Social Security Numbers given by Biden

“President Trump promised mass deportations, and by removing the monetary incentive for illegal aliens to come and stay, we will encourage them to self-deport,” White House spokeswoman Elizabeth Huston said in a statement. [NYT quote]

By using the BSSN (Biden Social Security Number) which gave illegals access to many services, they were also stealing our right to vote by cancelling it. The theft of our citizenship rights is what Democrat protestors are calling "democracy,." Thanks to Doge, Democrats will have to reexamine what democracy means--and it starts with a close look at the Bill of Rights. They should also start condemning the vandalism of Teslas and the rioting on college campuses.

https://www.breitbart.com/economy/2025/04/11/trump-deputies-cancel-illegal-migrants-social-security-numbers/?

Christians who defend slavery

On February 20, 2025, "the Trump administration officially designated eight Latin American cartels, including six from Mexico, as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs) for their major roles in drug smuggling and human trafficking into the United States." 72%, of those trafficked for sex in the U.S. are immigrants. Most of them are here illegally.

https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/new-atlanticist/how-us-military-action-against-drug-cartels-in-mexico-could-unfold/?

 
I'm concerned that Trump haters, many of whom are Democrat Christians, don't seem to understand the seriousness of this. Particularly the sex trafficking of women and children, as well as labor trafficking. Let's call it by a less sanitized name: slavery. Drugs are not a renewable, sustainable enterprise--slavery is. Once they sneak (or openly transport with open borders as in the Biden administration) them in, the victims and their families have to repay exorbitant prices to the cartels/smugglers. There are always more dues to pay. Some Christians are looking the other way just as they were in the 1850s-1860s or during the Jim Crow era. They waste their time with ever expanding and lucrative DEI contracts while ignoring the slavery right in front of them.

Ten or fifteen years ago there were many articles, documentaries, and meetings about this cancer. More than today. It's as though we Christians were all talk and no walk, a common failing. Now that someone is actually getting tough there's more virtue signaling, hand wringing and Lawfare.

https://www.heritage.org/border-security/commentary/fighting-human-trafficking-and-battling-bidens-open-border?

https://www.foxnews.com/us/illegal-smuggling-coyotes-now-advertising-canada-border-amid-trump-migrant-crackdown-report?

Surviving the tariff negotiations

A lot of the fallout for me from yesterday's tariff negotiations has been watching the leftist media, Dem politicians and some RINOS and no-names fall flat on their predictions. It has been a quagmire of "but he said on Monday," and "he's created chaos." I watched about 3 hours in the afternoon and thought I should stop and take a nap while the stock market soared. I've never been to an open market in Haiti, but I have been to garage sales and even the Memorial Day sale at Lakeside. I know wheeling and dealing, mind changing, watching for new merch to show up, and haggling with someone sitting on a chair that's for sale but not sold. We were watching the Art of the Deal (his 1987 book). 

 
3. Maximize the options
“I never get too attached to one deal or one approach…I keep a lot of balls in the air, because most deals fall out, no matter how promising they seem at first.”

5. Use your leverage
“The worst thing you can possibly do in a deal is seem desperate to make it. That makes the other guy smell blood, and then you’re dead.”

8. Fight back
“In most cases I’m very easy to get along with. I’m very good to people who are good to me. But when people treat me badly or unfairly or try to take advantage of me, my general attitude, all my life, has been to fight back very hard.”

11. Have fun [this is the one that drives leftists bonkers--they never see the humor in what he says or does]
“Money was never a big motivation for me, except as a way to keep score. The real excitement is playing the game.”

Remember what they've put us through--Trump's first term

From Thomas DeVore FB post.

For the last 4+ years, the Democrats went scorched earth. Good thing almost 80 million of us have memories longer than a hamster.

We remember the women’s march (vagina hats and all) the day after the inauguration.
We remember the 4 years of attacks and impeachments.
We remember “not our president” and the “Resistance…”
We remember Maxine Walters telling followers to harass us in restaurants.
We remember the Presidents spokesperson being kicked out a restaurant.
We remember hundreds of Trump supporters physically attacked.
We remember Trump supporters getting Doxed, and fired from jobs.
We remember riots, and looting.
We remember “a comedian” holding up the President’s severed head.
We remember a play in Central park paid with public funding, showing the killing of President Trump.
We remember Robert de Niro yelling “F" Trump” at the Tony’s and getting a standing ovation.
We remember Nancy Pelosi tearing up the State of the Union Address.
We remember the total in the tank move on the mainstream media.
We remember the non-stop and live fact checking on our President and his supporters.
We remember non-stop in your face lies and open cover-ups from the media.
We remember the President and his staff being spied on.
We remember five House members being shot on a ballfield.
We remember every so-called comedy show turn into nothing but Trump hate fest.
We remember 95% negative coverage in the news.
We remember the state governors asking and getting everything they ask for and then blaming Trump for their problems.
We remember a Trump top aid verbally assaulted in two DC restaurants.
We remember people banging on the Supreme Court doors.
We remember that we were called every name in the book for supporting President Trump.
We remember that Hollywood said they would leave after Trump was elected but they stayed.
We remember being called Nazis
We remember being called Deplorables
We remember being called Fascists
We remember trying to put our President in prison.
We remember trying to bankrupt our President.

 
And yes, we remember trying to assassinate our President twice.

 
The Democrats having been on the attack for over 4 long years do not get a free pass with me

Are you ready to retire?

 I retired 25 years ago (Oct. 2025), and I've lived through a number of down turns in the stock market, which now is my income. Dot com bubble hit just as I was planning what I'd do with all that time. Remember that one? It was during the Clinton years, although he wasn't responsible for the bubble or the burst. I was just learning how to read the WSJ and follow the stocks! Checking daily could make one faint. For those of you about to retire, here's a reminder.

"The dot-com bubble (or dot-com boom) was a stock market bubble that ballooned during the late-1990s and peaked on Friday, March 10, 2000. This period of market growth coincided with the widespread adoption of the World Wide Web and the Internet, resulting in a dispensation of available venture capital and the rapid growth of valuations in new dot-com startups. Between 1995 and its peak in March 2000, investments in the NASDAQ composite stock market index rose by 800%, only to fall 78% from its peak by October 2002, giving up all its gains during the bubble."

Repeat. Giving up all its gains during the bubble.

If you sold anything since April 2 and the tariff announcements because you were listening to the legacy media, aka the "sky is falling and it's Trump's fault" media, then you're just not ready to retire yet.

Institute of Museum and Library Services and Doge

Lots of outrage against Doge for cutting the IMLS budget--a small federal agency with some money for grants to museums and libraries. The cuts were to DC staff it seems who cut the checks, so it's not clear in the article how many were coming to work or if there is another agency to pick up the obligations. I quickly scanned the Wired article and saw nothing essential, but did notice California could lose $54,000 to 5 Indian tribes for children's books. By the time all that sifts through the layers of bureaucracy, it's not a lot of money for the kids books. Guess how much Dolly Parton has contributed to help needy children with books to read: $240,000,000!

