Saturday, July 24, 2021

Thoughts on Cuba

Why now, Cuba? First, when Castro took over they were propped up by the USSR. Then when it collapsed they turned to Venezuela which Cuba had infected with Communism. In turn it collapsed and Cuba lost again in the game of dictators. Both countries lost enormously in the exodus of its middle and upper class. When tourism finally came back to Cuba under Obama's circumventing the law, the pandemic soon followed. Supported by relatives in the U.S. for decades with remittances (billions), the Cuban government and its lackeys and apologists in the U.S. media and the Democrat party, the people have said, ENOUGH. Is it too late?

We could learn from Cuba and Venezuela, but will we? We have powerful socialism lovers in Congress and the White House.

https://providencemag.com/video/venezuelas-chavismo-disaster/  

Our media flunkies are bragging about the literacy rate in Cuba. What's to read? More Communist propaganda about how great the Castros were? More lies about the heroic Motherland? And who can trust the data from a Communist country? Other Latin American countries also saw literacy and health care improve in the same decades, and they didn't have to give up their freedoms. Also, if a family tried to provide their children with religious instruction, those children would then not be allowed a higher education and a career. How's that for literacy?

And it's all coming to the USA if you don't pay attention to your local school board, stop the cancel culture workshops in your churches and community organizations, if you don't put the NFL and MLB owners in their place by refusing to play (watch) their games or support their sponsors, if you don't go to the polls in 2022, if you don't insist on honest elections free of "pandemic" special rules for some.


Cuba isn't the only western country with political prisoners. Compare the January 6 prisoners with those arrested for the ongoing assaults on Democrat run cities and federal property. You can't even find a total because our "free press" refuses to investigate. Here's just ONE list for ONE riot in ONE city. Our Columbus still hasn't recovered from the Floyd riots. 


There will never be a fair investigation as long as Nancy Pelosi is in charge, because she's the one who dropped the ball (deliberately, I believe) when she knew from undercover investigation that people planned to storm the capitol. That said, she's ordered no investigation of who killed Ashli Babbitt, and unless that's included there should be no investigation.

Friday, July 23, 2021

Media bias

Mika Brzezinski of MSNBC is blaming Trump that Biden minority voters aren't getting the vaccine. She's blaming the people who are telling the truth for "misinformation" on cable news (which Democrats dominate). She's the culprit. No one on Fox or Newsmax has told people not to get the vaccine, but plenty on MSNBC and CNN have blamed Trump who pushed to have the vaccines developed for their failed roll out. Trump is living rent free in their heads.

Thursday, July 22, 2021

The wealth gap--again

Democrats have whined and moaned about the wealth gap or wealth inequality for as long as I can remember--even back to the 40 years I was a Democrat. That Jeff Bezos and Nancy Pelosi would laugh at my current wealth compared to theirs really doesn't bother me. What bothers me is when Bezos can buy and sell Pelosi and SHE is fearful of that gap between them. She's the one insecure, not me. Together they (with other Democrats and CEOs) pass laws that take my wealth to transfer to people who probably need a social safety net, but she and he won't pay for it.

What really helps the poor are good jobs, not more government handouts. Under Trump, real wealth held by the bottom half of households grew faster — over three times faster — than wealth held by the top half of households in the 2017-2020 period, and almost three times faster than for the top 1 percent. Now Biden is paying people to not return to work, something that will not help them advance and succeed.

Wednesday, July 21, 2021

Thank goodness for men who can fix things

I'm back in my Columbus home at my desk by the living room window. While we've been gone (at Lakeside), the light bulbs have all been replaced and the windows and screens have been washed by a friend who started a handyman service after he retired from his corporate CEO job (likes to putter). I need sunglasses it's so bright. And at Lakeside, all our 1944 cast iron plumbing is being replaced by plumbers who are strong and thin enough to slide into the crawl space next to the basement to get access.

 Old age is certainly exciting. So many changes.

Tuesday, July 20, 2021

And I still don't have a smart phone

Four years ago I wrote this. Nothing much has changed.

Not only do I not know how to use a smart phone as many my age do, but I don’t know how to do the simplest, ordinary everyday tasks familiar to my grandmothers (b. 1876 and 1896): harness a carriage horse, kill, gut and pluck a chicken, milk a cow, trim a kerosene wick or bank the stove with corn cobs to heat water for a weekly bath. Nothing I did in my professional life (academic librarian in Slavic Studies, agriculture, veterinary medicine at 2 different universities) lasted even a year or two, and unless they were digitized, my publications have disappeared. Did the student reconstructing road kill for a class project go on to make a difference, or the horse on the treadmill help someone get tenure? It was exceptionally interesting--but did it matter?

I do think education is over rated. At least higher education Did my job make a difference like the men who build, plumb and wire houses that last for over a hundred years? Or was it even as important as the commercial truck drivers who deliver food that someone else has grown, harvested and packaged for my use?
 
I probably spent half my professional life attending meetings, or writing reports, or staring at budgets of cuts that never seem to come together. At annual review time with my boss (he visited each library) I'd scoop everything off my ancient desk and put it in a box. About 6 weeks later I'd look in the box--usually nothing needed attention. Occasionally today I run into a former dean or department chair at Panera's who remembers me, and that's nice, but I do wonder if they have the same thoughts I do.

There is a new normal after the pandemic

I doubt that I'm the only one who is questioning the "new normal" for work, church and education, let alone reliance on virtual medicine. I'm stunned by the happy talk. No one expected a pandemic to disrupt our lives; so why do smart people expect there will be no more world wide disruptions or disasters of a kind we're not prepared for?

Like a volcanic explosion to create another "year without summer" like in the 19th century or a little ice age to last 500 years instead of global warming?

Like China totally in control of the cyber-grid and closing down the financial system, the churches, and their puppets in the White House?

Or a bio-disaster escaping from our own government supported labs?

Or a natural plague of rodents like the mice in Australia?

Or increasing shutdown/lockdown of Christians and our courts upholding that oppression?

Or unusual tropical diseases brought in across our border by illegals from many countries entering through Mexico then scattered around the country by plane and bus to be dropped in unsuspecting communities?

We had a taste earlier of a gasoline supply hack, and a hack of one of the major food suppliers (increasingly controlled by only 4 companies). Those hacks should have shown us how vulnerable we are, how fragile the safety net is. We've already seen Big Tech become more powerful than an elected President while half the country and one party looked the other way. Why do we assume this behemoth can't shut down the entire government, the military and the science complex we're depending on to solve our moral and spiritual problems?

Monday, July 19, 2021

Those who misled us during the pandemic

"The United States suffered through two lethal waves of contagion in the past year and a half. The first was a viral pandemic that killed about one in 500 Americans—typically, a person over 75 suffering from other serious conditions. The second, and far more catastrophic, was a moral panic that swept the nation’s guiding institutions.

Instead of keeping calm and carrying on, the American elite flouted the norms of governance, journalism, academic freedom—and, worst of all, science. They misled the public about the origins of the virus and the true risk that it posed. Ignoring their own carefully prepared plans for a pandemic, they claimed unprecedented powers to impose untested strategies, with terrible collateral damage. As evidence of their mistakes mounted, they stifled debate by vilifying dissenters, censoring criticism, and suppressing scientific research."

