Proof of Heaven... and Wolfie's happiness

I am just so MEH...

I'm learning though, and it's going well.  There is a very interesting thing that happens when you get to be older than dirt and with (almost) all your marbles.  You become more Spiritual.  And, you start working on things like figuring out how Quantum Physics ties into the Universal mind.  Because you know, boys and girls, it does......

I have found the most marvelous book to help explain things.  It's called, Proof of Heaven, and is written by Eben Alexander MD.  His story is the closest thing to actually having the experiences yourself.  This guy KNOWS!



This is a short video of a much longer one wherein Dr. Alexander explains more fully what his experiences have shown him.  Here is a HyperLINK to the a much longer video (over an hour) given at the Theosophical Society.  

Wolfie is Still chugging away

Little Wolfie is still limping along, though more slowly.  One of his back legs sort of drags a bit, and he's  got cataracts, and can't hear very well, but he still enjoys his walks, his meals (but especially his TREATS!) and his cuddles with his favorite guy in the whole wide world.  We reckon that he is easily 16 or 17 years old, and that makes him an Octogenarian.  I think he's doing better than I will be if I make it to 80! lol

When I feel a lot less freaked out, I'll start blogging again.  There are just so many things, books, papers, Meditation,  that I want to practice and to absorb that it's really limited my time at the computer.

I do miss you all,  and our the Memes, but being unsettled in one's thoughts and Spirit is not the Path to Peace.  This rampaging lawlessness in the Government is both tragic and informative.

The History of Racism and Immigration policy....

....in one succinct essay from David Leonhardt of the New York Times.  That is, in case you didn't see it.

Please see the whole OPed piece HERE  to obtain links to all the sites he included in his article. 

I have to ask: Is this one of the reasons that the Democrats are being targeted as being too far left?  Is it because we always were too far to the right already that no one knows where the devil the Center is?   

This says it ALL, and it exposes the Ugly Truth about too many of us.

"The history of American opposition to immigration is to a large extent a history of racism, which was often promoted by powerful or influential people.
Calvin Coolidge wrote in 1921 that "Biological laws tell us that certain divergent people will not mix or blend." Henry Cabot Lodge warned, in an 1896 speech on the Senate floor, that immigrants could devastate the "mental and moral qualities which make what we call our race" — and Theodore Roosevelt praised Lodge for "an A-1 speech." Roosevelt also told a friend he was worried about the "multiplication" of "Finnegans, Hooligans, Antonios, Mandelbaums and Rabinskis."
A New York Times editorial in the 1920s warned of "swarms of aliens," while a Washington Post editorial referred to Italians as "degenerate spawn of the Asiatic hordes." Cold Spring Harbor, the prestigious laboratory, gave scientific credence to racist nativism. The same book editor who published Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald also oversaw a string of xenophobic books.
These details come from "The Guarded Gate," the latest book by the journalist-turned-historian Daniel Okrent. In it, Okrent tells the story of American leaders and elites who promulgated racist falsehoods to justify immigration restrictions. They succeeded. In 1924, Coolidge signed a law with quotas that remained in force until the 1960s.
President Trump is their nativist heir. His hateful remarks, his lies and his violation of immigrants' basic human rights all fit the pattern. His behavior is a throwback to an uglier era.
And yet not every part of the immigration debate is so clear. I wanted to mention Okrent's book — a fascinating, well-told story — as a way of grappling with what I find to be a difficult part of the issue.
Immigration restrictions are not inherently racist. Nor is border security. All countries have borders and restrictions. They have to, because they have to make decisions about who can enter their country and who can be a citizen. Nations can't function without such basic laws.
But the fact remains that the pro-restriction side in American politics has historically revolved around racism and still does today. That's important to acknowledge for anyone who wants to make a case — a non-racist case — for less immigration.
As regular readers know, I have become somewhat hawkish on immigration. I think our immigration policy should take into account the sharp rise in inequality over the last few decades. One way to do so would be to reduce, or at least hold constant, the level of immigration by people who would compete for lower- and middle-wage jobs while increasing immigration among people who would compete for higher-wage jobs.
History also makes this point. It's not just a coincidence that the period of strongest income gains for middle-class and poor families — starting in the 1940s — followed, and overlapped with, a period of falling immigration. "Immigration restriction, by making unskilled labor more scarce, tended to shore up wage rates," the great labor historian Irving Bernstein wrote.
The economists Peter Lindert and Jeffrey Williamson have noted that the foreign-born share of the labor force fell to 5 percent in 1970, from 21 percent in 1915. Countries with "slower labor force growth" in the middle of 20th century, they note, "experienced deeper income inequality reductions."
Since the 1970s, of course, immigration has surged, as has income inequality. Many other factors play a role in rising inequality: corporate consolidation, slowing educational attainment, the decline of unions, falling tax rates on the rich and more. Some of these are substantially more important than immigration. But immigration belongs on the list.
All of which raises a question: Will any political leader figure out how to make a principled case for less immigration, rather than simply a racist one? So far, the answer is no. Trump is an unrepentant lifelong racist. Other Republican politicians are largely cowed by him. And Democrats have become uncomfortable talking about any immigration policy other than liberalization.
That's a shame.
Related: Okrent wrote a recent Op-Ed about immigration, and Linda Gordon reviewed his book in The Times.
Reihan Salam has been the most prominent conservative advocate for economics-based immigration restrictions, while Dean Baker has made a left-leaning case for restriction. (Bernie Sanders once made this case too.)
"Undocumented workers who are already here," Baker wrote, "should be allowed to normalize their status and become citizens." But, he continued, "I would not like to see large numbers of middle skilled professionals come into the country … As far as less-skilled immigration, I would want it sharply limited, except for family re-unification."

