July 4, 2024 · 11:10 pm

“Sharp and focused but sometimes confused and forgetful”

I hate to write this blog post on the 4th of July, but feel like I want to get this off my chest, since I have been trying to expose the corrupt Dem/liberal media spin information war since 1999.

Many people buy into the way the liberal media and Democrats frame issues, like after famed Watergate reporter, Carl Bernstein, who also is a rabid Trump-hater, sat down with Anderson Cooper on Monday, moments after Biden gave a 4 minute speech to try to launch a “new management” PR effort. Bernstein was relating 15-20 episodes his sources reported in the past year. Other reporters are reporting things they’ve known about for a year or more too. They all knew and kept it quiet, but they’re trying to pretend this is some big breaking news that they just found out about. And if they weren’t aware of Biden’s cognitive decline from his bumbling/stumbling wandering around on stage, well, then they need to find a new job other than journalism. Since 2020, with that Biden campaign in the basement, this Dem/liberal media cover-up has been going on, while our illustrious liberal media regaled us constantly about Biden and his ice cream flavors…

Then there’s how Dems and the liberal media drop spin words that the liberal media (and usually conservative pols and media gets duped into adopting too) – like Nancy Pelosi came out after Bernstein’s reporting to spin some idiocy about whether these 15-20 incidents are “episodes” as Bernstein described them or a “condition”… Anyone with those episodes of freezing/memory issues isn’t fit to be POTUS and the real question is anyone who had a family member with those “episodes” would insist on medical tests to find out what was causing them – the “condition.”

It’s all spin word nonsense, that Dems and their liberal media friends run with and Americans buy into. Powerful Dem Congressman, James Clyburn, came out and was talking about a “mini-primary,” as a way for Dems to figure out their 2024 ticket. Here’s Mark Levin explaining what that new “mini-primary” really is:

The largest spin effort is to frame this as about the Dem 2024 ticket, when the obvious question, as more and more Dems unleash this Dem media spin effort to pressure Biden to drop out of the race, is they have exposed that Biden isn’t fit to be POTUS now and he’s certainly not up to the job until inauguration day in January 2025. They are thinking they can switch their ticket and still keep Biden in the Oval Office and with enough spin, they can con the American people into buying this.

Last night AP ran this headline on X:

We are quickly barreling into a constitutional crisis. This Dem/liberal media cover-up of Biden’s condition is a huge scandal – not just some story about the Democrats 2024 ticket. None of the liberal media have uttered the words 25th Amendment, but instead they’re running some powerful Dems’ spin game to pressure Biden to step aside, because he’s now a political liability to their 2024 chances. When Trump was president the liberal media had a different position:

That was on June 28th and it’s now July 4th and we’re being led around with spin word games about a “mini-primary” and who’s going to be on the Dems 2024 ticket. We should be asking who all knew and when did they know it.

Biden has been relying on note cards and a teleprompter. The debate left him stranded without those, and even with them he’s struggling. My fear is what on earth will they try if his dementia reaches the point he can’t read the note cards or teleprompter and then who on earth is calling the shots within the WH. I say this because my late husband, who loved to read, did get to where he couldn’t read, couldn’t follow TV show plots or even do simple tasks in the proper order. America can’t allow Hunter Biden to be running the Oval Office.

I would like to be hopeful that this corrupt spin information war might be self-destructing, but I am very concerned it might leave America in a very precarious position in the world. America’s adversaries are watching this Democrat political circus, that our liberal media participated in all along.

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Happy 4th of July

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July 4, 2024 · 4:34 pm
July 3, 2024 · 8:14 am

Biden 2024 being knifed from within

The past few days of mainstream media coverage fully-exposed how completely the liberal “mainstream” media is really just part of the Democratic party messaging operation. To be clear FOX News and conservative media are definitely not unbiased either. Last night FOX had former Trump press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany and former Trump Counselor to the President for Trump, Kellyanne Conway, guest hosting two primetime hour shows The difference is the “mainstream” media has been portrayed as being objective and unbiased and they believe themselves to be beacons of the truth, when in reality they’ve become just Democrat spin mouthpieces.

What’s playing out now is another Dem spin operation, as the liberal “mainstream” media started reporting on Biden’s decline post-debate. Biden’s cognitive decline can’t be covered up anymore, so for a couple days Dems tried running a “bad night” spin messaging effort, while liberal media hyped all the Trump lies in the debate, to try to move past the issue of Biden’s condition. That effort failed and polls started indicating that Biden is losing more ground to Trump.

Top Democrats and their liberal media friends don’t want Trump winning, so now they’ve pulled the plug on Biden.

Yesterday there was a divide still playing out on liberal news media, as some were still trying to blab about how Biden needed new management efforts, while other Democrats were plotting and leaking to force Biden out. On July 1st:

7:45 pm – Biden was rolled out and read remarks for 4 minutes from a teleprompter – the new “management” launch.

8:00 pm – on CNN Anderson Cooper had Carl Bernstein, famed Watergate reporter, on while Bernstein stuck the knife into the Biden presidency, as gently as he could. Bernstein “reported” on 15-20 episodes that Biden’s had similar to his debate freezing moments/blank staring over the past year and a half.

That opened the floodgates and all of a sudden liberal media is reporting on all these incidents like it’s breaking news, yet these are the same crack journalists who carried water for Dems dismissing the Hur investigation and report about Biden’s inability to answer questions and impaired memory.

