June 30, 2024 · 3:05 pm

The 25th Amendment should be under consideration

After thinking about the situation with our presidential race, almost all the debates center on polling and the November election, but I’m more concerned about today and the window between now and January, when the next president gets sworn into office. Presently, we have a president, who obviously has impaired cognitive capacity, so first Americans deserve to know where medically he is assessed with his dementia. There are stages to dementia and professionals can assess a patient’s abilities through various testing – brain scan and various diagnostic testing. Has he had brain scans and other cognitive tests? If not, then why haven’t his loved ones had that done? My late husband had brain scans and other diagnostic assessments with performing various tasks.

The issue isn’t about polls and who wins in November, it’s that we need a functioning president now and every day. The true state of President Biden’s weak condition was exposed for all the world to see during that 90 minutes. Trump promised to take tougher actions against our adversaries during that debate.

Our adversaries won’t care one iota about all the spin war games and polling garbage. Stepping into our adversaries shoes, you should be asking yourself if you would see the window of opportunity to take more hostile actions against the US and our interests from now until the next POTUS is sworn into office in January or wait until possibly Trump is elected?

Watching Team Biden and Dem/liberal media spin games since that debate, our adversaries know that this crowd is only concerned with polls and their spin word battles. Trump’s team and his supporters are focused on winning in November too.

All of our elected officials in Congress and the White House swore an oath to protect and defend the Constitution. Safeguarding American citizens and our troops all over the globe should take precedence over the partisan politics. There should be some adults in the room in Washington who understand the national security risk with a mentally incapacitated president and a volatile election year.

My position is that the 25th Amendment should be under consideration, because we have troops around the world in harm’s way now and every day. And it’s reckless to have someone with dementia entrusted with the nuclear football.

Having said that, I believe it would be prudent for every American to work on becoming better prepared for emergencies. I’m not suggesting panic-buying, but assessing basic supplies – food, water, medical supplies, personal security needs, etc. Don’t rely on this crowd in Washington or “the experts” to have a plan to keep you safe, that’s for sure

After watching that debate, do you sleep better knowing President Biden is supposed to take those 3 am calls?

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June 28, 2024 · 11:04 am

Despite Biden’s “bad night” the Dem spin info war continues

So, I watched the presidential debate last night and want to jot down my thoughts. This debate isn’t about who won and who lost, because the truth is the American people lost a great deal with Biden’s disastrous performance. The whole world saw that we have a sitting president whose cognitive decline is to the point that if he were our loved one, we’d be afraid to leave him home alone for a day, let alone hand him the nuclear codes. That’s the reality and it’s been the reality for a long time now, despite all the dem/liberal media spin cover-up.

My main concern isn’t about November, it’s about the days, weeks, and months before the election and how America’s adversaries read this provocative display of weakness – a POTUS who isn’t up to 3 am calls and a cabal of aides and Dem powerbrokers who have some hidden working arrangement outside of the chain of command.

It’s been obvious to many people, myself included, that Biden had some degree of cognitive decline since that bizarre Biden in the basement 2020 campaign. Of course, his handlers used COVID as a mask (excuse the pun), to shield him from media and public scrutiny. Then we’ve had three and half years of this bizarre Biden spending more time in DE than at the White House and having only a few hours a day in the office.

Once again, the foremost question is who is really running this White House and close on the heels of that is does anyone want the Biden they saw last night to have the nuclear codes or making life and death decisions for our troops?

The lies spoken by Trump and Biden won’t really matter much, because the optics were devastating for Biden and this debate exposed much bigger lies – the Dem/liberal media spin information war lies. Trump looked physically and mentally competent last night and the side-by-side images of him and Biden showed Biden looking confused, lost and he even had his mouth hanging open at times.

His handlers have carried out this charade by controlling Biden’s public appearances, giving him note cards, or having him read a teleprompter. Last night his handlers and his wife sent him out there alone – without any of the memory aids he relies on. It was like taking away the walker from an elderly person, who relies on it to avoid falls. It was cruel and elder abuse, but overriding that, this man is the POTUS and in charge of life and death decisions that could impact all of us..

Despite the Dem/liberal media panic last night about Biden’s debate debacle and despite the calls for him to step aside, many of the big guns are already regrouping and launching new spin talking points. The Biden team has said he won’t step aside. That means Dems and their liberal media friends will quickly try to move past this debate and create another crisis or Trump scandal as a diversion. Their corrupt spin information war will drag on…

I am deeply concerned about America’s national security in the coming days, weeks, and months.

November feels a long way away.

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June 27, 2024 · 2:33 pm

Debate blather vs. real life

Living in a highly partisan America leaves me sad sometimes. Things aren’t hopeless, but our politics might be. Tonight the stage is set for a presidential debate, before either party has officially held their convention and selected a candidate. That alone seems surreal and it’s going to ramp up the partisan craziness before we even get to the party conventions.

I don’t expect anything to be fair or honest about a debate hosted by CNN and my distrust stems from CNN’s record, going back to 2012, when CNN’s Candy Crowley, the debate moderator “fact-checked” GOP candidate Mitt Romney, and her fact-check was wrong. Nothing has improved with presidential debates since then.

