phoenixvoice
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@ Poppie
🙂 Makes sense. I had to walk away from my credit card debt (accrued due to family court) and my only other debt is my mortgage, which is private, through my parents. I am self-employed, and I speak my mind — selectively, with caution. My refusal to be vaccinated lost me a few small jobs, but only a few, and only small ones, so I was able to keep up my obligations to myself, my children, and my parents. I have compassion for others who do not feel free to speak up and out. There are clear reasons for the terms “debt peonage” and “wage-slave.” A slave is not free to speak as he would prefer.
My 91-year-old good friend, long-time client, and benefactor invited me to breakfast a week ago after I had helped her with something. She has been politically aware for decades, typically votes Democrat, although she supported a local Republican state representative for years, including sponsoring meet-and-greets in her home. She felt badly for chewing out her (30-something) granddaughter for voting for Trump. (She watches CNN frequently.) She had convinced her daughter to not vote for president when her daughter didn’t want to vote for Harris. She couldn’t understand why anyone would vote for Trump! So I explained to her how the MSM has not been honest about Trump, slicing and dicing clips of him speaking to imply that he said things that he did not say, and that the current way that most (younger) people are getting their news is via the internet, especially through long-form interviews called podcasts, where they can get a real feel for the candidate. Then I shared with her how bummed I was that I couldn’t vote for RFK Jr for president…and allowed her to believe as she wished regarding who *I* voted for.
Dr D, yesterday: So THEY want to endorse Trump, like 20%-40% of their artist FRIENDS want to endorse Trump, but no one, THEY won’t know because they’re fundamentally cowardly and dishonest.
There is some veracity to that, but it isn’t that simple. Most people are in debt — even artists. (Very often: artists — many historically aren’t that great with managing money, including Mozart, etc.)
Western society teaches that “it is no big deal to be in debt,” — but that isn’t really true. If living expenses are kept very small, typically because of no debt, because of “living within one’s means,” then whether or not the person speaks up starts coming down to (social) courage. However, when an adult is in debt, speaking up can mean loss of everything. Additionally, many adults have obligations to provide support to children and others — speaking up risks the ability to provide that support. So, perhaps that is why they merely voted for Trump in secret? It just goes to show how important anonymity can be!
Boycott of men…many of them were already infertile, or one more clot shot roulette away from it….
10 min musk smear piece…I’ll admit, it is well put together. I can see why Dem voters believe what they do. It is my lived experience and personal research that tells me otherwise. And, to the deep state, Musk is a threat.
Elon “wildly charismatic magnate”
Hunh?
Elon is high functioning autistic and has the tells. He does odd social things. People embrace him anyhow, because of who he is and because they know that he is “just that way.” However, Trump is “wildly charismatic”. — Musk is not.20 million “missing” voters
Well, either the Democrats cheated in 2020 or the clot shot killed 20 million voters.
! It is that society has removed any and all restraints from one gender while bemoaning and blaming the other non stop.
Yes, I recognize that the most powerful, dominant part of society has done this — against men, against “white people.” However, that doesn’t mean that every issue they took up is automatically wrong or that everyone who agrees with the “woketards” on a single issue is automatically a part of their camp or with them for their entire agenda. I typically believe that most of the people who post here have good access to clear, cogent thought: kindly utilize this skill.
I am not a part of that dominant society. I seek personal liberty and individual sovereignty. I declined the Covid vax and lived through some uncomfortable social moments and lost some income. (Which is a very small thing when compared to what many others who declined the jab had to deal with.). I value the men in my life generally: my father, my spouse, my brother, brothers-in-law, my musical mentor, my sons — and my greatest anger towards my ex is that he was not “man enough” to be honest about his income so that a reasonable portion would go towards the physical needs of his children. (I still, to this day, hear horror stories from my children of the myriad of ways that my ex didn’t provide things for my kids when they were in his care, like clothes that actually fit or food that they liked and how they did not feel comfortable asking for what they wanted or even getting food for themselves out of the cupboards and fridge in his home.)
The reason why I know that only a small number of women intentionally use abortion as birth control is because I have always had more female friends than male friends. Women talk. Even the one woman that I knew years ago who used abortion as birth control felt very badly about it. (She wanted her friends to rally around and cry with her about it.) I believe that her position was morally wrong — she didn’t even try to avoid the situation with proper birth control methods—but she truly believed that it was the only viable solution to the quandary that she had gotten herself into. Another woman I knew felt so badly about getting an abortion that she had her tubes tied to prevent herself from being in that position again. She still got pregnant! She decided that god had sent her the child, raised the babe with the father, and had a hysterectomy after the birth. I have never, ever had a woman talk to me about an abortion with pride or flippantly. That doesn’t mean that they are not out there, and it isn’t a large enough sample to calculate a percentage, but the number cannot be great.
I suggest that the reason why some couples cease to have sex in their marriages is because the communication breaks down and one or both parties give up on figuring out the issues. It isn’t natively “the woman’s fault” nor “the man’s fault.” Such tropes are gross oversimplifications that are often expressed by those who are experiencing (or who have experienced) long periods of such frustration.
