October 17, 2023 · 7:55 pm

Wray mentioned “Hamas-style” attacks

The other day I saw a post on Twitter/X speculating that if any Gazan refugees are allowed into Egypt, they’d likely ship them to Venezuela, so they can be assisted to the US southern border. I can’t remember who posted that comment, but it got me googling for more information on Iran’s activities in South America and Latin America. While I doubt Egypt will allow in any Gazan refugees, due to the risk of importing Hamas terrorists and Muslim Brotherhood sympathizers, this person’s speculation brought to mind the 2015 Syrian refugee crisis, that resulted in Europe being flooded with refugees. It also reminded me of the massive political, activist, and media propaganda efforts to guilt the West to open their doors. Most of the same players are involved in this current attack on Israel and trying to cast Israel in the wrong for responding with force to an invasion and bloody massacre by Hamas.

Ron DeSantis, governor of FL and 2024 GOP presidential candidate, announced we should not allow in any refugees from Gaza and he attempted to explain the culture among Palestinians, who it’s a safe bet most of them hold anti-Semitic views and are virulently anti-Israel, not to mention plenty are radicalized jihadists. Palestinian schools teach their children to hate Jews and that they should want to kill them. This has been reported for decades now. UN Watch, a NGO in Geneva, Switzerland, reported on March 14, 2023 report, UN Teachers Call To Murder Jews, Reveals New Report. The UNRWA is the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine. Just so we know what our tax dollars are funding through the UN: “UNRWA schools funded by US and EU indoctrinate Palestinian children to antisemitism, hate and violence.”

Former President Trump has now come out with a similar announcement as DeSantis, saying he would reinstate and expand his travel ban, to include refugees from Gaza.

While it’s easy to get sucked into the pulling at our heartstrings when we see people, especially children, trapped in terrible situations, especially war zones, and America has a long history of providing refuge to people fleeing those situations, but should our leaders take a harder, more pragmatic approach, when it comes to refugees, from places where anti-Western attitudes pervade and the culture is steeped in glorifying jihadist terrorism?

In 2015, there was a Syrian refugee child (whose family was reportedly Syrian Kurds), who drowned off the coast of Turkey when the inflatable rubber boat he was on overturned. Photos of that dead child blazed across media around the world and that little boy became the face of the crisis. Turkey’s leader, Erdogan, a leader who has dealt harshly with Kurds, all of sudden was busily trying to shame European leaders that they must do something – and they did – they took in more and more “Syrian” refugees, who were not vetted and many of them came, not from Syria, but from all over the Middle East and beyond.

I’m a detail person and I did write a blog post in 2015 about this drowned child becoming the face of the Syrian refugee crisis. In one news report of the incident of the boy dying when the inflatable rubber boat sank, there was mention of his body being found and moved on the beach, so that made me wonder if the photo was staged for effect, not that a drowned child isn’t awful. It was just how his body was laying in the water made a big visual impact. Then there were conflicting stories, with the boy’s surviving father claiming the boat’s captain abandoned the boat when the engine failed and he gave conflicting accounts, Then there was an Iraqi survivor, from that boat who claimed the drowned boy’s father was the captain and he was operating the illegal smuggling operation. From Wikipedia:

“An Iraqi survivor from the same boat, Zainab Abbas, who also lost two children from the attempted crossing, told reporters that Abdullah had been presented to her as the “captain”, that he was driving the overcrowded boat too fast, causing it to flip over, and that he pleaded with her while they were still both in the water not to report him to anyone in authority.[32][33] Abbas said her family escaped out of Baghdad from ISIS and she was angry because all the media attention was on Alan Kurdi and Abdullah Kurdi, and not on her family.[34] “

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Alan_Kurdi

With this current war between Israel and Hamas, there’s so much propaganda and dishonest reporting that it’s hard to even sift through most of it. Then there’s the reality that many people lie, embellish or shade the truth and often reporters are more political activists or devoted to causes than they are about getting the facts straight. The other day, I posted photos of children taken hostage by Hamas and I thought about it a good bit before posting that, because I don’t like children used in politics, but Hamas did invade Israel and did break into Israeli families’ homes and take these children hostage. Americans were taken hostage too.

The media is running a lot of Gaza’s an “open air prison” and the horrors for the people of Gaza now to build up a drumbeat for other countries to step in and take Gazan refugees, but you can be sure neither Erdogan in Turkey nor any Arab leaders will open their doors to refugees from Gaza – because there’s no way to vet them and they don’t want to risk bringing in radicalized jihadists. But more than one government in that area of the world has been involved in transporting radical jihadism to Europe and America. That’s the truth and it now seems that along with a lot of Americans not wanting any more military adventurism, like regime change or trying to set up western-style democracies in the Muslim world, they also want to completely forget the post-9/11 terrorism lessons we learned. Unfortunately, the radical Islamist brand of terrorism hasn’t forgotten us and they still chant, “Death to America!”

