Biden's Burden(s)

Afghanistan Withdrawal Debacle

COVID - 19  Confusion

Increasing Inflation

Supply Chain SNAFU

Illegal Immigration Invasion

Sporatic Lockdowns

Sporatic Facemask Mandate

Democrats retiring from Congress

Patronizing Mainstream Media

Not Willing to Answer Questions

Russian Invasion of Ukraine Potential

China Invasion of Taiwan Potential

North Korea Testing Long Range Missiles

Iran Nuclear Program Escalating

Terrorist VOW Destruction of America

After being our President for a year now, the above are the indisputable accomplishments of the Biden Administration...

I remember when Biden won the election, I received an email that read:  OUR NATIONAL NIGHTMARE IS FINALLY OVER...   If I were to send that person an email now, it would read:  OUR NATIONAL NIGHTMARE HAS JUST BEGUN...

Sad to say, but I believe that the Republicans will win control of the House and Senate after the 2022 midterms and the balance of power will shift back to the conservatives...

It could also mean that in 2024, the Republicans could acquire the Presidency and REVERSE all the orders that Biden put into place just like he REVERSED all the orders that Trump had put into place...

Who wins with this type of seesaw government?

You Exist

Malta's Cannibis Rules

Malta’s new cannabis rules should serve as a model for other European states of how to end the unnecessary prosecution of low-level drug users and strike a blow against organised crime, according to the minister responsible for the law, Owen Bonnici.

Bonnici, a former justice minister and now minister for equality, research and innovation, said the new law, passed by the Maltese parliament in December 2021, prevented recreational users from being dragged through the courts or tribunal process for possession of small amounts of cannabis.

But it also allows for users and, eventually, non-profit organisations to grow cannabis plants and distribute it to other smokers via cannabis associations, meaning they no longer have to source the drug via the black market and put money into the pockets of international criminal gangs.

Malta’s law allows users to carry seven grams of the drug and store up to 50 grams at home, making it the first EU state to legalise cannabis.

German Chancellor Olof Scholz is in favour of legalisation but the country’s new government has not set a time limit on the reforms.

Although the Netherlands is world-famous for the availability of cannabis, it remains illegal for individuals to sell or possess it and the "coffee shops" that are licensed to sell it have to buy their product in bulk on the black market, incentivising criminals that grow and traffic it.

A number of European states, including Italy, Spain, Belgium and Ireland, have done away with prison sentences for marijuana possession, but in 14 of 28 European states -- including the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Austria -- minor cannabis possession can still lead to jail time.

Even in European states where cannabis has been “decriminalised”, meaning that those caught with small amounts of the product are not be arrested, users still need to buy the drug from dealers.  READ MORE...

Colorado

 

China - Pakistan & Kashmir

China and Pakistan on Sunday said they opposed “unilateral actions that complicate” the Kashmir issue, as they pledged closer ties following a meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan.

A joint statement released following their meeting in Beijing said “both sides reiterated their support on issues concerning each other’s core interests” and “underscored that stronger defence and security cooperation between Pakistan and China was an important factor of peace and stability in the region.”

Mr. Khan attended the opening of the Winter Olympics on Friday, which India has boycotted following the use of a PLA commander in the torch relay, and also held talks with Premier and second-ranked leader Li Keqiang prior to his meeting with Mr. Xi.

The joint statement following Sunday’s talks said Pakistan was committed to a “One-China Policy and support for China on Taiwan, South China Sea, Hong Kong, Xinjiang and Tibet.” China, for its part, “reaffirmed its support for Pakistan in safeguarding its sovereignty, independence and security, as well as promoting its socio-economic development and prosperity.”  READ MORE...

Takeoff

 

Ending CNN's Liberal Bias

CNN’s long history of Left-wing bias may be nearing its end.

Following the resignation of CNN’s president, Jeff Zucker, the network’s future may trend away from Left-leaning political opinions, and more towards impartial news reporting.

Later this year, CNN will finalize its merger with Discovery Inc., and John Malone, the CEO of Liberty Media, is expected to have notable control over the news site. Liberty Media is Discovery’s largest shareholder, giving Malone a 25% voting share in the company which will be taking control of CNN.

