Author: shadowwarrior

A terrible thing happened late this last week. Our Nation continued its long slide into tyranny and oppression. Our Nation was founded on Biblical principles, whether you believe it or not, it is true. Those principles come directly from the fact that we are all made “in the image” of our Creator. He is just, righteous, faithful, and merciful. Without His love for His creation, us, we would be lost and without hope. He was the one who sent His Son, Jesus, to teach us the way back to Him. Jesus was the one who made our redemption, our reclamation possible. As the perfect sacrifice, He did what no one else could do, make atonement for our sins, to bridge the gap between our imperfection and God’s perfection. This is what gives us hope at the end of our earthly life as we look forward to an immortal existence, free from our trials and tribulations, from our sins and mistakes, from our pains and worries. What happened this last week is that our National leaders seemed to have forgotten many of the things that our Nation was founded upon. We were blessed with a great Constitution and Bill of Rights. Our Founding Fathers based much of what we hold as unchanging principles upon laws and processes developed and molded throughout centuries, including ideas from England, The Magna Carta, and even the Roman government. Some of the basis of our laws come from examples not only from Bible History, but from Hammurabi Babylon Codes. “This is crazy, but the lesser known Code of Ur-Nammu (c. 2100-2050 BCE) predates Hammurabi’s Code (1754 BCE). From Mesopotamia, Ur-Nammu’s codes were written in Sumerian and are the oldest known written laws.” (healinglaw.com; Theodoric Von America.) The point we are trying to make is that our Founding Father’s were not simply “shooting from the hip” in hopes of hitting upon some form of government that might work, that might be better than anything devised before. They were not trying to “pin the tail on the donkey” blindfolded. Much of what we enjoy in our Nation today, or at least once enjoyed, was based on the knowledge of antiquities, in-depth research, by scholars of their day, learned men who were far from the perceived neophytes that some in our society would have us believe. And yet, this last week we saw supposed Representatives fall so far from the pedestal of National normalcy so as to leave us nearly speechless.

Where has mercy gone in our Nation? While our National leaders are sailing a rudderless boat over the falls of National destruction, they seem intent upon swatting away little nagging flies of triviality obscuring their view of massive reality. Moral Relativism is seemingly swinging The Overton Window (read our blog on November 19, 2023) toward our National demise. Where there is no absolute truth, anything and everything is possible and allowed. The morality of our Nation is based upon the founding principles we discussed earlier. If we fail to adhere to these principles, we will fail to remain the Nation under which we were initially established. So, what happened late last week that portends the potential demise of our great Republic.

Within the halls of our Nation’s capital, over two-thirds of our elected Representatives decided to set aside a basic principle that has stood unchallenged since the founding of our Nation. That principle is that an accused person is considered innocent until proven guilty. That guilt is to be determined in a court of law, not through any other form, like an ethics investigation, media bias, political persuasion, or ideological bent. At FREEDOMGOFORTH.COM, we do not claim the innocence or guilt of any individual, regardless of their political affiliation, without the full and unbiased disclosure of all the facts, presented in the proper forum. Should those apparent facts paint a corrupt picture, we will still not condemn any individual apart from due process. In our Nation, all citizens are considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. That is why on TV news, when a crime has been committed and the individual apprehended, that person is always given the benefit of the doubt by the stating of the “alleged” crime. Even if eyewitnesses proclaim the individual’s crime, the proof of guilt must be shown by the prosecutor in a court of law. Only following conviction in a court of law can the perpetrator be found guilty of the alleged crime and be accountable to the consequences.

Our Nation’s House of Representatives chose to disregard that any individual is innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. In doing so, they have in fact become like a kangaroo court, making unilateral decisions outside of the rule of law. They have become a “rule of law” in and of themselves, setting themselves above the established principles of our Nation. Not only that, but by the removal of the individual from the House, they have disenfranchised those that placed that individual in the House as their Representative. If anyone is authorized to remove that individual, it would be those citizens who were able to vote for that Representative in their district, or of course, if a court of law ruled to convict the individual of said crimes and of processes established, and then and only then, if the removal was required. In our Nation, even convicted felons can serve in Congress. In fact, “The House of Representative has an internal rule that any member who is convicted of an offense that could result in two or more years’ imprisonment cannot vote or participate in committee activities. However, the privileges of such member can be restored if he or she is reelected to Congress. The Senate does not have a similar rule. Both the Democratic and Republican parties can censure their own members in the House and Senate, including removing them from committees, as they see fit.” (voanews.com; March 21, 2023.) Expulsion from Congress is like “taking the nuclear option”. Few have ever been expelled, more from the Senate than from the House. Here is where we will return to how the title to this blog, CASTING THE FIRST STONE, becomes relevant.

The pictures at the beginning of our blog review the Bible text from John 8:1-11. Several observations stand out in the reading of this text. First, do you wonder what Jesus wrote in the dirt? We doubt it was his mother’s recipe for unleavened bread. Maybe he wrote various infractions of Moses’ law that were not being followed according to the written text. Maybe he wrote things like adultery, false witness testimony, failure to do good to all, honoring your mother and father, keeping the Sabath or any of the 10 commandments. Maybe it was something seemingly innocuous like lying. The reality is that any transgression of the Creator’s law is a sin which separates an individual from Him. Secondly, note that all those waiting to cast stones left starting from the oldest to the youngest. Most of us who are older understand how often we have failed to live up to not only our standards, but to those of our Creator. Those who are younger maybe rely on ignorance to seemingly inoculate them from “miss-steps” and “minor” infractions they feel are insignificant and believed to be overlooked by God. We are all flawed humans and “. . . all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23.) There is not one Representative in Congress who has not sinned in one way or another, but it often is so much easier to point out the flaws in another before admitting to our own. What has happened to our Nation when our leaders prefer to “sacrifice” another, rather than to offer mercy? It was Jesus who told the hypocritical leaders of His day, the Pharisees, the religious rulers, when He said to them, recorded for us in Matthew 9:13, “Go and learn what this means, I desire mercy, not sacrifice.” (Hosea 6:6.)

FREEDOM and LIBERTY in our Nation demands holding fast to our founding principles in our Constitution and Bill of Rights. To circumnavigate or short-circuit our Nation’s true morality, allowing its dilution with Moral Relativism, leads us down a dark path toward secularism, Communism, Marxism, and totalitarianism. Stand firm with our Nation’s founding principles. Let your Representatives know of your displeasure with their cowardly actions which only helps to put our Nation in moral jeopardy.

The wise man Edmund Burke (1729 – 1797) once said, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” We suspect Burke was a reader of the Scriptures, for this is recorded for our benefit in Proverbs 24: 10-12, “If you are slack in the day of distress, Your strength is limited. Deliver those who are being taken away to death, And those who are staggering to slaughter, Oh hold them back. If you say, ‘See, we did not know this’, Does He not consider it who weighs the hearts? And does He not know it who keeps your soul? And will He not render to man according to his work?” The writer Jesse Campbell, on January 9, 2017, put it this way, “It’s always easier to do nothing in a difficult time, but it’s not what we were created for. God looks for people who will take the initiative, speak truth in hard places, say the last painful 2% that needs to be said, and cut off tragedy at the pass.” (explorethebible.lifeway.com.)

