3 is 2! 2 is 1! 1 is none! Look forredundant capability; not redundant gear!
I recommend that everyone use at least two different backup capabilities for the all important photos.
This was brought home hard when it looks like Google Photos “barfed” and took out BOTH the local device and the Google cloud backup copy.
Needless to say, that was traumatic. Luckily a restart unbarfed Google Photos. We immediately set up another backup capability on DROPBOX.
Suggest that (1) you should be backing up your phone’s pictures SOMEWHERE; (2) have a redundant capability for at least two independent backups; (3) consider using a cheap disk drive — usb or ssd — to create that complete off line archival backup.
After the disaster, it’s no good to say shoulda, coulda, and woulda!
FAIWWYPFI (Free Advice Is Worth What You Pay For It! ?zero?)
Written by Kim Coleman, Director of Strategic Relations
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Goldback is making it possible to spend gold freely again. In this short series, we will examine how gold freedom was lost, what the Constitution authorizes and prohibits regarding gold freedom, and what steps can be taken, with your help, to make it possible to spend gold freely again.
“Specie [gold and silver coin] is the most perfect medium because it will preserve its own level; because, having intrinsic and universal value, it can never die in our hands, and it is the surest resource of reliance in time of war.”
Thomas Jefferson
The State of Money Today
Despite their best warnings, it wasn’t long before paper became the predominant currency. There is almost nothing left resembling the intent to base the nation’s monetary system on gold and silver. In fact, the government rejected it entirely when it seized private gold in 1933, ended redemption of Federal Reserve Notes for physical gold in 1934, and removed the U.S. dollar from the gold standard in 1971. This resulted in a full fiat currency system that has suffered the same issues our Founders described.
We see it. We feel it everyday. The green piece of paper we hold in our hands purchases much less than it did even five years ago—25% less!1 Americans are losing their purchasing power and hopes for future prosperity. But there are options to regain that power, and Goldbacks can play a key role in that.
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Fiat Money — paper — allows the Gooferment to spend without restraint.
“Inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon” — Milton Friedman
“Inflation is theft, you’re stealing value from people who save money.”-Ron Paul
We don’t need ANYONE setting interest rates. Least of all the FED!
(The Federal Reserve Bank is a misnomer. IT ain’t “federal”. It reserves nothing. And, it ain’t a “bank”. It is a private cartel of the elite banks run for their benefit and that of the entrenched politicians.)
Time to heed the wisdom of the Dead Old White Guys!
Since our ancient human relatives began using stone tools to perform tasks, humans have harnessed scientific knowledge and new technologies to expand the boundaries of our understanding of the natural world.
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This reminds me of THE “perodic table” and the fact there are different ones.
And yet we know so little. And, in our “clumsy” ignorance, we fiddle with what we don’t understand.
Minnesota college running star Mohammed Bati says he was banned for accepting $6K donation to pay for tuition By Nicholas McEntyre Published Dec. 27, 2025, 5:26 a.m. ET
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The NCAA ruled Augsburg University senior Mohammed Bati — a two-time national runner-up — ineligible for the indoor and outdoor track seasons, the decorated runner said, according to Marathon Handbook on Friday.
The 26-year-old, who is majoring in nursing, revealed he was “struggling a lot with money” last semester at the private Minneapolis school, which is part of the NCAA’s Division III.
“The community around me came together to support me,” Bati wrote on the training platform Strava on Dec. 24. “People helped me with around $6,000 so I could pay for that semester. I’m still grateful for that it was love, it was support, not anything big or business or something bad. Just people helping someone who needed it.”
Division III schools are prohibited from awarding scholarships for athletics. Students can only receive money from merit-based financial aid or FAFSA.
Student-athletes in Division III are not allowed to accept outside financial assistance that pays for tuition unless it fits into the structure of financial aid or NIL guidelines.
“I don’t think some NCAA rules are fair to everyone,” Bati wrote in the post titled “Night Run.”
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Sorry but the NCAA “rules” are just dumb in this case.
