"The Global Consciousness Project, also known as the EGG Project, is an international multidisciplinary collaboration of scientists, engineers, artists and others continuously collecting data from a global network of physical random number generators located in 65 host sites worldwide. The archive contains over 10 years of random data in parallel sequences of synchronized 200-bit trials every second."
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Wednesday, May 10, 2023
I LOATHE ALL CAPS.
ALWAYS HAVE.
ALL CAPS emerged in the teletype era, when ONLY CAPITAL LETTERS WERE ON THE MACHINES, which emerged in the early-to-mid 1800s, i.e., c.1835-1850.
That is now approaching 200 years ago — 188, to be exact. They’re a close relative to Morse code. It’s a modern-day dinosaur.
I’ve seen a few teletype machines. They’re ogres of monstrosity. My now-late father used ‘em in the Navy during the Korean War. I recollect seeing one being used in a small hometown FM radio station that broadcast in monoaural using a block format.
Yeah… THAT OLD.
By the way, the term “teletype” used to describe a teleprinter, first came from the Teletype Corporation in 1928, which trademarked the term, and as with xerography, now called photocopying, early copiers were Xerox brand, and people “xeroxed” papers, instead of making printed copies. Both terms, teletype, and xerox, became ubiquitously associated with both firm’s products, and in turn, became widely used generic descriptors.
The first station where I worked had one collecting dust in an unused corner near the rear entrance by the tube transmitter. Fortunately, the station’s owner had wisely transitioned to a dot-matrix printer for the AP news copy, using tractor-fed, acordion-folded paper.
The 2nd station where I worked used satellite dishes, and computers.
Digitization through the computer and Internet has changed EVERYTHING. LITERALLY, EVERY THING — including broadcast. On the whole, in my considered opinion, it’s been a blessing, but every rose has its thorn, as the saying goes (unless you buy ‘em from a florist, but then they have no fragrance, either), and that thorn in many cases is human behavior, which historically has almost always been problematic, somebodies wanting to get over on (take unfair advantage of) others, resistance to change, etc.
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Friday, May 5, 2023
Over the years, I’ve met, known, and been friends with several vegetarians in my lifetime, and quite frankly, all of them have been very pleasant people, kind, generous, giving, well-mannered, studious, professionals, and in most cases, religious, specifically, Seventh Day Adventist, a Christian sect that practices the Jewish custom of meeting on Saturdays (the Sabbath) for corporate worship, and resting from their labors.
They weren’t at all radicalized or “high pressure” animal rights activists, mean greenies, or other off-the-wall types — just plain ol’ nice, family, folk.
And as a tenet of their faith, they are vegetarian — some lacto-ovo, some pescatarian, some vegan. And you know you’ve made friends with them when they invite you to share a meal with them — that’s true of any people, religious, or not — and I have always considered it great honor to share a meal with them. One such time was Thanksgiving several years ago, when I was Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Saturday, April 29, 2023
Texas Sheriff on small town massacre:
Dead Mothers “were actually trying to take care of the babies, and keep them babies alive.”
It wasn’t on a dark desert highway, there was no cool wind in anyone’s hair, and there was no sweet smell of colitas rising up through the air. Instead, it was after 11:30 at night, in a quaint, middle-class Texas neighborhood in a small, quiet town under 7500, and the stench of burnt gunpowder, blood, and death permeated the house.
Law enforcement officials remove bodies from a house in Cleveland, TX, the scene of grisly mass murder where 5 people were shot Friday night, April 28, 2023, in San Jacinto County.
By the time San Jacinto County Texas Sheriff Greg Capers was called by a frantic resident to the 1500-1800 square foot house at 171 Walter Drive, in a “regular country neighborhood” ironically named Trails End Subdivision, 5 people — 3 women, 1 man, and an 8-year-old boy — had been slaughtered in their residence by a next-door neighbor, all shot in the head, execution style.
This is 8-year-old Daniel Enrique Laso and his mother Sonia Argentina Guzman, age 25, who were both shot and killed execution-style by Francisco Oropesa in Cleveland, Texas, late Friday night, April 28, 2023, in San Jacinto County.
Deceased are: Sonia Argentina Guzman, 25; Diana Velazquez Alvarado, 21; Julisa Molina Rivera, 31; Jose Jonathan Casarez, 18; and Daniel Enrique Laso, 8.
The 5 sole survivors included 3 children.
Though it had been a fairly common occurrence for many men in the neighborhood to party and whoop it up with guns while drunk on the weekends, 38-year-old Francisco Oropeza was celebrating early, and neighbors, weary of hearing gunshots late into the night, had complained to Francisco that their family had a baby trying to sleep.
Sheriff Capers said it all started out whenvictimized family members walked up to the fence and asked Francisco to stop shooting in his front yard, followed by a call to 911 about harassment just after 11:30PM on Friday night. “Deputies have come over and Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Sunday, April 23, 2023
What do Vanna White, and Pat Sajak of the television gameshow Wheel of Fortune, a gay British Scientist, an American science educator-turned author/publisher, and World War II have in common?
You’re about to find out.
HEADLINE:
The U.S. has evacuated diplomats in Sudan amid fierce fighting : NPR
Gripe the First 1.):
WTF?!? Evacuate 70 diplomats FIRST, and totally screw the 16,000 Americans resident in the nation because it’s “too dangerous,” and merely tell them to “shelter in place”? GODDAMN! THAT IS NOT HOW WE AMERICANS DO THINGS! Whose cockamamie, harebrained off-kilter idea was THAT? Ambassador to Sudan John Godfrey? Secretary of State Anthony Blinken? Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III? U.S. Army General Mark A. Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff? POTUS BIDEN? EXACTLY WHO gave the go ahead for such a cowardly act?
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Friday, April 7, 2023
Becky Pepper-Jackson has presented as a girl since fourth grade. The 12-year-old is at the center of a legal dispute that is at the Supreme Court. Credit: ACLU of West Virginia
Hey, I’m ALL FOR transgender & LGBTQIA folks, indeed, for ALL people — I don’t give a shit about how anybody gets freaky with it, how they present themselves to be, whether they stand, or sit, to pee, or any such nonsense. That’s their axe to grind, not mine… live and let live, you know. If Warren Buffett wants to wear a floral kimono, muumuu, or hot pink mini-skirt, more power to him.
BUT, I DO have a suggestion which I think is meritorious, and most WORTHY of consideration when the topic of gender — NOT SEX — enters the picture when determining whether Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Thursday, April 6, 2023
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, who has been on the bench of the nation’s highest court since 1991, has been found, for the past 20 years, to have been receiving gifts worth several millions of dollars from a Texas real estate billionarie, and has failed to report any of them, as required by law.
THIS is an item which, I think, is BIGGER news than the troubles the former, 45th President, finds himself mired in, all of which are messes of his own making. We’ll see how those cakes cook up.
However, with this matter — which I think is a far more serious one for the integrity of our republic — which is the impartiality of equal justice under law — I smell an imminent impeachment of a SCOTUS Justice on the horizon, perhaps even calls to vacate orders in which his vote was a deciding factor. The ties and the links are present which more than lend themselves to the idea that his rulings demonstrated partiality in favor of certain parties with business before the court.
The quick-n-easy answer is “most likely not,” but a more detailed response, which increases ones understanding of the matter, follows. Published 04/05/23 at 8:00 AM ET, author Steven Lubet — the Williams Memorial Professor Emeritus at the Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law and coauthor of “Judicial Conduct and Ethics” (5th edition) and many other books — quoted another legal authority on the matter of Justice Thomas’ deliberate failure to report gifts for 20 years, and wrote in part that when asked to whom the Judicial Conference Committee on Financial Disclosures applies, replied by writing that, “the “Ethics in Government Act is the ultimate source of these reporting requirements,” and that it applies to “all judicial officers” including “the Chief Justice of the United States” [and] the Associate Justices of the Supreme Court.””
However, Chief Justice John Roberts has consistently rejected that idea, i.e., the law, including the authority of the Judicial Conference, by writing in his 2011 Year-End Report on the Federal Judiciary that its “committees have no mandate to prescribe rules or standards” for the Supreme Court. In other words, he wrote that he, and other Supreme Court Justices are above the law, that the law does NOT apply to them.
There are numerous instances in which SCOTUS Justices have flouted the law with regard to gifts, and Justice Clarence Thomas is by no means the only one, though he may be the most egregious example, who also, for a period of 6 consecutive years failed to list his wife “Ginny,” Virginia’s employment on his disclosure forms, and explained it away by claiming that it was “inadvertently omitted due to a misunderstanding of the filing instructions.” For a Supreme Court Justice, a individual well-versed in numerous intricacies of law, to make such a claim is so incredulous, that it borders on preposterous absurdity.
During his last 10 years on the SCOTUS, late Justice Antonin Scalia took over 250 subsidized trips, some of which were related to speeches he made, while others were vacations, and included frequent private jet travel, numerous luxury resorts and lodges stays, many of which he exempted from disclosure under previous, less explicit disclosure and reporting rules. The former Justice Stephen Breyer was similarly a recipient of such largess, and disclosed 185 subsidized trips during the same time period — although both figures may be significantly under-reported.
This problem is directly related to the impartiality that ALL judges, again, as impartial arbiters, are supposed to have, because not only is the lackadaisical attitude toward money and gifts from wealthy donors demonstrative of corruption, so too is the lack of any standard for recusal. The Supreme Court is, quite literally, another example of “the fox watching the hen house,” i.e., that they make up their own rules as they go, all in the name of either autonomy, or self-governance, and essentially think themselves exempt from the law, by refusing to submit to the law’s authority.
There are other observers of the SCOTUS who are also hawks, or watchdogs, on the subject of ethics and accountability on the nation’s highest court, among them, Fix the Court, a website that advocates for reforms to be made to the court to improve integrity and demonstrate unquestionable impartiality, and has a page linking to each Justice’s financial disclosures, for several years back. Sadly, it is painfully obvious, and exceedingly clear that the SCOTUS will not fix their own problems, so external measures must be taken, i.e., laws must be enacted mandating full financial disclosure and compliance, and establishing recusal standards.
This matter, however, is a subset of an even greater national problem, from which both political parties suffer, and that matter is best analogized by acknowledging that football teams don’t get to write their own game play rules, no matter which team is national champion, or not. The Alabama Crimson Tide has not, by virtue of their numerous National Championships, been able to change game rules to suit them, nor has any NFL team ever been able to do so, regardless of how many Super Bowl wins they’ve had, or which team is current champion. So, when politicians select their voters by gerrymandering, they do so in order to give themselves an unfair advantage, and it’s not merely “politics,” per se, it is a matter of corruption, by pretending to be impartial, or just, but instead are openly partisan and denying people of someone who would represent their interests. Politics and law are indeed about being just and impartial, every bit as much as any court should be, including the Supreme Court. Voters are supposed to elect their politicians, not politicians select their voters.
To further aid a direct, grass-roots process, there should be recall and direct petition laws which empower voters to recall politicians who are not representing their constituents’ wishes, as well as establishing a viable legal pathway for citizens to introduce legislation independently of the legislature, when legislators refuse to heed their constituents’ wishes to introduce legislation.
Money in politics is another obviously corrupting influence and power, and the best way to manage it, is to put all donors’ money into one common pot for each office, and divvy it up equally among the candidates, thereby enabling all candidates to campaign on their ability to persuade voters of their ideas, and the value of their candidacy, instead of seeming to purchase the office by the amount of money raised. Such a law which would enable “common pool contributions” AND be equally divided among the candidates for a particular office, would also satisfy the so-called “money is free speech” Supreme Court ruling, and conceivably, could allow more money to be put into the electoral PROCESS, NOT the candidate, i.e., contribution limits could be increased. Conceivably also, because such donations to the PROCESS would be impartial in effect, they could perhaps also be made fully tax deductible.
Ranked Choice Voting would further empower citizen voters to select among numerous candidates for any office, would immediately end costly primary elections paid for by the state, and perhaps even — in conjunction with “common pool contributions” — contribute to a broadening of political parties representing the peoples’ interests, instead of the “either/or” 2-party system which has dominated for so long. Voters should not be forced to choose from a bad or worse candidate.
And when a citizen registers to vote, that individual should immediately, i.e., on-the-spot, be issued a photographic Voter ID. By so doing, it would put to rest the ridiculously asinine and outrageously false claims made primarily by one political party which asserts that voter fraud is rampant. As well, each voter would be issued a number, much like a driver license number, or U.S. passport number, which would then be required to be affixed to, or included with, any absentee, or mail-in ballot, and so done to further reduce any possibility of voter fraud. It would also eliminate the discrimination inherent with, and absurdity of, so-called “exact match” signature laws, because signatures do change over time. As well, by requiring the government to issue a photographic Voter ID -and- a corresponding number, mail-in balloting could be expanded, relatively risk-free, and trouble-free.
Election Day should be made a National Holiday, and employees should get paid for that time off, and Early In-Person Voting should be at least two weeks duration.
