Richard Case Dies at 84 -- Covered 1965 N.E. Power Blackout UFO Reports

As a teenager in the summer of 1965, carefully gathering regional reports for the private national UFO research/investigative organizations APRO and NICAP (both long gone now, their history kept alive via Internet sources), seeing my first newspaper letter-to-the-editor about the UFO subject seemed an almost magical experience.  I also discovered considerable interest among the public in general, because just days later I was invited to appear as a guest on a radio talk show -- and then invited back soon thereafter.  So what could go wrong?  How could anybody know that just months later, as the phrase goes, all hell would break loose?

November ushered a chill into the air over Northeastern U.S. states, and I had barely turned 17 when, on the now infamous date of November 9, 1965 a cascading and ultimately total electrical blackout quickly took out the power grid covering a good portion of the Northeastern United States.  The event was brief, consuming only a few hours, but accompanied far and wide by the last phenomenon anyone might expect:  UFO reports, by the hundreds, maybe numbering in the thousands when one contemplates reports not reported publicly.

National news sources and wire services buzzed and hummed with personal accounts of lives disrupted by power failures as hours dragged on afterwards, and among the chatter came people's revelations of encounters with strange lights and perhaps objects in the sky observed just prior to, during and right after the blackout.

Almost nowhere was this multiple witness effect more prominent than in Central New York, where all variety of sighting reports accumulated.  Were UFOs involved -- or was there a simple explanation for UFO-like reports encompassing all affected Northeastern states?

Quickly aware that something newsworthy beyond the blackout itself may be afoot, reporters for the Syracuse Herald-Journal and Syracuse Herald-American (now defunct, their resources incorporated into the remaining Syracuse Post-Standard) including Joseph Ganley, Robert Haggart and Richard G. Case went to work straight away interviewing witnesses and piecing Central NY's slice of the story together.

After initial stories received top billing in the Central NY dailies, successive reports were accomplished by Richard Case himself, and at some point I was in contact with him about the potential UFO aspect of what soon became known as "The Great Northeastern U.S. Power Failure."  I had already been in telephone discussions with Richard Hall, then assistant director of the Washington, D.C. UFO organization NICAP (see link in link list for history), as NICAP was obviously interested in the event, and in between fielding numerous phone calls from anxious witnesses to weird things seemingly occurring in conjunction with the blackout I met with Dick Case, some 13 years my senior, at the newspaper offices on a weekend afternoon to go over reports, maps and whatever other bits and pieces had accumulated regarding strange observations.

(Amidst all of this, I had been in contact with a power company official who promised that he might be able to offer some very important information regarding the blackout and UFO observations, but the deal was that he "might."  Subsequently, for reasons never disclosed to me, I was left clueless.)

Nevertheless, when you're 17 and your notes and interest in the UFO topic are suddenly being regarded seriously and not ridiculed by a member of the working press, that's something to behold.  Case, a military veteran who would go on in later years to pen a regular newspaper column, write several books, explore historical events and win awards for his work turned out several articles in the Syracuse newspapers about the blackout's witnesses to the strange, the unusual, the unidentified and, in some cases, mistaken sightings perhaps innocently solved.

As decades elapsed since The Great Northeastern Power Failure, calming explanations for what happened and how it all went down -- sans UFOs -- have almost been set in stone by "the authorities" and we can read all about the UFO aspect via Internet sources, but of course some of us will continue to wonder.

And Dick Case?  It was almost comedic how months or a year would pass and suddenly I would be contacted by a formerly unknown witness to a strange sighting during the blackout, somebody who had contacted Dick Case initially.   Then there would be weeks and months of silence until another Case-induced phone call would dribble in.

Blackouts aside, Case continued to write articles, when warranted, about other peculiar events involving Central NY and his remarkable sense of history served us all well.

Over the years, I've occasionally run across articles or books that reference the Central NY blackout/UFO newspaper stories, and one can thank Haggart, Ganley and particularly Dick Case for chronicling the story behind the story in these instances.
 
In 1968, long after the blackout, the late atmospheric physicist and UFO proponent Dr. James E. McDonald spoke before Congress and briefly expressed concern about the blackout's implications as they may relate to UFO activity (his congressional testimony may be found online).  I've little doubt that valuable documentation such as that gleaned by Dick Case had been soberly regarded by McDonald as he warned Congress (for better or worse) of things we should not dismiss so casually.

My last contact with Dick Case occurred several years ago, while he was still writing a regular newspaper column about Central NY events.  The subject matter isn't important now, just suffice it to say that I had sent him a brief note augmenting a radio broadcast issue he had raised.  He kindly inserted my comment with a name credit, and that was that.

Dick Case was another of the "old school" newspaper journalists who vanish before our eyes much too soon and far too abundantly.  Will Case be missed?  I expect he was missed long before he was even gone, and that's high tribute.

Nancy Pelosi, Vampire Hunter

The woman in black.  Was this Nancy Pelosi at Folsom Prison?  No, she wielded no guitar as she steadied her position on a perch before the House of Representatives.

At the very least, I expected a giant cross, wooden stake and hammer accompanying the woman in black, for if one attires oneself for a possible somber vampire-tracking occasion, proper tools are essential.  Yet, I wondered, do vampires populate any corner of the House?  Probably not -- though monsters aplenty of every pedigree likely hang out there.

Whatever possessed (maybe for real) Pelosi, her Catholic/black/sober judge and executioner/maudlin outfit of the day simply added to the other-worldliness of the whole House affair, and if her intent was to stake somebody through the heart, she certainly assumed the appearance.

Alas, no vampires would be staked as votes to impeach President Trump were called, but still the woman in black maintained a posture and mood suitable for hanging witches acquired during a witch hunt -- wavering only when she needed to tell voting members to can their cheers and laughter after achieving passage of each article of impeachment.

And there they were, a House full of Democrats beaming with pride over this latest attempt -- one of several -- to both blame and cancel out the votes of those who voted for Trump.  By hook or by crook, by George, they would have their way and nobody will stop them.

From the start, the Democrats' long-desired impeachment process was flawed, lorded over by Schiff, Nadler and other legal incompetents best suited to chase ambulances stalled in traffic.  The cherry on the cake is Speaker Pelosi's obvious yet mistaken belief that she has some power over what the Senate will do once the House's bungling articles of impeachment likely receive higher scrutiny and eventual dismissal in any number of ways.

I'm an Independent voter.  I voted for one Democrat last month because the Republican challenger acted the fool.  I also voted for Donald Trump, and I sure don't appreciate a political party attempting to nullify my vote simply because they despise candidate Trump.  The Democrats, born among the Ku Klux Klan and other ills and long dedicated to no civil rights for black people (among other faults), have suffered for decades from a we're-smarter-than-you attitude, disturbingly confident that big government knows better than easily dismissible people foolishly endowed with a belief that individual rights come first.  The Democrats praise their democracy, but we'll pretty much never find them using the term, democratic republic.

Both major bloated political sides have their faults, and I often long for a day when candidates, devoid of political party baggage, can clearly set out their agendas in depth. Unfortunately, too many voters are too lazy to find out for what and for whom they are voting.  Regrettably, an uncomfortable number seem perfectly willing to allow scam impeachments, rather than the voting process, super powers.

A day after the vampire-hunting woman in black stood before the House, she returned chameleon-like, disguised as the lady in red.  Did red mean a war-like readiness to battle onward as she and windmills tilted toward one another?  Embarrassment? Had the woman in black become a lady in crimson to denote blood, as in the blood consumed by the carnivorous actions of a leech?  Or did the lady in red fancy herself a red pen empowered to give the U.S. Senate a premature failing grade?

A-OK: Usurped by the Left

Well, isn't that just the greatest?  Even as minority students at Syracuse University protested and marched across campus before the holidays, making the national TV news in the process as several raised the familiar "black power salute," students at military academies and other universities apparently ran afoul of campus "hate speech" police simply by placing index finger to thumb, producing what has long been acknowledged as the "A-OK" sign -- an all-encompassing signal indicating that everything is okay, fine, accomplished proficiently, not jeopardized, etc., etc.

However, to borrow the words of brilliant Swedish teenage sky-is-falling proponent Greta Thunberg, How Dare They!?

Somewhere along the way on the political left's increasingly rocky road has quickly evolved a typically insane pronouncement, this time warning that the A-OK sign actually represents W H I T E   S U P R E M A C Y.

We assume this further attack on dictionary words (American and English dictionaries now being equivalent to forbidden pornography among those who despise established culture in this country) is intended to put white folk on notice.  A-OK finger signs must not be tolerated, lest perpetrators be called out by those who spend their lives watching for somebody to violate social norms -- especially the new, contrived social norms.



Authorities of various roots are making a big deal about the A-OK hand gesture appearing among uniformed personnel at West Point and at the U.S. Naval Academy -- all because the sign is used among white supremacist groups.  I say, so what?  Which came first, the hand gesture or the loons?