A presidential debate this early will likely only solidify partisan support, while the small number of independent and uncommitted voters remain soft on support up until closer to election time, when more Americans are really dialed into the election. This debate could prove disastrous if Biden fumbles, since prominent Dems have voiced concern about Biden’s abilities, not just Republicans.

Trump’s support among his base and among Republicans distressed by Biden policies, likely wouldn’t be rattled by whatever Trump says or how he acts. Bombastic Trump or more presidential Trump matter less than Trump’s commitment to border security, tough on crime, changing economic policy direction for Trump supporters, I think. Even many people not enamored of Trump are alarmed by the direction our country’s taken with Biden policies. So, I think Biden has more on the line and apparently his handlers do too and that’s why they’ve sequestered Biden for a week to try to get him prepared for a debate, while Trump has been out and about doing rallies and meeting with all sorts of people. This past week has showcased that Trump is the one acting presidential, while Biden needed to go into hiding for a week to prepare for a debate.

Many other things besides the candidates could impact this election – like civil unrest, disastrous results from the open border policies (like a terrorist attack), more economic turmoil, etc. For that reason, despite the media drama about how important this debate is, I’m not wasting any emotional energy on it.

I’ve been working on my small container garden and since cucumbers are coming in and piling up fast, I’ve been making pickles this past week and yesterday I decided to try a cucumber relish recipe from my Ball canning cookbook.

It might be tempting to bury our heads in the sand and tune out the news, but we should pay attention to wars breaking out, escalating foreign situations, political events, weather happenings and other local news, so it’s not good to try to retreat from the world. Add to that we’re in another contentious presidential election year, so more crazy happenings can be expected. Just yesterday there was a NBC news report of some got-aways coming across the US southern border, who might have ties to ISIS.

Working on putting some boundaries on news and social media consumption is a challenge for me, but I’m getting much better at not getting emotionally invested in news or political drama.

Finding balance between paying attention and paying too much attention can be hard and that’s why I realized that I also need to work on growing more hope and gratitude, because it’s too easy to get sucked into news media and social media drama. What I don’t think many people understand when they use social media is influencers aren’t the biggest concern. Social media platforms are set up to make you the product. Those platforms are designed to collect data on you every second you’re on them and then figure out ways to use algorithms to modify your behavior.

Your social media feed is all about algorithmic behavior modification, as social media algorithms fill your feed with information, analyze your behavior, then adjust your feed to keep you clicking/scrolling and watching. Your social media feed fills with things geared toward your previous searches and viewing habits. If you click on a particular topic, the algorithms will adjust and fill up your feed with more of that topic. It’s easy to assume other people are seeing the same things you are, but truly you’re allowing yourself to be guided down partisan rabbit holes and into a very narrow bubble. Many people talk about their online community, but these aren’t real communities – they’re echo chambers you’ve been guided into by algorithms you’re not even aware of. Millions of people get their news from social media sites too, so it’s important to be aware that the news that fills up your social media feed is all about algorithmic behavior modification too.

We all have to pick and choose what news and information we consume and react to. I live in an area that can be impacted by Atlantic hurricanes and the experts are predicting a more active hurricane season. Likewise, there’s escalating far-left protesting happening around the country, reminiscent of the 2020 BLM “mostly peaceful” protest chaos. I don’t live in a big city, but 2020 shook my faith in never having to worry about shortages or civil unrest disruptions in America. So, I’m reassessing my emergency preparedness.

I’m checking my pantry and other basic supplies and stocking up a bit more, although I continually stock up extra stuff as part of my normal routine. I’ve decided to up my efforts some, just in case. If you aren’t prepared at all, well, all I can say is you don’t have to go all in and become a hardcore prepper, but certainly having some basic items stocked up doesn’t take that much effort. Having extra food, water, medication/first-aid items, etc. ahead of time can mean the difference between an unusual event being a crisis or just an inconvenience. Sure, everything is more expensive, but stocking up a little at a time is still doable for most people.

This beautiful zinnia grew on it’s own in one of my squash containers. The squash plant bit the dust, but this zinnia has thrived. I love squash, but this zinnia softened the blow of losing the squash and it sure brightens my day. I will definitely be saving seeds from this zinnia.

Along with those preparedness efforts, I’m working on trying to become a better listener, especially with people I don’t agree with, and I’m trying to limit my time spent on political drama or people getting worked up about everything in the news. Stocking up hope is much harder than stocking up material items, but it’s the most vital thing to stockpile, no matter what happens.

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June 19, 2024 · 2:25 pm

2024 politics moving into high-gear

Last week some right-wing media edited a video of President Biden in Normandy supposedly just wandering away from other European leaders for no reason. The truth was Biden walked over and gave a thumbs up to parachutists, who had landed nearby. There was also a right-wing edited video hit job alleging that Biden pooped his pants and that one garnered a good bit of right-wing media and social media mileage. Certainly, Biden shows signs of cognitive decline and while not as severe, from my observations, so does Trump, who just turned 78.

Of course, any time I try to be objective and honest, the Biden White House and their liberal media cronies will come along and launch some spin effort that is so outrageously dishonest and goes so far beyond the right-wing dishonest messaging they’re reacting to. With Democrats and their liberal media crowd when it comes to former President Trump it’s always full-throttle scorched earth mode. So, the White House came out and accused right-wing media of creating deepfake and “cheapfake” videos of Biden rather than just stating that some of the right-wing videos were edited and didn’t give the complete context. The videos weren’t deepfakes of digitally altered – they were just edited. By last night all over liberal media they were repeating the White House’s “cheapfake” spin lie.

