” In fallout from the debt ceiling deal, Speaker Kevin McCarthy is suddenly confronting a new threat to his power as angry hard-right conservatives bring the House chamber to a halt, reviving their displeasure over the compromise struck with President Joe Biden and demanding deeper spending cuts ahead.
Barely a dozen Republicans, mainly members of the House Freedom Caucus, shuttered House business for a second day Wednesday in protest of McCarthy’s leadership. Routine votes could not be taken, and a pair of pro-gas stove bills important to GOP activists stalled out. Some lawmakers asked if they could simply go home — and eventually they could. By evening, the rest of week’s schedule was called off.
McCarthy brushed off the disruption as healthy political debate, part of his “risk taker” way of being a leader — not too different, he said, from the 15-vote spectacle it took in January for him to finally convince his colleagues to elect him as speaker. With a paper-thin GOP majority, any few Republicans have outsized sway.
But the aftermath of the debt ceiling deal is coming into focus: The hard-right flank that helped put the speaker in power five months ago is not done with McCarthy yet.”
“#TwitterFiles Extra: Cozy ties between human rights and military/intelligence”
New #TwitterFiles thread by@NAffects on the Atlantic Council, and the absorption of human rights orgs into the military/intelligence space: https://t.co/DTALMqO3Wg
2. In Costa Rica and Latvia today, the Atlantic Council is hosting its 360/OS Summit. We dug into the #TwitterFiles to further reveal the participation of their anti-disinformation arm, the Digital Forensic Research Lab (DFRLab) in disinformation initiatives of its own pic.twitter.com/yPcVGP4HZx
4. Twitter had been developing a strong relationship with DFRLab for sometime. "I just arrived in Kyiv" Brookie notes in 2017 as he suggest Twitter Public Policy Director Nick Pickles meet with the State Department’s Global Engagement Center, and the Hamilton 68 creators in DC. pic.twitter.com/AnB1h4tGE2
6. Among the 360/OS attendees are Matthias Dopfner (CEO of German media empire Axel Springer), a former President of Estonia and Poland, a former Swedish Prime Minister, billionaires Chris Sacca, Reid Hoffman (Linkedin co-founder), and Ev Williams (former CEO of Twitter) pic.twitter.com/jwL6KlmBzI
8. CISA, DHS and Aspen Institute's "Information Disorder" Co-Chair Kris Krebs also attended to discuss "election integrity." Elliot Higgins of Bellingcat too joined the closed door gathering of intel, billionaires, and "peace-makers" pic.twitter.com/Yds7pRyai7
10. DFRLabs also partnered on the Election Integrity Partnership, which sought to “fill the gaps legally” that the government couldn’t. EIP and VP leader-to-be Renee DiResta also attended the 2018 360/OS. https://t.co/r5HCC142MMpic.twitter.com/iY02S9IO7a
12. The degree to which the Atlantic Council militarists and the 1% have co-opted the human rights field should concern genuine activists, and that's only half of it. Read the full piece at https://t.co/jyEtVlX0vJpic.twitter.com/6TnP3wi3dT
“The confidential human source (CHS) behind the detailed allegations that then-Vice President Joe Biden agreed to accept money from a foreign national to affect policy decisions was reportedly “highly credible” and used by the FBI in multiple criminal investigations dating back to the Obama administration. Friday’s exclusive by Fox News provides further insight into Sen. Chuck Grassley’s focus on the FBI — as opposed to the Biden family — as the primary scandal in play.
“We aren’t interested in whether or not the accusations against [then]-Vice President Biden are accurate,” Grassley said during an interview last week discussing FBI Director Christopher Wray’s refusal to comply with the congressional subpoena issued for the FD-1023 form. That form, dated June 30, 2020, included detailed information from a CHS to the FBI regarding an agreement by now-President Biden to deliver preferred foreign policy positions for a $5 million payment.
After Grassley revealed he had already seen the FD-1023, Fox News’ Bill Hemmer queried: “How damning is this document to the sitting U.S. president?”
“I don’t know,” responded Grassley, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee. He stressed that while “there’s accusations” in the FBI report, the congressional oversight committees’ concern is whether “the FBI does its job.” “That’s what we want to know,” he continued.
Friday’s revelation that the CHS was “highly credible” and had served as a source in multiple prior criminal investigations — including ones run under the Obama-Biden administration — proves Grassley is properly focused on the FBI.
Yes, the CHS’s allegations offer more evidence of a Biden family pay-to-play scandal, and unraveling any criminal conduct by the Biden family remains important. But more significant to the future of our country is uncovering government actors responsible for violating the rule of law: America can survive select injustices, but it cannot withstand a corrupt bureaucracy that obstructs justice and interferes in elections.
Yet that is precisely what occurred, according to the whistleblower. He claimed that “in August 2020, FBI Supervisory Intelligence Analyst Brian Auten opened an assessment which was used by a FBI Headquarters’ team to improperly discredit negative Hunter Biden information as disinformation and caused investigative activity to cease.” The whistleblower further alleged that the FBI HQ team that handled the Auten assessment, after concluding the reporting was disinformation, placed the information in a restricted access sub-file that only the particular agents who uncovered the CHS’s information could access.
Now knowing the CHS behind the FD-1023 was not just “trusted,” as Grassley had previously indicated, but “highly credible,” and relied upon in multiple criminal cases dating back to the last time Biden worked for the executive branch, makes the whistleblower’s accusations even more damning because those additional facts mean the agents had reason to believe the buried accusations were true.
Not only does this evidence suggest FBI headquarters obstructed justice, but the date of the CHS’s report indicates those responsible for misbranding the intel as disinformation sought to interfere in the 2020 election.
As Grassley’s colleague in the House, James Comer, revealed, the CHS report was dated June 30, 2020, and while the allegations against candidate Biden came from a “highly credible” CHS, the FBI closed them. According to the whistleblower, FBI headquarters closed out the source even though some of the allegations had already been verified and other details could have been verified.”
The Ukrainian security services wanted some accounts on Twitter banned, including a number of journalists in America and abroad, and the FBI passed along the request from them to Twitter’s Trust and Safety Department. God only knows what accounts on other social media platforms were banned or were requested to be banned at the behest of a foreign government.”
In an attached memo, Ukraine's SBU provided a list of accounts that it alleged have been "used to disseminate disinformation and fake news to inaccurately reflect events in Ukraine."
It then asked Twitter "to block these Twitter accounts and provide us with" their "user data." pic.twitter.com/zhn2xRt5GT
“It is hard to imagine that the Security Service of Ukraine is incapable of reaching out to Twitter with their concerns, so using the FBI as a conduit is a clear attempt to use the US government to pressure the platform in a manner that a third-party actor could not. It is absurd to suggest otherwise, and the history of the government using “disinformation” as a smokescreen for outright censorship bolsters that argument.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation has aided a Ukrainian intelligence effort to censor social media users and obtain their personal information, leaked emails reveal.
In March 2022, an FBI Special Agent sent Twitter a list of accounts on behalf of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), Ukraine’s main intelligence agency. The accounts, the FBI wrote, “are suspected by the SBU in spreading fear and disinformation.” In an attached memo, the SBU asked Twitter to remove the accounts and hand over their user data.
The Ukrainian government’s FBI-enabled targets extend to members of the media. The SBU list that the FBI provided to Twitter included my name and Twitter profile. In its response to the FBI, Twitter agreed to review the accounts for “inauthenticity” but raised concerns about the inclusion of me and other “American and Canadian journalists.”
