A Few Questions

She said a lot there, but everyone is asking the same things here in the United States.

What I’m getting from this is disturbing because it seems that nobody knows what the U.S. is allowed to do, what our constitution provides for or forbids, what the UCMJ allows or what constitutes criminal actions, and equally important, what international law says about combat actions in international water during peacetime. Especially against civilians.

I’ll let you in on something really messed up: there are no countries that are allowed to do this. It could constitute a war crime, but there is no war, so these horrors are crimes against humanity, and terrorism; Murder and the threat of more. Except, I don’t understand why it’s happening if Trump just pardoned Juan Hernandez, former president of Honduras, who was convicted of trafficking cocaine into the United States by the ton.

How in perdition does that make any sense?

Answer: it doesn’t.

I honestly knew nothing about the 2 September incident in which the so-called “double tap” strike took place until mere days ago.

I’ll tell you my take as a Christian first: I believe the “first strike” to be immoral. Killing is immoral. My renewed faith has no room for arguing this point. Defense against an aggressor in a declared war is one thing; this is nothing similar at all. Jesus never said to go forth and kill and then pretend it never happened. Killing and lying are not just sins, but they go against the conscience most people are inherently equipped with.

So too, Pete Hegseth proved to be a coward, speaking boldly, indeed arrogantly, and then lying to cover himself from any fallout. Which he’s finally getting anyway.

FAKE NEWS

This is something we all have to contend with. It’s a problem because, first of all, some people like to disseminate lies. Secondly, propaganda is effective. Hitler had a dedicated propaganda minister, and the Allied resistance countered Nazi propaganda with outrageously funny and equally effective stunts through the use of radio and printed material. The underground was often connected between occupied countries and those involved risked their lives in their own fight against Nazis.

The Resistance against Nazi Germany was often funny, and one case in particular taught the Kriegsmarine in Norway an unforgettable lesson. Germany had confiscated the entire country’s catch of sardines because canned food lasted longer on U-boat sorties. U-boats were hot, cramped, and they went on long “Wolpack” patrols across the Atlantic to sink Allied escorts and troop ships, but also to stem the unbelievable flow of planes, tanks and a staggering amount of food, medical supplies, uniforms and blankets, a never-ending amount of ships, and while the Germans, including armored cavalry, pilots, and infantry, had been told that the U.S. military was weak and could never outfight Aryans, the Kriegsmarine knew better. Not only could they not stop the shipping, but the Americans became much more efficient at detecting and damaging or sinking their subs. It became necessary for the Nazi armed forces to take drastic measures. Occupied countries had crops and meat confiscated. Troops were resorting to horses and carts for transportation of troops and supplies, and horses were used to pull artillery, some of which were very antiquated pieces from World War One. Combat photography and film footage proves all of this, and perhaps there was a time when they may have prevailed except that Operation Barbarossa had already beaten them. It is the judgement of many scholars that it was inevitable; invading the Soviet Union was a dreadful move. By the time of the flight back to German territory, retreat and surrender was no longer worthy of discussion. Men froze to death lying on their backs, some with an arm bent upward. And the entire war was like that. By the time the U.S. sent its military to engage Germany, it sealed the deal.

The taking of food and even linen for bandages in Nazi-occupied Europe forced the citizens into serious resistance tactics. Men and women alike fought. But in Norway….all of their sardines?

This was too much for Norwegians to take. Fuming, they contacted Allies and ordered a lot of croton oil. They canned the tiny fish with this oil, which is a rather “violent” laxative. In other words, U-boat crews on submarines that had a single toilet were taken out of action and couldn’t return to port fast enough. The interior of the U-boats were wall to wall diarrheic disasters, their men severely dehydrated. There is no mention I could find on the vessel’s turnaround time, but if it took a week, and the crew had to be replaced, then it took the boat out of action and plausibly saved at least some Allied shipping across the Atlantic. The story spread throughout the underground and the Maquis made sure that everyone got the news. The O.S.S. and British agents were probably rolling around on their office floors, stomachs cramped as badly as a German submariner’s, but for a different reason: they were laughing.