 
Libraries and museums are primarily funded by state and local taxes, and I would not call IMLS a "key" funding source, which articles I've read have claimed. It was created in 1996 in a Republican initiative when Clinton was president and Laura Bush (who was a librarian) was a big supporter. It was created with a merger of several agencies, probably to reduce duplication.

https://www.wired.com/story/institute-museum-library-services-layoffs/

There are thousands of small or unorganized collections of memorabilia or "culturally significant" objects through out the country--some connected to a local public institution, like a library, some not. I'm sure IMLS was a source of grant money if the person or group that started it died off. To my knowledge IMLS doesn't fund our Museum of Catholic Art and History in Columbus.  https://www.catholicmuseum.org/about-us/ For years a retired priest collected "stuff" as small Catholic churches in Ohio were closed, and it was stored in an old school building. It now has its own home in an unused Catholic building. I've never been there but the website looks great. As far as I know it runs on donations and gifts from benefactors and volunteers. Another one I know about because I attended a program about it at Lakeside is a collection of a black family from Toledo. These are microcosms of our culture. I think they should be supported at the local level--not the federal. Our own Ohio History Connection may have been a recipient of such grants--I never looked in to it, but the people of Ohio need to support that and not depend on Mississippi and Arkansas.

Are we shocked by Biden's criminal behavior?

4.8 million noncitizens have been given Social Security numbers since fiscal year 2021 and Doge.com has identified 20 million deceased individuals marked alive in the Social Security database according to Elon Musk. They were looking for fraud and theft and instead found the Democrat Party attempting to take over the country by importing desperate people and gangsters. Musk was shocked. I wasn't.

https://www.theblaze.com/news/millions-of-noncitizens-received-ssns-and-some-even-voted-musk

My idea on how to save the Democrat Party

I have an idea about how to save the Democrat party. It's not original--I thought of it watching Kristi Noem's commercials. She's the former Governor of South Dakota and current Secretary of Homeland Security. Have a handsome, credible Democrat (someone as likeable as Harold Ford, Jr.) invite all the Communists and Socialists to leave the Democrat Party. That's it. Run the commercial on all Networks several times a day. Ford could be nice and not threaten to put them in a prison for thugs, even if they deserve it. They could either join the celebs who've gone to Ireland or Mexico, or they could start their own party and be open about who they are. That would leave the liberals to develop some ideas that don't include destroying the country or using all the Soviet style show trials.

Almond flour pastry

On the 26th I wrote about the low glycemic index of almond flour. Although I bought finely ground for my experiment, it's like eating bran. I guess you need the finely ground without the testa or skin. This sticks to your teeth for hours.

California is the largest grower of almonds which were developed in Asia and have been harvested since antiquity. In California, the shaker machine to knock the almonds off the trees is followed by a picker-upper machine that collects the fallen fruits. You would think an agricultural crop this ancient could find a better word than "picker-upper."

Almond hulls and almond by-products | Feedipedia

Signal chat-gate--adding a leftist editor by mistake

Recently I was added by mistake to a chat group of relatives discussing the next family reunion. Except I wasn't part of the clan, nor could I figure out how or why I was added. Not all names are readable, and some people use nicknames, or a collection of letters. I finally figured out the person was the wife of a step cousin, and I'd never met her. Probably she added contacts to her phone from her husband's phone and to my knowledge he and I had only met once years ago and I never saw him again. It may have been at the wedding that made us shirt tail cousins. My name has probably been shared through "reply all" to set up the next reunion.

Someone asks, if you realize you've been mistakenly added to a chat group, when would you mention it. Especially if it involved a sensitive matter, like war. Yes, let's put the responsibility on the Editor Jeffrey Goldberg of Atlantic. Would he be ethical enough to delete himself from the group, or would he use it against the man he hates? Obviously, he'll side with hate. He didn't speak out to my knowledge or object to having a man with dementia running the war effort in the last administration, and every enemy of the U.S. saw that daily on the TV. In fact, two wars were started and thousands have died because Biden showed the world what was wrong with him.

Goldberg not commenting on relationship with Mike Waltz after Signal chat leak

Salmon P. Chase Center for Civics, Culture, and Society at The Ohio State University

Here in Columbus, Ohio, at The Ohio State University we now have the Salmon P. Chase Center for Civics, Culture, and Society. The new center was funded as part of a $24 million allocation for intellectual diversity centers in Ohio Senate Bill 117. I sincerely hope it can balance the DEI ideology with intellectual diversity. Today the Columbus Dispatch (Democrat controlled) contained an article about the first event on March 25. The co-sponsors were The Center for Ethics and Human Values, the Institute for Democratic Engagement and Accountability and the John Glenn College of Public Affairs. Four other Ohio universities have these centers, but I'm not sure they all have the Chase name.

The article states that confidence in higher education in America has slumped in recent years. It's my personal opinion that the Obama and Biden administrations (12 years) has contributed to this,
"A Gallup poll published in July 2024 found that Americans are nearly equally divided on their confidence levels in higher education. Those who have a lot of confidence in higher education, about 36%, just barely outweigh those who have some confidence (32%) and those with little or no confidence (32%) in higher education. That is in stark contrast to when Gallup first measured confidence in higher education in 2015, when 57% had a great deal or quite a lot of confidence and only 10% had little or none."

And one of those reasons for the falling confidence was not in the article but in the advertisement that popped up in the middle of the digital version. Maybe the Dispatch and Ohio State had no control over the LGBTQ ad for transition and affirmative care to change the physical appearance of those with gender dysphoria at Cleveland's University Hospital. I scrolled through it and in the small print it said it's for over 18 (that's still high school), but I'm sure that is a soft landing and there are many "farm clubs" contributing to its customer base. Another reason for low confidence is the funding all universities accept to "educate" foreign students. We're seeing that play out now with Trump trying to deport a professional trouble maker.

The Johns Hopkins president was concerned about the "drift to authoritarianism" and a number of students led a protest and wanted OSU President Carter to join them.

 
And we're off to the races to turn this Center to the Left. That's what has happened to so many foundations and NGO's funded by conservatives and patriots.

I used to blog about Lily and her treatment

 I loved reading this story about Lily and Lily's Garden.  She's now 23, and I blogged about her childhood cancer and her relapse years ago because I met her grandparents and aunt when I began blogging in 2003. 

https://issuu.com/vanderbilt-ingram/docs/vicc_momentum_winter_2025/s/66101244?

Collecting My Thoughts: Lily’s Leukemia battle

Collecting My Thoughts: Larisa’s report on Lily’s Leukemia

Collecting My Thoughts: Update from Larisa on Lily’s leukemia

Collecting My Thoughts: An update on Lily, Leukemia survivor, from her mother

Collecting My Thoughts: Childhood cancer--a grandmother's guest blog

Who was the first president of the United States?

Have you ever listened to the spring break interviews on civics or history? Jesse Watters on Fox has a side kick named Johnny, and I think that's how he started when he worked with Bill O'Reilly. He asks the questions of the man on the street, or on the beach. They would be hilarious if they weren't so scary. My hope is they ask a thousand intelligent students before they find dumb and dumber ones to show on TV. If they don't know who the first president of the U.S.* was or what country we defeated in the Revolutionary War, why should they understand what a tariff is? Or what Elon Musk is doing to keep their future safe? It's so scary to think the Democrats will recruit them to vote but refuse to educate them.

