Is Booker buying votes?

"Sen. Cory Booker (D.-N.J.) is proposing a plan—the American Opportunity Accounts Act—that he calculates will provide $46,215 to every 18-year-old in the lowest income bracket by giving them annual subsidies in a federally managed savings account."

This ought to qualify Booker as a Presidential candidate buying votes.

If they are truly low income, and qualify for federal and state benefits, like SNAP, EITC, Section 8, Medicaid, TANF, negative income tax, home energy assistance, school lunch, breakfast and snack, going all the way back to Head Start, SSI, child care, grants and loans for college or trade school, plus about 100 other transfers, $46,000 would probably be a reduction.

Trump drives people mad

"For those whom Trump has driven mad, there is nothing he does that can be understood or appreciated. While we sane people glory in the sunshine of a president who works hard for Americans, who supercharges our economy, who strengthens our borders, who may have sparked peace on the Korean peninsula, who recognizes Iran as a place of terrible evil, and who generally seeks to extend true freedom at home and abroad, those in the grips of Trump Derangement Syndrome are forever mired in a dark, smelly stable, eating dirt." (Bookworm Room, one of the best conservative blogs you'll read)

 http://www.bookwormroom.com/2019/02/19/lgbt-crowd-driven-mad-by-trump-supports-irans-anti-gay-laws/

Time travel in church, “This is my Father’s world.”

The sermon theme this past Sunday was “Drinking Tea,” which doesn’t make a lot of sense, except the idea was to relax from our busy distracted life and take in the beauty and complexity of God’s creation with a cup of tea, or good music, or the smell of frying bacon (yes, Joe actually fried up some bacon during the service). One of the hymns we sang Sunday was, “This is my Father’s world,” and I was immediately transported back in time to the junior choir at the little Lutheran church my family attended (but never joined) 1946-1951 in Forreston, Illinois. Our neighbor in Forreston, Helen Vietmeier invited us to attend  (she died in 2010 and I last saw her at my mother’s funeral in 2000). The church welcomed us warmly and we children participated in everything, although we remained members at our home church in Mt. Morris.

This popular hymn by Maltbie D. Babcock was written in 1901, the year of his death, and wasn’t published as a hymn until later. But it’s probably in most Protestant  hymnals, and by the 1940’s even little kids could understand and gustily belt it out, particularly the “This is my Father’s world” line which is repeated 6 times. Franklin Sheppard adapted Babcock’s poem of 16 verses, to 3 verses of 4 lines each in 1915. So that’s only about 30 years for that hymn to become so popular even little kids could sing it and remember it years later.

Our pastor when I was belting out songs in the junior choir was Rev. Dr. T. B. Hersch (1871-1959) who was older than my grandparents, and was born and raised in Polo, Illinois. He retired to Polo after leaving the Forreston church in 1953 (as seen in the Freeport paper which you can find on the Internet).  I don’t remember him as an inspiring preacher in his black robe and white hair—but then, how much does a 7 year old remember?  Actually, a lot when his wife Alice got ahold of the children during Sunday School or VBS.  She was a dynamo, and you just kept your eyes glued on her and didn’t even whisper when she did those felt board Bible stories, moving Jesus and the sheep around the fields and mountains.  She died in 1970 at Pinecrest in Mt Morris. My mother volunteered there—wondered if she visited her?

If you kill

Duck and cover

There's never been a better, safer or more opportune time in America to be gay, minority or female. But by always screaming racism or homophobia, the left can cover for their real Marxist crimes and their own phobias and fears.

Race of victims and offenders in interracial violent crimes certainly gives lie to the "hate crimes" narrative that media and celebrities promote. Between 2012 and 2015, blacks committed more than 85% of interracial violent victimizations between blacks and whites.

https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/rhovo1215.pdf

So why does the Left continue to promote the Smollett, the Covington Catholic, the Kavanaugh hate narratives when there is no truth, no evidence and they end up with egg on their faces? And it didn't start with Trump Derangement Syndrome--it was rampant in the Obama years, but existed on the campuses before that--even into the 80s and 90s. So they can't use that excuse. The reason is they have no economic plan, no tax plan, no trade plan, no education plan, no national security plan, and nothing good, positive, uplifting, life giving, or patriotic to offer the voters. Just hate, division, anger, mistrust and victimhood. It's never been different for those who follow Marx. No workers or peasants to riot and demand change? No problem. Just bring on the snowflakes and millennials led by near octogenarians.

