Charlie Kirk has been shot in Utah

[Jacob Petersheim]

I think Trump has more to worry about from China, nominally over such things as recent actions in Venezuela. Israel has him in its pocket for now, so no need from them for another "warning shot" right now.

 

[Marie Mallory]

I had been hopeful of late, and I'm still holding on. But lately I am less certain what I'm holding on for:

Michigan Town STUNNED as Radical Mayor Tells Christian Resident He's 'NOT WELCOME' in Viral Moment

Perhaps I'm overreacting, but starting this year immigrants who had seemed to be integrating have now turned away toward factionalism and ghettoization instead.

Click thru this one and see what the Somalians are saying. Saying they will rule America.

 

[Marie Mallory]

Today is the day that they are having the public memorial for the death of Charlie Kirk. They apparently have a lot of good security there, but it is still a worrisome thing, because so many of our government people will be there.
Both President Trump and VP Vance will be in attendance, plus most of the cabinets members and members of congress. If something were to happen there today, like a bomb, we could lose most (if not all) of our presidential line of succession.
Both AF1 and AF2 will be flying out and loaded with people from the DC government . It is great that they are having the memorial, but I am hoping that we have good security to keep everyone safe that is out there today.

Imagine how fast this nation would go violent if they did something to our leaders. I don't agree with them on some things but they are the only hope we have now of surviving this new leftist lunatics.

 

[Jacob Petersheim]

Click thru this one and see what the Somalians are saying. Saying they will rule America.

I suspect that they aren't even the source of this kind of thing, but instead the visible acting tentacles. Surely there is a far larger fraction of the iceberg hidden below. One bent on destroying and pillaging America and the West. How else could they weave such webs exploiting legislated loopholes to contrive and carry out such layered and tangled schemes? I think somebody else is funding and directing this stuff.

 

[Yvonne Smith]

I didn’t watch the whole memorial, but I watched clips from it on X, and I was pretty amazed at all the speakers. We have members of our government actually sounding more like Christian preachers than some of the actual preachers that are in churches nowadays.
This is the most i have ever seen any kind of Christian beliefs spoken from people in our top government , and it was more like listening to a large Revival than a funeral or memorial service.
I am impressed and amazed, and hope it continues, because, as a Christian, I am happy to see more leadership in this country who are Christians.

With Biden, it was more like pagan beliefs, and atheism were the tone of the government, with all of the lgbtq stuff and riots happening, and the naked parades and such.
This is such a change, and I am seriously glad to see it happening !

 

[Jacob Petersheim]

There was a book for that:

"If This Goes On—" - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Marie Mallory]

 

[Marie Mallory]

I didn’t watch the whole memorial, but I watched clips from it on X, and I was pretty amazed at all the speakers. We have members of our government actually sounding more like Christian preachers than some of the actual preachers that are in churches nowadays.
This is the most i have ever seen any kind of Christian beliefs spoken from people in our top government , and it was more like listening to a large Revival than a funeral or memorial service.
I am impressed and amazed, and hope it continues, because, as a Christian, I am happy to see more leadership in this country who are Christians.

With Biden, it was more like pagan beliefs, and atheism were the tone of the government, with all of the lgbtq stuff and riots happening, and the naked parades and such.
This is such a change, and I am seriously glad to see it happening !

I agree with this whole post, couldn't have said it better myself.

 

[Marie Mallory]

There was a book for that:

"If This Goes On—" - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

I read about 15 minutes of it Jacob, may read more of it later.

 

[Marie Mallory]

I didn’t watch the whole memorial, but I watched clips from it on X, and I was pretty amazed at all the speakers. We have members of our government actually sounding more like Christian preachers than some of the actual preachers that are in churches nowadays.
This is the most i have ever seen any kind of Christian beliefs spoken from people in our top government , and it was more like listening to a large Revival than a funeral or memorial service.
I am impressed and amazed, and hope it continues, because, as a Christian, I am happy to see more leadership in this country who are Christians.