*Before we were the United States we had a Continental Congress and it had a President, Peyton Randolph, so technically you could call him first. But there were others, even though the office was very different then.  The 14 Men Who Were President Before George Washington.  Other sources say there were 6 and since some served more than once they don't get counted twice.

Almond flour pie crusts and other recipies

 Easy Low Carb Diabetic Almond Flour Crust - The Naked Diabetic

"Extra Fine Ground Almond Flour – This type of almond flour works best for recipes calling for sifting. When you want a more packed crust, always choose the finest grind available. Extra Finely ground almond flour is ideal for pie crusts and crusts that you want to cover the sides of a pie plate. The finest grinds also work better in cake and bar recipes,."

20 Best Low Carb Almond flour recipes for diabetics

"Living with diabetes doesn’t mean giving up delicious foods. With the right ingredients and recipes, you can still enjoy mouthwatering meals while managing your blood sugar levels. Almond flour is one such diabetic-friendly ingredient. In this article, we’ll explore 20 of my favourite almond flour recipes all crafted with diabetes management in mind. . . 

Almond flour or almond meal and ground almonds, is rich in healthy fats, protein, essential nutrients and fibre. Unlike refined white all purpose flour, almond flour has a lower glycemic index, meaning it doesn’t cause spikes in blood sugar levels. Making almond flour a great option for those watching their carbohydrate intake."

The lonely letter c

I did it again. I was looking at a dictionary and my eyes found the page no one ever reads--the list of how to pronounce English. There were 10 selections for "a" (although it didn't list Aaron) and none for "c" which has no sound of its own. It showed K and S and sh (-cion). It's why English has about a million words--the sun never set on the Union Jack. And this was an American list--probably if the editors had tossed in Canada, India, Ireland, Scotland, New Zealand and Australia they would have needed a few pages for "a"; but still nothing for "c".

Ashley Mason and sleep routines

After I experienced sleep/back problems yesterday I opened the podcast by Peter Attia and it was advice about sleep hygiene. "In this episode, Ashley Mason provides a masterclass on cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I), detailing techniques like time in bed restriction, stimulus control, and cognitive restructuring to improve sleep. She explains how to manage racing thoughts and anxiety, optimize sleep environments, and use practical tools like sleep diaries to track progress. She also offers detailed guidance on sleep hygiene, explores the impact of temperature regulation, blue light exposure, and bedtime routines." We learned a lot and refreshed our memories on things we knew but weren't doing, 

The Peter Attia Drive: #341 - Overcoming insomnia: improving sleep hygiene and treating disordered sleep with cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia | Ashley Mason, Ph.D.

One thing she mentioned was don't listen to podcasts in bed--oops! (or watch TV or read a book or read e-mail) Last night we stayed up until 11 and finished watching Chip and Joanna redecorate a hotel before going to bed.

Apricot pastry bites

I think it's been about 10 years since I "gave up" anything for Lent, but this year I did think I could be sugar free. About 2 weeks after Ash Wednesday I was sort of hankering for something sweet, and a friend brought over a wonderful pie. I resisted (mostly, except for a sliver). But then I made a pastry bite--I like pies more than cookies or cake. I made the crust, cut it out with grandma's pastry cutter, and after baking it, I put a dollop of "Simply Fruit" jam on it. Tasted pretty good. Next time I'll make the crust thicker and maybe larger (comes in a set of 3) because I make a flaky crust, and it was hard to handle. Notice from the photo I had to eat a few to make sure they were OK. Apricot.

 

Harold Ford, Jr. on Fox News

Although I've never met him, I just love Harold Ford, Jr. He seems to be the only Democrat who has common sense, compassion and calmness. He's never said he likes Trump, but he did say he's the most powerful president of his lifetime. He is an African American who is one of the "liberals" on the Fox panel at 5 p.m., The Five. He now lives in New York but for years was a representative from Tennessee, as was his father. But I noticed today as he was interviewed about Schumer that reasonable Democrats do sound like fence sitters or maybe passive aggressive. What do you think? Do you like him too?

Happy Birthday, Dad

Happy Birthday to my dad--he would be 112 today, died in 2002. I don't have a lot of mushy, gushy remembrances like some of my FBF or blogging friends, but I do laugh at some of the stories I remember. He was really sappy with the grandchildren, but with his own kids--well, there was that thing called the Great Depression and WWII and trying to get his life back on track, and put all that behind him. My favorite story is the day he went to the court house to get his birth record for Social Security and was told he was registered as "baby boy." (I've seen the ledger book in calligraphic handwriting of 1913.) When asked could anyone vouch for his identity, he said, "Yes, my mother and father." We all got a good laugh, but Grandma sure wasn't happy about it. She'd had his name picked out a long time, and the doctor just forgot to register it (born at home).

Visiting the National Archives on-line

I stopped at the National Archives site today just because I looked at one of the pdf records from the JFK files. But from there I got lost in all the interesting stuff in the Archives, and stopped to look at the military records, something I'd done about 15 years ago when I was doing genealogy. I'm not going to register (well, I did for just one newsletter) to be a citizen volunteer or get a login so I can answer other's questions, but it was interesting to read through "how can I find out about my uncle's WWII service" or something like that. I clicked on it because I had made similar inquiries years ago. And when someone reported she couldn't get a form to work, some helpful non-employee responded it was probably Trump's Doge program. Yikes, get real. Government forms fail all the time, and even years ago it might take weeks to get a reply--but when you do, those government archivists really know their stuff. Then I looked around at the educational programs for schools. I saw a lot of material on women and minorities just in case some media source has told you falsely that's all been scrubbed. If the writer has insulted or demeaned a group intentionally, I suppose it could have been removed.

You could spend years poking around the National Archives. It's an exciting place to visit on-line--or maybe it's just fun for retired librarians.

What is an Official Military Personnel File (OMPF)? | National Archives

Distance Learning Programs | National Archives

History Hub

Do Democrats have any plan but to destroy Trump?

"Fight, fight, fight." Donald Trump said after being almost assassinated in Butler, PA. So now the Dems think that's the magic. Yell fight, fight. That's the trick. Put on matching t-shirts paid for by Soros, cover your faces like the KKK and yell. But the only thing they know how to fight is Donald Trump. They don't fight the drug cartels, they don't fight the human trafficking, they don't fight Big Pharm or Big Farm. They don't know how to fight entrenched bureaucracy, they don't know how to fight for better food, or how to not kill the next generation. What kind of a fight are Democrats offering? Only chaos, my dear.

The War in Ukraine

Perhaps there will be a cease fire in Ukraine. Perhaps the killing will pause or stop. For now. But there's over a thousand years of enmity, hate and killing, and then the more deadly 20th century, to tell us it won't last. Please find a history book written before the 21st century and read it. Be prepared.

My Ukrainian supervisor at the University of Illinois Library in the mid-60s told me he'd gone to high school in 4 countries, but his family hadn't moved.

We are blessed to be a blessing

Buffalo Grove, IL : "Tesla car owners, dealerships and charging stations have been targeted nationwide by protesters and vandals because of CEO Elon Musk's involvement with the Trump administration's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which aims to slash wasteful spending and fraud within the federal government."

Shocking. This story was about a suburban woman. The Left used to admire electric cars and tackling government waste and fraud. Obama and Clinton lauded it. Now we know that was all scripted by Soros and others who were drinking from the Government corruption hose. Our own citizens are having their brains warped and wounded by Trump Derangement Syndrome. They now hate what Democrats used to stand for.

