truthful or not.

Nevertheless, I still think my criticism has validity and this article bears that out. Musk is a businessman who tried to operate in Washington under business-like protocols and was screwed as a result. It bears repeating–government is not a business nor can it be run like a business. I do give him credit for discovering that, however, and hope that he will continue to entertain the notion and allow it to guide his future. His outrage at the Republican version of out-of-control government spending appears to be, seems to be, heartfelt and sincere. Unlike his erstwhile boss, Donald Trump, who simply cannot resist owning it.

“Passing THE ONE, BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL is a Historic Opportunity to turn our Country around,” Trump posted on social media. He urged senators Monday “to work as fast as they can to get this Bill to MY DESK before the Fourth of JULY.”

There is nothing ambiguous about this bill. It will raise federal spending by a huge amount, increases the deficit, and raises the so-called “debt ceiling” (a misnomer which means nothing since it is ignored continually). Granted that there are some concessions (No Tax on Tips, for instance), but the fact remains that the entire spectacle is a smoke-and-mirrors show, orchestrated entirely by the Republican Party and Donald Trump, which will do absolutely nothing to slow down or stop America’s headlong plunge into the bottomless pit of bankruptcy and fiscal destruction.

Yeah, but…! Yeah, but…!

“And the beat goes on. The beat goes on.” — Sonny and Cher

In my opinion, Donald Trump is like the character, Baron Bomburst, in the movie “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang”, except that I think the moniker, Colonel Bombast, would be more appropriate. It will take an enormous amount of positive change on his part to persuade me otherwise. Elon Musk, though, may have made a breakthrough with me and should he run for President in 2028 (if there is an election), I might decide to get on board.

But, no, probably not. I’m in the process of cleaning myself up and, regardless how you might portray it, politics is dirty.

Here Doggy, Dogge, DOGE!

Roger Mitchell3 Comments

Aaaaaaand, he’s gone! Elon Musk has left the Trump Administration and is no longer heading up the DOGE (doggy) branch of government. Apparently, after identifying a few billion dollars of waste that could be cut from the federal budget, Musk decided it was easier to call it quits than to continue butting heads with The Beast which is Washington, D.C.

What a dog! Mangy, flea-bitten cur is more like it. [Editor’s note, just to clarify: This does not refer to Musk in person but to the program he headed, as if government efficiency could ever be achieved, even by the most ardent and capable practitioners. Efficient government ought to scare everyone. See the quote below by King George the First.]

Whatever happened to the $2 trillion goal in cuts which was bandied about? Gone, gone, gone. Ain’t gonna happen. Never had a chance. This lofty, unrealistic reach was in the same ballpark as Trump’s claim that he would end the Russia-Ukraine war in one day after he became President. How much do you hear about that now?

The problem, as I see it, is that Musk, Trump, and others of that ilk are businessmen. They make deals. They shake hands. They exchange money for services. All done in a, more or less, voluntary fashion by mutual agreement. More or less, with a good, healthy dollop of “help” from the taxpayer. But what they do not understand is that government does not operate according to business principles. Government is not a business and it cannot be run like a business. Or, as George Washington so aptly put it centuries ago,

“Government is not reason; it is not eloquence. It is force. And force, like fire, is a dangerous servant and a fearful master.”

Now, Musk might be reasonable but I don’t think he is eloquent. He is certainly sharp about the workings of money. Trump doesn’t even make any pretense about being reasonable but also understands money. And he talks a lot. Of course, verbosity of speech doesn’t necessarily equate to eloquence, but that’s a small thing. The point is that, in trying to impose their business tactics and ideals on the government, both have failed. Failed to the point that Congress just simply shrugs its collective shoulder and says, “So?”, then pushes through a “Big, Beautiful Bill” which hands over $1 trillion to an already obese Military-Industrial Complex (MIC). Thankfully, this still has to be passed by the Senate before Trump can sign off on it, so there is still a remote possibility that it might not be brought to life. Miracles do happen.

Government is force. There is no reforming it to make it more reasonable, palatable, nor consumer-friendly. Businesses and consumers buy and sell voluntarily, making transactions on a daily basis because they are willing to give up what they have in favor of what someone else offers. Government doesn’t care about any of this, rather, if it wants what someone else has, it simply takes it. Or tries to, and only grows larger and more aggressive with the passage of time. Over time, as more and more people buy into the concept of “organized theft and redistribution”, the system becomes corrupt from the top to the bottom and eventually collapses and disappears, making way for something different to build out of the rubble.

Musk is out, presumably hitching a ride to Mars on your tax dollars. Trump is a wrecking ball destroying what has been built up over the last hundred years or so. Neither of them give a damn about us. Which brings me to another point–where are Montana’s Congress critters on this matter, this question about spending the country into glorious, indisputable, beautiful bankruptcy and destruction? Daines? Sheehy? Zinke? Downing? Not a word. Not a peep. Nothing but silence, or have they too joined the chorus?

“So?”

It wouldn’t be surprising if they did. After all, who can think of a better way to personally benefit than to ride this broken-down bronc until it buries its nose into the arena floor?

The Death of Due Process: Mahmoud Khalil

Roger Mitchell1 Comment

What in the world? This is America, after all, The Land of the Free and the Home of Constitutionally Protected Freedoms as delineated in the first ten amendments, commonly known as the Bill of Rights.

Chances are pretty good that if you were to ask any average American about Mahmoud Khalil, he or she would respond with one word. “Who?” If this person derived their politics from the right side of the ledger who vigorously supports Donald Trump, then the odds go up that, on learning about the status of Mahmoud Khalil, the answer would immediately come back with double the quantity of words and heightened intensity. “Good riddance!” In this, they will echo the words of Kristi Noem, who could not let a good opportunity go to waste.

A week ago, I posted an article in which I explored the issue of Tren de Aragua, a notorious, violent, criminal gang from Venezuela which operates internationally (including the United States), and was designated by Donald Trump as a Foreign Terrorist Organization via an Executive Order on his very first day in office, second term. Since then, the administration has been active in rounding up and deporting alleged gang members back to Venezuela or shipping them off to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador, whichever is easier, more effective, and less costly.

