Mindconnection eNL, 2026-04-19

Home

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

• "Filing articles of impeachment and invoking the 25th Amendment over Iran? Democrats are panicking because Trump is actually getting results — and they have nothing to run on in November."
  -- American Values Digest.
   
• Democrat Lisa Murkowski, who runs on the Republican ticket, may soon find that no longer works. An actual Republican is challenging her for her Senate seat this fall. If he wins the primary, he will probably win the general election. Let's hope Alaskan voters deal communism yet another defeat this fall.
   
• Comrade Eric "Swell well" has resigned his seat in the House, and that reduces communist power a tad. The commies vote in a bloc, opposing anything that might conceivably be good for America or American citizens. But the Republicans have the majority and so can pass things without the commie votes. But individual Republicans do not necessarily come onboard with something, and thus a given bill might be a vote or two shy of passing. With one less commie counted toward the total, the goal post of 51% would have moved that much closer to our starting line except a Republican also gave up his seat. Perhaps when Ilmar is indicted for her $30 million fraud, the balance will be restored.
   
• We have now gone 11 months without a single illegal alien border crossing on our southern border. Kudos to the Trump administration for hitting this milestone. However, Barry Soetoro, the illegal alien who occupied the Oval Office for eight years, is still in the country. Usually at one of his mansions.
   
• The tax cuts from the One Big Beautiful Bill, recent stock market record-setting, increasing numbers of new jobs as the $14 trillion of new factories continues to come on line, a downward slide in the price of gas at the pump, and even cheaper eggs? Yep, that's reality. And people are both paying down debt and doing some deferred spending. This is terrible news for the communists, but wonderful (and expected) news for sane people.
   
• The number of federal employees, who are often called "workers" though most of them don't actually do anything (while some do work extremely hard), is down to the lowest number since 1966. Lots of BS jobs have been eliminated, agencies have been purposefully shrunk, and the deep state isn't so deep anymore.
  
  But it's hard to "right size" the federal employee roster, partly because you can't tie one of those jobs to revenue or cost-savings as you can in the private sector. There is a point where further cutting will be harmful. However, we went way past the point where further bloating is harmful so the cuts made so far might still not be enough.
  
  You have to keep in mind that in 1966, much of the work relied on paper. And paper is not only inefficient, it is labor-intensive. One person with a modern computer work station can probably do the job of ten people working in paper (and in person) in 1966. We also have a lot of self-service online for Social Security, Medicare, and other programs. So even though our population is three times as large versus then, we are probably 10X as productive--or at least should be. But you can't just come up with an arbitrary multiplier and say something like, "Let's cut 80% of the non-military federal abor force".
  
  Once you get the low-hanging fruit, further cuts require understanding the goals, procedures, work flows of each department. And then you must look at their resources and abilities versus not only what you are asking them to do but also versus the challenges that arise in their work. This requires much more than a cursory examination. The next phases will no doubt include mistakes. And we should not be critical of those who make them.

Commie Blindness. The commies are worried about losing New Hampshire this fall. So what are they doing about that? Developing a platform that is acceptable to Americans? Nope. They are sending in the ever-offensive Hillary Clinton. They cannot see what a colossal screw-up that decision is. And for their blindness, I am very grateful.

Commies and Hatred

A particular communist sympathizer (e.g., registered Democrat) keeps re-spewing nonsensical leftwing messages at me. I have repeatedly asked him to stop, finally citing that the constant message of hatred does not appeal to me. In fact, I do not like it. He replied something to the effect it's not true that they are drenched in hatred. It thought about this, and he's right. There are some types of people the commies have a strong affinity and affection for. Here is the list:

1. Inside traders
2. Child traffickers
3. Drug dealers
4. Illegal immigrants
5. Rapists, muggers, and other violent criminals
6. Cat eaters
7. Christian-haters
8. Jew-haters
9. Haters of white men
10. Haters of Black people (who are apparently too stupid to obtain an ID?)
11. "Journalists" who blatantly lie in an effort to undermine our society and advance warped Marxist views
12. Deeply corrupt politicians
13. Iranian Mullahs
14. Terrorists of all faiths
15. Welfare fraud criminals

I searched hard and could not find any other groups they like. But at 15, it's a pretty big list I guess. So it isn't true that they hate nearly everybody.

• LIFE-CHANGING: The Rocket Pen will help your child read independently in just days. This is the reading pen most often chosen by teachers and recommended for dyslexia support.
• 6-IN-1 READING TUTOR SYSTEM: Go beyond basic text-to-speech with spelling, syllabication (Orton-Gillingham inspired), phrasal verb lookup, idiom definitions, color-coded dictionary fields, and real-time word highlighting—designed to improve decoding, comprehension, and fluency.
• 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.
   
