February 19, 2025

On Losing My Pro-Life Single Issue Voting Badge

There’s a lot of angst in Catholic world over Trump’s pro-IVF executive order. I can’t really share their anger since Trump could hardly be expected to be more Catholic than most Catholics (who approve of IVF). Sure, you could blame Vance, a Catholic convert (since we all hold coverts to a higher standard since they often know more about Catholicism), but ultimately it’s not the reason I voted for either of them. Indeed, I’ve surrendered my badge as a single-issue voter. 

My excuse, such as it is, seems less defensible now that Trump actually took office. The idea was that without accurate elections, we couldn’t get accurate votes on things like, say, abortion. First order priority was to stop rigged elections, but perhaps the 2020 election was a one-off due to the covid mail-in voting. But it’s also hard to focus on abortion, a perennial scandal of the country, when the other side is perpetrating a new one by jailing Trump supporters (and trying to do so to Trump himself!). 

I have to admit the Ohio vote to legalize abortion was tremendously demoralizing. It’s hard not to give up in the face of a red state voting that way. Certainly Trump and Vance have. They’ve pretty much stayed away from the issue like vampires do garlic. 

The first principle of life, that it is precious and a gift from God, no longer obtains for most people. So trying to prohibit abortion seems like declaring that women can be men and vice-versa. Sure you can enact some law but no one believes it. 

February 16, 2025

Political Catholicism

I’m puzzled by tweets by serious people who are appalled at the introduction of religion into the public square by Trump and Vance. They call it “the instrumentalization of religion” or “political Catholicism”. 

It feels like a lot of people wouldn't take their own side in a bet if it meant surrendering their right to virtue signal.

It’s hard to know what they mean exactly from a random X post. Likely they’re taking issue when someone has a stand on a political issue and they defend it by quoting out of context from the Bible or the Catechism. Apparently this just started this year, go figure. Those suddenly complaining about the politicization/instrumentalism of religion seem like they didn't much complain when it was done by the Left, or when it was not done at all (since, after all, Christians are supposed to be like the children in the old days, seen but not heard). 

Perhaps it’s that they don’t like the messenger and feel Trump’s giving a bad image to Christianity by associating himself with it. It’s as if the Church has a brand and we don’t want to tarnish it with sinners let alone political leaders. If George W. Bush made Christians nervous, those who belong to the creed of “winsomeness” and “a marketable witness”, then how much more Trump and Vance! But in the end conversions don’t happen via the good or bad examples of political leaders but by God’s gratuitous grace. 

God seems to have less a problem with Trump and Vance than the complainers since he seems to have put his thumb on the scale given Trump miraculously survived a couple assassination attempts. Maybe it’s actually not His will to bring back the Obama/Biden years and keep religion in the closet and privatized.

**

Wheaton, a Christian college, recently came under fire for congratulating an alumnus who was confirmed to a White House post. They took down the X post and apologized. 

I puzzle over the apology and explanation. It fascinates me because it's related to my own Catholic high school's praise of a Kamala Harris aide (I complained and received a boiler-plated a non-response response). 

Is there any hypothetical point at which the Democrat Party can be seen as functionally irreligious and incompatible with the Catholic faith, i.e. on par with the masons? Is there anything more they can do to communicate that? Have they not tried their best?  Harris herself said take that Jesus stuff out to the Trump rally down the street. If David French were fed to the lions would he cry, "If MAGA had been more winsome and accommodating, this wouldn't be happening!" 

So Wheaton said this: 

"The recognition and prayer is something we would typically do for any graduate who reached that level of government."

In other words, it is completely irrelevant if the graduate is working hard for abortion on demand, transsexual rights, the suppression of free speech, or even the abolition of Wheaton College. Got it, though I don't quite understand it. 

"It was not our intention to embroil the College in a political discussion or dispute."

Ahh, well, you might not be interested in politics but alas politics is interested in you. 

"Our institutional and theological commitments are clear that the College, as a non-profit institution, does not make political endorsements [...and is a] deliberately non-partisan institution." 

Yes, as a 501 3-c you need to get the tax deductions for donations. LBJ approves. 