Let’s get one thing perfectly clear right now. I do not support the importation and keeping of violent criminals into this country. Undoubtedly, there are people here who ought to be removed from American society–violently, if necessary. Nevertheless, there are rules to follow in the process, the foremost among them being the 5th Amendment to the Constitution:

“No person shall be…deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law…” .

Now, of course, this brings up the question of whether or not the government is operating according to the 5th Amendment. I cannot say. I don’t know. If it is, well and good. If not, then we have a problem which will only get worse as social, economic, and political circumstances worsen and degrade. In order to maintain the trust of the American people, it is incumbent on the administration to make sure it works within the law whether it advances the political agenda or not.

Which brings us to Mahmoud Khalil. Born in Syria of Palestinian origin and a citizen of Algeria, legally admitted to the US with Green Card and permanent resident status, Columbia University student, married to an American woman, soon to be a father. He was arrested in the lobby of his apartment complex in New York City, on March 08, then shipped without notice to Jena, LA, where he was held incommunicado without notice to his attorney or pregnant wife. He was the first person arrested after Trump had promised to crack down on university student protests over the conflict in Gaza.

Obviously, Khalil had broken some law or committed a crime, right? After all, if you haven’t done anything wrong, you have nothing to be afraid of. Right? Why else would the government go after him if he was innocent? As it turns out, he had been involved in the protests at Columbia, acting as an intermediary between the university and the main body of participants. He had been open and cooperative with the university and the media and refused to mask his face, becoming widely known to the public and giving the administration a clear target to aim at in the battle against “anti-semitism”, a term no one can define well but which is politically useful. Sort of like “freedom-fighters” and “democracy”.

Marco Rubio, the current Secretary of State has alleged that Khalil engaged in “antisemitic protests and disruptive activities, which fosters a hostile environment for Jewish students in the United States”, but he produced no evidence to this effect and did not accuse Khalil of committing any crime whatsoever. In a court case before Jamee Conans, an immigration judge in Louisiana, Rubio brought out an arcane law as precedent to prove that he could legally deport Khalil, whether he was guilty of any wrong-doing or not. CNN described it this way.

“The administration previously said it based its deportation order for Khalil on an obscure provision from the Immigration and Nationality Act – which provides broad authority to the Secretary of State to revoke a person’s immigration status if their “activities in the United States would have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences” to the country.”

““For cases in which the basis for this determination is the alien’s past, current, or expected beliefs, statements, or associations that are otherwise lawful, the Secretary of State must personally determine that the alien’s presence or activities would compromise a compelling U.S. foreign policy interest,” the memo from the secretary reads.”

OK, let’s get this straight. Marco Rubio has applied an obscure regulation from 1952 to justify his action against Khalil, who has not had any criminal charges filed against him. According to the memo seen above, Khalil’s “past, current, or expected beliefs, statements, or associations that are otherwise lawful” are sufficient to require his deportation. His beliefs? His words? The company he keeps? Not only in the past and currently, but also those to happen at some time in the future?

What is this if not a full-throated assault on free speech in America, a guaranteed right covered by the 1st Amendment to the Constitution? If any Secretary of State (there are many, they change all the time) can determine arbitrarily that a person is a “threat to national security” at any time and for any reason, and use the overwhelming power of the federal government against them, does this not rip the guts out of the 1st Amendment? Since the powers-that-be today will not be those in charge tomorrow, how can anyone be certain that what he says or believes today will not be held against him tomorrow when the politics have shifted? The fact is that he cannot and this type of action by Rubio and Trump will only have a chilling effect on what is said and done in this country.

The 5th Amendment is toast. The 1st Amendment is almost gone. With those out of the way, who can guarantee that the 2nd Amendment, the so-called Right to bear Arms, will not be targeted next? When the Goon Squad breaks down your front door to confiscate your guns, what authority can you appeal to for deliverance, especially if you have refused to stand up for those who were taken out and beaten in the War against Free Speech, Beliefs, and Friendships?

Where is Martin Niemoeller when you need him?

The Trump administration has been given the green light to deport Khalil by Jamee Comans, an immigration law judge in Louisiana, who justified her ruling based on Rubio’s statement. Khalil’s lawyers have until April 23 to appeal the decision and it is quite possible that this case will be heard all the way to the Supreme Court.

An ironic twist to this saga is that the Leftists who were so keen to cancel, censor, and silence their critics a few years ago are now howling loudly on behalf of Mahmoud Khalil, while the Rightists who complained loudly and bitterly about being told to sit down and shut up are now advocating that Khalil be treated in exactly the same way. Or worse.

Fairness, integrity, and consistency. I guess it all depends on which version of justice you subscribe to. Go figure.

Weep, Our Beloved Country

Roger Mitchell5 Comments

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2025/03/no_author/international-law-is-now-suspended-if-not-eliminated/

“A law cannot exist if there are individuals or organizations that fall within its scope but which stand “above the law” — can’t be prosecuted no matter how flagrantly they violate it. EQUALITY BEFORE THE LAW IS THE FOUNDATION-STONE OF LAW, and if any exceptions can be allowed, those are ONLY the ones that are stated IN the law as being NOT within its scope — and, thus, the fundamental principle of law is that a law exists ONLY if all individuals or organizations that fall within its scope are subject to investigation and prosecution if they violate it. Otherwise, it’s NOT a “law.” To call it a law is false. The United States Government and its colonies such as Israel can’t be prosecuted for violating international law no matter how flagrantly they violate it. Consequently, international law no longer exists. What DOES exist, then? The traditional ethic does: Might makes right.”

Might makes right. More than anything else, this philosophy is the one which most people subscribe to and practice, regardless of what they privately espouse. It is the order of modern American politics which stands for holding to a particular model of government until power is seized, at which point all the “true” points are discarded in favor of raw power. Because we can, and the foot-soldiers in the trenches cheer and applaud everything which the top command is doing, whether it adheres to the principles espoused or not. Because the “war” must be won. By fair means or foul, and it doesn’t matter who gets hurt in the process. War is painful, after all, and the Dastardly Democrats or the Rascally Republicans must be beaten down, never to rise again, in order to usher in the Golden Age of Utopia for All Humanity. Er, I mean, all persons because it’s forbidden to create a label which includes the letters written as “…man…” Mankind, humanity, humankind, human beings, human rights, etc. All gone. All outlawed. All discarded. Because…discrimination, you know, which simply is nothing more than making a choice between different options and possibilities. There ought to be a law.

