the rainbow bridge

 

Throughout our married life, my wife and I have always had pets in the house, much to the relief of my wife, whose mother did not allow any pets in the house.

After getting hit by a deer on our honeymoon on Friday the 13th, our first pet was a black cat (who was technically not allowed in the apartment we rented in West St Paul, Minnesota.) The unit we rented was less than a mile from Highway 13, so it is safe to say that we are not superstitious people.

After we bought our first house, Sharon adopted a Siberian Husky from our neighbor Mary Ann, who had a kennel of them right across the alley from us.

One day, she had the dog tethered to the lounge chair she was sitting on in that back yard, and it was not long before disaster hit.

Our neighbors, Bob and Donna Bradley, were docents for the St. Paul Zoo, and when Donna came out of the house with a tiny Artic fox in her hands, Tanya (the dog) noticed. She quickly escaped from the chaise lounger in order to play with the little fox. Unfortunately, in her enthusiasm, she picked up the fox and carried it into our yard, which snapped the animal’s neck, causing its death.

Although the Bradleys did not talk to us for 40 days, we made amends before we moved to our next house in Brooklyn Park, which had a large cage attached to the side of the garage.

Since the cage did not have a dog house, we drove to Hastings to pick up a dog house that my uncle no longer needed. 

We put Tanya in the kennel and left.

Upon our return, we discovered that Tanya was not in the cage, so we called the police. Initially, they told us that they could not find the dog, but called back an hour later to tell us that the dog HAD been found – but she got into problem when she was out.

At it turns out, one of our neighbors had a pet duck. Being part wolf, the duck looked pretty tempting, so Tanya ate it. After we retrieved the dog from the kennel (where we met the neighbors who owned the duck), we drove home. At that point, I told Sharon that she HAD to sell the dog – and she did.

After we bought our second house, we started adding cats. By the time we moved into our 4th house, the total had climbed to 5.5 cats (I would not allow the stray from our deck into our house.)

Our daughter Kelly always loved animals, and worked for a vet’s clinic while she was still in high school because she wanted to eventually become a vet. While there, she took possession of a tiny kitten brought in that was abandoned and in need of 24/7 care to survive. After a short stint in the veterinarian hospital, she was smitten and adopted him. That early care and dedication to literally save his life created a bond like no other. She named him Lucky.

When she moved to Michigan for her first year of college, she brought Lucky with her. During that first year, though, Lucky developed a tumor in his lung which was undetectable and not curable. Despite efforts by the rural vet, Lucky crossed the rainbow bridge within 7 hours of first symptoms. He was little more than three years old. His death was a difficult emotional experience for Kelly.

With more love to give, Kelly eventually adopted more fur babies. "Chance" was Lucky's partner who stayed with Sharon when Kelly went to China to teach English. Upon return to the states, Chance developed a growth and had to euthanized. Kelly acquired two more cats in the years following, Capone and Foxy. Capone was named based on his "boss" attitude and the neighborhood where Kelly lived in Chicago was Al Capone's old stomping ground. 

When the three of us moved to Flagstaff in 2011, Kelly's two cats naturally would come with her. Not long after we moved in, Kelly and her mom traveled to Second Chance, an animal shelter on the east side of town, just "to look." Instantly, an Anatolian Shepard mix, originally named Tracker, chose her as his new mom. He was 1.5 years old and would soon be renamed Cody.

We then acquired a male cat from one of our senior group friends, and we named him Cookie. Not long after that, we adopted a small female cat , who we named Gracie. Although Cookie eventually succumbed to the hazards of the desert. Gracie is still with us today.

When Kelly moved to town, she brought Capone and Foxy with her, but left Cookie and Gracie with us. She also brought Cody with her into town. Ultimately, the two cats and Cody moved to a house on the east side of Tucson, and in the spring of 2020, they all moved to Colorado.

Over the years, Cody went with them wherever they went. His adventurous spirit matched theirs as one of curiosity and always looking for the next adventure. Through the years, there were very few photos where Cody was not part of the memory. Over time, though, he started to show his age. In the summer of 2022, Cody decided to chase a stray and tore his knee tendon. The comparable of a torn ACL in humans. Surgery was emergent and he bounced back after 1.5 months of down time. You would never have known he had the surgery based on his continued excursions climbing 13ers in Colorado with Kelly and Chris. His last hike in September 2024 he scaled Engineer mountain, a famous 13er in Durango, CO.

