What is an existential threat?

I can't figure out why the left thinks Trump was/is an "existential" threat. What does that even mean? That he might run out on our allies and Americans in the middle east? That he might increase our taxes? That he might hire enough IRS agents to populate a small city? That he might drive the economy into inflation and recession at the same time? That he might lead the charge against freedom of speech? That he might collude with the press? That he might encourage the FBI to attack his political enemies? That he might worsen the relationship with China? That he might destroy the fossil fuel industry condemning us to a return to the pre-industrial age? That he might encourage WWIII?

Who exactly is a threat to the United States? I think he's living in the White House, not in Trump Towers.

Jennifer Sey, former gymnast, fired for speaking out for children

Jennifer Sey lost her dream job with Levi Strauss for speaking out against the crusade against children, forcing them to wear masks and lose 2 years of education. Earlier she was (belatedly) considered a hero for exposing the underbelly of the gymnastics Olympics. But when she used that toxic mix to speak up for the voiceless, she was "cancelled."

 
"More broadly, emotional and physical abuse was actually the norm and we were all so beaten down by that and made so obedient that when we knew there was a sexual abuser in our midst, we would never say anything," Sey recalled to Indianapolis Star reporters in a scene captured by the documentary.

 
"The standard methodology of coaching in elite gymnastics was cruelty," she told the documentary." But when she said the school lockdown and masking were cruel, no one listened. In fact, her woke corporation sent this life-time Democrat packing.

https://www.oxygen.com/true-crime-buzz/netflixs-athlete-a-who-is-former-gymnast-jennifer-sey

https://summit.news/2022/02/16/levis-brand-president-says-she-was-offered-1-million-to-shut-up-about-being-fired-over-criticizing-covid-restrictions/

“This didn’t seem at all controversial to me. I felt—and still do—that the draconian policies would cause the most harm to those least at risk, and the burden would fall heaviest on disadvantaged kids in public schools, who need the safety and routine of school the most.”
“In the summer of 2020, I finally got the call.”

“‘You know when you speak, you speak on behalf of the company,’ our head of corporate communications told me, urging me to pipe down.”

Despite pleading that she was merely speaking in a personal capacity as “a public school mom of four kids,” Sey said the final straw was when she appeared on Fox News with Laura Ingraham and criticized further school closures.

Levi Strauss & Co. subsequently released a false statement claiming Sey had “resigned from the company.”

The colleges' role in the student loan crisis

"Here is how the education industrial complex works.

 The universities spent $130 million lobbying to get this loan forgiveness done. The university needs money to pay for the vast overhead created by all the costs of the DEI staffs and the high operating overhead of all the amenities they now offer. 

So, they raise tuition, and then convince students to take out loans to cover the tuition which is really to cover their inflated operating budget. The student wants to attend, so they borrow, not understanding the economics of what they are doing. 

The government makes the loan with no assessment of ability to repay, or if the course of study is one that will provide a job paying enough to cover repayment. The school gets its operating costs covered by getting the students to borrow the needed working capital to operate the school. They then can put donations from rich guys who want their kid admitted, into their huge endowment which is just a giant investment portfolio. 

So now the university has gotten the student and the government to cover their operating costs, with zero liability to the university for the borrowed funds. It is magic. It is a total scam.

Meantime they have courses like gender studies, or others that have nil value to the student or employers when they graduate. So now the kid has no way to earn enough to pay the loan that financed the university operating budget. That is the reality of student loans. Universities are a corrupt cabal now destroying a whole generation with nonsense courses, and no free thought allowed. This will harm the nation for many years. This is one more example of why we are fighting the Amy Wax war. Between teachers’ unions and university corruption and ideology, we are in real trouble educationally."

(The Ross Rant, 8/27/22)

Comments on Amy Wax mentioned above: "On Dec. 20, Wax in an interview with Glenn Loury, a professor at Brown University, said that since “most” Asian Americans support the Democratic Party, “the United States is better off with fewer Asians and less Asian immigration.”

After backlash to those remarks, the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School’s Dean Ted Ruger announced on Jan. 14 that he had initiated a faculty review process that could result in sanctions imposed on Wax." (Daily Princetonian, Jan. 27, 2022)

The National Archives and Republican Presidents

The National Archives is somewhere in the mess at the raid on Mar a Lago. Seems to be some history there. In July 2004 I blogged about the selection of anti-Bush titles the Archives had in its on site government book store. Jonathan V. Last had written about it in the Wall St. Journal. As deep swamp staffers, they don't seem to like Republican presidents. Ever.