But seriously, folks.

I don’t follow Eric Zuesse. I do read his articles from time to time and I am never disappointed, even though I may disagree with him vehemently. In this case, I think he is spot on and his argument can be applied directly to what is happening today in American jurisprudence. Namely, the idea that the Executive Branch of federal government can do anything it wishes and no one will complain. Because…they can. Might makes right, indeed!

A law is not a law IF the people who administer the Law are above the Law and are not held accountable by the Law IF they transgress the Law. Can it be put more plainly than that? In other words, if Donald Trump, and Co., decide to move in a certain direction regardless of the Law, who is going to hold him (them) accountable? After all, they are the Power and, as everyone knows, Might makes Right.

Right? Of course, right.

OK, enough of beating around the bush. Let’s bring this in for a landing.

We hear all the time from “Conservatives” that we must “return” (as if we ever left it) to The Constitution (the highest law which cannot be transcended), yet the Constitution declares these rights (of the individual) to be inviolate. Meaning that they cannot be superseded by any law, whether Congressional, Judicial, or Executive, or regardless as to whether they are popular, conservatively speaking.

  1. The 5th Amendment to the Constitution. “No person shall be…deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law…” .

Pretty plain, right? Cut and dried, right? No person, right? Unless, of course, this applies to an “illegal immigrant” who also happens to be a member of a “terrorist” gang (designated by the Executive Branch, i.e., the President) as a threat to the “national interest”. In that case, those who are guilty (whether they are charged or not is irrelevant) of this “crime” (violation of law) are subject to immediate deportation to their country of origin OR removal to a prison system run by the El Salvadoran government, which we pay buku bucks for, generously provided by the US taxpayer.

This does not appear to be any different than the “war” waged on La Cosa Nostra, i.e., Mafia, which has been ongoing for decades and does not appear to have an end point. Except that the action against Tren de Aragua has the support and vociferous backing of half the population of the US, which Donald Trump is counting on to allow him to completely circumvent the 5th Amendment to the Constitution, which all his supporters depend on to keep the country safe from the depredations of a tyrannical government. We MUST get back to the Constitution, right? Except when it is convenient to discard it, of course.

Whatever happened to “Innocent, until Proven Guilty”? Does this mean anything, anymore?

I admit that Tren de Aragua probably is criminal. It is probably based on force, violent in nature, to achieve its ends, i.e., the compliance of those it seeks to subjugate. That being said, is there any realistic, theoretical, philosophical, difference between this one specific gang and others which are larger and have much more power, e.g., the United States of America, which can be said to impose its power and influence around the world? As far as I can see, the only difference is one of size and scope.

I could applaud the current administration for its stance and actions, except for one niggling reminder. First, they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out because I wasn’t a socialist. Yes, I said nothing when those in power came for Tren de Aragua because I was not a member of the group and, besides, I liked what Trump & Co. was doing. Never mind that the end of this is that when they came for me, there was no one left to speak up for me.

Should we be concerned? Absolutely, yes, we should, but not necessarily in the manner so prevalent in conservative circles today. If the government can arrest and punish anyone at all based solely on an accusation, then who is safe? Am I safe? Are you? How do you know?

“By their works, you shall know them.”

What is most interesting about the article by Eric Zuesse is that he mentions the Peasant’s Revolt of 1525, which resulted in the deaths of perhaps as many as 100, 000 common, ordinary, everyday, persons who simply wanted an end to the abuses perpetrated on them by those more powerful, and which can be summarized as follows:

“Laws should be made more equitable so that all are equal before it and no one gets harsher or more lenient treatment for the same crime.” — https://www.worldhistory.org/Twelve_Articles/

Imagine that! The Law applied equally and without discrimination! No one, not even Donald Trump, Elon Musk, nor Chuck Schumer above it!

We have a long way to go.

COVID: A Modern-day Hydra

Roger MitchellLeave a comment

COVID is over. At least, I thought it was over. In fact, I wrote an article and posted it here on August 15, 2021, in which I said that the tide of the war had turned and, from that point on, the battle was going to become increasingly desperate for those who were determined to ram the fraud down our throats and inject all of us with their favorite deadly toxin, while trying to shut our mouths with their stupid, silly dust mask mandates. At that time, I called it a “gut feeling” and I still think I was right.

Well, yes, but Adolf Hitler didn’t blow his brains out until the Soviet Army was only five hundred yards away from his bunker and closing fast. And COVID is like that, refusing to die peacefully, still wreaking havoc wherever it can, hanging on until the bitter end, i.e. until there is no more money to be made from it and no more foolish idiots to gull. The fact is that a lot of people still wear their stupid, silly dust masks, believing beyond credulity in the efficacy of a piece of fabric to keep them safe. Chain stores like Walgreen’s and RiteAid are still pushing the Pfizer and Moderna shots, often coupling them with more traditional “flu” shots to draw in customers. Not quite like “Buy one, get one at half price!”, but close enough.

Speaking of the mRNA shots (I will not call them vaccines), I became aware the other day (hat tip, Mr. B) of a bill, H.B 371, introduced into the Montana State House which would ban, literally outlaw, the use of mRNA injections for human “consumption” within the state. You can read the text here. It was just shot down by a sizable majority, with all the Democrats and a large percentage of the Republicans voting to kill it.

https://projects.montanafreepress.org/capitol-tracker-2025/bills/hb-371/

https://bills.legmt.gov/#/laws/bill/2/LC1463?open_tab=status

If I was a swearing man, I’d ask “What the *&^%?” is the matter with these people? Are they not aware that the mRNA shots have probably killed more people than the virus itself, which was probably engineered in a Wuhan, China lab with the strong financial support of certain people in the US government? All paid for with your tax dollars and inflation, no less. Nice, neat, and tidy, wasn’t it? Well, maybe Elon Musk can sort it out. Maybe Anthony Fauci will go to jail, but I’m not holding my breath.

