Observations from Dave Chappelle: The Closer

Last night, I watched Dave Chappelle’s “comedy” show “The Closer” on Netflix.

The word comedy appears in quotation marks because, Mr. Chappelle’s performance is not comedy. Not practically, anyway.  Only virtually.

Did the audience laugh? Yes, a few times.

But a few laughs does not a comedian make.

Is Dave Chappelle a funny man?

He sure is! And, he’s had some absolutely BRILLIANT strokes of comedic genius — at least to my way of thinking.

The list of Mr. Chappelle’s awards for comedic excellence tell but a partial story, and includes:

• 3 Grammy Awards for Best Comedy Album;

• 5 Emmy Awards — Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series (2021, Dave Chappelle, Host Saturday Night Live “Host: Dave Chappelle”),

• 2-Outstanding Variety Special (Pre-Recorded) (2018, Dave Chappelle: Equanimity; 2020, Dave Chappelle: Sticks & Stones),

• Outstanding Writing for a Variety Special (2020, Dave Chappelle: Sticks & Stones), and

• Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series (2017, Dave Chappelle, Host Saturday Night Live “Host: Dave Chappelle”); and the coveted

• Mark Twain Prize for American Humor presented by the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., among others. Of note, Richard Pryor was the award’s first recipient.

He’s certainly not a comedian along the lines, or in the style of comedienne Carol Burnett (also a Mark Twain Prize laureate), and her co-stars Tim Conway, Harvey Korman, and Vicki Lawrence, but when his series “Chappelle’s Show” (2003-2006) was in production on The Comedy Channel, one of his most brilliant pieces (in my estimation) was “Clayton Bigsby, the World’s Only Black White Supremacist.” Perhaps you’re familiar with it.

Neither is Mr. Chappelle’s comedy style like the acerbic, even venomous, late comedian Don Rickles, infamous for his notoriously wicked, and caustic sense of humor.

Nor is Mr. Chappelle’s humor like that of the late comedian Rodney Dangerfield, who, as he constantly reminded us, got no respect. His brand of self-deprecating humor was his iconic comedic trademark.

No, Mr. Chappelle’s style of humor is somewhat a blend of the above-mentioned comics, and incorporates elements of them all.

To be funny, comedy must, and does,

Contradicting Adam Parkhomenko

Adam Parkhomenko recently wrote a brief political Opinion piece which was published on the website Today’s Big Stuff dot com and entitled “This might be our last chance to listen to Hillary.”

Full Disclosure: Mr. Parkhomenko is a 30-something political consultant/strategist who has an extensive record of support for Hillary Clinton, worked briefly on the Hillary Clinton campaign in 2008 as an Assistant Campaign Manager during the Democratic primary, and in 2003, while then a 17-year-old student at Northern Virginia Community College, established the candidate-unaffiliated website VoteHillary.org, an in an effort to convince voters to support her 2004 campaign to be the Democratic Party’s Presidential nominee. He promoted his piece on Twitter, writing that, “I haven’t written about Hillary Clinton in a few years but I hope you will take three minutes and read this and retweet to pass it on. I worked for her for over a decade and I think what she’s saying is important and we should listen to.”

Young Mr. Parkhomenko’s ardor for his preferred candidate could be understood in the light of his obvious zeal for her, and overlooked, or even forgiven, since such eagerness often overlooks another’s flaws, because often, when in love, “the object of one’s desire can do no wrong.”

Mr. Parkhomenko couches the introduction of his threadbare piece as Hillary being a political prophetess or seer by using metaphoric imagery such as “time machine,” “villagers,” and “danger that was coming.” Naturally, that presupposes that the “villagers” are morons, or at least seriously daft in some manner.

Of course, one could suppose where he was headed with such colorful descriptors, which is the shaming “but they didn’t listen,” the I-told-you-so taunt of “it turned out she was right,” along with a repeat of the earlier “and the villagers are ignoring her again.”

Next, he takes square aim at blaming external factors, rather than a flawed candidacy, by writing pointedly, “first of all because she’s a woman. And second of all because her name is Hillary Clinton.”

I suppose her name could have been “Rapunzel,” or “Juliet” and she would have been blamed for cakes and biscuits not rising, or any other such nonsensical tripe. That’s not to say that women have not been subjected to some type of sex-based discrimination, for they have. But to blatantly assert or claim, that she was “repeatedly invited by the national media to just go away despite,” he further attempts to spread blame so thinly that it’s quite easy to see through.

It also reminds one a childhood moralistic tale entitled, “The Remarkable Story of Chicken Little,” in which the protagonist, a hen character named “Henny Penny,” had an acorn to fall on her head, and then loudly, though erroneously, warned exclaiming that, “THE SKY IS FALLING! THE SKY IS FALLING!”

Mr. Parkhomenko seems to express bafflement, and befuddlement that his favorite candidate never won the nation’s highest political office, and quoted her, writing that “I’m astonished that more people don’t see, or can’t face…” That quote, of course, was a statement made in agreement by Ms. Clinton in a non-challenging, puff-piece interview with Jennifer Senior, a staff writer at The Atlantic during the Atlantic Festival, where she appeared “virtually” live, Thursday, September 30, at 2:00 p.m. ET.

Mr. Parkhomenko added his own remarks which echoed a similar sentiment by writing “why in the world would the villagers ignore someone who…,” and similarly “why would they ignore someone who…”

So let’s examine just a few things, as he has, in order to allow him – or, anyone else – to more clearly see a picture which apparently, has not yet emerged.

FULL DISCLOSURE: Though I loathed her, and still do, I voted for Hillary Clinton over the Republican candidate, because: 1.) She had some experience in politics, and was 2.) “The devil you know,” whereas the Republican candidate was utterly inexperienced politically, and was “the devil you didn’t know.”

First, like it, or not, Hillary is a lightning rod. And to remind our readers, a lightning rod is a metal stick placed vertically atop elevated structures in order to DRAW lightning, and thereby allow it to be run (conducted) to ground through circuits and conduits in order to prevent damage to the structure. Again, a lighting rod attracts lightning, which is a powerful, and natural destructive force. And that describes Hillary to a ‘T’ — a lightning rod.

To be characterized as a “lightning rod” – a thing which draws powerful, troubling and destructive forces – is not a good thing.

A Baptist and a Methodist walk into a bar…

They’re both shot dead by the Church of God, who is then fought by the Assembly of God, and then attacked by the Church of Christ; and next, the Mormons come along, who are suddenly blindsided by the Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Seventh Day Adventists, while the Catholics & Episcopalians both fight the Presbyterians & Lutherans on the side. In walk the Moonies with the Unitarians, and everybody turns on them. Meanwhile, the Quakers, the Amish, Mennonites, and Buddhists stand by and watch it all unfold.

That’s the gist of what’s happening in the Middle East— a bunch of goddamn religious nuts fighting each other over their private interpretation of their preferred religion.

Here in America, goddamn religious nuts want to inject their preferred flavor of religion into government (which the Constitution specifically forbids) by sticking their noses into other peoples’ private lives, outlawing certain medical procedures which they find objectionable (What’s next? Colonoscopies? Pap smears? Testicular exams?), forbidding birth control, in vitro fertilization, freezing embryos, stem cell research, denying sex education and healthcare to everyone, while they secretly molest children, young girls, and teens, then go preach about “sin” and “love” afterward, and tell their parishioners along with the news media that Wiccans and Satanists had been doing it all along, by calling it “Satanic Ritual Abuse.”

That poor ol’ mythological “devil” is an easy punching bag, and catches hell for everything. Must be why the Rolling Stones composed “Sympathy for the Devil” in 1968.

After speaking a few magic words, and waving his magick wand, (on table) God pulls the unimaginably vast cosmos out of his top hat.

Meanwhile the widow, the orphan, prisoners, the stranger among you, and the least of these all look at them in dismay and wonder if there really is any such thing as “god,” because from their perspective, it sure doesn’t look like it.

Fuck ‘em all.

Every goddamn rotten one of ‘em — the dirty rotten religious bastard hater hypocrites.🖕🏽

They’re no better than the goddamn Muslims who are at each others’ throats.

And according to the bizarre monotheistic Judeo-Christian-Islamic mythology, not only are they a bunch of inbreds, anyway, but their “god” is a magician who spoke a few magic words and *!*POOF*!* like a rabbit out of a top hat, everything just appeared out of nothing everywhere (ex nihilo, it’s called in their theological seminaries)… in 6, literal 24-hour periods.

That’s not even a good fairy tale.

Then, there’s their “giant boat that saves the world” myth – or, at least

Swing Voters Hold Key To United States Future

GOP Voters Did NOT Want A Second Helping Of Trump

And, in their estimation, Trump v2.0, i.e., Trump 2024, is 100% OUT OF THE QUESTION.

Comments from the focus group referenced in the article linked below illustrate the GREAT NEED for our nation to be focused upon PROGRESS & CHANGE.

Regardless of anyone’s opinion, or any nation’s actions, catastrophic, or otherwise, tomorrow will happen.

It’s inevitable.

PROGRESS WILL OCCUR.

BUT, we could all do something to PREVENT bad things from happening, and should. We should improve conditions for our residents and humanity, rather than to allow them to suffer by negligence and neglect.

And yet, whether we do, or don’t, the sun will still rise.

Time marches on.

Recall the adage,

“If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always gotten.”

That quote is by Dr. Jessie Potter, PhD (1922-1994), Founder/Director, National Institute for Human Relationships, Oak Lawn, Illinois; faculty member University of Illinois Medical School, Northwestern University Medical School, who was featured speaker at the Friday opening of the seventh annual Woman to Woman Conference, in an article entitled “Search For Quality Called Key To Life” by Tom Ahern, published in “The Milwaukee Sentinel” of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on 24 October 1981; the quote appearing on Page 5, Column 5.

In my estimation, and in the estimation of that focus group’s members, America and American policy – domestic, and international – has REGRESSED, rather than progressed.

Progress supposes improvement. It’s like progressing from 3rd Grade to 4th Grade, or beyond. Progress implies a journey, and ALWAYS supposes improvement — getting from “Point A” to “Point B,” and beyond.

Like the primarily-Republican voters in this focus group, I too, have voted FOR candidates who were neither my first, nor best, choice. Sometimes, you vote for “the devil you know,” rather than “the devil you don’t know.”

I voted for Hillary, though I utterly loathed her for various reasons; besides being a proverbial “lightning rod” for controversy and division, rather than unity, another one being that she demonstrably screwed Bernie, and though what she did was not illegal, it was exceedingly unethical, and that she did it in secret, was very telling about her character. Had she not done that, Bernie would have most likely been the Democratic party‘s nominee – NO ONE ELSE had crowds the size of his – NO ONE.

But, because she had governmental experience, and was the nominee, I held my nose and voted FOR her. Similarly, I voted FOR Biden, though again, I much rather preferred Bernie, because I thought and hoped that Biden would essentially be a “yes man” to the party’s Progressive ideas. And quite frankly, I don’t think he’s ever demonstrated effective LEADERSHIP with ideas.

BIDEN is a conciliator, and after the previous administration, our nation was very ready for significant “conciliation.”

“Boring government” can be a good thing, per se — at least insofar as what it’s compared to in the immediately preceding administration.

Bold new ideas are not Biden’s forte. That’s Bernie’s bailiwick. And, as we all know, sometimes, “you gotta’ go along, to get along.”

We’re not even a year — 8 months 13 days, or; 36 weeks 3 days, or; 255 calendar days – into this administration, and yet, the prognosticators, pundits, and political soothsayers are busy at work. In my way of thinking, that demonstrates a deep longing for CHANGE. Not change from the GOP, but fundamental, wholesale CHANGE in governmental operations, i.e., PROGRESS.

Do we need change in our nation?

You bet your sweet bippy we do!

The colloquialism “politicians are like diapers on babies; both need changing regularly” is not mere hyperbole, it is true.

Consider our income tax system.

No one genuinely “likes” paying taxes – has anyone, ever? Even though it’s a patriotic duty, I don’t think so. But in your and my lifetime, the graduated income tax system in our nation has been highly compressed (there are now fewer brackets than ever), and the top rate for the highest income earners (multi-millionaires & multi-billionaires) has been so significantly reduced, that the net effect is a so-called “flat tax,” in which everyone – the wealthy and the impoverished – pays the same percentage rate, regardless. That’s an inherently unjust system, simply because the wealthy and the impoverished pay the same price for a gallon of milk, or loaf of bread. It just takes a BIGGER BITE out of the poor man’s paycheck, than it does the wealthy… who probably owns the farm –and– the bakery –and– the store that sells it.

It simply boggles my mind to know that Jeff Bezos, by FAR the world’s wealthiest man -and- his corporation Amazon, PAID NO INCOME TAX LAST YEAR… or, the year before, or the year before that. And he wasn’t the only one, not by a long shot. Elon Musk and Warren Buffett are also on that list of shame. Men whose names are practically household words, like Bill Gates, Rupert Murdoch and Mark Zuckerberg all come to mind. They too, paid little, if any, personal income tax compared to the Average American. To my way of thinking, that’s just plain wrong. Maybe you think differently.