• 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.
• REALLY BIG DICTIONARIES: A reader pen's word recognition capability depends on the depth of its onboard dictionary references. The Rocket Pen has the New Oxford American Dictionary with over twice the entries of the best competing reading pens, plus the Oxford American Children’s Dictionary. It also has the Oxford Thesaurus of English and Oxford American Children’s Thesaurus. All of these are Americanized. The Rocket Pen scans English and French only, but contains an English to Spanish dictionary and a French definitions dictionary (French to French).
• COMES COMPLETE. Self-contained, no computer, tablet, phone, or Wi-Fi required. Kit includes Rocket Pen reading tutor, USB charging cable, Quick Start Guide, earphones, and case. 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

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

Disability Products:

(We are the sole Amazon seller for these)

• BlindShell phones for the blind
• RealSAM Pocket, which is a voice operated Galaxy smart phone for the blind
• SmartPens4U Rocket Pen Reading Tutor Scanning Pen | Case Bundle Black | Case Bundle Lavender

Tools:

• AEM instruments
• Bahco tools
• Case tools
• CAT tools
• CPS tools
• Irwin saw blades
• Mayes tools
• Rigid Tools work lights and related
• Vessel tools
• Wera tools
• Wiha tools
• Williams tools

More:

• American Hard Bag aftermarket sound system parts for Harley Davidson motorcycles
• Centerpoint Archery devices
• Cold Steel knives
• Dead Downwind hunting products
• G5 hunting products
• Flexilla hose connectors
• Funko collectibles
• 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
• ROK straps
• Rostra universal cruise control kits
• Swhacker archery products

In our eBay store, you will see a lot of radios and related gear:

Radios:

• Connex 10 meter radios
• Dosy meters
• General (brand) radios
• Galaxy 10 meter and 11 meter (CB) radios
• President 10 and 11 meter radios
• Ranger 10 meter radios
• Texas Ranger radios (Chuck Norris not included, sorry)
• Uniden radios and scanners

Sometimes, it is done intentionally. And that is usually to mislead someone. For example, the communists refer to double radical mastectomy as "top surgery" and to illegal aliens as "undocumented immigrants". In the first case, this surgery is often done on minors who have been gaslighted into believing that cutting off parts of their bodies is necessary for them to be well-adjusted, happy teenagers. In the second case, an "immigrant" is a person who follows an immigration process and illegal aliens simply bypass that--which is why they are undocumented.

Other times, it is done out of ignorance. I don't mean that pejoratively. We are all ignorant to some extent, you can't know everything. It is important to recognize this fact and to make sure that you actually do know what you think you know. I have long been a word nerd and thus have built up a ridiculously large vocabulary. But I find myself looking up words routinely just to make sure I am using the correct one. Many times, I am not. For example, I was writing a review about a Pet Honesty product for cats. I was writing about the absence of corn, wheat, and soy in their product that these grains alter the biota of the mouth. Biota? Is that right? I looked it up. Nope. Then I tried biome. Wrong again. I could not think of the correct word, so I said "bacterial balance" which isn't exactly what I meant but at least it's not as idiotic as my first two choices.

Wrong word choices lead to wrong lifestyle choices. By wrong, I mean harmful.

Here is an example where bad actors chronically misuse a pair of words in an effort to harm and deceive others and where others ignorantly let them (go back to what I said about ignorance). Those two words are "health" and "care", put in a pair to mislead people about medical care. The crisis the pundits are now flapping their lips about has nothing to do with health care. Much of what they are saying has the goal of disparaging Secretary Kennedy and any  actual effort to address the health care crisis in the USA. The crisis the pundits refer to is the high cost of medical care.

It has now become clear to even the dimmest of bulbs that the Unaffordable Care Act has made medical care unaffordable. We rational people knew that from the outset, because the UCA simply added more cost to medical care and when you add more cost to the supplier/provider, the price must also go up. And, predictably, it did. A lot.

So is health care a problem or not? If you want to gage America's health care, just walk through a grocery store and look at the ratio of garbage to food. It's really high.

Just as an example, the [name of store redacted] has two aisles of soda but only one bin of eggplant. The store carries more Crisco hydrogenated oil (causes colon cancer) than it does eggplant (destroys colon cancer cells by three separate mechanisms). It's predicted that 55,230 Americans will die from colon cancer this year. Switching from garbage to food would probably take that number down to 30 Americans after a few years. And so it goes with disease after disease and chronic condition after chronic condition.

So why are people allowing this poisoning, such as Crisco shortening? Why do they buy it and put it in their bodies. It's that ignorance thing again. They are not even aware there is such a thing as health care, so they don't practice it. One thing that would hugely help is if people in this country would speak English instead of Newspeak.