I have never in my life shot a gun. But I support the 2nd amendment and believe that the populace should have access to guns, even if through accidents and crimes of passion and wackos some people die.
I have never sought out an abortion. I have only had “unprotected sex” when I was open to welcoming a child. I do not want to ever be put in the position of a pregnancy that is unwanted — because I loathe abortion. But I believe that abortion is the woman’s choice, and that the government should not insert itself into that decision. I believe this even though I know that a small percentage of the population will have abortions for reasons other than rape or incest or danger to mother’s life, and even though I know that there will be a small number of women who will use abortion as birth control. I view the morality of abortion to be between the woman and god.
It is tyranny to take choices from people because you are afraid that they may use them in ways that you don’t approve. It removes their sovereignty.
“Okay we tried woman’s sufferage and discovered their primary political concern is killing their own babies.
Um, no.
Women don’t like losing bodily sovereignty due to pregnancy. It is that simple. God trusts women with fetuses — if god made women as they are: physically weaker, but with a stronger tendency than men to form resilient social connections — then god trusts women, as they are, to be the intelligences that direct the process of fetal gestation. Women are the mature minds in the equation, and they do not need men nor the government to make their decisions for them simply because an unborn baby is involved. Women do not like the prospect of becoming less important legally than the unborn child in their womb.We are never going to agree with all women who seek out abortion on the reasons and justifications for that abortion. Let it go. Let god be the arbiter of that decision, not man — ultimately, it is between the woman and god who gave her the ability to conceive in the first place. If you detest abortion — as I do, as many women do who, notwithstanding, do not want the government meddling in their bodies — then help to create a society where women in “oops” pregnancy situations feel comfortable giving birth and then either choosing to raise the child or give it up for adoption, and where both of those options are viable for the woman so that she can make the choice that she prefers without coercion.
As far as “can we believe the results of the election” — yes and no.
The “blob” wanted Harris to win AZ. They also wanted to use a proposition to usher in ranked choice voting like CA and AK. The “blob” probably doesn’t really care about the abortion issue — it would likely prefer that AZ didn’t create a right to abortion so that it can continue to use that issue to stoke Dem voters in AZ.
Trump’s margin of victory in AZ is still pretty narrow, and they are still counting. (No idea why the counting is inept and slow.). However, the blob’s desire of a Harris victory is not panning out — I guess that their election fraud has not, so far, overcome determined legitimate voters in AZ — and the proposition results are clearly against the desires of the blob — much more clearly than the presidential race. It may be that this is because all of the voters who do not present proper identification when registering to vote in AZ only get access on their ballots to the three federal races: president, senate, House of Representatives, which means that those voters are ineligible to weigh in on the propositions.
Arizona passed Proposition 139. “Creates a constitutional right to abortion.” — right now the count is over 61% approved.
This was a strange one for me, personally. I learned the word “abortion” in 1984 during the election of Reagan and Mondale. I was a child, steeped in Mormonism, and I was horrified. Abortion still doesn’t sit well with me — I don’t like it — but I see the issue very differently: a woman should be sovereign in her own body, and pregnancy should not cause her to lose sovereignty over her own body. This means that she is in charge of her unborn child and whether or not the child is born. My hope is that we have a society where every woman can know with confidence that she will have the resources and support that she needs for the next 18 years to raise the child. I wanted many children. I stopped at three because I did not feel like I had that kind of support (despite being married at the time) — and it went downhill from there. Fortunately, there are many means of effective birth control available, making it possible for women to make these choices before abortion enters into the picture in the majority of cases. It causes me to look around me at my fellow Arizonans and think, wow, nearly 2/3 of those who vote agree with me on this issue. That is more powerful than the abortion issue being decided by court justices or by any legislature.
PCR
The FBI, CIA, NSA, Secret Service, and Clinton murder machine only have to assassinate four people–Trump, Bobby Kennedy, Tucker Carlson, and Elon Musk–and the country is back in their hands.No — this is Leviathan, this is the Hydra. Make them martyrs and there are others, waiting in the wings. There is a reason why conservatives have been telling themselves parables of lions and sheep.
Yesterday I explained to two of my children that there are bubbles of fascism, of totalitarianism, all over the US. It was the deaths of, ironically, Peanut and Fred that brought me to this conclusion. If the fascists will steal beloved pets and murder so quickly…they will only hesitate briefly (or not at all) before doing similar to humans.
…is there anyone in the country who believes that the democrat party machine will accept an election that doesn’t go its way?
…there are few in the country that are so naive as to believe that the democrat party machine is *not* cheating in the election — especially in the swing states — in a myriad of ways.There was extensive cheating by the democrat party machine in 2020. The DNC halted the legal processes examining the election fraud in order to install Joe Biden. Was there enough *measurable* fraud in 2020 to swing the election towards Trump? It is difficult to know — and then there is the fraud that was difficult to measure the effects of — the Hunter Biden laptop, the concealment of Biden’s lack of mental acuity.
