ENCOURAGING: Cuban refugee marvels at a Costa Rican farmers market

Monday, January 12, 2026

https://pjmedia.com/sarah-anderson/2025/12/28/shed-never-seen-that-much-food-before-a-hard-truth-from-a-farmers-market-n4947618

She’d Never Seen That Much Food Before: A Hard Reality From a Farmers Market
Sarah Anderson | 3:39 PM on December 28, 2025

*** begin quote ***

While filming herself seasoning a large roast, she adds:

I don’t know if you know this, but Christmas isn’t celebrated in Cuba. Most people don’t even have enough money to buy a piece of meat or decorate their homes with lights.

Things are so incredibly different here that I invite you to appreciate it; you can’t imagine how happy people are in this country, and they haven’t even realized it.

Today, I’m only thinking about my family, about how many people didn’t even have a plate of food to eat, how they spent Christmas without electricity, without water, without motivation, and without hope.

*** end quote ***

While “We, The Sheeple” in the Pepuls Republik of Nu Jerk vote in a “democratic socialist”, here we have testimony about living in a Communist country.  We have great examples of “socialism” and what results.  Yet we are too stupid to learn the lesson.

Argh!

More examples like this are encouraging since the difference is so dramatic.

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HEALTHCARE: Shouldn’t the US emulate Denmark with respect to vaccines

Sunday, January 11, 2026

https://www.thefocalpoints.com/p/can-the-us-emulate-denmarks-control?publication_id=1119676&post_id=183742515&isFreemail=true&r=3snn7d&triedRedirect=true

Can the US Emulate Denmark’s Control Over Communicable Disease?
Dr McCullough responds to vaccine ideology
from Peter Hotez on FOX Business, The Evening Edit
Peter A. McCullough, MD, MPH
Jan 07, 2026

*** begin quote ***

Denmark maintains high control over vaccine-preventable diseases despite having one of the most streamlined childhood vaccine schedules among high-income nations. The Danish program vaccinates children against about 10–11 diseases, fewer than the 16–18 historically targeted by the U.S. schedule. Core Danish vaccines cover measles, mumps, rubella, polio, diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, Haemophilus influenzae type B, pneumococcal disease, and HPV. The system omits universal vaccination for RSV, influenza, rotavirus, hepatitis A and B, varicella (chickenpox), and meningococcal disease.

Denmark has universal healthcare, a national health registry, and high compliance rates, which enable rapid outbreak detection and treatment.

*** end quote ***

I especially like the idea that patients and doctors can decide if a particular vaccine is needed.  Since individuals are different, everything should be subject to their specific needs.  We are learning that now organs are being created custom for the individual to avoid complications and rejections.  

We need more “science” and a lot less Gooferment “knowing what is best for us”. 

Argh!

— 30 —


POLITICAL: Stop shielding criminal police

Saturday, January 10, 2026

https://downsizedc.org/act/qualified-immunity-end-it-2/

Qualified Immunity: End it!
Stop shielding criminal police

*** begin quote ***

The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that qualified immunity did NOT protect the cops this time. That means that citizens of the 5th Circuit – in Louisiana, Texas, and Mississippi – may now have slightly greater protection against police misconduct.

Sadly, qualified immunity continues to protect cops when they lock prisoners in sewage-flooded cells, assault innocent people with tear gas, steal hundreds of thousands of dollars, and shoot kids while attempting to murder dogs. Only congressional legislation can fix this problem once and for all, especially given that the Supreme Court declined to hear the most recent qualified immunity case. 

*** end quote ***

The litany of offenses of police, politicians, and bureaucrats is undeniably long and an affront to justice.

Time to have Congress correct it and put accountability back where it belongs.

— 30 —


HEALTHCARE: When the number of administrators goes up at a rate 18 times as much as … … 

Friday, January 9, 2026

https://www.theburningplatform.com/2026/01/02/the-healthcare-grift-in-one-chart/

THE HEALTHCARE GRIFT IN ONE CHART

*** begin quote ***

When the number of administrators goes up at a rate 18 times as much as the number of physicians, you no longer have healthcare, you have a massive grifting operation, designed to enrich health insurance corporations, hospital corporations, Big Pharma corporations, corporate executives, government bureaucrats “overseeing” the healthcare grift, and the politicians who were bribed to create and exacerbate the grift.

