What was that Mr. Obama--the line about you and the media not having the bad relations of Trump and the media?
"Over the past eight years the [Obama] administration has prosecuted nine cases involving whistle-blowers and leakers, compared with only three by all previous administrations combined. It has repeatedly used the Espionage Act, a relic of World War I-era red-baiting, not to prosecute spies but to go after government officials who talked to journalists." NYT Dec. 30, 2016
We have a Republican governor in Massachusetts running for reelection. Governor Baker is a big time Trump hater. Massachusetts has had two bad governors in a row so nothing gets done other than more taxes and people leaving the state. The interesting advertisements by Baker deal with more jobs created (yes, he takes credit for the Trump economic boom) and a financial surplus of one billion dollars.
Surpluses never happen in Massachusetts. What is this one all about???? Well, we all know the Trump tax bill allows USA corporations to bring back money kept over seas at a now reduced taxed rate. There was a news item two or three months ago that stated these corporations had brought back $351 B (Billion). Probably more now as more time has passed. It has been a bonanza. I don't think the tax rate is responsible by itself for these actions. The USA capital investment rate is now estimated to be over 10% (I saw another number at 8.5%) because the USA is growing very nicely while Europe is still growing, but at a slowing growth rate that is declining quickly. China's stock market is moving downward very quickly as well with a 50% drop vs 2015 and a 20% plus drop since the tariff conversations started.
But here is my point. The high tax states also have a tax on the monies brought back into the USA. These states did not drop their taxing rate on the returned monies. So they all got a wind fall of extra taxation. So Charlie Baker, governor of Massachusetts., got a 1.2 billion dollar surprise. But yet he has the guts to say he did it. This is just another example of the guts these do nothing politicians can claim and look their voters straight in their face doing so. Connecticut is worse. It got a 3 billion dollar surprise. What did your state get? 95% of the voting public have not an idea of what is going on.
"The catalogue of Trump’s shortcomings are stale, subjective epithets from nearly two-years of Trump-hating screeds, without any awareness that in terms of actions, progressives like Barack Obama have been much worse. For example, the brave anonymous resister says Trump’s behavior is “detrimental to the health of our republic.” Exactly how have excessive Tweeting, braggadocio, or insults of rivals done more damage to the Constitution’s separation of powers than Obama’s politicizing of the IRS, the EPA, two AGs, the Department of Education, the FBI, and the DOJ?"
https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/271264/times-op-ed-definitive-proof-nevertrump-moral-bruce-thornton
“According to Bob Woodward's new tell-all book "Fear" and a recent New York Times op-ed which was allegedly written by "an anonymous White House official who we are totally not making up," President Donald Trump is an egotistical, mercurial boob who requires constant supervision by others to stave off disaster.
Yawn.
The accounts may or may not be 100% accurate, but we don't care - other than having a constant undercurrent of mild terror. Because many of us who voted for Trump, however reluctantly, knew all of this about him going in. We weren't really happy about giving the country's reins to a man whose thought process can be likened to a pinball machine, but the only other choice was inconceivably worse.”
Stilton's Place (formerly Hope n' Change Cartoons) features conservative cartoons and comedy. You can also visit StiltonsPlace.com online for cartoons AND a funny, passionate editorial every Mon, Weds, and Friday!
Active duty women in the U.S. military are more likely (one study says 50%) to have an unintended pregnancy than civilian women in the U.S. population (7% compared to 5%). There's no shortage of insurance or education or birth control, the 3 things liberals like to site as the reason we need legal abortion. So why is this? I don't know--but I'm sure there will now be demands for the Department of Defense to pay for abortions.
https://www.medpagetoday.com/publichealthpolicy/militarymedicine/74959
http://www.ncregister.com/blog/dan-burke/must-watch-video-how-to-recognize-judas-in-your-midst
An excellent sermon, but I don’t think many are listening.
How often do leftist media get it wrong? A lot. Note the corrections on this article about ultrasound which appeared in The Atlantic, "How Ultrasound became political." Jan. 24, 2017. Even the amended parts had to be amended. Do these writers know how to use Google to check ordinary facts (skipping the first 10-20 entries which are always biased)?
