Category Archives: General Interest

October 13, 2021 · 11:42 pm

More inflation and shortage bad news

Whenever you try to think life will return to the normal of pre-Covid times, there seems to be more bad news just around the corner. In recent weeks the news keeps blaring warnings about impending inflation and shortages due to major shipping issues, especially bottlenecks at U.S. ports. Predictions of shortages of everything from food, to paper goods abound and even the White House acknowledged the shipping issues and warned that Americans might not be able to get the items they want for Christmas.

Along with the ongoing shipping issues, this past weekend I saw several prepper channels on YouTube blaring warnings about food shortages and hyping a letter, supposedly from Auguson Farms, a producer of freeze-dried foods designed for long-term food storage, which many preppers and outdoorsmen purchase. The letter stated Auguson Farms was temporarily shutting down due to food shortages in their supply chain. I googled a bit, but didn’t find an official statement from Auguson Farms. However, the online prepper community panic-inducing chain reaction was pretty typical from what I’ve seen in YouTube’s prepper community, where the doom and gloom prognostications flourish and feed an online prepper rumor mill.

Just because so and so at one YouTube channel “reports” something, doesn’t mean it’s verified information or accurate, so I googled and didn’t come up with anything to verify the information. I did notice Auguson Farms has temporarily shut off taking orders on their website, citing a high-volume of orders. The letter some YouTube prepper channels were citing might be an actual letter from Auguson Farms, but I’m not sure who received these letters. And that’s the thing with so much of social media “news,” it lacks verification and huge gaps in details and often the source of the information is vague. Unfortunately, this lack of verification now applies to many actual news organizations news too , not just random social media influencers. It’s getting very hard to verify information.

I also saw a comment on social media where someone was wishing there was some list of items that are expected to become in short supply, so she could figure out what items to hoard. That got me thinking about my own prepping experiences again. My prepping mind-set keeps evolving. I admit to falling prey to a lot of fear when the pandemic, great toilet paper shortage of 2020, then the BLM pandemonium hit.

The 2020 shortages were due, not only to shipping/supply issues, but also to massive panic-buying. The 2020 shortages prodded me to become a pretty dedicated prepper in regards to stocking up on food and household items. I always had a lot of food stored, because that’s just how I am, but I had no focused prepping effort or organization.

Everyone’s home is different, from budget to diet to the household items they use, but how most people, myself included, react to any news about shortages seems pretty predictable – a whole lot of panic-buying and that goes for a lot of online preppers too. Many of the popular preppers on YouTube claim their being prepared allows them to avoid panic-buying, but most of them overreact to any rumor of a shortage, by rushing out to stock up more (i.e. panic-buying). Along with a lot of useful and practical information, the online prepper community spreads a lot of fear about impending doom and gloom scenarios, many spread a lot of rumors and many are hardcore panic-buyers, because no level of food and emergency supplies ever seems to be enough for them and they fixate on every morsel of bad news, from someone posting about some random shortage in their local grocery store to overexaggerated fears about the system falling apart and SHTF events

I’m a lifelong conservative, but here’s a home truth about the political right in America – many of them fall for a lot of demagogues selling doomsday claptrap (see the most popular right-wing pundits) and fear of the Left, 2nd Amendment hysteria, and since Trump came along, too many on the right overreact as much as the looney fringe on the Left. The right-wing politics does intrude into the online prepper community too. Many in the YouTube prepper community are part of the Trump-right politically, where a whole lot of doomsday/anti-government conspiracy theories flourish. I’m not trying to pick on Trump supporters, but It seems a lot of that right-wing partisan politics plays into much of the trendy online prepper topics. I skip prepper channels where the people go on and on about SHTF, civil war/guns & ammo stockpiling, and doomsday scenario stuff, because I don’t believe in living my life fixated on doomsday events and find it more constructive to try to live life with a hopeful heart.

I’m a worrying kind of person, so thinking about the “what ifs” comes naturally to me too, but after going through this pandemic and all the craziness everywhere, from politics to civil unrest, new reports of this current news warning of impending shortages didn’t get me worked up or worrying. I can’t change the international shipping problems, but I can continue to try to plan ahead a bit more for my own basic needs.

Preparedness is individual and some people can manage very well on very little, while other people can be surrounded with all sorts of stuff and be completely helpless. I’ve known people who can’t even open a can of soup and heat it, so truly in a real emergency or SHTF scenario, having acquired skill sets probably matters more than acquiring a massive stockpile of supplies. Along with all the focus on buying things to be prepared, saving up some money to have an emergency fund should be a higher priority than stockpiling piles of SHTF supplies. There’s got to be a balance between buying stuff with your prepping efforts and common sense putting money aside for emergencies, which in everyday life usually range from expensive car repairs to something in your home breaks and needs to be replaced rather than a doomsday event or major weather emergency.

Finding your own comfort level matters. I can guarantee you that some hardcore preppers will never have enough food or supplies stored up that would allow them to relax. Planning for SHTF events is their life. It’s almost a perpetual state of paranoia and it’s contagious if you start believing all of the dire stuff. Knowing how easily I worry made me stop and reassess a lot as I’ve worked out a preparedness level that fits my budget and my lifestyle. Here’s the other big thing – a lot of food and supplies stockpiled can lead to a whole lot of waste. Wasting less matters to me and is as much of a priority as stocking up.

One thing I would not do again is rely on emergency preparedness food lists other people create, where they tell you how much of the various food items you should stockpile, other than glancing over it and seeing if there are items on it that I do use and haven’t stocked up on yet. With master lists that are supposed to be a one-size fits all food storage plan, it sets a lot of unrealistic expectations, plus can lead to wasting a lot of money on food items you’re not likely to use in your everyday meal preparations. Here’s how I look at it, if you don’t have a supply of everyday foods to last you for several months, it makes no sense to spend a lot of money or worry about building an extended food storage pantry (stuff that last 20-30 years).

What’s working for me is I’ve turned “prepping” into a more relaxed “shopping ahead” attitude rather than based on reacting to alarming news stories or the alarmist prepper social media rumor mill. I feel more in control of my preparedness now, by calmly looking through my pantry and around my house, gauging how long my current supplies will last and building my shopping list from that, rather than reacting to more doom and gloom news or social media hysteria.