With Biden, it was more like pagan beliefs, and atheism were the tone of the government, with all of the lgbtq stuff and riots happening, and the naked parades and such.
This is such a change, and I am seriously glad to see it happening !

Also, Evonne we watched a few hours of it off and on. It does give us hope along with some doubt more hope than doubt though.

 

[Yvonne Smith]

Also, Evonne we watched a few hours of it off and on. It does give us hope along with some doubt more hope than doubt though.

I agree, @Marie Mallory . It is good to see so many people standing up in front of the whole world and openly proclaiming that they are Christians, and that America is a Christian nation, which is what it was always known as up until recently.
I am still skeptical about Erika Kirk, and don’t understand why someone who is a multi-millionaire would need or want a go-fund-me for people to be sending her money.
She not only has the money they get from Turning Point, but she owns several companies herself, and the family has several homes valued in the millions of dollars.

There are so many older people who send money that they can’t afford to give, to evangelists who live the high life with mansions and luxury vehicles, and still beg for the elderly, living on their meager SS pensions, to send them more and more money.
Charlie and Erika Kirk were worth over 12 million dollars , or maybe even more; so it bothers me that she is asking for more money from her GFM account.

 

[Jacob Petersheim]

I read about 15 minutes of it Jacob, may read more of it later.

I remember reading that book as a kid. It was pretty scary even back then. I've been worried about some Nehemiah Scudder arising ever since. I just didn't really think it might take the form of an actual religious faction creating a police state.

So I tend to have a knee-jerk reaction once the hairs on the back of my neck rise in response to such things. I don't care which religion or sect it might be.

It reminds me of a story I heard once. A former roommate of mine in my college years was working somewhere that some other friends also worked at. They had taken a company vehicle, some top-heavy van, to drive a distance to a client site. One of these friends told me they hit a heavy rainstorm with high winds as they barreled down a tollway at high speed. Visibility through the rain was closing in, wipers barely keeping up, and the van was being buffeted back and forth in multilane traffic. Dale (the old roommate) had always been a religious nut (sorry) so they knew he was serious when he replied to complaints to slow down with "When our time comes the Lord will take us."

My thought on that went like "Knock him over the head and tie him up in the back of the van."

The very idea of religiousity in government scares the Hell out of me. This isn't some benighted medieval monarchy. And to be completely honest, the religious lip-service paid in the courts and upper levels of the Federal government has always made me squirm and look for the exits.

Yes, it's just me, but it strikes me as literally insane.

But I think people often get really confused about the wellspring of morality and where that really comes from. If the only thing keeping you honest and moral is your fear of lightning bolts from Big Juju In The Sky... Good Gourd, can you really be trusted?

 

[Marie Mallory]

I remember reading that book as a kid. It was pretty scary even back then. I've been worried about some Nehemiah Scudder arising ever since. I just didn't really think it might take the form of an actual religious faction creating a police state.

So I tend to have a knee-jerk reaction once the hairs on the back of my neck rise in response to such things. I don't care which religion or sect it might be.

It reminds me of a story I heard once. A former roommate of mine in my college years was working somewhere that some other friends also worked at. They had taken a company vehicle, some top-heavy van, to drive a distance to a client site. One of these friends told me they hit a heavy rainstorm with high winds as they barreled down a tollway at high speed. Visibility through the rain was closing in, wipers barely keeping up, and the van was being buffeted back and forth in multilane traffic. Dale (the old roommate) had always been a religious nut (sorry) so they knew he was serious when he replied to complaints to slow down with "When our time comes the Lord will take us."

My thought on that went like "Knock him over the head and tie him up in the back of the van."

The very idea of religiousity in government scares the Hell out of me. This isn't some benighted medieval monarchy. And to be completely honest, the religious lip-service paid in the courts and upper levels of the Federal government has always made me squirm and look for the exits.

Yes, it's just me, but it strikes me as literally insane.