The FBI’s attempt to ban Twitter accounts at the request of Ukrainian intelligence is among the most overt requests for censorship revealed to date in the Twitter Files, a cache of leaked communications from the social media giant.
The FBI’s censorship request was relayed in a March 27th, 2022 email from FBI Special Agent Aleksandr Kobzanets, the Assistant Legal Attaché at the US Embassy in Kyiv, to two Twitter executives. Four FBI colleagues were copied on the exchange.”
I think it’s a much better strategy for the committee to focus on digging into the FBI. Potential Biden (or Trump, for those who see wrong-doing there) corruption is important, but Presidents come and go. The institutions just seem to get stronger and more out of control, so that even constitutionally mandated oversight becomes virtually impossible.
“Oxfam, a Britain-based international organization nominally dedicated to eradicating poverty has been for a long time a left-wing ideological organization with a nice-sounding mission.
Sure, Oxfam still sends “charity” workers around the world, but their history there is actually pretty dark. A huge scandal broke out when it was revealed that their Haiti operation after the 2010 earthquake (also related to a Clinton Initiative scandal of massive proportions) was, essentially, run by a pedophile ring that abused children as young as 12.”
The former boss of Oxfam Haiti sexually abused 12-13 year old girls that were victims of the Haiti Earthquake and the charity did everything it could to cover up his crimes and the crimes of other Oxfam employees. https://t.co/VgUzVkgDOopic.twitter.com/ACBqBN1lCv
“Originally formed to fight famines caused by World War II, it morphed into a general-purpose Left-wing propaganda and activist organization that uses its nice-sounding mission statement to push its ideology.
Once again the organization has stepped in it, this time because they aren’t even trying to hide their radical agenda. They produced a Pride Month video that is offensive on so many levels, not the least of which is that every single depiction of their opponents is hateful, and every single claim they make is a total lie.”
“The video is truly remarkable. It features hateful caricatures of JK Rowling and Andy Ngo, both targets of the Left, and portrays life as a gay person in the West as one long day after another of avoiding stonings, jail sentences, and hateful protests of their very existence.
This strikes me as a rather interesting message to send in the midst of a month where literally every single political, economic, and social institution in the country is sucking the toes of the alphabet people. The Minneapolis Veteran’s Administration hospital in the Twin Cities is flying four transgender flags rather than the flags of the 4 services for the month.
This is hardly a tough road to walk for the alphabet people, although they appear to believe that being asked a simple question like “What is a woman” is tantamount to genocide.”
“The custodian of Joe Biden’s vice presidential records, a key witness in his classified documents probe, was caught up in another documents scandal while working at the Commerce Department during the Clinton administration, court records reveal.
Longtime Biden aide and gatekeeper Kathy S. Chung, who has been interviewed by federal prosecutors and congressional investigators in the Biden case, was part of a team sanctioned for withholding and even destroying key documents in the federal case that sought sensitive records from a central figure in the so-called Chinagate fundraising investigation of the late 1990s, RealClearInvestigations has learned exclusively.
A special prosecutor is now investigating whether Biden unlawfully handled top secret materials in early 2017, when he tasked Chung with removing boxes containing classified documents from the White House and storing them at various private offices in D.C., including the Chinatown neighborhood. Some of the highly sensitive papers also ended up at his home in Wilmington, Del.
Noting that Chung came into Biden’s orbit through working with the president’s son, Hunter, during the 1990s, congressional investigators want to know if the Biden family dealings in China have anything to do with the stockpiling of classified documents. They note that the mishandling of White House papers took place during the 14-month period in 2017-2018 when the Chinese were wiring almost $6 million in payments to Hunter and his uncle Jimmy Biden without providing any known legitimate services. They have expressed concern that the payments, which were flagged by the U.S. Treasury Department, were part of a Chinese intelligence-gathering operation.
Chung is central to the Justice Department’s investigation of Biden’s breach of classified documents.
On Jan. 4, federal agents interviewed Chung while working with an investigative team led by U.S. Attorney John Lausch, who was tasked to conduct a preliminary probe of the security breach. Alarmed by what his investigators reported back to him about Chung’s role in the possible illegal removal and retention of state secrets, Lausch urged Attorney General Merrick Garland to appoint a special counsel. The following day Garland complied, naming veteran federal prosecutor Robert K. Hur to take over the criminal case as special counsel. Hur’s office reportedly has obtained more than 100 pages of documents from Chung, including emails and text messages.
While Donald Trump and Mike Pence are also under investigation for removing classified documents from the White House and storing them at their private residences, GOP congressional investigators say comparisons to Trump and Pence miss the point. In interviews with RCI, they insisted that Biden’s document scandal is potentially more serious than just mishandling state secrets. They suspect it could mushroom into a counterespionage case involving China and national security, though the White House dismisses such speculation as “baseless.””
“Special Counsel John Durham may have issued his final report last month, but the Russiagate scandal is far from over. This is not because there is no more to learn about the years-long effort by the Democratic Party, the FBI, CIA, and major news outlets to advance the conspiracy theory that Donald Trump teamed with Vladimir Putin to steal the 2016 election.
Rather it’s because Russiagate never ended. Unlike political scandals of the past – from the XYZ Affair to Watergate and Iran-Contra – it is not a discrete set of events with a beginning, middle, and end. Instead, it has become a form of governing in which the entrenched forces of the Washington bureaucracy punish their enemies, protect their friends and interfere in elections with impunity.
A continuous thread connects the schemes to deny the results of the 2016 election, to cover up the Biden family’s influence-peddling schemes during the 2020 election, and the ongoing effort to tar President Biden’s opponents as extremists or racists.
Ironically, all of this is especially dangerous because it is out in the open. The profound misdeeds are not hidden in the dark web; they are part of the public record. And yet, none of the major malefactors – including Joe Biden, former President Obama, Hillary Clinton, former FBI Director James B. Comey, and former CIA Director John Brennan, among others – have been held to account. Rather, they are lionized, and in some cases employed, by leading media organizations.
The breadth of these machinations is so extensive that I would need a book, rather than a column, to detail it. But here is a brief recap that can serve as a reminder of key events of this dark period of our history.”
— Oversight Committee (@GOPoversight) June 7, 2023
Watch Jamie Raskin get busted by the press for referencing the wrong investigation during his press conference today after he was briefed by FBI Director Wray.
Raskin was either purposely misleading the public or he is an absolute moron, or most likely, both. pic.twitter.com/cJOJuldmoG
As @FDRLST reported today, that’s a lie. The AG himself confirmed it was a lie on the record.
Biden’s WH is pushing lies about Biden’s corruption while Biden’s FBI tries to cover up and short-circuit any investigations into Biden family bribes. https://t.co/b5IvgC3Brahttps://t.co/K9W3QWhrEe
Democrats/FBI/CNN/WP ran an info op to assert Bill Barr found nothing worthwhile in Biden bribery allegation. But Barr says that's not true and in fact it was referred to DE US Attorney Weiss for further investigation. Details: https://t.co/s6q8BPOXj0
Raskin is now claiming he didn’t lie—he just peddled FBI lies about detailed evidence suggesting Biden accepted bribes as VP.
It’s the Russian collusion playbook all over again. The FBI lies for Democrats, and then their co-conspirators in media and Congress repeat the lies. https://t.co/mHZw6jk7Cv
With great sadness, we announce that Dr. M.G. “Pat” Robertson has gone home to be with his Lord and Savior today, June 8, 2023. Thank you for your prayers for the Robertson family and the ministry of CBN at this time. For more details on Pat’s life and legacy, visit… pic.twitter.com/vxbvrNxEG8
“Whether some of us may like it or not, the Supreme Court has interpreted the First Amendment as protecting speech that is indecent but not obscene.….