Sunday, July 18, 2021

Joanne Reece Launer (1933-2021)

A friend called today and told us of the death of Joanne Reece Launer, a friend since 1967, one of the first we met when we moved to Columbus. We were in a Couples Group with her and her first husband, Jim, at First Community Church, and they lived just a few blocks from us. We knew her daughter as a toddler and remember when her son Tim was born. She was 88.
Joanne Pugh Reece Launer. On Sunday, June 21, 2021, Jo went home to be with the Lord at the age of 88 after struggling with Parkinson's disease for several years. Joanne ("Gumpy" and "JoJo" to her 6 grandchildren) was born on February 17, 1933, in Dayton, OH to Walter and Margaret Pugh. She graduated from Springboro High School, received her elementary education degree from Miami University in 1955, and taught for many years in Kettering and Upper Arlington, OH. On April 11, 1964, she married the first love of her life, James Sabine Reece. They shared 28 wonderful years together and raised two children, Christine (Reece) Mathews and James Timothy Reece. After being widowed for 18 years, she married the second love of her life, Emil Andy Launer on March 13, 2011. They were devoted to one another and enjoyed 10 laughter-filled years. Joanne's life was marked by her love for her family and friends, her passion for education, and by living out her faith in the Lord through her wonderful cooking, hospitality, and service to others. She was an avid Cincinnati Reds and Ohio State football fan all her life, as well as a killer Rummikub player. She was active in church membership and attended several Bible studies. After her retirement, she kept busy traveling with friends, substitute teaching, and leading tours at the Ohio Statehouse. She was an extremely loyal friend and had a sharp wit and a fantastic sense of humor. Joanne was preceded in death by her parents Daniel and Margaret, her brothers Bob and Tom, and her first husband Jim. She is survived by her husband, Andy; sister, Sandy (Larry) Hefflin; children, Christine (Todd) Mathews and Tim (Harriet) Reece; and her grandchildren, Amanda, Trenton, Aaron, Kathryn, Luke, and Rachel. In lieu of flowers, donations may be sent to the charity of your choice, in Jo's memory. A Celebration of Life service will be held at Dublin Baptist Church later this summer. Please visit www.schoedinger.com to share a memory or send condolences to Jo's family. Arrangements Entrusted to SCHOEDINGER NORTHWEST, 1740 Zollinger Rd., Upper Arlington, OH 43221. Legacy.com

Saturday, July 17, 2021

The true cost of food--final 2021 report by Rockefeller Foundation

This report it being touted by various liberal sources charging the "American diet" or "food system" is killing us, the environment, damaging the health of minorities and costing all of us $1.1 trillion annually, much more than the price tag.
 
I've glanced through it (if Washington Post loves it, it must be worth reading, right?) I can't see there's anything different than what I knew when I was Agriculture Economics librarian at OSU in the 1980s. Except the heavy emphasis on equity and underserved communities. That's a giant wet snow ball that gets bigger with every report from the foundations and universities.
 
One thing for sure--as you see more and more stats on the inequities of the pandemic, you can certainly look at diet, obesity, and its outcomes. We were told this from the beginning of Covid that co-morbidities are a serious problem. Obesity is 1.2x more prevalent in Black Americans and diagnosed diabetes are 1.7x higher in Latin Americans than White Americans, and 1.5x higher in
Black Americans than White Americans. So behind the curtain is the "blame whites" for the diets and culture of minorities, even though co-morbidities among whites are nothing to brag on. If we've learned nothing else, we've been told blacks should be arrested, or die, or buy homes at the same percentage as their population.

If you read the bibliography/footnotes/side bars/ tables, you see enough holes to drive a truck of pastries through. This is not to say the "system" isn't wasteful or fattening, but the suggestion is always for big brother to do something--do anything. I've been reading these final reports for 40 years. And Americans just get fatter, waste more food, and eat out even more.
 
And now that Biden is in office, what's another trillion or so? Do you really think the $$ from the $2.2 trillion American Rescue Plan will go to eat more vegetables and fruits? Families with a joint income of less than $150,000 will receive $3,600 per child under the age of 6, and up to $3,000 for children between 6 and 17 years old in 2021.
"Even using this limited scope, human health impacts are the biggest “hidden” cost of the food system, with close to $1.1 trillion per year (est.) in health-related costs to American taxpayers. The majority of these costs—$604 billion—are attributable to health care costs related to diet-related diseases such hypertension, cancer, and diabetes. The additional costs are impacts from health care costs from workplace injuries, food insecurity and pollution, and additional costs attributable to obesity." p. 17

You can down load this. Wonderful graphics. Just remember the direction it goes.

Biden working for censorship like Hong Kong and Cuba

Biden is working quickly to control/shutdown freedom of speech. Like Hong Kong and Cuba. Both Communist governments.

"“We’re flagging problematic posts for Facebook , ” said White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki on Thursday, referring to coronavirus misinformation. Meanwhile, the Surgeon General, an officer in the department of Health and Human Services, released a report with a page of suggestions on “what technology platforms can do” to crack down on certain information. The Verge reported that officials at Twitter “met with the surgeon general’s office on Monday to discuss its misinformation policies.” (Wall St. Journal, "Censorship coordination deepens," July 16, 2021)

Democrats--the party of wealth and power

How often during the last year of wokeness have middle- and lower-class Americans listened to multimillionaires of all races and genders lecture them on their various pathologies and oppressions? . . .
 
Do we need another performance-art sermon on America’s innate unfairness from billionaire entertainers such as Beyonce, Jay-Z, or Oprah Winfrey, or from multimillionaire Delta or Coca-Cola CEOs? . . .
 
By 2018, Democratic representatives were in control of all 20 of the wealthiest congressional districts. In the recent presidential primaries and general election, 17 of the 20 wealthiest ZIP codes gave more money to Democratic candidates than to Republicans. . .
 
Class is fluid; race is immutable. So by fixating on race, the left believes that it can divide America into permanent victimizers and victims—at a time when race and class are increasingly disconnecting.

Friday, July 16, 2021

Let them die says CRT proponent

I haven't heard any parents opposing CRT threatening blacks with death, but that's how the proponents are responding--let them die. Michelle Leete, vp of PTA and NAACP in Fairfax, VA. So all you Democrats believing this is no problem, that it's just academic, listen up. . . It's Marxism.  I'm calling it hate speech.

What is choice--to a Democrat?

Democrats still don’t understand choice. One can have a vaccine (aka the shot which isn’t actually a vaccination), and still advocate for freedom of choice. Democrats only think abortion when they say choice, when that is destroying someone else’s body. A choice to kill. The most vulnerable. The weakest. Those who can’t fight back. Democrats ridiculed Trump’s Warp Speed, called it dangerous, said he’d never meet the deadline, said it was unsafe. Now they fret that many don't trust the vaccine.  Well, duh!  Fauci, who Trump put on TV every night, and who was supposed to be advising him, was actually working behind the scenes covering up his deeds with the Wuhan Lab. The media said calling it the Wuhan Virus was racist, further trying to smear Trump. And as they all now admit sheepishly, it most likely was a leak (or a deliberate plant) from a 3rd rate lab that U.S. taxpayers were funding and with whom Fauci had been working by funding a non-profit through the NIH. So that implicates us all, if we use the systemic racism meme of the woke—we taxpayers helped the Chinese spread a pandemic.

Also, after denying inflation for months, the Biden folks are finally admitting it, but still going ahead with the 3+ trillion demands to spread it. I saw a very ordinary steak at the grocery today for close to $20/pound. Used car prices are up 85%. We can’t trust Biden and cronies on anything—not health, not inflation, not Cuba, not withdrawal and leaving our allies behind in Afghanistan, not securing the border, not stopping the drug traffic, not protecting our freedom of speech and assembly, and definitely not with our money no matter what they say it’s for—Covid, infrastructure, families, etc. And Blacks particularly should not trust the most racist president ever (based on his speeches and voting record of the past)—he thinks they are too dumb to get an ID!

Thursday, July 15, 2021

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. 

Saturday, July 10, 2021

Which Black Lives Matter

 

One man died in May 2020 due to poor police training, not racial animostiy, in a Democrat run city. Thousands rioted and hundreds, mostly young black men, died (most media sources stopped giving totals after June 2020). But primarily in Democrat control cities like Columbus, Ohio, where police were told to stand down. (Mayor denied it, but we are friends with a black police officer.) Do Black lives really matter, and are you being told the truth about police? When interviewer Scott Pelley (CBS) asked Minnesota AG Keith Ellison whether the murder was a hate crime, the prosecutor replied: "I wouldn't call it that because hate crimes are crimes where there's an explicit motive and of bias. We don't have any evidence that Derek Chauvin factored in George Floyd's race." 