I’m done with fear-induced buying.

With the current bad news, I’ve already got most of the basic food items for holiday meals this year, because I’ve been “shopping ahead” the past year and will continue to stock up, but I’m not going to run from store to store in a panic. I have built up my food storage to a level I’m comfortable with and I will continue to shop ahead. Changing my mind-set from preparing for a SHTF/emergecny event to a more sustainable “shopping ahead” mind-set has allowed me to relax more, think more carefully about what items I am buying and most of all to think more in terms of buying with the meals I regularly cook or items for new recipes in mind rather than worrying about some “expert’s” prepper list. I have learned a lot from the online prepper community and enjoy many of the YouTube prepper channels, but I’ve become a bit more confident in thinking through my own preparedness planning and purchases, by gearing it towards my own life rather than based on what’s the latest hot topic in the online prepper community.

Impending shortages are very real news right now, but slowing down, catching your breath, organizing and inventorying your own pantry and household, then calmly making a shopping list based off of your own meal preferences and routine will allow you to maintain a more normal lifestyle than running around buying stuff based on fear constantly. And before you even start that shopping list, with inflation hitting seriously assessing your budget and finances should be step one.

Leave a comment

Filed under Emergency Preparedness, General Interest

October 4, 2021 · 7:16 pm

A few more thoughts on the Scheller situation

I’ve been thinking a lot about my last post, because as a conservative, my view seems to be a lone one. Looking at this situation I tried to break things down into a timeline and who said or did what and when. Then I assessed it based on my limited understanding of UCMJ, of the military, and any events similar to this that I recall. I tried very hard to view Lt. Col. Scheller’s actions through an apolitical lens, which is quite a challenge these days. My feelings of outrage about the lack of accountability of top generals and the Biden WH for the Afghanistan withdrawal debacle are very similar to Scheller’s, but (yeah, there are always those buts) my feelings aren’t what matters.

Bolstering the US military as an institution matters.

In our current hyper-partisan culture, coupled with the social media and news media rage machine spin war culture, each and every one of us is manipulated and influenced by this constant media incitement. We get the videos that go viral to stir up emotional responses. We also get a lot of inaccurate and often deliberately dishonest framing, to feed and fuel partisan views.

It’s easy to spot the spin crap on the other side, as I can attest, because after trying to understand the Dem spin information war since the 1990s, spotting dem and liberal spin seems second nature to me. I disagree with probably 99.9% of Dem and liberal spin narratives. It could be 100%, but perhaps a miracle will occur and there will be a Dem spin effort where they’ll say sometime that I agree with. Hasn’t happened yet, though.

The harder challenge is to spot the spin crap or inaccurate information from the side that feeds into my partisan political views. I’ve been very conservative my entire adult life.

I feel a great deal of anguish for Scheller’s parents, who have spoken out defending their son. Scheller served faithfully and with honor for over 17 years in the Marines, as an infantry officer. His father said Scheller did 5 deployments in that time. I’d imagine how the Biden administration misled this Afghanistan withdrawal debacle and the way several top generals and the Sec. of Defense paid lip service to the Biden spin effort felt like a betrayal and a disgrace to many servicemembers, who actually had skin in the game in Afghanistan and Iraq. Scheller’s father (around 3:00 in the above video) said after the suicide bombing outside the Kabul airport, his son snapped and was very angry. I felt a great deal of anger and a burning sense of outrage too and and I didn’t personally sacrifice anything in the “war on terror.” One of my sisters, a career Air Force vet, deployed to Afghanistan in the early years and one of my sons, who was in the Air Force, deployed to Iraq. Scheller’s parents went through 5 deployments with their son serving in the Marine Corps infantry – directly in harm’s way.

I understand Scheller’s anger. I also suspect that if Scheller had stopped posting videos to social media and abided by the gag order, he would not have ended up in the brig. He chose to disobey that lawful order. And here’s where there’s a bit of an information gap in my understanding – I wonder how many right-wing political types and pundits had contact with Scheller and if they influenced his decision to disobey the gag order. I wonder if they encouraged his efforts, made any promises to support his efforts, etc.

After a few days reflection on this situation, I still believe rules matter, I still believe blatant insubordination in the military can’t be ignored, and I believe that Scheller ended up in the brig for disobeying that gag order.

One of the things that bothered me was in the Ingraham interview (at 7:26) Ingraham asked Scheller’s parents about Senator Cotton asking Sec. of Defense, Lloyd Austin, why Scheller is being held in pretrial confinement. Austin appropriately did not answer. If Austin had weighed in, that is undue command influence in a pending case. Austin shouldn’t make any public comments on that case. Period. Ingraham foolishly was spouting that the Pentagon chief should be weighing in on a pending case. This is the spin world we live in – rules don’t matter, upholding institutional norms don’t matter. Only partisan spin incitement matters.

Leave a comment

Filed under General Interest, Information War, Military

October 1, 2021 · 2:27 pm

Social media creates another instant political hero

Back during the Obama years, I was thoroughly disgusted in 2014, when the Obama administration tried to con Americans into believing Bowe Bergdahl was a war hero, when in reality he deserted his post in Afghanistan. Susan Rice, Obama’s national security advisor, went so far as to say Bergdahl “served with honor and distinction.” That statement was a total lie.

So here we are in 2021 and I am disgusted by the right-wing efforts to turn Lt. Col. Stuart Scheller, a Marine battalion commander who spoke out demanding accountability from top military leaders for the Afghanistan withdrawal debacle, into a right-wing POLITICAL hero. Assuredly, Scheller’s military record is filled with awards and decorations that speak to heroism on the battlefield. He earned a bronze star, among numerous other awards.

I understand why many people cheered Scheller risking his military career to speak out demanding accountability by top military leaders, especially, when so many top military leaders spew weaselly words and duck for cover rather than speaking the truth or taking any responsibility for anything. Among political leaders of either party, there is zero accountability for anything too. However, here I come to the “BUTs.”

Task and Purpose has a military bio of Scheller and a clear break down of the sequence of events, status of the military investigation, and social media video posts. There are lots of useful links in their reporting.