"* This article originally stated that there is "no heart to speak of" in a 6-week-old fetus. In fact, the heart has already begun to form by that point in a pregnancy. The article also originally stated that an expectant mother participating in a study decided to carry her pregnancy to term even after learning that the fetus was suffering from a genetic disorder, when in fact the fetus was only at high risk for a genetic disorder. The article originally stated, as well, that Bernard Nathanson headed the National Right-to-Life Committee and became a born-again Christian. Nathanson was active in, but did not head the committee, and was never a born-again Christian, but rather a Roman Catholic. The article originally stated that many doctors in 1985 claimed fetuses had no reflexive responses to medical instruments at 12 weeks. Finally, the article originally stated that John Kasich vetoed a bill from Indiana's legislature, instead of Ohio's legislature, after which the article was incorrectly amended to state that Mike Pence had vetoed the bill. We regret the errors."
The absurd piece in the NY Times today is an admission that
1) There is a Deep State
2) The Deep State is engaged in a Coup
3) Conspiracies can happen and do so often.
4) The Media often know who the conspirators are and hide
them
5) Hiding conspiracies is effective because there's institutional pressure and an old boy club that successfully keeps 90% of insiders inline and brushes aside the occasional truth teller or whistleblower. The idea that conspiracies can't happen because they would be quickly exposed is nonsense.
6) If the MSM ignores a story, "exposing the truth" has little effect. The truth does not disrupt a conspiracy by exposing it, but ONLY by reaching a high critical mass of attention and that critical mass must spring from an ideological desire plus the courage to buck a trend against often very high risk. Thus conspiracies are not the uncommon thing we have been led to believe. Quite the opposite. This type of conspiracy is as difficult to overturn as any institutional hegemony. Closed clubs only promote the ideologically like minded, so few top insiders have any interest in telling the truth and those few face very high personal risks.
7) The MSM call us "conspiracy theorists" as a trick to discredit us, because they are in on conspiracies. This is but one of many tactics they employ to render mere exposure ineffective.
8) There are many conspiracies from the past that are, in effect, lost to history. There are too many 'facts', too many theories and even too many contradictory 1000 page tomes by well meaning writers dedicated to ferreting out the truth, too many club members, too much destroyed evidence, too much fear, too much time, etc. We have been lied to many times. We can know that. But we can't know the truth. There are no institutional systems capable of certifying "the truth" on many issues.
9) There are many ongoing conspiracies in the present. There are communists, globalists, powerful bankers and hidden string pullers. If pedophilia rings can infect the church on a large scale, they can infect any institution. If global central bankers, business leaders and politicians have global meetings without cameras, they are doing so to further their interests and don't want you to hear what those are. They don't get together for the entertainment.
10) If hegemonies can span generations then there is no reason to think that hidden conspiracies are any different, since they are a type of hegemony themselves.
Yesterday we had media bias at its lowest point in weeks (and they are in the dungeons already) when Kavanaugh turning away from an outstretched had in a room of hundreds of rowdies became the story. Not his amazing ability, not the need for calm and common sense, not even the stupidity of the resistance only having 500,000 pages to look through. And wasn't it just so lucky the camera was pointed directly on a grieving parent he didn't know? Fortunately we had that story about a former Cosby show actor working at Trader Joe's to bring us back to how fine our media are in journalistic sleuthing.
"An observant Catholic, Kavanaugh serves meals to the homeless through a Catholic Charities program and regularly attends church at the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament in Northwest Washington with his daughters and his wife, Ashley, who was Bush’s personal secretary." (Washington Post), which buried this item at the end of an article about how Republican (aka partisan) he is. Also "observant Catholic" is dog whistle language for protects the unborn.
Instead of preparing children for challenges, they mow obstacles down so kids won’t experience them in the first place.
"After reading Mr. Woodward's "Bush at War," it seems to me that the U.S. officials who either approved or participated in passing the information—in documents and via interviews—that is the heart of Mr. Woodward's book, gave an untold measure of aid and comfort to the enemy." And that was 2002.
