Bits and Pieces for February 2026

Not even winter's extreme wrath could temper or hold back the raging organized and paid-off demonstrators challenging I.C.E. in the streets of America.  No way did these mobs of thousands just pop up out of nowhere, and as a handful of intrepid young independent Web journalists/detectives have discovered, there appear to be specific people and groups behind this contrived human cattle stampede.  Moooo! Early reports indicate that the super cockroaches behind the wall of THIS TIME A REAL INSURRECTION are on the run, identities having been aired in public and -- worst for perps -- to the DOJ.

Anybody who hasn't figured out by now how the Marxist left has assumed major power by subtle kidnapping of the Democrat-ic Party is unaware of or uncaring of facts  Unfortunately, a frightening agenda against survival of the United States on the part of many fits in all too well.  It's no accident that we are encouraged to immerse ourselves in TV sports and brainless Tik Tok challenges instead of paying close attention to the folks with an eternal wish to screw over basic rights in the country.  

If one hates Donald Trump now, just wait until the ghost of Joe Biden and Bidenesque idiocy re-emerge on the presidential stage in the persona of Who Knows and re-floods the country with illegal aliens and their kids, spouses, cousins, uncles, aunts and the rest of the brood.  China alone, having sent pregnant women here on childbirth excursions for decades so their kids can become automatic U.S. citizens, are estimated to have produced what will already become 100,000 new voters every year who can easily return to the states and significantly influence elections.  Peter Schweizer's new book explains this eloquently.

Politicians who now freely admit to being "Democratic socialists" no longer fear exposure among a population too self-absorbed or distracted to care what lurks right before their eyes.  Socialists happily dance the soft-shoe until communism takes over the ballroom with iron footwear capable of crushing every hint of noncompliance literally to death.

In Minnesota, obviously, the only thing the leftist government knows about assimilation is the ass part of the word, its governor and more than one mayor comfy with protection of criminal border invaders over state citizens, and perfectly comfy with a government within a government (hello-o-o-o-o Islam. . .).  One doesn't keep a country together when insurrection and mob violence run rampant with orders from complicit higher-ups to keep police out of mob law enforcement, when the streets overflow with useful idiots intent upon disbursement of chaos rather than truth.

Remember, it was a notable Democrat who said just years ago something to the effect that one should never let a good crisis go to waste.  For sure with this bunch.

It is no accident that the left is frantic to remove I.C.E. from the equation.  Without a continuous influx of border criminals, including families one and all, their election possibilities may suffer tremendously, and the efforts of I.C.E. raids seriously jeopardize the long-implanted plan.  The difference between opposition and impediment is vast and all telling to those who care to see.

In a fair government on all sides, the obvious solution is for all states to allow federal representatives access to names and addresses of all welfare, EBT and government-paid health care recipients, and this would immediately create a profound assist in locating and tossing out illegal alien individuals and families.  We fear that extremists "protesting" in large organized numbers are already scaring off federal enforcement.  If the damnable complicit mainstream media can't report the truth -- that a five-year-old was taken for safety reasons (not arrested!) by I.C.E. because his criminal father ran off and abandoned his own child, and the people in the kid's house would not open the door to accept him -- then the quest for truth is indeed mired in the efforts of liars and truth-twisters.

We doubt that Governor Walz, Mayor Jacob Frey and other state government officials will see the light and cooperate with efforts to keep the nation safe from criminals and -- let's not sweep this under the rug because of recent attempts by the left to cloud the issue -- allow the removal of people, no matter how kind and cute they seem to be, who have absolutely no business being in our country.  We must not pay for this infestation.  There are no such things as sanctuary cities, but there are domestic terrorists to arrest and wipe out.

Ms. Good, Mr. Pretti and Don Lemon?  When one interferes with law enforcement very bad things may happen, events totally avoidable on the part of those who instigate their role, and when one already has harried federal agents abused 24/7 by the crowd anything can happen.  When a nurse takes to the Internet to suggest injecting I.C.E. officers with a paralytic needle (yes, she was fired), tragic possibilities ramp up.

Otherwise. . .

