News From the Barron News Shield
A Blog for the People... + one.
Provocateurs on the right and left were the story of a chaotic weekend in Chicago. Our political leaders need to reclaim the narrative and cool things down.
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The Texas National Guard has arrived in the Chicago area despite the repeated objections of Illinois officials, who have rejected President Donald Trump’s pledge to deploy the military domestically in response to increasingly heated immigration crackdown protests here and in other Democratic-run cities across the country.
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It wasn't only that the IDF failed to secure Israel's borders two years ago, or that curiously there was an hours-long stand-down order that took troops hours to reach the site of the border invasion despite -- as Charlie Kirk pointed out before his death, it being a 45-minute helicopter ride away -- it wasn't the Jewish people killed by the IDF as part of the Hannibal directive (some of those dead were killed by their own, much like the police shot dead two Jews in the London synagogue attack earlier this week...)
It's been all the dead Palestinian civilians that have shamed Israel's fighting power to the world. All those billions sent by good-hearted Americans to help defend Israel and help the IDF free their hostages in the tunnels... is the IDF even trying? Come on... the minute Israel stabilizes, the hostages are returned, Bibi faces the same corruption charges and jail sentencing he faced before this horrible attack two years ago now...
He's strung out his own nation for two years, making promises until the hostages have mostly been forgotten by the world, out-victimized by the Palestinian children sniped as revenge by the Israeli soldiers.
Once these hostages are freed and Netanyahu imprisoned in his own land, nevermind the international cries for justice, maybe the Jews will know peace? I do know that the American people will no longer financially support the Jewish religious state, no matter what the current crop in power promises.
We don't have enough money to keep subsidizing the IDF stupidity. If the diaspora likes what our weapons are doing, let them pass the hat and help their homelands buy weapons needed to overthrow their leadership and learn to independently defend themselves.
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"Now they stood beside the treasure
on the mountain, dark and red...
Turned the stone and looked beneath it:
Peace on Earth was all it read...
Go ahead and hate your neighbors, go ahead and cheat your friends. Do it in the name of GodGaveThisLandToUs; you can justify it in the end?
There won't be any children playing, come the Judgement Day
on the Bloody Morning After... Bibi Netanyahu is taken away..."
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A somber and solemn anniversary to those who have put away the childish celebrations of Sukkot and who know these days are not the same when the captives remain, the children are dying, and God's voice is not being listened to throughout the land... Be better, my Jewish friends? For the rest of us, dragged into Israel's troubles with our captured US political representatives, stay offline today.
The Jewish Day of Mourning is no time to be calling for freedom of the Palestinian or American people (or the Jews too, who are yoked to a false god by Bibi's land pursuits in their collective name). That day will come. Tomorrow in Jerusalem then? May you all one day know God's love for all his children. It's much richer than money or power, glory or land... and truth be told, even as highly as you value your own children, God's love for his people is greater than yours. Think on these things? All of our days are numbered... that's a promise, not a threat, God knows. ~Romans10 (read the whole thing?)
Fear not. Law>Politics. The Court is going to have plenty of work in the upcoming years...
Headlines in the morning In-Box:
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President Donald Trump’s planned termination of nearly $8 billion for energy projects primarily in states that didn’t vote for him includes $583 million in cuts for projects in Illinois.
The WNBA players are showing how you peacefully agitate the professional leadership you believe is failing its people:
“The most important part of leadership, whether that’s the WNBA, whether that’s corporate America, comes down to relationships and really caring about the people you surround yourself with,” Caitlan Clark said. “Whether it’s a relationship with your front office, whether it’s a relationship with your teammates, that’s the most important thing in leadership.”
... more troops on the streets?
The Democrats are wondering how to win an election? Lol.
Fight for your lives, boys! Fight for your lives...
* I'm afraid the Dems will have to surrender their high hopes
on health insurance soon and very soon. We need a functioning
government now more than ever, even if the oldies in power
are content to slink away with their winnings, licking their chops
and paying for private security. The game is not over.
