The S.686 - RESTRICT Act  may be a vital safeguard to Americans. Intelligence gathering along with AI is a very real growing threat that can allow foreign adversaries to exploit deep fakes and advanced social engineering to sway elections and popular opinions.

China law changed in 2017 - now it mandates the CCP gets access to anything in any Chinese company. The TikTok concern is not only an American concern. Three years ago, India banned it outright." Also, RESTRICT doe not apply to individuals .

The use of social media in combination with social engineering and psycological warfare cannot be underestimated. Social media is so deeply embedded in people’s lives and so unregulated, trusted, and targetable that these platforms are irresitable targets by political operatives.

“Social media manipulation of public opinion is a growing threat to democracies around the world, according to the 2020 media manipulation survey from the Oxford Internet Institute, which found evidence in every one of the 80+ countries surveyed”

Foreign advesaries will no doubt use the power of AI deepfakes to skew US elections to their favor or even to de-stabilize it.

Even so, some American companies do not want RESTRICT because of the short-term money making opportunity possible in that market. Others may claim it infringes on free speech but laws against yelling fire in a crowded theater do too.

 

 

 

Just a Thought: Gun Bans Will Do Little More than Thoughts and Prayers

 Another mass killing and another round of calls for AR-15 bans by the left but the real cause is far more pervasive and ominous and the right wing folks will resist acknowledging this as well. Bans seemingly are easy solutions. Charts and graphs seem to support them, however they are first-thought observations whereas important root causes are being ignored. We need only to look back sixty years and see what has changed to create this deadly environment in the US.

In 1962 anyone could cut an ad out of a “Sports Afield’ or “Outdoor Life” hunting magazine, fill out their name, address and mail it in with $30 to have have a genuine US military assault M-1 carbine delivered to their door step by the USPS. It would be many years before mass murders would appear on the scene so it wasn’t the guns.

So what happened? Remember Barry Goldwater? Remember Nixon? The Republicans were increasingly capitalizing on fear and division. Remember the Southern strategy? Republicans capitalized on the anger of white southerners. Meanwhile the NRA went from a gun safety and marksmanship organization to a gun marketing organization, and fear sold guns. People who never thought of owning a gun were persuaded they needed a gun for protection. It didn’t help that Reagan introduced drugs to inner cities either, so drug killings emerged. Back in 1962 owning a handgun or M-1 had a bit of stigma attached because why would a person need one? People weren’t supposed to kill fellow humans. That stigma vanished. Suddenly everyone in the city needed a gun for protection, or so they were told. We entered the fear and hate culture, fully armed.

Remember Clinton, the Teabaggers and the vitriol that emerged during his term? The Republican establishment, along with their rising star, Fox “news”, began whipping up more of that fear and anger. We were well on our way to our present fear, anger and violence culture that would only be magnified by conservative’s anger by the election of a popular black president. The installment of Trump by Russia and his MAGA cult launched us into a runaway mass murder mentality.

Now about those charts and graphs of gun killings and gun bans: As mentioned, in 1962 guns were tools. Guns to kill people were generally not popularized but instead viewed with jaundice by the gener al public. During the Clinton administration so-called assault weapons were de-legitimized by a ban. This had much to do with leadership focus and push. The same is true of other governments. A ban signals that violence is not going to be tolerated and people don’t need weapons to live in that society. It changed people’s focus. A gun ban would do precious little to address the real problem our country faces.

So what is the remedy? De-escalate and stop fear mongering. Hold accountable people, politicians, corporations and news organizations who promote and signal violence.

Today a gun ban would not be accepted by folks with violent mentalities - we must change that thinking. The path won’t offer an easy or quick solution. People must vote with their money, words and ballots or nothing will change . The die has been set. Not even a gun ban would work now as if one would have any chance in this insane, tortured political climate.

Time to put some of the abundance away for winter.  Peppers are easy for short term freezer storage - clean, cut, dry and freeze.  Since we use them up fairly quickly in cooked recipes the enzymes do not have time to degrade the flavor.