There’s a long history of Iran’s involvement with oil in Venezuela, but here’s a 2020 Atlantic Council piece, The Maduro-Hezbollah Nexus: How Iran-backed Networks Prop up the Venezuelan Regime, which explains how Hezbollah is operating in Venezuela and Latin America, especially with drug trafficking. This article states, “In October 2018, the Justice Department elevated Hezbollah’s status in the United States by listing it as one of the top five transnational criminal organizations (TCO).10 Naming Hezbollah alongside three major Mexican cartels and the Central American gang MS-13 was a wake-up call for Latin America to realize that, in today’s age, Hezbollah is equal to the cartels in organized crime and terror.

We keep hearing reports of people crossing our southern border, who aren’t from Latin America or South America and are on the FBI terrorist watchlist and invariably right-wing media gives these stories a lot of coverage, while liberal media tries to breeze past them and downplay the threat.

Most Democrats in Washington and the WH downplay the threat of bad actors getting into America, across our unsecured border. A few days ago, our FBI director, Christopher Wray, taking a break from warning about “right-wing extremists, came out and warned that a “Hamas-style” attack could happen here. That “Hamas-style attack was radical jihadist terror, the kind Trump tried to stomp out with the elimination of the ISIS leader, al-Baghdadi, and the Iranian terrorist mastermind, General Soleimani. Many Democrats, foreign policy experts and mainstream liberal media people attacked these Trump decisions. The Washington Post dubbed al-Baghdadi an “austere religious scholar.” With Soleimani, whose terrorist plots with providing IEDs to Iraqi jihadists, resulted in killing hundreds of American soldiers in Iraq, Andrea Mitchell, longtime NBC reporter, was hyping him as a respected Iranian military leader and the Washington Post called Soleimani a “revered” leader.

There are already bad actors, funded by the Iranian regime in Venezuela, Latin America and Mexico, who are involved in the drug trafficking with the cartels. Drug-trafficking bad actors are also involved in weapons and human smuggling, so the open border poses a national security threat to America in many ways.

We need to secure our borders and it’s way past time for more leaders to start speaking the truth, instead of being silenced by all this PC virtue-signaling, especially from our liberal media.

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October 14, 2023 · 8:27 am

A bit of a primer on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

This video by Task and Purpose runs almost an hour. It’s packed with a lot of important background history and analysis of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, while explaining the current Hamas attack on Israel and Israeli response, without any drama.

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October 13, 2023 · 10:44 am

Arab world won’t open doors to Palestinians

There’s a lot of hoopla in the news about Gaza civilians living in an “open-air prison,” with nowhere to flee. So, looking at a map, it’s important to realize that assuredly Israel, who just suffered a murderous attack by Hamas, isn’t going to welcome in Palestinians from along its 36 mile long border with Gaza. Gaza has 24 miles of coastline, which the Israeli navy has blockaded since 2009, due to Palestinian terrorism. Egypt shares an 8 mile long border with Gaza and Egypt maintains a tightly sealed border, due to Hamas, another Muslim Brotherhood off-shoot organization. Egypt isn’t going to allow Gazan refugees in and risk importing more terrorists. Likewise, no other Arab countries want to take in refugees from Gaza, because their countries don’t want to deal with more Muslim Brotherhood terrorism within their own borders. Some will finance terrorism abroad, but they don’t want it at home.

Ed Morrissey at Hot Air, wrote this piece, Egypt: No way we let Gazans into our country, yesterday, which gives a good historical background:

“In fact, it was ridiculous to expect Egypt to open corridors for a Gazan retreat in the first place. Perhaps Western diplomats forget the circumstances in which Egypt’s leader, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, came to power in 2014. A popular uprising from the Muslim Brotherhood in the so-called Arab spring forced Hosni Mubarak from power and eventually led to the election of Muslim Brotherhood figure Mohammed Morsi as president in 2011. The new Muslim Brotherhood government rapidly began to radicalize Egypt, and the military conducted a coup led in part by al-Sisi in 2013, after which followed a period of violence between the interim regime and forces led by the Muslim Brotherhood attempting to restore Morsi. In 2014, al-Sisi won the elections run by the military government at the time, and he’s been a target of the Muslim Brotherhood ever since.”

“Why does this matter? Hamas is a spin-off and ally of the Muslim Brotherhood. To admit two million Gazan supporters of Hamas into Egypt, even if one could filter out the actual Hamas terrorists, would be a form of suicide for al-Sisi. To even ask for this from al-Sisi is an expression of historical ignorance. Mubarak and al-Sisi both kept the containment policy firmly in place for their own survival, and one of the reasons the Egyptian military took action to depose Morsi was because he was about to lift that strategy:”

https://hotair.com/ed-morrissey/2023/10/12/egypt-no-way-we-let-gazans-into-our-country-n584227

The Biden administration, being Team Obama folks, will likely have a muddled policy in dealing with this latest crisis, because President Obama sucked up to the Muslim Brotherhood and while the Obama administration kept mouthing US support for Israel, in deed Obama backed Morsi (an Islamist with ties to the Muslim Brotherhood) in Egypt. Here’s a 2013 article from The Guardian, US in bind over Egypt after supporting Morsi but encouraging protesters, which delves into the Egyptian military ousting the Muslim Brotherhood-backed, Morsi. Obama’s foreign policy enabled Muslim extremists, both Sunni and Shia types. Obama backed Morsi when he was ousted from power, but his administration hedged on calling it a coup, which would have cut off US aid to Egypt:

“Obama said on Wednesday he was “deeply concerned” by the military’s move to topple Morsi’s government and suspend Egypt’s constitution. He said he was ordering the US government to assess what the military’s actions meant for US foreign aid to Egypt.”