I do think justice and rule of law, equality and respect will win
out in the end. But you have to fight for these things, friends.
Playing political games is not how you win. It only makes you
appear more detestable a loser. Stick together; don't take shit:
why is this hard? Don't go for the cheap wins that enrich you,
and don't sell out your "friends". If you're willing to compromise
because you think nobody is looking or listening -- or you're
willing to politely coat your compromises ("Don't Ask Dont Tell"),
it will always catch up to you in time... It's time.
Be earnest. Be pure. Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are right and pure, whatsoever things are lovely... think on these things, brothers. Whatever is excellent or praiseworthy, think on these things!
Far too long we've compromised with ugliness.
Why isn't former president Obama in Chicago right now,
with his wife as well? Not giving a speech, or dropping back
into "flyover" but living there, readying his library for opening,
and leading during hard times via his presence in the City of Chicago?
Does he still keep a home there? Autumn and winter are nice...
and if he's still involved in politics, wouldn't he want to be with his people,
where the action is? Hm.
Has Michelle honestly abandoned her roots? Is there no going home,
as Thomas Wolfe said? Are they afraid? Hm.
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* Trump, and Hegseth presumably, are sending National Guard troops
into Chicago to protect the ICE agents who are already unwelcome there?
For years, illegal immigration festered under both Democrats and Republicans.
Politicians turned away because it was good business to let exploitable labor in.
Now it's not so easy "kicking them out" or "rounding them up". Realistically,
this is not happening...
They're not illegal immigrants anymore. They're workers, neighbors, friends...
People in the pews of the unshuttered churches. It would have been so much easier to keep people out than to drag them out kicking and screaming once they are in...
Who didn't see this coming? The same representatives who keep voting us into losing wars that suck up all our tax money in the destroying AND rebuilding?
Where is all that hard-earned money going in America today? It's not the working immigrants sending it all out of country to help all their relatives and not spending on their new lives here, boosting our economy. I know that. Workers and families have needs: they spend dollars here too, and keep their paycheck earnings circulating... Not true of foreign "investors" capitalizing worldwide on our economic system today...
Time for somebody to lead. The violence is here, on our streets, killing our children too. Either go silent -- stop taking the money and speaking to exclusive donors -- or put your own bodies out there promising Change.
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* We don't care how they do it in Israel:
to "When will Jesus Bring the Porkchops?"
I'm an outsider by choice, but not truly. It's the unpleasantness of the system that keeps me out. I'd rather be in, in a good system. That's where my discontent comes from: being forced to choose to stay outside...
My advice: Just keep movin' straight ahead. Every now and then you find yourself in a different place.
A well intentioned man, but throughout the course of history
we have seen well-intentioned men who believe they know best
quite capable at breaking things, but flawing at the promised fix.
Mr. Klein is in an exclusive club like that. Most working men
don't have his influence or his dollars, nor niggling thoughts their
"work" has failed their shared country, keeping them up at night...
Good luck, Mr. Klein. Be careful what you say about the rights
of Others, and watch your words? It's tough sleeping in the bed
you've had others build you, history knows... Stay safe.
Keep the peace. All lives matter, nttawwt!
Coates v Klein: We are not as Alike as you Like to Think...
Added: It won't help to keep throwing people from minority groups
with no apparent clout under the bus. You've tried that, Dems. You're
not getting any traction and are still stuck in the same ditch... Try to
develop some true principles and then be true to them? It's not easy,
there's no instant riches like Mr. Klein and his cohorts have grown accustomed
to, but... independence really is its own reward. Team wins over your individual
wealth and speaking gigs? Imagine how much better your work would be
if you had a consistent framework, and weren't just slopping the spoils to the favored
barnyard animals?
Tomorrow is the Feast of the Archangels.
Once known as Michaelmas -- and a holy day of obligation for Catholics, the Church rolled three feast days into one. It's still celebrated widely by the legal and law enforcement professions in many countries. You don't have to be a showy catholic, or obligated, to pray for protection in your daily battles:
St. Michael the Archangel,
defend us in battle.