If you are not aware of KRISTALLNACHT (German, meaning “Crystal Night), or as we have come to regard it as “The Night of Broken Glass”, then let us simply state it was the beginning of the killing of around six million Jews, or over 60% of all Jews (jewishvirtuallibrary.org). The event itself began “On November 9-10, 1938, [when] Nazi leaders unleashed a series of pogroms [organized massacre] against the Jewish population in Germany and recently incorporated territories.” (encyclopedia.ushmm.org.) Why was this allowed to occur? “Fire fighters and police stood by, instructed only to intervene if neighboring ‘Aryan’ property were endangered.” “Large numbers of ordinary people, including women, were involved in looting and plundering, picking up goods thrown out onto the street and benefiting from the expropriation of Jewish property. Both young and old turned out to humiliate Jews with whole classes of schoolchildren brought by their teachers to see sites of smoldering synagogues and join the jeering crowds. While some were egged on by peer group pressure, many young people believed the Nazi view that the ‘Jews are our misfortune’ and that it was ‘time to put them in their place’.” Another reason for so few standing up to protest this atrocity was “. . . the obvious point about state-ordained terror and fear. If violence is initiated from above, in a state where active political opposition has been crushed, it is extremely difficult to engage in effective resistance.” “After years of repression, most dissenters were cowed into sullen silence.” “But there is also a more complex point to be made, about longer-term compliance with a prevailing climate of hostility toward those officially disparaged as the ‘other’.” “Others compromised less willingly, performing new roles in public and muttering disagreements privately, but fearful of being denounced if they stepped too far out of line.” “This creeping compliance in effect amounted to complicity.” “Put simply: the Nazi leadership had introduced a hostile environment and initiated practical measures, whether through legislation or violence, to establish an ethnically defined ‘people’s community.’ By being largely compliant, for whatever reasons, those who were not excluded had helped to create an even more hostile environment – one in which it was possible to carry out terror in broad daylight without significant unrest or intervention on behalf of the persecuted.” (time.com; November 9, 2018; Mary Fulbrook.) Does any of this sound familiar? If you are a conservative, believing the unchanging founding principles of our Nation, then this is currently a part of your lived experience.

The amount of anti-Israel protests world-wide, and the hostility expressed in these protests, truly baffle us. How much of this is being promulgated by social media, especially the questionable TikTok, with its connections to the CCP. Do those current government leaders in control of our political arena have the right, and do we allow them the power, to determine what limits can be dictated to our FREEDOM and LIBERTY? Be aware of the dangers of the current government’s push to establish the new “Digital Discrimination” rule which was part of the recent $1.2 Billion dollar “Infrastructure Bill.” The government has no right to legislate social outcomes. Are our schools and leaning institutions teaching accurate history in the hopes of not repeating the errs of past generations, or are they leaning in to teaching divisive, ideological propaganda?

How much is your FREEDOM and LIBERTY worth to you? How about to your family? How about to those who follow you in life, like your kids, grandkids, great grandkids, and those beyond them? If you knew for certain that your FREEDOM and LIBERTY were on the verge of being vastly reduced, or even eventually eliminated, would you respond to our questions differently today? Protect the defenseless. Uphold the righteous. Hold fast to God-given morality. Stand firm in the truth. And boldly proclaim the Will of our Creator.

“SECULARISM”: “. . . is the principle of seeking to conduct human affairs based on naturalistic considerations, uninvolved with religion.” “Secularism is most commonly thought of as the separation of religion from civil affairs and the state and may be broadened to a similar position seeking to remove or to minimize the role of religion in any public sphere.” (wikipedia.org.)

“DISSOLUTION”: “(b₁) Decay, Disintegration”; “(b₂) Death”; “(c) Termination or destruction by breaking down, disrupting, or dispersing.”; “(d) The dissolving of an assembly or organization.” (merriam-webster.com.)

“CHRISTENDOM”: “The term ‘Christendom’ largely refers to the worldwide adherents of the Christian faith, with religious practices and beliefs drawn from the teachings of the Bible, primarily the New Testament.” (christianity.com.)

“THE OVERTON WINDOW”: As described in the picture above, it represents the range of acceptable ideas. This can include the acceptable beliefs not only in the broad range of politics, but in the more specific areas of finance, gun rights, abortion, global warming, wars and conflicts, homelessness, immigration, drugs and addiction, and yes, even in religion and matters of spirituality.

We are assured that no two people agree 100% on everything, even in mature relationships, for we are all individuals with our own brains, experiences, environments, and traditions that form our belief structures. We are different, one from another. So goes the saying, “One man’s junk is another man’s treasure.” “THE OVERTON WINDOW” of what is commonly accepted as “normal” and acceptable, is influenced by a wide variety of forces. Some forces are overt and easily seen, and some are covert, hidden from view and recognition. Over time, these forces can, and often do, move “THE OVERTON WINDOW”. The purpose of our blog today is to show how SECULARISM is leading to the DISSOLUTION OF CHRISTENDOM. More specifically how the rise of SECULARISM is eating away at the heart of CHRISTENDOM, reducing its influence upon our society and the world at large. THE OVERTON WINDOW is shifting away from CHRISTENDOM and moving to the more “normal”, acceptable SECULARISM. Like it or not, those who have claimed to be in the column of CHRISTENDOM have assisted in the shifting of THE OVERTON WINDOW toward SECULARISM. How is this possible?

A few facts need to be shown. Church attendance is down. Attendance at religious services hit its peak in the early 1950’s with nearly 50% of all Americans attending some form of religious services. “In the four years before the pandemic, 2016 through 2019, an average of 34% of U.S. adults said they had attended church, synagogue, mosque or temple in the past seven days. From 2020 to the present, the average has been 30%, including a 31% reading in a May 1-24 survey. The recent church attendance levels are about 10 percentage points lower than what Gallup measured in 2012 and most prior years.” (news.gallup.com; June 26, 2023; Jeffrey M. Jones.) We contend that if synagogue, mosque or temple attendees were to be excluded from this survey (we don’t have the crosstabs), the percentages for church attendance by Christians would be lower. However, we will claim that there is beginning a resurgence within the Christian faith due in part to the unprecedented lockdowns during the pandemic, and the attack on the Christian faith from the current government and its controlling institutions, in the areas of FREEDOM of speech, and LIBERTY in the right to protest. In the first century Christian churches, their influence spread under persecution. We must trust and hope the same is true now and pray that this resurgence is not too late.

So, what have Christians done, or not done, in assisting the rise in SECULARISM. For too long Christians have bought hook, line, and sinker, the belief that our Constitution states that there is to be a “separation of church and state.” However, a close reading of the First Amendment to our Constitution states, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment OF religion . . .”, not “FROM religion” (“OF” is capitalized by us for emphasis). One had better not post the Ten Commandments, or any Bible verse for that matter, in a school today or you will likely be sued. We doubt many public schools today say the pledge of allegiance at the start of classes, because it has within its prose, “. . . one Nation under GOD . . .”, speaking about a deity that is contrary to the ever-evolving national narrative, the apparent moving of THE OVERTON WINDOW. President Dwight Eisenhower signed into law the phrase “under God” to our National pledge on June 14, 1954. The addition was seen as a way to show moral superiority of U.S. capitalism over atheistic Soviet Communism. However, it was even within our Nation’s own religious community where objections to even a National pledge first surfaced. The Jehovah’s Witness won a Supreme Court case in the early 1940’s stating that forcing them to say the pledge was a violation of their First Amendment rights. (history.com; June 22, 2022; Becky Little). Christians have allowed lawfare, legal challenges brought by atheistic individuals, organizations, or even Christian groups, in courts sympathetic to their ideology, to chip away at the founding principles of our Nation. Too often Christians have believed the false narrative of this “separation of church and state” and have failed to stand firm in these founding principles of our Nation and have been content to stand on the sidelines and watch the erosion of what our Founding Fathers, and generations after them, sacrificed and fought for. Christians too often have been divided among themselves, believing another Christian sect was worse than unbelievers, when in fact, they should have joined arms and fought against those forces and powers, often unseen, that are the real enemy to faith and ultimately salvation, not just individually, but also collectively as a Nation, or to world-wide nations more broadly. “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” (Ephesians 6:12.)