 I wrote this 5 years ago—Obama was president--and it’s still true.
Black lives matter began on social media, was picked up and distributed by mainstream, all about the false narrative that police kill blacks out of proportion to the population. But crime isn't committed that way. The victimization rate for Blacks (27.8 per 100,000) was 6 times higher than the rate for Whites (4.5 per 100,000). The offending rate for Blacks (34.4 per 100,000) was almost eight times higher than the rate for Whites (4.5 per 100,000). (Homicide Trends in the United States, 1980-2008 NCJ 236018) From 2003-2009 among reported arrest-related deaths, 42% of persons were white, 32% were black, and 20% were Hispanic. And crime rates for blacks is 8x that of whites. (Bureau of Justice. Arrest related deaths, 2003-2009. NCJ 235385) So Whites are being killed at a higher rate than Blacks. We don’t see it on TV cable news.

Friday, July 09, 2021

Twitter thread on why Trump supporters are suspicious of 2020 vote count

This is copied from This is By Far, Best, Most Thoughtful Explanation For Why So Many Americans Believe 2020 Was a “Sham” (redvoicemedia.com) I'm not a Twitter user, but assume numbers with an x refer to a twitter post (which limits size, but it can go on, and on).  This one had 34 paragraphs. It lays out all the failures of the Democrats, our laws, the media (especially), the results of the Covid lockdown, the governors, etc. which combined have created a lot of suspicion. (Update:  Tucker identified writer as Darryl Cooper. Tucker Carlson Why So Many People Believe The Election Was Rigged (July 9, 2021) (rumble.com)
"I think I’ve had discussions w/enough Boomer-tier Trump supporters who believe the 2020 election was fraudulent to extract a general theory about their perspective. It is also the perspective of most of the people at the Capitol on 1/6, and probably even Trump himself. 1/x

Most believe some or all of the theories involving midnight ballots, voting machines, etc, but what you find when you talk to them is that, while they’ll defend those positions w/info they got from Hannity or Breitbart or whatever, they’re not particularly attached to them. 2/x

Here are the facts – actual, confirmed facts – that shape their perspective: 1) The FBI/etc spied on the 2016 Trump campaign using evidence manufactured by the Clinton campaign. We now know that all involved knew it was fake from Day 1 (see: Brennan’s July 2016 memo, etc). 3/x

These are Tea Party people. The types who give their kids a pocket Constitution for their birthday and have Founding Fathers memes in their bios. The intel community spying on a presidential campaign using fake evidence (incl forged documents) is a big deal to them. 4/x

Everyone involved lied about their involvement as long as they could. We only learned the DNC paid for the manufactured evidence because of a court order. Comey denied on TV knowing the DNC paid for it, when we have emails from a year earlier proving that he knew. 5/x

This was true with everyone, from CIA Dir Brennan & Adam Schiff – who were on TV saying they’d seen clear evidence of collusion w/Russia, while admitting under oath behind closed doors that they hadn’t – all the way down the line. In the end we learned that it was ALL fake. 6/x

At first, many Trump ppl were worried there must be some collusion, because every media & intel agency wouldn’t make it up out of nothing. When it was clear that they had made it up, people expected a reckoning, and shed many illusions about their gov’t when it didn’t happen. 7/x

We know as fact: a) The Steele dossier was the sole evidence used to justify spying on the Trump campaign, b) The FBI knew the Steele dossier was a DNC op, c) Steele’s source told the FBI the info was unserious, d) they did not inform the court of any of this and kept spying. 8/x

Trump supporters know the collusion case front and back. They went from worrying the collusion must be real, to suspecting it might be fake, to realizing it was a scam, then watched as every institution – agencies, the press, Congress, academia – gaslit them for another year. 9/x

Worse, collusion was used to scare people away from working in the administration. They knew their entire lives would be investigated. Many quit because they were being bankrupted by legal fees. The DoJ, press, & gov’t destroyed lives and actively subverted an elected admin. 10/x

This is where people whose political identity was largely defined by a naive belief in what they learned in Civics class began to see the outline of a Regime that crossed all institutional boundaries. Because it had stepped out of the shadows to unite against an interloper. 11/x

GOP propaganda still has many of them thinking in terms of partisan binaries, but A LOT of Trump supporters see that the Regime is not partisan. They all know that the same institutions would have taken opposite sides if it was a Tulsi Gabbard vs Jeb Bush election. 12/x

It’s hard to describe to people on the left (who are used to thinking of gov’t as a conspiracy… Watergate, COINTELPRO, WMD, etc) how shocking & disillusioning this was for people who encourage their sons to enlist in the Army, and hate ppl who don’t stand for the Anthem. 13/x

They could have managed the shock if it only involved the government. But the behavior of the corporate press is really what radicalized them. They hate journalists more than they hate any politician or gov’t official, because they feel most betrayed by them. 14/x

The idea that the press is driven by ratings/sensationalism became untenable. If that were true, they’d be all over the Epstein story. The corporate press is the propaganda arm of the Regime they now see in outline. Nothing anyone says will ever make them unsee that, period. 15/x

This is profoundly disorienting. Many of them don’t know for certain whether ballots were faked in November 2020, but they know for absolute certain that the press, the FBI, etc would lie to them if there was. They have every reason to believe that, and it’s probably true. 16/x

They watched the press behave like animals for four years. Tens of millions of people will always see Kavanaugh as a gang rapist, based on nothing, because of CNN. And CNN seems proud of that. They led a lynch mob against a high school kid. They cheered on a summer of riots. 17/x

They always claimed the media had liberal bias, fine, whatever. They still thought the press would admit truth if they were cornered. Now they don’t. It’s a different thing to watch them invent stories whole cloth in order to destroy regular lives and spark mass violence. 18/x

Time Mag told us that during the 2020 riots, there were weekly conference calls involving, among others, leaders of the protests, the local officials who refused to stop them, and media people who framed them for political effect. In Ukraine we call that a color revolution. 19/x

Throughout the summer, Democrat governors took advantage of COVID to change voting procedures. It wasn’t just the mail-ins (they lowered signature matching standards, etc). After the collusion scam, the fake impeachment, Trump ppl expected shenanigans by now. 20/x

Re: “fake impeachment”, we now know that Trump’s request for Ukraine to cooperate w/the DOJ regarding Biden’s $ activities in Ukraine was in support of an active investigation being pursued by the FBI and Ukraine AG at the time, and so a completely legitimate request. 21/x

Then you get the Hunter laptop scandal. Big Tech ran a full-on censorship campaign against a major newspaper to protect a political candidate. Period. Everyone knows it, all of the Tech companies now admit it was a “mistake” – but, ya know, the election’s over, so who cares? 22/x

Goes w/o saying, but: If the NY Times had Don Jr’s laptop, full of pics of him smoking crack and engaging in group sex, lots of lurid family drama, emails describing direct corruption and backed up by the CEO of the company they were using, the NYT wouldn’t have been banned. 23/x

Think back: Stories about Trump being pissed on by Russian prostitutes and blackmailed by Putin were promoted as fact, and the only evidence was a document paid for by his opposition and disavowed by its source. The NY Post was banned for reporting on true information. 24/x

The reaction of Trump ppl to all this was not, “no fair!” That’s how they felt about Romney’s “binders of women” in 2012. This is different. Now they see, correctly, that every institution is captured by ppl who will use any means to exclude them from the political process. 25/x

And yet they showed up in record numbers to vote. He got 13m more votes than in 2016, 10m more than Clinton got! As election night dragged on, they allowed themselves some hope. But when the four critical swing states (and only those states) went dark at midnight, they knew. 26/x

Over the ensuing weeks, they got shuffled around by grifters and media scam artists selling them conspiracy theories. They latched onto one, then another increasingly absurd theory as they tried to put a concrete name on something very real. 27/x

Media & Tech did everything to make things worse. Everything about the election was strange – the changes to procedure, unprecedented mail-in voting, the delays, etc – but rather than admit that and make everything transparent, they banned discussion of it (even in DMs!). 28/x