To know of SCOTUS Justice Thomas’ corruption is an EXCEEDINGLY stronger, wretch-inducing effluvium — worse even, than the infected, rotting stench of hypocrisy cooking.
Clarence Thomas Secretly Accepted Luxury Trips From GOP Donor
— ProPublica
by Joshua Kaplan, Justin Elliott and Alex Mierjeski
ProPublica.org
ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power.
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Official Supreme Court group photo — Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, October 2022
Texas billionaire, GOP super-donor, Harlan Crow in October 201
In late June 2019, right after the U.S. Supreme Court released its final opinion of the term, Justice Clarence Thomas boarded a large private jet headed to Indonesia. He and his wife were going on vacation: nine days of island-hopping in a volcanic archipelago on a superyacht staffed by a coterie of attendants and a private chef.
Clarence Thomas (tan vest & camera) and his wife, Ginni (in red), front left, with Harlan Crow, back right, and others in Flores, Indonesia, in July 2019. Credit: via Instagram
If Thomas had chartered the plane and the 162-foot yacht himself, the total cost of the trip could have exceeded $500,000. Fortunately for him, that wasn’t necessary: He was on vacation with real estate magnate and Republican megadonor Harlan Crow, who owned the jet — and the yacht, too.
For more than two decades, Thomas has accepted luxury trips virtually every year from the Dallas businessman without disclosing them, documents and interviews show. A public servant who has a salary of $285,000, he has vacationed on Crow’s superyacht around the globe. He flies on Crow’s Bombardier Global 5000 jet. He has gone with Crow to the Bohemian Grove, the exclusive California all-male retreat, and to Crow’s sprawling ranch in East Texas. And Thomas typically spends about a week every summer at Crow’s private resort in the Adirondacks.
The extent and frequency of Crow’s apparent gifts to Thomas have no known precedent in the modern history of the U.S. Supreme Court.
These trips appeared nowhere on Thomas’ financial disclosures. His failure to report the flights Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Monday, April 3, 2023
Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin & wife Louise Linton hold sheets of money at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing in Washington, D.C., Wednesday, November 14, 2017 show first run of bills featuring his signature.
First healthcare, eliminate personal privacy rights, women’s healthcare, then come children, and oil.
What Next for Oil After Surprise OPEC+ Cuts? Try $100 a Barrel.
• Cartel removes more than 1 million barrels a day from market
• Analysts say the decline in oil inventories will accelerate
Before the announcement, the cartel’s own numbers suggested the group would need to pump more oil, not less, in the second half. With the International Energy Agency expecting a demand surge later this year, there’s now renewed risk of global inflation.
————— US Gasoline Prices Could Hit $4 a Gallon Thanks to Surprise OPEC+ Oil Cut
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Saudi Arabia and other major oil producers on Sunday announced surprise cuts totaling up to 1.15 million barrels per day from May until the end of the year, a move that could raise prices worldwide.
Higher oil prices would help fill Russian President Vladimir Putin’s coffers as his country wages war on Ukraine and force Americans and others to pay even more at the pump amid worldwide inflation.
It was also likely to further strain ties with the United States, which has called on Saudi Arabia and other allies to increase production as it tries to bring prices down and squeeze Russia’s finances.
———————
Saudi Arabia has NEVER been America’s ally or friend, and does NOT give a shit about us, what we think, need, or want.
Their OPEC oil cartel is THE SINGLE GREATEST REASON WHY America should become 100% energy independent.
American BIG OIL companies have long been in cahoots with the Saudis and other OPEC member nations, contrary to American national security interests, and the EXCLU$IVE rea$on why, is avarice, “greed gone wild,” as evidenced by rapacious Wall$treet corporate profits.
Beginning in earnest with Reagan & his administration, when he removed solar panels from atop the White House (a powerful, though largely symbolic move), Republicans have eschewed research & development of hydrogen fuel cells as abundant, clean, powerful, renewable energy sources for Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Friday, March 31, 2023
Statistically, there are two extremes on the bell curve (the left and the right), and they both resemble each other. In fact, the bell curve itself — so named because its outline shape resembles a bell — is a mirror image of itself. Both halves are identical.
At the far end on either side, there’s very few of the thing being measured, or counted.
But, up in the middle, is where most everything is located.
It’s the same way with politics.
And guns.
Some say ban them all — but up in the middle is where consensus is found — while others say do nothing.
The Volunteer State and the nation are grieving over the deaths of three 9-year old children, and 3 adults gunned down at The Covenant School, a private Christian elementary school in Nashville’s Green Hills district. The world has taken notice not only the victims’ deaths, but of the heroic actions of Nashville’s Metro Police Department, whose members were on scene and resolved the problem in 15 minutes. Such quick action undoubtedly saved lives. They are to be commended beyond measure, and deservedly should be awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, our nation’s highest civilian honor, perhaps even the Congressional Gold Medal.
Even the Babylon Bee, an online satire magazine stepped up to the fore and acknowledged MPD’s bravery, by Tweeting an article about it: “Putin Immediately Surrenders After U.S. Airdrops Nashville Police Officers Into Battlefield.”
Putin Immediately Surrenders After U.S. Airdrops Nashville Police Officers Into Battlefield https://t.co/ZUb9rf0EaW
Two former Tennessee Governors — Phil Bredesen, a Democrat, and Bill Haslam, a Republican, the 48th, and 49th Governor, respectively, who are friends — co-authored an Op-Ed published March 31 in The Tennessean, on the necessity of state, and Federal, lawmakers to collaborate to help bring about an end to the preventable tragedies of school shootings.
Both men share several similarities — both men were Mayor of a major Tennessee city, Bredesen of Nashville, Haslam of Knoxville, both men were re-elected as governor, both men are entrepreneurs, and very wealthy — and for the past year, they have both co-hosted a podcast at the Howard H. Baker, Jr. Center for Public Policy at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Howard Baker (1925-2014) was a long-time Republican U.S. Senator from Tennessee (1967-1985), who was renown for his pithy axiom, “Always remember that the other fellow might be right.”
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Thursday, March 30, 2023
Senate Chaplain: Senators suffer “from the paralysis of analysis that waits for the miraculous.”
More True Words Are Rarely Spoken
United States Senate Chaplain Barry C. Black, official photo On June 27, 2003, Rear Admiral Barry C. Black (Ret.) was elected the 62nd Chaplain of the United States Senate. He began working in the Senate on July 7, 2003. Prior to coming to Capitol Hill, Chaplain Black served in the U.S. Navy for over twenty-seven years, ending his distinguished career as the Chief of Navy Chaplains. The Senate elected its first chaplain in 1789.
“Eternal God, we stand in awe of You.
“LORD, when babies die at a church school, it is time for us to move beyond ‘thoughts and prayers.’
“Remind our lawmakers of the words of the British statesman Edmund Burke: All that is necessary for evil to triumph, is for good people to do nothing.
“LORD, deliver our Senators from the paralysis of analysis that waits for the miraculous.
“Use them to battle the demonic forces that seek to engulf us.
“We pray in Your powerful name.
“Amen.”
— Opening prayer, United States Senate, Tuesday, 28 March 2023
By now, you’ve heard the sad, bad new of the mass shooting at a private religious elementary school in Nashville, Tennessee in which 6 individuals were killed — 3 – 9 year old children, and 3 adults.
Nashville Metro Police Department is to be HIGHLY COMMENDED for their heroism, and rapid response — only 15 minutes after the first call came in, the shooter was killed on site.
In fact, the whole world now knows how brave Nashville’s police officers are, because unlike the Coward of Broward, and the fearful Uvalde, Texas police, even the Babylon Bee, an online satire magazine website, stood up and took notice, by recently publishing this tweet:
Putin Immediately Surrenders After U.S. Airdrops Nashville Police Officers Into Battlefield https://t.co/ZUb9rf0EaW
And so, when I shared with a friend the Senate Chaplain’s actions, there were only two questions asked, and one emphatic expression in response.
Did he propose any ideas? (Yes.)
-and-
What were his thoughts? We do need to take action!
Here is how I responded.
Not to be sarcastic, of course, but his suggestion was that good men (and women) take action.
My longstanding suggestion — since being published Thursday, August 27, 2015 in “A Simple Solution to America’s Gun & Mass Shooting Problems” — continues to be, that ALL such firearms as the AR-15, AK-47, etc., should be placed under the auspices of the National Firearms Act of 1934, which was enacted to limit access to automatic weapons used by criminals like Bonnie & Clyde, Ma Barker, Pretty Boy Floyd, John Dillinger, Al Capone, et al, to ameliorate the ease with which they committed crimes.
The act permits citizens to exercise their 2nd Amendment rights through ownership, yet places a VERY HIGH BAR to ownership by mandating fingerprinting, thorough & intensive background investigations by FBI, State & Local police/Sheriffs, etc., payment of a $200 tax to the U.S. Treasury Dept., and perhaps a few more things, such as character & mental fitness.
IF for any reason there is any problem with the findings, the application is DENIED, and the tax returned.
That process ensures that ONLY the MOST upstanding & law-abiding citizens can possess such firearms. Included in the NFA are: Silencers (now called “suppressors”), short barreled shotguns & rifles, and automatic firearms (defined as any firearm that discharges more than one bullet with one tigger pull).
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Monday, March 27, 2023
True -or- False?
Things that are not living cannot change.
“There’s a feeling I get when I look to the west, and my spirit is crying for leaving. In my thoughts, I have seen rings of smoke through the trees, and the voices of those who stand looking. It makes me wonder… it really makes me wonder.”
Your mother is hurting.
I guess I was lucky that I didn’t fall tumbling down an almost sheer granite cliff like a rag doll after climbing up nearly to the top in leather-soled cowboy boots en route to Sonora Pass in the Sierras along CA 108 in October ’08. Mom & Dad would’ve been very saddened. Instead, I got to see them die. Well, almost. They were both “on their death bed” when I last kissed them both — Daddy died a few years before Mother. I saw to it that Read the rest of this entry »
People on the right are the biggest snowflakes on the face of the planet.
And you guys got me fucked up.
Not only do you lack the critical thinking skills to understand the difference between social cancellation and government cancellation, you lack the self awareness to understand that all you’re doing is projecting.
Every time you point your finger at a liberal for something, there are four more fingers pointing back at you.
You people claim to be “anti-censorship,” “anti-cancel culture,” and yet, you people are voting for politicians that are doing just that!
And I’m done with saying you’re incompetent — ’cause you understand exactly what the fuck is going on.
Your accuse liberals of needing “safe spaces,” but in places like Tennessee, laws have been passed making it illegal for someone to> Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Thursday, March 23, 2023
But Sergeant Pepper didn’t teach the band to play, nor did he have a Lonely Hearts Club Band.
Things Not Worth Fighting For -or- One Giant Fucking Mistake Based Upon A Lie,
And How It Gave Us A Black Eye At Home And Abroad
“All of our experiences were different. It was such a long war. Every year of the war or every phase of the war was very different. We learned that it wasn’t necessarily a just war. But then, we broke it, so then we had to fix it. Navigating wartime service in the Iraq War, especially if you served more than one tour, it’s more about just doing what you are called to do and making sure that you’ve got the men and women to your left and right all home from that war. Focusing more on that than the policy or the why of why we’re there. Because that can be a dark place.”
— Allison Jaslow, former Army Lieutenant, served 2 tours of duty in Iraq during the most violently intense period, now CEO of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA)
“We all felt [that], maybe there was a way to make things better, [but we] then recognized that we hadn’t made things better… it didn’t turn out as we’d hoped. A lot of my fellow Americans don’t even rank it as important. They say, Read the rest of this entry »
Former Hawaii Congressional Representative Tulsi Gabbard made some salient points in her address yesterday (3/18) at the Vision ’24 National Conservative Forum, an event held by the South Carolina Conservative Conference at the North Charleston Convention Center, which was co-sponsored by the Heritage Foundation. However, in the approximately 2-minute video excerpt which she tweeted, what she failed to mention (because it is automatically understood, and is the law) on the topic of hiring, is that the hiring ABSOLUTELY IS considering the qualifications of individuals/applicants, and hiring decisions ARE NOT being made EXCLUSIVELY based upon immutable characteristics, such as race, ethnicity, identity, etc.
As Thomas Jefferson said, "God who gave us life gave us Liberty." Any political party that tries to erase God from every facet of our public life can’t be trusted to protect those inalienable God-given rights enshrined in the Constitution. pic.twitter.com/l86Y30oR2f
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Wednesday, March 22, 2023
In a pure-hearted effort to be encouraging, a friend shared with me some thoughts as follows:
Someone Greater
There’s a battle happening all around us—a battle for your heart, your mind, and your soul. A battle that’s not only physical, but also spiritual. A battle with literal enemies who impact the seen and unseen world.
John wrote:
“But you belong to God, my dear children. You have already won a victory over those people, because the Spirit who lives in you is greater than the spirit who lives in the world.”
1 John 4:4 NLT
Yes, we are in a real battle.