In October of 2024, Cody lost his balance on fell from his favorite ottoman, pulling a back muscle. It was thought he developed vertigo and fell. The local veterinarian, who saved Capone from a rattle snake bite (another story all together), recommended a neurology consult in Albuquerque, NM. Chris and Kelly, who would stop at nothing to care for Cody, braved a winter storm through the mountain pass to attend this appointment 4 hours a way. The diagnosis was undetermined as three options were given. Idiopathic vestibular disease, stroke, or brain tumor. One is of unknown origin, one needs time to heal, and the last would require multiple treatments under anesthesia which Kelly and Chris deemed too risky for their 14.5 year old fur baby.

In the coming month, Cody slowed his morning walk and slowly developed breathing issues. Back to the local vet who took x-rays. Cody had lung cancer which metastasized, confirming that he did in fact have a brain tumor and that caused him to have strokes and fall from his favorite ottoman. 

The day before Thanksgiving, Chris and Kelly took him to some of his favorite spots, fed him bacon and chicken (the only thing he would eat at that point, and cuddled as they made the decision to call the local vet. His breathing was too much of a struggle at that point. The vet came to her house to administer the final dose of medicine, and he started his journey on the rainbow bridge.

When he took his final breath, Capone (17 years old at this point, and Cody's best buddy) howled in sorrow, and Foxy (18 years old at that point, who tolerated Cody but secretly loved him) placed her paw on Cody-an action she normally would not do unless there was food.

People who do not have pets do not understand that pets are literally part of the family, and are nearly on the same level as children.

If you are not an avid reader, you may not know what a rainbow bridge is, so here is he definition:

The Rainbow Bridge is the theme of several works written first in 1959, then in the 1980s and 1990s, that speak of an other-worldly place where pets go upon death, eventually to be reunited with their owners. One is a short story whose original creator was long uncertain. The other is a six-stanza poem of rhyming pentameter couplets, created by a couple to help ease the pain of friends who lost pets. Each has gained popularity around the world among animal lovers who have lost a pet or wild animals that are cared for. The belief has many antecedents, including similarities to the Bifröst bridge of Norse mythology. 

Story

The story tells of a lush green meadow just "this side of Heaven" (i.e., before one enters it). Rainbow Bridge is the name of both the meadow and the adjoining pan-prismatic conveyance connecting it to Heaven.

According to the story, when a pet dies, it goes to the meadow, restored to perfect health and free of any injuries. The pet runs and plays all day with the others; there is always fresh food and water, and the sun is always shining. However, it is said that while the pet is at peace and happy, it also misses its owner whom it left behind on Earth.

When its owner dies, they too arrive at the meadow, and that is when the pet stops playing, turns, sniffs at the air and looks into the distance where it sees its beloved owner. Excited, it runs as fast as it can, until owner and pet are once more united. The pet greets its former owner in great joy while the human looks into the soft, trusting eyes of the pet, who might have been gone and absent on Earth but never absent in the heart. Then side by side, they cross the Rainbow Bridge together into Heaven, to play again and be together in love and happiness, never again to be separated. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbow_Bridge_(pets)

Rest in peace, Cody.

Cause I ain’t got no pencil

Yesterday, I was a sub teacher at one of the local high schools.

When I was eating lunch in the staff break room, I noticed that someone had posted a poem on one of the walls.

I woke myself up
Because we ain’t got an alarm clock
Dug in the dirty clothes basket,
Cause ain’t nobody washed my uniform
Brushed my hair and teeth in the dark,
Cause the lights ain’t on
Even got my baby sister ready,
Cause my mama wasn’t home.
Got us both to school on time,
To eat us a good breakfast.
Then when I got to class the teacher fussed
Cause I ain’t got no pencil

 

I had not seen this poem before, and I was not familiar with the author.

Here’s “the rest of the story”:

A viral poem about poverty in underprivileged schools has caused a flutter online after it was shared widely by people believing its simple language was penned by a student in Baltimore, US.

It was claimed the poem, “Cause I Ain’t Got a Pencil,” was written by a student at Baltimore City Public Schools, in the mid-Atlantic US state of Maryland.