Now to the “but,” rules matter, especially in the military and for good order and discipline to be maintained, requires trust within the chain of command. Top Pentagon leadership’s failure to take any responsibility and willingness to sell the Biden administration political talking points with the Afghanistan withdrawal debacle and to sell the Biden Woke agenda, has eroded trust in the chain of command.

Scheller’s first video spoke to lack of accountability and his viewpoint resonated with many active duty military and vets around the country. BUT, Scheller’s actions and his call to action attacks the other pillar required for our military to function – good order and discipline. The US military can not function when subordinates publicly attack superior officers and encourage Americans “to bring the whole f-ing system down.”

Schellar swore an oath to support and defend, not to bring the f-ing system down”:

And now to the biggest BUT, that’s getting buried, while right-wing punditry and some FOX News primetime power players keep spinning that Scheller is being punished for demanding accountability. One of the first things I learned in the Army is that if I had a problem, I was supposed to solve it at the lowest level possible and go through my chain of command. He skipped his chain of command and decided to use his social media to become a political activist. The military doesn’t need political activists in the ranks, especially not battalion commanders entrusted to lead troops into battle. He bypassed his chain of command and he deliberately disobeyed a lawful direct order. Scheller posted videos to his social media, some in uniform, attacking superiors.

Scheller decided to risk his career, which many people are cheering, except even in his video, where he’s in shorts ( that’s a 10 minute video, so watch the whole thing) and ranting about taking down the system, in one breath he was saying he doesn’t want a cent and in the next he was listing ways to donate money to his wife. This morning I think the fundraising efforts on his behalf are over 2 million dollars and his cause seems to be energizing more people to donate to him than efforts to raise money for the 13 servicemembers killed and dozens injured in the suicide bomber attack at the Kabul airport.

Many Americans have bought into the right-wing spin effort selling Scheller as being punished for speaking out. Scheller broke long-time military rules. He ended up in the brig, not for speaking out demanding accountability, BUT because he deliberately violated a lawful direct order to stop posting on his social media or through third parties, while his case is being investigated. Gag orders, even in the civilian legal system, are perfectly legal and common. Pretrial confinement also seems perfectly reasonable, in light of Scheller posting another video on his social media, in violation of that lawful order.

Scheller did way more than speak out demanding accountability. He was ranting about leading an effort to take down the system. This issue of military members speaking out isn’t new and neither are the repercussions. Here’s a link from 1993, when a general spoke out about President Clinton and was ousted. I also remember the Pentagon issuing warnings to the whole military to refrain from making derogatory remarks about President Clinton publicly. I remember this, because my husband loathed President Clinton and turned the channel whenever Clinton was on TV. The Clintons corruption fascinated me and I liked to watch President Clinton speaking to analyze his deceptive use of language, but my husband didn’t even want to see President Clinton on TV, let alone pay attention to anything he said.

The lack of accountability at the highest levels of our government and military bode poorly for America. Disgusted Americans rushing to get behind Scheller and elevating him to being a new right-wing political hero, based on his social media videos and a whole lot of powerful right-wing media oxygen (especially Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity selling him) speaks to how easily right-wing Americans are duped and conned by the powerful right-wing media. And yes, left-wing Americans have powerful liberal media duping and conning them and selling them false heroes too (see Avenatti, for instance).

While I don’t think Scheller is a sleaze like Avenatti, my impression, after watching his videos is Scheller seems emotionally volatile, possesses a massive ego, going on and on about how brilliant he is and how he’s the person to lead this effort to “bring down the whole f-ing system.” I didn’t see an emotionally stable person or a calm leader watching his videos. I suspected some PTSD issues and a lot of narcissism.

Due to how many Americans are rushing to champion him and send money, I expect Scheller to be gracing the stage of Trump rallies or joining the Matt Gaetz and Marjorie Taylor Greene political circus in the near future. Heck, it wouldn’t surprise me if Scheller parlays his new fame into a political career, BUT his actions won’t do a thing to deliver accountability or bolster the US military as an institution. So, for all his professed demand for accountability, Scheller wants it both ways – he demands accountability of top military leaders, but he’s decided to defy a lawful direct order and his parents and right-wing media are trying to pressure the Marine Corps for there to be zero accountability for Scheller’s pretty blatant act of insubordination and disobeying a direct order. You can’t demand accountability and claim you revere the military institution, then turn around and in uniform willfully break basic rules that underpin and bolster that very institution. Not a single thing he’s done will help strengthen the US military. He’s just adding to the erosion of military standards.

5 Comments

Filed under General Interest, Military, Politics

September 26, 2021 · 8:59 pm

Life in a liberal-controlled rabbit hole

This past week the liberal media and Democrats finally decided to focus on the illegal immigration crisis at the US southern border, which has been growing since President Biden rolled back the Trump era border control policies earlier this year. Back in March, President Biden tapped Vice President Harris to deal with the escalating border problem:

“WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden announced Wednesday that he has appointed Vice President Kamala Harris to lead efforts to stem migration across the U.S.-Mexico border, as the administration faces growing political pressure to address a surge in undocumented migrant children unaccompanied by parents.”

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/biden-taps-harris-lead-coordination-efforts-southern-border-n1261952

This latest border crisis involved mostly illegal immigrants from Central American countries, but in recent weeks it’s now, reportedly, Haitian illegal immigrants flooding the US southern border with Mexico. It’s not politically correct to question how on earth these tens of thousands of poor Haitian illegal immigrants are getting from the Caribbean island of Haiti to Mexico or to inquire if there are any political or NGO groups funding this mass illegal immigration movement.

For reference, I recall reading a sympathetic refugee Washington Post report years ago on the Syrian refugee crisis, which deluged European countries with refugees, not just from war-torn Syria, but from many other countries. I wrote a blog post, Adding it up, back in 2015, and in 2018 I wrote, The smell of a manufactured crisis, about how these refugee crises seem manufactured and well-funded.