Keep this nonsense up and soon we'll all need mouth gags and tied hands to conform.

Back in the 1960s and seventies, another popular depiction dominated the finger sign market:  The "peace" sign.  Fingers depicting a "V" dominated the hippie and college communities, but this was not the "V for victory" symbol espoused during Winston Churchill's era.  No, this "V" represented a wish to stop the (Vietnam) war and "give peace a chance."  Strange as it may sound now, flashing the peace sign in public was expressly counter-culture.

The photo shown here, taken in 1970 when I* and fellow physical therapy personnel joined together in our clinic at the Air Force's fifth largest hospital (Texas), exhibits an anomaly no more dangerous than the A-OK sign so demonized by race-baiting leftists of the current day -- and yes, as the circled area shows, it's a peace sign flashed by a member of our Air Force clinic staff.  Had USAF authorities of the day wished, I suppose they could have made an issue of it, being that a man in uniform "dared" express a symbol.  But that was then, and "now" involved the equally innocent A-OK sign. 

The left will stop at nothing to destroy American culture, and if the race-baiting aspect can be utilized, that's what we'll receive, loud and clear.

Me?  I've found myself using the A-OK sign frequently of late.  I wonder why that is.  Could be white supremacy, or maybe it's just a plain old infestation of white privilege guiding my hand.

* (If you really care, I'm the one at the bottom on the far left. Um, I don't look like that anymore.)

Bits and Pieces for December 2019

Islam again:  While we're out of patience waiting for the well-deserved military execution of former U.S. Army Major Hasan for his mass-murders of base personnel and others several years ago, here we go again with the Saudi connection to terror (remember 9/11?) on the Pensacola Navy base.  I frankly don't give a fig about the Royal Saudi Air Force, but do wonder how these radical throwbacks get to carry weaponry into U.S. classrooms with nobody the wiser these days.  Of course, authorities are "investigating" after homicides are history and bodies have gone cold.  With terrorist events having just occurred in London and in the Netherlands, was it not time to double down on trust at U.S. government and military facilities?  We never learn.

Meanwhile, people in Iran and Hong Kong continue to raise hell in the name of desired freedoms, outrageous prices and political executions.  We focus particularly upon Iran today because deteriorating conditions and mass killings by government authority may actually lead to the overthrow of Iran's renegade regime.  Every cursed mullah in Iran should suffer a fate similar to those pronounced upon Iranian citizens whose lives were destroyed by way of Islamic fantasies orchestrated by these filthy old bastards.  The great and magnificent Obama had the perfect opportunity during his presidency to support Iran's people as they battled in the streets, and instead he chose to do nothing.  Must be he was preoccupied with getting all of those pallets stacked with cash into the hands of the mullahs.

All They Want for Christmas Dept:  Impeachment talk aside, I was thinking the delightfully impossible -- if the trash can-bound Democrat Party could magically make a deal with President Trump to make them go away and leave him to lead, I'll bet they would opt for being allowed to nominate and confirm their own choices for Supreme Court and federal judicial appointments across the land.  I'm only a little ol' blogger, but even I sense that this is the prize -- the long-lasting prize -- the Dems value most, though they would likely never power-point the wish.  However, whether musing about this or confronting possibilities during the 2020 elections, the reins of power in this regard are unlikely to become property of the political left in any way next year.  Federal judiciary appointments of conservative-minded personnel may well screw politically progressive and just plain crazy plans for decades to come.  Democrats are surely shaking out of their footwear over this very real possibility.

Nancy Pelosi's brief encounter with reporter James Rosen after announcing progress on articles of (the phony) impeachment shows her to possess more of a prison matron approach than that of a revered speaker.  There's more to fake than fake news, and Pelosi's phony embrace of the U.S. Constitution as Lady Liberty herself during her gloat-hidden TV appearance would be a knee-slapper if it wasn't so absurd.

We should note with kindness that Democrat college professor Jonathan Turley is one of the few credits to his party -- probably the reason why he started receiving death threats after his appearance before Nadler and the other goons.  Turley makes sense, and these proceedings can't thrive on good sense or wise advice.

Return to Syracuse University:  We wrote about this because it made the national news, and were not surprised in the least when students returned after Thanksgiving break and some attempted to re-initiate campus protests -- even though they were given everything they "demanded."  Well, almost everything.  What they wanted were mass resignations among chancellor and staff, but finally -- much too late, in our opinion -- somebody grew a pair or more likely one and shut them out of a campus facility where protesting students intended to meet.  I think I'll take a moment to become Syracuse U's poet laureate as I offer this dramatic reading for all student protestors who don't know how good they have it:

"You must get off your leftist asses
And scurry back to indoctrination classes."

(applause)

Everything is our fault:  A 16-year-old U.S. border-jumping boy from Guatemala died of the flu while in U.S. custody and the usual suspects are outraged.  Hey kids -- don't come here and you won't have to live (or die) in the presence of American authorities who, to be blunt, shouldn't have to do anything for you, including save your lives.  Four more years of Trump in 2020 may finally put a "cure" on the border outrage, as the only solution postured by bat-poop crazy Democrat presidential candidates is open borders, more walk-in international diseases (including child paralytic illness), "free" health care and welfare for a never-ending parade of bloated family units intent only upon making you pay for their every want and need.

UFOs/Not UFOs:  For something proclaimed as nothing more than a flock of birds, the temporary shut-down of Washington D.C. and the White House in November certainly seemed strange.  Then again, if the flock was incredibly huge, we can understand fears of voluminous bird droppings striking the ground among all the establishment droppings already in charge.  Anyway, good to know that where censorship or obfuscation of information is involved, it's like going home again.  Deja vu to you, too.

Greta Thunberg.  Oona Goosepimple.  Enough said.

The Inspector General's report:  Finally here, downplays everything.  Have no fear, there's another report coming and THAT one may not be as pretty.

Advice From Thoreau, Great for both Humans and Dogs

Cry Away Your Troubles at Syracuse University

UPDATE: As the racist uproar at Syracuse University continues to make national news, the most powerful man on campus responded to threats to his very job by a mob of  students with tears. He cried during a big get-together meeting with young student protestors, melting into a puddle of tears as he tried to drive home the point that he is Just Like Them because he, white man and chancellor Kent Syverud, is a family man whose own family is composed of minorities who have confronted racism.

News video of student mobs protesting outside show --whaaa? -- several young black men giving the black power salute, ever so popular since the sixties.  It's all legal, it's all wonderful for making a point -- but we wonder if Mr. Syverud, shrinking faster than the wicked witch of The Wizard of Oz in his own tears, has a clue that what's happening at S.U. is not just a student protest.

My readers who stay in touch with links to campus events all over the United States (again, see the links) already know this is about the left, the socialist-cum-communist element, firmly kidnapping malleable student minds in colleges and even high schools (and below) across the nation.  This campus chaos isn't just about a list of demands over racism -- it's orchestrated by people with a national agenda much larger.  Unfortunately, much of the Democrat Party has been hijacked over time by the same people -- as per the previously mentioned governor of the state of New York, leftist and progressive all the way, as NY undergoes the same miserable self-destruction and population loss experienced by several other Democrat-ruled & ruined states.

As ramped-up fears continue, rumors of a "white supremacy manifesto" being dumped on students all over campus turned out to be false, involving only a document shared among some, and while racism was indeed evidenced on campus, it apparently was not as widespread as some predictably hysterical reports had claimed. But that did not matter.  It never does.

Not all that mysterious was the "list of demands" popping up among so-called minority students just before and as this racial thing began to sprout before the media.  No longer just about racism, there now existed demands numbering 19.  "They," the students, now joined in protest by other colleges, worked a demand for increased education funding for minorities AND some control over "hate speech" into their agenda, along with an insistence that students be allowed roommates of similar ethnicity.  Does this allow even (gasp!) white students to receive similar accommodations?

By Thursday morning, Syverud -- having also suffered protests in front of his home --  and the university administration had agreed to all 19 demands.  It's amazing what a student population can do when you witness the titular head of your learning institution crying like a baby instead of standing up and wielding all the power and discipline which should come from his office.  Syracuse U. would perhaps be better served by a tough former military chancellor who won't wallow in leftist bullshit and tears of compassion as students of entitlement (?), themselves privileged simply because they are allowed a college education, run amuck.  This ongoing display is about racism against p-a-r-t-i-c-u-l-a-r minorities as much as it's about a palpable hatred for anybody or anything white, which of course is racism in itself -- but that doesn't matter on campuses across this heated nation.

Despite the chancellor's compassion (and we have long written about how compassion can destroy the compassionate), we'll be amazed if he keeps his employment or doesn't just say to himself, the hell with it, and move on to some other university opportunity where crying and weakness are valued among the left.

Meanwhile, the campus should happily await the arrival of the masked (or unmasked) Antifa bunch.  They've already staked out claims in other cities, where sanctuary city mayors and others who should know better allow them to wreak a measured degree of havoc.