“Under US law, the government must suspend foreign aid to any nation whose elected leader is ousted in a coup d’etat. The US provides $1.5bn a year to Egypt in military and economic assistance.”

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jul/03/egypt-obama-us-mohamed-morsi-crisis

The al-Sisi government set about cleaning house of Muslim Brotherhood and here’s a 2014 BBC article, –Egypt court sentences 528 Morsi supporters to death, which explains, “Authorities have cracked down harshly on Islamists since Mr Morsi was removed by the military in July. Hundreds have been killed and thousands arrested.” There’s no way Egypt is going to let in Gazan refugees.

For the US, unfortunately, it does appear that academia in America is infested with radical leftists, who have indoctrinated American young people to hate America, to hate Israel and embrace Islamist terrorism. Too many of our college and university staffs are a wasteland of aging Marxists and radical extremists. Unfortunately, some of them are also prominent players in the Biden White House foreign policy team and within top Dem. circles.

Today is some Hamas-proclaimed “Global Day of Rage” urging jihad around the world, so we’ll see how many protests occur around the US and world. However, while understanding Jewish leaders and people’s concerns, it’s absolutely appalling if Jewish schools or places of worship cancel events today due to feeling unsafe. Our government should protect Jewish citizens from hate and Jewish citizens should not have to hideaway, because some Jihadist terrorists and radical leftists are threatening them.

That’s totally unacceptable in America.

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October 12, 2023 · 9:29 pm

Prayers for Israel

Whenever there’s a moral debate about right or wrong, this is wrong:

Crazy political zealots online were actually asserting yesterday that Hamas hadn’t decapitated 40 babies, and that there was only a confirmed report of one Israeli baby decapitated, as if somehow that changed the evil depravity.

Prime minister Netanyahu’s office today released horrifying images: Netanyahu’s office releases horrifying images of infants murdered by Hamas

The Hamas operation last weekend, as reported, looks to me like a carefully planned military operation. The massacre of civilians was orchestrated. This level of coordination took a long time to plan, prepare and train for. I firmly believe there are multiple countries who aided Hamas in this invasion of Israel. I also have a gut feeling this was just an opening salvo in a larger planned global “Jihad” effort.

Tonight I’m praying for God to save the world:

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October 10, 2023 · 11:57 pm

There’s no excuse for the Biden border fiasco

“God grants liberty only to those who love it, and are always ready to guard and defend it.”

Daniel Webster

Today I worked on more pressure canning – some soup and ground beef. I also have chicken in the fridge to use to can chicken and vegetables in a “meal-in-a-jar” recipe, I want to try. I was thinking about the horrific attacks in Israel, but I want to stay focused on projects and things I can do in my own life. The nature of the surprise Hamas attacks, using paragliders to fly over the Israeli border shows that determined people can defeat even very careful security measures. Babies, children, elderly people were murdered in cold blood and some kidnapped. The horror goes beyond words.

Some of my direct ancestors came to America in the mid 1700s and settled in PA. During the French and Indian War, that area of PA was part of the American frontier. That war was fought largely along the Virginia and Pennsylvania frontier – where settlers dealt with the threat of attacks on their homes and small communities continually. The Hamas hostage-taking made me think of how hostage-taking became a deliberate tactic by the Indian tribes in that long ago conflict too. At the end of the war, agreements were signed for the return of all settlers who had been taken hostage. Many of the children had become attached to their Indian tribal family and did not even remember their real family. Brutal tactics are nothing new.

I turned on the news this afternoon on the free app, Haystack News, and a reporter in Jerusalem was being asked about what daily life is like in the past few days. He said his family is staying at home, close to a bomb shelter, except for short trips to the grocery store for milk and bread. There have been news reports online where victims in Israel described rushing to safe rooms and shelters to try to escape Hamas terrorists. There are plenty of scenes from Gaza, where the Israelis are inflicting massive damage on Hamas (and Palestinians), because that’s the nature of war. And, while this all seems like it’s far, far away, America is not immune from terrorist attacks inside the US and all that post 9-11 worst case scenario strategizing came to mind… like sleeper cells and other awful possibilities.

Between the Biden open border threat, not knowing who all has entered our country, there were also thousands upon thousands of unvetted refugees brought here during the Afghanistan withdrawal debacle, even though the WH insisted they were all vetted. Back in 2016, when Trump was running for president and made building the border wall a major campaign pledge, the usual estimated number of illegals in America cited was 11 million. Here we are in 2023 and since Biden became president he reversed the Trump border policies, resulting in floods of illegals pouring across the border every single day.