So if adults shaking and spewing and showing their genitalia in front of children is not obscene I sure would like to know what their definition of obscene is….well maybe I would not.
A man standing in front of an abortion mill reading scripture on a public easement can get arrested but not some deviant spewing pornographic language and showing his stuff in front of children all the live long day….Lord help us…. 😞
The Republicans caved. Wray was given a deadline, he failed to respond by that deadline, yet somehow he was not considered in contempt. And Comer should have held firm for 100% public (unredacted) display !
One of the greatest threats to this nation is the Federal Government and its mass of unelected government workers who lie, cheat, and use a double standard to attack the citizens of the USA.
The globalists don’t really care what happens to Biden – they’re trying to cover for and protect Obama.
“The House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, led by GOP Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), has now scrapped plans to convene a vote to hold FBI Director Christopher Wray in contempt of Congress.
Comer had been after an unclassified FD-1023 form that the FBI generated, which contained allegations that then-Vice President Joe Biden took a bribe from a foreign national. The committee had issued a subpoena in early May, with a deadline of May 31, requesting all FD-1023 forms containing the name “Biden.”
The FD-1023 forms are used by FBI agents to collect unverified reports from various confidential human sources. The information on the form represents what was told to an FBI agent.
Comer and other House Republicans had threatened to hold Wray in contempt if he did not produce the documents. Earlier on Wednesday, the committee introduced a 17-page resolution (pdf) doing just that. A business meeting to have the full committee consider the resolution was scheduled for Thursday at 9 a.m. (EST).
But by late Wednesday, the committee announced that the FBI has decided to provide access to some documents— including the FD-1023 form Comer had been after—and that the committee’s business meeting on Thursday to vote on holding Wray in contempt was now scrapped.
“After weeks of refusing to even admit the FD-1023 record exists, the FBI has caved and is now allowing all members of the Oversight and Accountability Committee to review this unclassified record that memorializes a confidential human source’s conversations with a foreign national who claimed to have bribed then-Vice President Joe Biden,” Comer said in a statement.
“Americans have lost trust in the FBI’s ability to enforce the law impartially and demand answers, transparency, and accountability. Allowing all Oversight Committee members to review this record is an important step toward conducting oversight of the FBI and holding it accountable to the American people.””
Lord, please have mercy. It appears that the city (in the town where my church is located) ordinance to abolish religious liberty regarding such things will pass next week unless something supernatural happens. Please God, Your children are praying!
As explained, for any outreaches for which the church receives fees to cover costs, it is considered to be money making and under the control of the city government (sports programs, schools, etc.). Hiring in such areas will be under city requirements instead of under church authority. We live in desperate times yet God’s light shines brightest when tjingz grow darker. His children will be more quickly drawn to the light and those repelled by the light . . .
So if I did something such as Wray pulled off I would be in jail. But because he said “okokok I’ll do it” only late, he gets a pat on the head and a “good boy”!!??? Republicans have no backbone and this will not play out well when election time rolls around. Have mercy we might even get Biden and his handler (?) in there again!
Janice that is an incredible move by your local government. I am hoping perhaps one of the Christian law firms will stand in and take up the cause. Local Christian schools here refuse to take any government monies for tuition, grants and compensation of any sort and are still covered from the government coming in to have any leverage. Parents pay a lot of taxes to local public schools and colleges and have no benefits whatsoever when paying tuition and sports fees themselves, so why should a government entity have any say over churches and schools? Unbelievable is their overreach….
For those who may be interested, another couple of comments were posted late last night and this today on yesterday’s thread.
Not sure where to reply to Lurker, so I’ll do it here.
Thank you for your comment, Lurker. Yes, I certainly have continued to beat my head against the wall far longer than I should have. My main motivation has been dismay at what I have seen as a too-harsh tone and frequent insults. But yes, when someone has demonstrated that they’re not listening, continuing to try to make one’s point is pointless.
I really and truly had decided to not comment anymore on this thread, but as I said, the comment insinuating/accusing DJ and me of not standing for anything seemed to “need” a reply. I realize now that I should have ignored it, but it is hard to ignore having your words and motives misinterpreted.
It is ironic that after posting that, I was “done” with commenting on this thread, not wanting to bother anymore, but that last comment seemed to prompt other comments that I reluctantly decided to reply to.
I actually went to bed in tears last night over it all.
I’ve gone to bed in tears over conversations here.
I’m stronger for having dealt with those emotions and the pride that caused me to think more highly of myself than I ought. Others can get over it too, and in so doing learn to exhibit real love. We’re not little girls and boys, we’re men and women —warriors for the kingdom. And we wrestle in the spirit for the birth of the kingdom —first in us, and then for others in prayer as they labor to admit his kingdom in themselves as well. No ifs, ands, or buts. Just labor until it is complete.
“But yes, when someone has demonstrated that they’re not listening, continuing to try to make one’s point is pointless.”
More at the bottom of the post.
@Debra
“I’m stronger for having dealt with those emotions … Others can get over it too…”
Yes, some are strengthened through adversity of the sort Kizzie has experienced online. Others are weakened to the point of despair and suicide, especially with online bullying, if that’s what’s going on here. (I think Kizzie and her closest friends see it that way.)
There are no human faces or voices to soften strong words on a screen. Those missing elements are more destructive to some than others. Some people will grow stronger, some will never rise from the ashes.
@Kizzie again
I look in from the outside sporadically, knowing not much, but have seen you return more than a few times to a situation that appears to be slow-motion destruction.
God knows whether it is or not. Listen to the Spirit’s voice about what is for your good and what is for you to walk away from.
(It took me a long time to speak up after the Spirit’s nudge on this, by the way, and I’m quite certain I’ve written imperfectly. Please forgive me for these words on the screen if they have added pain.)
Thank you, Lurker. (And please note that I am not the only one feeling that way I do. Another friend is purposely staying out of this conversation, but is dismayed by it all.)
I am stunned and am trying to wrap my mind around what is being intimated here by Lurker… who does not choose to reveal her identity to us..but the owner and moderator of this blog knows…and some here might suspect they know as well.
He is being charged as a bully because his view seems wrong. So this leads to the offended viewed as emotionally fragile to the point of suicide? And some of Kizzie’s closest friends believe this as well and won’t engage in the discussion here but are supportive of the charge?
Why are you all still here if this is such an offensive blog?
Some have stated they find Tucker Carlson offensive. Do they listen to his podcasts? Probably not because they find him offensive.
There are many social media outlets I find as offensive and I don’t engage nor do I listen to their views.
I am not here to sermonize. I have found this place to be engaging and informative. When charges of bullying to the point of causing one to want to take their very life start to be posted here I believe it to be toxic.
Divisive at it’s very best. This is what some are trying to make it. Kizzie you have friends private messaging you obviously showing their support. Great….it is good for you to have support. But please remember..Aj has been of great to support to you as well in past situations. I have as well as many others. Please know no one here is your enemy. You are greatly loved and cared for even when we view issues differently.
Allegations that someone may be suicidal are not cute or funny. I have known suicidal people and cleaned up vomit and blood after unsuccessful attempts. I am sorry if I over-reacted in this case. It was late and I just got home from work. If everyone is safe, then the worst that happened is that I got in a little extra prayer time, which is never a bad thing.