When properly coordinated, propaganda is effective. You just can’t overdo it because that’s when the resistance begins.

Today, however, the Trump administration is constantly putting out senseless, uncoordinated and often contradictory fake news, and that alone is funny, yet people are dying. Many more are suffering.

And here’s the thing: sure, this administration is all for cutting out all healthcare even as Trump’s mouth spits lies about healthcare reform. Which, it turns out, would result in a lot of deaths. And this is not World War Two.

But a new Holocaust? Can that happen?

This is all about deporting arbitrary people to other countries, mostly under the assumption that they’re illegal aliens, despite being naturalized and even U.S.-born citizens.

A senator who just loves deportations recently wrote on social media how thankful he is that his parents brought him to the United States (!).

This administration is full of hypocrisy and lies, and it’s so stupid that, if people weren’t suffering and dying, it would be hilarious. One funny thing is a senator introducing a bill which, if passed, would see Melania Trump deported, her dual citizenship cancelled. I tell you, it boggles the mind.

But as I’ve said, people are dying. And the suffering is getting more widespread. Very few things are funny.

I misread, or actually did read, something about a foreign leader being transferred to the Hague and the ICC to face charges of crimes against humanity. It’s likely that I crossed stories, but at first I thought a foreign leader had been detained for the same things as our Navy attacking boats for trafficking drugs.

Actually it was a Libyan official who ran a prison in which he encouraged atrocities including various manner of torture including murder, rape, extreme violence and more. The U.S. and Germany protested, but the ICC overruled them. Knowing nothing further, I can only guess that “illegal aliens” sent to Libya and El Salvador were supposed to undergo such acts and conditions.

Doing so constitutes multiple crimes against humanity under the Trump administration. ICE is allowed to wear masks and vests and be heavily armed and freely roam like Nazi SS and Gestapo men, taking prisoners. ICE agents are feared, but more than anything, they are bitterly hated, and a reckoning is coming.

Even now, as I think about it, I get sick in my body and spirit. Is there really no limit to the evil this administration willingly plans and then commits?

Media like NewsMax and Fox are just as immoral, eagerly egging the administration on and heaping praise on a band of criminals with outrageous lies that defy belief that anyone could be so dishonest as to utter them. Propaganda used to manipulate the public. No matter how stupid, they all spit it out.

NewsMax even put out a poll saying the Fox News reported that Trump had a very low approval percentage. NewsMax wanted to prove them wrong. They’re fighting each other!

No one knows how many families have been separated or how many children have been sent to God-knows-where, or trafficked. Yes, who in this administration would have a problem with that, given how the Federal Bureau of Investigation, once legendary, has worked overtime scrubbing and redacting the material in the so-called “Epstein Files?”

It’s been claimed that the redactions are to conceal the names of victims, and I hope it’s true, but wait! If our military shoots people clinging to a wrecked boat, is it so farfetched to think that the Feds would cook the books to exonerate Trump?

You know what war crimes and crimes against humanity look like. You know what “ethnic cleansing” looks like. Now comes my question:

Are you really supportive of this kind of inhumanity? Or do you condemn these things?

The answer, that’s for you. It isn’t for me. Because if this goes on, it will get worse. I saw the video of the boat. It looked like a small open boat to me, and watching it explode sickened me. You want more? Or are you willing to stand for what’s right, risking your life to speak against evil?

And one more question. If you are in any branch of the military of the United States, and you receive an order to do something you know is illegal, how will you respond?

How will history, and God, judge you? You can’t get away. Everyone will know. Is “I was just following orders” a good enough excuse, like most Wermacht, Luftwaffe, and Kriegsmarine claimed after VE Day? Right up to the minute they were imprisoned or executed?

It’s up to you.

“Then They Came For Me”–Martin Niemöller, 1946

“First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.”

***

Before you start cheering on the deportation of human beings to concentration camps in El Salvador,

first ask yourself, what if they come to get you?

Because there will be nothing anyone can say or do to stop it.

And soon, there may be no one left who even remembers you.

This time, it will be different. Especially in the end.