"This is both for missional purposes and legal reasons. Within the evangelical community—both domestically and internationally—we encompass a spectrum of political perspectives..."

So the goal of the college is to mirror the political perspectives of the evangelical community? Then why go to Wheaton if it has no wisdom to impart of its own? Or does the college prefer to appeal to the broadest range of people purely for remunerative purposes? 

"The College’s moral commitments on the sanctity of life, human sexuality, ethnic diversity, racial unity, justice, poverty, and stewardship intersect with politics complexly, not simplistically, especially in a two-party system."

This was the least offensive part of the statement. Yes no party has a monopoly on truth. I do wonder if there's anything one of the parties could do, hypothetically, that could draw out Wheaton to make a choice, to take a stand.  Perhaps if the student body was mostly drawn from only one of the political parties. Then, it seems, it would be an easy call...

February 11, 2025

Drinking Trees and Other Random Thoughts

A famous political philosopher said, "There's a lot of ruin in a nation." The question is how much is too much ruin. I think that was answered when we shut down the economy during covid, gave billions out to people, triggered huge inflation which allowed Trump to come back in office. In other words, "too much ruin" is when the middle class feels the pinch.

**

Jack Cashill on the moment the earth changed axis

"Even a child could pinpoint the moment the grand illusion shattered. That would be, of course, the evening of June 27, 2024, when Biden took the stage to debate former President Donald Trump. In a flash, even the dissemblers at MSNC could see the emperor had no clue and that their empire of lies had no future."

**

This was from 1971 from a publisher of a conservative magazine and it rings true:

"Since Catholic parents in general are more concerned about behavior than about orthodoxy, they cling to the Catholic schools as lesser evils. The Catholic high schools cling to their constituency by maintaining a measure of their traditional discipline.”

Catholic schools don’t have to be Catholic so much as offer discipline and better behaved students since parents have nowhere else to turn. It's like the two-party political system: you normally have no choice except the lesser of two evils.  Fortunately this time I actually got to vote for the candidate I supported in the primaries. 

**

My favorite all-time politicians: Pat Buchanan, Rand Paul, Donald Trump, Tom Coburn and JD Vance. 

**

The closest thing for a tree-lover to indulge their love for trees is to drink bourbon. 

Whiskey is aged in wooden barrels, which accounts for up to 70% of its taste and all of its color. 

The wood goes back, etymologically, a long way. From the Old English “ac”, begotten by the Proto-Germanic “aiks”,  Hence “oak”. 

For years the fermented corn lies fallow, soaking tannins, waiting for the bridegroom and the intimate consumption. 

Bourbon’s slogan: "Drink trees via fermented corn."

February 07, 2025

Emerald Robinson on How the 2024 Election Wasn't Stolen

Journo Emerald Robinson posted a long thread/timeline with an explanation for how the deep state lost the 2024 election: 

It's time to explain exactly what happened on Election Day 2024 to stop the steal.  

It involves quite a few people over 4 years.  A dozen sources.  We must begin just after the rigged 2020 election, in December 2020. 

Why? Because President Trump wanted election fraud investigated.    

He told his team to hire someone to discover the truth about the voting machines.  

Multiple sources tell me an ex-CIA investigator was hired for the job.

That investigator reported that claims of election fraud were overblown.  

Some DOJ lawyers also wanted election fraud investigated. 

Those efforts were blocked by AG Bill Barr's staff including Barr's CoS Will Levi.   

Levi threatened to quit if any cases were launched.

Also in Dec 2020, a group of NatSec analysts briefed the White House that enough evidence of election fraud existed to launch a full USG investigation.  

In Jan 2021, several GOP Senators were briefed as well.

Neither the WH nor the Senators authorized the investigation.

A few people tried to alert President Trump about the NatSec analyst briefing and the need for a full investigation in late 2020 but those efforts were blocked by WH Counsel Pat Cipollone - according to two sources.  

Cipollone joined Bill Barr's law firm on Jan 17, 2024.

Chris Krebs, the head of a small agency called CISA (which is inside DHS) sent out a press release in late 2020 claiming the 2020 election “...was the most secure in American history."  