The internet is wonderfully enriching, but it’s not entirely satisfying as a substitute for flesh and blood relationships. I hope those living with the burden of offense or other heavy burdens are getting the help they need in their physical church and community. I love the people here (including our well-spoken Canadian socialist), but the drama is starting to feel a lot like high school.
The suicidal question was legitimate. Different people deal different ways with issues.
We have had this site available to us for years because the real elected to step up and take care of the details. He can, of course, run it his own way. He has booted one or two folk over the years but overall, has allowed dissenting voices which he has engaged, sometimes rather aggressively but he has learned to begin listening and giving it time to either engage or ignore. Others have chosen to leave or slow down getting involved, some are simply watching from afar while others, like myself, have begun speaking up more and more. Life.
Often, there have been some who have chosen to speak up about his way of dealing. Allow those conversations to have their sway. He has listened but these things take time. And some of the voices have taken on the tone of bleating goats, make sure we are not doing that, as well.
Ha! I was just going to say I guess I’ll go out to the pasture and chew my cud or graze or whatever it is goats do!! 😂 it’s all good…just trying to walk in His grace given to us today. Sorry if I annoyed anyone….
I have a history none of you know. A year ago I sat in my kitchen late at night and contemplated pulling a knife out of the drawer and doing myself in, I was in such pain. I had been crying myself to sleep many nights.
When I read reports of people repeatedly ending up in tears after interactions with certain persons, I get concerned. Emotional toil over the course of months and years can build up, and you can imagine that you’re being resilient and growing stronger, and then suddenly one deep dark night, you find out you’re not.
But God. He held back my hand. I never opened the drawer. He put the faces of my children, my grandchildren, and my many piano students in my mind. They still need me here.
I deeply regret having come back here to lurk this year. I did so for one reason:
My dear dad passed away March 28 this year. I emailed ten people from this blog for whom I had email addresses to ask them to pray for my mom and family in our grief. And for my niece, who lost her grandpa and also her friend — the latter to suicide — the same week. And to pray a hedge of protection around my mom, who had a man engaging in predatory behaviors after her, both before and after Dad’s passing. That man has made contact with her again as recently as this past week.
I came back to read old prayer threads, to pray more specifically for those people who thoughtfully expressed that they were praying for my family.
I foolishly went to the news thread on some of those occasions — mostly looking to see if AJ would post articles about a story from my hometown that went national about a 26-year-old mother who went missing the same week my dad died. Her body was found this week, and the father of her children has been arrested.
But I digress. It led to me getting myself entangled — that’s my own fault — in commenting on the news thread.
I have said it before: I am not highly intelligent. I’m a halfway-decent piano teacher, but expressing myself in writing about non-musical things is something I am not good at.
Debra and NJ, I have given you a totally wrong impression about why I even brought up suicide. I’m an idiot for saying anything, and the more I write, the more I will be misunderstood, I feel very confident of that.
These words were incredibly hurtful, though I brought them on myself by speaking up this week:
“Allegations that someone may be suicidal are not cute or funny.”
I was not trying to be cute or funny. I was coming from a former place of pain — and I have gotten medical and pastoral assistance, for those who want to know — and responded to a sister I saw in pain.
“Are we supposed to now be intrigued?”[A response to my saying I would unmask tonight after my work for the day was finished.]
That cut deep, NJ, as did both your and Debra’s assertions that this is high-school-like drama. You do not understand, and I am woefully inadequate at making myself clear why I wrote what I did.
I am helping my widowed mother with finishing up a project today. Next week I return to teaching. At the end of summer I am closing my home piano studio and teaching only at my colleagues’ studio, one less day a week total than my current 5-day teaching week. It was a heart-wrenching decision to make, and which has resulted in the loss of some students already and more in August after I close down, though the future gains of this move will bring more benefit on several levels than the temporary losses I’m experiencing now.
Be well, everyone. Walk in the grace of God. Remember Romans 8:1 — There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
Debra – No, I am not suicidal, but thanks for asking. Although there have been many times since Hubby’s death, and some of the pains and frustrations that have come along since then, that I have felt that I am ready to go and wished it could be soon, I would not do anything to hasten that time.
NJ – You wrote, “He is being charged as a bully because his view seems wrong.” But no, it isn’t because of his views, but because of the way he often responds to those with whom he disagrees. (Please note that I did not use that word myself, but am responding for those who have.)
Kizzie, thanks for taking the question as it was intended, a legitimate question of concern. Many fine Christians have taken that step in a moment of despair. God is there.
6 Arrows – I appreciate your contribution to this matter. And I am so sorry to hear that you were feeling so depressed last year that you contemplated suicide. God bless you and keep you. ❤
NJ – I forgot to add that I am grateful to AJ for the support he has been, for keeping this blog community together, and I will always be grateful that he and his family (as well as Linda) took the time to come up to Hubby’s memorial service. That meant more to me than I can express.
If I didn’t care, I would merely have ignored the news threads instead of urging more consideration in the way he has responded. And I am glad to see that he has been taking someone’s advice to heart. It can’t be easy to read some of these comments and not reply.
NJ, I didn’t receive your email, and it’s not in my spam folders. Last month I deleted one of my email accounts — the one with “studio” included in the address — so if you used that one, I won’t receive it.
I emailed you shortly ago from a different address. Thanks.
6, I think you are a very intelligent and capable person. I have periodically wondered how you were doing and hoped and prayed that you and your family were well.
I am sorry you find my comments about suicide objectionable. They were not meant to be. You are not the only one here to have contemplated suicide at one time or another or to have dealt with it intimately.
You who are depressed and distressed by the news thread need to stay off of it. I’ve said before that I have gone weeks and even months without checking this thread because news can be depressing. It has nothing to do with AJ. And making it all about him makes it more difficult to deal with with our own issues.
I’ll say no more except I hope and pray the best for you all, as I consider you dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
6 I have sent you two emails and I heard both of them go “swoosh” when sent. I then go back to my sent box and neither are there!! I am going to send you a test saying just “test” and see if that goes through
NJ, got the test one and the one after and replied to the second. Thanks.
Debra, thank you, and for prayers. I think your dad is a similar age as my dad was when he passed — 93. A long time with a beloved dad doesn’t seem long enough. Cherish him while you have him, and I’m quite sure you do.
Debra, the issues on this site aren’t because news is depressing. People who post on here but refuse to accept the “party line” 100% are belittled, openly mocked, and told they’re responsible for the state of the country. Who you vote for has become more important to being respected on here than is anything else. Scripture tells us we are to be known as believers by our love–and especially how we treat widows and orphans–not by our politics. This venue has become hostile to many participants.
I have tried to “mediate” a little bit on this, because I care about the offended parties and I also care about the spiritual health of the offenders. But it looks as though the offenders have continued to either ignore the issue altogether (e.g., AJ) or insinuate that the offended ones are just being childish, too sensitive, or immature (you have written several such posts, but others have as well). I wouldn’t have posted on here at all except that I care about people on both sides.
This blog has become a hostile environment. I plead with those of you who are Christians to consider whether your participation on here has been loving, whether you have loved fellow participants including those you consider to be “the least of these” and those who are vulnerable. Had this issue been handled in a godly way over the last few days, with repentance from those who have sinned, I would have been likely to have returned myself. As it stands now, I can only feel sorrow about how a setting that could have had good discussion and goodwill among Christians who don’t always agree on every detail has descended into this, and to plead with those on here to consider what it looks like to have conversations among Christians (with some unbelievers looking in).
