National rail strike scheduled for December 5th… go get your vittles

As previously reported in this space, the rail strike still looms, despite Biden taking a victory lap back in September.

Now we have a major union rejecting the deal, with the strike scheduled for December 5th. The other unions will stand with their striking brothers. If you need stuff, get it now.

Large rail union SMART-TD votes to reject labor deal as national strike moves closer

By Lori Ann LaRocco @LORIANNLAROCCO

SMART-TD, one of the largest railroad labor unions, voted down a tentative agreement with rail management, raising the likelihood of a strike in December. The BLET, the other largest union, voted to ratify the labor deal but said it will honor the picket line.

“It’s now back to the bargaining table for our operating craft members,” said Jeremy Ferguson, president of the Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers-Transportation Division. “This can all be settled through negotiations and without a strike. A settlement would be in the best interests of the workers, the railroads, shippers and the American people.”

“We stood shoulder to shoulder with our brothers and sisters in SMART-TD and others in rail labor throughout this process and we will continue to stand in solidarity with them as we approach the finish line in this round of negotiations,” said Dennis Pierce, president of BLET, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen.

The BMWED, the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes, is scheduled to strike Dec. 5 with the Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen, or BRS. But BMWED announced it would extend its cooling-off period if one of the larger unions voted not to ratify the tentative labor deal. The BRS has not indicated whether it will extend its deadline for talks.

SMART-TD, BMWED and BRS represent more than 50% of all rail labor.

The rail industry has estimated the impact of a strike at $2 billion per day. A strike would affect all of the major rail operators, including Union Pacific, Norfolk Southern and CSX.

BMWED and BRS have another round of talks with railroad carriers Monday afternoon on federal sick pay.

“Not even the Arian crisis saw statues of heretics and demons introduced into the Vatican.”

The Abomination of Desolation

By Father David Nix

The Gospel in the TLM today is about the end of the world. Christ declares that “the abomination of desolation” will enter “the holy place.” (Mt 24:15.) In those days “there shall arise false Christs and false prophets” (v. 24.) Our Lord adds this unusual line: “Unless those days had been shortened, no flesh should be saved. But for the sake of the elect those days shall be shortened.” (v. 22.)

Earlier in Matthew 24, Christ describes dark signs that will precede His light-filled return: “You shall hear of wars and rumours of wars.” (v. 6.) And “nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there shall be pestilences, and famines, and earthquakes in places.” (v. 7.) Keep in mind that we just lived through the bloodiest century; seismologists say have been more earthquakes the past 100 years than anytime previous to this century; we have had more martyrs the past one-hundred years than the past twenty centuries, combined.

But equally scary to all of these external troubles is what will happen interiorly to man at the end of the world. Christ adds: “And then shall many be scandalized, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another. And many false prophets shall rise, and shall seduce many. And because iniquity hath abounded, the charity of many shall grow cold.” (v. 10-12) I think of how many people [rightfully!] say that the traditional world of Catholics is a circular firing-line. We are always betraying one another on one small issue or another, probably because we have no leadership. The Catholic world at large is equally uncharitable to each other, and especially to traditionalists. Yes, “the charity of many” has “grown cold” against anyone standing with Apostolic Catholicism who are ironically called “schismatic” and “disobedient” for believing what Catholics have always believed.

Most traditional Catholics know that the scarier possibility of the mysterious third secret of Fatima is not nuclear war, but the attempted overturning of the Catholic Faith. We take it for granted that the past century has seen so many changes within the world and the Church, but we must remember that there has never been an overhauling of the Catholic faith so great as what has happened in the past one hundred years within the hierarchy of the Catholic Church herself. But more specifically, which decade? The website TLDM answers this:

In 1946, Sister Lucy was asked when the Third Secret would be revealed to the world, and without hesitation she said, “In 1960.” In 1955 Cardinal Ottaviani asked her why it was not to be opened before 1960. She told him, “because then it will seem clearer (mais claro).” Sister Lucy had made the Bishop of Fatima-Leiria promise that the Secret would be read to the world at her death, but in no event later than 1960, “because the blessed Virgin wishes it so.” And from Canon Barthas: “Moreover, it [the Third Secret] will soon be known, since Sister Lucy affirms that Our Lady wills that it can be published beginning in 1960.”