Christians have shown timidity and weakness in showing pride that western culture and virtue is based upon Christianity. CHRISTENDOM has allowed moves away from God, the Gospel and family, have become casual in procedure and function, and have allowed drift to occur away from theological bedrocks. Where will Christians draw the “red line”? Evolution of Christian theology has watered down Scriptural foundational principles. As society becomes more “tolerant” of aberrant philosophies, so has CHRISTENDOM. Modernity has moved “THE OVERTON WINDOW”. “Modernity, the self-definition of a generation about its own technological innovation, governance, and socioeconomics. To participate in modernity was to conceive of one’s society as engaging in organizational and knowledge advances that make one’s immediate predecessors appear antiquated or, at least, surpassed.” (britannica.com; Updated October 25, 2023; Sharon L. Snyder.)

Where is your “red line”? Last week we witnessed our current government leaders welcoming to our shores an adversarial nation, the Chinese Communist Party, who in May of 2019 declared a
“People’s War” against our Nation (presentdangerchina.org; August 17, 2022). Did it bother you that the California governor thought it more important to clean up the streets of San Fransico days before China’s visit, shunning the filth and crime residents there had to endure for years without assistance? Were you concerned there were hundreds of Chinese flags dwarfing the few U.S. flags along the route taken by the Chinese motorcade? Are you concerned that the current government administration and President did not confront China about the bioweapon, COVID-19, that China released upon our Nation and the world, killing millions, destroying our burgeoning economy, and bloating our national debt? Were you troubled to learn that the Chinese spy balloon, allowed to fly unimpeded over our Nation for days, was not addressed by our leaders? Were you stunned to learn that our current government leaders did not address the reckless Chinese military maneuvers that threatened the safety of our aircraft and ships in international airspaces and waters? Are you surprised to learn that our current government leaders did not address the Chinese bringing online an average of two new coal-fired energy plants every week, while all of our plants are being forced to close for “global warming”? (abc.net.au/news; March 2, 2023.) Are you concerned that our current government leaders failed to address China’s provocative encircling of Taiwan, often invading their territorial boundaries? Are you worried that the CCP provides the vast majority of our drugs and their ingredients, not to mention poisoning and killing our citizens with their fentanyl? Is our current government concerned about being so reliant upon batteries and their materials from China, and where do old batteries go to die? Is our current government concerned that old wind turbine blades are sent to landfills, both processes not being so “green” after all? But never fear, there is talk that the Chinese may “loan” us a couple more Panda Bears to replace the ones they recalled. We should feel embarrassed! China is treating the United States of America like a spoiled little child, believing a stuffed animal will mute our whimpering and crying. How pathetic is our current government. We are allowing the CCP to invade our institutions, stealing our Intellectual Property, and watching our current government leaders and President, influenced by bribes requiring their inaction, to Kowtow to the greatest threat our Nation faces, the CCP. THE OVERTON WINDOW is being moved subjugating our National and personal FREEDOM and LIBERTY as our current government shows weakness and fear. The atheistic nation of China is cleaning our proverbial clock, while we sit back and watch the destruction of our Nation and its people. We are losing the war for our Nation’s morality and virtue as THE OVERTON WINDOW shifts to what some may feel to be more “normal” or acceptable, but in reality, it is shifting to our damnation.

Yesterday, November 11, 2023, was a day our Nation has set aside every year to honor those who have served our Nation in our Armed Forces, both living and dead. “In 2022, 16,200,322 adults in the US were veterans.” The number retired from service is down by nearly 10 million since 1990 (usafacts.org/topics/veterans). Armed Forces Day honors those currently serving in the U. S. military. “The share of the U.S. population with military experience has declined, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau. In 1980, about 18% of U.S. adults were veterans but that share fell to 6% in 2022.” (pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023; November 8, 2023; Katherine Schaeffer). “Only 1 percent of our population today will ever wear the uniform of this nation . . .” (defense.gov; June 29, 2018; Lisa Ferdinando). HOW DO YOU SERVE YOUR NATION?

News flash. Going to work for the average American is NOT serving our Nation. You are serving your employer in his pursuit of wealth and power. Working in the Peace Corps serves other nations, not our Nation. Working in Habitat For Humanity only helps serve those who will live in those homes. Working as a police officer or fireman only serves the community in which they are employed. Working in a care facility or driving for Meals on Wheels only serves those with whom they come in contact. Being a doctor, nurse, or pharmacist only serves those who are sick or injured. Being a Congress member only serves those in your state. Even having been President of the United States does not make that person a veteran, for even as Commander in Chief, he does not wear the uniform of a military member. Do you see the difference as to what it takes to truly serve our Nation? You must serve the entirety of our Nation, all citizens equally, in order to be truly serving our Nation. HOW DO YOU SERVE YOUR NATION?

News bulletin. Protesting a particular issue, either locally or nationally, is not serving your Nation. Going on strike does not serve your Nation. Going on a vacation, staying in bed, or even writing a blog or posting a podcast does not serve your Nation. All of these things are self-serving. Certain parts of our Nation may be impacted by these actions, but they will not serve all citizens of our Nation equally. There is only one way to serve the entirety of our Nation’s citizens. Serving in the Armed Forces is the only way to serve all of our Nation’s citizens equally. In doing so, you protect each citizen from harm from forces outside our border. Soon, those serving our Nation in the Armed Forces may have to do so even within our Nation’s borders, necessitated by the influx of illegal aliens across our southern border, most of whom our current government leaders have no idea who they are, or where they are, or what their intentions may be.

It’s truly sad that the vast majority of our Nation’s citizens have little connection to what it takes to actually serve all of our citizens equally in our Nation. Those who do serve in this capacity do not become rich, for the pay is too often far below the value of service they provide. Their training is rigorous and extensive using the latest equipment and technology. They learn teamwork, self-sacrifice, honor and duty. They often eschew family and friend connections in order to accomplish their assigned tasks, often under duress. They learn to respect authority, to properly exercise initiative and respect traditions. They are willing to sacrifice themselves for each other and for the citizens of our Nation to insure the continuation of our personal and National FREEDOM and LIBERTY.

