Tag: donald trump

End of the Ceasefire: Reality Approaches

Roger MitchellLeave a comment

Wednesday, April 22, 2026. Today is the end of the two-week ceasefire in the war between Iran and the US conglomerate. Presumably, this was entered into to give the warring parties time to work out a satisfactory solution but because each came to the table with unconditional demands about which they would not compromise, nothing was accomplished. However, just the other day, Donald Trump unilaterally extended the “ceasefire” by an indefinite amount of time while issuing blustering threats about what would happen if Iran did not come to its senses and knuckle under, which really amounted to just another unconditional demand which was rejected immediately. No diplomacy there, no genuine desire to see the war ended, just more pompous, bully-pulpit Truth Social thundering denunciations and proclamations.

In the meantime, the Strait of Hormuz is still off limits to free passage by ships carrying oil, natural gas, urea, and multiple other products, all of which are essential to the continued health, wealth, and well-being of the entire world and may result in economic depression on a scale never before seen, eclipsing even that of the Great Depression of the 1930’s. Whether this happens or not remains to be seen, but it is virtually certain that there will be very serious repercussions and consequences which may not be apparent now but will be evident in the near future.

“When disruptions strike the deepest layers of the global economy, their consequences do not arrive with spectacle but with delay. The most destabilizing feature of a systemic shock is often not its immediate violence but the deceptive calm that follows it. Cargo vessels already underway continue to reach their destinations, warehouses continue to dispatch inventory manufactured months earlier, and supermarket shelves remain stocked with goods produced in a previous season under conditions that no longer exist. This temporal inertia creates an illusion of stability at precisely the moment when the foundations of that stability are eroding. In the case of escalating conflict affecting energy infrastructure across the Gulf and maritime passage through the Strait of Hormuz, the world is experiencing this quiet interval between cause and consequence, a period in which daily life appears normal while the logistical arteries of the global system are progressively constricted.” — https://billkloss.law.blog/2026/04/20/the-global-economy-is-closer-to-collapse-than-anyone-wants-to-admit/

It is not my intention to try to predict how the war will progress. There are more than enough experts and pundits who will do that. I can only guess (and am often wrong) as to what Trump, Netanyahu, & Co. will do next and can only speculate how the IRGC, Mullah, Inc. will respond, but I am certain of one thing. Like the Covid regime fraud and catastrophe which recently occurred (you haven’t forgotten that already, have you?), this instance of force and violence will not simply revert back to normal once the “dogs of war” are leashed and kenneled again. The consequences will be with us for a long time and it is simply foolish and naive to believe and act in a Pollyanna-like fashion. The future IS going to be different from what we are accustomed to and we should be focusing our attention, not on who wins the next election, but on getting our own personal affairs in order because we know that there’s a bad moon rising.

In the parable of the ten virgins, five wise and five foolish (Matthew 25: 1-13), Jesus gave fair warning that we should be alert, ready, and prepared for the eventual arrival of the bridegroom. This is taken by many people as a reference to His second coming and (presumed) Rapture of the Church before, during, or after all Hell breaks loose on Earth, which I will admit can be seen that way if you lean toward that theology. However, there is another interpretation which has nothing to do with that, but is extremely relevant to our situation: the “coming” mentioned in v. 13 can be seen as the natural and logical progression of events as seen from the perspective of a courtroom trial in which judgment is declared on actions already taken, guilt or innocence pronounced, and a sentence rendered on those found guilty. It is not necessary for the “bridegroom” to be physically present at all, but does promote the truth that there will be severe consequences for those who refuse to accept the truth that “…your sin will find you out…” and that we can live any way we like without dire repercussion. Put more simply, if you do this, that will happen. The Law of sowing and reaping cannot be ignored nor circumvented forever.

As individuals, cultures, societies, and nations, we have become accustomed to “falling asleep” and allowing situations to drift while we dreamed, more concerned with the promise of future benefits than with the reality of present-day living which guaranteed that devastating conditions would arise because of our preoccupation with the “good life” and worship of a System which proposed to give us anything we wanted if we would bow down and worship it. Which we did, for years, decades, and centuries. That System is now crumbling and will, in all probability, be replaced by something which may be far worse.

The upshot of this is that we cannot view this parable exclusively from a pie-in-the-sky sense of spirituality, but must consider what it means in the here-and-now. As a world, we have spent our time, treasure, and wealth, trying to gain power and control over others, regardless what it cost, and are now finding out that the verdict is not going to be issued in our favor. Everything we have done to build a McMansion for ourselves, a Tower of Babel from which we can never be dislodged, a prosperous future based on a sea of lies, is now collapsing into a quagmire of quicksand which is threatening to suck us under and there is nothing we can do about it, except to be personally prepared for it, filling our reservoir of “oil” so that we will not be caught flat-footed nor absent when the full effect of the sentence imposed falls on us.

Jesus is not coming back to snatch us out of the sinful mess which we have created for ourselves. There is not going to be any supernatural “rescue” of those who hold to a particular religious ideology and viewpoint. We are going to experience the full weight and consequences of our own rebellious actions against the Word of God which compels us to love our neighbors and our enemies as much as we love ourselves. Because we have refused this order, Judgement Day is upon us and what is coming is going to hurt. It is going to be painful It is going to cause enormous difficulty to our preconceived notions of what it means to be Christian and we can either submit to it in faith and trust, believing that our Father, Who administers the “spanking” has our best interests at heart OR we can continue to believe that a rich “daddy” will bail us out of any conceivable disaster which we have brought upon ourselves.

We can bear the suffering and change our ways OR we can fight back and resist which will only result in a more severe beating. This is the choice before us and we will make a decision–one way or the other. Choose wisely.

Destroying the Village to Save It: Modern Version

Roger MitchellLeave a comment

In just a few days, the two week cease-fire in the Iran war will come to an end. What happens then is anybody’s guess, that is, if you’re not politically or militarily connected to the power-brokers who call the shots. What is certain, however, is that all the warring parties have been feverishly restocking their depleted stores of bombs, missiles, drones, planes, and other assorted war-waging materiel just in case the shooting starts all over again. I am quite sure it will. This time around, if it does, I would expect an all-out, no holds barred, assault on Iran and a reciprocal fire aimed at Israel, the GCC, and any US assets in the region.

Whatever happens, shoot or go home, there is one serious side-effect to this war which is not going to go away anytime soon, i.e., the shortage of oil around the world which has been caused by the Hormuz Strait closure and which will not be restored to any former sense of normalcy for months, at the very least. Larry Johnson sums it up quite well in this interview with Danny Davis. Donald Trump might put it like this, if he was to think about it.

“Iran’s closing of the Strait of Hormuz which was open before the war cannot be tolerated. It was closed by Iran because we attacked them and now we’re going to attack them again to force it open. This war has already caused immense financial and social damage world-wide, but we have to continue it because Iran is at war with us.”

In other words, we have to wreck the world economy to save the world. Shades of Viet Nam.

The Strait was closed to traffic at the start of the war and, except for a few isolated instances, no oil tankers have transited it since then. Now, assume that a fully loaded tanker leaves the Strait headed for China or Japan, a voyage of 6500 +/- miles and travels at an average speed of 15 miles per hour, 24 hours per day. The voyage would take 433.33 hours or about 3 weeks to complete the trip. This means that all the tankers which left the Strait at the start of the war have already reached their port destination and unloaded the cargo. Plan a week to offload and another three weeks to make the return voyage means that a round trip could be made in seven weeks, or just about the length of time of the war so far.

The problem, under this scenario, is that there are no more tankers en route with cargo since none are allowed through the Strait and, even if these tankers could reload and ship out immediately, say another week to turn around, it would mean four more weeks before they arrive again in China or Japan. This means at least two months with no oil shipping from the Persian Gulf which will be absolutely disastrous to these countries (and all others dependent) and the effects will be felt around the world, including the US which (supposedly) is self-sufficient in oil. Not exactly true, but that’s another story. For a good description of how this affects the societies on the ground around the world, see here. Even if the Strait was fully opened immediately, there would still be that time lapse when no oil moved and the consequences of that will linger for a long time. If the active shooting restarts, the problem will only get worse.

Net result: cost of oil going through the roof and everything else which is derived from it rising in lockstep. We may very well see gasoline at $10 or $12 per gallon before this is done, which will basically cut the foundation from under the world economy and it will fall like a stone. A very large stone. Recall the lyrics which John Fogerty of CCR sang in the classic, “I see a bad moon rising. I see trouble on the way.”

Well done, Mr. Trump.

Massive dislocations in society, both public and private, are coming, like the predicted return of Jesus by so many people, soon, real soon. Those changes will probably get here first and will result in major alterations in the way the average person lives. They will drive the switch in thinking from “What can I buy which will make me feel better about myself?” to “How can I stay alive and feed my family today?”. In short, a paradigm change in the consideration of what is truly important. We need to be ready for that, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually, and the best place to start our preparations is found in this. 

"Trust in the LORD with all your heart 
And do not lean on your own understanding;
In all your ways acknowledge Him,
And He shall direct your paths."
-- Proverbs 3:5-6

Weekly Wrap-up: War, Peace, Church Tradition, and Pure Speculation

Roger Mitchell4 Comments

The ongoing war between US/Israel and Iran, with all the permutations and angles this possesses (Hezbollah, Strait of Hormuz closure, potential Bab el Mandeb closure, etc.) is set to resume on Monday after the temporary two-week “cease-fire” expires. I hope that it will not and that the belligerents involved will be able to talk through their differences, but I expect that they will pick up their guns and begin firing again, this time with all-out fervor until one of them knuckles under and cries, “Uncle!”.

Col. Douglas McGregor lays it out quite plainly in this 30 minute video. See here.

Tucker Carlson has a lengthy video out concerning Donald Trump and his blatant mockery of Jesus Christ, Christianity, and Islam. I watched the first fifteen minutes, then shut it off to work on this post, however, I am in complete agreement, at least, so far, with his argument. Like I said, I only watched fifteen minutes. See here. For good measure, read my recent post on the same subject.

For the last few days, I have been reading Immanuel Velikovsky’s book, “Worlds in Collision”, in which he posits that the planet we know today as Venus was once a comet which nearly collided with Earth and was then captured by the sun’s gravity. He claims this occurred near the same time as the Biblical story of the Hebrew Exodus from Egypt and the conquest of the “promised land” about 1500 years before Christ. It is fascinating reading and for serious scholars (unlike myself) is heavily footnoted. His argument is compelling and, even though I am only about a third of the way through, I intend to finish it. It explains a lot in a logical manner (sometimes it appears to be quite far-fetched) about past happenings which we tend to disregard as myths and pooh-pooh as ancient religious beliefs.

Traditional religion and modern science ridicule his hypothesis as bunk, delusional, and unscriptural, but the question remains. What if he is correct and everyone else is wrong? After all, the saying, “Athanasius contra mundum.”, originated because a leader in the early Christian Church stood virtually alone in his defense of the divinity of Jesus Christ against the doctrines and beliefs of the Arian teaching. Athanasius was eventually vindicated and his teaching accepted as truth.

Just because you’re the only one doesn’t mean you’re wrong.

If you’re interested, download a free .pdf copy here.

Just war? What exactly is just war? Is there such a thing as a “just” war? Apparently, according to the recently anointed Pope, Leo XIV, this is open for discussion. And some hate him for bringing up the subject.

“God does not bless any conflict. Anyone who is a disciple of Christ, the Prince of Peace, is never on the side of those who once wielded the sword and today drop bombs. Military action will not create space for freedom or times of #Peace, which comes only from the patient promotion of coexistence and dialogue among peoples.” — https://x.com/Pontifex/status/2042588417578668338

This does not sit well with some Catholics, however, who prefer tradition, interpretation, and doctrine over the actual teachings of Jesus, who spoke very plainly about the need to love our enemies and to do good to those who hate us. Instead, we prefer to “do unto others, but do it to them first”.

Notice that the author of the article linked to, Matthew McCusker, leans quite heavily on Old Testament scripture to reinforce his position, but when he shifts to a discussion of the topic according to the New Covenant, there is absolutely no New Testament scripture quoted. Instead, he resorts to a history of the Catholic Church calling for wars and blessing wars in the name of the Christ. For instance,

‘The Sacred Scriptures, which are divinely revealed and free from all error, make it clear that (i) God commands war, (ii) war can be justified by reference to God’s commands and revelation, and (iii) He listens to the prayers of those who wage war.

Indeed, the waging of war at God’s command, and with His blessing, is one of the major themes of the Old Testament. Throughout the history of Israel and Judah, from the time of Moses down to the Maccabean revolt of the second century BC, God blessed those who fought in His name and He answered their prayers.”

And, without any reference to New Testament approval or blessing,

“The Church has also shown that God approves of fighting and leading just wars by repeatedly canonizing soldiers and military commanders.”

God approves of wars and fighting because the Church has repeatedly canonized soldiers and military commanders. I mean, my goodness, if this is the way to life then, by all means, let’s kill them all and let God sort them out. The problem for McCusker is that we do not live under the Old Covenant and are not obligated to its demands, but a New Covenant which has different rules of living. There is no such thing as a “just” war. Wars always result in the deaths and sufferings of innocent individuals, many of them women and children, who have done nothing to deserve what they are getting. McCusker needs to come up with a better defense of war than church tradition and papal bulls.

I am not Catholic and never will be, but I have to say that I think the Pope is on the right track and, given that he is on Donald Trump’s “naughty” list, makes me even more convinced that he is worth supporting in this.

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

Dr. Trumpenstein’s Monster: Mocking the Master

Roger MitchellLeave a comment

No good will come of this.