After the poem did the rounds on social media, 38-year-old professional author and poet Joshua Dickerson, who actually wrote it, took to Twitter to set the record straight.

 

“My poem has been ‘written’ by a couple different people at this point,” the Atlanta man said.

“I’m not a student in Baltimore City Schools. It’s one of those Internet things that keeps getting shared. Outside of the fake Obama beard, I was the hottest trending fake news."

Dickerson said his poem, which he wrote in April 2014, resonated with many and reflected “without a shadow of a doubt” the scenes that would have played out in Baltimore schools, so he understands why many assume it was written by a student.

The poet said his inspiration for the poem came after watching a heartbreaking incident at an Atlanta school, where a child asked his teacher for a pencil.

The teacher said the student could borrow the pencil only if he removed his shoe and left it as collateral.

“The child took off the shoe and he had a dirty sock on and it caused the other students in the class to laugh at him,” Dickerson shared.

“I wrote a story about what I imagined happened prior to that moment.”

The author said the message he was hoping to make in his piece was “you must continue to fight, regardless of circumstances.”

  https://au.news.yahoo.com/the-truth-behind-this-students-viral-i-aint-got-a-pencil-poem-38953919.html

When I left the school, one of the students gave me a pumpkin pie that the school kitchen had made that afternoon> Initially, I was under the impression that teachers were the only group that got a free pie, until I noticed that a lot students had pies also.

The poem, and the free pies, reminded me that all of us have a lot to be thankful on this Thanksgiving Day. However, the poem is also a reminder that not everyone is as fortunate as us.

At various schools in the district, I have come in contact with students who belonged to a program called YOTO, which is the acronym for “youth on their own”, a program designed to help kids who are not living with a parent or guardian. In some cases, their status is due to a custody situation, but that were also some whose parents were deported.

Youth On Their Own (YOTO) is a dropout prevention program that supports the high school graduation and continued success of youth experiencing homelessness in Pima County. The organization was founded in 1986 when Ann Young, a guidance counselor in the Amphitheater School District, noticed that talented and motivated students were dropping out of school due to homelessness and being forced to live on their own without a parent or guardian. Inspired by the students’ tenacity and willingness to stay in school, other school counselors, teachers, volunteers, and community members came together to form YOTO with the goal of helping students graduate.

After consulting with her fellow teachers, Young’s initial idea was to buy a home for a group of homeless teenage girls. She presented this proposal, along with the stories of the students she aimed to help, to a group gathered at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church dedicated to assisting Tucson’s homeless community. People were appalled at the situations they were in, and jumped at the opportunity to lend them a hand. Soon, Young had an army of volunteers. She even managed to raise $80,000 in a single morning, thanks to the generosity of the congregation.

The money funded a group residence for homeless girls. Known as the St. Andrew’s Friendly Environment (SAFE) House, it quickly became apparent that SAFE House was not large enough to accommodate all of the students who needed services. It became increasingly expensive and was too much for one volunteer parent to handle. The community stepped forward again, and many families volunteered to take care of these students in need. It was an unexpected check from a New York City charitable foundation, though, that launched a stipend program to greatly increase the aid available to homeless teens.

Young’s experience with the SAFE House, which closed after two years, encouraged her to further expand the program. She applied for grants and spread the word about the charitable work the organization was doing. At this point, it was known as the Pima County Homeless Teen Project — a marketing specialist later dubbed it Youth on Their Own — and Young knew that if she wanted to continue her project, she would have to apply to become a full-fledged 501(c)(3) nonprofit foundation. After successfully gaining the designation, YOTO applied for and won a grant from Angel Charity for $100,000 for the stipend program in 1990. That funding coupled with a community-wide advertising campaign gave YOTO the exposure it needed to really take off and become the program it is today.

Since then, over 16,000 homeless and compromised students have been empowered to stay in school and pursue opportunities for self-sufficiency.

https://yoto.org/about-us/

 

https://www.ncregister.com/news/the-morality-economics-and-politics-of-mass-deportation

Unfortunately, the number of teens in the program is likely to increase dramatically after January 20 due to the incoming administration’s cruel and utterly stupid mass deportation program.

The folks who voted for the wrong political party in November will soon come to realize that the program will not lead to the economic benefits they thought that it would.