Krebs was not a cybersecurity expert.   

Who hired him? 

The head of DHS: Chad Wolf.

Krebs was hired because he was Chad Wolf's close friend. He worked at CISA coordinating with leftwing orgs like Democracy Works to "prepare" for the 2020 election.  

Trump fired Krebs a week after he dismissed Defense Secretary Mark Esper.

Trump removed Esper. Chris Miller and Ezra Cohen were rushed in to Pentagon on Nov 11th because Esper stopped responding to WH.

WH officials feared a "soft coup" was taking place.

On Nov 18th, Miller put all Special Forces under his direct command.

When I was deposed by Dominion lawyers in 2024, I was asked specifically about this tweet from Nov 10th 2020 because it was (I was told) the first mention on social media of a link between Smartmatic and Dominion. That's an important point.

On Nov 11, 2020 I noted on Twitter that Mark Malloch Brown — the best friend of global villain George Soros — was listed on the board of directors for  Smartmatic.

By Nov 12 2020, any mention of Mark Malloch Brown and his leading role with Smartmatic had been wiped from the company's website.

On Nov 19 2020, Rudy Giuliani & Sidney Powell held a press conference at RNC headquarters. 

Powell claimed that Dominion-brand machines were using Smartmatic software. She also claimed Smartmatic’s software was developed in Venezuela for dictator Hugo Chavez.

By mid-November, public network scans of Dominion made by military intel analysts were available through legal filings in Michigan.

What these documents revealed about America's election system was damning.

On Dec 18, Trump met with Sidney Powell, Michael Flynn & Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne at WH. 

They urged Trump to launch an investigation of the voting machines.

WH staffers Pat Cipollone, Eric Herschmann & Derek Lyons all argued against doing it.

December 18th was also the due date for DNI Ratcliffe to submit a report to President Trump on foreign interference in the 2020 election.

Ratcliffe missed the deadline. He did not release his report until Jan 7th, 2021. Note the date of release.

His report stated that CIA management actively suppressed intel that China interfered in the 2020 election.  

That's right: the CIA was hiding China's role in the 2020 election!

Treason.

Ratcliffe confirmed that China interfered in the 2020 election & that CIA had tried to hide that fact but this info arrived too late to help President Trump.

Here's a link to Ratcliffe's letter: https://context-cdn.washingtonpost.com/notes/prod/default/documents/6d274110-a84b-4694-96cd-6a902207d2bd/note/733364cf-0afb-412d-a5b4-ab797a8ba154.#page=1

On Jan 6th, almost 100 House Republicans and more than 12 GOP senators were ready to object to election results in Congress.

Only an emergency could override and halt that day's session.

When an emergency happens, special rules apply in Congress.

Less than 10 minutes before two reps called a vote for motions to suspend the election certification, capitol police claimed that a protest outside might breach the chambers. 

Key leaders were escorted out. Speaker Pelosi then halted Congress using emergency rules. January 6th was staged. 

Tier-1 operators & FBI agents present that day in the crowd (exercising their 1st Amendment rights) saw a red starlight shell fired over the Capitol just before the fake “insurrection” began.  

That shell is used to signal the start of battle.

After Jan 6th, the FBI WFO emailed all employees that, if they were on the Mall, they were required to give a statement. Some agents who didn't volunteer were identified by others. They were required to give statements against their will. 

Those FD-302s are still secret.

The DOJ's OIG later found the FBI had at least 26 Confidential Human Sources (CHSs) who were present at the Capitol on January 6th.

None of the CHSs were ever prosecuted. https://oig.justice.gov/sites/default/files/reports/25-011.pdf

On Jan 7th, 2021: President Trump was banned from Twitter.

On Jan 8th, 2021: Sidney Powell & Michael Flynn & Patrick Byrne were banned from Twitter.

The coup was complete. The era of government censorship began.

On January 8th, Dominion filed a defamation lawsuit against Sidney Powell for $1.3 billion in damages.

