Practically overnight my cucumbers sprouted.

IMG 1420Yippee!

I was getting worried.

So now I have lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, and squash. All working toward harvest day.

Now if only I can get the carrots and bell peppers to make an appearance. The carrots are in fact sprouted, but they’re developing at a slow pace. just a few little green threads at this point. The peas have also sprouted another week or so and I’m going to have to come up with some kind of trellis for them.

It’s nice that amidst all the insanity that some things are constants. Gardens still grow and puttering around in the yard in the early morning brings me a great deal of calm and pleasure.

Next on the agenda is the front yard. Over the past few winters, a lot of the landscaping has taken a big beating and I’ve lost a lot of the plants that brightened up the yard at this time of year.

I’m hesitant to put in too much because who knows what the county will decide is “BAD” to have in the yard this fire season. I don’t want to invest a ton of money, time and water only to have some asshole tell me that X,Y, or Z is a fire hazard. 

But I’m thinking about cheap color at least until the fall. It would give me some pleasure and brighten the place up a bit.

“Quite an experience to live in fear, isn’t it?”

“That’s what is to be a slave.” – Roy Batty Blade Runner.

Now we’ve all had a taste of it. What have we learned?

The vast majority of people in the USA haven’t actually been slaves. Yet there are a lot of folks who’d like to enslave us all. These people don’t care what your skin color is. They want you enslaved in a system. Their System.

These are the people that want you to be dependent on their largess. They offer bright baubles of technology, healthcare, entertainment, etc. then make us feel “less than” if we’re unable to afford those baubles.

They offer us a daily dose of fear via the news, & commercials. “More terrifying moments of unrest today in Minneapolis. The President today said, ‘insert daily out of context statement here‘ does this statement mean the end of America? See our report at 11. Suffering from Kidney Failure? Are you going to die? Try our new drug, if you can’t afford it (The implication is your insurance is bad, or you don’t make enough and are therefore ‘less than’) contact us and we’ll help pay your bill.”

They keep us apart by instilling mistrust in each other. “It’s white oppression, it’s black criminality. It’s racist, that person is a Nazi. Wear a mask, don’t wear a mask, wear a mask as a symbol of solidarity, You should wear a mask because you never know who might be carrying a virus. Black Lives Matter=Good speech, All Lives Matter=Bad speech, ACAB (All cops are bastards), Why are the police not stopping this looting?”

With each new presidential administration, there are people who are “Right” and people who are “Wrong” the actual facts of the administration’s accomplishments or failures notwithstanding. The “Right” and the “Wrong” people flip based on how the media presents a particular narrative.

In simplest terms, we’re always being manipulated by headlines, soundbites, and glamorous ads showing us things that a great many of us can’t afford. The ads implicitly extol the virtue of working harder to make more money so that we can afford these pretty things. The thing lots of people miss is that all of us working harder, generates more tax revenue that in turn, fuels the system.

The same system that locks us in our homes, costs us jobs, and vilifies individuals who after doing the math, decide that feeding their families is worth the risk.

That same system almost deifies individuals in protests that devolve into rioting and looting. It makes a sick kind of sense. Either situation creates an “Enemy” that can be pointed to, now or in the future, to maintain the cultural division.

As long as the American people are fearful and divided, the powerful can do as they please in plain sight. Who will question the national guard being brought in to quell riots? Who will question another lockdown because of a spike in Covid-19 cases?

Social Media was supposed to help level the playing field allowing people to communicate with each other directly, expressing thoughts and beliefs freely without bias, other than those biases the people brought with them.

As Social Media blossomed, controls were put into place to silence dissent. Those controls started out innocently to prevent blatant racist and hate from spilling unbidden onto computer screens. Those controls quickly escalated into full blown censorship.

The implied reason for that censorship is that “average people” are unable (too immature, or too stupid) to process dissenting opinions without experiencing angst. Therefore it is assumed they need to be protected from free thought, instead of exercising the freedom of simply choosing not to view items which are offensive to them.