Canada's prime minister Mark Carney is a fool and no friend to his fellow Canadians as he strives to cement a dangerous relationship with China which may have terrifying implications for the United States as well.  I've ancestors who came down from Canada and I love the Canadian people, but good grief how screwed you folks were by following Trudeau with the disaster Carney is sure to be if he intends upon kissing China's invasive lips.

Iran's Ayatollah and conspiring mullahs:  We suspect you folks might consider packing your suitcases or goat bladders or human skulls or whatever you use for carry-on luggage in preparation for your exit from Iran.  When the choice comes down to fleeing in the comfort of (likely) Putin's Russian aircraft or leaving in millions of pieces via bomb fragments, the best option is clear.  Unless you really believe that all those virgins actually await your crossover in some afterlife, you sick puppies.  We hope all those afterlife virgins are males!

U.S. Treasury and nothing more!  Let's work hard of ridding the country of The Fed.  Woodrow Wilson's little love affair with the big banks should be over and done.  THIS is the legalized mafia which dares not speak its identity.  Let banks rise and fall on their own merits, and make the U.S. Treasury the peoples' bank, excluding once and for all a conglomerate of four or five financial giants wielding power over what was once a free society.  Hey, Scott Bessent (hmm, isn't that French?), some of us respect you and your sly comment about know-nothing hair model Gavin Newsom a few days ago tipped the scales for me.

Apple cider vinegar and Rep. Ilhan Omar:  Wow.  I once read an article detailing numerous uses for apple cider vinegar, but never anticipated adding one more to the list.  Versatility indeed.

Uvalde acquittal:  Officer Gonzalez and other law enforcement personnel were not the child murderers, but it's so interesting how the focus wanders elsewhere when primary shooters are dead and unavailable for proper condemnation.  Peace officers are like everybody else when chaos arises, and you never know how you will respond to the worst of horror stories.  Uvalde produced no winners -- but, to be fair, one and only one criminal.  I realize this view is not popular.

Black History Month is here!  Once again, may I take this opportunity to wish all black people and those claiming to be black but are not really black a wonderful month.  Also, I again thank the movies, "Blacula" and "Scream Blacula Scream" for providing my basic education regarding black history in America.  Damn, those fangs!

Measles in vogue:  Get the vaccination.  At this juncture as NOT medical personnel we nevertheless suggest avoiding anything using the mRNA shots, but standard vaccinations tried and true over the decades appear to offer benefit, certainly apparent as the measles outbreak continues to jump from person to person.

Killer balloons:  No, not the ones like China sent over U.S. territory with Biden's apparent approval.  This time we're referencing those clusters or helium balloons people innocently send skyward to celebrate birthdays or commemorate tragedies.  Sooner or later, those things deflate and land on the ground, in trees or in the water, where wildlife mistake the remnants for food -- and the materials will unsuspecting animals intent upon believing they are gobbling up food.  Enjoy the balloons, but keep them personal and anchored.

We all hate insurance companies, but:  Those kindly lawyers on YV who promise to help if you're injured in a car accident?  Every time they succeed in gaining megabucks for themselves and their clients, I don't think it's unreasonable to think auto insurance rates go up for the rest of us.  Vehicle-involved lawsuits need to get real at last -- and we might say the same for law firms cleaning up big in "class action" lawsuits in which victims or so-called victims get very little cash.

Look what's on TV!  Seems to be an increase on local TV stations of commercials inviting people to join the ACLU or SPLC or other factions.  How strange that terrorism is sometimes invoked on such commercials when, in my humble opinion, leftist agendas are at the very root of some groups intent upon reflecting sunlight off their armor.  If you want to spend your money, give to an animal rescue organization instead.

Speaking of TV -- notice how TV shows appear increasingly intent upon showing babies born and kids everywhere?  We suspect sponsors want childbirth so they can keep customers in the future, and your favorite TV or radio commentators want you making babies so their kids don't face being forced into slave marriages with radical Islamists whose birth rates far exceed anybody else in the USA or elsewhere.  Good luck with those thats!

Fouling the Nest with a Cornucopia of Intentions (plus -- I Want Denmark)

Give Me Denmark at Once!  As a kid in grade school more years ago than I care to remember, I and the other students were assigned a project in which each would mail a nickel or dime to a particular member of the United Nations in NY City.  I was assigned Denmark, and obediently secured my nickel or dime (I don't recall which denomination) and sent it off in an envelope at the post office to "Delegate from Denmark," whoever that nameless person happened to be.  The accompanying letter requested that the delegate mail me back with a coin from his or her own country.