Sometimes, it is best to deal with the misbehavior of others by ignoring it, or just walking away, or avoiding that individual. When that isn’t possible, often the solution is to simply mind one’s own behavior, ensuring that one’s own behavior is in line with personal values, and firmly not being swayed by the bad actor. But when the behavior of the bad actor is such that it creates a situation where “the pursuit of happiness” is impossible, it is necessary to deliberately act, blocking the bad behavior from taking affect, apprehending the bad actor, and/or by removing the individual’s power to act.
That is why Putin invaded Ukraine.
And that is why we cannot just “ignore” the election fraud this time around. The abusers in power must lose their power, and an election is the appropriate, democratic way to do this. If the immediate election results do not overwhelm the election fraud, then it will be necessary to investigate the fraud and find the accurate, actual results. This will, unfortunately, be a painful process because much of the country has been primed to believe that the *investigation* of election fraud is problematic and dangerous, rather than the *election fraud* itself. Much of the country has been deluded by TDS, and truly believes themselves too unworthy to see the cloth that has been fashioned into the emperor’s new clothes. They have been gas-lit into disbelieving their own eyes. They are hoodwinked.
The investigation of election fraud, in and of itself, is *not* dangerous, as long as it is rooted in *truth* — in finding and accurately counting the votes of those who legally have the right to vote and who have expended the effort to get registered and vote. Such investigations are only “dangerous” when the truth is something that those in power wish to obfuscate.
Dr D
What happens if you hear things “It’s raining today” and it’s not true?That happened a couple of months ago. Saw an article when I was opening the Edge browser that stated that a terrible rain storm had grounded flights “right now” at Phoenix’s Sky Harbor airport. There were no storm clouds in the sky. I live about 10 miles from the airport…it can’t rain there and for someone at my home to not see storm clouds in the sky. Bizarre.
It isn’t that the idea of reparations is always wrong, but it is ridiculous that people who never owned slaves be forced to make reparation payments to people who never were slaves!
Reparations would have been appropriate in the generations when slavery was discontinued — if actual former slave owners had compensated actual former slaves for the labor that they had performed. However, the political will to do this did not exist in those generations, so it didn’t happen.
Economic inequality exists for many reasons. It can be due to ill luck as much as due to personal failings. Sometimes, the “fault” will never be rectified. So what? The answer is to move on. Just move on.
As a society, it is incumbent upon us to help out those who are falling behind. The great religions teach this. If we discharge this responsibility well then, as the generations pass, much of the negative fall out from slavery will slowly be erased.
10 and 13 days to tabulate the results of the Nov. 5 election.
It’s an odd combination of lie/not lie. It has always taken many days to tabulate final results — because of ballots taking a while to come in from overseas, etc. However, usually we have results that delineate a clear winner that cannot be dislodged by outstanding ballots before the nation turns in for the night.
When races are tighter, are closer, and being decided by a few thousand ballots, it may be necessary to wait for all of the votes to be counted before declaring a winner. This much is fact.
However, nefarious actors have figured out that if we jury-rig public perception so that public belief is that candidates are neck-to-neck, then we can halt counting, assess where the establishment candidate is at, and shower in a cascade of ballots that are for the establishment-preferred candidate. That is where we are now, with those in charge of ballot-counting in swing states speaking at length and disingenuously about how long the vote count process may take….
Hit piece on RFK Jr
Here’s the thing: I’ve been aware of RFK Jr for around 25 years. The more I found out about him, the more media appearances (of all types) that I saw, the more that he wrote that I read, the more my respect grew. Then he ran for president.
Trump: I’ve been aware of him for about 40 years. His style always got on my nerves. He wrote a book about 20 or 25 years ago — which I read — outlining his political views, and what his positions would be if he ran for president. I liked much of what he said, but not all of it. I found his demeanor in The Apprentice overbearing. In 2016 I didn’t like him for president — I liked Hilary Clinton less, and voted 3rd party. In 2020 I voted 3rd party. I *still* do not like Trump’s bombastic style, but I am impressed with the group of people that he is gathering to advise him and work with him, I find that he comes across as respecting the office of US president, and that he has a good relationship with his kids and grandkids. The family relationships are important — they say a great deal about who a person is, and their values.
Kunstler:
We have entered a new era of antisemitismI’ve been noticing the same thing — although, not in person yet, so far I’ve only seen it online.
I find this deeply troubling.
Anti-immigrant rhetoric is more widespread. But that is based upon Biden Admin. policies, and overtly criminal acts in this country.
The antisemitism is based upon dawning realization that prominent Jews are involved in nefarious plots to control and subdue the rest of us. At the same time, Israel is committing genocide, and it is becoming apparent that the government of Israel has ties to the prominent Jews of whom I spoke.