 
I still want care for the environment. We forgot that in the "Green New Deal." Reduce waste and clean up after yourself. If we had a cabinet member for that we could all breath fresh air and not look at trash along every intersection. I want fair tariffs and honest government workers, and grants that go for worthwhile research instead of building academic empires. How did we end up with so much graft? The lower and mid-income in our country are the biggest, most generous (in percentage) and the two biggest corporate giants, Buffett and Musk , are the most generous in amounts. Rich or ordinary--we have been blessed to be a blessing. Let's get back to that value system.

Cook County woman allegedly vandalized Tesla service center in suburb | FOX 32 Chicago

Warren Buffett Tops List of Biggest Donations - Business Insider

Elon Musk: The Donations of the World’s Richest Individual Focus on Education and Innovation - CEOWORLD magazine

Do Democrats know what their party supports?

Democrats have decided to support

Anti-Semitism
Hamas
Terrorism by South American gangs
Open borders
Property destruction
Anti-women in sports and safe spaces
Racist DEI policies
Bloated and corrupt government departments
Late term abortion
Rogue judges
Mutilation of children

rs

Sirach or Ben Sira--it's all interesting and inspiring

Today's reading was in Sirach 10. I just love this book of the Bible, because as a Protestant, I'd never heard it or read it until a few years ago--probably didn't know it existed. The Catholic, Orthodox, Syriac and African canons have it, so well over half of all Christians have an opportunity to hear or read its wisdom, at least in a church service during certain seasons or festivals. It's like the book of Proverbs, but much more in depth and more topics. Chapter 10 concerns governments and rulers. So true for today and regardless of your political leanings, it can comfort you. God is in control. See verse 4.

Chapter 10
A wise magistrate educates his people,
and the rule of an intelligent person is well ordered.
2 As the people’s judge is, so are his officials;
as the ruler of the city is, so are all its inhabitants.
3 An undisciplined king ruins his people,
but a city becomes fit to live in through the understanding of its rulers.
4 The government of the earth is in the hand of the Lord,
and over it he will raise up the right leader for the time.
5 Human success is in the hand of the Lord,
and it is he who confers honor upon the lawgiver. [a]

The book of Ben Sira was collected around 130 B.C and was used by Greek speaking Jews, and the early Christians. Jesus himself probably knew this book. However, in 1896 the Hebrew manuscripts from 180 B.C. were found by 2 British sisters. (see The sisters of Sinai by Janet Soskice which our book club read). That's what got me really interested. Since joining Academia.edu web site I've found hundreds of scholarly papers on this fascinating book.
https://www.bensira.org/introduction.html

Dax--Nigerian Canadian rapper

"To be a man" is what is called country-adjacent cross over music and the singer is Dax, a Nigerian-Canadian rapper. https://youtu.be/tHxip2x-PLc?si=sJp5Rlfbn-cDEUH0 Now, it's not something I would ordinarily listen to, but I had put a link to some popular 1950s music in an earlier post, and a song about abortion from a guy's point of view by Dax came up. At first I thought it was an ad, but it was listed along with the others like Frank Sinatra and Elvis! It was definitely NOT a 50s popular song, so I don't know how it got on this play list. Maybe it's a new way to market YouTube singles? It worked, because I then looked Dax up and played a few of his songs/poems. This is not his most recent, and he seems to be a very hard worker and loves to experiment with his style. I think this one is very good.

Sports drinks compared

Now with MAHA and Bobby Kennedy Jr rattling our cages, what are you doing about guzzling water and sports drinks? The microplastics have been an issue for a while; microplastics are smaller than a sesame seed and nanoplastics are even smaller, small enough to enter the body’s cells. Look at the drink aisles in the grocery stores that look like a painter's pallet. I'm not sure anyone is paying attention--plastics + dyes.

I'm not athletic, don't sweat unless it's 90 degrees, but I am a "senior" (aka elderly) and when people get older they lose the protection of feeling thirsty, even if they need liquid. So, I've been looking--plastic free, dye free, sugar free with electrolytes. They are all expensive, in my mind, compared to water, and most come in plastic bottles.

Here's what I'm drinking today. Sugar free, clear (watermelon, berry flavors) Propel. I move it to a glass quart bottle and drink it in a wine glass! The watermelon flavor is mild; the berry is a little sharp, so I water it down. I compared it to Zero Gatorade. For sodium, G is 160 and P is 210; for potassium G is 45 and P is 70; for Vit. C, G is zero and P is 25. There are numerous vitamins and minerals but those are the biggies. You can buy packets of the electrolyte mix and avoid plastic all together. Here's some additional sources from Medline Plus with additional links: https://medlineplus.gov/fluidandelectrolytebalance.html?

Democrats look for purpose

As I watch the Democrats go crazy over tariffs, closed borders, the fight to clean up government graft and greed, negotiations for peace, and how they rail about Trump's care for the "little people" I'm reminded of something I heard, but didn't catch who said it. Paraphrase: Trump (and MAGA) is the Democrat our parents (i.e. citizens of the 30s and 40s) voted for. Rich, connected and powerful person who cares about the little guy. A true patriot. [clarification--I personally do not see FDR that way, but my parents did]. Democrats are now the wealthy party, the snobs, looking down at the blue collar family, soldiers, farmers, police --and it's awfully hard to give back what you've stolen.

 
And Dems are almost as hateful toward JD Vance who pulled himself out of a difficult, low income situation in the rust belt of America that the corporations had abandoned for greener profits abroad. There's a fentanyl pipeline from Mexico to Southern Ohio. The Ohio Trump wants to restore to its former glory. The Northwest Territory that invented the Bill of Rights. Life is hard right now for Democrats with no one to look up to, but movie stars and leftist academics. Their big hope seems to be to abort the next generation and finance a proxy war.

I was listening to the "All-In" podcast yesterday. Three of the four venture capitalists who gather to discuss politics, technology, culture, finances and poke fun at each other are immigrants. Some started really poor, were picked on at school, had difficult family situations, etc. Do you know they learned as teen-agers with really grubby jobs the importance of compound interest? They began investing their tiny wages as teen-agers! I didn't have a retirement account until I was in my mid-forties!!! Although they didn't start out as Republicans, they all support Trump now.

David Sacks, one of the four, is now less active.  He's now in the Trump administration David O. Sacks: Silicon Valley Visionary Blazing New Trails - History Tools as cryptocurrency czar.

 
My hope for Trump is that he not try to pay back the Democrats for their crimes against him personally. Retribution and revenge are not good policies in the long run even if deserved. We've seen Democrats use non-profits and political office to get around free speech, and Lawfare to destroy justice. It's not pretty especially when it works.

The war that never was--Argentina and Chile

First let me say I know more about northern Ilinois (Ogle and Lee counties) where I haven't lived since I was 17 than all of South America, especially Argentina. I know well the statue and history of Blackhawk on the Rock River but knew nothing about the statue of Christ in the Andes mountains except what I'd seen in a few tourist brochures. Until today.