The Biden unvetted refugees and border fiasco creates a very serious national security threat.

A recent news media report cited “10 million illegals in America.” Those 11 million from 2016 are still here and some were still getting in during Trump’s presidency, even though he had imposed stricter border enforcement policies. Biden opened the border in 2021, so how on earth the estimated number of illegals is 10 million, when it was 11 million in 2016, boggles my mind. Our government probably doesn’t even have a clue how many illegal immigrants are here and how many have bad intentions, but never fear the FBI is still hunting down every single person who attended the J-6 rally, even if they didn’t enter the Capitol or break any laws. They probably spend more time on tracking “MAGA Republicans” than illegals with criminal backgrounds. Here’s a NBC report from September that states the same things as the FOX News link at the top of this blog post: Number of people on terrorist watchlist stopped at southern U.S. border has risen. That report stated that so far this year, they had apprehended 160 illegals, who are on the FBI terror watchlist, trying to enter the US. One can only wonder how many have gotten through, who weren’t apprehended.

Awful possibilities are always with us, but that doesn’t mean we need to stop living or get worked up constantly, but we should be aware of potential threats.

We all like scapegoating, because it’s easier to blame someone or some group we don’t like for being “the cause” of complex events unfolding than it is to realize there are a lot of people, countries, leaders, whose actions compete, clash, jostle for power, and even before Russia invaded Ukraine, Russia and China (and other countries aligned in their sphere) have been planning and working toward replacing the US (and the West) as the main powerbrokers on the world-stage. Russia and China have actively aided Iran, who in turn funds and facilitates terror operations all over the world – including Hamas.

President Biden came out and made a statement that the US stands with Israel, but based on past experience with Israeli-Palestinian conflicts, it’s a sure thing that the left will start trying to pressure Israel to back down and the crowd at the UN will start blaming Israel. I remember the 1972 Palestinian terrorist attack at the Olympics, where two Israeli athletes were murdered and 9 hostages were taken (and killed), so there’s a long history of Palestinian terror.

I don’t want war and I don’t think any sane person does, but the reality is events are leading in that direction and those events are being driven by various countries and entities. It’s really easy to point to some nebulous “they” and blame “they,” but the world is a big place and there are a whole lot of “theys” with a whole lot of interests. There isn’t some easy off-ramp, especially for America, who has taken on a lot of global responsibilities, that have benefited “we the people” a whole lot. Our standard of living, that we’re all used to, would not have been possible if America had been an isolationist country. I listen to a lot of people rant about how we should demand Ukraine stop the war, which a lot of anti-Ukraine Americans insist should happen, even though Russia invaded Ukraine, not the other way around and Russia doesn’t want to stop the war or withdraw from Ukraine. Likewise, Israel was attacked and has every right to defend their country and destroy the Hamas terrorist network.

After decades of “endless wars” it’s understandable that many Americans have taken an isolationist stance, but these same people likely would hate a world where America was a has-been world leader and China and Russia dominated the world. The truth is our decades of military adventures, GWOT or “democracy in the ME” or whatever name you affix to our post 9/11 foreign policy, has left a lot of turmoil in the world too, so it’s not just Russia and China trying to cause problems. We left a whole lot of power vacuums in our wake, which will likely keep blowing up in our face. We also left a whole lot of military equipment in Afghanistan and scattered about the ME, that’s going to end up in the hands of people who hate us.

While I’m definitely not like Lindsey Graham, who’s never seen a war he didn’t want to get the US involved in, with Ukraine and Israel, I do support offering intel assistance, arms and other aid. Frankly, both of these situations would be perfectly in line with the Reagan Doctrine, which I think made America stronger. Russia isn’t going to stop at Ukraine, if we abandon Ukraine. China has territorial aspirations and they’re building their military and military assets to achieve them. Iran is going to wage more terror attacks against the West and Israel. Hamas has American hostages and today I saw Biden said 14 Americans have been killed in Israel.

I’m going to circle back to the personal though, because I know how it feels to have a husband deployed to war and one of my sons deployed to Iraq in 2006. I don’t want to see other people’s sons and daughters sent off to war or my grandchildren, but frankly, Biden abandoning Americans in Afghanistan left me feeling we lost a part of our soul as a nation. It would be a terrible thing if America abandoned Israel, with Americans brutally slaughtered and some may be held hostage by Hamas.

And God forbid if something awful like what Israel just suffered happens here, I hope Americans will be able to pull together and meet the challenge. The most unsettling thing I’ve seen in the last few days has been protests, especially on some American college campuses, cheering on Hamas. Any Republican leader who rushed to virtue-signal, by embracing BLM during those protests in 2020, should be doing some serious soul-searching.

BLM was a group founded by people who openly stated they were Marxists… Hamas paraglided across Israel’s border to wage their bloody attack on military and civilians. A whole lots of American college kids and leftists cheering this makes me wonder if they’d lift a finger to defend America. Never mind, I know the answer to this. I watched the mayhem in the 2020 “Summer of Love.”