You may have seen the photo of Donald Trump posing as Jesus healing a sick man (bringing a dead man back to life?). If not, feast your eyeballs…or turn away cringing in shame that this poseur and charlatan represents America to the world.

It would be reasonable to assume that this was created by one of his enemies to discredit him and to cause discord among his groupie following, but this was actually posted on Truth Social by THE MAN HIMSELF, and then taken down just a few hours later because of the ruckus it caused. Too late, however, since it had already been seen, downloaded, Photoshopped, AI rebuilt, and reposted by others. The version below is probably far more accurate. Notice that none of the figures shown has six fingers, although it is impossible to tell about Benni Nutti Yahoo since he is keeping his hands well out of sight. Notice also the figure above Trump’s left shoulder which was in the original and has not been manipulated.

Then, to top it all off, when asked by a reporter about it, Trump explained that, yes, he posted it because he thought it presented him as a doctor, a healer, someone who makes people better, and blasted the “Fake News” for pushing the idea that he was putting himself into the role of Jesus.

I mean, like, Wow! Does the arrogance of this man know any bounds? Or is it only limited by his own mind? I do have to admit, though, that Melania looks as soft and caring as I have ever seen her and the sight of Ghislaine praying and giving thanks for the miracle about to happen just really warms my heart and gives me hope that any or all of them might actually have a “coming to Jesus moment”. Except Epstein, of course, because he’s been “dead” for a lot more than four days.

For more information, check out this BBC article which has the video and this line.

“Speaking to reporters at the White House, Trump did not apologise.”

Of course not! The unmitigated gall! The effrontery!! Trump does not apologize. Trump does not admit wrong. Trump does not ask forgiveness. Which is too bad because, unless he changes course in a hurry, he will go to his eternal grave guilty of the charge of trying to make himself equal with God. He may not know it, but he is following in the footsteps of King Herod Agrippa (Acts 12:21-23) who was struck down by an angel because he did not correct the people when they said that he spoke with the voice of a god, but accepted their worship and praise as if it were true.

Herod, you’re fired!

This is the man that a lot of American Christians voted for, the man they put into the White House as their Dear Leader, the one they trusted to straighten out the condition of the nation AND the world, the one they expected to save them from the cesspit in which they live. The man who lies to them constantly about everything, yet they hang onto his every word as if it were gospel. For some, if Trump had shown blood dripping from his right ear1 onto his white robe, it would have been as if God Himself had drawn that picture. They worship a false god who cannot heal their disease, but are convinced that the snake oil he sold them will work.

“For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God…” (II Timothy 3:2-4)

Doesn’t this fit Donald Trump to a T? And Paul’s advice?

“From such people turn away!” (v 5)

How many will take this counsel? My hope is that many who have hoisted him on a pedestal will drag him off it of their own volition and change the way they think about the man and his politics. I would be quite happy if they would also think about their own politics while they’re in a repenting mode.

  1. Shortly after the Butler incident, I created a “fake” rendition of Johnny Cash’s hit, A Boy Named Sue, and applied it to the situation.

    “Well, the shots rang out and then the cries, And he went down but to my surprise, He came back up with a fist and blood all over his ear.” ↩︎

Whose Voice Will You Hear? And Follow?

Roger Mitchell2 Comments

News Flash: There may have been a negotiated cease-fire in the war. According to this, Iran, the US, and Israel agreed to stop shooting at each other for a period of two weeks and Iran agreed to open the Strait of Hormuz for the same two weeks. Whether this will hold or not is debatable, but if the destruction and killing ends, even temporarily, that will be a good thing.

https://www.lewrockwell.com/political-theatre/power-politics-the-iran-war-john-j-mearsheimer/

Hope for the best, prepare for the worst.

I may have read Donald Trump wrong the other day when I said he was a madman. After a few days of reading other commentary and thinking about it, his childish, foul eruption on Truth Social may have been because he was simply irate with the way things were going on the ground in Iran. In other words, angry and raging. Mad man! Not necessarily insane nor off his rocker (that possibility still exists, BTW), but definitely upset. His antics resemble those of a pampered, spoiled child who has been told that he cannot have the thing he wanted and has thrown a hissy fit.

What appears to have set him off was the horrible loss of aircraft taken in the (supposed) mission mounted to rescue the second airman who was stranded in Iran after his plane, an F-15E was shot down. Speculation is rife that the official story is a smokescreen and was designed to mask the real operation–a bold attempt to grab the enriched uranium stored near Isfahan by Special Forces, which, if successful, would have been a major victory for the Trump administration. Unfortunately, for him, it was not and resulted in a major disaster.

This is reminiscent of the hapless military maneuver ordered by Jimmy Carter in 1980 to rescue the 53 kidnapped hostages from the American embassy following the revolution which ousted the Shah and replaced him with Ayatollah Khomeini. Carter’s reputation took an immense hit over the incident and he lost the presidential election to Ronald Reagan by a landslide. It is interesting that the Iranian regime released the hostages almost immediately after Reagan took office.

To be sure, Donald Trump’s outbursts are important as they help to shape and manipulate the world situation and have extraordinary power to mold events and happenings in real time. What is more important, however, is how we perceive, not the message, but the messenger. Do we see him as The Answer to all our troubles? A messiah who will correct America’s problems and reverse her downward course? Are we consumed with the concept of American Exceptionalism which teaches that we are better than the rest of the world? Is Trump our Glorious Hope and constant Source of Strength? Are we trying, perhaps without even realizing it, to live vicariously through him?

Questions like these matter greatly because they shine a brilliant light on the faith in our lives, where we actually live and what we actually believe to be true. As Christians, professed believers in Jesus the Christ, the Prince of Peace, we have to make a decision as to the course we will follow and will be held responsible for any deviation from the truth. Consequently, when our man Trump makes a declaration or takes an action which is contrary to the teachings of Jesus, we are put into a position of decision: Which version of truth will I hold to and whose word will I follow?

Thinking about it this way brings the Gospel message home, personally close, and we simply cannot avoid it. Attempting to shove it under the rug, to make excuses, to justify our actions only creates confusion and controversy. In the end, we must admit that the Gospel reigns supreme or a political paradigm based on violent force and selfishness does. There is no middle ground here, no neutrality, no fence-straddling. It is either one or the other.

As a lifelong skeptic, I am forced to concede that neither of these positions may be true and that both may be false, however, it is certain that both cannot be right. Either the Gospel is correct or…it is not. Either Trump’s method of “kill, steal, and destroy” is the way to go…or it is not. Either of these might be right, both might be wrong, but both cannot be right. It is my responsibility as a son of God, Who is Truth, to determine which of these two is proper and to forsake all others or, if in deciding that both are wrong, to find something else to pursue. In the event that you hold to neither philosophy, then it is up to you to point the rest of us in a different direction, because without that, your version of truth is worthless, null, and void.

This holds significant authority in the lives of modern-day American Christians who are instructed constantly to live like Christ, to exemplify His pattern on Earth, yet still worship and exalt the religion of violent power. How can this be? Jesus, love him or hate him, spoke constantly about sacrificing one’s own life so that others would benefit, yet, today there are many who claim to believe in this way of life who do not hesitate to loudly and persistently seek to rain death and destruction on others so that they might personally benefit from the loss that others experience.

I cannot tolerate that.

If you proclaim your faith in Jesus, this is for you. You have a choice to make. You can follow the message of the Gospel of Peace, learning what it means to love your neighbor AND your enemy at least as much as you love yourself, OR, you can follow the path of violence, vengeance, and hatred toward others that you don’t even know.

The status of your eternal future depends on the way you respond.

Easter Morning Message of Death and Destruction

Roger Mitchell5 Comments

“Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it!!! Open the Fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell – JUST WATCH! Praise be to Allah. President DONALD J. TRUMP”

https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/116351998782539414

“Praise be to Allah.” ???? Just two days ago, Trump gave glory to God in posting about his ultimatum to Iran over the Hormuz Strait. Either he can’t make up his mind which god he worships or else he’s covering all the bases. Which god does he actually represent? Certainly not Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace, who teaches us to love our enemies, not kill them.

I am not a psychologist but I can read into this. Things are going horribly wrong and Donald Trump is at his wit’s end, pulling his hair out, over this Iran debacle which he foolishly injected himself and America into. No, wait! Let’s make that, himself and the United States1, not America, because the two no longer are synonymous. The vast majority of America is against this conflict and wants him to pull out–win or lose. Just get out!

Back to the point.

No one, including US presidents who can do whatever they want, who have no restraints placed on their power and will except their own mind, would talk like that if things were going their way. If Trump was getting everything he wanted out of this war to destroy Iran for the sake of Israel and Bibi Netanyahu, then he would not make threats and demands in such strident and crass language. These are not the words of a diplomat making attempts to resolve a critical situation. Instead, they reflect an understanding in his soul that his wants and desires are being thwarted and that his vision of a speedy victory of accomplishment is rapidly receding into the rear-view mirror. They are the words of a passionate madman, an extremely dangerous madman, and all of us should be concerned because of, not so much the words themselves, but the irrational, incoherent actions, orders, and consequences which they foretell, a potential Armageddon, so to speak. If you think I’m being too hard on the man, see these responses from far more prominent and powerful persons than I will ever be.

Consider one of these Armageddon scenarios, as mentioned in Ryan McMaken’s thoughtful article on Lew Rockwell.

“We possess several hundred atomic warheads and rockets and can launch them at targets in all directions, perhaps even at Rome. Most European capitals are targets for our air force. Let me quote General Moshe Dayan: “Israel must be like a mad dog, too dangerous to bother.” I consider it all hopeless at this point. We shall have to try to prevent things from coming to that, if at all possible. Our armed forces, however, are not the thirtieth strongest in the world, but rather the second or third. We have the capability to take the world down with us. And I can assure you that that will happen before Israel goes under.’” — Martin van Creveld, a prominent Israeli military historian who spoke these words in 2003.

In layman’s terms, this is called the Samson Option.

“Strategic literature has long discussed what is sometimes referred to as the “Samson Option” — the idea that Israel could resort to nuclear weapons if faced with defeat. Whether or not such a doctrine formally exists, the logic behind it is clear. If a state genuinely believes its existence is threatened, the pressure to escalate dramatically becomes far greater.”

In van Creveld’s quote above, he referenced Moshe Dayan. “Israel must be like a mad dog…” Today, we can clearly see that Donald Trump is talking and acting like a mad person, virtually foaming at the mouth in his insane remarks and, considering the close relationship he has with the string-pullers who support and back Israel, it is not far-fetched to expect that the world will soon be bitten and savaged by this “mad dog” mentality. In the real world, rabies (the official term) is treated by a vaccine before the symptoms appear. In the political world, especially one in which Congress refuses to act as any kind of restraint on Trump’s behavior, it may be too late to “inoculate” the victim, which only leaves two options: remove him from office via the 25th Amendment or allow him to continue “biting” in a furious rage until everyone who is affected (the entire world) meets a logical, horrible end.

It’s the end of the world as we knew it and tomorrow will not be the same as yesterday.

Clearly, the most obvious rational move would be for JD Vance and Trump’s cabinet members to declare him unfit to rule and depose him with the assent of Congress. In this, Marco Rubio and Pete Hegseth would also have to be shown the door, shaking up the entire power structure and ushering in a new dynamic which might, actually might, restore a sense of balance to foreign policy.

However, being that this is Washington, DC, all bets are off and there is nothing to do except make noise, hope for the best, and wait to see what comes out of it.

  1. Defined as the entire government structure, the military-industrial complex, the mass media, the neo-con warmongers like Lindsey Graham, the major banks and money-changers, and the sycophantic, delusional believers in Christian Zionism. ↩︎

Fired Up! Who Holds the Greater Power?

Roger MitchellLeave a comment

I am fired up! Fired up at least as much as Chuck Baldwin, the pastor of Liberty Fellowship in Kalispell, MT, who just preached this message to his congregation on Sunday, March 22nd. Trigger Warning: Do not watch this if you are not interested in hearing the truth. If you are only concerned with the way you have always believed and do not want to hear another view which may be different than yours, this is not for you. DO NOT OPEN!

For those who seek truth, there comes a time in our lives when we have to question what we truly believe. What am I staking my life on? What am I staking my eternity on? Do I really believe what I am saying is the truth? Are there questions and doubts? If there are, how am I addressing them? Am I willing to admit that I don’t know everything and that I might be wrong?

Heavens, no! God forbid that I should be wrong!!!!!

Here’s a question for you.

According to your beliefs, is the Word of God more powerful, less powerful, or only equal in power to Donald Trump and the MIC/Deep State/Establishment/Blob/Banks which supposedly rule America today? According to Donald Trump, “Yeah, there is one thing. My own morality. My own mind. It’s the only thing that can stop me,…”

“One thing. Only one thing that can stop me and that is myself. I control myself. No one else controls me. I am the master of my own destiny and if I decide to destroy all of humanity and Earth itself for the sake of my own desires, who is there to stop me?”

Well, he didn’t really say that. I just made it up, but between what he did say and the way I paraphrased it, there is virtually no difference.

So you have three choices, only three:

  1. More powerful
  2. Less powerful
  3. Equal in power.

Now, if you answered that the Word of God is less powerful than Mr. Trump, then you have just acknowledged that he really can do anything he likes and there’s not a doggone thing you (or anyone else) can do about it. There really are no limits to his reach and grasp. What you have done is to admit that power and truth are relative to the situation and, in dealing with human beings, the situation always revolves around who is the strongest and who can control others the most. You have no hope that things will get any better, unless, of course, you manage to elect a new “king” to replace him. No Kings, except the one I want!

