The Fox interview with Kamala Harris

It seems I'm the only one who thought Kamala talked louder than Bret on Fox last night. I've heard that charge so often about how Donald Trump stopped the so called bi-partisan Senate border bill of 2024 even I could argue the sides. I've yet to hear the interviewer drill down and ask about the numbers of illegals allowed in. The bill gave authority to shut down the border, which wouldn’t kick in until the seven-day average number of cumulative encounters with INADMISSIBLE migrants was between 4,000 and 5,000 per day. And even that would be discretionary unless the seven-day average was above 5,000 per day. What Democrat president wouldn't love codifying the number of illegals at 5,000 a day? Then they would call them legal and sign them up to vote, live in hotels, flood the local schools, use welfare intended for citizens, and emergency funding for hurricane victims. All while rich Democrats like Obama and Pelosi live in gated communities!

And there were billions for Ukraine in that "border bill" too, although leftist media loves to split hairs on that in the old shell game.

And speaking of rich. That old saw Kamala trots out in each speech about Trump's tax breaks for the rich is right out of the 80s. Why can't interviewers ever ask her about that? The wealthiest, most powerful donors to elections in the U.S. are Democrats using illegal migrants as gardeners and house cleaners. Just a few months ago we saw a coup and the president was deposed by a few mega-rich corporate magnates and Hollywood PACs.

But Bret just let that fly on by and continued to let her lie, lie, lie, and obfuscate about her role as border czar and a "middle class" kid who didn't show up for work in California. She blames Trump who held no office in the Senate and gave a tax break to the middle class in his four years.

Bret . . . I think you failed.

Frustration with electronic devices

 Last week I was in the hospital again and this time received an implantable cardiac electronic device for cardiac arrhythmia management made by Medtronic. It's called a loop recorder. It's supposed to be way more accurate than those clunky monitors that they stick on the outside and give you a little transmitter to push. Sounds like a terrific piece of technology, doesn't it? Just try to get anyone on the phone (low tech) to report a problem, or even at my own cardiologist's office here in Columbus. I looked at the patient information page on-line which is worthless so then looked at the professional page which had a lot of sexy numbers and percentages and AI stuff, but still no information on how to find a real person to talk to who hasn't left a recorded message and will call back in 48 hours.

So I did get a call back at about 24 hours later from the "clinic," but the staff member was from the pacemaker group and not the loop device. This then involved her calling the company with an explanation from a non-native speaker of English about how it was set up to record. None of this made sense because I was receiving their messages just fine, but there was no way for me to contact them (a feature explained to me at the hospital). Then the staffer at the local clinic told me her supervisor was not in today, so she'd have to call me back.

Update: It was "fixed," and I suspect someone in the company asked their grandchild, and it appears that the app was removed and reloaded. It works with your TV, why not the implanted heart device? I still think there is too much high tech and not enough high touch (people).

Are you voting Progressive in 2024?

You are voting progressive in 2024. These are the issues you wish to impose on me.

socialism
intersectionality
The national religion of woke
gender surgery for minors
abortion into the 9th month
freedom of speech restricted
religious rights restricted
2nd amendment destroyed
larger and more powerful government at all levels
inflationary income tax increases
taxes on unrealized gains
lawfare--weaponization of the law
laws and regulations based on skin color and ethnicity
males stealing athletic scholarships from females
sexually explicit books required for young readers
drag queen parades, shows and story hours
no national borders
destruction of democratic process for election of officials
packing Supreme Court
dismantling the electoral college so only largest metro areas vote

Transient Ischemic attack

 Excerpt from StatPearls, 2024

A transient ischemic attack (TIA) is a medical emergency. It is defined as a transient episode of neurologic dysfunction due to the focal brain, spinal cord, or retinal ischemia without acute infarction or tissue injury. The definition of a TIA has moved from time-based to tissue-based. A TIA typically lasts less than an hour, more often minutes. TIA can be considered a serious warning of an impending ischemic stroke; the risk is highest in the first 48 hours following a transient ischemic attack. Differentiating transient ischemic attack from other mimicking conditions is important. Transient ischemic attacks are usually associated with a focal neurologic deficit and/or speech disturbance in a vascular territory due to underlying cerebrovascular disease. It is always sudden in onset. Evaluation of TIA should be done urgently with imaging and laboratory studies to decrease the risk of subsequent strokes. The subsequent risk of TIA or ischemic stroke can be stratified with a simple clinical measure. Immediate multimodality therapeutic interventions should be initiated. These will include aggressive treatment of blood pressure, high-dose statin, antiplatelet therapy, blood sugar control, diet, and exercises. Specific underlying etiology needs to be managed accordingly. This treatment scheme may substantially reduce the risk of recurrent strokes or future TIA by at least 80%.