What angers me particularly, is that,

Sex With Aliens, And Infanticide

While perusing through old SMS messages with a friend, searching for messages that the system didn’t send in order to clear them out, I happened upon this jewel:

https://archive.fo/G7wtb#selection-4998.0-4998.1

FIRE POWER DELIVERANCE MINISTRIES WITH DR STELLA IMMANUEL

Deliverance from Spirit wives and Spirit Husbands (Incubus and succubus)

This tormenting spirits are responsible for breaking marriages, hatred by earthly spouse serious gynecological problems, Marital distress, miscarriages, impotence, untold hardship, financial failure and general failure at the edge of breakthrough. In fact studies shows that seven out of ten people in the church are affected by these spirits.

Everyone needs this information. Isa 5:13 Therefore my people are gone into captivity, because they have no knowledge: and their honourable men are famished, and their multitude dried up with thirst. Get knowledge and be free in Jesus name.

The subject of the evil spiritual marriage has been grossly mis- understood by many people. While some hold erroneous views, others demonstrate partial knowledge of this all- important subject. The problem of evil marriage goes beyond dilettantish purposes.

Evil marriage is a deep subject. It affects many people. From our spiritual research and statistical findings, we have gathered that seven out of ten ladies who profess to be born again are involved, consciously or unconsciously, with evil spiritual marriage. In the same vein, seven out of every ten Christian men are, consciously or unconsciously, affected by evil spiritual marriages.

More than any other power, these spirits have destroyed marriages

Many women suffer from astral sex regularly. Astral sex is the ability to project one’s spirit man into the victim’s body and have intercourse with it. This practice is very common amongst Satanists. They leave their physical bodies in a dormant state while they project their spirits into the body of whoever they want to have sex with.

“9. I send thunder fire of God to burn to ashes the children born to the marriage, in Jesus’ name.”

—//—

Turns out, those nut-jobs have been at it for a very long, long, long, long, long time.

To what “nut-jobs” do I mean to refer?

The nut-jobs that believe in demon sperm, having sex with spirits (most bad ones, never good ones) being causative of disease, impotence, and other maladies and health problems.

But note this item, number

Let’s Talk About… Critical Race Theory

Before we enter into a discussion about Critical Race Theory, let’s ask a question, or two.

First, is discrimination based upon skin color, ethnicity, national origin, or any other factor, something that can be eliminated by law?

Or, is it a flaw, a character defect permanently present in humanity?

At its root, racism, sexism, xenophobia, homophobia, and other ‘isms and phobias are based upon an inherent dislike, even to the point of hatred, of others who are dissimilar in some aspect, and because of that dissimilarity thereby become the object, and target of scorn and hatred from and by a perpetrator. Any discriminatory behavior by the perpetrator is justified by the same upon the alleged differences in the object (the one(s) being discriminated against), i.e., the victim(s), and subject, i.e., the perpetrator – the “hater” and “hatee,” if you will.

Various laws, including liberal laws regardless of their age, have thus far failed to eliminate such innately discriminatory practices, and damages, from law, or from business. The myriad laws in our nation touching upon the slave trade, slavery, and discrimination stand as ongoing evidence of that fact.

Everything Old Is New Again

In Abraham Lincoln’s day, a segment of the Republican party then called “Radical Republicans” — a faction within the Republican party comprised primarily of Northern altruists, industrialists, former Whigs, practical politicians, etc., led by Thaddeus Stevens in the House of Representatives, and Charles Sumner in the Senate, from about 1854 until the end of Reconstruction in 1877 — were renown for their goal of immediate, total, and completely permanent eradication of slavery, without compromise. They were opposed even by members of their own party, as well as by Democrats.

Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?

Today, within the Democratic party, the Progressive faction is opposed by “moderates,” and they’re all opposed by Republicans.

And even within the Republican party today, there are also splinters and divisions. The “Trumpers” aka sycophants of the 45th POTUS, and the more level-headed, even-keeled moderate faction of the party.

There are lessons to be learned from history… if only we’ll learn them. And sadly, it seems as if we’re condemned to repeat them, time, and time, and time again.

It was Spanish-born American philosopher/poet George Santayana (1863-1952) who wrote that…

“Progress, far from consisting in change, depends on retentiveness. When change is absolute there remains no being to improve and no direction is set for possible improvement: and when experience is not retained, as among savages, infancy is perpetual. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

–– George Santayana (1863-1952), Spanish philosopher, writing in “The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress“ (1905-1906), Vol. I, “Reason in Common Sense”

So… what about Critical Race Theory?

What is it?

Where’d it come from?

Who invented it?

What does it say, do, or advocate?

The very heart, the “nut,” or crux of the matter is addressed above, and could be stated this way:

Is it possible to eradicate discriminatory practices, and any associated damages, through legislation, and if not, to what extent are such discriminatory practices present, and how can they be rectified, or ameliorated, if at all?

Essentially, Critical Race Theory is a sophisticated, esoteric, high-level legal academic pursuit, which acknowledges that, to this point historically, laws (again, even liberal laws, regardless of their age) have failed to eradicate racism, racist practices, and discrimination, and asks if legal avenues (laws) are able to eradicate it, or if it’s a fixture permanently etched upon the human heart, and thereby inherently present in all laws, and if so, to what extent.

So yes, it’s a broadly-encompassing theoretical legal academic pursuit, and a question which possibly, might never be answered. Yet, there is understanding to be gained by such pursuit, and it is just plain wrong to chastise those who pursue such high-level questions and thinking.

16th Century Thought Police, and The Law of Unintended Consequences

Such chastisement is akin to the Church’s history of punishing or excommunicating scientists “back in the day” who posited that

White Tennessee Residents In A Slave Trade Town Oppose Teaching Slavery History

In a small Tennessee town with a population of 83,454 — comparatively, Huntsville, AL has 100,000 more — where, in the public square, in front of the county courthouse, from which numerous lynchings occurred, on the site of a former slave trading market, stands a statue known by locals as “Chip,” so nicknamed for the chip in his hat.

“Chip” has been around since 1899, and, in a sense, could be thought of as a relative “newcomer” to the community, per se — which was founded 1799 — though an enduringly stalwart one, at that.

“Chip” is made of the finest Italian marble, and, according to the United States Geological Survey, which measured, calculated, and installed a marker upon its base in 1931, stands 648.82 linear feet above sea level. Nearby Nashville is only slightly more elevated at 1160 feet above sea level.

While “Chip’s” maker is largely unknown (though it is thought to be one of many such replicas installed), what is known about him is who commissioned him — the United Daughters of the Confederacy.

You see, “Chip” is homage to the Confederacy, and to Confederate soldiers.

Upon its base is enscribed the following:

Partisan Hacks Abound

One would NOT mention something if it were NOT part of the equation.

It’d be like mentioning Tostitos at a cake-baking contest, the theory of relativity to 3rd Graders, a taco soup recipe to Chinese citizens in Shenzhen, or the merits of a ’57 Chevy during discussion of a cardiac surgical procedure. TOTALLY out of place.

The very fact that SHE — Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett — mentioned it, is sufficient.

“My goal today is to convince you that this court is not comprised of a bunch of partisan hacks.”

— Supreme Court Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett, Sunday, 12 September 2021, at the McConnell Center, University of Louisville, KY, a venue created by Kentucky Republican Senator Mitch McConnell

Similarly, one would NOT need to be convinced if a thing, saying, or claim had utterly no credibility. It’d be like claiming (falsely) that “the sun rises in the west.” Any casual observer can plainly see that the sun appears to “rise” in the east, because of the Earth’s rotation upon its axis. That is to say, Earth spins in an “easterly” direction.

But, what else could be said about a court that INCREASINGLY issues “emergency” rulings, colloquially known as the “Shadow Docket,” WITHOUT proceedings, WITHOUT hearing ANY argument?

That tactic DENIES citizens their Constitutional RIGHT TO BE HEARD IN AN OPEN & PUBLIC COURT OF LAW.

NO ONE BUT she brought up that topic.

So, yeah… Amy Coney “I’m not a partisan hack” Barrett,

Letter To A Longtime Friend

Following are excerpts of a letter to a long-time friend who has historically voted for Republicans… almost exclusively, at all levels – local, state, and federal.

I have not.

As I recall, the last Republican for whom I voted was Reagan in his first campaign. Yet, I have not voted for Democrats whom I either do not like, nor think they would do a good job. And, I would vote for a Republican… if I could find one worth voting for.

I cannot.

And the party nowadays is in wholesale disarray, which further complicates matters. One faction wants to tear it all down, while another radicalized faction has actually attempted to burn it all down by attempting to overthrow its Constitutionally-ordered processes… and to add insult to injury, it was at the behest of the sitting President. And neither faction wants to repair anything, much less economic infrastructure.

“Privatize it all!” is their battle cry.

Yet, he is like me in this regard: He is not now, nor has he ever been, a member of ANY political party. He is also like me insofar as he cares for the future of our nation, which, more specifically, means We the People — the Common Man.

“Blind Men Appraising an Elephant,” c.1800-1850, by Ohara Donshu (d.1857), Japanese Edo Period, Brooklyn Museum

But, to casual observers, they would not know that how we are similar, and would rather, note our seeming dissimilarities, when in fact, the opposite is true. We are more similar, than not — at least we are, on an essentially basic, fundamentally root level.

As I have long stated, we — he, I, and many others who, superficially seem to disagree — are like the proverbial blind men describing an elephant, which is an ancient moralistic tale about human nature with origins in the Indian subcontinent which is known as far back as circa 500 BCE.

“Our individual views of the universe may be different from one another’s because we each encounter only one small part of what is there. The ancient Hindu parable of the six blind men and the elephant — wherein each man describes only the part of the elephant he is touching, forming an incomplete representation of the whole — is an illustration of such individual differences. The elephant, a metaphor for the universe, is perceived by one man as a snake (because he feels the trunk), by another as a tree (because he feels the leg), and so on. However, individual differences in perception are not usually as large as the differences between the six blind men’s percepts of the elephant. The differences are not so large because perception is a complex phenomenon resulting from multiple small effects, such as many different genes and accumulated experiences, acting mostly separately.”

— “Individual Differences In Perception,” entry by Ariella Popple, PsyD, PhD, in “Encyclopedia of Perception,” E. Bruce Goldstein, ed., 2010, SAGE Publications, Inc., Thousand Oaks, California

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Hey Bud-E! How you are?

Still taking a licking, and keeping on ticking?

How’re your eyes? Still in your head?

Your eyes we can fix. My hearing, we can’t.

I’m going deaf.

No kidding.

My hearing loss is now much more significant than previously. And, I contend that it was because of the loud *!*BOOMS! *!*BANGS*!* & *!*EXPLOSIONS*!* to which I was exposed while in the Army. Training, of course. And so far, I’ve been denied a Service-Connected Disability rating. But, to be certain, I’ve not hammered the piss out of ‘em — the VA, that is — to get such a rating, and more importantly TO GET HEARING AIDS WHICH I DESPERATELY NEED!

You see, T, my good friend, this – my example – is but ONE of MILLIONS MORE exactly like me. Good and decent pubic education, college degreed, honorable service to our nation, and despite it all, not having healthcare insurance, nor the ability to shell out $10,000, or more, for hearing aids. And if my glasses break, I’m similarly up shit creek. And forget about my teeth. I’ve not seen a dentist in I-don’t-know-when. My next-door-neighbor D, who is 1 year younger than I, and a widower, had all his teeth pulled recently so that he could get fitted for dentures. ALL of that he had to shell out of pocket. ALL OF IT. And he delivers flowers for a living. A very modest paying job – not even $15/hr.

I’m fully certain that you KNOW that I am unapologetically FOR THE PEOPLE. And, I think you know me well enough to know that, by NO MEANS, am I “anti-business,” and rather, am anti-BIG BUSINESS — a scenario in which profiteering comes first, and people are an afterthought. THAT is a “cardinal sin,” because it demonstrates conclusively that, LITERALLY, we (our nation, our people, by and through our elected officials) DO NOT CARE FOR OUR OWN. And, I know the Scriptures well enough to know (and, I would hope that you do, also) that such a tact is 100% diametrically opposed to Biblical/Judeo-Christian principles. And indeed, it is against the principles of EVERY religion.

“If anyone fails to provide for his own, and especially for those of his own family, he has denied the faith [by disregarding its precepts] and is worse than an unbeliever [who fulfills his obligation in these matters].”
– 1 Timothy 5:8 AMP

For TOO LONG we have disregarded the sage, prophetic advice of POTUS Dwight David Eisenhower, a 2-term Republican, who, before campaigning for President, during WWII was Supreme Allied Commander – our nation’s last 5-star general.

And concurrently with that, we have continued to reduce income tax rates upon the wealthiest Americans, and their corporations, while simultaneously reducing and compressing the number of income tax brackets, thereby placing an increasingly undue responsibility and burden upon the impoverished and working families. Again, that burden has shifted AWAY from upon the wealthy, to be foisted upon the poor. Such an action is fundamentally UNJUST.