Approximately 11 million unauthorized immigrants currently reside in the United States, according to the Pew Research Center. Republican vice-presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, puts the figure at 25 million. Other estimates fall in between the two.

Regardless of the number, former president Donald Trump has vowed to launch the largest deportation program in American history. In a recent interview with The New York Times, Vance said it would be “certainly reasonable to deport around a million people per year.” The undertaking enjoys broad public support, at least for now — a CBS/YouGov poll from July found that 62% of Americans favor mass deportations, including 53% of Hispanic voters.

Vice President Kamala Harris favors a bipartisan approach to fixing border security by extending restrictions on asylum claims and establishing legal pathways for eligible immigrants.

In September, Pope Francis remarked about “those who systematically work by all means to drive away migrants,” saying that “this, when done knowingly and deliberately, is a grave sin.”

The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that good government has two duties in this regard: to welcome the foreigner out of charity and respect; and to secure one’s border and enforce the law for the sake of the common good (2241).

For Hannah Kling, professor of data analytics and macroeconomics at Belmont Abbey College, mass deportations “would be extremely disruptive economically.”

Above all, Kling fears that mass deportations would decrease overall economic growth, which would harm everyone in the long run, including natural-born citizens. In her view, a high number of immigrants in the economy leads to economic growth, which has positive benefits not only for consumers, but also other workers. There isn’t a fixed amount of jobs over which citizens and noncitizens compete, but rather an ever-increasing number of jobs that increases to the extent that individuals and businesses are productive.

“People who work in landscaping or food service and the like help those companies become more productive companies,” she said. “It wasn’t that immigrant workers were crowding out U.S. citizens from jobs. Economic growth is about increasing the economic pie that we split up among people. When more people are part of that system, we can make the pie bigger.”

A recent Bloomberg analysis shows that Trump’s deportations and border crackdown could reduce the nation’s GDP by more than 3% by 2028.

Along with reduced overall economic growth, some economists have voiced concern that mass deportations would lead to increased government spending and reduced tax revenues, a combination of factors that could balloon the national deficit.

According to a 2024 study by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP), undocumented immigrants paid a total of $96.7 billion in federal, state and local taxes in 2022. Meanwhile, the American Immigration Council estimated that it could cost $88 billion annually to deport 1 million people a year.

For Boston College’s Heyer, the numbers simply don’t add up.

“Estimates suggest the mass-deportation plan would cost at least $500 billion to implement, with annual losses of $126 billion in taxes and a reduction in the GDP of $5 trillion over 10 years,” she said. “This confounds the ‘economic threat’ claims frequently made to oppose immigrants, whose work, studies show, offer a net benefit to the U.S. economy and have increased jobs in recent years."

Many have argued in the past that Americans won’t do certain “undesirable” jobs in agriculture, hospitality and construction often done by illegal immigrants. Mass deportations, the argument goes, will cause labor shortages that would have the potential to significantly disrupt supply lines and raise costs for businesses and consumers.

The other bad idea being promoted by the incoming administration are tariffs.

President-elect Donald Trump’s proposed heavy tariffs for goods imported from Mexico, Canada and China could have a major impact on items from tomatoes to car parts in Arizona, which shares a significant trading relationship with its neighbor to the south.

It's still more than 50 days until Trump is sworn in for a second term, but his economic proposals are already causing commotion across the globe. Trump tied his tariff threat to immigration, posting on social media Monday, Nov. 25 that he’d “sign all necessary documents to charge Mexico and Canada a 25% Tariff on ALL products coming into the United States. “This Tariff will remain in effect until such time as Drugs, in particular Fentanyl, and all Illegal Aliens stop this Invasion of our Country! Both Mexico and Canada have the absolute right and power to easily solve this long simmering problem,” Trump wrote. He also pitched an additional 10% tariff on goods from China. 

Tariffs that Trump is proposing would affect the country’s international trading partners, but they’d also be felt inside states like Arizona. Much of the produce that fills American grocery stores in the winter months is grown in Mexico and passes through Arizona’s southern border. 

The largest share of Arizona imports comes from Mexico, totaling $11.8 billion in 2023. Imports from Canada also reached billions of dollars last year, according to data on Arizona-Mexico Economic Indicators compiled by the University of Arizona.