Whether on campus or within the cities, the leftist campaign to discredit everything American (and consequently, to some, everything white-ish) will continue.  If the current crop of so-called Democrats prevail in the 2020 elections, chances that the United States will survive intact -- all the good parts which benefit everybody of all ethnic backgrounds -- are highly questionable.

The established, absolutely evidence-heavy fact that the mainstream media (both electronic and print) and Big Internet news sources are composed  overwhelmingly of leftist-enhancing information, while heavily censoring or outright banning info from the right, does not bode well for a society dependent upon truth it simply doesn't get because, with few exceptions, most avenues of true communication remain hopelessly clogged and managed.

Just look at the spin surrounding the Democrats' latest in a long line of get-Trump-out maneuvers called the impeachment hearings.  Pelosi and Schiff have done everything to keep Republican hearing rights squashed and to prohibit essential witnesses from appearing as even certain questions are not allowed.  This is fascism in the halls of Congress.  Like it?  There's plenty more in store, just vote Democrat next time and embrace socialist values which will, and always do, take away individual decisions and dreams (just ask any legal immigrant who escaped this stuff, only to gaze with horror upon the same things happening in the United States).

Syracuse University, like similar institutions, will now piss off many students of sound mind who will increasingly be confronted with "sensitivity" and "diversity" classes and in-your-face accusations of race hatred, failing to understand that one does not and cannot change hearts and minds by waving a burning stick in one's face repeatedly, no matter how carefully. 

We value this additional opportunity to hope that truly enlightened students everywhere who see this whipped-up campus pandemonium for what it actually is will cast their 2020 votes for truth, and not for utopian candidate fantasies, often conjured and encouraged by faculty inhabitants in love with filthy progressive nests.  We still have some choices.  For now.

Splashing Around in the Race Pool at the Nation's #1 Party School

College campus evils come and go on this blog, but there never seems a shortage of pure bull crap at Syracuse University.  The last time we addressed this institution of high. . .um, of learning involved students making a video which offended many, following which lawsuits began to fly back and forth over First Amendment rights.

Things are a tad more complicated this time, with several reports of racist graffiti, vandalism and personal insults based upon race apparently targeted at black and Asian students.

Of course this is all wrong.  I would use a better word, reprehensible, but particularly ignorant members of a certain class of word police would suspect I'm just hiding the word, prehensile in there somewhere and then sparks would fly.  You can't be too careful these days 'cause the word police, like dung beetles, believe they have a job to do and they're fanatical about it as they chew American culture to pieces, bit by bit.

Semantics seem to experience a very difficult time at Syracuse U.  Chancellor Kent Syverud and various student protestors decry "hate speech," whose horrors or violations I am astounded to find are listed nowhere in the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.  Nevertheless, we also behold allegations of "hate crimes," which in my day, an older day to be sure, were merely called crimes and adjudicated accordingly without extra displays of pomp and circumstance or with assumptions of one victim becoming more important than another victim under our supposed system of equality under the law.  Life never should have become so complicated.

As racist comments and vandalism fell over the Syracuse University campus, "stranger things" began to happen, especially the formation of a gaggle of students not only incensed about racism, but also self-encouraged to formulate a list of demands.  A list of demands?

Among these demands was a threat to the very job of Chancellor Syverud, and this is where I part company and sympathy with actions taken by college administrations.  Time and again across the country, it appears, when campus situations become heated, almost invariably groups of agenda-based students insist upon firing the person at the top -- in this case, Mr. Syverud.  Then, it sometimes occurs, if the top -- gasp! white -- person exits, a miraculous event occurs and the new replacement is a person of color.

I'm going to go a tad pseudo-racist here and suggest that the progressive rot devouring colleges and universities all over the nation has a very well laid-out agenda, and as I see every day by watching emerging news regarding goings-on in such institutions, there exists an increasingly hostile and just plain insane hatred and lessening of white people by those of other colors and races.  Just check out my two college-related links in the margin to experience the hell we're in.

This is not something I would have dared even think, were it not for eight years of a supreme race-baiting president and his race-baiting buddies, and I do indeed speak of President Obama and his bevy of accomplices who certainly did nothing to bring people together as the United States was weakened in so many ways.  I always looked forward to the country's first black president.  He, sadly, was not the one.

And before I'm attacked from various sides denouncing me as an old white racist, I remind one and all that I served in Air Force hospitals during the Vietnam years and helped care for thousands of all races of everybody -- and my first supervisor at the Air Force's fifth largest hospital was a black man who wrote glowing performance reports for me (I kept and cherish them).

Frankly, despite the efforts of Chancellor Syverud, were I he I would not back down and speak so lovingly toward juvenile protestors who haven't lived long enough or accomplished enough to even deserve to present a list of "demands" to anybody.  It wasn't Syverud who posted racist graffiti -- but you'd think he did, the way these fools carry on like childish brats.  They need to let the police system work and in the meantime get an education and shut up unless they have more constructive things to "demand" than one more firing of a university president so they can work to replace him with -- whom exactly, and through what process?

Meanwhile, everybody plays the old schoolhouse game, blame everybody for the actions of one or a few.  Syracuse U. has now instituted mandatory "healthy masculinity training" for all campus fraternity members.  What?  Huh?  Who came up with this?  What freaking group of man-hating morons?  This is almost -- almost -- as crazy as a $50,000 reward put out there by some anonymous "benefactor" for the identification of whomever is/are promoting racism on campus.  Fifty K?!!  Wow, wouldn't that be better placed in the hands of a student toward his or her university expenses, already absurd and due to increase in order to continue feeding crazed bastions of progressive faculty thought?

Then, as if the situation weren't hot enough, there comes New York's governor, Andrew Cuomo, who just couldn't resist stepping in to pounce on the chancellor over his handling of the race issue.  Cuomo, he of undeniable White Privilege, strangely, governs far away from Upstate or Central NY, leaving declining roads, highways and infrastructure to fend for themselves -- yet, put out a hot plate of nice, steaming race controversy and this one smells it in Albany, immediately addressing the subject as every minority's best Democrat friend, even suggesting that the university board replace Syverud.

Pardon my frankness, but there are some megalomaniac folk of the elite political class whose time has come to just shut the hell up and let local officials deal with certain matters.  Like this one.

We fear that Chancellor Syverud and S.U. board members will kowtow to the usual forces which tend to erupt and overtake campuses these days, forces at least as frightening as contemporary racist activities -- and if he actually packs his suitcase and waves a hanky full of tears as he departs dear old Syracuse as a just-so replacement is sought, don't say we didn't warn, as we often do, beware, beware, beware.

In other news. . .

Colin Kaepernick:  Don't give a damn today any more than I did yesterday.  Betsy Ross' work probably didn't belong on a shoe, anyway.

President Trump pardons military members:  Good.  It's long been my opinion that the military is pretty heavy with the lawyer class, and from what I've heard of soldiers' family members and others representing them, military officer egos of the attorney variety searching for higher personal ground and rank sometimes neglect to do their jobs effectively.

Besides, if Obama pardoned Chelsea Manning from prison (!!!!!!!), I'm not sure how one can criticize Trump for his actions here.

Pete Buttigieg's quest for the presidency:  Okay, but America is not ready for, um, who -- The First Gentleman?  Mr. First Gentleman?  Mr. First Lady?  Yikes.  Well, I think you can see the problem -- other than all the other far lefty disaster issues Mayor Pete would happily tow along with him to the White House.  Not happening, sorry.

Pope Francis wants to proclaim an 11th Commandment regarding care for the environment.  First, I don't think Moses would want him to take up that much of the biblical spotlight, though I could be wrong.  Further, eleven just isn't a very appealing number to most people, and thinking back to old Dennis the Menace comic books, I believe this cartoon child was fond of voicing the numeral, "eleventeen."  The Eleventeenth Commandment might sound right, but a naked eleven?  I don't think so.  No wonder my father couldn't wait to escape Catholic school as a kid.

The New New New Wall:  Oh, this IS fascinating.  For a billion dollars engineers believe they can build Trump's border wall with Terra Block (?).  Easy to move, easy to install by the Army Corps of Engineers and others, as near-foolproof as one can currently imagine and ready to do the job.  Funny how a billion dollars seem like chicken feed, though even chicken feed isn't cheap off the shelf anymore, either.

Lt. Col. Vindman in Washington:  I've no quarrels with his exemplary military record.  But his name reminds me of old Universal Studios horror movies from the thirties and forties where Bela Lugosi would threaten people with names similar to his:  For instance (think of Lugosi's accent), "Vindman, you will not escape me!". . ."Vindman, you have betrayed me with the local sheriff and I will have my revenge!". . .Vindman, I'm warning you, stay away from that tub of acid!"  Perfection.

End of the Democrat Party?  Shed the lunatics and sham-seekers, and they might have a framework from which to rebuild.  As the party currently exists, the approach equals re-education camps, loudspeakers and megaphones, all courtesy of the complicit mainstream media.  If Pelosi and Schiff aren't arrested for sedition -- and they won't be -- crumbling walls of decaying politics will continue to fall in the meantime.