I don’t understand the “rules” and who cares down at Division III.
The public domain is a priceless resource for all of us, and for the generations after us. It’s a free repository of our culture going back centuries—a way for us to see where we came from and to chart where we’re going. It represents our collective cultural heritage.
In the past, copyright was a limited boon, designed not to enrich a creator and their children’s children a hundred years from now, but rather to allow a creator to profit by granting a temporary monopoly on reproduction, in exchange for their work to be returned to the public after a few years. Our ancestors—in fact, the framers of the U.S. Constitution—recognized that art builds on art, and that locking up culture benefits a handful but harms the greater public.
Today, large corporations are putting a lot of money into twisting our laws to slowly but surely strangle the public domain, making it increasingly remote and inaccessible so they can continue seeking rent on ideas and culture nearly a century old. Today laws lock up work not just for the author’s entire lifetime, but for the lifetime of their children, and their children. Copyright can’t enrich the dead, but it can enrich powerful corporations … at our—at everyone’s—expense.
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This site has lots of free classic content. (It has to be in the 100,000’s count.) I like it for old SciFi classics that I read as a child. It’s a shame that Big Publishing keeps locking up content with ever expanding copyright legislation. I wish this was available when I was in school. Now if they just had textbooks, then I’d never have had to take the subway to the library, Laugh!
P.S.: I put a little money into this site to keep it going.
Memowrite’s PostMemowrite · Memories fade, but your story can last forever.With Memowrite, sharing your journey is easier than ever.Thoughtful prompts spark reflectionFree your creativityA beautifully designed memoir, delivered to your door Sale ends soon! Save up to 64% today.
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There’s a hidden 14 “return policy” and their logon process doesn’t work reliably. When you complain their tech support stalls until your “14 days” expires. Argh!
Jets cancel invite to super fan set to take $100K field goal challenge in honor of her late father: ‘Could have made it’ By Alex Mitchell Published Dec. 25, 2025, 7:00 a.m. ET
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(Ashley Castanio-Gervasi) felt ready to kick. But then the Jets pulled the ball away from her like Charlie Brown in a “Peanuts” cartoon, when they suddenly said that she was actually not eligible to kick in the final contest for the six-figure prize.
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Sorry, but finding a “rule” at the 11th hour stinks.
I have no problem with them making whatever rule they want, but not deep into the competition.
In 1897, Philip O’Hanlon, a surgeon, was asked by his eight-year-old daughter, Virginia O’Hanlon, whether Santa Claus existed. His answer did not convince her, and Virginia decided to pose the question to The Sun.[7] Sources conflict over whether her father suggested writing the letter,[8] or she elected to on her own.[7] In her letter Virginia wrote that her father had told her “If you see it in The Sun it’s so.”[8] O’Hanlon later told The Sun that her father thought the newspaper would be “too busy” to respond to her question and had said to “[w]rite if you want to,” but to not be disappointed if she got no response.[9] After sending the letter she looked for a response “day after day”.[9] O’Hanlon later said that she had waited for an answer to her letter for long enough that she forgot about it. Campbell theorizes the letter was sent shortly after O’Hanlon’s birthday in July and was “overlooked or misplaced” for a time.[10][a]
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Church’s response began: “Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age.” He continued to write that Santa Claus existed “as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist” and that the world would be “dreary” if he did not. Church argued that just because something could not be seen did not mean it was not real: “Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.” He concluded that:[23]
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“Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.” — Francis Church in The Sun on September 21, 1897
So true!
I always use “electricity” when I have to respond to any child’s question about reality.
Santa, Easter Bunny, Tooth Fairy, The Great Pumpkin, an honest politician, or jumbo shrimp … … … …
“Well, I am an electrical engineer and I KNOW electricity is real, but I can’t see it. Why can’t other things, that we can’t see, be real?”
It’s worked for me so far, and I can’t imagine what I’ll say then.
Merry, Happy, or just Seasonal Greetings, what ever you celebrate.