I see no point in saying anything else on this blog.
Wandering Views 
Good.
Anything that upsets the uni-party is fine with me.
Besides, any day they aren’t working is another day they aren’t passing new ways to fleece taxpayers.
“GOP conservatives shutter House to protest McCarthy-Biden debt deal, setting up next budget brawl”
https://news.yahoo.com/gop-conservatives-shutter-house-protest-210419967.html
” In fallout from the debt ceiling deal, Speaker Kevin McCarthy is suddenly confronting a new threat to his power as angry hard-right conservatives bring the House chamber to a halt, reviving their displeasure over the compromise struck with President Joe Biden and demanding deeper spending cuts ahead.
Barely a dozen Republicans, mainly members of the House Freedom Caucus, shuttered House business for a second day Wednesday in protest of McCarthy’s leadership. Routine votes could not be taken, and a pair of pro-gas stove bills important to GOP activists stalled out. Some lawmakers asked if they could simply go home — and eventually they could. By evening, the rest of week’s schedule was called off.
McCarthy brushed off the disruption as healthy political debate, part of his “risk taker” way of being a leader — not too different, he said, from the 15-vote spectacle it took in January for him to finally convince his colleagues to elect him as speaker. With a paper-thin GOP majority, any few Republicans have outsized sway.
But the aftermath of the debt ceiling deal is coming into focus: The hard-right flank that helped put the speaker in power five months ago is not done with McCarthy yet.”
LikeLiked by 3 people
“#TwitterFiles Extra: Cozy ties between human rights and military/intelligence”
LikeLiked by 1 person
“‘Highly Credible’ Source Reveals Scandal Bigger Than Biden Bribery: FBI Election Interference
More important to America’s future than unearthing Biden family corruption is uncovering corrupt bureaucrats who violate the rule of law.”
https://thefederalist.com/2023/06/05/highly-credible-source-reveals-scandal-bigger-than-biden-bribery-fbi-election-interference/
“The confidential human source (CHS) behind the detailed allegations that then-Vice President Joe Biden agreed to accept money from a foreign national to affect policy decisions was reportedly “highly credible” and used by the FBI in multiple criminal investigations dating back to the Obama administration. Friday’s exclusive by Fox News provides further insight into Sen. Chuck Grassley’s focus on the FBI — as opposed to the Biden family — as the primary scandal in play.
“We aren’t interested in whether or not the accusations against [then]-Vice President Biden are accurate,” Grassley said during an interview last week discussing FBI Director Christopher Wray’s refusal to comply with the congressional subpoena issued for the FD-1023 form. That form, dated June 30, 2020, included detailed information from a CHS to the FBI regarding an agreement by now-President Biden to deliver preferred foreign policy positions for a $5 million payment.
After Grassley revealed he had already seen the FD-1023, Fox News’ Bill Hemmer queried: “How damning is this document to the sitting U.S. president?”
“I don’t know,” responded Grassley, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee. He stressed that while “there’s accusations” in the FBI report, the congressional oversight committees’ concern is whether “the FBI does its job.” “That’s what we want to know,” he continued.
Friday’s revelation that the CHS was “highly credible” and had served as a source in multiple prior criminal investigations — including ones run under the Obama-Biden administration — proves Grassley is properly focused on the FBI.
Yes, the CHS’s allegations offer more evidence of a Biden family pay-to-play scandal, and unraveling any criminal conduct by the Biden family remains important. But more significant to the future of our country is uncovering government actors responsible for violating the rule of law: America can survive select injustices, but it cannot withstand a corrupt bureaucracy that obstructs justice and interferes in elections.
Yet that is precisely what occurred, according to the whistleblower. He claimed that “in August 2020, FBI Supervisory Intelligence Analyst Brian Auten opened an assessment which was used by a FBI Headquarters’ team to improperly discredit negative Hunter Biden information as disinformation and caused investigative activity to cease.” The whistleblower further alleged that the FBI HQ team that handled the Auten assessment, after concluding the reporting was disinformation, placed the information in a restricted access sub-file that only the particular agents who uncovered the CHS’s information could access.
Now knowing the CHS behind the FD-1023 was not just “trusted,” as Grassley had previously indicated, but “highly credible,” and relied upon in multiple criminal cases dating back to the last time Biden worked for the executive branch, makes the whistleblower’s accusations even more damning because those additional facts mean the agents had reason to believe the buried accusations were true.
Not only does this evidence suggest FBI headquarters obstructed justice, but the date of the CHS’s report indicates those responsible for misbranding the intel as disinformation sought to interfere in the 2020 election.
As Grassley’s colleague in the House, James Comer, revealed, the CHS report was dated June 30, 2020, and while the allegations against candidate Biden came from a “highly credible” CHS, the FBI closed them. According to the whistleblower, FBI headquarters closed out the source even though some of the allegations had already been verified and other details could have been verified.”
——-
They’re as corrupt as Biden.
LikeLiked by 3 people
Of course….
“FBI asked Twitter to censor journalists on behalf of Ukraine”
https://hotair.com/david-strom/2023/06/07/fbi-asked-twitter-to-censor-journalists-on-behalf-of-ukraine-n556313
“The censorship industrial complex is worldwide.
The Ukrainian security services wanted some accounts on Twitter banned, including a number of journalists in America and abroad, and the FBI passed along the request from them to Twitter’s Trust and Safety Department. God only knows what accounts on other social media platforms were banned or were requested to be banned at the behest of a foreign government.”
“It is hard to imagine that the Security Service of Ukraine is incapable of reaching out to Twitter with their concerns, so using the FBI as a conduit is a clear attempt to use the US government to pressure the platform in a manner that a third-party actor could not. It is absurd to suggest otherwise, and the history of the government using “disinformation” as a smokescreen for outright censorship bolsters that argument.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation has aided a Ukrainian intelligence effort to censor social media users and obtain their personal information, leaked emails reveal.
In March 2022, an FBI Special Agent sent Twitter a list of accounts on behalf of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), Ukraine’s main intelligence agency. The accounts, the FBI wrote, “are suspected by the SBU in spreading fear and disinformation.” In an attached memo, the SBU asked Twitter to remove the accounts and hand over their user data.
The Ukrainian government’s FBI-enabled targets extend to members of the media. The SBU list that the FBI provided to Twitter included my name and Twitter profile. In its response to the FBI, Twitter agreed to review the accounts for “inauthenticity” but raised concerns about the inclusion of me and other “American and Canadian journalists.”
The FBI’s attempt to ban Twitter accounts at the request of Ukrainian intelligence is among the most overt requests for censorship revealed to date in the Twitter Files, a cache of leaked communications from the social media giant.
The FBI’s censorship request was relayed in a March 27th, 2022 email from FBI Special Agent Aleksandr Kobzanets, the Assistant Legal Attaché at the US Embassy in Kyiv, to two Twitter executives. Four FBI colleagues were copied on the exchange.”
LikeLiked by 2 people
I think it’s a much better strategy for the committee to focus on digging into the FBI. Potential Biden (or Trump, for those who see wrong-doing there) corruption is important, but Presidents come and go. The institutions just seem to get stronger and more out of control, so that even constitutionally mandated oversight becomes virtually impossible.
LikeLiked by 4 people
More elite pedophiles further victimizing youngsters.
https://hotair.com/david-strom/2023/06/08/every-single-thing-in-this-oxfam-psa-is-a-blatant-lie-n556392
“Oxfam, a Britain-based international organization nominally dedicated to eradicating poverty has been for a long time a left-wing ideological organization with a nice-sounding mission.