Now he's at it again. Smearing Trump. He also wrote about Obama's wars but I don't think anyone cared or read the book. Now HE was a Teflon president. I can't even remember how many volumes were in Woodward's exposes of Bush, but I checked our public library at the time and wrote at my blog:
"UAPL LOVES Bob Woodward and Michael Moore. Oh. my. gosh. They must own stock in those men. Woodward's latest book had 15 copies (I noticed the other day they are ALL on the shelf--nothing checked out--just taking up space collecting dust). I think Farenheit 911 had 17 copies (and it has been proven to have so many errors from a number of sources that I'm surprised they hang on to so many copies.)"
The Woodward Trump book will sell well to public libraries--most public librarians are Democrats--more so even than the ACLU, Hollywood and Planned Parenthood. Just go in, check the shelves and ask for some balance. Best to have a title in mind, because they rely on review publications, and librarians write the reviews. You pay for this and deserve something you aren't ashamed to have on the coffee table at home.
I met the Shaw women through blogging 15 years ago. Four sisters, their cousin and their mother who is now over 90 all bloggers. All were pastors’ wives or teachers or both. They are an amazing family. Now they are all on Facebook, so I follow and talk to them there. This post is from Facebook and is by Larisa, Carol’s daughter, whose daughter and Carol’s granddaughter, Lily, was diagnosed with cancer over 10 years ago, had passed the important milestones, and then two years ago had a relapse. She writes:
September college football, relapse, end of treatment, childhood cancer awareness month!
I head into September conflicted once again. 10 years ago the first September after Lily was diagnosed I charged into the month determined to raise awareness for childhood cancer.
The last 10 years hasn’t weakened my resolve, but it has rocked me to the core. The first go around I was filled with the hope and confidence of a fighter in their first fight beating their opponent. Now bloody and tired we are trying to deliver the knock out punch praying cancer stays down on the mat for not sure how much more we can take.
2 years ago on September 1st I remember feeling almost guilty posting about childhood cancer awareness month as I thought about Lily surpassing the ages of many of the friends we had lost. She was doing so well. I remember telling Deb at a fundraiser I felt we had reached the point cancer didn’t rule our lives.
That obviously all changed Sept 22 of that year with one blood test. Over the past two years I have waffled between thankful my baby is kicking cancer’s butt for the second time and very mad/sad over the fact she would have to deal with this all again after overcoming so much. I’m mad I couldn’t protect her from that. Mad she has so many horrible side effects. Mad she missed out on so much.
Many people say cancer parents are so strong. I don’t know how accurate that is. Often I feel like a stronger person would be able to protect their child from the horrors, instead as a cancer mom I am responsible for making sure she gets to and through every single bit of torture that could kill the cancer and then smile and continue life as if this is all normal.
I count out 20 or more pills a day for my child to take.
When she hurts I offer up not Tylenol, but oxycodone.
I thank the nurses when they hook her up to toxic chemo therapies.
I calmly call over a nurse and doctors when her throat starts closing from infusions.
I have pushed chemotherapy directly into her blood stream.
I kiss her forehead and help them position her as she drifts off to sleep so they can inject poison into her spine.
I sucked dead skin out of her mouth with a small vacuum and hid the flesh that came out so she wouldn’t see how bad it was.
I’ve helped them hold her down to give painful shots.
I silence IV pumps when I can’t take the beeping anymore.
I have stayed up all night to press the morphine button so she will sleep through the pain. Praying she wouldn’t remember the pain and she wouldn’t become an addict.
I have given multiple shots a day into her abdomen. I have asked her younger sister to give her shots too when I wasn’t there .
I have smiled and tried not to act like it didn’t make a small part of me feel inadequate when some well meaning parent gave me a homeopathic “cure” that I knew was bogus, but still made me question myself.
I have brushed out clumps of hair from her head. Twice.
I have smiled and laughed as they have shaved off her beautiful blonde hair. Twice.
I have kissed her forehead and caressed her face with the true intentions to see if she has a fever.
I have remained calm when people have asked what we did to cause the cancer.
I have told her I needed a shower when really I just needed the water running so I could cry without her hearing.
People think cancer moms are strong but we are just doing what we have to do.
I can’t even speak for all cancer moms because while I have done many hard things, I have never had to do and pray I never will have to others.
Explain to my child what hospice is.
Hold her hand and kiss her and let her know it’s alright to go.
Go to her funeral.