Does the value of one life equal more than that of another?

This is a timeless question, and who is given the right to say, other than God in Heaven?

When equality is measured by a prejudiced eye, no one is equal to the person with that eye.

No one.

When the judges are men who set themselves aside as superior, those they judge will always be condemned.

This you must remember always.

Why Women Hate Men, Why Antisemitism is Rising, and the Incredible Prevalence of Hate Videos

The evidence is all around us.

We men rank lower than worms on the scale of evolution.

When it comes to women, of course. Women’s opinions, to be precise.

The evidence that it will get worse, not better, is also quite clear.

Now, ladies, is that any way to be?

According to recent ethical and politically correct changes in standards, I’m not even supposed to say or write the word “ladies” in a sentence; it’s defined as sexist. How did that happen? And when did that happen?

I’ve never had anyone react badly to “ma’am” or “ladies.”

These words of politeness and respect are what I grew up with. The other day, around sunset, two dressed-to-kill ladies crossed my path at an angle, going to some event. It would have been easy to say nothing, but I nodded and greeted them, “Evening, ladies.” They answered back as if very surprised and pleased, “Good evening!”

And I do that a lot. I speak to people passing by. I’m polite and respectful. I have no reason to hate anyone, and it would be a sin if I did anyway: it would harm my soul, while my silence would make others angry at me. People ignoring me I can deal with, but bearing grudges and carrying a burden like that kind of evil is a thing I’ve never benefited from. I know because I hated being ignored more than I did getting attention. Anger begets hate and leads to nothing good.

The burden gets heavier as life goes on. Nobody is able to bear it. From hate and bitterness come a long list of single items that make everyone sick, defeated, exhausted, and eventually dooms us to Hell. And I realize that a lot of people believe in Heaven, but not Hell. That’s unfortunate. Because it’s a real thing. A state of existence past death where souls are sentenced to weep and gnash their teeth. Yes. There is a hell.

What some things are that can send you there, you probably know. But you do them anyway. On your decision to not believe in such a punishment, the disbelief alone that God would ever send anyone to such a horrible place is first on the list.

But I know. It’s quite real.

My life, as I’ve tried to describe it in the past six years, has been very disturbing for most people to bother reading about. Part of the worst of it was that it drove me to isolation.

That’s not to say that as I grew up, I was completely alone. I did have a friend or two early on, but it never lasted because I always ended up drawing a circle around myself that defined how close someone could get. If they crossed it, I either did something to make them hate me, or I backed off, usually with the same result.

Until very recently, I still did it. Facebook friends, MySpace friends, nobody was spared. Sometimes, I just blocked them. That was extremely cruel and and I learned later that I had really hurt people who cared about me. But it was what I had to do. Too close. I just didn’t want them any further in. All my life, I realized, I had been burning bridges. I found that once done, most of those pathways were forever lost. It hurt, but had I ever had a choice?

When children are so severely traumatized by the parents who are supposed to protect them that they end up pushing away everyone else, you can’t call those children “normal” and you’re not going to change that by not believing it. Trust becomes impossible.

Doctors and therapists and psych meds all can help a great deal, but as with Humpty Dumpty, they can’t put you back together. And no matter how hard any victim tries, he or she can’t get around the fact that those things that haunt their memories can’t be nullified.

Drug abuse, alcohol abuse, and more. Nothing works to escape the past. It just doesn’t. Nobody gets a pass. We say we’ll go to Heaven when we die because we’ve already had a life sentence in Hell. But it’s a lie.

****

I can never speak for another’s experience, only my own. I can’t minimize or put a value on pain. Or psychological damage. Not everyone is a “survivor” of incest, rape or severe child abuse.

Some, perhaps even most, are anything but survivors, trapped on a hamster wheel of remembering every bad thing that happened to them, again and again. And I know that’s a tough thing for most people to grasp, and that’s why people have said to me, “Baloney. You have control over your own body.”

