Mindconnection eNL, 2024-01-21

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Fighting Communism

1. The polar vortex has greatly exposed one of the many flaws in battery-powered cars. They and their charging stations are unreliable in not just hot weather, but also in extreme cold. In much of the country, the vast majority of these toys are stranded. I call them toys, because nobody rational can seriously refer to them as "cars". A car is something you rely on to get you to and from work, the grocery store, your dentist, or even the hospital. A battery-powered car is not reliable, nor is it even "green". It doesn't replace a car, it replaces common sense.
   
2. A "premium content" article in the Epoch Times has this deck (a kind of subtitle): "Criminal convictions of election fraud across America have called into question the narrative that cheating is rare and of little impact." Election fraud is what enabled the coup and toppled our republic. Nutcase Nancy calls election integrity protections "a threat to our democracy" as if honest voting is somehow bad and as if we live in a democracy.
   
   Just as a reminder, a democracy is when ten people vote whether to lynch a black man and the majority rules (his view and position are not considered). That's a mobocracy--the mob makes the laws ad hoc. In a republic, you have the rule of law. The laws are made not ad hoc but ahead of time. In a democratic republic, people are elected to make those laws. Lynching was outlawed in the USA because nobody in legislative sessions could look a black person in the eye and justify the brutality.
   
3. Even though my home state of Illinois is a bastion of corruption, statism, and socialism (one of the worst communist countries in the USA), there are enough sane people to sometimes get impressive things done in the name of freedom and the rule of law. For example, they managed to indict many governors and this led to the observation that Illinois governors serve two terms--the first in office, the second in prison. Now these freedom fighters have done another impressive feat. They have filed three objections with the Illinois Board of Elections basically along the lines that Brainless is ineligible.
   
4. Comment on the Brainless is ineligible movement in Illinois. Brainless was ineligible the first time around, due to medical reasons (clearly retarded and obviously demented). He came in a distant fourth in the Democratic Primary, and this fact alone should have triggered an investigation into corruption. The nomination should have gone to either Comrade Bernie or Elizabeth "I can't do basic math" Warren. The problem with those two candidates is they have sentience and therefore might not do what they were told. This is what happened with Ike and then Kennedy. And you remember how Kennedy was terminated, no severance package unless you count getting the back of his head blown off (severed) as severance.
   
5. An Amish farm in New York was illegally raided and subjected to several bogus charges. Among those was the selling of raw milk and raw milk products. The same FDA that deemed the clot shot "safe and effective" has deemed raw milk to be "a dangerous product". This, of course, defies logic and common sense. What else can you expect from the FDA, at this point?
   
   If raw milk is so dangerous, why aren't calves dying by the millions? And does any human mother boil her breast milk before feeding it to her baby? The FDA is silent on homogenized milk (subjected to heat and pressure, causing damage to the lipids and making the milk a bit toxic) and silent on pasteurized milk. When milk is pasteurized, its enzymes are destroyed along with other nutrients in the milk. What's not destroyed are the mammary pus from the diseased factory farm cows and the antibiotics fed to those cows.
   
   That is to say, pasteurized milk is a dangerous product. Raw milk from Amish farms is not. If the authorities in New York are actually concerned about public safety, they would be raiding the CAFOs (Concentrated Animal Farming Operations) and places where the milk is pasteurized. But their only concern is helping their corporate masters stomp out the competition.
   
6. When the legacy media publish an op-ed like this instead of suppress it, you know there is hope for America despite the darkness of this proverbial hour:
   https://www.newsweek.com/senator-roger-marshall-joe-biden-real-threat-democracy-opinion-1861267
   
   Brainless and his minions have wrought destruction on our country in a multitude of ways. The death toll is on par with our being at war, and the expense actually exceeds that by an order of magnitude. At this point, only the dullest of the libtards find this amusing. The vast majority of Americans are angry at what has been done to us and scared for our future as a nation and as individuals. We are less than 10 months away from the presumed "election". In 2020, the American people re-elected President Trump and rejected Brainless Biden. But through massive and obvious election cheating (e.g., the flood of absentee ballots 90% for Biden after the polls closed, more Biden votes in a county than registered voters, etc.), our President was denied his second term. This will happen again, unless we are vigilant about election integrity.
   