In his Farewell Address to the nation, delivered January 17, 1961, as POTUS, that speech, now known as the “Military Industrial Complex” speech, he warned about what we are now experiencing in our nation, and in part said:

America’s Test Kitchen & Chinese Junk

Occasionally, I read the numerous emails sent out by “America’s Test Kitchen.”

And when I write “numerous,” I mean NUMEROUS. They’re practically bordering on SPAM.

And, they almost always want you to buy some cheap, Fabriqué en Chien Chine (tr. “Made in China,” but, it might as well be “Made in Dog”) junk. Hmm… Chinese junk. Seems there is an historical watercraft called — interestingly enough — a “Chinese junk.”

China, Miscellaneous Scenes: Junks near Ningpo
Creator: Fong, Ali
Subject: Hartung’s Photo Shop
Local number: SIA RU007263 [SIA2008-2923]
RU 7263 – Arthur de Carle Sowerby Papers, 1904-1954 and undated, Smithsonian Institution Archives
Place: Ningbo Zhuanqu (China)
Repository: Smithsonian Institution Archives

And ATK’s latest flop is… testing silicon spatulas.

Yes, you read that correctly – silicon spatulas. It must’ve been a VERY slow day week in the test kitchen.

While I once found them informative, they’ve been slipping. And one thing that gripes me about ATK is that many of their “recommendations” aren’t worth a hot hoot in Hades. As an example, consider a venerable, almost ubiquitous, household kitchen appliance… the blender.

Not too long ago, ATK, as they usually do, produced a video comparing various brands of the kitchen appliance. That one, of course, happened to be about blenders. Their hands-down, long-time winner was the Vitamix 5200, priced at $449… BUT! Made in Cleveland, Ohio, and FULLY guaranteed — everything about it (i.e., “a motor blender base and any containers purchased together”) will be repaired, or replaced AT NO EXTRA COST — for 7 years if ANY part fails “due to a defect in material or workmanship or as a result of normal wear and tear from ordinary household use.” FINALLY! FINEST QUALITY MADE IN AMERICA!

ATK’s “next best” choice model was the Breville brand Hemisphere Control model, priced around $200 – Made in China, and with only a limited, one year guarantee.

While the site and accompanying video(s) show excerpts from their “tests,” and the host gives an adequate description of the “tests” and their staff’s findings – the advantages and shortcomings of each of them – one thing they fall grievously short on is… 1.) CLEANING, and; 2.) LONG TERM DURABILITY TESTING.

Granted, ATK conjures up some “torture” tests that most cooks won’t come close to performing, such as plunging a searing hot skillet into an ice water bath, or banging the thing on a concrete block… just to see what would happen. In industry parlance, that’s called “destructive testing,” meaning that the piece, or thing, being tested is likely to be damaged, or destroyed in the process.

I happen to own a couple Breville brand products, one of them being the no-longer-manufactured Hemisphere model blender, and the other one being the still-manufactured Breville brand Barista Express model espresso machine with integrated grinder.

The TOTAL purchase price for BOTH items – shipping + tax included – was around $1000+/-.

Now, to give kudos to the Australian company, their design team

Another One Bites The Dust: Healthy 36yo Alabama Man Didn’t Last 30 Days Against COVID-19

COVID-19 wins again!

On July 20, Josh Tidmore, an otherwise healthy 36-year-old Alabama man, came home from work with “a slight cough” and at the time, thought it was just “sinus trouble.”

By August 11 — a mere 23 days later — he was dead.

He leaves behind a 35-year old widow, Christina, and 3 orphaned children.

Josh Tidmore, an otherwise heathy 30-year old Alabama man didn’t last 30 days against COVID-19

Josh believed the lies he read on Facebook about the coronavirus, and unwisely thought he was “healthy enough” to overcome it. Christina said that neither one of them “knew anyone who got real sick from COVID, and figured we would be ‘OK.'”

Was she ever wrong.

Deadly wrong.

Christina explained their reluctance to get vaccinated, in part, by saying,“It wasn’t a political thing, we didn’t want to because we didn’t want to; and the information is such a fight right now, and we thought we were young and healthy it will be okay, and we will wait to see if there is better information.”

There wasn’t.

Christina, who was neither vaccinated, had earlier contracted COVID and recovered. Josh wasn’t so lucky.

Christina and Josh both tested positive for COVID-19 on July 26, and then quarantined for two weeks.

A few days later, Josh was admitted to Marshall Medical Centers South, in Marshall County, AL, and from there, he only got worse.

Christina’s traumatic “wake-up call” came at the hospital when she witnessed Josh die from cardiac arrest, directly caused by the deterioration of his lungs from the COVID-19 infection.

Christina saw and heard Dr. Jenna Carpenter, MD, a Critical Care Pulmonologist who, with her team was caring for Josh, “run a ‘code'” on Josh — medical parlance for ‘his heart stopped beating, so we’re going to pound on his chest until his ribs break, inject strong chemicals into his veins to irritate his heart, and then shock the beejeebers out of him… all in the hope that his heart will decide to start beating once again.’

It didn’t.

Another One Bites The Dust x2: Alabama Couple Dies of COVID Shortly After 30th Wedding Anniversary

Alabama Couple Dies Of COVID Just Weeks After 30th Wedding Anniversary
https://www.al.com/news/2021/09/alabama-couple-who-worked-at-chick-fil-a-and-died-of-covid-made-our-world-just-a-bit-better.html

Jerry and Deborah Watson died just days apart from COVID-19. The two were longtime fixtures at the Gadsden Chick-fil-A restaurant.

Jerry and Deborah Watson, who lived in Gadsden, AL and worked together at a local Chick-fil-A restaurant for many years died just days apart from each other of COVID-19.

Debbie was the store’s General Manager, and with her husband Jerry had celebrated

Republicans: “THE SKY IS FALLING!! THE SKY IS FALLING!!”

Spendthrift Democrats ignore looming bankruptcy of Social Security and Medicare
By Liz Peek, Opinion Contributor — 09/04/21 03:00 PM EDT
Liz Peek is a Fox News contributor, conservative commentator, former partner of the now-defunct major bracket Wall Street investment banking firm Wertheim & Company, who worked as a oil industry research analyst on Wall Street over 20 years.

https://thehill.com/opinion/finance/570809-spendthrift-democrats-ignore-looming-bankruptcy-of-social-security-and

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Liz Peek’s “bash piece” is purely tripe.

Let’s take it line-by-line — all my remarks are highlighted in GREEN and some are emboldened.

Here’s her opening line:

Are Democrats serious about confronting the impending collapse of Social Security and Medicare? It sure doesn’t seem so.

WOLF! WOLF! WOLF! Remember the Aesop’s fable of “The Boy who Cried ‘WOLF!'”?

Next line:

Instead of focusing on the looming bankruptcy of these programs, Democrats are pushing to spend $4-$5 trillion on a progressive wish-list of expensive new federal giveaways. Perhaps they believe that promising voters free college, free child care, free elder care and so much more will distract them from realizing that our most important safety nets are falling into disrepair.

“Federal giveaways,” she writes. You mean like TAX CUTS FOR THE WEALTHY & THEIR CORPORATIONS? That’s CORPORATE WELFARE. And we mustn’t forget Jeff Bezos who paid NO INCOME TAX, nor did his MEGA CORPORATION AMAZON. And then, there’s the “Paris Hilton Tax Cuts,” which DOES NOT TAX inheritance… even though it’s like winning the lottery. They did NOTHING TO EARN IT. And that’s just a drop in the bucket.

Next line.

Moreover, President Biden and congressional Democrats want to significantly hike taxes to pay for shiny new entitlements. But taxpayers are already facing big hits just to maintain the ones we already have.

Refer to the preceding paragraph about income tax rates for individuals, and corporations, and those who do NOT pay income taxes — the wealthy. They DO NOT see the paying of taxes, including income taxes, as being a patriotic duty. And yet, it is. During the 2-term Republican administration of President Dwight David Eisenhower, income tax rates upon the wealthiest Americans was 90%+, and upon corporations was 50%+. AND DURING HIS ADMINISTRATION, OUR NATION GREW LIKE GANGBUSTERS. Some complain about “tax and spend.” And yet, that is EXACTLY how it works. And the spending goes RIGHT BACK INTO THE PRIVATE SECTOR, which is where it originated. Presently, in 2021, the highest personal income tax rate is 37%, while the highest corporate income tax rate is 21%.

Next couple of paragraphs.

This week, the trustees of the Social Security and Medicare programs released their annual reports; the news is not good.

The bottom line: Both funds are running out of money, faster than expected. Both Medicare and Social Security will need to be propped up, the sooner the better. Specifically:

• • Medicare’s Part A Hospital Insurance trust fund will go broke in five years; outlays are projected to exceed income by nearly $600 billion over the next 10 years. Over the longer term, we would need a 27 percent increase in the payroll tax or a 16 percent spending cut to keep the program running.

• • Gross spending on Medicare will increase from 4.1 percent of our entire economy this year to more than 6 percent over the next 20 years.

• • Social Security will become insolvent in 13 years. Under current law, the administration cannot guarantee full benefits to today’s retirees.

• • The trustees’ report says that Social Security will run cash deficits of $2.4 trillion over the next 10 years, equal to 2.3 percent of total taxable payrolls.

• • Social Security is estimated to post a cash-flow deficit of $147 billion this year, equal to almost 0.7 percent of GDP

The date of projected insolvency for these entitlements moved closer over the past year; the proposed remedies from the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB) become more draconian as time goes on.

The link provided by the author, Liz Peek, was NOT to an official United States Government website. It was to a group calling themselves “Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.” And even that group DID NOT present a link to official sources. Yeah… that sounds about right. Find someone who’ll agree with you on everything you say, and present that echo chamber as reality.

Here’s the “2021 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE BOARDS OF TRUSTEES OF THE FEDERAL HOSPITAL INSURANCE AND FEDERAL SUPPLEMENTARY MEDICAL INSURANCE TRUST FUNDS“:
https://www.cms.gov/files/document/2021-medicare-trustees-report.pdf

Here’s the Social Security Administration’s “SUMMARY OF THE 2021 ANNUAL REPORTS“:
https://www.ssa.gov/OACT/TRSUM/index.html

Here’s the “Fact Sheet: 2021 Social Security and Medicare Trustees Reports” from the United States Treasury:
https://home.treasury.gov/system/files/136/Fact-Sheet-2021-Social-Security-and-Medicare-Trustees-Reports.pdf

Here’s the Social Security Administration’s “Social Security 2021 Trustees Report.”

Another One Bites The Dust: Pregnant Alabama RN & Fetus Die of COVID-19

Family says, “We’re glad she’s not suffering.”

Alabama Family On Pregnant RN & Fetus Dead from COVID
Published: Aug. 23, 2021, 5:39 p.m. – Updated: Aug. 24, 2021, 7:27 a.m.

Haley Richardson, RN, a 32-year old Labor and Delivery Nurse who worked at Ascension Sacred Heart Hospital in Pensacola, FL and lived in Theodore, AL in Mobile County, died of COVID-19 on August 20, 2021. She was NOT vaccinated. The baby within her – whom she had named Ryleigh Beth – had died 2 days before she did.

Her widower, Jordan Richardson, will be taking care of Katie, their 3-year old daughter whom she orphaned. She was pregnant with the couple’s second child, which died in utero 2 days before she did.

Haley and Jordan Richardson with daughter Katie.

Jason Whatley, a family friend whose wife was maid of honor at Haley’s wedding, reported that Haley contracted COVID-19 in late July or early August, about three weeks before she died, and said that, “She was home sick for about a week and then her heart rate went up.”

Haley was initially admitted to the University of South Alabama Health system’s Children’s and Women’s Hospital in Mobile, then after a few days, was transported to the ICU at USA Health’s main hospital campus also in Mobile.

Haley’s mother, Julie Mulkey said, “After about three or four days in the hospital, the OB told her that she was going to lose the baby. And she continued to get worse and worse. At some point, they basically told her that we’ve got to start treating you as if you didn’t have a child. We’ve got to do what we can for you because the baby is going to pass anyway.”

Mr. Whatley said physicians treating Haley had earlier placed her on a transfer waiting list to the University of Alabama at Birmingham hospital to be connected to a ECMO (Extra-Corporeal Membrane Oxygenation) machine, sometimes also called a “heart/lung machine,” which

Birth of a Myth: How Ivermectin Got Mixed Up With COVID-19

Dr. Carlos Chaccour, PhD

Dr. Carlos Chaccour, PhD, Assistant Research Professor, Barcelona Institute for Global Health, and Chief Scientific Officer of the Unitaid-funded BOHEMIA consortium project in Barcelona, Spain, is a scientist and researcher whose primary area of scientific interest is with Emerging Viruses, Malaria, and Coronavirus.

For the last 10 years, his most intense professional focus has been upon “the development of mosquito-killing drugs (endectocides) as complementary vector control strategy for malaria control and elimination.” In fact, the specific area in which he “obtained his PhD in 2015, was working with slow-release ivermectin formulations for that purpose.”