Yes, we have a real enemy.
Yes, the kingdom of darkness is constantly fighting against the kingdom of light.
But for those who are trusting in the finished work of Christ, greater is the One living inside of us than the one who is living in this world.
We have a real Savior.
This story isn’t close to over.
The kingdom of darkness will never prevail against the kingdom of light.
Our enemy comes to steal, kill, and destroy. To pervert, manipulate, and confuse, distract, divide, and disable.
But God is greater than the doubts that clutter your mind, the enemies that frustrate your plans, the heart-wrenching and even soul-crushing situation that’s currently consuming your thoughts.
You can fight from a place of victory because the battle has already been won.
Jesus has already conquered death. And now, while we wait for others to come to salvation and for God to bring all things to completion under Christ’s authority, we can fight with a confident hope.
There’s a battle happening all around us—a battle for your heart, for your mind, for your soul. But greater is the One living inside of you than the one who is living in this world.
The gesture was appreciated, and accepted in the milieu in which it was given. After all, that’s what friends do: They love one another, encourage, and help one another as an expression of that love.
None of that message was alien to me, and there have been seemingly countless times in which I have heard, or read such a message, using those exact terms, phrases, and expressions.
And, as friends do, a response was crafted as follows:
Have you ever heard of the now-defunct comic strip by Walt Kelly called Pogo? It was syndicated from 1948-75, set in Georgia’s portion of the Okefenokee Swamp, and was primarily political satire, but included comedic social commentary, as well.
If not, don’t worry; I’m about to succinctly describe one frame.
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Monday, March 20, 2023
Generally speaking, recipes are merely broad guidelines for the creation of a dish. Very few recipes are anything like the precision necessary in rocket science… although some websites would have their gullible readers to think so.
Fortunately, the best part of cooking and being a cook, is that you get to eat your own mistakes. And THAT is often the best teacher.
So, with the obvious being “said,” here’s a carrot raisin salad, which at its most basic, contains carrots, raisins, and mayonnaise. The dish depicted here contains the following jazzed up ingredients: A stick of celery, key lime juice + apple cider vinegar (ACV), sugar, a tad salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, raisins (of course), dried cranberries (aka “craisins”), and walnuts.😋
Naturally, shredded carrots are the primary ingredient. So if you’re planning on making this dish, you’ll need more carrots than anything else. How many? How about you being the judge of that? It’s YOUR dish, and you’ll make it YOUR way — which is another beautiful part about cooking: It’s highly customizable.
How much mayonnaise? Again, it’s “Player’s Choice” — as much, or as little, as your heart desires.
Don’t like mayonnaise? No problem. Use salad dressing, or some other condiment (though I dare say, mustard probably would not be a good substitution). But hey! To each, their own. One never knows.
Don’t like celery? Not a problem. Omit it.
Sodium restricted diet? (Celery is also sodium laden.) Omit the tiny pinch of salt. But I will say this, about that: Salt, common table salt, even just a slight amount, enhances sweetness.
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Wednesday, March 15, 2023
I’ve long known that New Mexico was the ONLY state in the union whose lawmakers did NOT receive any salary, only a very modest per diem payment, and certainly NOTHING LIKE the princely “per diem” sum that Ala-goddamn-bama’s corrupt lawmakers pay themselves from the pockets of the honest, tax paying public.
And if you break down and calculate the entirety of what those f🤬ing bastards pay themselves, you, or ANYONE would find that they are — WITHOUT QUESTION — THE VERY HIGHEST PAID legislators in the nation, who get paid LITERALLY for only THREE DAYS OF WORK PER WEEK (Tu,W,Th — the ONLY days they meet), for a GRAND TOTAL of 30 days per year, more if called into Special Session by the Governor.
The Alabama State Legislature’s website states that “the length of the regular session is limited to 30 meeting days within a period of 105 calendar days. There are usually two meeting or “legislative” days per week, with other days devoted to committee meetings. Special sessions of the Legislature may be called by the Governor, with the Proclamation listing the subjects which the Governor wishes considered. These sessions are limited to 12 legislative days within a 30 calendar day span.”
It’s the VERY best goddamn less-than part-time job in ALL of America — hands down.
Here’s a ROUGH approximation of how MUCH, and the tune to which they pick Alabama taxpayers’ pockets:
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Friday, March 10, 2023
Most everybody, it seems, is all for the use of plain language. That is to say, being plainspoken is often seen as a virtue, whereas flowery language is, or can often be, seen as obfuscatory, i.e., attempting to confuse, or hide something by the use of arcane language.
So, would it be “appropriate” to have in a school library a book that openly talked about a young woman having her nipples rubbed, and breasts squeezed by her numerous, seemingly countless lovers? A young woman who was so horny that she wanted men with big penises to stretch out her vagina? To have it filled to overflowing with their semen? To be an orgiastic “cum slut,” or “bukkake babe”?
If the colloquial language used to describe such acts shocks your sensibilities, perhaps the idea of the underlying acts would similarly be shocking: A super horny young girl who just wants to fuck… all day long, day and night, day in, day out, with as many men as she possibly can, who revels in the orgasmic sensuality of the entire experience.
If that shocks, or, even disgusts you, and you think that such descriptions are “inappropriate” for young children, or even older teens, to read such material, perhaps it might be wise to consider banning the book, or books, that contain such sexually graphically depictive language, and ideas.
Interestingly, that book which contains such graphical literary depictions of sexual activity in REAL LIFE is in Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Monday, March 6, 2023
Previously, I’d written about, and provided one example of, what I considered to be an exemplary model of poor journalistic practice — which is the failure to properly identify individuals quoted in stories by their academic/professional achievements, proper title, capitalization, organizational affiliation, and location, to which I added the practice of abbreviated (or not) states’ names.
There are at least TWO fundamental issues underlying the first matter, both of which can be boiled down to one, that one being respect:
1.) Respect for the individual whom is quoted and referenced in the story, most often only obliquely recognized as an authority or expert, and;
2.) Respect for the reader, the party whom is being informed by reading the story, and for whom the authors write.
Folks who earn PhD’s didn’t just have that terminal degree handed to them on a silver platter. They worked their hineys off for years to earn it. As a matter of fact, folks who earn ANY academic achievement didn’t have it handed to them on a silver platter. They had to WORK to EARN it.
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Monday, March 6, 2023
The writing style of the majority of bodies of work (especially and particularly “news”) found online is abysmally poor, and uninformative. It’s a problem that I bitch about with seeming regularity. Doubtlessly, there are numerous contributing factors, but it is my opinion that a predominate role has been, and continues to be, played by corporate-profit-driven, Wall-$treet-controlled “media outlets,” whose exclusive concern is… MONEY.
Nothing else.
No concern for truth, no concern for veracity, for authenticity, no concern for quality, no concern for anything but MONEY.
And nowhere is that more excruciatingly shown than at Fox News, which stinking putrid pot has had the purifying and sanitizing light of day shown upon it brought by the MULTI-BILLION dollar defamation lawsuit against it by Dominion Voting Systems of Denver, CO, charging that Fox deliberately spread malicious lies about the November 2020 General Election, falsely claiming that Dominion’s voting machines were part and parcel of a giant conspiracy and fraud to alter the outcome of the election.
They were not.
And as tranche after tranche, raft after raft of documents and communications of myriad kind have shown, and continue to show, not even Fox’s lying talking heads believed the bullshit espoused by the crazies of the Party of Trump.
But more to the point.
Today’s journalists (I use that term loosely) are piss poor writers, uninformative, and more… and worse.
Here’s an example that occurs with calculable regularity.
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Wednesday, March 1, 2023
Are they too low? Too high? Just right?
Some folks, mostly of Republican stripe, cry loud and long, complaining that personal and corporate income tax rates, and other forms of taxes, are TOO HIGH, even excessive. Yet in the mean time, many folks, aka The Common Man, feel more than just a little pinched, and stressed out not just by inflation which has affected everything from groceries to housing, but by the cost of everything in general… even before inflation took its toll.
And, at the end of the day, for many, particularly our most vulnerable — the elderly, children, the impoverished, veterans, the homeless, those without healthcare insurance, etc. — there are more bills than there is money.
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Tuesday, February 14, 2023
First, A Couple Prefatory Notes To Aid Ease Of Understanding As You Read:
1.) In this article, the term referring to deity, i.e., “God,” will be capitalized to indicate reference the Jewish/Christian deity in particular, Who almost always, i.e., 99.9999% of the time, is referred to in the masculine gender, i.e., as a male — despite evidence strongly suggesting that “there is no male and female, for you all are one in Christ Jesus,” Galatians 3:28 (English Standard Version), and “God is a Spirit” John 4:24 (KJV), and others.
2.) References to that same deity in particular, by using personal pronouns in lieu of a proper name, for clarity sake, and with regard for traditional practice, will be capitalized, i.e., Him, His, He, etc., although there is abundant evidence pointing to the fact that the proper name of God is Jehovah, although the second name, or “surname,” changes, e.g., Jireh, Nissi, Rapha, Shalom, Tsidkenu, Sel’i, Go’el, Tsuri, Shamah, Sabbaoth, M’Kaddesh, hyphenated as Jehovah-Jireh, etc.
3.) To identify the speaker when a Gospel verse is stated, the words of Jesus of Nazareth will be emphasized in RED, anditalicized.
4.) Unless otherwise specifically stated, all Scripture references are from the King James Version (KJV) of the Bible, and when other versions are used, will be so noted by their abbreviated three, or four-letter designation, i.e., NLT=New Living Translation, AMP=Amplified Bible, NKJV=New King James Version, NASB=New American Standard Bible, etc.
5.) The word “theology” is taken from two ancient Greek words:
a.) Theos, referring to a diety, and;
b.) Logos, referring to the spoken word, such as in conversation, or discourse.
In a nutshell, theology means talking about God.
Regarding the origin and derivation of the word “theology,” it emerged c.mid-14 century, and is “the science of religion, study of God and his relationship to humanity,” which term is derived from the Old French word “theologie” meaning a “philosophical study of Christian doctrine; Scripture” (14c.), and stems from the Latin word “theologia,” from the Greek word “theologia” meaning “an account of the gods,” from “theologos” meaning “one discoursing on the gods,” from theos “god” (from the Proto-Indo-European root *dhes-, forming words for religious concepts) + -logos meaning “treating of” (see -logy). The meaning of “a particular system of theology” is from 1660s.
So, in essence, what you’re about to read is about Christian religion, which makes it Christian theology. However, I dare say that the ideas and thoughts which you’re about to read are rarely, if ever, discussed, much less taught, in schools of Christian theology. But the central and ultimate idea is inescapable, even blatant — making it the proverbial “elephant in the room.”
So, without further ado, let’s get underway.
Evangelical type folks, which notably includes Baptists, are the ones who are almost always saying “accept Jesus as your savior… get saved today,” etc., seem to relish telling folks that if they don’t ever pray, or repeat, what they call the “Sinner’s Prayer,” that, when that individual dies, that person is going to a place of eternal torment and damnation which they call “hell.”
And typically, that “hell” is described by them as a place that burns with fire and brimstone — which, interestingly enough, was NOT EVER described that way by Jesus of Nazareth. The phrase — “the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone” — is found in Revelation 21:8 as the King James Version (KJV) reads. It’s also found in Revelation 19:20 which states in part, “were cast into the lake of fire burning with brimstone,” and in Revelation 14:10 “tormented with fire and brimstone,” “the lake of fire and brimstone” Revelation 20:10.
There are other mentions of fire and brimstone, but not in the context of mentioning a lake, or as a place of perdition, torture, or torment, eternal, or not. Linguistically, however, such a place, as a proper name, is NEVER capitalized. And for that matter, neither is heaven. Where they proper names of places, they would be so identified by capitalization. They are not.
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Wednesday, February 8, 2023
If we forbid the preparation and serving of fried chicken and waffles, watermelon — or any other dish remotely historically associated with Black Southern culture — from being served as a dignifying celebratory moment and honorific during Black History Month, we will be unwittingly playing into the hands of racists, to help them accomplish their ultimate objective — exterminating the people they hate, and erasing the associated culture.
That MUST NOT HAPPEN.
Fried Chicken ‘n Waffles with Watermelon, a traditional Southern dish
It was with scornful disdain that I read a few news items about Nyack Middle School in Rockland County, New York, nearby NYC, where food vendor, Aramark, served fried chicken and waffles with watermelon on February 1, the first day of Black History Month. Writing for The Hill, Stephen Neukam wrote that “chicken and waffles with watermelon [are] foods stereotypically associated with Black people,” and that unidentified school administrators had said that Aramark “changed the menu items without telling the school.” The menu had earlier been posted online as being Philly cheese steak, with broccoli, and fresh fruit.
Apparently, some folks got up in arms about that substitution, even after Aramark had apparently asked students if they’d prefer those items. Student Honore Santiago said, “They were asking people if they want watermelon, and I remember being confused because it’s not in season.”