Everyone knows that, just as Don Jr’s laptop would’ve been the story of the century, if everything about the election dispute was the same, except the parties were reversed, suspicions about the outcome would’ve been Taken Very Seriously. See 2016 for proof. 29/x

Even the courts’ refusal of the case gets nowhere w/them, because of how the opposition embraced mass political violence. They’ll say, w/good reason: What judge will stick his neck out for Trump knowing he’ll be destroyed in the media as a violent mob burns down his house? 30/x

It’s a fact, according to Time Magazine, that mass riots were planned in cities across the country if Trump won. Sure, they were “protests”, but they were planned by the same people as during the summer, and everyone knows what it would have meant. Judges have families, too. 31/x

Forget the ballot conspiracies. It’s a fact that governors used COVID to unconstitutionally alter election procedures (the Constitution states that only legislatures can do so) to help Biden to make up for a massive enthusiasm gap by gaming the mail-in ballot system. 32/x

They knew it was unconstitutional, it’s right there in plain English. But they knew the cases wouldn’t see court until after the election. And what judge will toss millions of ballots because a governor broke the rules? The threat of mass riots wasn’t implied, it was direct. 33/x

a) The entrenched bureaucracy & security state subverted Trump from Day 1,
b) The press is part of the operation, 
c) Election rules were changed, 
d) Big Tech censors opposition, 
e) Political violence is legitimized & encouraged,
f) Trump is banned from social media. 34/x

They were led down some rabbit holes, but they are absolutely right that their gov’t is monopolized by a Regime that believes they are beneath representation, and will observe no limits to keep them getting it. Trump fans should be happy he lost; it might’ve kept him alive. /end

A good prayer for these times

A Lakeside friend sends several e-mails a day--sometimes jokes, sometimes political comments, and then one like this. This is really good. I’ve been grumbling again about some of the failings of our church (as I see it), but perhaps the Lord is making biscuits.
A pastor attended a men's breakfast in the middle of a rural farming area of the country.

The group had asked an older farmer, decked out in bib overalls, to say grace for the morning breakfast:

"Lord, I hate buttermilk," the farmer began. The visiting pastor opened one eye to glance at the farmer and wonder where this was going.

The farmer loudly proclaimed, "Lord, I hate lard." Now the pastor was growing concerned.

Without missing a beat, the farmer continued, "And Lord, you know I don't much care for raw white flour."

The pastor once again opened an eye to glance around the room and saw that he wasn't the only one to feel uncomfortable.

Then the farmer added, "But Lord, when you mix them all together and bake them, I do love warm fresh biscuits.

So Lord, when things come up that we don't like, when life gets hard, when we don't understand what you're saying to us, help us to just relax and wait until you are done mixing. It will probably be even better than biscuits. Amen."

Thursday, July 08, 2021

Is Washington Post waking up to the truth about Covid relief

“Of the tens of billions of dollars allotted by Congress for emergency aid, only $1.5 billion had been spent by the end of May.” July 7, 2021 Washington Post

Whew.  Are they really catching on to the crooks in this business?

Wednesday, July 07, 2021

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?"

Monday, July 05, 2021

Thoughts on diversity

A terrible sight watching the implosion of the rest of the Champlain complex in Surfside, Florida. Reporters have focused many times on the diversity of the resident community, some home owners there for 40 years. It's beautiful. But when they report on flyover country, Trump supporters and political alliances in their big money making stories, they don't comment on the beauty of Finns, Swedes, Germans, English, Irish, Poles, Serbians, Italians, Russians, Ukrainians, Afghans, Egyptians, Lebanese, Israelis, Palestinians, Croatians, Spanish, Welsh or the mosaic of nationalities that make up this great country, IF they are pale or Caucasian. The liberal media only care about skin color. Not culture, families, relationships, skills, not even history--when many of these groups were avowed enemies, yet now are united brothers and sisters under God and flag.
 
The purpose of the media is 1) to make money, and 2) divide and conquer with a dangerous political agenda.

Saturday, July 03, 2021

The woke military

How are Americans served by the woke take over of the military? Recommending that sailors read books that trash the Constitution and denounce the country as irredeemably racist is not just absurd—it’s downright dangerous. Why recommend books staking out extremist positions when the Navy is newly embarked on an effort to drive political extremism from its ranks?
On Feb. 26, three Republican members of Congress—Jim Banks (Ind.) Doug Lamborn (Colo.) and Vicky Hartzler (Mo.)—wrote the Pentagon expressing specific concerns about the divisive messages espoused by several of the books and the lopsided nature of the reading list. The books in question were Ibram X. Kendi’s “How to Be an Anti-Racist,” Michelle Alexander’s “The New Jim Crow” and Jason Pierceson’s “Sexual Minorities and Politics.”   The Navy’s Reading Program Undermines America’s Security | The Heritage Foundation
We all know these movements never elevate--they only devolve. Knock down a statue of a local confederate hero in a small town park (who was pardoned by 2 different presidents), and move on to President Lincoln and a Catholic saint. It's like an alcoholic saying one little drink won't hurt and it might steady my nerves. Meanwhile, children work in mines for rare earth minerals to feed our cell phone addictions, and Nike uses slave labor in China whom we're afraid to offend. And we smugly say our generation is smarter and more humane.

Over the years, conservatives have been systematically blocked, removed or silenced in academe, so from the rough draft to the review committee to the publisher to the library, all gates are closed by leftist gatekeepers. In the schools and the libraries you find very little of an alternate viewpoint than what comes out of the universities.  Now the same is happening in the military if one wants a promising career. It seems many decades since 9/11 when patriotism soared instead of 20 years. You'll read the same drivel in every scholarly journal whether medicine, religion, biology, archeology, history, foreign service or music--climate change, racism, CRT, genderism, and America is a terrible, oppressive country. The other day I read about why Go Fund Me efforts were racist.

Biden's dragnet

The FBI has 14,000 hours of video footage of January 6 and are arresting people all over the country in a huge dragnet, but still no word on who murdered Ashli Babbitt. Hundreds of rioters have been sent back to the streets of Democrat cities like Minneapolis, Chicago and Portland to loot and burn again making minority neighborhoods pay for their crimes, and uncounted numbers of drug pushers and sex traffickers are invited to cross the border during this administration which has lost sight of protecting its own citizens.





Friday, July 02, 2021

Marinated Cucumbers, Onions, and Tomatoes--nice summer salad

It's been awhile since I posted a recipe.  Usually, they are too complicated and I don't bother.  But this one looks easy.  I saw it at a cousin-in-law's Facebook page. (We've never met.)

Marinated Cucumbers, Onions, and Tomatoes

Ingredients:

3 medium cucumbers, peeled and sliced 1/4 inch thick
1 medium onion, sliced and separated into rings
3 medium tomatoes, cut into wedges
1/2 cup vinegar
1/4 cup sugar
1 cup water
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon fresh coarse ground black pepper
1/4 cup oil

How to make it:
Combine ingredients in a large bowl and mix well.
Refrigerate at least 2 hours before serving

Thursday, July 01, 2021

GOP hearings on origin of Covid--lab or market

I hope you watched the GOP's hearings on the origin of Covid--hearings the Democrats refused to participate in, and Dr. Fauci wouldn't appear. The cover up gets more massive all the time. Fauci was sending hush up warnings to his own people, not even Birx was included, then calming, no problem e-mails to the Trump advisors. The man knew from the beginning this was from a lab and that he'd be implicated because the research on gain of function had continued despite Trump stopping it.
 
One scientist testified that everyone who knew him told him not to testify, and one even told him it was because it might help Trump! Another scientist was told his lab would never work again with the Chinese if he testified about the origins of the virus. I doubt this was reported on cable news. That "we may never know" line they've been repeating? They already know.

Democrats are so worried about an outspoken Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene who is a match for AOC, but they don't seem to worry about the huge crimes (and deaths) perpetrated by non-elected bureaucrats on the American people during this pandemic.