The link below goes into more details on the industries that will see price increases, but the main ones are tomatoes, wiring for cars, peppers, grapes, wood products, and baked goods.

https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/arizona/2024/11/27/proposed-trump-tariffs-could-hit-arizona-imports-like-tomatoes-wiring/76599477007/

In the past, I’ve written a few stories about some homeless people who I have met personally:

 

https://tohell-andback.blogspot.com/2009/11/have-good-day.html

https://tohell-andback.blogspot.com/2010/10/thin-red-line.html

https://tohell-andback.blogspot.com/2023/04/tough-times-do-not-last-but-tough.html

Recently, the Boston Globe published an article about a former journalist who eventually would up homeless due to bouts of depression. He finally was saved b a sympathetic family and a GoFundMe page.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/11/28/metro/homeless-former-journalist-patrick-fealey-rhode-island/

The election of November was a traumatic event for a lot of people.

According to a recent CBS poll, 50% of the Democrats are scared of what Trump will do as president, and another 35% are concerned.

On the other hand, 95% of the Republican voters are either excited or optimistic about him.

 So, what do we do now?

If there’s a Thanksgiving when politics could come up, it’s probably this one. The United States just had an emotional presidential election, and the country remains fiercely divided over the best ways to govern and who the right leaders are to do it.

President-elect Donald Trump is already taking steps to make major changes to economic policy, immigration and how government works. He has said he’ll introduce new tariffs on goods coming in from some countries, will start mass deportations and is trying to knock down checks and balances to make sure no one gets in his way.

 Here are the facts around some of the topics that might come up at the dinner table on Thursday.

 But first: What if someone on the other side of the table wants to ignore facts? The Washington Post’s advice columnist, Carolyn Hax, has an idea: channeling Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, a former Democratic presidential candidate who regularly appears on conservative news programs: “Watch clips of Pete Buttigieg, especially on Fox, to see how it’s done: Be respectful, a good sport, be all ‘us’ (no ‘them’) and bring receipts.”

 If that doesn’t work, Hax said, simply walk away.

 https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/11/27/thanksgiving-family-trump- policies/

And on that note, I have one more thing to say:

 

 

"The Women"

 

 

The average American reads about 12 books a year.         

Since Sharon has been retired for nearly 10 years, and I work as a substitute teacher, we read more books than the average American. I normally average about 50 books a year, and Sharon averages about 100.

On occasion, we will stumble on a book that is so compelling, that it is hard to put it down.

“The Women” is one of those books.

I don’t remember what organization recommended the book – but I am glad that they did.

I picked it up at the library on Wednesday afternoon, and I finished reading it Friday afternoon, a decent accomplishment in view of the fact that the large print edition of the book is more than 600 pages.

The main character is a nurse named Frances, and she went to Vietnam in 1967 as an Army nurse. Obviously, she lived through some difficult times, and her return home two years later was not exactly a welcoming experience.

In the late 1960’s, the folks who served their country were not treated with respect, even though they should have been

In the first draft lotter, in 1969, I drew #169, which meant that I would have been drafted in May of 1970. Naturally, I went to every guard unit and reserve unit in the Twin Cities, and joined the first place that called me, which was a National Guard unit in St. Paul, where I eventually spent 6 years of my life, meeting once a month, and 2 weeks every summer at a camp in northern Minnesota.

 

I have been to the Vietnam Veteran wall in D.C. and can attest to the fact that there are people that I knew that have their names etched in to the black marble on the all, including a young man named Thomas Brennan.

 

Gary Sinese has done as much as anyone in  supporting the guys that served, and his book “A Grateful American” is worth reading. You may remember that he played the part of Captain Dan in Forest Gump”.

 

https://tohell-andback.blogspot.com/2023/10/fortunate-son.html

The men and women who serve in the military today are treated much better than the folks who came back home in the 1970’s – but not by everybody.

Any politician who thinks that the people who serve in the military are “suckers and losers” is a complete scumbag, and should not be allowed to hold office, ESPECIALLY as commander-in -chief.

Set some time aside and read the book. You will be glad that you did.

 

 

 

 

How America’s worst president got re-elected

 

More than 150 political analysts have determined that Donald Trump is the worst president in our country’s history:

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/historians-voted-trump-worst-president-ever/

In view of that fact, how in the world did he get re-elected?