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October 9, 2023 · 10:35 am

Alarming events unfold as Israel comes under attack

Israel suffered a major attack by Hamas on Saturday and hundreds of civilians are reported murdered and large numbers of Israeli civilians taken hostage. There have been reports that some Americans in Israel were taken hostage too, but I haven’t seen any confirmation of that yet. Israel has declared war on Hamas. Iran has reportedly aided Hamas in this attack and yet so far, President Biden hasn’t said anything and neither have former presidents Obama and Clinton. All three have been gung ho with appeasing Iran and Hamas and Biden recently cut some deal with Iran – a prisoner swap and releasing $6 billion in frozen Iranian funds.

Here’s a post on X of Sec. of State Anthony Blinken admitting Iran always focuses on funding terror, which begs the question why the Biden administration is so gung ho to cut deals with Iran and why they released this $6 billion:


One interesting bit of news yesterday was Israel has loosened its private gun ownership rules, to allow as many Israeli citizens as possible to arm themselves for self-defense:

This article today explains some of the background and many more details of the situation in this conflict: Hamas’s War on Israel: Everything You Need to Know: Answering your questions on Hamas, Iran, the occupation, and more., written by Alana Newhouse and Jeremy Stern. This article explains the Obama/Biden embrace of Iran, who funds, arms, and trains Hamas and raises some disturbing questions about why the Biden administration has been mostly silent on Hamas’ attack on Israel and slow on condemning Hamas. Former President Obama, likewise was silent over the weekend on condemning Hamas and Iran’s support of Hamas. Here’s an excerpt from this article:

When he was Obama’s vice president, Biden was a central progenitor of the Iran Deal, which he then solidified as the cornerstone of his own administration’s Middle East policy. 

By allying the U.S. with Tehran, the Iran Deal created a deadly embrace between the United States and a terror state run by corrupt medieval clerics who keep power through violence against their own people and by promoting terror and chaos abroad. As a self-proclaimed “revolutionary regime,” Iran explicitly aims to set not just Israel, but the entire region, on fire.

Giving the Iranians the backing of the U.S. was a recipe for chaos and a green light for terror throughout the region, which is exactly what has happened since Obama announced his deal. Funding Iranian terror, to the tune of $16 billion that the Biden administration sent to Iran in recent weeks, is an act of criminal negligence. As a result, it is fair to say that America has Israeli blood on its hands, too.

https://www.thefp.com/p/hamas-war-on-israel-everything-you-need-to-know

There are still unanswered questions on how Hamas was able to to carry out this attack and how Israel’s high-tech border security systems failed. There are also unanswered questions as to whether Russia and/or China possibly aided Hamas’ attack. Turkey’s, leader, President Erdogan, was also urging Israel not to wage war on Hamas and as typically happens when Israel is attacked, there will likely be an effort to reframe Israel as somehow in the wrong and also a massive PR effort directed at the Arab Street in the Middle East and Erdogan is certainly no stranger to leaning into that propaganda effort.

Just like with the Afghanistan withdrawal debacle and the disjointed Biden effort to aid Ukraine after a full-scale Russian invasion, the Biden administration will likely bungle along with how they respond to this latest crisis. Despite doing the maintaining face lip service about supporting Israel, the Biden crowd is the same as the Obama crowd and definitely not pro-Israel. This crowd also consistently made excuses for Palestinian terror in the past. Ditto this for the Clintons and former President Clinton, likewise was silent on condemning Hamas over the weekend. Back during the Clinton years, the PLO leader, Yassir Arafat, was a frequent visitor to the Clinton WH, while Hillary hobnobbed with Arafat’s wife. Coddling Palestinian terrorists, while shifting blame to Israel is par for the course with Clinton, Obama and now Biden.

Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and his band of nincompoops at the State Department have been posting on X, urging Israel to not respond to the attack on its country and then deleting posts, apparently reacting to public outrage for sounding weak on condemning Hamas:

Just like in every other event that dominates the news lately, wild conspiracy theories are already permeating about this attack on Israel, but so far this seems to be the gist of what’s happening. Hamas was acting with Iran’s support and direction. Russian and/or Chinese involvement has not been proven. President Biden didn’t respond and instead hosted a BBQ at the White House yesterday afternoon: White House slammed for hosting BBQ with live band as war rages in Israel.

What happened in Israel should be a wake-up call for Democrats and their open borders embrace. Israel takes securing their borders very seriously. There have been reports that possibly cyberattacks dismantled some of the Israeli border security systems, but here in the US, our government has no idea how many illegals have flooded in, where they are from and what their intentions are. Judging by how obsessed the Biden administration and Democrats are at scapegoating the right, they’re more invested in hunting down “MAGA Republicans” than illegals who mean us harm.