WSJ article on Trump's Tantrum...

First let me say... sorry for all the Hoops you have to jump through to read this Link.  It's worth it, though.

There will be no Sunday Stealing (no time this week) but I'm posting this in case any of my readers who actually care about the Constitution and the Bill of Rights will see it.

A Virtual Act of Treason?

He is such as AssHat! 

No matter what you think of Trump, Savior or Anti-Christ, this deserves your attention....

https://prospect.org/article/trumps-most-nakedly-corrupt-tweet-yet

An Excerpt:

"Unnamed sources told The Washington Post that Schlapp approached Trump to weigh in on the legislation, highlighting Warren’s involvement even though she had nothing to do with this particular bill—she co-sponsored similar legislation in 2018. Schlapp had been foregrounding Warren in his messaging against the bill. Trump “was happy to attack the project once he learned it was a key priority for Warren,” according to the Post, and agreed to send the tweet."

Government by Tweet.  It must make Twitter very proud indeed.  

This is a year old news item.....

but you can bet the beavers have been hard at work amid the Election Year Hoopla...

https://www.usnews.com/news/business/articles/2017-04-20/ap-exclusive-pesticide-maker-tries-to-scrap-risk-study...

Vote for Peace....

With a Shout out to Country Dew.....At Blue Country Magic

From the Blog4Peace Website
which is Down, i.e. now compromised,
 Sadly, but not out....

I've voted ahead of time but please everyone, we are the People, let's let them hear us ROAR to save our Democracy.  The Whole World is Watching, and believe me, they are! 

Two, very early, Tuesday Tails: One funny. One is FEMA's new map of Flood danger for the entire US, so far....

I hope that this finds you all happy, and me busily knitting.  Next week is really hectic so this is being written early.

The first item is mighty interesting.  It's a Tuesday Tails because all of Other Earthlings - innocent parties who have had no part in this - are going to die, like the chickens in cages and the hogs in their pens, during Florence.

The Humans who care have to try harder to get the nitwits in Washington on board for this..

Antarctica is  rebounding  at an accelerated rate.  It also sits on it's very own tectonic plate.  And, as the ice cap there melts, the land will rebound.   This, by itself is enough to be concerned about, but combined with the new sea levels, it's even more serious.  Antarctica also has a huge dome of magma under the mantle there, not unlike the one at Yellowstone.  Geology is getting very interesting.

Time to build the New Age Ark?

HERE is that link to FEMA's New endeavor.   I looked up mine.  I dread looking up anyone else's.

Hurry up fella!  We Noah massive storm cell when we see it. C/o of Dan Piraro

  

Here's the fun one.  A LINK to a National Geographic page about funny animal photos.

Food Foraging Friday? Not pretty cakes and pies. A Rant

20,000 children die everyday from starvation.  Unicef estimates, this is from 2010, that number to be 25,000, and they should know. 

