Hello again, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to another episode of Freedom's Creed. Today is December the 17th, 2021. I hope that you're having a good day and that it's been fulfilling for you as well as your entire week. But if it's been stressful for you in any way, I certainly hope that your weekend is a little more relaxing. That is one of the beauties of living life day to day. If we have a rough day or a bad day, we can always look forward to tomorrow because we know it's not going to be the same as today. And if it is, then perhaps we need to readjust and take an objective perspective of our life right now and where we're going. I used to be a prison volunteer at a federal prison here in the United States. I won't tell you the state that I was in. But when I used to go there and meet with people who were behind bars because they had been convicted of committing a crime, I would always leave the prison grateful for the freedom that I had. And I would often think about the fact that I just don't have any challenges in my life. And I don't mean that, you know, to say that in a flippant way, but if I was to look at what I was able to do leaving the prison as a free man after having visited with some people who had lost that freedom, it had a serious impact in my life, one for the better, and helped me to have a greater appreciation for the freedom that I enjoy and really helped me to sort of retool or refocus my perspective on life. The bottom line, ladies and gentlemen, is that life is full of challenges, and it's up to us to figure out how to navigate those challenges and to overcome them to the best of our ability and go on, because life indeed does go on, and we got to figure out the best way that we can find happiness in this life. There you have it, Philosophy 101 from Freedom's Creed. I'm talking about conspiracy in today's episode. You might wonder why I'm talking about this. Well, we often hear in the media today and other sources about uh conspiracy theorists and how wacky they are. We never really seem to hear about actual conspiracies that anyone with even a remotely vivid imagination has to know takes place. My objective whenever I do a podcast is to try to educate and inspire people. I want to make sure that I am providing accurate information, but at the same time, when I first started the podcast, I did make the comment that I'm not in the spoon feeding business, and I would expect that my listeners would take it upon themselves to research a topic and to try to educate themselves as best they can on any particular topic. Certainly the topic of conspiracy is no different. So I want to briefly define conspiracy. According to the dictionary, it states that it's an act of conspiring together. Conspire means to join in a secret agreement to do an unlawful or wrongful act, or an act which becomes unlawful as a result of the secret agreement. Isn't that interesting that people conspire together in a secret agreement to do something that's against the law or wrong, or it's an act which can become unlawful or becomes unlawful as a result of this secret agreement. Wow. A couple of other definitions is to scheme or to act in harmony toward a common end. Some synonyms of conspiracy are to collaborate, cooperate, band together, join, league, unite. You can see how these terms describe those who come together to conspire against other people or their government or whomever. Interestingly, a conspiracy theorist is a person who proposes or believes in a conspiracy theory. Like most people, I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but do I believe that conspiracies take place? Absolutely. Probably on a daily basis. Some notable arenas where conspiracies do take place are in politics, within parties and against political opponents. How about the media, the mainstream media across multiple outlets push the very same narrative that's nearly word for word the same? If you don't believe it, go check it out. What about big tech? Whether it's intentional, which is likely, or by sheer I don't know, dumb luck, they band together to squelch a particular position and conveniently couch it under their keeping safe banner. That's a crock if I ever heard one. These are just a few examples of many. And to be fair, conspiracies don't have to be nefarious in nature. An example of that would be the sort of benign conspiracies in families. What? You don't think those exist? Then try playing a competitive game or a team game with your family. They most certainly do exist in many varieties. And like I said, if you play games at all as a family, pay attention the next time you you square up with your family and you're playing a game that's a team game, and you'll see the conspiracy start flying, the way that people band together in a not so secretive agreement to get to an end to the game that benefits them. And I'll say no more about that. But conspiracies also happen among friends in the workplace, on the left, on the right, pretty much anywhere. So let me now ask this question, and that is why do people who believe that conspiracies actually take place often receive scathing criticism? Think about that. Think about your experience of hearing about conspiracies or conspiracy theorists. Perhaps the reason why they receive such scathing criticism could be that those pointing the finger are guilty of conspiracy themselves. So to make themselves feel better, they often squawk the loudest at other people to sort of take the heat off of them. In addition, it seems to be fairly common knowledge that in order to debunk the conspiracy theorists, the way to discredit the accusation is to discredit the one making the accusation about a conspiracy. You know, you've heard them, oh, they're kooky, or they wear a tin hat or obtain their information from so-called less than credible or mainstream sources. To be sure, the idea behind conspiracies and conspiracy theorists is big business. It's all a part of any modern-day mainstream news organization. It's a way to peddle their wares, it's a way for them to put forth something that they can control the narrative of. And it's sad to say that it happens on a regular basis, not just with conspiracies or conspiracy theorists, but just the everyday reporting of the news. My goodness, come on. I now want to spend a little bit of time talking about two conspiracies, both happen to be in the political realm. The first is Watergate. There's no doubt that all of Nixon's people in his inner circle conspired to join in a secret agreement to do an unlawful or wrongful act. Remember that definition. Well, what was the result? Nixon finally