Dr. Joe Brew, PhD

In May 2020, he, along with fellow researchers  Dr. Joe Brew, PhD, a Data Scientist, Epidemiologist, and Economist; and Dr. Alberto García-Basteiro, MD, Assistant Research Professor at the Barcelona Institute for Global Health, ISGlobal in Barcelona, Spain, and physician at the International Health Service of Hospital Clínic, authored “Ivermectin and COVID-19: How a Flawed Database Shaped the Pandemic Response of Several Latin-American Countries.”

Dr. Alberto Garcia-Basteiro, MD

Their critical examination was in response to efforts by healthcare professionals and officials in the nations of Peru, Bolivia, Paraguay, and Colombia who suddenly began taking an unusual interest in ivermectin, and using it on COVID-19 patients in their respective nations. Those nations’ officials were motivated, in large part by a since-retracted, and debunked manuscript initially placed on a “preprint server,” a website which publishes online, a full draft of research which has not yet been validated by the peer-review process. The respected healthcare/medical science journal Lancet, which has been continually published since 1823 with the objective to improve people’s lives, states that “a preprint is a version of a scientific manuscript posted on a public server prior to any formal peer review.”

Specifically, Dr. Chaccour and colleagues examined antiviral research published June 2020 in Science Direct entitled “The FDA-approved drug ivermectin inhibits the replication of SARS-CoV-2 in vitro,” i.e., in glass, such as test tube, beaker, or Petri dish, which was performed early in April by Australian researchers Leon Caly, Victorian Infectious Diseases Reference Laboratory, Royal Melbourne Hospital, At the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, Victoria, Australia, Julian D. Druce, Senior Medical Scientist in the Virus Identification Laboratory of the Victorian Infectious Diseases Reference Laboratory, et al, which “used concentrations that are not readily achieved in the human body” but raised enough interesting questions that further investigation was warranted, and because of “the drug’s excellent safety profile and lack of effective treatment for COVID-19.”

In response to their critical examination, and genuine questions about the techniques and methods, they wrote a guest editorial entitled “Ivermectin and COVID-19: Keeping Rigor in Times of Urgency” which was

Joe Rogan Has COVID-19… And He Could Die.

I, for one, am SUPER GLAD that Joe Rogan has professional healthcare credentials, and is licensed as such following his passage of national licensing board examination, following extensive education.

Otherwise, I sincerely doubt he could be believed.

Death will come knocking at ol’ Joe’s door soon enough. Make sure you have your traveling shoes on, Joe. You’re gonna’ need ’em.

But hey!

If Joe Rogan said it, it’s ~GOT~ to be true!

Stupid motherfucker.

Moron.

Maybe he’ll drown from the fluid in his lungs in his bed while sleeping.

It’s happened.

Who knows?

According to the story, he’s been prescribed

America’s Military Budget Must Be Halved… AT LEAST

It is NOT an “unpatriotic” matter to assert, or claim, that America’s military budget is out of control. Numerous boondoggles over the past several years – most notably the F-35 program, now recognized as an untenably disastrous failure – have proven as much.

Former WWII Supreme Allied Commander, 5-star General, and 2-term Republican President, Dwight David Eisenhower, warned in his January 17, 1961 Farewell Address that,

“We annually spend on military security more than the net income of all United State corporations.

“This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence-economic, political, even spiritual-is felt in every city, every state house, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.

“In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.

“We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.”

• See: “The US Air Force Quietly Admits the F-35 Is a Failure“; By Joel Hruska, February 25, 2021 at 8:38 am

• See also: “The U.S. Air Force Just Admitted The F-35 Stealth Fighter Has Failed“; By David Axe, February 23, 2021, 08:00am EST

• See also: “What Went Wrong with the F-35, Lockheed Martin’s Joint Strike Fighter?“; By Michael P. Hughes, Scientific American, The Conversation US, June 14, 2017

• See also: “This Country Is Spending $1.7 Trillion on Planes That Don’t Work“; By Charles P. Pierce, February 25, 2021

• See also: “F-35 Failure: The Air Force Wants a Different Replacement for Its Aging F-16 Jet Fighters“; By Mark Episkopos, February 25, 2021

• See also: “Israel Is Hiding That Its State-Of-Art F-35 Warplane Was Hit By Syrian S-200 Missile – Reports“; SouthFront: Analysis & Intelligence, 2017-10-17T 09:56:39+00:00

• See also: “The F-35 tells everything that’s broken in the Pentagon“; By Dr. Sean McFate, PhD, 03/11/21 01:00 PM EST

• See also: “The sad saga of the F-35: Too big to fail, too expensive to fly“; By Jamie McIntyre, Senior Writer, March 18, 2021 11:00 PM

In conjunction with that measure, of slashing the budget for the Department of Defense, we must also require a period of national service from our young people – two, or three, years of mandatory service after high school graduation is NOT too much to expect from, or ask of them in return for the blessings of liberty for ourselves, and our posterity. Plus, it would make Congress and the President think long and hard – twice – before so freely sending their children into harm’s way.

The money saved should be redirected toward other, much more needful things at home, such as

Another Moron Has Died

Guess who’s saying “Death to Republicans!“?

The coronavirus.

Morons.

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The leader of an anti-mask movement in Texas has died from COVID-19.

Caleb Wallace, 30, who created a group called the San Angelo Freedom Defenders that conducted a rally to combat what he called “COVID-19 tyranny,” has died after spending over a month in the hospital, according to a message posted by his wife, Jessica Wallace, on a GoFundMe page to raise money to cover his hospital bills.

“Caleb has peacefully passed on. He will forever live in our hearts and minds,” Jessica Wallace wrote in a post on Saturday.

Caleb Wallace checked into the Shannon Medical Center on July 30 after contracting COVID-19, according to The New York Times.

Earlier that month, he organized a rally for people who were frustrated with the COVID-19 mitigation measures that had been put in place to contain the current surge in infections.

Caleb Wallace reportedly started feeling symptoms associated with COVID-19 — shortness of breath, high fever and a dry cough — on July 26, and they worsened the next day, according to the San Angelo Standard-Times.

He initially refused to go to the hospital and get tested for the virus, instead opting to take ivermectin — an anti-parasite medication used mostly in livestock that the Food and Drug Administration recently urged people not to take to treat COVID-19 — along with high doses of Vitamin C, zinc, aspirin, and an inhaler.

“Every time he would start to cough, it would turn into a coughing attack, and then that would cause him to completely go out of breath,” his wife Jessica said. “He was so hard-headed. He didn’t want to see a doctor, because he didn’t want to be part of the statistics with COVID tests.”

On July 30, however, a relative took him to the hospital, where he remained until his death.

Within days after his hospital admission, he was placed on a ventilator – a “breathing machine” that mechanically inflates the lungs with oxygenated air through a tube stuck down the throat.

“He couldn’t breathe on his own,” Jessica said. “The first week

Understanding Morons

NOTE:

Readers of this blog are free to respond to anything they read herein, or elsewhere, and little-to-no effort has ever been made, nor will be made, to restrain their expressions, nor to prohibit, or “censor” their ideas. Further, email addresses stay within the confines of this blog, exclusively, and are NEVER sold, bartered, traded, given away, or divulged in any manner or form whatsoever – nor have they ever been. We do not employ the practices of FaceBook/Mark Zuckerberg, Twitter/Jack Dorsey, or other social media maven/multi-billionaires which make a fast buck off selling their readers private information, or online habits – as do most other corporate/commercial sites, Internet Service Providers, including Alphabet, Inc., parent firm of Google/YouTube, etc., and its founders Larry Page, and Sergey Brin.

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Recently, a reader responded to an entry about Afghanistan, writing in part, that, “Calling them “morons” for not being educated on this in a country that is still partly stuck in the stone age seems a tad bit inappropriate.”

The reader’s thoughts were duly noted, and had some bearing upon a portion of the entry – the introduction. That individual could have written a recipe for spongecake in response, and it likely would have been published. But, a thoughtful, intelligent, cogent, somewhat compelling, and expansive argument was made in response to the commentary – which is more than can be said for some other sites, where diatribes, thoughtless, mindless jibber-jabbering, and provocative commentary is sad par for the course.

But it was the word “moron” that aroused my curiosity, so to be certain, I sought to investigate further the origin, derivation and historical use of the word – its etymology. Here’s what I found about the word “moron” on the EtymologyOnline website:

moron (n.)

1910, medical Latin, “one of the highest class of feeble-minded persons,” from Greek (Attic) mōron, neuter of mōros “foolish, dull, sluggish, stupid,” a word of uncertain origin. The former connection with Sanskrit murah “idiotic” (see moratorium) is in doubt. Latin morus “foolish” is a loan-word from Greek.

Adopted by the American Association for the Study of the Feeble-minded with a technical definition “adult with a mental age between 8 and 12;” used as an insult since 1922 and subsequently dropped from technical use. Linnæus had introduced morisis “idiocy.”

The feeble-minded may be divided into: (1) Those who are totally arrested before the age of three so that they show the attainment of a two-year-old child or less; these are the idiots. (2) Those so retarded that they become permanently arrested between the ages of three and seven; these are imbeciles. (3) Those so retarded that they become arrested between the ages of seven and twelve; these were formerly called feeble-minded, the same term that is applied to the whole group. We are now proposing to call them morons, this word being the Greek for “fool.” The English word “fool” as formerly used describes exactly this grade of child—one who is deficient in judgment or sense. [Henry H. Goddard, in “Journal of Proceedings and Addresses” of the National Education Association of the United States, July 1910]

• The Miller-Keane Encyclopedia and Dictionary of Medicine, Nursing, and Allied Health, Seventh Edition, defines “moron” as, an “obsolete term for a person with the highest grade of mental retardation, equivalent to the modern classification “mild mental retardation.”

• Farlex Partner Medical Dictionary states that “This outmoded and imprecise term is best avoided in medical speech and writing because of its pejorative lay connotations.”

• Segen’s Medical Dictionary, writes this of the word, stating that it is “An obsolete term formerly used for an individual with mild mental retardation (IQ 50–69). Vox populi – A derogatory term used indiscriminately for an obtuse person, regardless of that person’s tested IQ.”

Of course, I have often said, “There’s no moron like an oxymoron.”

And you can quote me on that.

But the term, now often considered a pejorative, has fallen out of favor with the “influencers” of society, social media platform morons who

Working Toward A Change In American Foreign Policy

As you read this OpEd, initially, it seems to move toward the idea of nation building, but then, directs itself toward more direct involvement Congressional management and oversight of foreign policy, the constitutionally-mandated Separation of Powers, encourages a SCOTUS decision on the extent of Presidential War Powers, and curtailing the use Executive action to enact foreign policy by skirting such oversight, asserting that Executive diplomacy is not a formal treaty, and therefore not subject to Congressional oversight.

In short, while illustrating problems in American foreign policy through Executive action, it places the onus of responsibility upon Congress, where it rightfully belongs, and relegates the President’s role to primarily one of public persuasion in such matters.

Ours is a constitutional democratic republic, and we should act like it, rather than falling prey to “the grandiose belief” … of the “irresistible the siren call of personal diplomacy” by Presidents.A

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What Trump’s Disgraceful Deal With the Taliban Has Wrought

by Dr. Kori Schake, PhD
August 28, 2021

Dr. Schake is Director of Foreign and Defense Policy Studies, and Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.

Before joining AEI, Dr. Schake was the Deputy Director-General of the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London. She has had a distinguished career in government, working at the US State Department, the US Department of Defense, and the National Security Council at the White House. She has also taught at Stanford, West Point, Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies, National Defense University, and the University of Maryland.

The American Enterprise Institute is an independent, non-profit, public policy think tank dedicated to defending human dignity, expanding human potential, and building a freer and safer world.

The work of their scholars and staff advances ideas rooted in their belief in democracy, free enterprise, American strength and global leadership, solidarity with those at the periphery of our society, and a pluralistic, entrepreneurial culture.

AEI scholars are committed to making the intellectual, moral, and practical case for expanding freedom, increasing individual opportunity, and strengthening the free enterprise system in America and around the world. Their work explores ideas that further those goals, and AEI scholars take part in this pursuit with academic freedom. AEI operates independently of any political party and has no institutional positions. Their scholars’ conclusions are fueled by rigorous, data-driven research and broad-ranging evidence.

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Believing you’re uniquely capable of bending things to your will is practically a requirement for becoming president of the United States. But too often, in pursuit of such influence over foreign policy, presidents overemphasize the importance of personal diplomacy. Relationships among leaders can build trust — or destroy it — but presidents often overrate their ability to steer both allies and adversaries.

Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev had built such a solid relationship that during the Reykjavik summit most of Reagan’s administration worried he would agree to an unverifiable elimination of nuclear weapons. Bill Clinton believed his personal diplomacy could deliver Palestinian statehood and Russian acceptance of NATO expansion. George W. Bush believed he looked into Vladimir Putin’s eyes and saw his soul, and Barack Obama believed he could persuade Mr. Putin it wasn’t in Russia’s interests to determine the outcome of the war in Syria.