Except. . .Oh oh.  Deval Patrick, Obama buddy, jumping into the prez race while others divert their attention to burying Trump?  Oh oh.  Oh oh.

The Fed:  Bless 'em, they just keep on printing billions in phony money to feed the banks and keep stock marketers happy.  At least we'll have plenty of paper cash to land softly upon, should the descent begin.  Me, I'm going back to bed.

My Christmas, Oops, Holiday Season Wish List, 2019

This won't be pretty.  I don't do pretty.  I'm not pretty, but I get by.  So fasten your seatbelts and wait for our airbags of varying quality to explode in disapproving faces as we list my "hope and change" issues, the way hope and change were meant to be before the Obama bunch soiled the pages of the dictionary from whence these very words were stolen and abused:

1.   While politicians behind the Vietnam War/Conflict Era draft somehow decided they needed young American bodies for an effort that probably should have been confined to corrupt old bastards such as themselves, I started taking college courses directing me toward a career in journalism, primarily of the TV/radio variety.  However, a draft notice sent me scrambling to an Air Force recruiter, who promised faithfully that following the completion of basic training I would attend photography school.  To my amazement, photography school instead turned out to be training as a medical corpsman, completed by specialty education in physical therapy (at least I had some input with the latter).  For a succession of reasons, returning to my previous goals post-military years later no longer worked out  So what?

Here's what:  Maybe the military draft did me a favor.  As perhaps never before, major TV networks and newspapers, like Internet providers, have become bastions of lies, historical wipes and blatant obliterating agents against truth.  News is "managed" and mangled every day by sources we all like to think are untarnished.  Consider the Donald Trump-hating Washington Post and staunch enemy of the right, the New York Times, consistent in their so-called reporting.

I know that sounds old tin-foil-hat and unfair, but just look at the latest example, where a former ABC-TV staff member, then working for CBS, thought to have been a "whistleblower" who released to Project Veritas a recording of an ABC-TV reporter's network-scuttled report about Jeffrey Epstein (and his leftist pals?), was apparently fired from CBS -- solely on the advice of ABC executives, who blew her in for supposedly releasing the video.  Most troubling, the woman fired and an anonymous ABC source (who contacted Project Veritas) absolutely deny that she was the person who released the recording.

If this event is as described by those harboring no connection to ABC or CBS, may these networks be sued for millions next year.  Similarly, now that the revolting case of multi-media harassment and fictionalization of the incident with Covington Catholic student teenager Nicholas Sandmann has been re-opened, may this kid walk away with a few millions of dollars himself for what leftist criminals hiding out as journalists did to his reputation.

None of this helps portray the majority of good, lower level journalists as the heroes they really have been and will yet be.  Unfortunately, political agendas creep into the most unsuspected places.

2.  I hope that Congress takes a really close look at Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, You Tube and all the other Internet biggies who act like publishers, NOT platforms.  The difference is stark, the most obvious point of contention being an apparent forced algorithm base which deletes or censors politically conservative content -- hardly surprising, since most web empire builders are hard line Democrats.  Should breakups be in the works, authorities must make certain that the faces behind these giants do not "help" in writing the rules, because sure as sunlight they will do everything they can to keep competitors from starting up or surviving.

3.  President Trump must gain another term in Office, despite actions driving some people to the edge.  Everybody has faults, but the very fact that he is a non-politician trying to clean up some of Washington's less than admirable qualities makes him stand out above the rest on both sides of the aisle.  And if anybody should care about ridding the government of "Deep State" denizens (hello-o-o-o-o State Department. . .), whom some might say reside in his own Administration as well as in the DNC, it should be Trump.  He might also consider conducting business without verbalizing a word, as apparent enemies within his Administration are more than willing to blow in every word he speaks in the presence of leakers and covert political operatives desirous of preventing Trump from screwing with their personal and illegal agendas.

4.  May the good people of California throw Pelosi, Schiff, Feinstein and a host of others, including the governor, out as elections roll around.  Instead of leaving for other states (and potentially taking your politics with you to infect greener pastures), you would better serve your state by remaining and legislatively fighting off the creeping evil perpetrated by progressives, already fouling West Coast beauty.

I'm familiar with an old man who several years ago was so angered by a town government adept only at raising taxes that one morning he walked into the supervisor's office and dumped a bag of horse manure all over his desk.  Californians could probably attempt a similar stunt -- certain to be looked at with contempt by the police -- but they need not bother seeking a horse.  Just scoop human poop up from your own formerly proud streets.

5.  The mass murders of Americans in Mexico:  Now there can be no doubt.  Build the wall, but if not the wall what?  Technology can fail on a dime, so maybe no choice exists but a solid wall.  Mexico's drug lords and their minions in towns and cities throughout the country aren't going to pack up and go away willingly, and without the consent of Mexico's president, what can we do?  Yes, drones and efforts demonstrated most covertly frequently seem a viable option.

6.  Rid the country of word police.  Particularly on colleges campuses, they live and thrive because malleable young minds will often eat anything set before them by bonkers liberal professors and advisors. maybe even a pile of steaming dog poop if seasoned properly.  Word police are dedicated to making the mere utterance of certain established words a criminal violation, and when this goes on in perpetuity people fear not only saying words and associated ideas, but also in merely hearing them.  Those who wish to corral, usurp and ban words are destroyers, not champions of communication.

7.  Even Greta Thunberg, yes, young Ms. Thunberg, whom I prefer to call via reference to a character in old comic books, Oona Goosepimple, has a right to say things.  I'm especially pleased that the brain-blasted out left look upon this highly annoying and knowledge-starved 16-year-old as a climate expert who knows what's best (more likely worst) for us all.  After all, if movie script reader and director-choreographed puppet Leonardo DiCaprio takes up her cause, "how dare you" question this dynamic duo?  My wish is that Thunberg receives a permanent chair in the United Nations, where she will sit for the rest of her years, talking to herself and anybody passing by who cares to listen to her profoundly shaky brilliance regarding human-caused climate change.  The science is all in, don't you know?

8.  Gun-hating politicians at all levels throughout the country should prove their sincerity about depriving Americans of such effective personal protection by instructing their security personnel to shed their own firearms, or perhaps these political fascists could take the extra step of ridding themselves of all security personnel, period.

Similarly Remington Arms should be found blameless for the terrible child shootings in Sandy Hook conducted by a whacked out nut carrying their device.  Surely, one cannot successfully sue an antifreeze manufacturer for one spouse poisoning the other with the substance? Much of this lawsuit talk  has been whipped into a frenzy -- as usual -- by enemies of the Second Amendment, intent upon winning, if not in the usual manner, then by forcing a company into bankruptcy despite the verdict. 

9.  Men and women of science spent hundreds of years determining that humans exiting the birth canal arrive as one of two genders and no more.  There comes a time when one must look not only at the human mind, but between the legs as well.  My wish is that thousands of college students who pay outrageously for their education finally break through the chains of deluded and progressive fraud professors teaching them otherwise and seek what used to be the standard for higher education:  Truth. 

Sorry, sir, but without the surgery and without the drugs, you ain't no lady except in your head, my ignorance and cruelty not withstanding. 

10.  Hong Kong:  Freedom for the average resident is about as likely as the evolvement next year of a giant dinosaur-sized Pekingese destined to rampage through China, eating communist party officials.  Nevertheless, we wish China would stop pretending any hint of benevolence toward the world while treating people within its scope of influence very badly.  As 2020 approaches, can nothing change?  Cooking and eating dogs while treating wildlife horribly answers the question, as many of us prefer to remain barbarians.

11.  Vaping:  Democrats rushed to ban vaping products even with nary a clue of what constitutes the problem.  If (1) Vitamin E acetate and (2) black market products purchased by young or adult fools are the culprits, fix it and let people get back to what used to be America -- the ability to choose.  Bring back flavored vaping and if people need to choose between smoking and vaping, let 'em vape.  Yes, it's a bad decision, but it's a decision left to the individual, provided they know the risks. Sorry, but the kids have always wanted to get a buzz on beer, cigarettes, marijuana and things far worse -- and they aren't going to stop.

12.  Fraternity deaths:  These racked up a high number in the past year, and again we pose the question:  Who made them drink booze in the first place?  Unless they were tied down and force-fed liquor, then it's a case of young people doing stupid things which they know are stupid things, but they want to fit in at the old frat house.  And the choices were made.  Whose fault?  Whose?  The idiot fraternity?  College administration?  No, wrong.  The fault lies with the individual, and if one is smart enough to attend college, then one should use those brains responsibly.  Families of the departed have the right to cry at the funerals, but sadly that's about all.