*** end quote ***

I remember seeing my Mom’s bill for my appendectomy when I was I’m guessing about 10.  It was for my three day stay in the (I hink) Knickerbocker Hospital.  (I remember thinking that was a funny name for a hospital.)  It was for more than one hundred dollars, but less than two hundred.  My Mom luckily had (?Blue Cross Blue Shield?) thru her employer AT&T.  But she had to pay the bill first and submit a “claim”.  (I’d never heard that before.).  Since it was a lot of money, her whole family sat down and looked at the bill, line by line, and item by item.  I never knew if they found any discrepancies.  But, in the end, everyone chipped in.  I wasn’t privy to who kicked in what.  And, when my Mom got the check for 80% of the claim, she paid everyone back.  Simpler times; lower costs.

From that story, I distill that “Health Care costs” would be a lot less if everyone has to pay a percentage.  Maybe, that percentage could be tied to the poverty line. BUT, (and there is always a BIG butt), everybody pays something. One tenth of a percent up to say ten percent for Medicare / Medicaid Insurance.

I remember two facts: (1) when motorized wheelchairs were new, there was a TV commercial that promised a free one for every one of Medicare; and (2) some news report asserted that a sixth of all Medicare claims in southeast Florida were fraudulent.  Wish I had captured those two “facts” as proof but I am positive of the memory.  (I so sure because at the time my sainted Mother In Law was always griping about phone calls trying to get her to take one. )

So, instead of sending people to jail, the grift was allowed to continue and grow.

Argh!

— 30 —


POLICY: “Malinda’s Law,” a nation-wide registry for individuals with a history of child abuse

Thursday, January 8, 2026

https://www.change.org/p/enact-malinda-s-law-for-child-safety-in-pennsylvania?signed=true

Enact Malinda’s Law for Child Safety in Pennsylvania

*** begin quote ***

We propose “Malinda’s Law,” a new nation-wide registry for individuals with a history of child abuse. This registry would enable real-time communication between agencies whenever a child-related emergency or abuse report involves a prior offender. By strengthening these lines of communication, we aim to protect innocent children from slipping through the cracks of a broken system.

*** end quote ***

And, why not have such a registry in the Pepuls Republik of Nu Jerzee?

I’m a little L libertarian but convicts should be registered.

— 30 —


DISCOURAGING: The Trump administration is really like a Monty Python skit

Wednesday, January 7, 2026

https://internationalman.com/articles/dropping-the-facade-propaganda-power-and-the-absurdity-of-empire/

Dropping the Façade: Propaganda, Power, and the Absurdity of Empire

by Chris MacIntosh

*** begin quote ***

It’s like we’re living in a live Monty Python skit. If we are to consider that the Trump administration can end wars started by previous administrations (pretty easy to cut the funding), then the current podium donut of the Deep State in the US has failed spectacularly.

Existing wars: Ukraine and Israel’s war. Can’t really call it a war, but… well, that conflict.

Trump has continued to fund the oligarchs in Ukraine. He’s continued to fund the Zionists’ genocide in Gaza. He’s bombed Iran on behalf of his handlers. He’s bombed Yemen, funded and assisted in the overthrow of Syria and installed the previous head of ISIS (you can’t make this shit up). And he’s now threatening war with both Venezuela and Colombia on the laughable excuse of “drug trafficking.”

It is the most insane inversion of the truth. I understand how history tends to unfold, and reading through the collapse of previous empires I’m quite sure that none were so terribly absurd as this. Curiously, the rest of the world is no longer playing by the empire’s rules.

*** end quote ***

In this article, he uses “words” and phrases that are really quite good.  I particularly like the phrase “podium donuts” to describe pundit and spokespeople who say a lot of words but really say nothing.  There is a “word” “shulbit” which I haven’t heard since I worked on Wall Street.  They used it to describe politely <synonym for excrement from a male cow> accounting. 

The substance of the whole rant is that DJT4547 could stop these conflicts with the stroke of his pen.  What can anyone do to him?  That hasn’t been done already.  Impeachment?  Sure go ahead and try.  He can’t be reelected, so there’s no threat there.  “They” have already tried to kill him twice.

DJT wants to have legacy?  Just cutoff the money supply to ALL foreign and domestic war mongers.