But in both hubris and folly, none come close to matching Donald Trump. For someone who prided himself on his abilities as a dealmaker and displayed an “I alone can fix it” arrogance, the agreement he made with the Taliban is one of the most disgraceful diplomatic bargains on record. Coupled with President Biden’s mistakes in continuing the policy and botching its execution, the deal has now led to tragic consequences for Americans and our allies in Kabul.

Mr. Trump’s handling of Afghanistan is an object lesson for why presidents of both parties need to be

All Afghanistan REALLY Wants Is…

While it may sound simplistic,

I have long maintained – and in the last 20 years often said – that what the United States needs to do with regard to Afghanistan, is…

Send select, expert teams from the USDA, about 40 or 50 John Deere tractors, combines, and various other farming & harvesting equipment (and give JD a tax break for donating them, they’ll appreciate that) — and truckloads of seed corn, wheat, soybeans, wheat, grain sorghum, and other foodstuffs, including silage/forage, and show the people how to use and care for the tractors, plant, tend, and harvest, the crops, care for/manage the soil, and their animals.

Why?

All those people REALLY want to do is:

1.) Feed themselves, and;

2.) Feed their livestock.

Help them solve those two problems, and we’ll have a friend for life.

And, for the faithful, there’s this matter to consider as well:

“If your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him a drink. If you do this, you will make him feel guilty and ashamed.”
— Romans 12:20 (GWT)

The Nation Suffers From Severe Localized Food Insecurity:

Due to civil conflict, population displacement, and economic slowdown – the food security situation worsened in recent months due to the impact of COVID‑19 as informal labor opportunities and remittances declined; between November 2020 and March 2021, about 13.15 million people were estimated to be in severe acute food insecurity and to require urgent humanitarian assistance, including 8.52 million people in “Crisis” and 4.3 million people in “Emergency”; the food security of the vulnerable populations, including IDPs (Internally Displaced People) and the urban poor, is likely to deteriorate as curfews and restrictions on movements to contain the COVID‑19 outbreak limit the employment opportunities for casual laborers (2021).

Yes, there are problems to be overcome – most notably low education levels perhaps being the most problematic – and the language barrier can be, and has been, relatively easily overcome. But education

Phil Valentine Has Died

“Yes, the rumors are true. I have COVID. Unfortunately for the haters out there, it looks like I’m going to make it. Interesting experience. I’ll have to fill you in when I come back on the air. I’m hoping that will be tomorrow, but I may take a day off just as a precaution. It’ll be a game time decision.”
– Phil Valentine’s July 11, 2021 message on Facebook shortly after his positive diagosis with COVID-19

Phil Valentine is dead.

Nashville-based talk radio show host Phil Valentine has died of COVID-19.

https://www.wkrn.com/news/conservative-talk-show-host-phil-valentine-dies-after-covid-19-battle/

During a live broadcast today (Saturday, 21 August 2021) at 4:15PM on SuperTalk 99.7 WTN, several of Phil Valentine’s coworkers & close friends announced they had spoken with his brother Mark, who confirmed the 61-year-old had died earlier in the afternoon.

Following his infection with COVID-19, Mr. Valentine had been hospitalized at Williamson County Medical Center, in nearby Franklin, TN, a tony suburb south and sightly west of Nashville, since July.

On July 11th, mere days after his positive diagnosis, he

Florida Nuts Best In Nation

Florida man, eh?

El Stupido MAXIMO!

Ron DeSantis, Republican Florida Governor

Goddamn Ron Deathsantis is a FUCKING MORON!!

Let’s put this in perspective, shall we?

Try this on for size:

DeSantis maintains clothes can be detrimental for children’s development and that younger children simply don’t wear clothes properly. But board members in the counties of Broward, home to Fort Lauderdale, and Alachua, home to Gainesville, decided not to allow parents to easily opt out of the clothing mandate as surging cases of severe second degree sunburn fueled by climate change began straining hospitals.

How does THAT fit, eh?

Yup.

Deese Flahda fokes ah nutz!

Oh… and WHO IS LITERALLY DEFUNDING GOVERNMENT OPERATIONS, INCLUDING PUBLIC SCHOOLS?

Yup. You guessed it!

Goddamn Republicans.

Banana Republics are run by Banana Republicans.

Banana Republicans specialize in, and are expert at, a psychological manipulation technique called “projection.”

Projection is the practice of accusing others of doing the very thing that the accuser is doing. They “project” the action upon others whom they hope to revile by so doing.

Banana Republicans accuse Democrats of “defunding” the police, and yet, here they (Ron Deathsantis being their chief exemplar) are, LITERALLY defunding the “socialist” public schools.

Oh… and ANOTHER THING:

Banana Republicans decry “socialism” (though they NEVER actually define it) as being government involvement in anything.

So, using that measure, that metric, that (perverted) “definition,” ALL government is socialist — which makes Ron Deathsantis the Chief Socialist of the Socialist State of Florida.

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Florida Threatens To Pull School Funding Over Mask Mandates

Taliban Spokesman: Afghanistan To Have “No democratic system at all”

“There will be no democratic system at all because it does not have any base in our country. We will not discuss what type of political system should we apply in Afghanistan because it is clear. It is sharia law and that is it.”
— Waheedullah Hashimi, Taliban spokesman in an interview with Reuters, Wednesday, August 18, 2021

In a previous entry, I had written in part that,

Thoughts on America’s Afghan Experiment

Soprano Amalie Materna (1844-1918) as the character Brünnhilde in Richard Wagner’s “Der Ring des Nibelungen” at Bayreuth, Germany, 1876 – conjectural origin of the idiom “when the fat lady sings.”

What can anyone say about people that will cling to the body of a jet aircraft as it takes off, and then as it begins to reach altitude, fall to their deaths? Or stow away in a wheel well, where they are crushed by the mechanisms, or freeze to death at altitude?

Morons.

And desperate.

But still, morons.

They are utterly lacking common sense, stupid, and fundamentally absent the knowledge or intelligence to understand that such actions would be fool hardy at best, and – as it turned out – fatal at worst.

What would you say?

How would anyone describe it?

And yet, “it ain’t over ’til the fat lady sings.”

So goes a colloquial saying meaning “don’t count your chickens until the eggs are hatched.”

Speaking of eggs, they can’t be unscrambled.

And this matter may very well be exactly illustrative of that axiom.

But, I do hear her warming up.

The so-called “fat lady,” that is.

There’s also this to consider:

Dumbing Down Our Kids: Censorship is Alive and Well

Many make the mistake thinking that anti-censorship laws – the First Amendment, most notably – apply to business. They do not. Anti-censorship laws apply ONLY to government.

Instances of such mistaken thought have been on display of late, particularly with respect to some of the foolish remarks made by certain Congressional Representatives, and Senators, while in Committee hearings with the CEOs of Twitter and Facebook pursuant to their banning, or temporarily blocking certain high profile users of their service in the dissemination of lies, which were not merely false, but disruptive, tended toward incivility, and inciting public unrest.

Censorship is sometimes called “prior restraint,” because it prohibits an action, in this case, speech or other First Amendment rights, from occurring, or being exercised. It is not done after the fact. It is ALWAYS done beforehand.

But, with respect to private enterprise, non-governmental entities, businesses and such, they are free to their heart’s delight to censor. There is NO LAW prohibiting them from exercising that prerogative.

On May 10, 1933, university students in Opera Square in Berlin and elsewhere throughout Nazi Germany burned thousands of books in an ominous cleansing of anything considered un-German from the national culture. (U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, National Archives and Records)

When it comes to matters of education, the ideological equivalent to censorship is banning books, and book burning – both practices which have historically been employed by authoritarian, totalitarian regimes, and not just in modernity.

Historians of

Sunday-to-Monday Roundup: Taliban Afghan Coup

GOPers are blaming POTUS Biden for the Taliban’s Afghan coup.

Morons.

Pope Calls for Peace in Afghanistan
https://thehill.com/policy/international/567919-pope-calls-for-peace-in-afghanistan
Sunday, August 15, 2021
Today, Pope Francis called for a peaceful end to conflict in Afghanistan as a Taliban-led government coup appears imminent.

Reuters reported that in his Sunday address from Saint Peter’s Square after his homily, the Pope said in part that, “I join in the unanimous concern for the situation in Afghanistan. I ask all of you to pray with me to the God of peace so that the clamour of weapons might cease and solutions can be found at the table of dialogue. Only thus can the battered population of that country – men, women, elderly and children – return to their own homes, and live in peace and security, in total mutual respect.”

Russian Facebook Meddling Behind Anti-Vax/Anti-Mask Uproar

Far from being a “Batman” logo, the Russian GRU, is that nation’s military foreign intelligence unit, and is a “holdover” from Russia’s Communist days, and remains chock full with communists. Remember: Just because Russia allegedly isn’t “communist” any more, does NOT mean that they’re not, or that they’re now America’s “friend.” They are NOT. The same folks that were in power when Russia was openly communist are STILL IN POWER. And that includes Vladimir Putin.
Their logo reads: RF Armed Forces MILITARY INTELLIGENCE

This PROVES my suspicion, that RUSSIA has been, and remains the culprit behind all this hubbub about anti-vaxxers.

Only an enemy could have created such dissension in our nation – which works to their advantage.

America has NEVER been like this… EVER!

And you know what else?

You’ll NEVER hear Tucker Carlson, Fox News, nor any other so-called “conservative” talking heads mention this.

And you know what else was “covered up,” per se?

The twelve GRU officers who were mentioned in the Mueller Probe indictments.

But hey… that’s old news.

“While Trey Gowdy went on his “Benghazi 2.0” tirade during the Strozk hearing, and random Democratic Congressional members used the probe to attack the FBI, the government of Russia was silently toasting members of their security services on a job well done. Meanwhile, the Russian government seems to be able to breathe a sigh of diplomatic relief, and pat their intelligence officers on the back. After all, President Trump is as giddy as a virgin teenage boy on prom night about meeting Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin in Helsinki. “I wonder if he’ll be my new best friend?”

But this is not.

NSA-CISA-NCSC-FBI Joint Cybersecurity Advisory on Russian GRU Brute Force Campaign

Press Release – July 1, 2021
FORT MEADE, MD – The National Security Agency (NSA), Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) released a Cybersecurity Advisory today exposing malicious cyber activities by Russian military intelligence against U.S. and global organizations, starting from mid-2019 and likely ongoing.  This advisory is being released as part of

Cancer-Causing Sunscreen Sold In America

Summer just doesn’t get any better, does it?

First, the COVID-19, and then, just when you think it’s safe to go in the water… delta variant emerges.

Back to square one.

And now, as if sunburn wasn’t enough, there’s cancer-causing sunscreen.

It’s almost like the bizarre reducēs in the 1993 Bill Murray movie “Groundhog Day.” By the way, the word “reducēs” (pronounced ree – doo – sees), is the nominative, accusative, and vocative masculine and feminine plural cases of “redux.” So now, you know.

Surely, by now, you’ve heard, or read, the news:

Carcinogenic substances, including benzene – a highly flammable industrial chemical – have been found in independent laboratory analyses performed upon 294 unique batches of sun care products from 69 different companies by Valisure a privately held New Haven, CT-based pharmaceutical analytical services company.

On May 25, 2021, Valisure published the laboratory findings that 78 sun screen and after-sun skin care products in which they found benzene, and in part, wrote that,

“Valisure LLC has tested and detected high levels of benzene, a known human carcinogen, in several brands and batches of sunscreen, which are

“I beg your pardon… I never promised you a White House Rose Garden.”

Recently, renown Presidential Historian Michael Beschloss posted a tweet of some relatively minor historical significance, which included an image of the “new” and apparently not-so-improved White House Rose Garden, which was markedly revised during the previous administration.

Evisceration of White House Rose Garden was completed a year ago this month, and here was the grim result—decades of American history made to disappear: @dougmillsnyt pic.twitter.com/78OqjkoOPt

— Michael Beschloss (@BeschlossDC) August 7, 2021

Image accompanying Presidential Historian Michael Beschloss’ tweet of the White House Rose Garden after Malaria’s macabre makeover of it, August 2020.

His observation created an uproar.

It’s the same type syndrome seen in Hans Christian Andersen’s 1837 moralistic tale “The Emperor’s New Clothes”; no one says anything at the time, and then, when the king goes bonkers, everybody still oohs and aaahs about how beautiful, lovely, and perfect his new garments are… even though he’s wearing none.

But when the lone voice of a child points out the truth, suddenly, everyone loses their head.

Apparently, the last time the garden revision was “re-introduced” — shortly before the Republican National Convention — the announcement of changes made to it didn’t cause as much a stir as this reminder of last year’s event.

Malaria’s macabre “makeover” mockery couldn’t have been less well received… again.

Tens of thousands of people flew off their handles on Twitter — the Twitterverse was all a twaddle — and many, if not most, of them didn’t have nice things to say. Of course, nowadays, that is an expected par for the SoMe (Social Media) course.

And, as is similarly par for the modern course, “journalists” find themselves writing about what worthless things were posted about some inanely foolish event mentioned on Facebook, or in this case, Twitter. It’s amazing what passes for “journalism” these days.

But, the stir it created was found worthy, even, of a response by the aesthetes at Architectural Digest magazine who weighed in on the fracas, ostensibly to

Good Riddance -OR- A Tragic Irony Of Stupidity?