13.  College free speech:   Somewhere along the way, under the tutelage of crazy professors and advisory staff, students were ingrained with the idea that free speech means allowing only people who agree with you to speak.  Crazy, yet true, campus news sources report on this phenomenon routinely. In the next year, I hope campuses across the nation are peppered with speakers unwilling to tow the party line and effective enough to convince young minds eclipsed by professorial pap that conservative and other alternative goals are worth auditioning for a better future.

14.  End "diversity" classes.  I attended a diversity class once and actually learned to dislike other people even more, and I speak as a former Air Force medical person who helped treat thousands of people of all races with no "diversity" problems.  Not to speak unkindly, but diversity classes generally have a way of advancing a sometimes murky atmosphere that white folk are bad and responsible for all the ills befalling non-white people -- and, again, just check the daily bag of utter racial nonsense dumped out on college campuses.  Diversity classes are almost gang activity in themselves, are hazardous to one's mental health (particularly the young) and should be terminated.  When universities get away from this foolishness, reduce emphasis on knuckle-dragging athletics and associated "heroes" and actually spend quality time teaching students how to make their way in the world without protest signs welded to their hips, good things may happen.  Thanks, Obama, for advancing little but hatred by way of "social justice."

15.  Let us hear from the infamous Ukraine "whistleblower."  If extensive research (including signed statements and recordings) performed by Glenn Beck's staff and others is correct, this is the one person Democrats cannot ever allow to surface and testify publicly because his hands are allegedly all over all sorts of Ukraine corruption, and putting him "out there" would jeopardize Deep State operations, the Democrats and quite possibly activities which would be considered profoundly un-American. 

Just who are the "American people" whom slick politicians reference in their carefully worded speeches these days?  Do they mean us -- or somebody else?

16.  Somehow convince potential young voters that socialism and the social media are not the same, because polls seem to indicate that a disturbing number are all in for socialism  -- about which they know nothing.  Good luck.

17.  Remind the country that conservatives were the original, well, conservatives.  Clean water, clean air, caring for animal populations, it was all there until human corruption won out.  Don't look to the United Nations for assistance -- that bloated body of eco-carnivores serves primarily to satisfy the worst aspirations of the Third World, China, Russia and tinhorn communist dictators all around the globe.

18.  Last, I want world peace (just kidding -- no way that will ever happen.  I know what we are).

Adam Schiff's Schoolgirl Fantasy

Rep. Schiff displayed his true colors the moment he contrived a version of Trump's Ukraine phone conversation, obviously bearing no resemblance to the transcript wisely released by the President early on in this Democrat-engineered congressional boondoggle.  "Parody," as Schiff depicted his absurd storybook self-rendering, has no place for one in his high-ranking judicial position, and there is no possible way he did not understand the hazards posed by his fictional interpretation aired publicly as his so-called investigation took a turn.

Schiff's preoccupation with Trump's concern over Ukraine corruption -- billed as something entirely different to please Nancy Pelosi and other leftist ghouls intent upon overturning a lawful election so their party can continue, like Obama, picking clean the bones of a democratic republic -- compares to a high school cheerleader disliking the leader of the football team because he can neither cheer for nor become him.  Just another face in the crowd, desperately hoping to make something -- anything -- happen.

As congressional clown show "hearings," little more than blatant commercials for the DNC, go public this week, support for Donald Trump has the great potential to grow, rather than diminish to a level Democrats and their willing media accomplices can manipulate.  In any event, once this nonsense reaches the Senate the entire matter deserves a quick end, and congressional representatives should return to working for Americans, not for the presidential heave-ho flavor of the month.

Even Michael Bloomberg realizes how shaky Democrat chances for a White House retake are, though throwing his own hat into the ring won't be helped by the fact that most Americans won't find his lackluster public personality appealing -- and they will remember how he tried to "do something" about people's crimes of ordering soft drinks in large cups.  Typical Democrat, banning, trimming and excluding what is yours.  Why anybody prefers a political party comparable to the United Nations in scope and control over their life is beyond me.

Best black personality of the year:  Candace Owens, tirelessly showing black people how the Democrat Party never became anything more than the plantation of slavery it is today..  Go  get 'em, Ms. Owens.

Playing Their Cards Down, Dem and Dirty

When will sane Democrats take back their party?  Is it even possible now, or must a horrible lesson perpetrated by the party's increasingly radical element force a vast change?  By the way, pondering even momentary fantasy thoughts of bringing Hillary back as a presidential candidate does not qualify as regaining a rational momentum.

Who needs to accuse the Russians of screwing with our votes when Republicans face Democrats and information wrangling accomplices intent upon doing exactly that?  In yet another progression of stunts intended to take down this President (others being Russian "collusion," the Supreme Court nominee boondoggle, the Mueller "investigation" and lesser daily inventions), desperately worried Democrats have few tricks remaining but the impeachment route, hoping to produce a self-generated fart seeking a wind blowing to the right.  Unfortunately, a significant population of cabbage heads self-oblivious to facts established by the other side are buying into fiction rolled out by the left, at least according to polls probably built largely upon the opinions of Democrats.

As the commander-in-chief, foreign policy maker and top law enforcer in the country, I have no problem with Trump's people investigating Ukraine corruption and delaying the huge foreign aid money we contribute, and if Biden & son stand out, so be it.  Were Trump investigating questionable Republican Ukraine deals, Democrats would, we're certain, be holding the President in at least reasonable esteem.

Bonus for the country, aside from the current swill of contrived nonsense:  The "Deep State," willing to do anything in darkness to deprive voters of their lawfully elected President is real, and some of the names are already out there.  At least two more government reports yet to be released -- likely to be quite damning for the left -- are probably a key reason why Dems are hysterical about piling up a load of nonsense quickly so as to take the attention off what is about to hit the fan, things that should probably be of immense concern for the nation. 

Again, will the complicit media, mostly Democrats themselves, tell the people the truth?  Will anybody see through the preponderance of known Democrats invited to testify at Schiff's party?  The same pseudo-journalists who let Obama and his far-reaching cohorts get away with anything they wished aren't necessarily likely to exhibit or even conceive of fairness.  Winning beats truth with this bunch.  Watch and listen closely, and you'll find that they all, strangely, use the same words and phrases, as if scripted and orchestrated for the multitude of anti-Trump media.

A perfect example of journalistic "non-tegrity" was a report last week in the Washington Post in which national security council member Tim Morrison, who heard the Ukraine phone call in question and said he heard nothing to indicate illegality by Trump, was instead portrayed wrongly, outrageously, as actually supporting previous testimony condemning the President.

Further, how much appreciation did Trump and military personnel receive among media and so-called entertainment venues for the killing of the world's most wanted terrorist, ISIS cockroach Baghdadi, followed by the execution of the wannabe roach destined to assume leadership of ISIS?  Baghdadi's obliteration, like so many other crucial necessities, should have been handled by the joke and nation-weakening Obama, but Trump stepping up to any previously ignored task just could not be praised by those with a stake in defeating him at or prior to next year's elections.

Speaker Pelosi:  I want to know exactly what drugs she takes.  A list might help explain a lot about her actions.  She should also be ashamed of how progressive Democrats have trashed her state of California with billions of dollars spent on illegal aliens instead of on native Californians.  California is the poster child for the inevitable socialism walking hand-in-hand with leftist politicians. 

On Fox News Sunday we did get a chuckle out of White House advisor Kellyanne Conway's reference to Schiff's closed-door hearings as something akin to growing mushrooms in the dark.

Polls again?  The mainstream media loves newest polling efforts showing Trump in trouble.  Seems they have a short memory about prior polls regarding Trump and the elections which were, to say it plainly, ridiculously wrong.

We do fret over the dangerous one-sided conversations -- demands -- perpetrated upon young minds in colleges and universities by professors and other staff dedicated to the radical left.  From teaching that grades and good grammar mean nothing, to infusing guilt over "white supremacy" while setting up no-whites-allowed campus affairs and classes, to filling classrooms with courses intended to exclude conservative thought, civic lessons and every favorable or essential aspect of American history, wildly expensive "higher education" institutions have often become little more than leftist mind-bending machines.  Truth is what you want it to be. Centuries built upon math and science are now the refuse tossed away by progressive youth. How many parents attempting to pay as if by extortion for their kids' college degrees realize exactly what dumpster-loads of brain rot are being pumped into young and innocent heads by campus liars and America-haters every semester?  Don't take my word for it -- just check the two college-related links in the margin.

The current Democrat floor show of illustrious loon candidates can offer the country only one thing:  Venezuela.  California currently offers a preview of the Venezuela it is destined to become under failed progressive leadership by governors and legislators who speak with compassion but ultimately don't give a damn about anything or anybody not lounging about on their own socialist platter.  On the East Coast, New York can't wait to become California and Venezuela under its megalomaniac governor.

The political party which has ruled many states and cities for decades, sending them into ruin and economic collapse, is not geared up to do anything but cause destruction.  A weird, poisonous affinity for illegal aliens, decriminalization of crimes and hatred of constitutionally protected rights as it strives to take the United States apart from the inside are hardly outstanding political party attributes to embrace in the voting booth next year.