If, perhaps, you think the Word of God and The Donald are equal in power, then it is a simple matter of the two jockeying for position and advantage all the time, except of course, those times when the Word aligns with Trump’s words. This is really as ludicrous a position as anyone could conjure up and I’m almost embarrassed to mention it, but, well, let’s just close the chapter on that option and not say anymore about it.

However, if your answer is that the Word of God is more powerful than Trump or any other government, institutional, or corporate official, then you have to take this into consideration. If his politics, words, and actions do not align with the Word, how far are you going to go to support him? Will you have to bend your own beliefs and principles to conform to his? Wouldn’t this make him a false god in your eyes? Wouldn’t this ambivalence on your part be considered idolatry? As a firm believer that the Word reigns supreme in the lives of men and that God sets up “kings” and takes them down again when their role is finished, aren’t you supposed to speak the truth to those around you, whether it is popular or not, regardless as to the trouble it might land you in? Even if Kamala Harris were elected to represent America on the world stage? Or, as the ancient saying goes, “Shall we vote for an evil person to lead us so that another even more evil person doesn’t?”

Actually, I just made that up, but you can quote me on it.

Nevertheless, as Christians, believers in the supremacy of Jesus the Christ, our allegiance and loyalty is to His kingship and when the rules and behavior of men who would be kings does not conform to His authority, we have to make a choice. Do we live as these men (women) order us to even though we know it is wrong OR do we refuse to submit and follow the example of Daniel and his three friends, Shadrach, Meschach, and Abednego? Jeremiah? Stephen, who was stoned to death and became the first recorded martyr of the early church? Peter, who denied his Lord three times in one evening, but was crucified upside down because of his unwavering stand? Paul, who persecuted the early Christians, but completely changed his attitude, groveling in the dirt at the feet of his future master while on the road to Damascus?

Or, are we more concerned with the creature comforts of home and try to justify the killing and destruction of those around the world who are labeled “enemies” of the American way of life?

This is something we need to make up our minds about because the demons are coming out of the woodwork everywhere and it is becoming evident that something is changing–big time. The life we once knew is behind us, in our past, and we can no longer depend on it (or the Constitution of the United States) to keep those demons in check. If we do not know who holds the Real Power, then life is just a bouncing back and forth from one extreme to another, all of which seek to diminish us as individuals created in the Image of God, with all the rights and honors which come from that.

Broken, but Still Defiant

Roger MitchellLeave a comment

By this time, you have probably seen Donald Trump’s recent address to the American public and the world on the situation in the Middle East. If you haven’t, watch it here.

I only watched the first half of this, about nine minutes, then I turned it off. I couldn’t take any more. I actually felt compassion for the man, which is something different for me, because I have never had anything but contempt for him before this.

Trump is broken. He’s done. He walked in as if he was about ready to collapse, head down, without any life in his step. During the time I watched, he never let go of the lectern and never took his eyes off the auto-prompt, reading everything on it in a mechanical manner quite unlike his usual self. Eyes straight ahead, monotone voice. Body language defying everything he said. None of the usual bombastic, flamboyant behavior. Even when he took credit for all the “good” things which have happened, it was as if coming from a robot.

I’m not surprised. After all, the Word promises that those who exalt themselves shall be humbled, and there is no question about Trump exalting himself. “I’m the president. I can do anything I want. The only limit I recognize is my own mind, my own will, my own morality. Look at me. Look at me. Look. Look. Look.”

Trump is broken. He’s run up against something which he can’t control and it has done him in. This is probably the first time in his life where he experienced something like this, with negative repercussions directly and visibly in front of him and no way to avoid the accounting, which is disastrous. No matter which way he turns, no matter what he does, he loses. Loses, loses bigly. He is in uncharted territory.

I could easily expound on the Iran war, but that is not necessary. There are more than enough pundits eager and willing to analyze and write about that. Instead, I’m going to psychoanalyze Mr. Trump’s position and his mentality, from a distance, of course, as I have never met the man and I have never had any training in the profession, but I have had a lot of experience from life.

Trump is in a very bad position, between Iran and a hard place.1 If he withdraws from the battle because it is beginning to cost too much, then he will be seen as a loser, a quitter, someone who can’t stand being punched in the nose. If he stays in the fight, he has to escalate in order to “win”, a subjective perception which might or might not play well at home with his fan base. If he escalates, he runs the risk of generating even greater losses than already incurred, i.e., the lives of hundreds or thousands of American servicemen/women which will not play well at home. If this war drags on very much longer, it runs the risk of becoming a Viet Nam type engagement, which will not play well at home. If he resorts to the use of nuclear weapons (or consents to the use of Israeli nuclear weapons), he runs the risk of world-wide condemnation, including from his home base. He can’t quit and he can’t continue. Is it any wonder that he appeared as he did last night in the speech he presented? Old, broken, and unwilling to admit failure and defeat.

God, please, please have mercy on that man. He needs it.

  1. Pardon the pun. George W. Bush was in the same predicament more than 20 years ago. Caught between Iraq and a hard place. The saying goes, “caught between a rock and a hard place”, in other words, in a position where everything you do turns out badly because you made a stupid, a really stupid mistake to start with. ↩︎

No Kings!! Second Verse, Same as the First.

Roger Mitchell4 Comments

The first verse in this chorus can be seen here. Below is the second.

Today, 3/28/2026, was “No Kings” day in Missoula, in conjunction with multiple like events all over the country. I attended the local protest along with a few of my friends and had a relatively good time, talking with passers-by, none of whom could be bothered to get into in-depth conversations, and would-be politicians, all of whom were making a show of concern, letting the public know that they were, of course, not Donald Trump. I would estimate the crowd as numbering at least 5, 000, but there may have been twice that many there. Good turnout, but then this is a deep blue city in a red state, so I’m not really surprised at the size of the crowd.

I tried to get a video of the participants as they paraded past, chanting their slogans and holding their signs, all of which were designed to show opposition to Trump. Unfortunately, my phone shut down in the middle of the take and I lost everything, so I can’t give you that. What I can show you are the signs I had printed up specifically for this occasion, which got a fairly decent reception, a lot of thumbs up, and head nods.

The main problem I have with people like these is that they are inconsistent with their professed creed–No Kings! What they are really saying is that we don’t want Donald Trump to be the king. The whole shebang, nationwide, was not a protest against rulers in high places but a massive show of TDS, Trump Derangement Syndrome. I think it is a fairly safe bet that if Kamala Harris had won the Oval Office in 2024, there would not be anything of this nature cropping up, at least not from the left side of the bed. The fact of the matter is that most, probably an extremely large percentage of the crowd, would be considered leftists, progressives, and liberal. In other words, Democrats, who would be completely happy to serve a king (or a queen), as long as he (or she) had no connection to Trump. It’s not that they don’t want a king, they just want one they agree with.

Caitlin Johnstone recently wrote about this phenomenon and, while I disagree with quite a lot of her political philosophy, she was dead on the mark here.

Trump is not some freakish aberration; he is the product of the same American political status quo as his predecessors. He became president the same way they did, and the powers he now wields were given to his office via mundane executive, legislative and judicial decisions and precedents before he was ever elected.

But because the “No Kings” protests are organized by liberal defenders of that same political status quo, the demonstrations cannot address any of this. The whole thing is designed to be as large and inclusive as possible while also ensuring that it doesn’t disrupt the established order in any meaningful way. They make no real demands. They coordinate the demonstrations with police and government officials. Protesters show up for a few hours with their brunch signs and their orange guy shirts, and then they go home without inconveniencing anybody.

They are not protesting against the US empire. They just want a more polite, photogenic empire.

For a couple years during the Covid years (2021-2022), a small number of us spent a lot of Saturday afternoons on the streets and sidewalks of Missoula demonstrating against the “regime” of the time. It is quite probable that many of the people who were protesting “NO KINGS!” today hated us, flipped us off, shouted obscene remarks, etc., and refused to treat us decently because we were proclaiming a different message than what they wanted. It is not far-fetched to believe that, if they had had the control of the state then, we might have spent more than a few days in the county jail, yet here they are telling anyone who will listen that they don’t want to be ruled…by anyone. Especially Trump. And, to further make the connection, there was then virtually no unified, significant outcry over the Covid thing, in the same way that there is no real protest over the Iran war. As long as Covid and its ramifications didn’t touch daily lives, people ignored it, and, until the war “collateral damage” starts hitting close to home, people will ignore it.

I can’t be bothered, let the king handle it.

This is not a question of “kings vs. no kings”. It is a question of which king or whose king. A question of who will be king. Kings speak of authority and the concept of authority is inescapable. There will always be an authority figure, always someone who will exercise authority over others. Whether they are called kings or presidents (as Johnstone points out) is irrelevant. You could call them Smokey the Bear or the Grand Ayatollah and it wouldn’t matter. Persons in positions of power, from parents of children to leaders of great nations, have authority and they use it to advance and further their agenda. Unfortunately, sometimes this authority is used to harm those who are subject to it and, in this, even parents of young children are not exempt, because they can (and do) abuse it to the detriment of their children who are unable to defend themselves. The greatest abuse of this power is, in my opinion, that “freedom” known as a woman’s right to choose, a.k.a., abortion, in which an unborn human being is destroyed forever simply because she decided to kill it. Authority, but perverted and lethal.

The slogan I presented, “No law but love, no kings but Christ”, is a paraphrase on the popular saying from fifty or so years ago, “No law but love, no creed but Christ”, which, like every other popular fad and fashion flared for a little while, then died away. The principle, however, remains as true today as it was then: If we, as individuals truly lived in the way that Jesus taught, “Love your enemies” and “Love your neighbor as you love yourself”, then there would be no need for a political king to force everyone to subject themselves to his rule. If we were to acknowledge Jesus as our King, which He is, and live according to the truths that He spoke, then we would love our enemies and our neighbors as He loves us. There would be no need for a political king because society would be made up of self-controlled individuals who did no harm to their neighbors. This would be an enormous change from the world of today in which most people are out to get whatever they can for themselves and they are willing to take it from someone else. We operate in a world, based not on love, but selfishness, greed, and hate.

This will go on and on until people quit looking for a savior to impose their desires on the world, but find a Savior who works miracles in the human heart and transforms the sin nature we all possess into one conforming to the Spirit of God. This is not done through political action nor is it done through ritualistic practices of religion, but is accomplished only through a continual surrender to the Spirit and constant repentance of our sinful lifestyles. This, rather than depending on the whims of a “king”, is the only way to freedom and liberty, and, because it requires a radical change from the way we are means that it is usually discarded out of hand.

“…wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it.” — Jesus Christ (Matthew 7:13

This is the political solution. Choose a leader, make him responsible, and then, when you don’t like him, agitate for a replacement. And it never works. Never.

America’s Moral Obligation to Defend the World and Attack Iran

Roger MitchellLeave a comment

I can remember discussions with my father when I was young and learning to form and assert my own opinions. In one of those, he brought out the argument that America had a responsibility to police the world because the US was the premier power of righteous morality (or something to that effect) and if we didn’t keep things in order, the world would soon end up in a chaotic maelstrom of Communist rule, headquartered in Moscow, Russia. At the time, as I recall, the Viet Nam war (Domino Theory) was still in full swing and, due to his experiences during WW21, it is understandable why he might be of that opinion.

Just the other day, a local chat group I participate in blew up into an intense, mildly rancorous debate because one of the members said that Donald Trump had to attack Iran and the main reason given for the “required” action was that 40, 000 Iranian citizens had been killed in the recent street protests. Needless to say, his viewpoint was severely questioned and the argument raged for some time with no clear resolution of the issue. Given that “Jeff” is a conservative Christian Zionist, it is understandable why he might think that way.

The US had a responsibility to make the world safe. The US had to attack Iran to stop the government there from killing its own citizens. These are nearly identical positions which bespeak that America has some (nebulous, unproven) God-given duty to ensure that the rest of the world behaves itself and to “straighten it out” if necessary, like a young boy facing a whipping for some misbehavior. Fifty years apart, they only prove that deeply held beliefs across a wide spectrum of society take a long time to change.

That line of thinking is dying out in America and it is fairly evident that most of the rest of the world has kicked it to the curb. Today, the US is widely seen, not as a shining knight on a white steed administering justice, liberty, and the American way, but as an overbearing, monstrous, murderous bully, intent only on getting its way, pushing its way into arguments which do not concern it, and beating the living daylights out of small, weak countries. Because, we can. Because, as Donald Trump famously said when asked if there were any limits on his actions as President, “Yeah, there is one thing. My own morality. My own mind. It’s the only thing that can stop me. I don’t need international law.” Because, his Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth openly states about the war, “Death and destruction from the sky all day long…This was never meant to be a fair fight, and it is not a fair fight. We are punching them while they’re down, which is exactly how it should be.” Because, as Michael Ledeen put it twenty some years ago, “Every now and again the United States has to pick up a crappy little country and throw it against a wall just to prove we are serious.”

“I define my own limits.” “Kick them while they’re down.” “Beat up somebody smaller and weaker than you are so others will notice.” These are the attitudes which rule American foreign policy today. Morally righteous behavior has nothing to do with it. God-given authority has nothing to do with it. In fact, the current administration has made it quite clear that it will no longer be held accountable by the standards and norms (internationally accepted) which ruled the interactions between countries. Supposedly ruled, I should say, since strong countries like the US have always forced the issues and never hesitated to use violent force whenever it was deemed “necessary”. From here on out, it’s the Law of the Jungle, and woe betide anyone who gets in the way of the rampaging 800 pound gorilla. Power exercised for the sake of power, and the collateral benefit is that great wealth is gained thereby.