And the now-global 24/7/365 mass media, being what they are — gluttons who thrive on strife and dissention, ever searching for reportage of anything bad or controversial, including inane he-said-she-said tripe, often as so-and-so-Tweeted this, that, or the other, which has no genuine news value, while simultaneously blowing almost all things out of proportion, regardless of their, or the organization’s ideological bent — took that fumbled ball and ran with it.
It doesn’t yet appear that they scored a touchdown, however.
The school’s Principal, David A. Johnson, a Black gentleman, wrote a letter to parents, which stated in part that,
“The offering of chicken & waffles as an entree with watermelon as a dessert on the first day of Black History Month was inexcusably insensitive and reflected a lack of understanding of our district’s vision to address racial bias.
“Nyack Public Schools administrators contacted Aramark officials to insist on a mechanism to avoid a repeat of yesterday’s mistake. The vendor has agreed to plan future menu offerings to align with our values and our long-standing commitment to diversity and inclusion.
“We are extremely disappointed by this regrettable situation and apologize to the entire Nyack community for the cultural insensitivity displayed by our food service provider.”
Perhaps that now means when National Heritage Week comes again for Jamaicans — who state that “heritage is one of the most crucial parts of our identity as Jamaicans. Heritage celebrations help to preserve this identity and our culture, which sets us apart from all other countries” — Jamaica Jerk Chicken with Beans and Rice cannot be served.
And when Chinese New Year arrives again, Wonton Soup, Kung Pao Chicken, Szechwan Shrimp, Spicy Crispy Beef, Sweet and Sour Pork, and Chinese Fried Rice are all out of the question.
And heaven forbid that, a few days from now, on February 11, when National Foundation Day (kenkoku kinenbi) is celebrated — which, according to the earliest Japanese historical records, was on that day in 660 BC that the first Japanese emperor was crowned — meaning that no sushi, no sashimi, no soy sauce, no chopsticks, no soba noodles, no miso soup with rice, and no sukiyaki may be served.
Which also means no kimchi for our Korean brothers and sisters… no matter how much they may protest, and regardless of the fact that it’s their national dish.
Hopping John is a simple, traditional Southern dish which is made with rice, black-eyed peas, and greens. The first known recipe of Hopping John appeared in an early cookbook entitled “The Carolina housewife, or House and home: by a lady of Charleston” was first published in 1847 and was authored by Sarah Rutledge, who was the daughter of Edward Rutledge, a fellow who signed the Declaration of Independence, though little else is known about her. While the book is widely lauded, even today, and can be downloaded from various sites free of charge, one can expect significant differences in culinary style, from then to now. Regarding the name of the dish – “Hopping John” – there’s no known etymology for the origin, or derivation of the name, although there’s no shortage of speculation, however absurd. And finally… the original recipe calls for red beans – which are NOT kidney beans. But as any cook worth their salt knows, innovation and change are the name of the game when it comes to the creative aspects of cooking, and over the years, black-eyed peas have become the preferred pea/bean for the dish.
Nope, NO ONE can have any of that.
And HELL TO THE NO for tacos, burritos, salsa, guacamole, margaritas, fajitas, Chili Rellenos, carne asada, quesadillas, Red Pork Pozole, or Enchilada Sauce on Cinco de Mayo.
Do you see how asinine that is?
None of those people groups get up in arms about their culture’s foods, though at one time, or another, they’ve all been subjected to vile racist tropes.
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Thursday, February 2, 2023
One thing you can’t hide, is when you’re crippled inside. Texas Governor Greg Abbott leaves the podium after speaking at the 11th annual National Catholic Prayer Breakfast May 7, 2015 at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in Washington, D.C. (CNS photo/Tyler Orsburn)
Texas Guvnah Greg Abbot is a goddamn moron, a cruelly incompetent, and corruptly selfish son-of-a-bitch, fucking liar and idiot, whose brain is apparently as crippled as his withered, useless legs.
Cow turds have some nutrient fertilization value for soil, and when dried, can even be burned; whereas on the other hand, he has no value whatsoever.
Texans will have to burn more cow turds to keep warm, since your sorry-ass governor can’t even keep the goddamn lights turned on. But, that’s what you wanted, because you voted for more of it. So, enjoy your fill until January 19, 2027.
And be certain to thank the Electric (Un)Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), a “membership-based 501(c)(4) nonprofit corporation, governed by a board of directors and subject to oversight by the Public Utility Commission of Texas and the Texas Legislature.” They’re similarly corrupt, inept, and in the pockets of the Repugnicunt state legislature, and executive office.
Frustrated Texans Endure Winter Storm With No Power, No Heat
Thursday, 02 February 2023
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Thousands of frustrated Texans shivered in homes without power for a second day Thursday, most of them around booming Austin, and fading hopes of a quick fix stirred grim memories of a deadly 2021 blackout after an icy winter storm across the southwestern U.S.
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Thursday, February 2, 2023
repugnant — incompatible, inconsistent, hostile, distasteful, contradictory, abhorrent, obnoxious, odious; originates directly from the Latin term repugnantem (nominative case repugnans), present participle of repugnare, meaning “to resist, fight back, oppose; disagree, be incompatible.”
early 15c., repugnaunt, “hostile, opposed; contrary, inconsistent, contradictory,” from Old French repugnant “contradictory, opposing” or directly from Latin repugnantem (nominative repugnans), present participle of repugnare “to resist, fight back, oppose; disagree, be incompatible,” from re- “back, against, in opposition” (see re-) + pugnare “to fight” (from PIE root *peuk- “to prick”).
The meaning “distasteful, objectionable” is from 1777; that of “offensive, loathsome, exciting aversion” is by 1879.
“female intercrural foramen,” or, as some 18c. writers refer to it, “the monosyllable,” Middle English cunte “female genitalia,” by early 14c. (in Hendyng’s “Proverbs” — ʒeve þi cunte to cunni[n]g, And crave affetir wedding), akin to Old Norse kunta, Old Frisian, Middle Dutch, and Middle Low German kunte, from Proto-Germanic *kunton, which is of uncertain origin. Some suggest a link with Latin cuneus “wedge” (which is of unknown origin), others to PIE root *geu- “hollow place,” still others to PIE root *gwen- “woman.”
The form is similar to Latin cunnus “female pudenda” (also, vulgarly, “a woman”), which is likewise of disputed origin, perhaps literally “gash, slit” (from PIE *sker- “to cut”) or “sheath” (Watkins, from PIE *(s)keu- “to conceal, hide”). De Vaan rejects this, however, and traces it to “a root *kut-meaning ‘bag’, ‘scrotum’, and metaphorically also ‘female pudenda,’ ” source also of Greek kysthos “vagina; buttocks; pouch, small bag” (but Beekes suspects this is a Pre-Greek word), Lithuanian kutys “(money) bag,” Old High German hodo “testicles.”
Hec vulva: a cunt. Hic cunnus: idem est. [from Londesborough Illustrated Nominale, c. 1500, in “Anglo-Saxon and Old English Vocabularies,” eds. Wright and Wülcker, vol. 1, 1884]
First known reference in English apparently is in a compound, Oxford street name Gropecuntlane cited from c. 1230 (and attested through late 14c.) in “Place-Names of Oxfordshire” (Gelling & Stenton, 1953), presumably a haunt of prostitutes. Used in medical writing c. 1400, but avoided in public speech since 15c.; considered obscene since 17c.
in Middle English also conte, counte, and sometimes queinte, queynte (for this, see Q). Chaucer used quaint and queynte in “Canterbury Tales” (late 14c.), and Andrew Marvell might be punning on quaint in “To His Coy Mistress” (1650).
“What eyleth yow to grucche thus and grone? Is it for ye wolde haue my queynte allone?” [Wife of Bath’s Tale]
Under “MONOSYLLABLE” Farmer lists 552 synonyms from English slang and literature before launching into another 5 pages of them in French, German, Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese. [A sampling: Botany Bay, chum, coffee-shop, cookie, End of the Sentimental Journey, fancy bit, Fumbler’s Hall, funniment, goatmilker, heaven, hell, Itching Jenny, jelly-bag, Low Countries, nature’s tufted treasure, penwiper, prick-skinner, seminary, tickle-toby, undeniable, wonderful lamp, and aphrodisaical tennis court, and, in a separate listing, Naggie.] Dutch cognate de kont means “a bottom, an arse,” but Dutch also has attractive poetic slang ways of expressing this part, such as liefdesgrot, literally “cave of love,” and vleesroos “rose of flesh.”
Alternative form cunny is attested from c. 1720 but is certainly much earlier and forced a change in the pronunciation of coney (q.v.), but it was good for a pun while coney was still the common word for “rabbit”: “A pox upon your Christian cockatrices! They cry, like poulterers’ wives, ‘No money, no coney.’ ” [Philip Massinger: “The Virgin-Martyr,” Act I, Scene 1, 1622]
And, given the opportunity, Repugnicunts would ruin the U.S. economy.
Even now, in the opening days of the 118th Congress, there’s talk among Repugnicunts of eliminating the Federal Income Tax, along with all other forms of Federal tax, and replace it with a 30% Value Added Tax.
If you think inflation is a bugbear now, just add 30% to it, and see what it’s like. Repugnicunts are such morons.
The reason why, is because that’s what they want to do:
TEAR IT ALL DOWN.
Not repair, not rebuild, not reinforce, not improve efficiency… but TEAR IT DOWN — and hope for the best, then sell off to the highest corporate bidder the skeletal remains.
For example, NOT A SINGLE REPUGNICUNT in the House or Senate voted for Pandemic Economic Relief.
Had the American people not had that money, our economy would have melted down, and suffered a depression even worse than the Great Depression.
But, it didn’t.
In fact, it didn’t even have a recession.
Not even.
So, when the Repugnicunts cry and whine about national debt, not only are they TOTALLY missing the boat, they’re missing the BIG PICTURE.
And here’s the odd thing about it:
They want to cut spending, but don’t want to pay for it — they do NOT want PayGo, or pay-as-you-go. And if they had their way, they’d let America default on its “loans.”
But, there’s an even BIGGER picture that few, if any, ever talk about, and certainly, most probably don’t even understand it. This entry will try to correct that.
“…the U.S. government’s ability to borrow.”
U.S. To Max Out On Debt Soon, Setting Up Political Fight
WASHINGTON (AP) — The federal government is on track to max out on its $31.4 trillion borrowing authority as soon as this month, starting the clock on Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Thursday, February 2, 2023
You DARE question MY POWER?!?
I’ll show YOU who’s the boss, you little pissants!
Mitch McConnell
Senate Repugnicunt Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of KY has removed Senators Rick Scott of FL, and Mike Lee of UT from the powerful Commerce Committee in apparent retaliation for Scott’s challenge to McConnell’s leadership, and for Lee’s support of Scott’s effort.
The Commerce Committee has broad jurisdiction over numerous federal agencies, is considered a prestigious assignment, and McConnell had exclusive power to decide whether Scott and Lee would remain on the Committee because it was the third so-called “A-list” committee assignment both held.
Scott is also a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, while Lee is a member of the prestigious Judiciary Committee, and the Energy and Natural Resources Committee. Scott had more seniority on the Commerce Committee than Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming, who also serves on two other “A-list” committees — Banking, and Environment and Public Works committees — and Lee had more seniority than Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, who also sits on the Appropriations Committee and is the ranking Republican on the Environment and Public Works Committee.
McConnell replaced Scott, Lee, and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin — who left the Commerce Committee to take a coveted seat on the Finance Committee — with Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Wednesday, January 25, 2023
When examined in context, over the long term, it all begins to make sense (at least to anyone who’s studied the matter at all);
Nixon’s “War on Drugs” was purely a manipulative election ploy designed to obliquely instill fear in the American public, by creating in their imagination the false perception of a massive national crisis (substance use, primarily cannabis, and predominately, if not almost exclusively, among/by college/university students), and to portray them as depraved, and anti-American, because they opposed the Vietnam War, then…
Well, just read what John Ehrlichman, Nixon’s Domestic Affairs Policy Advisor, and convicted Watergate co-conspirator, said to Dan Baum when interviewed by him, for a book he was writing at the time:
“You want to know what this was really all about? The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: The antiwar left and black people. You understand what I’m saying? We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did.”
On November 17, 1973, then-POTUS Richard Nixon spoke at Disney’s Contemporary Resort in Bay Lake, FL, to the Associated Press Managing Editors annual conference. During the Question and Answer portion after his address, a New York Times reporter asked him about his role in the Watergate burglary scandal and efforts to cover up that members of his Committee to Re-Elect the President (CREEP) had funded the break-in. In response, he said in part, that, “I made my mistakes, but in all of my years of public life, I have never profited, never profited from public service — I earned every cent. And in all of my years of public life, I have never obstructed justice. And I think, too, that I could say that in my years of public life, that I welcome this kind of examination, because people have got to know whether or not their president is a crook. Well, I am not a crook. I have earned everything I have got.”