This past week a new story, which I’m not sure whether to believe emerged. This new storyline claims most Haitian illegal immigrants trying to enter the US have been living in Brazil, Chile, Mexico and other Latin American countries for years and not coming directly from Haiti:

“Nearly all Haitians reach the U.S. border on a well-worn route: Fly to Brazil, Chile or elsewhere in South America. If jobs dry up, slowly move through Central America and Mexico by bus and on foot to wait — perhaps years — in northern border cities like Tijuana for the right time to enter the United States and claim asylum.”

https://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory/haitian-journey-texas-border-starts-south-america-80139590

The liberal (mainstream) media and the Biden administration downplayed the flood of Haitian illegal immigrants, as the situation at Del Rio, TX escalated into a serious crisis with an estimated 15,000 illegal immigrants massed in a makeshift camp. As the numbers of illegal immigrants swelled FOX News continued its coverage of the border crisis and was using drone footage, which they’d been doing for months. Rather than address the crisis the FAA issued a temporary ban on Fox News drones around Del Rio, which seemed very similar to the liberal efforts to silence Trump’s social media presence and bury the Hunter Biden laptop story, except with the FAA, the Biden administration was overtly abusing government power rather than relying on liberal media and big tech cronies to corruptly silence stories Dems wanted buried. The FAA lifted the suspension, but that the Biden administration was willing to abuse power like this, to try to impede FOX News’ coverage, speaks volumes. Interestingly, during the temporary FAA ban FOX News was able to continue their coverage via being invited to fly on a law enforcement helicopter to film the illegal immigration chaos at the Del Rio bridge.

The Biden administration studiously avoided talking about or dealing with this border crisis for months, but finally a totally fabricated, hot news story this past week galvanized the Biden administration to launch an all-hands-on-deck spin effort response to the crisis. Instead of the illegal immigration being their concern, the Biden administration embraced and amplified a false news story, alleging horse-mounted US border control agents used whips to attack Haitians trying to enter the US.

Quickly, the “horrific” scene turned out to be not “whips,” but just border control agents on horseback holding their reins. Border agents did not whip illegal immigrants, only twirled their reins, as they’re trained to do. They were doing a thankless job trying to stop illegal immigrants from entering the US, while Dems, from the White House on down, ratcheted up their spin hysteria with WH press secretary, Jen Psaki, leaping on this incorrect reporting:

It’s been several days since the initial reporting about “whips” broke and despite the liberal media and many Dems (including the Biden WH) knowing the initial reporting was incorrect, this false narrative of border control agents “whipping” Haitian refugees fits too perfectly with popular anti-law enforcement politics among the left, so many liberal journalists and Dem politicians continue to play dishonest semantical spin games.

Watching the spin word games with this fabricated “whip” story highlighted again that the liberal (mainstream) news media main purpose is to advance the liberal political agenda and preferred narratives, not to accurately report the news. The preferred liberal political narrative will prevail here, no matter how many Republicans or right-wing pundits debunk the false narrative.

Even more disturbing is the Biden White House has double-downed on this false spin narrative too. The border control agents in the photos and video that ignited this liberal spin narrative have been suspended, the Biden WH announced border control agents will no longer be allowed to use horses, and an investigation of the border control agents has been launched.

President Biden, who couldn’t be bothered with the border crisis for months, has now become energized about the situation at the border – by selling a false narrative, attacking his own border control agents:

It’s easy to warn about threats to America, like hostile foreign adversaries or radicalized domestic groups, but this corrupt alliance of partisan political operatives and large swaths of news media and social media giants in America poses a serious threat to American free speech and to our democratic institutions too.

Many Democrats and liberal news media organizations spend hours daily warning about the dangers of FOX News spreading Trump lies. It’s true, some of the Trump/Fox spin games are corrupt and spread many lies, but their reach is very small compared to the vast Dem/liberal media/social media corrupt spin information war operations. Neither Trump nor right-wing media possess the reach of the Dem and liberal media spin information war operations, yet.

The news media that aids and abets both the Dem/liberal and Trump spin efforts can regurgitate line for line every deceptive and dishonest spin messaging effort the other side spewed, but pretends their side’s news reporting is dedicated to reporting facts and giving Americans the news straight. Unfortunately, our entire news media environment has little to do with reporting news and everything to do with partisan politics and aggressive spin information warfare operations – which equals clicks online and ratings on TV. The corruption is obvious when you see liberal media just stop reporting on the Afghanistan withdrawal or do everything possible to bury the Hunter Biden laptop story weeks before the 2020 election or watch Fox’s entire primetime line-up pay lip service to Trump’s stolen election lies.

Last weekend the estimated number of illegal immigrants at Del Rio reached 15,000 and still the Biden administration and the liberal media tried to ignore the story, until this border agent “whip” video emerged this past week. This false “whip” narrative became the major news story on liberal media, feeding all the preferred BLM race narratives and it was a narrative liberals want to be true. This “whip” story will fade away, but the false narrative’s already served its purpose by being believed by most people who trust those liberal news organizations and by many liberals, who are fully-invested in the BLM racial politics.

Today Fox News Sunday interviewed DHS secretary Mayorkas, who in response to questioning on the what happened to the 15.000+ illegal immigrants by the bridge at Del Rio, admitted 12,000+ of them had been released inside the US:

The Haitian illegal immigration crisis at the border was solved by the Biden administration releasing most of the 15,000+ illegals into the US and the topper is that despite the Biden administration’s Covid hysteria and mandates, none of these illegal immigrants were tested for Covid or subject to any vaccination requirements – they are exempt from the restrictions placed on law-abiding American citizens.

This is the surreal state of the Dem/liberal media spin information war – a false story that perfectly fit the Dem racial politics has been repeated, all the way up to the POTUS. The liberal media fact-checkers have been silent and the liberal media hasn’t gone full-blown hysterical like they do about Trump lies. Instead, the liberal media has aided and abetted bolstering the false “whips” story.

We’re all now Alice in Wonderland, stuck living in a liberal-controlled rabbit hole. Liberal media and social media owned and operated by liberals vastly outnumber conservative media venues. Corporate America also seems anxious to promote the liberal culture war and to embrace the establishment of the liberal Covid regulatory state

The border control agents on horseback, who were doing a thankless job, have been suspended and the POTUS is threatening that he will make them pay… just let that sink in.