Responsible Foraging for Wild Mushrooms is a Great Way to Get Nutritious Food!

Hericium erinaceus is a choice edible when young.

It also contains components which are powerful 

immuno-modulators that support deep immune 

health.

Anyone wishing to collect wild mushrooms should do so with an experienced guide or join a local mushroom club. They should also get several guides - starting with the "National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Mushrooms". An example of couple of other books that one may want are: "North American Mushrooms: A Field Guide To Edible And Inedible Fungi", by Orson K. Miller, and Hope Miller, and a more localized book like, "Mushrooms of Northeast North America", by George Barron.

Learn the choice edibles and the most poisonous mushrooms like the Death Angel and the Deadly Galerina. In general, stay away from mushrooms in the Amanita family of fungi even though there are some edible varieties here, and small brown gilled mushrooms.

Introduce yourself slowly to mushroom hunting.
Never eat more than a sample portion of a new-to-you mushroom.
Above all, always be very attentive, to details, smells and what the mushroom is growing on - for example, soil or wood.

Foraged Foods, the Permanently Fresh, Hidden In Plain Sight, Survival Food

Prepper people are fond of storing all sorts of survival foods - from buckets of grains, beans, rice and pantries of canned foods but they all expire leaving the preppers to consume uninspiring, nutritionally diminished foods or worse, leave all that money at the curb to be dumped into a landfill.  
Stored food is certainly part of a good plan but only as an alternative to starving.  Fresh food is essential to maintaining good health.  There is little point in eating foods that put you, and your companions in a compromised health condition requiring medical intervention that may not be available.  
Man survived, and thrived on nature's bounty found at our feet.  It only takes a bit of knowledge to unlock virtually unlimited stocks of healthy wild foods.  
Purslane, Lambs Quarters and Red Root (wild Amaranth) are fetch handsome prices at upscale stands near New York city.  Most "weeds" are the foundations of our domesticated vegetables.  there are few poisonous plants but KNOW THEM before you even attempt to forage for food.   

Red Root - Amaranthus retroflexus

The first step is knowing what, when, where and how to harvest wild foods.  The second, and possibly the most important knowledge, is how to use the food in recipes - if you find the food unpalatable you aren't going to actually eat it.  Recipes unlock the food for you to use it.  Here's just an example of recipes for Purslane.           
Samual Thayer's books ("The Forager's Harvest" and "Nature's Garden") are fantastic references, as are Steve Brill's books, ("Identifying and Harvesting Edible and Medicinal Plants in Wild (and Not So Wild) Places").  

Chemtrail Problems?

Many people are constantly looking up at the vapor trails of jets passing overhead and trying to connect it  with their health problems but that is not the problem at all.   
Instead of looking up, folks should look down - that is where the problem originates.  It is not a conspiracy, it is plain old greed, stupidity and shortsightedness.  It's our food - it is toxic and deprived of nutrition.  Our bodies weren't designed to run on toxin laced, food-like substances but that is exactly what our commercial food has become.  It is simply the business of profits, and your health isn't in the equation.  
Modern food is nutritionally deficient by the selection of high production varieties and fast growth promoting chemical fertilizers.  Crops are sprayed with gut bacteria destroying toxins - digestive flora are responsible for making vital brain support substances like tryptophane and seritonin, metabolizing proteins and creating a healthy immune system.
Growing food that is health promoting is expensive while companies can make much better profits by selling something that just looks like real food.  Don't believe me?  Look at the people who eat well grown foods and people who grew up when food was still relatively good - they are healthier and most are getting really old.  In contrast, people on our average modern diet are having heart attacks much earlier.  Diabetes has become epidemic.  Anxiety and mental health problems are rampant.  In general, those who eat more organically are healthier and mentally fit.   
"They" are not wasting money by spraying "chemicals".  "They" are making money off us by selling us cheap imitation nutrition.  