Mind you, what one may find offensive, others may find informative. With censorship instituted on social media no-one has to decide, and everyone is once again placed in a bubble of docile safety and conformity.

Safe, in that bubble, they’re not troubled by dissenting opinion and not forced to think for themselves or form their own opinions. The narrative of those in control is preserved and the correct “Group Think” is doled out 200 characters at a time, by sanctioned influencers.

How are sanctioned influencers picked? They’re approved by Twitter checkmarks and number of followers. An influencer with a large number of followers and a check mark is seen as someone “In the know“. They remain a blessed influencer as long as they maintain the appropriate narrative.

However if an influencer goes off the reservation or someone speaking counter to the narrative, (There are always a few allowed, to maintain the illusion of Facebook or Twitter’s impartiality,) becomes troublesome. Their follower count mysteriously decrements. Their coveted Twitter Checkmark is removed, they end up in “Twitter Jail” or their messages simply vanish, and finally they are banned outright. These people still have online presences, they’re just on other platforms with lower brand recognition.

Platforms like GAB aren’t allowed to post their applications on Google Play or the Apple App store. Other platforms like Parler are allowed to have Play Store or Apple App store presences for the time being.

This speaks to the tight integration between Google, Apple, and the group, or groups controlling the narrative. Not only are specific people exiled from Twitter and Facebook, their ability to be seen by the masses is limited by the corporations who provide the dominate operating systems for smart devices as well.

Isn’t it odd that nudity, violence, and graphic sex is allowed on a platform like Twitter and freedom of political messages is not? Even odder is that Apple and Google provide access to an application which can present these images while at the same time denying access to alternate applications which are largely politically conservative in nature. The only difference being that Twitter filters out comments that present dissenting political opinion?

Isn’t this exactly the kind of thing that is never supposed to happen in a free society?

Happy 4th of July Weekend

Covid4thI guess it’s a happy one.

It seems hypocritical to celebrate given that it feels like our freedoms are being curtailed with breathtaking speed.

(Notice I said “Feels”) After all we’re all about our feelings these days, not actual facts.

Celebrate? What celebrations? No friends visiting, family gatherings forbidden, beaches closed, but the Governor’s winery is Open.

You know, the guy that’s been telling us how to live our lives…

Empty beachWe’re hiding in our homes, or behind our masks, rumors abound of “Peaceful Protests” a.k.a. “riots” in public places on the 4th and for what? 

So that we survive to walk open-eyed into servitude to various philosophies that are built on lies?

COVID gonna kill us all

There are several studies from reputable publications suggesting that the PCR test to detect COVID-19 isn’t accurate and in fact can’t be accurate because to date, no lab has fully isolated the COVID-19 RNA. Therefore there is no “Gold” standard against which to measure the efficacy of the PCR test for detecting COVID-19 in the first place.

Covid 19There are other reports of Nurses sending in unused COVID-19 swabs with fictitious names  and having those swabs come back as positive.

Yet another man made an appointment to get a test, then didn’t keep the appointment. A week later he received a letter saying that he’d tested positive.

(Hello? This is the psychic testing network. What to know if you have COVID? One moment let me consult my crystal ball.)

Yet other nurses are reporting nationwide that a patient in hospital may be tested daily for COViD-19 and that each of those tests is counted as a new case rather than a diagnostic test for an existing patient.

There’s a significant uptick in “positive” cases but no data on if the people coming up “positive” are actually sick or if they just have the antigens present in their blood, for ANY coronavirus.

With the doubt cast on the validity of testing there’s no way to actually have any real statistics. Are the deaths and hospitalizations increasing at the same breakneck pace?

You’d expect those numbers to be climbing at similar rates. If they’re not, then something is seriously flawed in the data.

