Posted on 08/18/2026 8:13:35 AM PDT by Jim W N
On Aug. 17, 2026, balch3 posted “What is Wrong with you People?”, saying, What has happened to FR? People are advocating for President Trump's removal, making sarcastic remarks, Saying the TRump era is over. President Trump has righted the economy, ended Iran's nuclear weapons threat and is the greatest President since Reagan. He deserves better than this. He already has the RINOS in Congress against him, he needs his base fired up and ready to vote! THe RATS are highly motivated to steal this election. Have some courage and get behind out President!
Here is my answer:
I love Trump because I believe he genuinely loves America, stands up to the Left like no other, and he generally tells the truth. "MAGA" is from Trump's heart.
But there's more work to be done. Although I love Trump and the idea of "MAGA", it appears that Trump thinks MAGA is achieved through gov't. In business, Trump was used to being in charge ("The General", as Melania admirably calls him) and growing his business to world class. But what Donald Trump doesn’t seem to understand is as President, his job is to SHRINK gov’t, not grow it.
But gov't is essentially different from business. Business comes under the heading of "free pursuits". It is the endeavors of legitimate and God-given "self-interest". The Left has succeeded is merging "self-interest" with "greed" but these two terms are not the same. Everybody has God-given self-interest. It's why you don't pick rat poison at the grocery store for dinner tonight. Greed is corruption whereas self-interest is God given. Greed is basically taking what does not belong to you whereas self-interest is earning what belongs to you.
You always want to grow business. It's a God-given and legitimate desire in the interests of yourself, your family, and your concerns. It's free and competitive in the open market where eventually, without gov't interference, the best quality and best prices win the consumers' free choice. Nobody coerces the consumer to buy the product. Again, self-interest guides the consumer to the highest quality at the lowest price AKA VALUE. Business without gov't interference is FREE ENTERPRISE AKA the Free Market Economy (I don't like the Marists term "capitalism"). Nobody puts you in jail if you don't buy a product.
What about gov't? Read the Declaration of Independence for the purpose of gov't. Gov't is a necessary evil basically to protect a country from invasion of another country. Gov't is coercive. If you don't do what gov't says, it might put you in jail. Gov't has its OWN self-interest, and the bigger gov't gets, the greedier and more corrupt it gets. The greatest political document of all time might very well be the U.S. Constitution which recognizes both the need and the peril of a national gov't.
When did America become great? Basically in the 1800's. Why did America become great? Was it because of gov't? Hardly. Gov't spending during the 1800's averaged somewhere around 3% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The federal gov't was an afterthought and generally was not thought about by the average citizen except in time of war.
And yet with individual freedom in full bloom and gov't generally out of the picture, America emerged for the 1800's into the 1900's as the most free, wealthiest, healthiest, and powerful country in the world.
Individual FREEDOM NOT GOV'T is what made MAGA and what will again make MAGA. As I said, Trump has done a lot of good but there much still to do. If America is going to truly be great again, it must have BIG individual freedom and SMALL gov't (except for military).
Who is going to put the Federal Gov't back into its constitutional cage and cut the 80%+, $3+ trillion unconstitutional portion of the federal gov't? (For instance, the federal gov't has not been constitutionally authorized to meddle in healthcare. Gov't healthcare needs to be abolished. On the other hand, social security although not constitutional, is an investment that so many Americans have made that to be just, it would have to be slowly ramped down if it were to be eliminated.
Whoever can take the heat from the Left like Trump and except for maybe social security, make the federal gov't constitutional, will be making America great again. Who is that person? I don't know if we'll ever have such a parson and such a movement but that is what will be required for MAGA.
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The only “nit” I will pick is the use of “Freedom.”
Freedom is a natural state. Pretty much it means without a government, we would be free to wander about doing whatever we wanted.
I think a more accurate word of what we yearn for is “Liberty.”
Liberty is defined by the constraints put upon our Freedom. For example, religion and morality constrain our “liberty” to take what we want, and do whatever we want to anyone else. Liberty is constrained by government through laws and regulations.
Changing laws, constraining agencies, lifting executive orders, and reducing tax burdens enhance our liberty by reducing the friction to go get what we want.
I am not a fan of Trump’s process. I am generally in favor of his results. Do I think he is “great”? It’s too early for those designations.