Remember Gandhi?  He stopped Muslim Hindu violence cold with a hunger strike.  

That’s a peace prize that is within his grasp if he just has the stones to do it.

I’d like to think I could, but it would take a heroic level of courage.

Dona Nobis Pacem

— 30 —


ENCOURAGING: Meanwhile, another student called 911, ensuring help was on the way.

Tuesday, January 6, 2026

https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/brother-sister-spring-into-action-to-help-save-their-school-bus-driver-from-medical-emergency/?utm_source=newsletter.goodnewsnetwork.org&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=brother-and-sister-save-the-day&_bhlid=cf3cf024260334bd3a789a9735873968f30e5b46

Brother-Sister Spring into Action to Help Save Their School Bus Driver from Medical Emergency
By Andy Corbley – Dec 31, 2025

*** begin quote ***

Siblings Leap to the Rescue When School Bus Driver Faces Medical Crisis

When an Ohio school bus driver suffered a medical emergency, 8-year-old Catrina quickly noticed and asked if she was alright. Realizing the driver was in distress, Catrina ran to the back of the bus to alert her older brother, Charlie.

Charlie, a 7th grader, rushed to the front and used the radio to call the school for help. Meanwhile, another student called 911, ensuring help was on the way.

The bus driver had previously taught her riders how to use the radio in emergencies, and she later expressed gratitude that they remembered her instructions.

Their calm, quick actions were praised by the school superintendent, who called the siblings’ response truly outstanding.

*** end quote ***

Well maybe the children of a future generation will not be helpless mind-numbed robots?

I note the story because one child had a cell phone and used it.  

Remember the politicians and bureaucrats want to take cell phones away from children in Gooferment Skrules!

I STILL disagree.  I remember student using their phones during more than one school shooting.  Hard to do that if they are not there, or in a secure Faraday pouch, or locked in school principal’s office, or a a child’s locker.

Children should ALWAYS be able to connect to their parents,

It’s up to the school’s leadership how to make that happen and “confiscation” is NOT the answer!

— 30 —


DISCOURAGING: Michigan Legislators Push Orwellian Vaccination Laws

Monday, January 5, 2026

https://johnklar.substack.com/p/michigan-legislators-push-orwellian?publication_id=779141&post_id=182175531&isFreemail=true&r=3vwsqx&triedRedirect=true

Michigan Legislators Push Orwellian Vaccination Laws
Restricting parental choice in the name of empowerment.
John Klar
Dec 30, 2025

*** begin quote ***

Michigan Legislation of Intimidation

Yet Michigan has launched a series of bills that would require all schools to release immunization status reports on students (HB 5344); all child care centers to release similar reports (HB 5346); a “childhood immunization registry” (HB 5346); all parents to sign a form on their child’s vaccination status (HB 5347); a statewide registry and forms for students seeking an exemption (HB 5348 and 5349); local health officer reports (HB 5350); vaccination recommendations by the Michigan state advisory committee in lieu of the CDC (HB 5351 and 5352); insurance companies must still cover state immunization recommendations even if CDC does not (HB 5353); and expands authority to issue “standing orders: for mass drug roll-outs (HB 5354).

This is a fearsome array of measures to “empower parents” by empowering the state. Health and Human Services Secretary Kennedy and ACIP empowered parents to confer with the doctors they trust; this is a reactionary statist power grab of parental choice.

Isaac Newton’s Third Law of Motion holds that to every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. This obtains in politics as in physics, through the vaccine wars – Kennedy’s common sense fuels radical Orwellian countermeasures that intrude between parents and their healthcare providers through strong arming.

*** end quote ***

I’m sure hoping that the Michigan voters “educate” their (supposed) representatives that parents, and only parents, should decide what is “best” for their children. IMHO (In My Humble Opinion) the best way to do that is too “unelect” them in the next election.   I really don’t care who their opponents are; this has to be punished.

It’s apparent that “democratic socialism” is a plague that infects “representatives” with God-like power grabs.

Argh!

— 30 —


INSPIRATIONAL: Johan van Hulst spent the rest of his 107-year life haunted by the children he couldn’t save.

Sunday, January 4, 2026

May be an image of text that says 'Weird ፕየብዮ He ran a a school eside a nursery holding Jewish children awaiting deportation. For months, he passed babies over a hedge to safety, saving over 600 lives. What tortured him wasn't the risk or the fear-but choosing which children lived today, and which he had to leave to die.'