When Medicare was passed into law in the 1960s, they called it Medicare not Healthicare because at the time people spoke English regarding this area. Doctors still go to Medical School and graduate with a medical degree to have an MD after their name, not Health School to graduate with a health degree and have an HD after their name. Yet in Newspeak "we" call medical care "health care" and completely ignore anything relevant to health care. If people spoke English regarding this area, their behavior would be profoundly different from what it is today.

If we called hydrogenated oil "colon cancer causer" in big letters right on the can, only the hopelessly stupid would buy it. But we call it "shortening" instead. Shortening your life isn't the idea people come away with, though they should.

The words you choose to express ideas help shape what those ideas are. This is why the masses are so easily manipulated by word games.

I know other single people who have two or more vehicles. One guy I know has two cars and two SUVs. He's got a reason for each one, but to me he is spending an awful lot of money on insurance and registration for what little benefit he gets. One guy I know has two vehicles and I understand his reason. He had a dream of one day owning a new Corvette. That dream came true last year. It's a beautiful car, but it's not one you drive in all weather. So he also has a pickup truck. You could say that Corvette was not a good use of money, but again it was his dream. Other than that, he's frugal. And he got the car with money from a court settlement that left him with plenty left over after buying the car.

Accumulating stuff is a financial drain, and it's one that the practitioners of said accumulating seem to ignore. It's not just the purchase cost. There are costs of storage, and often of care. The storage costs may be direct, for example you bought a much larger house so you would have a place to store all your accumulated stuff. Or they may be indirect, for example your house feels cluttered and cramped instead of open and spacious; this means that stuff is taking away "living space".

My cousin would not enjoy driving her dearly departed's vehicle, it just doesn't suit her. But by selling it, she will help someone else enjoy that vehicle and get a lot of pride and pleasure from driving it. This is something else to consider in your "keep or sell" decision. If that dress makes your butt look too big, sell it so some other woman can look good in it. If you quit the men's bowling league long ago and haven't been inside a bowling alley in over a decade, sell your ball and bag so someone else can get use of them (your bowling shoes have probably deteriorated by now, toss them).

Don't keep something "just in case". If you have replaced it, there's a reason why. If it's always your last choice among similar items to the point where you can't remember the last time you used or wore it, get rid of it. If your closet has 20 shirts and you wear the same 5 all the time, you need to get rid of 15 shirts. That's like having your closet enlarged, and we'd all like larger closets. Stuffing even the largest closet with stuff you don't use or wear makes it tiny. Upsize by eliminating!

5. Security tip

The American Communist Party has unleashed violence against law-abiding American citizens in many ways. Here are some:

• Inciting "peaceful protests" that include stabbing, bombing, shooting, and severely beating people.

• Defunding the DHS while we are at war with Iran (this has resulted in multiple terrorist incidents DHS could have prevented).

• Defunding and demoralizing the police for years following the suicide of George Floyd, resulting today in a massive shortage of officers and a massive increase in violent crime in commie-controlled cities (e.g., Chicago).

• Violating Title IX such that female college athletes are forced to compete against men, with dozens of serious injuries visited upon the women.

• Making it "OK" to physically attack people just because they are Jewish or Christian.

In addition to the violence, the commies have plundered us to about the same degree as a house burglar might. We have been fleeced of thousands of dollars per year due to things like the Green New Scam, the Unaffordable Care Act, and the Inflation Acceleration Act. Those of us who lock our doors but then vote Democrat are not behaving in a consistent manner.

Given the amount of violence and theft, it seems clear that the commies are a major, if not the major, threat to the personal security of each one of us. And to each city, county, and state plus the country as a whole. The are able to engage in the felonies against us only because they have the lamestream media lying on their behalf and they have the ability to occupy positions of authority such as elected office.

The security measures we can take to protect ourselves from these irrational, hateful, destructive people include:

• Encourage others to boycott the lamestream media. The vast majority of those who are addicted to it feel they are "in the know" due to being a consumer of the crap spewed by these outlets. Make a point of disparaging these outlets as untrustworthy, unreliable, untruthful, and worse than no news at all. Have a couple of good examples at the ready.

• Donate to the campaigns of Republican candidates. Only a Republican can defeat a communist, so help them out.

• Encourage sane, informed people to show up on Election Day and vote. Beat that drum starting now.
   

• If you use social media, be smart about it. Rather than lob bombs at the commies, ask questions that are uncomfortable for communist sympathizers to answer. For example, "If capitalism is so bad, how did America rise to become by far the greatest country on earth?" or "Can anyone name a country that went Marxist and people's civil liberties increased? Or their prosperity?"

• Volunteer to hang door flyers in a specific area, for example your subdivision.

• Volunteer to provide some kind of free service for people who volunteer to be election watchers or campaign workers. For example, you will mow their lawn or clean their house (or hire it done). You can also contribute a gift certificate to someone doing those functions, for example a $50 Amazon gift certificate.
   