Veteran’s Day is not just another holiday for government workers, although, as it was this year, a day off for them is given even if the 11th doesn’t fall on a weekday. The observance has become more of another opportunity to sell products by retailers, spend time at personal pursuits, and sleep in . . . while those in the Armed Forces stand watch over your safety and security. Oh, sure, maybe we pay homage to them in some gatherings, but that ends with polite applause, and the whole thing is done within a single minute. That’s not much recognition for months and years of tireless service to protect you and your loved ones, and for our Nation as a whole. Why is this? It’s because so few in our Nation truly understand and appreciate those who make sacrifices for our welfare. It is because so few of them have ever truly served the citizens of our Nation equally. In our schools and colleges, we often gloss over the wars and conflicts that have shaped the FREEDOM and LIBERTY in our Nation, and in doing so, we have missed the opportunity, the responsibility, to help students understand how fortunate they are to have been served by so few individuals. Can we not be more respectful of their sacrifices? Can we not spend more than a minute in recognition of their service? No wonder why our Nation is so divided, and confusion runs amok in our universities where national loyalty is swept under the rug of political correctness. We should all be ashamed.

The road to reclaim our pride in service will be a long one, taking more than a generation or two. Speak to your children and grandchildren about veterans. Teach the stories of sacrifice. Our National FREEDOM and LIBEERTY is dependent upon you.

We’ve probably all heard the expression, “BURNING THE CANDLE AT BOTH ENDS”. Usually, we have heard it when someone parties hard into the wee hours of the morning, then has to get up to go to work early that same morning. It is certainly one swift way to deplete one’s energy and mental acuity. Lately we fear, there are those within our great Nation who are pressed into a position, not of their choosing but by necessity, to work at more than one job to make ends meet. Even many of those who have retired from a life of work, have found themselves having to go back into the marketplace in order to have enough money to buy the basics of life. For a majority of our Nation’s citizens, the rising costs of food, energy, and housing, along with everything else that pulls at our purse strings, makes it necessary for multiple members of the same family to work, or for a single individual to seek multiple sources of income, or for a retired person to reenter the marketplace. Inflation, out-pacing investment returns or wage increases, has eaten away at the core of our Nation’s citizens ability to make ends meet. This festering rot of financial pressure will eventually bankrupt many or our Nation’s most vulnerable.

The phrase, “BURING THE CANDLE AT BOTH ENDS”, originated as an idiom translated from French in 1611. “It can be found in Randal Cotgrave’s Dictionary. Initially, the idiom meant that one was dissipating one’s wealth. This means that you were causing your money to disappear. This is because candles were expensive and burning them cost money. If you were burning the candle at both ends, you were being wasteful. You would also have to hold the candle horizontally, which leads to the wax dripping off and being wasted.” (theidioms.com; June 15, 2022.) It is along this line, of wasting one’s money, that we focus our blog today. More specifically, we will center our discussion around not what you as an individual may do by “BURNING THE CANDLE AT BOTH ENDS”, but rather how that may be done to you by another entity.

Let us first recognize that even though 40% of our Nation’s citizens may not have to pay any taxes to the IRS by the middle of April, all of us, regardless of our income, pay taxes, we just simply often do not recognize when we do. When you buy gas for your car, you are paying a tax. When you by food, part of the cost of your item helps to cover the tax cost the business you frequent is required to pay. When you pay your rent or mortgage, part of what you fork over is used to pay the landlord’s or mortgagee’s taxes. There is no free ride for the average American. So, let us for a brief moment consider how our Nation’s government is using our tax dollars. Have you ever considered that our current government is “BURING THE CANDLE AT BOTH ENDS”? Let us explain how that happens.

Do you remember our Nation’s embarrassing retreat from Afghanistan in 2021? Do you remember all the war equipment we left behind? Refer back to our blog on September 5, 2021, titled, “Billions Bungled Badly”. We listed nearly everything that was left behind, and what it cost us, money are tax dollars were spent to make those weapons of war. What do you suppose happened to all those weapons and equipment of war? Would you believe some of it has been used against our Nation since then? If you think that is impossible, then you are delusional. We already know most if not all of it made its way into the hands of terrorists, because the Taliban took control of all of it, and in doing so, was able to sell some of it to other terrorist organizations to fund their ideology (foreignpolicy.com; July 5, 2023; Lynne O’Donnell). The writer of the article goes on to state, “U.S. assault weapons have reportedly been used in recent attacks by non-state groups in Kashmir, bitterly divided between India and Pakistan, and in Israel’s Gaza Strip.” We are sure most of you are very aware of Israel’s current war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Here is where our Nation is “BURNING THE CANDLE ON BOTH ENDS”. Our tax dollars help to fund Israel’s defense. Concurrently, our tax dollars are now being used against the Israelis because of our BUNGLED retreat from Afghanistan. Our weapons of war are fighting on both sides, against each other, over a border that does not belong to our Nation! How asinine is this? Our tax dollars at work, funding both sides of this war! Who makes out in such a convoluted scheme as this? Our Nation’s own military complex, those corporations and business who manufacture our weapons of war. While a majority of our Nation’s citizens are “BURNING THE CANDLE AT BOTH ENDS”, just trying to make ends meet, those who profit off of making weapons of war are becoming richer and richer.

The truly sad part of this scenario is that while the CANDLE is BURNING AT BOTH ENDS, the “wax” in the middle is being depleted. In this analogy, do you know what the “wax” of the candle actually represents? It represents your tax dollars! We have in effect provided both sides of a war with our weapons. Likewise, at our southern border, our current government has encouraged, and funded, illegal aliens crossing into our Nation. Mark our words, soon our Nation will be spending our tax dollars to counter the terrorism our Nation invited in. “BURNING THE CANDLE AT BOTH ENDS”, our tax dollars working against each other once again. Our Nation is over 33 TRILLION DOLLARS in debt! Soon, our Nation will be spending more money to simply pay the interest on this growing debt than upon what our Nation pays for its own defense! How stupid we are! When we say our FREEDOM and LIBERTY are at risk, we are not “whistling dixie”. If you relish watching the destruction of our Nation, morally and financially, then continue voting for those who currently have the levers of power within the halls of our Congress, and in our White House. If you want our Nation to stop “BURNING THE CANDLE AT BOTH ENDS”, then get out and vote for those who want to see morality and fiscal responsibility return to our Nation’s Capital. Volunteer to work at election departments, run for the school board, run for city or county offices, call your House Representatives and Senators, support those who share your values and a desire to bring common sense and rational thinking back into proper focus. Don’t be a couch potato, thinking that you are safe from the cataclysmic trajectory we are on . . . . because you are not!

No, we didn’t get our fingers shifted to the wrong keys on our keyboard, and this is not another new word. You have undoubtedly heard this proverb before, but just didn’t recognize it in one of its original forms. This phrase is presented in its ancient Greek form, “PHYSICIAN, HEAL THYSELF.” (Wiktionry.org.) You will recognize this saying in more colloquial terms like, “people who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones”, or “the pot calling the kettle black.” Jesus was in his hometown and when in the synagogue there some questioned His declaration of Isaiah’s prophecy being fulfilled in Him (Luke 4:16-27). Perceiving what they were thinking, Jesus made reference to this proverb of the day, “PHYSICIAN, HEAL THYSELF.” Like Elijah and Elisha, Jesus could not do his work among his hometown folks. They wanted to see him not only heal himself, as though he must be sick to make such claims about His mission on earth, but to do healings that had been done in other areas. They wanted to see proof, but they were also declaring that “Charity begins at home.” (gotquestions.org.) We want to put maybe a slightly unusual spin on this last phrase, “Charity begins at home.” Let’s phrase it this way, “Love begins in you.”