The Biden administration is a complete disgrace and they’re already covering their own butts for their complicity in aiding and abetting Iranian terrorism and foot-dragging on supporting Israel. While many people reflexively jump on the bandwagon urging a “ceasefire,” just like in Ukraine, what demanding a “ceasefire” does is pressure the country that was invaded to appease the country that invaded – it rewards the bad actors. This happened in Ukraine too and many Americans bought into this idea that Ukraine should just agree to a ceasefire, which would freeze lines where Russia seized Ukrainian territory. Blinken immediately urging a ceasefire would pressure Israel not to rightly defend itself. In Ukraine, Russia invaded, not the other way around and this situation with Israel, it’s important to keep in mind, who was the aggressor. Hamas invaded Israel and murdered hundreds of Israeli citizens.

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Filed under Foreign Policy, General Interest, Politics, Terrorism

October 6, 2023 · 9:40 pm

The old battle-ax returns

Geesh, I write a post warning right-wingers to chill out on the paranoia about government run amok and then along comes Hillary Clinton with this… oh my God:

There were some prominent, looney tunes liberals who proposed camps for Americans, who weren’t getting the COVID vaccine too. And truly, I do know the Clintons abuse power in every way they can, whenever they are in office, so my takeaway from this isn’t to get worked up and my point still stands. It’s best to stay calm and keep upholding the Constitution. The amazing thing is liberals who spout things like that, also rant about “dangerous right-wing totalitarians” too and completely lack awareness that they’re the totalitarians.

Hillary’s been trying to get a lot of media attention lately, so perhaps she’s got 2024 dreams…

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October 5, 2023 · 3:34 pm

Did we learn anything from yesterday?

Once a month I have lunch with some ladies I used to work with at Walmart. We’re in our 60s and 70s and one lady is over 80. We were sitting in a restaurant yesterday when the FEMA emergency alert test occurred. Phones went off and for a few seconds people looked at their phones. One lady in my group had heard (and bought into) right-wing conspiracy chatter, so she was a a bit jumpy and she had turned off her phone. Another lady hadn’t heard anything about it, because she has a lot of other things going on in her life and doesn’t pay much attention to the news or spend time online. The others were aware of the test, but were not concerned at all. We quickly went to talking about other topics and enjoyed our lunch after the test.

Last night I saw a nice older homesteader lady’s video from yesterday morning – she, like my friend, was turning off her and her husband’s cell phones and unplugging her computer. We all have enough worries, especially with the inflation that’s causing many people, especially many elderly people, to struggle to make ends meet, that we don’t need more worries.

For people on the right, it’s very easy to see the far-left crazy and the extremism, in whatever tangent of their “intersectionality” causes that hits us, from the green crazies chaining themselves to trees or gluing themselves to artwork in museums and pavement, to all the gender insanity, to women raging about #MeToo, or BLM’s defund the police, and the list goes on. However, I don’t think most people on the right are willing to admit that a whole lot of the political stuff right-wing pundits and people on social media get worked up about are increasingly just as crazy as the far-left craziness.

I was irritated that my friend was worried about an emergency alert system test, because emergency alerts are intended to give people advance warning in emergencies and save lives. The lesson from Maui wasn’t the government used space lasers or something to start the fires, which I saw a video of Steve Bannon spreading that craziness. It was a story about some government failures and bad decisions, including not sounding emergency alarms. Getting people alarmed and conditioning them to not listen to FEMA emergency alerts or to try to find ways not to receive them is craziness. If there was a serious emergency – we should want everyone to pay attention to emergency alerts.

A whole lot of the people who spread these conspiracy theories, do it because they get a whole lot of clicks from it and make money off of spreading conspiracy theory garbage, that harms other people. Yes, these conspiracy theories inflict harm and they also fuel more divides in our country. The big name people who spread this stuff know these conspiracy theories are garbage and they deliberately want to get people riled up, in fact, they’re counting on it – because they’re making money and advancing political agendas off of this. If someone always wants you to get angry and upset, that person is not operating in a way that is good for you or good for our country. People who are always fired up and “fighting mad” aren’t really making sound decisions.

The right has always been big on preaching responsibility and accountability, so as this latest right-wing conspiracy theory now gets memory-holed and brushed aside, perhaps the people who race to get online and spread these wild conspiracy theories should own up to that they fell for another conspiracy theory and not only got worked up themselves, but rushed online to get other people worked up too.

If you take the attitude, well this time it wasn’t true, but you know how our government can’t be trusted on anything, well that’s also a refusal to admit you fell for another conspiracy theory. Each time you buy into crazy stuff and refuse to admit it, the next time you’re likely to buy into even crazier stuff.

What probably won’t happen is most people who bought into this conspiracy theory won’t look at who all they listened to online or in-person, that were selling them the FEMA conspiracy theories, and stop listening to those people or at least be more skeptical about the information those people put out.

The wisest thing would be to start treating all these online hysterical hot takes conspiracy theories like you do scammers calling you on your phone or getting scamming emails – don’t buy into any of it and start looking for information. A lot of of the big name people who spread conspiracy theories operate just like scammers – they try to throw you off balance and get you alarmed – like, “You owe the IRS $2,000” or I’ve had several calls telling me there was a very large purchase on my Amazon account and trying to tell me how to take care of it. The first thing I do with scam calls and emails is I start searching for information and I put “scam” in my search description. I usually quickly find search results matching the exact theme of the “scam” call or email I received.