StatPearls - NCBI Bookshelf (nih.gov)

Transient Ischemic Attack - StatPearls - NCBI Bookshelf (nih.gov)

"The ABCD2 score is very important for predicting subsequent risks of TIA or stroke. The ABCD2 score was derived from providing a more robust prediction standard. The ABCD2 score includes age, blood pressure, clinical symptoms, duration, and diabetes.

Age: older than 60 years (1 point)
Blood pressure greater than or equal to 140/90 mmHg on first evaluation (1 point)
Clinical symptoms: a focal weakness with the spell (2 points) or speech impairment without weakness (1 point)
Duration greater than 60 min (2 points) or 10 min to 59 min (1 point)
Diabetes mellitus (1 point).

The 2-day risk of stroke was 0% for scores of 0 or 1, 1.3% for 2 or 3, 4.1% for 4 or 5, and 8.1% for 6 or 7. Most stroke centers will admit patients with TIA to the hospital for expedited management and observation if the score is 4, 5, or higher. For patients with a lower score, expedited evaluation and management are still warranted. This expedited approach has been proven to improve the outcome.[9]"

Remarkable similarities in the four candidates

Have you ever thought about how much the 4 candidates actually do have in common? 

Vance's wife, Usha, and Kamala Harris are daughters of Indian immigrants who were well educated California academics. Say what you will about class and race in America, but Asian Indians are near the top in education, income and entrepreneurship. (Vivek Ramaswamy and Nikki Haley were also candidates and also ethnically Indian.) As an immigrant group they have an advantage since most have a college degree and English as a 2nd language when they immigrate. 

And Donald Trump's mother and wives Ivana and Melania were immigrants (Czech and Slovenian).

Vance and Obama were both raised by their grandparents (Obama technically isn't running, but that's not true in reality). 

Vance and Walz have strong rural backgrounds, Vance with his heart home in rural Kentucky, and Walz in several rural communities in Nebraska and working on a farm as a teen. 

For all they say about the importance of family values (and all candidates say that), fathers don't seem to be on the scene much. Walz's father died when he was young, Vance's father was completely out of the picture and his Papaw was his male influence, Harris's parents were divorced, and other than her father being a Marxist professor, we don't know much about him. Trumps' father is mentioned as a real estate mogul, but I don't see evidence that it was a warm relationship. 

Both Vance and Walz have experience in the military and attribute much of their success and leadership skills to that. 

Both Trump and Harris, children of privilege, attended private schools--Trump's was a military school and Harris' was in Montreal, Canada. 

In stories and rumors of sexual escapades, Trump and Harris match up well.

Can you think of other similarities?

More on my TIA

Because of my TIA two weeks ago, I've had some speech therapy (no one but me could hear the problem). This morning I did one of my vocal exercises and my husband put his hands over his ears (he wears hearing aids). He said, "I think you've passed."

If you're ever in need of an MRI or a CAT let me mention a side effect most people don't have. After questioning "Dr. Google" thoroughly I've decided I had a reaction to the contrast medium dye which is injected so they can see the blood vessels better and determine the problem.

 
I've now had 14 days of what feels like a sunburn on my face, but no rash, no fever and no one can see it. This is very hard to explain to my doctor. What you are told at the time is the heat you feel from the contrast medium will be gone after a few minutes. I'm suspicious I had a reaction to the iodine in the medium because I have thyroid disease. In rare cases for some people it lasts for months. It's not fatal and it is rare, and you still need the test. It seems to be lessening--or maybe I'm just used to it.

North Carolina on my mind

It's hard to know how this trifecta of tragedies will impact the 2024 election. On the surface a dock strike putting us in another inflationary period, another war in the Middle East because USA looks weak under Biden, and a Hurricane where FEMA can't get drinking water to some trapped in 5 days looks seriously bad for Harris/Walz.

But look how many people won't be able to get to the polls in NC? That's the silver lining. Americans will forget Helene in a week or so, while those unfortunate people will still be scrambling for the basics for months or longer. Hang on, my shirttail relatives in NC. 

Hurricanes are not a result of climate change, but they are fodder for politics. Remember how Democrats screamed at Bush for Katrina even though the governor of LA and the mayor of NOLA were Democrats unprepared at the local and state levels? Much of the hold up there was LA regulations preventing outsiders from coming in to help. And Trump had hurricane Maria and the complaints about bottled water not getting there on time. But FEMA had delivered; it was found out after he was demonized by the media that the local government had not delivered it.