On pundits, panderers and presidents, guest blogger Michael Smith

"All the pundits and Sunday show hosts are going the "Can you name just one time another president issued a national emergency order like Trump's order?" route.

It is a dishonest question.

Might as well ask, "How many presidents have issued a "Declaration of a National Emergency and Invocation of Emergency Authority Relating to the Regulation of the Anchorage and Movement of Vessels" (Clinton)?

The right question is this, "Is the issuance of a national emergency for the border crisis in accordance with established law and procedure?"

The answer to that question is "yes".

The next question should be, "Have any other presidents moved funds from one department to the other without the authorization of Congress to fund a pet program?"

The answer to that question is also "yes" - Obama did it to fund the provision of Obamacare that compensated insurance companies for losses associated with the law.

I don't like this type of governance - but to try to claim that Trump's declaration is wrong just because it was Trump issuing it is simply wrong. No president needs any act, agreement, permission or definition from Congress or anybody else to issue such an order under this particular law.”

++++++++++

"If the media can't see through hoaxes and misinformation like what BuzzFeed published, that Nathan Phillips perpetrated on the Covington Catholic kids or what Jussie Smollett just did, how likely is it they could spot some Russians trying to interfere with an election?

The freaking Russians and Chinese have the US media right where they want them. If either of these countries were running operations to disrupt the US and sow political discord, just exactly what would they be doing different to what the US media is doing?"

The Jussie Smollett publicity hate crime

I've been watching the Jussie Smollett stories on ABC and Fox and the back tracking by liberals, and also the "yes, but it's a racist society anyway" no matter what happened in Chicago, Trump dog whistles, etc. and therefore it's his fault. However, when whites are attacked by blacks it doesn't get much publicity, but the federal statistics show the RATE is much higher than whites attacking blacks. Is it even called racism or hate crimes when whites are attacked? Where ever this leads, I think it has worked as a publicity ploy, because I'd never heard of him before, and all the TV channels (I assume, although I've only seen 2) are now talking about him, and providing interviews.

St. John’s Bible

And I found in that same 2001 letter with the description of the African travel book the following information:

“On Feb. 21, I attended a lecture at the Faculty Club about the St John's Bible, the first manuscript Bible in about 500 years.  The art work is really magnificent.  A monastery in MN has commissioned it, and the calligrapher lives in England.  Father Hollas had a video showing the artist at work--was absolutely fascinating, and slides of the sketches and mock-ups of several scenes, like the nativity (he calls them the infancy narratives) and the raising of Lazarus.  I was surprised that the new RSV was selected as the version.  I asked one of the librarians about it, knowing he is Catholic, and he claimed complete ignorance of any version.  "Oh, we Catholics don't read the Bible, we just rattle our beads," I think he said.  The December issue of Smithsonian has a cover story on this Bible.  It is projected to take 6 years--and of course you can sponsor a page, but the costs weren't as bad as some I've seen for getting your name on a brick of a building.  I think $1,000 was the price of an un-illuminated page.  $250,000 if you want to sponsor one of the Gospels.”

Well, this sounded interesting! Even 18 years later.  I vaguely remember the event, so I looked it up, and it has a blog and a web page.  I’ll for sure want to find that December 2000 Smithsonian (checked—it’s available for $36.)

Information on the calligrapher, Donald Jackson, scribe to the Queen of England.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTS5m59DPoo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULb9xZuj1bE

The Heritage Edition.
https://blog.saintjohnsbible.org/posts/2019/02/mount-saint-mary-college-heritage-edition/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90togEvOruo  Rev. Eric Hollas, O.S.B., Senior Associate for Arts & Cultural Affairs at Saint John's University. http://stmu.it/15cYKtP  Was apparently the person who gave the presentation that night in February 2001 at the Faculty Club.

