Apologies

Today’s schedule included doing due diligence on a company a friend is recommending I look into getting involved with, and two posts here. One was on the shooting here at the Greenwood Park Mall, and the other was going to be a fundraising update for here at GiveSendGo.

However, a housemate got in from overseas about 0030 hrs, spent next three hours stomping, running, and bouncing around like a demented 500 lb gerbil, knowing I was directly below him trying to sleep. I depend on routine and sufficient sleep to stay on the coping mechanisms/plans that let me function despite the fun joys of the lightning strike messing with my brain. So far off that today it’s not funny.

Yes, I did say something. Still means I’ve been up since 0030 hrs, gave up and started cooking breakfast about 0330, and am trying to get back on track but it’s not easy. If weirder than normal on social media, or just off, please forgive and be patient. If I can get back on track, I will. Odds are not good, but will try though my prime goal is to give you the best I can on each post. Quality comes first.

Meantime, please, please, please hit the flipping tip jar in the upper right, or the GiveSendGo campaign, so I can get moved out of here and out West ASAP. I get more when you donate here. While GiveSendGo does not take anything, the payment processor they use takes everything it possibly can. PayPal takes a lot less. If you have a suggestion for any other app/payment option, let me know so I can check it out. Thanks for all you have done, and thanks for your patience.

Food crisis: Big statements in small articles

Italy is losing about 1/3 of its rice and corn crops to the heat.

We planted corn late, and now this heat wave, with high nighttime temperatures, is hitting the Western Corn Belt very hard at an inopportune time. AccuWeather is predicting a greater weather hit to corn than the USDA is.

Dryland corn in my area is just about toast. Irrigated doesn’t look good, pivots can’t keep up and flood won’t go through. Next 10 days of 100° plus and no rain. Worst year I’ve ever seen for moisture and heat. Started feeding my cattle this week, never done that in July before.

David, commenter on AgWeb’s AccuWeather article

If this is true about Germany harvesting corn for silage (i.e., not for corn), that’s a problem.

This 7:08 video might give a sense of how normal economic processes aren’t quite making sense. I think that’s because of the conflict between fundamentals and technical trading. For instance, it’s strange to see such high prices for farming inputs without seeing an equivalent increase in prices for outputs. The long-term implications here are uncertain, but they might include an increase in farm bankruptcies or people getting out of the field: If you can’t sell your goods at a profit, you won’t stay in business long.

We kinda needed a good harvest. It looks like we’re not getting a good harvest.

My usual caveat applies: There’s a lot I don’t know. If you think I’m missing mitigating factors, please talk about it in the comments.

An additional caveat: Note that a lot of the most doom-and-gloom articles at AgWeb are written by Tyne Morgan. That could mean he’s the one paying attention, or it could mean that he’s a clickbait artist. I lean toward the former, because there’s verifiable data in his articles. Other articles are less doom-and-gloom, like this one — but even that one embeds a video that backs up everything Morgan says. Having said that, I notice that his articles sometimes repeat predictions from weeks before without saying whether or not those predictions came true. Caveat lector, and don’t trust anyone, even me.

Into The Light: Eric Flint

I’m sorry to report that Eric Flint passed away this weekend. The man was unique, with a background that gave him a profound appreciation for and understanding of the American worker. More than that, his background shaped him into not just an author — he was 50 I believe when he began to conquer that field — but someone who advanced the field by bringing in and up so many other writers.

Most will know him from his 1632 series, and it is a good way to share how unique he was with the world. How many authors do you know who would invent an entire new universe and then open it up to not just published authors, but unpublished or fan-authors around the world? Who would see someone with a good idea or take, and encourage them to write a good story and sell it?

Eric was also the person who got the Baen free library going, as I understand it talking the late (and much missed) Jim Baen into offering that first hit for free. Into including CDs with a mix of free stories into new hardcovers, betting that readers would find one or more other stories/series to go buy and read. Sheer marketing genius.

I did not know him personally, and that is my loss. Those who did shared with me a man who, though in a number of ways my political/philosophical opposite, was great to talk to and even fun to talk to. A man who had a knack of getting people to look at things from a different perspective, and was willing to do the same. He also had a wicked sense of humor.

I have to admit I enjoyed his works with other authors, particularly David Weber, as such collaborations seemed to work well and take some rough edges off both. To me, they were a bit richer than his single-author works, though that is a highly personal thing.

