swordfish

Where have you been the last couple of decades? https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/banned-adventures-huckleberry-finn/

https://www.foxnews.com/media/washington-post-fawning-bidens-stimulus-shower The Washington Post fawned over President Biden’s stimulus package with a glowing headline that read to critics like a partisan press release more than a serious news story. The Post story, "Biden stimulus showers money on Americans, sharply cutting poverty in defining move of presidency," celebrated the $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill that passed on party lines Saturday in the Democratic-controlled Senate. When billionaire Jeff Bezos’ newspaper tweeted the headline from its verified account, it was immediately met with criticism. "North Korea is asking you to tone it down a bit," political pundit Stephen L. Miller joked. "Hey, check it out. Joe Biden ended poverty," podcaster Gerry Callahan joked. "The guy is amazing!" The Post eventually altered the headline to, "Biden stimulus showers money on Americans, sharply cutting poverty and favoring individuals over businesses," but the original version is still available via internet archive database. The widely panned phrasing about the package being a "defining move" of Biden’s presidency is now removed from the Post's website. The Washington Post did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Amazing - "Joe Biden ended poverty......" "Showers money on Americans"

https://www.wsbt.com/news/local/edwardsburg-public-schools-closed-today All Edwardsburg public schools will be closed today, Monday March 8th. Superintendent Jim Knoll told parents it's due to the number of staff absences. He said many staff members got their second dose of the coronavirus vaccine yesterday and some have side effects. All after school activities will go on as scheduled tomorrow. The school district plans to return to normal operations Tuesday, March 9th. FTR - Everyone that I know personally that has had the vaccine has had a reaction. Nobody worse than the flu shot, but some reactions worse than others. Eventually I plan on getting the vaccine simply because of my traveling and being able to have it documented if it becomes a requirement before boarding a plane. I endure the required mask wearing but I am so over this and listening to Fauci.

MSM - Oh - it's just ol' Uncle Joe....Nevermind..... https://nypost.com/2021/03/04/biden-tells-nasa-engineer-indian-americans-are-taking-over-the-country/ Joltin’ Joe is back. President Biden on Thursday made one of his most head-turning comments since being sworn in when he told an Indian American aerospace engineer that immigrants from the subcontinent are “taking over” the US. “It’s amazing. Indian-descent Americans are taking over the country — you, my vice president, my speechwriter,” Biden told Swati Mohan, NASA’s guidance and controls operations lead for the Mars Perseverance rover landing. Biden made the seemingly tone-deaf effort at levity before telling the NASA group that diversity in the US allows for the betterment of “every single solitary culture.” he president said, “One of the reasons why we’re such an incredible country is we’re such a diverse country. We bring the best out of every single solitary culture in the world, here in the United States of America, and we give people an opportunity to let their dreams run forward.” Biden, 78, concluded his webcast remarks by describing himself as “like a poor relative … when I’m invited, I show up.” “So be careful. You know the poor relatives, they show up. They stay longer than they’re supposed to. I’m one of those kind of guys,” he said. As a presidential candidate last year, Biden struggled with controversial remarks about ethnic minorities. In May, Biden walked back comments telling voters they “ain’t black” if they supported a candidate other than him. He said in August that blacks are less diverse thinkers than Hispanics. Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio humorously suggested Thursday that Biden should “seek training on unconscious bias” after he used the word “Neanderthal” on Wednesday to criticize Republican Govs. Greg Abbott of Texas and Tate Reeves of Mississippi for ending COVID-19 mask mandates. Vice President Kamala Harris’ mother was born in Chennai, India, and she’s the first non-white vice president since Native American Charles Curtis, who held the office from 1929 to 1933.

As I stated earlier - this wasn't an "armed insurrection" - had the PROTESTERS been armed with the intention of insurrection, the outcome would have been vastly different.....