We’re just being played again, as the liberal media is trying to recover credibility, while they work with top Democrats in moving past Joe Biden.

A few interesting tidbits about Biden’s “episodes,” as famed journalist, Bernstein, described them is let’s look at what was known about Biden’s medical history. I posted this on X yesterday:

The first sentence in that 2008 CBS article is this: “While John McCain’s past battles with skin cancer has received a great deal of scrutiny, Joe Biden’s near-fatal aneurysms in 1988 have yet to come under the spotlight.”

The article goes on:

“In his book “Promises to Keep,” Biden says that he was unconscious for over four hours before he woke up in a hospital in Wilmington, Del. The senator was told that an artery was leaking blood into his brain and he was given his last rites by a priest. He was transferred to Walter Reed Medical Center where it was discovered that he had a second aneurysm on the other side of his brain.”

“Biden immediately underwent a four-and-a-half-hour operation to remove the leaking aneurysm. He had a second surgery in May to repair the other aneurysm and fully recovered after taking a seven-month leave from his seat as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.” https://www.cbsnews.com/news/bidens-medical-history-not-scrutinized/

So, we’re supposed to believe that Biden, with a medical history of two brain aneurysms, hasn’t had brain scans or diagnostic testing for these “freezing” episodes and other alarming symptoms? Yesterday, the WH press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, insisted Biden just had a cold during the debate… Just ask yourself, if your loved one had this medical history and all these “episodes,” wouldn’t you insist on more testing to find out what’s going on?

I am convinced Biden won’t be the 2024 Democratic Party nominee and the odds are increasing that he might not finish out his current term, as more details about his actual cognitive function and condition become known. If Biden’s not fit to run for re-election due to his current condition, then he’s not fit to be POTUS now.

The prospect of Kamala Harris as president, even for a few months, fills me with dread, but it’s hard for a POTUS to have any credibility on competence, when Democrats and people inside the Biden WH now have their long knives out for Biden, because they don’t want to lose in 2024. There’s no concern or talk about having a cognitively impaired old man having control of nuclear football, being CINC and having the POWER to make the most important decisions in America – it’s all about the polls.

Jill Biden is on the cover of Vogue this month and over the weekend, while reportedly having family discussions about whether Biden stays in the race, they were having a photo shoot for this Vogue cover… Jill blabs about how power feels in this Vogue piece. The article began with Jill Biden talking about what power feels like:

“If you want to know what power feels like, try to get yourself driven around in a motorcade. Flashing police chaperone lights form a perimeter as you blaze down an empty highway, waiting cars backed up on entry ramps as you pass. It’s as if the world is holding its breath. For you. Also, rules don’t apply: On a cool spring day, driving down suburban Minneapolis side streets, we run red lights and whip round curves so fast I can barely take in the commonplace American view. Tract housing, big box stores, churches, office parks, semi-​industrial no-man’s-land. Finally, we arrive at our destination, Nine Mile Brewing, in Bloomington, Minnesota. “Let’s go, let’s go, let’s go,” commands someone—a Secret Service agent, maybe—as the motorcade pulls into a loading dock. Politics, I will come to discover in the next few days, involves a lot of backstage spaces: service entrances, freight elevators, places where Very Important People can slip in and out of events unnoticed. Politics also involves a lot of comically fast walking—to wit, at Nine Mile, an entourage of 30 or so are noisily hustling to follow a trim, blond woman in a pristine white suit as she strides nonchalantly past clanging, gurgling brewing vats, aiming for a back office. This is my first glimpse of first lady Dr. Jill Biden: Exiting the sealed chamber of power into the middle of America, a vision of calm amid utter cacophony.” https://www.vogue.com/article/first-lady-jill-biden-august-2024-cover-interview

To compound problems, yesterday there is reporting that Hunter Biden is now attending WH meetings with Biden and at his father’s side, since returning to the White House on Monday:

Our liberal media is a national disgrace. And this situation with how Democrats get Biden out of the White House might become a huge national embarrassment with trying to get this corrupt family out of the White House. Back in the 90s, there were jokes about Hillary clinging to the White House drapes, but now we have Dr. Jill high on what power feels like, Hunter, who is facing more criminal charges and sold out to hostile foreign countries and a cognitively-impaired old man, who some insiders say is mean and blows up a lot.

The Democrat/liberal spin information war has crashed and burned, but never fear they’ll try to emerge from the wreckage and rant about Trump, Trump, Trump soon.

July 3, 2024, 9:10 am – wanted to add this prediction – On Monday Carl Bernstein was sent out to stick the knife in Biden, as gently as possible… this info is from people who love him, blah, blah, blah… On Friday, Biden is scheduled to sit down for an interview with former Clinton press secretary, now at ABC News, George Stephanopoulos. I predict Stephanopoulos has been tasked with snuffing out Biden 2024, with dignity… nothing bloody and messy. We’re always being played by the media – left and right – so be skeptical about all new sources and do some research on your own.

The biggest political miracle in years is that so far Trump has not gotten in the way of Biden’s post-debate demise. He’s let the Biden fall-out dominate the headlines without trying to get the liberal media spotlight back on himself. I never believed Trump had the ability for strategic patience, but here we are.

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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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Filed under 2024 Election, Foreign Policy, General Interest, Politics

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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Filed under Food for Thought, Gardening, General Interest

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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Filed under 2024 Election, General Interest, Information War, Politics