3 Comments

Filed under Corrupt Media Collusion, General Interest, Information War, Politics, The Media

August 23, 2021 · 11:39 am

Biden Afghanistan crisis team same as Obama Benghazi team

I’ve been following the American (and NATO) withdrawal from Afghanistan and while it’s certainly a Biden administration created debacle, President Biden keeps insisting there was no way to withdraw that wouldn’t have been this chaotic. There have been all sorts of foreign policy and military experts critiquing and doing Monday morning quarterback takes on the situation, but I’m more interested in the timeline of events rather than fancy debates over the “Biden strategy.” Nothing Biden or his top advisers have said thus far sounds like the chaos unfolding is a strategic failure. To be a strategic failure would require there to be a coherent plan and what happened is the Biden team wasn’t concerned with a planned withdrawal, but was “planning” a media event for the 20 year anniversary of the US invasion of Afghanistan – just another spin sideshow to sell their narrative.

Timelines matter so, while all the important details of what happened with the Biden team “withdrawal plan” aren’t known yet, many have begun to emerge and I’m going to focus on that.

As the Taliban sped across Afghanistan taking control of province after province with their offensive, the Biden White House kept urging the Taliban to stop their military offensive and work for a negotiated settlement, even as the Taliban moved to surrounding Kabul. The week before Kabul fell to the Taliban, Biden went on vacation. As the weekend of August 14th to15th approached, it was obvious the Taliban was moving to surround Kabul and that Kabul would fall, but still the Biden White House kept insisting they didn’t think that would happen.

The US embassy in Kabul was rushing to destroy sensitive documents and even as the US embassy in Kabul was evacuated by helicopter to the airport, the Biden spokespeople were insisting everything was running smoothly and they had the situation well in hand. On Sunday, August 15th, the White House released a picture from Camp David of the president seated a long table doing a teleconference with top advisers, insisting they had everything under control.

By Monday, August 16th, the president returned to the White House in the afternoon, delivered a speech, took no questions from the press, then resumed his vacation back at Camp David.

Here’s the State Department message to the Taliban on August 16th:

The White House has continued talking about the Taliban as seeking to become a “legitimate” government continuously and “Taliban legitimacy” has been a key point the Biden team keeps selling, while assuring America everything is going fine with their evacuation efforts in Kabul, because the Taliban is cooperating fully with the efforts.

Across the pond, as Kabul was poised to fall to the Taliban, British prime minister, Boris Johnson, on Saturday August 14th was trying to go on vacation too:

“Johnson, who attempted to head for a holiday on Saturday only to return as the Taliban closed in on the Afghan capital, was accused of “careless leadership” by opposition Labour leader Keir Starmer.”

https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/pm-johnson-says-britain-will-do-all-it-can-prevent-afghan-crisis-2021-08-18/

It’s been reported since that Boris Johnson tried to speak to Biden for over 36 hours and could not get through to him.

Those 36+ hours hold the key to what really happened inside the Biden White House. It’s been reported that at the G-7 earlier this summer Biden promised our European allies that the US would secure Kabul for evacuations when they pulled out. Obviously, Biden failed to live up to that promise and while Kabul was falling, the Biden White House kept the president out of the loop with talking to our closest allies.

The smoke and mirrors spin routine by the Biden team in the past week has so many echoes of the Obama team’s Benghazi spin disaster, which eclipsed the disaster of the US facility falling under attack and the loss of lives there. None of this should be surprising, because the Biden team is pretty much the same Obama team. Following the spin word games closely will lead you to the truth, as they keep trying to deflect, deny, and most of all deceive the American people at every turn.

While the Biden team was avoiding talking to our NATO allies, who had stuck with America in Afghanistan for almost 20 years, the Biden team was in constant contact with the Taliban working out a deal.

I believe the Biden team panicked once Kabul fell and the disturbing images of the US embassy in Kabul evacuating by helicopter and the chaos started appearing in the media. I believe that during those 36+ hours the Biden team cut a deal with the Taliban and offered them “legitimacy” (unfreezing Afghan financial assets/ recognition) in exchange for cooperating with the US evacuation from Kabul.

Those missing hours, where Biden was tucked away at Camp David on vacation, his team was working out a deal with the Taliban and it’s imperative to find out who in the Biden WH made those decisions. What the exact details of that deal have not been disclosed, but gauging by how often Biden and his State Department talk about the Taliban seeking “legitimacy,” I think it’s a safe guess “legitimacy” was the biggest carrot the Biden team dangled. It’s obvious that Biden only reads the scripts these people hand him and is not pouring over details.

It looks like the Biden plan is more a spin effort to keep talking about the Taliban as a trustworthy and responsible partner in our evacuation effort and a “legitimate” government. We’re being massively duped by another Obama team media narrative, while Biden is rolled out only to read prepared scripts and do ice cream run photo-ops.

———————————————————————————————————————–

08/24/2021: I wanted to add a few more thoughts. It’s not only timelines that matter in figuring out what happened here, but the weekend Kabul fell, with Biden at Camp David on vacation and his administration working out some deal with the Taliban, while not taking calls from British prime minister, Boris Johnson OR calling and coordinating with our NATO allies does speak volumes.

I often feel like I’ve been studying the Dem/liberal media spin information war more closely and longer than anyone I can think of, because it affected me personally and since 1998, I have been worried about corruption at the highest level of our government and the willingness to corrupt the US military chain of command for partisan political reasons. That said, the ways in which top Dems manage and bury major crises are very predictable and often repeating the same spin playbook. This Biden WH deal with the Taliban is a repeat of John Kerry’s 2016 Iran playbook. My gut feeling is this Biden team debacle in Afghanistan is going to me 100X more humiliating for America than the US sailor incident in 2016 and may lead to so much domestic and foreign fall-out that no amount of crappy spin (lies) will be able to contain it. We might be very close to a tipping point in American history.