As professing Christians, believers in the gospel of Jesus the Christ, disciples of His teachings, obligated to follow and obey His commands, it should be apparent that waging war by an ungodly State (US) goes against everything we are expected to adhere to, especially when said war is in the “service” of an anti-Christian, atheistic, murderous regime (Israel) which is absolutely opposed to Christian belief and actively persecutes those Christians (along with believers in other religious orders) who live within its jurisdiction. There is nothing Christian at all with the popular policy that “We have to kill them over there, so that we don’t have to kill them over here.”

For those who would disagree with this (and they are legion), I ask this. Where is it written that we MUST employ violent force to destroy anyone who gets in the way of “national interests”? Where is it written that “service” to our country overrides our obligation to the Prince of Peace? Where is it written that we are given the option between the way of the world and the narrow way to life? Where is it written that the US is an exceptional nation simply because we have been blessed materially with a scope of riches and power which history has never seen before? Where is it written that we can, like Donald Trump said, do whatever we want. Where is it written that we will never be called out for our behavior and reap the consequences of our actions?

In the current situation, there is a blatant hypocrisy which causes extreme discomfort and cognitive dissonance in those who refuse to face the truth. Enormous outrage is vented against Iran for killing 40, 0002 people, its own citizens, and action is demanded to impose “justice”. Yet, nary a peep is heard from these same people about the ongoing genocide in Gaza which has demonstrably and visibly slaughtered at least 75, 000 persons, most of them women and children. In addition, nothing is ever mentioned about the “sanctions” imposed on the Palestinians (Iraqis, Cubans, etc.) which have (and will) result in the deaths of many, many more due to lack of food, good water, and adequate health care. In fact, many of those who express anger at the Iranians for their “crimes against humanity” often, at the same time, profess to believe that the State of Israel, as the chosen people of God must be supported, idolized, and excused without restriction or accountability.

The teaching of Jesus simply does not matter in our world and can be relegated and confined to the weekly show known as “church” which passes for holiness today. “Thou shalt not kill” is relative. “Love your enemies” is conditional on how we feel about them. “Do good to those who hate you” means that we do “good” to them, but do it first. Kick them while they’re down.

Where is the concept of sacrifice for others out of a spirit of love, as exemplified by Christ and taught in the New Testament? How can we square the order of the true Commander-in-Chief3 with the way we live according to our own word? When will this change to better conform with what we profess to believe? Why do we continue to hold onto this contradiction and refuse to acknowledge it, except that we, again like Donald Trump, cannot bring ourselves to admit we are wrong and to repent of our sins?

Think about it.

  1. He was stationed on a light cruiser, USS Helena, which was sunk somewhere in the South Pacific. Incidentally, he and all four of his brothers were in active combat operations and all of them came home without serious injury. I take that as a REAL blessing of God. ↩︎
  2. This is an unproven claim which has been broadcast widely by the mainstream news, but is almost certainly inflated from the real number. It has been reported that many of the deaths which occurred, both civilian and law enforcement, were due to random sniper fire at riots which may have been orchestrated by Israeli (Mossad) and US (CIA) intelligence. ↩︎
  3. Not Donald Trump, BTW, who only holds that title as relates to the military. It does not transfer over to civilians. ↩︎

Trump’s War: Escalate or TACO

Roger MitchellLeave a comment

Can Iran actually sink a US aircraft carrier? Well, maybe. Simplicius says no and explains why here. Fifteen minutes of detailed information to make his case. This video, on the other hand, lays out a different viewpoint. An interesting thirteen minutes why we might be finding out soon which theory is correct, and who loses the most.

https://youtu.be/Gr5DMqDPCQk

What really connected with me are the multiple references in the video to the US striking Teheran’s power generation system which would plunge the city of ten million people into darkness for weeks, perhaps months, with many more times the number of deaths due to the outage than from the original strike. Yet, this is exactly what the West has constantly lectured Russia about with respect to Ukraine’s power system, calling the Russian strikes on the grid vicious and barbaric, designed to starve and freeze the civilian population into surrender. We don’t wage war on civilians, do we? Now, we are in the same boat and…crickets.

Why does this matter so greatly? Because Donald Trump is caught between a rock and a hard place1, where every move he makes is going to be wrong. He can’t bomb Teheran’s power grid into “obliteration” without risking the destruction of the USS Gerald R. Ford and the loss of 5000+ personnel. He can’t back down because that will be seen by the Irani leadership and the rest of the world as capitulation to threats. If the carrier is sunk, he would have to choose between all-out war with the potential use of nukes and the risk of Russia and China becoming directly involved or calling off his dogs of war and slinking home with his tail between his legs. Either way, no matter which way, Trump loses. There is no “Art of the Deal” here. It is highly unlikely that he has never been in this position before in his entire life.

Which explains why he appears to be increasingly rattled and unhinged.

Oh, did I mention that he postponed the long-scheduled meeting in China with Xi Jinping for a month? Seems he needs to be in Washington to administer the war, his war, which was originally slated to last for only two days–between the stock market close on Friday and its opening bell the following Monday. Now he’s telling us that it will go on for at least another 30 days.

Hmmmmm. The best laid plans of mice and men…

I’ve given up trying to guess what he’s going to do next. I don’t think anyone knows for sure. Probably he doesn’t. Whatever it is, though, I am sure that it is not going to be good and pleasant for either America or the rest of the world. When I wrote a year ago that Trump was an orange-haired wrecking machine, I was putting it mildly. Today, it’s not looking quite as nice, neat, and tidy and, if I was to rewrite that article, it would have considerably more bite.

  1. His situation is even worse than George W. (Dubya) Bush’s war in the same region, when he was caught between Iraq and a hard place, and the US spent more than a decade trying to figure out how to escape the situation. ↩︎

Wars begin. And they end.

Roger Mitchell1 Comment

Ho hum! Yawn! Another week of killing them over there so we don’t have to kill them over here.

It’s beginning to look like The Man, Mr. Donald J. Trump himself, is desperate and flailing about for any means of extricating the US from this ill-conceived and extremely stupid conflict he got himself into. Reading alternative news sources (not the Major Media Machine) gives me the understanding that the war is not going at all the way it was intended to when Trump and Older Brother Benjamin started it. A quick in-and-done result is long gone and Iran sounds resolute about not stopping until the menace of future attacks is completely obliterated and never to be attempted again.

Never is a very long time.

  • Strait of Hormuz passage subject to Iranian consent, none given to ships with US and/or Israeli ties.
  • Despite very public “begging”, many EU members have refused to join Trump’s “coalition of the willing” to reopen the Strait. Coalition of the Willing, of course, is a throwback to George H.W. Bush’s drive to wreak havoc on Iraq in the 1991 Gulf War.
  • Why have 5000 Marines been ordered into the region? Boots on the ground? But, to effect a successful ground invasion would require multiple times that pitifully small number, perhaps on the order of 500, 000, which the American public will not tolerate without just cause, such as, a mushroom cloud rising over an American city. Shades of the Iraq war in 2003 under Bush’s son, Dubya.
  • US Navy ships pulling back beyond the range of Iran’s missiles for no apparent reason, although rumor has it that one aircraft carrier has been struck.
  • Oil refineries throughout the region burning. Oil prices spiking daily. The world is beginning to feel the effects as evidenced by Denmark’s driving population encouraged to stop driving. Just stop, will you?
  • Trump sounding more and more erratic, not only in speech, but also on his own Truth Social.
  • Scott Bessent summoned abruptly to the Oval Office while in the middle of an interview, returning two hours later appearing very shaken and incoherent. One possible reason why:
  • Rumors flying around that Netanyahu has been killed in the heat of battle. Brought down by a random shot. No official confirmation at this time, but speculation is growing. If this proves to be true, that would be reminiscent of another of Israel’s leaders being taken out in the same manner, but 3500 years or so earlier: Ahab.

Now a certain man drew a bow at random, and struck the king of Israel between the joints of his armor. So he said to the driver of his chariot, “Turn around and take me out of the battle, for I am wounded.” The battle increased that day; and the king was propped up in his chariot, facing the Syrians, and died at evening. The blood ran out from the wound onto the floor of the chariot. Then, as the sun was going down, a shout went throughout the army, saying, “Every man to his city, and every man to his own country!” So the king died… (1 Kings 22:34-37a)

History, it is said, does not repeat but rhymes, and it would be ironic (and rhythmic) if the war was ended because Dear Leader Bibi was indeed killed. Which brings us to the quote by Machiavelli seen at the top. Wars start whenever at the discretion of the leaders. They end when they end and usually for reasons unknown, unforeseen, and unanticipated at the initiation of the action.

When the first shot of battle is fired, the plan goes out the window.

Random Thoughts about the World Situation

Roger Mitchell1 Comment

https://www.slow-journalism.com/delayed-gratification-magazine/eight-years-stuck-on-the-suez-canal

Remember the Ever Given? The massive cargo carrier, which became stuck on a sand bar in the Suez Canal in the spring of 2021, completely blocked traffic through the canal and forced other carriers to make the long trek around the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa, adding thousands of miles to their journey, driving shipping costs sharply higher, and causing considerable discomfort among the shopping public in Europe.

https://www.reuters.com/world/ever-given-container-ship-set-leave-suez-canal-2021-07-07/

Here’s a little bit of speculation.

Full Disclosure: This is nothing more than a consideration of the possibility of such an event and is not an endorsement, encouragement, instruction, incitement, nor support. It is only speculation which may get me into trouble for exercising my right to free speech. Heck, I wouldn’t even know where to start to bring that about and don’t have the necessary funds to make it happen. If I am investigated and prosecuted for mentioning this potential, well, it is what it is, and I will consider it an honor to be persecuted for speaking the truth.

Just suppose that, during the Fog of War in the conflict between Iran, Israel, and the US, another very large cargo carrier (or even an oil tanker) was suddenly and without warning struck by a missile and sunk in the narrowest portion of the canal. Not damaged, not disabled, sunk. Deep-sixed. Sent to Davy Jone’s locker. Considering that it took six days of strenuous effort by an army of workers to refloat the Ever Given, it would be reasonable to expect at least six months to clear the wreckage, during which time all ship traffic through the canal would be halted. That is, ALL traffic. For an unknown period of time.

How does anyone protect against that?

It has also been bandied about that the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, will be hit by an errant missile, destroying it. Situated on the so-called Temple Mount, supposedly the location where Abraham offered his son Isaac as a sacrificial offering to Yahweh and, also supposedly the location where the prophet Mohammed was translated into Heaven. In other words, a very holy place in the minds of millions of people.

This has a high chance of happening, whether by an errant missile or by design–coordinates or false flag. It doesn’t matter. What is important is that the State of Israel ought to be everything it can to protect the site, to the detriment of the rest of the country because, if the mosque is destroyed, then nothing stands in the way of building a new third temple–except 1 billion upset, angry, and raging Muslims, many of them willing to die “martyr’s” deaths for the cause of their ideology.

Think about it. One percent of one billion Muslims is ten million persons, far more than the entire population of the entire state of Israel, including the non-Jewish part.

There’s more of them than there are of them. This is an existential problem for Israel.

Think about it. How do you get around that?

If, and I stress if, Donald Trump loses this war and has to retreat to the White House to lick his wounds, how would he react? My guess: Shift direction and beat up someone else who simply does not have the means to defend themselves, namely, Cuba. 90 miles off the southern tip of Florida, in our own back yard, emaciated and devastated by decades of socialist rule and suffocating sanctions, Cuba would be a cake walk compared to Iran. Land 100,000 Marines on its shores and let them do their worst. Marco Rubio would be issuing Executive Orders from the presidential palace within a week and Trump’s reputation would (might) experience a significant rebound.

Or, perhaps, initiate a military tyranny over the citizens of the US itself. “You didn’t like what I was doing there and didn’t support me, so we lost. Well, you’re going to pay, and pay dearly. Take that, you ungrateful wretch.”

China. OMG, we have completely forgotten about China!! How would the US Empire react to a Chinese naval blockade of Taiwan, the primary source of high-tech computer chips upon which the rest of the world depends. Imagine a scenario where any ship or air traffic from Taiwan is blocked. Total stoppage. No exceptions.

Darling, in my wildest dreams…1

And, at the end of it all, the Epstein Files. Still there, still relevant, still a threat.

  1. Who ever decided that Pat Benatar was classic rock? ↩︎

Trump Tells the Truth–Finally

Roger MitchellLeave a comment

At last! Something honest from the man who cannot tell a lie.

“We are totally destroying the terrorist regime of Iran, militarily, economically, and otherwise, yet, if you read the Failing New York Times, you would incorrectly think that we are not winning. Iran’s Navy is gone, their Air Force is no longer, missiles, drones and everything else are being decimated, and their leaders have been wiped from the face of the earth. We have unparalleled firepower, unlimited ammunition, and plenty of time – Watch what happens to these deranged scumbags today. They’ve been killing innocent people all over the world for 47 years, and now I, as the 47th President of the United States of America, am killing them. What a great honor it is to do so! Thank you for your attention to this matter. President DONALD J. TRUMP

https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/116219996530067941

“I…am killing them. What a great honor it is to do so!”

This was posted March 12, at 10:33 p.m., and by 7:00 a.m. the next day it had already gained over 17, 000 likes.

“Kill one man, and you are a murderer. Kill millions of men, and you are a conqueror. Kill them all, and you are a god.” —  Jean Rostand

I suppose I should not be shocked at anything Trump says anymore, but this statement has hit a new low. I simply cannot countenance anything like this and wonder at the control which evil exercises over his mind and mouth. Not only does he brag about killing people who have done him no harm (little schoolgirls, etc.) but he considers it an honor. No, no, it is a great honor, as if the act itself ought to be applauded vigorously by a “civil” society. What makes this even worse, however, is the fact that in 8-1/2 hours, in the space of one night, more than 17, 000 followers, presumably Americans, hit the Like button to show their support for his efforts. Presumably, they are also of the mindset that it is honorable to kill others whenever you can.