On January 25th, Dominion filed a similar lawsuit against Giuliani. Suits against Fox, OAN, Newsmax & others soon followed. Dominion's lawyers are: Susman Godfrey LLP

On Feb 4th, Smartmatic filed a defamation lawsuit against Fox News for $2.7 billion in damages.

On Nov 3rd, Smartmatic filed similar lawsuits against Newsmax & OAN. I was named as a witness in both the Dominion & Smartmatic cases against Newsmax.

In discovery, Dominion & Smartmatic were allowed to search the personal phones & private emails of TV hosts, TV producers & journalists.

Not just emails but texts. This had never been allowed before in the history of American journalism Courts ignored all press freedoms.

Trump was impeached for the 2nd time on January 13, 2021, one week before his term expired. The House adopted 1 article against him: incitement of insurrection.

The Senate trial began on Feb 9.

Final vote was 10 votes short of the two-thirds majority required to convict.

No GOP senator stated publicly at the time that January 6th was fabricated by the national security state to halt lawful investigations of election fraud.

Instead, they went along with the coup.

Most of them voted to confirm all of Biden's Cabinet picks in 2021.

The illegal Biden regime started on Jan 20, 2021. As one of its first acts, the Biden regime rescinded Trump's executive order banning Chinese involvement in the U.S. power grid. This made it clear: Joe Biden was owned and operated by the CCP. 

Meanwhile, Dominion hired Clare Locke LLP to send letters to 150 people demanding they cease & desist from “taking part in defaming Dominion" and "to preserve all documents." 

The voting machine companies were trying to make discussions of election fraud illegal or actionable.

On Feb 5th, Fox News pulled Lou Dobbs off the air. He was the highest-rated host on Fox Business. The day before, Dobbs and Fox were named in a $2.7B defamation lawsuit filed by Smartmatic.

Any public figure who discussed election fraud was now a target to be fired.

That same day, TIME magazine reporter Molly Ball published a cover story touting "the inside story of the conspiracy" which confirmed the 2020 election had been "fortified" by America's elites to install Biden.

The story had the opposite effect of what the author wished.

By Feb 2021, Rasmussen found 61% of GOP voters agreed "Biden did not win the election fairly."

Voters were already turning against GOP officials who called the election "secure."

House Republicans held their first vote to oust Liz Cheney as a leader. She was gone by May.

The illegal Biden regime knew its public support was already shaky in Feb 2021, so that month the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) contacted Trump to return "some documents" to them.

This setup would lead to the FBI's Mar-a-Lago raid in 2022.

On May 19, the House voted to form a "Committee on Jan 6th Attack" with 35 Republicans voting for it.

Pelosi later made it a "select" committee with only two GOP members: Cheney & Kinzinger.

A former CIA inspector general, David Buckley, served as its "staff director."

By June, the Biden regime tried the ultimate power grab by putting all state elections under the control of the federal government through the "Freedom to Vote" bill. 

When the bill was blocked by GOP, Dems pressured Manchin & Sinema to end the Senate's filibuster rules.

In Sept 2021, the Jan 6th Committee worked to change the 1887 Electoral Count Act. 

This was done to answer the "Dr. Eastman memo" which laid out a legal plan for how VP Pence could have certified the 2020 election in Trump's favor.

Congress passed the Reform Act in 2022.

On Nov 12th, Stephen Bannon was indicted on two counts of contempt of Congress after he refused to comply with Jan 6th Committee subpoenas.

The Jan 6th Committee recommended contempt charges against Mark Meadows on Dec 13th.

By Dec 13th, the Jan 6th Committee had already obtained & leaked the text messages of Trump WH Chief of Staff Mark Meadows to left-wing media outlets.

The illegally leaked texts included messages from Fox News hosts Laura Ingraham & Sean Hannity & Brian Kilmeade.

By fall 2021, the Biden regime was widely hated by the American people. The crowd at a NASCAR race chanted “F—- Joe  Biden” on live TV in Oct & that same chant spread quickly to sports events at every venue in America. 

The Biden regime's answer was to increase the tyranny. Lawfare through our court system was used to destroy critics. News outlets were forced into major settlements to stop coverage of election fraud. People were silenced on social media by CIA & FBI agents giving orders through proxies.