White Africans and Black by Caroline Singer and Cyrus Le Roy Baldridge, on my bookshelves

According to a letter I found, I bought this book in 2001 from the wonderful used book store (now closed) Acorn in Grandview because of the beautiful pencil and charcoal drawings. There are no whites in the book so I was a little puzzled by the title—the authors say it’s because all Africa was controlled by whites. Originally written in 1929 and published by The Methodist Book Deport , Cape Coast, Gold Coast,  it is extremely respectful of the beauty and culture of black Africa, but the authors comment on the presence of the Europeans and their culture throughout the book as they travel in Africa for 14 months.  There is an inscription in mine from the original owners: January 1945, Marilyn Phyllis Birch, A memento of our field of foreign service. Daddy and Mother (beautiful script).

One of the first things the authors mention is that photographs do not do justice to the shading and tone of African skin--but their drawings certainly do. The people are all beautifully drawn--very well muscled, graceful, and beautiful. They comment on relations between men and women, slavery (which had been outlawed, but still was obvious), funeral customs, polygamy, religion, the culture of the "Creole" West Indians who had returned to Africa but weren't really African, food, bathing, language, work attitudes.

The illustrator is Cyrus Baldridge, and  his wife, Caroline Singer is the writer. Her writing style is unusual. She uses almost no active verbs, lots of descriptive clauses, and sometimes word repetition, and so her writing develops sort of a calming rhythm. I would love to see something else they've written--and they did a lot of traveling,

“Quiet is the bedroom which adjoins our own, occupied by a swaggering hawk-nosed Kissi, his childlike wife and half a dozen retainers who, though slavery is by law abolished, differ racially from their employer and obey him, without servility, but still as people owned obey.  That the young man is Moslem is evidence not by robes and sandals alone—for many pagans assume this dress without derangement of their inner life—but by his pretty one’s abasement, which has a subtly meretricious quality.  She is demure.  But I think she is so designedly, not unselfconsciously as pagan women are.  It is often stated by the governing whites—despite the missionary’s protest—that any pagan, Moslemized, has made an upward step.  This child, littered with European jewelry of dubious gold, is set apart from other women here by a mincing self-consciousness, equalled only by the preciousness of half-Europeanized women of the larger coast settlements, unduly inflated by newly acquired monogamy, Charleston sandals, and coverings for their upper parts.  A favorite toy, chosen for her charms and not her usefulness, the girl, as if in fearful anticipation of the day those charms may pass, undetected from behind her husband’s back, plunges long glances into the eyes of passing men, searching for reaffirmation of their potency.”

https://www.lib.uchicago.edu/collex/exhibits/cyrus-leroy-baldridge-illustrator-explorer-activist/

If I were collecting books instead of giving them away, this is an illustrator/author I would try to locate.

https://www.lib.uchicago.edu/media/documents/baldridge-C.pdf

A WWI illustration from “ I Was There With the Yanks In France (1920), a book of sketches by the artist Cyrus Leroy Baldridge, who had served as a war correspondent in occupied Belgium and France before America even joined the war. Baldridge later joined the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) and became the chief illustrator for the new Stars and Stripes military newspaper.”  https://library.wustl.edu/wwi-archives-dan-bartletts-books/

The President’s emergency powers

We’re still living under emergency powers put in place by previous presidents.  According to Democrats, only President Trump can't call a national emergency when we are being invaded by thousands every year, a large number who are members of gangs, who are trafficking women and children, who are using children to pose as "family" groups, who are bringing in drugs.

What if they were Russians arriving in San Francisco or New York demanding refugee status for admittance? By the thousands. The Russians are coming, the Russians are coming. Big ships of them because Putin wanted to empty his jails and prison camps.  Every year. Demanding the social safety net originally set up for our poor and unemployed. Wanting all the labels and directions printed in А, Б, В, Г, Д, Е, Ё, Ж, З, И, Й, К, Л, М, Н, О, П, Р, С, Т, У, Ф, Х, Ц, Ч, Ш, Щ, Ъ, Ы, Ь, Э, Ю, Я, and press 2 for Russian? Demanding special sanctuary cities so they can avoid police and prey on Russians who came as legal immigrants and refugees in the 1990s?