How low can you go?

“One man must not kill. If he does it is murder. Two, ten, one hundred men, acting on their own responsibility, must not kill. If they do, it is still murder. But a state or nation may kill as many as they please, and it is no murder. It is just, necessary, commendable and right. Only get people enough to agree to it, and the butchery of myriads of human beings is perfectly innocent.” Adin Ballou (1803–1890) American minister

Kill one person, you are a murderer. Kill one hundred persons, you are a sick, perverted psychopath. Kill one million persons, you are esteemed and held up for great honor. I suppose this is the reason why so many people worship the ground that George W. Bush walks on. Probably right-wing Christians, for the most part, who really ought to know better considering the clear message in Scripture about killing and idol worship. More than likely, many of these also give Trump the adulation he seeks.

But, then, this has been the pattern of America for a long, long time. From the very beginning, America’s MOD (Mode of Operation) has been to kill anyone who stands in its path or who makes life inconvenient. From native Americans (Indians) who were only trying to defend their property and way of life to unborn children in the womb, the prevailing attitude has been to kill them because they are inconvenient and causing trouble. Magnified manifold, this is exactly why America, The State, has been so successful at killing populations worldwide…and, seemingly, gotten away with it. In reality, the State is nothing more than the individual writ large and, since the individual is bent on murder, so also the State.

Today, however, we are captive of (or captivated by) a man who openly celebrates and exalts the murder of those less fortunate…and we are extremely uncomfortable with the idea. Is this because his words and actions mimic the temptations within our own souls? The temptations which we (presumably) control but which we allow to fester because they fit the worldview we have adopted and embraced? The idea, which is completely contrary to the teachings of Jesus the Christ, that it is perfectly acceptable to murder those you consider to be your enemies while claiming love for them? The cognitive dissonance which we experience because we know this is wrong, yet make excuses for it anyway?

How low can you go?

If…if God gives us what we deserve, then we deserve Donald Trump. What, me worry?

My God! We should be terrified!

John Maynard Keynes, the father of inflationary financial politics said that, “In the long run, we are all dead.”, yet in the short run, we are still here and still subject to the vicissitudes of life, including those imposed on us by our “Dear Leaders”, chief of whom acts exactly as we would if we were sitting in his chair in the Oval Office, surrounded by sycophants, groupies, and ass-kissers who only tell us what we want to hear.

We have no one to blame except ourselves.

With a Flick of the Wrist

Roger Mitchell5 Comments

In the movie, The Three Musketeers (1993), starring Chris O’Donnell as D’Artagnan, there is a scene in which Cardinal Richelieu (Tim Curry) made a pass at his beautiful, but seductive spy, Milady de Winter (Rebecca de Mornay) and, when she responded by pressing a dagger point into his ample girth, he made a comment. “With a snap of my fingers, I could put you back where you were before I rescued you.” Or something to that effect. Her immediate response, which he nervously laughed off, was far more sinister. “With a flick of my wrist, I can change your religion.”

Ah, yes. A simple flick of the wrist. In an instant.

“Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city! For in one hour your judgment has come.” (Revelation 18:10b)

Did you get that? Flick of the wrist! In one hour the entire world system has been overturned. How close are we to that actually happening?

I am American, born and raised in the United States of America. Most of the people who read this article will be in the same situation. We are Americans. I have lived my entire life in the dominance and sway of the American way and, if I believed the narrative pumped into everyone from nursery school onward, I would not understand why things are as they are. WTF is the matter with the rest of the world anyway? Can’t they see that our way, the American way, is so much more superior than everything else? And, why do they not embrace it wholeheartedly as an improvement on what they now hold to be true? How in the world can anything be any better? WTF is the matter with them, those heathens, those unbelievers, anyway?

Unfortunately, this attitude is prideful and arrogant and goes against the Spirit of God, which stresses humility before God and service to others as the only proper method of operation. America is not good at this, no matter the propaganda. God opposes the proud (James 4:6)1 and is the REAL kingmaker (Daniel 2:21, Daniel 4:17, Psalm 75:7, Romans 13:1). Donald Trump, contrary to his opinions and beliefs, is nothing more than a tool in His hand.

I look at Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu as modern-day, real life clones of the villainous cardinal in Alexandre Dumas’ novel, The Three Musketeers. Out of pure hubris, arrogance, and a lifetime of exercising power to get whatever they want, they are basically saying to anyone who opposes them, “We can send you back where you came from, back to the Stone Age2, or, even better for us, to Hell itself.”

Iran is basically saying, “With a flick of my wrist…”

Now, if only it were that simple. We laugh at the incident and move on to the next scene. But God…3 God is the one who decides how the situation works out and it is quite possible, increasingly likely, that events unfold in which we see the current political and financial world system upended and destroyed almost instantly, virtually overnight, in one day, so to speak. If that happens, there will be millions and billions of people who will be shocked and in despair at the speed of the implosion.4

“Alas! Alas! Oh, Babylon, Babylon, where art thou?”

And many will have to change their religion because the Beast they worshipped is no more.

  1. I wrote about this just a few days ago. See here. ↩︎
  2. Without saying so, they are following the example set by Richard Armitage, a top official at the State Dept. during George W. Bush’s run-up to the Afghanistan invasion. Armitage is alleged to have told Pakistan’s president, Pervez Musharraf, that the country would be “bombed back to the Stone Age” if Musharraf didn’t get with the program and allow the US access. Armitage, of course, denied that he ever made the threat. https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2006/09/paki-s27.html ↩︎
  3. Used in conjunction, this is one of the most profound and powerful phrases in the English language. ↩︎
  4. To get the full impact of this, read Revelation 18: 9-24, then use your wildest imagination. ↩︎

Note to readers: I have reached a milestone at Poor Roger’s Almanac. This article is #300 in a line of posts stretching back to 2012. I have made a lot of progress–spiritual, emotional, and literary in that time. Nothing is denied, held back, nor paywalled. It never will be. This is my mission in life and I am grateful to have the opportunity to share it with you.

God! What Do I Do Now?

Roger Mitchell3 Comments

This is a recent photo taken at the White House which has been spread far and wide in the also-recent revelation that members of the military have been subjected to “religious” persuasions and pressures from superior officers, presumably following the example and advice of the Pentagon chief, Pete Hegseth. It reminded me of the painting which showed George Washington and Abraham Lincoln praying over George W. Bush while laying their hands on him. But, I guess that’s what warmongers do for each other.

The controversy began after an anonymous non-commissioned officer contacted the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) on behalf of several soldiers in a unit stationed outside the Iran combat zone. The individual wrote that a commander urged personnel to view the war as “all part of God’s divine plan,” while citing passages from the Book of Revelation. According to the complaint, the officer told troops that “President Trump has been anointed by Jesus to light the signal fire in Iran to cause Armageddon and mark his return to Earth.” — The Cradle

I am not concerned whether this is true, although it certainly would be in keeping with the character of the head honchos who have visited the latest military destruction on Iran. Understanding so-called Biblical “prophecy”1 from a Zionist, evangelical, and dispensational point of view, it is not hard to believe that Earth is indeed “in the last days” as foretold by Revelation, just prior to the return of Jesus Christ, the Messiah, who will rule and reign from Jerusalem for 1000 years, forcing everyone to bow and scrape to His authority on pain of being bopped by a Rod of Iron for disobedience, rebellion, and disbelief. Days of peace, indeed!

If, a big IF, Donald Trump has been set up in the Presidency by God Himself to usher in Armageddon and “light the signal fire” so that Jesus can find His way here, then he is certainly holding up his end of the responsibility. It makes me wonder, however, if this isn’t the wrong way to look at the situation. More than likely, instead of showing Jesus the way, Trump, his coterie of sycophantic yes-men and women, Lindsey Graham and his neoconservative ilk, and the world’s foremost arch-criminal, James Moriarty Benjamin Netanyahu and the entire leadership structure of Israel, are manipulating the actual sequence of events, literally forcing an appearance by Jesus to put an end to the fighting lest all mankind be killed and the Earth destroyed forever. And, if Jesus should somehow not show up, well, they win by default and take His place.

Shall we do evil so that good may come? Yeah, for sure, as long as the good comes to me.

Of course, that might be a little too far-fetched, so I’ll rescind the assertion and apologize to anyone whose feelings were hurt and whose beliefs were bruised. It is far more plausible to see things as Alexander Dugin explains in a well-written expose of Zionist thought.

“…Zionism is Judaism’s heretical rebellion where Jews declare themselves God, seize the Holy Land by force, and plunge tradition into apocalyptic upheaval.“

Well, Donald Trump hasn’t yet declared himself God, but he thinks of himself as The Supreme One. It wasn’t long ago that, in answer to a question about restraints on his behavior, he replied,

“…Trump insisted, just “one thing” that can curtail his desire for global supremacy: “My own morality. My own mind. It’s the only thing that can stop me.” — from an article on People

Add to that, his statement that, as President of the US, he can do whatever he wants, and you get the idea that he really thinks he is above the law, not just international law, but the Law Itself. The Highest Law. The one which says, “Thou shalt not kill. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not lie, unless you’re on the campaign trail or at war.”

All this is to raise a question, however. Who or what were those people, including Donald Trump, praying to as shown in the photo above? If he cannot be stopped by anyone once his mind is made up and if he can act in any manner he wants, then why does he feel the need to seek guidance from a “higher” authority? Considering that he also is rumored to have said that he is not a Christian, that he hates his enemies, and that he has no compunction nor regrets about destroying others for his own sake (unarmed, hard-working fishermen in the Caribbean, e.g.), I am confident in stating2 that he does not worship the same Prince of Peace that I (and millions of other Americans) do. Maybe he recognizes and serves some other nefarious character who encourages him to indulge his god-like powers, you know, kill, steal, and destroy. I’d be willing to bet that all of the people in that photo think of only one thing–power and how to gain more of it, which is about as far from true Christianity, selfless sacrifice in the service of others, as anyone can get.

One of the ironies of the American War between the States, the War of Northern Aggression, the Civil War as some call it, is that the people on both sides of the conflict, both Union and Confederacy, believed that they were right, that their cause was just, and they prayed to the same God to give them victory over their enemies–the others, those over there. The same god, the same religion, the same belief structure, yet they expected God to pick and choose sides, to favor one while hurling lightening bolts at the other. Kind of like the internecine wars the Greek gods on Mount Olympus would involve themselves in and with just about the same results–a lot of dead people and widespread destruction.

Since, as human beings created in the Image of God, aren’t we all one big family? Brothers and sisters? Related to each other? Yet, in this current war which Trump and Netanyahu deliberately started, whose god is going to triumph? The stronger side? The more resilient force? The ones who don’t run out of ammunition first? The one who punched first or the other who punched back? Far be it from me to predict how God is going to act, but I am sure of this.

“God resists the proud…” (James 4:6)

Interestingly, I typed this exact phrase into my Brave browser which produced this response.

God resists the proud — a declaration rooted in Scripture, most directly found in James 4:6, which states, “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” The Greek word used, antitasso, conveys a military image of deliberate, strategic opposition — God actively arranges circumstances to confront and humble those who exalt themselves. 

This resistance is not arbitrary but a response to pride rooted in self-reliance, arrogance, and a refusal to acknowledge God’s sovereignty.  As seen in Proverbs 3:34 (quoted in James), pride leads to divine opposition because it excludes God from one’s life. Psalm 10:4 describes the proud as those who “make no room for God,” and their self-sufficiency blocks true relationship with Him. 

Yet, the message is not only warning — it is an invitation. God’s resistance is not final rejection, but a call to humility.  Those who humble themselves, acknowledging their dependence on God, receive His grace. As James 4:7-10 urges: “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.” 

In essence, God opposes the proud to bring them to humility, so they may receive His grace and be restored.

Not bad for AI. Wouldn’t it be ironic if Iran was playing the role of antitasso?

  1. I have a close friend who calls it profit-cy, which, for those who make money off other’s misery, fits far better. ↩︎
  2. “By their fruits you will know them.” — Jesus Christ (Matthew 7:20) ↩︎

The Deceit of Tremendous Wealth

Roger MitchellLeave a comment

Not that there is anything wrong with being extremely wealthy. I wouldn’t mind trying it out for a day or two just to see how it fit. The problem arises when the accumulation of wealth and the power that grows with it become more important than the condition of one’s own soul. Or the condition of a nation’s soul.

“To “subdue” is also not to dominate–and all claims to the contrary be damned. The divine continually opposes the tyrant (as in Exodus 7-14) and warns against even seemingly benevolent kings (1 Samuel 8:10-18)…To subdue is, therefore, not to control and command but to put everything in its proper place–to give everything its subordinate value or due; to order everything, hierarchically, so the the priorities of attention and action can be established; and to place things to that the world is no longer mere potential or disorder.” — Jordan Peterson: We Who Wrestle with God, 2024, page 10

“Unwise societies (think Ninevah) take the fact of their traditions and accrued resources for granted. They live unconsciously on the wealth of the past, narcissistically and destructively consuming more than they earn; even irresponsibly destroying the very spirit whose activity gave rise to the wealth in question. We can regard the wealth offered to us by past and nature alike as our entitlement, even our earned due, and act far too casually and carelessly in consequence, despising our birthright and its source: privilege. — ibid, page 478

It is highly unlikely that Donald Trump has ever read Peterson’s book. It is unfortunate if he hasn’t.