Be our defense against the wickedness and snares of the Devil.
May God rebuke him, we humbly pray,
and do thou,
O Prince of the heavenly hosts,
by the power of God,
thrust into hell Satan,
and all the evil spirits,
who prowl about the world
seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.
St. Michael the Archangel
"Thinking back on these meetings with families -- and that's the way I'd put it, it's families, not just kids -- there was every challenge imaginable," Abbott, now 57, says. "Some accidents. Some birth defects. Some mental challenges that aren't always visible to people when you first come across somebody. ... They saw something in playing baseball with one hand that related to their own experience. I think the families coming to the ballparks were looking for hopefulness. I think they were looking for what it had been that my parents had told me, what it had been that my coaches had told me. ... [With the kids] it was an interaction. It was catch. It was smiling. It was an autograph. It was a picture. With the parents, it ran deeper. With the parents, it was what had your parents said to you? What coaches made a difference? What can we expect? Most of all, I think, what can we expect?"
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*I didn't know Jim Abbott was from Flint, Michigan.
It's good to see Lee Greenwood still getting work in 2025.
Sincerely. That's just a beautiful, classic American song.
Invokes thoughts of the 80s and President Reagan every
time. "From the lakes of Minnesota to the hills of Tennessee..."
God bless us all. ("Sing it!")
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* I'm proud to be an American
where at least I know I'm free...
There ain't no doubt I love this land,
God bless the USA.
Seeing clips of President Trump behind the glass
at Charlie Kirk's memorial service today reminded
me of Brittney Griner and Evan Gershkovich being
kept in that cage awaiting their trials in Russia. Creepy.
*shiver*
RIP Sonny Curtis. He wrote the songs that the whole world sings...
Mr. Curtis was living in Los Angeles and writing commercial jingles in 1970 when he got a tip from a friend that the creators of “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” needed a theme song. The producers showed him a four-page summary of the show. “I honed in on the part that she was renting an apartment she had a hard time affording,” Mr. Curtis said in an interview on “CBS Sunday Morning” in 2002. The song he wrote began, “How will you make it on your own?” Mr. Curtis performed it for the show’s producers, including James. L. Brooks. “He smiled and said, ‘Sing that again,’” Mr. Curtis said. “And I had to sing it about 10 times before I left that afternoon. The room was full of people standing all around the wall. I thought, ‘I believe I got a shot at this.’” After Ms. Moore’s character found success in her career as a TV news producer in the show’s first season, Mr. Curtis tweaked the lyrics. The new version began, “Who can turn the world on with her smile? Who can take a nothing day, and suddenly make it all seem worthwhile? Well it's you, girl and you should know it. Deep down, with every little movement you show it... Love is all around, why don't you take it? You're gonna make it after all..."
* The Mary Tyler Moore Show debuted September 19, 1970. 55 years ago. What a long strange trip it's been...
but let's just hope the memorial service today
doesn't de-escalate the way Paul Wellstone's did in 2002.
Sudden death, lots of anger, no place to properly put it...
people seek scapegoats and lash out...
An early-career journalist should be ready to jump at whatever opportunity arises. Even if that means hiking to the top of a skyscraper.
No junior, you don't have to run up and down the steps at the NYT building to cover the story, anymore than you have to sign up to be Maureen Dowd's "administrative assistant" (or David Brooks' !) to learn how to ask hard questions of the people in power, report and write.
Those are hoops they make you jump through to "choose" their diverse cast of Benetton reporters, like colorful gay sweaters! Wouldn't it be better to hire the people who have been stringing at town council and school board meetings, who come through the doors with clips that have proven they can do the actual journalism work... no coffee fetching necessary?
Hiring freezes keep out the truly competitive at a job... while those who play along with the games -- and can run up and down all those stairs! -- somehow rise to the top. How's the work they're turning out though?