Mindconnection eNL, 2025-10-05

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In this issue:
Good News | Product Highlight | Brainpower | Finances | Security | Health/Fitness | Factoid | Thought 4 the Day

• https://x.com/TPUSA/status/1969988111309676652. Forgiven.
   
• U.S. manufacturing activity expanded in September for a fourth straight month, even as growth slowed from recent highs, with business confidence improving and price pressures cooling [S&P Global].
   
• "Pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly and Company has announced plans to build a $6.5 billion manufacturing facility in Houston." [Epoch Times]
   
• A note on the Epoch Times, cited just above. One thing I very much enjoy about the print edition is the excellent crossword puzzle that's in each one. If the crosswords are not your thing, however, there is much else to commend. There's a lifestyle section that is so good, after I shared that with a Kamala supporter that person asked me about getting a subscription!
   
• "County officials in California have launched an unusual effort to verify no dogs or cats are registered voters, instructing the local elections chief to compare voting lists against animal licensing records in a bid to root out any fraudulent entries."  [Epoch Times]. This is going to seriously affect the Democrat voting fraud machine. Perhaps some day, the people of California will be liberated and become full American citizens instead of being the oppressed wards of a communist regime that denies them democratic representation. Each step forward toward election integrity is a step toward freedom.
   
• Black people in Chicago have awakened. Check this out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pj2GRng6jf4 (4:06). These folks really let their commie, pro-crime mayor have it! So many precious moments here, a MUST WATCH! I especially like the part about defunding HIS police and re-funding the citizens' police.
   
• Here are 17+ minutes of more citizens roasting their incompetent mayor: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eu1IQiRDKrI. What you don't see is good articulation or any real thought put into what they are saying. What you do see is people who know they've been lied to and betrayed, and who are not going to take it anymore. This is happening all across America.
   
• Schumer and Hakeem thought they were clever by playing a game of Chicken to extort the Trump administration into spending billions on stupid communist pet projects. What hubris. The result of their hubris is they handed Trump the golden keys, and on the very first day of the Shutdown he cut $10 billion in spending! It was almost entirely "impossible to kill" stuff such as intermittent energy contracts, but made possible to kill due to the Shutdown. So Trump killed it. The communists can't play chess with Trump, can't manage cities, can't manage money, and can't manage to tell the truth. The more they try to bully their way back into power, the more odious they become to voters. And that is good news for our republic.

• READING TUTOR: The only reading pen with learn-to-read functions, and we have six: spelling, syllabication (how the word is "built"), lookup of phrasal verbs, lookup of idiomatic expressions, colors for different dictionary fields, and it highlights words as it reads from scanned text. These combine to dramatically improve literacy and reading fluency.
• READER PEN: You scan, it reads aloud individual words and even multiple lines of text in natural voice. Helps those with dyslexia or other reading-challenges gain reading independence. Earbuds automatically mute the built-in speaker to avoid classroom stigma. Select different voices for playback, lefthand or righthand use, left or right scan direction.
• READS ANY SURFACE. Scans what you actually read from: phone, tablet, PC, other screens - not just paper. We could not find a single other reading pen that can do this. But the Rocket Pen can.
   
• MASSIVE ONBOARD DICTIONARIES: The Rocket Pen has the New Oxford American Dictionary with Oxford Thesaurus of English (Americanized) with over twice the entries of the best competing products. It also has the Oxford American Children’s Dictionary with Oxford American Children’s Thesaurus (both Americanized). The Rocket Pen scans English and French only, but also contains an English to Spanish dictionary and a French definitions dictionary (French to French).
• COMES COMPLETE. Self-contained, no computer or Wi-Fi required. Kit includes Rocket Pen reading tutor, USB charging cable, Quick Start Guide, and earphones. Meets FCC, ROHS, and CE standards, and conquers illiteracy.
• BACKED BY EXPERIENCE. The lead developers of the Rocket Pen Reading Tutor each have over 25 years of experience in reading assistive devices, and yet the Rocket Pen is the newest and most advanced reading pen on the market. And the only one with reading tutor functions.
   