"The author, Jonathan V. Last, says there is not one neutral or admiring book on President Bush, just the anti-Bush, anybody-but-Bush, bashes. I've seen these political tables at Barnes and Noble Bookstores, but they at least make an effort to present a variety of views. Mr. Last said something to the clerk, who apparently assumed he was approving of the staff choices, and he responded, "We tell [the people who complain about the titles] that they're not anti-Bush. They're just correcting the facts." The accompanying cartoon shows a puzzled customer at book tables labeled: Harangues, Screeds, Conspiracy Theories, and Rants. Last's final paragraph is priceless:

"It's possible that George W. Bush is an illegitimately installed fascist monster leading America's military-industrial complex on a nuclear crusade for world domination. But what kind of dime-store dictator can't even crush dissent at his own bookstore?"

Surprise visitors today

 I heard some commotion outside and heard voices.  It turns out our good friends Tom and Natalie, their daughters and sons-in-law, and three grandchildren were renting a cottage just a few doors away.  A good reunion. Tom helped us in 1989 when we had carpet installed, and he and Bob's Cursillo group came up here during the winter one year.

How the Left manipulates our language, and thus our thought, to shut us up

On my walk along the peaceful, quite Lake Erie this morning, I was listening to Molly Hemingway, "You're wrong" podcast, of The Federalist Radio Hour, and she commented on the use of the word denier and denial by Democrats. From that is the origin of this blog entry. I haven't done much with my Smart Phone, but it is useful for podcasts and radio archives.

Take the smear, "denier." It works with the holocaust. Not with Climate, not with Election. I know this comes as a shock to those who've accepted a cartoon version of history, climatology, weather, and science, but those the Democrats and "scientists" demean as "climate deniers" do not deny that there are changes--we question your research on the speed, the causes, the events, and the politicization, etc.--all of our theories and ideas are also backed up by sound research. Plus, some like me, are old enough to remember Paul Ehrlich's scam, "The Population Bomb."

And we also don't deny the election. We question the results, those entrusted with the counting, the changed rules even by Republican governors which were never lawful, the drop boxes, the incredible turn around in just key states in the middle of the night, etc. Every political party, voter and candidate can question the results of an election. Hillary Clinton and Al Gore, for example. It's a built in part of our system. Democrats invented the Russia, Russia, Russia hoax so we would question and impeach a lawfully elected president who threatened (but didn't succeed) to drain the swamp.

By appending the word "denier" to Climate and to Election, the Democrats actually want you to associate it with a terrible time in the 20th century which resulted in the deaths of millions of Jews. (This resulted in the new state of Israel, which Democrats are also conflicted over.) They want to view changes in climate as requiring that I be tried in a court of phony research. If I were employed, they'd take my job. They want us to believe that the J-6 protestors were more dangerous than the Civil War, the U.S. war that killed more Americans than all others combined. 

That word DENIER is part of their plot to diminish us, to insult us, and to bully. And that's not a conspiracy theory. That's basic Democrat 101.

H

Wednesday night picnic August 24

 The last family picnic of the season--we're sitting at a picnic table with Bob and Pat Borean in the foreground and a few others enjoying hot dogs, baked beans, macaroni salad, chips, watermelon, cookies and lemon-ade. You can see us in the second photo too, Bob in the navy shirt on the white chair.  Games for the kids, always fun to watch.

  

Harder than it looks--shoulder exercises--Silver Sneakers

 https://youtu.be/cTE_pEtQmV0

It can be challenging to get through daily activities when your shoulders don't move the way they once did. Here are six daily exercises that can help improve your shoulder range of motion.

I found these challenging, so did fewer than she suggested. 

Why did Ezra tell the Jews to send away their foreign wives and children?

The command by Ezra to divorce the foreign wives certainly sounds cruel and not inclusive by our modern values.  We're reading Ezra today in our Women's Bible Study at the Lakeside Women's Club.  I'm not sure I ever read it, but it was very interesting.  I even did some deep diving into Bible commentaries on the internet.  Would you believe there are some Christian authors who treat Ezra-Nehemiah as leadership guides or building programs for churches!  Whoa. But to our modern values, separating families sounds very harsh. Read what this commentator on the Hebrew Bible has to say:  https://elwynshebrewbiblepage.weebly.com/the-inter-marriage-crisis-in-ezra-and-nehemiah.html

"Ezra 9 blames the intermingling of the races as the cause for his people’s woe, and why it should be forbidden[2]. This “intermarriage crisis”, as Ezit is commonly referred to, is therefore very important. For Ezra, the problem with foreigners and other non-returnees is that they were associated with “abominations and uncleanliness”, and intermarrying with them threatened Israel’s stability and its prosperity, as represented by land ownership, since God required the people to be clean and free of abominations in order to possess it.