I worry that the subterfuge of a few well-connected Jews could turn public sentiment against them all again. I hope not. I have good friends who happen to be Jewish and who have no ties to the “prominent Jews” nor to the Gazan genocide. I know that there are Jews that oppose the genocide in Gaza, who oppose Zionism, who want no part in being involved with plots to “rule the world.” I think that now would be a good time for Jews who want no part in genocide or machinations to speak up and make it clear to the rest of humanity that they are distinct from the Jews involved in these problematic enterprises.Well, at least the recent arrival illegal immigrants in Georgia and North Carolina may quickly come to understand the perfidy of the administration that welcomed them in.
Kunstler:
the Obama-Biden-Harris faction of the Deep State blob is anti-Israel and that Israel understands what this means. He says that Benjamin Netanyahu has told “Joe Biden” (or, let’s say, told errand-boys Tony Blinken and Jake Sullivan) that if the blob engineers a phony victory for Kamala Harris, he will blow up the oil fields in Iran and the anti-Israel Democrats will have to pick up the pieces.
Damned if you do, damned if you don’t. I can’t support genocide and war crimes against civilians; I can’t support the policies of the Biden-Harris administration. Nasrallah stated that the solution was one state, with groups living side by side. Eventually, this is what has occurred in the US, with reservations often side-by-side typical US communities. (I’m not suggesting that this system works well, but no one is lobbing rockets back and forth, and everyone is free to come and go as they please.)
At this point, I’m resigning myself to supporting Trump and then complaining bitterly about any support towards Israel in support of genocide and war crimes.Arizona and the 98,000 registered voters in limbo
Both sides sensationalize. This is something that actually makes sense, and the AZ Supreme Court ruled correctly. The 98,000 are ALL people who obtained an AZ drivers license before 1996 AND have renewed it since then. It does not include ANYONE who was not present in AZ and eligible for a drivers license before 1996. Therefore, this problem bears no relation the recent issue of the Biden/Harris letting immigrants in and inducing them to register to vote. Those immigrants may end up getting federal ballots in AZ (because the USSC forced AZ to permit this), but they won’t vote in local AZ elections.
The 98,000 need to comply with AZ law — but they must be given a grace period to bring their voter registration into compliance, and it is not appropriate to disenfranchise them in the upcoming election due to a clerical error.
Of course, since the 98,000 have been adults in AZ for over 30 years, there is a good chance that they may not be voting for Kamala Harris.Dr D:
Diet: Not only did they, they never even try. No recommendations for yoga, diet, lifestyle. They would work in a pleasant minority of cases, and have no side effects. Remember, the placebo effect can be 20% and is higher than many drugs. Why don’t they? How dare they??? I’ve already said: like ZERO patients will actually do and act on them, even said by a doctor. So there’s the seen and the unseen, the speaker and the listener. “Gimme a pill, Doc.” (I want to keep drinking.)People will often do more than we ever expected. My spouse found out a few months ago that his blood pressure was rather high and kidney markers in his blood were elevated to a concerning level.. It freaked him out. I read Malcolm Kendrick’s The Clot Thickens, discussed it with him, and he did his own research. Within a week, he had radically changed his diet, started a first-line blood pressure medication, purchased supplements, and began researching a Chinese medicinal tea for the kidney issues. A month later he had a blood test to see where the kidney stuff was (we’re awaiting results,) and his blood pressure was well into the normal range. He discontinued the blood pressure medication nearly a week ago (this was the plan all along), experienced a few days of blood pressure in the upper range of normal, but already his blood pressure has equilibriated into the middle-normal range for his age — now without medication, only with diet and supplements.
A little over a year ago my father was diagnosed with prostrate cancer, and was contemplating treatment options. I, my sister, and my mother were alarmed and began researching. We quickly determined that a change in diet might stave off any radical treatments (surgery, chemo, radiation.). My mother was willing to change her diet to align with a low-carb diet for my dad. 5 weeks later his levels were tested again, and although he does have prostate cancer (confirmed by biopsy), the indicators suggest that it is nearly dormant. The diet has been in place for over a year, and the levels are periodically checked to make sure that the dormancy remains so that more aggressive action can be taken if that changes.
Often, people will stick to a diet when they see or feel measurable results — because humans like to have control over themselves.
In a few weeks I am going to be teaching a class series at the local retirement community about technologies of the 21st century. Some of it will be “fun and games” — demonstrating technology that is new, such as a robot vacuum, a VR headset, etc. — that most seniors have not experienced. However, as I was speaking with my 91 year old friend, I realized that even she would like to better understand how the technologies of the 21st century are shaping our lives in less obvious ways. I am contemplating how to weave these ideas into the classes, ideas such as: CBDCs, loss of privacy, total surveillance, children who are addicted to smartphones, medical technologies that are essentially driven by “mad scientists,” medical data (and other types) all stored “in the cloud” — and constantly being breached, and how Big Tech and the government are collecting data on all of us for marketing and social control. I don’t want to preach…but I want to open minds to what is going on.