Of course, Pope John XXIII disobeyed Our Lady and opened it in 1959, a year before Mary told him to open it. Has there been a 20th century Pope since Pope St. Pius X to obey Our Lady’s diret commands? But that is not the topic of today’s blog post. The point is that of all the decades of the faith and liturgy unravelling, the Mother of God herself said that by 1960, all of this would be “more clear” (in Portuguese to Sr. Lucy, “mais claro.”) What in the world happened in the 1960s that would be “more clear” in the Church? I think we all know the horrible answer to that controversial question. Shortly after that decade of the 1960s in the Church, the USA and half of the world legalized abortion within the next decade of the 1970s. As goes the Church, so goes the world.

Of course, many of us who think often of Fatima also hope that that promised “era of peace” might align with what many mystics and prophets have assured us—that we would one day have the Great Monarch and the Angelic Pope who would rule over the Great Council to hammer out more heresies than anything before and define more doctrines than any previous dogmatic Council. I too hope this happens.

But the other possibility of that phrase “in the end, my Immaculate Heart will Triumph” is that this will literally happen in the end. Again, “unless those days had been shortened, no flesh should be saved, but for the sake of the elect those days shall be shortened.” What could be so bad that even “the elect” would be tempted to be deceived by false-prophets and a new faith? Certainly not wars or famines, for these things normally make Christians stronger. I suggest that the elect would only be tempted to deception via an overturning of the Catholic faith which (if we look at the exact decade given by Mary herself for things on a great apostasy becoming “more clear”) must be the 1960s. Yes, the Catholic hierarchy’s confusion since 1960 is worse than the recent wars (which have greatly increased since the 19th century, by the way.)

The first line in today’s Gospel was about “the abomination of desolation” that would enter “the holy place.” (v. 15.) What could this be? Could it be the welcoming of a big red statue of the 16th century heretic Martin Luther into the Vatican in the year 2016? Could it be enshrining of a demonic statue named “Pachamama” into the Vatican in the year 2019? There are so many choices to choose from that it’s hard to know which is the real “abomination of desolation”! To be sure, none of this stuff is normal in Church history. Not even the Arian crisis saw statues of heretics and demons introduced into the Vatican. Thus, no one can say “Meh, we’ve seen dark days in the Church like this before.” No, that is an ignorant assertion for anyone who has studied Church history. All of the past 50 years in the Church is unprecedented evil… but especially the past decade.

One more line to consider from today’s Gospel: “Wheresoever the body shall be, there shall the eagles also be gathered together.” (v. 28) The word for “eagles” there in Greek is ἀετοί meaning either eagles or vultures in the original language. Some people think this is a reference to Rome, as the ancient symbol for the Roman empire was the eagle, and how the empire would fall. However, it is normally vultures (not eagles) that gather around “the body” or “the corpses” that it seems Christ was referring to. Perhaps, besides the fall of the Roman Empire 1500 years ago, we should consider that eventually something would stink spiritually in Rome at the end of the world.

It must be something that happened in Rome in the 1960s if Our Lady said it would be “more clear” then. But that is precisely the good news, not the bad news. Here’s why: For those who know the Third Secret of Fatima refers to a general apostasy from the top-down, it is a promise (not a threat) that all of this would become “more clear” (mais claro) in 1960. For true believers, things have become “more clear” not “more dark” since the 1960s, despite the apparent apostasy all around us. We should thank God that heaven warned us so that we be not the elect tempted to be deception in that dangerous direction of thinking the Catholic faith or liturgy can change. It can not change, and anyone who believes in Fatima knows that.