Wake up each day and go to sleep not being able to do all the horrifying things that I’m privileged as a cancer mom to be able to keep doing.
The true heroes in the battle are our kids. I am as close to her battle as I can be, but never once have I had to actually take all those pills or head off to clinic finally feeling ok after weeks of feeling bad only to get another dose of medicine that will make me feel horrible again.
While I know as an adult - true friends are hard to come by, it is a hard lesson she had learned now twice that while everyone comes around the initial diagnosis that their lives continue and that when your life is chemo and blood counts it is hard to identify when their lives are homework, boys and sports. Sometimes it leaves you feeling like an outsider just wanting to be part of it.
Or that when you have no hair, it’s horrifying but it’s also hard when your hair grows back and no one understands the battle you are still raging.
So it has taken me 3 days into September to figure out what to say. And I still haven’t. I’m pretty sure no one wants to read a depressing post but it’s honestly where we are right now. So, I still have nothing much to say inspirational other than we need a cure. We need to do better for these kids. We need to better support them and their families. And September is our month as childhood cancer fighters to bring that awareness to the forefront.
I have watched the past couple days while numerous friends have turned FB gold for the kids. Some I know have done it in honor of Lily and that makes my heart sing. We have come so far in 10 years and I appreciate those of you turning FB gold while I have been standing in the corner of the ring trying to figure out how to finish this fight.
So for September if everyone who follows this page could just do one thing to help the kids fighting this battle. Give a hug to a friend fighting. Take a meal to a patient. Change your FB page gold to support the kids. Make a donation (no matter how small) to an organization that helps find a cure or support families. Just one small gesture will make the difference.
Sunday at 3 p.m. I walked two blocks to a ceremony to unveil a plaque commemorating Lakeside as an official Historic Site of The United Methodist Church (UMC). The final approval came in June, and the plaque will be placed on the original Lakeside Chapel (now a museum). If you're on our Christmas card list, you've seen this building before. The first camp meeting was held September 11, 1872, and the first sermon preached with 20 tents on August 27, 1873. The first two buildings on the 30 acre site were Hotel Lakeside and the Lakeside Chapel built 1874-1875. But there's more to come in this designation. Now we have to become a Heritage Landmark of the UMC and that might take another few years because the meeting is in 2020. The honor will actually be for a cluster of seven buildings, and our archivist prepared a lot of research on the history of the buildings.
Speaking of Methodists, I've seen some mean, nasty battles on Facebook, even between family members. But nothing beats the Wesley family's political and religious battles of Susanna (mother of John and Charles) and Samuel Wesley back in the 18th century. Both Susanna and Samuel were offspring of dissenters, Christians who refused to conform to the Anglican Church, but they in turn dissented against their own parents and joined the Church of England. But the couple had political differences--he supported King William III and she liked James II. Their political differences were stronger than their shared lives and beliefs (they had 6 living children and 8 deceased) and Samuel eventually changed bedrooms and then moved out. With Queen Anne, they could reconcile and he moved back, but they continued to sleep separately. You know how old political differences divide us. But a fire in July 1702 burned 3/4 of their home and Samuel returned to the marriage bed. On June 17, 1703, little John Wesley was born, and 4 years later Charles Wesley (their 18th child). John and Charles went on to found the Methodist Church, and I've looked at a few web sites (I'm not a Methodist) and can't determine if Susanna ever supported them in this. Independent thinker to the end, she's nevertheless called the Mother of Methodism. (Story source: The One Year Christian History by E. Michael and Sharon Rusten, Tyndale, 2003, Sept. 3, pp. 494-495)
This summer rainbow colored signs have appeared in the tiny yards of some Lakeside cottages--I call them "virtue signaling" and they speak to "women's rights" (aka abortion), "science is real," (climate change), gender, race, illegal immigration without ever using those words. Since our owner's agreement says no signs, people have been asked to remove them (we don't even own our land--we lease it). Now I'm seeing signs about First Amendment free speech rights. Sorry. This is a private association, and First Amendment applies to the government not being able to shut you up, not an association you willingly joined. The Association also forbids smoking, alcohol, mean dogs, and parking on certain streets. That's what makes it such a nice place to live and safe for little children.