Well, you can just imagine what happened.  That son of a pup kept my coin and responded with nothing, not even a thank you for the funding I obviously provided toward the next drink at the bar, or maybe even for a low-rent hooker!

Now that President Trump is on the move toward acquiring Greenland over Denmark's objections, I say please, Mr. President, I WANT DENMARK!  They owe me, and no matter what happened to my money I'm sure the interest involved by now would make me a millionaire!  Or something.  Anyway, if I can't actually hold those thieving Danish bastards responsible, maybe I could borrow Greenland for a while?  You know, that island where the people wear caps that read MAGA:  Make America Greenland Again?  I promise to take good care of the place, Mr. Trump, and once I dig up about a nickel or dime's worth plus interest of rare earth minerals you can have it back.  By the way, there's no hurry.


There was that long-sustainable era until just years ago when newspapers and their great reporters who knew how to write effectively and tell stories demanding to be told enjoyed the luxury of seemingly endless column space unrestrained by time or sound bites.  Often, newspaper journalists could focus almost overnight and in depth on the benefits, problems or blatant illegalities involved with one subject or another.  When that nebulous thing known as the environment became newspaper fodder, yes, there existed reporters, editors and publishers who happily tackled the crazy, scare-you-out-of-your-pants aspects to sell papers.  

When "group think" invaded the newspaper industry in a hopeless attempt to stay relevant and profitable -- as readers started to divert their attention to the electronic brain-shriveling creature called the Internet -- the writing was on the wall. And on the digital chip.  No longer did people capable of merely pushing buttons need to plan their days or their very lives or even decide what to feed the cat because The Screen satisfied their every curiosity. Truth, lies, damned lies and glittering pretend food to feed both starving and stupid brains.  Real local, national and international news?  Well, multiple versions were readily available on The Screen, and the Internet user could know "everything" with a little scrolling in just seconds.  Not to forget -- just as the VCR became popular overnight primarily because one could finally access the greatest "pornography" (I think that means showing us as we really are) on the planet, the Web suddenly took over as the best sex machine aside from rubber inflatables and battery-operated devices ever known to man, woman or beast.

But I digress, don't I?  The point is, newspaper reporters of old, much of their literary offspring now confined to magazines sold haphazardly on invisible newsstands and on grocery store shelves, spared nothing to alert communities to both the good and bad.  RIP, the daily local newspaper as it continues a sad decline.

Newspapers of somewhat older times were superb at providing details about the construction of a new school or mall, or the benefits or consequences of actions provided by land developers.  Mind you, these were occasions where only a few acres were involved, an era when a young couple might buy an acre or two upon which to build their dream home -- or perhaps a new factory or small business came into town, gobbling up a small amount of land.

But yes, change comes a knocking, like it or not.  Small becomes bigger, simple becomes complex, national security becomes ever more paramount and the natural world collapses a little more as people who should care about such things instead bury their heads in sports or other innocuous time and flatulence-passers of no value to our existence as humans.

To Clay, New York has come a supposed miracle of digital chip technology, a 20-year plan by the Micron Technology corporation to build, if we understand this correctly, a four-part semiconductor manufacturing campus, each part the size of 10 football fields, eventually incorporating some 7.2 million square feet of space.  Billions and billions of dollars are involved in the construction, and the kick-off of actual chip production is intended for four years from now.  50,000 jobs in the short-term seem to be required for construction and operations alone.

Indeed, a ground-breaking ceremony took place just days ago, and in attendance to break ground with individual shovels of soil were the usual dignitaries, including U.S. and state senators always up for a good photo op.  

The new reality has come to town.  Instead of a house or two, or a hardware store and a pharmacy putting in roots, the current choice continues to involve enlisting scores of bulldozers and a myriad of other heavy equipment to clear-cut tens or hundreds or thousands of acres of land.  No longer is a farm, a meadow or a babbling brook looked upon as a gem to cherish and leave untouched, but rather a commodity to wipe out and transform as easily as erasing words from a blackboard, altered forever.  The animals?  As always, they can go "somewhere else."  The wild berries, the fragrant wildflowers, fruit trees of all manner must go because of progress.