• MISSION-FOCUSED. The Rocket Pen isn't loaded with other features a struggling reader doesn't need. Its focus is on helping the reading challenged master not only the texts they encounter but reading itself. This reading pen is the only one that is also a reading tutor. Unlike other products in this space, the Rocket Pen is truly a learn to read pen not just a text to speech scanning pen. It provides six different methods for users to learn how to read rather than just being read to. It's a powerful dyslexia reading tool for students and adults, and for anyone else with reading challenges. It provides six different methods for users to learn how to read rather than just being read to.
• READY TO USE, EASY TO USE. Comes ready to use, no setup needed, easily customized. 1.9 inch color touch screen; Physical buttons for screenless scan and read; Select English or Spanish user interface.

We are also the sole Amazon seller for these amazing products:

• BlindShell phones for the blind
• RealSAM Pocket, which is a voice operated Galaxy smart phone for the blind

In our Amazon store you will see more offerings, including:

• American Hard Bag aftermarket sound system parts for Harley Davidson motorcycles
• Bahco tools
   
• Case tools
• CAT tools
• Centerpoint Archery devices
• Cold Steel knives
• Connex 10 meter radios
• CPS tools
   
• Dosy meters
• Flexilla hose connectors
• Funko collectibles
• Galaxy 10 meter and 11 meter (CB) radios

• Irwin saw blades
• Mayes tools
• Mike Holt Electrical Exam Preparation products
• Nagy's aftermarket sound system parts for Harley Davidson motorcycles
• Paraben Consumer data recovery sticks, porn detection sticks, and similar diagnostic/ IT tools
• President 10 and 11 meter radios

• Ranger 10 meter radios
• Rigid Tools work lights and related
• ROK straps
• Rostra universal cruise control kits
   
• SmartPens4U Rocket Pen Reading Tutor Scanning Pen | Case Bundle
• Texas Ranger radios (Chuck Norris not included, sorry)
• Uniden radios and scanners
• Vessel tools
   
• Wera tools
• WeWalk Smart Cane "Cane with a Brain" for the blind
• Wiha tools

Now, my friend is really "old school". He always begins with the basics. In this particular case, it was a basic that even an apprentice should have discovered. My friend is way beyond the apprentice level, but you would think those "experts" and "engineers" had at least that degree of competence.

When troubleshooting In the electronics world, you always start with the power supply. You say your computer won't turn on? Is it plugged in and is the power supply switch on the back in the ON position? You take a similar approach in the electrical world. You look for things like neutral-ground bonds on the load side, missing neutrals, and open breakers before you do anything high tech. Electrical Construction and Maintenance Magazine has one column called Code Basics and another called Back to Basics. The leading National Electrical Code instructor in the USA always starts with basic electrical theory when teaching grounding and bonding.

In field after field, I have seen how a strong foundation in, and reliance on the mastery of, the basics has a supercharging effect on the effective brainpower used in solving a problem or improving on some variable.

We saw this in economics, during the Communist Occupation. Communists believe money grows on trees and you can simply steal it from people without any economic consequences. Capitalists believe that wealth is created when risk is rewarded and that there are economic consequences to using theft or other means to reduce the available capital. Communism completely ignores the basics of economics, human motivation, and about a dozen other areas. Which is why it has always failed; it is built on nothing but vapor. Capitalism is what made America the greatest nation on earth, and that's because it is a system that respects the basics.

Having a dispute with a family member? Go back to the basics. What is the most important thing? If it's something other than having a respectful relationship, you didn't consider the basics. Maybe with this person such a relationship is not possible because they are mentally ill, gas lighted against you by a third party, or just plain negative. But that just means you need to try all the harder to emphasize those basics. At the very least, if you issue respect then this speaks volumes about you. Think of Charlie Kirk's example, and you'll understand my point.