Only a small group of people had paid close attention to the voting machine companies Smartmatic & Dominion before the 2020 election.

Only a few people knew that certain companies were actually international criminal organizations.

In fact, there was a news segment by Lou Dobbs in 2006 that you should watch.

On Aug 8 2024, a federal grand jury in Florida indicted top Smartmatic executives for bribery & money laundering related to the 2016 elections in the Philippines: Roger Alejandro Pinate, Jorge Miguel Vasquez, Elie Moreno.

Election officials in the Philippines also wanted Smartmatic investigated for "changing the script in a transparency server without informing the Commission on Elections" since that change "put into question" the results of their May 9, 2016 election.

Sound familiar?

Which bogus NGO was chosen to "observe" those 2016 elections? It was The Carter Center, headed by former President Jimmy Carter. It also "observed" the 2006 election in Venezuela.

Carter himself later claimed that Venezuela had the "best electoral system in the world."

In March 2005, Smartmatic acquired Sequoia Voting Systems which gave it significant control over U.S. elections.

Smartmatic's new machines were used in the Chicago primaries in March, 2006.

The vote was halted in a key race there due to "problems" with the new machines.

After the issues in Chicago, an investigation of Smartmatic began in Oct 2006 by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. (Cfius).

Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) asked Bush Admin to review the Sequoia deal.

Why? Smartmatic's ownership was hidden in foreign trusts.

Smartmatic did not divulge its owners to Congress.

Instead, it sold Seqouia to a small company in Canada called Dominion in Dec 2006.

That ended the probe by CFIUS. 

But Dominion and Smartmatic were always linked.

In 2008 both companies worked together to "automate" the Philippine election system.

In fact, Smartmatic once sued Dominion in Delaware for breaching a licensing agreement between them. So they were in bed together from the very beginning.

Just look at Smartmatic's Venezuelan senior developer David Moreno who moved over to work at Sequoia in 2006 and then became "Director of Election Production & Testing" at Dominion.

That's how Smartmatic-Sequoia-Dominion got into our elections in 307 counties in 16 states.

In fact, Leamsy Salazar (ex special ops & security for communist dictator Hugo Chavez) had already provided an affidavit with the details of the Smartmatic-Dominion connection in Nov 2020.

Four years after Salazar's affidavit, a highly decorated CIA agent provided similar testimony about the election fraud scheme just before the 2024 election.

So a narco-terrorist state was actually in charge of  our elections since 2006. The goal: to place communists into power & destroy America from within.

But there was a small group of people who stopped this nightmare. 

Probably less than 30. 

They saved the world.

The first big mistake for Smartmatic: Juan Andres Bautista got a divorce.

He was chief of elections in the Philippines (Comelec). In 2017, his wife disclosed docs which showed he was worth $1 billion. The DOJ launched an investigation. Bautista was impeached. He fled to the USA.He refused to return to the Philippines amid a Senate probe. His wife entered the DOJ's witness protection program. Money laundering & conspiracy charges against Bautista were filed on September 19, 2023.

Bautista (allegedly) received bribe money from top executives at Smartmatic for assistance in their bid to secure multimillion-dollar election contracts.

But Smartmatic was NOT NAMED in US court records in 2023.

Philippines officials wanted to know WHO HELPED Bautista.

In 2024, US authorities "dismissed reports that Bautista had been arrested" after money laundering & conspiracy charges were filed in August.

"Bautista is not in US custody and we decline to comment further," said Nicole Navas Oxman at Biden's DOJ. 

What was going on?

According to my sources, Bautista disappeared because the CIA is hiding him.

Why? Because USAID gave money to COMELEC to hire Smartmatic for the 2016 election in Philippines.

Bautista can't testify in US court that the US government provided the money.

After all, the CIA doesn't want the American people to know that USAID is actually funding Smartmatic.

That would be crazy, right?

The CIA wouldn't still use USAID to fund Smartmatic even AFTER the DOJ itself had charged 15 of Venezuela's top communist officials with running a "narco-terrorism conspiracy" in 2020?