“I'm glad I didn't spend one minute watching funerals the past few days. Didn't tune in to a lick of them. And from what I've read, the division that ensued turned what should have been life memorials and celebrations into clown shows. Bring back the days when funerals weren't miniseries on TV starring a cast of characters settling scores. Do me a favor, y'all, even if I become rich and famous, if I should die before the rapture (which I don't expect!), please don't put my funeral on TV. There's something morbid about folks with buckets of popcorn and butter sitting 'round their living rooms watching a funeral. Don't send out invitations to VIP folks who have "earned" a seat at the "event." Don't mention my political party. And don't use my funeral to criticize the president, whoever he or she may be at that time. Just get your praise on 'cause I guarantee that's what I'll be doing in Heaven while y'all are crying on earth--and yes, somebody better cry, at least a lil bit! Ain't nobody got time for all this other nonsense. I won't be leaving behind a set of instructions that would bring shame to my memory, and please don't y'all shame it, either. Love y'all, and thank you--WAY in advance!”
Ms. Ross is a former NY English teacher who now lives in Missouri, writes a regular column, is an author, and an inspirational speaker.
Seventy days certainly goes by quickly. We’re into Labor Day week-end and the place has come to life. It was so quiet without children. And I was in bed for 3 days with a cold this past week. Tonight is a Neil Diamond tribute program by Jay White, and then fireworks.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1gMGZ5yexw
So this summer we’ve had Elvis, and John Denver, and Karen Carpenter and Neil Diamond tributes.
I love my new hair style (curly perm), even if Bob is less than enthusiastic. Especially like that I can walk in the wind or rain, quite common here on the lake, run my fingers through it and I’m ready to go. I’ve had a lot of compliments, got one today a month after the fact, which are rare these days.
I’d been having some foot problems with all my walking and exercise, so I looked up the symptoms, thought back to my change in size about 6-9 months ago, and decided to drive to Sandusky and buy an 8.5, same style, and it seems to help. I’m also going barefoot in the house. Not sure why I had changed to an 8—maybe the 8.5 wasn’t available plus the 8 felt fine when I wore it. It’s hard to find the shoe style I like—don’t like the ones with mesh.
I went to a great talk on the change in the nutrition labels on Monday and am now noticing—Bob bought me some cans of chicken noodle soup so I could eat something, and there it was! The rest of the week’s programming looked good too, but I was asleep in the guest room. A friend said the foreign films were among the best she’d seen (part of a program).
Yesterday I did walk to the rummage sale, and got a great deal on a painting/print (not sure which until we take it apart) by our deceased artist friend James DeVore. Tomorrow everything will be half price, and I saw a small mirror I’d like to pick up to keep in the bathroom vanity so I’ll probably go back. One year at the ½ price sale, I got an 8 place setting of white china for $5! I can’t buy paper for that. Plus it was lovely.
Our daughter and son-in-law have been living in our home while theirs is being remodeled, and she sent me a photo of the mums she planted at our condo. There’s no color yet, but it should look terrific later in the fall. The impatiens had been decimated in a storm. Looks nice. They’ll be moving out this week-end now that their house is finished. Well, finished for now. In October they are getting new floors, but they won’t have to move out for that. I think he starts upstairs and works down. I would love to have our marble tile floors replaced, but Bob says no, too expensive. They are cracked, and there’s no sheen left.
I have to figure out how to use up our leftovers. A neighbor is having something this evening—pizza and we’re invited. Bob was doing the shopping when I was sick, so we had to find someone who could use the milk we didn’t’ need that he bought--a half gallon of 1% milk. I think Sunday there is a barbeque on the hotel lawn. Monday evening we’re invited to the Barrises for dinner. We’re not leaving until Tuesday morning, but have a lot to do on Monday. We’re usually not here for the holiday, so I’m watching the schedule and the frig.
John McCain was an adoptive parent. He adopted his first wife's sons, and he and his second wife adopted, Bridget from a Catholic orphanage in Bangladesh. She needed facial surgery and had deformed feet and hands. She would have had a very grim life, or could have starved, if not rescued by the love of this family. And Bridget did her part for the McCains, too. Her health problems caused them to become involved in charities that help the poor and medically fragile. When Cindy brought Bridget back from Mother Teresa’s orphanage she also brought to the U.S. a 2nd girl who also needed medical care. That girl was adopted by one of McCain’s aides.
https://heavy.com/news/2018/09/bridget-mccain-john-daughter-adopted-cleft/
Photo from 2008 campaign when Bridget was 17.