But children and rape victims don’t have control. They have no power to stop what others can’t even imagine. The world fails to accept so many truths, and in so doing, it minimalizes those who tell the truth and puts faith in liars, and thus, all manner of evil can and will be done including crimes against humanity, war crimes, genocide and more. War criminals become heroes. War veterans are spat upon. And this is now normalized. At the end of the Second World War, when Nazi death and labor camps became more widely known, we screamed, “Never again!”

But we can’t stop bad things with mere words. How many Nazis escaped Germany to Argentina and other South American countries?

How many were left behind to live and pass on their doctrine of hatred? And how many were given immunity by the United States to get them to come here?

How many Nazis in America were there? Because Nazism never went away.

And look at how history is about to be repeated:

Last October, the Hamas plan to attack Israel and take hostages, a plan two years in the making, became reality. Children were taken hostage and boldly carried off in dog cages, among their other crimes. Innocent people died. Some hostages were later confirmed dead. Some are still missing. More than this, I don’t know, but the wrath of Israel would soon take center stage. Remember how I said that some people never forget? Well, it’s true. The long history of antisemitism is coming around to a new cycle. It will be repeated. At universities, students protest the Israeli tactics in Gaza without knowing what is truly at stake, without any memory of what initiated the war. They either haven’t been taught about the Holocaust or they’re the next generation of Holocaust deniers. They have chosen a side based on “humanitarian” convictions and therefore inadvertently taken sides with terrorists. This gives Hamas everything they could want. Where is the sense of that? Where is the honor in that? Because if you really hate what’s happening, then you can’t take sides. You have the duty to protect the innocent, and you can’t do that by being one-sided. At present, both are wrong. But you don’t see it so. That means that peace is less probable. It means antisemitism will grow.

TICK TOCK

On the other hand, countries all over the world are trying to ban tic-tac, a social media app that China uses to further break down society. Countries like Denmark have banished it on government issued phones, but as far as I can tell, it remains available to civilians. The creators of videos are each demanding their fifteen minutes of fame because they’re full of themselves, they’re selfish, and there are few boundaries that they won’t cross. Most are at least harmless, but considering the music, nudity, and some utterly grotesque content, China has access to it, and it really is a danger to society. China is working hard to disturb and break up families and whole communities.

I’ve been troubled to see two types of women emerge on TikTok, and a few have been on podcasts.

The first are TickTok women who complain that men never ask a woman out on a date. They say that this places the burden on women to initiate the date. And some hate it. They complain that, for the most part, men don’t want to date. That they’re making women work too hard. One said she went to a certain place, dressed in revealing clothes that no man, or so she reasoned, could resist. She deliberately looked into men’s eyes, only to be “ghosted.”

She is a result and a victim of a lack of parenting and a society that has become so twisted by sin that normal relationships are no longer understood or even considered. She knows no other way and is now embittered that she’s being “ghosted.”

It is shallow thinking based on physical attributes alone without any real knowledge of what attraction is. I’ve often been turned on by the skin showing that an outfit reveals, but have never actually asked for a date.

With my background, for one thing, I find it intimidating. There’s nothing wrong with wearing clothes that reveal, but men often find it a turn-off. I’ve heard the word “slut” too many times to forget how other men take it. I’ve also heard guys I was with say, “No wonder there’s rape.”

Clothing has nothing to do with rape. But those guys were insecure and never regarded the women they saw as approachable. The women became objectified and loose to the men around them. Considering that I’m going back to the 1970s when halter tops and short shorts, hip huggers, and hot pants were fashionable, I’ve seen a lot. I’ve seen and heard the reactions of men. And not any of it was any woman’s fault. Men have complicated thoughts and insecurities about women.

The other Tik-Tok women post man-hating videos because they either truly hate men or they’re begging for attention, challenging a man to come forward and ask for a date.

I’m not counting gold digging because that happens with both sexes.

These women have had bad experiences with dating and have come to the heartfelt conclusion that all men are rats.

Thus, these TIKI-TOCKERS post venomous videos about men being swine. Such things have a tendency to spread through influencers. I’m not particularly worried about it because I’m out of the dating game. But many men my age are still in it. They’re in better health, and they have experience enough to know how to treat a lady. But their window is closing.