The other piece of good news is this: Before Fatima, God gave us St. Therese of Lisieux. Some traditionalists avoid St. Therese because they think she has been co-opted by the modernists. We need to avoid that temptation. I believe we were given St. Therese because only a tremendous trust (not just hard-core mortification) could power us through this darkest age of Church history. We read earlier in today’s Gospel of those eagles around the corpse of Rome, perhaps 2,000 years ago a corpse of a fallen empire and now a corpse of a rotting “new religion” of Rome. But St. Therese also speaks of an Eagle that will guide her spirituality, as seen in chapter 15 of her autobiography:

O eternal Word! O my Savior! Thou art the divine Eagle whom I love and who allurest me. Thou who, descending to this land of exile, didst will to suffer and to die, in order to bear away each single soul and plunge it into the very heart of the Blessed Trinity—Love’s eternal home! Thou who, returning to Thy realm of light, dost still remain hidden here in our vale of tears under the semblance of the white Host… O eternal Eagle, it is Thy wish to nourish me with Thy divine substance, a poor little being who would fall into nothingness if Thy divine glance did not give me life at every moment…

Forgive me, O Jesus, if I tell Thee that Thy love reacheth even unto folly, at at the sight of such folly, what wilt Thou but that my heart should leap up to Thee? How could my trust know any bounds? I know well that for Thy sake the saints have made themselves foolish—being “eagles” they have done great things. Too little for such mighty deeds, my folly lies in the hope that Thy love will accept me as a victim…

O my divine Eagle! As long as Thou willest, I shall remain with my gaze fixed upon Thee, for I long to be fascinated by Thy divine eyes, I long to come Love’s prey. I am filled with the hope that one day Thou wilt swoop down upon me, and bearing me away to the source of Love, wilt plunge me at last into its glowing abyss, that I may become forever its happy victim.

Biden and G20 vote to impose digital vax passport for international travel… and this is just the warmup

We found out this time last year that our minders had no problem at all imposing vaccine mandates to enter a restaurant. So if you think that “digital health passports” will be limited to travel, well, think again. And you do realize the tech already exists to make said passport implantable… nothing biblical about that at all…-nvp

Biden and G20 Leaders Declaration, Digital Vaccine Passport Will Facilitate International Travel Requirement

November 17, 2022 | Sundance | 390 Comments

In a 52-paragraph mutually agreed declaration following the G20 Summit in Bali, Indonesia, the leaders at the 20-nation summit have agreed to a process for digital vaccine IDs to facilitate international travel. The alarming aspect is found on paragraph 23 of the Declaration.

[Paragraph 23] – We support continued international dialogue and collaboration on the establishment of trusted global digital health networks as part of the efforts to strengthen prevention and response to future pandemics, that should capitalize and build on the success of the existing standards and digital COVID-19 certificates.

“We acknowledge the importance of shared technical standards and verification methods, under the framework of the IHR (2005), to facilitate seamless international travel, interoperability, and recognizing digital solutions and non-digital solutions, including proof of vaccinations.” (link)

The members of the G20 are: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Republic of Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, the United Kingdom, the United States, and the European Union.

https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2022/11/17/biden-and-g20-leaders-declaration-digital-vaccine-passport-will-facilitate-international-travel-requirement/

Notre Dame mandates 5th jab to enroll for… Fall 2023 – Spring 2024

“The pandemic ended, but the Covid Regime remains fully intact and detached from reality,” remarked Notre Dame graduate Mary Frances Myler.

By Emily Mangiaracina

NOTRE DAME, Indiana (LifeSiteNews) —The University of Notre Dame announced that the COVID-19 bivalent booster shot will be required for all students to enroll in classes for the 2023-24 academic year.

Dr. Edward P. Junkins, director of University Health Services, issued an ultimatum to students on Monday, demanding that they get jabbed with the COVID bivalent booster by March 1, 2023, in order to register for fall 2023 classes.

“As with all required University vaccines, if you fail to complete this requirement or are not granted an exemption, a hold will be placed on your student account, which will prevent you from registering for classes for the fall 2023 semester,” the email letter states.

It notes that the mandate applies to all university students, including those “studying or performing research remotely and/or virtually.”

…

Bishop Thomas Paprocki, who serves as the bishop of the Diocese of Springfield, Illinois, and as an adjunct professor of law at Notre Dame Law School, last year decried Notre Dame’s original COVID jab mandate as “immoral.”

