Fresh Outta Whacks

Queen Marie Antoinette, wife of Louis XVI, lost her head in 1793 during the French Revolution. The anti-monarchists of her time labeled her, “Madame Déficit”, crediting her with “single-handedly ruining France's finances”, due to “perceived frivolousness and her very real extravagance”, to say nothing of the fact that she was an Austrian by birth and a woman too. Both, evidently, hated by true-blooded Frenchmen at the time.

The phrase, Let them eat cake, is often mistakenly attributed to her when told that people were suffering due to widespread bread shortages. She never said the words, however.

Still, she lost her head.

While it appears no one is in danger of having his head misplaced today, it is possible that a couple of federal employees might be contemplating tossing a few rotten eggs toward Mr. Trump and his cabinet secretaries. For, while those 800,000 or so working stiffs are going unpaid and shut out of work, the top dogs are getting $10,000 raises.

There’s something out of whack here, don’t you agree?

Here's the story...

While federal workers go without pay, senior Trump administration officials are poised to get $10,000 raises, Peter Whoriskey and Lisa Rein, the Washington Post, 4 Jan 2019.

While many federal workers go without pay and the government is partially shut down, hundreds of senior Trump political appointees are poised to receive annual raises of about $10,000 a year.

The pay raises for Cabinet secretaries, deputy secretaries, top administrators and even Vice President Pence are scheduled to go into effect beginning Jan. 5 without legislation to stop them, according to documents issued by the Office of Personnel Management and experts in federal pay.

The raises appear to be an unintended consequence of the shutdown: When lawmakers failed to pass bills on Dec. 21 to fund multiple federal agencies, they allowed an existing pay freeze to lapse. Congress enacted a law capping pay for top federal executives in 2013 and renewed it each year. The raises will occur because that cap will expire without legislative action by Saturday, allowing raises to kick in that have accumulated over those years but never took effect, starting with paychecks that will be issued next week.

Cabinet secretaries, for example, would be entitled to a jump in annual salary from $199,700 to $210,700. Deputy secretaries would be entitled to a raise from $179,700 to $189,600. Others affected are under secretaries, deputy directors and other top administrators.

The pay of Pence is scheduled to rise from $230,700 to $243,500.

There was no immediate comment Friday by the White House. A spokesperson for Pence also did not immediately provide comment.

The government payroll system has yet to implement the pay raise for executives including the vice president, a congressional aide said. But given the hardships the budget impasse imposes on the rest of the country, “the optics of this are not pretty,” said Jeffrey Neal, a former personnel executive at the Department of Homeland Security and now a senior vice president at ICF.

Some 800,000 federal employees, out of a workforce of 2.1 million, are in unpaid status because of the partial government shutdown that began last month. Of those, about 380,000 have been furloughed. Many others are working without pay, and just before the New Year, President Trump ordered a pay freeze for most federal workers, working or not.

-more-

Prince - Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad (Official Music Video) - 1980

There's a Lot of Pain in His Wall

If he were alive today, Mr. Bill Mauldin, two-time Pulitzer Prize honoree, and one of the greatest editorial cartoonists of all time, might slightly alter one of his best known cartoons from his book, Up Front. He might choose to make a serious point about the man occupying the White House today.*

Mr. Trump has shut down our government hurting the most vulnerable federal employees and suppliers by taking away their weekly pay; he's hurt the American people by creating a seriously stupid gaping hole in our border security by not paying our Homeland Security people; he's put at risk countless people by taking away the weekly pay of our Coast Guard service members.

Then to top it all off, he added insult to injury using $54,000 in federal funds to pay for his Mar-a-Largo New Year's Eve party tents.

There simply is no justification for Mr. Trump's shutdown. None, that is, save for one that only a psychopath could come up with... causing needless pain for the most vulnerable of our people. And, then seemingly enjoying every second of their pain to get his way.

Oh, the cost? In a recent article, the Washington Post quotes S&P Global analysts saying, "...a shutdown would cost the economy about $6.5 billion per week.

As for those serving the people of the United States out of their sense of duty... they continue to serve their nation without pay.