If you’re a Biblical scholar, or even a novice at the Holy Scriptures, we are sure you would recognize the statement made by Jesus in Matthew 7:3-5, where He says, “And why do you look at the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ and behold, the log is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.” (biblehub.com.) We are sure all of us at one time or another saw flaws in others, while failing to recognize our own flaws, often much larger than the ones we were criticizing in others. Before we start criticizing others, maybe we need to be a little more introspective.

We like to believe that the vast majority of citizens within our Nation feel as though our Nation needs to be healed. Unfortunately, many look outward to others who need to be healed, forgetting that we ourselves need to be healed. Do you have any flaws that you need to tend to? That’s a rhetorical question, for if you claim you are perfect, then you are either the second perfect person to have ever walked on this earth, or you are delusional, and we would surmise the latter. All of us need “fixing”, and unfortunately some of the things broken in us will always leave imperfections and scars. There is only one way to fix in each one of us what is broken, and it is not done by our own strength or power. We believe the following scriptural text will provide some insight into how our healing can take place.

The Apostle Paul in his letter to those in and around the Ephesus area had this to say: “. . . while making mention of you in my prayers; that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints.“ (Ephesians 1:16-18, bold print added for emphasis.) It is hard to limit to a couple verses the expanse of Paul’s message in this book of Ephesians. But we believe what we have quoted above will help us focus on our part of seeing to the healing of our flaws. Understand that Paul was writing to an area of the world where Jews and Gentiles were believing together as Christians. The latter half of the book talks about unity and service, but without understanding the first half of the book if Ephesians, the latter can never be realized.

So, how can this healing happen? It starts by allowing God to give you the Spirit to open the eyes of your heart to recognize what God has done for us through Jesus Christ. When we have humbled ourselves to His grace and mercy, and when we view the world with the same attitudes Christ had (Philippians 2:5), then are we healed, then are we able to appreciate the FREEDOM and LIBERTY granted to us by our Creator. Do we heal ourselves? No. But we do need to access the source of the power to fix our flaws, and to then be able to help others seek healing as well. If you are upset, even mad and angered, at those within our government who seem to not care for our personal welfare, pray that they will seek God and the Spirit, and be given eyes in their hearts to see what the Lord has done for them, to be healed. If you want to heal our Nation, we must first allow the Lord to heal us.

What are you willing to sacrifice for something you consider to be the most important thing? Would you sacrifice your morals to insure wealth or health for your lifetime? Would you sacrifice anything for your own personal benefit? Would it be easier for you to sacrifice the right or possessions of another, to ensure that you could support or cement your status or ideology? The above short video clip comes from the 2001 DreamWorks Animation comedy film, Shrek. “Some of you may die. But it’s a sacrifice I am willing to make.” The caption describes situations where people seem to not care whether another lives or dies. Pretty bad, huh? Sadly, do you realize this happens way too often to both individuals and nations, usually as we are oblivious to its occurrence. We are often manipulated through deception, subterfuge, misdirection, and lies, often cloaked in secrecy. You may sometimes believe, “What you don’t know can’t hurt you.” This is far from the truth. Ignorance is not bliss. Knowledge is power. When the peons have knowledge, the elites are fearful and will do everything within their power to reverse the course of events that could compromise their wealth and power. Along the way, they do not care who they may hurt. Their moral core is rotten, evil.

How is this possible that such subterfuge could be perpetrated against us, for we are a knowledgeable people, well educated, upstanding and productive people, connected in social media, with telephonic expertise, and nearly always abreast of situational events through visual and audio media? The simple answer . . . we are too trusting upon those who feed us their ideology through all forms of sight and sound. We dare not, we cannot, we must not question those who we perceive to be our authorities, for to think that any would betray our trust is unthinkable . . . or is it? Are we that gullible? Are we too easily manipulated? Too trustworthy? Have you never been betrayed? Has anyone ever lied to you? Have you ever questioned anything of significance? In a way, we should all be like scientists, who are provided a theorem, then they set about to prove or disprove it. We test it, to verify its validity. Unfortunately, most of us are too busy, too distracted by daily tasks and events to spend time questioning those who present themselves to be wiser, more knowledgeable, those who claim to have our best interests at heart. Once again, unfortunately, more often than we know, their interest in our welfare is far from their concern. We will show a few scenarios to prove our theorem.

Some might consider us to be “conspiracy theorists“. Maybe, over time, much of what we may summarize to be underlying, causal forces or actions may be found to be false. But let us remember that documents now having been released give differing causal actions to not only the attack on Peral Harbor in 1941, the assassination of President JFK in 1963, and the Pentagon Papers, finally released unredacted after 50 years, revealing the misjudgments made during the Vietnam War. Too many things are held in confidence, protected by secrecy or withheld from view by critical redactions. What may often seem to be accepted “history”, is too often found to be woefully inaccurate. You may have heard the saying that “History is written by the victors”. What we have learned over time is that sometimes liars, cheaters, scammers, manipulators, dictators, or ill-intended persons driving their favorable outcomes usually “Write the FIRST DRAFT of history.” This initial writing of “history” is intended to stand for decades. Two or three generations later, when the final “history” is revealed, those initially directly impacted have long passed out of current consciousness. Do not be surprised when the driving force of any world-changing action is found within the statement, “The enemy of my enemy is my friend.” Let’s now look at just three of our “conspiracy theories.”

First, not all conspiracies require advance planning. Sometimes it is just a matter of taking advantage of an unplanned event. One should ask, “How do you take down a nation?” Consider Saul Alinsky’s eight steps to topple a Democracy and convert it to a Socialistic, Communistic society. Number 1: Control healthcare. We got “Obama Care”, remember? Number 2: Make people dependent upon you by creating a poor class of people. Number 3: Increase debt to an unsustainable level. Number 4: Gun control removes the ability to defend from the government. Number 5: Take control of food, housing, and income. Number 6: Control what people read and listen to through education. Number 7: Remove the belief in God. Finally, Number 8: Divide the people by class warfare. (vaassarbushmill.com; February 24, 2021; Vassar. Also mesquitelocalnews.com; September 16, 2016; Esther Goodday.) Wow! How is our Nation doing? Let’s take a look at reactions to what happened to Rodney King and George Floyd. In the first case, rioting cost over $1 billion, and in the second case, rioting cost up to $2 billion. Many leaders in the current government during these events stood by idly watching the destruction, and in fact some were supporting it. There were other cases we could mention, but these two alone not only reflected the great destruction upon thousands of our Nation’s businesses, but the toll it took on race relations is incalculable. A phrase you may be familiar with is this; in order to win, one must “Divide and conquer.” Tradition attributes the origin of this motto to Phillip II of Macedon and means “Divide and Rule.” (wikipedia.org.) Do you remember what Rahm Emanuel, the former President Obama advisor, once said during the 2008 financial crisis? He said, “Never allow a crisis to go to waste.” Current flash-mob thievery, under the guise of “what belongs to the rich should be mine”, just further inflames racism. The current financial crisis only makes the rich richer and the poor poorer. So, let’s add to all of this the constant push to restrict gun ownership, and the efforts to take parents out of the educational process of our own kids, and the increasing satanic influences in society, and the federal attacks on the religious communities, and the constantly increasing National debt that may now become insurmountable. Considering Alinsky’s methods in relationship to what’s happening in our Nation, how is our Nation doing now?

