A touching love story--guest blogger, my nephew Brandon

"I think we should get…HIM.” Katie said, pointing to one of the smaller poodles of the litter.

 
He looked like a blur of beige fur, like the head on a mop. I was still looking at the largest, shyest one, trying to convince myself that I’m right.

It's May 18th, 2013. Less than a month since we've successfully been married and honeymoon-ed. We're in Zebulon, Georgia, of all places, in what seems to be a puppy-mill in training. Katie is fixated on the one rambunctious pup that continues to do low-flying circles in the grass and dirt. He ends up being the only puppy of the ones present that seem eager to meet us.

As with most things -- Katie was right.

We named that little guy Amos, inspired by one of my favorite singer/songwriters, Amos Lee.

In the ten years since Amos and I became inseparable, Katie would be quick to remind me: One, I didn't want a small dog and two, Amos was not my first choice.

Again, she was right. It wasn't that I didn't want Amos. Growing up, we really only had large dogs (aside from Droopy). The only small dogs I was familiar with, were small, yippy, nipping dogs that were full of energy, hard to control and had Napoleon complexes. Amos was Katie's first real pet and dog, and she had her heart set on a toy poodle. I said: "Just so long as he doesn't have a poodle haircut." At that time, I thought talking her into getting a dog would be much much harder. Are you seeing a pattern here? I am wrong a lot. It’s a gift.

Not only was getting a dog her idea, but it turns out her first and only pick that day would steal our hearts.

Amos quickly became the center of our family. He was the star of Christmas cards, and the center of attention when friends would come over. He and I wrote songs together. He rode in a basket on Katie’s bike. Two years in, he would have to contend with the first born, Gibson and before that a new house. Then four years into his tenure, our second son, Nash Corbett. He kept a watchful eye over both of them as they grew.

He was the same, happy go lucky little guy for seven years. But in April of 2020, we knew something wasn't right with him. A week long stay at the vet would result in Amos' diabetes diagnosis. I was heartbroken. I was afraid this was the end. Our veterinarian explained that with care and routine, Amos could still live a full and virtually uninterrupted life. All that was required was a regimented routine of regularly spaced feedings and me becoming an insulin injection specialist.

Three years into Operation: Dog Diabetes yielded Amos’ next brush with pancreatitis. Thankfully, he recovered and with the help of our vet, he was back to being himself. Katie discovered that most dogs don't live much longer than a few years after their diagnosis. "Not Amos," I thought. By all accounts, he was the model patient and I the model caregiver. With Katie's nearly perfect record in the back of my mind — I shuttered to admit that we might not have much longer with our boy.

Dogs are the perfect companions. They love us unconditionally, and require very little of us. A head scratch, some treats, a walk here or there, a place to lay their head. Popcorn. Maybe a piece of bacon. Why not? While their love comes unconditionally, what we really trade is a little piece of ourselves. They accept us as we are. Deeply flawed, and hard to understand. And in return for that piece, they give us everything they have. Trusting us to protect and care for them.

Dogs are a little bit of us, and uniquely their own. They become a part of us. A piece of us and yet a beast that is untamable. They aren't people but they fill all of the gaps in our hearts that people can't. We leave, we come home late, we spend our days at the office, we send them to the vet to board for a week — and yet they are as happy to see us as ever. They sit with us in our quiet moments — while we repeat things to them, asking them questions in a language that they only feign to understand. Do you want to see the boys? Mommy's home. Do you want a treat? Do you want to go for a ride?

You have the photos, videos and key memories of them. What you can never duplicate are the quiet moments between you. You check on your kids, dog asleep at their feet. You come home late at night, he greets you at the door, loud enough to wake the entire house. A yelp, a bark in the middle of the day, as the mail truck passes. The sound of the doggie door. The quiet push of your office door, as he checks to make sure you're still there. The expectation that any time you try to sit down, or take a nap, your stationary legs make an excellent bed.

The decision to say goodbye to our Amos was the toughest decision we’ve had to make as a family. I have doubts. I have the regret that his last days were spent in a vet kennel and not at home. I I tried everything I could to hold on to him. I didn’t want to let him go. I would've done anything in my power to keep him with me — with us. But after these ten years, and everything he gave to us -- I couldn't let him suffer anymore.

In his last days, in addition to not eating and stomach issues, we found out that his heart had grown in size. Not only from our love, but from the beginnings of congenital heart failure. I looked into his little black eyes — cloudy with cataracts as a result of the diabetes. I no longer saw the young, bouncy, lively pup that we had known all these years. I saw eyes that were suffering — tired but could not sleep. His knees were worn from years of compensating on moveable knees caps. Knees sore from chasing the boys, jumping on couches, beds and up and down stairs. My heart, my head and my guts were all screaming that it was time. Please. Can’t I be wrong this time? Just one more time.

Before the doctors came in, he desperately tried to crawl to me, and lay his head against me. His breaths — pained, rapid and shallow. I haven't cried like that in my entire adult life. I held him close in his last moments and told him everything would be ok. That I would miss him and that I loved him.

Scott Van Pelt, in his 2022 tribute to his dog Otis, said this: "Nothing we do could earn what dogs give away to us for free." And: "If this hurt is the cost of the transaction, for being on the receiving of a mighty love that I got to know — I'd pay it again with enormous gratitude.” I couldn’t say it any better than that.

It is with the deepest hurt in my heart that I write this now. I can't begin to quantify in gratitude, and in love what I owe to our sweet Amos. I would gladly pay again and again, with the piece of me I gave, and the pieces now of my broken heart, just to have his head rest against my chest one last time.
If our lives are but a blink in the span of time, a dog's life for us is a blazing, beautiful shooting star. A shooting star where simultaneously a wish is made and a wish is granted. It is one of life’s cruelest truths — that we get to love them, caring for them and them us so deeply but that they live such a seemingly short amount of time.

It bears repeating. Katie couldn’t have been more right — about everything and especially Amos. I've never been more glad to admit that I was wrong.

Amos -- we love you always. The boys miss you. Katie misses you and said you can share her blanket. There’s not a moment that I don’t miss you. Thank you for sharing your brief, but beautiful life with us. I’ll hold on to your memory forever.

Unpopular truths about education by Michael Smith, Utah

Here are some truths unpopular with the Democrats, the media and all their left-wing allies:
Preventing a third grader from reading pornography at school under the watch of a radical teacher is not “banning books”. If parents want their children to read such “literature”, they can check Amazon or a local bookstore and buy the book to read at home, under parental supervision - just as if they want their kids to see drag shows, there is nothing preventing parents from taking their tender age children to them. No law prevents it.