*I hope you'll for give me, Mr. Mauldin. But, I think you'd agree with what I'm trying to say.

The Coast Guard is America's Maritime First Responder. 

What the Druids Knew About MRSA

Druid statue in the park
Croome Park, Worcs, England
By PicturePrince - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0,
 https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=44271891

Gaius Julius Caesar feared the Druids. He knew them as powerful, knowledgeable, leaders of the Celts, the people who lived in northern Europe from Ireland to Turkey. So, he did his best to eliminate them. Sadly, through much of Europe and Britain, he and other Roman conquers succeeded. But they never subdued the people of the land that is today called Ireland.

The Druids knew a thing or two about life and how one might live in our world. They excelled in what we call medicine today. They knew about healing. Possibly, more than we understand today.

Fortunately, a few researchers are learning about the old ways and applying them today.

Take Dr. Gerry Quinn, for example. As a resident of Boho, County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland, he grew up with the healing traditions of the area which was, “previously occupied by the Druids, around 1500 years ago, and Neolithic people 4000 years ago”.

Quinn knew that, “Traditionally a small amount of soil was wrapped up in cotton cloth and used to heal many ailments including toothache, throat and neck infections.”

Later in life, as a member of the Swansea University Medical School research team, he applied his knowledge by analyzing, “ancient soil from Ireland long thought to have medicinal properties”. Low and behold, the team discovered that the soil, “contains a previously unknown strain of bacteria which is effective against four of the top six superbugs that are resistant to antibiotics, including MRSA.”

Professor Paul Dyson of Swansea University Medical School said:

"This new strain of bacteria is effective against 4 of the top 6 pathogens that are resistant to antibiotics, including MRSA. Our discovery is an important step forward in the fight against antibiotic resistance.”

“Our results show that folklore and traditional medicines are worth investigating in the search for new antibiotics. Scientists, historians and archaeologists can all have something to contribute to this task. It seems that part of the answer to this very modern problem might lie in the wisdom of the past."

My guess is that it's likely there is more to learn from our ancestors. Perhaps we should look and listen. We might discover that the Druids knew more than just about an antibiotic that takes out MRSA.

Here's the rest of the story:

Bacteria found in ancient Irish soil halts growth of superbugs—new hope for tackling antibiotic resistance, Swansea University Medical School, phys.org, 27 Dec 2018.

Zone of inhibition produced by Streptomyces sp myrophorea on a lawn
of MRSA. The bacteria is the brown spot, and the lighter color around 
the spot shows that it is inhibiting the spread of the MRSA which is
 surrounding it. Credit: G Quinn, Swansea University

Mary Black - Song for Ireland - 1998

Stupid is Forever... Learning is Too

Anthony Peratt 3: Stickman on Stone
Please see link below.

Do you subscribe to the idea that learning is forever?

I do.

I’ve come to search for “rational” answers to perplexing anomalies which simply don’t make sense when viewed from accepted or “orthodox” teachings. One of these is astrophysics. Simply put, I have serious issues with how our science professionals, historians, and religious leaders see our universe and humankind’s place within it.

In many ways, The Electric Universe offers a refreshing perspective on some of these conundrums. Perhaps, like the federal government, the science of astrophysics might be in the wrong hands.

Here's a thought, if stupid is forever, as one of my friends remarked, alternatively, the new year may offer us a chance to learn more about the "truth" of our existence and prove to ourselves that we no longer must remain willfully stupid.

Wal Thornhill: Blockbuster – Saturn/Earth Connection Confirmed | Space News

ThunderboltsProject
Published on Dec 19, 2018
A new scientific paper provides stunning affirmation of one of the most striking predictions of the Electric Universe/catastrophist hypothesis. The paper, published in the Journal Icarus, reports that the water on Saturn’s moons and in its rings is remarkably similar to water on our own planet, a completely unexpected finding for planetary scientists.

As surprising as this connection between Saturn and Earth is for planetary scientists, the connection was in fact explicitly predicted by one of the great scientific heretics of the 20th century. Nearly three-quarters of a century ago, Dr. Immanuel Velikovsky proposed that within human memory, a period of chaos reigned in the inner solar system. In this scenario, one of the migrating planets was Saturn, and it was Velikovsky’s seemingly outrageous thesis that the water in Earth’s oceans came from the gas giant. In part one of this two part presentation, physicist Wal Thornhill outlines the incredible and ongoing predictive success of the electric universe/catastrophist paradigm.