A code in Ezra specifies who could marry who. A Jew could only marry another Jew who had experienced the Exile. Those who had remained in the land during the Exile were unacceptable. Ezra provided a genealogy distinguishing between those who were considered acceptable and those who were not, but it is suspect. Those who had married “other” women were commanded to divorce them. This was motivated by a fear of pollution of the Holy Seed and uncleanliness.

A Holiness code is also described in Ezra Ch 17, holiness being the antithesis of impurity. Ezra’s command was not to mix the Holy Seed. This was a means of consolidating a new identity. On the other hand, Nehemiah offered other, potentially more concrete, reasons for the denunciation of mixed marriages: such marriages produced children who could not speak the Judean language (Neh.13:24), and Solomon’s experience showed that foreign wives can cause a man to sin (Neh. 13:26). Solomon tolerated the worship of gods other than Yahweh, and did so because his foreign wives gave him the opportunity to do so (1 Kings 11).

Related factors include concern about the influence women have on their families. Children would likely learn the language of a foreign mother, and within the household a woman’s religious practices could influence the beliefs and practices of her children and her husband. The culture and religion of the father and the family’s feelings of connection and deference to them could conceivably then be threatened. Marriage also affected property ownership and inheritance, geared as they were in order to protect land tenure. If the wife or the children had strong connections to a community other than that of the husband/father, the land could effectively leave the community’s sphere of influence. In certain circumstances, Jewish women could possess and inherit land[3] and this may also have been the case in Judah. During the post-Exilic period, there was an attempt to reconstitute a new tradition: that the land has been polluted by the intermarriage of those who stayed behind during the exile, so the returnees had to distance ourselves from that.

The consequence was that the local residents - Samaritans who thought of themselves as the direct descendants of the original Northern Kingdom - were without any right to the land, and those who had been deported and gone into Exile, or rather their descendants, those of pure blood, came back with the message that the land belongs to us and we are going to seize it and settle there[4]."

Maajid Nawaz, British activist and radio presenter

 https://youtu.be/zJX3byjYSMc

Interview with Joe Rogan. But not full.  You'll remember Rogan was "cancelled" because he wouldn't toe the line about Covid. He is available on subscription on other channels. Most sites I check say, Not available. 

Podcast notes: #1780 - Maajid Nawaz | Joe Rogan Experience • Podcast Notes

  Comments from other listeners.

"I normally want to leave people to discover on their own but i cannot recommend this episode enough, the most succinct 3+ hr (with ALL the proof) explanation for the current state of world affairs and our potential future that I've heard."

"Joe gets canceled by the media then comes out with an interview no media would even dare to report on. Good way to shut down the negative hype around Rogan right now!!"

"Terribly important interview. Joe is the greatest he has ever been. Obviously challenged by all this, but who wouldn't be. Maajid is obviously a true man of faith, it is amazing what he has accomplished despite so much opposition. Much support to both of them!"

"I've listened to just about every JRE, and started listening 10 years ago. Maajid is one of the most interesting and articulate person I've ever listened to on the podcast. So glad he's out there."

Putting my smart phone to use

Since I received a smart phone, I've rarely made a call, but I listen to lots of podcasts. Lately, one of my go-to sites has been Dark Horse. Bret Weinstein was cancelled by Evergreen University in 2017, so he and his wife now earn a living making life hard for the pompous, the woke, the bureaucrats, Big Tech, the vicious virtuous, and powerful players and he gives space to the disappeared and cancelled. He is a biologist so has interesting things to say about the medical system and medical statistics. Definitely not a Republican or a Trump supporter, but if you are one, you'll enjoy this one. He just uses bigger words.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/bret-weinstein-darkhorse-podcast/id1471581521 More than one platform, but I don't know how these work.

Truth or lies

 

Is he a dog or a woman or a tree?

I don't know if Megan Rohrer is a transwoman or a transman, but Rohrer was a bishop in the Sierra Pacific ELCA (Lutheran) Synod. I say WAS because Rohrer has resigned due to another issue, not the gnosis where the mind has delusions of being in the wrong body. The squabble seems to have been about a Spanish speaking congregation with BLM overtones or maybe undertones. ELCA does not speak for "Lutherans" of other synods, and maybe not even for their own members by electing Rohrer.