Teaching “Black History” is not banned from school curricula. What is banned is a radical, pseudo-historical agenda that teaches whites are evil and responsible for every bad thing that has ever happened, thereby advancing a leftist, anti-religion, anti-capitalist agenda.

J6 was not an “insurrection”. It was thousands of Americans upset by a government unresponsive to their concerns about the 2020 election. Democrats love to say that there was no evidence of fraud or corruption, which is easy to say after the agencies duty-bound to look decided not to look – the Supreme Court, the DOJ and even Congress refused to even consider how laws passed and executive actions taken at the state level, some in direct violation of their own state constitutions, could change the outcomes. So, this was a constitutionally protected “redress of grievances” that, based on information we now have about FBI informants imbedded long before the crowd formed, the fact Capitol Police were at least tangentially involved and President Trump’s requests for additional security was ignored, was ALLOWED to become a riot.

Overturning Roe and Dobbs did NOT ban abortion. It returned the issue to the states because the Supreme Court does not have the power to decide state issues. Some states will legalize abortion up to birth, some will ban it entirely – as is the right of the people of those states.

There is no “white supremacy”. Democrats have redefined “white supremacy” as anything that arose from the same Western civilization and culture that produced the ideas, ideals, principles, and philosophy that created America by declaring that all men are created equal and that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, among them are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

There is no white supremacist pogrom against Asian, LGBQ, or transgender people. Almost all violent attacks on these classes are by members of non-white groups.

LGBTQ, transgender and minority characters are overrepresented in the entertainment and advertising industries. Studies have shown that the characters presented in advertisements and in entertainment programming are represented in excess of their percentage of the population. In fact, most minorities promoted as spokespeople were selected and promoted by white liberals in the media/entertainment management structure (MSNBC, the View, CNN, etc.) for political effect. No straight, cis-gendered, successful black conservatives are allowed.

The border is NOT secure (or even a concern for the Biden administration). An influx of over 5.6 million illegal aliens in the past two years, plus another estimated 1 million “getaways”, is simply a matter of government reporting. It is happening every day because this Administration wants it and has turned the Border Patrol into tour guides and paper processors.

The Great Replacement is not a conspiracy. Here it is Chuck Schumer’s own words from yesterday (note that Schumer unequivocally supports abortion of American citizens):

“Now more than ever, we’re short of workers. We have a population that is not reproducing on its own with the same level that it used to. The only way we’re going to have a great future in America is if we welcome and embrace immigrants - the DREAMers and all of them — cause our ultimate goal is to help the DREAMers but get a path to citizenship for all 11 million, or however many undocumented there are here.”

Crime is rising. Specially, but not limited to, minority dominated inner city areas, criminals are being returned to the streets with incredible velocity. That’s not an opinion, that is merely a statistical fact, state and federal statistics prove it.

The economy is not “strong as hell”. The unemployment statistics touted by the Biden Administration fail to note that there are still over a million fewer people in the active workforce than in March of 2020, that many of those people who are employed are working two lesser paying jobs, median family income has fallen drastically and what savings or retirement funds people have been able to squirrel away are being eaten by inflation created by the massive debt-based spending of the Biden Administration and the Democrat controlled Congress.

Inflation is real. It is not transitory, it is not a figment of our imagination, it simply costs more just to live today than it did two years ago, and the rise in inflation is directly correlated with the Democrats taking control of government.

Biden did not “cut the deficit”, nor did he create a historical economic turnaround. This bunch of prevaricators based their claims on the economic disaster created by the pandemic lockdowns that ran for almost a year after March 2020. These actions were mostly enacted by Democrat governors, and many of the “temporary” restrictions continue today, so they are claiming record success in recovering from disasters they caused. It may be mathematically true, but it is most certainly a lie of omission.
“Green” is a scam. “Green” energy simply cannot replace fossil fuels in the global economy, at least for the foreseeable future. We have decades of data to prove its ineffectiveness. Germany is a case in point. Perhaps more than any other country, Germany went all in on “green” energy only to face a cold winter now that its natural gas supply from Russia has been cut off. Sri Lanka is another. Government mandated “organic” farming was a disaster and Sri Lanka is now forced to import food to feed its people.

The GOP is not fascist or authoritarian, but the Democrat Party is. In almost every case, the real fascists are Democrats who, as in the case of abortion, want to take the decisions out of the people of the states as mandated by the Tenth Amendment, and “nationalize” them, forcing people in Texas, Florida, or Mississippi to accept the same limits as people in New York, California, or Pennsylvania, when the those are markedly different from cultural perspectives. The same in schools when they attempt to mandate the mainstreaming of subjects to which parents object. The Democrats are, and are doing, exactly what the accuse the GOP of doing and being.

This is the reality.

And this is what Republicans should be shouting to the heavens.

Childhood memories of traveling to Chicago, guest blogger

Dave Graf recalls: "When I was a kid (starting as early as age 5), I loved to take Route 64 to Chicago to visit my grandparents. They moved there when WWII was over. It was more fun than going into the Windy City by the Tollway. Names such as Sycamore, St. Charles, Itasca, Bensonville--(we turned off of 64 and took Rte 83 to Irving Pk)--were MAGIC names. Even Kings, IL was "magic" because as far as I was concerned, Kings was where we broke loose from our local area. The closer to Chicago we got, the more excited I was. I told you the story about when I went to Arlington Park with the Jewetts. We ate at the Hotel Baker, in St. Charles on that day (*)when Steve and I stared from outside the window, looking at, and smacking our lips at the people eating inside. Unfortunately, Norm caught us--but that's another story. Mom and Dad stopped at the Log Cabin, located right next to the Fox River. If I remember right, the Latrines were in the basement and there was a glassy area where you could see how the river looked at that level. I also remember a Wurlitzer Juke Box they had in the dining area at one time. I was fascinated by the way the colors in the tubes changed. Now Jim and I sat in the back seat on these excursions--and we would push, punch and pester each other much of the way in. The reason we behaved at the Log Cabin was that if we got TOO wild back there, Dad would pull over, off the road before we got to the Cabin. He would say something like this, Do you boys see those chimneys with smoke coming out of them? Those buildings are the Reformatory for Boys--and unless you promise to settle down, we will turn right now--and head over there!" The first few times we were afraid he would do just that, but later on we wised up, grinned at each other when the folks weren't looking--and were well behaved because it was nearing chow time. Somebody told me a couple years ago that their parents did the same thing!