Substitute America for Ninevah. It is accurate to say that America has been practicing exactly what Peterson describes–living on the wealth built up in the past, living as if we were the only ones, living far above our means, expecting everything to be given to us because we deserve it, careless of the consequences of our actions, thoroughly destroying the spirit which gave rise to the country. In short, we despise our privilege. We hold in contempt what we have been given. We exemplify the parable of the rich man in Luke 12: 15-21.

And He said to them,

“Take heed and beware of covetousness,
For one’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses.”

Then He spoke a parable to them, saying:

“The ground of a certain rich man yielded plentifully. .
And he thought within himself, saying,
‘What shall I do, since I have no room to store my crops?’
“So he said, ‘I will do this:
I will pull down my barns and build greater,
And there I will store all my crops and my goods.
And I will say to my soul,
“Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years;
Take your ease; eat, drink, and be merry.” ‘

But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul will be required of you;
Then whose will those things be which you have provided?”
So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.”

What shall I do since I have no room to keep the stuff which I have accumulated? Ah! I’ve got it! I will rent a larger storage unit, twice the size of the one I currently have, at the new complex just completed down the road and move my possessions into that where they can live until I have need for them. Sounds facetious, no? However, in my neck of the woods, one of the most active forms of construction is the building of storage units and it appears that there is no end to the demand for them. Is this because housing units are not providing sufficient space or is it because we have gone overboard with the consumer mentality of keeping up with the Joneses? Or both?

Regardless, the parable quoted above can refer just as easily to Donald Trump as it does to America, in that it seems that he can never be satisfied with what he has. More! More! More! And it also seems to be that he has no compunction (nor do millions of Americans) about aggressively destroying what we already have (or that other people have, more especially what other people have) for the sake of building bigger and better and making our own situation easier and more comfortable in the present.

Notice also, that this parable is intensely personal. I, I, I, my, my, I, my. Numerous times, this rich man drew attention to himself, his possessions, his accomplishments, his plans, much like Trump does today. “I made America great again. I restored America to its former glory. I am the only one who could do these things. I am the only limit to my conscience and actions. I ended umpteen wars in the first 30 days of my second administration which has been the greatest time in history since my first administration which was just as good. No one else can do the things I can.” And on, and on, and on, and on…

Yes! Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die. Well, let’s worry about that tomorrow, shan’t we? In the meantime, there’s a war to win.

Bigger barns. Always bigger barns.

Nebuchadnezzar’s Dream: A Modern Parable

Roger MitchellLeave a comment

“These were the visions of my head while on my bed:

I was looking, and behold,
A tree in the midst of the earth,
And its height was great.
The tree grew and became strong;
Its height reached to the heavens,
And it could be seen to the ends of all the earth.
Its leaves were lovely,
Its fruit abundant,
And in it was food for all.
The beasts of the field found shade under it,
The birds of the heavens dwelt in its branches,
And all flesh was fed from it.”
(Daniel 4:10-12)

Sounds great, right? Such a nice dream to have. Peace, prosperity, and plenty for everyone. “Oh, beautiful, for spacious skies…” But, wait, as the TV commercials blare incessantly, there’s more.

“I saw in the visions of my head while on my bed, and there was a watcher, a holy one, coming down from heaven.
He cried aloud and said thus:

Chop down the tree and cut off its branches,
Strip off its leaves and scatter its fruits.
Let the beasts get out from under it,
and the birds from the branches.
Nevertheless leave the stump and roots in the earth,
Bound with a band of iron and bronze.”
(Daniel 4:13-15a)

Whoa! Wait a minute! What happened to the nice, pleasant picture I was seeing? This is ugly and I don’t like it.

“In the tender grass of the field,
Let it be wet with the dew of heaven,
And let him graze with the beasts
On the grass of the earth.
Let his heart be changed from that of a man,
Let him be given the heart of a beast,
And let seven times pass over him.”
(Daniel 4:15b-16)

Him? Who’s him? And what has he done to deserve this? Well, I’m glad you asked.

“All this came upon King Nebuchadnezzar. At the end of the twelve months he was walking about the royal palace of Babylon. The king spoke, saying,

‘Is not this great Babylon,
That I have built for a royal dwelling by my mighty power
And for the honor of my majesty?‘”
(Daniel 4:28-30)

And, boom! Just like that, in fact, as the next verse says, “While the word was still in the king’s mouth…”,

The entire chapter tells the story. You’ll have to read it yourself to get the full report, but, in a nutshell, Nebuchadnezzar apparently went crazy insane and, within an hour, he was driven out of the palace, away from the city and civilization into the open fields where he spent the next seven years without any of the comforts of home, eating grass like an ox, completely senseless. The good part, however, is that after his ordeal, his right mind was restored, he gave credit where it was due, and he returned to his throne and picked up the affairs of the kingdom where he had left off seven years earlier.

“Now I, Nebuchadnezzar,
praise and extol and honor
the King of heaven, all of
whose works are truth, and
His ways justice. And those
who walk in pride He is
able to put down.”
(Daniel 4:37)

Now, I’m going to take this at face value. I see this as an historical account of an event that actually happened. I’ll leave it up to the scholars, historians, and argumentative skeptics to sort it out as to whether there’s more to the story than is recorded here. However, actual or imaginary, the lesson remains: proud, arrogant men (and women) can be taken down and humbled. This speaks volumes to the current phenomenon known as Donald John Trump, President of the United States, who, like Nebuchadnezzar, cannot resist bragging about himself and lifting himself higher and higher on the pedestal of his own vanity. I fear for him. If the story of Nebuchadnezzar is true and given to us as a lesson and a warning not to get too big for our britches, then The Don is skating on very thin ice.

When Nebuchadnezzar lost his mind, the world continued on as before with other leaders stepping in to fill his place. This would, of course, happen if Trump was taken out. The continuity of succession guarantees that JD Vance immediately becomes president and the system carries on. However, unfortunately for the rest of us, Americans and the rest of the world, Trump has access to weapons which Nebuchadnezzar could not have even dreamed about and may have the same mentality as Israel does with its Samson Option–if we’re going to lose, we do it bigly, no matter who or what we have to destroy. Suicidal madness is not restricted to “lone wolf” gunmen who shoot up schools, rock concerts, or nightclubs. It might be, just possibly might be, that Trump would resist the humbling process so strongly that nuclear weapons would be unleashed with devastating, world-wide consequences. All to avoid having to admit making a mistake and confessing to a sin of pride.

On the other hand, perhaps all this is the result of my own fevered imagination, by reading too much into the situation, and by taking too much Scripture on too much faith to mean that it means what it says. For instance:

“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)

“God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” (James 4:6)1

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.2

The war against Iran which Trump and Netanyahu have unleashed may well become the straw which finally breaks the camel’s back. We would be wise to contemplate the possibility. Selah. Pause. Consider.

  1. See also–Isaiah 14 and Genesis 11 for similar pronouncements ↩︎
  2. https://poorrogersalmanac.com/2025/07/10/officially-confirmed-epstein-didnt-kill-himself/ ↩︎

Bay of Pigs II?

Roger MitchellLeave a comment

I have written before (here and here) about Donald Trump’s penchant for blowing fishing boats in the Caribbean Sea out of the waters with Hellfire missiles, killing (or attempting to kill) all the men aboard. His #1 assistant in this diabolical practice has been Pete Hegseth, the current Secretary of War, who, on hearing that two of the men aboard one of the boats were still alive and clinging to the wreckage, gave an undisputed totally illegal order to shoot them until they were dead. Which order was dutifully obeyed because: “Just following orders! Sir!”. The rationale given to these extra-judicial killings was that the boats were smuggling drugs into the US and needed to be stopped for the safety of the country. It didn’t matter that there was no evidence of drug running nor any other justification for using lethal violence against the boats. We were just told to trust that Trump was doing the right thing.

“I say that the boats are running drugs. I say that hundreds of thousands of Americans are going to die if they succeed. I say that the only moral restraint on my behavior is myself. I say, kill them all. Let God sort them out. Who are you going to believe–me or your own damn lying eyes and ears?”

All’s fair in love and war. Right?

Which brings us to this. Apparently, a Florida-registered speedboat with ten men in it were intercepted barely a mile offshore of Cuba by a government patrol boat. According to the Cuban Embassy, the crew of the speedboat opened fire on the patrol boat, resulting in a firefight which left four Americans dead and the others wounded to some degree. See here for more information.

Now, I can’t say with 100% certainty that this actually happened and I am quite confident that, if it did happen, the story has been stretched, manipulated, and distorted to some extent. There are always at least two sides to every argument and no one has an absolute lock on truth. Nevertheless, I have to take it on face value that this event did occur more or less as reported and that the fallout is predictable. Namely, the US government will use it as justification to ramp up its already suffocating hold on Cuba and may trumpet the need for military “intervention” (read that assault) on the island to protect American citizens, even if they were stupid enough to put themselves in harm’s way. After all, consider this immediate response:

“The dictatorship in #Cuba has just attacked a boat from Florida & murdered those on board. This regime must be relegated to the dust bin of history!” — https://twitter.com/RepCarlos/status/2026737976907067395

My! How the tables have turned. As you give, you receive. When you blow up fishing boats in international waters without respect for due diligence, just cause, and human life, then you risk getting your own boats being fired upon. With due diligence and for good reason by the Cuban government, I might add, if the event happened as reported.

ZeroHedge raised an important question.

“What armed men aboard the Florida-registered speedboat were doing inside Cuban territorial waters remains a very open question at the moment.“

Well, yes. Exactly. Why did a boatload of armed men venture inside the territorial limits of Cuban water? What was their goal? What did they hope to accomplish? Did they realize the risk they were running? Did they care? Who were these men, anyway, and more importantly, who were they working for?

It is entirely possible, not likely, but possible, that the ten men on the boat were nothing more than Rambo-type, hot-headed hotshots who were stupid enough to try something like this and got more than they bargained for. After all, there are a lot of incredibly dumb people on this earth who act first out of emotion without ever rationally considering the possible consequences. This is not out of the question, but, as I said, not likely. The most plausible explanation is that they were on the payroll of an unnamed entity which was attempting to smuggle a heavily-armed crew into Cuba to stir up trouble in the hopes of further destabilizing the current government and potentially starting an uprising among the “campesinos nativos”. If that was the case, then it recalls the Bay of Pigs debacle, which became a black mark against the John Kennedy administration forever as an example of official incompetence.

This episode will probably be stonewalled and any involvement by the US government in it will be denied until the spokespersons are blue in the face from lack of breath, but it won’t put to rest the suspicions. As the saying goes, never believe anything the government tells you until it is explicitly denied. Vehemently explicitly denied. When Donald Trump says that the US absolutely had nothing to do with it and attacks someone else for asking questions, then we can be pretty sure that his fingerprints are all over it. On the other hand, being the type of person he is, he might just come out and admit that he ordered the project and, “What are you gonna’ do about it?”

Who knows? And who can comprehend what damage might ensue as a consequence? And who will be blamed while the dust is settling?

The answer to that last question is obvious and will be brought out immediately–“Not I. Look over there!”

Update to this story: https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/foiled-armed-infiltration-cuba-kills-four-aboard-heavily-armed-us-linked-speedboat

When Johnny Goes Marching Off to War, Hurrah! Hurrah!

Roger Mitchell7 Comments

The title for this article is derived from the old song longing hopefully for the safe return of soldiers from the carnage of the American War between the States1 (1861-1865). What is usually not mentioned nor remembered is the fervor and celebration of just a few years earlier with which Johnny marched off to war and his family and friends, both North and South, cheered him on, gave parades in his honor, showered him with adulation, flowers, and kisses. “Hurrah! Hurrah! We’ll teach those scoundrels (Yankees, Rebs) something they won’t ever forget! Go get’m, Johnny! We’re behind you all the way.”

This, as I recall, was the atmosphere in America immediately after 9/11. It seemed that everyone couldn’t wait to go out and kick some a$$ for the destruction of the World Trade Center in 2001, and, to be perfectly honest, it didn’t really matter whether the actual perpetrators were brought to “justice” or not, as long as someone paid. The administration, George W. Bush presiding, took full advantage of the situation and launched two wars, Afghanistan and Iraq, which were only ended years later, without ever resolving the question of “whodunit?”. Not that it mattered too much, anyway. The American public is driven by emotion rather than common sense and Congress is repeatedly admonished to “Don’t just sit there, do something.”, with the unspoken implication that it is better to do anything, even if it is wrong, than to contemplate their actions, consider the consequences, and make good choices.

Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941, the “day which will last in infamy”, was no different, except that there was no question about who had initiated the attack: Japan, the Rising Sun empire, and America lost no time in ramping up to a wartime footing in a massive spirit of revenge and retaliation, intent only on the destruction of those who dared to slap the face of Uncle Sam. Nothing was held back by the public, no sacrifice was too great, no cost was too much to bear for The Cause of total victory.

That was then, this is now.

Today, even as I write this, the tension in the Middle East is at a fever-pitch and rapidly escalating. The US may have already attacked Iran by the time you read this. Donald Trump is ramping up his threats and bullying tactics against Iran, demanding that the government undergo a regime change, that it Cease and Desist from any nuclear program, and that it immediately disarm by getting rid of its long range missiles. Basically, complete and abject surrender on Trump’s terms which, of course, the mullahs who lead Iran have rejected without any equivocation. What is Trump going to do if Iran doesn’t bow and scrape? Sign the order to attack? Or, TACO? We’ll know soon.