You may have seen this on Pinterest:

Whatever that number is, It's HUGE!

And being vegan doesn't really help this.  But a keen and caring awareness does. 
Don't let that "Circus McGurcus" in Washington distract you from this reality.   We need to protect our children. 

This Earth is a tiny speck of blue, way out on the edge of a Galaxy. and at the edge of the Universe.  We should be able to feed the people who are here.  We have the resources, we just lack the will!

Live in the US?  We have hungry ones here, too.  Little kids who go to bed hungry every night.  When I was a teacher's aide, I was given the assignment of taking some of these kids, one on one, to just talk about life with them, and so I know they didn't get to eat either breakfast or sometimes dinner. 

It's gotten worse and worse for them as their parents cannot find work to sustain their families.  This was caused by Financial Giants who haven't given a damn since before the banks collapsed in 2008. 
Ladies, we have a job to do. 

We really need to do this for the kids, ours, and "theirs".  Theirs includes some pretty important present and future leaders who want to make a world community that WORKS.  We can't afford to be greedy about this, or clueless.  There is no escape.  There is no Space vehicle.  We can't take "It", what ever that is, with us no matter what we try.   

Bloggers and Knitters and Trolls, oh my!

This is funny until you realize, she isn't knitting at all.  But, anyway, you get the whole idea....

Speaking of things not being what they seem......

To Anonymous:  To answer your question:  Anyone can build a blog.  It's dead easy if you know how to read.
And, since what you said made NO sense because it just can't happen, I'm not sure how to help you.
However, I'll still apologize for being blunt. in case I've wrongly taken you for a troll or a hacker.

That's exactly why comments are moderated. 

Ta ta til the weekend.   

We need to Fix this, America...

Today is the Fourth of July, and Houston, we have a problem....

This event is the sort of outrage that is happening to black citizens.  Do you like that this fear is what million of American Parents live with? I don't.....

Buried in the news.. From the Washington Post:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/police-attacked-me-for-stealing-a-car-it-was-my-own/2018/06/29/86829292-7658-11e8-b4b7-308400242c2e_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.5da687180400

 I've eschewed Politics; but this is Civil Rights. Human Rights.  And it's right here, right  now. 

"This isn’t the story that I expected to be telling at this point in my life, having just received my doctorate from one of the top schools in the country. The bigger story of my life is growing up without knowing my father, losing my mother to illness when I was 8 and becoming a ward of the state.

Many people — black and white — stepped up to serve as mother, father, sister and brother to me. I persisted. The day after my foster mother kicked me out because I refused to join the National Guard, I applied to Stanford University and got in. After four years, I graduated with a bachelor’s degree in engineering.

I’ve done everything in my power to defy the odds. Yet I feel as though I’m forever going to have to explain myself. As for the arresting officers, are they doing any explaining? Will they have to answer for the rest of their lives for their decision to wrestle me to the ground, pummel me and charge me with a crime?

A fellow student’s impulsive action and her hasty decision to call the police have put all of my hard work in jeopardy. The arrest, the charges and the trial — a scarlet letter to go with the dark brown skin that I will wear for the rest of my life."

Think about it.  Think HARD about it.  It happens far too often, and it's happened in San Diego in the past. 

Why this? Because it's of vital importance.

A long excerpt from Dylan Stableford's article for the Yahoo News Page

"There is a time-honored tradition at the Department of Justice, at least since Watergate, that is nonpartisan," Yates said. "There is a wall between the Department of Justice and the White House when it comes to criminal investigations and prosecutions."
Trump has been hammering away at that wall so often and with such ferocity, she said, "nobody's rolling their eyes anymore."
"It used to be a big news story that would say, ‘In an unprecedented step, Trump said this,'" Yates explained. "Now it doesn't even make it through the full 24-hour news cycle because it happens so frequently."