 
Republicans blamed Obama for not getting emergency supplies to or visiting the flooded upper midwest in 2009. But he addressed the nation from Camp David, said he was monitoring it, and praised the volunteers. Didn't Kamala cut and paste that one for Helene?

 
And kudos to Tim Walz, governor of MN, who was out there filling sandbags in 2019 when there was serious Mississippi River flooding in Minnesota!

https://youtu.be/Kcld2vYXfWU?si=uvolc-PSaUiVacsT

September 30 news on Hurricane Helene | CNN

On the debate between the Vice Presidential candidates

I didn't stay up for the whole debate on Tuesday, October 1--I just don't like seeing the moderators make themselves part of the story. Not as bad as ABC, but CBS, you should be embarrassed.

JD Vance was Mr. Smooth--kind, deliberate, thoughtful, incisive, and super prepared to bring the story back to Harris, the economy and the border, and why isn't she doing something NOW. The media have done a bang-up job of demonizing and lying about Vance, so people must have been stunned to see a smart, civil, talented, articulate and compassionate family man. Vice Presidents don't win elections, but they can soften or puff up the image. I don't know that I could've voted for McCain if Palin hadn't made him tolerable. The media tried to ruin her too; it's just what they do. They see themselves as commissioned to get Democrats into office.

Of course, the stars didn't align for Tim Walz. The news that came out yesterday that he lied about Tiananmen Square, that Iraq was bombing Israel, and the Biden/Harris team had done nothing to prevent a crippling dock strike that will send prices soaring, was all bad news not just for Harris/Walz, but for our leaderless country.

 
Oh, and the silly moderators decided to make the tragedy playing out before our eyes called Hurrican Helene was tossed in as a climate change issue, something on almost no one's list of concerns. Someone ought to fly them to NC to scoop mud out of homes.

The "facts" Walz blurted out were never fact checked by the moderators, and some were blatantly false (not misinformation or misspoke, either). It looks as though the legacy media doesn't cover anything that could make Democrats look bad, so they just don't have the information to explain that awful, terrible, ridiculous border bill that failed, the one that would have codified an enormous number of illegals allowed in. Harris lied about it too in her debate with Trump.

Letter to Ronnie the Republican

 I don't know if Ronnie @ rollingover is a man or woman, but we're in an e-mail discussion group.  Ronnie seems to be a 20th century loyal Republican and a Never Trumper. I wasn't a Republican in the 20th century and even now, don't like much about the "old timers" with whom I'm associated. The Democrats walked (or ran) away from me, and Ronnie is in the same boat with Republicans--"What happened to my rich old guys who never made a fuss? Who are these blue collar and pro-life people?"  I know I gritted my teeth in 2016 to vote for Trump because he just didn't play the game like the other parties/candidates.  So I have some sympathy for Ronnie.  But I do have questions.