The ruling class in Central New York and, of course, its frequently accommodating broadcast media love the concept of Micron's arrival.  Thousands of jobs will come at last in an area longing for steady employment.  It's funny, though. Micron is building in an area known as White Pine Commerce Park, and of course white pines will be among the plethora of trees soon to disappear in exchange for pavement, blacktop and modern buildings serving the chip and AI industry.  On the bright side, skyscrapers apparently occupy no space in the sprawl.

I'm not taking this opportunity to complain about this Goliath project, as we humans are what we are and we will always do what we do.  The dilemma is that we always take and seldom give back, in the sense that everything we accomplish is for our benefit and the rest of that which nurtures us, ours and theirs is usually moved away, crushed or killed into powder and generally forgotten about in terms of future importance.

As far as Micron's sprawling presence goes -- what if, say, in three to five or six years people suddenly have the ability to produce chips, tons of them, in the comfort of their own homes?  Further, don't discount the very real possibility that robotics will assume all production duties flawlessly.  As we already worry with the rise of artificial intelligence, who needs humans for jobs in the years ahead and how many?  What would become of the mega-campus?

Of what value will the semiconductor chips of Micron or any chip manufacturer be if (when?) we experience another "Carrington Effect" of the 1800s, when the sun vomited the mother of all EMP (electromagnetic pulsation) energy directly toward our atmospherically protected, yet incredibly vulnerable planet, causing telegraph lines and office telegraph equipment to go up on flames?  Planet-wide, effective shielding from such cosmic incursions upon modern electrical living is pathetically lacking  -- especially, remarkably, in the USA.

So, like many sprawling chip plants across the globe, Micron will materialize.  An abundant and essential clean water supply will be sucked into this new neighbor industry by millions of gallons a week, used and then discarded as dirty water.  Local residents are assured that this can be managed with high tech.  Can't everything?  Along with these mega-structures, extensive housing will be required for those who build and for those who work in the facility.  This will require the vast sale of farms, forests, meadows and other areas of natural beauty and pure environmental importance for tens if not hundreds of miles around.  Along with Micron will come a myriad of supporting businesses and structures, thereby requiring even more bulldozing, pavement, blacktop and obliteration of things natural and good.  By the time these thousands of new workers make their homes where they have access to Micron and other businesses, spending their free time having night after night of wild recreational or child-producing sex on mattresses sold by novel mattress and bed companies, the new hell is loaded and ready to go.  Eventually, perhaps doomed kids born in this arena, battling for a paucity of good jobs as they mature, once entitled to growing up with nature and natural processes assisting in showing them who they are, will instead be condemned to pavement, blacktop, few LOCAL grass or forest areas and a life structured by AI, restrictive laws and almost literally no place to go, no place to run.  Unless one's idea of a good time is to become the Singularity.  And don't expect that a so-called neighborhood park or two developed by some nebulous planning board will take the place of what was previously real and vital just yesterday.  Pollution and crime as babysitters?  We shall see.  

The three-alarm fire sale grab and makeover of gigantic tracts of at least moderately unblemished land tempered until now is about to explode with crucial decisions routinely determined by both the elite and the well paid-off who wield the keys, and as is customary there will be shouts of "Jobs Jobs Jobs!" along with the hoary mantra, "People have to live somewhere!"  Whose somewhere?  What somewhere?  What happens to creatures whom we are not?  

Really, I detest whacked-out members of the crazy environmental class as much as anybody, but this time much seems so different, so jeopardized.  Are we fine-tuned enough to administer caution as new ventures of monstrous size emerge from blueprints all over the country?

We were warned years ago about what has already come and what is scheduled to invade our living space in such books as, The Last Child in the Woods, which should be read by anybody intent upon anticipation of a secure future with children in tow -- though by now we suggest that we have seen the future.  For most of us, sadly, there may be no particularly desirable room at that nearby inn as both AI and the ultra-huge take charge.  Just saying. . .