Today's left can't have the next generation exposed to our childhood influences......

https://rare.us/people/marry-poppins-blackface-allegations/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=agora&utm_term=faves&utm_campaign=faves&fbclid=IwAR3r4fqd_pYnOh3t3QZ6yp5oR5ydXdonhvGLKtmx1Bgf2Qmq7jWn5oEcT8Q It looks like some people just can’t enjoy the simple pleasures in life. In November 2018, Disney decided to release a ‘Mary Poppins’ sequel, led by Academy Award nominee Emily Blunt, called “Mary Poppins Returns”. Which, if you haven’t seen, you should because you’re seriously missing out. As expected, this was huge news for ‘Mary Poppins’ fans, because honestly, who didn’t like the first one? Of course, this prompted several people to go back and watch the original version of the classic Disney tale, which is where Professor Daniel Pollack-Pelzner comes in. Turns out, he is deeming the classic 1964 film “Mary Poppins” racist, accusing Julie Andrews of “blacking up” her face with soot while dancing with several chimney sweeps. So - what happens to someone whose job it is to clean chimneys? THEY GET ASHES ON THEM. Regardless of skin color.

https://nypost.com/2021/03/02/biden-removes-mention-of-dr-seuss-from-read-across-america-day/ President Biden apparently removed mentions of Dr. Seuss from “Read Across America Day” amid scrutiny about the alleged “racial undertones” in the whimsical tales for children. “Read Across America Day,” founded by the National Educational Association in 1998 as a way to promote children’s reading, is even celebrated on the author’s March 2 birthday. In his presidential proclamation, Biden noted that “for many Americans, the path to literacy begins with story time in their school classroom,” USA Today reported. But unlike his two predecessors, former Presidents Donald Trump and Barack Obama, Biden did not mention Dr. Seuss. The move comes as Dr. Seuss’ work has generated controversy following a study highlighting a lack of diversity among the author’s characters. “Of the 2,240 (identified) human characters, there are forty-five characters of color representing 2% of the total number of human characters,” according to a 2019 study from the Conscious Kid’s Library and the University of California that examined 50 of Dr. Seuss’ books. Last week, a Virginia school district ordered its teachers to avoid “connecting Read Across America Day with Dr. Seuss,” because of recent research that have “revealed strong racial undertones” in many of the author’s books. Really? Cancelling Dr. Suess because of diversity? I mean - the actual purpose of the day was to recognize the beloved children's author. Now he's a pariah? Gotta be Trump's fault.