resigned when it was obvious that he would likely be impeached, and people who were close to him and who were part of that administration and part of the Watergate break-in, and everything associated with that whole nonsense and that just ridiculous paranoia about another campaign went to jail. Pretty much everything that I know about Watergate, I learned as an adult after the fact because I was just a kid when that all took place. And so, you know, I was more interested in playing baseball and basketball and messing around outside and having fun. I didn't care about politics or what was happening in the country at that time, which as it should be, right? In this second example of a conspiracy, it didn't come from the president, or in other words, it didn't actually originate with the president, as in the case of Nixon. And of course, I am talking about the Russia collusion against Trump, which had its origins in the Steele dossier, which amounted to a political hit piece, the objective of which was to bring down the political campaign of a candidate for president. Now, I don't really care what side of the political aisle you're on, this particular conspiracy was permitted to go through multiple layers in an attempt to bring down the political campaign of Donald Trump. I understand that recently there has been at least one indictment of a fellow by the name of Igor Danchenko, who is apparently the principal source of the phony steel dossier. What I want to know is at the time that the dossier first emerged, why wasn't there thorough investigative journalism taking place at that time with respect to the origins of the dossier? Hmm. Yeah, that makes me wonder too. A document, I might add, bought and paid for by the DNC and Hillary Clinton. Where was the FBI? The CIA? Aren't they supposed to be apolitical and investigate things that come to their attention, regardless of political party? I believe that's how that's supposed to take place. I don't know, maybe I'm a little naive, but aren't the law enforcement organizations of our government supposed to investigate wrongdoing or the allegation of wrongdoing, irrespective of political party? I believe so. So for emphasis, I'm going to go back to the definition of conspire. It's to join in a secret agreement to do an unlawful or wrongful act or an act which becomes unlawful as a result of the secret agreement. It's a scheme to act in harmony toward a common end. It seems clear to me that the campaign of Hillary Clinton and the DNC acted in harmony toward a common end. And even though the media did not report this, they indeed failed to report it this way, but spun it in a way that benefited a political party, tells you all you need to know about if the media conspires or not. It's clear that they do, ladies and gentlemen. I really don't care about political party. The two major political parties of our day have seemed to mesh together so that they are alike in many ways. Yet the vitriol and the allegations that oh they do this, they're terrible, they're Democrats, or oh, they're doing this, they're despicable, they're Republicans. Other than that, the banter that goes back and forth, the political shenanigans, shall we say? Other than that, the two political parties are relatively the same to me. They both love to spend money like there's no end, print money like there's no end, run up debt like there's an endless supply of money. It's stupid. It's ridiculous. So yeah, don't complain to me about, oh, he's coming down on the Democrats because of the dossier and the eventual uh impeachment of Trump. No. I'm coming down on any organization, be it political or in the media, that doesn't come down on the right, which is to report information to consumers about the truth of an incident. And in the case of Watergate, naturally, the media reported truthfully and what I can tell honestly about Watergate and what happened during Watergate, and that it was a paranoid scheme by Richard Nixon to spy on political opponents in a way that was dirty, it was underhanded, and it was it was despicable. So he did the right thing by resigning. But in the case of Trump and this dossier and the way the media and the Democrat Party conspired against the Republican Party, it was equally despicable in my mind. So let's get it right in the media, let's report it the way it should be, honestly and openly, without any reservation for what the consequences may be. Just do the right thing and let those consequences follow you. That's my philosophy. I've made no bones about the fact that I am a Christian. I am a believer in Christ. I believe that he sacrificed his life for my sins so that I could be forgiven. And I don't care if people think that's naive. I don't care if people think that's silly. I don't care. I gladly promote that fact. I don't wear it on my sleeve, I don't try to push it on people, but I will not deny the fact that I am a Christian and that I do believe in Jesus Christ. That being said, I will refer you to Proverbs chapter six, where there are actually seven things that the Lord hates and that are indeed an abomination to him. The first one is a proud look or haughtiness, which is an attitude of superiority, thinking that you are better than other people. Two, a lying tongue, no need for explanation there. Three, hands that shed innocent blood, people who kill other people, not a good thing, a bad thing actually. Four a heart that devises wicked imaginations. Five feet that run swiftly to mischief. I think we've probably all seen an example of that in the past, and perhaps even we have done that in the past. Number six, false witness that speaks lies. And seven, he that sows or plants discord, in other words, conflict. Unfortunately, conflict and hatred and negativity sell. So what do the news media do? That's what they push. That's what they put on the nightly news every single day. Well, ladies and gentlemen, that'll do it for this episode. But as always, I want to leave you with a quote, a couple of them actually, and they're both from author Gore Vidal, who said this, we are the United States of Amnesia, which is encouraged by a media that has no desire to tell us the truth about anything, serving their corporate masters who have other plans to dominate us. Close quote. Is that not pretty true, people? Wow. The other one from Gore Vidal as well is very short, but I like it a lot. It is this, he said, quote, I'm not a conspiracy theorist, I'm a conspiracy analyst, close quote. So here's to all of us not being conspiracy theorists, but engaging in conspiracy analysis. If you can think it, you can plan it. If you can plan it, you can do it.