Revenge of the Zoo Animals (plus: From Smellya with Love)

(A note about yesterday in Minneapolis:  A woman allegedly speeding her car toward I.C.E. agents, her continuing presence itself a possible threat to agents, was herself shot dead by an agent seemingly in fear for his or his companions' lives. Naturally, the mayor, governor and the rest of the predictable local and national leftist lunatic fringe will blame I.C.E. for -- the words they won't use -- merely trying to enforce the law in apprehending criminals. Autos and trucks weighing thousands of pounds having become the favored objects of mass destruction these days, with government agents and officials routinely selected as targets, it would almost require a moron to hover about a scene of law enforcement where officers are performing their official duties.  The dead woman was ultimately a leftist tool, nothing more, nothing less, and the fact that she put herself in the line of fire, so to speak, is on her and all the folks who consistently fail to comprehend what the term, law enforcement means.  Further, that she would interfere with officials attempting to rid the city of pure welfare-grabbing and dangerous crime committing scum is hardly a shining example of intelligence.  So who was it this time?  A Marxist? A Communist? A mind too deluded to contemplate radical Islam's threat to the world?  The woman had a choice not to risk her ultimate fate and she chose very unwisely.  She probably could have become somebody of much more benefit to her city, if that was truly her concern.  What a waste.)

 

Maybe someday soon some anonymous Venezuelan will be heard to say, "I love the smell of zoo animals in the morning!"  Maybe, just maybe, the nation's zoos will be replenished with healthy, loved animals no longer subject to becoming dinner almost overnight for starving Venezuelan citizens whose wealth and food were stolen by modern dictators.  Once a thriving nation populated by happy, economically secure people, when the dictator class featuring Chavez and then Maduro moved in some 25 years ago and emptied the vaults for their own purposes, the people lost everything and finally the inability even to find food drove the starving masses to emptying zoos, killing and eating the nation's formerly welcome and admired animal guests.  For this alone, I would cheer to watch Maduro and his associates executed in a most horrible manner by wild creatures fortified with an all-business, flesh-ripping ethic.

Meanwhile, some Democrats are themselves "howling" because Trump failed to consult them before moving on Maduro.  Truth be told, how many of these leftist blabbermouths would have kept their mouths shut, rather than putting our own military personnel in jeopardy?  Yes, Trump shoulda, shoulda, shoulda, but how does one deal with the enemy within when the enemy within roosts over significant parts of Washington, always perched to feed its left-handed media secret things which are often not contained during crucial operations?  Let Democrats explain to the moms and dads of kids dead by way of Venezuelan (and Colombian and Mexican) drug arrivals why Donald Trump is the real enemy here.

The U.S. military?  Superb, the real super heroes not confined or restrained in comic book pages.  If you were waiting for the Democrats to cheer military personnel on in the current event, you might just as well be willing to give up your rights and speak Mandarin or bow to Iran.

Donald Trump has a long-range plan, a good thing to know because China, Iran, Russia, North Korea and other nations also have long-term goals.  With luck, intelligence and hard work, I hope Trump's plans will come out on top.  Fear him, hate him or embrace him, we finally have somebody in the White House actually doing something for Americans and -- bonus -- the world.  You want Biden back?  Harris?  If so, why?  It may take time, and we all know that patience is so abhorred among both young and old these days, but many aspects of modern life have a real option to improve.  Has the Monroe Doctrine been stamped in gold to live another day in the Western Hemisphere?

We are also keeping an eye on Secretary of State Marco Rubio, whose family roots in Cuba almost certainly have him on the watch for just the right moments to effect change in coordination with Trump's future agenda, however that works out.

While the world's sympathies must be with the long-suffering Venezuelan people, pardon me if I step aside to shed a tear for those poor zoo animals, caged and defenseless and probably too trusting against captors and killers who entered their safe spaces only to slaughter them one and all -- creatures which really were just like children in so many ways.  The animals always get the worst of it when humans are involved.