We turned onto 83 at Montana Charlie's Steakhouse. I would have loved to have eaten a huge steak there later in life, but I suppose it's gone. We drove Past Kiddieland, in Addison, IL, a Seminary called "Our Lady of the Snows" I believe (that name rings a bell). Then right from (I think Harlem) onto Irving....and there it was! It used to scare the pants off of me--"Dunning Mental Health Facility!" Every so often, some of the patients would be right up to the iron fence that surrounded the place! The Reform School was nothing, next to Dunning!

On to Irving Park. The bus route ended at Narragansett, and returned to the run to the East, near the Lake. When I was about 12, I'd get onto that (electric) Irving Park bus and go from one end to the other. I memorized every stop and where it was: Calif (2000), Western (24), Cicero (48)., Austin 6000) etc. Past Nicky Chevrolet "With the Backward K". We'd go to Drake Avenue, turn North and head to my Nana's home at 4332 N. Drake, just South of Montrose (4000 W). And I was in Heaven. We would all sit on the 2nd floor on the porch, in the back by the alley, in the night and listen to the steam trains rattle by on an overpass about 6 blocks away. The RR was the "Soo Line". Nana's mother and father lived in the same "bungalow". We did this for years. I would sit up on that same porch with my Great Grandfather and listen to the Cub games. I learned OTHER "Magic Names"--Sauer, Rush, Baumholtz, Minner, Caveretta, Pafko etc. Magic names, and Magic Times--Trips to the City with the Big Shoulders. Maybe someday, God will return it to a wonderful city to visit--as well as a great place to live in!"

Smile by Chris Botkin guest blogger

In 1960, Walt Disney produced a movie starring English newcomer Hayley Mills in the title role as "Pollyanna." Not having been groomed, I was too young (7) for crushes one way or the other, but I liked her and the movie and I remember watching it multiple times. Pollyanna was just a young girl and of course no one listened to her, but she was unfailingly cheerful and optimistic about even the most hopeless things, and by the end of the movie she had brightened the lives of everyone around her to the point it almost presaged the porn definition of "happy ending." The message was clear even to prepubescent seven-year-olds: always look on the bright side, hope for the best, things are not as bad as they seem.

The sixties being what they were, that attitude came to be mocked mercilessly, and "Pollyannaism" became a cognoscenti pejorative for unrealistically positive expectations in all walks of life. "OK, Pollyanna" was the "OK, Boomer" of its day. Being tagged as overtly optimistic was the debate closer, your opinion does not matter, you are not listening to "reason."

Well, call me Pollyanna.

I remember Trump finding Obama's missing magic wand, adding 400% more jobs in his first two years than Obama had added in his last two years. I remember deregulation, low inflation, high employment, border control, a more conciliatory China, NATO countries increasing their military budgets, the Abraham Accords and an embassy in Jerusalem. I remember escaping the Paris Accords, cancelling the Iran Deal, ending NAFTA. I remember ISIS mysteriously... disappearing. The caliphate met its unlamented fate, without so much as an obit in the press.

With the possible exception of NAFTA, these were all significant successes, IMO, and I remember them. Do you? Do you remember Pollyanna?

Because, in my Pollyannaism, it sure looks like the Democrats are setting the pins up for a resounding Republican 300 game in the next few years. The pinheads are primed to be bowled over.

The higher the peak of their peak woke lunacy, the greater their fall when the smackdown comes. And whether it is Trump again, or some other Republican, we know the smackdown is coming hard. We have the magic wand. We have seen it done. And it will resemble the fall of the Roman Reich less than Dresden times Nagasaki when it comes.

The left has spent all its political capital. Now, it's on life support with literally borrowed money. Their only way in any direction is to double down on failing programs and lie harder, building the tower of babble higher and higher brick by teetering brick.

I look ahead in my Pollyanna future, and I see the gobsmacking improvement over our country today. I see the Democrat rank and file seeing the gobsmacking improvement over our country today. And I see us all coming together to dance on the grave of the Democrat Party.

But then, I've been an optimist since I was seven.

The Last Walk by Roland Lane

Last Walk

For me it was a poignant video moment from the hundreds we have witnessed from Ukraine in the last two weeks. Perhaps you saw it too. A father and son walked hand in hand toward a town or city. The son was about four or five years old and was wearing a yellow parka or slicker of some sort. The father was in his late twenties or early thirties. He looked over the head of his son as three or four adults passed by going the opposite direction. Those individuals were carrying backpacks or some type of luggage. Our small family of father and son carried nothing. The video footage lasted about four seconds, but the image spoke the language of this war. What do you say and what are you thinking in what may be the last walk with your son?

My thoughts flew back to the happy memories when I walked hand in hand with my father as we shuffled along through the golden leaves of a bright autumn day in Circleville, Ohio. Circleville was the home of the Circleville Pumpkin show and we walked from where we parked our car on Washington Avenue to Main Street and turned right where parade officials were lining up the floats for the afternoon parade. For me that corner of Washington and Main was magic. Great piles of leaves and brightly decorated floats greeted us along with the aroma of spiced tea, coffee, chocolate, elephant ears, minced chicken sandwiches and pumpkin pie. It was five years after the end of World War II. I was five years old and one of the first baby boomers, a part of the magnificent class of 1945 and a happy recipient of the blessings of peace.

In springtime my focus shifted to Newark, Ohio the childhood home of my mother. On Sundays our family walked a block to church on Western Avenue a street lined with cottonwood trees. It was springtime, and the Cottonwoods dispatched millions of white cotton-like wisps to greet little kids walking to church. The cotton wisps covered lawns and parked cars and on windy days it looked like a snowstorm. I walked hand in hand with my grandmother and I knew from the earliest memories I was not an ordinary grandson. There was a warm and wonderful connection with Grandma Cora that I did not fully understand until much later. My grandma’s eldest son, my uncle Mark died in the last months of the war. I was born six weeks after it ended. I did not discover until much later in life that my grandma Cora saw me as the replacement for the lost son.