This morning I saw a news story warning residents in a GA county about scam calls claiming to be from the local sheriff’s department. It never ends with the scams.

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October 2, 2023 · 9:23 pm

Some blog post afterthoughts

With my blog post about Deborah D. Moore novels a couple days ago and my politics rant post about the right-wing conspiracy theory hamster wheel, I may have come across as flippant about preparedness and that was not my intent. I believe learning how to cope with uncertainty and staying calm and focused on the things that really do matter is more important than obsessing about financial “collapse” hysteria or the latest right-wing conspiracy theory that everyone’s talking about on social media or right-wing media – or even some hyped list of possible shortage items.

A “collapse” in America has already happened, but it’s not the one I see the online prepper community talking about all the time.

Our American news and information systems have already collapsed. This collapse has been in progress for decades. The political spin information war, corrupt media, corrupt politicians, hostile foreign information operations, social media and probably a whole host of factors have played a role in this collapse- including we the American people. When I keep adding links, it’s because I try to verify as much information as I can and it’s gotten harder over the past decade. I’ve found Google isn’t always where I find a reliable way to search for information.

When I keep warning conservatives and right-wingers – trying to debunk the conspiracy theories or warn about guarding against trusting the right-wing media echo-chamber as much as they distrust the liberal media echo-chamber, I’m not trying to pick on online preppers and homesteaders for believing in conspiracy theories. It is virtually impossible not to fall prey to some incorrect or bogus information online. I’ve fallen for information that was bogus many times. I’ve encountered the same thing with emails in the past.

I’m alarmed, because if the only people who are proactively working at being more self-reliant and urging people to be prepared for emergencies are constantly hysterical, trust in a failed information system, and so easily race down one conspiratorial rabbit hole after another, who on earth is left in America to help lead and hold anything together?

We’ve all been along for the ride as America’s information systems collapsed and it’s been an integral factor in the escalating divisiveness and instability in American society.

What concerns me is so many people are invested in getting worked up based on information they saw or read online (and yes, I was doing a bit of that in my rant, I know, and I’m trying to stop doing that), because we’ve all been conditioned, for decades, to respond to 24/7 media incitement theater, that now masquerades as news.

In my blog post a couple days ago about the Deborah D. Moore apocalyptic/prepper novels, there were some some very important preparedness themes in her stories. We all should be buckling down and be more like the Wonder Woman Survivalist, Allexa Smeth, the main character. Smeth had practiced a lifetime of preparedness and building all sorts of skill sets. She had her supplies organized and inventoried. She also was always forward-leaning and not waiting around to take action to become better-prepared. She was always trying to motivate everyone around her, even her 12-year-old granddaughter, to learn skills and take some responsibility for their survival. And she was always trying to adapt and thrive no matter the circumstances – even as she was reacting to crisis situations, she kept looking ahead. Preparedness and self-reliance were fundamental parts of her mindset.

In my book review blog post, I mentioned the collapsed information systems Smeth and other characters kept dealing with and that part struck me as totally realistic. She kept focusing on the situation around her home, family and community that she had some control over and that seems like a sensible approach. This is a sensible approach for us too, I think.

Quite a few of the other characters in Moore’s novels reminded me of people I know – people who don’t know how to do much of anything, people who are always blowing money on fun stuff, but don’t have even a week’s worth of food stocked up, people who believe the government will take care of them in an emergency, people who will show up expecting you to take care of them. I had a neighbor years ago, who talked to me in my driveway, the day before a hurricane was expected to hit. We chatted and I asked her if she was ready and she didn’t even have a flashlight, so I gave her an LED camping lantern and extra batteries. I have some close friends and family who think even stocking up extra food is a waste of money or crazy, because they believe the stores will always be open and full of merchandise. I also have family and friends who are well-prepared.

Somehow though, I suspect the people who are totally unprepared for any kind of emergency far outnumber the people who are even a little bit prepared. However, one thing I’ve seen in my life is often people possess skills, knowledge, experience on all sorts of stuff that can surprise you. They might not be a “prepper,” but they might provide a vital skill set or knowledge, so it’s always important to be open to blessings that come in unexpected ways.

In the first Moore novel one of the first problems Smeth encounters is an unprepared local man, who knows she’s a prepper, showing up at her door – trying to forcefully take her stuff. She shot him when he tried to force his way into her home. While many of the natural disaster situations and events in these novels seemed far-fetched to me – that situation with an unprepared man seemed very realistic to me now, after seeing the rise in crime and violence around parts of the country. I always had a very Pollyanna type attitude toward helping people and not thinking about personal/home defense much, but since the 2020 Summer of Love rioting and watching that chaos, I’ve done some major rethinking.