When Nixon ignored the recommendation to decriminalize cannabis made by his hand-picked Commissioner Raymond P. Shafer in the report commonly known as the “Shafer Commission,” properly as the First Report of the National Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse, March 1972, and then Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Monday, January 23, 2023
Perhaps the most “burning” question in many political observers imagination in the matter of George Santos/Anthony Devolder’s election is:
“How DID this happen?”
I’ll take that question for $1000.
In a word, “apathy.”
Constituents who entrusted their support to him in NYD3 were hypothecated.
Allow me to explain. They pledged their support (as evidenced by their votes), and when the pledge expired following the election’s certification, he took the Congressional Oath of Office, and to their dismay, voters discovered they did not control (own) him. After all, they DID allow him to run under their banner. Had they any control over their own party, they would have never done so… or, at least they want us to believe that.
Frankly, NYCD3 voters have no one to blame but themselves.
One of their several news outlets — no, NOT The Old Gray Lady, but the North Shore Leader — warned constituents long in advance (in September) that he was a fraud.
The metaphorical “voice of one crying in the wilderness” was largely ignored, until it was convenient for the OG to belatedly “pounce” upon the dirty deal done dirt cheap in December… after the election was over, and certified, and hope to draw some belated attention to themselves… long after the fact.
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Wednesday, January 18, 2023
Anonymity.
Make ALL applications anonymous.
It’s just… that… simple.
And, it’s EASILY facilitated!
Simply ID the applicant/prospective student by the first letter initials of their name, e.g., ABC, their birth date, e.g., 01022023, and the last four digits of their Social Security Number, or Alien Registration Number, e.g., 1234.
Thus, candidate “Iwannabe Funkybean Gobbledygook” would be IFG01022023-1234, or IFG010220231234, or IFG-01022023-1234, or similarly — even with last name first, GIF01022023-1234, or GIF010220231234, etc. Candidate “Al-Shaz Baraz el Hominy Jones-Smith” would be ASBHJS, ABHJS, or JSASBH, JSABH, or similarly.
It’s just ENTIRELY TOO EASY!
Our brethren in the UK have done so –and– they’ve also made job applications anonymous.
“At the Conservative party conference two weeks ago, I spoke about a young black woman who had to put a more white-sounding name on her CV before she started getting called for interviews. Such racism in 21st-century Britain, I said, was a disgrace, and I committed our party to ending discrimination and finishing the fight for real equality. The audience rose to their feet. It was a significant moment. And it provoked three reactions.
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Monday, January 9, 2023
Representative Jim Jordan-R,OH4
Have you recently read any crap on Twitter?
It’s much too easy to read plenty of phony baloney malarkey on Twitter.
Of course, that’s not very difficult to do now that Elon Muskrat is actively burning down that house, and welcoming Neo-Nazis, White Supremacists, Big Lie promoters, QAnon conspiracy theorists, and other such ilk on board… again.
Here’s but one statement which I recently read on that social media dumpster fire:
“Incoming House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan has not authored, sponsored, nor passed one piece of legislation in his 17 years in Congress.”
Of course, there were other surrounding contextual words and remarks, some of which were opinion, others fact (sounds vaguely familiar, eh?), and it was quite obvious that the author had no love lost for Ohio’s 4th Congressional District Republican Representative.
And frankly, neither have I lost any love for that lunatic.
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Monday, January 9, 2023
Abigail “Abby” Zwerner
We’ve already started off the 2023 New Year with a BANG!
That’s right, a BANG!
A BIG BANG!
“Big Bang” as in a school shooting — this time, by a 6-year-old boy in Newport News, VA at Richneck Elementary School who opened fire with a handgun in the classroom upon his 25-year-old first-grade teacher Abigail “Abby” Zwerner, shooting her in the abdomen, after the little bastard got into what was officially described by Newport News Police Chief Steve R. Drew as an “altercation” with her.
In his official press conference, the Chief said in part, that, “The altercation was between a 6 year old, the student who did have the firearm, and then the teacher, and then a round was fired. Like I said, she suffered a gunshot wound and was transferred to the hospital.”
Abby was immediately rushed to Riverside Regional Medical Center where her life-threatening injuries were treated, and she is now, expected to recover… exactly to what extent and how much, however, has not been made clear.
School Principal Briana Foster Newton issued a statement Monday, January 9, 2023 which, in part, read: Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Sunday, January 8, 2023
The 118th Congress will be pockmarked by confusion, an inability to pass legislation for the people’s benefit, and the Repugnants will attempt to cut Social Security, Medicare, and literally, every program that helps the American people. Kevin McCarthy will not last a year as Speaker of the House, and will be ousted most likely, no later than July 2023. His term in office will be abbreviated, interrupted with a motion to Vacate the Chair, and quickly forgotten. His consistent inability to gather support from among the majority party, causing a meltdown on the opening day of the 118th Congress that led to 15 consecutive votes over a period of 5 days, will be the highlight of his utter failure.
I’m One of the Last Holdouts Against Kevin McCarthy — and I Won’t Back Down
Guest Essay by Bob Good
January 6, 2023
Mr. Good, a Republican, represents Virginia’s Fifth Congressional District in the House of Representatives.
Back in the summer, a group of conservatives put together a proposal with extensive changes to the rules and processes that govern how Republicans run the House of Representatives. For example, we wanted regular, rank-and-file members to have more power to amend bills on the House floor. We wanted at least three days to read and consider bills before we were asked to vote on them. And we wanted to limit the scope of bills to a single subject, so we wouldn’t be asked to vote on legislative “Christmas trees” passed on a tight deadline. We made those demands because the people we represent have told us time and again that Washington is broken, and we knew they wanted to see a change in the status quo.
Representative Bob Good, wearing a taupe-colored suit and maroon tie, stands before a black microphone that rises from the center of a polished wooden table in front of a row of brown leather chairs in the House chamber in the Capitol.
What the American people have tuned in to watch this week is a healthy democratic process, working as it was designed to: with members in the same place, engaging in debate, and having face-to-face conversations. Important negotiations often take months or even years in a legislative body. Yet this is the one and only opportunity we have to debate how the House is run every two years, both with the election of a speaker and with the passage of the new House rules.
While some have accused us of acting in our own personal interests, we are standing strong because we believe the United States House of Representatives was designed to be the People’s House where the will of every American would be represented. That is why the selection of a speaker requires the votes of a majority of the House. A majority of the people’s representatives must trust that person to lead us.
Throughout the past few months of negotiation and debate, we have been very clear with Republican leadership that we want changes that empower regular members of Congress, who each represent a district of more than half a million people, to have more meaningful input into how legislation is considered. And some of those procedural changes have been accepted.
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Sunday, January 8, 2023
Richard Hudson-R,NC8 physically retrained Mike Rogers-R,AL3 from attacking Matt Gaetz-R,FL1 after he verbally accosted Matt Gaetz following Gaetz’ “PRESENT” vote in the 14th round of balloting for Speaker of the House (SOTH), causing Kevin McCarthy-R,CA20 to lose, late Friday night, January 6, 2023
“Matt, you’re FINISHED!
I’m not gonna forget this!”
Ever wonder what barnyard animals
— pigs —
behave like?
Wonder no more.
Mike “Rugrat” Rogers, a Redneck Repugnicant from Not-So-Sweet-Home Alabama, a slave state, the asshole of Dixie, who misrepresents the state’s 3rd Congressional largely poor, uneducated and easy-to-command mostly-White District was drunk and disorderly, under the influence of intoxicating/spirituous beverage, according to at least one observer who was close enough to smell his breath, when “Rugrat” Rogers accosted Matt Gaetz-R,FL1 and attempted to start a fight with him on late Friday night, January 6th, 2023, after the 14th failed round of balloting for Speaker of the House.
No, Mister Mike “Rugrat” Rogers, YOU’RE the one who’s finished.
You’ve now made your Alabama shit stain mark
to a national television audience,
a global audience via the Internet,
and yourself a permanently indelible pock mark
upon your wretchedly failed party,
and sadly, upon American history.
Richard Hudson-R,NC8 physically retrained Mike Rogers-R,AL3 from attacking Matt Gaetz-R,FL1 after he screamed at and verbally accosted Matt Gaetz following Gaetz’ “PRESENT” vote in the 14th round of balloting for Speaker of the House (SOTH), causing Kevin McCarthy-R,CA20 to lose, late Friday night, January 6, 2023.
Congratulations, Mr. Asshole Weasel Drunk Redneck Mike Rugrat Rogers.
You shouldn’t have been on the House floor under the influence, and you sure as hell didn’t represent Alabama — or, maybe you did!
Alabama is full of assholes like him.
They’re called “weasels,” and are generally considered pests everywhere they’re found. Interestingly, a group of weasels is called Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Sunday, January 8, 2023
Mike Rogers-R,AL3 is physically restrained from attacking Matt Gaetz by Richard Hudson-R,NC8 after he confronted Matt Gaetz following Gaetz’ “PRESENT” vote in the 14th round of balloting for Speaker of the House (SOTH), late Friday night, January 6, 2023
“Matt, you’re FINISHED!
I’m not gonna forget this!”
— Mike Rogers-R,AL3 screamed at Matt Gaetz-R,FL1 after Gaetz voted “PRESENT” instead of “McCarthy” in the 14th round of balloting for Speaker of the House of Representatives (SOTH), late Friday night, January 6, 2023, which was the 14th consecutive failure in 4 consecutive days by members of that party to elect a SOTH. Gaetz, and 19 other members of the Freedom Caucus, refused to vote for McCarthy for several legitimate reasons, though Kevin McCarthy-R,CA20 used coercive threats, and other unethical and authoritarian-type behaviors to have some of them acquiesce, under pressure from him, to change their votes to FOR him, instead of someone else, or “PRESENT.” Matt Gaetz never did.
No, Mister Mike “Rugrat” Rogers, YOU’RE the one who’s finished.
And you’ve now made your shit stain mark to an national television audience,
and to global international audience via the Internet,
and yourself a permanently indelible pock mark upon your failed party,
and in American history.
Congratulations, Mr. Asshole Rugrat Weasel Drunk Redneck Mike Rogers.
You shouldn’t have been on the House floor under the influence, and you sure as hell didn’t represent Alabama — or, maybe you did! Alabama is full of assholes like him. They’re called “weasels,” and are generally considered pests everywhere they’re found. Interestingly, a group of weasels is known as a “sneak,” a “boogle,” a “gang,” or a “confusion.” And in the Repugnants’ case, it’s confusion. And, that’s exactly what Rogers did — he sneaked up from behind amidst the confusion.
Mike Rogers-R,AL3 is physically restrained from attacking Matt Gaetz-R,FL1 by Richard Hudson-R,NC8 when Rogers confronted Gaetz after Gaetz voted “PRESENT” in the 14th round of balloting for Speaker of the House (SOTH), late Friday night, January 6, 2023
Matt Gaetz was 100% correct when he stated this before the 12th vote:
My colleague from California, Mr. Garcia, knows the incredibly high regard I hold for him. He is a patriot; I deeply, deeply admire him, but I must take some exception to some of the comments he made in his nomination of Mr. McCarthy.
First, he said that Mr. McCarthy has “earned” the position.
You only earn the position of Speaker of the House if you can get the votes. Mr. McCarthy doesn’t have the votes today, he will not have the votes tomorrow, and he will not have the votes next week, next month, next year.
And so, one must wonder, Madam Clerk, is this an exercise in vanity for someone who has done the math, taken the counts, and is putting this institution through something that absolutely is avoidable?
My colleague Mr. Garcia did not say this, but many of my other Republican colleagues have. They believe Mr. McCarthy has earned the position of Speaker of the House because he raised half a billion dollars to get Republicans elected.
Several believe that one earns the position of Speaker by raising enormous sums of money, and there is no doubt that the individual that was nominated by Mr. Garcia is the Lebron James of special interest fundraising in this town. There’s nobody better.
[NOTE: In a Newsweek OpEd entitled “McCarthy Has Earned the House Speakership” by former SOTH Newt Gingrich published 12/16/22 at 6:00 AM EST, he not only confirmed McCarthy’s mammoth fundraising machine of $500 million, but also that fundraising massive amounts of money IS a qualification for the office, and wrote: “Set aside the $500 million McCarthy and his allies raised during the 2022 campaign cycle. Some of his critics seem to think that effort doesn’t count (it should) because he had the power of the conference (and they don’t).”]
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Wednesday, January 4, 2023
Mitt Romney’s remark made at the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines in 2011, that ‟Corporations are people, my friend,” was then, and remains even now, painfully accurate.
His explanation, however was an abysmal failure, and came nowhere close to explaining why ‟Corporations are people, my friend.”
Essentially, ‟Corporations are people, my friend,〞because their articles of incorporation state something to the effect that they can “… to wit, to do any thing a natural person could do…” That is known as “artificial personhood.”