2008 and 2016--one president failed, the other one didn't

When Obama was elected in 2008, people were dancing in the streets--going wild--at last the USA had overcome. 99% of black voters voted for him and white liberals sighed with relief! Yet the country spiraled downward for 8 years under more oppressive government control. No progress for blacks, economy slumbered, war didn't end, took forever to get the wealth transfers out the door.
 
Then Trump was elected in 2016, and the same people wept, got hysterical, screamed, marched in pink hats. Yet he actually met his commitments, best employment record ever for minorities, Europe had to step up and pay its bills, the border although not solved (it's Congress' problem) settled down and criminals were stopped, and religious freedom blossomed. Yet, the crooks in government, both parties, were horrified. They ramped up the intersectionality, and called everything, EVERYTHING, racism. They threw everything at him. Biggest con job ever. If Obama ushered in a glorious black renaissance for 8 years, how did it change overnight when things got better for everyone?

White Fragility is causing massive divisiveness

There are even white men (gasp) who have something to say about the motives behind the planned, organized divisiveness. James Lindsay and Helen Pluckrose, "Cynical Theories: How Activist Scholarship Made Everything About Race, Gender and Identity – And Why This Harms Everybody" (2020). He exposed the bogus scholarship behind the woke movement. It should have laughed some of these authors and experts off the planet, but instead they just publish more because they make so much money. They are tearing apart the workplace, our schools, our universities, our churches, our clubs, and now quiet sleepy, all white gated Lakeside.

Defund the police

Amazing how the Democrats in Congress with their carbon copy media are now trying to say defund police is a Republican idea. I guess NYC will have to paint over those defund police signs in the street?

Will all the videos of AOC and the squad and their co-conspirators disappear? Or maybe the ignorant voters could look at the federal budget and see Washington DC doesn't fund the local police. 

From USAFacts: "State and local governments spent $193 billion on law enforcement and corrections in 2017. Local governments were responsible for $129 billion, or two-thirds of that spending. Law enforcement spending ranks behind education ($684 billion) as the second-largest spending category for local government budgets." 

Infrastructure is also state, local and private developer spending--so when you see Biden charming CNN and MSNBC with his lies about that, just look it up.

About virtue signaling yard signs

A gentle reminder. Lakeside is a respite, or could be, from the aches and ills of the pandemic and 24/7 politics. Our Association rules are quite clear about signs and advertising, rule 1.9, p. 115 of the current LOPA Directory. Not only are political belief signs not permitted except before an election (i.e. not during the season), but they are off-putting to neighbors, guests, and renters no matter how clever by half.

This poem might be a good yard sign. . . on your own property.

If I can stop one heart from breaking,

I shall not live in vain;

If I can ease one life the aching,

Or cool one pain,

Or help one fainting robin

Unto his nest again,

I shall not live in vain.

—Emily Dickinson

The so-called insurrection

Pelosi wants to investigate the January 6 incident where a woman was killed by either Capitol police or a private security guard. We've never found out. Because she wasn't black, Pelosi just lauded the police. But the truth is not what she's looking for. She wants to threaten and demean every Trump supporter, even if they were never involved. She doesn't want to look at the killings since the George Floyd death, and the billions of losses to businesses and black communities in Democrat controlled cities. Because to Pelosi, Black Lives Don't Matter. Only power, control and politics matter.

Wednesday, June 30, 2021

A year ago at Lakeside

A photo of our nation in a lockdown that had never been tested or proven effective, ordered by governors and low level public health officers drunk on power, wearing masks that had never been tested for this virus, while refusing to allow discussion and censoring science by the very companies who were making money hand over fist by keeping us out of libraries, churches, and schools.

 

Things are much better this year; I see only a few masks.  Usually Democrats.




Americans are becoming serfs in their own country.

Bill Gates is the biggest "farmer" in the country--owns millions of acres of farmland rented to other farmers. Controls the seeds.

Four food processing corporations own 80% of our processing ability, the "food chain."
Four financial institutions are buying up all the affordable housing and eventually we'll only be able to rent.
 
Big Tech and Big Pharma silence free speech and research about the global pandemic, putting our lives in danger.
 
A major, left of center podcast (Darkhorse) has been shut down for daring to suggest Ivermectin can be a tool, not a cure, not a vaccine, just like other safe medications.
 
Big Tech colluded with Democrats to shut down the only president of either party, to bring new ideas and a fresh look at the power of our intelligence agencies (CIA, NSA, FBI) that are spying on Americans and particularly conservative organizations and non-profits. He called out our "allies" to pay their fair share, and protected our Bill of Rights and Border. How scary was that for the moles in government!

Democrats in Congress are encouraging crime in black communities through defund police efforts, slogans and street riots,, assisted by a flow of illegals to take their futures, as well as encouraging death to their next generation through abortion.
 
Academe has become completely a left wing think tank for Marxists in the government, and the gatekeeper for who teaches and who gets in, after convincing generations they couldn't succeed without a college degree.


https://youtu.be/PQTbpJl2-Ho  The meat mafia, Glenn Beck













Tuesday, June 29, 2021

The definition of food insecurity. It isn't hunger.

USAFacts is doing a feature on "food insecurity." That term was invented because there is not enough actual hunger in the U.S. to measure by population and put in a graph. However, I read far enough to get to the "food desert" definition. Notice: "easy and ample access." 
"What is a food desert? The Department of Agriculture defines them as an area where low-income people do not have easy and ample access to food retailers. This limits people’s access to affordable, nutritious food."
Here's what happens. When a chain store with jobs and fresh fruits and vegetables plans to expand in a poor neighborhood, they are run out of town by organized protests from the Left and tied up for years in the courts battling city codes. It's like when AOC got an Amazon distribution center run out of her district. And what company would ever invest in Portland or Minneapolis after the anti-police, pro-crime riots of the last year?



"Over the past decade, federal and local governments in the United States have spent hundreds of millions of dollars encouraging grocery stores to open in food deserts. The federal Healthy Food Financing Initiative has leveraged over $1 billion in financing for grocers in under-served areas. . . We studied the grocery purchases of about 10,000 households in those neighborhoods. While it’s true that these households buy less healthy groceries than people in wealthier neighborhoods, they do not start buying healthier groceries after a new supermarket opened. Instead, we find that people shop at the new supermarket, but they buy the same kinds of groceries they had been buying before."


Monday, June 28, 2021

Sit back and enjoy what's great about America--at least 15 years ago

Having grown up in Mumbai, India--Dinesh D'Souza is able to identify aspects of America that are invisible to people who have always lived here. As a "person of color," he is competent to address such questions as what it is like to be a nonwhite person in America, what this country owes its minority citizens, and whether immigrants can expect to be granted full membership in this society. This article is 15 years old. Today's virulent race theory and hate-America first isn't new. Obama wasn't even president when this was written, although he built on it. It was developing in the 1980s and 1990s in its own homeland, the U.S. academic system, where I worked.

Sunday, June 27, 2021

Trump came to Wellington, Ohio. I'd never heard of it.

I was a huge fan of Ted Cruz--still am. Probably the finest speaker in the Senate. I never thought I'd think of Trump as a fluent, articulate speaker--but then the Democrats put Joe Biden in the White House. The leftist whisperer--green new deal, ya'll come and invade our country, steal more from the middle class with inflation and raising taxes, enrich the oligarchs, stop the Christians, and encourage class/race hate. All with that deer in the headlights look, fumbling his index cards because he can't see the teleprompter. Yes, Trump has never sounded so good, so sane, so practical.

Saturday, June 26, 2021

Ethics probe stopped by Biden

This week a mumbling, whispering confused Joe Biden referred to the Tuskegee Airmen as the men the federal government experimented on for decades--completely rewriting history. The media just smile. Good old Joe. Well, the government did actually experiment on black men right into the 1970s, and it is still protecting experiments with humans--and Biden is pushing child abuse by shutting down the investigation. This research was stopped by President Trump, but it's baaaaack. The ghouls of the Biden administration have given the “best and brightest” government researchers and agencies "license to use the skin, brains, liver, and eyeballs of aborted children for taxpayer-funded research."