In 2016, Iran captured US sailors. John Kerry negotiated the release of the sailors and just as John Kerry was taking a victory lap waxing on about the new era of diplomacy with Iran this release represented, Iran released embarrassing hostage video of US sailors on their knees and sailors crying. Every American adversary knows exactly who this Biden team is, because it’s the same corrupt, weak, fools who made up the Obama team:

“There is no truth in reporting that Secretary Kerry apologized to the Iranians,” Kerry spokesman John Kirby told reporters, later tweeting that the claim had “zero” validity. “As the Secretary said in his statement this morning, he expressed gratitude to Iranian authorities for their cooperation in swiftly resolving this matter, and noted that the peaceful and efficient resolution of this issue is a testament to the critical role diplomacy plays in keeping our country safe, secure, and strong.”

The White House said that its approach was vindicated with the rapid return of the sailors.

But several Republicans criticized President Barack Obama for not addressing the incident during his State of the Union on Tuesday night, which came shortly after the sailors and their two ships were taken.

“At the White House we reached the conclusion that further elevating the situation by including it in the State of the Union address would not be the most effective way for us to ensure the safe return of our sailors,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest said. “And I think the outcome, which is the release of the sailors just hours after the President completed his address, is a pretty powerful endorsement of that strategy.”

Another video of the captured sailors showed them on their knees with their hands on their heads.

The video was aired just as Kerry credited diplomatic strength and newly developed ties with Iran in helping secure the quick and safe release of the sailors.”

https://www.cnn.com/2016/01/13/politics/iran-us-sailors/index.html

Leave a comment

Filed under Foreign Policy, General Interest, Politics

August 5, 2021 · 5:16 pm

Don’t diss Covid vaccines to own the libs

The past few years have been the hardest years of my life. I’ve written about my husband’s long-term illness in other posts and about his death in March of this year, but I want to write about some care decisions along the way, especially vaccines.

My husband, as my regular readers know, had late stage COPD and normal pressure hydrocephalus (NPH). He was diagnosed with COPD in 1999 and NPH in 2012, although he had the symptoms of NPH from around 2006-2007, when he started walking with a strange side-to-side gait and falling frequently. Along the way significant short-term memory problems became apparent too.

The initial VP shunt in his ventricle drained the fluid from his ventricle and he regained some mobility, walking with a walker, but his short-term memory problems never improved and continued to worsen.

In 2018 he was hospitalized with sepsis and the neuro-surgeon did shunt revision surgery, after my husband recovered from sepsis and spent two weeks in a rehabilitation hospital, to regain his strength. He never regained much mobility and that declined steadily, as did the memory problems.

In Dec. 2019, the neurosurgeon told me that some NPH patients develop symptoms very similar to Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. My husband had both, with increasing dementia and tremors in his right hand and right leg. He was mostly wheelchair-bound by 2019 and needed assistance with all basic care.

In late January 2020, our son got a very bad upper-respiratory infection and had a lot of difficulty breathing, but he refused to go to the doctor. And shortly thereafter my husband got sick, coughing and lots of lung congestion. His primary care doctor prescribed antibiotics and a steroid. A few days later, things declined much more and my husband was very weak, I could hear his chest rattling even a few feet away, but he didn’t want to go to the ER. He fell forward off of his chair onto the floor. My son helped get him into the wheelchair and I took him to the ER.

My husband had acute respiratory failure. He had received his flu shot and was up to date on his pneumonia vaccine too. Yes, I’m one of the countless people who believe it was Covid, before the date of the first verified case in the US, but that’s not the point of this post – it’s about vaccines. My husband was in very poor health for a long time and any respiratory infection in his condition was potentially life-threatening.

After a few days in the hospital, my husband was discharged on home hospice and there began probably the most challenging experience of my life – full-time caregiver to someone who is completely bed-bound.

My husband “survived” that infection, but he never recovered to even the level of function, where he had been before that infection. He would have a few days, occasionally even a few weeks of appearing better, followed by days or weeks where he slept most of the time and I’d think he was close to the end. The hospice nurses monitored his condition and told me these ups and downs are common with hospice patients. This went on for 13 months.

I had no idea what hospice care actually does, since most people I had known who opted for hospice care died very quickly. The doctor did not expect my husband to survive very long either, with the condition of his lungs. During those 13 months, my husband had several infections and was prescribed antibiotics. The hospice nurse told me that while antibiotics won’t change the outcome of his condition, treating infections relieves suffering and helps keep him comfortable.

My husband’s hospice provider also administered flu vaccines to patients who wanted them. I had them give my husband the flu vaccine, because although I knew my husband was going to die, I wanted him to die as painlessly as possible and having the flu is awful, especially for someone who already has a debilitating lung disease. If Covid vaccines had been available and recommended for hospice patients, I would have talked to my husband’s hospice team and had him receive a Covid vaccine, for the very same reason..

If you ever watch someone in acute respiratory failure, you would want to do everything you can to prevent that.

Luckily, the overwhelming majority of people who receive the Covid vaccine can just go about their lives. It’s free and easily accessible all over the country.

There’s so much politicization of everything pertaining to Covid. There’s also information and misinformation overload in our digital age. I’ve listened to experts talk about spike proteins and all sorts of potential long-term risks with the Covid vaccines.

I’ve listened to some experts minimize risks too, making it sound like there are absolutely no potential serious side effects., but here’s my opinion about “risk” when it comes to medications and especially vaccines.

The evidence of vaccines literally changing the world and saving millions of lives is overwhelming.

Yes, I know, the Covid vaccines are experimental. When my doctor prescribes FDA-approved medications, I still read the warnings on the medication and many have a lot of serious potential adverse reactions, that are rare. I take that into consideration and almost always opt to take them, because I trust my doctor’s advice and because I think about the risks vs. benefits. Life isn’t risk-free, it’s about weighing options. There seems to be a pervasive mass Covid hysteria, I think, mostly because of the unknown nature of Covid and compounded by political and media fear-mongering, that’s creating unnecessary fear and panic reactions, that impede people’s ability to calmly assess, not only the risk, but the potential benefit.

I received the Moderna vaccine in March (2nd shot in April) and have not for a moment regretted that decision. I had more anxiety with radiation treatments many years ago, and although years later I had some long-term problems from the radiation treatment, they were not life-threatening and the alternative was I probably wouldn’t be alive today, if I had not had those 8 weeks of radiation treatment.