My father lived a good life. He was the best man I ever met and although he was almost 92 when he died, all the earlier joys and happy times did not make it easy for me. It was a little past 9:30 am and I and my dad were in his hospital room alone together. I moved his oxygen mask away from his face and bent down to speak into his right ear while I nervously watched the numbers plummet on the oxygen monitor on our upper left. I spoke eight words and he four. My dad and I both knew it was our last conversation. It was one of the shortest conversations in my life and simultaneously it was the most dramatic and most intimate. Be it physical, emotional or mental, most of us will take a last walk with a loved one.

Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians are now taking that last walk. Much of this might have been avoided had the U.S. leadership not botched the exit and abandoned thousands of friends in Afghanistan. Now, the world watches Taiwan. Biden stubbornly hangs on to the notion of “no oil from here” and begs oil from Russia, Iran and Venezuela. Are we all now in agreement that Biden cannot distinguish friends from enemies? This might be the last walk for the United States.

 
Roland Lane, March 20

When friends disagree about voting, guest blogger Nancy

You are describing your party. 

Your party has let over 1.2 million people from all around the world into our country illegally and those are only the ones they managed to stop temporarily. 

Your party is allowing them to vote in local elections in some states. 

Your party wants to let them vote in all elections in the future. 

Your party wants to send out ballots to all who they show are registered without cleaning the voter rolls of those who have died or moved or now have dementia and those who have not voted in years. 

Anyone at those addresses could vote in those other persons names because your party does not require ID. 

 Your party wants to allow people to collect as many votes as they can to drop in boxes in large bunches setting up possible vote buying. 

Your party wants to accept votes cast up to 2 weeks past Election Day. 

Your party brought out boxes of votes to count late on election night after they told observers to go home because the counting was done for the night. 

How the hell is the party that wants fair and honest votes the one who is trying to steal elections?!!!

Biden is president. Not Trump. I do not agree with the way Trump handled the aftermath of the election. Many of the lawsuits he filed should have been filed before the election to challenge the unconstitutional ways some voting laws were changed. They were thrown out because of timing. I believe with all my heart that the instigators of all the violence on the 6th were not Trump voters. I have seen evidence supporting my opinion. I agree that some in the crowd were far right loonies. But no Trump rallies were ever violent. In fact most of the crowds were quite friendly and even cleaned up after themselves.

Have you seen news of the latest Durham report? Filings that show proof that the Clinton campaign had the Trump campaign, Trump and the Trump presidency hacked? The filings also show how the Clinton Campaign paid to use those hacks to create the illusion of a Russia connection to Trump. Brings back memories of how she paid for the now proven false Russian collusion dossier.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/donald-trump-really-was-spied-on-2016-clinton-campaign-john-durham-court-filing-11644878973 

https://video.foxnews.com/v/6297460219001#sp=show-clips

https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/594126-durham-alleges-cyber-analysts-exploited-access-to-trump-white-house 

Thoughts by Mike on the Virginia victory--and I agree

Mike, a commenter at the NeoCon blog pointed out what we should all remember about the Virginia victory:

"Not to pull a black cloud out of a silver lining but it is important to remember that in order to get last night’s results, we literally had to have the top Democrat in Virginia say out loud in front of cameras “I don’t think parents should be telling schools what they should teach” AND we had to have a story break in the closing weeks of the campaign of a Virginia school literally covering up for a rapist, seemingly out of fear of offending the transgender community.

And even with all THAT, NBC News exit polls showed 62% of college-educated white women STILL voted for McAullife.

There’s a long fight ahead of us.
Mike"

Being a white, college-educated suburban woman myself, I sometimes suspect woman suffrage was a terrible mistake. They just seem to want to be taken care of, and the Democrat party promises that, but never delivers.

Praising God, by Scott

I watched Scott grow up in our church; sat behind his family for years. Now he's a pastor with many children, and I still watch him grow through Facebook. I don't know the details, but apparently there was an accident and his wife was driving. His praise and thanks are worth re-reading.

"Tonight I give thanks. My Deanna is okay—better than okay—after a box truck pulled in front of her this afternoon. A devastating and violent collision. Amazing fire rescue, police, and EMTs. And medical experts that have helped us navigate this evening. For phone calls and texts. For prayers and love. For the rescue of Ms Paula to watch my kiddos and Mr. William for his presence, comfort, and guidance through Piedmont Hospital. Tonight I give thanks because what was could have been so much worse. Tonight I give thanks for engineers and inventors who develop safety features for cars. Tonight I give thanks to the men and women who installed airbags on our van. You can see in the picture a cross. It has been hanging from our mirror for as long as we can remember. Tonight, I give thanks to our almighty God who has protected my wife through this day and has surrounded us by such a great cloud of witnesses. Tonight, I give thanks.

 
We are headed home from the hospital in a few minutes. All of Deanna’s tests and scans came back clear. Soreness is moving in for a little while. Gratitude—that is staying."

Complete Lives Covid Protocol?

Lethal Connections: “Complete Lives” Morphs into “COVID Protocol” in America’s Hospitals

By Elizabeth Lee Vliet, MD

In a shocking departure from traditional hospital policies, a hospital admission has become like reporting to prison. Prisoners in America’s jails have more visitation rights than do COVID patients in America’s hospitals.

One family member, a professional psychologist with a career focus treating victims of trauma, said that in many hospitals COVID patients are treated “little better than animals.”

Shocking recordings of Mayo Clinic-Scottsdale and Banner Health System hospital executives have been released by an attorney on the Legal Advisory Council of Truth for Health Foundation, an Arizona public charity. Executives were discussing coordinated efforts to restrict fluids and nutrition for hospitalized COVID patients and to suppress all visitations for COVID patients.

The COVID protocol that hospital physicians must follow, in lockstep across the U.S., appears to be the implementation of the 2009-2010 “Complete Lives System” developed by Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel for rationing medical care for people older than 50.

Dr. “Zeke” Emanuel, who was the Senior White House Health Policy Advisor to President Obama and has been advising President Joe Biden about COVID-19, stated in his classic 2009 Lancet paper: “When implemented, the complete lives system produces a priority curve on which individuals aged between roughly 15 and 40 years get the most substantial chance, whereas the youngest and oldest people get chances that are attenuated.”

“Attenuated” means rationed, restricted, or denied medical care that commonly leads to premature death.

In 2021, whistleblower doctors, nurses, attorneys, patient advocates, and journalists have exposed egregious hospital abuses, neglect of patients, denial of vital intravenous fluids and basic medicines to hospitalized COVID patients across the U.S.