https://nypost.com/2021/02/28/cuomo-sorry-for-jokes-amid-sexual-harassment-claims/ Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Sunday tried to explain away allegations of sexual harassment as “jokes” that were misinterpreted as “unwanted flirtation” — as his office caved on the state attorney general’s request to appoint an investigator to probe the claims. “At work sometimes I think I am being playful and make jokes that I think are funny. I do, on occasion, tease people in what I think is a good natured way,” said Cuomo in a prepared statement. “I now understand that my interactions may have been insensitive or too personal and that some of my comments, given my position, made others feel in ways I never intended,” he continued. “I acknowledge some of the things I have said have been misinterpreted as an unwanted flirtation. To the extent anyone felt that way, I am truly sorry about that.” Gov. Cuomo’s office caved on the state attorney general’s request to solely appoint an investigator of sexual harassment allegations made against him. The statement came one day after former Cuomo staffer Charlotte Bennett, 25, alleged to the New York Times that the 63-year-old governor made a series of inappropriate remarks that left her convinced he “wanted to sleep with” her. That claim, in turn, came less than a week after another former staffer, Lindsey Boylan, expanded on accusations she first revealed in December 2020, alleging that Cuomo kissed her on the lips without warning. While copping to remarks that may have crossed the line, Cuomo on Sunday again denied going any further. “To be clear I never inappropriately touched anybody and I never propositioned anybody and I never intended to make anyone feel uncomfortable,” he said. “But these are allegations that New Yorkers deserve answers to.” But Erica Vladimer, co-founder of the Sexual Harassment Working Group — which is made up of former state legislative staffers — dismissed Cuomo’s defense as “complete BS.” “It’s Gaslighting 101,” Vladimer told The Post. “He’s trying to put the onus on the victim. He’s clearly trying not to take ownership for his actions. “This is classic Cuomo in a compressed time period. People are finally recognizing what kind of powerful abuser he is.” Cuomo’s statement was issued minutes after his special counsel and senior adviser Beth Garvey blinked first in an hours-long back-and-forth with state Attorney General Letitia James over how to investigate the allegations. “The Governor’s office wants a thorough and independent review that is above reproach and beyond political interference,” said Garvey in a statement. “Therefore, the Governor’s office has asked Attorney General Tish James to select a qualified private lawyer to do an independent review of allegations of sexual harassment.” James on Sunday morning requested that Cuomo’s administration grant her office the sole authority to appoint an independent investigator with subpoena powers. The Cuomo administration — which had initially tapped former federal Judge Barbara Jones to the inquiry, a move widely panned because Jones once worked with key Cuomo advisor Steve Cohen — responded, however, with a counter offer. Garvey said that James’ office could work in conjunction with top state appeals Judge Janet DiFiore — a Cuomo appointee — to agree on an investigator. James fired back that, under state law, her office holds the sole authority to appoint an independent investigator. As pressure mounted, Cuomo buckled. “The independent lawyer will be legally designated as a Special Independent Deputy Attorney General and granted all powers provided under Section 63(8) of the Executive Law,” Garvey’s latest statement continued. “As necessary, other lawyers from the appointed lawyer’s firm shall be similarly designated to assist in the review. The lawyer shall report publicly their findings. “The Governor’s office will voluntarily cooperate fully.” SF gets the feeling the Governor is almost relieved all he has to deal with is the alleged sexual misconduct. He thinks perhaps can apologize himself out of that one fairly easy......Never mind the Covid nursing homes debacle story......It's old news, they died, who cares where...... He's OK being pigeon-holed into a accidental sexual deviant (alleged) but wants everyone to forget about "granny killer"....

I personally don't think one needs a medical degree for the topic he was addressing with the nominee. In my "bigotted" eyes there are but 2 biological genders until your no longer a minor.....

Doesn't common sense tell you he would do better with your eyes than your teeth??? Well, you are DE after all, I shouldn't assume common sense grows in your garden......