Former acting Attorney General Sally Yates. (Photo: Steven Senne/AP)

Trump's caustic tweets aimed at Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and special counsel Robert Mueller are collectively "tearing down the legitimacy" of the Justice Department, Yates said.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., agreed:

"We see this constant onslaught on the rule of law," Klobuchar said.
Yet just as troubling, Klobuchar said, are Trump's attacks on a free press.
"You literally have a president in office that can tweet anything he wants every single morning but he doesn't respect the amendment that allows him to do it," Klobuchar said.*
But looking ahead to the 2018 midterm elections and beyond, Klobuchar said progressive candidates should not put their focus entirely on Trump.
"Progressives can do two things at once," she said. "We can, one, focus on the optimistic economic agenda and what needs to be done there and, secondly, protect our democracy."
Voters in Minnesota, Klobuchar said, "don't want to hear about Donald Trump every single minute."

* italics and underlining are mine.

One of the things that gave me hope, after The OWB was shoe horned into the oval office, was that the Justice Department still had enough of a separation from the Executive Branch to save us from Tyranny and Despotism.  Let's hope it will still be able to carry the day, when all is said and done.  

The Onion's provocative Horoscope... and a pretty pic ....

....i n case you accidentally came here for a Wordless "you know what".

My horoscope, via The Onion...

Capricorn

"Constantly seeking approval is unhealthy, but you should still consider the opinions of those nice folks from the Secret Service."  heehee 

It seems that the fear of the knock on the door late at night in America may be growing ...

I'm hoping that Americans will never have to experience a manifestation of this unattractive imperial madness for just exercising their first amendment rights.  Other wise Democracy will truly, "die in the dark"...  It won't just be a catch phrase.

And now a pretty picture if you came here thinking it's a WW post.  It's of a place that's difficult to get to, and has, thus, escaped most of the last two centuries of crazies....However, when we were there, there were multi million dollar houses being built above it on the bluff.  Hope they were fireproof because it's a long way back to civilization.

Thursday 13 Apollos and a side dish of National Angst...

Apollo 1-13... but first, a word from the New York Times.....

New York Article on Bolton's Early Illegal Spying on US citizens

 "It just gets worser and worser".  Did Yogi Berra actually say that?

 I think we DO have some very bad juju coming down in America.  Better get out those Kevlar umbrellas...

I'm breathing, knitting, eating cookies, and reading until I check out of this Heartbreak Hotel.
As far as a list of thirteen goes, well, I'll pick the Apollo 13 flights, when everything was half ways decent in our country, and we hadn't been taken over by the Borg.

Thirteen Apollo Missions...

Apollo 1.... a tragedy.  Like many Americans,  I wrote a letter to Gus Grissom's wife and children.

Apollo 2. a lot of frightful images of a company that makes massive chicken slaughtering machines came up. BUT,  Apollo 2 never flew, and this is not just a joke.  I wouldn't kid about something so gruesome....

Apollo 3. It was launched and carried out part of the scrubbed Apollo 2 mission.

Apollo 4  This was an unmanned mission, to test the rockets and probably some other telemetry that isn't talked about.

Apollo 5 : another unmanned mission that tested the lunar module and recovery procedures  of same.

Apollo 6  The final unmanned test of the Saturn 5 rocket and the lunar module.

Apollo 7  AKA as the Walt, Wally, and Donn Show...  The link is great.

Apollo 8  This one went around the moon with it's crew of three, and it brought them back home to the Pacific Ocean... Yay!😅



Apollo 9  This Apollo Mission took the crew and the Spider (The Lunar Module) with it and did a little dance in the face of the Moon Pixies... Not bad!  They did a bunch of other tests but you can follow the link for the whole enchilada.

Apollo 10  This flight was the second extra-vehicular space exploit for the Spider.  It was the closest mission, to date, for a flyby.  A tease in other words.  It was also a full dress rehearsal for Apollo 11's mission... Close but do not touch.  It had to be hard for the astronauts.

 Apollo 11.  Touch down!  A foot into that outer-space window/door.. and the famous "Giant Leap for mankind" mini speech by astronaut Neal Armstrong.



Apollo 12    This mission was to retrieve some of the other manned missions' bits and pieces for examination of the effect of the lunar environment on them, and to, of course, test the lunar landing module

Apollo 13   Just about every American alive remembers this mission.  And a very fine dramatization was made of it, Tom Hanks played the command Pilot, James Lovell.

And, of course, there were other missions after this, but 13 is the magic number..

And, of course, this all is a whole conspiracy to cover up the expenditure of such vast sums of the taxpayer's money on donuts and coffee for dancing girls and wild parties at the Space Agency, as well as big shopping trips to Europe and let's see.... garages full of Corvettes and Lamborghinis? 