The answer is simple:

Lies

By now, most people have figured out that you cannot believe anything that Trump says.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/01/24/trumps-false-or-misleading-claims-total-30573-over-four-years/

When The Washington Post Fact Checker team first started cataloguing President Donald Trump’s false or misleading claims, they recorded 492 suspect claims in the first 100 days of his presidency. On Nov. 2 alone, the day before the 2020 vote, Trump made 503 false or misleading claims as he barnstormed across the country in a desperate effort to win reelection.

 

This astonishing jump in falsehoods is the story of Trump’s tumultuous reign. By the end of his term, Trump had accumulated 30,573 untruths during his presidency — averaging about 21 erroneous claims a day.

 

What is especially striking is how the tsunami of untruths kept rising the longer he served as president and became increasingly unmoored from the truth.

 

Trump averaged about six claims a day in his first year as president, 16 claims day in his second year, 22 claims day in this third year — and 39 claims a day in his final year. Put another way, it took him 27 months to reach 10,000 claims and an additional 14 months to reach 20,000. He then exceeded the 30,000 mark less than five months later.

 

 https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/01/24/trumps-false-or-misleading-claims-total-30573-over-four-years/

 If you watched his debate with either Joe Biden or Kamala Harris, you may have noticed that he still has an aversion to truth. In addition, if you have been following his rallies, you will notice that that he still has trouble telling the truth.

Having said that, though, how did he get re-elected?

More lies.

This morning, the Washington Post provided more details on his victory:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/11/15/republican-ads-false-flag/

Although it is worth reading in its entirely, here are a few of the key points:

Muslims in Michigan began seeing pro-Israel ads this fall praising Vice President Kamala Harris for marrying a Jewish man and backing the Jewish state. Jews in Pennsylvania, meanwhile, saw ads from the same group with the opposite message: Harris wanted to stop U.S. arms shipments to Israel.

Another group promoted “Kamala’s bold progressive agenda” to conservative-leaning Donald Trump voters, while a third filled the phones of young liberals with videos about how Harris had abandoned the progressive dream.

 Black voters in North Carolina were told Democrats wanted to take away their menthol cigarettes, while working-class White men in the Midwest were warned that Harris would support quotas for minorities and deny them Zyn nicotine pouches.

 What voters had no way of knowing at the time was that all of the ads were part of a single, $45 million effort created by political advisers to Tesla founder Elon Musk who had previously worked on the presidential campaign of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), according to a presentation about the group’s efforts obtained by The Washington Post.

 Have you noticed that Elon Muck is suddenly “best buds” wit Trump?

Ads tested better if Muslims felt they were seeing a message meant for Zionists, “Bernie bros” felt they were hearing from the far left, and “Zyn bros” felt they were hearing from activists who wanted “a world without gas-powered vehicles,” a ban on fracking and affordable housing for undocumented Americans — policies Harris did not actually support during her campaign.

 “The worst part is Kamala Harris talks out of both sides of her mouth,” said one of the ads, which was designed by Trump supporters to look as if it was advocating for leftist priorities like “free health care” and a “break on tuition.”

 The entire effort grew out of research by Building America’s Future, a conservative political nonprofit that was founded during the first Trump administration by Republican consultants Generra Peck and Phil Cox. With others at P2 Public Affairs, Peck and Cox, former advisers to DeSantis, were top strategists for a separate effort, America PAC, the super PAC funded by Musk to support Trump. Musk donated to Building America’s Future in 2022, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. The group’s leaders have declined to comment on their donors.

Starting in February, Ryan Tyson, a former pollster for DeSantis, began holding a series of about 25 focus groups with specific communities of targeted voters, with most of the research effort focused on likely Democrats who were uncertain about voting. The goal was to figure out how to help Donald Trump win during a campaign in which Democrats were vastly outspending Republicans on digital advertising.

 

“Clearly, you had a White liberal demographic that hated Donald Trump. That was without question. You could see that coalition everywhere. But once you get past White progressives, every other historical demographic stronghold from the Democrats just started to drop off,” Tyson said about the effort. “What did exist was a tremendous amount of voters on the left that were disaffected. And the only persuasion question was whether they could be persuaded to vote.”