The businessman’s past actions/statements have led many to believe that Malone will aim to adjust CNN’s Liberal biases towards more “impartial” journalism.

In 2017, Malone donated $250,000 to Donald Trump’s inauguration. Back in 2019, Malone boldly stated that he “would like to see CNN evolve back to the kind of journalism that it started with, and actually have journalists, which would be unique and refreshing.”  READ MORE...

Heavy Snowfall

Life in America

In the last two years, January 2020 through December 2021, my wife and I have received $3,200 each in stimulus money or a total of $6,400 and since we did not need the money, we simply put it in our savings account in the Credit Union...  but, it was really nice for our Federal Government to give us that free money and if they want to do it again, then we will gladly accept it and eagerly put it in our savings account again...

My wife and I have been retired since 2015 and live off of our Savings and our Social Security income which is around $3,000 each month and our current lifestyle has us spending about $4,500 each month so we are depleting our savings by $1,500 each month or $18,000 each year...  however, because I am being treated for two different cancers simultaneously, my cancer insurance which we took out 20 years ago on a whim pays me $10,000 each year, so I actually only need to reduce our savings by $8,000 each year.

Over the next 20 years, our savings will be reduced $180,000 and the current value of our completely paid for home is somewhere between $200,000 to $250,000.  At 74 years old, living for the next 20 years is questionable but entirely possible, even with cancer.

Did I plan for this?

Not really...  it just sorta happened...

In 1990, I left NC for TN because I was going to add somewhere between $12-15,000 to my salary but I did not think about TN not having a state income tax which adds 7% to your take-home pay.  Nor, did I realize that the cost of living was about 13/14% less (on average) than anywhere else in the USA...

Where we live in East TN:

• the Knoxville airport is 50 minutes away
• The Knoxville hospital is 40 minutes away
• Walmart supercenter is 2 miles away
• Weigles Convenience store (gasoline) is 1.5 miles away
• Interstate 40 is 7 miles from the house
• Gatlinburg, TN (Smoky Mtns) is 1.5 hours away
• Bristol Motor Speedway is 2 hours away
• Nashville, TN is 3 hours away
• Atlanta, GA is 4 hours away
• Myrtle Beach, SC is 6 hours away

Because of the Cumberland Plateau on the west side of us and because of the Smoky Mountains on the east side of us, all the major storms either in the winter or in the summer have a tendency to shield the TN Valley from adverse weather conditions.

Life in America for my wife and I is pleasantly satisfactory...  I would say that we look for deals and never spend our money unwisely.  We purchase year old leased cars with low mileage when we need to replace our vehicles.  Our lifestyle is simple and we have controlled our greedy desires that plague so many Americans.  We have no desire to try and live like the wealthy nor do not do what we want to...

• We have been on 12 cruises
• We have been to Europe twice
• We have been to Hawaii three times
• We have been to Alaska
• We have been to the Caribbean often
• We have been to Mexico several times
• We have been to Canada
• We have been to Vegas three times
• We have been to the Gulf Coast/Florida often
• We spend most of our summers at Myrtle Beach, SC

What has helped more than anything else was the fact that we became debt free 15 years ago and have never gotten into debt since.  We use credit cards, but always pay them off at the end of the month so we never pay interest.

We don't fly around in private jets nor are we members of a country club or spend a lot of money on clothes and accessories.  We typically go out to dinner once a week but never pay more than $30-$50 for those meals including tips.

Instead of an inground pool, we have an above ground pool but with a deck that completely surrounds the circular pool.  The deck is large enough for a 15X15 gazebo along with a 6 person hot tub.  Both the hot tub and the pool are over 10 years old because we make sure we properly take care of them with proper preventive maintenance.

It feels nice to live like this...  and, it feels nice to live in a conservative state...  and, it feels nice to live in an area where there is hardly any crime and violence...  I am glad for the convenient location of our home...  and I am glad that I live between two relatively large man-made lakes...  and, most importantly, I am glad to be a SOUTHERNER...