Yours Truly, Lynn Ching

I never met Lynn Ching.  I know not whether anybody has ever met Lynn Ching, nor do I know if anybody is actually named Lynn Ching.  Maybe there are dozens, or perhaps thousands, even hundreds of thousands of humans called Lynn Ching.

But whomever, wherever Lynn Ching(s) calls home, he or she would probably be at least moderately annoyed that their name sounds like lynching.

Lynching.  If President Trump gets heat for using the word, I suppose the progressive Nazi word police somehow wielding power in the United States wouldn't want me using it, either.

How is it that any ethnic or socially "woke" group can dictate what words one may use in the furtherance of communication?  What crop of morons -- 51 percent! -- is sprouting out of colleges, universities and other communities demanding that the First  Amendment exclude "hate speech?"

Who are these people pretending authority to commandeer words and hide them from society?

If death by lynching is the issue, statistics offered by some historians regarding a tumultuous period in early American history indicate that some 3,500 black people were lynched -- right along with well over 1,000 white folks, many of whose "crimes" involved supporting black people in their quest to be free.  However, in our progressive society some events, even apparently unheralded white lynchings, become invisible because they don't fit the story the left wants told.

For the more boisterous segments of society who adore free speech as long as they agree with it, folks who believe lynchings and white perpetrators go together like cups and saucers, we suppose a side-point could be made that thousands of white people died fighting against slavery during the Civil War -- but who cares about that?

So what are we to do about entities carrying "lynch" as part of their identity?  Should Lynchburg be changed on the maps to, oh, say -- Necktie Party, Virginia? 

Should actress Jane Lynch change her name to Jane Hang? 

We suspect a lynch mob would be forced under current standards of social justice to be called a white privilege gang, while a lyncher who carries out the deed would always be a white supremacist, no matter the skin color.

Lynch pins?  Uh uh.  Obliterate that bad boy from our vocabulary altogether, and ban such naughtily-named objects from ever again being used to hold a wheel or other object in place.  After all, what's more important, banning words that bother some people? Or maintaining safety and structure in key mechanical components?  Obviously, it's the former.

Worst of all, Lynn Ching absolutely must change that name in a reasonable period of time, as such insulting surnames will surely be censored by progressive law.

Goodbye Al-Baghdadi and all the body parts accompanying him (no organ donor there).  Some 12 hours later, President Trump attended a World Series baseball game, and even then progressive stadium crowds could barely contain themselves, shouting "Lock him up!  Lock him up!"  Of course, the accommodating media were more than happy to accentuate this tiny, disrespectful moment of the President's day.

Snot-nosed Microsoft babies:  The Pentagon's multi-billion dollar deal with Microsoft, as one may expect, has pissed off the terminally pissed-off among the young and progressive computer generation who fail to understand that wars involve more than their own country.  We should not be surprised, watching as we do the utterly illogical, dangerous and insane activities and "teaching" which rot young minds on college campuses all over the country.  In our opinion, for all their computer brilliance, these kids were raised in situations which failed to let them grow up and become rational adults.  Can't wait for the future. . .

Which begs another question:  Google, what the hell are you doing with China?  STOP helping them become an increasing military and social threat (Microsoft snot-nosed babies, please take note) to the world.  If the United States isn't hot on Google's operations and intent regarding China (oh, by the way, hello NBA!), something is dreadfully out of place.

CBS-TV's 60 Minutes:  Nice job throwing softballs to Joe Biden Sunday.  Looks like we'll need to wait a bit longer for the truth, perhaps once the Inspector General's report comes out and the FULL Ukraine/Democrat story begins to unravel -- if the complicit media can handle facts anymore.

Funny, too, how the CBS program spent only seconds on the video of Biden actually saying everything about a Ukraine deal that Trump is accused of.

Drinking 'em up at the The Last Chance Saloon:  Apparently at the end of their rope as the realization that next year's elections may seal their doom for years to come, "justice-minded" Democrats continue to drink impeachment highballs in the congressional Star Chamber Bar, intoxicated and driven by deluded images of seeing Trump thrown out of Office so they can get some modicum of revenge over his perfectly legal electoral success in 2016.  This blatant attempt to put up a Democrat pre-damage smokescreen, not helped at all by having Schiff and Nadler in tow, is doomed to ricochet severely -- unless, of course, Republicans do what they excel at, and that is deteriorating into a puddle of goo instead of standing up for themselves as Democrats consistently endeavor to steal the show by hook and by crook.  Me, I'll remain on the Independent side.

Change Halloween's day?  Those intent upon making Halloween more convenient for young trick-or-treaters and their parents by legislatively changing its occurrence to weekends need to be cautious.  Real witches won't like the change, and if this goes anywhere it won't be long before online petitions appear demanding that Christmas be celebrated on December 32nd and that the Easter Bunny change its sex.  Hmm -- then again, did we ever know for sure whether E.B. was male or female?

Hillary Clinton as Baby Jane Hudson

"Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?"  A Movie title, yes, but oh, so much more.  Hillary Clinton IS Baby Jane at the movie's end, having gone irrefutably bonkers as she accuses, we presume, Democrat presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard of working with the Russians!

No, Hillary's not Bette Davis, and what she's dumping out of a wheelchair at the beach as secrets unravel isn't Joan Crawford; instead, it's a bag full of corruption, missing e-mails and globs of frustration -- for, alas, she will never be president of anything more than a legion of the ignominious.  The wheelchair, its contents growing heavier by the year, is her albatross, burdensome to push but mechanically delusional enough to squeak from its wheels at every revolution noises that sound like, "Everybody loves you, run, run, run. . .".

As a presidential candidate opposing Trump she lost because she presented herself as phony and unlikable, and a lot of the women expected to kowtow in her direction were, frankly, unimpressed.  As a NY State senator, Hillary was as useless as her successor, Kirsten Gillibrand, who herself will go down in history as one of the most ineffectual senators New York ever elected.  Then again, Gillibrand isn't Baby Jane, at least not yet.

There seems to be a respect for Hillary -- and Bill -- among some UFO researchers because they made attempts to learn more about UFOs while he was in Office.  Nice effort, we suppose, but the Clintons' UFO interest doesn't cut it with me because the road to hell can be paved with good -- that is, paved with intentions, period.  When one's intentions reach as far as accusing a presidential candidate of some form of Third Party Russian collusion, well, that's Baby Jane Hudson losing her mind at the beach blow-out, never entitled to be taken seriously again. 

Eat Up, Kids:  Hmm.  So up to 95 percent of baby food contains unacceptable levels of lead and other heavy metals, and we're just finding out?  This may be affecting human IQ levels, we are told, and though we could make some politically incorrect comments about the here and now, we shall refrain.  If this has been going on for decades unknown and unabated, then there's little to do except. . .

Drug out on your cookies:  New research suggests that one's craving for chocolate, as in chocolate chip cookies, is on par with cocaine addiction, and maybe even more intense.  If you can't chow down on the baby food and the chocolate chip cookies need to go into the garbage, then. . .

Spend your evening staring into the light of your smart phone or computer screen. . .except watch out because new science based upon research with fruit flies determines that the little buggers actually aged faster while exposed to the blue light emitted by these devices.  What does this mean for humans exposed to LED/blue light?  Statistically, if all of this is true, seems we'll all be old and dead before we can write the results.

Why is the mainstream media not reporting that our Southern border is now being invaded by thousands of Mexicans, not Central Americans, attempting to escape from their country's troubles?  Looks as though another humanitarian crisis is quickly piling up beyond our control.  Meanwhile, the only issue on the minds of congressional Democrats is Donald Trump and impeachment, and the country can just wait on that.  Before we fret over planet-killing asteroids, we really must focus upon the Democrats' favorite nation killer -- illegal immigration.

Why planes crash:  Because the flight crew needs to concentrate on leftist etiquette.  At least one airline now insists that its flight attendants address passengers as "everybody" instead of "ladies and gentlemen" when making announcements.  Strangely, the all-inclusive term, ladies and gentleman, actually DOES embrace "everybody" because science determined long ago that there are only two genders.  Corporations which continue buying into this leftist nonsense will one day be called out for defying logic and common sense, neither of which exist in a single drop in the leftist pantry.

Obamacare:  Remember the promises, and remember them good:  The $2500 or so everybody was supposed to save by using this monstrosity now costs the average family $20,000 a year at worst.  This is all Obama, not Trump, and we assume the Obamas have found a way to squeak by on health expenses now that they are multi-millionaires who care ever so much about the disadvantaged.

Fox Tales:  Oh boy.  This network is turning left faster than a black hole can suck in a whole solar system. 

Democrats and their news media buddies exert an amazing hold on Democrat viewers because, unlike talk radio, where the real news lives, TV offers glittering objects which serve to hypnotize and convince.  The downside is, its fans believe Trump can be beat in 2020.