But I think people often get really confused about the wellspring of morality and where that really comes from. If the only thing keeping you honest and moral is your fear of lightning bolts from Big Juju In The Sky... Good Gourd, can you really be trusted?

LOL, the van story was funny. Maybe what he meant about the danger of wrecking is ' at that speed and road conditions, the lucky ones would meet their maker'?
Also, some of us know there is a higher power from experiences. I don't know why only some do but wouldn't you rather be a believer if it is true?
Not trying to convert you Jacob, I have enough trouble saving myself sure not trying to preach to others.

 

[Marie Mallory]

I agree, @Marie Mallory . It is good to see so many people standing up in front of the whole world and openly proclaiming that they are Christians, and that America is a Christian nation, which is what it was always known as up until recently.
I am still skeptical about Erika Kirk, and don’t understand why someone who is a multi-millionaire would need or want a go-fund-me for people to be sending her money.
She not only has the money they get from Turning Point, but she owns several companies herself, and the family has several homes valued in the millions of dollars.

There are so many older people who send money that they can’t afford to give, to evangelists who live the high life with mansions and luxury vehicles, and still beg for the elderly, living on their meager SS pensions, to send them more and more money.
Charlie and Erika Kirk were worth over 12 million dollars , or maybe even more; so it bothers me that she is asking for more money from her GFM account.

Last I heard Turning Point was 40 million. Now its probably billions. Power corrupts and they both had lots of power. Which is a good thing, far as the change Charlie made here and abroad., hopefully they didn't succumb to it.
Erika was always alone according to her speech about their relationship, Charlie was always on the road and more so as time went on. So, who knows how she is, life can change you.
I'm a suspicious type to begin with so I don't really know how to feel but I do think she needs to lay low for a while and grieve instead of campaign. Surely someone else could take over for a short time.

 

[Jacob Petersheim]

some of us know there is a higher power from experiences. I don't know why only some do but wouldn't you rather be a believer if it is true?
Not trying to convert you Jacob, I have enough trouble saving myself sure not trying to preach to others.

I appreciate that. I don't take offense and I don't try to argue anyone out of their beliefs.

Maybe my biggest worry is that people may take unpredictable action in a high-pressure situation, based on some snippet of memorized dogma that they never even understood the intended meaning of. Or worse yet, simply from "othering" those who fail some sniff test.

That doesn't mean I never second-guess my opinions on the matter. When my time comes, assuming I'm conscious and coherent, I'm not sure how I'm going to feel about it all. I've watched some of those "Left Behind" movies and they can be thought-provoking.

 

[Susannah]

I watched the memorial yesterday on a website where people have pretty much the same outlook I do. Having the same world view helps a lot when something is as long as the memorial was.

Many were surprised that the government group were pretty much all Christians. What interests me about that is that it was a surprise. The administration has been in office 8 full months. Apparently the admin's beliefs and actions hadn’t caused too much anxiety until now if many didn’t realize they were Christians.

I remember reading that book as a kid. It was pretty scary even back then. I've been worried about some Nehemiah Scudder arising ever since. I just didn't really think it might take the form of an actual religious faction creating a police state.

So I tend to have a knee-jerk reaction once the hairs on the back of my neck rise in response to such things. I don't care which religion or sect it might be.

Jacob, for some reason I think you are from Michigan, if I’m wrong please set me straight. Right or wrong, I’m going to use Michigan for my example.

First it is 6th in line of US states with the highest Muslim populations.

Second, is this:

How Hamtramck, a small town within Detroit, became America’s first Muslim-majority city​

In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful, the man reached up and pulled away a scarlet cloth, revealing unto the people a sign.

It was a cold day, late in winter. Maybe a hundred people — almost all of them men — had gathered on a grassy street corner lot in Hamtramck, a city of 2 square miles that sits like an island in the middle of Detroit. Among them were local businessmen, elected officials, religious leaders and a couple of stray hipsters watching tentatively from the back of the crowd as one dignitary after another took their turn at the microphone.