Soon, the chances are, we will become some parody of everything that’s been held as moral, good, and what God wants for us.

If I see the reverse, however, of men posting tictock videos about how evil women are, I get very concerned. I’m not talking about YouTube personalities who get called out for legitimate reasons. I’m talking about blanket statements that paint all women on one canvas in one color. It’s not only wrong, it’s dangerous. If you do this, there’s no doubt that there are equal reactions: men being swayed by your words to act, up to and including violence against women, which has always existed and always will, and which you have no right to make worse.

Hate speech in videos is extremely damaging, and there is never an excuse for it. But it does not get the attention or action it deserves.

Trendy though it may be, hate videos against the opposite sex, ethnic groups, or anyone is a sin and can cause serious damage.

I want you to seek out your higher power and ask what’s right. We need restraint. Some consideration and compassion. If you’re not a peacemaker, then you are a force of evil, even if you’re silent. Silence is encouraging to those who do evil.

Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers, because they will be called sons of God” (Matt. 5:9).

I may have my own opinions of other’s choices, but I cannot hate the people who choose wrongly. If I do that, then mine is the greater sin. Because I am supposed to know better.

Please, stop watching and liking hate videos. Not one of them is deserving of admiration. And we’re all supposed to be better than that.

I’ve seen my share of evil. I’ve done my share of evil. Satan is real. Hell is real. Ask yourself, “If it’s real, then do I truly want to go there?”

I don’t.

I rank hate speech equally with hate videos. They’re the same. The latter, though, comes in short videos for the generations with short attention spans who can absorb every hateful word.

If you go through my archives, you will see hate, anger, and more. I won’t hide them or remove them. They stand as a glaring testament to the change I’ve experienced, though a work in progress, because the battle never ends. Until the day I draw my final breath, the war rages within. Satan seeks to weaken my faith, while God simply repeats the promise that He is always ready to help me through the Holy Spirit. This battle has been fought before I could even crawl.

God told the prophet Jeremiah that before he was formed in the womb, God knew him. He knows you and I, too.

Sometimes, that verse is used by pro-life people to condemn abortion. I caution everyone not to take and twist scripture to fit an agenda. The verse is about God speaking to Jeremiah. However, we do at least need to consider whether it can apply to all unborn children.

****

As you can see, we don’t know everything. I remember a trendy poster from the early 70s: “Those who think they know everything are annoying to those of us who do.”

If we knew everything, do you think that sin would still exist? Would it have been necessary for Jesus Christ to come teach us, then die for us?

I believe that with the presence of Satan, yes. It would have been impossible to escape sin. We are all tested every day with temptation. As a new Christian who used to think he was a Christian but really wasn’t, I’m facing attacks by evil forces constantly. The devil does this because he hates your new faith. He sets monitor demons to spy on you since he isn’t all seeing or knowing like the Lord is. They tell him everything you do so he can accuse you in front of God.

I’m not worried. If God is for me, who can be against me? Those who oppose have no power over me unless God gives the word, and even then, if I hold tight to my faith, the trouble will pass.

I don’t want you to suffer from the tortures of Hell or life without the peace that only God can give you through Christ, who has given his life so you don’t have to end that way.

Open your heart, not your mind, and accept the gift of eternal life with God in Heaven. Don’t give in to the hate that is all around you. Don’t repeat what evil people say. Don’t do as they do. Don’t trust them. They already have their final pleasures and Earthly rewards, but you will have to suffer before you get to Heaven, where there is no more pain, no more weeping, and no more hatred. Don’t count on God to be so merciful that He would never send the unrepentant to Hell. That’s not God. That’s just a lie. Satan wants you to believe it so that you become careless and sin to your heart’s content. God loves his children, but there’s a line past which you can never go except for eternity in a horrible place full of the worst things you can imagine. Don’t go there. Don’t give in to hate, bitterness, anger, or the sins of the flesh. You can have the power through faith and the sacrifice of Jesus to withstand any spiritual attack.

Thank you for reading. I pray that God will be with you, guide you, and protect you. Amen.