Opinions expressed in the newsletter, unless otherwise attributed, are my own.

Sheryl Collmer, editor
December 18, 2025
sherylc@coracusa.com

I have said this before, but I will say it again to set up my point here. The power of Nazi Germany was broken when it invaded Poland in late 1939. Before that, it had been a strangely and powerfully seductive ideology as well as a formidable military machine. It was allowed to become so primarily by “experts” in England who twisted themselves into knots explaining why Germany was not a serious threat to the European continent, even as it expanded and strengthened itself.

As always with pseudo-experts, they kept moving the goalposts as they were proven wrong. Their argument morphed into “Germany isn’t a serious threat to us,” as it got undeniably stronger. European populations were somewhat desperate to believe this siren song, for it soothed them that they would not have to do or sacrifice much of anything. With the invasion of Poland, it became clear overnight that Germany was a threat to all of Europe, and they were going to have to make a determined stand to have a chance at surviving the Wehrmacht. Once all the comforting illusions were stripped away by military aggression, Nazi Germany was doomed. Yet, there would remain six years of war before it was fully accomplished – and had people not committed to the fight, Germany would have prevailed.

Similarly, when St. Joan of Arc lifted the siege of Orleans, the power of England was broken. For almost a century before that, no one of substance in either England or France believed that France could survive. Almost overnight, after that, no one of substance in either England or France believed that England could prevail. Yet there remained over 30 years of war before it was fully resolved.

When the power of a hostile aggressor is broken, it is not the end of strife, but the beginning of the decisive battles. Unfortunately, when a lot of people rightly see God’s involvement in cultural tides, they wrongly think He will take care of everything. They are not required to expend any blood or treasure in setting things right – or even much effort of any sort.

I am not worried at all about the ultimate outcome of the current dysfunctions (in a practical rather than an eschatological sense). But I am worried that the battle and the suffering is being needlessly prolonged and deepened because people are still restlessly seeking an excuse for torpor – and fall easily for the soothing siren songs of the very dysfunctional “experts” who are busily assuaging them.

With almost daily, deadly attacks around the world by Jihadists, the “smart” set is worried about Islamophobia. With violent crime rising beyond the capacity of “experts” to dummy up statistics to hide, the “smart” set is worried about how gently we treat violent criminals. With children being sex trafficked and preyed on at rising – and already unprecedented – levels, the “smart” set just averts their eyes and assures us it is not as big a problem as some say.

I have said that our first, most important line of defense is forming communities right where we are. There is more advanced stuff, but that is where it must begin. So I offer five simple steps, calisthenics, if you will, that can begin the process of reforming ourselves and our communities to meet the challenge before us:

1. 1. Pay attention to the houses in your neighborhood as you come and go. If houses or parts of them are in disrepair, try to find out why. If it is just because the occupants are lazy or indifferent, there is not much you can do. But if it is because the occupant is old or sick or handicapped, you can get a friend or two to help them – while befriending them.
   2. Get to know at least one new person in your neighborhood or where you work each month. By the end of the year you will be amazed at how your circle of friends and friendly acquaintances has expanded.
   3. Look for opportunities to actively help others where it is genuinely needed. I’m talking little stuff here – help the old person change a tire; see someone struggling to load something up, give them a helping hand; read to neighborhood kids. Do the little things you can for those around you. Wake up to what others are doing.
   4. Get a corps of friends to help you with the planned little projects that are needed in the neighborhood. These are the embryonic forms of “Go Forth” teams.
   5. Leaven such efforts with frequent purely social gatherings with the people you collaborate with on such little projects. Having them be colleagues in such efforts is just a first step. You want them to become a circle of friends. By social events I do not just mean parties or dinners…maybe not even primarily. Get together to watch a football game, go to kids’ events together, hang around the garage together. Do the things that friends do together.

I know these seem ridiculously simple. The truth is, one of the primary tools the devil uses to target people is to isolate them. Any predator knows that when something is culled from the herd, it makes for much easier prey – and the devil is the apex predator. We have helped him enormously by isolating ourselves from those around us.

Right now, when crisis comes, all too often we must wait for authorities to set things right – and hide or cower in isolation until they do. If you have a good circle of friends around you, with whom you work and play, you are much better prepared to effectively face crises together in the moment. Take these five simple steps and you become an embryonic form of what Go Forth is all about. There will be more to come, but if you do this, that more will flow naturally and organically from what you are already doing. And the devil will curse because you are not as isolated as he wants you to be.

CORAC’s 2026 mission is to “Go Forth.” It’s nothing new; Charlie has been saying it since the beginning, the “prayer of doing.” The way I think of it, in the last four years, we’ve learned skills like canning, radio comms and natural healing; now it’s time to launch out and be a blessing to others.

The ways we serve others may have nothing to do with canned food or call signs, but our portfolio of skills give us a position of some independence. Here’s an example: there are already signs that a panic campaign is getting started over this year’s seasonal flu.