Christ the Redeemer of the Andes (on the border with Chile and Argentina) was the topic in my reading in Magnificat for today. It is commemorated on March 13 for celebrating the war that didn't happened between Chile and Argentina in 1904. Although Chile and Argentina have the same ethnicity, language and religion, greed and self interest have no boundaries, and the two countries had been squabbling about some very rich territory in the mountains between them back into the 19th century. History will report the resolution in different ways, but this account credited some Catholic women who organized for peace. Women suffer greatly in wars. Led by Señora Angela de Oliveira Cézar de Costa they got the bishops and Pope involved and the other leaders to talk, and so the issue was brought to arbitration and negotiation led by a third country, Great Britain. Three Christian nations and a disputed region.

The war never happened and the statue on the highest pass on the border celebrates that. There are two plaques on the base of the 60 ft tall statue. "He is our peace who has made us one" and "Sooner shall these mountains crumble into dust than Argentinians and Chileans break the peace sworn at the feet of Christ the Redeemer." (Magnificat, March 2025, p. 206-210, by Anthony Esolen) also, https://christianhistoryinstitute.org/dailystory/permalink/christ-of-the-andes-stands-for-peace

Rosie O'Donnell and Ireland

I'm not upset about Rosie O'Donnell moving to Ireland. So many people are trying to get into the U.S.A. that will make just one fewer ungrateful person and more space for someone to succeed. I'm not sure I'd even blame her hatred for Trump. She hasn't had a happy life, always sarcastic and complaining, so maybe a change of scenery will help her.

We've visited Ireland in 2007 and loved it. The Irish have helped populate Canada, USA, Australia and New Zealand, they contributed so much to their adopted countries and they did so in part because they were oppressed by England. My Irish beat the crowd and got here just in time to fight in the Revolution. I'm probably 8th generation thanks to my Irish.

A bit off topic, but as I look at this photo taken in Ireland, I remembered the shoes! Marti Alt and I went to a Christian Writers festival at Calvin College in Michigan and why I don't know, but we went shopping and I bought these shoes! They must have been comfortable enough to hike in Ireland's very rough terrain. The white rain jacket was "merch" picked up at a library convention probably in the 90s, and I still have it. I checked my blog and I'd written about the Festival in 2004. Looking through it, I found that in the same paragraph that I wrote about skipping meeting Joyce Carol Oates I included the shoe story. They were Naturalizers.   https://collectingmythoughts.blogspot.com/2004/04/308-festival-report-2there-were-some.html?

     

University of Illinois lobbyists object to eliminating waste and bloat

I got an email from The University of Illinois System (Chicago, Urbana, Springfield) warning me that "Cuts to federal research funding threaten the future of innovation at the University of Illinois System. " That's a bit of a stretch. The message came from the "lobbying for more money system." I had to wade through a lot of gobbledygook to find out where it came from and what was being threatened. I have no problem if colleges and universities want to lobby their own legislature for special perks, but they shouldn't be asking through our federal tax system for people living in New York and Nebraska to pay for Illinois lobbyists.

Music of the Fifties

I saw a meme yesterday when a 50-something was getting weepy over 80s music. I was shocked. But my generation got sappy over 50s music--I didn't like it when I was a teenager! I'm always out of step with music. I love me some Lady Gaga and Adele and Patsy Cline, Mahalia Jackson and Tammy Wynette. Eclectic. I didn't care much for Elvis in the 50s, didn't buy a lot of records (they were 78s then) but I did like Don and Phil Everly. Did you like "your" music?

YouTube Music  50s music

Egg-citing breakfast

I know eggs are expensive, but the dozen I have in the frig were about $3. So, I made a fried egg sandwich for breakfast rather than have them go bad. I'm not making desserts (sort of a sugar fast) right now which was about the only dish I used them for. A salute to my Dad--he wasn't much of a cook, but he could make a fried egg sandwich, and after Mom died, I think he ate a lot of them.

It's been a busy week and it's about to end. I have whip lash trying to keep track of what President Trump is doing. Yesterday I watched the bitcoin meeting. Clueless. Dinner out last night with friends, Joyce and Bill and Joan and Jerry. Our Friday night dates which had been a staple for us for 60 years ended with Covid, and now it's about once a month, if that. I've looked at the menu (Houlihan's) before we left and picked out a petite top sirloin 5 oz, with 2 sides, green beans and fresh fruit. And since I don't drink wine anymore because I take too many medications, I treated the table to appetizers, stuff mushrooms. 

Some policies of Trump I'm not enthusiastic about

There are some things in the Trump plan that I don't care for. I'd rather have Canada be a good neighbor than a sullen step-child always trying to run away. I'm not crazy about name changes--never understood why some of our bases were named for Confederate heroes, but the change back? Seems petty. But Department of Education? It's sort of a newcomer. Late Jimmy Carter idea. The main beneficiaries have been the office holders and those who received grants. (I think I may have had one.) "Crumbs," as Fancy Nancy called the money, was all that went to the children.

Transgender mice

I know everyone (except Democrats) is joking and laughing at transgender mice experiments--millions spent on this with our tax dollars. It was mentioned in the President's speech Tuesday night. You know the one--all the Democrats were glued to their seats and they wore pink put don't support women.

 
But better they experiment on mice than children! No one gets sexually aroused (well, maybe some do) mutilating a mouse. Yet there are those medical horror chambers called "affirmation centers" at almost all our major health centers like Ohio State where surgeons (I'm just guessing most are men) can experiment with vaginoplasty, orchiectomy, mastectomy, fat transfer, metoidioplasty, sex hormones and other ghoulish dreams on people not old enough to vote, or to understand their human rights.

 
It reminds me of the Kinsey sex experiments on children in the 1940s or how American medical researchers used African women to experiment with birth control pills back in the 60s to be sure contraceptives were safe to use on European and American women although many died or were left sterile for life. Or the experiments conducted by our government on southern black men from the 1930s to the 1970s who had syphilis. It was later strongly condemned, too late to help those men who were not told what was being done to them.

Last night Democrats just pouted and probably felt sorry for the mice. I'm sure they can throw a benefit to support PETA's program to live in harmony with mice and rats. But children? Why don't they care about children?

From Father Petkosek, a message about Ukraine

 A message from a Ukrainian American priest: Father Michael Petkosek, Catholic Diocese of Cleveland 

If you’re going to virtue signal with the flag of my heritage, please know this:
The Ukrainian people have long been caught between the imperialism of a neighbor and their own independence. Their history is one of being ethnically Ukrainian yet belonging politically—generally by force— to a stronger and more militant neighbor. They have long seen empires fight over their fertile soil and Black Sea coastline.

The twentieth century alone was quite brutal for the Ukrainian people. In the 1930’s, seven million Ukrainians died in Stalin’s artificially created famine, the Holodomor, in an attempt to simply get rid of the population and claim the land. During World War II, the Ukrainian people were caught between Nazi and Soviet invasions. The Communists never left and the people became citizens of the Soviet Union.

When the long-suffering Ukrainian people finally achieved independence with the fall of the USSR, they knew only one corrupt government after another. The influence of Communist evil ran deep and the KGB never really died.

Did you care about any of this, now or in the past?

My grandfather forsook serving in his national army because it was infiltrated by the Soviets. Instead, he fought with the real Ukrainian army, the Underground. He fought Nazis and hid from Communists. His friends were executed for attending a town dance while he slept under a dead horse for safety. This is the Ukrainian grit that has held off Russian aggression for three years, it is a grit that will continue to run headlong into a hopeless fight.