They were here to make history by changing it.

The nation’s first and only all-Muslim City Council had just voted to rename Holbrook Avenue — one of Hamtramck’s main arteries — Palestine Avenue, in reaction to the Israel-Hamas war, then in its fourth month. The road was originally named after Dewitt Holbrook, a 19th-Century lawyer who owned a farm not far from this very spot. The name had stuck for about 125 years. Until this day.

This rechristening was an apt symbol of the dramatic changes that have recently taken place here. For a century, Hamtramck was known as “Little Poland” for being so uniformly Polish and Catholic that Pope John Paul II himself once made a stop here back in 1987. Even as late as 1970, Poles still were almost 90% of the population, enough to sustain dozens of Polish grocers, bakeries, churches and social clubs.

But by 1990, according to city officials and historical experts, the number of Polish residents had dropped to 45% as many of them moved to the sprawling suburbs. By 2000, it was maybe 25%. Now, it’s pegged at barely 10% of the roughly 28,000 people who live here, officials say.

Two square miles: The evolution of Hamtramck
In their place came waves of Bangladeshi and Yemeni immigrants who swiftly made this America’s first majority Muslim city. The Poles were reduced to an asterisk, strangers in a suddenly strange land where women now walked the streets robed from head to toe in black niqabs, where the signs on the storefronts were now written in scripts foreign to them, where schools replaced Easter vacation with time off at the end of Ramadan, and where the sound of the Islamic call to prayer now competed with the tones of church bells.

A city that once had more bars per capita than any other place in the country was now dominated by a culture that forbids alcohol. What was a hot spot of artists and musicians known for a liberal acceptance of eccentricities and differences now drew international attention when the Muslim city council voted to ban the gay pride flag from city properties. And what had been a quiet, working-class town suddenly became internationally famous as an example of what sudden demographic change looks like.

Hamtramck has the highest percentage of immigrants anywhere in Michigan, the biggest concentration of Bangladeshi immigrants in the state and the second-highest percentage of Arab residents after Dearborn. According to Census data, more than 40% of the city is foreign-born and almost 70% of its residents are Muslim, including the mayor, the police chief and the entire city council, whose members all are men. Signs at City Hall are presented in English, Arabic and Bengali. “The World in Two Square Miles” the city’s slogan declares.

There’s a constant churn of immigrants arriving and leaving, so a precise ethnic breakdown of Hamtramck is difficult to peg, particularly since Census data doesn't distinguish ethnic breakdowns. Best estimates put the city’s Yemeni population at more than 30% and growing, the Bangladeshis at about 25% and holding steady, Black people at scarcely 10% and shrinking, and Polish people at even less. A scattering of others makes up the rest, including Bosnians, Albanians and a surge of Ukrainians now flooding into the same city their ancestors flocked to more than a century ago, when they likewise were fleeing the Russians.

All over town there are signs of a new culture erasing the old.

The long-standing Family Donut Shop has become the Taj Al-Yemen restaurant, which keeps a token selection of doughnuts at the front counter under glass, like a culinary enclave within the Middle Eastern eatery.

Krakus Polish Restaurant is now Sylhet Café, a Bengali eatery that grows its ingredients in a garden on the former Buick auto dealership lot next door.

Stan’s Grocery, which sold Polish staples such as kishka, paczki and pierogi, went out of business and was soon reborn as Royal Mart, a Bangladeshi grocer offering paratha, samosas and sliced satkora fruit.

And now, the very name of a main street was being changed to reflect not just the culture of the newcomers, but also the politics they brought with them.

Councilman Khalil Refai — who immigrated from Yemen as a child, whose election two years before solidified the Muslim majority on the council and who sponsored the measure to change the name of this road — climbed a ladder and ceremoniously removed the cloth that covered the new sign, which was installed atop the old one.

The crowd below him applauded at the sight of the new name. It wasn’t an official change on maps, only an honorary designation. But the message was clear.