https://nypost.com/2021/02/27/why-bill-gates-is-now-the-us-biggest-farmland-owner/ The real reason why Bill Gates is now the US’ biggest farmland owner Late last year, Eric O’Keefe was researching a mysterious recent purchase of 14,500 acres of prime Washington state farmland. His magazine, The Land Report, tracks major land transactions and produces an annual list of the 100 biggest US landowners. Sales of more than a thousand acres are “blue-moon events,” O’Keefe noted, so this one stood out. And Eastern Washington has some of the richest, most expensive farmland in the country. But the purchaser of record was a small, obscure company in Louisiana. “That immediately set off alarm bells,” O’Keefe says. He assigned his research team to dig a little deeper. Soon they came back with the answer: The Louisiana company was acting on behalf of Cascade Investment LLC, the secretive investment firm that manages most of the huge fortune belonging to Bill Gates. O’Keefe knew Gates had been acquiring farmland for years, mostly through various Cascade subsidiaries. The mogul’s holdings include large tracts in Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, California, and about a dozen other states. With the Washington state acreage and other recent additions to his portfolio, O’Keefe calculated, Gates now owns at least 242,000 acres of American farmland. “Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft, has an alter ego,” O’Keefe wrote: “Farmer Bill, the guy who owns more farmland than anyone else in America.” The Land Report scoop made headlines. Many stories focused on Gates’ longstanding interest in climate change and sustainability and suggested those concerns might be driving the land purchases. Newsweek called him a “sustainable agriculture champion.” Those stories dovetailed with earlier reports about Gates’ large land acquisitions in Arizona. Most notably, in 2017, the Gates-affiliated Mt. Lemmon Holdings invested in some 40 square miles of “transitional” land on the western fringe of the Phoenix sprawl. (According to The Land Report, Gates owns about 27,000 acres of non-agricultural land, in addition to his farm holdings.) Some partners in the Arizona project issued a press release touting plans to build “a forward-thinking community … that embraces cutting-edge technology.” There was talk of “high-speed digital networks” and “autonomous logistics hubs.” That was all it took for many in the media to conclude that Gates was personally engineering the city of the future. “Bill Gates has started laying out his plans for creating a ‘smart city’ in Phoenix, Arizona,” science-news outlet Futurism wrote. This high-tech metropolis “could be both a breeding and testing ground for futuristic technologies.” In reality, the idea that Bill Gates was single-handedly reinventing farming — or designing cities of tomorrow — was almost entirely speculation. “There’s a tendency in the media to personalize this,” O’Keefe says. “People want to know, “Why does Bill Gates want all this land?’ ” But hyper-wealthy people like Gates don’t make every decision personally, O’Keefe notes. “He has very competent investment managers.” Given that Gates is the third-richest person in the world — with an estimated net worth of $132 billion, he falls in behind Tesla founder Elon Musk and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos — those money managers have their hands full. Investment guru Michael Larson, who has worked with Gates since 1994, runs the Washington-based Cascade Investment, as well as supervising the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s nearly $50 billion endowment. “The arrangement is simple,” The Wall Street Journal wrote in a 2014 profile. “Mr. Larson makes money, and Mr. Gates gives it away.” Larson and his team are famously tight-lipped. Cascade employees almost never speak to the press. According to the Journal, they are even discouraged from using Facebook and other social-media platforms. (Through a spokesperson, the company declined to comment for this article.) Larson sees to it that Gates’ wealth is sensibly, even conservatively, invested. According to public records, the billionaire’s portfolio includes shares in Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway conglomerate, a Coca-Cola bottling company, and the tractor manufacturer Deere & Co., among other non-flashy investments. Larson also makes sure Gates keeps his eggs in a wide variety of baskets. His portfolio is diversified, in other words. And that’s where the land purchases come in. Most of us imagine farmers tilling the soil that has been in their families for generations. But many farmers lease at least some of the land they cultivate. According to Bruce Sherrick, a professor of agricultural economics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, about 60 percent of row-crop farmland in the Midwest is leased. The landowners can include investors like Gates. For investors who know what they’re doing, agricultural land offers financial stability in uncertain times. “Farmland has had a remarkably consistent ability to hedge against inflation,” Sherrick says. And it tends to be “negatively correlated” against other investments, he adds: If the stock market is going down, the return on farmland is likely to be going up. But farmland isn’t easy to buy. “You can’t just say, I’ve got $30,000 saved up and I want to buy some farmland,” Sherrick notes. Large investors usually work with expert advisors to help them acquire and manage their agricultural holdings. According to press reports, Gates’ farmland empire is mostly managed by a Cascade subsidiary called Cottonwood Ag Management. But the details are murky, and there is no evidence that the billionaire’s farmland-buying spree is driven