(Some might say that this is useless, but I remember a particular technology class that I did about Android devices, where instruction about how to find the privacy information regarding apps in google play resulted in the class-goers that day coming to the realization of what these apps could do “behind the scenes” — and they were wise enough to realize the nefarious implications without me spelling it out.)
So, if anyone has any topical suggestions, please leave them in the comments today and tomorrow and I will read through them. Thanks much!
Love the Babylon Bee Newsom “ad.”
I guess that newly-minted, unconstitutional law is going to be tested right away!
The Bee is the perfect entity to test it.
🙂Ugh.
Mealworms are tasty treats for hens, and the hens can’t use their infertile eggs, but I find eggs tasty. Why take the hens out of the equation? Especially when hens are cute and fun to keep around. And their dropping help fertilize the garden.DBS
Is there some other way go about it? It’s not actually tyranny (and therefore not truly intolerable) UNTIL it is accepted. Up until then it is only “threatened”, or “feared” tyranny. There’s nothing quite like REAL tyranny to get people’s attention and convince them that it’s the real thing. That real tyranny happens AFTER it is accepted.My hope right now is this observation:
I am fairly certain that the size of the population that has caught on to the deception and tyranny being pulled over on the American people is a larger percentage, a more vocal percentage, than was in Germany as Nazism arose. It helps that patriotism/nationalism in the US is tied inextricably with freedom of speech, et al., and that these freedoms and rights are inimical to tyranny. I suppose that is why the deep state is trying so hard to redefine “freedom of speech” as too dangerous, too permissive, too cruel to the tender-eyed and why bureaucrats are positing that the US Constitution is an outdated scrap of paper.The US Constitution is imperfect, (3/5 of a person!?!) but the intent is clear: it is meant to be a bulwark against tyranny. As long as a sizable chunk of the US population not only thinks favorably of the Constitution and Declaration of Independence, but has some shred of real familiarity with the documents (which should be the case with every person who graduates from a US high school,) it should be very, very difficult for tyranny to take complete hold of the US. Enough of the population will hear what the pols say and think, wait, that doesn’t seem to be in line with what I remember from high school civics and US history classes. I really hate to be relying on run-of-the-mill folks making this realization, but this is not a situation where individuals can stand alone and succeed — look at Gonzalo Lira — and fortunately, there are some people with integrity who are sifting to the top, spreading the rhetoric that will help to jostle the memories of those boring high school classes. (My high school civics teacher had a PhD. Students hated his class. It was a very easy class to get an “A” in. He was very boring. He also knew the material inside and out and was doggedly determined that students were going to absorb the basics of US civics.)
Unfortunately, I suspect that DBS is correct — the tyranny has to be quite obvious — very close to the “point of no return” — before it is realized. For many of us, the pandemic was the moment that we realized that the ever-present tyrannical elements had been emboldened and making broad moves — the masking, stay-at-home orders, the censorship and jabs. For others, they were jostled by the 2020 election, when mountains of mysterious mail-in ballots flipped the results. For some, it has been their shock when liberal institutions have cracked down on protests on behalf of Palestinians — which has been a medium-intensity left-wing cause for decades.
So the clip of the debate above was the first that I saw.
Harris’s performance is good acting. It is believable, plausible. She is feigning emotion well, in all the correct moments. It’s just the right dose of emotion. Every emphasis correctly placed.
But I know it is acting. Why?
Because a debate is not supposed to be well-scripted and well-rehearsed. A debate is supposed to be off the cuff. And I have seen her countless times over the past 5 years in unscripted, off the cuff moments. This performance at the debate was not the Kamala Harris that we know so well, who talks in circles and cackles when she doesn’t know how to get from idea “A” to idea “D.” Instead it was “Kamala Harris, Presidential Candidate (TM).”
However, I can see why the TDS folks (“Orange man — bad!”), the rainbow folks, the I’m-afraid-of-carbon folks, etc., will look at this debate and think, “Ah! Look how perfect ‘Kamala Harris, Presidential Candidate (TM)’ is!” I suppose that they have learned nothing from 8 years of “Obama, Change has come to America (TM),” and Biden. They want to be gaslit, I suppose. They want to believe the liberal fairy tale. Just like they want to believe in Luke Skywalker, Neo, and MLK Jr — before he supported the Poor People’s Campaign. It’s an act. It isn’t real.
Media is the biggest threat
Nice to hear a young person recognize this. Hopefully, in another decade or so, he will have the wisdom to add qualifiers to what he is saying: the legacy media, the mainstream media, the captured media.Don’t throw out the baby with the bath water!
Nod to aspnaz on the OffG article about polio vax campaign in Gaza:
This is a way of reinforcing the overwhelming vitalness of vaccination – even enemies, blowing each other up in a war, will stop to get kids vaccines (before blowing them up). Vaccines are just that important.
It’s yet another bizarre narrative twist that calls into question the true purpose and motivation for the Gaza war as a whole.