In CORAC, we have four years of study on immunity, access to homeopaths who’ve been sharpening their skills, recipes for home remedies and a network of knowledge available for the asking. We can’t be manipulated in the same way that someone utterly dependent on corporate medicine and TV doctors can. That makes us more available to do whatever in our communities needs doing because we’re not paralyzed by fear.
GO FORTH every day. It doesn’t have to be formal, permanent commitments to volunteer organizations; it can be the smallest acts of caring that present themselves right in front of you when you weren’t even looking.

Check the posts here to hone your attention toward such opportunities.

• • The Simple Nod
  • Curated Info Care Package
  • The Society of Page-Turners
  • Teach a Man to Fish
  • The Local Skill Mill
  • Pie It Forward
  • Block Party: The First Step

One of CORAC’s most effective means of communication is our Signal threads. To join any of them, download the Signal app onto your phone.

Most people are on the “CORAC Alerts” channel which puts out alerts of national significance, like a Sharknado. You can search the channel on Signal then request to be added. You must be a CORAC member.

You should also be a member of your region’s Emergency Channel, which, as far as I can remember, has never had to put out an emergency squawk (thank God.) Contact your regional coordinator to join your region’s emergency channel >

Another channel than any member can join is the General Discussion thread. It is extremely active; there are dozens of posts per day. You might want to silence notifications so your phone doesn’t blow up. There is lively discussion (sometimes quite lively) and you can get a response to pretty much any topic you propose.

The remainder of the CORAC Signal channels are topic-specific: Health & Wellness, Communications, Sustainable Living, Prayer. Those channels are meant for regional representatives; for example, my region (Region 8) has a rep to the Health & Wellness national thread, and in turn, she set up a Region 8 H&W thread to pass on info up and down the chain. In theory, it should all operate like clockwork. Most regions are missing one or more regional reps to the national threads, so if you’re interested in an area, ask your regional coordinator if they need a rep.

If you missed the global Zoom from December, you can catchup here. I played it on a drive from Tyler to Dallas (2 hours) and found it very worthwhile.

Watch/listen now >

Jule Lane, Region 12, founder of Defenders of the Holy Name of God, spoke about the Holy Face devotion with Dr. Joe Brickner.

Watch the interview here >

If you’re not a regular reader of Coffee & Covid, here’s a directory to the week’s topics, full of insight and humor.

MONOCULAR ☙ Thursday, December 18, 2025
Trump’s rapid-fire speech on affordability; House passes trans youth care ban; defiant Fani Willis spars in GA hearing; DOJ sues Fulton County for 2020 ballots; Pfizer woes

NOT BORING ☙ Wednesday, December 17, 2025
Johnson plans to lock Trump policies. Grocery issues. GOP edges 2026. Jobs rise, unemployment up—media gloom. Musk backs Trump/GOP. Tesla self-driving; SpaceX IPO; Tunnels; and trillionaires.

CUNNING LINGUISTS ☙ Tuesday, December 16, 2025
Like fascism, recession is always threatening the United States, but seems to land on Europe. The Tariff Connection. Wars, drugs, and definitions.

MORE MIRACLES ☙ Monday, December 15, 2025
RFK vaccine skeptic pierces covid censorship; Politico rediscovers journalism; DC police chief ousted; trade deficit plunges; WSJ admits experts missed Trump tariffs; Christmas cheer defies polls.

BLACK BOX ☙ Saturday, December 13, 2025
Great unraveling of mRNA platform accelerates: Stanford finds a plausible harm mechanism; rumors swirl of an FDA black-box kiss of death; Epstein files reopen; Trump snares REEs; NSS rewrite teased

Jeff Childers cuts through the propaganda and manipulation of corporate media. As an attorney, he has a gift for making complex legal or judicial matters comprehensible to the rest of us, and as a Christian, he has an optimistic outlook no matter how dismal the news may seem.

You can subscribe to C&C for free and get daily emails, or buy a paid subscription and get the bonus Sunday round of news.

Subscribe to Coffee & Covid >

Bishop Strickland continues to post very moving talks and letters on his website pillarsoffaith.net.

The latest podcasts are:

• • “The Numb Generation: How We Stopped Noticing the Serpent” >
  • “A Rose By Any Other Name” >

The latest pastoral letter is:

• • “Una Caro: A Shepherd’s Word on Marriage” >

Over the last eleven months, we’ve mostly forgotten how bad the previous four years were. Or at least our memories of it have dimmed. I dread to even imagine where we’d be if we hadn’t successfully ousted the last administration. America is not yet “saved” but the worst of the onslaught has been hamstrung, and we’ve had some clear victories, like border crossings down 96%, massive tariff income and general public recognition that there are only two sexes.

In Tyler, where we pray a public Rosary every week for our country, it has become tradition to summarize each year with a video to help up give thanks for prayers answered and focus our prayer for the following year. It’s time to start making the 2025 video, so I reviewed our video from last year, and it brought home to me how much we have to be thankful for. I got chills (not the good kind) when I reviewed this video. We came so close to national horror.

Watch here: “2024: The Year Hope Returned.” Things that happened only last year seem to be from a different universe.

Meanwhile, watch this space for the new 2025 video, due out in January.

It’s really more of a data dashboard, as there is a variety of data contained here >