Waterponds

 

Just in Tennessee???

Black Lives Matter organizer Pamela Moses was convicted in Nov. 2021 and sentenced to six years in prison in Feb. 2022 for illegally registering to vote in Tennessee, according to prosecutors. 

Moses, reported as the founder of the BLM Memphis chapter, had 16 prior felony convictions, making her ineligible to register and vote.

At her Jan. 26 sentencing hearing Moses, while claiming: ““I did not falsify anything. All I did was try to get my rights to vote back the way the people at the election commission told me and the way the clerk did,” was reprimanded by Judge Mark Ward, while issuing her prison sentence, responded: ““You tricked the probation department into giving you documents saying you were off probation,” Ward said in court last week. “After you were convicted of a felony in 2015, you voted six times as a convicted felon.”

Stay Connected to Diamond and Silk: Frank Speech, GETTR, ChatDit, Rumble and Parler.

Hungry

 

A Monroe Doctrine for Russia

Pat Buchanan, When the Union was fighting to preserve itself in the Civil War, the France of Napoleon III moved troops into Mexico, overthrew the regime of Benito Juarez, set up a monarchy and put Austrian Archduke Maximilian von Habsburg on the throne as Emperor of Mexico — one month before Gettysburg.

Preoccupied, the Union did nothing.

At war’s end, in 1865, however, at the urging of Gens. Ulysses S. Grant and William Sherman, the Union sent 40,000 troops to the Mexican border.

Secretary of State William Seward dispatched Gen. John Schofield to Paris with the following instructions: “I want you to get your legs under Napoleon’s mahogany and tell him he must get out of Mexico.”

The U.S. troops on Mexico’s border convinced Napoleon to comply, though Maximilian bravely refused to leave and was captured and put before a firing squad.

The point of the episode for today’s crisis in Ukraine?

A powerful army on a nation’s border can send a message and dictate terms without going in and without going to war.

Whether Russian President Vladimir Putin intends to send his 100,000 troops now on the Crimean, Donbass and Belarusian borders of Ukraine into the country to occupy more territory we do not know.

But the message being sent by the Russian army is clear: Putin wants his own Monroe Doctrine. Putin wants Ukraine outside of NATO, and permanently.

If his demands are unacceptable, Putin is saying with his troops on the border, we reserve the right to send our army into Ukraine to protect our vital national intserests in not having a hostile military alliance on our doorstep.

U.S. officials have been describing a Russian invasion as “imminent,” an attack that could come “any day now.”

Given the Russian preparations and size of its forces, some U.S. officials said last week Kyiv could fall within hours of an attack and there could be 50,000 civilian casualties and 5 million Ukrainian refugees.

Ukrainian leaders are less alarmist, arguing that an invasion is not imminent and there is still room for a negotiated settlement.

Russian officials are contemptuous of U.S. claims that they are about to invade. Last weekend, Russia’s deputy ambassador to the UN tweeted, “Madness and scaremongering continues. … What if we would say that US could seize London in a week and cause 300k civilian deaths?”  READ MORE...

Frightening

 

Miserable Liberals

Stephen Moore, Replacing former President Donald Trump with President Joe Biden was supposed to bring joy to the land from sea to sea.

We were going to be a united people at last. Every problem known to man would get solved by cradle-to-grave government. Biden was even going to save us from the rise of the oceans.

I’m the kind of guy
Who never used to cry
The world is treatin’ me bad
Misery

— The Beatles

But just the opposite: A survey by the University of Chicago found that record percentages of people in 2021 described themselves as “unhappy.”

For most of the past 50 years, about 1 in 10 people have described themselves as unhappy. In 2021, 1 in 4 say they are unhappy. Typically, almost 1 in 3 say they are “very happy,” and now less than 1 in 5 do. The happiness index is falling like a stone. People are depressed.

Gee, I wonder why the public is so glum all of a sudden.

Let me count the ways. First, there is isolation and loneliness from lockdowns, stay-at-home orders and travel restrictions. Then there is out-of-control crime and a significant rise in business failures (from lockdowns), both clearly associated with depression. People are still worried about their health two years into the pandemic that Biden promised to shut down. The border is out of control.