It’s Called the Clot Shot for a Reason & Is Trump Being Set Up? Dec 12, 2025 Tom Renz’s Newsletter For God, family, and Country – The fight against corruption.
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Corruption In The Church And The Duty To Withhold Support
Near the end, I talk about one more institution that has betrayed a sacred trust. The Catholic Church has paid out enormous sums in settlements over clergy sexual-abuse cases, while dioceses continue to use parishioner donations to fund legal defenses that often prioritize the institution over abused children.
As a Catholic myself, I call for a simple act of conscience. Quit tithing until the Church stops using the collection basket to shield predators and starts openly confronting the rot. Giving money to an institution that will not protect the innocent is not charity.
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In a very pointed issue, Tom Renz’s Newsletter made several insightful points that I intend to blog about. This is one.
The Catholic Church has strayed from “religion” into “politics”, with stops along the way at “hedonism” (sexual promiscuity with birth control), “murder” (abortion on demand), “condoning suicide” (euthanasia), “gay rights” (pedohilia priest blessing homosexual marriage), and finally “political corruption” (becoming a branch of Gooferment by taking money to “resettle” illegal immigration).
To misquote Reagan, … …
“I didn’t leave the Democratic party, the Democratic Party left me.” ― Ronald Reagan
… … the good people and me didn’t leave the Church, the Catholic Church left us.
What happens when intelligence outgrows its creators
We built genius machines, and gave them our blind spots.
Big Think Dec 13, 2025
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If you consider, for instance, a dollar bill, it has no objective value whatsoever, at least not for human beings. Maybe termites can eat it, but humans can’t eat dollars, they can’t drink them. There is nothing useful you can do with them. They nevertheless have value because the greatest storytellers in the world, the finance ministers, the bankers, the investors, they tell us a story that this piece of paper is has value. I can use it to buy bread or potatoes or bananas or anything else.
As long as millions of people believe in this story, they are willing to work, for instance, on constructing and nuclear reactor because at the end of the month, they get these few colorful pieces of paper. Today, of course, it’s not even paper. Most of the money in the world today is not paper notes and metal coins. It’s just digital information moving between computers. But as long as people still have trust in the story about these digital information, it works.
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As the tin foil hat survivalists preach, at some point in time, “We, The Sheeple” will recognize that:
“Inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon” — Milton Friedman
“Inflation is theft, you’re stealing value from people who save money.”-Ron Paul
“The gold standard did not collapse. Governments abolished it in order to pave the way for inflation. The whole grim apparatus of oppression and coercion — policemen, customs guards, penal courts, prisons, in some countries even executioners — had to be put into action in order to destroy the gold standard. Solemn pledges were broken, retroactive laws were promulgated, provisions of constitutions and bills of rights were openly defied. And hosts of servile writers praised what the governments had done and hailed the dawn of the fiat-money millennium.” — Ludwig von Mises
And, when the SHTF, people will seek band aids, beans, bullets, and bullion. The farmer, the carpenter, the electrician, and the plumber will thrive. The politicians, bureaucrats, celebrities, and influencers will starve.
Metro Senior citizen who saved himself from would-be mugger is heading to prison because of NYC’s ‘draconian’ laws By Kevin Sheehan and Ben Kochman Published Nov. 20, 2025, 5:16 p.m. ET
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A Queens senior citizen who shot dead a man who tried to rob him will spend four years in prison after admitting to toting an unlicensed revolver — as his lawyer ripped the city’s “draconian” gun laws.
Charles Foehner, 67, pleaded guilty to one count of criminal weapons possession Thursday in a deal to end his case more than two years after he fatally shot would-be thief Cody Gonzalez, who charged at him near his Kew Gardens home.
The Queens District Attorney’s Office chose not to prosecute Foehner, a retired doorman, for Gonzalez’s killing after he told cops that he’d defended himself from a mugger who lunged at him late at night holding what looked like a knife — but which turned out to be a pen
Foehner was not charged with manslaughter after claiming self-defense, but pleaded guilty to a lesser gun charge. But prosecutors slapped Foehner with a slew of weapons raps for the unlicensed handgun and for an arsenal of illicit handguns, revolvers and rifles inside his home in the quiet neighborhood.