 But Biden doesn't tweet, thank goodness.


There have been many government commissions and ethics panels. List of former entities found in the Georgetown archives. https://bioethicsarchive.georgetown.edu/pcbe/reports/past_commissions/?  some of which include fetal and stem cell. Good intentions, no results. Looking through them in the index section, I see that most authors are "unknown," and the comments and summaries are gobbledegook of academics and bureaucrats, particularly this 1975 report on Research on the Fetus, Research on the Fetus (georgetown.edu)

Where major corporations are investing, guest blogger Michael Smith

"If you are paying attention, you do not need an army of analysts or a divining rod to find water here.

Meat prices at the grocery store are going up - and yet the price on the hoof is not. As a matter of fact, many cattle producers are caught in a squeeze and losing money on a per head basis. I saw a report a few weeks ago that noted the retail businesses have a profit margin of about $30 per head of cattle while the meat processor’s margin is around $1000 per head. The rancher’s margin? Between $10 a head and loss of $30, depending on the timing of the sale.

How does that work? The answer is that it does not.
 
The meat processing industry is controlled by four companies, Tyson, Cargill, JBS and National Beef, that process 80% of all slaughtered animals and because access to processing is so limited, you either sell to them or one of their agents or you do not sell at all. Why would the meat processors be putting so much pressure on the producers of protein on the hoof?

Well, at present, three of the four major processors have gone woke, adopting the ESG methods of corporate control. Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance data refers to metrics related to intangible assets within the enterprise, roughly equivalent to China’s Social Credit System (that ranks citizens and punishes them with throttled internet speeds and flight bans if the Communist Party deems them untrustworthy).

And a good ESG score means you must believe in anthropogenic climate change. The “climate scientists” at the UN have determined that livestock production, especially raising cattle, generates more global warming greenhouse gases, as measured in CO2 equivalent than transportation. In 2006, senior UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) official Henning Steinfeld said, “Livestock are one of the most significant contributors to today’s most serious environmental problems. Urgent action is required to remedy the situation.”

Cow farts are killing us.

Why would meat processors be destroying their own businesses?

They really are not. They will still process cattle, but the meat will be far more expensive, a luxury for most – but where these companies are putting their investments is telling – fake meat. Each of these companies are pouring millions into research and development of plant-based protein meat substitutes.
Plant-based? Is it any wonder why Bill Gates is the largest private owner of farm land in the United States?

Several large investment firms are buying up single family homes. BlackRock, the largest asset management firm on the planet with over $9 trillion in assets, and other money institutions buying up single-family homes as quickly as they can at rates higher than the average homebuyer is willing to pay. Of course, taking homes off the market by overpaying for them, drives overall home prices up.
Why? Well first, these investment firms can borrow money at historically low rates, even lower than any individual home buyer, but the goal is more insidious - BlackRock and others are causing a shift from home ownership to renting (BlackRock is also the third largest institutional shareholder in the "engineered meat" producer, Beyond Meat).
 
Renting degrades the economy for lower and middle class folks while limiting their upward financial mobility by robbing them of the equity increases home ownership typically brings. This is not just BlackRock, Bloomberg just published an article claiming that “America should become a nation of renters”, further stating “The very features that made houses an affordable and stable investment are coming to an end.”

This idea, coupled with BlackRock’s actions, simply points to a commoditization of the housing market and a consolidation into corporate control of the foundational asset of the American family, their own home. It represents the loss of individual control of another asset class and a created dependence on corporations for the most basic of needs, shelter.

Now, add to that the control over media and the fact the Internet Overlords and Social Media Commissars have become agents of the federal government and the Democrat Party, and you have a pretty good idea of where the corporations and the big investors think we are going.

Biden's government continues its radical eco-agenda. Aside from being implicated tree spiking in the Pacific Northwest, an ecoterrorist act, and support for government enforced population control, Biden's horrific nominee to run the Bureau of Land Management, Tracy Stone-Manning, is notoriously anti-cattle grazing rights on federal lands. In her graduate thesis, Stone-Manning wrote:

"The origin of our abuses is us. If there were fewer of us, we would have less impact. We must consume less, and more importantly, we must breed fewer consuming humans."

The thesis also goes on to claim that cattle grazing on public lands is "destroying the West."
While not busying himself with mumbling incoherently, creepily whispering to reporters and lying about the Constitution, Dementia Joe is shutting down pipeline construction and cutting off oil leases on public lands.

What could go wrong?

Pick any dystopian novel or movie production – Blade Runner, Alien, Fahrenheit 451, Soylent Green, even The Fifth Element – all feature a future managed and controlled by marriages between corporations and governments and people dependent upon that unholy marriage for housing and sustenance.
 
This is a future being created today in the boardrooms and halls of government - and a one that is entirely avoidable.

They say science fiction will become science fact.

Let us hope not.

Remember – Soylent Green is people."

*     *    *

Glenn Beck has also done extensive research on the problem,  https://youtu.be/PQTbpJl2-Ho  seeing it as an extension of the Obama fundamental transformation.  The great reset.




Friday, June 25, 2021

BLM nominee wants to limit your family size

"Tracy Stone-Manning, President Joe Biden’s nominee to head the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), once wrote that Americans “breed” too much, called American children “environmental hazards,” and stated that U.S. citizens should stop “at one or two kids” for the sake of the environment." (Catholic vote, via The Loop)

Our birth rate is below replacement, so we've got a nominee who wants even more reasons to import low income immigrants to do the bidding of rich, government and hi-tech plutocrats?

A comment on this story by Bill M.: "I have 6 kids. Had my wife and I stopped at 2, the world would have missed out on an environmental biologist, a food quality manager, a nurse practitioner and a biomedical engineer. All have impacted the world positively! I guess the first 2, an epidemiologist and a chemical engineer would have be OK." 

Usually these "save the planet" folks are all for aborting black and brown babies.

Clay Travis and Buck Sexton show--in Rush's time slot


I had my first opportunity to listen to https://clayandbuck.com/ show the last 2 days. On 610 am in Columbus they are in the Rush Limbaugh time slot--noon to 3 p.m. I'd never heard of Clay, but have followed Buck off and on since he was a regular on the Glenn Beck show years ago. Good topics--not news of course, but clearly stated to be their opinion. At CNN and MSNBC you get opinion shows, "hate America shows," "excuse the Bidens all their crimes shows" which are called news. Bad idea.

But I am a tad concerned about Buck's speech in this format. I don't know if he's speaking faster than usual because there are 2 of them and it's conversation, or if he's got a loose tooth. His formerly very precise and careful speech is sounding squishy. It's the sibilant sounds--anything with an S sound, see, say, first, or with some letter c words like, place, which seems to be an orphan without its own sound. Some consonant blends also sound slurpy to my ear.

Maybe it's my imagination, but I think when two speakers are very close in sound (they both are very deep), they are difficult to distinguish in radio format. Red Eye Radio, which is a talk show for truckers in Texas, with Eric Harley and Gary McNamara, has the same format, and I can't tell the two of them apart.

Wednesday, June 23, 2021

The voter ID bill could actually hurt--we have a history

Senate Republicans blocked an election overhaul bill favored by Democrats. The party-line vote was 50-50, ten votes shy of the 60 votes needed to break the filibuster and advance the legislation, which would ban voter ID requirements and enable ballot harvesting. (The Loop)
All voters, but particularly blacks, should be very cautious about any government program intended to protect their vote or push ahead their community.
 
How did those free-ways through your neighborhoods in the 1950s work out for you and your businesses?
 
Did knocking down old buildings in your neighborhoods and building high rise slums really benefit your communities' safety, spirit, and health?
 
What did school integration do for your students when black teachers were moved to white districts so white kids could be exposed to successful adult blacks?
 
And how about all the wealth transfer programs that keep you on Medicaid and in Section 8 housing because you would lose benefits if you tried to advance?
 
What about all the federal and state aid that have pushed dads out of the home--are your young men stronger or have they just joined gangs?
 