Sure, Oxfam still sends “charity” workers around the world, but their history there is actually pretty dark. A huge scandal broke out when it was revealed that their Haiti operation after the 2010 earthquake (also related to a Clinton Initiative scandal of massive proportions) was, essentially, run by a pedophile ring that abused children as young as 12.”
“Originally formed to fight famines caused by World War II, it morphed into a general-purpose Left-wing propaganda and activist organization that uses its nice-sounding mission statement to push its ideology.
Once again the organization has stepped in it, this time because they aren’t even trying to hide their radical agenda. They produced a Pride Month video that is offensive on so many levels, not the least of which is that every single depiction of their opponents is hateful, and every single claim they make is a total lie.”
“The video is truly remarkable. It features hateful caricatures of JK Rowling and Andy Ngo, both targets of the Left, and portrays life as a gay person in the West as one long day after another of avoiding stonings, jail sentences, and hateful protests of their very existence.
This strikes me as a rather interesting message to send in the midst of a month where literally every single political, economic, and social institution in the country is sucking the toes of the alphabet people. The Minneapolis Veteran’s Administration hospital in the Twin Cities is flying four transgender flags rather than the flags of the 4 services for the month.
This is hardly a tough road to walk for the alphabet people, although they appear to believe that being asked a simple question like “What is a woman” is tantamount to genocide.”
LikeLiked by 3 people
Joe and his crime family are dirty.
https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2023/06/08/key_player_in_biden_documents_removal_was_caught_up_in_bill_clinton-era_chinagate_scandal_897961.html
“The custodian of Joe Biden’s vice presidential records, a key witness in his classified documents probe, was caught up in another documents scandal while working at the Commerce Department during the Clinton administration, court records reveal.
Longtime Biden aide and gatekeeper Kathy S. Chung, who has been interviewed by federal prosecutors and congressional investigators in the Biden case, was part of a team sanctioned for withholding and even destroying key documents in the federal case that sought sensitive records from a central figure in the so-called Chinagate fundraising investigation of the late 1990s, RealClearInvestigations has learned exclusively.
A special prosecutor is now investigating whether Biden unlawfully handled top secret materials in early 2017, when he tasked Chung with removing boxes containing classified documents from the White House and storing them at various private offices in D.C., including the Chinatown neighborhood. Some of the highly sensitive papers also ended up at his home in Wilmington, Del.
Noting that Chung came into Biden’s orbit through working with the president’s son, Hunter, during the 1990s, congressional investigators want to know if the Biden family dealings in China have anything to do with the stockpiling of classified documents. They note that the mishandling of White House papers took place during the 14-month period in 2017-2018 when the Chinese were wiring almost $6 million in payments to Hunter and his uncle Jimmy Biden without providing any known legitimate services. They have expressed concern that the payments, which were flagged by the U.S. Treasury Department, were part of a Chinese intelligence-gathering operation.
Chung is central to the Justice Department’s investigation of Biden’s breach of classified documents.
On Jan. 4, federal agents interviewed Chung while working with an investigative team led by U.S. Attorney John Lausch, who was tasked to conduct a preliminary probe of the security breach. Alarmed by what his investigators reported back to him about Chung’s role in the possible illegal removal and retention of state secrets, Lausch urged Attorney General Merrick Garland to appoint a special counsel. The following day Garland complied, naming veteran federal prosecutor Robert K. Hur to take over the criminal case as special counsel. Hur’s office reportedly has obtained more than 100 pages of documents from Chung, including emails and text messages.
While Donald Trump and Mike Pence are also under investigation for removing classified documents from the White House and storing them at their private residences, GOP congressional investigators say comparisons to Trump and Pence miss the point. In interviews with RCI, they insisted that Biden’s document scandal is potentially more serious than just mishandling state secrets. They suspect it could mushroom into a counterespionage case involving China and national security, though the White House dismisses such speculation as “baseless.””
LikeLiked by 2 people
“Russiagate: The Scandal That Became Business as Usual”
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2023/06/08/russiagate_the_scandal_that_became_business_as_usual_149331.html
“Special Counsel John Durham may have issued his final report last month, but the Russiagate scandal is far from over. This is not because there is no more to learn about the years-long effort by the Democratic Party, the FBI, CIA, and major news outlets to advance the conspiracy theory that Donald Trump teamed with Vladimir Putin to steal the 2016 election.
Rather it’s because Russiagate never ended. Unlike political scandals of the past – from the XYZ Affair to Watergate and Iran-Contra – it is not a discrete set of events with a beginning, middle, and end. Instead, it has become a form of governing in which the entrenched forces of the Washington bureaucracy punish their enemies, protect their friends and interfere in elections with impunity.
A continuous thread connects the schemes to deny the results of the 2016 election, to cover up the Biden family’s influence-peddling schemes during the 2020 election, and the ongoing effort to tar President Biden’s opponents as extremists or racists.
Ironically, all of this is especially dangerous because it is out in the open. The profound misdeeds are not hidden in the dark web; they are part of the public record. And yet, none of the major malefactors – including Joe Biden, former President Obama, Hillary Clinton, former FBI Director James B. Comey, and former CIA Director John Brennan, among others – have been held to account. Rather, they are lionized, and in some cases employed, by leading media organizations.
The breadth of these machinations is so extensive that I would need a book, rather than a column, to detail it. But here is a brief recap that can serve as a reminder of key events of this dark period of our history.”
LikeLiked by 3 people
Dems, the FBI, and the media are lying again?
You don’t say….
Lather, rinse, repeat….
LikeLiked by 2 people
Pat Robertson has died at 93.
LikeLiked by 3 people
How exciting for him!
LikeLiked by 3 people
https://www.baptistpress.com/resource-library/news/first-u-s-law-banning-public-drag-shows-ruled-unconstitutional/
LikeLiked by 1 person
“Whether some of us may like it or not, the Supreme Court has interpreted the First Amendment as protecting speech that is indecent but not obscene.….
So if adults shaking and spewing and showing their genitalia in front of children is not obscene I sure would like to know what their definition of obscene is….well maybe I would not.
A man standing in front of an abortion mill reading scripture on a public easement can get arrested but not some deviant spewing pornographic language and showing his stuff in front of children all the live long day….Lord help us…. 😞
LikeLiked by 2 people
The Republicans caved. Wray was given a deadline, he failed to respond by that deadline, yet somehow he was not considered in contempt. And Comer should have held firm for 100% public (unredacted) display !
One of the greatest threats to this nation is the Federal Government and its mass of unelected government workers who lie, cheat, and use a double standard to attack the citizens of the USA.
The globalists don’t really care what happens to Biden – they’re trying to cover for and protect Obama.
https://www.theepochtimes.com/fbi-releases-biden-document-to-house-oversight-averting-contempt-vote_5320207.html
“The House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, led by GOP Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), has now scrapped plans to convene a vote to hold FBI Director Christopher Wray in contempt of Congress.
Comer had been after an unclassified FD-1023 form that the FBI generated, which contained allegations that then-Vice President Joe Biden took a bribe from a foreign national. The committee had issued a subpoena in early May, with a deadline of May 31, requesting all FD-1023 forms containing the name “Biden.”
The FD-1023 forms are used by FBI agents to collect unverified reports from various confidential human sources. The information on the form represents what was told to an FBI agent.