 

The effort worked in concert with a separate project by the Trump campaign to depress turnout for Harris — knowing that Trump would be unlikely to drastically expand his vote totals. In 2020, Trump received about 74 million votes to Joe Biden’s 81 million votes. In 2024, Trump received a little less than 76 million votes to Harris’s 72.6 million votes. In other words, Trump’s total went up slightly, while Harris dropped about 8 million votes.

 

“The entire goal of the campaign was to push her numbers down,” said a top Trump campaign adviser, who like others interviewed for this story spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal strategy.

 

Building America’s Future tried to focus its spending where the Trump campaign’s top advisers publicly signaled an interest, investing heavily in Muslim communities that the campaign was targeting and seeking to magnify the candidate’s appearances on podcasts with significant White male audiences.

 

“We studied the strategy that was put in place by Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita and James Blair very closely,” Peck said. “And we did what outside groups can do. We tried to amplify and support the direction in which they were taking the earned and paid media.”

 

They also deployed multiple brands to place the ads, concealing their common origin — Future Coalition PAC, Duty to America PAC, Americans for Consumer Protection and Progress 2028, according to people involved.

 

Democrats grew alarmed in the final weeks of the campaign as the ads started appearing on Facebook and Google. Priorities USA, a Harris-backing super PAC, made efforts to get spots taken down from both platforms because of their deceptive nature. Google eventually struck at least one spot in which one of the Building America’s Future groups took footage from a Harris ad in Pennsylvania targeting Jews and began targeting it to Muslims with the words “This is a real Kamala Harris ad” superimposed.

Other efforts to get ads taken down were not successful. Facebook, which has pared back its ad restrictions since 2020, declined to act on a number of requests to take down ads from Progress 2028 that praised the Harris agenda while also describing policies she did not support in 2024, like mandatory gun buybacks, universal health care for undocumented immigrants and “the most progressive Green New Deal yet.”

 

“There is plenty of blame to go around for another election cycle riddled with misinformation online,” Priorities USA executive director Danielle Butterfield said in a statement. “Big Tech is still unwilling to hold bad actors accountable, Congress is unwilling to step in and write new rules for the 21st century, and Republicans will continue to slander and lie to voters to make their case. Because of all of this, Democrats lose, and we need to acknowledge this reality and figure out new ways to communicate with voters on today’s internet.”

 

The Harris campaign also responded to the spots being geo-targeted to Dearborn, Michigan, where many Muslims live, by running their own digital ads showing the vice president discussing her concern about the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

 

What we have already seen is that Trump has picked numerous people for various cabinet positions. So far, the worst possible candidate is Matt Gaetz, who Trump has nominated to be Attorney General. Unless he gets approved by a recess appointment, he has little chance of being approved by Congress – and that is a good thing. Trump’s other cabinet picks are nearly as bad.

So, what do we do know?

For starters, it would be wise to try to limit your exposure to political news, since all us are currently experiencing “battle fatigue”.

There are actually people who believe that Kamala Harris is a communist.

There are people who voted for Trump because they have ALWAYS voted for Republican, oblivious to the fact that the Republican party no longer exists because is now the party of Trump.

There are people who were unable to vote for a pro-choice candidate, ignoring that women living in states that have strict abortion laws (like Texas) are dying because they could not get the care they needed for things like sepsis as a result of miscarriages, non-viable pregnancies, and Ectopic pregnancies. Ireland now permits abortions because a female doctor named Savita Hallappanaver developed sepsis during a miscarriage, and eventually died.

There is nothing “pro-life” about strict abortion laws.

https://www.irishamerica.com/2022/06/abortion-legal-ireland/

None of the people in the examples listed above is going to change their mind – so don’t try to convince them that they are wrong.

 Avoid them if you can. If they are friends or relatives, try to stay with neutral topics.

 After all, the Superbowl is not that far away – and that is no lie.

 

the places that scare you

 

When I was in basic training in North Carolina in 1970, the highlight of the day was when we got letters from home. Other than the time that was allotted for polishing our boots or cleaning our weapons, it was about the only time of the day when we actually had some free time.

More than 30 years later, I got the same thrill about getting letters from home when I was in China. Although my daughter was with me for part of the year, I spent more than 6 months in 2004 living in China by myself. One of the books that my sister sent to me was “The Places That Scare You”, which was written by a Buddhist nun named Pema Chodron.

