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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Imagine all of those happening at the same time.

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

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

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

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

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

The Durham Report and Hillary Clinton

"We already know about Hillary Clinton’s attempted takedown of the Donald Trump candidacy and presidency in the Russia hoax. We know a government lawyer lied to the FISA court in order to get a warrant to spy on the Trump campaign. We know about Christopher Steele’s fake “dossier,” the spying on the Trump campaign by the FBI, and the deployment of Democrat apparatchiks to conscript their Leftist media transcribers to plant or amplify the fake news in the service of The Party."

Latest Durham Indictment May Make Russiagate the Most Corrupt Scandal in U.S. History – PJ Media

No wonder the Democrats and their henchmen in the media want to keep you focused on a protest on January 6, calling it an insurrection. The biggest scandal in our history is their candidate and former FLOTUS. No wonder they want to scare the daylights out of you with Climate Change and Covid and buy you off with a $3.5 trillion "infrastructure" bill, which is totally unneccesary. Democrats in Congress are crooks and the Republicans in Congress are enablers and wimps.

An old, old story

 Social media--e-mail and Facebook and Instagram--will never give you joy in memories 80 years later--those pixels will be long gone (unless you've printed them), and the next time I get a new computer, most of what I saved from my sister, cousin, and friends will be gone. But generations before this had the post office. I've seen the letters that my great-grandfather received from his parents in Pennsylvania after he settled in Illinois in 1848. And until recently when I repacked all my old letters, I had a birthday card from my mother written in 1995 that I would re-read. She died in 2000 so I loved looking at her handwriting.

Sept. 18, 1995

Dear Norma--This card will probably be late for your birthday, so we can look at the date this way.  You were born several days--one or two--early.  Dr. Dumont gave me the hurry-up treatment of castor oil and something on the evening of the 19th so the baby would come quickly and allow him to go on the fishing trip scheduled for the next day.  There was no harm done and one or two minutes before midnight you were on the scene.

Of course, that quick journey  left you a most beautiful baby, not red and wrinkled.  So you became "Peachy" at a very early age and you probably would have had September 20th or 21st as a birthdate!

Who trusts government when Biden is in charge?

I was reading through the comments of yet another expert, Dr. Michael Osterholm, an epidemiologist and director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota. Virus Expert Just Issued This "Sobering" Warning (yahoo.com)  He is baffled by 2 things--the fast increase in cases among children, and the distrust of the government mandates. I have no idea either why it is increasing among children, but have an opinion on the federal mandates.

 
During the Trump administration, the media and "experts" were insulting and lying about him, and his supporters. Trump supporters were called deplorable racists, white supremacists and stupid. That transfers to the entire country. You can't expect a complete turn around when for four years Democrats have been telling people they can NOT trust the government! The flip flopping by Dr. Fauci, who after all did advise Trump as well as Biden, has been stunning.

 
The mismanagement at the border and the disaster in Afghanistan certainly haven't caused Americans, even Democrats, to trust Joe Biden! Renaming "infrastructure" and slapping a $3.5 trillion bill (our money) to build up the Democrat party doesn't help. Saying Climate Change is the no. one problem when other things are more pressing and more difficult is also a terrible mark against federal mandates. That ill will that Democrats have seeded for years is bearing fruit, and it just may be costing lives. It's bleeding into the minds and hearts of the American people.

Perhaps this is a charity that can help save NYC

New York City, spends $28,000 per student -- half-a-million dollars per classroom! Private charities step up to the challenge to send kids to charter schools. John Stossel features Student Sponsor Partners, or SSP, a nonprofit that helps low-income students go to Catholic schools.  Not only scholarship money, but mentorship.

Jeniffer Gutierrez, a parent in the Bronx, was ecstatic to get SSP's acceptance letter. "I cried so hard when I received that letter because I knew it was an opportunity for my son. ... High schools in the Bronx are violent. There's no discipline. There's no education."

https://youtu.be/-qPSxp7Fy-g  Stossel explores the issues--he has been a mentor and donor for SSP, a way out for poor children.

India battling Covid with Ivermectin

"With a combined population of 241 million [Uttar Pradesh] there are only 199 active cases and the positive test rate is 0.01% – statistically zero." Too bad that in the U.S. it's forbidden to speak of an alternative treatment. Big Tech and Big Pharma and Big Joe are killing Americans. Even peer review studies are being blocked.