 
No one in their right mind likes the idea that Russia stands to get away with a great injustice. But, no one in their right mind wants this war to continue. The first step is to stop the bleeding. One must wonder just why Zelenskyy was willing to throw that chance away.

 
Understand that when you say, “I stand with Ukraine,” I know that what you really mean is, “I hate Donald Trump.” From where I’m sitting, “I stand with Ukraine,” first said on February 27, 2025, sounds as if you’re happy for the war to continue—for Ukrainians (and Russians) to keep dying…. because, hey, it’s a chance to troll Donald Trump.

See the expression of Ukraine’s ambassador during the infamous meeting, which if watched in its entirety, does not support an anti-Trump narrative. She sees what Zelenskyy did and she knows that Ukrainians will continue dying.

You stand with Ukraine? Spare me. Your virtue signaling is just tacit support for an ongoing war, one that Ukraine can’t win. You're just cheering on a slaughter.

St. Josaphat, pray for us!

The importance of congregational singing and reading the Bible

Congregational singing and reading the Bible, thoughts from Thaddeus Williams, author of "Revering God; how to marvel at your maker."

"And I think singing congregationally is huge. And if I get very practical with this, if I had a word of advice on congregational singing, it would be to the sound engineers and churches around the country, turn it down. Maybe this is the old man in me, like the curmudgeonly guy in his 40s. But the power of corporate worship is that I can hear my wife exalting God next to me. And I can hear Joe the plumber sitting in front of me. Whether he's on key or not, he's exalting God out loud, affirming the same truths about God. And I can hear the little kid behind me singing off-key and glorifying God with everything she's got. There's power to hearing the congregation, not just hearing a face-melting guitar solo and a wall of sound. So I'd say that's number one, corporate worship is important.

And number two, I'm just going to land where we started, just getting into the Word. There's a study that I cite in the opening of the book that people who read their Bibles once a week have no measurable difference, no positive outcomes relative to those who never read their Bibles. People who read their Bible twice a week, no measurable positive outcomes. Three times a week, you start to see a few little areas beginning to peak. But for some reason, it seems like at four, when people read their Bible four times, four times plus, then the study showed people become less lonely. They become less angry. They become less addicted to alcohol or pornography. They become less spiritually stagnant. They become more evangelistic. They become better disciples. So I would say if you want to tap into some of this reverence, try to push past that four threshold and see the difference." https://www.biola.edu/blogs/think-biblically/2024/revering-god

Save us, Oh God, for the waters have risen to our necks--Psalm 69

 Excuse, please, if I take some liberties with pronouns (everyone else is), because the filth is too awful to use a mild word like swamp or chat room for just one writer crying out.  The smut, slime and sin are engulfing us all. Anyone who votes and says I'm an American, is involved.

Recently, Doge has exposed what is going on in the NSA (and other agencies) and Tulsi Gabard has fired over 100 people who were involved in a sexual, gay porn cabal.  And in hearings it has been revealed our tax money has been funneled to our sworn enemies, even Hamas which has been exposed as killing Jewish babies after the October 7, 2023 raid with their bare hands. We bought and paid for that through our unelected bureaucracy which we allowed to grow in fetid slimy darkness. We should cry out to God collectively--we've not been careful--we've entrusted our country to evil people who intend to destroy us and God's plan for life.

New American Bible, slightly revised.

Psalm 69

2Save us, God,

for the waters* have reached our necks.a

3 We have sunk into the mire of the deep,

where there is no foothold.

We have gone down to the watery depths;

the flood overwhelms us.b

4 We are weary with crying out;

our throats are parched.

Our eyes fail,

from looking for our God.c

5More numerous than the hairs of my head

are those who hate us without cause.d

Those who would destroy us are mighty,

our enemies without reason.

Must we now restore

what we did not steal?*




and so forth and so on.

Psalm 69 New American Bible

Rare earth metals put there by God

Q. Why would God place rare earth metals mainly in China and Russia-occupied Ukraine for a time in world history when they had become essential to all our technology?

A. I don't know, but He somehow figured out how to get President Trump into the same time frame to make a deal.

". . . minerals such as titanium, cobalt, and various rare and rare earth metals have become critical components of green technologies, playing a pivotal role in the energy transition from fossil fuels to alternative energy sources in advanced economies. Ukraine possesses substantial reserves of rare and rare earth elements, including tungsten, tantalum, niobium, indium, and others. These elements exhibit unique physical and chemical properties that render them essential for industrial applications, including use as alloying additives in steels and alloys, in electronics, magnetic materials, catalysts, and nuclear technologies. Nearly all titanium and iron ore deposits in Ukraine are complex, containing valuable rare-metal impurities such as vanadium, scandium, tantalum, niobium, zirconium, hafnium, thorium, tungsten, tin, gallium, indium, and yttrium. the present study identifies three primary sources of rare earth elements in Ukraine . . . : This research is based in investigations of titanium-bearing minerals within the Ukrainian crystalline shield, as well as the review of over 200 production reports ( GEO&BIO • 2024 • том 26)

"The American Geosciences Institute’s list of critical minerals encompasses “rare earth metals and other metals such as lithium, indium, tellurium, gallium, and platinum group elements.” Their shared importance is that they are crucial in the manufacturing of various advanced technologies, including, notably, clean energy generation assets (solar photovoltaics and wind turbines, especially offshore ones), battery systems (utility scale, household scale, and batteries for electric vehicles), as well as various digital technologies (needed in the energy transition process but also in the broader global information technology and communications sector)." https://www.mei.edu/publications/ukraines-critical-minerals-and-europes-energy-transition-motivation-russian-aggression?

Watching movies on Hallmark

 I was bored with politics and Antiques Roadshow reruns so I found some good movies to watch.  From Wikipedia--Riding the Bus with My Sister is a 2005 television film that aired on CBS as part of the Hallmark Hall of Fame anthology series, based on the 2002 memoir of the same name by Rachel Simon. The film, like the book, is about the time Simon spent with her sister Beth, who has a developmental disability, and whose lifestyle revolves around riding buses in her home city of Reading, Pennsylvania. Andie MacDowell plays Rachel Simon, while Rosie O'Donnell plays Beth. It was directed by Anjelica Huston, with a screenplay by Joyce Eliason.

From Wikipedia--made for TV movie also on the Hallmark Channel: Brush with Fate is an American drama television film debuted on February 2, 2003, on CBS. It followed the life of an imaginary painting by Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer as it passes through the hands of various people. The film was based on Girl In Hyacinth Blue, the 1999 novel by author Susan Vreeland, and starred Glenn Close and Ellen Burstyn. The imaginary painting Girl in Hyacinth Blue, the principal object in this film, is painted exactly in Vermeer's painting technique by the American master painter Jonathan Janson, author and webmaster of the world-known website about the life and work of Johannes Vermeer "Essential Vermeer".