Let’s consider the second on our list of three “conspiracies.” Do you now believe that the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) acted alone in perpetrating the COVID-19 pandemic upon the world? Would you be surprised to learn that there were those within our own Nation who secretly communicated with those within the Chinese government in a plan to release this virus upon the world? It was the plan to undermine the previous President’s policies which would have led him to an overwhelming election victory in 2020. Had he won, our Nation’s administrative state would have been dismantled, draining wealth and power from the reigning elite oligarchs. Since he failed in victory, the Chinese government was released from scrutiny allowing them to operate freely within our Nation, all thanks to “investments” made to the opposing political party elites and candidate. The CCP was willing to “Sacrifice” their own citizens to achieve their dictator’s political agenda. They have already proved this in their genocide of the Muslim Uyghurs.

Finally on our short list of three “conspiracies” will be the more recent events in the Middle East. Is anyone even a bit surprised that this “new” war broke out? Consider factors that led to this conflict. Muslims desire the destruction of the Israelis, and that conflict has gone on for centuries. That is a Biblical discussion to be had at another time. Events of late have accelerated the conflict. Our previous President had established The Abraham Accords, creating relationships between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Morocco. The Accords were nearing expansion to include potentially Saudi Arabia. This was a bridge too far for Palestinians, especially Hamas, the terrorist organization in control of the Gaza strip. Hamas does not want peace. They do not want a two-state solution, they want the total annihilation of the Jews. They knew the U.S. (the strongest ally of Israel) was weak and indecisive after watching our shameless retreat from Afghanistan, and our floundering defense of Ukraine. So, Hamas struck Israel in a massive precoordinated attack. Now here is where the “conspiracy” comes into play. Israel’s intelligence is supposed to be second to none, yet it found itself flatfooted when multiple breeches of Israel’s border were made, supposedly without warning. Why? How could this happen? Think this through for a minute. Sometimes it’s necessary to “sacrifice” a few for a perceived greater good. Iran funds and trains the Hamas terrorists. Iran is on the verge of developing nuclear weapons, and Israel will be first on the list for extermination by Iranian nukes. Israel needs a reason to preemptively go after Iran to destroy is nuclear capabilities. Allowing Hamas the time to commit atrocities in Israel gives ample reason for Israel to eliminate Hamas, and one can assume the aggressive nature of this action will undoubtedly draw other Muslim “nations”, including Iran, into the fray. This war is not simply about stopping the Hamas threat for a month or two, but it is about completely annihilating them. Acts of barbarism by Hamas lends justification for their annihilation by Israel. If other Muslim nations enter the war, only better to give justification for their destruction as well.

Are any of these “conspiracy theories” true? Only time will tell, and only after commissions have been formed, final documents written, and full disclosure occurs decades down the road. Our FREEDOM and LIBERTY in our Nation is always in jeopardy. Nothing can be taken for granted. There are always currents under the surface of activities that we do not see and cannot recognize. You need to realize that you are simply a pawn in a game of chess, and that makes you expendable, sacrificial. Trust in your own reasoning coupled with judicious research. Do not believe everything you are told, regardless of the source. Governments lie and contrive for their own gain, not for yours. “Some of you may die, but it’s a sacrifice YOUR GOVERNMENT is willing to make.”

Last week we were shocked with the attack on the people of Israel. An INVASION took place. Thousands of rockets filled the skies. Border fences were breached. Israelites were pulled out of their houses and shot in the streets or taken captive, including children. This attack was on a proportional scale to the 9/11 attack on the U.S. in 2001. Hamas and Iran have called for the destruction of Israel for years and have routinely through the years supplied weapons and attacked Israel. They have considered themselves to be in a state of war. Immediately following the invasion of Israel, Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu stated, “Citizens of Israel, we are at WAR” (timesofisrael.com). War can be declared before kinetic retaliation. We want to prove this to be the case in our blog today.

“On June 6, 1944, more than 156,000 American, British and Canadian troops stormed 50 miles of Normandy’s fiercely defended beaches in northern France in an operation that proved to be a critical turning point in World War II.” (history.com; March 12, 2019, updated June 27, 2023; Dave Roos.) This is shown in the short video clip above. As of this writing, “ICE admits record 5.7 million migrants in US – [current President] wants to provide ‘medical services, housing’ to all.” (nypost.com; October 12, 2023; Diana Glebova.) The number of illegal immigrants being “tracked” in 2019 stood at 3.26 million, and was the same in 2020, but jumped to 4.7 million in 2022, and now stands at 5.7 million in 2023, and this year is not yet done. “Those held in ICE detention for processing at the border or in facilities awaiting deportation are not included in the 5.7 million figure.” “The services for ‘all RRM [Release and Reporting Management] participants’ would include ‘legal assistance; psychosocial services; therapeutic services; medical services; food and clothing banks; housing; public transportation information; parental information; education information; and repatriation and reintegration services,’ according to the RFI [Request For Information] form published Aug.17.” “These services are designed to increase participant compliance with immigration obligations through information, stabilization, and support. Services will be individualized to each participant’s needs and may range from basic referrals to intensive direct assistance, the RFI form reads.” “They’re going to give legal assistance to illegal aliens at the taxpayers’ expense to fight the government.” “All the services combined are a ‘massive giveaway that are going to cost billions of dollars’.” “When migrants are admitted to the US to pursue asylum claims, most have to check in with ICE on a regular basis at an office in the area where they are staying. Others have ankle monitors or have to check in via an app with facial recognition.” “Only 194,632 migrants are being tracked by GPS or other technology in the ATD [Alternatives to Detention] program, ICE estimated in fiscal year 2023, meaning millions of migrants are roaming the country untracked.” (Same reference as above.) The government previously admitted to losing track of 177,000 migrants after they were released into the US, according to a Department of Homeland Security report. (nbcnews.com; September 11, 2023; Julia Ainsley.)

“Among the more than 8.6 million people who’ve illegally entered the U.S. since [the current President] took office, at least nearly 1.6 million are ‘gotaways’. Gotaways is the official term used by Border Patrol agents to describe foreign nationals who illegally enter the U.S. between ports of entry and don’t return to Mexico or Canada. They don‘t file asylum or other immigration-related claims – they intentionally illegally enter to avoid being caught. Many have criminal records. They often run when they are pursued by Border Patrol agents or others in law enforcement, . . . They do not want to be caught.” “The data is considered a ‘best estimate’, agents have explained . . .” “It doesn’t adequately portray how many foreign nationals illegally enter because they simply don’t know how many there are. The data excludes the unknown number coming through who are undetected, and therefore, aren’t reported.” (thecentersquare.com; August 26, 2023; Bethany Blankley.)

Let us now compare the 156,000 troops who stormed the beaches of Normandy on June 6, 1944, with the 177,000 “migrants” (we declare them to be illegal aliens) who have been lost within the U.S. by our own government. We know how effective our fighting forces were in Europe during WWII, with less ground personnel. Now, add in the suspected 1.6 million gotaways we know about, not to mention the number that slipped by our Nation’s detection. We will admit that many of the gotaways, or those who we have lost track of, have little intention of doing our Nation harm. They may only be here to find a better life. But what if only 1 percent of them came stealthily, illegally, through our porous borders with the intent to do our Nation harm? Out of probably 2 million or more unaccounted for invaders, that very small percentage would account to 20,000 who may have intent to do our Nation and populace harm. It only took 19 hijackers to destroy nearly 3,000 lives on September 11, 2001, not to mention the tremendous toll it took on our economic system and disrupting the FREEDOM and LIBERTY of all Americans. Do you feel safe today, or do you feel vulnerable? We do not desire to be the voice of doom and despair, but we do desire to be a voice of reason, caution, and preparedness. We call out a warning as a watchman (Ezekiel 33:2-6). You might enjoy reading again the summary of the book we intend to write at the end of our current decade. We published that blog back on January 16, 2022, titled, THE LOST DECADE. Pay particular attention to chapter 8 on Immigration.