Two words: Good riddance.

Y’know… it’s almost like COVID has a brain, and a mission all its own —

KILL ALL REPUBLICANS.

Stupid fuckers, all, they are.

Dead, too.

Y’all BOTH keep up the good work — COVID & GOPers!

If our nation had a single-payer type healthcare delivery system as an option, those type problems (unpaid costs of care) would NOT exist.

Obviously, our nation’s excellent world-class healthcare delivery system is working quite well… for the Wall$treet banksters who run it.

——//——

Facebook post shared by Scott Apley mere days before he caught COVID-19, was hospitalized, and died.

In a Facebook post made Wednesday morning, the Galveston County Texas Republican Party wrote that Scott Apley, a member of the State Republican Executive Committee and Dickinson City Council, who was hospitalized with COVID-19, had died mere days after he shared a post on social media questioning the effectiveness of the coronavirus vaccine.

While the TX GOPers did not mention Apley’s cause of death, a GoFundMe page established for his survivors to help with medical and final expenses stated that, “on Sunday August 1st, H Scott Apley was admitted to UTMB Galveston with pneumonia-like symptoms and tested positive for COVID.”

Apley, who was 45, is survived by his wife, Melissa Apley, has also tested positive, but has not been hospitalized, and their infant son Reid, who is being cared for by Melissa’s mother, according to the GFM fund-raising page.

Melissa Apley, their infant Reid Apley, and Scott Apley.

According to the GoFundMe page, “they will be expecting quite a bit of

“Kill All The Republicans.”

If coronavirus disease could talk, that’s what it would say.

Because right now, those whom have resisted getting vaccinated are largely conservative White Republican men.

A recent poll conducted by Monmouth University’s Polling Insitute found that 73% of self-identified Republicans oppose face mask and social distancing guidelines in their state, while 16% of those who remain vehemently opposed to getting the vaccine “believe Covid is a hoax or they are unlikely to get infected. Which means there may be very little that can be done at this point to change their minds,” said Patrick D. Murray, Founding Director of Monmouth University’s independent Polling Institute. Among those who admit they will not get the vaccine if they can avoid it, 70% either identify with or lean toward the Republican Party, and only 29% of Republicans blame vaccine opposition for most of the recent rise in COVID-19 infection cases.

Ron DeSantis (b.1978), Republican Governor of Florida since January 8, 2019, barely defeated Andrew Gillum, the Democratic Mayor of Tallahassee by a margin of 0.4%. At age 42, he is the nation’s youngest governor.

And they’re dying like flies in places like Florida, where Republican Governor Ron DeSantis — who himself is vaccinated with the Johnson & Johnson/Janssen single-dose viral vector-type vaccine — has steadfastly refused to do anything to protect his state’s citizens from the ravages of coronavirus disease infection, and has staunchly refused mandating face/nose covering use in public spaces, and even recently signed an executive order PROHIBITING school districts from requiring staff and students to wear protective masks.

That, as news of findings published by the CDC of an outbreak in Provincetown, Barnstable County, Massachusetts – a resort town and summertime getaway location on the tip of Cape Cod – occurring among fully-inoculated individuals after participating in summer events and large public gatherings between July 3 and July 17, in which 469 cases of COVID-19 infection were identified among Massachusetts residents who had traveled there, of which 346 (74%) occurred in fully vaccinated persons. Testing identified the Delta variant in 90% of specimens from 133 patients.

The “great unknown” — even among researchers — throughout development, testing, and emergency approval of the Moderna and Pfizer/BioNtech mRNA type vaccines, and the Johnson & Johnson/Janssen viral vector type vaccine has been:

Republican In Legal Peril: No mo’ Mo?

California U.S. Representative Eric Swalwell (RIGHT), a Democrat for the state’s 15th Congressional District, listens to testimony of U.S. Capitol Police officer Harry Dunn describing the Trump-led terrorist attacks upon Congress at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021 as Congress was preparing to certify the election results.

The Alabama GOP Mo-ron Brooks, POS45, and his corrupt lying entourage will likely end up in prison… hopefully – if there’s any justice at all in this violently topsy-turvy world.

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In a Federal Court filing Tuesday, July 27, 2021, the United States Department of Justice served notice that they will not be representing Alabama GOP Representative Morris “Mo” Brooks-CD5 in California Democratic Representative Eric Swalwell’s-CD15 lawsuit against him, Donald John Trump, Donald J. Trump, Jr., and Rudolph Giuliani.

“Brooks submitted a request to the Department of Justice (“Department”) for certification under the Westfall Act that he was acting within the scope of his office or employment as a Member of Congress at the time of the conduct alleged in the Complaint. Brooks later petitioned this Court for a scope-of-employment certification, and the Court called for the United States to respond by July 27, 2021.”

Explaining that “If the Department certifies that

Marsha Blackburn: Liar, Idiot, Moron, Fool

Sometimes, you just have to wonder:
Are people born permanently stupid, or, are they made that way (over time)?

There’s no question that we’re all born stupid, but whether we stay that way, or not, is largely of our own choosing.

It’s the classic “Nature versus Nurture” argument.

And frankly, while there’s evidence both ways, there is at least ONE thing we are absolutely certain of, which is that education cures and eliminates ignorance. So, score one for the “Nurture” column.

And, if you’ll recall, there were at least two (and, perhaps more) hit comedy motion pictures which played upon that theme: One in 1983 called “Trading Places,” starring the inimitable clown-men Eddie Murphy, and Dan Akroyd, supported by Don Ameche, Ralph Bellamy, and the ever-lovely and talented Jamie Lee Curtis; then in 1985 a motion picture with an obliquely similar theme entitled “Brewster’s Millions,” starring late funnyman Richard Pyor, and John Candy, supported by Hume Cronyn, Jerry Orbach, and Yakov Smirnoff; and yet another, although somewhat-lesser-known — though certainly with no less star power — in the 2014 title “Breaking the Bank,” staring Kelsey Grammer, supported by Susan Fordham, Richard Cordery, and Pearce Quigley.

In all three motion pictures, the protagonist is placed in an unexpected predicament by either the sudden presence, or lack of, abundant wealth. What they do with their lives in those stories, is comedic – though no less authentic examples of – nurture, combined with a healthy dose of nature.

And we can certainly see real-life examples of such stories in those who win phenomenal sums in lottery. Late West Virginia businessman Andrew “Jack” Whittaker, Jr. (1947-2020) is perhaps the most notable real-life example of a tragic, everything-goes-wrong-after-winning-the-lottery life story. A self-made construction business millionaire worth at least $17 million, on Christmas night 2002, then-aged 55, he purchased a winning Powerball lottery ticket which at the time was the single-largest lump-sum payout in U.S. lottery history — $315 million, which after taxes was valued at $113.4 million. In later years, he was very public about his sorrow at winning, and in a 2007 interview, stated that he wished that he’d torn up the ticket, saying,

“I’m only going to be remembered as the lunatic who won the lottery. I’m not proud of that. I wanted to be remembered as someone who helped a lot of people. I’ve had to work for everything in my life. This is the first thing that’s ever been given to me. Since I won the lottery, I think there is no control for greed. I think if you have something, there’s always someone else that wants it. I wish I’d torn that ticket up.”

But more to the point — the point being, stupidity on very public display.

In an emailed communique recently, Tennessee Banana Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn wrote the following, and shared YouTube video of her ignorant remarks which she made from the U.S. Senate floor about the House, no less.

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From an email communique from Republican Marsha Blackburn, U.S. Senator for Tennessee:

MASK MANDATES ARE ABOUT POWER

Washington elitists are willing to do whatever it takes to keep the American people under their control. The new guidance from the CDC doesn’t follow the science and puts the wellbeing of children in K-12 schools at risk. There is no valid reason to require a vaccinated person to wear a mask. Mask mandates and lockdowns are all about power.

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What she DELIBERATELY does is couch “freedom” as being able to do any damned old thing that you want, WITHOUT regard for anyone else.

That is NOT “freedom.”

That is selfishness and stupidity.

Musician/singer/song-writer Eric Johnson, in his song “Sad Legacy” from his 2005 album entitled “Bloom,” wrote in part that,

“There’s no such thing as freedom
Without some responsibility.
All this shock and surprise…
But we’ve been throwing out a mean boomerang,
And now it’s coming back at us.”

As has oft been stated, “your right to swing your fist ends where my nose begins.”

Furthermore, in her remarks, she deliberately DENIES the scientific facts.

And to be certain, despite her claims otherwise, the former President did NOT

“It was an attempted coup that happened that day.”

— Aquilino Gonell, U.S. Capitol Police Sergeant partial testimony before the January 6th Select Committee, about the 2021 domestic terrorist attacks upon our nation’s government at the U.S. Capitol.

In their testimony today, Tuesday, 27 July 2021, the U.S. Capitol police have made NO MISTAKE describing what the Trump supporters are who attacked our U.S. Congress at the Capitol Building that day —

TERRORISTS.

The only mistake that the U.S. Capitol Police made that day, is that…

Experts On Senator Ron Paul’s Debate With Dr. Anthony Fauci Over Wuhan Study

At a July 20, 2021 hearing before the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, on the nation’s COVID-19 response, Kentucky Republican Senator Rand Paul has claimed falsely and ignorantly, that the National Institutes of Health funded research through the Wuhan Institute of Virology that added “gain of function” to the virus(es) being studied.

THAT IS A FALSE STATEMENT.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, MD, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases was correct, honest, and forthright in his testimony before the Senate Committee when when he said to Senator Paul that, “Senator Paul, I have never lied before the Congress and I do not retract that statement. Senator Paul, you do not know what you’re talking about, quite frankly, and I want to say that officially. You do not know what you’re talking about.”

Below is the pertinent excerpt of the article that PROVES Dr. Fauci’s statement.

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George Mason University’s Dr. Gregory Koblentz, PhD, an expert in biodefense and dual use research, pointed out that WIV1 wasn’t an animal virus enhanced to infect humans through gain-of-function research, because it was already shown to pose a danger to humans.

“Sen. Paul is wrong when he says

AL Physician Dr. Brytney Cobia, MD: “I hold their hand and tell them ‘I’m sorry, but it’s too late.'”

“I’m admitting young healthy people to the hospital with very serious COVID infections. One of the last things they do before they’re intubated is beg me for the vaccine. I hold their hand and tell them that ‘I’m sorry, but it’s too late’.

“A few days later when I call time of death, I hug their family members and I tell them the best way to honor their loved one is to go get vaccinated and encourage everyone they know to do the same.

“They cry. And they tell me they didn’t know. They thought it was a hoax. They thought it was political. They thought because they had a certain blood type or a certain skin color they wouldn’t get as sick. They thought it was ‘just the flu.’

“So they thank me and they go get the vaccine. And I go back to my office, write their death note, and say a small prayer that this loss will save more lives.

Dr. Brytney Cobia, MD is a Hospitalist at Grandview Medical Center in Birmingham, AL.

“You kind of go into it thinking,

JD Vance Advocates Voting Discrimination

I have nothing good to say about that man scumbag.

Nothing.

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JD Vance Attacks Childless Politicians, Advocates Child Number-Based Voting

See: https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/564646-jd-vance-takes-aim-at-culture-wars-and

J.D. Vance, memoirist author of Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis, which twice became a NYT best-seller in August 2016 and January 2017, a limited-release motion picture, and was later adapted for Netflix, is an attorney/venture capitalist campaigning as a Republican for Ohio’s 2022 election for its Class III U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Rob Portman.

Mr. Vance spoke Friday, July 23, 2021 at an Intercollegiate Studies Institute-sponsored Future of American Political Economy Conference, and in large part, claimed – without any citation of evidence – that childless politicians who he said “don’t have a personal indirect stake” in improving the country, are responsible for what he called “cultural wars,” which he said are waged by “the left.”

In part, he said that:

Nashville, TN Conservative Talk Radio Host Phil Valentine Hospitalized With COVID-19

Earlier, a friend had notified me that Phil Valentine, a Nashville, TN-based WASP Republican talk radio show host, affectionately known as “Uncle Phil” by listeners, is hospitalized with an infection of COVID-19.

Oh!

The irony!

He certainly fits the typical anti-COVID-19 vaxxer profile:
• Southern
• White
• Republican
• Conservative
• Male

The last FaceBook update from him was February 5, 2020, which consisted of a link to a podcast entitled “I’m Calling Bovine Scatology,” which is a “polite” way of saying “bullshit,” and the episode posted was entitled “They Closed Down the Economy for the Spanish Flu?”

• Business Insider picked up the story and wrote in part that, “A conservative radio talk-show host who had told followers that they were “probably safer not getting” the COVID-19 vaccine if they weren’t at high risk is now hospitalized in serious condition with the coronavirus, his family said.

“Phil Valentine, who hosts “The Phil Valentine Show” on WWTN-FM in Nashville, Tennessee, contracted COVID-19 more than a week ago and “has since been hospitalized & is in very serious condition,” his family said in a statement on Thursday.”