Comer and other House Republicans had threatened to hold Wray in contempt if he did not produce the documents. Earlier on Wednesday, the committee introduced a 17-page resolution (pdf) doing just that. A business meeting to have the full committee consider the resolution was scheduled for Thursday at 9 a.m. (EST).
But by late Wednesday, the committee announced that the FBI has decided to provide access to some documents— including the FD-1023 form Comer had been after—and that the committee’s business meeting on Thursday to vote on holding Wray in contempt was now scrapped.
“After weeks of refusing to even admit the FD-1023 record exists, the FBI has caved and is now allowing all members of the Oversight and Accountability Committee to review this unclassified record that memorializes a confidential human source’s conversations with a foreign national who claimed to have bribed then-Vice President Joe Biden,” Comer said in a statement.
“Americans have lost trust in the FBI’s ability to enforce the law impartially and demand answers, transparency, and accountability. Allowing all Oversight Committee members to review this record is an important step toward conducting oversight of the FBI and holding it accountable to the American people.””
LikeLiked by 1 person
Lord, please have mercy. It appears that the city (in the town where my church is located) ordinance to abolish religious liberty regarding such things will pass next week unless something supernatural happens. Please God, Your children are praying!
As explained, for any outreaches for which the church receives fees to cover costs, it is considered to be money making and under the control of the city government (sports programs, schools, etc.). Hiring in such areas will be under city requirements instead of under church authority. We live in desperate times yet God’s light shines brightest when tjingz grow darker. His children will be more quickly drawn to the light and those repelled by the light . . .
LikeLiked by 4 people
So if I did something such as Wray pulled off I would be in jail. But because he said “okokok I’ll do it” only late, he gets a pat on the head and a “good boy”!!??? Republicans have no backbone and this will not play out well when election time rolls around. Have mercy we might even get Biden and his handler (?) in there again!
Janice that is an incredible move by your local government. I am hoping perhaps one of the Christian law firms will stand in and take up the cause. Local Christian schools here refuse to take any government monies for tuition, grants and compensation of any sort and are still covered from the government coming in to have any leverage. Parents pay a lot of taxes to local public schools and colleges and have no benefits whatsoever when paying tuition and sports fees themselves, so why should a government entity have any say over churches and schools? Unbelievable is their overreach….
LikeLiked by 1 person
For those who may be interested, another couple of comments were posted late last night and this today on yesterday’s thread.
Not sure where to reply to Lurker, so I’ll do it here.
Thank you for your comment, Lurker. Yes, I certainly have continued to beat my head against the wall far longer than I should have. My main motivation has been dismay at what I have seen as a too-harsh tone and frequent insults. But yes, when someone has demonstrated that they’re not listening, continuing to try to make one’s point is pointless.
I really and truly had decided to not comment anymore on this thread, but as I said, the comment insinuating/accusing DJ and me of not standing for anything seemed to “need” a reply. I realize now that I should have ignored it, but it is hard to ignore having your words and motives misinterpreted.
It is ironic that after posting that, I was “done” with commenting on this thread, not wanting to bother anymore, but that last comment seemed to prompt other comments that I reluctantly decided to reply to.
I actually went to bed in tears last night over it all.
Okay, I am done.
LikeLike
Oops. “. . .this today. . .” was me erasing “this morning” in favor of “today”, but missing the “this”. 🙂
LikeLike
I’ve gone to bed in tears over conversations here.
I’m stronger for having dealt with those emotions and the pride that caused me to think more highly of myself than I ought. Others can get over it too, and in so doing learn to exhibit real love. We’re not little girls and boys, we’re men and women —warriors for the kingdom. And we wrestle in the spirit for the birth of the kingdom —first in us, and then for others in prayer as they labor to admit his kingdom in themselves as well. No ifs, ands, or buts. Just labor until it is complete.
LikeLiked by 2 people
@Kizzie
Thank you as well. I agree with this:
“But yes, when someone has demonstrated that they’re not listening, continuing to try to make one’s point is pointless.”
More at the bottom of the post.
@Debra
“I’m stronger for having dealt with those emotions … Others can get over it too…”
Yes, some are strengthened through adversity of the sort Kizzie has experienced online. Others are weakened to the point of despair and suicide, especially with online bullying, if that’s what’s going on here. (I think Kizzie and her closest friends see it that way.)
There are no human faces or voices to soften strong words on a screen. Those missing elements are more destructive to some than others. Some people will grow stronger, some will never rise from the ashes.
@Kizzie again
I look in from the outside sporadically, knowing not much, but have seen you return more than a few times to a situation that appears to be slow-motion destruction.
God knows whether it is or not. Listen to the Spirit’s voice about what is for your good and what is for you to walk away from.
(It took me a long time to speak up after the Spirit’s nudge on this, by the way, and I’m quite certain I’ve written imperfectly. Please forgive me for these words on the screen if they have added pain.)
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you, Lurker. (And please note that I am not the only one feeling that way I do. Another friend is purposely staying out of this conversation, but is dismayed by it all.)
LikeLike
Are you suicidal Kizzie?
LikeLike
I am stunned and am trying to wrap my mind around what is being intimated here by Lurker… who does not choose to reveal her identity to us..but the owner and moderator of this blog knows…and some here might suspect they know as well.
He is being charged as a bully because his view seems wrong. So this leads to the offended viewed as emotionally fragile to the point of suicide? And some of Kizzie’s closest friends believe this as well and won’t engage in the discussion here but are supportive of the charge?
Why are you all still here if this is such an offensive blog?
Some have stated they find Tucker Carlson offensive. Do they listen to his podcasts? Probably not because they find him offensive.
There are many social media outlets I find as offensive and I don’t engage nor do I listen to their views.
I am not here to sermonize. I have found this place to be engaging and informative. When charges of bullying to the point of causing one to want to take their very life start to be posted here I believe it to be toxic.
Divisive at it’s very best. This is what some are trying to make it. Kizzie you have friends private messaging you obviously showing their support. Great….it is good for you to have support. But please remember..Aj has been of great to support to you as well in past situations. I have as well as many others. Please know no one here is your enemy. You are greatly loved and cared for even when we view issues differently.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Allegations that someone may be suicidal are not cute or funny. I have known suicidal people and cleaned up vomit and blood after unsuccessful attempts. I am sorry if I over-reacted in this case. It was late and I just got home from work. If everyone is safe, then the worst that happened is that I got in a little extra prayer time, which is never a bad thing.
The internet is wonderfully enriching, but it’s not entirely satisfying as a substitute for flesh and blood relationships. I hope those living with the burden of offense or other heavy burdens are getting the help they need in their physical church and community. I love the people here (including our well-spoken Canadian socialist), but the drama is starting to feel a lot like high school.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I will unmask tonight after work and tell my story on this thread to anyone who wants to know.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Are we supposed to now be intrigued? Like Debra said this is becoming a lot like high school.
LikeLike
I am interested in hearing more from you, Lurker.
The suicidal question was legitimate. Different people deal different ways with issues.
We have had this site available to us for years because the real elected to step up and take care of the details. He can, of course, run it his own way. He has booted one or two folk over the years but overall, has allowed dissenting voices which he has engaged, sometimes rather aggressively but he has learned to begin listening and giving it time to either engage or ignore. Others have chosen to leave or slow down getting involved, some are simply watching from afar while others, like myself, have begun speaking up more and more. Life.