Paprocki, along with Notre Dame Law School professor Gerard Bradley, affirmed the university’s moral “obligation to respect each person’s right to make their own healthcare decisions, to freely act upon their conscientious convictions,” in an editorial entitled “COVID vaccines at Notre Dame,” published by The Observer, a student-run daily newspaper.

Bishop Paprocki and Bradley emphasized that the principle of self-determination “is the moral norm governing all medical treatment,” something they wrote was “especially salient” at the time because of the “experimental” nature of the COVID jabs, as the bivalent booster is now, being under emergency use authorization (EUA).

The post-World War II Nuremberg Code of 1947, which established broadly recognized international norms for ethical experimentation on human subjects, declared that no one may be exposed to any “ulterior form of constraint or coercion.”

Clearly, Notre Dame’s mandating students to receive these experimental treatments is, by definition, coercive and violates this first principle of the Nuremberg Code, rendering it, on this point alone, nakedly unethical.

As summarized by America’s Frontline Doctors (AFLDS), “The Nuremberg Code and Declaration of Helsinki led to universal acceptance that no person can ever be coerced or mandated to taking an experimental treatment.” Furthermore, these principles have been upheld “by all reputable governments, NGOs, organizations, policy leaders, and physicians for many decades.”

Esteemed doctors and scientists, including former Pfizer vice president Dr. Michael Yeadon, mRNA technology developer Dr. Robert Malone, and renowned cardiologist and internist Dr. Peter McCullough, have repeatedly sounded the alarm about the dangers of COVID “vaccination,” considering a massive uptick in sudden excess deaths in the young, inadequate testing, and many other health injuries that have been increasingly reported after COVID “vaccination.”

LifeSiteNews reached out to Junkins asking why Notre Dame is mandating a vaccine for a “student population at extraordinarily low risk of being harmed by COVID, but at considerable risk of being harmed by the COVID vaccine.”

The email to Junkins also asked what recourse a student has “if he or she is injured by the vaccine,” and if the university would “provide compensation for injury in that scenario.”

LifeSiteNews has not received a response as of the publishing of this article…

“This wasn’t an election”

By Dan Gelernter

…On Election Day 2020, we went to bed with Trump as the obvious victor—he had to win only one of the several states still in play. We woke up with Trump as the likely loser. I had a feeling we’d been cheated.

Of course it was only a feeling, but I noticed it was shared by a surprising number of people in “deep blue” Connecticut: Enthusiasm for Trump 2020 had run higher than for any presidential candidate people could remember. Higher than it had for Obama the first time around. And it was all just a mirage?

I was—still am—a full-stack software developer. I got a call from a voter integrity nonprofit who’d been in business long before I’d considered voter fraud a serious problem. They asked me to put together an emergency team to analyze the 2020 election results.

My team focused on statistical analyses—studies of the very unlikely. Trying to find explanations for why certain late-reporting precincts were three standard deviations from their neighbors (think 1-in-1,000 shot) in areas like ballot-splitting. We found state databases where votes that had already been counted were subsequently deleted, or where thousands of mail-in ballots were received back by the government before they’d even been mailed out (Pennsylvania).

Other parts of this nonprofit were doing on-the-ground detective work: The confessions of dropbox stuffers in Georgia led us to track and identify hundreds of individual ballot carriers, as well as the organizations that paid them to drive all over the state, delivering the fraudulent votes that changed the outcome.

In Arizona, the most corrupt state in the nation, where dropboxes are unnecessary because it’s legal for one voter to deliver up to 10 ballots, we had video footage of Democratic Party poll workers paying voters to take a stack of 10 ballots and vote them. That video footage led to indictments—but only of the people actually caught on film. The people paying for and organizing the fraud remain at liberty. We know who they are. The FBI knows too, but it’s hard to tell whether they’re interested.

My guys were working day and night on this—we took leaves of absence from our other jobs. There was no time: We had to furnish conclusive evidence before the election was certified. But we worked with patriotic fervor and a sense of service, even of sacrifice, knowing that what we found might prevent our votes—the nation’s votes—from being chucked in the trash can.