Or maybe it’s just a symptom of living in an insane world run by insane people to insane ends.There is no sense here. My pattern recognition is buzzing, looking for the link, but I haven’t found anything that clicks into place…
Tiger “pups”: https://www.today.com/news/tigers-say-bye-mom-dog-raised-them-wbna31541834
I sometimes wonder about these “feel good” videos — I suspect that an overly positive narrative is being spun.
The unusual pairing also solved the small zoo’s financial woes. It sounds like quite a place — reviews talk about tour guides (including the owner) who know the personalities of the animals and a woman who went on her birthday, and was permitted to hold a wolf-pup.
Republican Voters Against Trump
If it barks like astroturf, smells like astroturf, looks like astroturf…
Spouse and I were driving down a well-used road in Phoenix yesterday, and I noticed that there are now Trump signs sprinkled among all of the signs promoting local politicians. None for Harris…and then I noticed ONE for Harris, by Republican Voters Against Trump. I laughed.
Those who read what I comment here have probably noticed that I have a habit of sharing what I see around me, hoping that it benefits others. Here is some more of that.
A week and a half ago my daughter had a nasty sore throat, so I took her to an urgent care to see if it made sense to get her antibiotics. In AZ, the law says that if a patient’s health data is entered into a Health Information Exchange, then the patient (or patient’s representative) may opt-out of the HIE, and this is to be done by notifying the provider. I don’t know fully whether or not these HIEs are a good idea or not (I suspect not), however, I have made it a habit to exercise my right to opt-out of them for myself and the children. Perhaps it is simply a way for me to thumb my nose at the system, or a way to educate people who work the front office of medical offices about what is going on.
I skimmed through the long, boring pages of notices that I was signing that I had received. I noticed a paragraph about an HIE, but saw nothing about the ability nor method to opt-out of the HIE. So I went up and asked the front office staff. They were completely clueless, and looked at me as if I were a crazy person. I went back to my seat, did a little searching on the internet, and found the opt-out form provided by the HIE named by the documentation, and asked the front office staff to print the document so that I could fill it out and sign it. The young woman seemed to agree — and subsequently my daughter was called back for the visit with the provider.
When it was time to leave, I requested that printed form, and discovered that the front office woman seemed to have hoped that I would have forgotten my request — it had not been printed, and now she was refusing to print it. I pointed out that they were in violation of Arizona law. The second front office woman addressed me with a strong attitude, her behavior suggesting that I was crazy and that my requests were inappropriate. Both woman refused to give me the name or contact information for a manager/supervisor. I was angered by this exchange, but decided that I would bide my time and deal with it later. Once home, I found the relevant AZ government website and made a formal complaint about the urgent care office.
Six days later I returned with my spouse (I invited him along, suggesting that it would be “fun,”) bringing the HIE opt-out forms filled out and a copy of the relevant AZ law. A different woman was manning the front office. This woman was equally ignorant of how to opt-out of the HIE, but she put forth a genuine effort to find out, finally scanning the forms, adding them to my daughter’s chart, forwarding the chart to someone that she believed would be able to act on the forms, and when asked for supervisor contact information she provided me the name and contact information for the business’s compliance officer. She provided quality customer service.
In both instances, the front office staff was completely flummoxed by my request, the third one stating that in all of her time of employment with this company no one had ever made this request before. Of course not — the populace has been lulled by EULAs since the 1990s to ignore long pages of legalese, and to simply check a box or sign their acquiescence, completely ignorant of the rights that they are granted under law.
Dr D
What was that about how Ritter is a CIA plant, up to no good because the FBI wasn’t up his -ss yet? And also Gonzalo Lira, clearly a plant and an agent.This is something that I have noticed as well: distrust gets ramped up, pattern recognition goes on overdrive and seems to take over from other high-level forms of thought, and the individual arrives as erroneous conclusions and begins shunning potential allies. Pattern recognition is a very, very useful and important capability of the human mind, but we must remember that just because we perceive human faces in clouds, the moon, the fronts of cars, rocks, etc., does not mean that these objects were created deliberately to look like human faces. (Okay, perhaps cars were, I don’t really know.). Humans need connection with other humans, and when we lack trust we feel anxiety — fear — and fear-driven pattern recognition has a high rate of false positives. (I.e. Michael Yeadon decrying doctors whose careers were adversely affected for prescribing ivermectin for Covid as witting tools of the WEFfers.). We function best when our thought patterns are balanced between various types of cognition, such as (but not limited to) pattern recognition, logic, empathy, emotion, social cues, cause and effect, observation, direct stimulus of the senses, the scientific method, etc.
At the end of the day I remind myself: United we stand; divided we fall. Yes, there is always risk in allying with other humans. We do not know them as well as we know ourselves. (Some do not even know themselves!). However, to stand alone is a greater risk, and assures that those who stand against us can pick us off singly. I plan to vote for Trump. However, the first and only political yard sign I’ve ever placed is in my front yard right now, for Kennedy. I’ve decided to keep that sign in place. The only other yard sign for the presidential race on this street of 20 homes is for my neighbors to the north. It is for Harris. I find myself scratching my head — the woman is ex-military and her husband likes to hunt, it seems both would be put off by a restriction on personal firearm ownership. Bizarro-land.