The Complete Lives Protocol apparently derives from the 1990s UK National Health Service “Liverpool Pathway,” which in effect constituted euthanasia.

Now we see its malevolent manifestation in the “COVID Protocol.” Age-based rationing is happening every day on COVID units of our hospitals, since the overwhelming majority of COVID patients are older than 50, the age at which Emanuel claims that a life is “complete” and not worth the use of medical resources.

"Complete Lives System" and the "COVID Protocol" are pathways leading to suffering and premature death, mainly of older Americans. They achieve the government's goal of reducing Medicare costs. At the same time, hospitals make untold extra millions with extra incentive payments for COVID patients during their tortured path to death, while they are chemically and physically restrained and isolated from families, pastors, priests, and rabbis.

The heartbreaking story of Veronica Wolski, a well-known Chicago Freedom advocate, was widely publicized. Once hospitalized in ironically named Resurrection Hospital, Veronica was given remdesivir, which she had repeatedly refused, denied proper basic medical care that could have been life-saving, and was not allowed access to her family, priest, or healthcare power of attorney. The hospital blocked Veronica leaving the hospital when she and her attorneys demanded release. Her healthcare power of attorney was removed by hospital security. Veronica died alone as a medical prisoner in a Catholic hospital denied even a priest at the end of her life.

Unconscionable hospital violations of human rights, including even violations of the Geneva Convention codes established following World War II to prevent abuses of prisoners, are occurring daily across the U.S.

 
Patients are coerced to take rapidly approved drugs like Remdesivir, in spite of known risks of kidney and liver failure, and to be placed on ventilators, both of which bring in incentive payments and create huge profits for hospitals.

 
Patients are denied adequate fluids and nutrition, as well as vitamins, inhaled and intravenous corticosteroids, antibiotics, antivirals, and adequate doses of “blood-thinners” (anticoagulants).
Patients suffer inhumane isolation with use of chemical and physical restraints, in violation of existing guidelines for patient protection.

 
Hospitals are using law enforcement to deny access to hospital grounds for family and advocates.

Patients and their advocates have been denied information on benefits of early treatments and denied access to such treatment. Autopsies have confirmed many patients died because of inadequate doses of standard anticoagulation, even after family members went to court to demand therapeutic doses to help save lives.

Doctors and nurses risk their careers, their licenses, livelihoods, and even their lives as they courageously speak out to inform their patients and the public with life-saving information. One ICU physician colleague posted this on social media recently

"Just finished a 10-night stretch in the ICU. Patient bashing and blatant meanness have taken on a whole new level within our healthcare colleagues. How can we NOT spiral downwards towards despair when this behavior is allowed and is being normalized?? …I feel I’ve been thrown into a Mean Girls sequel. Making fun of patients and families for not being V’d is the cool thing now. . . . I don’t mind taking care of COVID patients. But this hateful vibe that has permeated my world is what’s going to end my career if it doesn’t end.”

Welcome to the brave new world of government-directed medical care carried out by obedient, profit-focused hospital executives eager for the government handouts of incentive payments for following the “COVID Protocol.”

(permission to publish, 10/26/2021)

Adrienne's trip on Spirit Airlines--a trip

Adrienne who is a writer and speaker is a frequent flyer.  Here's her recent experience with masks.

"The announcements on Spirit Airlines today got me like...really?! You almost can't help but laugh and roll your eyes--and take notes!

Some of the announcements today:

1) During the usual safety instructions at the start of the flight:
"If we lose cabin pressure, oxygen masks will drop from the ceiling. You will need to remove your face mask before putting on the oxygen mask."

Really, Spirit?! Who would have thought? So now, we've got to try to figure out two different kinds of masks while wrapping our brains around being on a plane falling from the sky! So do we take the face mask off the kid traveling with us before we take off our face mask, like we are told to put on our oxygen mask before putting the oxygen mask on said kid? Just wanna make sure I have the mask order of operations right. LOL!

2) "In a few minutes, we'll begin our descent into St. Louis. This is a good time to go to the restroom, blah, blah, blah--and to make sure your masks are securely covering your nose and mouth. You are required to have your mask on unless you are actively eating, drinking, or taking medication."
My question: Are there people IN actively eating, drinking, or taking medication?!

3) "We are making our final descent into St. Louis. Please be sure you remain seated for the duration of the flight, your personal item is stowed under your seat, the tray table is in an upright position, and your mask is fully covering your nose and mouth."

...because, of course, a safe landing is connected to one's face mask fully covering one's nose and mouth!

Can we get any more ridiculous? Shhh, Adrienne...Don't ask--because you already know the answer. Of course, we can--and that's the plan."

He's mad at the people destroying America, and there are many

Michael Smith has a good analysis of the footsteps we're walking in.  From Facebook post.

"I've been reading and studying a number of economic collapses from history - from the crash of tulip bulbs to Venezuela - there are certain aspects, certain markers, that were easily recognizable before each of the collapses.

The US has a lot of those markers, three of of the most significant are an incautious, incestuous involvement between government and industry, a national leadership who chose to ignore the markers and an opposition party that simply stood by and did little to nothing to change direction.

The Biden administration is building upon the rotten foundation of the Obama years to create some real structural deficiencies in our economy and are building in crises for the future - and there are giant corporations who have signed on to help.

Electric car mandates are an example. The auto industry is killing the internal combustion engine at the behest of government. The fossil fuel sector is being dismantled - both at the same time when electricity generation is predicted not to be able to keep up with demand. This guarantees future shortages of electricity - and likely rolling blackouts, something more common in third world countries than in a nation that has led the world for over a century.

It's not just Biden, there are many powerful forces (foreign and domestic) that have been cheering for decades for America to fail.

The next 18 months are going to be bad, I fear.

The fall can be stealthy - you may have the same job and a paycheck, but each week that pay will buy less and less (that same theft by erosion will happen to your savings). You may be able to do most of what you used to do, but over time, more will be forbidden to you.

Look, 9/11 shut down our national transportation systems. The mortgage bubble burst and collapsed our financial systems. The reaction to Covid 19 shut down our supply chains, shut down a national economy and locked us behind closed doors. Cyber attacks and ransomware are in the news weekly for shutting down hospitals, agricultural and energy transmission businesses.

Imagine all of those happening at the same time.

I get accused of being pessimistic - and that is a fair assessment, because I am - but it isn't a violent pessimism, it is more of a resignation, a "better get ready" sort.