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“If we respected people’s constitutional right, and provided practical means for citizens to exercise that right, Mr. Foehner would not be in the position he is in today,” Kenniff added.
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So, let me understand this, the Queens DA Melinda Katz didn’t prosecute a “hard to win” case but did prosecute an “easy to win” one and insisted on a harsh punishment.
Sounds like “prosecutorual misconduct” to me.
Buffing up the old political resume and punishing self-defense.
Without allowing “self-defense”, “We, The Sheeple” has no defense against career criminals and the crazy insane that are allowed to roam at will.
Fighting this injustice is a just a war of attrition against a Gooferment bureaucrat with unlimited funds.
One would hope that:
the Queens voters would put a curse on the Queens DA Melinda Katz at the next election.
And, that Queens DA jurors would “inflict” justice on their prosecutions by jury nullification of the top count in EVERY trial.
Additionally, Queens residents should lodge Bar Complaints on EVERY lawyer in the Queens District Attorney’s Office
Badger the Governor Kathy Hochul to correct this miscarrage of justice
Everyone should vote against EVERY incumbent lawmaker in New York City and Albany who have “repeatedly frustrated the rights of law-abiding Americans, New Yorkers, that possess firearms. All candidates should be questioned on this issue.
That should get the attenton of ALL current and potential politicians and bureaucrats.
Where is the Federal Gooferment’s politicians and bureaucrats standing up for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms. At the very least, federal funds for “law enforcement” should be impounded until rights are restored.
Body Of Teen Who Jumped Off Manahawkin Bridge Located: Police
A 19-year-old was seen jumping from the bridge on Nov. 25; his body was recovered Wednesday evening, Stafford police said.
Veronica Flesher’s profile picture Posted Thu, Dec 18, 2025 at 9:07 am ET
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Editor’s Note: If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, help is available. Call or text 988 to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline for free, confidential support, 24 hours a day.
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MANAHAWKIN, NJ — The body of a 19-year-old seen jumping from the Manahawkin Bridge just before Thanksgiving has been found, Stafford police said.
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Hopefully, that troubled individual is at peace now. So sad. I don’t know why they did that, but I hope someone finds out.
Seven Voting Laws Every Blue State Should Enact Right Now By Marc Elias November 28, 2025
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1. Enact a statutory right to vote for every eligible citizen. 2. Ban signature matching of mail-in ballots. 3. Count all ballots postmarked by Election Day. 4. Guarantee voters they will not have to wait more than 30 minutes in line. 5. Ban third-party voter challenges and other forms of vigilantism. 6. Provide criminal and civil remedies for voter intimidation. 7. Revise and strengthen election-certification laws.
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Remember the Dead Old White Guys were opposed to “democracy”.
“The Founders knew that a democracy would lead to some kind of tyranny. The term democracy appears in none of our Founding documents. Their vision for us was a Republic and limited government.” — Walter E. Williams
Remember they saw the (bloody) French Revolution, as well as the many “slave uprisings” in the New World.
“If voting made any difference they wouldn’t let us do it.” — Emma Goldman ― often incorrectly attributed to American humorist Mark Twain ― but very very true imho!
“The greatest fallacy of democracy is that everyone’s opinion is worth the same.” — Robert A. Heinlein
All that being said:
I agree with #1 and #2.
The rest I’m not so sure are improvements or do-able.
I’d add a few of my own
#8 Voter Id — mandatory — citizens only — indelible ink like in India
#9 Voter Competency — no “nursing home” voting blocks — not sure how to enforce that but should be easy to figure out
#10 Voter crypto signature — if iPhone and Android can do passkeys then the USA can do it too
#11 Fraud and Campaign contributions penalties with teeth
#12 Political Campaign contributions limited amounts, from real individuals, and all domiciled in the district
#13 Paper ballots only! No machines.