In America, we all have the right to decide for ourselves on medical treatments, but I urge anyone on the fence to talk to their doctor and discuss Covid vaccines. I do know someone with a serious medical condition, whose doctor recommended he not get the vaccine and we should all respect that some people will opt not to get the vaccine.

I am completely opposed to mandatory masking, mandatory lockdowns and absolutely against mandatory vaccines. I am against all of the surveillance state type tracking of social distancing monitoring being tried in several countries and I am completely against vaccine passports and these corporate efforts to punish, silence, and now even force employees to get vaccinated or be fired. What I refuse to do though, is look at vaccines through a political lens and I hope many conservatives, Republicans, and MAGA supporters resist the urge to diss vaccines to “own the libs.”

Both Republicans and Democrats have politicized Covid, as have many of our public health officials, but the truth is we all need to try to work together as Americans and pull together to get through this Covid challenge a stronger nation.

Leave a comment

Filed under COVID-19, General Interest

July 27, 2021 · 1:43 pm

A few quick takes on Pelosi’s 1/6 Sideshow

I posted a tweet thread this morning and decided to post it here as well:

Pelosi using Cheney & Kinzinger, to incite & divide Republicans though is truly Machiavellian. Many pre-Trump Repubs will defend Cheney, which will inflame a large part of the GOP. Repubs, especially Trump, always fall for these Dem divide and conquer spin efforts.

11:49 AM · Jul 27, 2021·Twitter Web App

Dems always overplay their narratives. The IG report already highlighted there were security problems with 1/6. And, just like with the FBI spin show arrests of Manafort & Stone, the handling of some of these alleged 1/6 perps (no bail/solitary confinement) raises more questions.11:49 AM · Jul 27, 2021·Twitter Web App

The Pelosi script assures the mainstream media will go full hair-pulling, teeth-gnashing spin mode running Dem talking points – like this dramatic police & violent video opening.11:49 AM · Jul 27, 2021·Twitter Web App

Timing matters, so this Pelosi-directed sideshow kicks off today, just as another round of COVID hysteria’s erupting. Dems might wear out the patience of most of the American people with another TDS spin show & another COVID meltdown farce, at the same time. If BLM jumps in –Zany face.11:49 AM · Jul 27, 2021·Twitter Web App

A calm, in charge moderate leader, who bypassed 99.9% of this spin crazy, could probably flip the script on Dems & Trump and garner a lot of support. Most Americans long for some peace and quiet… and normal11:58 AM · Jul 27, 2021·Twitter Web App

Those were my quick thoughts this morning. Sorry for the gigantic crazy emoji, but I’ve got no clue how to make it smaller. I just copied and pasted the tweet and this is how it appears. BIG crazy explains most of our American politics though and truly, another round of Dem/liberal media Trump Derangement 1/6 spin theater, coupled with the “Doomsday Delta Variant Strikes” hysteria has launched. Just imagine, if BLM decides they want to steal some of the media limelight too – that would be a gigantic crazy.

As for the opening of this Pelosi-directed 1/6 sideshow, well, it’s just begun and all these overwrought cops and weeping Congresspersons, isn’t creating the optics Dems and their liberal media spin cast think it is. They’ve already over-acted this opening scene to the point, everything else will be overkill and look ridiculous – there aren’t hundreds of dead bodies to grab attention, only a replay of the Schiff type Trump-Ukraine impeachment drama, which fizzled out, but even worse, as each of the unimpeachable star witnesses testified, like Alexander Vindman, Bill Taylor, Fiona Hill, they looked way less credible the more they were questioned.

Pelosi’s efforts to exert total control over these hearings, by hand-picking who gets to speak and banishing the Republicans Kevin McCarthy selected, creates such a one-sided optic, that I suspect it will actually help Trump more than it hurts him. It already looks like a TDS gathering rather than a serious investigation.

One last comment and then I need to get some housework done. Gauging the politics Twitter flow, the BLM/MSNBC crowd appear to want to use Pelosi’s 1/6 hearings to escalate their “white supremacists everywhere” spin and that’s why if BLM decided to use Pelosi’s 1/6 hearings as a useful narrative to stage more street protests, it wouldn’t surprise me in the least.

Leave a comment

Filed under 2020 Election, General Interest, Twitter Tales

July 24, 2021 · 5:53 pm

Two takes on the recent Buzzfeed Wolverine Watchmen story

This past week Buzzfeed ran a story, Watching the Watchmen, about the FBI informants involved in Michigan case, where some right-wing extremists, the Wolverine Watchmen, are charged in a plot to kidnap Gov. Whitmer and claiming the FBI entrapped them.

Many in the MAGA-sphere on social media leaped to attack the FBI, as did Glen Greenwald, who made the same allegations when the FBI was trying to hunt down ISIS/Islamist-inspired terrorists. Here’s a link to Greenwald’s piece: FBI Using the Same Fear Tactic From the First War on Terror: Orchestrating its Own Terrorism Plots.

Well, my go-to expert, in whom I place a whole lot more trust, than in Buzzfeed or Greenwald, is Andrew McCarthy, due to his extensive knowledge on both how the FBI conducts investigations in domestic terrorism cases and the FBI’s use of confidential informants. McCarthy discusses this case in a NRO podcast with Rich Lowry (at 22:40): Episode 136: Slow-Motion Train Wreck. This entire podcast is worth listening to, but if you’re pressed for time McCarthy’s primer of FBI confidential informants with regards to the Wolverine Watchmen blows past the partisan spin and explains the legal process. I’ve read several of McCarthy’s books, starting with The Grand Jihad: How Islam and he Left Sabotage America and I listened to the audiobook of his take on the Trump/Russian collusion mess, Ball of Collusion: the Plot to Rig and Election and Destroy a Presidency.

There you have it two very different takes on the same information. I really find FBI director, Christopher Wray, way too much like James Comey. Under oath testifying to Congress, Wray does these lawyerly tap dances, that remind me of Comey, where talks in circles and avoids answering most questions Republican officials ask, while being much more cooperative with Democrats. My trust level in the FBI plummeted in recent years, so I hope McCarthy’s take is closer to the truth than the rogue FBI take.