   Please contact your county election board and express your concerns. Ask them to tell you what election integrity measures they have implemented since 2020. And if you're contacted by any Democrats going door to door with absentee ballots, you know where to tell them to go. In no uncertain terms. Heap shame and abuse on them, it will demotivate them for at least several critical hours during which they won't prey upon the elderly and others who don't really understand what's being asked of them. Or better yet, appear at your City Council meeting and inquire about passing an ordinance barring this kind of dishonest activity.
   

The Ongoing Covid Scam: Tidbits

1. St Louis rescinded its new mask requirement after only a week. Was this because wearing a dust mask to stop a biohazard is positively stupid? No. Is this because someone there read the specs on the box and realized that a virus that's only 0.70 microns will pass right through the 0.300 micron mesh of the mask? No. Is this because of any science whatsoever? No. It's because they issue the mask mandate when (alleged) Covid infections rise above a predetermined level. This is like mandating green socks on days when it's overcast. No factual relationship whatsoever between the mandate and the trigger for it.
   
2. https://frontline.news/post/what-covid-vaccine-manufacturers-did-not-check
   
3. It's been over four years since the Covid scam started. The CDC has yet to come up with any proof whatsoever that any of their edicts (masks, social distancing, avoid virus-killing sunlight, go into solitary confinement, etc.) offer any protection against Covid. Nor have they come up with any proof whatsoever that the jab is a vaccine, that it's safe, or that it's effective. This raises the question, "Why are we wasting money funding the CDC?"

Other News

1. Wayne LaPierre is retiring as the CEO and Executive Vice President of the National Rifle Association. He's 74 years old, so it's not like he's doing something unusual by retiring. I have met Wayne in person several times, and for decades have read his various articles and other missives. He strikes me as an honorable man who is a true patriot. The crap he's taken on behalf of law-abiding gun owners and our Second Amendment Freedoms is nothing short of astounding.
   
   Since the Clinton era began in 1993, the socialists have been unrelenting in their attacks on our fundamental freedoms. Since they failed to legislate away those freedoms, they have tried to destroy those freedoms by abusing the court system with frivolous lawsuits.
   
   The most recent such suit is the corruption suit against Wayne LaPierre personally and against the NRA. Allegedly Wayne and other NRA officers have squandered member funds on personal luxuries. And according to them, Wayne is retiring so he doesn't have to face the music. Which makes no sense, because if he had done these things and he's being sued personally along with the NRA then the last thing he would do is resign. He resigned because it's been overdue for a while and because this witch hunt is just another fight of many he's had to wage and he's already shouldered far more than his share of the burden these suits bring. And because fighting the personal charges will only distract him from his work with the NRA. So it's time for younger person to take on that role, while Wayne fights one last battle against these criminal safety activists.
   
2. Brainless "cancelled" another $4.9 billion in student loan debt. Translated into English, it means that people who already paid for their own college tuition or never even went to college will now be forced to pay the college tuition bills of people who mostly selected economically stupid degrees to pursue. If your degree is not valuable enough to justify the cost of tuition, choose a different major. This unilateral transfer of debt from those who incurred it to those who did not is immoral in the extreme.
   
3. AOC, the communist retard who can't keep her mouth shut, now has a "creative plan" to come up with $14 trillion in "reparations". This whole "reparations" thing is idiotic for many reasons.
   
   First, there is no living person who was a plantation slave or had a parent or grandparent who was. The idea of reparations assumes that people who call themselves black are too stupid to make their own way in life even several generations after plantation slavery was ended.
   
   Second, the vast majority of "black" people in the USA are not descendants of plantation slaves. The number of "blacks" who voluntarily moved to the USA since the Emancipation Proclamation dwarfs the number of people here who are descended from "blacks" who were brought here as slaves.
   
