What He Said --

 I am fortunate to be married to a quiet man who thinks deeply on many things. Neither he nor our daughters are mentioned a lot on this blog, by their request. It's tough for a writer's family, privacy-wise -- which is also why I use pseudonyms for them. We don't always agree with each other -- but we do make an effort (which is difficult sometimes, and involves some initial arguing) to listen and talk things out. 

    The Brick recently wrote a comment to some one else's FB post that I thought was crisp and to the point. Is/was he a Trump supporter? Well, yes...and no. Both the Brick and I have admired Trump for some of his accomplishments -- and hated the fact that he blatted his mouth off on Twitter. (If there's anything we've learned, raising teenagers, it's that insulting people will not get them to turn around and help you afterward. Or listen to what you've got to say. I wish Trump had realized this the first day of his term.)

What we both are, though, are Christians first, Americans next, Coloradoans after that-- and he is a proud Conservative. (I am, with some digressions. More an independent, really, with quilter, crafter and writer nuances thrown in.) 

Anyways, here are the Brick's comments, with names edited, used with permission. The post was about the many violent demonstrations that the U.S. has endured in 2020 -- and now in 2021. The Brick was answering someone who thought the violence was justified. (Sounds like this journalist.)

     The Brick is not the only one to struggle with these issues -- I do, too. What will happen to our country, when a new President is in place?

Absolutely I am proud, my friend. What I have posted here has been primarily food for thought. It's certainly not meant to incite a revolution, in case you're referring to the unfortunate events in Washington, D.C., earlier today. The loss of life is extremely regrettable -- and unusual, don't you think? I mean, how many Antifa looters and vandals were shot by the police during the summer of fun? And yet one rally by Trump Supporters gets out of hand, and a reportedly unarmed 14-year Air Force veteran is shot and killed.

I could ask you the same question regarding the tremendous amounts of damages to public and private property, police being injured and killed, and all that has taken place during the "mostly peaceful protests" (riots) this summer and continuing to this day in Portland, by the way. If you think I am that influential, then how about you?

I have tried diligently to limit my posts to 1) Statements of my own opinion, 2) Statements of fact, that I have personally fact-checked myself, 3) Articles that discuss information not readily available in Corporate Media, that make sense to me and that I believe are probably true, and 4) Articles of interest, published mainly by non-mainstream media sources, that I can neither verify or discredit. I don't usually comment on those in category 4, but sometimes I also don't comment on those in category 3.

If you can offer PROOF that anything I've posted is substantially false, I would appreciate you letting me know. On the other hand, if you're arguing something is false because the Corporate Fact Checkers say it is or because I haven't offered any proof for it, I'm probably not going to take that down.

I am very concerned for this Nation, and all that is going on within it. Those who have studied history can see that we are pretty closely paralleling several of the great empires that have preceded us. We are deteriorating, as a Nation, and not primarily because of invaders fighting wars against us, but rather because of our enemies who are fighting us with ideas -- from within. These ideas didn't originate in America -- they came from other countries. And they are failed ideas -- they have literally failed in all previous manifestations, and yet they have taken hold in America as solutions to all that "ails us". They are weakening us and dividing us against ourselves, and as Jesus Christ (and later, Abraham Lincoln) said, "A house divided against itself cannot stand."

I have never in my lifetime, nor in my knowledge of history, seen our Nation so evenly divided since the Civil War, and that doesn't bode well for our future.

I also believe that most of the Corporate Media as well as Big Tech, (yes, including FB), are shamelessly shilling for the same people spreading these ideas. Those two combined make for an extremely effective propaganda machine. Now propaganda isn't always bad; it can be used to good effect. But it can also be used to distort and cover up the truth and lead people directly into tyranny. Those who deny this is happening or could happen here in the America of today need to read the book "1984" by George Orwell. It appears the author was only off on the date by a couple of decades.

What I see that is particularly dangerous is the bulk of our communications are effectively being controlled by a very small number of extremely wealthy corporations. What could possibly go wrong?

So yes, I am very proud of what little I have been doing here in the tiny world of my friends on FB. I believe very strongly in the 1st Amendment of our Constitution, and in the 2nd, which protects it. If I had only regret, it would be that I haven't done more.