But of course we were wasting our time. Because the national-level Republicans, all those prominent persons who had expressed outrage and said they looked forward to seeing what we found, disappeared. When it came time to act, they just melted away (with very few exceptions, of whom Doug Mastriano—a genuinely good man who just “lost” his election in Pennsylvania—was one).

Mind you, this shouldn’t have been too surprising, given that we had plenty of evidence of Republican complicity. We even had a source in Arizona who fingered the late John McCain (“the worst senator Arizona ever had”) as a recipient of the services of the biggest fraud organizer in the state (a Democrat).

Right before my eyes, the uniparty emerged like some swamp monster. I’d made fun of all those tin-foil hat conspiracy theorists for years, and now I was wearing the hat myself. But I’d seen it with my own eyes. I didn’t have the luxury of pretending that Trump lost.

It wasn’t the Democrats who stole the election in 2020. It was the politicians. The Democrats couldn’t have gotten away with it without the Republicans handing it to them and looking the other way.

I won’t be analyzing this election too, because I already know how it’s done. I’ve seen how the sausage is made. And I know there were no real election integrity reforms between 2020 and 2022 except in Florida—which is why, by total coincidence, Florida is the only state in which the “red tsunami” actually happened. But that’s also why I moved to Florida: I want the politicians we elect, not the politicians the politicians elect…

amgreatness.com/2022/11/13/this-wasnt-an-election/

BREAKING: Republicans join Democrats to advance same-sex ‘marriage’ bill in historic defeat for conservatives

Twelve Republican senators joined with all Democrats to pass the bill, which is set to be Joe Biden’s first major legislative achievement on LGBT issues

(LifeSiteNews) – In perhaps the greatest defeat conservatives have ever suffered at the hands of Republican Party, the Senate today advanced Democrats’ bill to enshrine same-sex “marriage” into federal law in a vote of 62 to 37.

Twelve Republican senators joined with all Democrats to move forward on the bill, “Respect for Marriage Act,” including: Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Rob Portman of Ohio, Thom Tillis of North Carolina, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Mitt Romney of Utah, Roy Blunt of Missouri, Richard Burr of North Carolina, Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, Joni Ernst of Iowa, Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming, Dan Sullivan of Alaska, and Todd Young of Indiana. Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska did not vote.

Democrats needed the support of 10 Republicans to overcome the Senate’s 60-vote filibuster threshold…

Can anyone explain how Kari Lake lost 118K votes upballot from GOP State Treasurer winner?

Look how far down-ballot the Treasurer race appears:

h/t to Supernerd.

Most people don’t even know who their state treasurer is, right? So how come Kimberly Lee is so much more popular than Kari Lake? Did those extra 118,000 people vote for Katie Hobbs, or not vote for Governor at all? Weird, right? How can one explain this?

Here is one thing I do know: Trump is now poison. We all know the election was stolen, but it doesn’t matter. If/when Trump announces for 2024, it will be a disaster.

Raising Arizona

We ain’t done yet, folks! Counting, that is. Because it always takes a week to count the votes, and if you say otherwise, you are a violent insurrectionist.

The results for Governor are impossible to be true, unless every Independent went for Hobbs.

But have a look at the following Congressional race:

We had redistricting this year, so each of the Congressional districts have a somewhat different geography than before. This population of this district is mainly wealthy conservatives in Scottsdale and Paradise Valley. Schweikert is a popular five-term incumbent, and the district has been in GOP hands for 30 straight years.

Was it Biden’s handling of the economy, or something else, that propelled Jevin Hodge, who has never held elected office, to a statistical tie in this race?

70% voter turnout… okay. Nothing to see here.

“We are lost if we seek any other path: We must either renounce the world and the flesh with the saints, or we renounce heaven with the wicked.”