He was talented, generous to a fault (particularly with new writers), and a cheerful curmudgeon who enjoyed that status. We are the richer for his life and talent, and while his loss leaves a void in the field he did his best to fill that void and leave the field richer than before. That’s a hell of a legacy. Salute.

*****

If you would like to help me in my recovery efforts, feel free to hit the tip jar in the upper right or the fundraiser at A New Life on GiveSendGo. Getting hit by lightning is not fun, and it is thanks to your help and prayers that I am still going. Thank you.

Food crisis update

I’ve been saying that the US won’t see starvation, but we’d see prices even higher than we’ve currently got. I continue to think that’s true.

The futures markets for grain and other commodities are taking a beating because of inflationary news, which means companies are betting that the price of grain will go down in the future. But I think they’re basing their belief about decreasing grain prices on things like the recession, inflationary fears, and so on, rather than on what’s really going on in the grain fields. The fundamentals in agriculture continue to be pretty bad, by which I mean that (I believe) that the causes of high prices are still in place, and there’s nothing about the crops themselves that should lead anyone to believe that the prices will go down significantly.

Not all the news is bad, mind you — some signs show that corn and soybeans are going to be better than they could be, and I haven’t heard as much about poultry loss from avian flu recently — but we continue to have serious long-term issues because of drought.

There’s a massive cattle sell-off in Texas right now because of drought, which has caused a shortage of hay and water. 4x the normal number of cattle are currently being sold. Maybe that’ll mean there’s beef at better prices for a little while, maybe not, but it sure means that there will be higher prices in the future. Buy beef and freeze it.

https://61a6a0fd9b4012f13ba5706c.bcvp0rtal.com/detail/videos/agday-minute/video/6309493888112/agday-minute-071322

The US drought’s already bad and is getting worse. See this video:

…and the first chunk of this video:

This coincides with this discussion from last week.

https://www.agweb.com/news/crops/crop-production/half-us-corn-crop-was-planted-two-weeks-now-10-day-forecast-shows-signs

Now skip to ~5:40 in that second video to hear about Ukrainian farmers having to sell their grain below cost, with government officials saying, “Without opening the Black Sea ports, I don’t see any solution for Ukrainian farmers to survive. And if they don’t survive, we won’t be able to feed African countries.” There was some possible movement on that yesterday, but none of it involves Russia, which is kind of a big deal. Look for more information on that next week.

Back to the US: Feed shortages are already a concern, and a rail strike may make it worse.

https://www.agweb.com/news/policy/politics/could-rail-workers-now-strike-starting-monday-concerns-feed-shortage-continue

With massive inflation and looming food shortages, I still recommend buying and storing pasta, and now I’ll add that you might want to buy and freeze meat. Meat was always going to go up higher because the cost of grain will reduce meat production overall: It would be good to get more on hand before prices go up, especially if there’s a little dip before that rise starts.

When The Story Begs Serious Questions

Recently, the story of a 10-year-old rape victim having to travel to Indiana to get an abortion because of Ohio law swept unquestioningly across the media landscape, and into the mouths of politicians like the demented meat puppet at 1600 Penn. The problem with that was, there were and are a lot of holes in that story. Massive holes that beg both ethical and legal questions.

The first reporter to raise questions was Megan Fox at PJ Media. Her first column on the story raised a number of important red flags, and a host of questions which have yet to be answered by the Indianapolis Star, the doctor quoted in their story, or a number of other people and/or organizations.

Sadly, far from being a hoax, an illegal alien has been arrested and charged with the rape of the girl. I really do wish it had been a hoax, rather than being true and a child having their childhood destroyed. I pray for her and I hope that she gets some great counseling so as to avoid the many problems that come from childhood rape.

Yet, those troublesome questions remain unanswered. Indeed, they stand in sharper focus as we start to learn more. Let’s run down a few of them.

First, why did a report filed on 22 June with child services not make it to the police, and an arrest made, until 12 or 13 JULY? Why did the attorney general of Ohio and his office not know about it until then? Why did the Columbus police deny any investigation until yesterday?

Second, why was no apparent effort made to obtain an abortion in Ohio? Per the attorney general, the girl qualified if for no other reason than a 10-year-old’s body is not yet ready to give birth even if she had entered puberty. As with the question on why the report was not shared in a timely manner, what efforts if any were made to obtain medical care for the rape victim in Ohio? If they were denied, who denied them and when? Were any reports required of mandatory reporters filed at all by anyone? Who was the alleged “child abuse doctor” and did they file the mandatory paperwork? More importantly, did they make any effort to obtain care in Ohio and if not, why did they instead enlist the aid of a noted abortion activist physician here in Indiana?