From Smellya with love:  I can't find it on the map, but apparently there exists some little country somewhere called Smellya, inhabited by Smellyuns.  I don't know why they are called Smellyuns.  Is it because they have an odor and smell bad?  Is it because they live with rats which run amuck and make their homes smell offensive?  A lot of Smellyuns have come to the United States over the years, many of them settling in Minnesota.  The Smellyuns seem to be great entrepreneurs, just loving the heck out of America, having set up maybe thousands of businesses, especially widespread when Covid funds became available.  The Smellyuns also appear to have had lots of support from Minnesota Democrats, with plenty of questions arising now over whether even the governor, known in some circles publicly as a "retard," had provided input in support of Smellyun business ventures.

The problem, however, seems to encompass a belief among congressional and law enforcement personnel that a good many of these businesses are phony, as fraudulent as the Smellyun day is long.  Ingenious Smellyuns appear to have initiated hundreds or thousands of child day care centers in which there is no need to incorporate children.  Instead, as big government money rolls into the pockets of the enterprising Smellyun elite, various buildings, houses and miscellaneous addresses are merely referenced as day care centers.  If one has an address where day care center checks can be sent, who needs actual children in attendance?  Besides, actual attendance in day care centers can create so many problems caused by children, so it's much easier just to keep Smellyun children home -- unless they need to be paraded into alleged centers momentarily to convince nonbelievers that day care facilities exist.

Of considerable interest is entrance into the USA by a Smellyun woman who went on to be elected to Congress, and like so many members of Congress somehow became fabulously wealthy in no time at all, as if gifted by Smellyun magical incantations.  Strangely, she is alleged to have married her brother in order to help him also enter the country with no complications, perhaps so that he could enter day care, too -- though that would have been adult day care, surely.

Currently, the Feds are investigating allegedly widespread Smellyun fraud in Minnesota and other states.  But what of the children?  Will their mostly non-existent day care centers be closed forever, leaving them no place to go even though they had not ever gone anyway and there had never existed a place to go?  If one marries her sibling, is he entitled to day care?  Does he call her "Sis" and does she call him "Bro?"  And what of alleged Smellyun health care centers, also mostly non-existent?  Can patients get band-aids there or just pretend band-aids?  The questions never stop.  Wonderful people, those Smellyuns, but they really should return to Smellya and forfeit ill-gained American dollars on the way out.

Maybe Smellyuns could run German banks?  We love the attitude of the bank where thieves broke in and absconded with millions of dollars of safety deposit box contents, leaving one banker to advise totally screwed customers that they should have insured the contents of each box for more than the guaranteed $12,000.  No way was this official about to blame his own bank for holding open season for the creative robber able to overcome something as troublesome as a wall.

Zohran Mamdani takes New York City:  And with Trump's help from afar, along with all the empty promises an avowed Democrat socialist can make, one wonders how long it will be before New York City takes Mamdani?

From Australopithecus to Australia-Patheticus

Our human predecessors, even those harboring the barest resemblance to anybody walking about today, were provided from birth with one basic instinct:  The will to survive and the necessity to battle enemies and elements to assure survival.

Casting the obvious and inherent aside, Australia's spineless prime minister has decided, following the latest extermination of native-born Australians by ISIS and the radical Islamic poison currently swallowing up free and decent people all over the globe, to un-solve the outrage by banning more firearms from his citizens and cracking down on whatever he apparently thinks sounds good in a speech.  Like most of Western Europe's political elite, he has eyes that will not see the Islamic and Sharia Law dangers making headway in his country.  Perhaps he should take a lesson from France and Ireland, now consumed hazardously with mosques springing up like deadly toadstools and people brought in who have no intention of assimilating.

In fact, the masses allowed to enter under misguided compassion and political expedience, as we now know, are intent upon replacing their host societies with another form of government.  Islam IS a government unto itself, with no appetite for co-existence with any other way of life.  If you're a fan of beheadings, fingers and hands chopped off, rapes as a matter of course, women covered up almost completely and gay people or "nonbelievers" being thrown from the tops of high-rise buildings, then life regimented under Sharia is for you.  (I suppose an argument could be made for allowing hand-chopping for thieves caught stealing mail from USPS mailboxes, quite a problem in the USA currently.) 

Can't we all just get along?  Yes, if half submit to tyrants and the other half are murdered because of noncompliance and refusal to convert to Islam.  That's the choice we all face, whether residing in the USA, Australia, Canada or pretty much anywhere in a currently threatened, if not deteriorating Western civilization.