Then there is the financial stress on families from everything being more expensive. Children are depressed because schools are still doing remote learning or they are stuck wearing masks for eight hours a day. The “woke” movement has people feeling like they are tied inside a social straitjacket. Nothing is funny anymore. Don’t you dare say an off-color joke or you will be banished.

People are afraid to laugh at anything for fear of offending someone somewhere. When was the last time you saw a funny movie?

But here’s what’s most interesting about the results of the happiness survey. The people with the most significant happiness deficiencies are Democratic voters. Liberals are miserable. Only 1 in 6 Democratic voters say they are “very happy.” Almost twice as many Republicans say they are “very happy.”

Why is that? I have several admittedly unproven hypotheses. I will toss them out, and readers can decide for themselves if they agree or disagree.

First, liberals are much less religious, patriotic and interested in getting married and having children than conservatives. It’s a Grand Canyon-sized division between liberals and conservatives. I’d venture to say that the love of country, God and family make people happy.

If you don’t believe in these things, you will likely believe in false idols, such as big government, as your savior. That’s hardly a path to happiness.

Liberals are less likely to be working and more likely to be on government assistance. But every study shows that work is highly associated with happiness. Giving a person a fish rather than teaching a person to fish leads to very different life satisfaction outcomes.  READ MORE...

Matrix Copycat

An Older Perspective

 

74 years of life have given me a different perspective of life than the perspectives of others who are younger, richer or poorer...

Growing up just outside of the Nation's capital gave me a keen perspective on suburban life in a time when you either lived in a city or urban area or you lived in the country but not because you were a farmer but because you just wanted more land and less taxes.  Suburban life was such that you took care of your neighbors because you knew all your neighbors since no family was ignored or ostracized.  While there were no people of color living in our community, there would have been no animosity waged towards them if they were to buy a home there.

However, as I grew older and older, I realized that animosity towards people of color was prevelent everywhere I went and I could not figure out why...  it was more than just their color, but it was about how they spoke, how they dressed, how they lived, how they worshipped, and how they problem solved issues around them.  In the military or when not in the military, and I was placed in a situation where we worked together, I found them to be no different than anyone else with whom I worked.

When I dated women of color, I found them no different than white women and it was difficult for me to ascertain mentally whether I wanted to be with a white woman or a black woman.  What helped me make up my mind was all the people around me...  when with a black woman, other blacks around us treated us just as bad as other whites around us.  Of course, I was in the state of North Carolina when these activities were playing out.

Today, when I am confronted with BLM, CRT, WOKE, and Cancel Culture I am developing more animosity towards people who are not like me than ever before in my life.  I am angry that 12% of the US population is telling 60% of the US population what should or should not be...  rather than trying to work out these issues collectively through compromise...  

When I speak to other people who live in Europe and Canada about these white/black issues in the USA, they share my same concerns that there were no concerns until the blacks started raising concerns...

Of course, are these blacks that are causing so much trouble in the upper class, middle class, or lower class?  My guess is that they are in the lower class.  

1. Will education help them?  
2. Were they raised by a single parent?
3. How did illegal drugs impact their upbringing?
4. Would different parents have raised them differently?  
5. Would a different location have made them see life differently?

Biden's Free Crack Pipes

 

Flowing Lion

The Iran Nuclear Deal

Tehran, Iran – Representatives of Iran and world powers will reconvene in Vienna to try to salvage the 2015 nuclear deal whose fate is set to affect the region and beyond.

Political delegations from Iran, China, Russia, France, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States are expected back in the Austrian capital on Tuesday to engage in the final stretch of negotiations that began in April last year.

Iran and the US are not engaging in direct talks since the latter’s withdrawal from the deal in 2018 that followed imposing harsh sanctions that are still in place.

The two sides have bridged some gaps since the start of the eighth round of talks in November last year but differences remain, especially on what sanctions the US must lift.

Iran wants all sanctions imposed by the administration of former US President Donald Trump lifted, while the Joe Biden administration has said it is prepared to lift those “inconsistent” with the deal.