• Is Ronnie OK with a possible 8 years of Harris/Walz (or more if he runs for another 8) who are the most far left of any president or vice president candidate we've ever had--and he more so than she on first and second amendment and Title IX"
• Can Ronnie tell the group what policies during the 2017-2021 Trump years showed he was a threat to Democracy and would kill or jail his opponents? I can see he is a threat to the Uniparty, Good old Boys Club of DC, but that's hardly Democracy. 
• Although we live in a Republic, we use the "democracy" word to mean our voting system and a representative form of government. Does Ronnie want to end the electoral system and have only the city voters on the coasts running things? That's what Hillary and many other Democrats call "democracy."  
•  The electoral system has served us well, and now Harris/Walz and other Democrats think it's bad. They also believe in packing the SCOTUS, ending the filibuster in order to pass a national law on abortion, ending free speech as we know it (see John Kerry's recent comments) , gun ownership and the fourth amendment protecting citizens from search and seizure (see the 2007 video of Harris' threats as DA, and the bill passed)?
• Ronnie may be past the hormonal urges and angst age, but should be reminded that Walz is the most liberal/leftist governor in the nation on both transgender surgery for children and for allowing a new born alive baby to die (8 that we know of) after an unsuccessful abortion.  Comfort care I think he calls it. That's not a huge number you say?  What is an acceptable number, Ronnie?  He was a soldier--is that what it's called on the battlefield?  Leave the injured behind to die, but make them comfortable (maybe a military example isn't appropriate with Walz)
•  but you can see the plan).
•  Biden/Harris now has us involved in 3 very critical wars--2 are Iran proxy wars, and one is a U.S. proxy war. What does Ronnie believe about the wisdom of the U.S. funding 3 wars? Does Ronnie want that for the next 8 or 16 years?  Or does Ronnie think there might be a better option with 4 years of a man he doesn't like, will never like, but has never abandoned our troops, funded the enemy or enabled totalitarians to fight wars for us?
• Recently this group discussed (or was warned about) the coming Longshoremen's strike. Does Ronnie have any questions about why Biden hasn't done anything? Is it that prices won't skyrocket until after the election and then it will be too late to choose Trump, or is it that Biden might be trying to stab Harris in the back the way she did him?
• Ronnie doesn't seem to care about the border issue, but from a values point, does Ronnie believe in borders? When I lived in Mt. Morris we didn't lock our homes and left the keys in the car. It's a new day, Ronnie.  There's quite a difference between the 2.3 million of Trump's years and the 10.4 million of Biden/Harris (and she was border czar!) Ronnie, you can quibble about Trump not be truthful about the numbers, but how many million do you approve of?
• Leon Panetta, former Secretary of Defense, former head of CIA, former WH chief of staff, former head of OMB, former Representative from California, and forever Democrat, a person of 20th century power in his party (except Obama's first term which was 21st c), has called the targeted killing and injuring of Hezbollah terrorists and taking out their highest command level, an act of terror on the part of Israel (although it hasn't been proven, I think everyone knows no one else could pull it off). Far fewer were killed or injured with this 30 year old technology than if this were the battlefield or lobbing bombs with modern weapons. So Ronnie, do you believe it was against international law and an act of terrorism as Panetta and a few Democrats say? The Democrat Squad believes that 1948 (the existence of Israel) is the problem, not Hezbollah or Hamas this past year.  Tell me Ronnie, will Harris/Walz team side with Panetta and the Squad once in office?   

I'm not looking for "what abouts."  I want a few answers to understand a "Never Trumper" who would support two Leftists with long records proving their values and policies.

Gotta go.  Just got a text from Kamala. She wants money. Democrats always want money.

St. Turibius, protector of Indians

It's the first day of October and the cover of Magnificat, the monthly magazine I use for morning devotions, shows an angel and a small child. Except it's not like anything I've seen before. So here's the story:

"In 1580, Saint Turibius became Archbishop of Lima (Peru), at that time the largest archdiocese in history, extending from Nicaragua to Tierra del Fuego. First he set out to reform the clergy; then, equipped by the king of Spain, Philip II, with the title and full powers of “Protector of the Indians,” he liberated them from the mercantile trafficking that victimized them, and created for their benefit an effective system of social security. Furthermore he did not hesitate to order that the property of those suspected of having accumulated wealth at their expense be seized and redistributed to the Indians. To console those who had been expropriated by his zeal, he told them: “You will thank me in the next world, because the poor Indians are banks; through their intervention your treasures are now capital invested for you in heaven.”

His great work, however, would be to promote, again for the benefit of the Indians, the establishment of little autonomous Christian republics in which the citizens would be able to live under the direct protection of the royal crown. Governed by democratically elected Indian chiefs and organized by the Franciscans, then also by the Jesuits, these republics—later called Reducciones (“organizations”)—were centered on a group of institutional buildings: a church, a school, a hospital, a residence for the elderly, and several centers for professional and artistic training. [by this point in my reading I'm beginning to think it sounds like, "Northwest Ordinance" which preceded our U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights]. The native Incas showed little aptitude for commerce and industry, but a real genius for arts and crafts, and so priority was given to developing those talents. Hence the founding of admirable schools of art, such as Cusco’s school for painting. Music, dance, and the liturgy flourished, too, giving rise to a festive civilization that expressed its genius and joy of living on every Christian feast day.

The painting that adorns the cover of this issue of Magnificat bears witness to the final lights of this Christian epic in which, in the spirit of Mary’s Magnificat, the humble were blessed to be so. For unfortunately, in the 18th century, in the name of “Enlightenment” philosophy, the “enlightened despots” who were reigning in Spain and Portugal abolished the Reducciones and left their citizens at the mercy of ruthless men who looted and profaned their institutions; then, these were exploited, and irreparable sufferings were inflicted on these native populations of South America."
And there's more at the website: https://us.magnificat.net/magnificat_content/angel-of-god-my-guardian-dear/

That's what I like about Magnificat. Because it's outside my church experience (Anabaptist, UCC which is a merger of many protestant groups, Lutheran), and my public school education. I learn so many things about history, art and philosophy.