Cornell University writes the following about artificial personhood, which may sometimes also be referred to as legal personhood, though the two are not always interchangeable — a Natural Person is also always Legal Person, but a Legal Person is not always a Natural Person — which is why there is a differentiation made with Natural Person, and the term “Artificial Person” is much more simple, and descriptive:
“An artificial person is also known as a juridical person; it has a legal name and has certain rights, protections, privileges, responsibilities, and liabilities in law, similar to those of a natural person. In other words, an artificial person is a non-human legal entity that is not a single natural person but an organization recognized by law as a fictitious person. In the United States, an artificial person usually refers to “any entities established under the law of the United States, any foreign country, or a state, province, territory, possession, commonwealth, or dependency of the United States or any foreign country, and as to which the government, state, province, territory, possession, commonwealth or dependency must maintain a record showing the entity to have been established.” Specifically, in a business sense, an artificial person is any form of business association and any other non-governmental legal organization, including a profitable or non-profitable corporation, partnership, limited liability company, association, trust, or unincorporated organization.”
The United States Supreme Court has reinforced that sense of personhood by and through their decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission which was issued January 2010, which supported the notion of artificial personhood, and granted additional rights to corporations, but few, if any, of the responsibilities.
Some rightfully call it the “money is free speech” ruling, and the primary problem with such a belief, ruling, or ideology, is that, if it is true that money is free speech (it is not), then the poor man has none, and the Constitution was written for all, equally, and so, in that sense, at the very least, the ruling violates the Equal Protection Clause, and the First Amendment.
Holding: Political spending is a form of protected speech under the First Amendment, and the government may not keep corporations or unions from spending money to support or denounce individual candidates in elections. While corporations or unions may not give money directly to campaigns, they may seek to persuade the voting public through other means, including ads, especially where these ads were not broadcast.
Judgment: Reversed, 5-4, in an opinion by Justice Anthony Kennedy on January 21, 2010. in a 5-4 decision with an opinion written by Justice Kennedy. Justice Stevens dissented, joined by Justices Ginsburg, Breyer, and Sotomayor.
There are other cases, of course, and this one didn’t just suddenly appear out of nowhere. There were other precedents which prepared the way for it, among which were:
But, to be absolutely certain, the problem can be traced back even further, to the Civil War era, when before that time, corporations were held to account by focusing upon the Chief Executive who was responsible, and accountable for all aspects of operations, and any failures fell squarely on their shoulders alone. Power and responsibility were natural complements of each other. After changes in laws were made, power and responsibility were separated, and power was concentrated at the top, but responsibility was diffused throughout the organization, so that no one person could be held to account — all the power, and all the perks that came along for the ride, but all the responsibilities were left at the train station.
That all came to a metaphorical head with the collapse of Enron, a once-high-flying Ponzi scheme bankruptcy of an energy company based in Houston, Texas which was founded and headed by the now-late Ken Lay (1942-2005). That firm’s collapse and subsequent bankruptcy was one of the largest instances of corporate fraud then to have occurred in America, and illustrated how the divorcement of power from responsibility was a formula for disaster. Healthsouth, another firm caught up in such a scheme, in which “cooking the books,” i.e., purposely, deceptively, and fraudulently making falsified entries in the firm’s accounting, most often for the purpose of driving up (artificially inflating) the company’s stock prices, which in turn benefited the executives, primarily, but others who may, or may not, have been somewhat privy to the acts… which, at that time, were not in and of themselves illegal, per se, though they were most certainly frowned upon by reputable accounting firms, Wall Street, and others.
Congress put a screeching halt to such abuses by writing legislation requiring the CEO to personally sign for the authenticity and accuracy of all corporate accounting and reports. And that was just a scratch up upon the surface of corporate greed and corruption, which remains prevalent today, more so now in the form of avarice (greed gone wild), than anything else.
Corporate avarice is also the single greatest problem in our nation’s economy, with one very minor example being the difference between the CEO’s pay, and their average employee’s pay — who, on average, made over 350 times the average employee’s pay. In 1989, the average differential was 61 to 1.
In fact, research performed by the Economic Policy Institute found that from 1978 to 2020, increases in CEO compensation far outstripped growth of either the Standard & Poor’s stock market index – 817%, exceeded by 6 times the increases in top income earners’ gains, and grew, on average, 1322%.
Meanwhile, in that same period, the typical employee’s annual compensation only grew a paltry 18%.
When it comes to Wall Street and BIG BUSINESS, it’s more for them, less for you.
‟Corporations are people, my friend.〞
by Mark LeVine, Director of the Program in Global Middle East Studies at UC Irvine
12 August 2011
Mitt Romney’s friendliness to corporations excuses them from bearing the responsibilities endowed upon them by the rights they are given as ‘persons’ under US law [AFP]
Thank God for Mitt Romney.
In a moment of candour he likely thought would win him much needed support from the Tea Party wing of the Republican Party, the presidential candidate explained his thinking to a heckler – who asked why Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Saturday, December 24, 2022
The Right To Bear Arms
A distinguished citizen takes a stand on one of the most controversial issues in the nation
By Warren E. Burger, Chief Justice of the United States (1969-86) Parade Magazine, January 14, 1990, page 4
[NOTE: Chief Justice Warren E. Burger (1907-1995), was first nominated by POTUS EISENHOWER January 12, 1956 to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (often called the “Mini Supreme Court”) to fill the position created by the death of Judge Harold M. Stephens, was confirmed by the Senate 28 March that year, and on 23 June 1969 was nominated to be Chief Justice of the SCOTUS by POTUS NIXON following the resignation of CJ Earl Warren, who was also nominated by POTUS EISENHOWER, and presided over numerous landmark Constitutional law cases and wrote the majority opinion in Brown v. Board of Education (1954), Reynolds v. Sims (1964), Miranda v. Arizona (1966) and Loving v. Virginia (1967). CJ Warren also led the Warren Commission, which investigated the assassination of POTUS KENNEDY, was Governor of California from 1943-1953, and widely considered one of the nation’s most influential Chief Justices. CJ Burger was known more for his administrative acumen than for his intellect, and in 1974 authored the unanimous decision in United States v. Nixon, which rejected POTUS NIXON’s claim of Executive Privilege in the midst of the Watergate crimes, and eventually chose to resign, rather than face certain impeachment, thereby becoming the first POTUS to ever resign from office.]
Warren E. Burger, Chief Justice, United States Supreme Court, official portrait
Our metropolitan centers, and some suburban communities of America, are setting new records for homicides by handguns. Many of our large centers have up to 10 times the murder rate of all of Western Europe. In 1988, there were 9000 handgun murders in America. Last year, Washington, D.C., alone had more than 400 homicides — setting a new record for our capital.
The Constitution of the United States, in its Second Amendment, guarantees a “right of the people to keep and bear arms.” However, the meaning of this clause cannot be understood except by looking to the purpose, the setting and the objectives of the draftsmen. The first 10 amendments — the Bill of Rights — were not drafted at Philadelphia in 1787; that document came two years later than the Constitution. Most of the states already had bills of rights, but the Constitution might not have been ratified in 1788 if the states had not had assurances that a national Bill of Rights would soon be added.
People of that day were apprehensive about the new “monster” national government presented to them, and this helps explain the language and purpose of the Second Amendment. A few lines after the First Amendment’s guarantees — against “establishment of religion,” “free exercise” of religion, free speech and free press — came a guarantee that grew out of the deep-seated fear of a “national” or “standing” army. The same First Congress that approved the right to keep and bear arms also limited the national army to 840 men; Congress in the Second Amendment then provided:
“A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”
In the 1789 debate in Congress on James Madison’s proposed Bill of Rights, Elbridge Gerry argued that a state militia was necessary:
“to prevent the establishment of a standing army, the bane of liberty … Whenever governments mean to invade the rights and liberties of the people, they always attempt to destroy the militia in order to raise and army upon their ruins.”
We see that the need for a state militia was the predicate of the “right” guaranteed; in short, it was declared “necessary” in order to have a state military force to protect the security of the state. That Second Amendment clause must be read as though the word “because” was the opening word of the guarantee. Today, of course, the “state militia” serves a very different purpose. A huge national defense establishment has taken over the role of the militia of 200 years ago.
Some have exploited these ancient concerns, blurring sporting guns — rifles, shotguns and even machine pistols — with all firearms, including what are now called Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Wednesday, December 21, 2022
Do you ever watch Saturday Night Live?
If not, don’t worry. Not many people do… any more.
Like millions of other Americans, I do NOT watch it, and rather, see but snippets of it online every now and then, and occasionally see it mentioned in various news items here, there, and yon.
The reason I ask, is because a thought occurred to me, which is that, even though it’s circling the proverbial drain, it is salvageable.
In fact, in this now seemingly not-so funny time, it could quite possibly rise beyond its highest ratings period, which was its heyday, and perhaps even surpass it. But, the writers now ALL need to be fired. Why? They’re… Just. Not. Funny.
The track the show’s been on is eventually going to land it in the graveyard, and that’s not where longtime producer Lorne Michaels would like it to end up. But, at this point, it seems all but certain. The post mortem would read: Died for lack of humor caused by bad writing.
More to the point, as I pondered the matter, a thought occurred to me:
I do not ever recall having seen any skits or jokes about,
or references to, the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol.
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Tuesday, December 13, 2022
Yup… Xmas is just a few days away.
Fourteen, to be exact, as this is being written.
And Americans have done what Americans do best — commercialize and capitalize upon the sacred.
I mean, what would Xmas be like without Satan Claws, the Ishtar Bunny, Abdominable Snowman, or Rudolph the Brown-Nosed Reindeer, eh?
Maybe that’s too much mixture of metaphones.
But, “merii Kurisumasu,” to you, anyway.
“Kurisumasu” is Japanese, being, of course, the phonetic pronunciation of Christmas, and “merii” being the phonetic pronunciation of the term recognizing the Virgin of Paloma; combine the two, and you have yourselves a merry little Christmas, dear. No more running of the bulls in Pamplona… which should not be confused with melanoma, nor with Oklahoma. Thank you, Will Rogers — the Sooner State’s Favorite Son… who was a Cherokee, a literal honest Injun, a Red Man — not to be confused with the chewing tobacco. And to you too, Fred McFeely Rogers. What would Big Bird be without you? Kentucky Fried Chicken. And Doumo Arigatou (どうもありがとう) to you, Harlan Sanders. And to Komatsu, and John Deere, we send mounds of earth. Now, get moving.
So, what’s the meaning of all this hegemonic, cacophonic, histrionic, mesenteric, miasmatic mess?
Creativity — pure and simple. It’s something made up in the crevices of my creative cranium using things we know about. It’s the use of reality to make a surreality, a phantasy — a thing like the real, somewhat resembling the real, though its most defining characteristic is that it is unreal… very unreal. And we know it.
But seriously, our Japanese brethren have taken a shining to Xmas (but not The Shining), a virtual twinkling of an eye, and/or lights, and/or toes, candy canes, little tin soldiers, and stockings hung by the chimney with care in the hopes that Saint Nick soon will be there, even though Japan is a predominately Shinto and Buddhist nation, just like Middle Eastern nations are predominately Muslim. Seems they like having something to celebrate in the dead of winter, besides soy sauce, saki, and Sony. Now they have Santa. What would a Buddhist Santa look like?
Maybe something like this?
For the Christian faithful, it’s now the Advent season, an annual celebration which consists ofthefourSundaysbeforeChristmas, or inEasternOrthodoxchurches,the40daysbeforeChristmas, which will then become Christmastide (being the festival observed from December 24 which is Christmas Eve, Christmas Day is the First Day of Christmas, until January 5, the 12th Day of Christmas, which is the eve of Epiphany), then followed by Epiphany.
Got it?
In other words, it’s the season for some of the holiest, and most important days of the year for many orthodox and Catholic Christians, though some Protestant denominations also acknowledge them. And then comes Lent (which is a 40-day period of fasting and penitence observed by many Christians in preparation for Easter, which in Western churches, lasts from Ash Wednesday until Holy Saturday — which is the day before Easter Sunday — excluding Sundays, in which time the observant commemorate the fasting done by Jesus of Nazareth while in the wilderness) and Eastertide referring to the Easter season, which occurs from Easter Sunday to Ascension Day, sometimes also called Whitsunday, or Trinity Sunday, which is 40 days in duration, initiating with Easter Sunday. Easter is ALWAYS on a Sunday, because that’s when many Christians think Jesus of Nazareth was resurrected from death, following his execution by the government, and subsequent entombment.
As the story is told, He was never “properly buried,” per se — which as many now consider it, is to have the mortal remains placed in a casket, which is then inserted inside a concrete vault, which is placed in a hole dug into the ground, then covered with soil — and rather, His body was placed in a cave, the entrance to which reportedly had a large rock placed in front of the entrance as a blockade. Archaeologists, experts and others who’ve scoured the area around Jerusalem have found only 4 round disc-type rolling rocks used as tomb covers/blockades among the 900-plus Second Temple-period burial caves, all of which were examined by examined by archaeologist Amos Kloner, and those were reserved for the very wealthy and/or royalty. Much more likely, and much more common, was a stone, which may have been hewn, used as a type of plug, in a manner somewhat similar to a cork in a bottle.