The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), as the deal is formally known, provided sanctions relief for Iran in exchange for curbs on its nuclear programme.

A year after Trump started imposing sanctions, Iran gradually grew its nuclear efforts and is now employing advanced centrifuges to enrich uranium up to 60 percent while maintaining it will never use it to make weapons. READ MORE...

The Ferret

 

Chinese Student in Canada

There’s a reason why Americans are tuning out of the Beijing Olympics in record numbers—with a poll last month showing 40 percent of adults oppose holding the games in China. 

Just as there are reasons why some Republicans are calling for a full boycott—athletes and all—of the iconic games. There are reasons why some athletes are decrying being silenced from speaking their hearts and minds in Beijing.

Often cited are the horrific human rights abuses taking place in a country with zero freedom. Cited are the Uyghurs enduring slave labor, torture, and sometimes murder. Cited is the poverty pervading the majority of Chinese people. 

Cited is the disappearance of a woman tennis player who dared to speak out about a CCP (Chinese Communist Party) official who sexually assaulted her.

And cited was the CCP virus that infected the world.

But one visa student from China, now living in freedom-loving Canada, who fled the CCP’s tyrannical regime in fear of being persecuted for her spiritual belief, Falun Gong, has done more than tuning out of the Olympics.

Digital animation prodigy at world-renowned Sheridan College, 25-year-old Lucy Liu shared her plight in an open letter to the Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in collaboration with her student union, who are supporting her.  READ MORE...

Volcano

 

Beijing Winter Olympics

The Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics began under a number of clouds last week. Covid is still raging, a Chinese Olympic official threatened foreign athletes with legal penalties should they speak out against human-rights abuses, and the Chinese government continues to commit horrific crimes against humanity that once again make a mockery of the world’s “Never Again” vows. 

But no matter. Athletes have descended upon Beijing in the thousands, American corporate sponsors have stuck steadfastly by the killers of Kashgar, and NBC is beaming the Chinese Communist Party’s grand propaganda spectacle to millions of homes across America.

These Winter Games are a story of failure — an International Olympic Committee failure, a government failure, a private-sector failure, and a collective-action failure.

In 2014, four of the six initial hopeful host cities for these Olympics withdrew their bids, leaving the Lausanne-headquartered IOC to decide between Beijing and Almaty, Kazakhstan. Despite China’s refusal to abide by human-rights assurances it had given the IOC ahead of the 2008 Summer Olympics, held in Beijing — dissidents were silenced, officially designated “protest zones” were kept empty, and there was a horrid crackdown in Tibet in the months preceding the opening ceremonies that year — the IOC did not hesitate to award another Olympiad to Beijing. 

Knowing full well that Chinese human-rights commitments would be meaningless, the IOC did not bother securing any. Nor, as the scale of the genocide in Xinjiang became clear in recent years, did IOC president Thomas Bach even politely suggest that Beijing alter its course. Though he was perhaps uniquely positioned to insist on an unfettered fact-finding trip to the beleaguered region, Bach instead dismissed as mere politics the credible accusations of genocide, sexual violence, torture, and forced labor.  READ MORE...

Transform

The Minority of the ELITE

noun. \ ā-ˈlēt , i-, ē- \ 

Essential Meaning of elite. 

1 : the people who have the most wealth and status in a society : the most successful or powerful group of people. 

2 US : a person who is a member of an elite : a successful and powerful person.

The most important characteristic of this so-called ELITE, is the fact that they are always in a MINORITY...  and, if they are in a minority, then the majority should be able to exercise their collective powers and force them out-of-the-picture...

For example:

There are more Canadian Truckers than there are police or tow trucks so they have the advantage over the government who is in a minority.

There are less highway patrol people on the highways than there are drivers, so if the drivers got together and organized they could drive at any speed they wanted to.

There are more whites in America than there are blacks so why are the whites allowing the blacks to push them around

There are more workers in the USA than there are owners or bosses ...so if the workers collectively don't want to work then the workers have the power.

There are less wealthy people than there are others who are not wealthy and yet the wealthy can control our society...  they can do this because we do not collectively stand up against them.