Early in President Trump’s presidency he visited Japan and a video of Trump dumping his whole box of fish food into a koi pod after Japan’s prime minister, Abe, fed spoonfuls of fish food and led to liberal media condemnation. The truth was the video clip of Trump dumping the entire box was edited to create that narrative, because the whole video showed that Abe dumped his entire box of fish food into the koi pond and then Trump followed Abe’s lead.

The point I’m trying to make is one I’ve blabbed about many times – don’t trust videos without more information. In 2019, ABC used video of a KY firing range and said it was video from Syria. Routinely, videos from other places have circulated reportedly showing atrocities in Gaza. And, the entire BLM operation is about using video footage edited to advance their anti-police/black victimhood narratives and ignite racial controversies to advance their political agenda.

I’d like to believe being objective and telling the truth always matters, but watching the Biden White House’s over-the-top reaction, left me wondering if they deserved being treated fairly, then I caught myself. How we treat others is about our moral compass, not about the lack of theirs.

More and more people distrust the news media, across the board, so they’re reaping what they sow for becoming partisan hacks. The Democrats scorched earth spin war seems to be backfiring frequently, as more people realize they’re being deliberately lied to.

I hope the Trump crowd doesn’t go full scorched earth like the Democrats, because if Trump offers a positive message for America based on policies from his first term, he’s likely to win in November. What’s not to like about America being energy independent or being able to buy groceries without feeling gut-punched by the high prices? Even many Democrats now realize that Trump’s effort to secure our borders is a national security imperative, not evil racism or xenophobia.

Trump is acting more disciplined with his messaging this time around… and the Biden record is so dismal, despite his obvious cognitive decline. That said, I still expect top Democrat powerbrokers to try to replace Biden.

The 2024 election is in full swing.

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June 14, 2024 · 4:40 pm

We’re in a clash of civilizations, whether we like it or not

Today is Flag Day and the US Army’s birthday. I remain hopeful for our republic.

There have been lots of alarming happenings this week that revved up WWIII chatter in the news and on social media.

To understand what’s happening now in world affairs, I think a good place to start is to realize big power competitions are as old as time and we are in the midst of a big power challenge that’s been unfolding long before Trump ever entered politics.

We can go back to the fairly rapid collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989-1992 to see that the world power structure can change rapidly and pretty much in ways the overwhelming majority of the experts and pundits didn’t see coming. The end of the Cold War left the United States in a position of world superpower, which our leaders weren’t prepared for and more often than not didn’t leverage to America’s advantage.

The Reagan era ended and from 1992-2000 the Clinton administration kept trying to kowtow to and legitimize numerous miscreants and anti-American regimes around the world, while also embracing the role of world policeman and getting the US entangled in several UN interventions (some of which ended very badly). There was an emerging foreign policy view that the US should shift its world leader role to more of just part of a globalist alliance and subservient to UN agendas.

Early in GWB’s presidency 9/11, an attack on American soil, happened and from that point on America went full-throttle on a global war on terror, which later developed a parallel foreign policy pipedream of regime-change to implant democracy in hostile Islamic-ruled lands. Many Republicans and Democrats embraced this regime-change foreign policy – it wasn’t just one side. The idea that a sharia governmental system could also be transformed into a democracy was always delusional, in my view, since sharia law is a rigid theocratic system. That’s where US policymakers were though and in Washington, if a few prominent experts start selling a new policy, most of the other prominent ones will just get on board with it. Groupthink rules in US policy circles.

The Obama administration turbo-charged the regime-change efforts, that started in the GWB administration, with dismal outcomes to both the peoples we were supposedly saving by our regime change efforts and to the US military, which expended a lot blood and treasure, while remaining stuck in endless rotations to Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and beyond. Decades of non-stop deployments degraded our military readiness, even before Biden came along and forced far-left social engineering policies on the US military. It’s a double whammy to our military, that has definitely left America’s national security in peril, I believe. Add in the Biden open border policies and America is at a very precarious point.

With all these efforts, the Obama policymakers operated as if they had no clue about the Cold War world map and many Republicans, who should have known better, jumped on board the regime change train too. The Russians deployed troops to Syria to prop up Assad, while the Obama administration went on the search for mythical “moderate” Syrian rebels to arm to fight both ISIS and Assad. I strongly suspect the CIA was engaged in gunrunning from Benghazi to Syria and that the “moderate” Syrian rebels they were arming were connected to Al Nusra, which was Al Qaeda in Syria. The Russians were Cold War allies of Syria and maintained a large naval facility at Tartus in Syria, so they weren’t going to sit by and allow the US to topple Assad.

The Obama administration also was ham-handed in Ukraine. Russia was propping up a friendly Ukraine leader, while the Obama team openly and clumsily aided the toppling of that leader. Russia responded by deploying troops into Ukraine and annexed Crimea. Well here again, the Russians had their Black Sea Fleet at Sevastopol, a port city in Crimea. The Obama administration tucked tail and didn’t challenge the Russian annexation of Crimea… exactly how the Biden administration later had the situation in Afghanistan blow up in their face and then just let the Taliban humiliate the US with that debacle of a withdrawal.