by anything more than a desire to have a well-diversified portfolio. “When Ted Turner bought his Flying D Ranch in Montana in 1989, that was his personal passion,” O’Keefe says. “Bill Gates’ land purchases look to me more like sensible long-term holds run by experienced asset managers.” The same logic likely holds for Gates’ Arizona acquisitions. The largest parcel, a proposed 24,800-acre development known as Belmont, might someday contain 80,000 homes, along with offices, retail, industrial and logistics facilities. At least that’s what the developers partnered with Gates’ investment group have promised. For now, though, all that “smart city” talk is more than a little premature. As Slate financial writer Henry Grabar concluded, the proposed town of Belmont is “not a city, nor is it ‘smart,’ nor does the Microsoft founder appear to be involved in any meaningful way.” But, while Belmont might not be a smart city, it still looks like a smart investment. The region west of Phoenix is booming. The nearby community of Buckeye has grown more than tenfold in the last 20 years. And the Belmont property is located along Interstate 10, the region’s major east-west artery, making it an excellent location for Amazon-style warehouse complexes. There’s also a proposal to build a new interstate linking Phoenix to Las Vegas. That proposed superhighway would run across a 5-mile stretch of the Belmont property. The project isn’t yet funded. But if it ever gets built, it would boost the value of Gates’ land dramatically. Today, the Belmont tract remains mostly empty desert. Most likely, it is just one more asset in Gates’ vast portfolio, quietly appreciating in value while the billionaire himself remains at arm’s length. People involved in the Gates financial empire stress that the family’s philanthropic endeavors are kept separate from their investments and business ventures. But some of the software pioneer’s investments do reveal his grander goals. Gates — who stepped down from day-to-day involvement with Microsoft in 2008 — has long been looking for ways to help the world’s poorest and to address the planet’s environmental challenges. In 2006, he helped launch TerraPower, a company developing a new type of compact, ultra-safe nuclear reactor. In a recent episode of “60 Minutes,” Gates explained that zero-carbon energy sources like nuclear power are vital in reducing the emissions that warm the atmosphere. “Without innovation, we will not solve climate change,” Gates said. “We won’t even come close.” Since 2016, Gates has led Breakthrough Energy Ventures, a venture-capital fund that invests in clean-technology startups. The fund recently raised $1 billion, which it is pouring into companies developing hydrogen-fueled airplanes, zero-carbon building materials, and other green innovations. His environmental bent also extends to farming. Gates has invested in Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat, two companies producing beef substitutes, including the Impossible Burger. In his new book, “How to Avoid a Climate Disaster,” Gates explains why raising beef cattle causes more harmful emissions than other forms of agriculture. He hopes plant-based substitutes will allow us to “cut down on meat eating while still enjoying the taste of meat.” And the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation recently launched a new division known as Gates Ag One. It aims to help poor farmers, especially in Africa and South Asia, get the “tools, technologies, and resources they need to lift themselves out of poverty.” If each acre can produce more food, that’s good news for farmers. But it also means we can devote less of the planet’s surface to farmland, which is good news for forests and ecosystems. Meanwhile, American agriculture today is being transformed as farmers employ new technologies and Big Data to help them manage their crops. That can mean better yields with decreased use of fertilizers and pesticides. Which in turn means less impact on the environment. Farms also have a role in fighting climate change. With proper techniques, the carbon from decaying plant matter can be kept safely in the soil, rather than entering the atmosphere in the form of carbon dioxide. A new coalition of farmland owners, operators and environmental groups is working to come up with verifiable standards for sustainable farming. The group is called Leading Harvest, and the Gates-linked Cottonwood Ag is one of its founding members. Leading Harvest envisions a kind of sustainability seal of approval certifying that a given farm meets environmental standards. The program could be an economic boon for farmers. “In the future, farmers will be paid for sustainability,” says Sherrick, who sits on the group’s board. There will be incentives for things like using less water, fewer chemicals, and storing more carbon. The group’s founding members are expected to spearhead the rollout of the new standards on their own lands. Whether or not Gates personally directed Cottonwood Ag to get involved in the Leading Harvest project, the move makes both environmental and business sense. “The new green economy will mean new opportunities for land owners,” O’Keefe believes. “Farming is all of a sudden part of the solution and not just part of the problem,” Sherrick adds. He sees Gates’ involvement — even if indirect — as crucial in encouraging the industry to embrace the new sustainability standard. If the nation’s largest farmland owner can show that farming can be both sustainable and profitable, that will make a big difference. “People are going to pay attention to what Bill is doing,” Sherrick says. Now Mr. Gates's "Synthetic Beef" statement is making sense. He wants to sell more of his products from the ground...."Farmer Bill"