We have spent the majority of our time in this blog dealing with illegal immigration, and even though our current government leadership has not declared WAR on this invasion, there are other ways our Nation is at WAR, perpetrated by nefarious forces, some within our borders, some outside our borders. Consider the attacks on our Nation’s digital culture through ransom hacks and subtle intrusion into our lives via social media, and even computer chips placed within our TVs, phones, and robotic aids. These intrusions are an act of WAR. Consider the unchecked flooding of harmful chemicals across our Nation’s borders, killing thousands each and every month, drugs like fentanyl and other illicit opiates. This intrusion impacting our Nation is an act of WAR. Consider the release of COVID-19 upon our Nation. It wreaked havoc upon our economic strength, further bloating our National debt, now to limits from which we may not be able to recover. The release of this bioweapon was an act of WAR.

But not all acts of WAR came from outside our Nation’s borders, some come from within our Nation’s borders. Under the misguided push for “green energy” before we were able to gradually shift from fossil fuels to new energy sources, developed over time by scientific advancements, we have eroded our Nation’s ability to be energy independent, which has left us vulnerable to Nations seeking our demise. Because of our current government, we have also become dependent upon foreign nations to supply us with nearly everything we need to survive, from medicines, to wind turbines and batteries, to nearly all forms of manufacturing. We have even seen the current government attacking others within our own Nation who only seek to speak freely as guaranteed by the First Amendment to our Constitution. Many are being prosecuted and imprisoned, actions further dividing our Nation’s citizens. The current government has over-spent our Nation’s income and placed us into a financial crisis, which gets worse each and every week, creating inflation and reducing the value of each dollar in circulation, and putting our Nation’s dollar-standard in world commerce in jeopardy. All of these actions within our Nation, perpetrated by our current government leaders, are in fact a WAR being imposed upon our own citizens.

Yes, we truly have a WAR on our Nation, coming from many fronts, being invaded in many ways. The erosion of our own economic and political FREEDOM by our current government is leaving our Nation weak and vulnerable. Our Nation’s LIBERTY is under attack by multiple nations who seek our Nation’s failure and subjugation. We are at WAR. Unfortunately, many within our Nation are either oblivious to our state of affairs, or feel they are insulated from the effects of WAR. If you feel that way now, maybe you should contact an Israeli and have them give you some counsel.

If you have any kind of mobile phone device, we are sure you were notified last Wednesday at 2:20 PM EST of a test initiated by our government to check out a warning system. For many, it may have come as quite a surprise, and for a moment, may have caused a slight skip in your normal heartbeat. After the event, you probably put your device down having recognized what was happening. What you may not have noticed is that the government knows who you are, and where you are, at any given time of their choosing. Does that concern you even in the slightest? Maybe it should if it doesn’t concern you right now. Our blog today will gaze into a potential future that should make the hair stand up on the back of your neck, and bring an awareness to how vulnerable you may become to any government incursion into your private life. We already are aware that some cell phones are trackable by their inventors, even when your phone is off (howtogeek.com; June 26, 2023; John Bogna).

Crypto currency has been around for a number of years, and most of us know little about it, and probably have not invested in it as it is highly speculative in nature. Its value can fluctuate wildly from day to day and week to week, and like any investment, “buyer beware” is always the appropriate warning. We will not be discussing crypto today, but we will be talking about digital currency. On March 9, 2022, the current government administration threw its support by executive order behind further study and development of what could become known as U.S. Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), (nbcnews.com; Jason Abbruzzese and Kevin Collier). Potential uses, deployment options, and regulations were to be evaluated by a wide variety of agencies.

So, what does the emergency phone test and the development of digital currency have in common? Let us now take a quick look at a potential future that could become reality sooner than one might think. Consider possible implications involving banking, taxes, government sanctions, security risks, and cross coordination between multiple agencies, corporations and institutions. In the article referenced above, “. . . David Yermack, a professor and the chair of the finance department at New York University” said “. . . the functionality could be reasonably simple, with transactions flowing directly to and from the Fed, sidestepping banks and payment systems . . .” Does the Fed involvement give you pause? Yermack also said, “If the cash is electronic, the government can just erase 2 percent of your money every year.” SAY WHAT?

If you have gone to any bank recently and asked for a cash withdrawal of, say, $15,000, the chances are pretty good that you will walk home without the cash in hand. Even though you might have $100,000 in your account, they will not have your money in that bank. You must pre-coordinate with the bank any large withdrawal of cash so they can have time to go get it from somewhere else. “In the U.S. the Federal Reserve dictates the amount of cash, called the reserve ratio, that each bank must maintain. Historically, the reserve ratio has ranged from zero to 10% of bank deposits.” “Bank reserves may be kept in a vault on-site or sent to a bigger bank or a regional Federal Reserve bank facility.” (investopedia.com; March 14, 2023; Adam Barone.) If you ever want to shut a bank down, just have quite a few of its clients at that bank go in on the same day and withdraw all their funds. At any given time, the money you may have in any bank may not be available in cash. Some of your cash has been “. . . lent out by the bank in the form of a variety of loans and securities. (bankrate.com; March 16, 2023; Rene Bennett.) Do you remember the 1946 Christmas classic movie, “It’s a Wonderful Life”? That is why that bank almost went under.

Do you remember the hype created over “Vaccine Passports”? We blogged about the dangers of being so carded back on April 14, 2021. Imagine now that a digital currency has been established in our Nation. What would happen? All of your money currently in any bank will be converted to a digital card you would have in your possession, like a credit card. In fact, it would most likely replace all of your credit cards. Statements for use of your card would be found only online. For those of you who do not do on-line banking, or do not know much about computers or even have a cell phone, you will have a problem trying to figure out how to access your account. If you have cash stored under your mattress or maybe in a home safe, you will have to bring it in to convert it to a digital value, and it will not be at a rate of one-for-one. You may only get credit for 70% on the dollar, so your $1,000 may only convert to $700. Why? Because the government doesn’t trust you enough with cash that you may have gotten illicitly, like any cash transaction in which you may have been a part. What happens to the other $300 you had in cash? The government takes it of course. If you try to keep your cash, you will not be able to use it for any legitimate transaction at any store or business, because they will only be allowed to use the digital credit card. The Black Market in cash transactions will flourish beneath the digital currency. If you are caught in a cash transaction, by any of the additional 87,000-armed IRS agents, hired with the reported 80 billion dollars (forbes.com; May 28, 2023; Robert W. Wood), you will be arrested, prosecuted, and imprisoned.