Putin read that Afghanistan debacle as a green light and launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine two years ago. The US isn’t “poking the bear” by aiding Ukraine, because the bear is already on the attack. China likewise is on the attack – floods of cyberattacks on US infrastructure constantly – to take down our grid and water systems.

It’s the Biden (Obama crowd) weakness that is emboldening Russia and China, because they want to usurp America’s role as the world’s superpower.

This is the big picture of what’s going on. Russia will hype how the US and NATO are escalating things by arming Ukraine and Ukraine attacking Russian assets and supply lines in Russia, but this is hogwash. Russia launched the full-scale invasion into Ukraine. Russia has continually saber-rattled threatening NATO, Poland, Sweden, Moldova and even the US. Russia has threatened nuclear war more than once since invading Ukraine.

Russia is now embarking on boldly approaching US waters off of FL and engaging in naval exercises in Cuba. This isn’t the US poking the bear, this is at the very least Russia and China testing to see how far they can go and if the Biden administration will grovel. At worst, Russia is positioning and training for some actual hostile actions against the US that would surely involve China, Iran and other regimes hostile to the US. Since China, Russia and Iran want to see the US relegated to the dustbin of history (Iran’s rallying cry is “Death to America!”) and this presidential election year will be ripe for exploitation to escalate internal chaos, so all cards are on the table.

Reagan would never have worried about “poking the bear” and for the life of me I don’t understand how craven and silly so much of the right-wing has become. Sorry, the reality is the US will likely be dealing with more challenges to US power, especially if we appease Putin on his Ukraine demands.

These challenges to the US’s world position will continue regardless who is elected in November and in the meantime America’s adversaries want to create as much chaos, division and turmoil in America as possible. The expanding power and influence of China, Russia and Iran will inevitably lead to more clashes.

We have a left that’s become increasingly crazy and there are thousands protesting against Israel, who was attacked by Hamas and cheering on Hamas, a terrorist regime that invaded Israel and massacred over 1,000 people, mostly civilians. And and we have a right that likewise has become increasingly crazy and a crowd that believes not upsetting Putin and not providing Ukraine with arms will lead to peace. Putin invaded Ukraine in a bold effort to try to decapitate the government in Kiev, but there’s a segment of the right in America that blames Ukraine for all the problems. Putin will read the US and Europe abandoning Ukraine as another greenlight to embark on more territorial grabs, not as a time to broker a peace deal.

Has WWIII started? Well, I don’t expect the next major world power structure upheaval to be like WWI or WWIII, with massive armies and land and sea battles. I expect a lot more asymmetrical warfare and totally unconventional conflicts, which has already begun. How long could America withstand major asymmetrical attacks that succeeded, if the people are so divided and won’t unite to defend our homeland or they distrust all the information they hear? I’m more concerned about Americans being so divided than about what America’s adversaries are doing.

I expect things to get crazier as this year goes on, but I will continue to try to live my life as normally as possible – no matter what happens. During WWII British people packed tea and food to take to shelters during air raids and people in war zones still focus on everyday needs and taking care of their families. Trying hard to maintain as much normalcy in you life as possible, no matter what happens, is how you survive and thrive in adversity.

I’m thankful to live in America every day and today I’m proud to see the American flag still waving.

Note: I cross-stitched the picture above decades ago and still love the message: Our Country; Our Destiny.

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June 11, 2024 · 2:20 pm

Working on growing my gratitude

Big dreams vs. harsh realities hit me again as the summer heat… and pest pressure increased in my vegetable garden here in southeast GA. Being a Yankee at heart, GA summers wilt my spirits. Yes, I know summer hasn’t officially begun, but it sure feels like it has.

Some things grow well here, especially the bugs, so along with bug spray for my plants, I keep a can of deep woods bug spray for me handy too. Flowers and herbs are much easier to grow in my backyard, so this year I’ve planted more flowers, which will provide much needed boosts to my spirit as tomato and squash plant deaths inevitably increase. I’ve got cucumbers forming and so far every single one has small holes in them with worms. I’ve sprayed them several times with BT spray and since I’m not invested in the hoopla about all organic, I’m going to use Sevin spray next. I’m the same about fertilizers and I can guarantee I will not ever use the fish oil emulsion that I see mentioned online frequently, because I avoid all fish products after having an anaphylactic reaction to fish.

I’ve read gardening books and watched many online gardening experts trying to learn more. I learned about the difference between determinate and indeterminate tomatoes and I found a determinate type hybrid cherry tomato variety that does produce a lot of cherry tomatoes before eventually succumbing to the GA heat and plant diseases. I’m still trying to successfully grow larger tomatoes too. The same thing happens with summer squash. I picked a few yellow squash and one zucchini, but I’ve already lost a couple squash plants. I’ll try again in my fall garden effort.

The practical side of me realizes that if I kept track of how much I’ve spent on this container gardening effort I started three years ago, when I decided I wanted to get back to vegetable gardening, that this isn’t saving me any money. However, I am getting better at this container gardening and I love being out in my backyard garden.