Beautiful settings and costumes.  Interesting stories. Rosie O'Donnell did an outstanding job.

https://https://youtu.be/cYu_G1ekfQg

Learning from podcasts

Not to repeat myself, but I will. I benefit from the All-in podcast. Even the parts I don't understand. It's definitely a peek into the future. As near as I can tell of these four brilliant, successful men (besties), three are immigrants. And yesterday's edition had as guests 2 brothers, Patrick and John Collison, who started Stripe and Arc and are from Ireland. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxP55dZjqZs They look like teenagers, but I think were born in 1988 and 1990. Each are worth over $3 billion.

Somewhere I read a news story about how the besties got together originally, it was some sort of friendship group before it was a podcast, but I can't remember where. One of the interesting discussions on the 21st is corporate structure--given the lay-offs going on right now in government bureaucracy, it's similar in corporate bloat.

https://youtu.be/Oo3tPAjrI1c?si=SylT2I1ryEnrjpRj

Video about the brothers Collison

Two of my favorite podcasts

Two of my go-to podcasts are Megyn Kelly and All-In. Megyn can be a bit of a potty mouth--and that's definitely a negative and I'm not sure why she does it; it doesn't add anything. All-in is all men, and although that can be confusing (I don't watch, only listen) it's 1000x better than trying to listen to a group of women discuss something!

 
All-in is Chamath Palihapitiya, David Friedberg, Jason Calacanis, and David Sacks (created PayPal). Sacks has recently joined Trump as an "unelected" adviser, but I'm not sure what he does, and now there is a guest filling in for him. These guys are venture capitalists, business men, scientists, etc., and talk way over my head, but that's why I listen. They were really divided on Trump, but now at least on policy, are "all-in."

 
Kelly, too, was originally not a fan of Trump or MAGA , and in the first primary back in 2016, she made no bones about it. This time around she's definitely a fan, although it came gradually. Because she is no longer "owned" by a network she can say anything she pleases--and does. She's also a lawyer, a former network host, and a mom of 3, so she has plenty of opinions and expertise to share.

The most recent All-in podcast (weekly, Feb. 14) was Naval Ravikant an Indian-born American entrepreneur and investor. He is the co-founder, chairman and former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of AngelList. He has invested early-stage in Uber, FourSquare, Twitter, Postmates, SnapLogic, and Yammer.

 
The most recent Kelly podcast (daily) was her interviewing the guys from All-In about Trump, Musk, their appeal to independents and moderates, media, technology and family issues, parenting, and celebrities. I'm always surprised how much the All-in guys talk about family issues.

It was fun to hear my favorites together although they have a somewhat rocky road in their past.

Beatitudes in Luke 6

 

ESV Luke 6:20-24  And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said: “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.  “Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you shall be satisfied. “Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh.  “Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man!  Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven; for so their fathers did to the prophets.  

Lectio Divina, Magnificat, February 2025, p. 247 "Everyone desires to be happy," teaches Saint Thomas Aquinas.  Here, Jesus lays out his program for happiness, as indicated by the recurring word makarios, which is Greek for "blessed" or simply "happy." (Strong's Greek: 3107. μακάριος (makarios) -- Blessed, happy, fortunate)  Yet the picture Jesus paints appears rather grotesque at first glance.  He endorses everything our instincts tell us to avoid at all costs:  poverty, hunger, tears, rejection.  Why? 

Is it because money, wealth, merriment, and esteem are bad in themselves? No: on the contrary, these are good things.  At the same time, there is a danger that we might become so distracted by the gifts that we forget the Giver.  Saint Gregory the Great warns that if the prosperous are not careful, they may "love their pilgrimage more than their homeland and . . . transform the supplies for their journey into an impediment for their arrival." Sufferings borne well, on the other hand, can increase our desire for heaven and help prepare us to receive the joy that is to come.

Saint John Paul II points out that the Beatitudes "are a sort of self-portrait of Christ and for this very reason are invitations to discipleship and to communion of life with Christ." In other words, Jesus practices what he preaches--or better, he preaches what he practices.  . . 

As Christians, we say that we want to follow Jesus and to be like him, but are we ready to embrace the difficult truth that imitating Christ means being acquainted with suffering?

If you are a Christian (or even a non-Christian) who wants to poke the hornet's nest of differences between the Luke version and Matthew's, there are many sermons and writings on that, although not the topic of Lectio Divina for this Sunday, The Beatitudes in Luke and Matthew | Psephizo

Catholic answers suggests two possibilities: Why Are There Eight Beatitudes in Matthew and Only Four in Luke? - Catholic Answers, Inc

St. Augustine provides two possible explanations for these differences. My preference is the second. 

Jesus gave 2 sermons.  My favorite verse is Psalm 37:3, and it essentially says the same thing in 7 words.

"One possibility is that although only one sermon was delivered, its location was described under different aspects by Matthew and St. Luke. For it is possible that the place was a level spot along the slope of the mountain, which at once was part of the mountain and might also be described as a plain in relation to the peak of the same mountain. According to this account, the sermon as related by Matthew included a number of our Lord’s words that Luke omitted and omitted some of the words that Luke included.

A second solution is that Jesus actually gave two sermons that were closely related: for his purpose was to promulgate the New Law, yet not all were prepared to receive that law in its most perfect form. Therefore, since the first promulgation was given only to his close disciples on the mountaintop, it was lengthier and more proportioned to the spiritual-minded; and since the second was given to the multitudes on the plain, it was shorter and more proportioned to the carnal-minded."

This is handy: a recent reading history (actually a skimming history)

My recent reading history--but mostly skimming

Way Out of the Tunnel? Three Hundred Years of Research on the Apocrypha: A Preliminary Approach, - Peter Toth

The Scope of the Old Testament Canon - Christopher Heard

The Question of Canon: Challenging the Status Quo in the New Testament Debate. By Michael J. Kruger. Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2013. Pp. 252. Paper, $24.00 - Michael W. Holmes

Book Review: Canon Formation: Tracing the Role of Sub-collections in the Biblical Canon - Clark R Bates

Septuagint, Sages, and Scripture Studies in Honour of Johann Cook Edited by - Markus Witte

The Canons of the New Testament - Leslie Baynes

The Canon and the Testaments - S. A. Wassen

Tradition, Scripture, and Interpretation: A Sourcebook of the Ancient Church  - Drake Williams

Deuterocanonical Books in Latin Tradition, in Houghton, ed., Oxford Handbook of the Latin Bible (2023)

Christian agencies and the USAID

Many small and large Christian organizations that have accepted contracts with USAID are going to be hurting. 

1) They've taken tainted money, 

2) the bulk of their supporters, the $10-$100 donors, will lose their trust, 

3) some good programs will come to a halt as the spigot turns to off. 

This means the organizations will have to do some soul searching and rely only on donors and not on tax dollars. Trust me, this is not just about trans dance festivals in Venezuela or other strange, vulgar events. USAID was set up in the 1960s by JFK to bring USA influence to other cultures, nations and people. It was never an aid organization. It became one if that benefited our own government's vision. This corrupted, ugly mess has now become our "values" and it ain't pretty. Much of it has turned against us using our own tax dollars which for the most part stay right here, particularly in the beltway. For now, some humanitarian relief agencies have waivers to continue until the wheat can be separated from the chaff.