That is similarly attested to by researcher Dr. Urban Cammilus von Wahlde, PhD, of Loyola University, Chicago, IL, a Research Fellow Yale Divinity School, 1979, member Catholic Biblical Association American, Society Biblical Literature, Chicago Society Biblical Research, etc., who authored an article to that effect which was published in the March/April 2015 issue of the peer-reviewed journal Biblical Archeology Review, in a column entitled “A Rolling Stone That Was Hard to Roll,” in which he analyzed the Gospel accounts to determine how such a stone which was reported to have sealed the cave/tomb, and found in particular in the Gospel of John, in the original Greek, the grammar used yielded a detail which supports the idea that the cave/tomb in which Jesus of Nazareth was reportedly buried was sealed with stone in a cork-like manner. Here’s an image of such a type cave/tomb.
Very few tombs in Jerusalem from the late Second Temple period had round (disk-shaped) rolling stones, which were utilized by those of wealth and royalty, and it was much more common to seal tombs with cork-shaped stones, such as the one seen here. The archaeological evidence strongly suggests that the cave/tomb of Jesus — which the story says was the unused tomb of Joseph of Arimathea — would have been sealed with a cork-shaped stone. Photo: Tom Powers.
Before it seems like we’re getting all bogged down before making a point, please… bear with me, be patient. There’s a reason why, and it’ll be plainly evident soon enough. Very soon, in fact. And these religious holy days/holidays must be enumerated in order to understand what will be presented at that moment, when “the reveal” is made.
So, continuing…
Eastertide, sometimes also called Paschaltide, Paschaltime, or the Paschal season, focuses upon celebrating what the Christian faithful say is the Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Saturday, December 10, 2022
Am I the only one who sees the dark irony of the inconsistency and hypocrisy of White Supremacists and other racists who say they’re Christian, yet the very religion which they ostensibly espouse was founded by Jews, and based upon the tenets taught by a Jew?😳🤯
The fact that they literally WORSHIP a Jew, yet hate the Jewish people?
Jesuits have a history as reformers, and are considered the “brains” of the Catholic church, insofar as academics, particularly higher education, medicine, law, and science, is important to them. In fact, it was a Jesuit priest, Father Georges Lemaître, a Belgian Catholic priest, theoretical physicist, mathematician, astronomer, and professor of physics at the Catholic University of Louvain, in Belgium — the Université Catholique de Louvain, from where he earned Docteur en Sciences in 1920, and in 1927, earned the Ph.D. from Massachusetts Institute of Technology — who first came up with the expanding universe theory, years ahead of Edwin Hubble, who later confirmed Lemaître’s work, rather than originating it, as some mistakenly believe. Another magnificent scientific achievement, now considered the scientific standard, is the “Big Bang” theory of the origin of the universe, was also originally proposed by Fr. Lemaître. Additionally, he also served as an artillery officer in WWI. When afterward he began academic pursuits, he studied at the renown University of Cambridge, where he later became a researcher, and an associate researcher at Harvard, and MIT. So, he was definitely no slouch in numerous ways.
But Pope Francis…
The interview was wide-ranging, and covered numerous topics of concern to all, not just to the religious, or to Catholics, which included bishops accused of sexual abuse of children, and adults, and their complicity in those criminal activities, as well as public perception of the church’s lack of concern about spousal/domestic partner abuse.
Toward the conclusion of the interview, Pope Francis was asked about his thoughts on the Russia/Ukraine matter, and made the following remarks.
Editor’s Note: On Nov. 22, 2022, five representatives of America Media interviewed Pope Francis at his residence at Santa Marta at the Vatican. Matt Malone, S.J., the departing editor in chief of America, was joined by Sam Sawyer, S.J., the incoming editor in chief; executive editor Kerry Weber; Gerard O’Connell, America’s Vatican correspondent; and Gloria Purvis, host of “The Gloria Purvis Podcast.” They discussed a wide range of topics with the pope, including polarization in the U.S. church, racism, the war in Ukraine, the Vatican’s relations with China and church teaching on the ordination of women. The interview was conducted in Spanish with the assistance of a translator, Elisabetta Piqué. A transcript of the Spanish text can be found here.
Here is the full transcript of that portion of the interview.
Gerard O’Connell: Holy Father, about Ukraine: Many in the United States have been confused by your seeming unwillingness to directly criticize Russia for its aggression against Ukraine, preferring instead to speak more generally of the need for an end to war, an end to mercenary activity rather than Russian attacks, and to the traffic in arms. How would you explain your position on this war to Ukrainians, or Americans and others who support Ukraine?
Pope Francis: When I speak about Ukraine, I speak of a people who are martyred. If you have a martyred people, you have someone who martyrs them. When I speak about Ukraine, I speak about the cruelty because I have much information about the cruelty of the troops that come in. Generally, the cruelest are perhaps those who are of Russia but are not of the Russian tradition, such as the Chechens, the Buryati and so on. Certainly, the one who invades is the Russian state. This is very clear. Sometimes I try not to specify so as not to offend and rather, condemn in general, although it is well known whom I am condemning. It is not necessary that I put a name and surname.
On the second day of the war, I went to the Russian embassy [to the Holy See], an unusual gesture because the pope never goes to an embassy. And there I said to the ambassador to tell [Vladimir] Putin that I was willing to Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Monday, November 28, 2022
Apple Could Lose Six Million iPhones Taipei Times
Tuesday, November 29, 2022, page 12
FACTORY TUMULT: Departure of new workers will negatively affect production much less than official governmental quarantines imposed on existing employees, said a worker at China’s ‘iPhone city.’
Turmoil at Apple Inc’s key manufacturing hub in Zhengzhou is likely to result in a production shortfall of almost 6 million iPhone Pro units this year, said a person familiar with assembly operations.
iPhone 14 Pro Max
The situation at the plant remains fluid and an estimate of lost production could change, said a person who requested anonymity to discuss private information.
Much depends on how quickly Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), the Taiwanese company that operates the facility, can get people back to assembly lines after violent protests against COVID-19 restrictions. If lockdowns continue in the weeks ahead, production could be further reduced.
The Zhengzhou campus has been wracked by lockdowns and worker unrest for weeks after COVID-19 infections left Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), and the local government struggling to contain the outbreak.
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Sunday, November 27, 2022
Apple charges between US$799 for a basic iPhone 14, to US$1599 for a top-of-the-line iPhone 14 Pro Max model.
That’s how much you’ll pay without carrier subsidies, which are typically tied to a service contract, but…
How much does Apple pay for it?
How much does it cost them to make it?
Japanese business newspaper Nihon Keizai Shimbun, and Fomalhaut Techno Solutions, a Tokyo-based mobile communications equipment analysis firm, collaborated to investigate and issued a report of their findings which were based upon disassembly of three models of the iPhone 14 series, and an estimated cost analysis of the hardware components.
Nihon Keizai Shimbun (Nihon sometimes also spelled Nippon), translated as “Japanese Economic Newspaper,” is Japan’s most widely respected daily business-oriented newspaper, with a total morning and evening circulation of 3.7 million.
iPhone 14 Pro Max
The report found that the total parts cost of Apple’s iPhone 14 Pro Max, their top-of-the-line model, costs about 20% more than last year’s iPhone 13. The iPhone 14 Pro series has few new features, and is powered by Apple’s A16 processor, which continues the company’s strategy of producing ultra-high performance products, yet prices in the US and elsewhere remain the same, thus ostensibly constricting, or compressing, profitability.
Since its 2018 introduction, iPhone’s flagship “Max” model has cost an extra US$400 to US$450.
Based upon their analysis, Fomalhaut estimated that the total parts price for the iPhone 14 Pro Max is approximately US$501, which is slightly US$60 more than last year’s iPhone 13 Pro Max model.
The cost increase in the iPhone 14 Pro series is primarily because of Apple’s “A16 Bionic” chip, which uses a state-of-the-art 4nm (nanometer) production process, currently only available from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited (TSMC), and Samsung Electronics.
Moves Protect Intellectual Property
Headquartered in Taiwan, TSMC is the world’s largest contract chip maker, a major Apple supplier, and is constructing a US$12 billion plant in Arizona near Phoenix. Governor Doug Ducey had initially visited Taiwan in 2017, and again in August 2020 for a 3-day trip, at which time TSMC announced their intention to build a $12B chip foundry in Arizona that year, and shortly thereafter began seeking subsidies. At the time of the announcement, TSMC speculated that construction would begin in 2024.
However, in August 2022, Governor Ducey made a brief construction progress report about TSMC’s Arizona facility, and recollecting his previously visits, stated in part that, “Just over two years later TSMC has completed construction for its main facility and continues to make excellent progress. Along with TSMC’s historic investment, roughly two dozen Taiwanese-based suppliers are finding Arizona is right for investment.”
TSMC broke ground on the project March 2021 and had a ceremonial “topping” celebration, a construction industry term meaning installation of the last beam, with 4000 attendees in July 2022. The property literally went from 1100 acres of tumbleweeds to factory shells in under six months.
But not only is the construction of TSMC’s Arizona facility a win-win for the United States, it also represents a prospective national security matter, because there have been rumblings that the Communist Chinese government could seize the Taiwanese facility.
Speaking in May 2022 at the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies at Renmin University of China in Beijing, Chen Wenling, Chief Economist at the Communist Chinese government-run China Center for International Economic Exchanges told attendees that, “If the US and the West impose destructive sanctions on China like sanctions against Russia, we must recover Taiwan.”
Her remarks were alarming, and appeared to encourage Chinese military assault, and she warned the attendees that Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Friday, November 18, 2022
There’s been a significant amount of handwringing over remarks made by so-called “free speech” advocates who assert that anyone can say anything online “because it’s ‘free’ speech,” and ostensibly protected by the First Amendment.
I demur.
Facebook, Instagram (owned by FB), and Twitter, which are the “Big Three” online Social Media (SoMe) corporate megaliths (that is, if Twitter survives Elon Musk, if not, then TikTok may take Twitter’s place), have increasingly come under fire in the past several years — justifiably so — for turning a blind eye to bad behavior, “speech” in particular (as writing and/or video, both mediums posted on the services), thereby, in essence, becoming purveyors of lies, complicit by their inactions, in aiding and abetting actions of bad actors, consequently harming our nation — a significant portion of which continues originating in nations hostile to American national interests.
“Russian Information Warfare content on social media attempts to subvert Western democracies in five ways:
1.) Undermine public confidence in democratic government;
2.) Exacerbate internal political divisions;
3.) Erode trust in government;
4.) Push the Russian agenda in foreign populations, and;
5.) Create confusion and distrust by blurring fact and fiction.
Russian propaganda on social media can be divided into four themes:
1.) Political messages intended to foster distrust in government (e.g. allegations of voter fraud, corruption); 2.) Financial propaganda (i.e. create distrust in Western financial institutions); 3.) Social issues (e.g. ethnic tensions, police brutality), and; 4.) Doomsday-style conspiracy theories.
“Information warfare content is generated and disseminated through channels that fall into three attribution categories:
1.) White (overt); 2.) Grey (less-overt), and; 3.) Black (covert) channels.
They propagate a blend of authentic, manipulated, and fake stories and they feed off of and reinforce each other.”
“Russia views cyber very differently than its western counterparts, from the way Russian theorists define cyberwarfare to how the Kremlin employs its cyber capabilities.” Part of that difference is that the Russians “conceptualize cyber operations within the broader framework of information warfare, a holistic concept that includes computer network operations, electronic warfare, psychological operations, and information operations.”
And as part of their overall operations in that realm, not only does Russia “employ cyber as a conventional force enabler,” they integrate cybercriminals, hacktivists, and other nefariously malign non-state actors into their overall operations scheme, a practice also undertaken by “China, Iran, North Korea, and other cyber adversaries.”
That information is further borne out by the writings of Professor Dr. Mark Galeotti, PhD, who in June 2022 was recently banned from travel to Russia, wrote an OpEd in the independent news journal The Moscow Times, published December 22, 2017, that, “It is hard to sustain a serious claim that NATO tanks are about to surge eastwards – though some of the Kremlin’s more fanciful propagandists do try – but the virtues of the “secret battlefield” of intelligence work is that it is precisely covert.”
Dr. Galeotti is an internationally-recognized expert in security politics, intelligence services and criminality of modern Russia, is a Senior Non-Resident Fellow of the Institute of International Relations Prague, an Associate Fellow at the Council on Geostrategy, Honorary Professor at the UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies, Honorary Professor at University College London, and Executive Director and principal in Mayak Intelligence, a London-based consultancy specializing in, and primarily focusing upon understanding organized and transnational crime, war, politics and history in Russia. Dr. Galieotti is also a contributing member of the Network of Experts of the independent civil-society organization Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland.