   Third, the vast majority of "non-blacks" are not descendants of slave owners. So who is on the hook for paying all of these people who were never victims of plantation slavery? In my own case, would it be the descendants of my dirt-poor peasant great great grandfather who moved here in the 1890 Depression from Sicily, to work in the Pennsylvania coal mines? Or would it be the descendants of my dirt-poor great great grandfather who moved here from a war-impoverished part of Germany to eke out a living as a piano player at a Milwaukee hotel? I am the first of his descendants to earn a college degree, which I paid for myself. My sister is the second, and only other one. Are we "privileged" folks? Hardly.
   
   Fourth, the liberals have tried to squash the movie "Sound of Freedom", which has as its central theme the human trafficking and child sex slave trade that is enslaving more people than the plantations did in their prime. Under Trump's administration, this network of slavery took major hits. Under Brainless Biden, it has resurged and become quite vigorous. You can bet the clients are not "white male Christians" (especially not Oath Keepers), most of whom can't afford the pricey "merchandise" anyhow. Logic tells us it's wealthy liberals, the same people who want to cause a race war by inflicting heavy burdens of "reparation" on innocent parties as a wealth transfer to non-victims of slavery based only on their skin color.
   
   We cannot let these libtards divide us this way. We must stand united against them, rather than being manipulated by them into such diversions as racial hatred.

Buy the Rocket Pen on Amazon | eBay | Walmart

Watch this demo video: https://youtu.be/DQd4MBpv4B8

These features were added with the latest release:

• Has dictionary lockout and ExamRead feature, so it doubles as an exam pen.
• Left-hand user mode.
• Scan left to right mode.
• Fast shutdown.
• Selectable voices for playback of scanned text.
• Selectable UI language: English (default) or Spanish.

Other features and benefits:

• Allows students or adults with reading difficulties to gain independence and reading fluency without stigma.
• Reading tutor functions include spelling, syllabication (how the word is "built"), and one word displayed in big font.
• Syllables break for each word.
• Direct lookup of phrasal verbs and idiomatic expressions (for example, get ahead, get along, keep on, keep off, look forward to).
• Uses colors for the different fields, to improve the understanding of the dictionary definition.
  
• You scan, it reads to you.
• Scans lines of text or individual words from almost any surface, not just paper. It can read the text on a computer, tablet, or phone.
• Hear individual words or even multiple lines of text read aloud in natural voice.
  
• Completely self-contained, no computer or Wi-Fi required.
• Comes ready to use, no setup process (but customization can easily be done).
• Full 1.9 inch color touch screen, and simple physical buttons for screenless scan and read.
  
• Multiple built-in dictionaries to search definitions including the New Oxford American Dictionary (over twice the size of what the cPen uses) with Oxford Thesaurus of English (Americanized), Oxford American Children’s Dictionary with Oxford American Children’s Thesaurus, and English to Spanish dictionary.
• Built-in speaker automatically mutes when earbuds are used, automatically unmutes when they aren't.
• Meets FCC, ROHS, and CE standards.
• Package includes ReaderPen, USB charging cable, Quick Start Guide, and earphones.

How it teaches reading

Before the early 1980s, public schools relied on phonics to teach reading. This allowed any student to "sound out" a new, unfamiliar word and also recognize its root and thereby often grasp its meaning even without a dictionary. Then schools switched to the "Look See" method, which treated words as individual pictograms to memorize. The results were dismal, plummeting the USA from the top of the literacy ranks to the bottom among industrialized countries.

The Rocket Pen puts phonics back in.

It also adds a context-driven dictionary and a context-driven thesaurus, both powerful tools for improving reading skills. See the reading tutor functions in the chart below.

It is the answer

The Rocket Pen Reader is the answer for helping the reading-challenged in the classroom, special needs classes, home-schooling, and adult education. Because of its mobile-friendly design, you can carry it with you and use it anywhere. Not only does it read to you, it helps you learn to read (for example, by showing you the syllable breakdown and the definition). It is super easy to use, no need to watch a dozen videos to figure out what to do.

Based on the highly successful ReadingPen 2 and vastly superior to the cPen Reader Pen, the RocketPen is the latest generation in a reading tutor scanning pen. It is a quantum leap or two beyond anything else on the market. This amazing device retails for $499, sells for $399 on Amazon and Walmart.com, but is on sale now for a limited time only via our eBay store at only $379!