 
Better have enough space for a garden, better have a few critical things stocked up, better know a few basic SHTF (sh*t hits the fan) skills, better be ready to protect yourself and your family and have the equipment and supplies to do it, better transfer your investments into hard assets, better know where your loved ones are and how to communicate with them when cell phones no longer work.

I wake up every morning with a burning anger toward the people who destroyed my America and stole the good life I have had from my children and their children.

But more than that, I'm like one of those movie characters that has been shifted in time. I can see the explosion about to happen but nobody can hear me yelling at them.

My Spidey Sense is tingling, telling me there is something wrong. I can't put my finger on it, but it sure feels that something wicked this way comes.

Lunacy on the Left must be attacked with logic and reason

Michael Smith of Utah writes:

"I just can't get past the idea that our most significant problem is the superficiality of our society.
So, few people on either side think deeply about anything before opening their cake holes to illuminate the world with the light of their ignorance.

Last night I read about what Jenn Jackson, a political science professor at Syracuse University, said about 9/11. I understand that the left never misses a chance to crap all over everything, and it is sort of a leftist tradition to pull out the stops on 9/11 anniversaries, but this one was spectacular.

She (I assume her pronoun is "she”) sparked a major uproar after tweeting: "We have to be more honest about what 9/11 was and what it wasn't. It was an attack on the heteropatriarchal capitalistic systems that America relies upon to wrangle other countries into passivity.”

OK.

 
If you have ever spent any time in corporate America – and have been stuck a meeting that was really a portal to PowerPoint Hell, you have heard this kind of statement before. It happens when the presenter: 1) doesn’t know what she is talking about, 2) knows but her data is so weak, he thinks he needs to pump it up with smart sounding words or 3) she is trying to bury the facts in a cacophonous word salad because they do not support her goals.

Those meetings are filled with the unintelligible corporate jargon that qualifies for business newspeak: “The new normal forces us to pivot and circle back to thinking out of the box and creating synergies by listening to thought leaders and being agile in our alignment.”

It is like living in a live action version of a Dilbert cartoon.

Superficial thinking is the order of the day, and this superficiality prevents theoreticians and their audience from thinking past their initial conceptions and applying the bounds of their own theories to, unsurprisingly, their own theories.

For example, any form of Critical Race Theory (LatCRT (Latino/Latina Critical Race Theory), etc.) cannot survive critical examination of itself. For example, LatCRT proposes that people of Spanish extraction were present in North America before White Europeans, so they have a more valid claim to be “Americans” and control America than do whites. They are the “original” Americans.

We are witness to the hyperbolic reasoning of every hysterical “activist”, how every “subjugated class” presumes to claim their little slice of the pie due to some presumed “wrong” done to them by someone, somewhere, at some point in the revisionist version of their history. That’s all the Critical Theory of the Frankfurt School, the Derrick Bell version of Critical Race Theory and the LatCRT of Tara J. Yosso are.
I always marvel at both the “reparations” crowd wailing about slavery like only American blacks were subject to that reprehensible institution and the “multitud enojada” (angry mob) of La Raza claiming that the Southwest is really “Azteca” – their “ownership” probably would come as a great surprise to the Apache, Comanche, Havasupai, Hopi, Jemez, Kiowa, Kiowa Apache, Lipan, Maricopa, Mohave, Navaho, Paiute, Papago, Panamint, Pecos, Pima, Pueblo, Shoshoni, Sobaipuri, Tewa Pueblos, Ute, Walapai, Yavapai, Yuma and Zuñi and the Anasazi, who predated all of them.

And the modern proponents of LatCRT never seem to address their own Spanish heritage of conquest and the fact that South America saw more slavery (including black Africans) and genocide that did North America (actually, most of the black Africans from the Atlantic slave trade – 97% - went to South and Latin America, not North America).

The same with slavery – the Critical Race Theorists claim that 1619 is the date white Europeans created slavery in the New World, when, for centuries, the native civilizations of the Western Hemisphere had been taking slaves (usually entire tribes the had defeated in war) for centuries. CRT proponents completely ignore slavery in Africa prior to the beginning of the Atlantic slave trade and the fact that slavery was a common part of the civilizations inhabiting the continent.

All forms of Critical Race Theory deny the existence of the millions of white Americans who are below the poverty line. If the only explanation for the lack of socioeconomic status is race, these people should not exist.

When theoreticians pick a convenient point in history or a convenient action as a basis for their claims, that “theory” is not based in reality.

 
The proponents of these theories know their positions cannot withstand examination under their own rules – that is why the use the Kafkaesque retort that even criticism proves their theories, that for a white person to say they are not a racist just proves they are. It is why Larry Elder, a conservative black man from South Central LA can be labeled, by a major newspaper, as the “black face of white supremacy”.
It is lunacy. Pure, unadulterated insanity.

And yet the people who should know better – academicians, teachers, and scientists – are promoting this idiocy and impregnating our public-school curriculum with it.

People make a mistake by attacking CRT from the perspective of race or social science. Attack it from a logic and reason angle.

 
Saul Alinsky’s Rule #4 destroys all variants of the Derrick Bell form of CRT: "Make the enemy live up to its own book of rules.""

Guest Blogger, Jeffrey Verasano

Covid is here on Earth to stay. The vaccine may have partially succeeded in reducing morbidity but it has failed at any dream of eradicating the virus like we eradicated smallpox. Delta is partially outside its reach, it doesn't last that long, jabbed people can still transmit, etc. Herd immunity was estimated to be 70% -80% with the alpha variant but with Delta, it's essentially 100%. We have nothing else in the pipeline that can resurrect the idea of herd immunity.

Herd immunity can be put aside as a strategy. It will not happen. 36% of Americans according to the CDC already had covid by May 31st 2021, so it's at least 40% today. All of the remaining ones will encounter the virus just like we all get colds and flu.

You can stop blaming your neighbor because you can get it from someone who is vaccinated and masked. You will get it and it doesn't matter who you get it from. Therefore lockdowns, masks and vaccine passports are essentially pointless. At best they delay the inevitable. And they do so at the price of creating social discord, depression, continued recession, and empowering power-hungry bureaucrats.
Focus on your own health, your weight, your immune strength, take whatever prophylactics you want such as vaccines, ivermectin, vitamin d, etc. These are all about of equal effectiveness. The vaccine is no more so than the others.