The root cause of such problems, wrote David J. Smith in “How Russia Harnesses Cyber Warfare,” published in Defense Dossier, American Foreign Policy Council (August 2012: Issue 4), 9,” is inherently based in, and the natural outcome of, Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Thursday, November 17, 2022
The forest doesn’t need us.
It was here before us, and it will be here after we leave.
The forest will survive despite our abuses of it.
We are the ones who need the forest.
“The Man Who Planted Trees”
A short story by Jean Giono Featuring the Paul Winter Consort & Jean Giono Narrated by Robert J. Lurtsema The work won an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film in 1987.
“The Man Who Planted Trees” is 1953 fictional short story by French author Jean Giono, who in a 1957 letter to a Digne, France city official wrote, “Elzéard Bouffier is a fictional person. The goal was to make trees likeable, or more specifically, make planting trees likeable.”
The book, which was translated into several languages and distributed without charge, was so well received that many thought it was a true story, thus somewhat necessitating such a letter.
The story illustrates the magnitude of difference that one person can make to the earth.
“The Man Who Planted Trees” tells a tale of Elzéard Bouffier, a simple man of determination, who, after losing his wife and son, retreated to a desolately remote part of France, which land he thought “was dying for want of trees.” So, with his dog and sheep as his solitary companions, he began his life’s work — daily planting one hundred acorns.
Over 30 years, laboring in peace without interruption, and in complete anonymity, Elzéard’s planting of trees resurrected and transformed a once desiccated landscape, relentlessly ravaged by winds, and forsaken by people, into a verdantly vibrant, vigorous, and thriving region, filled with people and life of all kinds.
Life imitates art. —————————
Manipur man converts barren land into 300-acre forest
Meanwhile, Loiya is certain that the task of growing a forest and nurturing it is going to be “a lifelong mission” although he now works in a pharmacy to earn a living and to sustain his family.
Published: 13th November 2022 12:41 PM — Last Updated: 13th November 2022 12:41 PM
IMPHAL: A 47-year-old man in Manipur’s Imphal West district has converted barren land into a 300-acre forest with a wide variety of plant species in 20 years.
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Tuesday, November 15, 2022
Why is Herschel Walker surprised?
Seriously…WHY?
The GOP (Grand Old Party, a Republican moniker which emerged c.1854) is no more, and is not even a mere shadow of its former self. It is LITERALLY the FGOP — Formerly Grand Old Party, or OGOP, Once Grand Old Party.
Today, it’s the POT (Party Of Trump) — a natural-born liar, swindler, cheater, chiseler, defrauder, narcissistic, racist, xenophobic, duplicitous, unpatriotic, treasonously treacherous traitor who will LITERALLY DO ANYTHING to get what he wants, everyone and everything else be damned — and his servile sycophantic boot-licking, pablum-puking puerile punks.
They’re ALL ass-kissers — as POS45 (Piece Of Shit 45) described his subservient anointed Ohio Senate candidate J.D.Vance while campaigning with him September 17, 2022 saying, “J.D. is kissing my ass he wants my support so bad“ — and mendaciously monolithic morons.
The last genuine Republican may have very well been the now-late Arizona Senator John McCain who so despised POS45 that, while in his last days on Earth, still in office and dying from glioblastoma, a brain cancer that typically kills its victims within 16 months +/-, that he gave specific orders FORBIDDING PO45 from attending his funeral.
So, for Herschel Walker, that poor fool-as-a-tool used by POS45 and the OGOP — a Black man, at that — it’s just another example of how the worthless scum who fly that elephantine banner treat Americans.
The “I love the poorly-educated” voters who cast their ballots for anything with the letter “R” beside their name (which instead ought to be a “T”), are unthinking “Concrete Block Republicans” who would literally vote for a concrete block instead of anyone in any other party, demonstrating that they’re vacuous prattling imbeciles who neither think, nor attempt to think, and very much vote for anything that flies that modern political jolly roger.
Moreover, it’s ABUNDANTLY CLEAR that PO45 will be VERY MUCH trying to buy his way back into the White House, and continues demonstrating his deliberately deceptive, swindling, chiseling, cheating ways.
It’s just pure putrid MAGA effluvium on the Trump Dump garbage scow.
Herschel Walker’s campaign to Republicans:
Stop〝deceptive fundraising〞in Georgia U.S. Senate runoff
Republican politicians and associated committees are sending out desperate fundraising emails begging the GOP faithful to help save America by getting behind Herschel Walker in his Dec. 6 runoff against Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock in Georgia.
But what’s not immediately clear to recipients is how little of that money is going to Walker’s campaign: just a dime for every dollar given by small donors.
Walker’s campaign, which has trailed Warnock’s in fundraising throughout the election, is asking fellow Republicans to stop their fundraising practices — or at least to start sharing more with the candidate.
Herschel Walker during his Unite Georgia Bus Stop campaign rally in Norcross, GA, September 9, 2022. Photo by Demetrius Freeman / The WaPo
“We need everyone focused onwinning the Georgia Senate race, and deceptive fundraising tactics by teams that just won their races are siphoning money away from Georgia,” said Walker’s campaign manager Scott Paradise on Monday.
“This is the last fight of 2022, and every dollar will help,” Paradise said. “The companies and consultants raising money off this need to cut it out.”
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Monday, November 14, 2022
The good people at GoBankingRates.com have compiled a short list of “States Whose Economies Are Failing vs. States Whose Economies Are Thriving,” which was written by Certified Financial Planner and Registered Investment Adviser John Csiszar, who, following his graduation from UCLA with a B.A. in English and a specialization in Business, worked in the financial services industry for 18 years.
Mr. Csiszar also earned the Certified Life Underwriter designation, while simultaneously working for a major, full-service Wall Street broker-dealer, and forming his own investment advisory firm, which managed over $100 million in client assets, in addition to providing investment advisory services, financial planning, and other related services.
His financial specialties include performing financial analysis, risk-avoidance strategies, long-term savings techniques, capital preservation tips, personalized investment advice, and daily budgeting.
In addition to that stellar financial profile, he further demonstrated diverse entrepreneurial skills by opening and managing a boutique travel company, and is a published author of 5 educational books on topics ranging from information technology to the element aluminum which are aimed toward the young adult market. He has also written extensively for numerous renown publications, and has authored several thousands of articles on personal financial planning, and financial services.
In his most recent article for GoBankingRates.com, “States Whose Economies Are Failing vs. States Whose Economies Are Thriving,” he lists 15 states each in 2 categories: States Whose Economies Are Failing, and States Whose Economies Are Thriving. The general purpose of the article and enumeration is to examine how states are faring in their economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. By examining 60% of the 50 states, it provides a relatively decent picture of the overall state of the states, and how they are each faring as individual parts of the greater national economy.
He notes specifically that because “the U.S. is such a large country, with a wide diversity of states and economies, the recovery is Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Friday, November 11, 2022
Thirteen days after the 2020 election, I had lunch with President Trump. I told him that if his legal challenges came up short, he could simply accept the results, move forward with the transition, and start a political comeback, winning the Senate runoffs in Georgia, the 2021 Virginia governor’s race, and the House and Senate in 2022. Then he could run for president in 2024 and win. He seemed unmoved, even weary: “I don’t know, 2024 is so far off.”
A common housefly alit and remained for several minutes upon Vice President Mike Pence’s head, Wednesday, October 7, during the 2020 Vice Presidential debate at the University of Utah, in Salt Lake City, with Kamala Harris, the Democratic Party’s nominee.
In a Dec. 5 call, the president for the first time mentioned challenging the election results in Congress. By mid-December, the internet was filled with speculation about my role. An irresponsible TV ad by a group calling itself the Lincoln Project suggested that when I presided over the Jan. 6 joint session of Congress to count the electoral votes, it would prove that I knew “it’s over,” and that by doing my constitutional duty, I would be “putting the final nail in the coffin” of the president’s re-election. To my knowledge, it was the first time anyone implied I might be able to change the outcome. It was designed to annoy the president. It worked. During a December cabinet meeting, President Trump told me the ad “looked bad for you.” I replied that it wasn’t true: I had fully supported the legal challenges to the election and would continue to do so.
On Dec. 19, the president mentioned plans for a rally in Washington on Jan. 6. I thought that would be useful to call attention to the proceedings. I had just spoken with a senator about the importance of vetting concerns about the election before Congress and the American people. At the White House on Dec. 21, Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan led lawmakers in a discussion about plans to bring objections. I promised that all properly submitted objections would be recognized and fully debated.
On Dec. 23, my family boarded Air Force Two to spend Christmas with friends. As we flew across America, President Trump retweeted an obscure article titled “Operation Pence Card.” It alluded to the theory that if all else failed, I could alter the outcome of the election on Jan. 6. I showed it to Karen, my wife, and rolled my eyes.
Plainclothes United States Capitol Police behind a barricaded door on the Floor of the House of Representatives, aim at an insurrectionist — one of thousands on January 6, 2021 who ransacked and destroyed government property and offices at the U.S. Capitol Building at the oblique request of then-POTUS Donald Trump in his failed conspiracy attempt to remain in power by providing several slates of falsified Electoral College Electors, then inciting violence during the certification process — following his re-election defeat in the November 2020 General Election to the Democratic Party’s nominee, former long-time U.S. Senator, then Vice President, Joseph R. Biden, Jr.
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Thursday, November 10, 2022
Yes, it’s TRUE:
Iowa Republican Senator Charles “Chuck” Grassley, now aged 89, (b.1933) was born before the invention of the chocolate chip cookie (late 1930’s).
And — believe it, or else — Iowa voters returned him to the nation’s Capitol to serve warm a seat another six (6) years in the United States Senate.
So, when was the chocolate chip cookie invented?
For that answer, we find this:
“The original recipe was created in the late 1930s by Ruth Wakefield who famously ran the Toll House restaurant in Whitman, Massachusetts. The delicious mix of crispy cookie and melted chocolate chunks first appeared in Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Tuesday, November 8, 2022
Soft-pedaling journos who suck up to their subjects (the folks about whom they regularly write), have changed their tone on Joe “Maserati” Manchin III’s yacht, and have taken to calling it a “houseboat.”
That’s just wrong — just plain wrong — on so many levels, and you’re about to understand why.
First, some websites assert that the term “yacht” is superfluous, or supererogatory, that the term is ambiguous, and open to interpretation.
WV Senator Joe “Maserati” Manchin III on his yacht “Almost Heaven” speaks to protesters in kayaks below. The vessel’s name, and its hailing port (home port) are clearly visible.
I demur.
That is most certainly NOT the case.
The United States Coast Guard establishes guidelines for vessels, which are Federal laws and regulations that vessel owners MUST follow, one of which is that if a vessel exceeds a certain length from stem to stern (front to back) it must be registered with the USCG. As well, there is an organization — the National Marine Manufacturers Association (NMMA) — that similarly ranks and characterizes vessels, which establishes standards for vessel construction, as well as the standards set by the American Boats & Yacht Council (ABYC).
If a vessel is longer than 26 feet, it MUST be registered with the United States Coast Guard. That is the law. If under 26 feet long, it may, or may not, be required to registered with the USCG, depending on the state or locality of the owner’s residence (home port). In almost every state, boats under 26 feet in length must bear a registration number on the exterior of the hull, typically toward the bow, whereas with USCG-registered vessels, a vessel’s name and hailing port must be marked together on some clearly visible exterior part of the hull. A “hailing port” is the location from which the vessel is typically harbored (parked). In the case of Joe “Maserati” Manchin’s yacht, it’s named “Almost Heaven,” and is from Charleston, WV. When the yacht was previously named “JENNIFER ANNE,” its Hailing Port was ANNAPOLIS, MD.
“Today the DeLanceys live afloat on the Jennifer Ann. You could call it a houseboat, but that would be like calling Air Force One a plane. Within the sunny, air-conditioned confines of the custom-built, 65-by-20-foot, three-story steel hull, David has packaged more space and amenities than most apartments and condominiums, and many houses. The 1,500 square feet of interior living space embrace 3 1/2 bedrooms (including a 14-by-20-foot master suite), 3 1/2 bathrooms, and a bright and open living/dining area (complete with a granite dining table) where the DeLanceys have comfortably entertained as many as 50 people to Read the rest of this entry »
And as a tenet of their faith, they are vegetarian — some lacto-ovo, some pescatarian, some vegan. And you know you’ve made friends with them when they invite you to share a meal with them — that’s true of any people, religious, or not — and I have always considered it great honor to share a meal with them. One such time was Thanksgiving several years ago, when I was 
Gripe the First 1.):
The Volunteer State and the nation are grieving over the deaths of three 9-year old children, and 3 adults gunned down at The Covenant School, a private Christian elementary school in Nashville’s Green Hills district. The world has taken notice not only the victims’ deaths, but of the heroic actions of Nashville’s Metro Police Department, whose members were on scene and resolved the problem in 15 minutes. Such quick action undoubtedly saved lives. They are to be commended beyond measure, and deservedly should be awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, our nation’s highest civilian honor, perhaps even the Congressional Gold Medal.
Warm Southern Breeze 