Phantom voters vid…
…I had a computer client who, in the mess of the 2008 Great Financial Crisis, had a financial setback and ended up living at his commercial property for about 4 years. Would such an individual be seen as a “phantom voter?”
Regarding Catholic Charities…although I’ve never sought help from them, I had a friend years ago who had done so, who shared her experience. They sent someone to the home to assess the family’s needs, brought food to them (rather than requiring the family to pick it up — very difficult for households without cars,) and can provide help with rent and utilities. Simply defunding Catholic Charities will send ripples of pain throughout those at the bottom of the economic heap. The answer is to simply require documentation of citizenship in order to register to vote, and for the federal government to permit the states to verify eligibility.
Oroboros
School tax money going directly to *all* parents? No!My sister is using AZ’s ESA money to school her 6 kids. She is dedicated, has a very supportive husband who works long hours, and she tutors dyslexic kids (many who are paying via ESA as well) on the side. I currently have a piano student who pays via ESA. I support the ESA program, and it is MOST DEFINITELY not for all families.
Both of my sons are technically autistic, and one was prone to violent outbursts when he was younger. Working with the public school was a challenge…but I physically could not have schooled my children and supported them financially simultaneously. There is great value in dedicated teachers who become experts in their field.
Just this past Sunday my sister was talking about an ESA, home-schooling family that she tutors that she is thinking about dropping because the mother habitually cancels and reschedules tutoring. The teens in this family don’t get up until midafternoon each day. My sister says that the older two took to reading easily, but the next two did not, and the mother just threw up her hands and stopped trying to teach the next two kids to read. After years, she finally engaged my sister’s services to help the younger two.
There were problems with accountability of how families spent ESA funds…so the AZ government decided all supply purchases must be backed by a curriculum. Families are letting ChatGPT write the “curriculum.” Purchases of curriculums are being denied because they weren’t submitted with a curriculum! ESA purchases are easier with Amazon than with other retailers, so ESA families increasingly make all supply purchases from Amazon.
A “micro-school” (which is what it is called when a “teacher” starts a tiny school with 10 students) is not going to eat up the full funds from 10 students. First of all, most families are not stupid enough to do this, they also want to spend the funds on other educational, enrichment a activities — music lessons, swimming lessons, drama, dance, tumbling, karate, etc. Next, most micro-schools have to rent space (hopefully a space where it is legal to have a school — sometimes they get shut down for neglecting that part.). Much of the time, none of the micro-school teachers are accredited, you’re lucky if any have a college degree. Do the teachers know how to think critically? Or are they just parroting a different set of life-rules than are commonly found in public school? Of course, schools need supplies, and now the teacher may be able to eke out a meager living from 10 students once all of those issues are accounted for — but it is doubtful.
Like I said, my sister is immersed in that world. She loves it. She sees the “good, bad, and the ugly” of the home-schooling movement. It is a very good option for some. We also need public schools.
@ Orobouros
We could probably debate the details of feminism….
For me, Ibsen’s A Doll’s House is relevant. A married woman, mother with children, is treated like a doll by her life, and she leaves. I had a part-time Mexican nanny for my kids for a while, many years ago. She was astranged from her first daughter for three decades because she fled a bad marriage.
I did not. I gradually took the reigns of power in my flailing marriage, and used the systems that exist to protect those with less physical power to eject my ex from the home. I kept my house; I kept my children. I couldn’t prevent the state from insisting that the children spend half their time with their emotionally abusive father for seven years until my daughter had carved her anguish onto her body — but I prevented him from increasing it to 100% of the time, mitigated the effects as best as I could, and got her out once she fully found her voice on the issue.
To me, the path that I have followed — one that many women before me and after me follow — is feminism. It is inextricably linked to the indisputable fact that I am physically weaker than men and that I can bring children into the world, that I take on a sacred role to raise them the best way that I can, and that I don’t hesitate to ask for assistance to do it when my own efforts are not adequate to the task.
Feminism is not taking a man’s role, nor pretending to be a man. It isn’t placement on a security detail without having received proper prior training. Those women are hollow and do not know themselves. I can live for myself and be the mother that my children need. It is knowing that my son will be bewildered on his first day of college if he doesn’t know where to go, and setting aside several hours on a Monday morning to ride the train with him to ASU, together sorting out the building acronyms, room numbers, campus map, and walking the path from class to class. (Some may say I should have left my son to figure it out…but his therapist identified him as very, very likely high-functioning autistic many years ago, and I knew from years of observation what he needed in order to be comfortable on his first day of university.). His first day went very well this week. He was confident. He realized many of his peers were half lost, trying to find their way. He knows how to avoid that situation.
The article on the RNC trying to get 41,000 AZ voters disqualified leaves out some pertinent details. This one adds some back in: https://www.azfamily.com/2024/08/20/republicans-ask-supreme-court-block-40k-arizona-voters-presidential-election/
The Epoch Times article doesn’t explain who the 41,000 are. The azfamily.com suggests that they are largely service members, students and Native Americans who did not have birth certificates when they registered to vote.