Speaking of troublesome entities, why won't Democrats publicly release their detailed report on reasons why they lost the election?  We suspect that once key operatives actually got around to holding up a mirror to their stupid policies and less than appealing candidates, the reflection in their own faces filled them with fear, sort of like a Medusa event without actual snakes in their hair.

Meanwhile, our days are filled with Jeffrey Epstein, Epstein and more Epstein, complemented by a cascade of never-ending televised drug commercials.  While we're happy to know all may disappear from TV screens soon, removal of drug advertising would be a great first step.  Let doctors decide what patients should take instead of exposing the public to these medication cattle calls!

Progressing from cattle calls to cattle cars, does anybody actually enjoy flying commercially anymore?  I've experienced my share of air travel both in the Air Force and outside, but ever since the world's terrorists conquered our fantasies of safety my desire to feel like a poked, prodded and searched criminal even before boarding a flight keeps me grounded. Travel by air used to be such fun, but the quality of engagements with both security and incredibly rude (if not psychotic) fellow passengers is such a nightmare in waiting now -- not to mention the risk of deadly drone encounters in flight. . .and, of course, those damned UFOs (what was that report last week about a pilot flying over Rhode Island who reported being freaked out while paced by a silver cylindrical something just yards off his wingtip?).  If I ever had to fly again I would insist upon accompaniment by an emotional support anaconda which would remain free to roam and eat in the passenger compartment while I secure myself in the cargo area.

Today's puzzlement:  If human populations are on the decline in the United States and illegal aliens are leaving or being tossed out in quantity (THANK YOU I.C.E.), why the constant drum beat about a lack of housing?  Seems there should be plenty of places to occupy or revise without a need to rip up more forests and protected land.  Bat crap-crazy environmentalism drives me bonkers, but there is such a thing as reasoned environmental care, and I sometimes fear that the Trump people may forget this.  The time long, long ago when we forgot in a quest to have it all that we share the planet with other lives was a very sad occasion.

One of my favorite environmental outrages is when "developers" clear-cut multiple acres of exquisite fruit trees, berries, wildflowers and other natural settings and then have the gall to name new streets after everything they just cut away and destroyed (Pear Tree Lane, Marigold Way, etc.).

We shall cautiously wish for an at least tolerable and maybe reasonable 2026 -- but don't bet your ass on it!

Rehash of the Regurgitated

So Steven Spielberg is making a new UFO-related movie, Disclosure Day, produced under the highest of all secrecies.  Of course, he did the same when Close Encounters of the Third Kind was in production in the 1970s.

If you've read this blog for a few years, you already know about My Tiny Obsession -- the one infatuated more or less with discovering that the motion picture includes one of my national magazine articles as a briefly seen prop.

Magazines and newspaper articles about the UFO subject remained quite popular in the seventies, as impressive UFO activity continued to enjoy media coverage.  Hardly surprising, then, was the emergence of Spielberg's carefully crafted UFO film.  (Unfortunately, its magnificence on screens around the country was dwarfed somewhat by another little motion picture entitled"Star Wars, which saw release at about the same time and captivated theater audiences incredibly.)

From the earliest days of motion pictures production crews usually printed their own mock-up (phony) articles, magazine covers and the like -- for the most part -- when the visualization of published material was necessary as background in various scenes.  However, in regard to Close Encounters it would be obvious to UFO article writers of the era that Spielberg's prop department actually used real UFO articles appearing at about the same time the movie was being shot, or inserted thereafter during post-production.

Of course. . .of course. . .authors' names did not appear in the brief scenes where said articles appeared.  In my case, the title page of my Argosy UFO magazine article, "How to Conduct Yourself Inside a UFO" appeared upside-down, the large white circled UFO term readily visualized.  My name appeared at the bottom of the page, but of course that was not to show up in the movie.

The article was not my best, but the graphic created by Argosy's art department was apparently just what Spielberg's project needed. No residuals for me, no name listed, just a page cemented throughout cinematic eternity in a few frames of film.  Just call me Mr. Miscellaneous, along with the other writers whose names were obliterated for the sake of art.  Heck, we writers didn't even get as much as a "close encounter" on the casting couch:):):):)