Samaritan’s Purse Dodges Trump’s Foreign Aid Freeze – MinistryWatch

World Vision, a Christian organization I supported for many years, received $491 million from US Agency for International Development (USAID) in 2022. Senator Grassley of Iowa reported on agency in 2020. Many were reporting on the shady, strange agency with more money than God with only a small percentage going for "aid." Why did it take Elon Musk showing us line by line the budget for the pieces to fall together? It was Trump. And now hundreds of news agencies are trying to cover it up, but they too have received the tainted money,

Senator Demands to Know if World Vision Is Funding Terrorism - Christianity Today

Do we need the White House in our faith journey?

"Trump said on Thursday he would create a White House faith office and direct Attorney General Pam Bondi to lead a task force on eradicating what he called anti-Christian bias within the federal government." (Glenn Beck website)

 
I'm not a fan of this idea. There was a fairly prominent faith office in the Bush Administration which as I recall Obama continued, but with much watering down. "President Bush created the White House Office of Faith-based and Community Initiatives and Centers for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives in eleven Federal agencies to lead a determined attack on need by strengthening and expanding the role of FBCOs in providing social services." (old White House document). In my opinion, this led to many truly service centered ministries accepting government money. I don't know if it was continued.

 
Let the First Amendment handle it--try enforcing it. When government interferes in religion in the name of help or protecting, especially Christianity, bad things happen. I don't mean wars or jail time, but general all around bad feelings. We have over 35,000 Protestant and non-denominational church organizations and most can't agree on the basic points of theology, they don't like each others worship services or social services, and most of them don't like Catholics, and probably haven't heard of all the varieties of Orthodox, or the African and Middle-eastern groups. They all "stand on the Bible," but not which translation of which canon. And the politics! Oh my.

The little people within the grant system

I woke up this morning thinking about the "little people" at the bottom rung of these government (USAID for instance) grants who have no idea what's behind the paycheck or where the program has gone. Government work is considered "secure" even if you are part time and temporary as I always was in the 80s. I think about the agricultural credit grant that paid me for 3 years, everyone above me, and a few below. I still see my publications pop up on the internet. 40 years. Later, I helped with grant writing workshops. We probably brought in coffee and bagels for the class. For years I know I worked on grants or attended meetings supported by grants--and there was always good food at our events.

 
Even when I was hired to work in a program (STEPS) to retool senior citizens who'd lost their jobs in the 1980s, we subcontracted out to building owners who supplied the spaces and the computers, and the food services, and probably the local senior organizations who supplied the clients. We travelled around the state--the money coming in was going out and helping the local economy. I'm not saying we didn't do any good or people didn't benefit, but it was mainly me who benefitted--the skills I learned, the publications that moved me ahead in my career path, the friends I made, the information I learned--I even wrote speeches on labor for a politician to give on the road (she was later killed in a plane crash). Mainly I'm talking about funding that had already had about 60% taken off the top by whatever state or local agency/organization had gotten from the federal agency. You can imagine all the people who are paid along the way. From file clerk to janitor to van driver to the lowly researcher who wrote and assembled the learning materials and arranged for it to happen.

It's difficult to track what became of USAID money--I went into the WayBack (?) archive and read the 2016 annual report. The photos are wonderful--lovely black faces beaming over experimental agricultural plots, or happy children in bright clothing raising their hands in class. You can see the model programs, and many did benefit. The report was so vague about actual costs, my eyes glazed over. Having worked in the system, I knew how to write like that. A few words about DEI goals, but minimal. Not like you would read today where each chapter seems to need a paragraph. USAID was established as an independent agency to infiltrate and influence the local culture, but probably not with drag queen shows and sex change operations. Its purpose is to maintain our interests over Russia and China's. Instead, we're creating chaos in the local culture which benefits our enemies.

And I also thought (at 6 a.m.) what $9 million to the Leftist media during the Biden years could have done for the people in North Carolina. Yesterday it was reported that "Politico received at least $8.2 million from the U.S. government in recent years, with $44,000 of that coming from USAID, according to USAspending.gov." The Department of Energy has given Politico $1.29 million, the Department of Agriculture has given $552,024 and the Department of Commerce has given $485,572.
Sigh. No wonder the Democrats are screaming and rioting. Someone is draining the gravy train.

Interesting Congressional hearing report on USAID reporting for 2011. USAID: Following The Money : Committee on Oversight and Government Reform : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive  from Internet Archive.  Obviously, Congress has known for many years what was going on with wasted tax money funneled through USAID.

I worked on a grant from USAID!

I do recognize the USAID because it helped me build my career and move to the next step, which was from agriculture credit, to OhioNet, to veterinary medicine by working part time with hours that were convenient for my primary job--being a mom--when I was in my 30s. Never thought I'd see protests about it--but then I never imagined it would be sending my tax money to foreign LGBT groups, either.

https://thehill.com/policy/technology/5122676-usaid-shutdown-elon-musk-doge/

USAID Controversy Explained: Why Musk, Trump Is Attacking Foreign Aid Agency

Mike Benz: There Is No "Aid" In USAID, It's Not A Charity | Video | RealClearPolitics

Because I subscribe to Academia.com (on certain Bible canon topics like Ben Sira) I also receive notices about my own publications on agricultural credit. These I did for Dale Adams in the 1980s the professor who had the USAID grant. I think I had written at least 4 or 5 annotated bibliographies, and one has been completely scanned so I can actually read it without getting on my knees and dragging out dusty boxes and collapsing from exhaustion. The publications were assembled on the living room floor in our previous house, on lime green shag carpet, because everything was written on note cards which were then alphabetized and organized on the floor. No computers, no Chatgpt, no reference organizer and I don't recall I even had a fact checker or proof reader.

Bless my Mt. Morris high school typing class, because I also typed all the entries.

Trump's keeping his promises

I'm exhausted. Trump has been in office just shy of 2 weeks and I can't keep track of the wins, of the promises kept and the things we didn't know. And now he's going after ISIS again.

"These killers, who we found hiding in caves, threatened the United States and our Allies. The strikes destroyed the caves they live in, and killed many terrorists without, in any way, harming civilians."

I think he's sending a strong message, and it's very different than Biden's which was "Y'all come."

The confirmation hearings

 I watched some of Kash Patel's Senate questioning this morning and was surprised to hear that at least one Senator, a Democrat of course, still believes that several police were killed in what the Senator still calls an insurrection by Trump supporters, yet he demanded that Patel use the words, "Biden won." No police died during that riot on January 6, 2021. One unarmed woman, Ashli Babbitt, a demonstrator and veteran, was shot by a capitol policeman. Policeman Brian Sicknick died of natural causes after the riot. But Pelosi put on a big funeral for him and held off releasing the name of the man who killed Ashli for months. Thousands of police were injured during the riots of 2020 and untold billions in property damage (including here in Columbus, OH) resulted in mostly blue cities and who knows how many citizens died from "defund police." Democrat Senators probably don't remember.

What's with DeepSeek?

The “Hard Fork” podcast released a bonus episode titled “Your Guide to the DeepSeek Freakout: an Emergency Pod” on Tuesday, January 28, 2025. In this episode, Kevin Roose and Casey Newton discuss the impact of a new AI model from a Chinese firm called DeepSeek. This model has caused significant disruption, including affecting global markets and pushing Nvidia’s stock down while simultaneously rising to the top of the iPhone app store. The hosts explore the implications of this development for the U.S. artificial intelligence industry and consider what it means for the broader AI landscape. (AI generated) 

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