Third, given that the procedure was done here in Indiana by the abortion activist doctor, did she at any point file the required reports? Did she have permission to discuss the case with the media or did she violate HIPPA and risk additional trauma to a young rape victim simply for political points? Did she discuss the story or her part in it with her employer or anyone else before going public with the patient’s information? At least, according to the court testimony yesterday, she did keep tissue from the abortion for DNA and/or other analysis.

Fourth, there are a series of questions for the IndyStar. First, in a story relying on a single source, how did they vet what they were being told? What steps, if any, did they take to verify the material, and to verify that the legal rights of the minor rape victim were being protected? Did they at any time seek a legal opinion on the article, and if not, why not? On a story like this, it’s not unusual to seek such an opinion given that it can open the newspaper up to lawsuits and/or prosecution. Was anyone at the IndyStar aware that the source was violating HIPPA and other regulations? Did anyone at the IndyStar question why the rape victim was not treated in Ohio and question the so-called “child abuse doctor” about that? Did anyone on staff do any due diligence to ensure that they, and the child victim, were not being used to further a particular pro-abortion political position?

The latter truly is crucial. If this entire chain of events happened, across state lines, to create and/or push a political outcome, that moves into the realm of criminal activity. It would mean the first “doctor” who remains unknown to the public conspired with the doctor here to use the victim for their own political purposes. It is not only unethical, but would also appear to be in violation of a variety of federal and state laws, not to mention simply being utterly and completely despicable.

If the IndyStar had any idea that it was being used as part of such an effort, and failed to perform due diligence and/or willingly participated, there is no First Amendment shield. It’s been a while since my last media law class, but the courts have held that journalistic operations have some “slack” in terms of violating laws in pursuit of the common good. This mostly applies to classified information and attempts by governments at various levels to prevent damaging information from being reported. Where news organizations have violated laws for gain or to push particular agendas, the courts have not been kind. They will have little to no shield from civil or criminal complaints.

For now, all we have are questions and a situation that stinks to high heaven. Until the IndyStar answers questions about basic journalistic fundamentals, much less the more serious questions, it remains highly suspect in the public eye. They need to come clean and operate transparently if they are to maintain any good public perception.

At best, it would appear that the privacy and other rights of a minor rape victim were knowingly and willfully violated by a number of people and/or institutions. At worst, there was a deliberate effort to use and abuse that victim to create a false political narrative for gain. If the latter is true, then all involved should face the maximum legal and social repercussions. If the former, those involved deserve the same. There is no excuse to violate a child like this for personal or political gain, and it is my opinion that is exactly what has happened. Meantime, I can only hope that she is finally getting real care and treatment and that real, honest investigations are made into everyone involved in this story.

*****

If you would like to help me in my recovery efforts, feel free to hit the tip jar in the upper right or the fundraiser at A New Life on GiveSendGo. Getting hit by lightning is not fun, and it is thanks to your help and prayers that I am still going. Thank you.

Out!

Out, damned spot! out, I say!–One: two: why, then, ’tis time to do’t.–Hell is murky!–Fie, my lord, fie! a soldier, and afeard? What need we fear who knows it, when none can call our power to account?–Yet who would have thought the children to have had so much blood in them.

No basin, no sink, no river will wash away those spots from all those hands.

*****

If you would like to help me in my recovery efforts, feel free to hit the tip jar in the upper right or the fundraiser at A New Life on GiveSendGo. Getting hit by lightning is not fun, and it is thanks to your help and prayers that I am still going. Thank you.

Birthday Wish

At some point in the next seven days, I turn another year older. Yes, I’ve just had my Alive Day, but I do have a wish or three for my birthday.

First, I really wish more people would drop the politics and both work to make the world a better place, and to appreciate all the wonderful things we do have in life. Take a moment to stop and give thanks for the natural beauty in the world, the many wonderful people within, and all the blessings we have been granted. Seriously, take a moment and give thanks.

Outside of that, what do I want for my birthday? Well, I’m not going to ask for the impossible of running back the clock to before everything that has gone on in the last few years, especially the lightning strike. As much as it is a challenge, I’m not sure I would change much, if anything. I wouldn’t be the me I am today without all of it.