• Boycott communist companies such as Disney (and all their movies).

• Have a product or service you really like? Write to the company and tell them you love their product (or service) and you want them to turn down advertising from Marxist politicians and Marxist companies.

• Write a Thank You letter to Elon Musk for buying Twitter and thus ending censorship. That is going to encourage him to keep helping us in other ways.

6. Health tip/Fitness tips

	If you watch many YouTube videos, you've probably seen the Chair Tai Chi advertisement. The guy says something like, "Weights tear you down, but Tai Chi builds you up." Variations of this ad show men who clearly do resistance training (probably with weights) "proving" via their physiques that Tai Chi will give you fantastic results. I've also seen ads claiming that men over 50 or men over 60 should not lift weights. While Tai Chi is a decent form of exercise, it is vastly inferior to (correctly done) weight lifting for sustaining or building overall fitness. And it's utter nonsense that men over a certain age should not lift weights. But then, that depends upon how you do the weight lifting. The normal way people approach weight lifting is probably a result of calling it weight lifting in the first place. Let's change that terminology to something like body training, physique training, or physical conditioning. When we do that, our perception of what to do changes. It's not about lifting weight, anymore. It's about conditioning your body, with the weight there to provide resistance as an aid. You contract muscles against the resistance that the weight provides, and it's that contraction that matters. Not how much weight. While this paradigm change solves one issue with how weights are normally used, there is another. It's called "working what's visible in the mirror." If you look at any Mr. Olympia or other weight lifting competition, you see heavy development of the back. You do not see that in the typical gym rat. What you do see is the gym rat limits his/her efforts to the chest (typically bench press), biceps (typically mid-range curls), and front deltoids (typically bench press and overhead press. The posterior chain that is so critical for posture and functional strength simply is not trained. With Tai Chi, it is. And Chair Tai Chi most likely takes care of this as well. If you're over 50 and doing this kind of limited training, you have serious muscle imbalances. You'd have them at a far younger age this way also. But as you get older and the damage accumulates, the marketers can claim your problem is mostly your age not how you are using the weights. Weight lifting, in the sense of how people normally do it, is not a good idea. It does tear down the body, as the man said. But body training, which is what Chair Tai Chi does without free weights or bands to add resistance, builds the body.
	Using weights allows you to increase the tension in the muscle(s) being worked. Doing a movement similar to a Tai Chi movement but with extra weight added to get extra tension means you take that Tai Chi movement up a level. But you can skip the Tai Chi and do the time-tested weight exercises, for better results. It's all about getting that adaptive response, and to get it you need: Time under tension (a function of tempo and number of reps per set). Cellular damage to the muscle (mostly a function of the amount of tension the muscle is subjected to). Metabolic stress (mostly a function of average intensity; the less rest between sets, the higher the metabolic stress). There is only so much tension you should apply to a muscle, and after that point the muscle cannot contract enough to resist the tension. When people use too much weight, they are past that point but still trying to resist the weight (either lifting or lowering). The only way they can complete the motion is to recruit other muscles, and this has several negative effects. Let's say I am performing lateral raises for my side delts, and trying to do that with 30lb dumbbells instead of 10lb dumbbells. There is no way my delts can handle that, so my traps kick in and maybe my lats also. And I have subjected tendons and ligaments to 3X the force I otherwise would have. If I change from the weight lifting mentality to the body training mentality, I think about how to use less weight to accomplish the same three factors for the adaptive response. These include techniques such as pre-exhausting the target muscle, reducing leverage, working at the extreme extension, eliminating bouncing, and deliberately squeezing the target muscle as if there is no weight being used. In any given exercise, use enough weight to create a challenge but not so much that the movements feel desperate. Once your form starts to go, it means your progress has stopped. End the set. Doing reps in bad form doesn't gain you anything, but it does waste time and risk injury. If I get to this point in the second set of four, I will simply rest a minute before starting the third set.

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.

This issue's Thought for the Day goes well beyond the financial damage done by those communist pests we call "Democrats". Now Comrade Schumer is trying to get his fellow crazies to invoke the War Powers Act to snatch victory over Iran from the USA. Simultaneously, they are launching yet another impeachment. This kind of talk coming from Congress is potentially deadly to those in uniform. How this behavior cannot be considered treason, I have no idea.

To get the people of New York to stop electing such awful people, we need to contribute to shutting down the brainwashing that causes them to not see reality. Many people across the USA subscribe to the New York Times, a rag that is devoted to spreading lies that further the communist agenda, undermine our country, or damage our society. If you know such a subscriber, encourage them to question the statements made in that paper. If they ultimately unsubscribe, that is one small step in the right direction. Once the circulation becomes too small for big advertisers, the NYT will start circulating the drain. We need to help kill that paper.