COVID-19 has showed us that the majority once collectively joined can stand up to the elite minority...

• Parents against the VA school Board
• Canadian Truckers against the government
• Unemployed workers against companies
• Americans against facemasks
• Americans against vaccines
• Americans against government control
• Americans against lockdowns
• American against critical race theory
• Americans against being WOKE
• Americans against the cancel culture
• Americans against crime and violence

THINK ABOUT THAT

Turkey Time

 

Intelligent Apps Understand What We Want/Need to Buy

The next generation of mobile applications will be the result of multiple worlds colliding: when application development meets artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things and big data analytics, intelligent apps are the outcome. 

Put simply, these are apps that continually learn from user interactions and other data sources to become even more relevant and useful.

Chatbots, virtual assistants and recommendation engines on e-commerce sites are just some examples of intelligent applications. While it’s difficult to formulate a catch-all definition of smart apps, they have a number of typical features:

Data-driven
intelligent apps combine and process multiple data sources – such as IoT sensors, beacons or user interactions – and turn an enormous quantity of numbers into valuable insights.

Contextual and relevant
intelligent apps make much smarter use of a device’s features to proactively deliver highly relevant information and suggestions. Users will no longer have to go to their apps. Instead, the apps will come to them.

Continuously adapting
thanks to machine learning, intelligent apps continuously adapt and improve their output.

Action-oriented
by anticipating user behaviors with predictive analytics, smart applications deliver personalized and actionable suggestions.

Omnichannel
progressive web applications (PWAs) are increasingly blurring the lines between native apps and mobile web applications.  SOURCE:  Delaware Consulting

Cowfish

 

Snowflake

Snowflake Inc. is a cloud computing-based data warehousing company based in Bozeman, Montana. It was founded in July 2012 and was publicly launched in October 2014 after two years in stealth mode.  The company's name was chosen as a tribute to the founders' love of winter sports.

The firm offers a cloud-based data storage and analytics service, generally termed "data warehouse-as-a-service".  It allows corporate users to store and analyze data using cloud-based hardware and software. It runs on Amazon S3 since 2014, on Microsoft Azure since 2018 and on the Google Cloud Platform since 2019.  The company is credited with reviving the data warehouse industry by building and perfecting a cloud-based data platform.  It was able to separate computer data storage from computing before Google, Amazon, and Microsoft.

The company was ranked first on the Forbes Cloud 100 in 2019.

History
Snowflake Inc. was founded in July 2012 in San Mateo, California by three data warehousing experts: Benoit Dageville, Thierry Cruanes and Marcin Żukowski. Dageville and Cruanes previously worked as data architects at Oracle Corporation; Żukowski was a co-founder of the Dutch start-up Vectorwise. The company's first CEO was Mike Speiser, a venture capitalist at Sutter Hill Ventures.

In June 2014, the company appointed former Microsoft executive Bob Muglia as CEO. In October 2014, it raised $26 million and came out of stealth mode, with 80 organizations using it at that time.  In June 2015, the company raised an additional $45 million and launched its first product, its cloud data warehouse, to the public.  It raised another $100 million in April 2017.  In January 2018, the company announced a $263 million financing round at a $1.5 billion valuation, making it a unicorn.  In October 2018, it raised another $450 million in a round led by Sequoia Capital, raising its valuation to $3.5 billion.

In May 2019, Frank Slootman, the retired former CEO of ServiceNow, joined Snowflake as its CEO and Michael Scarpelli, the former CFO of ServiceNow joined the company as CFO.  In June 2019, the company launched Snowflake Data Exchange.

In September 2019, it was ranked first on LinkedIn's 2019 U.S. list of Top Startups.  On February 7, 2020 it raised another $479 million. At that time, it had 3,400 active customers.On September 16, 2020, Snowflake became a public company via an initial public offering raising $3.4 billion, the largest software IPO and the largest IPO to date to double on its first day of trading.

On May 26, 2021, the company announced that it would become headquarterless[citation needed], with a principal executive office located in Bozeman, Montana.  SOURCE:  Wikipedia