Survival Seeds - Save Your Money, Buy Your Own Vegetable Seeds

Often preppers want to cover all their bases but too often rely on marketers for suggestions and items for the collapse.  The problem with that is the sales folk want to make a profit and can not know about or have your interests and needs in mind.  
This happens with a lot of merchandise that survivalists think they need.  Survival seeds are one of those misrepresented items.   Marketers imply that you will have lots of food from your garden if you just buy their "survival seeds. There are many reasons to avoid spending your limited money on seed kits.   First of all, the seed are, by in large, horribly over priced.  Seeds of higher quality than those in “survival”  kits, or vaults can be bought for fraction of the cost from reputable seedsmen.    Also, the survival seeds are not tailored to climates nor the individual’s tastes.  What good is it to grow vegetables that you do not like or varieties that will not produce or reproduce in your area?   What good are seeds to people who don’t know how to raise them or know how to save seeds?  
Only buy items that meet your needs and become proficient with them.  Seeds for survival are no exception. 

The Importance of Mushrooms as a Food Source

It is no secret that Europeans love mushrooms, and for good reason. Mushrooms may have very well saved their forebearers from the wide spread famines that periodically occurred.   In times of starvation people people actively sought many of these widespread and abundant edibles.

There are many health benefits from eating mushrooms.  Fungi are not like plants because they contain vitamin D and they are rich in B vitamins.   These delicacies are also a passable meat substitute, sometime referred to as the "other white meat".  Mushrooms actively boost the immune system and provide many minerals and vitamins to keep you healthy, something you can not say about bucket food fare.

A number of edible fungi are easy to learn how to identify.  Just be sure to know which varieties can cause a horrible death.

Young edible Chicken of the Woods Mushroom

Not to be confused with the similarity colored, 

and poisonous, Jack-O-Lantern mushroom.

The Peril in Our Country Rises Again

The plot to take over the U.S. is a long one.  Major General Smedley Butler, USMC virtually single handedly foiled the first corporate attempted coupe of our government.  Their plot was soundly defeated.  Senator Joe McCarthy came along to stir up trouble but he was exposed .   However a more successful approach was Supreme Court  justice Lewis Powell’s  Memorandum that he sent out outlining a model for another more covert scheme to gather power under the control of big businesses.  Another thinker, Kevin Phillips, ideas were instrumental in promoting the agenda but he realized the dark implications and has distanced himself from the scheme.  The ultimate result of years of maneuvering has resulted in a concerted effort to control all avenues to power, even the Democratic party  through the Third way Democrats which has essentially co-opted the party today.

No Plow, No Till, and Hardly Any Weeding - You Say?

I will have to add photos later, but my no plow, no till and hardly any weeding style of gardening eliminates much cost and time for gardeners.  Most of my inspiration comes from super gardeners Masanobu Fukuoka and Ruth Stout.  I just adapted some of their ideas to fit my location and available resources.  
Here's how I do it:  First I just clear and mow an area.  Then I put some wood ashes down followed by some compost or manure to start healthy bio-activity.  Because of my clay soil, I put about 3-4 inches of crushed sand on the whole garden.  Planting is done by making a furrow that touches the compost/manure level.  Seeds are covered to appropriate depths, or a little more.  Unless it is very wet, I lightly mulch with some very old or rotting hay that I get from local farmers - they discard them.  As plants grow I add mulch as needed.  If there are weeds, I add a heavy mulch layer.  If weeds grow through the mulch I use  a five-tine fork to lift the mulch up and set it back on the weeds - they eventually become very spindly and weak.  The sand tends to be dry and keeps new weed seeds from germinating.  Also, the sharp dry sand seems to discourage slugs.  When the hay rots into the sand it creates a nice loamy soil condition.  The garden, and produce, stay mud free and there is no need to till because sand does not compact.  The key is to keep refreshing the sand layer to keep the weeds at bay.  Sometimes I need to water if the plants aren't big enough to reach the moisture holding dirt level .  Planting vertical loving varieties makes the process even easier too.  