Um.
Registering to vote in AZ does not directly require a birth certificate. It does require documentation of citizenship…and many those forms of documentation originally required a birth certificate. For example, the AZ law can use a drivers license or valid passport as documentation of US citizenship…most people aren’t carrying around their birth certificates, but do have some sort of state-issued document that asserts citizenship. Once a resident has an AZ drivers license or state identity card, the opportunity to register to vote — or change party affiliation — is presented each time the individual is, for example, registering a vehicle or applying for state aid. Since the individual’s citizenship isn’t changing, the only requirement at those junctures is documentation of current address.
Federal law has required AZ to register to vote those who attest US citizenship but have not bothered to provide documentation. So AZ is printing separate ballots for these individuals that only include federal races. The RNC is trying to also prevent those folks from voting in the federal races.
While I have no desire to block any Native American grannies or uncles who have never held an AZ drivers license nor identity card and never received state aid, neither SNAP nor Medicaid (both of which require proof of citizenship,) and are also not in possession of their tribal documents (which are also accepted,) I imagine that the individuals who lack all of these things must be difficult to find.
Here is the list of acceptable documents to register to vote in AZ local elections:
Arizona Driver’s License/Identification Number: If you have a valid Arizona driver’s license or nonoperating identification card issued after October 1, 1996, you should provide the license/identification number in Box 9 on the Arizona Voter Registration Form or register online at http://www.servicearizona.com. A.R.S. § 16-166.If you do not have an Arizona license you may need to provide one of the following documents to establish proof of citizenship: A.R.S. § 16-166.
Your Indian Census Number, Bureau of Indian Affairs Card Number, Tribal Treaty Card Number, or fill in your Tribal Enrollment Number in Box 10 on the voter registration form.
A photocopy of your U.S. naturalization documents or fill in your Alien Registration Number in Box 11 on the voter registration form.
A legible photocopy of your birth certificate and supporting legal documentation (i.e., marriage certificate) if the name on the birth certificate is not the same as your current legal name.
A legible photocopy of the pertinent pages of your U.S. passport.
A legible photocopy of your Tribal Certificate of Indian Blood or Bureau of Indian Affairs Affidavit of Birth.They don’t even require an official copy of a birth certificate! A photocopy will suffice!
As far as students and service members…why are they leaving home without their birth certificates? Obviously, if they want to vote where they are, and won’t be getting a local drivers license then they need to look up the local rules about voter registration, acquire the pertinent documents, and get registered. This is 2024 — it isn’t hard to call up a parent, say: Hey, can you snap a photo of my birth certificate and send it? and then print it out for the required photo copy. Nor is it terribly difficult to request a new copy of a birth certificate if lost. I turned 18 the second week of my freshmen year of college, about 2 months before the presidential election. I registered to vote at my then-address and voted. If it is important to people, they will do it.
However, the timing of this is problematic — students and service members may decide that they don’t care about local politics and only want to vote in federal elections. They may have deliberately registered as “federal only” and not bothered to provide documentation, as it wasn’t required. To disqualify their registration shortly before an election disenfranchises them, and is inappropriate. If the rule is to change, the 41,000 should be notified that they need to provide citizenship documentation, and be given sufficient time to provide it. This is the problem with bad laws — they create unnecessary headaches later on.
I’ve never been all that fond of Trump, however…
Sometimes it is the need of the people and the exigencies of the situation that creates the leader, as much as the inner integrity of the individual.I hope that Trump surrounds himself with a better team for a second term as President. With the right team and a desire to do right for the American people, he could accomplish many good things in a second presidential term
Price Gouging
In the video, the students have been clearly propagandized to have a viewpoint that is in opposition the viewpoint often expressed by news and, more recently, Kamala Harris. Real life is more nuanced.
The generator situation — what the man did, driving in generators to sell at double retail — was moral. The man deserved to be compensated for his costs and time. (To skirt laws about price gouging he could have sold them “at cost” with a delivery charge.) If a store possessing generators in the location of the hurricane doubled their prices — and not due to increased costs, but just because people would buy them at the higher price, the morality becomes more murky. “Price gouging” generally — not in the face of an emergency — is more likely to occur in a monopoly/oligopoly situation, and often involves government regulation. For example, the Boston Tea Party because tea was an important commodity and the British Crown had granted a monopoly to the East India Company and placed a high tax on tea. Also, prescription drugs and the patent system leads to Big Pharma to price gouging.
The debate is mischaracterized when it is seen as black and white, “to price gouge or not to price gouge.” The students are being led to a black and white view that is different from the black and white view of the current MSM. Try educating students to THINK, not to parrot.
enemy infantry is made up of NATO special forces from the United States, Britain, France, and Poland alongside the NeoNazis of Ukraine
We’ve really got to get these loonies out of office, disempowering the cabal behind them, before Putin loses his cool.