What is going on with the legislators in Helena, anyway? Why would they vote to turn down a ban on something which is strongly suspected (speaking graciously) of being a deliberate, orchestrated killing protocol unleashed on a trusting public? Why indeed, and I can only think of one answer: someone got to them and convinced them that it was in their best interest to bury this bill. Possibly, human nature being what it is, the convincing might have involved the transfer of a substantial number of Benjamins. Bribes, in other words, but then, I’m only speculating. Maybe promises were made to donate to the next campaign season, which every politician looks forward to. At any rate, looking out for the best interests of their constituents must have been the last thing on their minds.

Do you live in Montana? Do you want to see an end to this bullshit? Then I encourage you to find out which way your local representative voted and contact them with either a note of thanks for voting “Yes” or a fiery, blistering condemnation of their action if they voted “No”.

Click here, then scroll down to 2nd Reading, Show Full Vote Breakdown.

After all, this is your government, right? Didn’t you just participate in an election which sent these people to Helena as your “representatives”? If they are your representatives, then they are supposed to work for you, not an international corporation which enriches itself by keeping you sick. Or worse, making you dead.

Yes, yes, I know. Pure, blatant populist rabble-rousing, isn’t it? Well, maybe that’s what it takes to get you moving. If the shoe fits, wear it.

Orange-haired Wrecking Machine

Roger Mitchell5 Comments

It has been barely a month since Donald Trump took office as President and already monumental changes have occurred. As Vladimir Lenin famously said, “There are decades when nothing happens and there are weeks when decades happen.” Trump appears to have learned the lesson well from his first term during which he was drubbed from every direction and, with the assistance and support of his staff, is aggressively making his mark on America and the world. Whether it will be “great” or not remains to be seen. If Trump succeeds in dismantling and rearranging the federal government, a long overdue event, it will bode well for the future of this country—in the long run. The short run is a different story. Getting from our current situation to “Happy days are here again” is not going to be a pleasant journey, even if you are a starry-eyed supporter of everything which he is accomplishing.

America, the Hegemon, has run its course. After 1-1/4 centuries of empire-building (marking the Spanish-American war as the beginning), it is obvious to clear-minded thinkers that there is nothing left except to change course and operate in a different manner. We cannot bully our way anymore as in the past. Threats only have an effect on small insignificant countries like Colombia, which caved recently on the issue of repatriation of immigrants to the US. Large, near-peer nations (Russia, China, e.g.) are charting their own destiny and have the power to make it happen, with or without the “blessing” of Washington.

Closer to home, financial collapse and ruin are on the horizon. After decades of constant inflation from 1971 onward (Nixon’s decoupling from the gold standard) and unfathomably massive deficits (call them by their real name–unpayable debts), the economy is on extremely shaky ground and will probably experience a severe recession in the near future, almost certainly within the next four years. It is conceivable that this will be worse than the Great Depression of the 1930’s, and it is not necessary to resort to “conspiracy theories” to understand that. The dollar is strong vis-a-vis all other currencies only because they are even weaker, not through any real value of its own. The current run-up in the price of gold is a telling indicator. The day is long gone when all problems could be solved by throwing money at them.

What does this mean for us? Put as simply as I can, it’s going to hurt. Bigly. There are going to be serious consequences for America’s actions and many of them will be personally disruptive and destructive. Lifestyle changes are going to become the order of the day and many of these will come about because there is no other choice. Adapt or die. Simply expecting that the State or society will allow us to remain as we were is a foolish exercise in complacent irresponsibility. Those who cling to the past will almost certainly perish. At the very least, they will become irrelevant.

For too long, we have believed in the State to protect us from every conceivable danger and inconvenience. Today, that false god is bankrupt and toppling. The motto, “full faith and credit of the US government”, is no longer valid and does not apply. It is like a decrepit, derelict building which has long outlived its original purpose and must be destroyed to make way for the future.

Donald Trump, like any good wrecking ball, is loud, disruptive, and causing a lot of damage to the existing structure. However, wrecking balls are good for only one purpose–deconstruction. Trump is not going to “save” America, but he may clear the way for others to come behind him and start the rebuilding process all over again. Time will tell.

Leather gloves, hard hats, steel-toed boots, dust masks, and safety goggles are the order of the day.

Coming of the Light: The Next Four Years

Roger Mitchell3 Comments

Today, December 21, 2024, is the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year. In my latitude, that means daylight arrives only a few minutes before 8:00 a.m. and darkness falls shortly after 5:00 p.m., for a total of about nine hours of light sufficient that I don’t need to rely on artificial illumination. From here on out, for the next six months, the daylight spans will become increasingly longer, until June 21, 2025, when the cycle will reverse.

Also looking forward, not necessarily toward more light, on January 20, 2025, just 30 days from now, Donald Trump will be sworn in as the next President of the United States. This will make many people absolutely giddy with delight and euphoria as they expect that he (and his cohorts) will transform the current System of Governance into one in which justice is reached at last, (at least for those on our side), governments actually protect their citizens from harm of all kinds, money is once more made valuable, wars are fought and won decisively against “our” adversaries, and everyone’s life becomes more free and prosperous as long as they are not drug dealers, illegal immigrants, anti-Semites, Democrats, and progressive Utopian zealots who do not know the difference between a boy and a girl.

Ah, yes. Good times, good times!

I watch what is happening today and I don’t know if I should laugh or cry, because it is evident to me that the American Empire is thrashing about in its death throes and the next four years under Trump will not resurrect it to vigorous life again. It was bad under Biden, it will not improve under Trump. In all likelihood, more people will be worse off then than they are now and, what is just as likely is that most of them will remain clueless as to why this happened. For many of them, the ignorance will be deliberate. As Bionic Mosquito (see here or here), one of my correspondents, commented recently,

“People don’t want to open the door on one false belief because they are afraid (or maybe know) that once one false belief falls, their entire worldview will crumble. It scares most people to consider that their house is built on sand. So they defend, no matter the evidence.”

Yes, once the foundations of a system crumble, the entire worldview changes. Those who believe the notion that The State, The System, is the natural order of things and that everything will be lost without it will do anything and everything to avoid coming to the conclusion that they have believed in a veritable fountain of lies. Instead, they will cling desperately to the sinking ship, dancing upon its increasingly steep decks, refusing to jump into the icy cold water of political, social, and economic reality, or the lifeboat that is personally responsible life. True believers will go down with the ship and, in the US, there are millions of them. The nostrum that Trump will make the bad things go away is delusional, but it is one which will be held tightly and, when it fails, will be explained away in the manner of all excuses which are adamantly opposed to the truth–“If only we had tried harder…”

Be careful what you wish for. You might get it.