Here is the summary that was posted on Amazon:

 

Lifelong guidance for learning to change the way we relate to the scary and difficult moments of our lives, showing us how we can use all of our difficulties and fears as a way to soften our hearts and open us to greater kindness.

We always have a choice in how we react to the circumstances of our lives. We can let them harden us and make us increasingly resentful and afraid, or we can let them soften us and allow our inherent human kindness to shine through. Here Pema Chödrön provides essential tools for dealing with the many difficulties that life throws our way, teaching us how to awaken our basic human goodness and connect deeply with others—to accept ourselves and everything around us complete with faults and imperfections. She shows the strength that comes from staying in touch with what’s happening in our lives right now and helps us unmask the ways in which our egos cause us to resist life as it is. If we go to the places that scare us, Pema suggests, we just might find the boundless life we’ve always dreamed of.

The last place I worked in China was the College of International Studies, which was located well north of the city of Guangzhou. To get there from my apartment in Guangzhou Country Gardens, I needed to walk a few blocks to the bus stop in the complex, where I caught a bus that took me to the White Star Hotel in what amounted to be downtown Guangzhou. From there, I could with take another bus to the main bus terminal on the west side of town, where I could catch another bus to get to the college.

From start to finish, the commute was roughly 3 hours each way. As a result, I took the bus north on Monday afternoon, and stayed at the college on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday nights. On Thursday afternoon, I reversed the process.

When I got back to the main bus stop, I could either take another bus back to the White Star hotel, or I could ride on the back of a motorcycle, which both Kelly and I had done numerous times.

On one occasion, I felt confident enough that I felt I could negotiate a cheaper price from the dozens or so motorcycles that were parked there, and I eventually achieved what I wanted - which should have been a warning.

When the driver took off, he went a different direction than I thought that he should have, so for a few minutes, I assumed that he was taking a shortcut. As we got further away from the hotel, though, I realized that I had a made a serious mistake by jumping on the back of the cycle, but I was far enough along that jumping off and walking back was not a solution either.

As we meandered further away from where I wanted to go, he made a couple of phone calls when he made stops for a light. Eventually, we wound up in an area that was less inhabited, and he pulled into a lot next to a couple of manufacturing buildings. Almost immediately, one of the buddies that he called on the phone charged out, and quickly took a punch to my face, which split my lip, and caused my glasses to fall off. Inside the back pack that I had been carrying was my dirty laundry for the week, a few papers, and the book that I had finished reading that afternoon, which happened to be “The Places That Scare You”, a bit ironic, since I was now in a place that DID scare me.

They got my phone, my wallet, and my back pack with my dirty laundry, and took off.

After my glasses got knocked off, I could not find them in the dark, so I gave up.

Fortunately, I was close to a busy road, so I walked to it and stuck out my thumb.

Since I looked a bit disheveled, and had blood on my shirt, a passing motorist felt sorry for me, and picked me up. In Chinese, I explained to him that I needed to get back to the White Star hotel, which he did. Since I no longer had my wallet, I explained to the bus driver at the hotel that I had been robbed, so I was able to ride back home at no charge.

I had planning on going to a Toastmaster meeting that night, so as soon as I got home, I called my friend Sayed Hahoub, and told him I would not be attending that night.

Within an hour, Sayed and few other of my friends came to my apartment. They then went with me to the local hospital, where Sayed paid for my treatment and my medicine. To the folks who think all Muslims are killers, they can kiss my ass.

 Since the next day was a Friday, I did not have to go to work, but I DID go in the following Monday, where I explained to the students that I could not see them.

The following weekend, my friend Maggie Woo went with me to the optician so that I could get new glasses, which is that pair that I wore for the next few months. Since the lenses were fairly thick, some of the managers at The Autobarn called me “Mister Magoo” until I could afford to buy more stylish glasses.

If you believe in ironies, you’ll appreciate that fact that on the afternoon that I finished “The Place That Scare You” on the bus that I found my self at a location that DID scare me.

I stayed in China for roughly six months after that, at which point, I returned to the Chicago area. However, for the remainder  to my time in country, I never again rode on the back of a motorcycle.

 Fortunately, our local library has a copy of the book in their shelves, so I put it on hold today. 

It should bring back a lot of memories.