Reality checks are important and unfortunately it’s easy to get carried away buying more and more supplies and gadgets or trying to imitate some picture perfect garden set-up you’ve seen in a magazine or online. I’ve seen amazing raised bed set-ups and beautiful greenhouses. I’ve seen all sorts of amazing trellis systems. irrigation systems and even sunshade systems. This year I purchased a better ground cover fabric and put together 4 small metal raised beds that I bought last year. It would take a lot of vegetable production to off-set the cost of even these purchases.

My gardening effort is mainly because I enjoy it. Embarking on backyard gardening with too high of expectations left me sadly disappointed many times over the years, so I’m working on learning to enjoy even the smallest wins. With the wormy cucumbers, I picked them and cut off the bad parts and found that a good bit of each cucumber was fine. I have a container of sliced cucumber in the fridge, ready for salads or snacking. I froze several gallons of blackberries from my blackberry bushes and dried a lot of herbs already, so those are wins. I’ve picked green beans several times. Peppers are producing. And this Burpee hybrid veranda tomato seed has come through again and I’ve got lots of cherry tomatoes ripening every day. The big tomatoes, well, out of ten plants, I’m down to two plants and I’m highly skeptical these will survive long enough to produce any usable tomatoes. There are a few tomatoes forming, but they don’t look promising.

Learning to be grateful for the small wins rather than fixating on the unfulfilled big expectations takes a conscious mind shift. All those big expectations are usually influenced by images I’ve seen online or seen someone else have and it’s really a form of coveting what other people have.

Gardening is like other hobbies. It’s easy to fall into the trap of believing if we buy all the right gadgets and gizmos, we’ll end up with picture perfect outcomes. Learning from the failures and gaining more experience usually leads to more success, but learning gratitude for even the small wins helps grow more resilience of my spirit, I think. No matter what garden tragedy occurs, I am deeply grateful I can come inside, sit in my kitchen where the AC keeps it cool and sip on a glass of iced tea. From my kitchen windows I can see my entire container garden, which wasn’t there until three years ago and that puts it into perspective – I’m making progress.

Growing my gratitude matters more than any of the vegetables I planted.

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June 7, 2024 · 8:55 am

Word games escalate

A couple days ago I clicked on Time magazine’s May 28th interview of President Biden. Time actually has this quote on the transcript: “Below is a lightly edited transcript of the interview conducted by TIME Washington Bureau Chief Massimo Calabresi and Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs.” That adverb “lightly” made me distrust Time magazine’s recounting of this interview and I didn’t even waste my time reading any further.

A week ago we were bombarded with media hit takes, recognizable when across liberal media they start repeating the same words and phrases, on the verdict in a NYC court against former President Trump. This week Hunter Biden is on trial in a Delaware court room facing charges that he illegally purchased a gun. Both trials highlight a definite sleaze factor – Trump paying hush money to a porn star and Trump hired Michael Cohen as his personal lawyer and had him on the payroll for years, then there’s Hunter Biden’s drug addiction, sexual relationship with his dead brother’s widow, and a wide array of debauchery he personally chronicled on his laptop.

However, in all fairness the Trump trial had Trump being convicted on 34 counts, where the jurors didn’t even have to agree on the underlying crimes and I still don’t understand how federal crimes that the feds didn’t prosecute could be given new life as the basis for state crimes in NY. In the Hunter Biden case, its clear that Hunter Biden was a drug addict and he lied on his application for purchasing a firearm. Usually federal prosecutors guard their turf when states try to overstep, but in Trump’s case, the #3 lawyer at the DOJ joined the NY prosecutor’s team to get Trump. All of it will lead to more corruption, less trust in the criminal justice system and more abuses of power. America is on a very dangerous path.

Democrats are way more organized, ruthless, and shameless in lawfare and in their media spin war efforts. Yesterday, I saw a Dem talking point warning that Trump will try to throw his political opponents in jail… as Trump is awaiting sentencing in July and could have a Biden-supporting judge toss him in jail. It’s surreal at this point.

If you aren’t emotionally invested in one of the partisan sides, well, I think most people would consider America’s leaders and their families trashy and corrupt. The media, across the board, is trashy and corrupt too. However, Democrats and their liberal media friends have decades of experience running these elaborate spin war operations and Republicans only began to grasp the scope of the Dems spin information war since Donald Trump entered the political arena.

When it comes to sleaze, we can add in all these highfaluting, top former intelligence officials, who pedaled the Clinton campaign’s bogus Steele dossier, purporting Trump was colluding with the Russians and presented the dossier as a serious intelligence report by a former British spy. Along with the “dossier” (doesn’t that word sound official,) since 2016, the “consensus of experts via a letter released to the media” has become a common Democrat spin tool of persuasion. There have been a string of these letters, orchestrated by Democrats to fearmonger and spread lies about Trump and intelligence information, which the liberal media then puts on blast to amplify. In October 2020 many of the same officials who pedaled the Steele dossier in the media got behind a letter signed by dozens of former intel officials stating that the Hunter Biden laptop was Russian disinformation.

The mainstream media and social media companies tried to squash the Hunter Biden laptop story in 2020, but this week, the federal prosecutor in this Hunter Biden gun trial called a FBI expert to the stand, who testified under oath that the FBI had the Hunter Biden laptop in custody in 2019 – long before the November 2020 election and the FBI knew the laptop was Hunter’s and not Russian disinformation. Why didn’t the FBI issue any kind of statement in 2020 after those former intelligence officials released that letter? Did any of those former top intelligence officers contact the FBI for information? And, what does Anthony Blinken, Secretary of State, who reportedly orchestrated that intelligence officers’ letter spin effort, have to say?