Life in the Good Old Days

Roger Mitchell13 Comments

Half of America is absolutely giddy with excitement due to Donald Trump’s earth-shaking, paradigm-shifting ascension to the White House, from which he will administer over the reincarnation, rebuilding, and remaking of the United States, bringing peace, justice, and truth to the world after a calamitous headlong plunge into the pit of Hell by the soon-to-be-deposed administration of Biden/Harris.

The other half is absolutely sick with grief, despair, and certain that Armageddon has finally been reached despite decades of trying to avoid it at all costs while ushering in Utopia. At least they gave it their best shot! It’s the end of the world as they knew it. OMG! We’re doomed!!

This is the result of Trump/Harris. Switch the descriptions if Harris/Trump.

OK, so now we get to spend the next four years watching and waiting while Trump and his A-Team try to usher in their own version of Utopia via government rule. This prospect fills me with a sense of unease about the future. Now, I will admit that throwing around ideas like slashing $2 trillion from the budget sounds appealing and, in reality would be a wise thing to do, but the only way to do this is to eliminate federal departments and bureaucracies wholesale. With a meat cleaver, not a surgical scalpel. Unfortunately, Trump has proposed to create a new department and bureaucracy to get rid of the old ones and charged Musk and Ramaswamy with the task of making recommendations without giving them authority to actually make the cuts.

DOGE. Dept. of Government Efficiency. An oxymoron. A contradiction of terms. A facetious tribute to an earlier DOGE which was created as a joke and a farce, yet reached an astounding market cap of $80 billion.

Much wow wow, indeed.

Will Trump “save” America? Was he shot in the ear, buried, and resurrected victorious over his enemies? The answer to both questions depends on your perspective.

I remain skeptical. In fact, I believe that we haven’t seen the bottom of the iceberg yet, but as the ship of State is visibly sinking into the depths of cold, hard reality, we almost certainly will. With Trump at the wheel and millions upon millions of his followers playing musical chairs on the tilting decks, unwilling to face the truth of the matter.

America is going down. Of that, I have no doubt. We ain’t seen nothing yet. Four years from now, we will call these the Good Old Days.

“Do not be deceived. God is not mocked. Whatever a [nation] sows, it will also reap.” — Galatians 6:7

“And you will cry out in that day because of your king whom you have chosen for yourselves, and the Lord will not hear you in that day.” — 1 Samuel 8:18

Thou Shalt Not Murder, except by Majority Vote

Roger Mitchell1 Comment

I’m looking at the early returns of the 2024 election. It appears that the state of Montana has gone decisively Republican and conservative, at least in the higher offices, most of which have been decided by wide margins. Some localized races have bucked the trend, ensuring that there will be plenty of contention in days to come. Donald Trump pulled out (estimated) an astounding victory of nearly 60%, with the Senate seat, both House seats, the Governor, and all state-wide offices running neck-and-neck with him.

What I find ironic is that CI-128, a ballot initiative which would enshrine the “right” to an abortion into the State Constitution, also passed by a wide margin, virtually identical with Trump’s drubbing of Kamala Harris in the state.

This tells me one of three things:

  1. There are a lot of hypocrites in the Republican/Conservative side of the Big Tent, which means the moral condition of the country will simply tend to worse and worse. But, then, this was already a given and has manifested itself in the past in myriad ways.
  2. This election was not about a “return to morality and Christian values”, but was probably more a judgment about the state of the economy, that is, money, and the voter’s own personal bankroll. If this is true, then America still has a long way to fall before it crashes hard.
  3. The voters of Montana have shifted from a position of welcoming and soliciting government intervention into their lives to one of telling the “rulers” to butt out. Not necessarily bad, in my opinion, but unfortunately, the weakest, most vulnerable persons among us will pay the price with their lives, all because we refuse to control ourselves.

“Thou shalt not murder, except by majority vote.” History will record the repercussions of this decision.

Reality Bites. But It’s All We Have

Roger Mitchell2 Comments

“The year 1587 may seem to be insignificant; nevertheless, it is evident by that time the limit for the Ming dynasty had already been reached. It no longer mattered whether the ruler was conscientious or irresponsible, whether his chief counselor was enterprising or conformist, whether the generals were resourceful or incompetent, whether the civil officials were honest or corrupt, or whether the leading thinkers were radicals or conservatives–in the end they all failed to reach fulfillment.”

The status quo has already reached its limits and reform on any scale beyond the usual incremental “policy tweaks” is impossible, and it no longer matters who’s nominally in charge, if rulers are competent, officials are honest or corrupt, or thinkers are radicals or conservatives–the system is beset by forces it fostered but no longer controls, and indeed is incapable of controlling due to the intrinsic limits of the system’s core structures, limits which were invisible during the Boost Phase of rapid expansion. — Charles Hugh Smith, https://www.oftwominds.com/blogjuly24/on-our-own7-24.html

It no longer matters who is nominally in charge. Compare this statement with the one I wrote in the article posted just prior to this one.

“Whether Joe Biden continues to the election or not is irrelevant. Whether another Democrat wins the election is irrelevant. Whether Donald Trump wins the election is irrelevant. Whether the American populace is content with their “options” or not is irrelevant. The velvet glove has come off and the iron fist has been exposed. It does not matter who becomes President, the puppet-masters behind the scenes are going to continue calling the shots until the entire theater burns to the ground, quite possibly to the fireworks of nuclear explosions popping off everywhere.”

It seems, if I am reading this correctly, that Charles Hugh Smith has expressed the same sentiment about the state of our political world today. America, as we knew it, like the Ming dynasty centuries ago, is done. It’s all over but the shouting and, I might add, quite probably the shooting, which could easily spiral out of the control of any government to contain it.

We are not going to restore the roots of this country. We are not going to return to the Constitution. We are not going to recover “…liberty and justice for all.” At the macro level, there is nothing we can do which will correct the situation we find ourselves in now. Tweaking the margins, voting for “leaders”, attempting to legislate solutions, will not change the status quo in any significant way. The sooner we realize this and self-correct, the better off we will be. At the very least, we will be able to find peace and contentment even as the world around us crashes and burns.