The “Pandemic” Has Ended for Much of India, How Did They Do It? – Not With Covid Injections but a Drug That Costs Less Than £2 Per Person: Ivermectin – The Expose

Clean up your own neighborhood first

 

  

My mother's famous words: I can't save the world, but I can clean up these 4 acres (her garden and orchard).

Motion is lotion for the joints

I just heard a marathon runner, age 69, who started running because his father died at 55, say that on the radio show, "Doctor, doctor" EWTN. We know that obesity is a big factor in Covid deaths. What about sports? Are marathon runners doing better than joggers? Hockey better than tennis? Swimmers better than bikers? I did find research comparing athletes with couch potatoes in the Covid survival race. I get about 30 minutes a day.

 
Also, I learned that knee injuries are the most common for runners, but runners that land on the mid-foot have half the injuries.

 
Kaiser Permanente (California) did a study including 48,000 of its clients, not by type of sport, but by level of activity. "Even after correcting for all of those characteristics (age, sex, race, smoker, etc) , people who were consistently inactive had a significantly higher risk of hospitalization, ICU admission, and death after getting COVID-19 than those who were active for at least 150 minutes per week. Additionally, those who were active for over 10 minutes per week had some protection against severe illness or death from COVID-19 — though not as much as those who got the full 150 minutes. The highest rates of COVID-19 were among those who were Latinx: 65% compared to 18% (whites), 7% (Blacks), and 6% (Asian or Pacific Islander). It’s worth noting that people who were white were somewhat more likely to meet physical activity guidelines — a discrepancy that should be acknowledged and addressed."

Does exercise help protect against severe COVID-19? - Harvard Health

So my friends (on Medicare), time to check to see if your insurance plan includes Silver Sneakers.

Christmas is coming--advice from Joan

Christmas is coming, so again: if your last name ends in s (or a letter that makes a sibilant sound - x, z, ch, sh) then, to identify your family, add “es” and collectively you are “the Coxes” or “the Adamses” or “the Lopezes”. If your name ends with any other letter (even a “y” or an “e”) then just add an “s”. You are “the Smiths” or “the Prices” or “the Macys”. No apostrophe is used to make plurals of any name. Just a friendly reminder! Class dismissed.

Joan Shaw Turrentine, retired English teacher and pastor's wife, blogging friend since 2003

Exercise and cognitive benefits

FNDC5, Fibronectin type III domain-containing protein 5, the precursor of irisin, is a type I transmembrane glycoprotein that is encoded by the FNDC5 gene. Irisin is a cleaved version of FNDC5, named after the Greek messenger goddess Iris.

 
Researchers found that irisin, an exercise-induced hormone, improves cognitive performance in mice.
The hormone, which is identical in people, could potentially be used to treat cognitive disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease.

Hormone links exercise with cognitive benefits | National Institutes of Health (NIH)

Related links:

Exercise-Induced Protein May Reverse Age-Related Cognitive Decline
Exercise and New Nerve Cell Growth in Alzheimer’s Disease
Shivering Triggers Brown Fat to Produce Heat and Burn Calories
Moderate Exercise May Improve Memory in Older Adults
A Well-Aged Mind: Maintaining Your Cognitive Health
Dealing with Dementia: When Thinking and Behavior Decline
Exercise and Physical Activity
Alzheimer’s Disease & Related Dementias

Mean girls--today and 68 years ago

I just watched a Fox News story on the damage social media is doing to young teen girls and their body images. I used to be a young teen girl who hung out with other teens, caring about every word and piece of gossip. We didn't have social media like Instagram or TikTok (the focus of this story). We didn't have personal phones (most of us were on a party line). We didn't have organized sports (against the law in those days). If we took a photo it was on film and it was 2 weeks to get it developed. We all went to church and almost no one had divorced parents. But we still found all the ways to be mean girls and make snide remarks about bodies and tease anyone who didn't fit the mold or current fashion. Can I get an Amen or am I the only one who remembers "the good old days?"

  

Black Lies Matter

“For every Trayvon Martin killed by someone not black [whether white, Asian, or Latino], nine other blacks were murdered by someone black,” wrote John W. Fountain, an award-winning journalist, and professor at Roosevelt University. . . . [Fountain continues,] Imagine Soldier Field . . . filled beyond capacity, brimming with 63,879 young African-American men, ages 18-24—more than U.S. losses in the entire Vietnam conflict. Imagine the University of Michigan’s football stadium—the largest in the U.S.—filled to the limit of 109,901 with black men. Now add 28,233 more—together totaling more than U.S. deaths in World War I. . . . The national tally of black males 14 and older murdered in America over a 30-year period from 1976-2005, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics: 214,661 [roughly 192,000 of which were killed by blacks]. (30)" From Black Lies Matter by Taleeb Starkes, 2016

This book was written before Donald Trump became president, and the point of view and statistics have nothing to do with the current riots and destruction (which were on their way). But it does supply some detail on the narrative that if we just got rid of cops everything hurting or killing blacks would be over. It was building as an issue long before Minneapolis and George Floyd.