Living Rent-Free at the CIA

Many years have passed since I actively pursued the UFO issue, so as a bystander I applaud the efforts of researchers who strain their eyes and miss dinner as they endlessly pore through old government files and tattered private documents.  I believe the last time I delved heavily into an inquiry of consequence occurred in the eighties when the late Bob Warth of the Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained (SITU, now long defunct) talked me into exploring documents at a university library for some project whose end-game was best known to himself. In the seventies I spent considerable time in Rochester, NY where I researched files at Kodak and the George Eastman House for a firm involved with the production of Kodak's centennial edition of Studio Light, a favorite of professional photographers.

With that behind me, it's fair to say that my lack of hands-on involvement with UFO inquiries these days causes me to miss a lot.  Yes, I have occasionally run into some minor thing I wrote or was written about me in old files released by private concerns or government agencies, but I tend to happen upon such soon-forgotten things by chance.

Therefore, it was no surprise, yet intriguing, when I stumbled upon something on the Internet last week that made me blink twice, or better make that three times.  Apparently, it has been out there since release by the CIA -- yeah, that CIA -- in 2003 with its own government file number.

As a teenager in the sixties I wrote plenty of letters to editors of numerous newspapers and magazines regarding UFOs, and most of them were printed.  A particular newspaper letter, typed out in January of 1967, listed important UFO reports from the previous year, and we all know that 1966 was a stunning year for interesting UFO cases.

Thing is, it seems my comments referencing the CIA perked up official eyes somewhere because the entirety of the letter ended up in CIA files.

I've only included a small portion of the newspaper piece here, but as you can see there is a small underlining where I mentioned the CIA.  Apparently, somebody making this mark determined the letter-to-the-editor appropriate for filing in the Spook House.  For almost 35 years, my teenage composition about UFOs remained concealed in CIA files for reasons best known to the person or persons who made the decision to throw it into the pile.

Why?  Simply because it mentions the CIA?  Because UFOs in 1966 were of considerable concern officially?  A reference to the (not specified at that time) Robertson Panel report?  And if one wishes to file away a letter of this nature from a homegrown writer, why not at the FBI?  Was I considered a global crackpot?  International terrorist? National security threat? Merely a curiosity?  Was I Billy the Kid?  John Dillinger?  Clyde Barrow (sorry, no relation)?  Half human and half dog?  Was it clipped from the newspaper and just squirreled away for "later," much like when your grandma cut out pie recipes for pies she never baked?

Really, I don't comprehend the total picture here because everything I wrote was public knowledge by that time.  I'm betting there was increased high-level government concern about UFOs, particularly after 1966 flooded the nation with disturbing sighting reports, so maybe everything in print was fair game.  Still. . .

Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear.  I do so compassionately hope, as somebody in Officialdom was running breathlessly across the floor in 1967 with scissors all sharpened up and poised to clip a newspaper op-ed letter, intended for either the creation or augmentation of a darling little WATCH-FILE NAMED IN MY HONOR, that they didn't trip over the sports page and sustain an injury.

Of course, a potential complication now is the CIA trolling the Internet, finding this blog page and supplementing the old file with (sigh. . .) a new entry.  If only they had stuck with the front page in 1967 and read no further.  Argh!

Any Which Way They Can, 2019

Sticky webs of flapdoodle hopelessly spun by the Democrats, compromised intelligence officials and their complicit media friends have the side-effect of making President Trump and the United States appear weak and feckless in the eyes of the world.  As a result, China and Iran become even more emboldened. Our Kurdish allies in Syria were abandoned this week by a Presidential administration perhaps too wrapped up in contrived leftist sniping and bull crap to effectively lead and consider long-term consequences of radical actions.  Yes, Mr. Trump was wrong this time.  The American-loyal Kurds deserved better.

As you may know, I really couldn't care less about professional athletics and who can direct a ball into a hole, basket, net or an alternate universe.  Nevertheless, I was profoundly grateful that the Houston Rockets general manager possessed the gonads to publicly comment on and support the poor people of Hong Kong, Chinese victims one and all.  The NBA, at first condemning him, and only later kinda sorta backing off, is truly deplorable for taking big Chinese money instead of standing up for human rights.  The NBA is hardly alone, for major corporations in this and other countries have sold their souls to the Chinese communists, be it contractual economic policies or allowing China to steal intellectual property.

The people of Hong Kong do not need the Chinese communist party, and that's the last thing China wants advertised to the world.  Hong works, China tortures, murders and "re-educates."

Even in Philadelphia, people attending a 76rs game and holding up a pro Hong Kong sign, were ejected.  I guess that's free speech in America -- but don't dare criticize Chinese monsters.

As China seeks to undermine, quell and kill off with deathly finality Hong Kong's brave opposition to its communist policies, the controlled mainstream media in the U.S. hypes up apparently inconsequential whistle blowers, hoping, as always, for a hit on Trump's presidency.  Never mind, of course, China's 70th communist anniversary and parade in which they unveiled an allegedly hypersonic nuke missile capable of reaching the United States in 30 minutes.  Why make the news about a society responsible for the murders of 40-60 million of its own people (thanks to insect dictator Mao Tse-tung and his merciless successors) and power-mad enough to destroy anybody and any nation in its way when bringing Trump down on behalf of America's socialist Democrats is the desired prize?

American journalism as practiced among the largest players who remain standing in today's news climate is all but dead, supplanted frequently with agendas, lies, unsubstantiated fluff and vomit-inducing feature stories intended to shield the public from truth that matters.  On national TV news programs, mention or invent negative stories about Trump and the barely hidden and smarmy smiles on the faces of complicit reporters can barely be concealed as they bask in an electronic stew of carefully chosen words.

Democrat loons:  They are played out.  This should have been evident when Adam Schiff mouthed what he later claimed was a "parody" about Trump's call to the Ukraine.  One would automatically believe that somebody holding as much serious leverage as Schiff has no opportunity for "parody" when attempting to implicate a government official for an impeachable offense.

Over the weekend we suffered through TV interviews with Florida Rep. Val Demings (House Judiciary committee) and NY Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, obvious Democrat hacks unlikely to convince most thinking minds that Trump deserves what he's getting from the Dem Party pod people.

Meanwhile, at great expense implementing a REAL practice of journalism, Glenn Beck and staff consistently uncover evidence proving that dirty tricks in the Ukraine go far beyond Joe Biden and son.  In fact, it's more than obvious now that "everything the Democrats falsely accused Trump of doing with Russia was done by the DNC in Ukraine."  Names, places, events and the mysterious disappearance of seven billion dollars of American money in Ukraine fuel Beck's reports, the most detailed of which is a new TV documentary entitled, "The Truth Behind Ukraine," which is/was available for free viewing on Facebook and YouTube, rather than just on Beck's Web subscription TV station.  Unfortunately, as with many conservatives, the gods of the Internet are screwing with Beck's material, decreasing or outright censoring its availability ("shadow banning") via algorithms put into place by leftists for exactly this result.  When Google, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter are eventually seen as publishers and not platforms, things may change -- but for now we're not much better off free speech-wise than any ol' communist country trying to make sure the truth "they" want us to see is the contrived truth we get.

How we kill:  Looks as though you gun folk have a little catching up to do.  FBI statistics released a few days ago show that FIVE TIMES as many people were murdered with knives than guns in 2018.  Further, maybe hard to believe, but gun deaths continue declining from year to year.  We suspect a shocking number of victims are taken out with kitchen appliances and sex toys each year, too, but who's keeping score?

Vaping:  At the moment they're banning the unknown, but if and when authorities figure out exactly what to leave out of vaping materials we're still betting that bureaucrats from the Official Agency of Censorship and Banning will find other reasons to deprive Americans of their right to use these devices and (horrors!) flavored inserts.

Interrupting Greta Thunberg's teenage fantasy:  While young Swedish climate activist Greta made her impassioned, um -- okay, while young Greta cried like an hysterical banshee at the United Nations' Global Climate Summit last month, her bothersome whining apparently overshadowed 500 international scientists, engineers and other notables who stepped up to insist there is no climate emergency (Valerie Richardson, Washington Times, 9/29/2019).  The European Climate Declaration, produced by Amsterdam's Climate Intelligence Foundation, condemned leading climate models as "unfit," urging U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to apply "sound science" to any emerging climate policy.

The United Nations?  Good luck with that.

Dead End Derangement -- The Party of Banning, Censorship, the Modern Plantation and Obfuscation of Individual Rights Suffers its Ultimate Psychosis

Oh, they have him now!  When you're sitting around the old fishing hole every hour of every day for three years, waiting to catch anything, even something as tiny as an amoeba, a mere tug on the line can send those who restlessly fish into a frenzy.  Strange thing is, 'twas the deep state swamp association itself doing the fishing, desperately hoping to hook something of political value flying by in the open air.

Oh yes, they have old Trump now, don't they?