Please go here for more:  http://www.thunderbolts.info



*Anthony Peratt 3: Stickman on Stone
Plasma Scientist Anthony Peratt Meets the Electric Universe
By David Talbott
https://www.thunderbolts.info/wp/2016/04/28/anthony-peratt-3-stickman-on-stone/

Relax. Nothing Has Changed... Yet

A little bird told me that we all need a break from today's nonsense.

So, here's a Reprise... and soon you, too, will know what is happening to America.

I Am A Pilot - The Smothers Brothers - Craig Ferguson CBS' The Late Late Show

See... I told you!

Do You Hear What I Hear?

President Donald Trump has agreed to dissolve 

the Trump Foundation after being accused of using 

it for his personal and political benefit. Photo credit:

Associated Press.

So, are you still looking for coverage of this story in your corporate media of choice?

I am.

Trump Foundation To Shut Down Amid Lawsuit Against The Charity, Nina Golgowski, Huffington Post, 18 Dec 2018.

“President Donald Trump’s personal charity has agreed to shut down amid an ongoing ethics investigation into its finances, the New York attorney general announced on Tuesday.”

“The agreement follows a court ruling last month that a lawsuit filed against the Donald J. Trump Foundation by Attorney General Barbara Underwood in June will be allowed to move forward.”

“Our petition detailed a shocking pattern of illegality involving the Trump Foundation — including unlawful coordination with the Trump presidential campaign, repeated and willful self-dealing, and much more,” Underwood said in a statement. “This amounted to the Trump Foundation functioning as little more than a checkbook to serve Mr. Trump’s business and political interests.”

Please link to the story here…

In honor of our hope for truth and justice during this Christmas Season...
Ddo you hear what I hear?

"Do You Hear What I Hear?" is a Christmas song written in October 1962 with lyrics by Noël Regney and music by Gloria Shayne Baker. 

Noel Regney wrote the lyrics for the song, while Gloria Shayne Baker composed the Christmas carol's music in October 1962. This was an unusual arrangement for the two writers. Usually it was Baker who wrote the lyrics for their songs while Regney composed the music, as they did on their classic children's song "Rain Rain Go Away".

"Do You Hear what I Hear?" was released shortly after Thanksgiving in 1962. The song was originally recorded by the Harry Simeone Chorale. It went on to sell more than quarter-million copies during the 1962 Christmas holiday season.

Cheese & the Real Moon Landing

Wallace and Gromit on the Moon enjoying their cheese and crackers. 

One or two of my friends say we never landed on the moon. All that NASA stuff was faked.

I don't know about that.

But, like the guy below, writer/director S G Collins, I wasn't there to see them exit their lander, either. Still, I did watch the moon landing on "live" TV. And, like Collins, I worked with studio stuff back in the olden days. For me, it seems a bit out of reach to believe the technology of that time would have been up to the degree of fakery required.

So, here is the story... anyway.

Moon Landings Faked? Filmmaker Says Not! - 2013

Writer/director S G Collins of Postwar Media debunks every theory that the Apollo Moon landings could have been faked in a studio. The filmmaker takes a look at the video technology of the late 1960's, showing alleged fraud was simply not possible.

I suspect this is what happened after the real moon landing:

A Grand Day Out - Landing on the Moon - Wallace and Gromit - 1989

Wallace and Gromit land on the Moon to hunt for Cheese in this classic clip from the Oscar winning film, A Grand Day Out.

Official Movie Synopsis
Wallace and his sophisticated dog Gromit, have to decide where to go for their annual picnic.  With a home-made rocket and large appetite they head for the moon, hoping to find it made of cheese. Their moon tasting arouses the anger of the moon’s resident, mechanical caretaker.  In the conflict that ensues the earthlings unwittingly help the robot to fulfil its dreams. Download the film from ITunes: http://goo.gl/zAJem7