 
Most murders are intra-racial, so you could also fill up a few stadiums with whites killed by whites--however, white Americans do not riot when a policeman, black or white, shoots a white criminal resisting arrest when wanted for rape (Blake) or addled by drugs with a long rap sheet and resisting arrest (Floyd).

BLM is a relatively new organization (created by 3 radical feminists when Martin, a black teen, was shot by a neighborhood private security guard who was Hispanic), but has built up its wealth on the efforts of other groups that came before them going back decades.

(written a year ago)

Lunacy on the Left must be attacked with logic and reason

Michael Smith of Utah writes:

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

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

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

OK.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Censorship by Big Tech

I have moved this comment of mine from Facebook:

"Democrats and their media buddies continue to blame Republicans for hesitancy to get the jab. Yet they were the ones sowing seeds of doubt about it when Trump was president--not because of science, but because of hate and they wanted to defeat him in the election. 

Also there are two groups that are always featured in low vaccination rates--1) blacks, and 2) health care workers. Democrats love to depict Republicans as knuckle dragging idiots who don't understand science. So what does that say about how Democrats think about blacks and health care workers?"

So, Facebook follows that up with a warning or suggestion about how to find information on the virus or vaccine.

Whether I use Johns Hopkins, Cleveland Clinic, WHO or CDC data, the geniuses at FB use algorithms that flag, target and demote my posts and comments so few will see them. Big Tech in collusion with the Democrat party is denying us access to information.

Mask mandates--do not reduce deaths

In a government study mask mandates did not reduce deaths, patients hospitalized in either intensive care or regular hospital beds or ventilator use nor do mandates reduce number of Covid-19 positive patients.
The study was conducted by scientists from the US Army Institute of Surgical Research and the Brooke Army Medical Center, JBSA Fort Sam Houston, Texas, the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Bethesda, Maryland, the Madigan Army Medical Center, Joint Base Lewis McChord, Washington, the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, Fort Carson, Colorado, and the 121st Field Hospital, Camp Humphreys, Republic of Korea.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8395971/

Trust the science. All you need to do is figure out which science pushed by which politician and lobbyist.

Abortion, slavery and the Church

 Except maybe videos of actual legal abortions, you'll probably never see one— the dismemberment, little arms and legs in a basin, scalps being sold to labs, scissors in the brain, etc. Big Tech has decided those are too gruesome and violent. Also, I’m not Catholic, but the Roman Catholic church is a huge target, and if Protestants and Bible churches were smarter, they’d realize they are all being attacked. Child sex abuse is a case in point. More teachers abuse children as do more doctors, than Catholic priests. This was actually studied and published in the 90s. And I don’t mean numbers, because obviously teachers and doctors far outnumber priests and have more access. It’s rate. You might find something in the last section of the paper, but a priest will be on the front page. My blog today concerns the relationship between slavery, abortion and powerful political leaders.

From 1435 to 1890, we have numerous bulls and encyclicals from several popes written to many bishops and the whole Christian faithful condemning both slavery and the slave trade. And guess what? Many powerful and greedy Christians, including some religious orders, ignored the clear message of the church. They followed the ways of the world. Just as Biden and Pelosi are ignoring the clear teaching of the Church on the crime of abortion.

Abortion is treating the unborn, the weakest and most helpless among us, as less than human. Biden is doing that. Slavery has existed from the beginning of time/civilization where the strong had complete control over the weak, to use and abuse their bodies as they wished. The women for sex and men for labor. Sometimes the slavers became the enslaved when someone stronger came along--particularly in Africa--which not only enslaved their neighbors, but then sold them to Europeans and Asians (still do). John Newton who wrote "Amazing Grace" had been a slaver who ended up a slave. With abortion, that doesn't happen --the little body that ends up in the trash doesn't come back to do harm to her oppressors. Justice (and mercy) will wait for Jesus' return.” The Popes and Slavery: Setting the Record Straight | EWTN

Vote Wisely

 

Trump's plans for Afghanistan, August 21, 2017

After commending our brave men and women who have served in our longest war. . .