It beats the competition

Compare the Rocket Pen to the competition. The winner here is obvious:

Thus, I was taken aback when an e-mail correspondent asked me how I "size up" a new person who approaches me to start a conversation. That is how you enter into an adversarial contest, which to me is not a conversation at all. He went on to name a few ideological things that are "important" to assess ahead of time. And he emphasized "race" (an artificial construct not  relevant to assessing person in any way). What he was really getting at is he is fixates on his "tribal belonging" and his ideology. Any new person he encounters might not belong to his tribe or share his ideology, in which case that person is an infidel and an enemy. So in lieu of a conversation he will enter into an adversarial spewing of idiocies, ad hominem attacks, and other wastes of time.

I've had the pleasure of corresponding with readers of this eNL over the years. Perhaps there is one who behaves this way, but I doubt it. I think what's worth recognizing is there are people who do behave this way. Probably a lot of people. But it's even more important to recognize that plenty of people can enrich your life simply by talking with you. And vice-versa.

Let's not confuse a conversation with a negotiation. Many people use conversation time to "find common ground". In a negotiation, you do that to reduce the "adversarial" part of the adversarial relationship that is a negotiation. With a debate, you don't even do that because you are seeking to prove your thesis while the other person is seeking to disprove it (or vice versa).

A conversation is about giving and taking, which is another way of saying it's about sharing. Let's say I give you a cookie, and in return you give me a cookie from the same bag. That is not much of an exchange. Now let's say I'm from Island A where we grow oranges and you are from Island B where you grow bananas. I give you an orange, and you give me a banana. That's a nice exchange. We did not seek common ground (e.g., "Well, an orange is like a banana because you don't eat the peel"). We benefitted from our differences.

That is not to say you need to seek out people who are different from you and ignore those who have a lot in common with you. Those commonalities are also a good basis for a conversation. But they are not the only basis and when anyone makes "be like me" or "agree with me" a requirement, then there's no real conversation taking place.

Some of the things some of my friends believe are ridiculous. Some of my friends no doubt see some of what I believe as ridiculous. I say "no doubt" because I know how some of them see my dedication to training and diet. And there are other things we don't see eye to eye on. Now, we could choose to exclude and/or ridicule each other for those particular differences. Or we could choose to value and respect each other, in which case we might ignore those particular differences and show interest in other differences that we find potentially enriching or just interesting.

When I was in high school, I marveled at Chris Isom (RIP). I have absolutely zero interest in professional sports. Back then I knew the names of only three football teams (the Bears, the Packers, and the Cowboys; today, I also know the Kansas City Chiefs). But Chris, who seemed not to be interested in anything I was interested in, was really into that whole scene. He could give you stats on a baseball game that was played in 1953. Toss any sports question at him, and he knew the answer. Chris and I were not close, but we did attend the same church and I would always light up when I saw him because he was just so happy all the time. He had a way of sharing his encyclopedic sports knowledge that wasn't overbearing, and generally he was more interested in hearing what others had to say than in trying to force them to be interested in his hobby. So we really didn't have common ground (aside from a shared religion), but we did have positive exchanges.

A conversation isn't a data dump and need not be an exchange of facts or ideas. It can simply be two (or more) people sharing their enjoyment of life by talking with each other. Even if it's practically about nothing. Chris rarely spoke to me about professional sports, which was his huge passion, and he didn't spend much time learning about much else. Yet I walked away from every conversation with him feeling better for it. Chris told me some years later (I had moved away and ran into him during a visit back to my hometown) that he appreciated how I made him feel when we'd talk about things. I was surprised at this, because I hadn't made any special effort to make him feel good. I told Chris this. He said that's right, because I didn't make a special effort (patronize) he could tell I genuinely enjoyed his company. And that's why he felt good.

I never "sized him up" as a sports trivia geek who needed my "help" to feel accepted. I simply accepted him. Which is why whenever I saw him he seemed so happy, which caused me to light up upon seeing him. Do you see the domino effect, here? Neither of us intended to "light up" the other person, but we did that simply due to our perception that the conversation would be, well, a conversation. Not an adversarial contest or a sympathy party.