Okay. Let’s say you go along with converting your cash into digital currency. Are there any risks to allowing the Fed to ride watch over your expenses? You bet! Suppose you mis-gender someone online, even out of simple ignorance; you might find your ability to use your digital card to pay for attendance at certain venues or events of your choice restricted or prevented. Suppose you speak in opposition to the current government’s ideology; you might not be able to even buy groceries or gas with your digital card. Suppose someone who knows you is arrested for peacefully protesting, because of your association with that individual, you too may find your ability to use your digital card throttled down and limited. It would be like when you exceed your monthly hour limits on your cell phone; your service slows down or is restricted, and you might be charged higher rates. If the Feds do not like what you have done, maybe they will charge you a fine and reduce the value of your digital credit card, or further restrict its use, with limited and complicated recourse.

Not only are the above scenarios potentially possible, but the simple fact that the government will know EVERYTHING about you because of having issued you your digital currency card. Everything you are, or have, or do, will be an open book to the government, and also to anyone who has nefarious intent to hack the information and take away your credits, your identity, your life. If you value your FREEDOM and LIBERTY, you need to do everything within your power to do your part to resist the government intervention into your personal affairs. The government has no need and no right to dictate what we can buy, when we can buy, where we can go, and what we can do. If we live within the established laws of our Constitution and Bill of Rights, and if they are respected, we should be able to inoculate ourselves from tyrannical government and corporation interference. Let’s hope so. But as we have said before, hope without action is inadequate.

At FREEDOMGOFORTH, we do not claim to be financial experts. We are average Americans, just like you. However, like you, we have noticed that there is in our Nation today a financial pressure not before seen in our lifetime. What is being forced upon all of us is THE GREAT CREDIT CRUNCH. Even though the rate of inflation has been coming down from its high of over 9% just a few short months ago, it has not been brought down to the current government’s targeted value of 2%, and in fact has once again been on the increase the last two months. Mortgage rates hit 7.23% last month, “. . . the highest rate in more than two decades, according to Freddie Mac.” (forbes.com; September 25, 2023; Robin Rothstein.) “The average 30-year fixed increased slightly to 7.42 percent as of Sept. 20 . . .” (bankrate.com; September 20, 2023; Andrew Dehan). Earlier this week, we found loan rates varying from 8.6% up to 9.7% (bestmoney.com).

If you were looking to buy a house any time soon, you can expect to pay a lot more, not just each month, but in interest paid over the life of the loan. When the previous President left office, the inflation rate was 1.9%. Had you been able to obtain a loan at 3%, with no money down, your monthly loan payment (mortgage and interest on a 30-year fixed $400,000 loan) would have been $1,686.42. At today’s rates, using 7.42% referenced above, with the same constraints, your monthly payment will be $2,774.98, a monthly increase of $1,088.56, or $13,062.72 per year! Over the length of a 30 mortgage, you will have paid an additional $391,882.54 in interest ($598,992.35 – $207,109.81; nerdwallet.com.) Can you afford that with your current pay, with the increasing cost of fuel and food, with local taxes continuing to rise, with the value of the dollar in your pocket or purse worth less and less each and every month? In the last 50 years, the value of the dollar “. . . has declined by a whopping 86% to $0.14.” (finbold.com; March 21, 2022.) The value of the dollar has declined 16% since 2020 (in2013dollars.com).

Last week, our Nation past 33 TRILLION Dollar in Debt! Our National expenses this year will top 7 TRILLION Dollars, but only gathers through taxes 5 TRILLION Dollars per year. If we don’t put a stop to our out-of-control spending, our Nation will add an additional 2 TRILLION Dollars to our debt each and every year going forward. How much is your share? Try over $97,000 per person, and over $251,000 per household. If you consider total U.S. obligations, “unfunded liabilities”, you can increase those values to over $361,000 per person, and over $935,000 per household. What are “unfunded liabilities”? “Unfunded liabilities are debt obligations that do not have sufficient funds set aside to pay them. These liabilities generally refer to the U.S. government’s debts or pension plans and their impact on savings and investment securities.” (thebalancemoney.com.) Are you prepared to pay this debt off? Could you even pay this off in the next 5 or 10 years? Chances are your answer is, “No”. Are you prepared and willing to entrust this debt to your children and the prodigy of all current citizens? If you are, then we will be frank, you are morally bankrupt and irresponsible.

What really got us started thinking about THE GREAT CREDIT CRUNCH, was the simple fact that over the last couple of months, we have stopped getting mailings from credit agencies wanting us to get their cards. What’s up with the credit agencies? Well, they are in trouble. If you haven’t noticed, many citizens and businesses are finding their credit limits being drastically reduced. They will spout their standard mantra that your card may not have been used recently, or maybe your good credit got mixed up with someone with bad credit, or maybe your credit score was reduced because you have gotten into financial difficulty. The reality is that the credit card companies are trying to mitigate their risk, especially during a downturn in the economy. Inflation has driven up credit card debt by billions of dollars recently. “Newly released data from WalletHub says U.S. consumers took on $43 billion in additional credit card debt during the second quarter of this year, ending in June. That’s more than triple the average amount of new debt households have taken on in that period since after the Great Recession of 2007-08. Total credit card debt and debt per household grew by about 8% from the year before, according to WalletHub, a personal finance website.” (nbcnews.com; September 12, 2023; Marley Jay.) “Credit card losses are rising at the fastest pace since the Great Financial Crisis.” (cnbc.com; September 24, 2023; Michelle Fox.) “With interest rates going up, more consumers have missed payments on household debt.” “The increase in delinquencies and defaults is symptomatic of the tough decisions that these households are having to make right now – whether to pay their credit card bills, their rent or buy groceries . . .” The average credit card interest has now gone above 20% and will undoubtedly go higher. Auto loan delinquencies have increased from 2% to 3.5%, credit cards from 2% to nearly 4%, and consumer loans from 3 % to 5.5%. (wasingtonpost.com; “Delinquencies rise for credit cards and auto loans, and it could get worse“; August 30, 2023; Tory Newmyer, Aaron Gregg and Jaclyn Peiser.) It’s no wonder THE GREAT CREDIT CRUNCH is upon us. Credit card companies are facing losing billions of dollars due to delinquencies and defaults. “Almost 80% of Americans say they’re living paycheck to paycheck, according to a new survey by PayrollOrg.” “That’s 6% more than last year.” “More than a third of Americans have said they couldn’t afford to cover a $400 emergency . . .” “The PayrollOrg survey also shows that 34% of people would like to be able to access their wages earlier than their regular payday, an increase of 13% from 2022.” “. . . two-thirds of employees noting they’d have difficulty making ends meet if their next paycheck was delayed one week . . .” (investopedia.com; September 18, 2023; Erica Sweeney.)

Now, you have read the facts about THE GREAT CREDIT CRUNCH. You are in the middle of it. Only you can put a stop to it. Our FREEDOM and LIBERTY are on the precipice of being destroyed forever in our Nation. Contact your Congress Representatives and tell them to put a stop to their budget-busting, muscle-memory, automatic reflex, knee-jerk, lobbyist driven desire to spend more, be less accountable, and wallow in the filth of the lure of power and wealth in Washington D.C. Enough is enough! These who represent us in Congress are not spending their money, they’re spending OUR money, often on programs we did not ask for and do not want! It’s way too easy to spend someone else’s money, especially when one is not held accountable. Protect this land for those who follow us in life and stand with those who have gone on before us to set our Nation on a moral quest to be true patriots and defenders of the principals that have made our Nation and world a better place, where we serve our Creator, not any tyrannical government.