Yes, very well said!!
The RINO, and/or anti-Israel crowd has made their presence know here, as well as leftists who may have just stumbled upon FR.
Seems like the crowd is a bit different these days!
The government has completely been taken over by the Deep State which uses all its powers against the very freedom you - and I - recognize as the fix/goal.
KGB defector Yuri Bezmenov discussed a 4-step process that communists use to take over a country.The longest and most critical step is the first one: demoralization. In it, all the pillars of society are infiltrated with filthy-rich, powerful people who are amoral and take away all the truth-based foundations that people use to create their worldview and knowledge/belief base: science, education, business, media, healthcare, religion, all branches of government, finance, charities, psychology, military, etc.
Once those things are subverted people have nothing to lean on to discern truth. It eventually reaches a point that even if a person was to see something for himself, he would not believe it because all the voices/authorities inside and outside himself condition him to believe it CAN’T be true. I think Orwell’s “1984” illustrates that.
I think people can instinctively see that we are a captured society. DOGE found all kinds of fraud and loopholes but they were not allowed to fix anything. We saw the banana-republic lawfare against Trump and the unwillingness of the legal system to remedy any of it. We see a SCOTUS “justice” who can’t define what a woman is. We see “science” create studies where dying patients are given toxic doses of HCQ to prove it dangerous so they can get Emergency Use Authorization and require experimental, dangerous “vaccines” that don’t prevent illness and death. The CIA kills US citizens for threatening their racket, and they will always be allowed to hide behind “state secrets”. I could go on a long, long, long, long time with similar things. I think the “conspiracy theorists” are winning by about 52 to 0 right now.
We’re never going to find a “hero” that can singlehandedly fix this. As long as that is the cure we’re looking for, it proves that we really don’t understand the mess (existential threat) we are truly in. Right now we have a population that has no way of knowing what is true and what is baloney, and that has no understanding of how to process information for credibility. The “cool people” just trust whatever the authorities say. People ask AI for basic information, but AI is trained to presume “regularity” - that is, to presume that the “experts”/authorities/official narratives are accurate. You can show AI particular evidence and it can acknowledge that the “experts”/official narrative are a total lie, but as soon as somebody else asks they will receive the same boilerplate as always.
The DOJ considers it a victory that Luigi Mangione confessed to the federal crimes because they know that if he was tried in NY state he would probably not be convicted, cuz NOBODY is convicted in NY. That’s because juries are stupid. Large swaths of US citizens/residents are too stupid to know how to wipe their own butts, and our form of government is only as safe/secure as the most ignorant, gullible, and corrupt among us.
Here at FR we see the stupidity all the time, and it is very, very wearing. Some still have the energy to confront the subversive talk but more and more I think patriots are feeling trapped.
Right now my daughter most likely has MuSK Myasthenia Gravis. A throat surgeon who saw her voice fail at church immediately recognized that it was either muscular or neuromuscular, and 2 different barium swallow tests showed an absent cough reflex, which has to be neurological. But she’s in a center for eating disorders right now because her PCP, GI dr, etc all think it’s “psychological”. There are no medical studies showing an absent cough reflex caused by psychology. That doesn’t matter. They have their narrative and nothing I say can cut through that crap. Fortunately, the neurologist has ordered the tests for MuSK MG after I spoke with her about the symptoms so we may get to the bottom of it before she dies of starvation. The drs are trying to get her to be able to swallow and hold down food just by trying harder. They have the wrong “cure” - destined to fail - because they don’t understand the root cause. Her body is attacking the enzyme necessary for acetylcholine from the vagus nerve to be received by the muscle cells, because it thinks those enzymes are c.diff. Only getting rid of the antibodies being produced to fight the enzymes will get her muscles to function properly. Everything else is an exercise in futility, no matter how many “doctors” think otherwise.
Here on FR we can discuss/argue what “cure” this country needs, but unfortunately it seems there are very few people willing to look into what, exactly, is causing all these symptoms. And that lack of earnestness is going to kill this nation unless something major changes soon.
People here make fact/evidence-based arguments only to have the same mindless media garbage thrown back at them. People either don’t know how to process facts or they are too lazy to do so. That is the problem in the whole society and it is reflected here at FR by so many posters as well.