What if instead of hundreds crossing our northern border with Canada annually there were thousands and thousands flooding into Minnesota and Washington, working the good tech jobs, or even as baristas, taking over slots in the colleges intended by minority affirmative action for people born here?

Ilhan Omar has shown us one doesn’t have to be born in the U.S. to be in Congress and have an ugly, biased, bigoted Twitter account and try to destroy our ally Israel.

The Dred Scott case

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OML9AVR10PQ

Democrats (7) on the Supreme Court decided Dred Scott wasn't a citizen worthy of rights--just as now Democrat led states are deciding that third trimester unborn babies are not citizens worthy of rights and protection. When their ugly legislation passed, they cheered and lit up buildings. To their credit, those 7 judges didn't say Scott wasn't human—just unfit and inferior—sort of what they say about full term babies.

https://www.thirteen.org/wnet/supremecourt/personality/landmark_dred.html

Unspeakable evil

Harm reduction in San Francisco

Has the world gone crazy? Why do "do-gooders" do so much harm?

"The Department of Public Health distributes 4.45 million needles each year to the city’s 22,000 intravenous drug users. Heroin and prescription opioids are the most injected substances, though use of methamphetamines and Fentanyl is on the rise. It’s true that sterile needles reduce the transmission of blood-borne infections, and injecting narcotics under supervision can lower the risk of overdose and death. But harm reduction goes far beyond promoting these kinds of needle-safety measures. For example, At the Crossroads, a nonprofit, assembled “safe snorting kits” for at-risk and homeless youth. Baggies were filled with straws, chopping mats, plastic razor blades, and instruction sheets. Other groups offer crack-cocaine “safe-smoking” kits. A proposal to open “safe injection” sites, opposed by Jerry Brown, is favored by Governor Gavin Newsom, and is likely to succeed."

 https://www.city-journal.org/san-francisco-drugs-harm-reduction?

Can media survive the Trump presidency?

Journalistic standards were dropping 3-4 decades before Trump won, and the editorial bias was to the left. However, once the print media had to compete with the internet media things really got serious.  The media, both old school and new, are dependent on ads for income.  Sure, some have subscriptions, (one is actually owned by the richest man in the world and could care less about accuracy) but now it's all about the click count or full page ads of faculty names or companies supporting climate scares or fighting the rape culture. If you've noticed, some of the on-line content not only isn't information or commentary, but it's disguised advertising. Pew says newspaper print ad revenue fell by 2/3 between 2006 and 2016. But what brings on the clicks?  Any salacious and twisted story about President Trump.  They helped create his campaign by giving him so much coverage, and now they're still dependent on him while they attempt to destroy him, but in the process use him to fatten their sad bank accounts.

Yes, Trump blasts "fake news" and that gets journalists worked up who then fight back, but unfortunately they don't even see their own biases and some really believe they are being objective and fair. And then there are revelations like those of Andrew McCabe's book which just prove him right again.

Conservatives knew for years before the 2016 election that they weren't being treated fairly, that the intellectual "elites" in the media, academe, DC, the state houses, and entertainment were slamming, ridiculing and dissing them. So it's been a perfect storm--falling advertising revenue, loss of readership by customers who don't trust them (most people don't enjoy being insulted by someone who wants to sell them something), and a President who calls them out on their bias.

I would like to see the old print media survive, and the web media improve, but they've got a few miles to go to win back the country and become solvent again.



"If you’re a working journalist and you believe that Donald J. Trump is a demagogue playing to the nation’s worst racist and nationalistic tendencies, that he cozies up to anti-American dictators and that he would be dangerous with control of the United States nuclear codes, how the heck are you supposed to cover him?