#14 Repeal the 17th Direct Election of Senators and return it to the State legislators
#15 Ranked Choice voting nationwide
I thing that about covers it. I’m sure I’ll think of some more.
Massive Democrat Money Laundering Discovered – Names include Gretchen Whitmer, Jon Ossoff and Cory Booker by Jim Hoft Dec. 15, 2025 8:00 am1022 Comments
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Epilogue It now can be seen that Senators Cory Booker, Mark Kelly, Elissa Slotkin, Raphael Warnock, Adam Schiff, Jon Ossoff, Elizabeth Warren and Amy Klobuchar are heavily and possibly criminally involved as recipients of what is obviously a massive money laundering effort that probably spans the past two decades! This grouping of 42 seniors, AKA “smurfs” reveals the dedicated efforts of some very determined, corrupt individuals to launder money into the Democratic sphere of campaign finance. These 42 persons are “alleged” to have donated over 7.4 million dollars in over 32,000 separate donations. The ActBlue scheme of “Too Small, Too Many To Find” has been discovered! This current revelation is just a current snapshot of what will be an ongoing and probably ever growing investigatory effort.
Stay Tuned Fellow Patriots and please share this as you are able! The Best (Or Worse) is Yet to Come!
Shocking moment killer paedophile is shot dead in the street just hours after he was freed from prison By FRANCINE WOLFISZ, NEWS REPORTER Published: 19:06 EST, 13 December 2025 | Updated: 19:21 EST, 13 December 2025
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Despite his initial confession, he later told a court he did not remember whether he was responsible.
Bruno’s mother, Josiana Aparecida da Silva, said she felt both pain and relief after learning of Ferreira da Silva’s death.
She said: ‘I am happy, not because of my son – my son is dead, he cannot come back – but I am happy that he won’t kill anyone else.
‘No more children will die because of him.’
She added in an interview with a local TV station that ‘justice has been done, but for me it took too long,’ Metro reported.
‘I had the courage to go and see the man who killed my son when he was tried but I regretted it because I was filled with hatred and wanted to kill him.
‘I thought I wouldn’t have the courage to kill him, but today, seeing him dead, I know that if I had had the opportunity to kill him, I would have done so, as a mother.’
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Personally I’m surprised he survived prison time. In the USA, paedophiles don’t usually survive.
Since there is very little chance of “rehabilitation”, this is one of those areas for this gun-owning pro-life pro-choice little L libertarian where I am conflicted.
I understand the need for the death penalty for inmates who harm correctional officers; don’t like it but it’s the exception that proves the rule.
Paedophiles, since they can’t change, are in the same category for me; maybe second time offenders should too be subject to the death penalty.
The AT&T Photo Storage app was discontinued on October 20, 2025. To ensure your treasured memories are safe, please make sure to retrieve your stored photos and videos before February 1, 2026.
{tip of the old tin foil hat to Pablo Musumeci for the idea!}
Taiwan’s Receipt Lottery: The Genius Tax Trick on Desperation
Gambling is illegal in Taiwan. And yet, every receipt is a lottery ticket. Here’s what it taught me about luck, dreams, and the price we pay for hope.
Pablo Musumeci Feb 03, 2025
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I buy a black tea at 7-Eleven, grab my receipt, and instinctively crumple it into a ball. To me, it’s trash. But in Taiwan, even trash can be worth a fortune.
The cashier stops me. “Wait,” she says, pointing at the numbers printed at the top. “Maybe lucky.”
Turns out, every receipt here is a ticket for the tǒngyī fāpiào, the bimonthly national lottery. But this isn’t just a game, it’s a tax system in disguise. Businesses must issue receipts to prevent under-the-table deals. To ensure customers actually demand them, the government adds an incentive: every receipt could be a winning ticket.
It’s genius. And strange. Gambling is illegal in Taiwan, yet the government runs its own lottery. Funded by the very taxes it’s designed to collect, it’s a perfect loop: sell hope to the poor, then use their losses to build the roads they’ll keep driving to dead-end jobs—with neatly folded receipts in their pockets.