In 1 Corinthians 13:11, the Apostle Paul writes, “When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways.” In other words, when people grow up, they start thinking rationally and logically. Or they should.

As part of the collective entity known as America, we are stuck in the rapidly escalating destruction of our society. As individuals, we are free to overcome it. Each of us has the power and opportunity to change personally, in spite of what is happening around us, coming to the understanding that we can live with ourselves. And our neighbors.

I do not advocate escapism or withdrawal. Neither do I endorse politics as a means of effecting positive change. I try to live in a world of reality, knowing what I can accomplish and what is effectively beating my head against a brick wall. I work hard to change the way I think and the way I act, where I am right now, so that my world actually does become better. This has benefits, not only for myself, but for those around me. There are some things which are worth my time, effort, and expense. There are those which simply must be discarded and left behind without a backward glance.

Wisdom is understanding which is which. Reality is living that way.

The End of the Show (and the American Experiment)

Roger Mitchell2 Comments

In barely four months, American voters will “elect” a person who will serve as the President of the United States for the next four years. Currently, Donald Trump is running well ahead of anyone else and appears to be on his way to another term in the White House. Joe Biden, on the other hand, appears to be in a state of fog and is losing support rapidly in the wake of his recent disastrous “debate” performance with Trump. Yet, he remains in office and it is not certain that he can be dislodged from the ticket to allow for a more viable candidate.

Viable candidate, of course, means someone who can be sold to the voters as the least evil of all the evils available. “Vote for our most recent selection. At least (s)he is better than Joe Biden, who was our previous selection until he publicly demonstrated that he couldn’t even fall off a podium without help.”

What a joke! But this is the state of affairs in the American Empire and, sadly, we all have to live with it.

There are many various options ventured which the Democrat Party has at its discretion, but all of them seem to be nothing more than wildly thrashing about in an act of desperation. Sort of like drowning and grabbing at anything in the attempt to stay afloat. Gasping for breath while taking in water. Knowing that you are going down and doing everything possible to stave off the inevitable.

It is going to be difficult, probably impossible, for the Democrats to produce anyone who can go toe-to-toe with Donald Trump, especially considering the very short time between now and the election in November. Their options are quite limited:

  1. Keep Joe Biden and hope for the best. Manipulate the election as much as necessary to produce a “win” in November, even if it means that no one can deny the fraud and the theft with a straight face.
  2. Remove him from the ticket at the Party convention in late August, giving them even less time to convince voters that they can “win”.
  3. Invoke Section 4 of the 25th Amendment.
  4. Convince him (or his wife, Dr. Jill Biden) to resign to make room for a better candidate.
  5. Convince him to die peacefully in his sleep.

This really boils down to only two choices: either Joe Biden or anyone else. Anyone else, no matter how odious they are or how much the American public despises them. Really now, who do they have? Kamala “Cackling” Harris? Gavin “Gruesome” Newsom? Hillary “Deplorable” Clinton? Michelle “Big Mike” Obama? Barak “Hope and Change” Obama? Any of these would instantly turn half the country into a “two-minute hate” session which would extend through the election and continue on for years if, by some chance, (s)he managed to “beat” Trump.

In my opinion, if Donald Trump manages to avoid “dying peacefully in his sleep”, he will sweep to an electoral victory and gain the White House again. Regardless who the Democrats put up, Trump will wipe the floor with them. Therefore, I will stick my neck out, go out on a limb, and make a prediction: Joe Biden will stay on the ticket and will receive his “pink slip” in November, officially retiring on January 20, 2025. There is really no good reason to change him out now. It will not make a difference in the end. At least, he would be able to claim with some degree of honesty that he “lost, but did not quit”.

Trump is bought and paid for. He will do as he is told. So will any of the Democrats opposing him. So will you. It is no longer profitable to continue the illusion.

“The illusion of freedom will continue as long as it’s profitable to continue the illusion. At the point where the illusion becomes too expensive to maintain, they will just take down the scenery, they will pull back the curtains, they will move the tables and chairs out of the way and you will see the brick wall at the back of the theater.” — Frank Zappa

We have reached the point where the stage has been cleared, the scenery has been removed, the curtains have been pulled back, and the brick wall is plainly evident for anyone who is aware. Those who direct the action and pull the strings have just exposed their intentions for the entire world to see. The farce of “constitutional representation”, “democracy”, and “We, the People”, has been played out to the last act which is now bringing the entire spectacle to an end.

Whether Joe Biden continues to the election or not is irrelevant. Whether another Democrat wins the election is irrelevant. Whether Donald Trump wins the election is irrelevant. Whether the American populace is content with their “options” or not is irrelevant. The velvet glove has come off and the iron fist has been exposed. It does not matter who becomes President, the puppet-masters behind the scenes are going to continue calling the shots until the entire theater burns to the ground, quite possibly to the fireworks of nuclear explosions popping off everywhere.

“We made the grade and still we wonder, who the hell we are.” Welcome to the Grand Illusion.

We’re All in this Together. Aren’t We?

Roger Mitchell3 Comments
Tyranny Is Upon us: Law and Juries Are Weaponized

Just to ensure that everyone understands and has no misconceptions about it, I DO NOT support or endorse Donald Trump in any way. I think he is a loud, obnoxious, lying, narcissistic blowhard who is only concerned about his own vanity and pride. Oh, and the size of his bank account which seems to grow larger no matter what happens.

That being said, what has just happened to him cannot, in any way, be seen as “justice” or adherence to “law”. The impartiality of justice and the court system has been (is being) shredded. The fact that Trump can be dragged through the muck publicly to the cheers of his enemies and detractors only makes that possibility more probable and likely for the rest of us. In fact, anyone who says or does anything which is in opposition to the contrived and dominant narrative of the moment is in danger of being forcefully (violently?) prosecuted, found guilty, and punished.

Trump’s case is an example of what all of us might face in the future…if we do not speak out about the injustice of it all. We understand this implicitly, yet there are millions who would make excuses for the prosecution and there are just as many, perhaps more, who will privately complain about it, but do nothing at all to stop it–especially if it means inconvenience and personal cost to them.