A Word From…

November 1st – Feast of All Saints

“Do we complain of our frailty? The saints were made of the same mould with us. But being sensible of their weakness, they were careful to retrench all incentives of their passions, to shun all dangerous occasions of sin, to ground themselves in the most profound humility, and to strengthen themselves by the devout use of the sacraments, prayer, an entire distrust in themselves, and other means of grace. It was by the strength they received from above, not by their own, that they triumphed over both their domestic and their external enemies. We have the same succors by which they were victorious. The blood of Christ was shed for us as it was for them; the all-powerful grace of our Redeemer is not wanting to us, but the failure is in ourselves. If difficulties start up, if temptations affright us, if enemies stand in our way like monsters and giants, which seem ready to devour us, let us not lose courage, but redouble our earnestness, crying out with Josue, The Lord is with us. Why do we fear? If the world pursue us, let us remember that the saints fought against it in all its shapes. If our passions are violent, Jesus has furnished us with arms to tame them, and hold them in subjection. How furious assaults have many saints sustained in which they were supported by victorious grace! Many, with the Baptist, happily prevented the rebellion of these domestic enemies by early watchfulness, abstinence, and retirement. Others God suffered for their own advantage to feel their furious buffets; but animated them to vigilance and fervor, and crowned them with victories, by which they at length brought these enemies into subjection. Of this many are instances who had had the misfortune formerly to have fortified their passions by criminal habits. St. Austin, after having been engaged many years in irregular courses, conquered them. How many other holy penitents broke stronger chains than ours can be, by courageously using violence upon themselves, and became eminent saints! Can we, then, for shame think the difficulties we apprehend an excuse for our sloth, which, when we resolutely encounter them, we shall find to be more imaginary than real? Shall we shrink at the thought of self-denial, penance, or prayer? Shall not we dare to undertake or to do what numberless happy troops of men and women have done, and daily do? So many tender virgins, so many youths of the most delicate complexion and education, so many princes and kings, so many of all ages, constitutions, and conditions, have courageously walked before us! “Canst not thou do what these and those persons of both sexes have done?” said St. Austin to himself. Their example wonderfully inspires us with resolution, and silences all the pretexts of pusillanimity. To set before our eyes a perfect model of the practice of true virtue, the Son of God became man, and lived among us. That we may not say the example of a God-man is too exalted for us, we have that of innumerable saints, who, inviting us to take up the sweet yoke of Christ, say to us with St. Paul, Be you imitators of me, even as I am of Christ. They were men in all respects like ourselves, so that our sloth and cowardice can have no excuse. They form a cloud of witnesses, demonstrating to us, from their own experience, that the practice of Christian perfection is easy and sweet. They will rise up and condemn the wicked at the last day, covering them with inexpressible confusion: Thou raisest up thy witnesses against me. To animate and encourage ourselves in the vigorous pursuit of Christian perfection, and in advancing towards the glory of the saints, we ought often to lift up our eyes to heaven, and contemplate these glorious conquerors of the world, clothed with robes of immortality, and say to ourselves: These were once mortal, weak men, subject to passions and miseries as we are now: and if we are faithful to our sacred engagements to God, we shall very shortly be made companions of their glory, and attain to the same bliss. But for this we must walk in their steps; that is to say, we must with them take up our cross, renounce the world and ourselves, and make our lives a course of labor, prayer, and penance. We are lost if we seek any other path. We must either renounce the world and the flesh with the saints, or we renounce heaven with the wicked.”

Source: Extract from The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Other Principal Saints by Rev. Alban Butler

Mexican government uses street video from Philly to warn about drugs

The street scenes are clearly Philly, as you can even catch a fleeting glimpse of the Septa sign at the El platform for the K&A station.

There is irony on multiple levels, since record amounts of fentynal now flow freely from Mexico across our border. Still, how proud must city leadership be that the visibly abject failure of their deep blue policies is being used in OTHER COUNTRIES as a warning against using drugs, tolerating drugs, tolerating crime, as a means to turn your city into a shithole. Nice work.

La Campaña vs las Adicciones del @GobiernoMX busca informar a los jóvenes de los daños que provoca a la salud el consumo de drogas químicas. La información y la participación de la familia y de la escuela son importantes factores de protección vs las adicciones. ¡Infórmate! pic.twitter.com/A8MkptVqHG

— Jesús Ramírez Cuevas (@JesusRCuevas) November 8, 2022

Google translate: “The Campaign against Addictions of @GobiernoMX seeks to inform young people of the damage caused to health by the consumption of chemical drugs. The information and the participation of the family and the school are important factors of protection against addictions. Find out!”