Because if you believe all of those things, you have to throw out the textbook American journalism has been using for the better part of the past half-century, if not longer, and approach it in a way you’ve never approached anything in your career. If you view a Trump presidency as something that’s potentially dangerous, then your reporting is going to reflect that. You would move closer than you’ve ever been to being oppositional. That’s uncomfortable and uncharted territory for every mainstream, nonopinion journalist I’ve ever known, and by normal standards, untenable."  https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/08/business/balance-fairness-and-a-proudly-provocative-presidential-candidate.html

El Paso Rally up close by someone who was there--Dionne

"I live in El Paso, TX - a "blue" city that is over 90% Hispanic population. I went to the rally on Monday. It was amazing. The line stretched literally over 2 miles (I know, I stood in it), people started showing up as early as 7 in the mornings even though it didn't start until 7pm; the venue was full to capacity- I produce live shows at the El Paso County Coliseum so I KNEW when I saw the crowd there was no way they would fit (Coliseum holds 8000; fire department squeezed in 10000). 30k+ watched outside on the Jumbo-tron in the Coliseum parking lots, and a bunch of people were turned away once the parking lot was full so they either went home to watch or stood out on the residential streets that were blocked off - I don't know, I couldn't see anything beyond the parking lot because there were too many people and I'm a shorty. (BTW, there WAS one larger indoor venue that would have been more suited for this and help more people....the University's Don Haskins Center...ask them why they didn't accommodate the President.) 

Anyway, 45k+ people - about 90% of them Hispanic - wearing MAGA hats. Also black, white, LGBTQ, military, even some peaceful mature democrats all in line braving the freezing wind, laughing joking , talking with each other, to see the President. No fighting, no meanness - not even to the few protesters (and I mean FEW--- we didn't really see any until AFTER the rally when we were coming out. I guess they waited until cover of darkness or were just irritated because of Beto's failed "Rally" down the street). Mexican, white, black, gay, young people, old people, military, law enforcement, men , women... all getting along and supporting each other with a shared pride and love of our country without a SINGLE Democratic leader around to "help us get along" or "protect us" from each other..*GASP!!* who'da thought? ? 

I didn't watch the news or the "Media's" version of the rally, but I'm sure it wasn't the picture I just painted. I cant blame them ---it's pretty embarrassing to show visual evidence that you are LOSING the city and demographic you thought you were in control of...I wouldn't show it either if I were them, or I'd definitely dirty it up with some fake stories, fake fights, and maybe only show pictures of the few WHITE people that were there (they made up maybe 5% of the entire crowd) so it would look like a KKK rally."

Trump has been proven right again

 

https://www.dailysignal.com/2019/02/14/senate-panel-may-probe-alleged-plot-to-oust-trump/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BiDF0FenOw8

Forget toxic masculinity

2019 may become the year of toxic feminism. We experienced a temper tantrum by the aging Pelosi, the highest elected female in the country, in line for the presidency, refusing Trump his SOTU; then when it finally happens we had to watch a block of white lab coats described variously as abortion assistants to noisy middle school girls' silliness; a Michigan Congress woman called the President a disgusting term; we have Kathy Tran proposing death to fully viable babies in Virginia; and women who cheered late term abortion in New York; and finally yesterday we saw the grossest, most vile behavior of Ilhan Omar in Congress that I've ever seen in my life time, coming on the heels of her anti-Semitism of a few days ago which was defended by another female, Ocasio-Cortez. Time to get the cameras out of these hearing rooms! They are exposing women and are embarrassing 51% of the country.

Joan doesn’t agree with today’s philosophy of reading—guest blogger Joan Turrentine (former teacher)

“Recent educational philosophy has been that it doesn't matter WHAT children read as long as they DO read. I am glad I grew up and went to school in a day when schools believed that it matters WHAT students read. My mind and memory are full of quality literature, classic poetry, thought-provoking stories and poems. I became familiar with and developed a useful and precise vocabulary and a familiarity with proper English language syntax. I observed in countless realistic situations (in reading assignments) how real people act and how people interact with other people and build happy and successful lives. I read the thoughts of some of the greatest thinkers of the past and learned how they organize their thoughts, thereby learning HOW to think and reason. Because of this background, I often read FB posts, have conversations, or read other media and recognize cultural references, recognize faulty/logical reasoning strategies, understand some of human nature.