Hydroxycloroquine has been shown to be effective in 2 new studies, If given within 5 days of the onset of symptoms and if the full Zilinski protocol is followed. So Hydroxycloroquine is not, as the media and others have painted it, fatal when used appropriately and under proper supervision.

When reading the protocols (and I have) for several of the studies that were terminated due to poor outcomes, (a.k.a. fatalities,) the initial doses of Hydroxycloroquine were nearing toxic levels as documented by the CDC, FDA, and WHO. The patients in question were already so sick they were on ventilators, and so weak the absolute last thing the needed was a near fatal dose of Hydroxycloroquine alone. It’s my general opinion that those people were murdered by their attending physicians.

Let’s see, wait for a 3500.00 new treatment, or spend 250.00 for something that actually works? Sign me up for the latter if I get sick. I’ll put my faith in a drug that has its origins documented for 400 years, and that has a track record of safe use by America for 67 years, thank you very much.

At least one additional study reaffirms the connection between vitamin D deficiency and more severe cases of COVID-19. But you’re supposed to stay in your home where you aren’t exposed to sunlight which triggers your body to manufacture vitamin D. 

Yep, no family gatherings on the 4th cause COVID’s gonna get ya. Even though most 4th of July gatherings are held outside and UV light from the Sun tends to kill many germs / viruses while giving you a golden tan and allowing your body to make vitamin D.

If you work inside all day as part of your job, you probably should be taking a supplement anyway. This link between worse cases of COVID-19 and vitamin D deficiency was noted early on but it’s not yet clear why there’s a connection.

America is systemically racist

RacismGeorge Floyd was killed. The proper authorities immediately began an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the mans death and subsequently arrested the officers involved. 

That’s not racist. That’s justice, a little thing called due process. Something upon which our justice system is founded.

If America was as racist as portrayed then George Floyd would have been left on the pavement and the officers would have driven away and not be facing criminal charges.

Law Enforcement Today published an article on June 26, 2020 that does a good job of collecting multiple reports. LETs article is somewhat biased toward law enforcement however, if you go to the underlying links including The Washington Posts database you’ll find some interesting data.

By WaPos own statistics there are more white males killed by police than black males.

There is a disproportionate number of black male involvement with police per capita when compared to whites. That should be looked at objectively and investigated with an open mind. The question to be asked there is, why? 

Are black males more likely to commit crimes, if so then why? Is more police attention focused on black men? Are there other underlying factors such as bias or poverty driven petty crime? 

After reading several of the reports I think LETs article is mostly correct in its assessment that police are not hunting black people down.

Even the National Academy of Sciences report isn’t clear on the issue of racial bias in police interactions. 

I think that yes, racism still exists in America but I don’t think it’s systemic as portrayed. I also don’t think demonizing the police force serves any purpose except to reenforce what racism there is.

In the past weeks, I’ve come to believe that racists come in all colors. It’s time that everyone started calling it out regardless of who’s saying something racist.

BLM leaders calling for an end to racism by the slaughter of white people is just as racist as the KKK calling for the slaughter of black people. There is no difference, both statements are racist on their face. Social media platforms, or businesses censoring people who say All lives matter but allowing people of color to say kill white people is closer to systemic racism than anything I’ve seen in 40 years.

Defunding police forces isn’t the solution.

Riots

Protests are Peaceful

The video footage speaks for itself. Burning, looting, and destruction of property is not a protest, and the violence we’ve seen is anything but peaceful.

Given the coordinated pickups and drop-offs of looters during the so called peaceful protests it’s obvious that what we were witnessing was nothing more than a crime spree sanctioned by various public officials.

Masks are gonna save us

Probably not. Even N95 masks wont stop the virus. They may stop aerosolized virus in spit but only if worn properly. A loose bandana isn’t going to do shit.

See that’s the problem for me.  If you’re going to tell us masks save lives then you really need to specify which masks save lives.

Imesh.jpeg saw a guy who was allowed to wear an open mesh mask into a store with no questions asked. You could obviously see his mouth and nose and that there wasn’t a damn thing to obstruct a sneeze or cough. No-one said a word.