It seems to me (and polls regularly bear this out) that the mood of the country is against starting another war, especially one in the Middle East. People are genuinely tired of the “forever wars” and Trump capitalized on that sentiment when he was on the campaign trail, promising to end them. Political reality reigns supreme, however, as he conveniently forgot what he had promised to the voters only a short time earlier and started aggressively going after other countries, all smaller and weaker than the US. To date, in the first year of his second term, he has literally bombed ten countries, more than any of his predecessors. One of those was Iran at the end of the 12-day war with Israel last summer when he supposedly destroyed (obliterated was the word he used) Iran’s nuclear capabilities completely. I say supposedly, because, if that was the case, then why is there so much concern about Iran’s current nuclear program? Something doesn’t add up here and can be seen for what it is–a bald-faced lie.

Events like this which have occurred over the years wherein The Powers That Be have run roughshod over the interests of the common people do not build trust within society. Without that trust, institutions fail and when a society’s institutions fail, the society collapses. The ongoing Epstein scandal and the recent Covid scam have created an enormous (and growing) distrust among the populace which will not be reversed if Trump goes to war against Iran and gets the pants beaten off him. The only reason that trust and faith might be restored would be if he achieves complete and total victory immediately, without question, for the whole world to see and understand. Of course, once the victory laps, backslapping, and grandstanding were done, we’d be off to the next conquest, the next enemy which needed to be taken out as a matter of “national security”. Any guesses as to which one that would be? You get three and the first two don’t count, but I’ll give you a hint. It starts with an R, ends in A, and has six letters.

God help us!

If he is not immediately successful and Iran closes the strait of Hormuz to shipping, the price of oil will go through the roof, the financial Jenga tower known as derivatives will collapse, the Federal Reserve printing presses will be pushed to the limit resulting in hyper-inflation, and the world-wide system of fiat money will be scrapped in favor of a different one–the Great Reset, which we’ve all heard about. Probably something along this line of thinking will happen, that is, if Trump does not achieve complete and total victory with the first strike. Probably. It might happen if he does succeed. I’m only speculating.

Or, perhaps that has been the plan all along. Who knows?

In an article posted on Forum Geopolitica, Scott Ritter had this to say about the situation.

“A war on Iran will result in a disaster for all parties involved. There is no guarantee of success on the part of the United States and Israel, or failure on the part of Iran. There is a huge risk that this war will result in massive disruption of critical energy production capability in one of the most critical energy production regions in the world, triggering a massive energy security crisis that could collapse regional and global economies.

So, the key question is why Donald Trump, a man who ran on a platform of peace, willing to risk losing his political base on the eve of critical mid-term elections by betting on the successful execution of a short war with Iran that achieves the regime change outcome desired?

The simple answer is because he simply has no choice.”

Ritter goes on to explain why he thinks Trump has no choice and I can’t say that he’s wrong. The extremely high sunk costs of the military buildup almost guarantee that an action of some type will be taken, if for no other reason than to recoup some of the expense incurred. The greater reason, though, is that Trump’s ego, prestige, and reputation will take an enormous hit if he “chickens out” this time. Given the polling numbers on his sinking approval rating, it would likely lead to a loss by the Republican Party to the Democrats in November, virtually ensuring that impeachment hearings would be resurrected, this time with a fairly good chance of “throwing the rascal out”. Of course, if he does initiate the war and loses, the same scenario presents itself. In short, Trump is caught in a lose/lose situation. Heads I lose, tails you win, and there’s not much that he can do about it.

If Trump wins, he will be insufferable. If he loses, watch out. Either way, the American public will pay the price and my guess is that cheering Johnny as he marches off to war will become a highly unpopular act. As it should. Wars have a nasty habit of biting the hands which feed them.

  1. Technically speaking, not a civil war as the Confederate States were not trying to take over the existing government, but wanted to split from it and set up a separate one. It should more properly be called a secessionist movement which was put down by force. ↩︎

Turning Our Heads Away so We Don’t See

Roger Mitchell3 Comments

“How many times can a man turn his head and pretend that he just doesn’t see?”—Bob Dylan, “Blowin’ in the Wind”

I’m starting this blog post exactly the same way that John and Nisha Whitehead started theirs a few days ago because I wonder about the same thing which Bob Dylan did, and I simply cannot comprehend the amount of stretching of neck muscles and blinking of eyelids which must accompany that. But, then, this is nothing new. People see what they want to see and close their eyes to the rest.

We live in a time when moral boundaries have been distorted to the point of near-total erasure, recalled only when it is to one’s benefit to remember them. The Whitehead article focused on the hypocrisy of those who completely abhor the destruction of unborn children in the wombs of their mothers, but applaud and encourage the murder of those who have managed to live beyond the first nine months of life IF it is politically convenient. On the other hand, there are those who think nothing at all about destroying infants before they are born (and even call it empowering), yet are aghast that innocent children are blown apart by bombs because they live in the wrong part of the world.

Human life, if it is to be honored and held sacred, should be and must be equally recognized regardless of age and/or development and/or decline. To do otherwise is to play games with God which cannot be won. This phenomenon, this aspect of human nature, however, encompasses all of life. Evil is everywhere rampant today, yet how many are there who will call it out wherever it shows its face, regardless of its composition and character.

Let’s call a spade a spade, shall we? As Christians, believers in Jesus Christ as “…the way, the truth, and the life…” are required to “…be innocent of evil…” and many of us pride ourselves on keeping ourselves squeaky clean in that respect. “We don’t smoke, drink, or chew, and we don’t go out with girls that do.” Yet, as Bob Dylan wrote, we turn our heads away from rampant, vile evil and pretend that we see nothing at all.1 More importantly, if we do notice, we ignore it by pretending that it doesn’t exist, at least in our circles and neighborhoods. Furthermore, if it did occur close to home, we would find some reason, some excuse, to do nothing at all to counter it, usually, at least in Christian circles along the lines of, “It’s the end of the world. Jesus is coming to rescue us out of the mess we have created. Besides, Donald Trump is working on our behalf to set things right.” Kind of like financial “experts and leaders” kicking the can down the road hoping that the sure reckoning can be postponed at least until they are safely ensconced in a fat pension-supported retirement.

Shades of King Hezekiah!2

The thing is, we know that procrastination on fiscal matters will eventually come to an end, yet prefer to “turn our heads and pretend not to see.” We know that making threats of violence and war against other countries will eventually result in wars with disastrous consequences, yet we turn our heads. We know that continual decline of morality will eventually destroy our society from within, yet we pretend not to see. We know that killing unborn children is wrong, yet applaud when fishermen on small boats, who are doing nothing more than trying to provide for their families, are blown out of the water. We vigorously protest the slaughter of Gazan women and children as an abominable crime, yet celebrate when our political opponents are the ones led to the guillotine. We know, oh, yes, we know, but it is easier to pretend than it is to act on the information.

We are hypocrites. Shameful hypocrites. And we say nothing, nothing at all, as if the evil among us does not exist. As if, by keeping quiet, the evil will go away.

“Silence in the face of evil is itself evil. God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak, not to act is to act.” — Dietrich Bonhoeffer

“The world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch them without doing anything.” — Albert Einstein

“The problem in defense is how far you can go without destroying from within what you are trying to defend from without.” –Dwight D. Eisenhower

“Great is truth, but still greater, from a practical point of view, is silence about truth” – Aldous Huxley

“It is an eternal truth that those who practice genuine faith in the presence of the cowardice and derisive fatalism of the mob will be persecuted for their temerity rather than merely ignored. This is part of the pattern of destruction of the ideal characteristic of the descendants of Cain. None of this excuses failure to stand up and be counted when the time comes.” — Jordan Peterson, We Who Wrestle With God, page 433. (Emphasis mine.)

  1. Remember the story of the Good Samaritan, in which the Pharisee who was squeaky clean with respect to The Law nevertheless went around the badly wounded man on the road and did not stop to help him so as to keep his clothes and hands untainted. It is also likely that he didn’t want to tarnish his reputation. ↩︎
  2. 2 Kings 20:19. “Well, that’s not so bad, really. At least it won’t happen in my lifetime.” ↩︎

America loves war. Just admit it.

Roger Mitchell2 Comments

“The Constitution gives Congress the sole power to declare war. Congress, representing the weakest of the three branches of government, has refused to follow its obligation since WWII. The Senate has shown a bit of backbone here, with the Democrats (and five Republicans) voting on a War Powers resolution to limit what Trump can do in Venezuela. Trump will undoubtedly veto it. Congress loves war as much as the people who keep voting them back in office do.” — https://donaldjeffries.substack.com/p/the-gangsters-of-manifest-destiny

Hoo, boy! Isn’t that the truth? But, just to make sure everyone understands the statement clearly, let me rephrase it.

The people who keep voting the politicians into office love war as much as Congress does!

Ahhhhh! Now we’re getting somewhere. And there is no better example of that assertion than the continual and long-standing re-election of uber-hawk Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-SC, who has never seen heard about a war he didn’t love, especially those which wreak havoc, death, and destruction on people and societies which are, supposedly, the “enemies” of the self-righteous, so-called Christian community of the state he hails from and the “national interests of the US. Whatever that means.

Compassion for the poor, down-trodden, hungry masses of foreign peoples outside the “respectable” circles of the Pharisaical confines of the most-segregated community in America today, the Christian church1, is not considered. What is more important is the constant and constantly increasing flow of “blessings”, read dollars, to the industries and services which are a large part of the economy of South Carolina (and every other state as well), from the bellicose machine known as MICIMATT, of which the US Department of War is its very public face, and for which the president (Donald Trump being the latest example) is the main cheerleader.

Hip, hip, hooray! Let’s go kill some despicables today! Kill them over there so we don’t have to kill them over here! Yeah, you know, because we’re a Christian nation and they’re not, except for Venezuela, of course, which is also Christian, but just happens to be full of oil which it was selling to “our” adversary, China. Thank God that “our” modern-day Herculean hero, Mr. Donald John Trump, was given power to put a stop to that bullshit. If you can read this, thank a teacher. If you can read this in English, thank the President!

War is the health of the State, Randolph Bourne told us a century ago, and that is no less true today than it was when he penned the words.

“…the nation in war-time attains a uniformity of feeling, a hierarchy of values, culminated at the undisputed apex of the State ideal, which could not possibly be produced through any other agency than war. Other values such [as] artistic creation, knowledge, reason, beauty, the enhancement of life, are instantly and almost unanimously sacrificed and the significant classes who have constituted themselves the amateur agents of the State are engaged not only in sacrificing these values for themselves but in coercing all other persons into sacrificing them.” — https://www.panarchy.org/bourne/state.1918.html

Sadly, this prevailing attitude is directly opposed to the teachings of another famous person, who may or may have never written anything down for posterity to read, but who fundamentally changed the world–Jesus Christ.

  1. “But to you who are willing to listen, I say, love your enemies! Do good to those who hate you.” — Luke 6:27
  2. “Blessed are the peacemakers2, for they shall be called the sons of God.” — Matthew 5:9
  3. “Put your sword in its place, for all who take the sword will perish by the sword.” — Matthew 26:52
  4. “Father, forgive them. They don’t know what they are doing.” — Luke 23:34

Etc., among many others, and there is also this order from the Ten Commandments, which bears repeating: “Thou shalt not steal.” — Exodus 20:15. Stealing, of course, is an involuntary taking of something, anything, from someone else which belongs to them, whether by force, fraud, or law. Taking the life of someone else would fall into this category.

Donald Trump, at the very least, is honest with his principles. He has stated that he is NOT a Christian, which can be seen in his actions,3 which he makes no excuses for, and which he does not try to hide. (Except for anything which might be exposed in the full and complete release of the Epstein files, if there’s anything there.) Not so for the millions upon millions of skin-deep Christians who claim to worship the Prince of Peace as the King of Kings, but who harbor a deep reverence and love toward the militant State which constantly practices deceit, theft, and murder on a world-wide scale.

“There is a moral order. Beware of unintended consequences when it it violated.”4

    1. Segregation of churches according to skin color is a prominent part of Christianity in the Christian church today, especially in the South. This is a dirty shame and may be a reason why the Church in America has no power today. ↩︎
    2. Peacekeepers, as commonly understood today, are not identical to peacemakers. Peacekeepers use the threat of violent force to maintain an artificial truce between warring factions while they discuss and negotiate the methods by which they might live in a state without overt war. On the other hand, peacemaking is the process by which war itself, is completely eliminated from the community of individuals/nations and is accomplished by voluntarily submitting to the will of the Prince of Peace Himself and loving your neighbor (enemy) as you love yourself. ↩︎
    3. “By their works you will know them.” — Matthew 7:16 ↩︎
    4. Jordan Peterson, We Who Wrestle with God, Penguin Random House, 2024, chapter 3.8. ↩︎

    Honesty, Finally. For the Whole World to See.

    Roger Mitchell2 Comments

    “…there is nothing covered that will not be revealed, and hidden that will not be known.” — Jesus Christ, Luke 10:26

    In a bitterly ironic way, Trump’s reckless arrogance is to be welcomed. Because he is inadvertently exposing the Western system for what it is – a criminal imperialist regime with absolutely no respect for international law, human life, and peaceful coexistence. He has discarded the Western mask of duplicity and pretense, which at least makes it clear what the Western system is all about. What we see is something barbaric and ugly, like the fascism of former times. — https://strategic-culture.su/news/2026/01/09/trump-turbo-charged-rogue-regime-exposes-pathetic-european-vassals/

    Donald Trump has spilled the beans, knowingly or not. America has finally gone rogue without any trappings of respectability or any effort made to preserve its so-called “sanctity” built up over the decades and centuries about democracy, the rule of law, justice, and liberty. No, that carefully constructed and long maintained edifice artifice has just been exposed for the whole world to see and “our” man in the White House has been very direct and open in proclaiming the message. Frank Zappa’s long-standing prediction has arrived.