The Many Causes of Modern Diseases

Everything we breath, every bite of food and anything we put on our skin has positive or negative potential.  These often work together to cause our modern diseases.  Eating nutrient poor, food with antibiotics, or preservatives can destroy natural protein processing digestive bacteria.  Our body's system is remarkable but eventually one factor can tip us into a health disaster.  We tend to blame the resulting sickness on one cause when actually there are many reasons that contribute, but just one may trigger the tipping point into disease, or death.

Is the Use of Antiperspirant a Cancer Risk?

Everything we breath, everything we are exposed to and everything we eat has potential to benefit or harm our well being.  A wonderful new science, Epigenetics, may help us sort out it out soon.  We are starting to see there is compelling evidence that substances we are exposed to, and the substances (much of what we eat today is not food) we eat influence cancer, allergies and our children's , grandchildren's, and even our great-grandchildren's lives .  We do know that antibiotics destroy essential protein processing bacteria that leads to allergies.  There are many factors and it is quite complicated, but, antiperspirants are likely disease contributing substances.   As mentioned, it is extremely complex but it is also incredibly simple if people learn how to stick to living as they were before man's "improvements".

Those "Healthy Grains"

Earl“Rusty” Butz, secretary of the USDA under Nixon decreed that we would be a - highly profitable for big Ag - grain eating nation. We have been told to eat grains ever since.
If grains are consumed for more than several weeks the grains begin to have a detrimental effect on digestive systems - this is a plant protection mechanism that insures the plant species will not be eaten out of existence. It is also part of the reason we lose our "taste" for foods after continuously eating them. 
No animal has evolved that eats grains all year long but there is good reason that animals ate the high carb fall foods - they needed to fatten up to survive the winters. 
Grains can be tolerated, but greens should dominate diets in the spring and summer months.

What's Different About Our Food Today?

Some say that we have always been exposed to poisons and toxic sprays.
Yes, years ago we were exposed to DDT, asbestos and lead but not on the level and frequency that we experience toxins and adulterated food today.  Most people still had home cooked food and there were many small farms that grew decent food.  
We now have fructose in everything instead of sugar and poorly grown food, from huge corporate farms that care only about profits, that is preserved with massive amounts of toxins and preservatives.  Today food is produced for their wealth, not your health.  GMO foods were created to withstand huge amounts of herbicides and still thrive and produce profits - they weren't created to make us healthier.  
Antibiotic use in animal production is used to allow overcrowding and make animals fatter, again, for more money.  
All these "tricks" to produce faster more profitable food has had a negative impact of the health of U.S. citizens.  Collectively the unnatural food and toxins we are exposed to have caused incurable diseases today because the illnesses are due to our system's inability to tolerate it.  
It is complex but if you eat natural food it is vary simple - we are of organic origins and require organic food.  

Time for Another Wood Stove Post

Wood heat is great but most people do not understand how to use a wood stove. 
Start your fire with newspaper, then kindling which you can shave off your firewood if need be. Use progressively larger wood as the fire heats up. Most people do not burn a fire hot enough. You can burn a small hot fire if necessary but burn a hot fire. A hot fire will burn most volatile gases that cause creosote buildup in your chimney - if you burn the fuel, you get heat from it and it won't wind up in your chimney. 
Once you have a sustainable fire have the bottom, and maybe the top draft intakes wide open. When the fire is roaring and hot you can close the bottom intake some, but leave it open a bit. Keep the top draft wide open unless  the fire is really raging.  The idea is to keep the top draft open to burn the wood gases. 
If it gets too hot use smaller lengths, and some bigger diameter pieces of wood - essentially use half of your wood stove's burn area.
Most chimney fires start after a period of warmer weather when people have been burning a smoldering fire, then, when it turns cold they burn a hot fire which drys and ignites the deposited creosote in the chimney. Because of my set-up and method of burning wood, I have never had to clean my chimney in 35 years - a small amount of creosote does dry and falls to the bottom clean-out however
Since a lot of heat and fuel go up a conventional stove's chimney the most efficient stove would be a rocket mass heater, but few have been UL approved. 
BTW, wood stoves should not have a chimney damper - they help slow and cool the gases causing creosote to deposit in the chimney.