Maybe it would be good to have a thread that addresses the demoralization phase of subversion, and documents the many, many ways that America’s very ability to think/process has been undermined.
It's missing the point. That's how.
Federal Spending, straight from the horse's orifice.
The facts are obvious ... the will to deal with them is lacking.
And that's really all I have to say about that.
I hate the clitons ut it’s aalways the economy.
I use “freedom” in conjuction with a constitutioal gov’t except for maybe social security.
I don’t like “liberty” if that means allowing unconstitutional laws, agaencies, regulations, EO’s, etc.
“People either don’t know how to process facts or they are too lazy to do so. That is the problem in the whole society and it is reflected here at FR by so many posters as well.”
Good topic and discussion.
Every human has many areas where they are “blind”. That can be caused by propaganda/misinformation/disinformation but more often it is just that we are just not interested in knowing everything about everything.
In my view the biggest problem with the demoralization you discussed is that it hurts the will to learn what we do not know.
Instead of trying to convince anyone of anything in the real world I start the conversation with an affirmative statement/question.
“You know that you go can get on the Internet and find someone smarter than you, someone who knows more about any subject than you do, and you can learn from them anytime you like. Correct?”
I have had many people say “no”—they already know everything they need to know.
Those folks are doomed.
Nobody can know everything about everything, so it’s understandable that people don’t want to try.
But if you don’t know then you should just admit it rather than thinking your ignorant opinion is anything but clutter. If I don’t know anything about a political race I don’t vote in that race, because I don’t want my uninformed random choice to outweigh the vote of somebody who knows about the subject. Somehow we have to get people to realize that stupid, uninformed votes can kill this country. And stupid, uninformed talk that breeds stupid, uninformed votes can kill this country. And that’s mostly what the entire “mainstream media” is.
My understanding is that the basis for public education was that an informed citizenry is foundational for the survival of a government decided by the common man. But the whole idea that every vote is sacred and should be cast is only accurate if every vote is from an informed person. The media guarantees that will never be so.
I think that foundational reality really needs to be addressed. The country cannot survive its fools - or its deceived.
I think you are mistaken. Trump is the President. As the head of the government, he believes what "he" can do (now) is through government.
“What about gov’t? Read the Declaration of Independence for the purpose of gov’t. Gov’t is a necessary evil basically to protect a country from invasion of another country. Gov’t is coercive. If you don’t do what gov’t says, it might put you in jail.”
Yes, read the DOI: “To secure these rights Governments are instituted among men”. This is not only to “protect a country from invasion” but to protect rights from violation by those who live among us. If they violate those rights they may justly be put in jail.
I wonder how many people would be willing to undergo brain surgery where the surgeon has to follow the instructions given by a vote of all eligible voters.
“But gov’t is essentially different from business.”
True, but there are business aspects to almost everything, including government. Business aspects should support the goal of the endeavor. I believe “Health Care” enabled by the business aspects of Health Care should be the goal of the Health Care endeavor, but that too often the business aspects take precedence.
2. We are mired in Iran, which is causing higher gas prices, which cause higher goods prices. We voted Trump to bring those prices down, not keep them high.
3. After 27/28 years here, I see everyone is all about moaning & griping, while voting for RINOs, and nothing actually gets better. We're not getting out of this by voting.
At the beginning that I quoted back to you: ‘it appears that Trump thinks MAGA is achieved through gov’t.’
Sadly, too many entities don’t understand the gravity of the situation. Eventually to their own detriment/demise. 😵
Good observations. But the original post showed a problem here... a shrinking, aging core of posters attacking everyone else as RINOs to be zotted. We end up with a Twilight Zone “The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street” scenario.
Amen!
We are all running out of time.
Satan is laughing while we sit around debating the merits of the latest corrupt lying MSM invented narratives.
This is really a battle against Satan and his angels taking authority over the Western world.
Civilization is coming apart, this is being done intentionally. The Davos worshipers are staying on track for their 2030 timeline no matter what.
The MSM is lying about everything and everything is a managed narrative toward that evil end.
Mass immigration via the Islamification of the West is how that evil spirit is taking its authority here.
The reason so many people can ‘feel’ that something is off and wrong but don’t know precisely what beyond the in-your-face obvious happenings and then overlayed with vagaries, is because their Spirit can discern it even while they cannot perceive the invisible enemy at work nearby. Jesus said ‘Hear what the Spirit is saying to the Churches’ we have been warned in advance.