    “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.”

    This is not entirely a bad thing. There are no longer any reasons for anyone to make excuses for his actions, just call them for what they are–naked, raw power manifestations. No one, except those who are willfully blind, can justify what is happening according to an ethical moral code unless they also share in Trump’s desire for power over others, for the power to determine what is right and wrong, for the power to create their own “values” and to say, with Trump, “We can do whatever we wish.” Jordan Peterson has addressed the motivation this way.

    “This is the elevation of narrow self-will to the highest conceivable place, in the guise of ultimate freedom. (“I can abide by whatever values I choose”–something that almost immediately deteriorates into “I can do whatever I want” or, more accurately, “Whatever impulse grips me rules.”) This is simultaneously the presumption of subjective omniscience, omnipresence, and omnipotence. (“I have the capacity to determine the very definition of right and wrong, valuable and contemptible, good and evil.”)1

    Trump has explicitly stated this before (see here), his sycophantic staff and advisors parrot the same line (see here), and the authority has even been expanded to the police who can now “do whatever the hell they want”. Somewhere, somehow, the man has gotten the idea that because he was elected selected to hold down the cushy chair in the Oval Office, there are no limits on his behavior and that no one can tell him to “stand down”. There are millions of Americans, many of them so-called Christians who ought to know better, who cheer him on and virtually worship him as, if not God Himself, then as representing God because they have themselves embraced a violent religion of power and control. They are subject to the idol they have raised up.

    Unfortunately, this attitude does not guarantee righteous success, but instead drives the already low moral status of the United States even lower. If the President can do anything he wants and get away with it, then, as one of his subjects, I can also act that way and, hopefully, escape any judgment and punishment myself. When Trump acts in an immoral manner as the representative of the people, it does not mean that he is immune to consequences, instead it shows that the moral character of the populace at large is degraded and rotten. These points (“I’m the President. I can do whatever I want.”) and (“If the president is free to act any way he wants, then so am I.”) are symbiotic and feed off each other, making excuses for all sorts of behavior, refusing to take responsibility, and blaming others for the fallout.

    What is to be done by the average person in the US who is appalled by the goings-on?

    1. Recognize that you cannot change Donald Trump nor the way he thinks. This is God’s prerogative, however, you can ask God to work a miracle.
    2. Recognize that you may have such tendencies within yourself and, if so, confess them, ask forgiveness, cleansing, and healing, then change the way you think and act.
    3. Recognize that you do not have the authority nor the power to determine what is right or wrong. That was fixed a long time ago and is immutable. It cannot be changed, adapted, amended, added to, or altered. It can only be obeyed and adhered to, or disobeyed and ignored at your own risk and those who follow after you.
    4. Make a difference for righteousness in your own sphere of influence, your family, church, neighborhood, community.2
    5. Refuse to support the evil which is pervasive throughout this society. Call it out whenever it appears, beginning within your own soul. Eliminate every evil! If this means you have to change your politics to fit your belief structure, then…well? Do I need to draw you a picture?3
    6. Prepare yourself for what is coming4. Other nations have been here before. Where are they now? Why should we expect to receive different treatment?

    As average, everyday Americans, we do not have much influence, hardly any at all, over the machinations of the powers-that-be who own and run the government. That does not let us off the hook. When the shit hits the fan full force, as it will, we are going to be held responsible for the part we played in the shaping of our society. It does no good to claim ignorance nor to say that we are blameless.

    “And that servant who knew his master’s will, and did not prepare himself or do according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. But he who did not know, yet committed things deserving of stripes, shall be beaten with few. For everyone to whom much is given, much will be required; and to whom much has been committed, of him will they ask the more.” — Luke 12: 47-48

    As the common saying in jurisprudence says, “Ignorance of the law is no excuse.” Whether we acted deliberately or ignorantly, we are going to be beaten. Truly, a day of reckoning is due America and, as the society which has been given more than any other in history, the stripes will be proportionate.

    Live not by lies! It may save your skin.

    1. Jordan B. Peterson, We Who Wrestle with God, Penguin Random House, 2024, chapter 2.5 ↩︎
    2. Glen Campbell put it this way. We need to take the message to heart. ↩︎
    3. One of my father’s favorite questions. ↩︎
    4. See Psalms 2. If you listen closely, you can almost hear God laughing uproariously. Or, maybe He has done and is wiping the tears out of His eyes. Either way, not good for our future. ↩︎

    Is Trump Trying to Start a War? Why Would He?

    Roger Mitchell3 Comments

    Remember the Epstein files? How much have you heard about them recently? Where are the millions of “recently discovered” documents which the government has always had in its possession, yet only now acknowledged. What is in them which has not been revealed? Will it be revealed or will we be treated to more of the same old, same old? “Move on. Nothing to see here.” And to make sure that nothing is seen, will they be redacted so heavily that there really is nothing of any importance shown?

    Donald Trump is like a zucchini plant in late summer–the gift which keeps on giving. Those who have experience with zucchinis, whether growing them or having neighbors who grow them, will understand. If you don’t, then I recommend you familiarize yourself and, perhaps, even try your hand at growing some yourself. They are an amazingly prolific vegetable which can outproduce the appetite anyone might have for them. Check out this website for a tip which I was not aware of but plan to implement this spring.

    But…back to Donald. The man is truly an intensely productive machine, a hyper-active over-achiever in many senses who excels at getting things done which he wants done. With respect to that, he has my respect.1 I trail far behind. However, he does so many things that I do not like nor approve of that I cannot keep up with all of them. They simply are ignored, overlooked, forgotten, or put on the back burner until later, which means that they are ignored, overlooked, and forgotten.

    Nevertheless, the big news gets my attention and the big news of the moment is that the US Coast Guard has recently boarded and commandeered an oil tanker in the North Sea between Iceland and England–far, far away from the coast of the US. Ummmm, isn’t the Coast Guard supposed to patrol the American coast and leave the “enforcement of US Law” on the internationally recognized, deep blue high seas to the Navy?

    This comes less than a week after the invasion of Venezuela and the kidnapping of Nicolas Maduro and his wife in a lightening fast raid on Caracas on January 3, 2026. He has since been transported to a federal court in New York City and indicted on numerous charges, most of them totally ridiculous, but virtually all of which will be upheld, and by which he will be found guilty, flogged in the public square, thrown into prison with Manuel Noriega, tortured until he confesses his sins, and eventually executed by a bullet to the back of the head2, after which his body will be drawn and quartered, then burned to ashes which will be consigned to Davy Jones’ locker alongside the remains of Osama bin Laden, who was officially “buried at sea”, never to be heard from again. [For those who are gullible enough to believe everything they read, know that this prediction is pure sarcastic satire and is meant only to draw attention to the ridiculous claims which the State has made about these, and other, matters.]

    Not to mention that Trump is breathing heavy threats against the Danish “claim” that Greenland belongs to them and that it would be better for everyone all around if the US simply took it over (militarily, if necessary) and made it the 52nd, 53rd, or 54th state, depending on how you count. (Canada, of course, is the 51st.) Or, maybe, he will have compassion on the entire population there by giving them a cool million dollars each of your hard-earned, easily inflated money, so long as they agree to sell the land-locked iceberg to him.3

    It makes my head spin. As Lenin is supposed to have said, “There are decades where nothing happens and there are weeks when decades happen.” Or, if you prefer to beat up on Christopher Columbus as the spark which ignited all the wrongs visited on the New World,

    “There are centuries in which nothing happens and years in which centuries pass. Fourteen ninety-two is a year of centuries,”4

    Hoo, boy! What is next? Who the heck knows?

    The more important questions to ask, however, is these. Why is Trump doing all this now? Is he deliberately trying to start a “serious” war? And, probably most important of all, what is he trying to hide by distracting the populace with grandiose, Fourth of July style events? Would his efforts possibly have something to do with the fact that America, the Empire, is on its last legs? The fact that the country is financially broken beyond redemption? The fact that the rest of the world is moving in its own direction which does not coincide with his Israel America First vision? The fact that his poll numbers are plunging deeply and that many of his die-hard followers are starting to question his tactics, policies, promises, and maybe even his sanity? Or, perhaps most importantly, would it have to do with the “soon-to-be released” heavily-redacted files related to the Jeffrey Epstein case, which will not die a normal death, and, like the zucchini plant, just keeps on giving. And giving. And giving.

    What is Trump trying to hide and will we ever learn the truth about it?

    In times like these, there is only one place to go for reassurance–the Word of God, specifically Luke 10:26, in the words of Jesus Christ himself.

    “Therefore, do not fear them. For there is nothing covered that will not be revealed, and hidden that will not be known.”

    We have a choice. See what is happening around us and be afraid because we cannot see what is going on behind the curtain OR to trust that the dark places, the hidden things, will have the light of truth shone upon them and will be exposed for what they are. This is about as plain as I can make it.

    “Therefore, do not fear them.” Words worth repeating.

    1. Credit where credit is due. Even Adolf Hitler loved his dog. BM, add this to your list. ↩︎
    2. Or given enough rope to hang himself in the manner of Jeffrey Epstein, who committed suicide in spite of guards sleeping next to his cell, video cameras which malfunctioned at the “most inopportune time”, and a slew of other fantastic coincidences which are almost too unbelievable to be believed, but that’s what we’ve been told to believe. [Note: I don’t watch much TV, but I did see this on the Internet, so I know that it’s true.] ↩︎
    3. In mentioning this, Trump has made it clear that he has no compassion for the heavily-burdened citizens of the United States. They are only a cash-cow to be milked for his benefit. ↩︎
    4. Attributed to Mexican poet Homero Aridjis. https://www.csmonitor.com/1991/1011/11101.html ↩︎

    The Narrative is Shifting: Foreign Policy Course Corrections Ahead

    Roger Mitchell3 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.

    The Stones are Crying Out. Can You Hear Them?

    Roger Mitchell1 Comment

    It has been reported that the toll from Donald Trump’s self-declared “war” on Caribbean fishing boats has now reached a total of 18 attacks, with at least 70 persons losing their lives because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Even though some (that is, a few) members of Congress are demanding that the attacks end (that is, until Congress itself can declare them official), there is no sign that Trump and his gung-ho henchmen (Rubio, Hegseth, etc.) will stop voluntarily. It is more than likely that the killings will escalate and multiply until the end goal of the neo-con White House and its puppet-masters is reached: a full-blown war against near or distant “enemies” who are unable to stand up against the military might of the US Department of War (that is, the highly profitable business model known as the “military-industrial complex).

    In my lifetime, I have read a few books which have left a lasting impact, which I cannot forget, overlook, or ignore: Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath, Solzhenitsyn’s Gulag Archipelago, Roth’s Choosing Against War, Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning, et al. There are pamphlets, essays, polemics, articles too numerous to mention, which have shaped my thinking in so many ways, bringing me to the point I am at today. When it comes to Trump’s “Fisherman’s War”, however, one stands out as extremely relevant and sounds a clear warning. The excerpt below is taken from it.

    “Today, the stones still cry out. Every story of victims—whether nonviolent prisoners like those Steve Bannon met in jail, or casualties of wars we fuel in Israel-Gaza or Ukraine-Russia—haunts our collective conscience. Jesus tied the stones’ cries to Jerusalem’s fall in 70 AD, when Israel’s zeal for violence mirrored Rome’s and left both exposed as complicit in the same sin. America stands at a similar crossroads. Our politics, like Caiaphas’, justifies flesh-and-blood victims for “national security” or “progress.” We cheer Barabbas-types—leaders promising strength through exclusion or war—while ignoring the Lamb who redefines polis not as the victors’ club but as the refuge for the least of these.” — https://www.lewrockwell.com/2025/04/david-gornoski/the-stones-still-cry-out-holy-weeks-political-reckoning/

    Caiaphas-type politics which demand that someone die. Barabbas-type leaders who prey on weak, insignificant countries, societies, and persons. Pilate-type rulers who could stop the carnage but are politically inclined to “go along to get along” and, therefore, impotent and useless. And, of course, there are the “huddled masses” which obediently provide the necessary background noise and support for such actions, all in the delusion that somehow blowing boats out of the water without just cause will make America safe and their own lives personally better and more prosperous. Oh, yes, the collective zeal for violence at the mainstream level does mirror that in Washington and, like the crowd which screamed out, “Crucify him, crucify him!”, urge and hector our own Caesar-like “leaders” to increase the tempo and pressure because all would be lost if we relented for even a moment. Whether our collective conscience haunts us or not is debatable.

    And still, the stones cry out!

    Well, yes, this is an obvious reference to the devastation and killing fields in Gaza, not the waters off the coast of Venezuela, but everything I have described above applies to this as well. This ought to raise the question which everyone has heard at some time or another: WWJD? What would Jesus do, indeed, about the situations in both locations where the powerful and mighty rain down violence, death, and destruction on the poor and helpless? Actually moving from theory to consequence, probably negative, is to rephrase the question. What will Jesus do? What will be Heaven’s response to these not-so-isolated instances of theft, murder, and injustice, all of which are occurring on our watch and often with our complicity and consent, both vocal and silent.

    Why do the nations rage, and the people plot a vain thing? 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.” — Psalm 2:1-3

    And, the answer.

    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: 4-5

    My belief, informed by history and the warnings (both implicit and explicit) laid out in the Holy Bible, is that it will not be pretty nor comfortable. Many of us will probably express regret that we allowed the stones to cry out because it was easier than to raise a fuss ourselves.

    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.