A rose by any other name. . . guest blogger

To the people who want to claim CRT is not being taught in schools: I was a Social Justice mouthpiece for 20 years. A true believer. I’m not some noob you can speak lies to and intimidate. I’ve seen you talk down to parents, condescend to them, bully them, use pseudo-intellectual jargon to tell them they don’t know what they’re talking about. All the academic jargon in the world can’t cover the fact that teaching kids to judge and treat one another differently on the basis of race is wrong.

 The only reason y’all are running scared from CRT now is because the pushback on it has been effective. Same way y’all ran scared from SJW once enough people started correctly identifying it as something bad & racist, like they’re doing with CRT.

You can call it CRT, Intersectionality, Anti-Racism, Social Justice, DEI, and try to play a shell game based on public perception of the different terms but we are coming for ALL of them. There’s not one you can hide behind. So go ahead, call it DEI this time. I don’t care. It’s not actually about Diversity or Inclusion, though it is about Equity.

It’s racism, it’s vile and we will defeat it.

Keri Smith

Recommendations for alternative listening

My friend Julie recommends some alternative radio sources if you're missing Rush.

"I started following people on the back channels or Rumble like x22, patriot streetfighter, AWK [And We Know],  Mel K, RedPill78, Santa Surfing, Thrivetime Show. Also listen to folks on Youtube like Dutch Sheets, Elijah Streams, Monkey Werx. Much more interesting and they can talk about everything that is really going on in the world. Also listen to Dr. Dave Janda on Sunday afternoons on WAAM radio out of Ann Arbor. He has a great show with great guests. I was a loyal GB and Rush listener for many, many years but Glenn isn't as interesting any more compared to all the other stuff I'm trying to watch on the internet. Since the Cabal owns all the radio syndicates, I think their people have their hands tied about certain topics. I have heard Buck and Clay [Rush replacement in that time slot in Central Ohio] a few times when I'm in the car. They're not bad but they could never replace Rush. I loved Rush mostly for his humor and nicknames. I will never forget Rush saying, "Struck Stroke Smirk." Your eyes will be opened wide once you start following some of the online/rumble/bitchute/brighteon. Let's see if FB blocks this post because of some of the names mentioned."

My friend Terri suggests the following.  "Other good alternatives... The Right Side with Doug Billings (He just went through all of the patents filed since 2004 and the published plans for lockdowns, media involvement/hype re vlrus, testing and vaccin3 - yes since 2004), The Professor’s Record, Stew Peters of Red Voice Media, Liz Wheeler, Man in America (based in Columbus OH)... a lot of Patriots working hard to get the truth out there since MSM is covering it up!"

And of course, I always recommend Zuby's podcasts , a rapper and athlete, with various people in the know and in the news. Conservative Christian.  He's the son of Nigerians, a British citizen, with an American accent. 

Let's recap how Kelly (a nurse) feels about the vaccine

"Let’s recap:

I am not anti vaccine.

I am pro choice vaccine.

If you have COVID T-Cell antibodies, you have protection almost to the same degree as one who is vaccinated, and the CDC never encouraged people to be tested before getting the vaccine. Think about why that is .

Children are low risk and do not need the vaccine ( I don’t care what Fauci says) unless they have a significant pre-existing condition.

The vaccine isn’t a cure . You can still contract COVID but most likely will have a mild case but THIS IS SPECULATIVE.

The government and Health experts made many errors and mistakes with recommendations so therefore, we have every right to question their authority.

THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO REASON for a government official to go door to door other than to track YOUR PERSONAL DECISION.

The vaccine is widely accessible now . If you want it you can get it .

Our “experts” politicized this virus . You cannot mix politics with science and that is exactly what they did .

We will continue to hear variant after variant from the media and they will use that to keep the fear alive. People are getting COVID fatigue. They’ve stopped listening a long time ago.

The answer was simple ; protect the vulnerable and let everyone else get on with their lives, but that did not happen did it?"

Five characteristics of successful civilizations, guest blogger Michael Smitih

Earlier Michael wrote:  "It is hard for anyone with an open mind to look at the policies and executive orders of the Biden administration, contrast and compare them with those of the Trump administration, and not see the Democrat's total, unrestricted, all-out war on every aspect of America - what she is, who we are and how we live.

You can see the attacks accelerating, the condescension and threats are turning into actions - if they cannot bring us to heel with laws, rules, and regulations, if they can't make every single one of us a dependent beggar, they will make your savings worthless and break the entire country with spending and debt."

That passage made me think about how I once proposed that the most successful and long-lived civilizations of history have the five characteristics in common, that the loss of any one of the five results in decline, loss of more than one results the fall of the civilization. In these civilizations, the overwhelming majority of their members share:

• A common theism,
• A common ideology,
• A common culture,
• A love of the aforementioned, and
• A willingness to defend all the above (with deadly force and to the death, if necessary).

A common theism is important – to be a unified civilization and survive challenges from other, competing civilizations, there must be a unity at a spiritual level. Contrary to what our ruling class and the elite academia believe; the rise of Islamic terrorism is not driven by economic or political motives. Most academics and devotees of secularism deny that Islamic terrorism has a religious and spiritual genesis because they give little or no credence to their own spirituality and are motivated by a form of dialectic materialism rooted in their own fealty to socialism and communism. Jihadis come from all strata of Islamic and Western society, we have seen the wealthy and the poor, the educated and the ignorant become agents of human destruction. Islamists conceptualize this “struggle” as Islam versus the infidels – this is the only dimension they understand. If Western civilization cannot unite behind a single, motivating, spiritual organizing principle, it will fall. The Crusades are often thought of in pejorative terms but in more visceral times, the Islamic threat was far more obvious and therefore imminently more visible.

A common ideology (and by ideology, I mean a concept of freedom, liberty, and the governance necessary to preserve them) is also necessary. A common understanding of the political process, the legal environment and a broad understanding of the governing structure is essential. To avoid an arbitrary and capricious nature of savagery, people must be able to predict how their interactions will affect others and what the reaction from those “others” will be. This commonality must also be as minimal as possible – for it to bind all the civilization, it must be simple and clear enough to be understood by the most common of men in that civilization.

Like ideology, a common culture is required – and this does not mean that it is unchanging or without variation, just that it is shared across the civilization as new, unharmful and enhancing aspects of other varying cultures are assimilated (and assimilated is the key point). Important aspects providing strength to a civilization are the stability and predictability brought about by the common bonds between its people – Rousseau called it a social compact or contract. It is the mutual understanding of how things are going to work in society and what are the expectations of, and duties between, members of the civilization.