• All Access Music Group of Malibu, California wrote on their website that, “Posts by his family on social media confirm that CUMULUS News-Talk WWTN (SUPER TALK 99.7 WTN)/NASHVILLE afternoon host PHIL VALENTINE is in the hospital “fighting for his life” after contracting COVID-19.

“VALENTINE had voiced skepticism about the COVID-19 vaccine on the air and opposed government efforts urging the public to get vaccinated, touting

Republicans Commit Suicide En Masse

“By the time you get to October, these resurgent epidemics [will] have burned through a lot of the people who are susceptible.”

“What’s going on in the country with the virus is matching our most pessimistic scenarios.”

“We might be seeing synergistic effects of people becoming less cautious in addition to the impacts of the delta variant. I think it’s a big call for caution.”

— Dr. Justin Lessler, PhD, Professor, Epidemiologist, University of North Carolina

Republicans, conspiracy theorists, and other morons who “don’t believe” that COVID-19 will affect, or even kill them, are in for a surprise.

Yes, the White man is killing himself — committing suicide.

And frankly, I could NOT care less.

The world will be better off with out them.

If ANYONE — regardless of ethnicity, skin color, or any other factor – is STUPID ENOUGH to

Conspiracy Theorist, COVID-19 Denier, Trump Supporter Dies

Another unvaccinated Trump supporter has died.

Ho, ho hum.

“NO,” it’s not Marjorie Taylor Greene – aka “MT-headed Greene” – nor is it QAnon conspiracy theorist & high school dropout Lauren Opal Roberts Boebert of Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District, and neither is it “Florida Man” Republican U.S. Representative Matt Gaetz, of CD-1.

Positive case infections are up 66% in all 50 states.

Turns out, it’s because unvaccinated Trump supporters are •DYING•.

99.5% of people who have died from COVID-19 in this month (July 2021) have been UNVACCINATED.

Those reckless individuals are endangering the lives of children, and those who, for genuine health reasons, cannot take the vaccine.

COVIDiots are being killed by a virus they don’t believe in, after refusing to take a vaccine they believe is dangerous… you can’t make this stuff up.

Linda Zuern, of Bourne, waves a Trump flag during a rally at the airport rotary in Hyannis, MA on November 7, 2019. Zuern and others gathered in support of President Donald Trump.

Oh!

The irony!

Tough shit, lady.

More like her need to die.

It’s called “NATURAL SELECTION.”

By the way… whatever happened to the formerly-Grand Old Party’s so-called “Death Panels”?

Unvaccinated Trump supporters don’t need a mask, and don’t need to get the COVID-19 vaccine because their “God will protect” them.

So, why do they need a gun?

Sad, Odd Fact: Donald Trump has killed more Americans than Osama Bin Laden.

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https://www.rawstory.com/unvaccinated-trump-supporter/

On Tuesday, the Cape Cod Times reported that

Kenneth Starr Helped Jeffrey Epstein Avoid Federal Prosecution

Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr departs his home September 10, 1998, in McLean, VA. The 445-page Starr report on the investigation into the affair between President Clinton and former White House Intern Monica Lewinsky was delivered to Congress Wednesday afternoon.
KHUE BUI/AP

Here’s your QAnon pedophile network boss.

Would you be surprised to know that it’s Kenneth Starr?

Remember: The [radical right-wing] QAnon conspiracy theory [falsely] claims that Democrats are involved in a global cannibalistic pedophile network, and that anti-Trumpers were directly involved in an attempt to destroy the 45th President’s efforts in office because he was onto their game and was rooting them out of “deep state” government bureaucracies and big business. The never-Trump movement began as intra-party opposition by prominent conservative Republicans to prevent him from being nominated, and later morphed.

And it is worth noting, that the pernicious QAnon conspiracy theory has long been discredited by numerous independent individuals, none of whom worked together, and that like many other conspiracy theories – and viruses – continually evolves, ever changing various elements of itself to potentially become as  damaging as possible.

There’s always at least one element of truth in every lie, no matter how far-fetched the lie is, for without it, the entire house of cards falls apart. That’s just how fragile conspiracy theories are. They CANNOT survive independently, and like all parasites, need hosts in order to perpetuate.

Great Saint James (top center) and Little Saint James (lower center) islands in the U.S. Virgin Islands were owned by Jeffrey Epstein.

And in this instance, pedophilia is the solitary bit of truth.

From that single germ, the conspiracy begins to grow. Assertions of the existence of international cartels or networks are built upon the fact that Epstein was known to frequently fly abroad to various nations, and between 1995 and 2013 logged at least 730 flights to and from Teterboro Airport, NJ – a small, general aviation reliever “corporate” airport, just 12 miles from midtown Manhattan, where he maintained a seven-story, including basement, 18,814 square foot residence at 9 East 71st Street, on the posh Upper East Side of Manhattan. The pilots’ flight logs of his travel to and from Teterboro Airport represent only about a third of his total air travel between 1995 and 2013, and consist of thousands of flights. He was arrested at Teterboro Airport July 6, 2019 returning from Paris.

His international travel was facilitated by ownership of several jet aircraft and helicopters, including a Cessna Citation jet, a Gulf Stream jet, and a Boeing 727 jet airliner nicknamed “Lolita Express,” along with two Caribbean islands — the 78-acre Little Saint James, and the larger adjacent 165-acre Great Saint James, in the U.S. Virgin Islands — and was known to host notable guests on the them, among whom are known to have been former U.S. President Bill Clinton, accompanied by his Secret Service agents, because flight itineraries, manifests and passenger lists detail that he flew there as Epstein’s guest at least 26 times.

Jeffrey Epstein, Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Department booking photo, 27 July 2006, following his indictment for soliciting prostitution.

Other notable personalities who Epstein hosted regularly included such high-profile individuals as Donald Trump, renown Harvard University Professor of Law, emeritus, Alan Dershowitz, the UK’s Prince

Texas Governor Greg Abbott

“You can shine your shoes and wear a suit.
“You can comb your hair and look quite cute.
“You can hide your face behind a smile.
“One thing you can’t hide,
“Is when you’re crippled inside.”

– John Lennon, “Crippled Inside,” from his 1971 album “Imagine”

Everything is BIGGER in Texas.

Including assholes.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott leaves the podium after speaking at the 11th annual National Catholic Prayer Breakfast May 7 at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in Washington. (CNS photo/Tyler Orsburn) See BREAKFAST May 7, 2015.

The news item linked below, is from Daily Wire, a so-called “conservative” reporting outlet.

Texas’ BIGGEST problem is an incompetent and crippled Governor.

It’s not just his legs that are lame.

https://www.dailywire.com/news/governor-abbott-democrats-who-fled-texas-to-stop-democracy-will-be-arrested-immediately-upon-return

But then, what can one say about a 26-year-old man who, as new Vanderbilt University Law School graduate studying for the upcoming bar exam, while out jogging with a friend on July 14, 1984 in Houston’s wealthy River Oaks neighborhood, in a freak accident, had an oak tree to fall upon him, and then, sued the landowner, and the tree service company, and won a literal tax-free insurance jackpot for life?

Abbott’s settlement included

COVID-19 Vaccination Resistance: Let Them Die — So Close Yet So Far Away

Let them die.

I’m sick and goddamn tired of their INSANE conspiratorial bullshit.

LET THEM DIE.

“Actions have consequences,” they’re frequently fond of saying, and then perversely take some sense of pride in portraying themselves as “victim” — a role which they have gleefully derided and mocked over the years as they attempt to justify their various perverse positions.

Now, they want to assume that very role.

LET THEM DIE.

They mistakenly think that they’ll be some kind of pretend political “hero” for their imaginary “lost cause.” Heroes almost always end up dead.

LET THEM DIE.

Everyone has a proverbial and practical expiration date, and just like milk and other dairy products, which can be soured relatively quickly or ruined prematurely if not properly cared for by refrigeration, so can the human body be ruined if improperly cared for by smoking, excessive consumption of food and/or beverage alcohol intake, sedentary lifestyle, lopsided dietary intake, regular consumption of nutritionally deficient foods, and other forms of improper and inadequate care, including deliberate neglect, and wanton failure to prevent malfunction and disease.

LET THEM DIE.

Physicians cannot, and will not, treat patients who refuse to cooperate with the course of treatment.

LET THEM DIE.

Engrave upon their headstones “s/he wanted, and chose to die from a preventable disease.”

LET THEM DIE.

LET THEM DIE.

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In The Last Mile Of Our Battle Against COVID, The Enemy Is Us

Time may have come for more aggressive tactics on vaccinations.

In a scene from the movie “The Matrix,” revered by conspiracy theorists, the hero is offered a choice between the blue pill of comforting illusions and the red pill that offers nothing more than the truth.

The correct answer, of course, is the red pill that reveals the hidden forces that control the world.

These days, Americans are being offered an even more fateful binary choice.

Do you maintain the comforting illusion that

Research: Psilocybin Improves Depression

Better living through chemistry.

Because corrupt Republican President Richard Nixon’s 50-year lost cause, failed social experiment of the “War on Drugs” and Nancy Reagan’s “just say no” have never, and will never, work, nor ever benefited anyone who needed help — only those who perpetuated the war.

And, because no one — NO ONE — has ever said “when I grow up, I want to become an addict,” nor waked up one day and said, “gee… I think I want to become an addict.”

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In September 2018, Johns Hopkins researchers suggested that psilocybin should be re-categorized from a schedule I drug — one with no known medical potential — to a schedule IV drug (the lowest classification) such as with prescription sleep aids, but with somewhat tighter control, and summarized their analysis in the October print issue of Neuropharmacology, a peer-review professional journal.

Dr. Matthew W. Johnson, Ph.D., Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Johns Hopkins is one of the world’s leading researchers, and most published scientists on the effects of psychedelics on humans, and has conducted original and innovative research in the behavioral economics of drug use, addiction, and risk behavior. Dr. Johnson earned his Ph.D. in experimental psychology at the University of Vermont in 2004.

Dr. Johson spoke with JHU reporters about the research, and said, “We want to initiate the conversation now as to how to classify psilocybin to facilitate its path to the clinic and minimize logistical hurdles in the future. We expect these final clearance trials to take place in the next five years or so. We should be clear that psilocybin is not without risks of harm, which are greater in recreational than medical settings, but relatively speaking, looking at other drugs both legal and illegal, it comes off as being the least harmful in different surveys and across different countries. We believe that the conditions should be tightly controlled and that when taken for a clinical reason, it should be administered in a health care setting, monitored by a person trained for that situation.”

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One Dose Of Psilocybin Improved Neural Connections Lost In Depression, Study Says

By Joseph Guzman, July 6, 2021

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The psychedelic psilocybin mushroom has shown promise in treating depression, and a number of clinical trials into the fungus’s therapeutic effects have been conducted in recent years.

But now, a Yale University study published in the peer reviewed professional journal Neuron July 5, 2021, has shed light on how the compound psilocybin —the active ingredient found in so-called “magic mushrooms” — may produce antidepressant effects.

Researchers administered a single dose of psilocybin to mice and used a laser-scanning microscope to visualize dendritic spines in the rodents’ brains in high resolution. Dendritic spines are small protrusions found on nerve cells that play a key role in transmitting information between neurons. Previous laboratory experiments demonstrated promise that psilocybin, and the anesthetic ketamine, could decrease depression.

Stress and depression degrade and reduce the number of neuronal connections.

Within 24 hours of the single psychedelic dose, researchers observed an immediate and lasting increase in

Open Letter To White Republican Men

There is hope only for the living. As they say, “It’s better to be a live dog than a dead lion!”
— Ecclesiastes 9:4 (NLT)

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Dear White Republican men,

 

Whatever you do, DO NOT EVER — as in NEVER, EVER — GET VACCINATED AGAINST COVID-19.

And for goodness sake, REFUSE to wear a mask EVERYWHERE you go.

Your resulting infection with, and death from, COVID-19’s delta variant will leave society better off — MUCH, MUCH BETTER.

We don’t

Smart Phones and Dumb People

Recently, I got to wondering about why some folks haven’t fully embraced the COVID-19 vaccines available in the United States. “Fully embraced” as in a significant majority of folks who have received it nationwide. That includes the naysayers, most folks in the South, certain Republicans, and some others… including — believe it, or else — some healthcare professionals. Anti-vaxxers are excluded, of course, because they’re against every vaccine. Idiots.

Would that there were one for stupidity. It should be mandatory at birth, and for everyone. Maybe if it were called a “smart pill,” that’d help. We have “smart phones,” and plenty of dumb people. It just isn’t right.

But I digress.

Some folks have said that they don’t “trust” the vaccines, for one reason, or another. So far, no one’s been abducted by aliens after receiving a COVID-19 vaccine, and that I’m aware, no one’s hair has tried to call Bill Gates after they received a COVID-19 vaccine. But Congress and the Department of Defense have released videos of what we once called “UFOs” – Unidentified Flying Objects. Now they’re called UAPs — Unidentified Aerial Phenomena. But I still like UFO. Still, no one knows what they are. Hence, the name. And quite fortunately, there’ve been no reports of folks growing tails and swinging from trees afterward, either. But doubtless, some have eaten bananas. Point for lower primates: 15 – love.