America has devolved into a society of quarreling factions squabbling over a carcass of something which was once alive and healthy, like a pack of jackals fighting over a scrap of dead meat and, as long as we get the scrap (getting OUR candidate elected in the next election), we exult that our bellies are full today. America is no longer beautiful but has become an ugly spectacle which is almost too obscene to look at, let alone participate in.

(This was first published at Western Montana News. Read it here.)

Have We Learned Anything? Will We?

Roger Mitchell2 Comments

A little more than four years ago, Covid burst upon the world unannounced (some will argue with that) and changed the world, not necessarily for the better. Eight years ago, Donald Trump did the same thing, coming from seemingly out of nowhere to capture the White House and run amok until he was ousted in the “election” of 2020 and the subsequent “transfer of power”. Because of these two “coincidental” events, it can be surmised that Covid and Trump are not that dissimilar.

Today, Covid has not disappeared but it has been relegated to a back-seat position from which it still makes a lot of noise. There is talk about a new disease, Disease X, about which we know nothing except that it will kill twenty times more people than Covid ever was supposed to be capable of. Also, even though we know nothing about Disease X, “vaccines” are being developed so that, when the Dreaded Destroyer does appear, they can be rushed into service immediately (or sooner) to stand as The Bulwark, The Protector of First Resort, of the people, for the people.

Notice the emphasis. Notice also that I did not include, “by the people”, because this will be an action of TPTB, the powers that be, in their continuous drive to subjugate everyone to their rule. The people serve only as guinea pigs and slaves.

This way, folks. Step right up. Get your ticket for the show. And get your booster on the way in.

Have we learned anything from the catastrophe foisted upon an unwitting world? It is fairly evident now that the whole episode was a contrived hoax, designed to frighten people into quivering submission to a coordinated order, which might have succeeded except that there were people in sufficient numbers who were diligent in presenting an alternative to the official narrative. Yet, the face masks are still seen, the Jabs (boosters) are still being pushed, the arrows on floors dictating the flow of traffic in grocery stores have not been removed. (On occasion, I ask store owners or managers why the floor stickers have not been removed since they are meaningless. To date, I have never gotten a straight answer. It is almost as if they would prefer not to think about it.)

More importantly, the people (perps) who orchestrated the event have not been charged with criminal activity and prosecuted nor deterred in any real way. Anthony Fauci, the public face in America of the farce, has simply retired from his lucrative government position into relative obscurity at Georgetown University, where he enjoys a full professorship (and can talk all he wants to without an adoring media hanging on every word). Pfizer, Moderna, the FDA, the CDC, and many other like-minded entities carry on as before, continuing with the party line, stonewalling wherever they can to avoid information leaking into the public debate. Where are the politicians who are calling them to account on behalf of the people who elected them and who took the brunt of the punishment from ill-advised policies? Where are the harsh spotlights being shown on them? When will we see some real heat being imposed on them? Will we see that at all, other than in a token way?

Highly doubtful. Don’t hold your breath.

Instead, since 2024 is an “election” year, we are being treated to a slow-moving, train-wreck election in which one candidate for president, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., could have made a difference in the minds of the general populace IF he had pounded relentlessly on the issue of Covid and the dangers of The Experiment which has, so far, killed more people than the disease itself. Instead, he read the tea leaves, raised his finger to determine the direction the wind was blowing, and decided to kiss the feet of the Israeli lobby and the ass of Benjamin Netanyahu. In addition, he picked Nicole Shanahan, the once-and-former spouse of Sergei Bryn (co-founder of Google) to act as his running-mate. I lost interest in him completely when he chose money and power over the health interests of humanity. So much potential, so little to show for it.

We are also witnessing the Second Coming of The Messiah in the form of Captain Warp Speed himself, Mr. Donald Trump, who cannot resist the temptation to play savior to a worshipping, salivating throng which, like a pack of ravenous dogs, looks to him for chunks of red meat. According to the polls, the man who brags constantly about creating The Jab in record time is a shoo-in to be president again, after a hiatus of four years during which his opposition threw everything at him which wasn’t nailed down in the hopes of destroying his chances. In his phoenix-like resurrection from the ashes, it seems that he simply cannot be denied the power to save the people from themselves. The only question at this time is the direction his new, improved wrecking ball will swing and how much damage it will do.

Finally, we have the sitting president, Mr. Joe Biden, who has been deemed by his own “Justice” Department to be unfit for prosecution of criminal behavior due to his diminished mental capacity, yet is considered healthy enough to carry the nuclear football and diplomacy on behalf of the West against “our adversaries”, Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea. Despite his antagonistic attitude towards Trump, he expanded on the Covid protocol: lockdowns, mandatory shots, business closures, economic wreckage on a vast scale, then threw in literally trillions of dollars created out of thin air to make up the difference. Under his watch, we are being inundated with a flood of illegal immigrants numbering in the tens of millions, which even the Democrats are finally becoming upset about. Throw in the ongoing debacle in Ukraine and it is evident that Biden is NOT working for the “health and general welfare” of the American nation and deserves to be turned out on his ear.

In spite of all this, Americans in large numbers continue to cheer on the Warfare/Welfare State as if it was the only game in town. The phrase, “Better the devil we know than the one we don’t”, resonates throughout the land. Identity politics seems to have a firm grip on the nation’s soul as we harden our stance based on division: us against them, Red vs. Blue, conservative vs. liberal vs. progressive, fascist vs. communist, gender vs. “gender”, poor vs. rich, black vs. white, etc., and every other form of tribalism that amounts to anything–all fanned hotter and hotter by those who have an agenda and the ability to effect change toward that goal. And, all the while, the deficits continue their meteoric rise as the world ratchets toward WWIII.

When will it end? Will it ever end?

Ah, yes, it will…someday. What cannot be continued forever will end. Eventually, this, too, shall pass, and out of the wreckage and destruction of our way of life will be born a new world–radically different to the one we exist in now, maybe better, maybe worse, but it will not be the same. Whether we like it or not, we (our children, our grandchildren) will be forced, by circumstances, to adjust and adapt to it.

Best to start preparing for it now by getting your own personal affairs, including but especially your spirit, in order.