Update: Just clicked on National Review and Andrew McCarthy has written a piece on this Wolverine Watchmen story: Whitmer-Kidnap Case Enters ‘Entrapment’ Phase.

Leave a comment

Filed under General Interest

July 24, 2021 · 10:23 am

Another round of COVID hysteria strikes

Just when it seemed America might get back to some semblance of normal, within a few days time our American liberal media, pundit class and Dems catapulted us back to the Spring of 2020 – full-blown COVID hysteria, again.

It’s time to prepare for more draconian rules and dire, “We’re all going to die… UNLESS,” warnings. Unless we embrace all the mitigation ideas floated, unless we meekly obey the experts, unless we stop being selfish and give up our rights, as directed by government bureaucrats. Unless, we, not only get vaccinated, but now it’s get vaccinated and wear masks.

In May, the CDC finally agreed to lift the face mask recommendation and the political momentum shifted to the side of life returning to normal. Now, COVID virtue-signaling has ramped up and “The Unvaccinated” has become the new label for rural white Americans and/or Trump-supporters… those dastardly Deplorables, again.

I did get vaccinated, first shot in March and second shot in April. I did and still do follow the COVID restrictions in public, because by nature I’m a rule-follower. However, truthfully I’m sick to death of the politicized media COVID melodramas, especially the virtue-signaling, which always comes with massive amounts of othering Trump-supporters, rural white Americans, and even some academics, who disagree with our thoroughly politicized health officials in Washington and media “expert” class.

Yet here we are and rather than let the latest media’s FEAR, Inc. effort get me upset, I’ve been thinking about what good things I learned throughout this experience. The first thing I relearned is to never let my guard down and trust politicians selling infringing on our basic freedoms, as being altruistic and part of being a good citizen – under any circumstances. “15 days to slow the spread“ is what we were told, as we should all remember. I was very open to mitigation efforts (too open and trusting), in the beginning, because I trusted the government’s medical experts and I trusted political leaders, due to the seriousness of a pandemic, would act for the good of the American people, not to grab as much power as possible. Watching the ever-changing rules, recommendations, conflicting guidance, dubious data and flat-out politicization of COVID by many of the government’s medical “experts,” and the politicians’ shameless power plays, let’s just say I have very little trust in their information and absolutely no trust in any politicians selling lockdown or more mitigation restrictions now.

A more important lesson from the past year is don’t ever let fear win. No matter how loud the media noise becomes, each of us can control how much or how little we pay attention to the news media hysteria, which our politicians and all these government “experts” exploit. We can control how much we let the news media fear-mongering impact our daily decision-making. The American news media and the entire spin war ecosystem peddle in fear and if you buy into it, you lose control of your decision-making, while handing power to those selling fear.

Now that I’ve vented about the politics of COVID and my displeasure with the state of our American news media, I’m going to meander onto another thing that’s been on my mind more in the past few years than at any point in my life – being prepared.

There’s a huge difference between most of the trendy prepper movement and actually learning to be prepared. The former is filled with a whole lot of people selling fear, just as much as the politicians and the media. The latter is a mind-set and way of living your life to be able to, not just survive in emergencies, but to become more self-sufficient and better able to cope with life’s ups and downs. It’s not about rushing to the store every time there’s alarming news and stockpiling guns and ammo or ordering expensive freeze-dried survival food, that will blow your budget for the next six months.

I’m not saying buying guns and ammo or high-priced survival food is a bad idea; I’m saying these are purchases you shouldn’t make reacting to our Fear, Inc. news media, politicians peddling fear or listening to some online prepper or survivalist. If you blow your budget on stockpiling an arsenal of weapons or that very expensive survival food, you just might end up literally living on rice and beans for a long time. There’s loads of good advice within the online prepper community, but there’s way more fear-driven advice and loads of people who make their living, just like the news media – selling fear.

As I began writing this post yesterday, I read a blog post, recommended by JK, Perspective..or…its more than just guns, which covered the pervasive “guns and ammo” mind-set, in the prepper and survival community. Here’s what Commander Zero there had to say:

“You know what I’ve discovered to be The Most Valuable skill for a ‘survivalist’ or ‘prepper’? Not having amazingly fast split times at the range….not being able to consistently ring the gongs at 200 yards…useful, but not as important as: being able to think logically, critically, and objectively. Your mileage may vary but I would say the most important skill I’ve picked up as a survivalist is… accounting. Once I figured out how to allocate, budget, and monitor my financial adventures it put me in a position to have all the other thngs that make surviving a crisis easier. But thats just me… it won’t be the same for you.”

http://www.commanderzero.com/?p=8771

Accounting, which I took to mean learning to budget your money wisely is a very valuable skill, but while Commander Zero wrote he’s 50, speaking from my 60 years of life, I think learning to think for yourself and not let fear guide your decision-making, is the most important. A calm, cheerful can-do mind-set is a bit higher on my survival skill set list, but he’s right, getting a grip on your personal finances matters way more than stockpiling a massive arsenal of weapons (or a warehouse of high-priced survival food).

Being prepared does require thinking and planning ahead, but letting the pervasive Armageddon-type fear-mongering on the right or the “we’re all going to die” fear-mongering from the left get you worrying should be the trigger to make you go find something constructive to do around your own home or with your family and friends.

Smile and laugh more, worry less, because geesh, we’re in for another round of massive COVID hysteria.

7 Comments

Filed under General Interest, Politics, Preparedness

July 9, 2021 · 3:15 pm

A Twitter thread offering some new perspective on the 2020 election

Yesterday a long Twitter thread began being retweeted by a lot of blue checkmark (the people Twitter has deemed influential enough to be verified and given a blue checkmark.) I don’t know anything about the person who posted this thread, but many of the points raised are worth pondering, even if you disagree with them. There are 31 threads in this tweet thread and later an additional one was added pertaining to Dominion, the voting machine company.. Here’s the first tweet, so just click on this link if you ware interested in reading the entire thread https://twitter.com/martyrmade/status/1413165168956088321:

Update 7/11/2021: The American Mind wrote up this tweet thread as an article and provided links to some of the points raised: https://americanmind.org/salvo/the-disillusionment-of-the-deplorables/

Leave a comment

Filed under 2020 Election, General Interest, Politics