So we’ve moved from the known (stupid folks who don’t get vaccinated), to the unknown (mysterious video imagery of UFOs making some very impressive maneuvers).

But what is it that we don’t know? And how do we know what we know? As the late Donald Rumsfeld, then Secretary of Defense once said

Conservative Oklahoma Shows States How To Run Medical Marijuana Program

Oklahoma State Representative Scott Fetgatter (R-16)

“Anybody who wants to use marijuana is already using marijuana.
You’re not stopping that.
The goal is to eliminate the black market.”

– Oklahoma State Representative Scott Fetgatter (R-16)

Legislators there (in OK) understand at least one thing: A truly “free market” is regulated at a minimum. Of course, some regulation is necessary, and as I’ve often said, regulation makes things operate more effectively and efficiently, much like a fine-tuned automobile engine, or any sports competition. But there is a point of diminishing returns at which increased effort will not increase output.

Another benefit of minimal regulation, is reduced criminal activity.

Many have made the argument that, in a manner similar to America’s Prohibition Era, in which organized crime was born, Nixon’s 50-year failed social experiment known as the “War on Drugs” has created global narcotrafficking cartels.

And indeed, it may, or may not, surprise you know that the Drug Enforcement Administration has offices and agents worldwide. And yet, for all that effort, and money spent, drug abuse has flourished, rather than diminished, and our nation’s prisons, and jails have proliferated populations, which are much more than a mere tax burden upon society, but rob the market economy of labor, and steal husbands and fathers from families. And then, once they’ve fully “paid their debt to society,” they’re further penalized – in essence, given a life sentence – through the legally enforced social stigma of possessing an arrest record, or having served time. Just think about it: When was the last time you saw, heard, or read, of a job advertisement that specifically stated “We hire ex-cons,” or “Former felons encouraged to apply”? Probably never. So much for so-called “corrections programs,” eh?

And then, there’s this prima facie fact as well, that no one in their right mind wakes up one day and says to themselves, “Gee… I think I want to become an addict.” No one.

We human beings are complex creatures, and it is impossible to point directly to one thing, and one thing only as the cause of addiction. Suffice it to say, that there are many factors, some of which include physical (including sexual) and/or emotional abuse, or other trials and tribulations of life. Some, as well, have been victimized by poor medical care, such as over-prescribing of narcotics by reckless, lackadaisical, or greedy physicians, some of whom have operated “pill mills,” indiscriminately dispensing huge volumes of narcotics for profit.

But, even the DEA (a Federal law enforcement agency), and reputable science and medical researchers have acknowledged that “No deaths from overdose of marijuana have been reported.” The same cannot be said of beverage alcohol. It’s literally impossible to die from over-consumption of cannabis, precisely because, unlike opioids, the psychoactive ingredient – THC – does not affect the brain stem (because there are no receptors there for it to attach to), which is where the body’s respiratory drive center is located. That is a finding of science made in 2020. Now, imagine this: Science would never have advanced by learning that seemingly minor fact if “Just say NO!” was effective (and it is not).

If you’d like to know more about cannabis science, I refer you to this science and fact-based page:
Questions and Answers about Cannabis

And, without further ado, I present to you this eye-opening article which genuinely warrants further consideration, and additional discussion.

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Why Red State Oklahoma Is Home To A Booming Medical Marijuana Market

Published June 28, 2021 
By John Schroyer

People outside the cannabis industry might be surprised to learn that the most liberal medical marijuana market in the country isn’t California anymore. Nor is it Colorado, Oregon or another left-leaning blue state.

It’s politically conservative Oklahoma.

The red state has pulled a U-turn on marijuana policy since 2014, when the state’s attorney general – along with his then-counterpart in Nebraska – filed a federal lawsuit to overturn neighboring Colorado’s new recreational marijuana program.
But the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the case.

Fast-forward to June 2018, when Oklahoma voters soundly approved one of the loosest medical marijuana programs in the country.

Two months later, Oklahoma regulators began accepting applications for MMJ business licenses.

Sales began that December, by which point the state already had nearly 900 dispensaries, and it’s been pushing the envelope since then when it comes to MMJ policy.

Today, business is booming.

Oklahoma has more than 2,000 dispensaries – the most in the nation. And the 2021 MJBizFactbook projects

COVID-19 Update: More Need To Die

Update Sunday, 04 July 2021: Martha Raddatz, co-host of ABC’s “This Week” news program, interviewed Democrat-turned-Republican West Virginia Governor Jim Justice about his state’s low vaccination compliance rate which aired today. The following dialogue occurred:

Raddatz: “Do you really think those people who aren’t vaccinated — who as you said may be more conservative, may not want anybody in their business — are really ever going to get vaccinated? What could actually put them over the edge to want it at this point?”

Justice: “Well, Martha, I hate to say this, is what would put them over the edge, is an awful lot of people die. The only way that’s going to happen is a catastrophe that none of us want.”

Raddatz: “Let’s go back to who’s not getting vaccinated. The statistics will show it’s poverty, race and you just look at the map — it’s a lot of red states.”

Justice: “Well, I mean, there’s some truth to that and everything. Because, you know, the red states probably have a lot of people that, you know, are very, very conservative in their thinking. And they think, ‘Well, I don’t have to do that.’ But they’re not thinking right.

“When it really boils right down to it, they’re in a lottery to themselves. We have a lottery, you know, that basically says, ‘If you’re vaccinated, we’re going to give you stuff.’ Well you’ve got another lottery going on, and it’s the death lottery.”

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The “Angel of Death” has much more work to do
—
with children, teens, and adults.

With at least 33,677,411 confirmed cases – the most in all the world – at least 605,010 known U.S. deaths – again, the most in all the world – untold numbers of hospitalizations, and the perilously close collapse of the U.S. healthcare system, human suffering from the novel Coronavirus Disease-2019 (SARS-CoV-2) has not nearly reached its apex in the United States.

MORE people – particularly, and especially children – need to suffer and die.

It’s difficult to feel any scintilla of sorrow, or even scant sympathy for stupid people wantonly negligent and abusive parents who willingly expose their children and themselves to diseases and other preventable dangers.

That big ol’ knot at the end of your neck is supposed to be used for something else other than a hat rack. And for those who claim faith, especially the so-called “Evangelical” community, you dishonor your Maker when you refuse to exercise any brainpower – which is a gift to you, to Creation, and all of humanity, even though you don’t act like it, and wastefully squander it.

And, your fatalistic fait accompli that your “God will provide,” or surreptitious claims that infection and/or resultant death “is God’s will” is not merely baneful, pernicious, and malignant, it is wholly, fully, and entirely contrary to good and common sense, and orthodox theology.

In other words, you’re AFU – All Fucked Up. Soon enough, you’ll be FUBAR’d – Fucked Up Beyond All Recognition.

So-called “American exceptionalism” isn’t so “exceptional” – especially among Republicans, Trump voters, and other such idiots morons.

So, please…whatever you ilk decide to do, PLEASE, DO NOT GET VACCINATED – not yourself, not your children, and BY ALL MEANS, NOT just against COVID-19, but against ANY disease.

“Actions have consequences,” I believe is the saying.

Yet so do inactions.

And “tough love” to you.

Thoughts and prayers…

Thoughts and prayers.

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Nearly 100 Teens & Adults COVID-19 Positive At Illinois Church Summer Camp

Crossing Camp, a Christian summer camp operated for children and teens in west central Illinois near Rushville, in rural Schuyler County, has been forced to close prematurely this year following a COVID-19 “outbreak” which has so far infected very nearly 100 children, teens, and adults across 3 states.

Crossing Camp is owned and operated by an independent Protestant, Evangelical multi-campus church called “The Crossing” which main campus is in Quincy, IL, and has attendance of approximately 10,000 members weekly on several campuses in Illinois, Missouri and Iowa.

The entire camp, their staff, and all guests are now considered “super spreaders” after at least 50 COVID-19 cases were first confirmed June 23 by Pike County Public Health officials with the Health Department after camp members’ traveled to a nearby conference, which became the super spreader event.

The day prior, Tuesday, June 22, 2021, the Schuyler County Health Department notified the public about a super spreader exposure event to the COVID-19 virus at the camp which occurred from June 13 through June 17.

Two days later, on June 24, the Adams County Health Department was alerted to a COVID-19 super spreader exposure event in Adams County where a conference sponsored by The Crossing church was held on June 18th and 19th. It was the second such public health warning directly associated with The Crossing church.

USA Today was among the first to report the massive infection that spread among children and has left one teen hospitalized so far, news which has since “gone viral” and been reported by numerous news outlets.

The Schuyler County Health Department told CNN that their Public Health officials had worked with camp staffers “to provide guidance and mitigate the situation.”

The Illinois Department of Health (IDPH) first found that 85 attendees and volunteers at Crossing Camp tested positive for COVID-19, and that only a “handful” of campers and volunteers had received any vaccine against the disease. Since the first report, the number of infected people has since increased to 96, and public health officials expect an untold number more.

State Public Health records indicate that Indiana’s Schuyler and Adams counties, where Crossing Camp and The Crossing conference are located, only have a 40% COVID-19 vaccination rate, while statewide in Illinois, only 46.1% of the population is fully vaccinated.

IDPH Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike, MD, issued a Public Health statement addressing the spread of Coronavirus Disease among children and teens which stated in part that,

Cheating On Taxes, Bumming A Ride, And Economic Growth

Renown U.S. economist John Kenneth Galbraith (1908-2006) identified an economic theory – the “horse and sparrow” – which he described thusly:

“If you feed the horse enough oats,
some will pass through to the road for the sparrows.”

Today, we call that “trickle down” economics – the theory popularized and promoted by POTUS Ronald Reagan. Never mind that the word “trickle down” just sounds so very wrong – the picture of urine being foremost – but the renown London School of Economics has recently put the kibosh on that idea, after studying history of 38 nations over 50 years which did the same thing – cut taxes on the wealthy in the hopes that it would provide economic stimulus of various and sundry types.

It did not.

For anyone who’s been paying even the slightest amount of attention, they would know that the world’s wealthiest man – Jeff Bezos – paid practically no income taxes on his vast personal fortune, neither did his corporation, Amazon. He was by no means the only one who shirked their patriotic duty by cheating the government, there were many more – billionaire pal Elon Musk is among them.

Dr. John Kenneth Galbraith, PhD, was a noted economist and author, the Paul M. Warburg Professor of Economics, Emeritus, at Harvard University, former Ambassador to India, and former Presidential Advisor. Internationally renown for development of Keynesian and post-Keynesian economics, he was equally well-known for his wit and candor, evidenced in his prolific writings, which included over 30 books. His last book was a 1999 memoir “Name-Dropping,” in which he wrote about the historical individuals whom he’d known in his long, colorful life as an economist, professor, ambassador, and lifelong liberal.
Harvard University News Office image handout

As well, PayPal founder Peter Thiel, another billionaire, took unfair and unjust advantage of a Roth IRA – a savings vehicle created and designed to benefit the working families of America – and using tricks and maneuvers not available to the average person, turned a retirement account worth under $2000 in 1999, into a $5 billion tax-free windfall by the end of 2019. That same year, Forbes estimated his net worth at $2.3 billion – less than half of his Roth IRA’s value.

In stark contrast, the average Roth IRA was valued at $39,108 at the end of 2018.

So, we have one perspective, but let’s put things in even more clear focus, shall we?

How much is $5 billion?

If every single one of the 2.3 million people in Houston, Texas were to deposit $2,000 into a bank today, the total of all their accounts would still not equal what Peter Thiel has in his Roth IRA.

Of course, since a Roth IRA is a retirement income savings vehicle, taxation of deposited funds is not just significantly deferred until after the 60th birthday of the depositor, it is 100% TAX FREE FOREVER. So in essence, he cheated the system.

While you, I, and other patriotic Americans are dutifully paying our income taxes like the loyal citizens we are – paying for all of our nation’s governmental services, military service members salaries, defense budget, and more – most all wealthy Americans are very happy to continue shirking their responsibilities to pay their fair share, and are even more happy that you, I, and every other red-blooded patriotic American are picking up the tab for them.

This article details exactly how PayPal billionaire Peter Thiel truly cheated a system which was NOT designed for wealthy individuals.
https://www.propublica.org/article/lord-of-the-roths-how-tech-mogul-peter-thiel-turned-a-retirement-account-for-the-middle-class-into-a-5-billion-dollar-tax-free-piggy-bank

This article cites prospective Congressional action which will likely be taken following publication, and discovery of the abuses of the Roth IRA by Peter Thiel, and other ultra-wealthy individuals.
The Ultrawealthy Have Hijacked Roth IRAs. The Senate Finance Chair Is Eyeing a Crackdown.
https://www.propublica.org/article/the-ultrawealthy-have-hijacked-roth-iras-the-senate-finance-chair-is-eyeing-a-crackdown

Now, as for the Horse And Sparrow Theory, a research paper by the London School of Economics found that, contrary to the assertions of those who promoted them, tax cuts upon the wealthy DO NOT improve the economy in any way whatsoever.

The study examined