Looking Back to the Future

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Four years ago, at Easter time, in the early stages of the ramping up process of the Covid pan(dem)ic crisis, I wrote and posted the article linked in which I castigated Christian churches for kowtowing to government edicts “advice” about closing their doors–all in the name of “safety” and the “general health and welfare”, you know. Needless to say that my advice and remonstrations went unheeded.

https://poorrogersalmanac.com/2020/04/06/corona-churches-and-easter

Four years on, has anything changed in the relationship between the State and the Church? From where I sit, I would have to say “No.” If anything, it is cozier than ever, especially in the large mainline denominations which are pushing hard on the progressive agenda. Pope Francis and the higher levels of the Catholic church are openly showing themselves to be true statists. The smaller denominations and independent assemblies are simply not heard from (or about) to any substantial degree, but because of this it can be assumed that they are NOT raising their voices in response to the tyranny imposed on them.

If the institutional church refuses to counter the State, is actively intimate with it in running roughshod over the rights and freedoms of the average, common man, or teaches that it is futile to resist the evil among us and the only hope is Rescue from on High, then we are in for serious trouble. “I see the bad moon a’rising. I see trouble on the way.” Creedance Clearwater Revival put it quite succinctly and I cannot improve on the sentiment.

Covid was a warm-up exercise. What is coming will be orders of magnitude worse and we are not prepared for it. Trouble on the way.

Come, D’Artagnan! We’re Saving the King! Er, I mean, Country.

Roger Mitchell6 Comments

The 1st Amendment to the Constitution of the US:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Congress shall make no law…abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press…except when it concerns the rights of American citizens to access and use (speak freely) a media platform (press) such as TikTok.

China bad. Steve Mnuchin good. Or so the schtick goes in the escalating conflict between the erstwhile dominant Hegemon (US) and the upstart rival (China).

“I think the legislation should pass and I think it should be sold,” Mnuchin told CNBC‘s “Squawk Box” on Thursday. “It’s a great business and I’m going to put together a group to buy TikTok,” he added…”This should be owned by U.S. businesses. There’s no way that the Chinese would ever let a U.S. company own something like this in China,” Mnuchin said…

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/watch-mnuchin-says-he-wants-buy-tiktok

“It’s a great business and I’m going to put together a group to buy TikTok,” says Former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. “The issue is all about the technology. This needs to be controlled by U.S. businesses.” 

pic.twitter.com/6yoLoL5bay— Squawk Box (@SquawkCNBC) March 14, 2024

For those who are not aware, the legislation mentioned is a bill passed by the US House of Representatives only a few days ago and sent to the Senate, where it is almost certain to meet overwhelming approval, to be sent to Joe Biden, who has already promised to sign it into law. This bill is officially titled “Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act” (H.R.7521), more easily known as The TikTok Divestment bill. The introduction is sufficient to tell you what this is all about.

A BILL
To protect the national security of the United States from the threat posed by foreign adversary controlled applications, such as TikTok and any successor application or service and any other application or service developed or provided by ByteDance Ltd. or an entity under the control of ByteDance Ltd.

https://docs.house.gov/billsthisweek/20240311/HR%207521%20Updated.pdf

Yesssss!!! Now the truth is coming out. ByteDance Ltd. is the real enemy which we have to conquer. In order to protect the “national security of the United States”, ByteDance Ltd., a Chinese-owned company MUST be forced to sell its American branch of TikTok to someone like Steve Mnuchin, one of the “elite, uber-wealthy, 1%-ers, who will then use it to enhance the “national security of the United States”, because it is “just not right” that ByteDance, China should be gathering all that information on its client users, even though they voluntarily give it up themselves. No, no, all that information really ought to be funneled to the US government, which, alone in the world except for Israel (I really didn’t say that), is righteous and concerned only with the “general welfare” of its citizens. Those dastardly Chinks, anyway! There ought to be a law!!

Well, according to Joe Biden, there will be shortly and then we will begin to see the repercussions.

It is a known fact that millions upon millions of Americans use TikTok regularly, including many who have built successful, thriving businesses on the app, and if this bill passes, they would find themselves unable to access it. Even those who only use it to communicate with their friends and acquaintances would be shut out, that is, unless a consortium of “patriotic Americans” (Steve Mnuchin, et al.) was to buy it, slap an American label on it, and sell the service to their own “captive audience”. If that happened, then everything would be right with the world. Again.

Nevertheless, drilling down into this issue, I conclude there is more here than meets the eye. This is a matter of free speech, as codified in the 1st Amendment to the Constitution, which Congress is rapidly infringing upon and abridging, contrary to the oath sworn to uphold the Constitution. Banning TikTok (and ByteDance) from serving their clients would have the effect of shutting down the free speech of countless people in America. This is where the rubber meets the road. The issue is all about control of the populace at large and the power to enforce what is said. Totalitarians everywhere, at all times, have always tried to control the conversation between people, outlawing “subversive” speech, banning the free exchange of ideas, forcing everyone to parrot the narrative, and have resorted to force and violence to make sure that no one gets out of line.

Disclaimer: I do not use TikTok. Except for a very few times when I viewed a video on TikTok which someone linked to, I have no experience with the platform. However, I am adamant about my resistance to those who would censor it or shut it off for whatever reason. Whenever someone, anyone, tells me that I CANNOT see and read, or hear and listen to anything which I want to, then I will view that as an attempt to control me. Whenever someone, anyone, tells me that I CANNOT communicate with anyone else that I want to, then there is going to be trouble.

TikTok may be a socially reprehensible vehicle. It may be used by one government against another. There may be other equally justifiable reasons to get rid of it. These “truths” may be self-evident, but they are irrelevant to my argument. I have the right, the absolute right, to manage my own affairs AND to go to Hell in my own way–if I desire to. Furthermore, since I believe in the principle of loving my neighbor as I do myself (even though I fail at times), I have to allow my neighbor that same right and freedom.

I will never relent. I will never back down.

Afterword: read for yourself.

https://poorrogersalmanac.com/2023/04/19/montana-the-new-state-of-censorship

https://poorrogersalmanac.com/2023/04/23/tiktok-round-2

https://poorrogersalmanac.com/2023/04/26/tiktok-round-3

https://poorrogersalmanac.com/2023/05/22/the-end-of-the-world-and-tiktok

https://poorrogersalmanac.com/2023/12/01/the-saga-of-tiktok-montana-continues

https://poorrogersalmanac.com/2023/12/12/and-the-beat-goes-on