He was, after all, wearing a mask.

Oregon had a city that said everyone wear masks, except the black folks.

Seems that the city was worried about racial profiling so they initially exempted black folks from wearing a mask.

The city council was doubly racist. The color of your skin (white) determined that you had to wear a mask and they further demonstrated their racism in thinking that a black man wearing a mask would scare people.

GuyfawkesmaskBy the current logic, I could wear a halloween mask and be in compliance with mask ordinances. It’s not about efficacy, it’s about The Mask

If you’re sick, yeah, wear a mask. If you’re visiting immunocompromised people, the old, & infirm, or high risk groups, yeah, wear a mask. 

Conflating wearing masks as a sign of social responsibility or patriotism is manipulation.

Masks separate us, they isolate us, they’re used to silence us, they communicate to the world, that we’re not going to ask questions.

ANTIFA is Anti Fascist 

German LogoUh nope!

ANTIFA is exactly what it claims to be against. They’d do the brown shirts of 1935 NAZI Germany proud.

They are a terrorist organization and need to be imprisoned. They seek to undermine or overthrow the government of the United States of America.

They are an insurgent force and should be dealt with as such.

We’re entering a New Normal

The dumbest statement ever propagated. Every day is a new normal. 

This is a nothing statement designed to inculcate compliance with authority. The trouble is, what authority?

The authority of the mob? The “Karens” pointing at people that are not wearing masks? The doctors who keep changing their minds? The politicians that flipflop almost daily in their edicts?

The statement is more properly COMPLY!

Which by an interesting coincidence is exactly what we fought against to win our independence.

4thfireworks1.jpegRemember that, this Fourth of July.

Where are we heading? Whatever that destination is, make sure that it’s where we as a Nation want to be.

We have the choice, it’s always been ours.

We can chose to do better and walk together as a nation towards a better future for all of us, or we can allow petty divisions to destroy us.

We choose. We’re in control. 

The sooner we remember this, the better.

Happy 4th of July.

I’m almost to the point of hating indoor plumbing!

Not really…

Plumbing issues here at the house have been racking up.

First it was the water heater, and the hose bib and the kitchen faucet. Did I mention I hate working on plumbing???

Then it was the water softening system.

Now, (Mind you as the water softening guy is here working,) the fire suppression system has sprung a leak.

It’s a royal pain in the ass to get someone up here to fix any of these systems and the latter two require professional service. 

I know how my uncle made such a good living as a plumber!

I feel like I’m rebuilding this damn house a piece at a time. And I still haven’t managed to line up someone to sandblast and paint the place.

I hope your summer is going better than mine.

The Garden is coming along

Planter box (1).jpegI’m still waiting for my carrots peas and cucumber plants to sprout.

But the various squash and lettuce is looking pretty good. Especially since I missed a day of  watering a couple of days ago and it was blazingly hot.

Some of the lettuce plants were looking very unhappy.

It looks like they’re bouncing back. (Amazing what water does for plants)

I’m thinking about putting in the pond i’ve been pondering in the back yard. With perhaps a nice seating area and water feature.

tomatoes.jpegThat is going to require digging. Ughhh!

I think it will be worth it and I’ll have to get some mosquito eating fish or we’ll be eaten alive. Next time I’m at a home improvement place I’ll have to look into the cost and upkeep of a pump and accessories.

I’m sure it will be another pain in the ass project, but it might be nice to hear water gurgling and have some interesting desert like plants decorating that bare back corner.

I’d planned to do it years ago, but Sundance developed a skin condition that meant he couldn’t get wet very often. It broke his little heart when the summer months rolled around and he couldn’t have his kiddie pool to play in anymore.

The potted tomatoes are looking good and while they’re supposed to like full sun they seem to prefer being in partial shade.

I’m looking forward to fresh vegetables a little later in the summer.

Hope your’e all having a good day.