If my mind tells me that I'm in the wrong body, what's to keep it from deciding my mind really resides in a body that is a dog. . . or a dogwood tree? It's my mind--shouldn't I have a voice rather than your antiquated theories of gender? Because transgenderism has morphed into the woke movement (part of critical theory based on Marxist ideas of oppression and oppressors) there's no reason it can't expand to accept my delusions too. But because I still have a mind, my mind is telling my body to refute and criticize the gender/woke delusions currently residing in the medical, education, religious and entertainment industries. I won't settle there and I won't use their silly language.

New federal regulation in HHS concerning conscience rights

"This is an election (2022) about power and control," said Planned Parenthood. I rarely agree with PP, but that's one comment, although they mean the opposite of what I believe, they are right about. Power to kill AND control your religious and speech rights guaranteed by the Constitution.

The Biden administration which is bankrolled by powerful organizations like the teachers' unions, Planned Parenthood, NARAL, Emily's List, wealthy woke corporations and Soros backed entities, is proposing a new HHS rule which would force doctors, nurses and healthcare professionals to perform-participate in abortions, transgender mutilations and other procedures pro-life conservatives (and probably many Democrats who are Christians) consider morally bankrupt, cruel and sinful. By law, even morally stunted bureaucrats must accept comments on rules like this. Make your voice heard. Don't just comment your outrage to your friends on FB, tell Joe how you REALLY feel about being forced to participate in sin. Regulations.gov. 

When you look at "conscience protections" we already have it's hard to believe we'd go through this again, but the pro-death forces are very well organized, financed and backed up with clever lawyers (in the N.T. they are called Pharisees and Sadducees). It will be "found" in the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare). If the rule passes, it could close hospitals and end the careers of many fine doctors and nurses and healthcare staff. Maybe you are undecided on transgender/affirmation thought, but would you assist in removing the healthy breasts of a middle school girl, or castrating a little boy at the request of his parents or social workers? It's the ultimate child abuse.

The only Christians that seem to be well organized enough to fight this and sound an alarm are the Catholics. I could find very little on it, but here's one https://www.americamagazine.org/politics-society/2022/04/05/transgender-abortion-hhs-242759 If your church or denomination has a bioethics department, check with them. If not, take it to your Sunday School class. This is our abolitionist movement. Don't be caught asleep at the switch.

This is the government double speak that describes this: HHS Announces Proposed Rule to Strengthen Nondiscrimination in Health Care | HHS.gov. These days all victim theories are put in the context of the civil rights rulings, a huge smokescreen. This at least assures you it is Joe Biden's doing through an executive order. It twists the meaning of "restores rights" "stands up for" and "affirms"--the bureaucrat who wrote this must have grown up on 1984 Newspeak.

Philosophical Puzzles about Transgenderism — The National Catholic Bioethics Center (ncbcenter.org)

Did Obama take 30 million documents?

The headlines of the anti-Trump fact checkers are that Trump lied about Obama taking 30 million documents with him when he left the WH. But when you read the article it says yes, Obama took tens of thousands of documents to Chicago, BUT they go on to say they then went to possession of federal government archives after sorting to be digitized and made available to the public. In other words, Trump was right again and this is a word war with fact checkers. Really, you can't trust these checkers whether in print on paper or pixels on your screens. Has anyone seen or used digitized Obama papers taken from WH? It has been 6 years. Are they redacted? Do they exist? That's your assignment.

The Obama Foundation says the Archives control 1.5 Billion Obama pages--but those are the "born digital" documents. He couldn't have removed them even if he tried. It goes on to say there are 30 million paper documents he took which WILL Be digitized. I saw no way to get into this data dump. It's like a library hit by a tornado if they are even there. If you use the timeline and go to "Afghanistan trip" I found 3 photos probably available on the internet and easier to use. No pdf or e-mail trace. No scanned hard copies. This library is either a hoax or has only hired the janitor. 6 years.

Old tapes stored in Bill Clinton's sock drawer may have a impact on the MAL case. Old Case Over What Bill Clinton Hid in His Sock Drawer Could Unravel FBI's Mar-a-Lago Raid (westernjournal.com) U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson in Washington D.C. ultimately rejected Judicial Watch's suit by concluding there was no provision in the Presidential Records Act to force the National Archives to seize records from a former president.

Unfriending on social media--divisive or deserved?

"Democratic voters are almost three times as likely to have “blocked, unfriended, or stopped following someone on social media” after Donald Trump’s victory, according to a study released Monday [Dec. 2016]."