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As much as I think “taxes are theft” and that “tax evasion” is a problem, I can’t let a “good idea” be a complete enemy of my idea of the “perfect society”. (That would an completely voluntary Anarcho-capitalist State.)
“What do you call it when someone steals someone else’s money secretly? Theft. What do you call it when someone takes someone else’s money openly by force? Robbery. What do you call it when a politician takes someone else’s money in taxes and gives it to someone who is more likely to vote for him? Social justice.” — Thomas Sowell
Le mieux est l’ennemi du bien. — attributed to Voltaire 1770
(Literal translation: The best is the enemy of the good. Better translation: The perfect is the enemy of the good. Variant translation: The better is the enemy of the good. Better known translation: The perfect is the enemy of the good.)
So until the USA becomes what I see as Utopia, this would be an excellent compromise along the way to being the “shining city on the hill”.
The various Gooferments run lotteries now. Why not one like this that has minimal cost to society and might even be fun!
US News breaking Rob Reiner’s son Nick charged with murder, held on $4M bail in slaughter of ‘Princess Bride’ director and wife Michele By Joe Marino and Patrick Reilly Published Dec. 15, 2025 Updated Dec. 15, 2025, 10:26 a.m. ET
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I’m saddened by this tragedy. While I was never a fan of Rob Reiner’s politics, I would never wish this or any “bad luck” on him.
Like Charlie Kirk’s assassination, the Bondi Beach anti-Semitism, the Brown University killings, it’s all just to horrific to hear. Maybe during these Holy-Day observances, we should all take time to reflect how “hate” needs to be stomped down.
I remember in the movie “Ghandhi” there was a quote about when the religious tensions between Hindus and Muslims erupted into nation-wide violence. Gandhi declares a hunger strike, saying he “will not eat until the fighting stops”. (Note to self: Watch again and capture that powerful line.)
Maybe we all have to adopt a similar attitude: “ … … until the killing stops!”]
Australia’s nationwide ban on social media use for children under 16 takes effect today, making it the first country to prohibit underage users from major platforms outright.
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Sorry, but as LAUDABLE as the goal is — and tyranny ALWAYS starts from good intentions — it’s not the role of Gooferment to police the conduct of children.
For example, the Gooferment COULD force ISPs to give parents tools to protect their children. When the inet first started, the ISP were under that pressure but avoided / evaded it by claiming is was “infeasible” or “not cost effective”. They could have created “MINOR ACCOUNTS” EASILY. (I know I supported the pitch at Comcast when I was working there.)
The UK countries have a terrible record on “free speech” and this is just another example of Big Gooferment “thought police” taking more power.
Argh!
Gooferment at all levels is always seeking to extend its power over the “We, The Sheeple” with “… it’s for the children”.
Michigan Veteran working full-time at grocery store goes viral as social media rallies to help him
In a now-viral post, 88-year-old Ed Bambas explained that he retired from General Motors in 1999 but later lost his pension and now works at a Michigan grocery store “to re-establish myself.”
By Alex Dvorak
• Published December 3, 2025 • Updated on December 4, 2025 at 1:46 pm
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Ed Bambas doesn’t know he’s become an internet sensation, but he’s about to find out just how much his story has resonated on social media.
The 88-year-old veteran working a full-time job at a Michigan grocery store is now at the center of a social media movement aiming to help him retire, with more than $1.2 million raised as of Wednesday.
In a post from Australian influencer Samuel Weidenhofer, Bambas explained that he retired as a salaried employee from General Motors in 1999, but lost his pension due to the company’s bankruptcy measures in 2012.
That year, the Old General Motors offered lump-sum payments to about 42,000 retirees and their surviving beneficiaries as they aimed to cut 24 percent from their U.S. pension obligation, NBC News reported at the time. NBC Chicago has not been able to confirm if Bambas was a part of those offerings.
Still, Bambas said his retirement quickly changed when his wife fell ill and he became her caregiver, leading to mounting medical bills.