And have you really benefitted from all these full of fluff and fat administrative departments for D.I.E. (diversity, inclusion, equity) so universities and companies can brag about their POC percentages (all clustered in HR).
 
Do programs, policies and award shows for millionaire blacks that focus on race really help you reach your goals in the middle quintile?
Racism hurt us all in the past, and the neo-racism that focuses on color rather than character and skill (white fragility books, reeducation camps, CRT, BLM, the squad, etc. all funded by whites) won't be any better. By weakening the country through more socialism, it could be worse.

Monday, June 21, 2021

Biden and the Bishops

President Biden said he doesn't think the U.S. bishops will deny Holy Communion to him or other pro-abortion Catholic politicians. And for once, I agree with Biden--not that he's doing to the right thing by violating both church law and the dignity of the most powerless and poor, but that the Bishops will cave to the demands of the world. We'll have to let Jesus sort this out on Judgement Day.

Saturday, June 19, 2021

A poem about Lakeside

We'll be putting our Lakeside house on the market soon (turn key) so I'm removing personal items. Came across this poem about our Lake Erie written on a dinner napkin (probably the Patio) by a guest, which my husband matted and framed. Duke taught a poetry class at the Rhein Center, and he and Bob went to high school together.

The lake swells and drops
In rolling rhythm
As the morning sun announces
The beginning of a new day.

Reflections of sunrise
Glisten in the water
As my eyes divert to keep
The brightness at bay.

Only the artist can capture
This spectacle of light and water
On a morning like this in a
Place as inviting as Lakeside.

Duke Thomas Low 7-13-07

Friday, June 18, 2021

Bad stuff in Fulton County, Georgia and in Michigan and Arizona

 MAJOR SCANDAL BREWING: 'Just the News' Investigation Finds More than 100 Batches of Absentee Ballots in Fulton County Could Be Missing (thegatewaypundit.com)

https://americasvoice.news/video/panRMiFEBJjrmeL

Georgia investigator's notes reveal 'massive' election integrity problems in Atlanta | Just The News

Georgia audit documents expose significant election failures in state’s largest county. Records suggest more than 100 batches of absentee ballots in Fulton County could be missing. | Just The News


Hundreds of people concerned about the integrity of the Nov. 2020 election gathered outside the Michigan Capitol Thursday to protest and deliver roughly 7,000 affidavits claiming fraud and demanding a forensic audit.

Mike Huckabee said in his newsletter of June 18, "Let’s go to Maricopa County, Arizona, where the forensic examination phase of that audit is going on, with the end of this month being the target for completion. CNN reported that ballots are being trucked to a lab in Montana for analysis and showed aerial video of the remote, private land it allegedly was on. “Is this the secure, private laboratory?” CNN’s Gary Tuchman asked. “Is Arizona voting data inside that cabin? We just don’t know –- but it could be.”

According to Ken Bennett, spokesman for the audit, the voting system data is being reviewed by subcontractor CyFIR. He says he doesn’t know where this lab is, which is causing CNN to report it as a big secret and to imply that the data might be non-secure and compromised in some way. They say CyFIR CEO Ben Cotton has taken data from Arizona to Montana. But Bennett speaks more precisely, saying Cotton has a COPY of the data created by Dominion from the hard drives and servers that Maricopa County used in the election. “The original data was left completely intact,” Bennett says. https://thefederalistpapers.org/us/arizona-audit-data-taken-secret-lab-rural-montana-analysis

Tuesday, June 15, 2021

Great Reset: Housing Shortage EXPOSED (2021)

 Last year we sold our son's house in Canal Winchester, Ohio.  We noticed then the demand for housing, and I became aware of the large real estate groups (to whom we didn't sell, at least I don't think we did).  Then later I became aware of the vast amounts of wealth that was made during and because of the pandemic.  Is private property coming to and end?

https://youtu.be/-CESSiPk6qs  Video on real estate values, super wealth, "reset," and global economy by "Man in America."

It's a hard life at Lakeside Chautauqua



Some days at Lakeside are not so lazy, but I'll still fit in time for a nap.
7 am: Walk along the lakefront.
8 am: Bob meets the Guys Club at the Patio for breakfast.
9 am: Preacher's hour Rev. Thom Shafer, Steele Memorial
8:30-noon: Farmer's Market at Old Schoolhouse
10:30: Taste of Lakeside, Blue Bird Cafe at Walnut Plaza
1-2 pm: Women's Club opening, Green Gables
Noon-3 p.m. Taste of Lakeside, B n B tour
5 ish: Supper with the Kullbergs at the Patio Restaurant
7:30: Vespers with Rev. Shafer
It's a tough life, but someone has to do it.

Monday, June 14, 2021

Another ZOOM group

 I participated in yet another ZOOM group at 4 p.m.  This is a writer's group, and if you're accustomed to ZOOM meetings, I think it works well.  The "facilitator" is Martha (Marti) who lives just a few doors south of me at Lakeside and is a published novelist.  She's been teaching at Lakeside's Rhein Center for many years, and last year because of the pandemic her group developed on line. I took her class many years ago and really enjoyed it.  This year, I was invited to join this group, although I haven't done much creative writing for many years.  Blogging and posting on Facebook are not usually creative--I just let off steam. I think there were 9 of us including Marti, 5 of whom I already knew. They are speaking/writing from Michigan, Toledo, Columbus, Florida and of course, Lakeside. 

Marti suggested a topic--writing a letter to someone, alive or dead--if we already weren't working on some thing.  Two of the women are working on novels, so they proceeded with that. I wrote a letter to our son, Phil, who died in April 2020 about music, his big love.  Then we all shared our writings after 30 minutes and commented on each others efforts.  That's something I need to really work on.  Being positive and supportive is what makes any writing group work.  The whole point is to keep writing, not perfection.  It's so easy for me to spot the flaws or the gap.  I'll work on being more supportive.

Saturday, June 12, 2021

Criminals have stolen Covid19 assistance money--$400 Billion

According to WSJ referring to an Axios report, criminals have absconded with large amounts of the Covid money. Shock and awe!

"Blake Hall, CEO of ID.me, a service that tries to prevent this kind of fraud, tells Axios that America has lost more than $400 billion to fraudulent claims. As much as 50% of all unemployment monies might have been stolen, he says.

Haywood Talcove, the CEO of LexisNexis Risk Solutions, estimates that at least 70% of the money stolen by impostors ultimately left the country, much of it ending up in the hands of criminal syndicates in China, Nigeria, Russia and elsewhere."

Friday, June 11, 2021

Black households under Trump



How did black Americans fare under that mean, racist, Republican tweeting president?

"Black median household income in 2019 increased 7.9%, the largest on record and, per American Enterprise Institute economist Mark Perry, “almost nine times the average annual increase of 0.90% over the last half-century.”
 
Moreover, in 2019, 29.4% of black households had income of $75,000 or more, compared with 28.7% of black households that had income of $25,000 or less. This was the first time, ever, that the percentage of high-income black households exceeded the percentage of low-income black households."

You can see why the academics and leftist politicians are frantically trying to convince the nation through CRT in the schools, their lap dog woke corporations and the planned rioting of BLM that there is no hope for black America unless whites are demeaned and destroyed. They must make black Americans perpetual victims, hopeless and helpless without the protection of a "benign" Democrat controlled government. Yet who is it who gave them the KKK, Jim Crow, and fatherless homes from the War on Poverty? The Democrats in government.

You won't convince your Democrat friends with emotion or yelling. Try some facts. Money isn't everything, but since they want to portray blacks as po' folk trapped in the ghetto, let's check it out. 

Tuesday, June 08, 2021

A book friend goes home, Jean Ives

I knew Jean only casually before I retired from Ohio State, but got to know her better after 2000 when we were both in the same book club. She was always prepared and added a lot to our knowledge. I think she was the one who brought Maisie Dobbs to our book club, and my husband read the first in the mystery series and he's read them all since then. Maisie became a regular fixture for our summer porch reading.