Are Flu Vaccinations a Good Route?

For children and people with compromised immune system, other illnesses, or generally unhealthy, Flu shots are probably a good idea, however, vaccination immunity is less vigorous and declines in effectiveness much faster than a natural immunity.  
Contracting a particular influenza virus imparts lifetime immunity, even to similar strains. For instance, during the 1918 pandemic, also known as the Spanish flu, many older adults likely had partial protection caused by exposure to the 1889–1890 flu pandemic, also known as the Russian flu. Even so, an immune compromised person could become susceptible though. 
Because vaccination responses are at low levels, immunity is less vigerous and they decline in effectiveness much faster than a natural immunity. 

Food Makes Your Health or Breaks It

Food production today is generally a profit business, not a health business.  Humans were not designed to consume processed, poisoned and adulterated foods, and our declining health is proving it.   Many "incurable" diseases may be simply a bodily response to harmful foods.  From MS to allergies, the culprit is likely that we have corrupted our digestive system's complicated workings with poor food, and substances in our foods, that kill essential gut bacteria.   There are alternative farming methods that use organic methods or use alternatives to the conventional toxic spray approach.  Another source of excellent foods is foraging.

What You Feed Your Dog Is Determines Your Dog's Health

Dogs may be man's best friend but man is not exactly dog's best buddy because modern humans feed their dogs commercial food that is designed to generate corporate profits rather than provide health or proper nutrition  There is no animal on earth that eats grains all year long except man and the animals he feeds. Nature did not design animals to eat grains continually and there are health consequences for bucking nature.  .
People who have dogs with foot cysts, hair loss and digestive problems have seen their pets make remarkable recoveries simply by making dietary changes to reflect diets of their ancestors.  In many cases dogs that are chronic visitors to the vet yet did not see relief have responded dramatically to a more natural diet that eliminates grain products.  
If you value your dog, feed him healthy, nutritious food and avoid the highly advertised for-profit canine junk food that companies pass off as grub for your dog.  Be sure to check out these sites here and here for more information too.

Welfare Life Isn't Much fun

Does welfare pay better than working?  Some would have you believe almost anything that advances their agenda, however a little wisdom crushes the the wild accusations.  Then too, pointing fingers is so much easier than actually addressing difficult problems - that is ultimately the real objective, and it works so well with easily distracted folks.  Check out this post for a reasoned look at the issue of weather welfare pays better than working.  

June bugs are common insects that appear in June - they are also very nutritious

June Bug - Medicinal Insect   (You will need to scroll down to the third article)

Toasted June bugs have a surprisingly sweet delightful taste. The flavor closely resembles thick raw molasses or crudely made ribbon cane syrup. It is difficult to eat just one. Crushed into fine powder, bug-flour added to hot water forms a rich nourishing drink perfectly suited to victims suffering from anemia, dehydration, and other maladies. If mixed with warm milk, it has a malted milk taste. However, toasted June bugs should be consumed in measured proportions because of the heavy concentration of protein and fat. If eaten in large amounts, the rich oily meal can result in stomach ache or mild diarrhea. In conclusion, the June bug remedy works best as a life-saving supplement to other foods. When relieving anemia, the remedy stimulates poor appetite, stirring the patient’s interest in eating again. Also, as a food source, both the larvae and the adult June bug are one of the best insects for eating there is. Grubs should be toasted in hot ashes before serving or adding to soups and wilderness stew. Toasted adult June bugs preserve well when crushed into a meal and sun-dried, storing the meal in an airtight and waterproofed container. -- Zimmerman on June Bug Medicinal Insect --submitted by Julia Traugott

You can read more about them here, and here, too.