I left out medical costs, since for me they are zero. But for most people over 60, they are the single biggest cost.

All of this is to say you can't do much about your biggest costs, but there is much you can do about your smaller ones. And the savings can add up. Most people waste money in the "death from 1,000 cuts" mode.

Here are ten tips:

1. If you open the door to your refrigerator or freezer, make it quick. Don't stand there staring and don't get ice cubes one at a time.
2. If you open the door to your house, make it quick. Many people lolligag at an open door even when there's a 50 degree temperature difference between inside and outside. Have this consideration when entering and exiting the homes of other people, too.
3. When driving, anticipate stops and coast down a bit rather than going from gas to break. Don't worry if someone slips in ahead of you, you're both going to be coming to a stop shortly.
    
4. You don't need the water running the whole time you are brushing your teeth or shaving your face.
5. Think carefully about purchases. For example, you are buying a laptop and can upgrade to an OLED for $250. But do you really need that? What problem is that upgrade solving that you are willing to pay to have it solve?
6. Go beyond combining trips. Plan the whole route, and try to eliminate all left turns. Go beyond that and plan the week's trips wherever practical. For example, On Tuesday you combine a trip to the home center and a trip to the grocery store. On Thursday, you combine a trip to the pet store and a trip to your chiropractor. The problem is the home center is near the pet store and you go west. But your grocery store is only a block from your chiropractor and you go east. So you want to combine the two trips that are in the same area and general direction.
    
7. Use less detergent in your clothes washer. Use about half the recommended amount. You cut your detergent cost in half and you get cleaner, softer clothes.
8. Shower methodically. If you wash from top down and don't mess around, you can be out of there in under 4 minutes. And squeaky clean.
9. Have a separate drawer for stained shirts and pants. Wear these when you need to do something messy, thus sparing your nicer clothes and getting further use out of these.
10. Don't buy convenience-packaged foods, such as spinach in a plastic tub. You save very little time but pay twice as much (there's an exception to my "food cost is fixed" note).

5. Security tip

Stymied by their inability to persuade via peaceful debate due to woeful ignorance on their part, the commies resort to bullying, social media attacking, and violence.

One way to protect yourself from this abuse is to keep your mouth shut. Conservatives tried that, it didn't work. We cannot remain silent while these mentally ill people dismantle our society, take away our rights, damage our economy, erase our border, end free elections, and engage in every kind of debauchery against our republic. Yet, not remaining silent carries great personal risk. What can you do? Here are ten tips.

1. Take any hint of a threat seriously. Record the comment, the time it was made, and who made it (if no name, write down a good description). If you later find your tires slashed or your cat lying dead on your front porch, you have something solid to report to the police.
2. Don't fan the flames. While I personally like to do this, it's not the safest choice. If you give these mentally ill people a little coddling and reassurance, they are less likely to go into deep hatred mode against you.
3. If you use antisocial media, refrain from providing any information that can reveal where you live or where you work.
4. Either always carry a weapon or be able to weaponize nearly any object you find. It doesn't need to be a knife or gun, but it needs to be something. In a grocery store, the number of weapons available is astounding. Anything glass is hard and can be thrown hard enough to knock somebody out. A jar of pickles can do surprising things to a livid libtard.
5. Don't get dragged down into emotional non-arguments. Ask for facts. "Can you name one way in which crime got worse in DC after Trump sent in troops?"
6. Smile. This is generally disarming. But it needs to be genuine. Remember, these people are mentally ill and deserve compassion.
7. When speaking up, make your case calmly and clearly.
8. Don't interrupt them or talk over them unless their rant seems like it will never end. Remember, they are incapable of debate so it's not like you need your turn to speak. Their ranting is their way of admitting they cannot debate and thus concede the point. Take the win.
9. Remember that life is short. You do not have enough of it that you can waste time trying to argue with these people. Make your point, drop a truth bomb, and move on. You don't need to wait for their stupid reply, a reply that will have to come from the Dark Side (hatred) because they have nothing else to draw from.
10. Don't be afraid to say, "I disagree" and stop there. It's a show of power that you don't feel obligated to explain yourself. Bullies shy away from shows of power.