Ives, Jean Ellen, 1934 - 2021

Confident of her destination, Jean Ives went to her heavenly home on March 31, 2021. Preceding her in death were her parents Burt and Mary Seldon, and sister Ann Williams. Her surviving family include her husband, David; her children, Eric Ives and Laura (Lino) Lino; along with granddaughters, Luciana and Isabella Lino and Kaylee and Jessa Ives; and great-granddaughter, Keilana Lewis. Jean was a founding member and actively involved in Bethel Presbyterian Church as an elder and teacher in the Bethel Series bible course, among many other activities. Jean attended Bethel College and the University of Minnesota, and earned her MS at Kent State U. Always open to new challenges, she also earned Para-legal certification from Capital University Law School, and the CPCU Insurance designation. She served as librarian for the Griffith Insurance Library for 15 years and worked in the main OSU library for the remainder of her career. Jean was an avid reader, particularly of mystery novels, and also enjoyed symphony and jazz concerts and travel. A Celebration of Jean's life will be on June 12 at Bethel Presbyterian Church, 1735 Bethel Rd, at 11 am, with visitation the previous hour. Memorial gifts in Jean's name may be made to Bethel Presbyterian Church.

Our new washer has arrived

 Our new washing machine, an Amana, was delivered this morning. The 40 year old Kenmore was great--best I've ever had--but sprung a leak our first week here, and who has a part? Now we'll have to hire a plumber (who weighs less than 120 lbs), because the hook up is spliced and diced and the drain pipe opening is near the ceiling. A second home has all the appliances that fail in the other home, but only about 1/5 of the living time. In the last two years I've replaced the oven, the dryer and the washer. The new owner will enjoy them.

Health equity?

Demands for "health equity" for racial and ethnic groups is a push for more government control. The CDC reported in 2014 that the 5 top causes of death were diseases primarily of personal behavior, 1) diseases of the heart, 2) cancer, 3) chronic lower respiratory diseases, 4) cerebrovascular diseases (stroke), and 5) unintentional injuries. These are most often a result of obesity, smoking, drinking, drugs, lack of exercise and other risky behavior. HIV rates are still very high among young black men who have sex with men, and CDC says risk factors are poverty, high rates of unemployment, and cultural stigmas. Doesn't mention risky sex. I'm no doctor or researcher, but any poor, unemployed man who doesn't have sex with men will not be at risk for HIV.  The costs of unintentional injuries are huge--motor vehicle, drugs, suicide,  work, falls. The burden on employers and society in general runs in the billions of dollars annually. . . $1,097.9 billion 

JAMA editor not woke enough?

I have no horse in this race--but JAMA is a journal I read often and is frequently quoted in the media.
"Mike Davis, founder and president of Unsilenced Majority, today released the following statement regarding the firing of Dr. Howard Bauchner, the editor-in-chief of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). 
“You would think that in the middle of a pandemic, the Journal of the American Medical Association would be focused more on its medical reporting and less on woke nonsense, but you’d be wrong. The firing of its top editor speaks to the priorities that have infected so many of our institutions: feelings, not facts; tone, not substance. Unfortunately, while our leaders in government, science, media and technology dedicate their attention to assuaging the woke mob, the advantages we have as a country are deteriorating. Scientists’ only concern should be science. Journalists’ only concern should be journalism. Educators’ only concern should be education. THE MORE WE GIVE INTO THE NOTION THAT IT'S ACCEPTABLE AND EVEN EXPECTED TO CANCEL THOSE WHO DEVIATE FROM WOKE ORTHODOXY, THE MORE WE'RE SETTING OURSELVES UP FOR DIVISION AND FAILURE. JAMA should rescind its unfair and ridiculous politically-motivated firing of its top editor immediately.”
The editorial policies have been pretty liberal for years, but with "structural racism," we're dealing with a religious cult and one of the underlings insulted the most high goddess and denied her awesomeness and truthiness in a podcast. Dr. Bauchner groveled and apologized (my interpretation of reading about it in our unbiased news like CNN and NYT), but that goddess has no mercy in this religion.

Monday, June 07, 2021

The entrepreneur

Met a young entrepreneur today in Lakeside. He's opened a shop of "vintage" sports wear. Used t-shirts, jeans and athletic logo clothes from the 80s and 90s. Although I have clothes older than he, it was great to see the ambition. He "sources" his own stuff by going to yard sales and resale shops. If Jeff Bezos goes into space, this guy has his feet planted firmly on the ground.

Sunday, June 06, 2021

Returning to normal

Here at Lakeside, Ohio, things look pretty close to normal. Hand shaking and hugs. Very few masks. Several programs inside Hoover Auditorium due to bad weather (but that's a start). Restaurants with normal seating. The dock is closed but that's because of a 2 day storm with 9' waves that possibly damaged it and threw benches and light poles into Lake Erie.

  
It was beautiful but strange last night.  Gorgeous sunset and no one on the dock which has been declared unsafe because of the storm a week ago.  I've never seen this before.


Transgender athletes

The Gallup poll asked Americans: “Do you think transgender athletes should be able to play on sports teams that match their current gender identity (or) should only be allowed to play on sports teams that match their birth gender?”⠀

A massive majority (62%-34%) of American adults said transgender athletes should only be allowed to play on teams that match their biological sex (“birth gender”).

Saturday, June 05, 2021

How is deplatforming different than any other discrimination?

Our internet was out this morning so I was watching via antenna a Detroit station which featured a story about a local civil rights legend. There was film of her (now deceased) retelling her story of being denied service at a recreation park (or something public) because of her skin color. It reminded me of Big Tech denying President Trump service any Democrat, anarchist or Palestinian terrorist can have because he exposes the swamp and collusion with oligarchs which threatens them.
Wall Street Journal: "Facebook Inc. said it is suspending Donald Trump’s accounts for two years, formalizing a long-term penalty for the former U.S. president after its independent Oversight Board said the company was wrong to keep the ban open-ended. 
Facebook said it would revisit the suspension two years from the date of its initial move to suspend him on Jan. 7, the day after the riot at the U.S. Capitol. Assuming he is then reinstated, Mr. Trump will face a “strict set of rapidly escalating sanctions” if he commits further violations, including permanent removal of his pages and accounts, the company said. 
Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has previously expressed a desire to run an open platform enabling free speech. So much for that. This latest decision to attempt to edit U.S. political speech means many more editing decisions await. The Journal reporters note:
In responding to the board’s criticism, Facebook also opens the door for more, as the company will now be required to make more subjective decisions on whether posts from political figures violate its rules surrounding misinformation, hate speech and other issues that are hotly debated. Those judgment calls are likely to escalate partisan complaints around whether the company is being fair in how it applies the rules.
Will Facebook now ban Dr. Anthony Fauci and other scientists who dismissed the idea of a laboratory origin for Covid-19 in 2020?"

Friday, June 04, 2021

Checking through old exercise blogs

 I used to be in an exercise blogging group, Exercising through the Church Year (40days40miles.blogspot.com).  I never met any of the women, and by 2015 there were only 2 of us still writing, and then only once or twice a year, so it sort of died a natural death.  Since I didn't establish the blog, I only contributed, I can't delete it!  But today I was browsing through some of things I'd written about exercise and weight loss or exercise and osteoporosis, and I clicked on one of the other women in the group, Michelle Francl-Donnay.  Found out that although she never said much in our group, she is a writer--a science writer in chemistry. Tracked her down and see she also writes for the Vatican.  Here's an interview  Unlocking the Mysteries of the Universe: Molecules, Particles and People - ideaXme (radioideaxme.com)  She's had an interesting life.

Science Writing | Michelle Francl-Donnay (michellefrancldonnay.com)

Speaking of exercise, I did pretty good today.  I did 6 miles at the wellness center here in Lakeside, and 2 additional miles walking.  It's partly cloudy, but has warmed up some.  Some days I've walked to the wellness center (which would make sense), but today I drove since the sky looked iffy. 



The struggle--never ending

  

In summer we spend a lot of time reading books on our porch, 
then a short walk to the kitchen for a snack.