“I sold my house, sold the property I had, and we made it through,” Bambas said through tears in the now-viral video. “My wife died seven years ago. Since then I’ve been trying to re-establish myself.”
When you leave the company, the Former Employee Site is a helpful place to access Payroll Stubs, Tax Information, Discounts and Benefits. You should have already received your username in an email with Subject, “Step 1 – Important: Former Employee Site Registration”
Please use the temporary password below along with the username to reset your password for the Former Employee Site before the password expiry date.
Click the following link or copy and paste it into an internet browser window to register:
Note: Your temporary password will expire on 12/26/2025 11PM CT
The system will prompt you to create a new password immediately.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Although you can register before you leave the Company, you will not be able to LOGIN and access the Former Employee Site until 1-2 days after your actual separation date from the Company.
**THIS IS AN AUTOMATED MESSAGE. DO NOT REPLY TO THIS MESSAGE**
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Error
Unable to process your request, contact your admin An error occurred while parsing EntityName. Line 3, position 58.300000
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I can’t be the only one who thinks that technology sucks.
What do you do to “contact your admin” when you don’t have one?
Meal time was extra challenging for this disabled first grader, so a lunch lady made him a custom ‘cafeteria cart’ Dec 4, 2025 5:15 AM PT
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6th grader Julian stands behind a metal cart with an Oregon license plate spelling his name
Cafeteria workers and school food professionals are often among a school’s unsung heroes, putting in long hours to prepare nutritious lunches, and even working over the summer to make sure their students are well-fed.
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It’s a wonderful story when ordinary folks make life easier for a disabled child.
BUT, (and there is always a BIG butt), almost everyone is wearing facemasks when now we know that they are not only useless but actually harmful (i.e., bacterial pneumonia’ children need to see facial expressions).
What can one expect from the liberal socialist State of Oregon.
Boyfriend who left woman on Austrian mountain to freeze to death posted harrowing message after body was recovered By Emily Crane Published Dec. 10, 2025 Updated Dec. 10, 2025, 10:30 a.m. ET
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Prosecutors allege the couple set off too late and didn’t have adequate equipment, given Gurtner was wearing snowboard boots and had no emergency bivouac gear.
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Guess he never heard of the Birkenhead Drill and “women and children first”
The Birkenhead Drill, also known as “women and children first,” refers to an unofficial code of conduct established during the sinking of the HMS Birkenhead in 1852, where soldiers prioritized saving women and children over themselves in a life-threatening situation. This act of chivalry has since become a symbol of self-sacrifice and discipline in maritime emergencies.
For an “expert” to be so unprepared and leave a supposedly loved noob behind is criminal.
Requiescat In Pacem Kerstin; you deserved better.
“Leave no man behind” — attributed to the Spartans
Switzerland Just Overwhelmingly Rejected a New Wealth Tax. Will California Lawmakers Learn?
The hammer of heavy wealth and inheritance taxes falls hardest on those still climbing the economic ladder.
J.D. Tuccille | 12.3.2025 7:00 AM
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California progressives are pushing a wealth tax that would skim 5 percent of the assets of billionaires to cover the state government’s fiscal gap. That is, it would hit billionaires to start—there’s no telling who would come to be regarded as wealthy enough to be fleeced as the state’s spending likely continues to outstrip its revenues. But before Californians proceed down the path of chasing high earners out of the state, they should consider the example of Swiss voters, who just rejected a billionaire tax of their own.
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Unfortunately, all the “We, The Sheeple” in the Pepuls Republik of Kaliforkneeah are NOT smart enough to realize that, like the Federal Gooferment’s income tax, eventually in a few years will come “down” to include everyone.
His dream of feeding the world died in prison. His dream of a seed bank lives on.