What I would like to see is this effort go viral so I can get moved and truly start a new life. I would also appreciate it if I could ask for a few specific things: $20 for a haircut; $20 so I could eat out on my birthday; and, $20 so I could go see a movie in the theatre. Yes, I would like to see Top Gun just for the grins of it.

It’s a rough time for everyone, but your help and prayers have gotten me this far with my head above water. With your help, the next stage of my life can take off.

*****

If you would like to help me in my recovery efforts, feel free to hit the tip jar in the upper right or the fundraiser at A New Life on GiveSendGo. Getting hit by lightning is not fun, and it is thanks to your help and prayers that I am still going. Thank you.

The Untold Hogan’s Heroes

Well, not completely untold, but I’m amazed at how many people have never heard this story. Over on Twitter, Don Surber made a post about Hogan’s Heroes and how all the Nazi’s were played by Jewish actors. In fact, the major actors all had very personal stories and reasons to want to portray the Nazis in a bad light.

For example, Werner Klemperer was the son of a famous conductor who had to flee Germany because of his Jewish heritage. After serving in the U.S. Army during WWII, he moved into acting and if not for Hogan’s Heroes would probably be remembered for his role as an unrepentant Nazi judge in Judgement at Nuremberg. He took the role of Klink on the promise that he could make him as bumbling and foolish as possible, and that none of Klink’s schemes would succeed.

John Banner, who played Sgt. Shultz, was the only survivor of his family. He was on tour in Switzerland when the Anschluss took place, and being unable to return to his native Vienna immigrated to the U.S. His parents and all of his siblings perished in the camps. He never saw Shultz as a Nazi, but rather “…representative of some kind of goodness in any generation.”

Robert Clary, who played Cpl. Lebeau, had the most intense story out of any of the main actors. He survived the camps, though most of his siblings and family did not. He’s still alive in Paris, and still has his number on his arm. He may still lecture on the Holocaust and his experiences, and you should read and/or hear what he has to say.

Leon Askin, who played Gen. Burkhalter, was another who fled. Not once, but twice. In 1933, he was detained and beaten by the SA and fled to Paris for a few years. He then returned to Vienna, and worked on (or leading) various projects until he was forced to leave again in 1938 for Paris. He ended up in the Meslay du Maine internment camp before making his way to New York in 1940. His parents were murdered at Treblinka. During WWII, he served in the U.S. Army Air Corps.

They are not alone, in that any number of supporting or guest actors share a similar background and/or stories. As for why, a number of them apparently relished the idea of portraying the Nazis as bumbling idiots as a measure of revenge as it were. Perhaps, however, John Banner summed it up best with his take “Well, who better to play Nazis than we Jews?”

Something different for the day, with a lot of food for thought inside.

*****

If you would like to help me in my recovery efforts, feel free to hit the tip jar in the upper right or the fundraiser at A New Life on GiveSendGo. Getting hit by lightning is not fun, and it is thanks to your help and prayers that I am still going. Thank you.

Shinzo Abe

More than almost any other world leader, Shinzo Abe saw what was coming and worked hard to bring the West together to face the authoritarians. He brought those of democratic background together around the world to build the bulkwarks against the coming storm. His not-quite eye roll at Merkel’s bloviating to Trump at a summit remains a treasured moment that can still make me smile and laugh. He will never have the respect in the media of an “austere religious scholar” and I suspect he would me more than okay with that. The timing of his assassination worries me very much, and I am going to be following what come out about his assassin and the motivations/payments/etc. closely. I’m more than a little concerned he was the canary in the coal mine for Asia.

*****

If you would like to help me in my recovery efforts, feel free to hit the tip jar in the upper right or the fundraiser at A New Life on GiveSendGo. Getting hit by lightning is not fun, and it is thanks to your help and prayers that I am still going. Thank you.

Thank You!

I’ve just finished sending out thank you notes to those who donated other than anonymously. If you were anon, you should have gotten an automated thank you. If you donated and have not gotten a thank you, let me know and I will correct that situation. If you got more than one thank you, well, I didn’t do a checklist like I should have, and if I wasn’t sure I sent one again.

Things are tight for all, and I really do appreciate the help. Hoping that maybe we can get things rolling so I can start, or even finish, the move this month. Meantime, all help and prayers are appreciated!

*****

If you would like to help me in my recovery efforts, feel free to hit the tip jar in the upper right or the fundraiser at A New Life on GiveSendGo. Getting hit by lightning is not fun, and it is thanks to your help and prayers that I am still going. Thank you.