"My original instinct was to pull out -- and, historically, I like following my instincts. But all my life I've heard that decisions are much different when you sit behind the desk in the Oval Office; in other words, when you're President of the United States. So I studied Afghanistan in great detail and from every conceivable angle. After many meetings, over many months, we held our final meeting last Friday at Camp David, with my Cabinet and generals, to complete our strategy. I arrived at three fundamental conclusions about America’s core interests in Afghanistan.

First, our nation must seek an honorable and enduring outcome worthy of the tremendous sacrifices that have been made, especially the sacrifices of lives. The men and women who serve our nation in combat deserve a plan for victory. They deserve the tools they need, and the trust they have earned, to fight and to win.

Second, the consequences of a rapid exit are both predictable and unacceptable. 9/11, the worst terrorist attack in our history, was planned and directed from Afghanistan because that country was ruled by a government that gave comfort and shelter to terrorists. A hasty withdrawal would create a vacuum that terrorists, including ISIS and al Qaeda, would instantly fill, just as happened before September 11th. 

"And, as we know, in 2011, America hastily and mistakenly withdrew from Iraq. As a result, our hard-won gains slipped back into the hands of terrorist enemies. Our soldiers watched as cities they had fought for, and bled to liberate, and won, were occupied by a terrorist group called ISIS. The vacuum we created by leaving too soon gave safe haven for ISIS to spread, to grow, recruit, and launch attacks. We cannot repeat in Afghanistan the mistake our leaders made in Iraq.

Third and finally, I concluded that the security threats we face in Afghanistan and the broader region are immense. Today, 20 U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organizations are active in Afghanistan and Pakistan -- the highest concentration in any region anywhere in the world."

How very different was Trump's vision from the cowardly betrayal of the Biden Abandonment. Biden has besmirched the memory of all the soldiers who fought there, following 4 presidents, and allowed Afghanistan to again be the launching place of terrorist attacks.

https://www.politico.com/story/2017/08/21/trump-afghanistan-speech-text-241882

"But we will no longer use American military might to construct democracies in faraway lands, or try to rebuild other countries in our own image. Those days are now over. Instead, we will work with allies and partners to protect our shared interests. We are not asking others to change their way of life, but to pursue common goals that allow our children to live better and safer lives. This principled realism will guide our decisions moving forward."

But there was no "principled realism" in the Biden's Abandonment. It was shameful, and now he's making mandates about vaccines in order to cover for his ugly behavior. And our children and those in the middle east and Israel will certainly NOT have better and safer lives.

Seeds oils, are they safe

I haven't paid much attention, but there seems to be a war against seed oils (omega-6) What do you think?

Are seed oils (not common until the 20th century) in the processed food industry the biological drivers of modern health problems? https://youtu.be/7kGnfXXIKZM I use butter, peanut oil, coconut oil, and olive oil if I cook from scratch, but the others (seed oils) are in processed food.

This speaker, Dr. Chris Knobbe,  was an ophthalmologist and has switched to nutrition, primarily because of research on macular degeneration.

8 Bad Seed Oils You Should Eliminate From Your Diet | Better Nutrition

"Unlike traditional fats such as olive oil, coconut oil, butter, ghee, and lard, industrial seed oils are a very recent addition to the human diet.

In fact, industrial seed oils, the highly processed oils extracted from soybeans, corn, rapeseed (the source of canola oil), cottonseed, and safflower seeds, were only introduced into the American diet in the early 1900s. How, then, did these oils come to occupy such an influential position not only in the Standard American Diet but in “”Westernized” diets around the world? The story is strange indeed."

From Toxic Waste to “Heart Healthy”: The History of Seed Oils

How Industrial Seed Oils Are Making Us Sick | Chris Kresser

Transition surgery for children is child abuse

How could genital mutilation on a child of healthy organs by a physician and at request of parents NOT be sexual abuse? Call it transition or confirming or affirming, throw in a few thousands hormone blockers, and it is still sexual abuse. If an adult chooses a mastectomy or penile amputation, that's their business. But a child may need the protection of the law. Transgenderism is a hoax, and it's OK if adults want to do it and have other adults changing their pronouns to comply with their confusion.

Texas Agency Rules Gender-Confirming Surgery Form Of Child Abuse – CBS Dallas / Fort Worth (cbslocal.com)