Email scams are on the rise and have increased 111% from 2018 to 2022, with losses totaling over $2.7 billion in 2022, according to the FBI Internet Crimes Report. Using social engineering, email scammers gain the trust of a targeted person with the goal of getting them to send funds to a different person or entity than originally intended.

Here are some things to know about email scams, so you can help protect yourself and your assets.

How they target you

Scammers typically interject themselves into your normal transactions to change the destination of the funds. Common occurrences include:

1. Real estate closings: Scammers will impersonate the identity of the title/real estate agent, or closing attorney, and send different payment details.

2. Vendor impersonation: They can also pose as representatives of a company or government agency and advise that an invoice must be paid immediately to avoid a negative consequence. They often ask for a wire transfer to a fraudulent bank account or other means of payment, such as a check or ACH transfer.

3. CEO/executive impersonation: Scammers will also impersonate the CEO or executive of a company. They request that an employee within the accounting or finance department transfer funds to an attacker-controlled account

What to know and do

Knowing what to do and what to look for is critical to avoid becoming a victim of an email scam.

Account changes: Always verify and confirm details with the parties involved, especially with messages regarding funds transfers. Some email scammers use hacked email accounts, so it’s important to use a different method to verify that the sender is not a scammer. You can call or text an associated phone number or interact on a trusted mobile app or chat channel.

Email sender validation: Scammers can also use fraudulent email addresses that closely resemble a legitimate email address that you may have been communicating with previously. The addition or removal of a single character in an email address may be difficult to spot at first glance:

• Google.com vs. Google.corn: In this case, the scammer replaced .com with .corn, with the letters “r” and “n” replacing the letter “m”

• JONDOE@BUSINESS vs. JON.D0E @ BUSlNESS: For this example, the scammer used a zero instead of a capital O, and added a period in between “JON” and “D0E”. They also used a lowercase “L” in place of the capital “i”

Urgent or priority emails: Emails may contain a header in the subject line or phrases in the content of the email, such as “urgent” or “confidential.” If you receive an email marked urgent or confidential, please review it carefully for accuracy and reach out directly to the individual to validate the request.

Citicard has a resource area here: https://citicards.citi.com/cbol/fraudprevention/default.htm

Many other banks have similar resources, and they are all worth checking out. I like the Citicard one because, well, you will see why when you go there.

6. Health tip/Fitness tips

Statistics when this photo was taken, 10 days before my 63rd birthday: Height: 6'0" Wingspan: 6'1" Weight: 152.6 lbs, which is more than the 148.8lbs from the 2022 shoot. I am also leaner for this one (notice the striations in my left pec). Bodyfat: Unknown, but well below what the Tanita scale says is 5% Waist: 29 Chest: 48 Arms: 15 Quads: 20.25 Max bench press: Unknown, but I do 4 sets of 10 reps with 150 lbs to warm up on chest day Max squat: Unknown, but I do 4 sets of 8 reps of front squats with 90lbs to start Leg Day Cholesterol: In normal range, on low side Testosterone: Above the upper limit of the normal range Last illness: 1971 Last workout missed: Spring of 1977 Training days per week: 6 Type of training: Split routine, heavy on supersets Meals per day: 7 on training days, 6 on rest day Number of eggs eaten per day: Between 7 and 10 Percent of diet that is processed food: 0 Amount of meat, wheat, corn, or soy eaten annually: 0 Number of clot shots received: 0. ********* See all of my climbing videos here: https://tinyurl.com/ClimbingSigChannel. Some cool climbing  videos: https://youtu.be/s4G0ssyJ3hc https://youtube.com/shorts/5919UDqCXDc https://youtube.com/shorts/jYvKJ9mKyyE My hardest climb ever, a 5/11d on lead: https://youtu.be/UT5h0heUUBc . I made a dumb mistake initially, letting the rope wrap over my shoulder. Watch what happens. The scale: Beginner: 5.6. 5.7. 5.8, 5.9 Intermediate: 5.10a, b, c, d 5.11a, b, c, d Advanced: 5.12a, b, c, d 5.13a, b, c, d. Almost nobody climbs at this level at any of the 5 local climbing gyms.

• The best workouts are short and intense.
• A good diet contains far more flavors and satisfaction than the typical American diet.