I hope we never have to deal with an apocalyptic crisis, but we can lose our country in many ways beyond some apocalyptic event, if we have citizens with no clue about our American history, our American heritage and most all the virtues of hard work and sacrifice that built our nation. Finding ways to preserve our American ideals is as important as preserving all of our other vital items. A country that can’t pull together on anything is in as precarious a situation as a massive financial collapse and unfortunately we are already there.

I don’t have a plan for defeating the spin information war or a means to build a reliable information system. I’ve debated trying to comment and provide verified information on sites in the past and then I decided against doing that, because people consider that trolling if you post a comment disagreeing with the content creator. I’ll continue to try verifying information, doing some research and writing my blog. Whenever I see a lot of social media hysteria churning, I start trying to figure out what’s going on – I try not to buy into it – no matter which news organization, pundit, politician or whoever is spouting it.

This information problem will only increase as AI develops and other ways to manipulate information develop. Back in 2017, there was this report: A Russian Facebook page organized a protest in Texas. A different Russian page launched the counterprotest. There have been incidents I’ve mentioned many times that were carried out by American political operatives, like Dem operatives & some Silicon Valley bigwigs creating fake Russian bots supporting Roy Moore, in an AL Senate race. In that false flag operation, Dem operatives then turned around and were hyping that Roy Moore was backed by Russians. Two situations here with “Russian” disinformation – one likely perpetrated by actual Russian information operations and the other by one of our own domestic political parties.

The information chaos and confusion will only grow, as AI becomes more widely used. Manipulated images and videos are everywhere online now. Just being aware that our information systems aren’t reliable – especially the political news – can help us become more skeptical and learn to take a wait and see approach rather than running around yelling, “The sky is falling!”

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October 2, 2023 · 12:08 pm

What’s with the “bioengineered” labels?

So, what’s really going on with the “bioengineered” we’re seeing everywhere on food labels these days? The short answer is in 2016 Congress passed a national mandatory standard for disclosing foods that are bioengineered, that went into effect January 1. 2022. Here’s an explanation from the US Department of Agriculture:

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue announced the National Bioengineered Food Disclosure Standard on December 20, 2018. The National Bioengineered Food Disclosure Law, passed by Congress in July of 2016, directed USDA to establish this national mandatory standard for disclosing foods that are or may be bioengineered.   

The Standard defines bioengineered foods as those that contain detectable genetic material that has been modified through certain lab techniques and cannot be created through conventional breeding or found in nature.

The implementation date of the Standard is January 1, 2020, except for small food manufacturers, whose implementation date is January 1, 2021. The mandatory compliance date is January 1, 2022. Regulated entities may voluntarily comply with the Standard until December 31, 2021.

https://www.ams.usda.gov/rules-regulations/be

It’s understandable that with the radical environmentalist dietary ideas we keep hearing about, like eating bugs and other lab produced meat substitutes, to eliminate meat consumption, that seeing “bioengineered” on labels could be disturbing.

After a bit of googling, apparently America has a long history, going back to the 1860s, with the federal government establishing safe food processing and handling regulations and food labeling. Here’s information from a 2018 University of Texas at Austin article:

For many consumers, food labels are a primary source of information about the foods and products they eat. Because of this, it is important that these labels are trustworthy, and that companies are held accountable for the claims printed onto their products.

First, to understand the importance of food labels, let’s look at why food labels were created. Originally, food labeling emerged as a safety precaution for consumers due to foodborne illness outbreaks in the 1850’s. One of the most notable deaths related to food borne illness at this time was the death of President Zachary Taylor after consuming contaminated fruit and milk at a picnic. After this highly publicized death, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) was created in 1862 by President Abraham Lincoln which led to the creation of strict guidelines for food handling and processing. However, it would be 128 years before a recognizable nutritional facts panel was mandated on all food products.

Until the 1960’s, most Americans prepared the majority of their meals at home, but with a shift in consumer demand for prepared products came a public demand for detailed production information. By 1966, the USDA mandated that a list of ingredients must be placed on all products participating in interstate commerce due to consumer demand for accurate production information.

https://he.utexas.edu/ntr-news-list/food-labels-history#:~:text=Originally%2C%20food%20labeling%20emerged%20as,and%20milk%20at%20a%20picnic

Dietary and health advice abound, along with people very emotionally invested in their food choices. Many people also have food allergies and medical problems impacting their food choices, so knowing what we’re buying is important.

Reading labels carefully remains a good habit to follow and contacting manufacturers if you have questions or concerns can help alleviate worries. This January 5, 2022 NPR article, GMO is out, ‘bioengineered’ is in, as new U.S. food labeling rules take effect, stated, “Shoppers who suspect an unlabeled item is actually a bioengineered food can file a complaint with the USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service.”

As far as insects as a food source, there’s some confusion, as insects in foods have generally been looked at from a food contamination perspective, so assuredly new guidelines and regulations will likely emerge if eating insects becomes part of the American diet. Here’s a 2019 CNN story, if you’re up to this: Bugs, rodent hair and poop: How much is legally allowed in the food you eat every day?

And with that, I’m going to end this blog post and go eat lunch.

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