Tuesday Tails of Trumpty Dumpty....UPDATED with a Link....

Yes, he has one....

and I quote a quotable from the news gatherer's of America....

Trumpty Dumpty sat on a wall.....

John Brennan, a former C.I.A. director:

“When the full extent of your venality, moral turpitude, and political corruption becomes known, you will take your rightful place as a disgraced demagogue in the dustbin of history.” 

Mr. Sulu, make it so.....

UPDATE to include this LINK to an article in the New York Times about the firm involved in the  Facebook Scandal.

For Tomorrow, The Friday Whatever: The Irish Questions...

First off.  And a Happy Saint Patrick's Day to all my cousins out there! (In two days)

I'm probably only 1/8th Irish - or for the ease of adding up things like fractions, let's go to 32nds...  so I am 4/32nds.  I have an Irish great grandmother from Cumberland Gap.  The real McCoy, so to speak.  And we all know how inbred those guys were.  Sorry cousins,  I just have to confess.  It surely didn't look good for awhile.

Mr.Z is a quarter (8/32nds) Irish, and so the daughters got half of mine and of his... which is  6/32ths! In percentage that is 5.33333333333333333333333%

Gah, that's crazy making! Anyway, they are more Irish than I am, and less  than their daddy.  I do have red headed cousins, lots of them. So....

Pinterest, of course
So, Kiss me, I'm Irish!

And.....If you want to see a fun article about what it means to be Irish, try THIS one... "24 things you only know if you come from an Irish family"

The cousins thing got me and just made me laugh and laugh.  So true!

God I'm tired of the Bread and Circus's in Washington.  I also know who to blame.  It's that Doctor. Strangelove Crew,  hands down..... I think it's time for a little bit of this... *points down*
  ↓ 
 

 

    
FROM HERE

Somebody hates us, I wonder who. I wonder if it could be ..

Let's just say that the Orange Wind bag must despise most of his people, and that's why he acts the way he does.

This was lifted from somewhere on the web. 
I'm thinking it was Reuters but do not know.

Does the OWB think we are all this stupid?  

Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first...

we practice to deceive......



C/o The Washington Post... this isn't politics... this is OUR country..  

Yes... We CAN!

New York City-Women's March, 2018

Our Grandmother's would be proud of us!  I'm glad that we are being heard!

This is not a world that has been, traditionally kind to women, children or to other earthlings.  All men aren't complicit, but too many men with power, are...

This needs to change.

From San Diego, Union Tribune for today...

Sisters everywhere on the Planet!  We are over half of the population of humanity.  We need to stand up for our children's future.

Photo c/o San Diego Union Tribune.

By our Humility and Grace.....

And our Compassion, we are known, and we are judged.

Burying Haiti's dead    The photos take awhile to pop into place.  Just be patient.....

Source is the New York Times

The group in this article are the people who save us from both our blind oblivion of self interest and the Narcissists of the world. 

Excerpt, from the cited article, about the Catholic Priest who organizes help for the poor in Haiti.

"The Rev. Rick Frechette is the hospital’s founder. He is also the visionary behind a neighboring adult hospital, a school for disabled children, the cluster of nearby factories churning out bread, pasta, cement and school uniforms, and a dizzying array of social enterprises, among the latest of which are four industrial-size chicken coops."

Trump?  Are you listening?

Do something right now about Puerto Rico, it is your duty, and ours to help them and that help is long overdue.  I think you are a real jerk for ignoring them because the Governor of the Island made poor or misguided or selfish choices.  It was NOT the people, those who have suffered the most!

The Vote Heard Round the World..

From the New York Times OpEd section:

The Internet is Dying.  Repealing Net Neutrality Hastens that Death.

This means that all the money to build and develop the internet that was your money and my money will be wasted, and handed over to private parties.  Remember Radio?  Remember the television channels?  I do.  I'm old enough.  Well, all these things are pretty much in the hands, and content control, of private enterprise.

Kiss your two direct freedoms goodbye because AT$T and a few other MEGA players are going to OWN them.  Remember deregulation of AT$T?  I do....

We need an interstellar army to save us.... Please God... could you hurry it up!