In the past few days, media reports that top Democrat senator from NY, Chuck Schumer has a brother at some fancy law firm and his brother provided three of the firms top lawyers to be part of Alvin Bragg’s team to prosecute Trump. So, it wasn’t only the DOJ’s #3 top lawyer who assisted Bragg. And at the same time Democrats and their liberal media cronies keep blabbing about how serious these cases against Trump are, how they’re all about “protecting our democracy,” and how there’s nothing political about these cases.

No matter what happens to Trump, Democrats have normalized their scorched earth spin war, where they’ll spin up any lies with the aid of their media friends, if it advances their political objectives and now they’ve normalized using the courts to take down political opponents. It’s going to be very hard to reestablish boundaries in our politics, even if there’s a public demand for it. And once one side stakes out new political rules and boundaries, the other side will surely play by the new rules. The Trump campaign in the 2024 GOP primary adopted many of the same vile Dem spin game tactics against Ron DeSantis and at times both Democrats/liberal media and Trump mouthpieces were running the same orchestrated spin lies to destroy DeSantis.

All the words coming out of our political class ring hollow and sorry, the political class won’t save America. In 2024, Trump might look like the safer choice, even to Republicans and conservatives who cringe at Trump’s lying and baggage (for example, like hush money to a porn star and having sleazebag Michael Cohen on his payroll), but the truth is political partisans and our media, across the board, are 100% committed to escalating the spin information war, not ending it.

In 2024, we have two old men running for office – one whose cognitive function is declining rapidly and who has always been a big liar and the other doesn’t look well either and he too has always been a big liar. That’s the truth. We’re still left with picking the lesser of two evils. Even a conservative like me, who doesn’t care for Trump at all, can say Trump policies were better for me and my family and better for America, but what’s on my mind is this scorched earth spin information war could easily take more dangerous turns before we even get to election day this year. Democrats successfully used the FBI and intelligence agencies in their scorched earth spin operations, even when Trump was president. Now, Democrats control the executive branch. What’s left for Dem scorched earth tactics to stop Trump? We’re sure to find out in the next few months.

It’s been over 20 years that I’ve been blabbing about the danger of this spin information war having only one outcome – tearing our country apart and I still believe that. There is no 2024 candidate who is going to save America as long as Americans buy into this scorched earth spin information as an acceptable part of our political process

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June 3, 2024 · 11:42 am

Thoughts on the Trump conviction

Often with our American political dramas the media noise drowns out important bits of information and sweeps us along with narratives intended to fuel partisan divides and incite emotional reactions. That hype keeps people watching and clicking along, but often too many people just buy into the narratives and repeat the talking points fed to them. Those emotional reactions also drive poll numbers, which in this never-ending spin information war, get hyped by the media and political pundits and are a constant fixture used to sell the media narratives. This is a sophisticated form of manipulating and selling manufactured “public opinion.”

So, this past week with the criminal conviction of former President Trump on 34 counts, there were important bits of information that weren’t hyped.

First there’s this bit of information: Prosecutors Met With Biden Admin Before 3 Trump Indictments. Alvin Bragg met with the Biden DOJ before filing state charges against former President Trump.

The next bit of information is in this MSN news story: Scrutiny of prosecutor Matthew Colangelo intensifies after Trump conviction. So, Colangelo was the #3 person in the Biden DOJ and he left that position in 2022 to join Alvin Bragg’s DA office in NYC. This guy left a top DOJ position to work in a city DA office… From this MSN story:

“Bragg plucked Colangelo from his top post at the DOJ to help with white-collar prosecutions in December 2022. Colangelo had little experience in that field, but he did have a wealth of knowledge about Trump.”

“Before working at the DOJ, Colangelo worked for Attorney General Letitia James, who investigated Trump for three years before bringing a massive civil lawsuit against him and the Trump Organization in the fall of 2022.”

After watching the Democrat efforts to use lawfare to destroy Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign, well, it’s obvious these legal cases are completely political and not about justice. The case that I thought had the most merit was the mishandling classified documents, but here again it’s hard to take that seriously considering President Biden mishandled classified information too and no charges were brought.

Then there was Hillary Clinton using her husband’s private email server, that he had set up in their home for his Clinton Foundation work, as her State Dept. server while she was Secretary of State. Of course, she also had classified information in some of those emails, that she mishandled. The Clintons, with the aid of the media, were able to spin Hillary into a victim of a right-wing witch-hunt and never honed in on why Hillary used Bill Clinton’s private server for her State Dept. work. Through all the investigative drama, it wasn’t until I read the FBI Notes, released in the Fall of 2016 that I understood the origins of the Clinton server – Bill Clinton had his aide, Justin Cooper, set up that homebrew server, for his foundation work. Hillary used other email providers for her email, until she became Secretary of State. According to the FBI timeline in their server investigation it was in the weeks before Hillary became Secretary of State, the Clintons had Cooper and Hillary’s campaign IT guy, Bryan Pagliano, upgrade the homebrew server, to accommodate Hillary’s State Dept. email load. That’s what the upgrade was all about – merging her State Dept. information with their Clinton Foundation business. So, she used other email service providers, then rather than use the State Dept. secure email system, the Clintons merged Hillary’s State Dept. business with their Clinton Foundation business on a homebrew server in their home. There was also the bleach bit server in Hillary’s email investigation and she never turned over many of the FBI subpoenaed electronic devices – she had numerous BlackBerry devices (some destroyed by Cooper with a hammer) and out of 5 iPads, only 3 were turned over to the FBI.