I just read yet another article in Columbus Business First “Stop being scared of people who need affordable housing” on the need for low income housing in Columbus—this time to satisfy the need for workers by Columbus businesses and those businesses which might relocate here if there was a solid pool of workers. AFFORDABLE in government housing speak means money has been transferred from tax-payer abc to entitlement receiver xyz, but many in that chain are not poor--they are staffers in government backed programs and agencies (like HUD, USDA, HDAP, OHFA COHHIO) earning good salaries, with excellent benefits and job security, which is why the programs must be continuously expanded. I looked through the list of agencies, non-profits and city employees who attended the meeting. Then I looked back through my blog to 2008, when I’d written on this topic. Ten years ago the plea was that good housing transforms lives. And I said:
“Housing doesn’t change lives. Marriage does. Parenthood does. Faith in God does. Employment does. Education can. Art and music can. Pets might. Leisure activities don't. Substance abuse will definitely change your life downward. But not housing. Ask any landlord who turned the keys over to a careless, slovenly tenant. Housing doesn’t create safe neighborhoods; it doesn’t get transportation issues funded; it doesn’t improve health; it doesn’t pass bond issues. In partnership with the private sector, this kind of housing for low income people creates jobs and profits for the construction companies.”
Our first home was a duplex, purchased for $14,000 in 1962. Our renters paid the mortgage, we borrowed from my father the down payment. Then in 1964 we bought a second house in a better neighborhood and rented both units. That paid for both houses and a car payment. If we hadn’t bought that first run-down, sweat equity duplex in a neighborhood on the way down, we wouldn’t be where we are today. But being a landlord was the pits. I wouldn’t wish it on any couple in their early 20s.
My parents’ first home was a small, two bedroom with a down payment from my father’s grandmother. My parents and the babies slept in one bedroom and 2 men rented the other bedroom, and also boarded there. I think one of my aunts slept on the living room couch. But with 4 children, they sold it and bought a larger 2 bedroom one street over (3 girls in one bedroom and my baby brother in my parents’ room) and didn’t need boarders to pay the mortgage. No grants, subsidies, tax credits, just a loan from a family member and a mortgage based only the husband’s income (even in the early 60s, a wife’s income wasn’t taken into consideration on what a mortgage applicant could afford).
According to my 2008 blog entry, The Columbus Housing Partnership (dba Homeport) was 20 years old then and had developed over 4,000 affordable homes which had served over 23,000 people. So CHP is now 30 years old—should there be any lack of affordable housing in Columbus? When the original owners 30 years ago, moved out and up, shouldn’t new home owners have taken their place? The original owners would now be grandparents able to help out family members, right? Other agencies mentioned in the Business First article were Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio (which was founded in 1974), Affordable Housing Alliance of Central Ohio, Affordable Housing Trust for Columbus and Franklin County, and Columbus Department of Development.
I’ve seen real estate ads for Columbus that are definitely affordable, and closer to public transportation than planting a development in the suburbs, but they are all in neighborhoods that need good city support—police, fire, schools, small shopping areas, decent utilities, etc. and none will qualify for various fancy loan vehicles. I think they are looking in all the wrong places for affordable housing.
Can you be specific?
He doesn’t even have control of the Executive Branch, over which he’s supposed to reign!
This is just off the top of my head, but nothing sounds like a dictator (Stalin, Hitler, Mao, Pol Pot, Chavez, Castro, Maduro, or even powerful crony capitalists like Zuckerberg and Bezos who control their people with threats of firing if they aren’t politically correct). If anything, the media, the courts, the entertainment industry, academe, lifetime employees of the federal government, departments within the Executive branch like CIA, FBI, DoJ, and the Trump haters in both parties have worked overtime to undo the election of 2016.
On the other hand, I’ve seen a published book listing his faults day by day as reported in the media every day since he took office. I don’t know how many copies have been sold, but I saw it in a book store that did not have a single pro-Trump, pro-conservative, or even middle of the road title on the shelves.
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