Cover image: North Dakota Badlands

Still not quite up to it, but doing exercises and the like.

TWEETS!

Marco Rubio was impressive on Wednesday.

https://twitter.com/JerryDunleavy/status/1879553592861905122

@JerryDunleavy

The opening statement given by Secretary of State nominee Marco Rubio just now eviscerates decades of failed U.S. foreign policy: “Out of the triumphalism of the end of the long Cold War emerged a bipartisan consensus, and this consensus was that we had reached ‘the end of history.’ That all the nations of earth would become members of the democratic Western-led community. That a foreign policy that served the national interest could now be replaced by one that served the ‘liberal world order.’ And that all mankind was now destined to abandon national sovereignty and national identity, and we would become ‘one human family’ and ‘citizens of the world.’ This wasn’t just a fantasy — we now know it was a dangerous delusion.

Here in America, and in many of the advanced economies across the world, an almost religious commitment to free and unfettered trade at the expense of our national economy shrunk the middle class, left the working class in crisis, collapsed our industrial capacity, and has pushed critical supply chains into the hands of adversaries and of rivals. An irrational zeal for maximum freedom of movement of people has resulted in a historic mass migration crisis here in America but also around the world — it’s one that threatens the stability of societies and governments. Across the West, governments now censor and even prosecute domestic political opponents. Meanwhile radical jihadists openly march in the streets and sadly drive vehicles into our people.

While America far too often prioritized the ‘global order’ above our core national interests, other nations continued to act the way countries always have and always will — in what they perceive to be in their best interest. And instead of folding into the post-Cold War global order, they have manipulated it to serve their interests at the expense of ours. We welcomed the Chinese Communist Party into the global order, and they took advantage of all its benefits, and they ignored all its obligations and responsibilities. Instead, they have repressed, and lied, and cheated, and hacked, and stolen their way to global superpower status, and they have done so at our expense and at the expense of their own country.

In our very own hemisphere, despots and narco-terrorists take advantage of open borders to drive mass migration, to traffic women and children, and to flood our communities with fentanyl and violent criminals. In Moscow, Tehran, and Pyongyang, dictators — rogue states — now sow chaos and instability and align with and they fund radical terror groups, and then hide behind their veto power at the United Nations Security Council and the threat of nuclear war. The postwar global order is not just obsolete — it is now a weapon being used against us. And all this has led to a moment in which we must now confront the single greatest risk of geopolitical instability and of generational global crisis in the lifetime of anyone alive today.”

MEMES and FUN STUFF

____________________________________

And now for the business portion.

Please review our HOST and site owner’s Guidelines for posting and discussion for this site. Wolf is kind enough to put up with *most* of us and our antics after thorough vetting. Violators of the baiting and deliberately attempting to divide the group rules WILL face consequences.

The discourse on this site is to be CIVIL – no name calling, baiting, or threatening others here is allowed. Company manners are appreciated. Those who are so inclined may visit Wolf’s other sanctuary, the U-Tree, to slog out discussions best saved for a wrestling mat. If, for some reason, this site is not available, head over to the UTree and visit the post at the top of the list or the closest rescue thread.

This site is a celebration of the natural rights endowed to humans by our Creator as well as those enshrined in the Bill of Rights adopted in the founding documents of the United States of America. Within the limits of law, how we exercise these rights is part of the freedom of our discussion.

THAT MEANS THAT ALL OF US HERE ARE ENTITLED TO OUR OPINIONS AND PREJUDICES, ETC., SO LONG AS THEY CAUSE NO PHYSICAL HARM TO OTHERS OR DOXX OUR FELLOW TREE DWELLERS.

All opinions here are valued for the diversity they bring to the issues, and the shaping of understanding regarding topics for which many of us do not have all information. Correcting the record on any one topic is appreciated.

Be careful in expressing thoughts as we would all like to think well of the rest of the group, and ill-thought out comments have a way of wrecking that for everyone.

Fellow tree dweller, the late Wheatie, gave us some good reminders on the basics of civility in political discourse:

1. No food fights
2. No running with scissors
3. If you bring snacks, be sure they are made with bacon

Auntie DePat’s requests as we are all supposedly adults and don’t just play them on TV like the body doubles pretending to be the squatter in chief:

If you see something has not been posted, do us all a favor, and post it. Please, do not complain that it has not been done yet.

The scroll wheel on your mouse can be your friend. As mature adults, please use it here in the same manner you would in avoiding online porn.

Thank you so much for any and all attention to such details. It is GREATLY appreciated by more than one party here.

____________________________________________________

Hebrews 3:7-14

7Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, “Today, when you hear his voice, 8do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness, 9where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for forty years. 10Therefore I was provoked with that generation, and said, `They always go astray in their hearts; they have not known my ways.’ 11As I swore in my wrath, `They shall never enter my rest.'” 12Take care, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. 13But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today, ” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. 14For we share in Christ, if only we hold our first confidence firm to the end,

Psalms 95:6-11

6O come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the LORD, our Maker! 7For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. O that today you would hearken to his voice! 8Harden not your hearts, as at Mer’ibah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness, 9when your fathers tested me, and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work. 10For forty years I loathed that generation and said, “They are a people who err in heart, and they do not regard my ways.” 11Therefore I swore in my anger that they should not enter my rest.

Mark 1:40-45

40And a leper came to him beseeching him, and kneeling said to him, “If you will, you can make me clean.” 41Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him, “I will; be clean.” 42And immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean. 43And he sternly charged him, and sent him away at once, 44and said to him, “See that you say nothing to any one; but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, for a proof to the people.” 45But he went out and began to talk freely about it, and to spread the news, so that Jesus could no longer openly enter a town, but was out in the country; and people came to him from every quarter.

_____________________________________________________

SATIRE

WEEKEND STARTER

Snowflake Martini Recipe

Ingredients

(makes one drink)

• 2 oz. vanilla vodka
• 2 oz. Godiva white chocolate liqueur
• 1 oz. white creme de cacao
• 1 oz.  half and half
• Lemon wedge
• Sanding sugar

Directions

1. Cut a lemon wedge and rub it around the rim of the glass. Dip the rim in the sugar to coat evenly.
2. Add the vodka, chocolate liqueur, creme de cacao, and half and half into a shaker filled with ice.
3. Shake well and strain mixture into glass.
4. Serve immediately, and enjoy with your favorite seasonal tunes next to a toasty fireplace!

Have a good weekend, y’all.

Have a good one y’all.