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9300987/Rand-Paul-likens-gender-surgery-genital-mutilation-exchange-trans-nominee-HHS-deputy.html Rand Paul compares gender change surgery for minors to genital mutilation in furious exchange with Biden's transgender pick for assistant HHS secretary Rand Paul angrily confronted Joe Biden's pick for assistant secretary for Health and Human Services on Thursday, likening gender changes surgeries to genital mutilation and pushing the transgender nominee on if they would allow minors to decide if they want to go on hormones to stop puberty. 'We should be outraged that someone is talking to a three-year-old about changing their sex,' Paul said of Rachel Levine, a transgender woman Biden picked to help head up HHS. Paul, who was a practicing ophthalmologist before becoming a U.S. senator, likened transgender minors starting on transitioning treatments to genital mutilation, blaming the increasing rates of trans-identified youth on 'the social pressure to conform.' 'Genital mutilation has been nearly universally condemned,' Paul began in his line of questioning of Levine. 'Most genital mutilation is not typical performed by force,' he continued in an opening monologue. 'But, as [the World Health Organization] notes, that by social convention, social norm, the social pressure to conform, to do what others do and have been doing, as well as the need to be accepted socially and the fear of being rejected by the community.' 'American culture is now normalizing the idea that minors can be given hormones to prevent their biological development of their secondary sexual characteristics,' Paul continued as Levine appeared before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee for her confirmation hearing on Thursday. 'Dr. Levine, you have supported allowing minors to be given hormone blockers to prevent them from going through puberty, as well as surgical destruction of a minor's genitalia,' the Kentucky Republican senator pointed out. 'Do you believe minors are capable of making such a life changing decision of changing one's sex?' Levine thanked the senator for his 'interest' in transgender medicine, calling it 'a very complex and nuanced field with robust research and standards of care that have been developed' over time. 'If I'm fortunate enough to be confirmed, I will look forward to working with you and your office and coming to your office to discuss the particulars of the standards of care for transgender medicine,' Levine said. Levine, a pediatrician, is currently secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Health and rose to prominence in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. She was nominated to become Biden's assistant secretary of HHS. If confirmed, she would act as HHS secretary nominee Xavier Becerra's deputy. Becerra currently serves as attorney general for California. During the hearing Thursday, Levine did not address the substance of Paul's questions at any points regarding transgender healthcare decisions in cases with minors. 'Let it go into the record that the witness refused to answer the question,' Paul said of Levine. 'The question is a very specific one: should minors be making these momentous decisions?' 'For most of the history of medicine, we wouldn't let you have a cut sewn up in the ER [without parental consent],' he lamented. 'But you're willing to let a minor take things that prevent their puberty, and you think they get that back?' 'You give a woman testosterone enough that she grows a beard, you think she's going to go back looking like a woman when you stop the testosterone? You have permanently changed them. Infertility is another problem,' Paul said. Levine appeared before the Senate panel alongside Surgeon General nominee Vivek Murthy for a dual confirmation hearing. 'According to the WHO, genital mutilation is recognized internationally as a violation of human right. Genital mutilation is considered particularly egregious because because, as the WHO notes, it is nearly always carried out on minors and is a violation of the rights of children,' Paul continued in likening putting children on hormones to castration and female circumcision. 'I'm alarmed that you're not saying they should be prevented from making decisions to amputate their breasts or genitalia,' Paul said during the heated exchange between him and Levine. 'We have always said that minors do not have full rights—will you make a more firm decision on whether or not minors should be involved in these decisions?' Levine reiterated that transgender medicine is 'a very complex and nuanced field,' but refused to directly answer whether minors should be able to make medical decisions based on changing their sex. No doubt this is "very complex and nuanced"......but the inability of this individual to be able to articulate a position on this in unacceptable.