Things are now different here.

“There is power to renaming things,” declared Imam Imran Salha of the Islamic Center of Detroit as he stood at the podium, pointing up to the sign. “What significance is there to ‘Holbrook’? There’s nothing special about ‘Holbrook.’ ”


Greg Kowalski turned the steering wheel and rounded the corner at the stoplight.

“This is Holbrook Avenue,” said the 74-year-old executive director of the Hamtramck Historical Museum. He was giving a driving tour of his hometown, one of his many functions as its unofficial historian. “It was at the center of the village. It’s only a few blocks away from St. Florian church, and that was a real centerpiece of Hamtramck. And Holbrook is where the pope spoke when he came here, in the parking lot right there. So it’s always been the center of a lot of activities. It’s very significant.”

Kowalski was born in Hamtramck, spent his life here, wrote 11 books about his hometown; and when he dies, he wants his ashes scattered on the railroad tracks at the edge of town for their role in bringing so many immigrants here a century ago. Hamtramck, he often says, was built by immigration more than almost any other place in America. And this city became his passion.


Are you aware of this town?

I remember when it happened. There was a lot of discussion on political forums and a lot of concern. I would have worried a lot about this if I was anywhere close to it. Sorry it’s so long. Actually, it’s a lot longer and there are a lot of interesting pictures.

How Hamtramck, a small town within Detroit, became America’s first Muslim-majority city

In a short span of time, immigrants flooded Hamtramck, a blue-collar town fully within Detroit's borders. And things would never be the same.

www.freep.com

 

[Susannah]

BTW, I’m NOT trying to convert you.

I do think it’s concerning that some places in the US are electing Islamic governments.

 

[Yvonne Smith]

BTW, I’m NOT trying to convert you.

I do think it’s concerning that some places in the US are electing Islamic governments.

This is exactly what is important about the story you posted about the town in Michigan. As @Jacob Petersheim mentioned, it would not be good to have our government taken over by a militant type of religious government . However, it is not Christians who are militant !
We might share our beliefs with other people and hope they see things the same way, but the Islamic religion tells them that they have to FORCE people to take their religious beliefs, with violence when necessary.
This is a huge difference.

 

[Don Alaska]

This is exactly what is important about the story you posted about the town in Michigan. As @Jacob Petersheim mentioned, it would not be good to have our government taken over by a militant type of religious government . However, it is not Christians who are militant !
We might share our beliefs with other people and hope they see things the same way, but the Islamic religion tells them that they have to FORCE people to take their religious beliefs, with violence when necessary.
This is a huge difference.

Christians can be militant, but, for the most part, are not so. Some of the skinhead groups could be considered as militant however.

 

[Marie Mallory]

I appreciate that. I don't take offense and I don't try to argue anyone out of their beliefs.

Maybe my biggest worry is that people may take unpredictable action in a high-pressure situation, based on some snippet of memorized dogma that they never even understood the intended meaning of. Or worse yet, simply from "othering" those who fail some sniff test.

That doesn't mean I never second-guess my opinions on the matter. When my time comes, assuming I'm conscious and coherent, I'm not sure how I'm going to feel about it all. I've watched some of those "Left Behind" movies and they can be thought-provoking.

Over the years this has happened The Crusades, The Inquisition but I think this was at a time where they also had basically the same culture and politics.
The first persecutions here by them was in Florida at Huguenot where some Protestants were killed by Spain's Catholic army.
When King Philip II of Spain learned that the Frenchman Rene de Laudonniére had established Fort Caroline in Florida (1 on map), he was incensed -- the colony sat on land belonging to the Spanish crown. Spanish treasure fleets sailed along the Florida coast on their way to Spain and Fort Caroline provided a perfect base for French attacks. Worst of all to the devoutly Catholic Philip, the settlers were Huguenots (French Protestants). Despite Philip's protests, Jean Ribault sailed from France in May 1565 with more than 600 soldiers and settlers to resupply Fort Caroline.