After all the Clinton corruption in 2016 from the email scandal to the bogus Clinton campaign smear operation “Steele dossier,” well, now we’re supposed to get outraged about Trump paying hush money to a porn star in 2016. Sorry, the two separate sets of rules, where Democrats, with the aid of the liberal media, can spin away all their crimes and then spin up Trump as the biggest threat to democracy, who’s going to destroy the world… well, I am done trusting anything the media reports. I also admit that after listening to many explanations on these charges against Trump, I was left shaking my head trying to understand the underlying crimes… and then I thought about all the Clinton campaign and Democrat efforts to corruptly “influence the 2016 election.” C’mon, some shady bookkeeping vs. the efforts of the DNC and Clinton campaign to hire Perkins Coie and Fusion GPS to concoct the Steele dossier.

In 2022, CNN reported: FEC fines Hillary Clinton campaign and DNC over Trump-Russia dossier research. This article states, “The Clinton campaign and the DNC never conceded that they violated campaign finance laws, but they agreed to drop their pushback and accept the civil fines, according to the FEC letter.” The DNC was fined $105,000 and the Clinton campaign was fined $8,000 and now we’re suppose to think Trump facing up to 20 years in prison is justice. From USA Today: “Each of the 34 counts Trump was convicted of individually has a maximum sentence of four years. Sentences can be imposed consecutively – meaning they must be served one after the other – but New York has a 20-year maximum consecutive sentence for Class E felonies.”

Clearly, there are two sets of rules when it comes to Democrats and Trump. The FEC dropped the hush money Trump matter, but then the Biden DOJ and Soros-backed prosecutors met and conjured up these 2024 campaign year cases against Trump hyping 2016 campaign actions. However, if you bring up the 2016 Clinton campaign corruption the mainstream media and Democrats insist it’s a witch-hunt against Hillary.

There are no guardrails left for Democrat spin information war, when the FBI buys into and sells Dem talking points like the white nationalism hysteria or Comey inventing an intent provision in the law to exonerate Hillary, or top intelligence officials routinely leaking information to attack Trump or signing a letter released to the media that the Hunter Biden laptop was Russian disinformation, to now they’re using lawfare and turning the criminal justice system into a potent political weapon to try to take out a GOP presidential candidate.

It won’t stop with attacking Trump. Anyone who gets in the way of the Democrats agenda will be targeted by the Democrat political machine. Supreme Court Justice Alito is under attack by Democrats and liberal media now for a flag his wife flew in front of their home. Justice Thomas is a regular target. We all saw what happened to Justice Brett Kavanaugh during his confirmation hearing. Democrats have no qualms about attacking some courts and judges in America, while they rant about “protecting our democracy” and how we must respect this NYC court verdict.

Beyond our shores, America is looking less and less like a shining city on a hill and more like a banana republic.

This intensifying “winning by any means necessary” could reach a tipping point quickly. Trump’s sentencing is scheduled for July and at this point, I won’t be surprised if this judge, who donated to the Biden campaign, imposes a sentence with jail time for Trump. I don’t think millions of Trump supporters will passively sit by and watch a former president, who they believe is a victim of corrupt Democrat prosecutions, be carted off to jail.

Democrats and their media allies are trying to ramp up branding Trump a “convicted felon,” but that’s likely to fall on deaf ears for half the country. We’re at a dangerous point when half the country loses faith in the rule of law and justice in America.

This presidential election year has now taken a dangerous turn and all bets are off on what happens next. Things could easily go off-the-rails very quickly, if Trump is sentenced to jail time.

It’s a good time for all of us to work on becoming better prepared for a bumpy road to the 2024 US presidential election. The 2020 election year dramas could very easily look like minor bumps in the road compared to the next few months.

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Filed under 2024 Election, General Interest, Hillary's Email Scandal, Information War, Politics

May 30, 2024 · 7:17 pm

The embarrassing end of the Gaza pier project

Two days ago there were reports that the US-built floating Gaza pier was damaged and broke loose during rough seas. This pier idea was a disaster waiting to happen from the beginning and now is another embarrassing Biden administration military disaster to add to the list.

The Pentagon announced a suspension of pier operations and admitted none of the aid delivered reached the Gazan civilian population – a total failure. Before moving on we should take a look at the state of the US military, because this Gaza pier boondoggle should have Americans outraged and demanding a serious shake-up in the Pentagon.

In April the ship transporting equipment to Gaza for this pier project had an engine fire and had to return to Jacksonville, FL Here’s a quote, “USNS 2nd Lt. John P. Bobo (T-AK-3008) experienced a fire in its engine room on Thursday, April 11, while it was on its way to the Eastern Mediterranean Sea with equipment and personnel for the humanitarian efforts planned via a temporary pier in Gaza, a Navy spokesperson said in a statement to USNI News.” from a USNI article, Navy Transport With Equipment, Personnel for Gaza Pier Back Home After Engine Fire.