*** begin quote ***

Weird but True

This is the story of Johan van Hulst – the teacher who smuggled babies out of a Nazi deportation center for months, and spent the rest of his 107-year life haunted by the children he couldn’t save.

Amsterdam, 1942. 

Johan van Hulst was 31 years old when the Nazis turned his neighbor into a death sentence.

*** and ***

Van Hulst had to choose which children to save.

The crèche held dozens, sometimes hundreds of children. The resistance could only handle a few at a time—they needed families willing to hide them, false papers, transportation, safe houses.

So every day, van Hulst had to pick.

Which baby gets saved today? Which toddler goes over the hedge this afternoon? Which children have to wait—knowing that waiting might mean they’re deported before you can come back for them?

How do you make that choice?

Van Hulst later said in an interview:
“I took twelve children with me. Later on, I asked myself: ‘Why not thirteen?'”

That question haunted him for 75 years.

*** end quote ***

What would you do?  What would I do?

We have a similar situation going on today in Gaza and the Ukraine.

And what are we doing?

I’m only one odd soul and all I can do is tell my “elected representatives” that if they don’t cut funding for these wars, I’m not voting for them in the next election.  I can only imagine the impact if all 350 MILLION citizens echoed the same message.

Dona Nobis Pacem

— 30 —


RANT: Dental malpractice insurance rates will go up as a result of this

Saturday, January 3, 2026

https://nypost.com/2025/12/25/us-news/final-photo-of-arizona-man-killed-during-routine-dental-procedure-resurfaces-as-family-settles-wrongful-death-suit/

Final photo of Arizona man killed during routine dental procedure resurfaces as family settles wrongful death suit
By Caitlin McCormack
Published Dec. 25, 2025, 2:24 a.m. ET

*** begin quote ***

A haunting selfie taken by an Arizona man hours before he suffered a fatal brain injury during a routine dental implant procedure has resurfaced as his distraught parents settled his wrongful death lawsuit.

Derek Swanson, 40, took a picture of himself beaming in a dentist’s chair on March 3, 2023. He captioned the photo: “Yesterday, new car. Today, implant! Fun never stops.”

*** and ***

The grieving parents are also looking to amend Arizona law to require a dentist and an anesthetist to be present during dental surgery.

The current laws state that a dentist can perform surgery and administer anesthesia without an anesthetist present so long as they have the proper state permit.

“We would like to not have another family go through what we had to go through and are going through and will be for the rest of our life,” Swanson told the outlet.

*** end quote ***

I bet all the malpractice insurance rates will go up as a result of this.  If I was an insurance company, then I wouldn’t wait for the politicians and bureaucrats to update their diktats.  I’d be reviewing every individual dental procedure insured, as well as every individual practice’s methods for safety and their results.

The free market, if truly free, would have an “instant” feedback loop of price to adjust for risk.

Argh!

Gooferment is immoral, ineffective, and inefficient. As well as untrustworthy.

— 30 — 

 


DISCOURAGING: “Rent Control” is dumb Gooferment policy

Friday, January 2, 2026

https://www.facebook.com/stephen.trynosky/posts/pfbid02sbBQzsLi71gqTNvtMr1qnHQQ3PcGEvhtPHep7zQpFmsg87m8YH9DDKCo5gxUJe7wl?notif_id=1766595016000000&notif_t=close_friend_activity&ref=notif

S Kent Troy’s Post

*** begin quote ***

The Bronx burned in the 1970’s because of many factors but the primary one was Rent controls which froze rents in 1942 and only loosened them in 1971! Hence, no turnover, no bank lending, no money for maintenance, no money for the heating fuel crisis. Prove me wrong and do NOT use that old chestnut about landlords burning down their own buildings. The smaller owners couldn’t even sell their properties and just walked away.

*** end quote ***

*** begin quote ***

If rent caps worked, cities using them would have abundant, well maintained housing.
 
They do not.
 
Housing improves when building is allowed, supply can respond, and people are free to create solutions instead of freezing failure in place.
 
Shortages are not a market failure.
 
They are a policy outcome.