No surprise here. Democrats are not inclusive and hate diversity of thought or opinion. IMO, they are also more likely to be racist in their support of policies that hurt blacks and other minorities through their own good intentions. That said, that article is 6 years old. So I am also less likely to "friend" a Democrat whereas before I was much more forgiving and open minded. It really began with the BDS--Bush derangement syndrome--before a black president, an orange president, and the current confused resident of the WH. Now, if I don't know they are conservatives but we are acquainted, I choose not to put up with it. And so the divide widens.

Mom Jeans

Usually, you would not trust a librarian for fashion advice. It's not just a stereotype. . .

 
Mom jeans. Remember that term? I'd never heard of it until they made fun of Obama wearing "mom jeans" for riding a bicycle. My friend Bev says it was a popular term in the 70s. But I saw jeans at Wal-Mart labeled, "Mom Jeans," and bought a pair. Great fit and comfort. High rise with extra room in the thighs. Soft, slightly faded denim. I bought up a size since I had no idea of the fit or how they would wash. I only found them in junior size which I probably haven't worn for 60 years. Love them.  Went back and got another pair in a darker shade.

"The mom jean silhouette is a specific one. Its defining features include a high-waist, which helps to streamline the figure, as well as an ever so slightly baggy leg. Most purists will say that mom jeans fall straight on the legs, but the truth is that there are already an infinity of silhouettes within this category, as long as they keep the high rise: Flared, baggy, and balloon are some of the most popular variations." Vogue, April 15, 2022

Covid and Wokeism

Covid and Wokeism. This writer, David Suissa, calls them both viruses, but I'd say one is a virus, the other is a metastasis. Both have hit us at the same time creating suspicion, anger, incivility and fear. The virus is inclusive; the metastasis is exclusionary. The virus goes after our cells; the other after our souls.

"It’s odd that these two major forces have hit us at the same time. They’re mirror opposites. The fear of dying from COVID makes us small and humble and deeply grateful just to be alive. 

Wokeism nurtures the opposite of gratitude. We feel cocky, entitled and intolerant. Anyone who offends us must be attacked, if not cancelled. Any speaker who will offend us must be stopped. We have a right to not be exposed to anything that might hurt our feelings or make us feel “unsafe.” " . . .

"Wokeism is a symptom of modern decadence, when maximum convenience and comfort trigger a nostalgia for epic struggles and dramatic causes. Absent these historic movements of yesteryear, the woke must come up with endless grievances to gain power and boost their self-esteem. That’s why they can’t stand to recognize real progress—it undermines their grievance-obsessed narrative.

A key tenet of wokeism is to preach inclusion and diversity, but with a crucial catch: Wokeism scrupulously excludes ideological diversity, which would be too messy. We’re inclusive in all ways, in other words, except when it comes to your opinions.

 
COVID is truly all-inclusive. It comes after all of us. It’s straightforward. It wants to enter our bodies and contaminate our cells. . . wokeism contaminates our souls. "

Sunrise, August 15 at Lakeside

 

Can you see the Naked Ladies?  That's the name for the pink lilies that pop up about the first week in August with no leaves to cover their beauty.  We have a few in our yard, with some on the table right now that had fallen down.  You can also see in the photo in the distance a freighter that has arrived in Marblehead to load up oar from the quarry.  Yesterday I saw three of them, one in dock, one near by, and a third one further out.  I've heard it's the largest quarry in the country.  Our friend Tony who a member of a geologist/rock club was inside the mine this past week collecting beautiful rocks with gem stones (don't recall what they are called), and he gave us one with purple and blue stones in it.  He says the pieces are so sharp (broken up and left by large equipment} that glove, shoes and pants can be ruined in just one trip into the mines.

Anne Herbert, a not so good prophet

"The only way I can make any sense of recent presidential elections is that the most vivid person wins, regardless of content, because too many of us have been dressing our lives in beiges and are suckers for a red tie and shiny shoes that look like relative strength. " Anne Herbert, APRIL 1983 (The Sun magazine)

I had never heard of this writer before today (or so I thought), but this quote is attributed to her, and obviously the 2020 election made her a bad prophet. The most bland, beige, but evil one was appointed the winner in the last presidential election. The one with the red tie, the one most vivid who could draw thousands to come out to hear him and the hate and ire of the media, the one who terrified the deep swamp and Big Tech both, the one with the track record for making all lives better, even life for those not yet born, didn't return to the White House. I'm down the rabbit hole of Herbert's movement (The Kindness Movement of the 1990s) and I may have more to say later. Maybe not. This may be it. She apparently preferred Carter over Reagan--but so did I, so what can I say?

List of 30 good things President Trump has done for America - Wayne Grudem