By Lee Alan Dugatkin April 21, 2021
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Vavilov, and those who starved at the VIR, could only have dreamed of the technology required to build and maintain a seed vault inside a mountain that sits in the permafrost of Spitsbergen, a remote Norwegian island 1,300 kilometers north of the Arctic circle. But the Svalbard Global Seed Vault is the futuristic version of what Vavilov had begun in 1921. Dubbed the Doomsday Vault, with a proclaimed mission to serve as “a global seed vault to serve as a backup storage facility … to store duplicates (backups) of seed samples from the world’s crop collections,” it opened in 2008, as a repository that would ultimately contain all the world’s crop plant genetic diversity. That vault is capable of storing 4.5 million different varieties of plants within its temperature controlled, -18 degrees Celsius facilities: With an average of 500 seeds per sample, that’s 2.5 billion seeds. Precisely the sort of place that Vavilov had dreamed of.
As of today, 1,074,537 samples from around the globe sit in the Svalbard Global Seed Vault. Among those samples are 60 boxes from depositor 1739365, the N.I. Vavilov All-Russian Scientific Research Institute of Plant Industry. In those boxes lay samples from 148 species and 41 genera of domesticated plants collected from 109 countries. Many are the descendants of the seeds Vavilov himself collected.
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Reading this article, one can only wonder what could have been if he was in a “capitalist” country like at the time England or the USA was. Hard to imagine what he went thru to collect samples. Humanity may not know his name, but his genetic “children” live on forever.
So sad to read all these dedicated people dying of basically starvation and political persecution.
Next time someone extolls Communism or Socialism, they should be directed to read this.
“Capitalism” may be “bad” and have “flaws”, but Communism, and Socialism aka Communism “lite”, are horrendously worse.
“The greatest fallacy of democracy is that everyone’s opinion is worth the same.” — Robert A. Heinlein
“Capitalism is a moral system because it offers individual freedom. You choose what you want. You choose your money and where you want it to go. You can be yourself. Socialism is groupthink. Step outside the group straightjacket and freedom ends.” —Stuart Varney
“The answer certainly isn’t socialism. Middle-class voters currently presume that elites already control the government—so why would they want to give the bureaucracy any more power?” — RAHM EMANUEL was the 44th mayor of Chicago
“We all too often have socialism for the rich and rugged free market capitalism for the poor.” — Martin Luther King Jr
This man was an outstanding example of courage and determinatiom. We should all be like him even in the smallest ways possible.
What pigs and rats taught me about human snack food
You are what you eat….
John Klar Small Farm Republic Nov 27, 2025
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As an experiment, I left a rejected pink Snoball on the floor in one of the pigs’ stalls. I would shovel up their manure and bedding daily, but leave the half-round pink dainty to tempt them on the concrete floor. But they wouldn’t bite. (I recall one brave, presumably very hungry pig taking a nibble, no more.)
With all that grain, bread, hay, and sweets stockpiled, we attracted a small population of rats that I would sic my border collies on when we startled them on barn entry. The rats would creep into the pigs’ stalls to scavenge for their leftovers. But they wouldn’t touch that pink Snoball.
Nor would the flies. I left the thing out for weeks, and nothing would eat it. Over time, it remained preserved, as though it had been prehistorically sealed in amber, though it was in the open air. It wouldn’t rot – even the mold and bacteria eschewed the rubbery marshmallow lure.
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I have a suggestion for RFKjr and the CDC / FDA (aka Big Pharma advocates). Let’s create a new simple test for foods, additives, and chemicals. I call it the “Pig, Rat, and Mold” test.
(Remember the Big Mac that was untouched by age?)
A panel of pigs, rats, and molds will be introduced to a proposed food. If they won’t eat it, or it unfortunately kills, them, then it’s stamped “Unfit For Consumption” and treated like an industrial poison.
No expensive study required.
If BigAg is convinced the pigs are wrong, then they can fund the studies to prove that. Laugh! I can see the ads now: “9 out of 10 pigs agree, this is inedible. Be unique and be a early adopter!”
FJohn Reinke
Consultant at Technology Legacies LLC
Advisor, Computer Governance Committee at Manhattan College
Editor / Publisher at Jasper Jottings
Greater New York City Area
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