Often, there have been some who have chosen to speak up about his way of dealing. Allow those conversations to have their sway. He has listened but these things take time. And some of the voices have taken on the tone of bleating goats, make sure we are not doing that, as well.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ha, well I do like goats, Mumsee, but I don’t think I want to be one. Patience is my word for the day. :–)
LikeLike
Ha! I was just going to say I guess I’ll go out to the pasture and chew my cud or graze or whatever it is goats do!! 😂 it’s all good…just trying to walk in His grace given to us today. Sorry if I annoyed anyone….
LikeLike
Lurker 2023 = 6 arrows.
I have a history none of you know. A year ago I sat in my kitchen late at night and contemplated pulling a knife out of the drawer and doing myself in, I was in such pain. I had been crying myself to sleep many nights.
When I read reports of people repeatedly ending up in tears after interactions with certain persons, I get concerned. Emotional toil over the course of months and years can build up, and you can imagine that you’re being resilient and growing stronger, and then suddenly one deep dark night, you find out you’re not.
But God. He held back my hand. I never opened the drawer. He put the faces of my children, my grandchildren, and my many piano students in my mind. They still need me here.
I deeply regret having come back here to lurk this year. I did so for one reason:
My dear dad passed away March 28 this year. I emailed ten people from this blog for whom I had email addresses to ask them to pray for my mom and family in our grief. And for my niece, who lost her grandpa and also her friend — the latter to suicide — the same week. And to pray a hedge of protection around my mom, who had a man engaging in predatory behaviors after her, both before and after Dad’s passing. That man has made contact with her again as recently as this past week.
I came back to read old prayer threads, to pray more specifically for those people who thoughtfully expressed that they were praying for my family.
I foolishly went to the news thread on some of those occasions — mostly looking to see if AJ would post articles about a story from my hometown that went national about a 26-year-old mother who went missing the same week my dad died. Her body was found this week, and the father of her children has been arrested.
But I digress. It led to me getting myself entangled — that’s my own fault — in commenting on the news thread.
I have said it before: I am not highly intelligent. I’m a halfway-decent piano teacher, but expressing myself in writing about non-musical things is something I am not good at.
Debra and NJ, I have given you a totally wrong impression about why I even brought up suicide. I’m an idiot for saying anything, and the more I write, the more I will be misunderstood, I feel very confident of that.
These words were incredibly hurtful, though I brought them on myself by speaking up this week:
“Allegations that someone may be suicidal are not cute or funny.”
I was not trying to be cute or funny. I was coming from a former place of pain — and I have gotten medical and pastoral assistance, for those who want to know — and responded to a sister I saw in pain.
“Are we supposed to now be intrigued?”[A response to my saying I would unmask tonight after my work for the day was finished.]
That cut deep, NJ, as did both your and Debra’s assertions that this is high-school-like drama. You do not understand, and I am woefully inadequate at making myself clear why I wrote what I did.
I am helping my widowed mother with finishing up a project today. Next week I return to teaching. At the end of summer I am closing my home piano studio and teaching only at my colleagues’ studio, one less day a week total than my current 5-day teaching week. It was a heart-wrenching decision to make, and which has resulted in the loss of some students already and more in August after I close down, though the future gains of this move will bring more benefit on several levels than the temporary losses I’m experiencing now.
Be well, everyone. Walk in the grace of God. Remember Romans 8:1 — There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
LikeLiked by 1 person
💔 😢
LikeLike
I have emailed you ❤️
LikeLike
Debra – No, I am not suicidal, but thanks for asking. Although there have been many times since Hubby’s death, and some of the pains and frustrations that have come along since then, that I have felt that I am ready to go and wished it could be soon, I would not do anything to hasten that time.
LikeLike
NJ – You wrote, “He is being charged as a bully because his view seems wrong.” But no, it isn’t because of his views, but because of the way he often responds to those with whom he disagrees. (Please note that I did not use that word myself, but am responding for those who have.)
LikeLike
Kizzie, thanks for taking the question as it was intended, a legitimate question of concern. Many fine Christians have taken that step in a moment of despair. God is there.
LikeLiked by 1 person
6 Arrows – I appreciate your contribution to this matter. And I am so sorry to hear that you were feeling so depressed last year that you contemplated suicide. God bless you and keep you. ❤
LikeLike
Mumsee – I must admit that I have had fleeting thoughts of suicide at various times in my life. But thank God that He lovingly corrected my thinking.
LikeLike
NJ – I forgot to add that I am grateful to AJ for the support he has been, for keeping this blog community together, and I will always be grateful that he and his family (as well as Linda) took the time to come up to Hubby’s memorial service. That meant more to me than I can express.
If I didn’t care, I would merely have ignored the news threads instead of urging more consideration in the way he has responded. And I am glad to see that he has been taking someone’s advice to heart. It can’t be easy to read some of these comments and not reply.
LikeLike
We are all growing in different areas and speeds. God uses family.
LikeLike
Thank you for your blessing, Kizzie.
NJ, I didn’t receive your email, and it’s not in my spam folders. Last month I deleted one of my email accounts — the one with “studio” included in the address — so if you used that one, I won’t receive it.
I emailed you shortly ago from a different address. Thanks.
6
LikeLiked by 2 people
I am truly sorry to have hurt anyone’s feelings.
6, I think you are a very intelligent and capable person. I have periodically wondered how you were doing and hoped and prayed that you and your family were well.
I am sorry you find my comments about suicide objectionable. They were not meant to be. You are not the only one here to have contemplated suicide at one time or another or to have dealt with it intimately.
You who are depressed and distressed by the news thread need to stay off of it. I’ve said before that I have gone weeks and even months without checking this thread because news can be depressing. It has nothing to do with AJ. And making it all about him makes it more difficult to deal with with our own issues.
I’ll say no more except I hope and pray the best for you all, as I consider you dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
LikeLiked by 1 person
6 I have sent you two emails and I heard both of them go “swoosh” when sent. I then go back to my sent box and neither are there!! I am going to send you a test saying just “test” and see if that goes through
LikeLike
NJ, got the test one and the one after and replied to the second. Thanks.
Debra, thank you, and for prayers. I think your dad is a similar age as my dad was when he passed — 93. A long time with a beloved dad doesn’t seem long enough. Cherish him while you have him, and I’m quite sure you do.
LikeLiked by 2 people
NJ, I did reply to you on last night’s thread as well. CM
LikeLike
You all are some special ladies… 😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
Debra, the issues on this site aren’t because news is depressing. People who post on here but refuse to accept the “party line” 100% are belittled, openly mocked, and told they’re responsible for the state of the country. Who you vote for has become more important to being respected on here than is anything else. Scripture tells us we are to be known as believers by our love–and especially how we treat widows and orphans–not by our politics. This venue has become hostile to many participants.
I have tried to “mediate” a little bit on this, because I care about the offended parties and I also care about the spiritual health of the offenders. But it looks as though the offenders have continued to either ignore the issue altogether (e.g., AJ) or insinuate that the offended ones are just being childish, too sensitive, or immature (you have written several such posts, but others have as well). I wouldn’t have posted on here at all except that I care about people on both sides.
This blog has become a hostile environment. I plead with those of you who are Christians to consider whether your participation on here has been loving, whether you have loved fellow participants including those you consider to be “the least of these” and those who are vulnerable. Had this issue been handled in a godly way over the last few days, with repentance from those who have sinned, I would have been likely to have returned myself. As it stands now, I can only feel sorrow about how a setting that could have had good discussion and goodwill among Christians who don’t always agree on every detail has descended into this, and to plead with those on here to consider what it looks like to have conversations among Christians (with some unbelievers looking in).
I see no point in saying anything else on this blog.
LikeLike