It goes without saying that the members of a given civilization must love it – that is to be totally and completely devoted to it. Members must value liberty, the systems that protect it, the culture that drives it and the spirituality that preserves it. Absent that level of devotion, the final aspect of defense is impossible - the willingness to defend the civilization with force and with the risk of one’s own life.
For better or worse, it seems clear that Western civilization has witnessed varying degrees of success in the intermixing of these five characteristics. It is a personal belief that America’s success has resulted from

 a) Christianity, 

b) the classical liberalism of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, 

c) the unique American ability to assimilate the best of the world’s cultures and create a singular American culture, 

d) the nationalism and patriotism of American exceptionalism and 

e) the willingness to expend its treasure and give the ultimate sacrifice of American lives to defend the ideals incorporated in these five characteristics and to provide the opportunity for the rest of the world to benefit from them as well.

America’s decline is not an inevitability; it is a choice – we are choosing to violate the characteristics of success (or at least we are not stopping those who are).

Every single one of these five characteristics are under active (and passive) attack. Given that the failure of one set us on a path to destruction, it is not a stretch to imagine that multiple violations of all five will spell our end just as it has the great civilizations of antiquity.

Sara thought she was making herself sick, but it has a name--guest blogger Sara Gruber

"After being told for years that my ailments were anxiety, I became a disbeliever in my own body. I stopped believing in my ability to decipher if I was physically ill or not. I spent the past two decades convincing myself that anxiety was the cause of my dizziness, weakness, heart palpitations, tightness of chest…

And like so many people with anxiety, I believed that it was my fault. I believed that I had these physical feelings because I wasn’t mentally and emotionally strong enough. My confidence was replaced with a chaotic dialogue. “You’re dizzy because you need to calm down… You’ve never passed out in the grocery store before so stop being ridiculous. You’re not going to pass out today…”

I fought anxiety. I fought so hard! I took medications. I worked out. I meditated. I changed my diet. I read self-help books. I listened to podcasts. Yet, I was still sick and I was still scared.

Learning that I had dysautonomia was the first step to regaining the belief that I was interpreting my body correctly. It freed this resounding roar of, “I knew it! I knew there was something else that wasn’t right.” So many of my symptoms that were from dysautonomia were attributed to anxiety. All too often, anxiety has become a crutch diagnosis. It is the label many are left with when tests don’t find answers. It puts a halt to people’s journeys to find answers and it even belittles those who are suffering from anxiety by being a catch all.

Year after year, day after day—I thought I wasn’t smart enough, determined enough, strong enough… and maybe even that I wasn’t deserving enough…

Thinking I was too sensitive to be in the heat, then discovering, “Hey, I actually don’t sweat anymore.”
Believing I wasn’t strong enough to be in leadership roles. My heart would beat uncontrollably in meetings with an aggressive supervisor. Not mild palpitations, I’m talking pass-out-quality pounding. I found myself looking for every opportunity to get out just to calm my heart. I know now that the type of dysautonomia I have, Hyperadrenergic POTS (Hyper POTS) causes massive adrenaline dumps during times of stress.

Feeling ashamed because I was too scared to drive long distances. I often felt like I couldn’t breathe when I was driving. I’ve since been able to track that my heart rate often increases over 40 bpm in this position. It goes up because my blood is not circulating properly and my heart is trying to compensate by working harder.

Thinking I was ridiculous for being scared to go into grocery stores. The combination of standing, reaching for items, and fluorescent lights was dizzying. I remember mustering up all of my energy to push through when all I wanted to do was leave. I would look around at people who were 40 years older than me and believed that they looked so much healthier than I felt.

Did I ever share that I felt this way with anyone? Never! It was crazy talk.

Now, I absolutely know that I also have anxiety. I think it would be hard to live through this and not. All of these ailments inspire anxiety; they draw it out of me and then that anxiety exacerbates everything. It’s still hard to know where the line between dysautonomia and anxiety lies. Maybe that’s because that line doesn’t end, it blurs.

Even if I had been fighting anxiety without dysautonomia, I wish I could have seen the bravery in that. I wish that my internal dialogue had been loving instead of self-deprecating. No one with anxiety chooses it. I never chose it! It’s like living in a prison of fear—the least we can do for ourselves is have self-compassion as a cell mate.

So here’s to self-compassion!

I have anxiety. I have dysautonomia. I am stronger than I thought. I am braver than I knew. "

I thought I was making myself sick – Blessings of Chronic Illness

Letter from friend Bill, who lives in Florida

My favorite senator, Joe Manchin (D) WV, is the man of the hour. He is and has been a great guy for the residents of WV and the USA as a country. He does work across the aisle with ease. His thought process puts his party's issues way down the list of importance, way behind the people of WV and the citizens of the USA. We could have a no better person to be the senator in power that can swing issues for the betterment of our country. He rejects the $15 an hour minimum wage as he realizes this just costs thousands of jobs to disappear for those folks who need these jobs, particularly folks in WV. He realizes the destruction of the energy industry for the supposedly green energy program is not in the best interest of the country and its citizens while killing thousands of high pay jobs. The environmental results of the private sector, increased use of natural gas, and fracking have made huge improvements during the last 3 years in our environment like no other country.

As we move forward addressing our economy and the country's health, Senator Manchin's thoughts will be the dominate mind set. Even though you may not be a member of his party nor a citizen of his state, send him a note of encouragement. Circumstances place him in a position that directs the future of our country. We could not have chosen a better person.

William Lundholm

Florida

Manchin says he doesn't support raising minimum wage to $15 per hour (msn.com)

Trump and the false narrative

From a friend:

What must President Trump feel like today at the end of four years of serving this country with boundless energy, total commitment to righting a sinking ship, courage in the face of incredible opposition, denigration and betrayal over and over by the self-serving and corrupt, and a total lack of gratitude by the portion of the citizenry who have chosen to embrace the false narrative of the media and are blinded from recognizing all he has done for this country? To think he took no salary for himself for four years—donating it all to worthy causes.

And now, his opposition is not satisfied with his term coming to an end. They are trying to destroy him as a soon-to-be private citizen, by closing his personal bank account, cutting off funding for his business enterprises, canceling a PGA event at one of his golf courses, banning him from most social media, etc. Dissent and disagreement are one thing: malice, vengeance, and retribution are another.