*** end quote ***

I remember my (enlightened?) uncles sitting around the dinner table after a few beers portray the then current bunch of politicians and bureaucrats as “stupid communists”.  And how they “couldn’t buy a building and live off the rents in their old age”.

I was too young to really understand how right they were.  The politicians were the modern equivalent of the old “snake oil” salesman who promised a remedy for all things and everything.  Even if you didn’t know what ails you. Argh!

Now in my old age, I realize how right they were on a mutlitude of topics.

I can’t imagine what they’d think of a REAL COMMUNIST (aka “democratic socialist) being elected the mayor of New York City.  What are those SHEEPLE in the Pepuls Republik of Nu Jerk thinking?

Argh!

“Lessons in life will be repeated until they are learned.”  —  Frank Sonnenberg

Seems like the “rent control” lesson will be repeated again in NYC!

— 30 —


INSPIRATIONAL: Nothing can tell us why someone is the way they are

Thursday, January 1, 2026

https://www.makeuseof.com/84-years-later-this-is-still-cinemas-greatest-one-word-mystery/?user=bXVvQHJlaW5rZS5jYw&lctg=28d2ed2b3c7a64795f347195bfd302ab46e112a2d0fa032e2ba5de55cc388ab7

84 years later, this is still cinema’s greatest one-word mystery
By Dan Selcke
Published 1 day ago << EDITOR ADDED DATE 2025-11-26>>

  • “Rosebud” is emblematic of the fact that the puzzle can never be solved
  • No one thing can tell us why someone is the way they are

*** begin quote ***

Kane becomes an incredibly accomplished person, but he’s always unsatisfied. He builds a newspaper dynasty, but the money isn’t enough. He runs for governor of New York, but the adulation of the people isn’t enough. He marries twice, but family isn’t enough. “Rosebud” seems to reveal what would have been enough. Kane was robbed of his childhood. He wanted to be a kid and grow up with his parents’ love in his life. If he can only go back in time and fix what happened to him when he was 8 years old, then he could be happy, but he can’t, so he never will be.

*** end quote ***

“Rosebud”?

Doesn’t everyone have something in their past that they wish they could go back and change?

“If he can only go back in time and fix what happened to him when he was 8 years old, then he could be happy, but he can’t, so he never will be.”

That really rings true in my life and I bet in most people’s life.

I wrote about the concept in my Magnum Opus.

“… checked the Eternal Possibilities Machine, which generates all the possibilities for use in creating the alternative worlds. In all those probability lines …” CHURCH 10●19●62 (Vol 1) 978-0-557-08387-9 page 45

Were there such a tool like the “Eternal Possibilities Machine” so we could see the “alternative worlds” that would give us the most happiness.  Were it possible to go back and fix these “mistakes”.  But there isn’t and that’s an eternal fact of life.

“You have to play the hand you’re dealt; not the one you could have had.  (Don’t regret what could have been; you might have been hit by a bus!)  And certainly don’t envy somebody else’s ’cause you don’t know what you don’t know’.  Their hand always turns out to be worse than yours.  In other words, there’s always always some one worse off and some one better off. Get over it and move on!” — Anonymous 

“My love, were it in my power, I would sadly grant thee this boon. But, we have to continue to follow His Plan for us. Let’s go forth and speak no more of this. Who ever is last will be last. It will be His choice; not ours. We’re but humble custodians of His temple on earth. It’s not our place to trump His plan. Whatever that plan be, know that I will be with you to my last breath.” — character “John” in CHURCH 10●19●62 Volume 2 Page 399

At this time of year, I always get sad, maudlin, and sappy.  It’s now “easy” to see the mistakes.  

“I think we all wish we could erase some dark times in our lives. But all of life’s experiences, bad and good, make you who you are. Erasing any of life’s experiences would be a great mistake.” — Luis Miguel

I’ve always thought there are NO “mistakes” in life.  There are choices we’ve made based on incomplete dikw (i.e., data, information, knowledge, wisdom) or choices made in haste or choices that were “against the odds”.  

“It is possible to commit no mistakes and still lose. That is not weakness, that is life.” – Jean-Luc Picard

“There are no regrets in life. Just lessons.” – Jennifer Aniston

“So, pack up your troubles in your old kit bag and smile.” — a World War I marching song written in 1915 by George Henry Powell and his brother Felix Powell.

[FJR: Writing this makes me feel better.]

— 30 —