6. Health tip/Fitness tips

	Are your shoulders canted forward? This is a very common issue.  Some consequences of it: The arm does not rotate properly in the socket. The loss of strength can be 50% or greater. You are straining your rotator cuff. Your balance is off. Your head is more likely to tilt forward, putting strain on your neck. The most common contributor to this is a set of tight pectoral muscles. They are in a state of contraction, pulling forward against the much weaker muscles of the upper back. Men tend to exacerbate this problem by using weights that are too heavy and doing partial-rep bench presses and partial-rep dumbbell presses. I have very strong pecs and shoulders for my size, and yet I use slightly less than my bodyweight for the bench press. This is way below my one-rep max. I do four sets of eight with my shoulder blades back and go as low as I can comfortably go. That's the warm-up to the rest of my chest and triceps workout. If you ask the typical weight lifter to do flyes, you will see that person start at about 15 or 20 degrees above horizontal and bring the weights completely overhead. I don't see the point of this exercise. The way I do them is I start at just barely above horizontal and lower them as far as I can. I use only 20lbs, because the point of this is to stretch the pecs under tension while simultaneously "opening the chest" as Arnold used to say. The leverage involved in bringing those dumbbells to horizontal means there's a lot of tension in the pecs. That tension is there at the full extension, which is the most stimulative way to train a muscle. If you did only these 20lb flyes you would gain more pec size than someone else doing only the bench press with heavy weight. Men in particular fail to check their ego at the door, seemingly picking up an extra one on their way into the workout area. Well if ego is in the way of using lighter weight, stop and ask yourself this question. Is it better to try to impress people who are also training and don't care how much I lift, or to impress people without even trying because I have developed an impressive chest? There is only one correct answer. While women won't develop pecs to the same extent, using this form of the fly at the end will help them have high breasts and a nice shoulder line. People of either sex who integrate a pec stretch into their training will be stronger, look better, and have a more commanding presence.
	Training for functional strength does not sacrifice muscular development, contrary to popular myth. If you merely chase the weight and forego the hard contractions that come from training at full extension, you are stronger only on paper. I never worry about "how much weight", but then I usually train in the privacy of my home. When I travel and go to a local gym, I will usually look for a hardcore, old-school place. People in those places are serious, but they are not narcissists. Nobody takes an attitude toward people based on what they are lifting. Some people claim that "real lifters" use free weights only. In my home gym, I have a lot more than just free weights. Those old-school gyms do, too. Though the gyms are big on free weights, all of them have machines and various devices. Let me explain why something like the pec dec is in an old school gym. When I do dumbbell bench presses, the weights are small enough they don't interfere with each other. I use 55lbs or less, usually 40lbs. But what if you are so big and strong that you are using 120s? Have you seen how wide those are? If you try to bench press with them, your arms will be at odd angles and a shoulder injury is inevitable. The crux of this is you have to do what is required to build functional strength, regardless of what form the resistance is in your resistance training. I've got a friend who goes back >45 years. He's a few months younger than I am and has visibly gained muscle over the past year. Using bands, only. That's right, he went entirely to bands and added muscle. On reason is the bands allow him to get extreme range on the joint. Another is he can ignore gravity and train at whatever angles he needs to for stimulating the muscle.
At www.supplecity.com, you'll find plenty of informative, authoritative articles on maintaining a lean, strong physique. It has nothing to do with long workouts or impossible to maintain diets. In fact: The best workouts are short and intense. A good diet contains far more flavors and satisfaction than the typical American diet.

The vast majority of violence against others is a result of left-wing incitement. It is not a stretch to deduce the same of the vast majority of suicides. Ergo, the Democrat Party serves as population control.