I feel bad for many of today's elementary school kids who only read about teachers who are aliens, students who are wizards, and other such imaginary life situations. What preparation for real life does that provide? What thought processes does that develop? How does that help them discover their own values in life? And then in post-elementary school they read such dystopian literature as the Hunger Games series, the Unwind series, or numerous other books with unrealistic settings which provide no opportunity for observing how people might handle real life situations and what consequences might be expected to result from actions. There's nothing wrong with any of this literature if students want to read them on their own; but I believe the schools owe them better than that. These students won't be culturally literate as adults - recognizing references to the classic literature, philosophy, or history of the ages. They won't have had the opportunity to develop their own sense of how to live successfully in this world. What they have read will not have helped them develop values to help them live successfully and happily. I so strongly believe that it DOES matter WHAT children read.”

I  agree with Joan’s concern and philosophy, I just don't think I had all that much "quality" reading material--at least my mother used to complain it wasn't as good as what she had in the 1920's.  All I cared about as a child was horse and dog stories. I enjoyed reading from encyclopedias and preferred to write and illustrate my own stories. My grandmother gave us subscriptions to Jack and Jill, hardly sophisticated or difficult information.  We had a lot of magazines and the local newspapers (and maybe one from Chicago). Mom belonged to the “Book of the Month” club, which was definitely considered “low brow,” but I enjoyed looking through her fiction.  I learned the names of the classics, by playing the card game "Authors" , and by high school, the literature text books were just excerpts grouped by era or genre. In college I was a foreign language major, so I had NO American or British literature. I was definitely a forerunner for today's poorly educated students!  Today I belong to a book club, and I’m grateful for my well educated reading friends—but I’m still not educated in the type of literature Joan recommends. And of course, not having grandchildren (she has many), I haven’t even heard of the series she writes about.

Just in time for the Green New Deal

"California’s new governor, the prim and grim Gavin Newsom, announced that the project [bullet train] would be taken off its $650-million-a-month life-support apparatus and euthanized. The end of the project leaves Californians with no way to travel between Los Angeles and San Francisco except a 90-minute, $149 flight." Kevin Williamson, Feb. 13

https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/02/california-bullet-train-boondoggle-central-planning/?

For those who have family with mental health issues

This young lady is the daughter of a friend.  Not sure of her age, but she’s about 19-20. I spent some time with her about 7 years ago when she was in middle school—such a sweet, beautiful child.  We have been praying for her and her mother. Recently she had some serious problems, and today posted this:

“Hi all, I just thought I would share with you what 2019 has held for me so far. I’ve been through some stuff I wouldn’t wish upon my worst enemy. I’ll start with my most recent “adventure”. I’ve struggled with mental health issues for just about as long as I can remember, whether it be anxiety, depression or Bipolar 1. These past 9 days I was hospitalized due to these issues and I would like to share my experience in hopes to help anyone going through something similar.

I was at the lowest of the low. I was unstable, depressed, hopeless, dissociated, anxious you name it. I wasn’t sleeping. I wasn’t eating. I lost 20 pounds in the past month or so. Even though I have a strong support system, I had never felt so alone. I couldn’t describe in words how awful that feeling was.

The first night I was there, I wished that I wasn’t alive. I wished that I had never been born. I wished I could fall asleep and never wake up. Looking back now, I want to tell myself that everything was going to get better with each passing day.

I met some incredible people during my stay in which I hope to keep in touch with for the rest of my days. Hearing people talk about their experiences and being able to relate with you and talk through your problems, is the most amazing way to start your healing process. I cried with them, I laughed with them, but most importantly they taught me that having mental health issues is okay. They taught me so many valuable skills and lessons that I will cherish for the rest of my life. During any future struggles I may have, everything I’ve learned from them will help me come out stronger than before.

Through this experience, I’ve learned not to be ashamed or embarrassed. I’ve talked about my problems, which is totally not my style, but it’s helped immensely. I’m happier, I’m healthier and I have a whole new, positive, outlook on life. I will continue to better myself day by day.

I thought I had no way out. It felt like there was no light at the end of the tunnel. Some of you may be able to relate in your own ways, some of you may not and that’s perfectly okay.  . .

Thank you to my Family, Friends and everyone else who has supported me through my struggles. I appreciate it so very much and I don’t know what I would do without you!”