A financial collapse will be their final card to play, with food inflation and scarcity, to fully bring down the system and collapse it into their anti-Christ beast system.
They are vile reprobates and they have a desired goal and they are actively pursuing it using invented chaos and lawlessness and manufactured crisis after crisis via Cloward Piven and Saul Alinsky tactics. “Build Back Better” evil masquerading as something to be desired.
Western nations are being pulled up by the roots by the Marxists and their WEF planners, they are actively waging war against the West and its freedoms. They will use any means necessary to succeed. They are all of one mind.
They didn’t ask for a vote for these plans, they just did it while at the same time pretending to be responding to the very ‘crisis’ they created.
The USA is being surrounded by hostile Davos managed foreign governments. Macron, Carney, Andy Burnham will be along shortly, same for Spain, Italy, New Zealand, Australia. All installed to form a wall of resistance to wait us out until the next opportunity to advance their plans which requires the USA to actually work on a global stage. Pray for President Trump and for a hedge of protection around him and around those with him fighting to defend our freedoms and resisting this evil. Satan will never stop attacking. Pray for FreeRepublic.com as there are fewer and fewer places to go, to stand up in.
After they installed Biden, they didn’t believe there would be any meaningful resistance going forward, so they didn’t bother hiding their plans:
- Overrun, flooding Western nations with outside military aged invaders. Satan is using a “flood” to advance. Give the foreign hoards more advantages and rights than the cucked citizens, to destabilize and demoralize, to make them pliable and more easily controlled.
- Shutdown free speech so anyone even mentioning their treason will be silenced. Now using agentic-AI Bots and rewriting narratives and posts and eventually all history will be edited in real-time and even per the individual reader. Truth will become a rare commodity.
- Using corrupted Courts and Judges to decree evil things to be true.
- Using NGOs and from using USAID with its unlimited funding to destroy the West while it paid for the rope to hang itself.
- Using fentanyl and pushing drugs to destroy working aged American youth while funding the CCP invasion here.
- Dumping western defensive weaponry and armaments into the black hole of Ukraine, Iran and elsewhere.
Future:
- Crash the economic system to fully bring in their agenda-2030
- Mandatory DNA vaccines which will necessitate a global Digital ID, CBDC, Social Credit Scores and AI algorithms to monitor it all. Where they intend to tokenize onto their new Central Bank Blockchain all resources including air and water.
A future DNA “vaccine” will equal the Mark of the Beast, creating Nephilim hybrid corruptions of the human Genome. There will be no way back from this. No flesh will be saved alive if Jesus does not cut the time short and return soon after.
Those going along with it will worship the images that move and speak (TV/Social Media/MSM) and the “Beast” government system which appears to have life (AI algorithms watching us all 24 hours a day)
All of this being later empowered by Central Bank Digital Currency’s (CBDCs) which will either coincide or follow their next imagined pandemic/economic emergency, thereby creating a total control surveillance grid ultimately used for all resource management and food distribution. They believe the AI image of their new ‘beast’ government will now succeed where all the Godless Communist regimes prior have failed.
For anyone still standing in their way they will simply turn off their digital life. Instantly no job, no travel, no resources, no buying or selling without the number or the AI image.
These are all reprobates empowered by the anti-Christ spirit of lawlessness. Satan knows his time is short and he has to bind the strongman to take the house:
“No man can enter into a strong man’s house, and spoil his goods, except he will first bind the strong man; and then he will spoil his house.” - Mark 3:27
“And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold.” Matthew 24:12
“Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.” 1 Peter 5:8
“For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. “ - Ephesians 6:12
Satan is thrown out of Heaven in Revelation Chapter 12, then in Revelation Chapter 13, we immediately see a global buying and selling system looking exactly like what the WEF want for the world.
“Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.” Revelation 12:12
Only Christians have any means (Prayer) or authority (Matthew Chapter 18) to defeat their plans. This is the greatest weapon we have:
“Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” - Matthew 18:18-20
Trump reduced the govt. workforce.
“The Trump administration reduced the federal workforce by more than 250,000 employees—a drop of about 12%—through mass firings, buyouts, deferred resignations, and agency restructuring.”
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