A week ago there were news reports of three US servicemembers being injured in Gaza pier operations, with non-combat related injuries, but one was in critical condition and being treated in an Israeli hospital. ABC News on May 23, 2024 reported:

“Vice Adm. Brad Cooper, CENTCOM deputy commander, didn’t provide specifics Thursday other than saying they were non-combat-related injuries and that two of the service members had returned to duty, while the third is receiving care at a local Israeli hospital.”

“A defense official told ABC News the third service member is in critical condition and was injured aboard the USNS Benavidez, a U.S. Navy cargo ship. A U.S. official said it involved a forklift accident.” https://abcnews.go.com/International/3-us-service-members-treated-injuries-related-pier-gaza/story?id=110519574

Here’s a FOX News headline from today: Former MSNBC anchor trashes Biden after $320M Gaza pier falls apart: ‘What a bloody s—show’.

Americans have a solid belief in the US military being invincible, but after over 20 years of endless deployments, we have a force that’s degraded. This October 2023 Stars and Stripes article, The US military has a readiness problem, states, “Training exercises are not preparing units for the realities of the modern battlefield, sustainment issues are keeping complex platforms out of action, and a high operational tempo driven by “forward presence” missions is pushing the joint force to a breaking point. Pentagon leadership might be loath to acknowledge it, but the military has a growing readiness problem on its hands.”

Granted over $300 million dollars thrown into this Gaza pier boondoggle is a drop in the bucket Mediterranean compared to watching Transportation Secretary, Pete Buttigieg, try to explain how after spending $7.5 billion dollars on the green push, so far only a handful of EV chargers have actually been built (Pete Buttigieg Ridiculed for Joe Biden’s $7.5 Billion ‘Massive Failure’), but still this Gaza pier debacle still should not sink into the ocean of Biden failures that the media paddles past as fast as possible.

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Filed under General Interest, Military, Politics

May 20, 2024 · 7:25 pm

It’s about the small things

The news is still filled with loads of doom and gloom. Had to go pick up a few things at the grocery store today – the cost of food is alarming. I’m glad I have a lot of food stocked up already, but I plan to continue stocking up.

Small things can help you weather all of these trials and challenges, that’s what I believe.

With spending so much time working on my garden and yard, I’ve spent a lot less time perusing social media. That has had a very beneficial effect on my attitude. Sure, I am still following the news, still aware of the political and cultural chaos swirling, but despite that I feel more positive and upbeat. Over the years, as my late husband’s health declined, I stopped sitting outside and being outside regularly. Besides the gardening effort, I decided to spend some time sitting outside each day, weather permitting. I carry my coffee to a small table on my patio in the morning and some days eat meals outside too. It seems such a small thing, but it uplifts my spirit.

Each day I try to learn something new. Today I learned about florida betony and I realized that this weed grows profusely in my backyard. When I was getting my containers for my container garden ready, I dumped the soil from my containers into the wheelbarrow and pulled out the weeds, added some compost and refilled my containers. I had a big pile of weeds with loads of these tuberous roots. Today, I learned that weed is florida betony, it’s edible, including all those roots I threw away. This weed also has medicinal uses. Right in front of me was a “weed” that I was working hard to get rid of, that is probably as beneficial as the vegetables I’ve been planting. Learning about this weed gave me pause, as I thought about how hard I worked to get rid of it.

All around us there are likely hidden treasures, that with a bit of information and know-how could become a blessing. Along with learning about this prolific weed, I learned that sharing information can help people too. I gave extra tomato plants and other veggies, that I had too many started, to a friend. She was happy to have these plants, but she was not set-up or prepared for a vegetable gardening effort. I tried to offer her advice on how to go about this in the most economical way, because any way you go with buying bagged soil can add up quickly, not to mention other supplies. I’m still learning as I go along with this container gardening effort and for me it’s working. I don’t want to try to go back to planting an in-ground garden and all the effort that went into tilling and composting (which my late husband turned into his effort). I added four small metal raised beds this spring.

You’ve got to grow a lot of food consistently to recoup the cost of supplies. I garden mainly because I love it, but with the cost of food at the grocery store showing no sign of easing, being able to produce some of my own food feels like a tiny bit of extra security. Realizing how many weeds and things growing around me are edible has been an eye-opener, as I’ve been trying to learn more about foraging and wild plants. As I googled florida betony, I even found recipes for pickling it and how to incorporate it into curries and stir-fries. This information seemed like it might be more important to know than all the latest details of our partisan political soap operas.

The photo at the top is a handbook I found at my local Goodwill long ago. It’s a 2004 copyright and a local person whited out their name and address inside the front cover. I am not a master gardener, nor have I taken a master gardener’s course, although I’ve thought about applying many times. That said, this handbook is one of my most valuable resources for gardening information for my area. UGA has loads of online information for GA gardeners and farmers too.

I’m beginning to think that knowing all the latest happenings that people on social media blab about won’t matter at all in a real crisis, but knowing more about my own area and especially my own backyard definitely might be vital.

I gave extra vegetable plants to two other people and that’s a personal goal I’m focusing on in my life- to pass on extra things to help others. I always start more seeds than I need. I keep a few to have as replacements, in case some meet an untimely end, but I try to give away the others.

Small things matter.

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Filed under Food for Thought, Gardening, General Interest