Pity the Democrats and Speaker Nancy Pelosi.  They constantly seem to be making an attempt to flush one little thing out of their lives, just one, yet each time they jiggle the toilet handle a little differently everything backs up and floods the place with their own rivers of hatred and disappointment.  This time, looks as though they may have broken the handle clean off, resulting in a deluge of stuff they may be powerless to stop, dispose of or explain.  A recent poll indicating that 65% of Democrats approve of socialism won't help, either.

When the current impeachment "inquiry" subsides, or even after an actual impeachment, President Trump will still be in Office, and chances are he'll be more popular than ever in the 2020 election.  What we currently see before our eyes is a political party in mental distress so intense that it's just about ready to fall off the cliff of sanity on which it has been precariously perched since Trump beat Hillary Clinton fair and square.  Dems don't believe in fair and square, it seems.

Life sure is funny when the politically and media Elite join forces to defeat the will of the American voter. Regarding Ukraine, Trump merely appears to have communicated as the leader of one country to another, something all Presidents do.  Maybe he could have handled the situation regarding Biden & son differently, but this whole affair becomes murky at this point and the Democrats' (and others') dreams of removing Trump from Office via yet ANOTHER way will likely go nowhere.  How many contrivances can be thrown about before crying "wolf" annoys, rather than excites the panting and howling leftist masses?

Meanwhile, as expected, there's a rise in Americans wanting impeachment.  Of course -- when you get all your news from TV, the Internet biggies and a Web traffic jam composed vastly, mostly of leftist sites, there is no "other side."   Losing one's country takes very little effort when communication is so dangerously flawed.

Particularly interesting in this contrived mess, however, may be a track-down opportunity for Republicans on Trump's side to pursue alleged connections the DNC, Hillary, Obama, the deep state and others may have had in Ukraine for years -- and yes, ultimately a Democrat "Russian connection."  The revelation that George Soros is all over this thing, too, stirs things up.

Adam Schiff's invented self-pleasing interpretation of the Trump/Ukraine phone transcript before the House was shameful enough, but we've every confidence the Democrats will muck up everything else, cleverly converting truth and fiction alike into accusations sweet-smelling enough to use as the 2020 elections approach.  Really, what else can they do, having absolutely no sane agenda to sell to the American people?

Apparently, it remains a crime for Donald Trump to love and work hard for America and attempt to do good things for all Americans, including and especially ripping apart the deep state "swamp."  We have no doubt that the Washington, D.C. swamp people are working furiously behind the scenes to diminish Trump's power and increase their power -- while they strive to remove ours by overwhelming the nation with illegal aliens (more votes for the left).

Trump needs to continue doing particularly what his heel-nippers hate the most:  Continue appointing Federal judges (over 150 so far) and get ready for almost inevitable Supreme Court appointments in the near future.

Gotta Be Joking Department:  The Anti-Defamation League considers the A-OK sign (index to thumb and three fingers stuck in the air) a depiction of white supremacy and it should be banned immediately?  Man oh man, my love fest for the left just grows larger every day.  When does this hokum stop?  How?  This is exactly how you cruise toward communism, little by little.  I'm going to keep my A-OK sign, ADL -- and I'll raise you a middle finger.

Bits and Pieces for September 2019

Breaking Broken-Down News:  The Dems and fellow media accomplices got what they've  craved. The Democrats will open an impeachment inquiry against President Trump.  That ought to assure his re-election in 2020.  Great move, heel-nippers of the left!

 Glenn Beck goes UFO-ing:  There exist people who would rather sniff dog poop for hours than listen to one minute of radio/TV's Glenn Beck. Mostly it's because he's politically conservative, and his being a member of the Church of Latter-Day Saints (formerly known as Mormons) probably turns off a few already-closed minds anyway.  Sorry, not every Mormon can be Donny and Marie Osmond, and I don't think Beck even sings.

Aside from friendships with famous mystery/adventure writers and sometimes unnamed celebrities (for their own protection), Beck has taken on the likes of Google, Facebook, Twitter, the deep state and all good and bad (mostly bad, we suspect) things regarding artificial intelligence.  But he's evolved further and now samples a path I never expected him to pursue:  UFOs.

Not once, but twice Beck has interviewed Luis Elizondo on his radio show, and occasionally breaks into no-nonsense discussions with his broadcast sidekicks about the serious side of the phenomenon.  Who saw this coming?  Sure, you get this stuff on Coast to Coast A.M., Ground Zero and on plenty of other shows groomed to explore UFOs and such mysteries.  But Glenn Beck?  We're gratified.

We hope Beck's interest is another turn of the page for a subject craving an inquisitive attitude, and let's hope he continues to put nuggets of truth out there.

On the other hand. . .

What is it with these congressmen, so-called TV journalists and others who can't seem to fathom the established fact that pilot-UFO chases and encounters backed up by visualization and instrumentation are nothing new?  How does one make them understand that NO! it's not the Chinese or the Russians or your grandma in a flying machine?  Anybody looking at UFO history -- if they bother at all -- will know in short order that apparent high-tech gyrations and speeds were reported decades ago and continued on and on.  NICAP.org and Project 1947, as two examples, can educate the uneducated quickly.

Disclaimer Day:  Readers should know that, except where it's obvious per the web site itself, I have no knowledge of or interest in the political leanings of people included in my link list.  Links are included because they may be of interest to you as they are to me, and I receive no remuneration for posting them.  Damn.

Biden & Son:  Forget President Trump's (second-hand?) "whistle blower," though the extent of potential disloyalty exhibited here by somebody close (?) to the President might be a story in itself.  Detailed allegations regarding Joe Biden and son Hunter's Ukraine adventure, perhaps extending into China, appeared long before now, and the only thing this hyped-up controversy may bring forth will be more lurid details of what is said to be a very sordid affair regarding foreign interference and influence -- and not by Trump.  Speaker Nancy Pelosi's demand of Trump to get a transcript of phone conversations is interesting, but even we on the outside would be forced to admit that the Biden-Ukraine-China situation could backfire on the Democrats quickly as investigations continue.  In an era when Democrat partisans seem best equipped to repeatedly shoot themselves in the ass with rock salt bullets, we ask. . .should we expect never-ending investigations and truth twists to make Trump look guilty and magically make the Bidens squeaky clean?  TV media:  Be original -- do your job.

World climate march:  First of all, don't bring some Swedish teenage girl to the U.N. and throw her in my face as a climate expert.  See the look on her face?  Mean-looking, ouch!  Too bad that millennials, so screwed up by the education system, are seldom growing the brains to distinguish between sky-is-falling climate fantasies and real science.   The trouble is, these swollen populations of young people have been spoon-fed sugared agenda cereal since they were little kids in school.  Climate scientists on the "other side" are almost never interviewed or included in any way by the left who control media reporting and education, thus allowing no-nothings to claim a "consensus" regarding human-caused climate change.  This consensus of scientists, by the way, does not take into consideration that many on the list are researchers in specialties other than climate.

A babbling, brainwashed, ignorant 16-year-old girl from Sweden, peddling vocalizations suitable for a robot, might better serve the planet by returning to her country and demanding that European leaders take action regarding all the young imported radical Islamic filth currently engaging in a rape fest among innocent young Swedish girls who, apparently, can barely depend upon the police to keep them safe.  That's the real human-caused "climate change" affecting the lives of teenage girls in her homeland.

A 9/16 report in the Daily Telegraph references Greta Thunberg, depicting her as a climate activist who, among others, are frightening other teens into an epidemic of climate fear.  The implications of a clueless "motor- mouth," obviously, may be incredibly harmful to young people more dependent upon scary bromides than scientific truth.

My wild conjecture:  When ABC-TV premieres Emergence this evening some viewing audience members may at least subconsciously associate the young girl apparently at the center of the story with Greta Thunberg simply because of a bad UN-induced taste against screaming youth -- and they won't like her or the series premise.  We already suggested the show will be a failure, particularly when folks realize this will just be another ongoing story facing season after season with no ultimate solution until the very last episode, and if the show gets cut short, there may not be a closing episode at all.  Better to turn off the TV and stare at your cat all evening.  Of course, I could be wrong.

Woke:  Strange how those who consider themselves "woke" are actually asleep with dreams devoid of the real.

Taking the crazy way out (wa-a-a-ay-y-y-y-y-y out!):  Some Canadian researchers believe that U. S. State Dept. personnel and others who experienced neurological problems in Cuba in 2017 (the "Havana Syndrome) after confrontation with strange electronic-like sounds and other possible percipients had actually encountered pesticides which may have inflicted brain damage.  Wha-a-a-a. . .?  One wonders, could brain damage also affect those who conjure up such explanations?  Could Justin Trudeau's multiple appearances in black face have influenced Canadian researchers in some delayed fashion, causing them to choose pesticides as the culprit after a dart wheel took a fateful spin? 

Then again, neatly tying up this package of international gremlins and hoping everything will quietly go away even as alleged victims continue to suffer in silence might not be out of the question for those who pull the strings.